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Hello, I am Arvorus! This is the second guide I have posted here on Smitefire, and it will be focusing on Thanatos, the Hand of Death! He is a mage-like jungler with a strong early game. In my opinion, Thanatos has a very strong early game, switching into a utility role as the game goes further on. He has decent base ability damage, but very poor scaling. This makes him a high risk-high reward god who can be either dominating or almost useless. My guide for Thanatos will be based around his strong early game. Please leave feedback behind if you have any opinions or see any mistakes! |
PROSOne of Thanatos's most obvious pros is his strong early game. He can burst down any god in no time during the first ten minutes of the game, and can snowball very easily. Another pro that ties into the first one is his strong base damage. It allows him to build like a tank while still hitting very hard. Since Thanatos is not mana reliant, he can roam around and gank lanes for a long time before returning to base. In addition, an often undervalued pro of Thanatos is how much utility he has. The Hand of Death has a slow, a silence, a semi-global stun/execute, and a passive that lets him see low-hp enemies! ConsThanatos does, however, have some very glaring cons. First of all, his ability scaling is very poor. This means that he will have to rely on his base damage throughout the entire game, which isn't always enough to get a kill. In addition, his abilities cost health instead of mana. This makes him very squishy and prone to being a target of other burst gods. Finally, he has no movement-based hard CC outside of his ult. This makes it pretty hard for him to completely lock down his targets. |
Harvester of Souls |
Death Scythe |
Scent of Death |
Soul Reap |
Hovering Death |
Skill Order
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These are the two main combos that Thanatos uses.
Jungling (3)
Basic Attack |
This build focuses on turning Thanatos into a bruiser so that he can transition into the late-game isn't so bumpy. Your typical build order is usually:
Bumba's Mask, Warrior Tabi, Jotunn's Wrath, defense, Hide of the Urchin, Titan's Bane, CDR.
Wrath | Normally, I wouldn't get this, but Thanatos has no movement-based hard CC outside of his ult. The 1s stun is great for alleviating that problem, as well as being a good jungle clearing active. |
Since your abilities use a lot of health, you're gonna need to get three each of these. You don't use much mana, so you won't need to worry about buying Mana Potions. |
Mobility is one of the most important stats in the game, and Warrior Tabi is the best mobility you can get. The 40 power is great for giving you some extra burst in the early game, and the 18% movement speed is great for junglers. However, do note that Thanatos has pretty bad scaling. You can always consider Ninja Tabi instead-for the synergy with Bumba's Mask-or Talaria Boots, for the mobility and HP5. |
This item gives 20% CDR, which is very powerful on an ability-based god like Thanatos. This also gives you some power and penetration, and completely eradicates any mana problems you'll have with Thanatos. |
Thanatos is different from other assassins. Unlike someone like Thor or Serqet, he can't just dive into the enemy team to get a kill and escape freely. Because of this, he has to build like a bruiser. Hide of the Urchin is one of the best pure protection items in the game, and as such is a core item on Thananatos. |
This item is perfect for ability casters. It gives you a ton of penetration, allowing you to shred through tanks. This compliments Thanatos perfectly, since he already has close to max flat pen from Scent of Death and Jotunn's Wrath. |
These are your choices against 3+ physical / magical teams. The 40 physical protection on Void Shield dampens burst, and the physical protection reduction aura doesn't count towards the flat pen cap. Runic Shield is your go-to anti-magic item, providing a strong magical power and attack speed reducing aura. |
Hide is a little more specific than Void Shield, in that it requires auto-attack based enemies to be good. Its passive is geared towards stopping most lifesteal, but it's also pretty decent against non-lifestealing auto-attackers. |
I would buy this if you're facing two or more healers. The 65 magical protection[ and 300 health helps you get through magical healers' burst. [[Brawler's Beat Stick]] is bad on Thanatos; the 20 flat penetration is almost useless due to the flat penetration cap. |
Spirit Robe is a powerful item. The 15% damage reduction combined with Hide of the Urchin means that you can actually survive most CC combos! In addition, it also gives you 10% CDR, reaching the point where CDR will have a noticeable effect on your gameplay (30%). |
This item is the close-range cousin of Spirit Robe. It's obviously much stronger against melee gods, and also provides 5% more CDR, but it's pretty expensive. If you do get this, get it as a last item. |
As a general rule, get these against 4+ physical / magical enemies. These items are good, but they're not as good as Spirit Robe when their protections don't shine. |
Shield of Regrowth | I'm not sure about viability, but it sure is fun to be fast! |
Purification | Crowd control is extremely annoying, especially for someone as squishy as Thanatos. This solves all of those problems, and WILL save your life multiple times. This is my go-to active right after Wrath. |
Sanctuary | Sanctuary is great against high-damaging ults that you can never seem to dodge. Of, course you already have Spirit Robe, and Purification would probably save you from half of those ults anyways, so I'd only get this against CC-light teams. |
Curse | Curse is an amazing anti-healing active. It's also your only good source of anti-healing other than Pestilence, so you're probably going to need this against healers. |
PLEASE get these! As I said in my Neith guide, Wards are a core item. BUY THEM!!! As a jungler, you should be warding where your allies aren't (mid camps, Gold Fury, Fire Giant, etc.). |
Potion of Physical Might | These are items after you've finished your build. POtion of Physical Might gives you more killing potential, at the cost of 500g. Elixir of Defense is your preferred elixir, due to your horrible scaling. |
Thank you for reading my Thanatos guide! Please leave feedback behind if you have any advice. I am very grateful towards:
Jordenito and TormentedTurnip: Jordenito's BBCoding guide and TormentedTurnip's Guideception guide are must-reads if you plan on making a guide!
BestMinionEver and Subzero008: Thanks for your jungling guides! Take a look BestMinionEver's guide and Subzero008's guide if you want a more in-depth explanation on jungling and counterjungling.
Piederman, Jordenito, TormentedTurnip, and Greenevers: Thanks for your coding templates!
(1) Ping any enemies that you see with your passive! Notify your team if they have disappeared while moving, if they've stopped at a popular warding spot and then moved somewhere else, etc.
(2) Don't ult into the enemy team just to get a kill. Unless the person you're trying to kill is carrying the enemy team and is all alone, it's a bad idea.
(3) You can also use this combo for fighting if you want to save your Scent of Death as an escape; it is recommended that you only auto-attack once between Death Scythe and Soul Reap, however.
September 17, 2014 - Guide has been published!
September 17, 2014 - Counter-jungling sub-section added!
February 17, 2015 - All sections updated for Season Two!
October 26, 2016 - Wow, it's been over a year! Guide updated for Season Three.
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Thanatos can still be decent lategame if you start building him towards in hands later in the game, 35 penetration is still 35 penetration and as such shouldn't be overlooked. Other than that its a really good guide, very detailed but remember that there's more than one wy to skin a cat nd as such I would recommend multiple builds.
I am currently working on adding another build or two!
Yes, Devourer's Gauntlet and Heartseeker are definitely viable items! However, I am refraining from updating any guides publicly until the new Conquest patch is live.
As for Asi, well, you already have 46 pen with Scent of Death and Jotunn's Wrath, so the penetration is wasted. In addition, the passive is mediocre, as Thanatos has such little health that he'll be bursted down before he can utilize it. I may put it in a new build where you level your Soul Reap before Scent of Death and then sell it for another item late-game, but the wasted pen is a big mark against it.
To Zilby:
Thank you for the upvote!
Noice, noice, I like it alot.
EVEN IF IT DOES ENDORSE ONE OF MY NEMESES...
<3
EVEN IF IT DOES ENDORSE ONE OF MY NEMESES...