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The Arena Xballer - a newbie-friendly Xbalanque build

4 0 46,696
by aicxe updated April 11, 2016

Smite God: Xbalanque

Build Guide Discussion 4 More Guides
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Xbalanque Build

Completed Build

Build Item Ninja Tabi Ninja Tabi
Build Item Hastened Fatalis Hastened Fatalis
Build Item Odysseus' Bow Odysseus' Bow
Build Item Titan's Bane Titan's Bane
Build Item Qin's Sais Qin's Sais
Build Item Asi Asi

Starter

Build Item Ancient Blade Ancient Blade
Build Item Short Bow Short Bow
Build Item Boots Boots

Core

Build Item Qin's Sais Qin's Sais
Build Item Hastened Fatalis Hastened Fatalis
Build Item Odysseus' Bow Odysseus' Bow
Build Item Titan's Bane Titan's Bane

Damage

Build Item Devourer's Gauntlet Devourer's Gauntlet
Build Item Hydra's Lament Hydra's Lament
Build Item Bloodforge Bloodforge
Build Item Asi Asi

Defensive

Build Item Ninja Tabi Ninja Tabi
Build Item The Executioner The Executioner
Build Item Transcendence Transcendence

Xbalanque's Skill Order

Branching Bola

1 X Y
Branching Bola
12 14 16 18 19

Poison Darts

2 A B
Poison Darts
1 3 7 9 11

Rising Jaguar

3 B A
Rising Jaguar
2 4 6 8 10

Darkest of Nights

4 Y X
Darkest of Nights
5 13 15 17 20
Branching Bola
12 14 16 18 19

Branching Bola

1 X
When Xbalanque toggles on this ability, his Basic Attacks deal additional damage. When the bola hits, it splits into 2 that hit enemies up to 30 units behind the target for 37.5% damage (on-hit effects do not apply). Pressing the ability again cancels the toggle.

Ability Type: Buff
Damage: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50
Cost: 5 / 8 / 11 / 14 / 17 per shot
Cooldown: .5s
Poison Darts
1 3 7 9 11

Poison Darts

2 A
Xbalanque shoots 15 darts in a cone in front of him, dealing damage with each one. An enemy can be hit by 5 darts, with the other 4 doing 30% damage. Enemies hit are poisoned, taking additional damage every .5s and are Slowed.

Ability Type: Cone
Damage Per Dart: 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+40% of your Physical Power)
Poison Damage: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+10% of your Physical Power)
Poison Slow: 20%
Poison Duration: 3s
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 16 / 15.5 / 15 / 14.5 / 14s
Rising Jaguar
2 4 6 8 10

Rising Jaguar

3 B
Xbalanque rushes forward and then jumps into the air. While in the air, he fires darts at all nearby enemies, dealing damage to all in the area. Any enemies that were poisoned by Xbalanque take additional damage.

Ability Type: Dash
Damage: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+50% of your Physical Power)
Additional Poisoned Damage: 40%
Damage (Max): 104 / 169 / 234 / 299 / 364 (+39% of your Physical Power)
Radius: 30
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 16s
Darkest of Nights
5 13 15 17 20

Darkest of Nights

4 Y
Xbalanque shrouds enemies in darkness for 3s. During this time, Xbalanque's Basic Attack range, Attack Speed and Movement Speed are increased.

Ability Type: Area
Attack Speed: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60%
Movement Speed: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60%
Basic Attack Range Increase: 40
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90s

Introduction

Welcome to my guide for Xbalanque, the Hidden Jaguar Sun!


Hello. I am a casual Arena player, having fun doing belly flops with Bacchus until one game my screen darkened and I thought that ult was so cool I had to try playing the god who had that skill.

So now after so many frustrated attempts to land a basic attack on an always-moving god, I have found a Xbalanque build that catered to my poor aiming skills while also being very viable late game.

This is a very newbie-friendly build. If you can't aim for **** like I do, the lightning-fast attack speed you get with your items combined with the almost-AOE proc from Charged Bow and the awesome Branching Bola buff to your basic attacks will make you be able to kill any god by just aiming at any red bracket and firing at it.

This is my first Smitefire guide and I intend to update it as I try different combinations with this awesome god, so please let me know about your input.

Regardless, lets take a look on how you can be a baller with Xballer, the hidden jaguar sun!



Credits to Zilby for the awesome guide templates

Pros / Cons

This build for Xbalanque is very easy to handle. It serves as a "training wheels" build until you could land basic attacks on enemies with your Branching Bola buff.

Pros:
Cons:
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Skills






Passive - Dead of Night

Dead of Night is a very simple passive - for each kill up to 6, Xbal's physical power increases. This is a good reason for you to secure kills early on in the game, but it's okay if you don't - mid to late-game, you'll be ranking up those kills anyway.


1 - Branching Bola

Branching Bola is a toggle-able buff - when active, your basic attacks deal extra damage and when it hits, it branches off into two bolas at roughly 45 degrees from each other. My build doesn't have this ability until level 12, where you should have enough mana to support the insane cost it requires. Branching Bola eats mana for each basic attack while the buff is active, so you need to either get Transcendence to take care of the consumption or replace it with something else and make frequent recall trips.


