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An In-Depth Discussion On Item Choices (Y11, Patch 11.1 "Year 11")

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Introduction

Recent updates:

2024/1/29: Guide is current as of Patch 11.1, "Year 11."

Revision History

Hello everyone! My name is Branmuffin17, and I'm a SMITEFire admin and casual SMITE player on PC. Welcome to my Items guide, which discusses the merits and viability of (most) individual items. It also covers other aspects of choosing items, including builds and build progression, appropriate itemization for god types and roles, and concepts such as mechanics of damage mitigation and how penetration / protection reduction works.

Feedback, corrections, additions, and anything else that will improve the content of this guide are appreciated. With that said, let's get into it.

Build Progression Basics for Roles/Classes

Theorycrafting and the art of optimizing builds has always been at the forefront of high-level play. Individual skill level and teamwork can make or break a team, but item choices have a huge effect as well.

The process of choosing the best items for a given situation incorporates recognition of several things, including but not limited to:

God Kit: What skills does the god have? Do they include high burst damage, or do they provide a lot of crowd control (CC)? Does the god have strong basic attacks or do they rely on abilities?

Scylla is a mage whose kit focuses on high, single-hit burst damage...she should focus on items that provide power and penetration. Kumbhakarna is a guardian with abilities that root, mesmerize, and knock up the enemy, so his strength is control, and cooldown reduction (CDR) items work well for him to use those abilities often.
Kali has quick basic attack progression with single target focus. Her kit should revolve around attack speed, penetration, and the key item Qin's Sais. Vulcan has a passive that enhances his survivability and sustain when he hits enemies with abilities, and his Inferno Cannon deals basic attack damage better than he ever could...he should just concentrate on ability use.

Damage Types & Scaling: Does the god have single-hit skills, or can their abilities hit multiple times in succession (either tick or DoT damage)? What is the scaling of said abilities (+ X% of your physical/magical power)? The higher the scaling is, the more that the power stat will increase the damage potential.

Single-hit abilities benefit more from non-stacking penetration items, such as Obsidian Shard and Titan's Bane. Basic attackers will often build stacking protection reduction from basics, provided by items such as Demonic Grip (magical) and The Executioner (physical).
Do the god's skills have high base damage and low scaling, or low base damage and high scaling? High scaling strongly benefits from higher power (e.g. Cupid's Heart Bomb has 160% scaling (through both hits) and often indicates that they're meant to be built for damage. Inversely, low scaling (e.g. Geb's Shock Wave has 50% scaling) is a hint that they should be focusing less on damage and more on tanking or utility.
Usually the class also gives indication of the type of play they're meant for...Guardians and Warriors often have good base damage but lower scaling and are designed to be tanky, while Assassins, Hunters and Mages are intended to focus mokre on damage.

Game Mode: Are you playing Conquest and expect to find yourself alone or with only one other teammate for a good portion of the match? Are you playing Duel, where it's just you and an enemy? Or are you playing Arena, where it's a constant teamfight?

In Conquest, starter items (which were designed specifically with Conquest in mind) are almost always suggested, as they provide important early stats in a very reasonably-priced item. Early sustain (health, mana, or both) is helpful to allow you to stay out and farm longer.
In Duel, you only have to worry about one god, so counter-building is a key component of an effective build. Against a basic attacker like Kali, physical protections such as Midgardian Mail can work well to slow her attack and give you a second of breathing room when she engages.
In teamfight modes, aura items can have effects on multiple gods at once, and threat of damage from multiple enemies at any time can mean protections can have a more significant effect.

Team Compositions: Once you're familiar with the gods, you can easily recognize if an enemy team is likely to be tanky, squishy, or if there's an imbalance (e.g. 4 magical gods and only 1 physical god). It's a bit easier in Conquest since roles are assigned, but for teamfight modes, it will also have an effect on which god you choose (depending on teammates choices, role calling, etc.).

If you're a tank, and you see the enemy team has 4 physical gods, the physical protection aura from Sovereignty, purchased early, is going to have a beneficial effect for your whole team. Likewise, if you see that multiple gods on your team are basic-attack oriented, choosing Shogun's Kusari will help enhance their damage output.
If you're a physical basic attacker, and you have 2 other strong physical gods on your team, getting a protection reduction item such as The Executioner will help increase their damage. As a magical god, Demonic Grip (for basic attackers) or Spear of the Magus provides bonus damage for teammates on the target you affect.

