Opinions about this Build.

Goodmorning Smite community, I'm here with yet another question for you ladies and gentlemen. This isn't really an attempt at a build, but more curious on if this build could actually work in more than just an Arena situation. I will explain my reasoning for why I built an assassin as such.

Warrior Tabi
It's always my choice for any character. "It's not about how many punches you throw, but the power behind it."

Breastplate of Valor
Since there were more physical characters, especially that Loki, I wanted more physical protections and the immediate cooldown. I didn't build Jotunn's Wrath since I planned on Titan's Bane for penetration and the cooldown and mana that this armor has along with the combination of Runeforged Hammer

Transcendence
I built this because I saw on SmiteJunkies.com that this was recommended on Thor. Also for the extra power that I wanted in case I had to 1v1 anyone else. I've never exactly calculated how much it brings.

Spirit Robe
This was to complete the rest of the cooldown along with the extra protections and it's passive that I find to be very good. The magical protections weren't much, but it was more so directed for that annoying [Zhong Qui]]. I wasn't too worried about Kumbhakarna.

Runeforged Hammer
This actually helped me survive some encounters with Loki and kill Neith. I figured with the defensive protections from Breastplate of Valor and Spirit Robe this would fit quite well into this build to help me stick around the team fight.

Titan's Bane
This is a really good and cheap power/penetration item. It's one of my favorite items.
I mentioned that I didn't build Jotunn's Wrath because I was gonna build this item. However I also heard flat pen and percentage pen doesn't mix, so until I understand penetration and armor I always only build one pen item..In every game and every played character.

I've seen people also build Deathbringer on Thor. I want to say someone named Andinster put it on Thor and he was clocking people with it.
A friend told me Thor is built better as quite a tank. I'm still learning. I usually put Shifter's Shield on but I felt it was a bit expensive and Runeforged Hammer would work quite well for a replacement.

I didn't place this in Thor's comment section cause I wasn't too sure where to properly place this nor was in too sure of the character limit for texts.

This was my own little attempt at something different. Kind of a counter build attempt as well. So could this possibly work in any other game mode? Maybe Clash?

Someone help :(

This blog is the best place to put this kind of question.

I'm not a pro of Thor, so other people could give you more precise hints.
But here are my opinions and reasoning.

Your build is not bad, but I think it could be improved a bit.
We need to focus on the strengths of Thor
- Ability based god
(You mentioned Andinster using Deathbringer, but Andi's a pro, he could build anything and do good with Thor.
- Powerful early game, falls off a bit late game

So, in your build, you want
- Boots
- CDR
- Power
- Penetration
- Protection

So,
Warrior Tabi (Needless to explain, only choice really)
Jotunn's Wrath (You need CDR and power early game)
CDR Defence item (Situational, depending of who is the threat)
Titan's Bane (You need penetration, but needed defence and CDR before)
2nd Defence item (Situational, depending of who is the threat)
Situational item

In Arena, most of your games will end before you have your 6th item.
So your builds should be 5 items with the 6th item being situational.
It can be anything, from more damage, more penetration, more defence, anti-healing, crit (why not), etc

Compared to your build, the main difference are
Using Jotunn's Wrath instead of Breastplate of Valor to maximize your early game potential.
Getting Titan's Bane earlier, to maximize your early game potential.

As for your first defensive item, since you need CDR.
Spirit Robe it gives both protections and a nice passive.
Mail of Renewal if the threat is mostly from physical and the passive is awesome in Arena.
Ancile if the threat is mostly from magical, gives you some damage as well, but requires stacking.

For your second defensive item.
Hide of the Urchin if you need balance between magical and physical. Easy to stack in Arena.
Runeforged Hammer against physical, gives you some damage too.
Midgardian Mail against physical and AA gods.
Heartward Amulet against magical, only if your team doesn't have one yet.
Pestilence against magical, even if they don't have healer, the raw stats for it's cost worth it.

If you are ahead and feel you don't need that much protection, you can go for hybrid items.
Void Shield against physical
Runic Shield against magical

About Transcendence, this is a very good item, since it gives a huge amount of power.
However, in Arena, it's a bit harder to build stacks, especially as Thor, because you don't want to waste your poke/escape and it's risky to use your Berserker Barrage on the waves.
This also applied for Ancile


So, on that game, I would have used this build
Warrior Tabi
Jotunn's Wrath
Mail of Renewal
Titan's Bane
Hide of the Urchin
Brawler's Beat Stick

Last item, I chose Brawler's Beat Stick since you were ahead and didn't need that much defence.
Plus, they had 3 tanky gods to deal with, so the penetration would be welcome.
Finally, they had 3 gods that could heal themselves, so the passive is not wasted either.

If you are from behind, you might want to swap 4th and 5th items.
You will get tankier sooner, but will lose damage.

Exactly this ^.

Now, you were asking for if this would work outside of arena...but inside of arena, Bullfrog's build is pretty much what I'd build if I thought it through =P. The build you used would be great if you were in Assault and your team didn't have a tank...then Thor can substitute as the tank by building strong protections like you did...outside of Transcendence as it's not allowed in that mode. Also, in an Assault case, you'd probably want to build in a slightly different order, perhaps getting tier 2 of Stone of Gaia first for the regen.

