Building a Tank is always quite complex cause you dont really need to "deal as much damage as you can" nor "mitigate as much as you can".
The tank is the one that need to counter build the most and there are MANY items that are viable and you want to consider during each game.
Even the game mode you wanna play will change the itemization and you might end up with different builds each time.
Note: For Arena and Slash i'll be using the terminology "Tank" and for Conquest and Joust i'll use "Support" instead cause i feel that in the first 2 game modes the role is more generic than the latter ones. (Especially for Conquest where "Support" is actually a role you can select while queueing!)
Note: I wont address assault build cause you are gonna purely counterbuilding. Beside the first items that is gonna be either Sovereignty, Heartward Amulet (that you will upgrade later into Amulet of Silence) or Talisman of Energy (this item doesnt provide magical protection aura like heartward but will provide movement speed and most of all mana!)
Note: if want to get as many information as you can, i suggest to still read the notes even for game modes you arent interested in. That's to get more knowledge on the itemization! Even the builds that you see suggested for conquest can be viable in arena and slash! CHECK ALL THE BUILDS and the logic behind them!
Build 1: Arena Solo Tank
This is most likely the build you really want to go for in Arena when you are the only tank.
In arena mobility is super important cause the map is wide open.
Having extra movement speed provided by both
War Banner and
Talisman of Energy also helps with the retreat phase as well as the chase phase.
Overall you gonna have 30% CDR (+10% provided by
Potion of Power) that helps you maximize the usage of
Scarab's Blessing. 1 saved target is as valuable as a kill cause you will deny 5 points to enemies.
Note: If you need antihealing you are gonna swap
Midgardian Mail for
Contagion.
Note: If you are not solo tanking, the other tank might get
War Banner, in that case get
Heroism that will greatly help squishy targets in case they get CCd. If you feel like you want extra tankyness then get
Sentinel's Embrace!
Note: down below you can see a non-solo tank build where there are
Winged Blade and
Contagion. In case one of those 2 items arent necessary, you can get
Shogun's Kusari instead of
Winged Blade and
Midgardian Mail instead of
Contagion! Always in this case you can also consider going
Genji's Guard for a bit more CDR thanks to the passive (which is worth around 10% CDR).
(down below in the items list, there will be a list of gods against which is highly suggested to build
Winged Blade!)
Note: In case the other tank gets
Prophetic Cloak you can go for just
Gauntlet of Thebes and later get
Magi's Revenge. If you arent solo tanking, you can always consider
Bewitched Dagger instead of
Spirit Robe
Note:
Prophetic Cloak is a better version of
Gauntlet of Thebes but it will take A LOT more time to stack it. On Khepri is quite easy to stack it so i would always get it tho! You will also get the value from aura stack as soon as you get them. In order to get a similar value of
Gauntlet of Thebes you need 5 stacks of each protection on
Prophetic Cloak!
Note:
Spirit Robe is quite a must in case of solo-tanking cause you might need to go in quite often and soak many CCs! still consider it as non-solo tank!
(down below in the items list, there will be a list of gods against which is highly suggested to build
Spirit Robe!)
Note:
Midgardian Mail can be swapped for
Spectral Armor in case there are multiple gods using crit and also if a single hunter literally goes full crit build!
Note: for a more damaging build, two extra items that are very solid in terms of dealing extra damage are
Spear of the Magus and
Stone of Binding. Both items will help allies to deal more damage toward the target you gonna grip with
Abduct or root with
Solar Flare!
You can also go for either
Ethereal Staff (in case they have multiple tanks) or even
Spear of the Magus/
Soul Reaver if you feel like you actually want more damage towards them!
This suggestion is EXCLUSIVELY for a non main tank build. Khepri is a very good backline tank so these items are viable when you have another frontliner in a mode where burst matters a lot.
Note: in case the other tank has
Heroism or
War Banner and you think you dont need the other one (while in most cases it's actually the best option to actually have both!) you can consider either
Tainted Breastplate or
Tainted Amulet! Both items are REALLY solid. You can either chose one or the other based on what protection you need the most. If you dont need any specific protection cause you think you are safe enough already, then go for
Tainted Breastplate cause it reduces the healing by a larger margin! You can easily applt this item effect to multiple enemies!
