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Thanatos, Death Incarnate. Updated 10/26/2016!

16 0 83,608
by Arvorus updated October 26, 2016

Smite God: Thanatos

Build Guide Discussion 9 More Guides
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Thanatos Build

Typical Initial Build!

Build Item Bumba's Mask Bumba's Mask
Build Item Warrior Tabi Warrior Tabi
Build Item Jotunn's Wrath Jotunn's Wrath
Build Item Void Shield Void Shield
Build Item Hide of the Urchin Hide of the Urchin
Build Item Titan's Bane Titan's Bane

Starting Items!

Build Item Bumba's Mask Bumba's Mask
Build Item Hand of the Gods Hand of the Gods
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
Build Item Multi Potion Multi Potion
Build Item Boots Boots

Core Items!

Build Item Warrior Tabi Warrior Tabi
Build Item Jotunn's Wrath Jotunn's Wrath
Build Item Hide of the Urchin Hide of the Urchin
Build Item Titan's Bane Titan's Bane

Defense Options!

Build Item Void Shield Void Shield
Build Item Runic Shield Runic Shield
Build Item Hide of the Nemean Lion Hide of the Nemean Lion
Build Item Pestilence Pestilence

Cooldown Options!

Build Item Spirit Robe Spirit Robe
Build Item Mantle of Discord Mantle of Discord
Build Item Breastplate of Valor Breastplate of Valor
Build Item Genji's Guard Genji's Guard
Build Item Breastplate of Regrowth Breastplate of Regrowth

Actives and Consumables!

Build Item Ward Ward
Build Item Sentry Ward Sentry Ward
Build Item Potion of Power Potion of Power
Build Item Elixir of Defense Elixir of Defense
Build Item Purification Beads Purification Beads
Build Item Aegis Amulet Aegis Amulet
Build Item Cursed Ankh Cursed Ankh

Thanatos's Skill Order

Death Scythe

1 X Y
Death Scythe
1 3 6 7 9

Scent of Death

2 A B
Scent of Death
4 8 10 11 12

Soul Reap

3 B A
Soul Reap
2 13 14 15 16

Hovering Death

4 Y X
Hovering Death
5 17 18 19 20
Death Scythe
1 3 6 7 9

Death Scythe

1 X
Thanatos flings his scythe at an enemy, dealing damage and an additional 10% of the target's maximum health against enemy gods. Enemies hit are slowed for 3s and heal Thanatos based on damage dealt. Consumes 4% of Thanatos' current HP when used.

Ability Type: Projectile
Damage: 100 / 170 / 240 / 310 / 380 (+60% of your Physical Power)
Bonus Damage (Gods): 10% of Max HP
Healing: 50% of damage dealt
Slow: 20%
Cost: 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 65
Cooldown: 12s
Scent of Death
4 8 10 11 12

Scent of Death

2 A
Thanatos senses death, gaining immunity to Slow effects and additional move speed and Physical Penetration for 6s. His speed bonus increases up to double when moving toward an enemy god within the instant kill health threshold of his Ultimate. Consumes 4% of Thanatos' current HP when used.

Ability Type: Buff
Penetration: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30
Move Speed: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30%
Bonus Speed (Low Health): 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30%
Cost: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40
Cooldown: 13s
Soul Reap
2 13 14 15 16

Soul Reap

3 B
Thanatos swings his scythe, dealing Physical damage and Silencing enemies he hits. Thanatos moves at a reduced rate while swinging. Consumes 4% of Thanatos' current HP when used.

Ability Type: Cone, Silence, Damage
Damage: 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 (+70% of your Physical Power)
Silence Duration: 1s
Cost: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45
Cooldown: 14s
Hovering Death
5 17 18 19 20

Hovering Death

4 Y
Thanatos flaps his wings and ascends for 5s, unable to be hit. While airborne, he moves unimpeded at an increased speed before diving to his target location, dealing damage. Enemies below a Health threshold are instantly killed. All others are Stunned. Consumes 8% of Thanatos' current HP when used.

Ability Type: Circle, Stun, Damage
Damage: 110 / 145 / 180 / 215 / 250 (+80% of your Physical Power)
Kill Health Threshold: 24 / 28 / 32 / 36 / 40%
Stun Duration: 1.5s
Bonus Move Speed: 150%
Radius: 15
Cost: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80
Cooldown: 90s

Introduction

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!

Pros / Cons

PROS


One 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!



Cons


Thanatos 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.

