Nemesis the Shock Trooper (S3)

This is an in depth guide to one of the most potent late game assassin choices in Smite. This guide will show you how to build and play Nemesis in order to take full advantage of her play style. I'll discuss weaknesses, strengths and how to maximize your success with this goddess with specific reasoning for item choices.

Pros:

High Single Target Damage
Good Mobility
Solid Soft Crowd Control
Can 1v1 Pretty Much Anything in the Game
Excellent Intervention, Can Save Lives


Cons:
Vulnerable to Hard Crowd Control
Slower Start in the Jungle
Higher Learning Curve

Ninja Tabi: This will go better with her passive than warrior tabi. Having some decent attack speed will become more important.

Frostbound Hammer: An unlikely choice for an assassin no doubt but a necessary and potent one here. The attack speed and slow debuff is key to nemesis's 1v1 play style, and will give you an even bigger advantage in engagements. The health boost also helps in this regard. Not to mention in teamfights or in general frostbound is excellent team support, either slowing an enemy to save a teammate or keeping him in range while allies attack. This just adds to nemesis's slow arsenal.

Executioner: Attack speed is vital to ensuring that your hitting for your frostbound. Additionally executioner is a great dps boost and the passive gives some very much appreciated penetration.

Qins Sais: At this point of the build you have left the core and can deviate to your preference but with its new dps boost from season 3 patch, more attack speed and a solid passive, you cant go wrong with qins.

Deathbringer: I like slamming on the crits. If your the same look no further.

Malice: Overall the better choice for melee crits, with frostbound and our attack speed they aint going nowhere anyhow to rage is less effective. You'll crit plenty often with devastating results.

Scales of Fate (passive): Newly updated in S3, nowling 4% of a foes power per hit adding up to 4 stacks. Great for attack speed, also gives new heartseeker stonecutter combo a possibility here.

Swift Vengeance: Simple mobility. Be smart. This is your trump card to escape or finish an enemy. Misjudging what to do can get you killed or pass of a kill. Its a matter of experience really. In conqust be aware of both teams positioning.

Slice and Dice: What seems to be a classic cone and slow is much more than that. The trouble in many cases with frosforged is not being able to initiate your basic attacks and start the debuff. This ability lets you walk right up to them and begin it after you fire it off. Just try not to fail and miss the center zone of the cone.

Retribution: Combined with her passive, this is what makes nem an unstoppable force to 1v1. Hunters and other assassins will get creamed by this shield. Know your enemy. Hunters might just fire at you, prompting your swift activation of the shield, but for others, you'll have to see their abilities coming and anticipate to maximize the effectiveness of this trump card. Be aware that any hard, including silence, with turn your shield off. Use purify appropriately.

Divine Judgement: An easy to hit, and great ult. Most ults you want to time right and use after your foe is widdled down or to finish. Not with nem. This cuts HP by a percentage their current hp (from 30-50 depending on ability level). Therefore it can never kill but its effective even when your foe has full health. So in this case, its a great ult to initiate with, and is yet another reason 1v1ing a nem is usually a death sentence. Stealing 30 to 50 percent of protections and slowing 25% just keeps adding to the debuffs nem can slam you with can be a bane to even tanky supports (but try to focus on the squishier guys like any assassin). As an added bonus, S3 patch has taken 20 seconds off the cooldown for this ultimate.

In summary, nemesis is a goddess that is almost unbeatable in a 1v1 scenario. Your objective with her is to get in do some heavy damage and get out, or isolate an opponent and end them. Come mid game you should have little fear of most enemy gods. Here is a brief list of some guys to watch out for or that might be a little harder to bring down, remember hard cc is trouble so make sure to use your purification only when absolutely necessary.

Mages: Not so tough just be aware.
Nox: her siience aoe or raven will knock out your shield, however to be honest retribution has little use against her anyway. If you can chase her down when she bolts with your ult or 2 she'll be done. try to save retribution for her ultimate.

Anubis: If purification is down and he hits mummify you might be in trouble. Throw up sanctuary if u need to, other wise us retribution and finish him off.

Freya: Banish can turn off retribution, her pulses will still slow you even if its up.

Hunters: A couple have hard cc ults that can be the death of you.
Artemis: Season 3 patch gave Artemis an ult buff, now hits after .5 seconds instead of 1.5, adding to the headache of the hard cc. you may want to retreat with your dash to evade then come back around with your ult if you can, but as always if your in the jungle don't leave too much time for the other team to respond, just bolt if you have to.

Medusa: Turn away from the ult and you should be fine.

Guardians: Not your primary target anyway, but they wont be able to kill you on their own.
Ares: You should never target guardians in late game teamfights unless they are really alone or overextended anyway but with purification being now weaker in late game due to its longer cooldown and no cc immunity abilities on nem, be very cautious with purification down and an ares nearby.

Warriors:
(Note: mages and assassins especially should never go 1v1 with warriors in general cus they will outlast you, nemesis however is a partial (not total,... PARTIAL) exception being an insane 1v1er. Still, you should not specifically target them in a teamfight and still be cautious 1v1 (feel them out then gauge whether or not you can continue to take them) and you should really watch out for these with hard cc that can turn off retribution.

Tyr
Hercules
Bellona: (Just cus shes a wicked tough 1v1er as is)
Ne Zha

Other Assassins: Theese arent an issue, unless they are good, smart and, experienced
Mercury: A good merc may be smart enough to turn off retribution with his dash cc once hes got u to trigger it with a few basic attacks( its not easy to do but its doable). Use purification wisely, also in 1v1 scenario nem's ult is way better than mercs so as always initiate with it. Remember he can still try to run with his ult if u dont take him down quick enough, and running is gonna be tough if his ult is up. If he didnt get to turn of retribution however, then u have protected yourself, healed, and reflected a good amount of his damage and he is probably doomed.

Serquet:
Good serquets are always a pain. purification on her ult if u have it, if not turn retribution on right away, you wont heal but you will gain the shield and send damage back. At this point she may have bolted, remember the S3 patch brought her speed down but her abilities still make her insanely mobile, you might not be able to chase her down but she doesn't have a good chance of killing you unless her hard cc knocks out retribution.


Pretty much everyone else is doomed 1v1, Always remember, frostbound and your passive gives you the 1v1 advantage, retribution is the backbone of your 1v1ing ability, and players who dont think first or have some cd's have little chance of escaping you.