Table of Contents
Howdy there, partner! Something tells me that you came to this guide hoping to a learn a little bit about the most unique and fun god in Smite. I'd be glad to help you with that!
What makes Hel so unique and fun, you ask? Well, simply put: she trades off having an ultimate for six skills, she's the only god in the game that can break CC on her entire team, and she does a damn fine job of melting her enemies' faces (and killing them, too!)
So what makes me a reliable source for Hel (and arena) information? Well:
Granted, I'm not an infallible Hel player; I still mess up some cleanses and get too greedy, but I should be able to improve your playstyle.
There are quite a few things you should know before attempting to play Hel if you haven't played her since she had shared cooldowns.
For starters, those are gone! Casting a spell in one stance no longer puts the corresponding spell in the opposite stance on cooldown. It's an excellent change, but it doesn't come without consequences; there is now a one second delay on all skills when switching stances, and the base/scalings of
Decay / Restoration and
Repulse / Inspire have been decreased. Fortunately, her new passive reduces their reductions, albeit it does come with repercussions.
In addition, she can no longer cast two consecutive basic attacks (which is likely the reason for the delay on all skills when switching stances), and she no longer receives a free rank-one ultimate at the start of the game (although she can still swap stances, she does not receive the Dark Stance and Light Stance benefit until points are placed into the ultimate).
Included among the previously mentioned changes are ones such as Inspire's speed buff scaling rather than being static. These have been updated, but are not necessarily discussed in the guide.
Oh, what am I doing? Clearly the most important change to her is the remodel! Silly me!
New Hel
The cookie joke is the single, most important reason to play Hel. Forget team composition - have you heard it?! No? Well, then what are you doing reading this guide? Load up Smite so you can spam VEL!
In fact, all of her taunts, jokes, and laughs are the epitome of epicness, and now that the tumor many referred to as a "disc" has been replaced with a smexy galaxy, she's perfect in both kit and aesthetics.
Oh, and that voice pack is phenomenal. Still trying to figure out which anime character Light Stance reminds me of...
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[The] Anti-Peeler.
Excellent AoE heals.
Excellent sustain and burst.
Ability to prevent and/or remove crowd control.
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Expansion
Not only does Hel have very strong burst potential, she also has strong presence in prolonged fights because she has six skills with relatively short cooldowns. She also has the strongest heals in the game, and is the only god with the potential to remove crowd control on every single teammate - a key ability that is as great of an offense as much as it is a great defense, discussed
here.
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High Skill Floor.
No leap or dash.
No true ultimate.
No hard crowd control.
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Expansion
Although her heal does give her, and all of her teammates, a very effective movement speed increase, she has no means of instantaneously escaping danger. This is a consistent problem because all of her spells are either short or medium ranged. For this reason, as well as the experience required for efficient "stance dancing," Hel has a high skill floor.
And while it's wonderful that she has six skills, she is limited to only three at a time. If she wishes to use a spell in the opposite stance, she must endure a short, but significant delay before being able to cast it; forethought and planning are essential.
She also has no ultimate, but this can be argued as a pro because she never experiences a reduction in effectiveness due to it being on cooldown.
As previously mentioned, Hel is unique in the sense that she has six skills and no true ultimate. Each spell generally has an inverse effect to its corresponding spell in the opposite stance, but it's not as simple as hard-contrasting. Currently there is a one-second delay on all skills when switching stances, so planning ahead is important.
So without further adieu, here's Hel:
Stance Attunement
Wait, what? Hel actually has a passive now? No wai! There are disadvantages to this, considering her base numbers would likely not have taken quite as much of a hit if she had not received this passive, but it gives you the option to be a dominant mage and a good support, or an excellent support and a useful burster.
So, how does this passive work? Zhu Li, bring the pictures!
"Yes, sir."
The left section is fully attuned to the Dark Side, the right section is fully attuned to the Light Side, and the middle section is an attempted half-attunement to each side.
So, what do these positions mean, exactly? List time!
1. When the bar is fully purple, damaging spells will have a 20% increase from her passive, and healing spells will have no increase from her passive.
2. When the bar is fully white, healing spells will have a 20% increase from her passive, and damaging Spells will have no increase from her passive.
3. At the midway point, both damaging and healing spells will have a 10% increase from her passive.
Basically what I'm saying is that it's not an exponential increase; the benefit from the passive increases at a constant rate.
In case you were wondering, it takes exactly three seconds for the meter to begin moving after swapping stances, and it takes exactly five seconds for the meter to cross one extreme to the other. Therefore, if you are in Light Stance and want maximum Dark Attunement for a Repulse, you will have to wait eight seconds, i.e.: you have to plan ahead on which stance you want to be in to gain maximum benefit from her passive. Gone are the days of defaulting into Light Stance!
For more (but mostly redundant) information on Stance Attunement, follow
this link to my Reddit post that links to both a photo-album and an excel spreadsheet.
