Magical CDR

Chronos' Pendant. Long the most simple of choices for the majority of mages...now I'm not fully sure where it fits in. So it still has 20% CDR, and, sure, it's expensive (2,900) but not TOO expensive, depending. The power is low, the MP5 is okay, and that passive is really interesting. I'd say it's a key item for some gods that will consistently be spamming low CD abilities ( Chang'e anyone?), and it's for mid to late game.

Firstly, what are all the CDR items for magical gods?

Offensive:

• Shoes of Focus (1,500 gold, 10% CDR w/ power and move speed)
• Stone of Fal (another 2,900 gold item, 10% CDR w/ power and magical protection and that anti-burst passive)
• Spear of Desolation (2,700 gold, 10% CDR w/ power and 20 flat pen)
• Pythagorem's Piece (2,300 gold, 10% CDR w/ power, mana, and team lifesteal and power)
• Rangda's Mask? (500 gold starter item w/ MP5 and 10-15% CDR w/ kills/assists)

Hybrid:

• Ritual Dagger (1,850 gold, 10% CDR w/ health, attack and move speed, w/ 20% relic CDR) (somewhat more offensive brother to Shield of Regrowth)
• Stone of Binding (bridge item at 1,700 gold, 10% CDR w/ low power and low balanced protections w/ teamfight pen)

Defensive:

• Breastplate of Valor (2,300 gold, 20% CDR, physical protection, mana and MP5) (basically opposite of Genji's)
• Genji's Guard (2,200 gold, 10% CDR, 20 MP5 and additional situational CDR) (basically opposite of BoV)
• Spirit Robe (2,500 gold, 10% CDR, balanced protections and damage mitigation) (somewhat little brother of Mantle)
• Mantle of Discord (3,100 gold, 15% CDR, balanced protections and situational stun/CC immunity) (somewhat big brother of Spirit)
• Shogun's Kusari (2,400 gold, 10% CDR, magical protection, MP5, CCR, team attack speed)
• Shield of Regrowth (1,800 gold, 20% CDR, health, HP5/MP5, move speed buff) (defensive brother to Ritual Dagger)

So I'd like to hear your thoughts, as of the current stats for the initial PTS. How do you see yourself building burst mages, tanky mages, healing mages, and Guardians in the various roles? Are you going to aim for 40% CDR? Do you see yourself going more tanky than before, no matter the god? Is Chronos' Pendant still going to be core for your builds?

I'd say that Chronos' Pendant should be an item built on mages (and perhaps guardians in some cases), that:

- Require the opportunity to spam their abilities.
- Run into mana issues often.

From your chart of "CDR" mage items, Chronos' Pendant is about the only offensive item that goes above 10% CDR.
From this I can guess that this is an item that mages/guards will grab who are building full offense.

A full offense build would probably be looking something like this, if CDR is a factor in that build:

Shoes of Focus > Book of Thoth or warlock's sash > Chronos' Pendant > Obsidian Shard > Rod of Tahuti > Spear of Desolation or Pythagorem's Piece

That caps the 40% cdr if Pythagorem's Piece is built and gives a good CD bonus on kills from Spear of Desolation, while being nearly as offensive as possible.


For burst mages, I don't think Chronos' Pendant is a necessity since they are a "get in, nuke and get out" type of god, unless you run into mana issues or are playing a game like Assault.

Tanky mages is mostly a less attractive option. The "tank" part is usually fulfilled by actual guardians, who also deal magical damage, but there are some cases, like a Chang'e or Aphrodite support. In this case, I think Chronos' Pendant would not be bought, but instead replaced with an item in the likes of Breastplate of Valor.

Healing mages would probably benefit from Chronos' Pendant, but here it comes down mainly to what the player's ultimate goal is: Pure healing, or healing while keeping some good power to it. In the former, Chronos' Pendant should again be switched for an item in the likes of Breastplate of Valor, so you can stay and heal longer, and in the latter Chronos' Pendant is still an attractive option.

For Guardians themselves, Chronos' Pendant has almost never been a thing for me, unless I wanted to do something crazy and go damage guard... Instead of Chronos' Pendant, guardians would use a combination of say Breastplate of Valor and Heartward Amulet, which give both CDR, mana and MP5, but give defense instead of power.


TL;DR Chronos' Pendant will still be core in some builds. Specifically gods that are addicted to low CD's, such as the (in)famous Chang'e. However, you might be seeing it a bit less.


P.S.: This is just what I think. But you know how bad I am with the technical stuff of SMITE... probably more than just the technical part but you get the idea, so take my words with a couple grains of salt... or an entire pot, maybe.

I think the main use of Chronos' Pendant will be to get over 40% CDR, with its passive.

So, magical gods that rely on their ultimate to be effective would pick this item in order to get to 40% CDR (easier since Pythagorem's Piece is now a core item) and then adding the passive.

Therefore, a 90s CD ult becomes a 54s CD.
After the passive, it becomes a 49-50s CD (depending on your timing).
The passive effect is even better for ult with longer CD ( The Morrigan) .

Plus, there are other items that can also reduce the CD.


Also, if there is any "indicator" about when the passive will occur, it could effectively be used by gods with very short CD abilities.
For example, He Bo, can throw Water Cannon 3 times in a row, if timed correctly, with Chronos' Pendant and Bracer of Undoing

I still think that the passive isn't strong enough to justify a 2900g item unless you can take advantage of the shorter ulti cooldown and ability spam to a really high degree, and even then I see it being an 'I'm ahead in gold and want to secure that lead' item rather than a standard pick, especially since they added so many more options for CDR this patch.

Or, even better, Chronos could throw out his Time Rift out almost constantly. With just the regular 40% CDR, the cooldown already goes down to 3 seconds. Every 10 seconds, Chronos' Pendant takes that 3 down to 2. Every 30 seconds, Genji's Guard takes that 3 down to one. Every 120 seconds, Bracer of Undoing takes that 3 down to 0. Every 60 seconds (though probably less in practice, because you need to be at low health) Blackthorn Hammer takes that 3 down to 0. And with the new Ritual Dagger, you can use Bracer of Undoing every 96 seconds. Not to mention Rewind, which also resets all his cooldowns, and Section II of Wheel of Time, which makes mana no issue.

EDIT: What I'm trying to say is, using an ability 3 times in a row is unlikely, it's more likely we'll be seeing a lot of using abilities twice in a row really often.

Problem is that on all the items you listed, only Chronos' Pendant would fit in a build for a carry like Chronos
Maybe Bracer of Undoing can fit if you don't use Heavenly Wings, but Purification Beads still remains core.

All other items just can't fit
Blackthorn Hammer : Physical damage ... nuff said
Genji's Guard : Only protection, no power, plus the passive is only useful against magical enemy.
Ritual Dagger : OKish stats, but if it's only to gain a 24s CDR on your relic, I don't think it worth it.
and finally, Rewinds has a casting time of about 2 seconds, so it's not really worth it just to cast a second Time Rift.

With Chronos' Pendant, this would occcur more often, it just depends if we have a visible indicator or not.

I wasn't suggesting anyone would actually be able to do all that. I'm saying there's a lot of items that have instant flat CDR.



Really often as in there's a lot games where people do it, not that it's being used repeatedly within a game. Chronos is just an example.