Outside of arena, don't know if you mean Conquest or not, but that's where you could start considering stacking items to some extent, like Transcendence. However, you also want to consider what role is best for Thor. With his ability to physically block enemies via Tectonic Rift and his great mobility via the huge range on his ult and his Mjolnir's Attunement, he's going to be a jungler for ganking purposes, and he'll have a hard time stacking from minions since he won't be killing nearly as many as being in-lane.

Also, your comment on Jotunn's Wrath and Breastplate of Valor, planning to get Titan's Bane doesn't have to be a reason not to get Jotunn's. Titan's would be diminished by protection reduction items like The Executioner, but you can never have too much penetration.

Your build obviously worked for you, at least in that match. A better indication of how you've done is on the details page, where you can see the damage you've taken and mitigated, as well as the total player damage you did. Maybe that build is best for your style and how you play, though...you won't do as much damage, but not dying is also a good thing.

Considering you didn't have secondary line in your match (ie: no warriors, your only tank was Sobek), building Thor as a bruiser tank worked well for you, and it made sense in that context. I would personally advise against Transcendence, you buy that item solely for the mana. You'll get more dps out of Brawler's Beat Stick or The Crusher. Given the context you gave though, I think that you were right to build your other items and made good decisions based on the situation at hand, I would also avoid Shifter's Shield atm, it's just not the greatest option for its price in most contexts.

Bullfrog does make good points though, you may have been equally effective with the build he gave you, but building as a tank did allow you to be a second line and better enable the other members of your team to deal their damage. In general though, Bullfrog's build is my go-to with Thor, although I sacrifice power by getting Hide of the Urchin before Titan's Bane so that I can get those stacks on earlier and have them for longer in the game. But that's more down to personal preference and whether or not you're ahead or behind.

I didn't think about the fact that being a bruiser was a better bet than going damage for that particular team comp.

However, even though you consider his build more "tanky", he only had physical protections.
He justified it because the enemy team being 3 physical and 2 magical and wanted to resits Loki's burst.

However, if we look at the game results
Kumbhakarna had some damage items, so he must have hurt more than you would think.
Zhong Kui had the best score, which let me think he was first to 20, and maybe top damage as well.
Bellona, while being broken, only build 1 damage item, and late game only.
Loki, as a total failure, got no penetration item (beside the 11 from Jotunn's Wrath)

So, I think it would have been better to go both protections rather than focus on physical protection only.

It was probably justified for Breastplate of Valor and Spirit Robe, but I see what you're saying, Hide of the Urchin may have been a better choice over Runeforged Hammer if you looked at what they were building, of course hindsight is 20/20. I'm still inclined towards physical protections because I'm used to gametypes where you want to be able to tank tower shots and objectives, but in arena that does matter less. Admittedly though, a lot of their DPS late game would still have been coming from Neith since she was their ADC and was building appropriately, so focusing more on physical protections late game still had some reasoning behind it. (Also, just as a note, Thor can escape Zhong Kui's AOE of damage quite easily because of his ult and his teleport, so it may not have been as much of a problem for him).

You are mainly a conquest player, while I am mainly an arena player.
Usually, it should not make a difference, but now I start the see the difference in our mindset.

From experience, mages "usually" are a higher threat than hunters in arena.
Reason is that most hunter (except maybe Neith if built appropriately, which is not the case here) are dangerous only late game.
But late game only lasts a few minutes.
Yeah, it's important to get protection against those crazy damage, but in Arena, the most important thing is to stay alive the most possible.
Therefore, building protection against early gods is better than focusing on the late game gods.
For that matter, if I had those enemies to deal with, I would be more afraid of Zhong Kui than any others.

To support this fact, if we look at the stats of that match
Neith (4/4/8 20k damage)
Zhong Kui (7/7/8 41k damage)
Bellona (2/5/7 13k damage)
Loki (6/10/9 18k damage)
Kumbhakarna (2/2/10 14k damage)

While the player damage doesn't mean much, at least it indicates who is the threat if you want to survive.
As we can see, Bellona could be pretty much ignored, while Zhong Kui was the most dangerous.
As for Neith, I have the feeling her damage was quite low early game and that she was about to be a threat now that she had the crit. But it's too late to worth focusing on physical protection in my opinion.

Also, Zhong Kui damage is not only his ultimate.
Yes, his ult is very scary, and yes, Thor can escape it, but his 2 others abilites does quite a good damage and are easy to hit, and Thor can't really escape them.

What I was trying to say isn't that you should be more afraid of Neith early to mid game than Zhong Kui. That's why it was appropriate to build Spirit Robe for Zhong Kui's dominant mid game. Overall throughout the match, Zhong Kui is going to deal more damage to players. A lot of that damage won't do a whole lot, it's poke damage since he's a mage that hits in AOEs so it won't necessarily lead to kills. By the time you and Neith are at 5th item however, she becomes a huge threat. Zhong Kui with his build won't be able to 100-0 you with those basic protections. Neith with her completed 5th item would be capable of shredding you in little more than a Spirit Arrow and a few basic attacks, even with your protections. That's why I'm saying that Runeforged Hammer was a desirable 5th item. It's true that the late game doesn't last that long, but that's the time during which you'll have either Runeforged Hammer or a magical or mixed defense item, and neither of those will protect you from Neith's damage suddenly doubling.

Basically all I'm trying to say is: don't underestimate hunters. They're stupid strong.