How to tell when someone is building high hp tank?

I'm not sure of the items that would give gods large amount of Hp and would need soul reaver or heartseeker to kill them.

Gauntlet of Thebes, Sovereignty, Hide of the Urchin, Ethereal Staff, Midgardian Mail, Blackthorn Hammer, Shield of Regrowth, Winged Blade, Bulwark of Hope, Pestilence, Frostbound Hammer, Magi's Cloak, Relic Dagger, Witchblade etc...

Also it's not just Soul Reaver or Heartseeker, Qin's Sais and Ethereal Staff are also good for that purpose. Telkhines Ring isn't too bad either at melting tanks, though the passive isn't based on one's hp level.

Also Soul Reaver/ Heartseeker (Heartseeker doesen't even have a health requirement like Soul Reaver, just a power requirement) are good against squishies, not just tanks (if you were implying that).

the biggest item trees providing hp for tanks are (you can click on them to see all items in that specific item tree):

- Talisman tree (HP/Magic prot)
- Steel Mail tree (HP Physical Prot)
- Cudgel tree (power HP)
- Glowing Emerald (HP HP5)
- Uncommon Staff
- Ancient Blade
- Reinforced Shoes or reinforced graves

don;t forget smitefire and smite has a page which provide a filter to filter for one stat. These are some of the main item lines containing HP in a lot of cases you will see these for high HP tanks. However a lot of bruiser items also provide HP like Void Shield. just look over the item tab with health enabled too see all the items.

Also in most cases you're better off deciding it on the amount of warriors or guardians on the team, as a lot of them tend to be tanky by their HP/lvl

Ok, so when should you use penatration/Hp scaling damage items?

When they're 1. Useful against that enemy comp / their builds. and 2. When the item is currently effective / in-meta.

If the enemy team doesen't have much tanks (e.g. only 1) or if they're not building much high HP items, then it's less necessary to itemise into those. This is for Soul Reaver im thinking of.

For Heartseeker currently it doesen't really matter though cause the passive functions a bit differently in regards to the damage scaling to Soul Reaver (which has been nerfed multiple times), and can function against squishy or tanky comps regardless.

It's important to keep up to date with patch update notes, and you could even read previous patch notes changes from past patches to see how items have fallen out of favour, or became more attractive item choices.

Ok thanks

You can also check their stats via the screen that shows what everybody is building. But a good strat is to assume that guardians and warriors will be building healt and defense items unless you're playing Arena where a lot of players don't build properly.

in Assault you can expect a bit the same as arena however a lot of warrior's and guardians will go first item Stone of Gaia which justifies it immediately (especially Qin's Sais as early pick up). Also most assassins tend to have a better performance as a bruisers (mostly utilising Void Shield and Ancile/ Runic Shield and some even use Blackthorn Hammer).