Skills

Harvester of Souls


This is Thanatos's passive. It grants you healing upon a kill, and as such is useful for jungling. Do note that this also shows you enemy gods under your kill threshold (1), which doubles up as a cleaning tool. In addition, your abilities cost 5% of your current health now instead of a lot of mana. This is an upside most of the time, since you won't have mana issues and can heal off of camps, but it can become a major downside in fights.

I use this to help with my sustain in the early game and to clean up team fights in the late game. This is also very useful for ganking in the jungle, since you're able to see low-hp gods. Most notably, however, I use this for information. Think about it this way: you are a free, global ward that lasts permanently, at the price of only seeing gods under your health threshold.


Death Scythe


This is your initiate! It is a strong, but slow-moving nuke that does a large chunk of damage. It is extremely powerful early in the game, and still maintains its presence later, thanks to the fact that it deals 10% of the target's HP as damage. The slow is incredibly useful for ganking, and the lifesteal helps you in fights.

This is almost always used as an initiate/poke. You are going to have to predict where the enemy will be by the time the scythe reaches its end. If you miss your scythe during a gank and you didn't ult to do it, disengage immediately. If you don't, follow up with a Soul Reap and continue with your basic attacks.


Scent of Death


This is your chase/escape. At max rank, this speeds you up by 30%, while also giving you 35 penetration (this is why you get Ninja Tabi instead of Warrior Tabi). If you're chasing an enemy within the insta-kill range of your ultimate, it will increase your speed by 60% instead!

As stated before, this is mainly used as a chase/escape. You can also use this for the large amount of penetration it grants you.


Soul Reap


This is your farming ability (even though you level it third). It deals a decent amount of damage in a wide AoE. The silence is great for insuring that your target won't escape, and it lasts for quite a while, too.

This is mainly used to farm in the jungle/as a follow-up to your scythe. Be wary of using this too much early in the game, however, since unlike Death Scythe, it does not heal you.


Hovering Death


This is your glorious ultimate. This is great for finishing off any enemies that escape from your wrath (2) as you descend on them with your scythe in hand. Note that this also doubles your movement speed while making you unable to be hit (you still take damage over time), so you can use this as an escape if you have to.

Early in the game, you should use this as an initiate. You do so much damage early in the game that you won't have to care about them being at full health (unless they're building tanky, of course). Later in the game, however, you should use this to clean up team fights; Your burst just isn't enough in the late game (you can still initiate this way on squishy or escape-less gods).


Skill Order




Skill Order
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Death Scythe is the first thing you want to max. It's just so powerful early in the game, and you'll want to gain access to its max potential ASAP.

The last thing you should focus on is Scent of Death. The mobility is awesome, and the penetration is going to do more damage than Soul Reap ever does.

After that, you should start putting points into Soul Reap. You really only care about the silence on this, which you get at level 1.

Save your Hovering Death for last. You only need it for ganks in the beginning, and your damage only really falls off in the late-game.

Combos

These are the two main combos that Thanatos uses.

Jungling (3)

Basic Attack

Explanation




Ganking

Explanation

Items

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.


Starting Items.




Yes, this item gives you mana that you don't really need. However, the 10 true on-hit damage is great with your third swing, and the healing and gold reward are necessary for you to not fall behind in levels and gold.


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.


Core Items.




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.


Defense Options!




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.


Cooldown Options!




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!


Actives and Consumables




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.

Gameplay

Jungling





This is the typical jungle route for Season Three:
    1. Use Wrath on the speed camp and take it.
    2. Attack the mana camp and give it to your solo lane.
    3. Head out onto the solo lane. Farm with your solo laner until the enemy jungler leaves, or until the mid harpies spawn. Try to poke the enemy with your abilities, if you can.
    4. Try to grab both of the mid camps. Use Wrath to secure, if you have it.
    5. Attack the damage camp (with your mid laner, if possible). You can Wrath it if you want to, or you can save it for the mid camps. Let your mid laner get the buff.
    6. Grab the mid camps (with your mid laner, if possible). Wrath the camp if you can. If you face competition, you can try to rush in and steal it, go to the other camp, retreat.
    7. Repeat steps 1-2 and 4-7. However, use Wrath more sparingly this time; you'll want to use it secure/stun.



Mid camps normally take top priority, followed by buff camps, and then finally the back camps. The Fire Giant and Gold Fury are more important than the mid camps, but you should only get them in certain situations:
    Most of the enemy team is dead.
    You're trying to steal the FG/GF from the enemy team (please use Wrath if you can)
    The enemy team is distracted and you have a chance to solo the Gold Fury.