Decay / Restoration
These are fun skill shots that -kind of- rival the cooldown of
He Bo's
Water Cannon, simply because of your stance swap. Unless there is a high amount of CC on the opposite team, I will generally prioritize it above
cleanse; i.e.: put a point into it every level that
Repulse / Inspire is unavailable. But as they are inferior to your
Repulse/
Inspire nuke/heal, they should always be leveled afterwards.
If the composition allows you to level these as second priority (below Repulse/Inspire), then you will be able to land seriously devastating blows to the enemy team (provided you can, well, land them...)
Remember that Decay has an AoE effect and that Restoration will heal you.
Hinder / Cleanse
Hinder ain't too bad of a skill; it can be useful for increasing or decreasing the gap between teammates and enemies, as well as making skillshots easier to land.
Cleanse, on the other hand, is where the majority of Hel's effectiveness comes from, and it is the single most fun skill in the game. Beginners can use it to troll
Ymir by hiding behind teammates and waiting for him to cast his
Frost Breath, immediately removing the CC on anyone within the radius. More advanced uses of cleanse will be discussed
here.
Repulse / Inspire
It is an Area of Effect spell that is cast with you in the center. Therefore, you need to be near to enemies to hurt them and near to teammates to heal them. This is probably the most dangerous part about Hel because she has to get in pretty close to cast them, despite having low health, resistances, and a lack of escapes. Fortunately, it both hits and heals like a truck, and it's pretty much impossible to miss.
A good Hel will do his/her best to position his/herself to
heal multiple teammates rather than just the one being focused the hardest,
while also not wasting too much time trying to incorporate everyone into its range. This is much harder to do when you queue alone, grouping you with morons that spread apart from your heals. (/rant)
Be very aware of Inspire's speed increase as well (between fifteen and twenty-five percent, depending on rank) and that it affects everyone in its radius, not just Hel.
This is your AoE
nuke/
heal, and should be leveled to maximum before any other skill. I almost always put two points into it at the start of the match, and one point into
Hinder / Cleanse.
Switch Stances
This is your "ultimate." Instead of having a real ultimate, Hel can use this spell every few seconds to switch the stance she's in. A good Hel will be able to Stance Dance while maneuvering around and rotating through cooldowns. Be aware that all skills are on lock-down for one second after switching stances (please remove this, Hi-Rez!)
In conquest, the mp5 from her ultimate is a different story, but in arena I feel that while it is nice to have, it's better to go ahead and level up the rest of your skills. The magic power increase in Dark Stance is also less than the base damage increase of both
Decay and
Repulse, and the team aura is lackluster compared to six fully ranked skills at level fifteen. Since you can switch stances without a single point in her ultimate, I spend all five points in a row from level 16 to 20.
Decay / Restoration and
Hinder / Cleanse should be leveled at different rates depending on the enemy team's composition; if the enemy team has a
Hades (due to his
Pillar of Agony) or heaps of crowd control and you are being too focused to be able to go into Dark Stance often, level up cleanse more in order to be a better support. If your team is able to get free reign though, highly leveled
Repulses and
Decays can pack quite the punch, especially early game.
Low CC Skill Order
High CC Skill Order
Standard High-Damage Ability Sequence
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Standard High-Support Skill Sequence
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Your build should be flexible, meaning that it should change depending on the enemy team's composition. However, there are certain stats that are necessary to build towards every game, and they're obviously listed below - that's kind of the point of this chapter.
Unfortunately, the days of building physical items on Hel and stance dancing for two instant, empowered basic attacks are gone, so I can no longer say to build physical power and critical strike chance. :(
CORE STATS
Cooldown Reduction
You may be thinking "Dr. Paco, clearly Magic Power is more important for a
mage than Cooldown Reduction!" Well, you're damn right that MP is a very sexy stat, but it ain't got nothin' on CDR. Not only does capping CDR to 40% lower Hel's cooldowns enough to bring out the fluidity of her playstyle, but it also means you will be able to heal and
cleanse, something that doesn't scale off MP, on a regular basis.
Magic Power
As awesome as CDR is as a stat, it's very easy to reach its cap. You'll therefore need to spend your focus on raising your MP. Why is MP so important? Well, without it, you're essentially a cleanse-bot. If you don't want to hit like a wet noodle, or heal one one-billionth of a carry's healthbar, then you're going to need to get a good few MP items.
BENEFICIAL STATS
Movement Speed
Considering you have no leaps or dashes, your biggest nuke has short range, and your teammates try to outrun your heals, doncha think it'd be wise to add a little bit of movement speed into your build?
Crowd Control Reduction
Because you can't apply cleanse to yourself while CC'd, and you are very susceptible to death when you have cleanse on cooldown, CCR is a great "stat" to gear towards.
Protections
As a healer, protections are more important than health, because it takes fewer spells to return to full health. And as a squishy god that has spells requiring close proximity, and a kit that focuses on strings of skills rather than short bursts, protections can easily be argued to be core stats.
