Okay, so I started talking about this on Discord, but I think that discussing here will be more appropriate.
When it comes to building gods that I don’t know how to, or gods that are new, I always check Pro Players playing the god (Ranked and/or SPL) to see the optimal build paths.
But now, I want to do something different.
I want to discuss about builds and item choices for some Gods, Goddesses and classes in general, and I’d like your help with it.
I plan on doing 3 threads, those being:
1. Solo builds for S7 (Focused on Nike and Mulan);
2. Jungle builds for S7 (Focused on Mulan, Awilix and Set);
3. Mid builds for S7 (Focused on Eset, Hel and the class in general).
So, as the title suggests, this is the first thread, focused on solo laners and their optimal build paths for S7.
How builds were in S6?
This is what I consider the standard/most used build path for Warriors during the second half of S6:
1. People are building defense straight after boots (so both hammers fell off);
2. Void Shield is now % pen instead of flat pen (decreasing early game viability);
3. Heartseeker is increasing in popularity as a last item for full tank builds and even for bruiser ones.
How does this impact builds?
With that, I see two possible meta build paths for Warriors:
1. Full tank with Heartseeker for most Warriors;
2. Bruiser, with or without Heartseeker.
What I don’t think it’s going to change:
1. Glad/Berserker’s is still meta as first item for Ability-Based and AA-Based Warriors, respectively.
What we need to consider:
1. Void Shield place in Solo builds. Is it still the first defense item? Or is it built later on now? Or is it even built at all?
2. If VS isn’t the first defense item anymore, which item is going to take its place? Breastplate of Valor? Mystical Mail? Contagion?
Build paths I considered for Ability-Based Warriors ( Nike and Mulan):
For Nike I chose a full tank, full cooldown build, because:
1. She doesn’t use Heartseeker well;
2. Sentinel of Zeus stacks with health;
3. Despite being bugged at the moment (Thanks for DV-8 for pointing that out), Pridwen synergizes very well with Nike and Sentinel of Zeus.
Yes, Glad Shield stays in the build until the end.
Mulan’s damage output far exceeds Nike, so she gets great use from Heartseeker, specially because she gains 5% Physical Power after she masters Spear Thrust.
Also, she can use Caduceus Shield thanks to her 2.
Conclusion:
My intention with this thread is to spark a discussion about build paths for Warriors in S7, but y’all are more than welcome to open up this discussion in any way you see fit.
Want to talk about something I didn’t talk about? Go ahead.
Want to include discussions about Guardians and Mages in solo? Sure!
My primary goal is to see everyone sharing their visions and opinions in this thread. If I see that things work out well, I’ll make the other two very soon.
Haven;t really followed solo lane atm and didn't know of some of these shift (like the heartseeker one).
However I do know that a hammer start is still viable as they did not really change. don;t know why it shifted so hardly.
What I do know is that caduceus shield is considered a strong pickup for a lot of gods. And for a lot of warrior's from the videos I have seen [[void shield is still quite the must build item, especially since it is now better against tanks, mostly since void shield provides more pen vs targets around 135 prot. It is however for a lot of them a 5-6 item pickup.
from the 3 plates you mentioned I expect BoV or contagion, depending on antiheal needs
Cool post, and well thought out. Got some thoughts.
Nike: Glad + Warrior is standard for someone like Nike, and in DV-8's new guide, we discussed that a bit. I do still think Berserker + Ninja is still viable in Nike's case when enemies have the ability to stun you out of Rend channeling, since she has good cleave in her basics and you can get pretty good sustain out of that (even when hitting the Totem).
That said, your build path is mostly okay and functional, but note that you overcapped CDR...Glad (10%) + BoV (20%) early game is fine combined with the mana buff to max you quite early. Then + Spirit (10%) + Pridwen (20%) - Glad (10%) is 50% so you might do some build adjustment there. Personally I've always liked Spirit Robe, and with her ult she already gets a huge shield, so you could consider dropping Prid. OR...you could do different things, like instead of BoV get Void Shield earlier and choose Genji's Guard or Shogun's Kusari instead of Oni.