Item Costs: What is the gold cost of the item? Especially in longer game modes with slower gold accumulation (such as Conquest), choosing a high cost item early in the game can mean that you're still working to complete it while the enemy already has completed their lower-cost item of choice, giving them a significant statistical advantage at least until you're able to finish your item.

Building appropriate lower-cost items early in a match can lay the foundation of needed stats to enhance the effects of higher-cost items later in a match. Building enough cheaper items that provide necessary function (e.g. The Executioner provides AS and high protection reduction @ 2,200 gold) earlier to take advantage of a mid/late-build Qin's Sais (2,600 gold) can make sure its effectiveness is immediately felt.
This doesn't mean that higher-cost items cannot ever be built early without good effect. In cases where you're able to get significantly ahead in farm (due to pressure, kills, securing the Gold Fury, etc.), it can give you enough gold difference to get an expensive item earlier. Items like Doom Orb (2,850 gold) can give you very functional early effect (high power, movement speed) that balances the cost.

Personal Playstyle: As quoted by Krett: “The core of every build in every game that has a build – even an MMO like World of Warcraft – is the methodology,” explains Krett. “What are you doing and how does your build help you do it?” In other words, how do you play, and how can you tailor a build to best suit your playstyle?

Aggressive Playstyle: Do you find yourself overextending a lot? Are you able to easily get kills, but then have problems getting out alive? Of course, the optimal solution is to train yourself to recognize optimal situations where you can attack, with a high probability of survival, by watching enemy ability use (making sure their CC abilities or ults are down), gaining better awareness of surroundings and teammate proximity to help, etc. However, as an example, one build style you might consider is to build some protection instead of going full glass cannon, or get some additional movespeed to help you escape.
Having to back constantly due to low health, mana, or both: Do you take too much damage, too often, in comparison to enemies? Do you constantly find that you quickly run out of mana? For health, choosing items with additional health or protections can help you stay out longer, but you might also consider items providing lifesteal or HP5 (health regeneration) early in a build. For mana, consider 2 options: 1) learn to choose the best times to use abilities, rather than just spamming them when they're available, or 2) building items providing additional mana or MP5 (mana regeneration).
Consider God Choice: If you have an aggressive playstyle, it's probably better for you to choose Bacchus or Sobek over Khepri. If you're much more comfortable hanging back and poking or protecting from distance, you might find more enjoyment playing Eset over Chang'e, or Geb instead of Ymir. Learn the strengths of each god, and consider honing your skills with those gods that fit your personal preference.

The following is a brief and general breakdown of standard build progression with itemization examples based on build type (tank, bruiser, full damage).

Tanks

Summary: Tanks choose items that provide protections and health, with the intent of soaking up a lot of damage and being a major distraction to the enemy team. Guardians and Warriors are most often built tanky, though examples of gods outside of these classes that can act as a tank include , , , , and .

General Role: Full tanks are usually built in the Support role in Conquest, though many Guardians and Warriors in the Solo lane may also build similarly. They have great function in all other modes to help soak damage, disrupt enemies, and protect teammates.

Build progression: In almost all modes, starter items are built first, and protection / health / CDR items are built after that. Later in a build, expect to see more situational utility and counter items to fit the needs of the match. You (almost) never see full offensive items being built. Here is an example:

Tank Build Progression

Starter Item
Protection item (usually against highest threat)
Protection or CDR item
Protection or CDR item
Situational / counter item
Situational / counter item

Guardian Tank Build Example

Common Starter Items:

Benevolence, Sentinel's Gift, War Flag, Sands of Time, Tainted Steel (for non-Conquest teamfight modes)

Common Defensive Items:

General Health / Protections: Breastplate of Valor, Gauntlet of Thebes, Genji's Guard, Heartward Amulet, Hide of the Urchin, Mail of Renewal, Magi's Cloak, Mantle of Discord, Oni Hunter's Garb, Pridwen, Prophetic Cloak, Shogun's Kusari, Sovereignty, Spirit Robe, Stone of Gaia, Talisman of Energy
Aggressive Protections: Stone of Binding, Manticore's Spikes, Void Doumaru, Void Shield

Common Counter / Utility Items:

Counter Items: Contagion, Erosion, Midgardian Mail, Pestilence, Spectral Armor, Winged Blade
Utility Options: Breastplate of Regrowth, Caduceus Club, Emperor's Armor, Ethereal Staff, Fae-Blessed Hoops, Gem of Isolation, Lono's Mask, Lotus Sickle, Relic Dagger

Bruisers

Summary: Bruiser builds and playstyles may combine offensive and defensive stats in their item choices, often to help counter specific enemies while retaining a good amount of damage potential. Gods with abilities providing high base damage can build mostly protections and still be a strong offensive threat. Matches in the duel mode often build both defense and offense to specifically counter the one enemy they're facing.