2 - Poison Darts

Poison Darts will be your bread-and-butter skill. This will be your poke, and your initiator for a combo. It also slows enemies, so this is great as a CC as well. When you see an ally running away, pop this on enemies and it will give your ally a chance to escape.


3 - Rising Jaguar

Rising Jaguar is your all-purpose mobility ability - when you have poisoned your enemy with Poison Darts, this skill will do additional damage to them, making it extremely potent when used in a combo. Don't forget that you can maneuver Xbal while in the air, so use it to your advantage and steer where you need to be. When you're in a tight spot, this skill could also act as an escape.

I have to admit that some pro Xbal players have used the Sprint relic then activating this ability to travel faster while in the air. I haven't done it yet, but feel free to try it if you can pull it off.


4 - Darkest of Nights

I believe that Darkest of Nights is the most awesome-looking ult among all the gods I've played with and against. It is a global ult - every enemy god gets to see your awesome power and get limited vision while the Mayan symbol ominously counts down until they get stunned. Note however that this is easily counteracted - when the countdown ends, if the god is not moving, they won't be stunned.

Remember that this ult does absolutely no direct damage and is only strictly used for CC. Don't forget though that while this ult counts down, you have increased movement speed and attack range so it functions as a bigger Rising Jaguar for chasing down enemies. It's a pretty significant attack range buff, and it's fun seeing enemies panic while they're blind and something they can't see is hitting them. For the ultimate chasing combo, pop Darkest of Nights, poke them a bit with basic attacks, and if they're almost dead, do your Poison Darts and Rising Jaguar combo for an awesome kill.

When enemies are bunched together and an ally god is about to do heavy AOE damage (like Ymir's ult Shards of Ice), you could also pop Darkest of Nights to give enemies a choice between two evils - stop moving and escape the stun, or sprint to avoid the impending damage AOE.




Skill Progression

Get Poison Darts and Rising Jaguar maxed out as quickly as possible, picking up Darkest of Nights at level 5. With this, you will have maxed out your one-two death combo as early as level 10 for Rising Jaguar and level 11 for Poison Darts.

Then as you have finally acquired items to manage your mana and buff your attack speed, unlock Branching Bola at level 12 and start spamming your lightning-fast basic attacks to get mad stacks for Transcendence and Devourer's Gauntlet. Win.

Items





Items will make or break your Xbal game. Of course, the build above is a suggested build - you should always change which item to buy first depending on your enemy team lineup and their tactics.

This item list will go in order of suggested unlock order.

Core Build


Starter


We start off the arena with a 25% increase in attack spped already, with Ancient Blade which will lead to Hastened Fatalis and Short Bow which will be Odysseus' Bow later on in the game. You'll have something extra, so get started on Ninja Tabi by buying some Boots.


Item 1

Hastened Fatalis

Especially later on in the game, Hastened Fatalis will make it easier for you to just hold down your Fire button. The passive on this removes the movement speed debuff when attacking - which is very useful especially when you're always auto-attacking. Maxing this out early in the game will provide a significant advantage especially when your enemies haven't finished their build yet.


Item 2

Ninja Tabi

Let's get some boots going. When fully unlocked, Ninja Tabi will also provide you with an increase in attack speed. Because we want to be lightning-fast with our auto atacks, we always take an opportunity for attack speed whenever possible.


Item 3

Odysseus' Bow

More attack speed! This one comes with a hefty +40% to your attack speed, which you will notice right when you unlock it. If your enemy team tends to stick together, go ahead and unlock Charged Bow first before you max out your Ninja Tabi. The passive from Charged Bow means that you'll be more likely to poke a god hiding behind minions every four basic attacks.


Item 4

Qin's Sais

Boom. If the enemy gods still haven't run away from you and your crazy-fast auto attacks, this will make them avoid you at all costs - or be a Loki magnet. It's expensive, but unlocking this is where it usually turns the tide of the game to your favour. The passive from Qin's Sais will add an additional 4% of their max health as damage - for basic attacks. Given that you're already spamming your auto attack at this point, that 4% stacks up and will really hurt your enemy.


Item 5

Titan's Bane

Now that your four core items are complete, this is the part where everything is just icing on your bola-throwing, darkness-casting cake. Titan's Bane allows you to cut through gods who know what they're doing - if they have items that give protections, this will make your physical attacks penetrate more. Unlocking this will allow you to bruise or even kill initiators and guardians who are pretty tanky. However, if your team is losing a bit or you need more survivability, unlock Asi first before Titan's Bane so you get some lifesteal.

ALTERNATIVE: The Executioner
When you're leading by a lot, or if the enemy is composed entirely of squishy mages, The Executioner will ramp up your attack speed to the maximum number possible - 2.5. With this, you'll also get a nice medal for maxing attack speed. Compared to Titan's Bane, The Executioner strips your enemies' protections instead of buffing your attacks with penetration, so it's actually dependent on the situation.

