Season 5 so far has been very impactful in terms of the changes it has brought, and Sol is no different. The changes brought by primarily patch 5.1 has been the best indirect buff that Sol has ever recieved in her time being in the game. But Dann, what has changed for our radiant beauty? Allow me to explain.
I’ll address the elephant in the room and immediately state that Typhon’s Fang is probably the best, if not one of the best items for
Sol this season. Not only is this a high magical power lifesteal item, but the passive this item has makes it very valuable for any god that utilizes magical lifesteal to some extent. The bonus power gained from lifesteal (a 1 to 1 ratio, so 5% lifesteal from items would grant the player 5 extra magical power if they have Typhon’s Fang) is nice to have, but the real appeal is that Typhon’s Fang grants 50% increased healing from magical lifesteal. With just Typhon’s Fang and Bancroft’s Talon,
Sol, and plenty of other mages, are able to heal for a ludicrous amount by simply casting one ability onto a wave of minions. And
Sol is already a mage who loved the lifesteal tree, so you bet that you will want to build Typhon’s Fang- I would go as far as to call you a troll if you don’t build it on
Sol.
And with mages shifting towards lifesteal items, it is at this time that I urge you not only on
Sol, but on any god, to consider building anti-healing. Please. If you really hate the fact that an enemy mage lived because they built Typhon’s Fang and another lifesteal item, counter it. You have the tools at your disposal but they won’t do you any good if you ignore them because you selfishly think that they are unimportant or are too stubborn and think that they reduce your damage by a lot. Build anti-heal, thank you.
With the removal of starter items, and the introduction of Blessings, this has benefited
Sol highly. Hunter’s Blessing allows
Sol to outtrade most gods with just her basic attacks early on. And the MP5 this Blessing has helps in alleviating early mana consumption, allowing
Sol to harass her opponents without needing to mind her mana pool. And yes I am saying that you should build Hunter’s Blessing on
Sol because
Sol isn’t a mage that uses abilities too often, and she only has one reliable damaging ability, which lessens the appeal of Mage’s Blessing- also take into account that
Sol doesn’t really want or need cooldown reduction either. And while small, Hunter’s Blessing has more reliable and constant MP5 than Mage’s Blessing, which only gives MP5 with the lower mana you get, and you’ll only match Hunter’s Blessing’s MP5 when you are at 50% mana.
With the adjustments made to
Obsidian Shard, it is no longer a “one size fits most” item, and is now a very situational item, only to be built against immensely tanky gods. Because of that, the main penetration you should see in
Sol builds would be from
Shoes of the Magi obviously, but also from
Spear of Desolation, and either
Divine Ruin or
Spear of the Magus. I still don’t quite like
Spear of the Magus on
Sol, but it is a decent enough item for dealing damage versus low protection gods, even if your mage doesn’t stack it reliably.
With indirect nerfs towards hunters,
Sol is now able to have better success as an ADC for her team as she’ll no longer have to worry too much about the superior and cheaper itemization options of hunters.
This pertains mainly to Conquest, but lately I have been taking a liking to prioritizing leveling
Disapparate over
Radiance. My reasoning is that the extra movement speed helps in rotations as the map is larger, and the extra damage helps in burning down early Gold Furies. However it is still perfectly fine to level
Radiance as it still grants a large amount of Heat on cast.
There are other smaller changes that have affected
Sol but to much lesser degrees, such as mid lane being mostly a 1v1 lane, but this should be enough information covered for now.
Hey at least we have that other "guide" LOL
@Dann, if your post above is serious, then I will state my personal disappointment. I think you have great knowledge of the game, and feel that your contributions to the community as a whole are helpful. Having you retract those contributions, at least on this site, is a loss.
That said, I can't help but feel that this is a reaction to the results of the contest. You state above that you've "learned" you don't include enough "irrelevant and unnecessary information" in your guides...as a general guide, it's what you want to put in it, and I feel the general info you provide is absolutely relevant.
However, in the context of the guide contest, I feel your statement is unfair to us. The original post about the contest was very clear in the things we'd be looking for, which not only included info on builds and skills, but also various aspects of gameplay that were honestly pretty clear in bullet point form, and that your own guide didn't address. Part of the point of the contest is to showcase the extensive possibilities of guide creation on SMITEFire, and that includes going very in-depth on information that you don't see on other sites.