General Role: Conquest Solo-laners, as well as select Junglers, will often build as Bruisers. In other modes, almost any god can go Bruiser, depending on the situation. Bruisers may come from almost all classes other than Hunters (who usually are best built as full damage/Glass Cannon), but are typified by the Assassin, Guardian, and Warrior classes more than others.

Unique Non-Warrior Class Examples of Gods Sometimes Built As Bruisers:

Assassins: Camazotz, Fenrir, Ne Zha, Ravana, Serqet, Thanatos, Thor
Guardians: Athena, Cabrakan, Cerberus, Jormungandr, Kuzenbo, Sobek, Xing Tian, Ymir
Mages: Baron Samedi, Eset, Hades, Tiamat, Zhong Kui

Build progression: Starter items are typically built first. What follows depends on the god, build preference, and mode. For Warriors in the Conquest Solo-Lane, they'll usually get an item that counters their lane enemy 2nd. For Assassins, the 2nd item might be an offensive item rather than defensive. Here is an example:

Bruiser Build Progression

Starter Item
Damage or Protection item (highest threat)
Damage or Protection item
Situational / counter item
Situational / counter item
Situational / counter item

Warrior Solo Build Example

Common Bruiser Starter Items:

Bluestone Pendant, Death's Toll, Manikin Scepter, Sands of Time, Tainted Steel, Vampiric Shroud, Warding Sigil, Warrior's Axe

Common Defensive Items:

Magical: Genji's Guard, Heartward Amulet, Oni Hunter's Garb, Pestilence, Shogun's Kusari, Talisman of Energy, Winged Blade
Physical Protections: Berserker's Shield, Breastplate of Regrowth, Breastplate of Valor, Contagion, Gladiator's Shield, Lotus Sickle, Mystical Mail, Phalanx, Sovereignty, Spectral Armor
Universal Protections: Archdruid's Fury, Magi's Cloak, Mail of Renewal, Mantle of Discord, Phalanx, Pridwen, Spirit Robe, Stone of Binding

Common Offensive / Utility Items:

Full Damage (Glass Cannon)

Summary: Full damage (AKA glass cannon) builds focus on maximizing damage (at the cost of survivability) via stats like power, penetration, lifesteal, attack speed, and CDR. "The best defense is a good offense" is a perfect motto for them. They may occasionally build one item with some protection function, but generally want as much damage as they can get.

General Role: Gods that choose full damage are commonly in the Assassin, Hunter and Mage classes. The Conquest roles associated with higher damage builds include ADC, Jungler, and Mid-Laner.

Build progression: Starter items are typically built first. Depending on the god, all following items look to increase their power, penetration, CDR, attack speed, critical strike chance (physical gods only)...things that increase their damage output.

Full Damage Build Progression

Starter Item
Damage and / or Utility
Damage and / or Utility
Damage and / or Utility
Damage and / or Utility
Damage and / or Utility

Full Damage Mage Build Example

Common Starter Items:

Bumba's Dagger, Conduit Gem, Death's Toll, Eye Of The Jungle, Gilded Arrow, Leather Cowl, Manikin Scepter, Sands of Time, Vampiric Shroud

Common Damage Items:

Magical Items: Bancroft's Talon, Book of Thoth, Charon's Coin, Chronos' Pendant, Cyclopean Ring, Demonic Grip, Divine Ruin, Doom Orb, Hastened Ring, Obsidian Shard, Polynomicon, Pythagorem's Piece, Rod of Tahuti, Soul Gem, Soul Reaver, Spear of Desolation, Spear of the Magus, Sphinx's Baubles, Staff of Myrddin, Tablet of Destinies, Telkhines Ring, Typhon's Fang, Warlock's Staff
Physical Items: Atalanta's Bow, Bladed Boomerang, Bloodforge, Brawler's Beat Stick, Deathbringer, Demon Blade, Devourer's Gauntlet, Dominance, Fail-Not, Golden Blade, Hastened Katana, Hydra's Lament, Jotunn's Wrath, Odysseus' Bow, Qin's Sais, Rage, Serrated Edge, Silverbranch Bow, Soul Eater, The Crusher, The Executioner, Titan's Bane, Transcendence
Utility / Survival Items: Gem of Isolation, Magi's Cloak, Mantle of Discord, Rod of Asclepius, Spectral Armor, Toxic Blade

Starter Items

Starter items are effective low-cost items intended to support the early stages of a match. They are designed mainly for use in the Conquest mode, but can be helpful in other modes as well. While they are quickly outclassed by standard Tier 3 items, they can be upgraded later in the game and are almost always worth considering.