Note: two other really super good items are
Void Shield and
Void Doumaru. You dont necessarly need both but if you arent main tanking, and/or you dont need spirit robe, you can consider getting one or both instead of
Spirit Robe and
Midgardian Mail
Note: you can always also considering going for
Breastplate of Determination instead of
Gauntlet of Thebes in case you want extra CDR instead of the aura.
Note: sadly you cant really make use of items that proc off your ultimate BUT in some modes it could be important cleansing annoying big CCs like
Persephone's ultimate. In that case i still suggest building
Absolution.
Note: in some situation you want to build
Erosion to counter the shields from enemy team! check the list down below in the item section!
You may end up with one of these builds while not tanking alone:
Alternative Arena Builds
Build 2: Slash Tank
In Slash there are few tweaks you can do compared to arena build.
War Banner isnt terrible in Slash but definitely not as worth as in arena. On the other hand,
Heroism and sentinel gift gets more value cause a team fight in late game can be game winning. This DOESNT rule out
War Banner which might still be an option when your party can make use of extra movement speed and atk speed!
All the items that can make you win a team fight also become more valuable.
Spear of the Magus on a target without beads can end in a kill even when you pick up a tank.
Stone of Binding has a similar effect but makes you tankier while reducing the kill potential a bit since the passive isnt as good as
Spear of the Magus against an enemy frontliner.
To chose between
Heroism and
Sentinel's Embrace you simply look at the enemy comp. If enemies has gods that you cant really peel efficiently while also having CCs to nuke one of your allies, then get
Heroism. If not then get sentinel gift which is solid in scenaries where enemies has a lot of sustain and can stay in fight for long.
Note: if you need antihealing, you can swap midguardian mail for
Contagion or
Winged Blade for
Pestilence. Obviously consider
Pestilence over
Winged Blade in case enemies have no slows. Or if you dont really need antihealing, consider
Talisman of Energy that is still good!
Another GREAT item for antihealing is
Tainted Breastplate (or
Tainted Amulet if you really want extra magical prots instead of physical prots. The passive isnt much different and offer a bit of sustain for yourself but usually reducing healing is more effective than stealing a bit of it!). This is a starter item that get efficient kinda only once upgraded so dont really rush the T1 (tainted steel).
Note: the reasoning applied for Arena to
Prophetic Cloak and
Gauntlet of Thebes still applies here as well. Actually the game will be longer usually, so you have one more reason to get
Prophetic Cloak!. You can always get both and in Slash might definitely be an option!
Note: always keep in mind that if you die in slash the respawn times is longer than Arena. Sometimes getting
Spirit Robe is a great option! Another item that can help both at surviving and chasing is
Magi's Revenge. Not bad in other game modes either but i feel like in Slash it has more value rather than Arena cause the map is quite long!
Note: two other really super good items are
Void Shield and
Void Doumaru. You dont necessarly need both but if you arent main tanking, and/or you dont need spirit robe, you can consider getting one or both instead of
Spirit Robe and
Midgardian Mail
Note: you can always also considering going for
Breastplate of Determination instead of
Gauntlet of Thebes in case you want extra CDR instead of the aura.
Note: sadly you cant really make use of items that proc off your ultimate BUT in some modes it could be important cleansing annoying big CCs like
Persephone's ultimate. In that case i still suggest building
Absolution.
Note: in some situation you want to build
Erosion to counter the shields from enemy team! check the list down below in the item section!
Alternative Slash Build
Build 3: Conquest Support
In Conquest you will really want to counterbuild more than in Slash and Arena. This is an example of a build you can end up with but will mostly change each game. I will also make more examples here but try to understand how the counterbuilding works and when you want a certain item over another!
