Loki - 3 Seconds Kill

Loki is a god from the Norse Pantheon, he is the son of Ymir, but he was adopted by Odin when he was still a child, making Thor his step-brother. In Smite. Loki is a melee assassin, his skill complements one another and can be easily combined to kill any god in a few hits.

In this guide i will be showing you the way i play Loki in the arena.

PROS

High Damage
Nice Abilities
Way to Escape( Vanish)
Great in 1v1
Good Jungling Potential
Good for catching enemy gods who are running away after a team fight

CONS

Squishy
Useless in a team fight

Behind You - Loki deals 20% more damage from his basic attacks when hitting enemies from behind.

A nice passive, considering the amount of gods who will be turning their backs on you and try to escape you, when they try to escape and you land a basic attack, Frostbound Hammer's effect and The Executioner's effect will be applied, and with Behind You!, an enemy god will have no chance to run away from him.


Vanish
Loki disappears in a puff of smoke for 3s. While invisible, he is immune to slows and moves 50% faster than normal. His next basic attack from invisibility (or for 2s after) applies a bleed to his target, dealing 30/45/60/75/90 (+25% of your physical power) physical damage every .5s for 2s and reveals Loki. Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 mana.
Cooldown: 15 s.

This is your most useful ability, it can be used for offense or defense, you can either run away from your enemy, or sneak up on them and apply a bleed effect. I max this ability second.(PROTIP: immediately after going invisible, run to the opposite direction you were running to, your enemies will have no idea where you went, because usually they will keep going straight to your base, hoping you would appear near your base.)

Decoy
Decoy
Loki spawns a decoy version of himself that taunts all nearby enemy minions. After 3s, the decoy explodes dealing 90/155/220/285/350 (+80% of your physical power) physical damage to all enemies in the radius
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana.
Cooldown: 14s.

This ability is very useful for clearing minions, not only does the decoy do damage, it also taunts the minions, meaning you can stall them for 3 seconds, apart from that, you can also place a decoy when attempting to run away from your enemy, they will usually try to avoid the decoy, giving you more time to run.(PROTIPS: Try to place Decoy to the ranged minions, the melee minions will come over to Decoy, so the damage can hit every minion. When used for running away from an enemy god, always put Decoy infront of you, remember that it takes 3 seconds before Decoy explodes.). I max this ability last.

Aimed Strike
Aimed Strike
Upon activation, Loki’s next basic attack does an additional 60/100/140/180/220 (+80% of your physical power) physical damage within 5 seconds. The enemy hit is also slowed by 25% for 3 seconds.
Cost: 50 mana.
Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8 s.

The perfect ability to sneak up on an enemy and just kill them, it gives you a massive damage boost upon your next basic attack, also it slows the enemy, and not to mention with Frostbound Hammer's slow effect, an enemy will not escape. I max this ability first. (PROTIP: make sure your attack will land within 5 seconds, so Aimed Strike will work, try to sneak up on your enemy with Vanish then using Aimed Strike before you start bashing at them.)


Assassinate
Upon activation, Loki teleports to his ground target location. If an enemy god is within the radius, Loki will backstab that target doing 250/325/400/475/550 (140% of your physical power) physical damage and be stunned for 1s.
Cost: 100 mana.
Cooldown: 90 s.

The main reason people use Loki, his awesome ultimate, not only will he teleport to the location, he will backstab a god, doing massive damage and stunning them, and when they are stun you should be bashing at them with Aimed Strike. I max this ability every chance i get.(PROTIPS: There will be a blue sign hovering above a god when you are about to use your ultimate, it shows that you can backstab that god. You can also use Assassinate to escape and teleport, but use it only in crucial moments, for example when you are about to die and there are only 4 tickets left.WHAT I MEAN BY THE BLUE HOVERING SIGN ABOVE A GOD

Items

The items Loki have should give him a very fast kill


Warrior's Tabi
I chose Warrior's Tabi as the first item for Loki, because it complements all his abilities, giving him increased physical power, attack speed and crit chance, and above all that Warrior's Tabi gives you an increased movement speed. Overall a nice item to start with.


Fatalis
The next item should complement Loki's high physical power, this item should increase his attack speed, therefore i chose the Fatalis, not only does it give a 35% increase in attack speed, it also increases your movement speed by 10%, making it easier to chase your enemies(especially when combined with Vanish), it also gives a faster cooldown on your abilities, making it faster for you to kill your enemies.


Deathbringer
Deathbringer gives you all you need, increased crit chance, and increased crit damage, giving you higher damage, and on top of that it also gives you a physical power boost.


Frostbound Hammer
Frostbound Hammer is the next item for Loki, it gives you a power boost, a huge health boost for more survivability, but what's important is its passive, the slow effect, combined with Aimed Strike's slow effect, your enemies won't be getting away from you, securing you an easy kill with a target that's barely even moving.


The Executioner
This item gives you a power boost, an attack speed boost and a sweet passive, basic attacks against an enemy reduce your target's physical protection, combined with Frostbound Hammer's slow effect, and to add the reduced physical protection, the kill will happen in under 3 seconds.


Titan's Bane
Titan's Bane, an item of raw power, giving you a 30 physical power boost and a 45% physical penetration, the most suitable item for more power, not to mention that it is cheap and very powerful. a solid pick for a last item.

Abilities

Purification Beads and Aegis Amulet
These items are useful to counter alot of abilities, some such as Ares' No Escape and Guan Yu's Tactician's Advantage and can avoid death from a 3vs1 fight.

Sprint
Sprint and Creeping Curse

These items are very useful to catch an enemy who have an ability that can leap or sprint, some such as Sun Wukong's Somersault, Agni's Path of Flame, don't forget to combine these abilities with Vanish.

as Loki, your skill sequence should be Vanish -> Aimed Strike, when your ultimate is ready it should always be Vanish -> Assassinate -> Aimed Strike, this will be a guarantee kill.

This is why Loki has Decoy, for creeping just place it on the ranged minions.

In case you didn't notice there are buff camps in the side of the arena, to get these buffs with Loki, you should use Decoy, place it infront of the buff camp, then as the buff camps approaches the Decoy, you should use Aimed Strike and start attacking the buff camp.

The buffs prioritized from most important to least important
Attack->Mana->Health
->Cooldown

JUST DON'T, as Loki, you should never join in a team fight, if you are Loki, all you should do is wait for the enemy gods with low life to run away from the fight, and when they think they are safe, you surprise them and sneak attack on them, don't forget to use Vanish to be invisible and apply a bleed.

As Loki, you should play sneaky, hide behind the walls in the side of arena, and always be ready to gank an enemy, or attack a god separated from the team.

You should always target mages or assassins, in early-mid game, tanks are hard to kill, but by late game, you should be able to take anyone out.

Thanks for reading,
Gokil