USEFUL BUT NOT TO BE BUILT TOWARDS
Health
Don't you go stacking health! Some core items carry health, and more health is better than less health, but gearing specifically towards health, rather than towards protections as a healer ain't too smart.
Pentration
Although penetration is useful in dealing damage, penetration does not affect heals. Therefore, penetration is simply a nice bonus that can come with other, more important stats, but should not be sought after directly.
Mana
Well, no mana means no spells, so it's obviously a necessary stat, but the frequent recalls to the base in Arena means that you'll usually have plenty of mana.
These items focus on getting a mix of both MP and defensive items early, as well as capping out CDR at 40% on the second item. It is useful against teams that have high burst potential, as well as high amounts of CC.
Core Items
These items are essential to Hel and, unless the enemy's composition is extremely cheesy, they will be excellent choices every single game.
Shoes of Focus
These provide the magic power that will make your early game
Repulse / Inspire hit extremely hard as well as heal extremely well. The cooldown reduction is also essential for Hel and, combined with
Breastplate of Valor, cap you at 40%.
You start the game at level three with 1,500 gold, which lets you purchase rank 2 of these with the exact amount of leftover money to purchase rank 1 of Heavenly Agility (Sprint) and rank 1 of Purification Beads.
Breastplate of Valor
This provides a wealth of mana and physical defense, and most importantly 25% cooldown reduction. Combined with Shoes of Focus, you will have your cooldown reduction maxed out. Basically, rushing this makes you a great support; you have the mana to sustain, CDR to keep your team cleansed and healed, and enough early game physical defense to laugh off any physical offensives. However, it comes at the cost of low early game MP and low resilience to magic damage, which is harder to avoid than physical damage.
Focused Void Stone
This provides both magic power and magic defense, as well as a nice chunk of penetration. Considering you will have no penetration from boots and you have to get close to your enemies to nuke them, this item synchronizes perfectly with Hel. If you want more early game burst, healing, and magic defense, get Focused Void Stone before Breastplate of Valor. The two items are both essential for her and it is up to you which one you buy first.
Rod of Asclepius
Yeah, this item is amazing. First off, it gives a pretty good amount of MP. Second, it gives a good deal of health - not as good as protection, but it still makes you harder to kill. Third, it is one of the only items with MP that also provides movement speed! And my, oh my, is movement speed excellent for both initiation and survival, especially on a god with no leaps or dashes. And most importantly, this item has one hell of a passive: your heals will be significantly increased on all allies within range. So that's a three-point-five out of four. Ding ding ding, core item!
Beneficial Items
These items may not always be the best to use, but can be excellent choices based on both the enemy and your team's composition.
Hide of Leviathan
This provides a great deal of physical and magical defense, as well as some added health and mana. In addition, it comes with the Resolve passive, which reduces all crowd control durations by 30%. This can really save your life when you are focused, and combined with
Breastplate of Valor and
Focused Void Stone, gives you all the defense you need.
The only reason why this isn't a core item is because of your cleanse, but considering how beneficial its stats are, combined with the fact that you can't cleanse yourself while affected by CC, it is an excellent item.
I highly recommend Magi's Blessing over this item if you are not experienced with preemptive cleansing. However, the shield will still be consumed even if cleanse is active, so I feel its usefulness degrades as your skill-level increases. But even if you're excellent with cleanse, it can still be very helpful against very experienced enemy Ymirs, Athenas, Anubises, etc.
Bancroft's Talon
This works amazingly well with Hel. First, it provides quite a large bit of Magic Power, excellent for both nuking and healing. Second, and the least important of the item, is that you will heal yourself even by damaging the enemy due to its lifesteal. And finally, the passive works excellently when you're in a tight spot - the lower your health, the higher your magic power and therefore the greater your panic heal will be.
This would be a core item if the lifesteal were replaced with something more useful. Movement speed anoyone? :D
Gem of Isolation
This provides the always useful magic power as well as health and mana. It also makes your damaging spells apply a 25% slow for two seconds. If you're getting harassed by melee gods hard and there's no peeling, or if you are doing a lot of solo fighting, this item is essential, especially because the slows will be your only form of crowd control.
Rod of Tahuti
This provides the most magic power out of any item in the game, and the more magic power you already have, the more it will give. As this Invincibility Build has less MP than others, I feel this item is not essential. It is still a tremendous increase in both healing and damage, however, and I wouldn't recommend passing it up.
There are other items that can be useful to Hel, but I believe that these are the most important. If you need some extra magic defense you could pick up a
Bulwark of Hope, or if there's a very pesky
Loki,
Midgardian Mail will shut him as well as many other physicals down.