There are (mostly) 3 starter items intended for each of the 5 roles (Carry, Support, Jungler, Mid-Lane, Solo-Lane), plus an additional "Solo" starter with specific anti-heal counter function and 2 masks that are used to allow off-meta picks to play different roles. However, all classes can consider any of the starters, so you can tailor your start to the needs you have.

This section is organized by Starter items intended mainly for the 5 Conquest roles. Note that some starters categorized in one role can still be useful in others. For example, is a popular pickup for basic attacking gods in the Solo lane.

*NOTE* Starters are not available in the Duel mode!

ADC (Carry) Starters

Carry Starters

Death's Toll	Main Purpose: Reliable Health / Mana Sustain Best for: Basic attackers that are looking for general sustain in the early game. Focus early game on clearing waves and nearby camps, and staying out as long as possible, backing optimally when you have enough gold to buy a full item. Due to having good mana sustain, can work for both basic-attack and hybrid carries. Current Use / Popularity: This item is a safe pickup for Carries as well as some basic-attacking Solo-Laners for early sustain.

Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Death's Embrace Death's Temper Death's Embrace (High Sustain): This is the defensive/back-line option. Basically an enhanced version of Death's Toll. Basic attacks restore health and mana for each basic hit, which translates to pretty high sustain as long as you've got high base AS. Death's Temper (DPS): This upgrade loses the sustain function (though most builds utilizing this get sustain from other lifesteal items. Instead, it gives you a boost to your basic attack damage output along with high AS. The passive stacks are applied similarly to Doom Orb or Talisman of Energy, in that it provides a buff as enemies - including minions - die near you (meaning you don't have to last-hit). Stacking up to 10x, you can see up to a 35% increase in basic attack damage output. The application of the stacks is a bit unreliable depending on when teamfights break out, but the fact that this item provides attack speed allows it to work very well with most hunter builds using crits or high-AS builds w/ Qin's Sais.

Gilded Arrow	Main Purpose: Farming Best for: Carries looking for early farming function and late-game damage output via high AS or critical strike chance (see upgrades). Current Use / Popularity: This starter provides a small amount of mana sustain, but no health sustain, so is best built in combination with early lifesteal. The main draw is situationally increased gold gain and attack speed.
Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Diamond Arrow Ornate Arrow Diamond Arrow (High Situational AS): Provides a fairly hefty 80 basic attack damage, but the more interesting part is the stacking attack speed (up to 3 stacks and 60% (!!!) AS). Clear a jungle camp on the way to a teamfight (or get a kill in a teamfight) and you'll have a very strong boost to your damage potential, especially late-game if you build into Silverbranch Bow. However, the passive being situational makes this a tough upgrade to recommend. It is an option if you're a magical ADC and have otherwise built low AS, and can be considered for a hunter with Silverbranch Bow. Ornate Arrow (Crit Builds): This is the upgrade to get if you are building into critical strikes. As long as you have excess gold in your pocket, it provides steady attack speed and critical strike chance, freeing up the rest of the build for more flexibility.

Leather Cowl	Main Purpose: Utility (Attack Speed / Movement Speed) Best for: Carries where multiple teammates have basic attack function. Good for mobility and split-pushing, and for grouping with the team for objective secure. Current Use / Popularity: Carry starter that provides some early lifesteal, power, and attack speed. Early in a Conquest match (or teamfight mode) when you have a teammate near, you gain additional attack speed; when you are alone, you gain some movement speed (perfect for chase / escape in 1 v 1s). NOTE Only usable by physical gods

Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Hunter's Cowl Leader's Cowl Hunter's Cowl (Team AS): This is the standard Cowl upgrade for carries, providing a stronger version of the starter's general stats. The key bonus stat here is that you share attack speed when grouped with others, which can be very strong when attacking structures or objectives (e.g. Fire Giant). Obviously better when other teammates have good basic attack function as well. Leader's Cowl (Numbers Advantage Boost): You gain stacks that provide increased power to all nearby teammates, as long as your team outnumbers the nearby enemy. This can help situationally in teamfights, but more importantly when looking to secure an objective, where you can often gain full stacks for maximum damage output.

