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The Magical Guide to being a Magical Mage! (Patch 3.12)

7 0 36,560
by wittisy updated July 12, 2016

Smite God:

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Introduction

Hi! I'm wittisy, and I've played SMITE for 2 years right now. I religiously played SMITE for that duration and I main the middle lane if I play Conquest. I also follow the pro scene of SMITE a lot so I learned a thing or two from them. And the middle lane just so happens to be the popular lane for Mages

I've noticed a lot of you guys have been building the Mage very inefficiently, whether it be in modes like Arena, Joust or Conquest. By creating this guide I hope new players can learn how to make full use of their build!

But wittisy! I checked your SmiteGuru profile and you are unranked in Conquest! Also, you fed your brains out sometimes! You suck!

Apollo sums it up for me

Yeah and I do legitimately do bad sometimes, but who hasn't, right?

Also, I don't play ranked Conquest because I don't know when my internet service will **** the bed and cost me and 4 other members a loss. It happened before and I'm not letting that happen until I move to somewhere with stable internet connections.

But better unranked than double stacking Warlock's Sash and Book of Thoth!

Please do take your time to read every section of the guide, as they are all important!

Understanding what mages does

Before we continue lets understand the role of the mage class. We can first split Mages into 4 categories.

AOE Nuke

Utility

ADC

Assassin

Changelogs

12/07/16: Patch 3.12 changes, fixes on errors. Added Anubis section and Bancroft's Talon to the "The 5th and 6th item: Almost literally anything" section

Before we proceed....

The following build order is only for the Traditional Mid Laners. Exceptions to this build order would be Chang'e (Although she can still use this build order, albeit being less effective on her), Zhong Kui, Ao Kuang, Freya, Anubis, Aphrodite and Hel. These gods will have a separate section for them alone at the bottom!

Also do take note that not all Traditional Mid Laners follow this build order, Poseidon for example can opt for an early Gem of Isolation rush, though sacrificing his power overall, his Whirlpool becomes a Purification bait or else becomes one of the most potent CC ability a mid laner can get before mid game even arrives, thanks to a Pseudo Slow and Cripple being built into Whirlpool while Gem of Isolation makes Whirlpool feel like walking through a field of glue.

Mage Starter Items and when to get it.

Starter items are the best items in the game in the sense that you get so much benefits from it for only 800 gold. These items however has limited influence and should be sold after you finished your 5th item and have enough gold to complete your 6th item (Just do the math, say if you want to buy Soul Reaver for your 6th, just look at your current gold count and add 533, the selling price of starters to it and see if you have enough gold.) Another thing worth noting is that you DO NOT buy starter items in arena. Remember starter items are made to help with sustain/clear, and you need none of those in arena.


Soul Stone

What does it do?

When should I get it?

Vampiric Shroud

What does it do?

When should I get it?

Bumba's Mask

What does it do?

When should I get it?

Boots Choices

First lets take a look at the choices


Shoes of the Magi - 1600G: Provides 45 Magical Power, 10 penetration and 18% movement speed.

Shoes of Focus - 1500G: Provides 30 Magical Power, 250 Mana and 18% movement speed.

Now look at the Stats and you should notice that Shoes of Focus is obviously made so mages that has low cooldowns can keep spamming abilities with even lower cooldowns and more Mana to help the mage cast more spells without running out of mana.

Mages that usually pick CDR boots over Pen boots would be Janus, Chang'e, Hel and He Bo

But really, what boots you choose is simply down to preference. If you like damage, choose Pen Boots over Focus boots regardless of god choices and vice versa. Pen boots is also much more effective early game as most gods then has low protections which makes that 10 penetration really painful

Your stacking item

You usually have your stacking item as your second item after your Starter item, you can also opt to buy your stacking item after your boots or not buy stacking items at all.

The reason to buy stacking items is that stacking items when fully stacked becomes very worth the money. Book of Thoth for example offers >150 magical power when fully built, on most mages that is invaluable.


Doom Orb - 2050G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Book of Thoth - 2650G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Warlock's Sash - 2650G
Warlock's Sash

What does it do?

When should I get it?

Alternatives to stacking items

Don't like having to kill minions or wait for your items to actually become good? Well, that is fine, the meta is actually shifting towards this play style lately, and as a result people are starting to find alternatives for their second item.


Dynasty Plate Helm - 1700G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Gem of Isolation - 2700G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Alternatively....


Treat the 3rd item in this guide as your 2nd items, 4th as your 3rd and vice versa.

The 3rd item: The Core item

This will usually be your Cooldown Reduction Item. There are 2 popular choices for this slot.


Breastplate of Valor - 2300G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Chronos' Pendant - 2400G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


What if I don't want any Cooldown Reduction?