Although the guide shows
Heavenly Agility and
Purification Beads after the build is complete, they should both be put at rank 1 after
Shoes of Focus have been fully upgraded. Do your best not to use them until you get the first three items completed, and then it is usually a good idea to upgrade them both straight to max (with Beads higher priority than Agility). If you have very recently used either and would have enough to start your
Hide of Leviathan, go ahead and build it because three or four minutes of useless 850-1700 gold is, well, useless.
Because of the scaling on her
Repulse,
Decay and
Restoration, Hel can put out
insane levels of damage at early levels. Building high MP at the start, and balancing defense into her build after the cheesy damage starts to recede is the best way to build her if you are experienced with her and the enemy team does not have high burst potential. It is very easy to snowball with this build, and you'll have your fourth item built in no time.
Core Items
These items cannot be counter-built and provide necessary stats that will benefit you in every game.
Shoes of Focus
These provide the magic power that will make your early game
Repulse / Inspire hit extremely hard as well as heal extremely well. The cooldown reduction is also essential for Hel, and combined with Breastplate of Valor, cap you at 40%.
I always start out with rank two of this item, and purchase the first rank of both Heavenly Agility (Sprint at the time) and Purification Beads. You start with 1,500 gold, giving you just enough to spend 1,000 on shoes, 200 on Sprint, and 300 on Beads.
Rod of Asclepius
Even in, or possibly especially in, a build focused on damage rather than sustain, this item has everything you need. First off, it gives a pretty good amount of MP. Second, it gives a good deal of health - not as good as protection, but it still makes you harder to kill (and makes it safer to initiate). Third, it is one of the only items with MP that also provides movement speed! And if movement speed isn't excellent for both initiation and survival, especially on a god with no leaps or dashes, then I'm a communist. Furthermore, this item has one hell of a passive: your heals will be significantly increased on all allies within range (including you, buddy!).
Focused Void Stone
What better way to begin balancing defense items in than an item that
also provides MP (and penetration that you lack from getting CDR boots!)? There's not much to argue about, really; this item benefits Hel in every possible way, and is a core item for her in every game that has at least one enemy mage (so...every game). Get it before Rod of Asclepius if there is a lot of magical damage on the enemy team, but get it afterwards if there is a lot of physical damage on the enemy team.
Breastplate of Valor
Let's face it: CDR is one of the most important stats for Hel, and it just so happens that 15% + 25% = 40%, which is the CDR cap. This also provides Hel with the necessary defense to offset the dangers of having such close ranges on her skills and her lack of escapes. Oh, and who could forget free mana as well? (clearly not me! That "oh" in no way implies I had almost forgotten about it!)
Beneficial Items
These items work great with Hel, but you can pass them up if you're stupid if you feel like it.
Rod of Tahuti
This could honestly be labeled as a Core Item; not only does it provide a whopping 125 magic power, but its passive is just...beautiful. Before you build Tahuti, you'll have 200 MP, and after it's built you will have doubled that to just over 400. What's that, mr. 15 MP5?
I can't hear you over the sound of doubling my MP!
Gem of Isolation
Your own form of CC is a slow from Hinder, so anything you can build that provides a form of CC is likely to be helpful. You have three damaging spells:
Restoration,
Decay, and
Repulse, and they all have short cooldowns. What does this mean? Well, sir, it means you'll piss off the enemy team with all the slows. That's what.
Obsidian Shard
While I did say penetration isn't a core item for Hel because she plays more of a role than a simple damage dealer, she can certainly pack a punch. Since the only penetration you would have comes from a hybrid item, Focused Void Stone, this item is great if you prefer mage-man-mode Hel. It's cheap, provides a respectable amount of MP, and it
totally matches her eyes.
Bancroft's Talon
The first rank of this item is incredibly cheap, costing little more than five-hundred gold. If you're planning on building this instead of
Rod of Asclepius, and no teamfights occur by the time you have enough money to finish the shoes and get rank 1, make a quick trip back to base to do so.
It's overall a very cheap item that synchronizes perfectly with Hel; it has a whopping 100 MP, and it also increases the heal you receive from your
Restoration (as well as
Decay and
Repulse to a lesser extent). In addition, the lower your health, the more MP you will have. The means that when you're ****ting your pants because you're getting focused and have less than 20% hp, your panic heal is going to piss off the enemy team (or a mighty
Repulse that results in an instant deicide).
Others
Figure them out yourself you lazy bastard.
There should be no deviation from
Heavenly Agility or
Purification Beads unless you are particularly attached to
Aegis Amulet or really need the hard crowd control from
Fist of the Gods. If they enemy has a lot off CC, replace
Heavenly Agility as you desire. If they have virtually no CC, too bad don't replace
Purification Beads as it can lead to some pretty impressive burst or double heals and cleanses.
BEST ACTIVES
Heavenly Agility
This seems like an active almost tailored specifically for Hel. It increases healing received during its duration, affects all teammates around you, and gives you an escape that you would otherwise completely lack. It can also be used offensively to help your team chase down a dirty little ****er like Chronos or Mercury.