Speaking of the middle of that build, if you stick with the general concept, you might consider Hide of the Urchin before Oni. That will allow earlier stacking, more phys protections, etc. And you're maybe not always bunching up for full team fights so might get only partial use of the Oni passive. Depends on the game, perhaps.
As you know, Myst has been talking about Void still being viable in his mind with the change, and if you DO pick it up in the S6 spot mid-build, you consider your lane enemy has also probably gotten physical protection, so their prots at that point are probably close to 100? That's still basically 15 flat pen, so it's not super shabby. And it got a slight boost in base prot so ends up being functional in my mind.
You can also consider dropping Urchin altogether, and going something like Glad / Warrior / BoV / Oni or Shogun or Pest / Void / Oni or Shogun / Prid or Spirit. And that's not even considering Contagion so you have that to consider in place of BoV (and then making up the CDR elsewhere).
Mulan: I haven't played her yet. Actually, I haven't even played SMITE since the new patch, as I was out of town all week, got back at 1 AM Saturday (delayed flight and missed the connecting and had to reroute 40 miles away), and been with fam. I'll probably play some later today/tonight.
Anyway, I think you might get better use out of Heartseeker if you're pairing it at some point with Void Shield at least, to get a bit more pen. Just consider that one. Does Mulan need BoV and high CDR early? You might move out BoV if possible.
Haven;t really followed solo lane atm and didn't know of some of these shift (like the heartseeker one).
However I do know that a hammer start is still viable as they did not really change. don;t know why it shifted so hardly.
What I do know is that caduceus shield is considered a strong pickup for a lot of gods. And for a lot of warrior's from the videos I have seen [[void shield is still quite the must build item, especially since it is now better against tanks, mostly since void shield provides more pen vs targets around 135 prot. It is however for a lot of them a 5-6 item pickup.
from the 3 plates you mentioned I expect BoV or contagion, depending on antiheal needs
If you want to have a direction when it comes to Solo builds, fioneokay made a video about builds for the top Solo Laners at the moment: https://youtu.be/s8xcz4tLYIY
(I think Kirega posted this video a few days ago).
Frostboud got no changes, that’s true, but Blackthorn lost 100 health and some power I believe?
That’s when it fell out of favor.
Yeah, Cad Shield seems like a strong pick for gods with healing on their kits, like Achilles and Mulan, but not so much for Amaterasu and Horus.
And those were only suggestions, but I honestly don’t see an early replacement for Void Shield that’s not BoV. Or you build BoV early or VS late.
Cool post, and well thought out. Got some thoughts.
Nike: Glad + Warrior is standard for someone like Nike, and in DV-8's new guide, we discussed that a bit. I do still think Berserker + Ninja is still viable in Nike's case when enemies have the ability to stun you out of Rend channeling, since she has good cleave in her basics and you can get pretty good sustain out of that (even when hitting the Totem).
That said, your build path is mostly okay and functional, but note that you overcapped CDR...Glad (10%) + BoV (20%) early game is fine combined with the mana buff to max you quite early. Then + Spirit (10%) + Pridwen (20%) - Glad (10%) is 50% so you might do some build adjustment there. Personally I've always liked Spirit Robe, and with her ult she already gets a huge shield, so you could consider dropping Prid. OR...you could do different things, like instead of BoV get Void Shield earlier and choose Genji's Guard or Shogun's Kusari instead of Oni.
Speaking of the middle of that build, if you stick with the general concept, you might consider Hide of the Urchin before Oni. That will allow earlier stacking, more phys protections, etc. And you're maybe not always bunching up for full team fights so might get only partial use of the Oni passive. Depends on the game, perhaps.
As you know, Myst has been talking about Void still being viable in his mind with the change, and if you DO pick it up in the S6 spot mid-build, you consider your lane enemy has also probably gotten physical protection, so their prots at that point are probably close to 100? That's still basically 15 flat pen, so it's not super shabby. And it got a slight boost in base prot so ends up being functional in my mind.