On an individual level, I felt your guide's info on the builds was very good, but one major focus of both your mid and ADC builds is double-lifesteal, taking advantage of the strong 5.1 and 5.2 versions of Typhon's Fang. I know many pros were often using that type of build in their games, but I also had (and continue to have) strong concerns about not offering an alternative to getting these items. You can pretty strongly shut down that build with only a couple of anti-heal items like Divine Ruin, Brawler's Beat Stick, and Pestilence, and I posed that question in a separate comment below 2 weeks ago. I feel it's a very relevant question, and would still like to hear your thoughts.
Finally, it's disappointing that you mock the "other" guide I know you're referring to...which you commented on with generally positive original feedback (https://www.smitefire.com/smite/guide/explosive-like-a-supernova-complete-sol-guide-season-5-guide-patch-5-3-19404/comments?c=125544#comment-125544). This site and the community is meant to offer a place for people to learn and grow their knowledge of the game. The author of the other guide also put in a lot of time, and has been very open and responsive to feedback, and I think these are all qualities we want to see in players and content creators.
Well, I hope you reconsider your current position, and will be sad to see you go if you don't.
I absolutely think it's viable, and yes, you can heal off of camps etc...definitely acknowledged.
I do feel that in the heat of a teamfight, if you're facing a lot of anti-heal and are under its effect, that weakened sustain in a boxing situation might not be as strong as an alternate build looking at different utility, whether it's increased pen or something else. Maybe in the end it's not adjusting build, but rather adjusting playstyle for that match.
Also I would rather get 3 Mana Potion than 3 Healing Potion for the start since Sol already has Radiance for healing.
Futhermore, why Rod of Asclepius? Go for something better like Chronos' Pendant or Soul Reaver or Book of the Dead. Especially if you replace Spear of the Magus for Demonic Grip.
Telkhines Ring is a good substitute for Hastened Ring for last item, and deals slightly more damage, especially looking at towers (not talking about passive, just stats). Basically it narrows down to the very good passive by Hastened Ring or the damage increase from Telkhines Ring.
You could also mention for Polynomicon that it is a great tower pushing item since the structure shred removal from Obsidian Shard.
So a Sol mid build could look like this: Bancroft's Talon, Shoes of the Magi, Spear of Desolation / Demonic Grip (either order, depends on lane opponent), Typhon's Fang, Chronos' Pendant.
Also for your ADC build, sell Shoes of the Magi lategame for Telkhines Ring. You will still have faster movement speed than a god that has boots, and you gain attack speed and a useful passive.
I made sure to reduce the amount of colored text as it was disliked in its previous iteration.
My general understanding of standard Sol builds was to mostly build as standard mage (focusing at least partially on CDR to spam her Stellar Burst), and that lifesteal wasn't as important because she has some healing in her kit for some decent sustain. She had enough of a basic attack buff in her passive that a lot of people would just prefer to build one attack speed item max.
I know that S5 brought about some significant changes, but double-lifesteal and Spear of the Magus is a seriously massive shift...I did read your writeup of the item choices, so I know you acknowledge you might not get full Spear stacks. Also retooling due to the Obsidian and Tahuti nerfs is a major thing...
But damn if your standard mid build will be hard countered by anti-heal (which you also recommend everyone consider, which is a key tip). I'm looking through the guide, and not finding suggestions for if the enemy team is building a lot of anti-heal. Is your suggestion at that point to just deal with it because it's still strong enough, or would you consider re-kitting in the middle of a match, and how would you do so?
In your item discussion, you don't list Hastened at the top, though you mention it's a good hybrid item for her. Where would you build it if you chose to get it, and would you think about adding it to the top?
Something like: Shoes of the Magi, Book of Thoth/Bancroft's Talon, Obsidian Shard, Hastened Ring, Rod of Tahuti, Spear of Desolation
Hybrid Sol generally isn't as good as burst Sol sadly which is why I hadn't mentioned it in the build section but I should've left it open as an unorthodox/fun way to build her.
Shoes of the Magi
Warlock's Sash
Demonic Grip
Obsidian Shard
Rod of Tahuti
Situational Item - usually Soul Reaver though.
I play primarily Joust and Siege. Do you think this is a solid build or should I not even bother stacking with her? I'm also on Xbox so I don't have the 4.13 items yet.
[VEW]