Jungler Starters

Jungler Starter Items

Jungle Starters

Bumba's Dagger	Main Purpose: Reliable Health / Mana Sustain / Future Cooldown Source Current Use / Popularity: This starter is for ability-based Junglers that want a traditional starter feel, allowing for enhanced jungle camp damage for quicker clear and health / mana restore while doing so. As the cheapest Jungler starter, you get some gold relief for more potions or starting item flexibility, but lose out on a bit of god damage potential or other utility.

Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Bumba's Spear Bumba's Hammer Bumba's Spear (Higher Damage): This is the enhanced version of Bumba's Dagger, providing a lot of the same general function but enhanced for offensive use with added penetration. Provides continued damage boost for jungle clear, with an added bonus of dealing enhanced damage to jungle bosses (e.g. Fire Giant) as well as structures. With the current strength of Jungler items, the offensive stats this provides is often preferred over the Hammer upgrade except for those specific gods previously mentioned. Bumba's Hammer (Extra CDR for Attack Cancelers): Due to the way the passive works, this is a solid upgrade for gods that are able to do a lot of attack canceling (e.g. Susano, Awilix, Ravana, Tsukuyomi, Ao Kuang). It also provides a measure of survivability due to the boost in health.

Eye of the Jungle	Main Purpose: Vision / Roaming Best for: Used by Junglers looking for increased vision in the Jungle. Current Use / Popularity: Generally popular starter that provides vision when clearing Jungle camps along with very reliable health and mana sustain while in the Jungle. You have to farm efficiently to get use out of the vision, and need to look to steal enemy camps when possible.
Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Seer of the Jungle Protector of the Jungle Seer of the Jungle (Vision & AS): As an alternative of sorts to the starter, this upgrade switches ward function from placing temporary wards to temporarily being able to SEE enemy wards. You can de-ward key locations when you're wandering the Jungle, which can really help you surprise the enemy or blind them to your movements. The added attack speed is useful to some junglers. Protector of the Jungle (Stronger Jungle Presence): This is usually the more popular upgrade. You get an enhancement to the base stats, which is noticeably higher with regard to attack speed. A big draw here is that while in the Jungle, you gain a % buff to your power and protections. This is great for jungle teamfights and fights over jungle objectives, and benefits bruiser builds more than others. However, it loses out on functionality when you're not in the jungle.

Manikin Scepter	Main Purpose: Enhanced basic-attack damage Best for: Junglers (basic attackers more than others) looking to deal more damage with basic attacks and apply heavy pressure. Situationally, some ADCs can build this as well. Current Use / Popularity: Functional offensive utility for basic attack gods or attack-canceling gods looking to apply high early-game pressure.

Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Manikin Mace Manikin Hidden Blade Manikin Mace (Sustained Fighting): The enhanced form of the starter, Jungle monsters and bosses get some enhanced damage applied to them. It also can apply decent DoT damage to enemy gods, and up to a 40% (!!!) attack speed slow. Manikin Hidden Blade (Gank / Burst Damage): This is the upgrade for gods that like to gank. If no damage is taken or dealt in the last 5s (which is pretty short for this function), you'll immediately deal 20% of the enemy's current health as physical damage. Basically, it's an enhanced form of something like Soul Reaver's or Heartseeker's passive. Even crazier, it applies a 20% movement slow for 5s!!! That's a very long time to allow for added control and chase/kill potential. Great for diving the back line for both Junglers and Solo-Laners and surprising enemies by closing with Blink Rune allow the bonus damage to be applied easily.

Mid Starters

*NOTE* Only usable by magical gods!

Mid Starters

Mid Starters

Vampiric Shroud	Main Purpose: Reliable Health / Mana Sustain Best for: Gods that expect to take some damage and need to get closer to fight, don't have healing in their kits, or don't pick up early lifesteal items. Good for magical Bruisers in the Mid or Solo lanes. Current Use / Popularity: This starter is an ol' reliable, providing early health and mana sustain. This is the only starter that comes with any form of health sustain. All of the Mid starters come with some mana sustain. Currently seen in the Solo lane and used by some Mid-laners that take special advantage of lifesteal.

Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Blood-Soaked Shroud Sacrificial Shroud Blood-Soaked Shroud (Higher Sustain): This is the upgrade path that is mostly an enhanced version of the starter. Good magical power, high health, and decent lifesteal with further sustain function in the passive. Sacrificial Shroud (Extra Damage): This is the more offensive upgrade, but it's also riskier. More aggressive offensive stats including better power and some physical protection but no health. The big stat is the passive, that trades a bonus to ability damage at the expense of your own health. That health loss can easily be made up if you have lifesteal in your build.

