[S3] Agni Guide

Hi there! My name is Magattahana and I've decided to start writing guides for this website. I love Smite, but often there have been times where I wasn't completely sure how to best utilize a given god in the game. I've also noticed that the overall quality of guides on this website are below that of the guides on other sites in the MobaFire network.

Don't get me wrong, there are a ton of amazing and well written guides on this website, but several gods in the game only have very out of date guides. So, being the perfectionist I am, I've decided to write a god guide for every god in the game, in alphabetical order, starting with one of my favorite gods.

So without further ado, welcome to my guide to Agni: The God of Fire!

"Time to burn!"

+ Great passive
+ Strong CC
+ Very powerful burst
+ Good escape
+ Ult is hard to dodge
+ Two heads are better than one

- Passive requires you to land basic attacks
- His combos aren't very obvious to new players
- His Flame Wave has shorter range than most mage abilities
- Clearing or initiating with his dash is very dangerous
- His ult has a delay, which takes getting used to

Here's a little story to show how Agni is hard for new players. I introduced a friend of mine to Smite, and decided a good way for him to learn would be doing random 1v1s. He got Agni, and I got Xing Tian. That was the first and last time I've ever seen Xing beat an Agni, purely because my friend had no idea how Agni's kit works.

I'll go over how you can most effectively burn your foes to a crisp in the skills section.

I'm going to go over items first, because it's important to know how to build a character so that you can more comfortably work on your mechanical skill.

Soul Stone is the standard starting item on Agni. It requires you to land basic attacks, and therefore synergizes well with Agni's passive, Combustion. With your passive and Soul Stone fully stacked, clearing the minion wave is a breeze. You get Shoes because that's just common sense, although you could sacrifice the movement speed and instead get Lost Artifact to help with clear. However, I don't recommend this when first learning to play Agni, as Lost Artifact is more expensive than Shoes, meaning you can only buy 1 of each potion. Potions are important because Soul Stone doesn't provide as much survivability as the other standard mage starter, Vampiric Shroud.

Shoes of the Magi are the standard boot option for Agni, as well as most other mages, because the power and penetration they provide are invaluable.

Book of Thoth allows you to increase the amount of mana you have to cast abilities tremendously, and also converts a percentage of your mana into extra power.

Obsidian Shard allows your magical damage to ignore 33% of the target's protections. It's fairly obvious why this is a good thing for you, and a bad thing for the other team.

Rod of Tahuti increases your magical power by a whopping 25%. A common mistake I see amongst new players is buying Rod of Tahuti immediately. This isn't wise because in addition to being a very expensive item, you don't have enough magical power early on to really make use of its percentage-based damage increase.

Chronos' Pendant gives you a decent amount of extra magical power, in addition to lowering your cooldowns by 20%. Lower cooldowns means you can cast abilities more often; casting abilities more often means more enemies on fire. I would usually substitute Book of Thoth for this, or another stacking item.

Speaking of stacking items, Warlock's Sash is an alternative to Book of Thoth and Doom Orb that's good to pick up if you think you're going to lose your matchup. Warlock's gives you extra health and magical power for every stack. It takes longer to fully stack than its counterparts, so always be sure to buy it early.

My way of deciding which stacking item to get is:

If I'm gonna lose this matchup hard, I need Warlock's Sash for the extra survivability.

Book of Thoth is good if you're evenly matched with the enemy midlaner.

Finally, the last stacking item is Doom Orb. This item is desired because it can allow you to quickly snowball out of control, because it's the cheapest stacking item, and it takes the least amount of time to fully stack. This is a good item for when you are winning lane very hard against the competition. Be careful though, because you lose half the stacks upon death.

Shoes of Focus were recently buffed, so consider getting them if you want to be capped out on cooldown reduction.

Soul Reaver is the last item I'll go over. This item deals 10% of the target's maximum health as bonus damage when you hit them with an ability. I recommend this item mostly for mages with smaller AoEs, because if you hit multiple people, it will only proc on the enemy with the highest health. This means you can end up wasting its passive on a tank, when you were trying to go for a squishy. It's usually not that much of a problem though.

I encourage you to try out your own builds and go with whatever feels comfortable and suits your playstyle.

Agni is a versatile god with a number of different ability combos that you can pull of depending on what the situation calls for. This makes him a very enjoyable character to play once you've gotten the hang of him, which is what I'm aiming to help with in this guide.

I'll go over his abilities, and then delve into the ways you can use each ability.

