Stacking Paths: Book of Thoth vs. Warlock's Sash, Patch 5.14

Thought I'd put this discussion together about the current states of Book of Thoth and Warlock's Sash, and see what peoples' opinions are.

Quick summaries of use:

• Book of Thoth is for high power and mana. Takes 75 stacks to max. Typically best for mages with good burst and escape abilities.
• Warlock's Staff is for health/survival, though it does provide decent power and mana as well. Takes 100 stacks to max. Generally preferred for gods that expect to take some damage due to no escapes.

Here's a summary of recent popularity and use of these two items, along with some key accompanying items that sometimes tag along for the ride.

• At of the start of Season 5 (Jan 30th), Book of Thoth itself was unchanged from the previous season. However, Warlock's Staff (formerly "Sash") got a rework. Up front, it got an initial base health reduction from 300 to 200, but made up for it with higher base power, from 50 to 75, giving it a better early game. This gave it a boost in popularity, as more people were starting to prefer the health for survival purposes. With the other major S5 changes, with an HR focus on decreasing the effect of early snowball, this slowed the game down enough to allow for the higher required stacks.
  
  
• Supporting items at the start of S5: With the nerf to Rod of Tahuti, extremely high power builds decreased in use. Some items definitely saw power boosts, including things like Soul Reaver, Chronos' Pendant, Spear of Desolation, Spear of the Magus, etc. Also saw reworks/new items in Soul Gem, Book of the Dead, Typhon's Fang, which pushed things toward more survival overall. I feel the biggest effect of less Book of Thoth use was Rod of Tahuti's nerf.
  
  
• In February, Warlock's Staff was showing itself to be too popular, and saw a nerf to top end power (changed stacks from 0.6 magical power to 0.5 magical power per stack). This changed max power from 135 to 115. Warlock's still saw good overall popularity (in my recollection).
  
  
• In July (Patch 5.13), Book of Thoth and Warlock's Staff both got adjustments. Thoth got a decrease to base power (from 100 to 80), an increase in base mana (125 to 250), and an added evolved state increasing mana to power conversion from 3% to 5%. (It also saw a price increase, from 2,650 to 2,800 gold). Staff got a straight nerf to the base mana, from 400 to 200.
  
  
• In Thoth's case, this increased max mana contribution from 875 to 1,000 mana. At the same time, Book of the Dead saw a significant adjustment, increasing the passive mana shield from 15 to 20%, and lowered the threshold for the passive trigger from 50% to 40% making it a bit more reliable for when you actually need the shield. More importantly, the shield now calculates from total mana, rather than current mana. This made BotD + Thoth a very functional combo.

So where are we at right now? Warlock's Staff is now a significantly less popular stacking item, with Book of Thoth seeing a rise. Staff's mana drop definitely hurt its early function for sustain, as you have to be more careful of your ability use.

But it still brings an early level of survivability...something Thoth has never done. 200 health at the start, and for 150 gold cheaper, along with ramping up health with stacks, gives a consistently reliable level of survivability.

Book of Thoth, on the other hand, is now one of the most costly items in the game. You also won't get ANY boost in survival until you complete Book of the Dead, which we can agree is absolutely a great combo in their current states. If you're looking to rely on that added survival from the BotD shield, you're going to be doing it relatively later in a build, because other items will have priority over it, including things like pen, lifesteal, MS, etc. In the meantime, this build path will remain best for mages that have escapes and deal their damage from afar.

In my opinion, Warlock's Staff doesn't change its function...it remains a good overall item for specific mages that don't have escapes and typically need to get closer to deal their damage. Popular examples would include Anubis, Hades and Zhong Kui. This doesn't mean they're REQUIRED to get the Staff, just that it still fits their kits pretty well. In particular, Anubis saw some nice top-end buffs to his mana use, so he won't be quite as mana hungry, making the mana decrease from Staff more bearable.

What it DOES change is every mage and their mothers picking up Warlock's. I'm okay with this. It brings a bit more danger / risk to mage early games, and the general consensus is that the mage class is fairly powerful overall in comparison to most other classes.

So what are your thoughts? Agree / disagree? Did I miss (or just not mention) some key points?

"If you're looking to rely on that added survival from the BotD shield, you're going to be doing it relatively later in a build, because other items will have priority over it, including things like pen, lifesteal, MS, etc. In the meantime, this build path will remain best for mages that have escapes and deal their damage from afar." - nope, build Book of the Dead third item and get Obsidian Shard fourth if it's a god that gets good use from book of the dead. (e.g. Kukulkan, Chronos, Baron Samedi etc...) But not Thoth, Agni and the like.