In conquest
Talisman of Energy isnt as great as in previous modes since it's really conditional and the passive wont really be up too much. Said that, if you wanna do fast rotations between duo and mid lane, the item isnt bad. (also still helps your ADC with both atk speed and mana, that can be helpful if you also help your mid to clear). If you feel like you can have the passive up easily then you can just build it over
Shogun's Kusari (keep in mind that the latter has an unconditional atk speed passive)
Note: the choice between relics can be hard since
Sentinel's Embrace,
Spartan Flag,
War Banner,
Compassion and
Heroism are ALL viable.
in early game sentinel gift provide extra regeneration while
War Flag will boost the atk speed of your adc (while also increasing the regeneration of hp and mana through AAs but not as efficient as sentinel gift cause your laning phase will be usually a bit slow).
During the late game
Spartan Flag is usually better than
War Banner if you can fight inside it's effect (and that happens most of the times during objectives).
Compassion in conquest is usually slightly better than
Heroism but you have to trust your team more cause you will take extra damage with that.
Note: if you need antihealing try also to get it as soon as you can. Think carefully if you want
Pestilence or
Contagion based on what you plan to get later on too! You dont want to end up with 4 items that gives you physical (or magical) protections! NEVER! Or you will be too squishy for the other source of damage!
Note: the above build is really just an example and what matter is that you understand what (and when) to build. As you can see i m showing some builds featuring
Spartan Flag Compassion Ethereal Staff Magi's Shelter that in conquest might actually be the best options while not being the best in other modes.
Note: both
Magi's Shelter and
Magi's Revenge can be really good option. In the first case you will prevent CCs to an ally, in the second case you will be able to kill faster a target which might not always easy consindering how many walls there are in the mode!
The main issue of these 2 items (the long CD on the passive) isnt really a big downside in conquest cause the fights in this mode doenst happen too often.
The combination with
Magi's Shelter +
Heroism can really soak CC's hard while
Magi's Revenge +
Void Shield (also paired with
Shogun's Kusari,
Spartan Flag and
Ethereal Staff) will really make an enemy tank to die really fast! All combinations are really good regardless, even if more hybrid between them!
Alternative Conquest Builds
Build 4: Joust Support
NOTE: you CANT buy support starter items in Joust! (none of the ones mentioned in other modes' builds)
Like in Conquest, Joust requires a lot of counterbuilding. This build is once again here to give you an idea of a common build you might end up with when playing in the first ranks with a normal comp like mage, hunter, tank comp.
Note: in Joust you can play with a very utility build with TON of protections for allies or move toward a more aggressive build to add pressure. Both can work! In the first case you want surely 2 items between
Gauntlet of Thebes,
Sovereignty and
Heartward Amulet. In the second case you can go with a more offesive items like
Ethereal Staff,
Spear of the Magus and
Stone of Binding.
Note: in case of multiple tanks in the enemy ranks, you can consider going
Ethereal Staff regardless of the build. The "more aggressive build" above will help in this case to get rid of them but the other build might save your team mates more... so it really depend how much you allies can handle the enemies.
Note: in case you want to play khepri as only tank with a mage + hunter with picks that are aggressive (so that you can stick to a more backline role) you can considering going
Void Doumaru as well. Otherwise, if you plan to go with 2 guardians, you want to mostly build around the ADC and you should ignore
Void Doumaru
Note: the "normal" comp mentioned above will appear less and less as you rank up, ending up with double tank comp + carry (double warrior + mage or magical adc. warrior + guardian + hunter or magical adc. double guardian + hunter). This tanky comp makes
Ethereal Staff a great option.
Antihealing items like
Contagion and
Pestilence are another must-buy items when the enemies can heal up!
In Joust you can also consider going for
Divine Ruin when you are the only one that can build it and you need antihealing. You dont need to go FULL tank in Joust cause the enemies cant just nuke you and having 1 item to deal a bit of damage is good!
Here are some other builds, the first one is against a double warrior + magical ADC while the second is for double guardian + hunter:
Alternative Joust Builds
Items
I already talked a lot about items and you should already have an idea of how to counterbuild based on what i said above... but let's sum it up!
Sentinel's Embrace: this is the starter you want the most in the game modes where you want to sustain yourself: Joust, Conquest and even Assault. Absolutely avoidable in Arena and Slash, not cause it's bad but cause there are starters being MUCH MUCH better!