Item 6

Asi

Your only lifesteal item comes at the very end of the build - at this point you're probably level 18 and is making the final push to victory, or desperately trying to turn the tide when you're behind. This just makes your attacks way faster and penetrate more. The lifesteal means that at the end of the match, you won't be needing frequent trips to the fountain anymore.

Actives
meditation sprint

Your actives are gonna be for survival instead of using for offense, being that you already have a deadly kit available. Meditation and sprint can be cast in an area, so use it when there are allies nearby as well.

Item Progression

Start off with your starter items of course, and pick up meditation to help with your health this early in the game. Save up enough to unlock Hastened Fatalis to get rid of the movement speed debuff when auto-attacking, then max out Ninja Tabi or unlock Charged Bow if gods tend to stay behind minions, so you have an additional poke.

Finish building your core items: you will start seeing a significant change in attack speed from unlocking Odysseus' Bow, and you just cackle in delight when you get Qin's Sais. Add some trouble to your kit by unlocking Titan's Bane and Asi, but these are just cherry on your cake - at this point, feel free to explore the other options available to you.

Disclaimer: The additional items on Damage and efensive are just relics of an old build that was long gone. I might remove them, but nostalgia stops me.

Conclusion

When played properly, Xbalanque is an awesome ADC - being able to turn the tide of the game from losing to winning with your incredible mobility, a nice one-two damage combo, and an ult that sends your enemies in a panic while you throw bolas at them.

I hope this guide helps new Xbalanque arena players out there, and as I mentioned, please feel free to leave feedback as to how I can improve this guide or the build. Good luck!

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1
aicxe | May 5, 2016 9:33am
Thanks for your input guys. I will update this guide for the 3.8 patch - Bloodforge's upcoming passive giving you a 20-second movement speed buff *and* a shield on a god kill will make it pretty much a staple for all hunters.
2
Branmuffin17 (394) | April 18, 2016 3:57pm
@Bull: for a new player as aicxe is stating, lifesteal might be just the thing to help keep them alive while boxing. Just a thought there.

@aicxe: The biggest thing I'd suggest is to take out The Executioner as an option. Whenever I compare damage in builds, I use http://eliteownage.com/smitebuilder.html. I create 3 other example gods (squishy mage, bruiser w/ some protections, and full tank) to see how damage does across different types of builds.

Thing is, even with all 4 stacks, it looks like The Executioner does less DPS across all enemies. Just use Titan's Bane and don't look back, as you'll get immediately higher penetration/damage, and your abilities will also do more damage. I also checked the DPS difference between Ninja and Warrior in this build, and it's negligible...so I'd say you're fine as is.

Now, this is a possible error in explanation, but you should confirm...with The Executioner 5th, it looks like you don't quite max your attack speed out at 2.5. The number I'm getting is 2.33. Getting Asi 6th after that would blow you past the 2.5 max, though, which is another reason to get Titan's Bane, as you want to avoid going past max for any stat, as it brings in unnecessary inefficiencies.

In the build list, you have Ninja Tabi first. However, in item explanations, you have Hastened Fatalis first. Not sure if you meant to put Tabi first. Personally, I'd start with a full Ninja Tabi, farm a bit and play it pretty safe, and then go back for part of Fatalis. I wouldn't start targeting Fatalis first, but that's just me. Also, as Bullfrog suggested, you might consider Asi a bit earlier. Depending on how things are going, you might switch it to 4th, and put Titan's Bane last, or even switch it to 3rd to help with sustain.

Finally, if possible, you need to find a way to get rid of Meditation in Arena. The reason you provide is for health...and it only restores 15% of that. At level 3, he's only got 680 health, so that's only 102 health...at level 5, it's 830 health/124.5 health restored. Horribly inefficient, and you'd be better off, again, playing it a bit safe until you have both Ninja Tabi and Hastened Fatalis up. If you really feel the need for health, don't buy a full item, and get one or two Healing Potions. Those provide 250 health each (over time, of course), so it's automatically better than Meditation, whose space you should be using for a Purification, Sanctuary, or maybe Shell if you want to be defensive.

All in all, though, this is an interesting and pretty newbie friendly take on Xbal...high attack speed to compensate for any misses to help keep Hastened Fatalis' passive up, and DPS isn't bad with Qin's Sais later in the build. Only sad thing is you won't get to use your abilities very often.
1
aicxe | May 5, 2016 9:38am
Just recently I have discovered how essential sanctuary and purification is, especially for annoying CC gods like Ares' No Escape and Artemis' Transgressor's Fate. I will take your advice and update my guide accordingly.
1
Bullfrog323 (27) | April 12, 2016 6:54am
The build is not optimal damage-wise, but I like the reason behind it.

However, since it's for Arena, you don't really need Lifesteal, especially if you pick it up only at the end of the game.
You could change Asi for Ichaival to get more damage and attack speed.
I also would get this item before in the build, since they are cheap and provide you with a good attack speed bonus early in the game.
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League of Legends Build Guide Author aicxe
The Arena Xballer - a newbie-friendly Xbalanque build
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