Questions about Ymir, tanking, and Joust

i posted this thread on the official site forums, but it doesn't look like there's much activity there. hopefully the people of Smitefire can provide the help/advice i'm looking for so i can improve in this game.

i just started playing Ymir yesterday because i wanted an alternative to Thanatos, especially since i only play Joust right now. i've googled guides on Ymir and tanking, but most of them are either outdated, only for Conquest, or both.

i have a few questions involving Ymir, Joust, and tanking, and i'm hoping you all can educate me. for the record, i'm new to MOBAs (this is my first one and i've only been playing for about a week), so keep that in mind when you're explaining things or using acronyms or MOBA jargon.

1. is tanking an important or necessary role in Joust? is there a good composition your team should have that works well with a tank?

2. are things like Watcher's Gift and Midas Boots good for Joust? i've seen guides saying that they can help you get off to a fast start in Conquest (if you're good and play them right with a good partner), but i don't know if they would have the same impact in Joust.

3. are there any guides for Ymir builds you'd recommend that work well in Joust? or any advice you can give me as far as what to buy and when to buy it?

right now i've been buying Reinforced Greaves, Hide of the Urchin, Sovereignty, Stone of Gaia, Witchblade, and Magi's Blessing. Meditation has been one of my usable items, and i haven't really settled on another one. but i felt like i occasionally needed a huge mana heal. maybe i'm just not using my mana well yet. anyways, any advice on better stuff to buy (and more importantly, what order to buy it in since i have trouble with that) would be super useful.

4. do you have any advice on tanking/support in general as Ymir? right now i'm just trying to CC the enemies, keep them off my partners, and trap them with walls to let dps finish them off. i'm kinda having trouble knowing when to engage and in general how to play this role, though. i'm sure i could be doing a lot better, so i welcome all suggestions.

any other suggestions outside of what i mentioned would be super helpful.

1) Tanking is not necessary in joust but is a very solid option for a group that needs peel and initiation. Specifically, if you have an ADC and an assassin, a tank is recommended for both the magic damage and peel while they shred a team, while a bruiser is better if you have an adc and mage. Assassin/Mage/X is much more rare, but would also take a tank.

2) Not as much. They do help you get a fast start but you get 4x the gold income per second in Joust, and gold flows in much quicker. Plus, since you start with a lot of gold, you're gonna want that initial teamfight presence.

3) I don't know of any immediately, but I'll check. If I were to potshot something off the top of my head, I'd go something like Shoes of Focus (CDR amazing on Ymir), Hide of the Urchin (to start stacking), Magi's Cowl (instant 40% CCR), Sovereignty, Bulwark of Hope, Ethereal Staff/Situational Item. It gives you max crowd control reduction, a solid 15% cooldown reduction, a helluva lot of health, about equal amounts of both protections, and a staff for decent magic damage, or room for a situational. Feel free to adjust it based on comp (I.E. Nemean Lion instead of Bulwark if they have an assassin and adc, or something)

4) In general, blink is necessary for a blink+freeze combo. Rank 3 blink is a 45 second CD, basically always available for each fight. Otherwise, Wall behind them + Run very fast for a Freeze, then lay down your 2, then ult. Afterwards, bodyblock/run distraction for your team until CD's are back up. But seriously, rank 3 blink is a GODSEND on ymir

Ymir is by far my favourite god, so here are a few tips:

I usually do one of two builds, a damage/support role, with cool down items, a bit of magical power and Hide of the Urchin, or a solely damage build, with Bancroft's Talon, Rod of Tahuti, Polynomicon, Shoes of Focus and another cool down item. The second build isn't a support build but a Carry build.

3) You can check out my guide, all though it isn't on joust but conquest, I think it covers a bit a bit of play style as well as good items.

For actives, a lot of people have for the most part unfound anger at users of meditation. I think its not the best actives, especially in joust because of how close you are to the well, but some good actives could be Fist of the Gods, which gives a good stun, and Blink which is good for initiating.


For playing ymir, it's your job to hold down the enemy so your team mates can kill them. In joust I would level Frost Breath over Glacial Strike because it has better CC. It's also your job to make sure that your partners get fed (have lots of gold and xp), so they can do more damage. Try to have fun. :)