It will restore mana and health upon getting assist on minions. In late game it will provide a huge passive aura that will increase the protection of allies (based on the number of allies around you).
Note: the other upgrade
Sentinel's Boon isnt a bad item at all especially when you can get minions assist quite often (you should REALLLY build this in Assault). It provide an insane amount of self-sustain and extra tankiness but doenst provide anything to allies! Get this if your team is safe and you risk to die each team fight! While it might be good even for a very selfish build in arena (that i DONT suggest) it can be stopped by anti-healing... so it's not really useful.
War Banner: this is the starter you want the most when you can get a lot of assist on minions and you also want mobility (but you dont need sustain). It really shines in Arena and, as exaplined better in the builds guides above, it can be decent in Slash and Joust but in both cases it's kinda niche!
Spartan Flag: overall a good item when you can efficiently fight in the passive area. For fights in the jungle or at objectives (conquest or slash) it's really a solid option.
Heroism: this is a great item that i explained multiple times above. It will grant a nearby ally a HUGE shield based on YOUR health. It will most likely save someone every time and has a very low CD. Enemies will need to really commit even to just kill a squishy!
Compassion: the item may end up being better than
Heroism when enemies has overall lot of damage against your allies but not really an insane CC that you want to prevent. Said that, you will take more damage so you want a trustworthy team to build compassion.
Tainted Breastplate: the item is a very solid starter but only once upgraded. Reducing the enemy healing by 50% is usually insane especially when paired with other anti-healing items.
Tainted Steel is sadly not really good so dont rush for it.
Note:
Tainted Amulet is also a very good option in case you prefer having magical protections! The passive in my opinion is a bit less efficient cause -50% healing is better than -30% healing + 100% healing on yourself based on the stolen 30%.
Prophetic Cloak:
Prophetic Cloak is basically a better version of
Gauntlet of Thebes. The main difference is the time required to stack it, since it takes a lot of time. On Khepri it is quite easy to stack it so i would always get it tho! You will also get the value from aura stack as soon as you get them. In order to get a the same value of
Gauntlet of Thebes you need 5 stacks of each protection on
Prophetic Cloak (since the auras of both items at that point will give 10 protections)!
Gauntlet of Thebes: This is item is still quite good and in some situations you can pair it with
Prophetic Cloak. It provide a lot of tankiness (health and both protections) in early game and, once stacked, provide a TON of protections to yourself and an aura for allies. It really stack fast so dont worry too much about it!
Breastplate of Determination: You should be pairing this in case you go for
Gauntlet of Thebes. It's a good burst of CDR from a single item and the upgrade provides really lot of protections.
Note: the other upgrade
Breastplate of Vigilance isnt terrible but it proc only on the ult that is already a defensive tool.
Shogun's Kusari: this item provides you with MP5 (that you usally want in early game cause khepri is really a mana burning god) and magical protections. Most of all it has a unconditional passive that boost the atk speed of your ADC for free and by a big amount! This item is really good and you should almost always buy it when you have an ADC in your team. Paired with
Talisman of Energy,
War Banner and
Void Shield will MASSIVELY boost your ADC.
Talisman of Energy: This is some sort of a niche item. In fact you basically only want this in Arena... but in that game mode this is VERY MUST-BUILD ITEM. Get this right after
Prophetic Cloak no matter what!
The passive greatly boost the movement speed of all allies and it's gonna be mostly up on everyone every team fight! It's a HUGE item there: build it!
The item also provide with atk speed that will help AA carries and provide a huge amount of mana regen... making this a GREAT item for assault and quite decent for Slash a well.
You can also consider this in Joust in case you chase/retreat often!
Genji's Guard: usually
Shogun's Kusari is better cause of the passive but in case you dont have anything that can make use of the atk speed passive then you can consider getting this item. The passive is almost as worth as an extra 10% CDR.
Winged Blade: this item is insane against some very slowing comps. It's basically a small sprint with a much lower CD! Absolutely insane in Arena and Slash to cleanse whole party from annoying slowing abilities like
Ne Zha's ring and
Ah Muzen Cab's bees and grant everyone a burst of movement speed! Remember you have to get it by it, it wont trigger if just an ally got it by it!