You can also consider dropping Urchin altogether, and going something like Glad / Warrior / BoV / Oni or Shogun or Pest / Void / Oni or Shogun / Prid or Spirit. And that's not even considering Contagion so you have that to consider in place of BoV (and then making up the CDR elsewhere).
Mulan: I haven't played her yet. Actually, I haven't even played SMITE since the new patch, as I was out of town all week, got back at 1 AM Saturday (delayed flight and missed the connecting and had to reroute 40 miles away), and been with fam. I'll probably play some later today/tonight.
Anyway, I think you might get better use out of Heartseeker if you're pairing it at some point with Void Shield at least, to get a bit more pen. Just consider that one. Does Mulan need BoV and high CDR early? You might move out BoV if possible.
Hey Bran!
Yeah, Berserker's Shield is definitely an option for Nike when Rend can be interrupted. I’m not too sure about Ninja Tabi tho, we don’t want to go too much into an AA-Based build for her (If anything, we should get Shogun's Kusari, as you always told me).
About my CDR overcap... Yep, I didn’t realize that. It was an oversight. I focused on the items passives and forgot about their raw stats. Breastplate of Valor should be replaced by something else, because my reason for picking Spirit Robe is that I can stack mitigations with Oni Hunter's Garb, and I think Pridwen is core for Nike... But that leaves us with Void Shield, which I don’t think it’s good as a first item anymore (Will talk about it later on).
And yes, when there are no magical threats for me at the time I finish my first physical defense, I’ll go Hide of the Urchin instead of Oni’s/ Runic Shield to get stacks early, so we’re on the same page here.
About Void Shield’s usefulness: I think the impact during the laning phase is barely noticeable, and most Warriors would benefit more from early cdr ( Breastplate of Valor) or anti-heal ( Contagion) than a % protection reduction that’s not going to your damage that much.
When we’re talking about late game for teamfights then yes, Void Shield will increase not only your damage but your ADC ‘s and Jungler’s damage as well. But yet again, this makes the item a 4th/5th pickup, and not a first one.
I wouldn’t consider dropping Urchin an option, to be completely honest. I used to underestimate this item and spent some time without building it, but now I see how wrong I was. I consider it core for any solo laner, physycal or magical.
Now, about Mulan:
After Glad and Warrior, she NEEDS a MP5 item. She’s very mana hungry and after level 5 the Blue buff isn’t enough to sustain her.
Contagion is really needed to counter healers and I already talked about Blackthorn in my reply to Devampi. That leaves us with Breastplate.
I mean, BoV provides the MP5 that she needs and also grants 20% CDR so she can spam her abilities. Is it really that bad? (And this is coming from someone that used to hate this item LOL).
On BoV, the 10 MP5 just isn't that much. You're basically looking at 1/2 a minute just to get 60 mana for approximately 1 more ability use...the flat 300 mana pool has larger impact than the 10 MP5 IMO. But I can't argue with the CDR. And you combine that with the MP5 from Totem and Mana and she's basically covered.
In many cases, BoV has been looked down on, but for Mulan and other ability-dependent gods, I can see it being more core right now than in other seasons.
On BoV, the 10 MP5 just isn't that much. You're basically looking at 1/2 a minute just to get 60 mana for approximately 1 more ability use...the flat 300 mana pool has larger impact than the 10 MP5 IMO. But I can't argue with the CDR. And you combine that with the MP5 from Totem and Mana and she's basically covered.
In many cases, BoV has been looked down on, but for Mulan and other ability-dependent gods, I can see it being more core right now than in other seasons.
I have to say that BoV has been growing on me, because is solves two problems of ability-based warriors at once: Mana sustain and cooldown reduction.
Haven't really played solo yet this season but i'll just remind you that 500 gold pot gives 10% cdr now for physicals.
Also I still see some people build Void Shield early/mid.
Yes, but I can't remember the last time I bought the 10% CDR pot lol. Void Shield is definetly an option, but should be built later in the build. I'm not getting it lately, tho.
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