I don't think warlock's should be picked up at all on mid laners. I think it can still be viable on some solo lane mages, and Chronos in the ADC role since you're mainly farming (still makes your early game quite bad though).

Kriega, you don't have to take everything at extremes, dude! XD

4th item is "relatively later" as I stated. 4th item is a significant amount of time from when the 1st item is built. I didn't say "BotD is only built last."

From the time you build your 1st item to the time you build your 4th/5th, your survival in comparison to having 200-500 health at the time you build your first item when going Warlock's is drastically lower.

I'm not a pro, and I'm not basing my opinion on just what the pros are currently building. If we're doing that, let's shut down all websites and resources and force everyone to either watch pro streams or only consult smiteprobuilds.com, huh?

With proper management of mana, Warlock's is still functional...the mana drop was the only recent nerf...it doesn't drop it from viable to worse item than...lol...Book of the Dead...which until last patch was "never build this item it's terrible."

I corrected my comment to say 3rd not 4th item. My mistake.

Book of the Dead was impacted a lot by the new Book of Thoth looking to become a staple in many (maybe not all) mage builds.

Also Warlocks was bad before 5.13 as well.

So in all seriousness... Book of the Dead 3rd? Doesn't this sort of hurt build flexibility? I'm guessing you only build it 3rd if you really need that protection and are getting pressured.

But Book of Thoth, Shoes (either 10 pen or 10% CDR), then BotD means no lifesteal (BotD helps with that, of course, but also means no early Bancroft's Talon for select gods, which is probably okay since it's a bit more expensive)...also means no earlier anti-heal counter via Divine Ruin...means no bigger boost in CDR via Chronos' Pendant, and no good bridge flat pen before you get Obsidian Shard online (which I still feel is absolutely sucky against squishy gods).

And okay...Warlock's with the power nerf definitely hurts it too.

Divine Ruin is a bit less popular now with less healing being present (Lono's mask nerfed on healers in 5.14), but still remains as an option. The flat pen isn't entirely necessary before Obsidian Shard, but it can be. I have two examples on my Chronos mid builds: https://www.smitefire.com/smite/guide/rifts-of-chaos-season-5-conquest-builds-5-13-17266

I wouldn't get Book of the dead on all mid laners though, same for Soul Reaver and Soul Gem. But Book of Thoth will be picked up on most. (Except perhaps maybe Janus with Chronos' Pendant rush, but we will see, builds are still being experimented with).

Other example mid builds : https://www.smitefire.com/smite/guide/thoth-mid-conquest-builds-5-13-19814

To me, the problem with Warlock's Staff (and the reason it got its mana nerfed) was the amount of tankiness it gave mages when combined with other items such as Book of the Dead. It wasn't so much because of early mana sustain (200 mana is only around 4 extra casts of an ability, which isn't all that significant).

Before it was nerfed, mages could build Warlock's Staff and Book of the Dead and be surprisingly durable while still maintaining a solid damage output.

By nerfing the mana on Warlock's Staff, it changed the way that it interacted with these other mana-focused items. Now, the item is picked up more for a power-health combination. The large health pool is great on mages who have protections built into their kit, as this gives them nice effective health as they get in close to do damage.

For example, Anubis steals protections with Sorrow, Hades gains protections during Pillar of Agony, Zhong Kui gains protections from Demon Bag, etc.. I think it can even work on Ra, as he lacks a true escape and can also become defensive with his Solar Blessing.

It all depends on the methodology of the build. Sure, building pure damage every game would be great for maximum damage output, but in reality the enemy team could have a lot of pressure and force you to build more defensively. These hybrid options can provide an interesting balance of power and survivability. For example, the new Ethereal Staff is something a lot of people may be overlooking at the moment.

For the most part, I agree with your assessment, though.

I think Ethereal Staff could be ok on mage solos (e.g. Baron) but I haven't done enough testing.

That item just seems meh now. 4% from 2,500 health is only 100 health. Seems so miniscule.

Good points, though, guys.

But it lasts for 45 seconds and has a 15 second cooldown, and can stack on the same target. Don't forget that you are STEALING their health AND mana, which you deplete them of and can use for your own benefit (example; using their stolen mana for a Book of the Dead shield).

Using your example, hitting the target twice within a 45 second window would steal 196 (essentially 200) health and roughly 16% of their mana. Look how expensive items are that give you 200 health. Obviously, these items provide other effects, but you are also stealing that health from an enemy as well as a considerable portion of their mana, AND you get the base stats of Ethereal Staff. Consider this when attacking a higher health target (example: in the 3000+ range) and you have a nice offensive/defensive hybridization taking place.