I, personally, purchase it almost every single game. If it's not your playstyle, you don't need to get it.
Unless the enemy team builds
Weakening Curse, in which case you'd be insane to not purchase HA.
Purification Beads
I'm telling you right now, never replace
Purification Beads. You are going to get focused at one point or another, and not only will this break you free of any and all crowd control, provide CC immunity for longer than a maxed out cleanse, but also reduce all cooldowns by 5 seconds. With the max CDR of 40%, Inspire will have a 6 second cooldown. That's essentially two back to back heals that, combined with
Heavenly Agility's healing buff, can really troll the hell out of the enemy team.
Just like Inspire, Repulse will have a 6 second cooldown, and you can therefore land two Repulses as well as multiple Decays and Restorations in a short window. Yeah,
He Bo won't be expecting to get royally ****ed by her, but you're about to teach him his place.
BENEFICIAL ACTIVES
Aegis Amulet
This can indeed save your life, but I feel it is not as effective as either
Heavenly Agility or
Purification Beads; negating some damage that you could've avoided with
Heavenly Agility anyways is all fine and dandy until you realize that two seconds of no movement on a god without a dash or leap means you're about to get wrecked.
The new
Aegis Pendant on the other hand, can be extremely useful because you can still move around. I prefer Heavenly Agility and Purification beads, but this tiered variant is definitely superb.
Fist of the Gods
This will provide a one-second stun, which can be useful against things like
Thor's spin-to-win or Ares's
Searing Flesh. It's also fun to use early game to help push a minion wave through the enemy's portal while they're clearing buff camps on the side.
BAD, COMMONLY PURCHASED ACTIVES
Meditation / Salvation
Don't get this. You will have plenty of mana from items and MP5 from your passive, and there will be frequent returns to the base, i.e.: you ain't gon' run outta no mana. An okay heal isn't near as good as an escape when you're playing the best healer in the game.
*First step in your determining your playstyle? Looking at the enemy team's composition during the loading screen. Hopefully you're facing a team that sacrifices damage for crowd control, but still doesn't have so much crowd control that you have to really focus on the best time to use cleanse.
*All right, so the game starts. After you buy rank two of
Shoes of Focus, head towards mana/CDR camp (left side of the Arena) while spamming VA1 VHH VEA VEA.
1 After your team has gotten the message, switch back into Dark Stance to gain the full benefit from her passive, and you'll almost be able to one-shot the smaller ogres with your (rank two) Repulse. If enough teammates came, help them clear the Power camp and then head back to middle lane (don't forget to heal up from the ogre-massacre).
Previously, it was best to default into Light Stance in order to have your heal and CC breaker ready, but her new passive changes things a bit. If your team is generally the initiators, then default into Dark Stance; if the enemy team is generally the initiators, then default into Light Stance. If you don't level her ultimate until level sixteen, this decision is very easy because there won't be any loss of MP5.
*Typically, if the enemy team initiates, I will wait to attack in a fight until I've used my cleanse. Your most important job is to prevent teammates from being focused by using your
Cleanses as well as keeping your team in the game with your
Inspires. Hel can still throw down some hefty damage though, so use
Hinder if you're confident there's no incoming CC, and cast a
Repulse followed by a
Decay and then swap stances for a quick
Restoration. Just keep circling around the targets, worried more about dodging than facing them because
Repulse is so easy to hit. Don't auto attack; just focus on juking the enemy while rotating through all your cooldowns.
If your team initiates, and there is no imminent CC, then you can unload your burst. A great example of initiating would be immediately attacking with Thor after he places his
Tectonic Rift. If you two are coordinated, you will instantly melt squishies through the combination of Thor's
Mjolnir's Attunement and
Spin-to-Win with your
Repulse and
Decay.
*Rank 3
Purification Beads reduces your cooldowns by 5 seconds, so you can dish out damage that Anubis would kill someone for by casting
Hinder>
Repulse>
Decay>
Repulse>
Decay over the course of 2 or so seconds.
*This build gives you a hefty amount of damage while also giving you leeway for failed jukes. If you get focused after failing your
cleanse and both your
Heavenly Agility and
Purification Beads are on cooldown, though, you'd better hope that your teammates have some excellent peels coming.
*With the addition of the speed buff to Hel's
Inspire, you will be able to maneuver around extremely effectively as you will can conceivably have a 100% uptime on its duration. It also speeds up teammates, so you can really get them out of sticky situations with the heal, speed boost, and CC immunity combined. Even
Aphrodite can't help multiple teammates escape so well.
*Hel is not the minion *****, but her
Repulse can wipe out an entire minion wave (minus the big guy) by rank 3, so don't hesitate to send some minions flying if you're passing by a wave. This can be very advantageous because the enemy team's tickets will go down by one point for each
last hit, and you're guaranteed the last hit if you can take them from 100% to 0% instantly. Even
Ao Kuang can sometimes get the last hit stolen by a minion, but not Hel.