Down here you can see a list of gods against which i HIGHLY recommend building
Winged Blade!
Counterbuild List
Midgardian Mail: this is the best item to counter AA-based gods (especially hunters that can just kill you from range in late game). You are gonna slow both their movement speed, making them easier to target, and also atk speed.
I usually suggest this over
Spectral Armor.
Spectral Armor: the item really counters crit but requires few stacks before actually help a lot even your allies with its passive. If the enemy comp has 2 gods going for crit, you can definitely consider this over
Midgardian Mail.
Void Doumaru: great supportive item when you want your magical team mates to deal extra damage! (especially toward tanks!)
Void Shield: great supportive item when you want your physical team mates to deal extra damage! (especially toward tanks!)
Spirit Robe: This is a very good item and you definitely want this to survive into some comps that can chain CC you down. Mitigation after a CC will boost your survivability by ton so in case of heavy lockdown, go for this!
The item is especially good in Arena, Slash and Assault cause you can be focused down (especially as the only tank).
Down here you can see a list of gods against which i HIGHLY recommend building
Spirit Robe!
Counterbuild List
Magi's Cloak: this is another niche item that can be viable more for the passive from the glyph rather than the base item itself. Gainig a burst of movement speed toward a target + additional damage to it can really be massive in long map game modes! Also provide you with CDR and Khepri really needs it! Basically a more aggressive glyph than
Magi's Shelter
Magi's Shelter: the items is actually as good as
Magi's Revenge but in a different. In this case you will prevent a CC toward an allie which is MASSIVE. Basically a more defensive glyph than
Magi's Revenge
Spear of the Magus: very useful item in Joust when you want to increase the damage from your other team mates. Still good in Arena and Slash but put you more on risk! You can really nuke a tank fast when you pluck him with spear of the magus... especially if you hit with sunderign blast before that!
Stone of Binding: the items is very strong especially in early game or in late game against squishies. The item might be a bit less efficient than
Spear of the Magus (beside in early game as mentioned above), but will still provide you with protections and so you will be tankier compared to
Spear of the Magus.
Soul Reaver: a great item to deal with enemy tanks even if you dont have %penetration since you can easily proc this with 3 abilities! Mostly to be built against a double tank comp in joust or into a triple tank comp in arena and slash.
Ethereal Staff: this is overall a good and solid item for khepri. It mostly turns out being great against double tank comps cause you are gonna drastically reduce their health. When fights dont happen too often, you can stack 3 debuff on the same tank and then engage. In conquest specifically you can get a massive benefit from this item.
Bewitched Dagger: This item is quite niche but can turn out being insane once you upgrade your relics. In some games you can only win the fights if you have both your relics up so you can definitely get this item that greatly reduce the CD of relics. It also gives you good stats like CDR and movement speed! It's also super useful to counter atk speed based gods!
Note: the other upgrade
Eldritch Dagger isnt bad at all but you have to use your ultimate to make use of it... so it's not worth in most cases.
Absolution: the item sadly proc on your ult that is already an emergency defence tool. The cleanse provided can be great but it's insanely niche. A good example of when you might want this is agaisnt
Persephone to conter her ult... but you still need to use your own ult to counter it and you might end up wasting it.
Manticore's Spikes: this is a very solid item that can be deadly agaisnt big health targets. Allies can pick you the spike dropped by you to deal a smaller amount of damage. Overall you can consider this as a small
Soul Reaver that still requires you to pick up something from the ground that might be a bit unefficient during a fight.
Amulet of Silence: this item is worth going in some specific situation when you need extra magical protections for your team. You could see this item in the Joust build against a double guardian (and you can consider it against a single aggressive guardian + mage too). It's also great in Conquest due to the passive regeneration and extra early prots in early game!
Note: the other upgrade
Amulet of Silence is quite good as well especially when you want to possibly interrupt enemies abilities!
You really want one of the two tanks building this in Assault where early prots and regenerative auras matter A LOT!