Totally acceptable if you find that you don't spam your abilities often anyway, which is quite rare, but not unseen in SMITE. In that case, you would want to get Dynasty Plate Helm and a stacking item as your 2nd and 3rd item, interchangeable order. Depending on how aggressive your enemy jungler is.

The 4th item: POWER SPIKES!

Congratulations, you've made it to the 4th item and that means that your team isn't completely terrible and you did not F6 at 10. Welcome to the 4th item slot for the mage, and this is where you would want to get an item that will give you a spike in power.


Obsidian Shard - 2050G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Spear of the Magus - 2150G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Rod of Tahuti - 3320G

What does it do?

When should I get it?

The 5th and 6th item: Almost literally anything

This is where things get a bit complex. If you opted for Rod of Tahuti as your 4th item, it means that you have enough power to do most of your job as a mage. This is where you decide whether you want to start counter building a bit or continue pushing for full damage.

Before I proceed, do take note that Obsidian Shard and Spear of the Magus are both viable options for this slot. In fact, always make sure your full build has built in penetration from one of these two items, no amount of magical damage in this game can make up lost ground without Penetration.


Soul Reaver - 2940G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Spear of Desolation - 3800G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Gem of Isolation - 2700G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Polynomicon - 2300G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Bancroft's Talon - 2400G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Divine Ruin - 1820G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Pythagorem's Piece - 2600G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Spirit Robe - 2460G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Mantle of Discord - 3100G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Hide of the Nemean Lion - 2250G

What does it do?

When should I get it?


Bulwark of Hope - 2525G

What does it do?

When should I get it?

What you should end up with

A good build must have enough damage, yet if the situation calls for it, enough defense. When you do need to build defensive items, do not neglect damage too! You are the mage, after all.

PLEASE, PLEASE REMEMBER TO SKIP THE STARTER ITEM IN ARENA

The Glass Cannon

The All Rounder

No CDR + Plate Helm

Luck Foki

Queen of Burst

Sooo, what about.....

Short Ao Kuang guide to make people quit SMITE

Ao Kuang functions as a jungler, and currently one of the most overpowered characters in the game. His Wild Storm activates Polynomicon and effectively grants his Wild Storm 115% Scaling on a 7 SECOND COOLDOWN WITHOUT REDUCTION. Wild Storm also consumes a dragon from Dragon Call for each target, if you do the math you would realize that by mid game, he's gonna walk up to someone, press 2 and 3 to take off 70% of their health easily.

The build

THE COMBO

Short Freya guide and getting fed

Freya is probably the best late game ADC, drawbacks being her lack of a certain escape. But Pulse has a built in Frostbound Hammer effect while Irradiate in combination deletes a squishy in 3 shots. She is also harder to build against as there is only Runic Shiled that is an anti-AA item with Magical Protections, and Runic Shield would rarely be an item that people would build.

The build

She may be able to be really effective once she finishes Demonic Grip, but she is pretty easily ganked, so be aware. Also, why did I not put Obsidian Shard as my penetration item? Because Spear of the Magus procs on Freya's Pulse and therefore much more effective


Wait! How do I get fed?



Just don't die early on and start roflstomping everyone as soon as Demonic Grip is finished, simple.

Chronos and the art of carrying

Up there with Freya, Chronos is very, very potent late game character. He barely needs any items to boost his attack speed nor need Hastened Fatalis because of Accelerate, he can simply build full Glass Cannon or throw in one Demonic Grip for good measures.


As you can tell, there really isn't much to differ Chronos' build to other mages. His 4th item is that variable because while Magical Lifesteal works fine on his autos, he probably doesn't need it due to his passive having health regen already for sustain. However, Polynomicon is still very good on Chronos due to his low cooldowns on Time Rift. All up to you.

Why is Chronos so good at carrying?

He is a character that only needs one attack speed item and the rest pure power while other ADCs need at least 2 items that boosts their attack speed. His power is immense, even when you factor out Accelerate's damage buff.

Guide to deleting opponents with Anubis

Anubis is very special. His passive, Sorrow is bloated beyond belief, his damage numbers dwarfs every other ability in the game. His drawback? No escape, food for any god that has mobility. But you can change that! (not really) They can't kill you if you kill them first!

The build


Oh, did I say that Magical Lifesteal was not worth building? Well, yeah that is still true, unless you are playing Anubis. Sorrow increases you Magical Lifesteal scaling, and it'll be a waste if we don't use it. It is however, still fine if you just want to melt faces without sustain. And since Anubis deals nothing but DoT damage, Spear of the Magus is an obvious choice for him.