Agni's passive is Combustion. This passive is a little underrated, but still very useful. Its damage-over-time can be the difference between getting a kill, and the enemy getting away with a sliver of health. After four successful basic attacks, Agni's next cast of Flame Wave or Rain Fire will ignite the target, doing a decent amount of damage over the next few seconds. Always try to have this passive stacked before casting abilities, as it greatly increases your damage output.

Agni's first ability is Noxious Fumes. This is the source of Agni's crowd control, and also the key ingredient in all of his combos. It covers an area in flammable gas, which by itself doesn't do much damage. However, once Agni casts any of his other three abilities into the gas, it ignites, stunning anyone caught in the radius for 1s. Noxious Fumes can also be used to cut off chokepoints and zone enemies away, because they will hesitate to step within its radius for fear of the incoming stun. This is the ability you want to max last, because it doesn't do a lot of damage and is only used to stun enemies and set up combos. Also be careful as this ability will proc Soul Reaver, causing the item's passive to go to waste when it could have been used with a more damaging ability.

Agni's second ability is Flame Wave. This is the God of Fire's bread and butter, and his main wave clear once he hits level 2. It deals pure damage in a short but wide line, and will also proc Agni's passive. Many new Agni players make the mistake of trying to set down his Noxious Fumes and then ignite them with this. While this can work, this method provides the enemy with a lot of time to step out of the fumes, because Flame Waves has a long casting animation. I find it better to use this ability after I've already stunned someone, because then there's less of a chance of it missing. You should max this ability first, because it's Agni's main source of burst.

Agni's third ability is Path of Flames. This serves as his main escape, and also a way of setting up combos. Agni dashes in a straight line, leaving a trail of fire that burns enemies who stand on it. The flaming trail can also ignite Noxious Fumes. There are two ways of doing this, one offensive, and one defensive. The offensive method is best used if you're 1v1ing an enemy, because Agni will be quickly locked down if the whole enemy team is around. You dash at them with Path of Flames, then immediately drop Noxious Fumes at your feet. The enemy will be stunned, and you can then follow up with Flame Wave and Rain Fire. People often don't expect this, and you can very easily burst an opponent down in a matter of seconds if you catch them off guard. When trying to escape enemies, you can Path of Flames away from them, and if they give chase you can turn and drop Noxious Fumes on the trail to stun them and buy more time to escape. Max this ability second, because while it doesn't do as much damage as Flame Wave it certainly hurts more than Noxious Fumes.

Agni's ultimate is Rain Fire. It is unique in that Agni essentially stores charges of the ability, and can cast it multiple times in a row. Agni gains a charge of this ability every 20 seconds, and can fire all three meteors at once if he so chooses. The range on this ability allows Agni to harass his enemies from a distance. He can also stun with this ability. The delay before a meteor lands gives Agni just enough time to cast his Noxious Fumes where the meteor will land, which allows Agni to stun and do massive damage from a distance. Also don't be afraid to try and steal mid harpies by dropping meteors over the wall, but be careful as you may end up accidentally helping the enemy finish them off. Max this ability whenever you can, as the damage it does is very strong.

FIRST FIVE LEVELS: Place your first skill point into Path of Flames and stand behind where the camp will spawn. Once it spawns, dash through it. The creeps will follow you and take the damage from the burning trail left behind. To clear the first minion wave, run behind it and dash through. Be careful though, because doing this forces you to overextend, and is very dangerous. By now, you should be level 2. Put your second skill point into Flame Wave, which will allow you to clear the wave without putting yourself in harm's way. Your third skill point should go into Noxious Fumes which will allow you to stun your enemies, either to get a first blood or escape a gank attempt. Your fourth skill point should be put into Flame Wave for more damage. Finally, put your fifth skill point into your ultimate, Rain Fire, so you can start dropping bombs on the opposition.

Also, make sure Combustion is stacked before using Flame Wave to clear, this will make it much easier to try and outclear your opponent.

Agni is a very powerful god when used effectively. Sadly, though, most new players aren't sure how to use him to his full potential. My goal in writing this guide is revealing all of the hidden nuances of this god, so that you can enjoy him more, and feel more confident playing him.

I sincerely hope you've enjoyed my first guide on this website, and hopefully you've learned something new by reading it.

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or notice any spelling or grammatical errors, please feel free to let me know in the comments.

Get out there and spit super hot fire, even if you aren't a rapper. ;D

And have a wonderful day!