Rod of Tahuti
Obsidian Shard
Purification Beads (Old)
Shoes
Magic Shoes
Heavenly Wings
Bancroft's Talon
Gem of Isolation
Magi's Cloak
Combat Blink
Enfeebling Curse
Brawler's Beat Stick
Brawler's Cudgel
Divine Ruin
Divine Wrath
Y
Noxious Fumes, you ain't gettin' out without getting stunned, so pop a cleanse. It's only a 1 second stun though so don't prioritize it if you think more CC is coming. Unless you're the one in the center, then you'd better cleanse yourself and GTFO.
Impale you into the wall and end up crying because he's finds out he's too weak to move a goddess one inch backwards.
Shifting Sands is always a danger zone because of his Impale, but because of how much easier it is to land the stun on a Thor or Ymir wall, always be careful around them.
Mummify>
Death Gaze combo can melt a teammate so make sure you get them out of it so they can juke his ultimate. It's one of the longest stuns in the game so any teammate not cleansed out of it is very likely to be chain CC'd.
Kiss has a one-second stun duration, so there's no point it cleansing after it lands because by the time you'd get to cleansing most of its duration would be in effect. The best time to cleanse for the kiss is offensively - such as when Ares is chasing a low health enemy with his 
Back Off! applies a short duration slow if she's linked to one of her teammates. It can be useful to cleanse to help a teammate escape or catch up to an enemy.
Serenade has a short duration unless it's at maximum rank, and even then it will break the instant your teammate takes damage. It can still be dangerous, however, as it can give enough time for the enemies to catch up to you or your teammate. If Apollo charges directly into someone, he's most likely going for a mesmerize - cleanse teammates where he dashes to.
The Moves, causes a knockup (and a short slow), but it's highly unlikely that you'll have the reaction time to prevent it, and it's more often used for an escape/gap closer anyways.
Across The Sky also causes a short knockup that'll give him enough time to land a free auto-attack unless cleansed, but you will not be able to prevent its damage.
Cocoon is one of the trollziest spells in the game. If you see her put a tangled web down on her feet with no teammates in it, she is going to attempt to pull in a teammate. Typically this will happen right after a teammate is stunned. It really depends on the Arachne on when you need to cleanse. Confident Arachne's will put down the web beforehand so that they can get more basic attacks in, whereas less confident ones will put the web down immediately after pulling a target in.
No Escape. I try to save cleanse for it if I can so that I can use beads for my super nuke. Even at the .5 second duration at rank 1, if I'm not drugged out on pain meds I will never fail. Mathematically speaking, make sure the CC immunity is active during the pull - 2.5 seconds after he casts it. That means that at rank 1, you need to cast cleanse between 2.0 and 2.4 seconds after he casts it, and at rank 5, you need to cast cleanse between 1.2 and 2.4 seconds after he casts it. It's really something that you'll become accustomed to through playing Hel often.
Calydonian Boar and every teammate. You don't want to end up having the pig chain halfway across the arena.
Confound, it's harder to cleanse once they have been affected as compared to Ymir's 
Shield Wall, so throw a cleanse on anyone she's looking at right after she pops that.
Preemptive Strike also applies a short slow.
Belch of the Gods, so that shouldn't be a problem. You can troll his 
Intoxicate with cleanse. Even though it's a 10 second duration, the cleanse gets rid of the debuff completely because it's not effect that is constantly reapplied. Have fun watching him stop for a second when he notices all 5 players he just hit are moving around perfectly normally.
Belly Flop is 30% slower, you should have more enough reaction time to toss out a cleanse to prevent the knockup.
Regurgitate slows and cripples anyone in its AoE, but unless he has 
Frostbound Hammer, that's it. Once he has his build going, healing isn't going to save anybody from the insane damage he can put out, but while incredibly dangerous there is no crowd control for you to cleanse.
Crescent Moon Dance.
Waxing Moon! If your entire team is bunched together, it's very likely she will cast this spell, and it will be devastating if you're caught up in it, preventing you from cleansing your team. Always have 
Stop Time will apply a slow to the target before stunning them. This is easiest spell to cleanse because of how slowly it travels and the fact that it doesn't stun until one second after it hits.
Accelerate and turn around to 
Rewind will reset all of his cooldowns, so many Chronos players will use it offensively; a lot of damage can be output from 
Time Rift>
Wheel of Time, so be careful of that.
Heart Bomb will add a 1 second stun to all teamates that it explodes upon if he has 10 stacks of his passive. You can tell if it'll stun if he shoots a Heartbomb while he has a heart visibly swirling him at about waist heighth.
Fields Of Love. It's a large AoE that, along with a fair amount of damage, will slow and cripple all that are inside of it. When it detonates, everyone inside will be mesmerised for something like 3 seconds. Focus on cleansing gods such as Anhur or Neith so they can leap out. If someone is in the center without a leap, don't cleanse them immediately. Instead, apply cleanse to them at a time that will ensure they'll be immune to the mesmerize when the ultimate detonates.