THE COMBO

Aphrodite, Chang'e and Hel. Guide on being out of Meta forever

The listed gods above share one thing, they are all considered healers, Chang'e less so, but they are still similar. They do however share a lot in common for their build

The build

Elaboration and Alternatives

Guide to Zhong Kui and being a complete asshole

Zhong Kui is unlike every other mage. He has high base protections scaling and health scaling, that clearly shows that he is meant to be played like a Magical Warrior in the Solo lane. As a result, your build should be looking to be tanky while dishing out on-hit effects with items like Gem of Isolation.


There we go. Your job is to be in the middle of your enemies while a teamfight is happening and smack their faces with Expose Evil, which will slow them immensely when paired with Gem of Isolation (around 40% slow over 5 seconds], before choosing to Exorcism or Book of Demons them. If Recall Demons is available, use it when you have the chance to get in the middle of everyone. You get a slow, you get a slow, EVERYBODY GETS A SLOW! When paired with Spear of the Magus, their magical protections are also lowered for your teammates to take advantage of it too!

But...but muh damage!

Footnotes

I started writing this on and off since Patch 3.10, and by the time I finished this, its a day before the release of 3.12. I will try to update the guide from patch to patch, after all, new Bancroft's Talon has serious potential.

I want to thank nanoyam's Guide to creating a guide in helping me learn how to make my first guide in SmiteFire. Hopefully, I would make more guides for SMITE for skrubs like you.

And of course, since this is my first guide, any feedback is appreciated!

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1
Marethyu | January 26, 2017 11:57pm
Great guide, I found it very useful. You said: Chang'e can opt for replacing Lotus Crown with Gem of Isolation due to his Crescent Moon Dance. I just wanted to point out that Chang'e is a woman. She only sounds male because her rabbit speaks most of her voicelines
1
wittisy | March 3, 2017 1:40am
Ahahahahaha typo error.

Will be looking to update this guide for S4, been busy for the months following the last update.

And I'm still a bit lost on S4 items with some of my core items seeing a change or two, may take a while.
1
iHeartSkulls | August 12, 2016 1:13pm
Spear of the Magus' Magical Power is going to increase by 10 points!! Great guide though. I love it!!
1
Technotoad64 (46) | July 22, 2016 2:15pm
"Guide to Zhong Kui and being a complete *******".
1
Cyberhawk94 (4) | July 13, 2016 11:43am
Should Hades be added to the same section as Zhong Kui? I know he isnt really in the meta right now, but with his close range attacks and self-healing, he definitely works better as a Zhong-style Bruiser in the solo/mid lanes than being lumped in with the rest of the mages.

Also, thoughts on Ethereal staff on those types of mages? You never mention it in your guide, while I personally feel it is an excellent power boost for brusiers
1
wittisy | July 23, 2016 8:44am
Ethereal Staff used to be great, until it got nerfed. It really only found it's place in the Dirty Bubble build, which had nearly every single item in it nerfed.

Health < Protections, and if you like power you wouldn't be building Ethereal Staff anyway, it is now an item that tries to do two things at once yet fail at it. Better to just build some power and defense instead.

Probably would work on something for Hades in the future.
1
Bullfrog323 (27) | July 6, 2016 9:47am
This is an awesome guide, I really like it.

Here are some suggestions you might want to include :


1 : 5th and 6th item / Pythagorem's Piece

Magical lifesteal is also a efficient and important stat for Anubis, even though he is not played that much.
Pythagorem's Piece is also useful in the case you want full 40% CDR in a glass cannon build.



2 : What you should end up with

In many builds listed, Chronos' Pendant BBCoding is not working, because mispelled (missing the ').
The build "LUCK FOKI" and "QUEEN OF BURST" are suggesting 7 items, without counting the starter item.



3 : Soul Stone + Potion of Magical Might start

You could talk a bit about it, when to use it, on which god, etc.
1
wittisy | July 6, 2016 1:27pm
Sweeping updates on a few things definitely coming after 3.12 settles down!
1
itsNonin | July 5, 2016 3:37pm
I love playing mid lane and this will help me be even better. Thanks!
1
Technotoad64 (46) | July 5, 2016 12:51pm
Did you do all this by yourself? Holy ****, this is amazing.
1
wittisy | July 5, 2016 5:24pm
I don't know if that's a reference to my Jandroid avatar, but yes, indeed! Kinda got lazy in the middle so it took me half a month to finish this.
1
Technotoad64 (46) | July 7, 2016 11:43am
It is.
1
Branmuffin17 (394) | July 5, 2016 11:43am
I commented on your Reddit post, but want to say good job! If you can keep this maintained, this will be a great resource, not only for newer players, but for regulars as well.

I'm adding a link to this guide on the Conquest guide in the References section.
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