Please, NEVER attack the Fire Giant without at least one other ally (and even then). Unless you have a massive lead at 10:00, you're going to take too much damage, and the debuff you get is very crippling if an enemy happens to find you.


There are times when an enemy will try to steal the Gold Fury/Fire Giant with a Wrath. In this case, it would be best for you to kill that enemy first, and then go back to the Gold Fury/Fire Giant.


Counterjungling





This is a short summary of Subzero008's Counterjungling section in the Jungler's Handbook, along with some info from BestMinionEver's counterjungling guide.

In order to counterjungle, you will need to get past three barriers:
    Wards.
    Enemy laners.
    The enemy jungler.

Wards.


Enemy laners.


The enemy jungler.



There are other things that you should do. If you happen to get caught by the enemy, you should always have an escape plan available. Don't use Scent of Death to help clear the camp if you're not sure where your enemies are! Having Wrath is also useful. Keeping track of the jungle camp timers is a very useful skill, as it will allow you to know exactly when you can go in and steal the camp.


Note that jungle monsters no longer reset to full hp once you leave their leash range. Instead, they gain 10% of their max health every second. This is great for early game invading, since even if the enemy leaves the camp you can still Wrath it. However, the enemy jungler can do the exact same thing to you!


Ganking





You should gank whenever an enemy is overextended, to win your allies their lane, or whenever someone asks for it (check the Combos section for your ganking combo). During the early game, you should be ganking quite a lot; Thanatos's biggest strength is his early game, and you should be taking advantage of that. Sometimes you won't even have to gank; just making your presence known is enough to scare the enemy away, allowing your laner(s) to farm safely. If the jungle is cleared, you should be ganking or leeching

---


Of course, there are exceptions to this. Be aware that it takes less than a minute for the enemy to run back to their tower, so you'll have to decide if you'll make it in time to gank or if you should just stay where you are. In the early game (levels 1-4/5), you shouldn't gank an enemy who is with their minion wave; minions do a lot of damage in the early game, and you might have to recall, wasting a lot of time.

---


If both the mid laner and the duo laners are asking for a gank and you're in between them, I would gank the mid lane first. The reason for this is because whoever wins the mid lane determines which jungler will be able to cross between jungles freely and which will not. In addition to that, the winning team's jungler will gain a lot more access to their enemy's camps.


Team Fights





To be honest, you can't do as much as others in team fights. Sure, you can silence an enemy to prevent their escape, and you can randomly toss scythes here and there, but other gods can do so much more. Please stay in the back during a team fight, and do your best to help with any kills. Try to silence anyone who get pulled out of position, and throw a scythe at them to further prevent their escape. Basically, instead of having an assassin in team fights, you team gets a utility god that sets up/secures kills.

---


Thanks to your abilities, however, you are quite good at cleaning up a team fight. You should use your ult when there are 2-3 enemies left, and one of them is under your threshold and hiding out in the back. Ult down to kill the person in the back and flank the enemy team. Use your Death Scythe+ Soul Reap combo on the squishiest one, and then move on to the rest of the team along with your allies.

Ending and Credits

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!

Notes

(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.

Changelog

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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Collapse All Comments

1
Arvorus (10) | February 25, 2015 6:02pm
Diomedes232 wrote:

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!
1
Diomedes232 (6) | February 25, 2015 9:58am
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.
1
zignoe | February 25, 2015 8:09am
This is one of the nicest guides i have seen in a long time good work man keep it up
1
Arvorus (10) | January 27, 2015 3:51pm
To CoolestAtm:
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!
1
Zilby (132) | January 26, 2015 10:33pm
This is legitimately one of the nicest Thanatos guides I've seen, +1.
1
CoolestAtm | January 23, 2015 10:20am
I understand your first two items, but if you go on the uncontrollable spiral as Thana does early game. The you build Dev's gauntlet or Heart Seeker if you feel bold enough. Asi also isn't a bad lifesteal item to get with it's passive.
1
Arvorus (10) | October 4, 2014 10:36am
HolyPudding wrote:

Noice, noice, I like it alot.

EVEN IF IT DOES ENDORSE ONE OF MY NEMESES...

<3
1
HolyPudding (19) | October 1, 2014 11:51am
Noice, noice, I like it alot.

EVEN IF IT DOES ENDORSE ONE OF MY NEMESES...
1
FuzzyYes | September 30, 2014 7:03pm
Really really like this guide.
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Arvorus
Thanatos, Death Incarnate. Updated 10/26/2016!
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