Ragnarok, and his ult will end. Still, go ahead and cast it right before he bites a teammate so they're not even brought a step towards the enemy team. When your teammate has already been grabbed, you can actually cleanse anywhere on Fenrir and they will be freed.
Unchained will also stun if he has 5 runes from his passive, 
Unbound Runes, which means that you -need- 
Banish once your teammates are already in the air. But I find that chain CC's occur quite often after they fall back down, so be prepared to cleanse immediately after they land.
Cavalry Charge applies an AoE stun to anyone in his vicinity when he dismounts from his horse. He can dismount by right-clicking, meaning he can apply the stun whenever he decides to. Typically, he will attempt to hit someone at least a few times before dismounting, and it's very rare that he will ever get more than four hits in. This means that if he lands three hits on you in one charge, you should use your cleanse; if he only lands one or two hits on you in one charge, he will likely attempt to turn around for a second assault - in this case, save your cleanse until his first strike on the rebound. If he's focusing another teammate, cleanse them the moment you see him jumping off his horse.
Warrior's Will, will apply a minor slow to anyone hit. It's typically not a huge deal, but it can make it easier for the enemy team to land other CC's.
Shroud of Darkness. This is best done preemptively. Let's say your teammate is Thor, and he just used Spin-to-Win on a poor enemy Anubis. You see Hades floating over towards the Thor - cleansing him will prevent Spin-to-Win from being canceled, resulting in a dead Anubis.
Searing Pain.
Crushing Wave) if you and multiple teammates are chasing him and he casts flood waters, a cleanse is a good idea to offensively cleanse.
Waterspout, which causes a knockup, is when you see a teammate running towards him and he's facing them - he will likely waterspout them into the air into a combo with his water cannon, which is a whole heck of a lot of damage. Preventing the knockup will have the squishy He Bo in much closer range to your teammates than he expected.
Earthbreaker, he will most likely try to use his 
Driving Strike to push them even further from your team; cleanse your teammate before he can push them backwards, and he will end up spending his gap closer without moving your teammate.
Fear No Evil is cast extremely quickly; with upwards of 80 ping it will be literally impossible to cleanse the moment you see his totem. Due to its ability to fear his targets in the direction he desires, this is an incredibly powerful ultimate. If you're not caught in it, decide which teammate he focused it on (putting the totem behind them fearing them into the enemy team, or in front of them, preventing them from securing a kill) and cleanse them. If your team is bunched together and he leaps into you all, put a cleanse down immediately - you're gonna see that totem pop up as soon as he can cast it.
Somersault affects any targets that it hits with a short slow.
Spirit Ball is incredibly slow but large enough to hit often. Fortunately, it's probably one of the easiest skills to cleanse, as you will almost always know if you can or can't dodge it so preemptively cleansing isn't a hazard.
Dispel Magic is easy to hit, impossible to dodge, and is an effective slow, debuff and silence. You can't cleanse yourself but it can be a good idea to cleanse a teammate that's caught in it.
Circle of Protection so they can escape without taking damage.
Incense which also grants her a physical power buff. Because of this, Kalis will always use their stuns when the get into close range in order to deal more damage, so it's on of the easiest spells in the game to cleanse. She gets in close = cleanse.
Assassinate - if you see him running after a teammate and is about the distance of a Repulse away and he activates Aimed Strike, throw a cleanse on your teammate and you'll likely get a chuckle out of him basic attacking thin air for a second or two.
Special Delivery can be very devastating if not cleansed quickly, as he can use it to toss your teammate into a pile of hungry enemies. Even worse, you have to cleanse yourself preemptively as you are unable to perform any action while he's holding you. If you do manage to preemptively cleanse it, he will simply charge through you; if you cleanse a teammate after he grabs them but before the toss, they will simply be able to walk away; if you cleanse a teammate when they're in the air...bid them adieu for me.
Sonic Boom, but it's easy to prepare for it - he will clap and start glowing as he's charging up. Make sure to spread apart from your teammate and, if other enemies are around, save your cleanse for his 
Wind Fire Wheels from doing any damage and taking his target into the sky. I find he often ults right before you make it into your base. For this reason, as well as many others, I ALWAYS cleanse when I reach tower range as I'm running back to base. He will always try to ult his way out if he's surrounded, so pop a cleanse on everyone.
Armillary Sash. It's pretty damn funny to see him connect the sash, slowly fly towards where your teammate -was- and realize that the gap has actually increased by using his gap closer.
Universe Ring Toss can keep two teammates slowed if they are somewhat far from each other and there are no other targets nearby. (Thanks, leblinski)
Spirit Arrow and the stun in her 
World Weaver. Her 
Backflip also affects your teammates with a slow.
Broken Weaves, as they cause her 
Gungnir's Might also applies an impressive AoE slow. There's nothing you can do about his 
Ring of Spears but keep your teammates immune to cc so they can evade attacks.