Sovereignty: i'm not a huge fan of this item cause in my opinion there too many better items. Said that it can still be usefull in Assault and Joust (against a comp with heavy physical damage. In this case rush it in early game cause it will fall off later on). You can also make use of it in Conquest but
Gauntlet of Thebes and
Prophetic Cloak are generally better.
You really want one of the two tanks building this in Assault where early prots and regenerative auras matter A LOT!
Erosion: is a very niche but super strong item against comps with lot of shields. You probably shouldnt build this only to counter 1
Magic Shell or a
Pridwen shield from the enemy comp BUT some gods tend to be annoying cause of their shields.
Specifically it's a must build against:
Geb Charon Yemoja Eset
You can also consider going for this into a double tank comp running 2
Magic Shell and they have
Hera or
Nike. For single target BIG shields you can consider to simply go for
Sundering Blast.
Contagion and
Pestilence: these are simply the only way you have to reduce enemy healing. If you need antihealing, go for one of these items! They have a different passive:
Contagion will deal a solid amount of damage to enemies after you get CCd, while
Pestilence further reduce the anti-healing effect after getting attacked!
Note: the passive doesnt stack with the other equivalent so dont get both!
Divine Ruin: this can be viable mostly for Joust when you dont really need to go full tank. If you need antihealing you can definitely go for this item in order to get a bit of power/pen as well!
Entangling Wings: this is my favourite support relic. You will grant all your team a ton of movement speed, making this alredy great to run away or chase enemies... AND with the upgrade you are also gonna mass root all enemies in range making this item GREAT even when used aggresively! Get this!
Sundering Blast: this is a niche item but really powerful at the same time. You can really blast down any tank with 1 use of this! You will istantly deal a big chunk of their health and also increase the damage they take! Try to build this if you cant really counter single targets shield in any other way! (also check
Erosion above for more insight about shields)
Emblem of Increasing Peril: Really solid relic to shut down a couple of AA based enemies. Also the relic you need to counter healing!
Cloak of Ascetic: niche relic. You can build this in Joust or Assault for extra early game sustain (doesnt heal too much but replenish your mana). Also really helps to avoid executes tresholds!
Once upgraded it also reduce the CD of abilities but it takes extra golds for this, making this item good only in early in specific game modes or in the very late game.
Phantom Shell: the most classic relic for a tank. You will simply provide your whole team with a considerable shield to either push forward or avoid a fight!
Bracer of Brilliance: this item actually is great in Arena and potentially even in Joust. You can simply put it and down and offer a buffing area to all of you team mates passing on it. 20% bonus damage and 20% movement speed are A LOT! In other game modes where you cant actively going on this relic area, the item isnt great.
Blessed Barrier: the relic overall is quite good in modes where you can zone out enemies: slash and conquest. It also really shine for the same reason when you want to push an objective. Try to use it either in a jungle or to zone away enemies from a tower/phoenix!
Temporal Beads: This is even more a niche item. you should be getting this relic that cleanse CC in case of certain enemy ults (like
Fenrir,
Ares,
Da Ji and
Bastet. Mainly the first one.)
Wing Shard: a good little burst of movement speed on demand that you can use to flee from a fight or also to chase and use
Abduct! Can also be good to get back in lane a bit faster.
Sturdy Shard: a simple effect that will increase protections to you and allies!
Horn Shard: will allow you to cycle fast your CDs and potentially using another round of abilities in the same fight!
and be sure to counterbuild! :D
I'm still trying to get used to the new gods and the meta, but guides like this help me to get used to this game again!
I really love this one, thank you!
happy that people found this guide useful to play their Big Hug Bug! ^^
Be sure not to just copy the build (well beside the usual first 2/3 items xD) and understand how to counterbuild! :D
if you need further help you can ask me here!
Building tank is already quite hard and giving a single build just wasnt a thing. As i pointed out even giving out a build for 4 different game isnt enough and so i added 2 builds for each game mode as well to make more examples of what works and how to counterbuild!
I can actually add the "snipe" gods among the synergie well! good point!