Release The Kraken!, which can keep the group together and give them a better chance of recovering from it. It's also a good idea to cleanse leaping gods out of Poseidon's annoying as Hel (teehee) 
Whirlpool.
Tidal Surge will also knock-back unless cleansed, and I have never seen a Poseidon without 
Divine Light makes him one of the most powerful soft CC god in the game.
Charge Prey, he will either use 
Tail Whip to knock your teammates further away from your thrown teammate, or knock your teammate even further backwards to his team. Depending on the direction he's going, decide who to cleanse if you have it off cooldown.
Lurking In The Waters ends. You should be able to tell who he's focusing on keeping in his ultimate and as soon as he pops back up throw a cleanse on that teammate.
72 Transformations, as the turning mechanics force him to attack head on. Very often, Wukongs will initiate with the tiger, and then immediately casts 
Master's Will. Unfortunately, the low duration of low-ranked cleanses will not save anyone from both the tiger and the knockup, but a rank four or five cleanse can prevent both. The instant cast time and basic animation make it incredibly difficult to preemptively cleanse when it's not chained off of his transformation skill. As with all knockups, the cleanse has to be cast before it takes effect, or else even CC immunity provided a millisecond after it's cast will not end the knockup.
Death Scythe is typically used for initiation or to prevent escape, rather than for his own escape, so it is fairly easy to respond to. In addition, 
Anvil of Dawn is more is more important than on his 
Lawbringer to get behind you or your teammates in order to easily land a 
Fearless chain, pushing you or your teammates into the enemy team. Just like regular, this must be done preemptively.
Clear The Path causes a knockup and his 
Umbrellarang applies a short slow. For a warrior, he really has very little crowd control.
Colossal Fury within range of them, as he can pack quite a punch of your teammates that can't leap or dash to safety.
Magma Bomb, he's doesn't pose a high amount of threat CC wise. However! He has the single, highest damaging ultimate in the game - if you see him launch those nukes in the air and your teammates are CC'd, you better cleanse whatever affliction they're under. Unless of course you want them to take two-thousand damage to the face...then just sit back and laugh.
Darkest of Nights stuns anyone moving when the last block connects into the circle. Everyone should be aware and stop, but there are times where just that tiny little duration of no movement gets you killed. Cleanse prevents the stun, and therefore if you're being chased it can save your life.
Glacial Strike. Since they're a tank they are not afraid of rushing forward to get that freeze, and the moment before he gets into stunning range is the best time to cleanse.
Ice Wall behind an enemy to force them in a direction that makes it easy for them to freeze. Be ready to pop a cleanse.
Shards of Ice, enemies will try to cc your teammates that are inside of it. Just make sure you prevent that from happening.
Detonate Charge now applies a 1 second stun to all targets affected by 3 stacks of his passive. Zeus typically detonates immediately after he gets his first stack of 3 on your teammate, so cleanse then to prevent the stun. If he can keep auto attacking your teammate, he will likely get 3 stacks on them before he can detonate again, so cleansing would be a waste of time. Now he'll just be focused on keeping the stacks up for when his detonate comes off cooldown.
Expose Evil will slow all targets affected by 20% for up to five seconds (25% for up to seven seconds with GoI build). In addition, his 
Book of Demons will apply a short-ranged scaling stun between .5 to .9 to enemies unaffected by Expose Evil, and between 1.0 to 1.8 seconds to enemies that are.
Hel an amazing anti-peeler.
Thor's Spin-to-Win can be offensively cleansed so that no crowd control can be placed upon him, ensuring that a full duration hits the helpless enemy team. Or when you see a friendly 
Bakasura chasing an enemy with low health and an enemy 
Sobek has its eyes on Bakasura, you can cleanse him so that Sobek's 
Pestilence
Creeping Curse
Sickening Strike
Bacchus's third skill. It applies a 25% healing reduction to all affected targets for two seconds when the belch ends (when the stun occurs). It's not quite as dangerous as 
Moonflower Dance
Potion of Magical Might. Likewise, if you (unlikely but a fun, rare occurrence) have a completed build and the gold to spare, don't forget about the 
Elixir of Power.
Stance Attunement
Geb
Also, I don't think I'll have time to provide any updates to this guide for at least another month. :/
Anyhow, I'm thinking about making a synoptic guide for Hel, since I've been told there's too much to take in for some people so they end up skipping it altogether rather than reading a few chapters. It's also be easier to maintain xD
P.S. I also think that they should remove the cooldowns after switching stances. Ullr now has no cooldown...
The problem with getting the penetration boots is that you won't have any CDR until you build BoV. In Conquest, I'm sure the pen boots would be fine as early game you'll be casting as few spells as possible, and it'll help with waveclear. But definitely do not get shoes of the magi in Arena. Maximum CDR is easy to obtain and very important in Arena, so I would recommend capping it.