Sands of Time	Main Purpose: Early cooldown Best for: Mages that want to use abilities often, Healers Current Use / Popularity: This is a starter with a very clear focus on prolific ability use. It has no health sustain, which can be balanced with Healing Potions or healing abilities. Pick it up especially when you don't plan to get a lot of other early CDR items. Don't pair it with Chronos' Pendant.
Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Pendulum of Ages The Alternate Timeline Pendulum of Ages (High CDR): This is the common upgrade. Provides a good amount of power when you have a full stock of mana, along with additional CDR. The Alternate Timeline (Prevent Immediate Death): Although this item gives you a personal Khepri ult (saves you from death temporarily), the main disadvantage - a 6 minute CD - can be a deal-breaker. The protection stats make this a semi-bruiser item. It can be the more appealing upgrade if you already have enough CDR in your other items and don't need the extra from Pendulum.

Conduit Gem	Main Purpose: Ability Damage Best for: Gods that want added damage for their early ability use. Current Use / Popularity: Another starter with no health sustain, making it better for gods that look to get more damage out of their abilities when they cast, as opposed to spamming abilities with the help of CDR.

Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Archmage's Gem Gem of Focus Archmage's Gem (Burst Damage): This has a similar damage boost feel to the Sands upgrade Pendulum of Ages, except the damage boost has more potential but also gets used up in one go. Damage equal to 30% of your magical power at full stacks is pretty big, and pairs well with Soul Gem and Rod of Tahuti. Common upgrade route, especially for gods like Nu Wa and Scylla. Best for gods that have high burst damage potential and don't rely on CDR. Gem of Focus (Consistent Damage / Utility): This is the utility upgrade, providing a bit of movement speed and damage increase. It's stacked in the same way Ra's passive is stacked, which means you don't get any added benefit until you start casting. Pairs well with gods that don't rely on any one ability for their main damage. Best if you have low cooldowns on your abilities and / or you build lots of CDR.

Solo Starters

Solo Starters

Warrior's Axe	Main Purpose: Sustain & Boxing Best for: Solos looking for a comfortable starter that provides early sustain Current Use / Popularity: In comparison to the S7 Solo starter Warrior's Blessing, this has similar stats and function, providing some health and mana sustain when hitting abilities on enemy gods. The base protections and health steal allow it to work against any enemy. It's also cheap, allowing for more starting potions. This is a common pickup if you're not looking to grab Bluestone Pendant for more aggressive ability play (physical gods), or Vampiric Shroud (some magical gods), as it's a safe pick.

Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Sundering Axe Axe of Animosity Sundering Axe (Abilities): The ability-user's upgrade, providing some power and protections, while adding health sustain in the passive. Axe of Animosity (Basic Attacks): This is the basic-attacker's upgrade, with health and protections, along with a passive that deals extra damage for every basic attack. Works even on structures.

Bluestone Pendant	Main Purpose: Early aggression via abilities Best for: Physical gods with good poke abilities and multiple damaging abilities Current Use / Popularity: This physical-only item comes with no protections or mitigations, instead opting for some power and a bonus to ability damage. It is an aggressive option for gods that have good distance poke abilities or need help with clearing the minion wave. This one comes with some mana sustain to support that ability use, along with pretty good HP5, which supports the get-in-deal-damage-get-out style of play. NOTE Only usable by physical gods!
Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Bluestone Brooch Corrupted Bluestone Bluestone Brooch (Extra Ability Damage): This is the enhanced version of the starter, boosting all the base stats and significantly increasing the damage potential of the passive. If the starter fits your early needs, this upgrade should be the same. Corrupted Bluestone (Added Basic Attack Function): This is an interesting upgrade, but also more niche. Comes with higher power and a passive that adds some physical damage, reduces enemy attack speed by up to 20%, and gives you an attack speed boost of up to 50% (!!!!!!!). You're unlikely to see the full AS boost, likely seeing more like 10-30%, but that is still significant. The stacks are applied by abilities, but support basic attacks, so hybrid or basic attack gods such as Amaterasu, Bellona, Erlang Shen, Osiris, and Vamana will get the most benefit from this upgrade.

Warding Sigil	Main Purpose: Counter expected incoming damage Best for: Gods that are likely to lose a 1v1 battle and expect to take more damage than they give. The passive gives protections and healing when you take damage. Current Use / Popularity: This is currently not a very popular item, as the functionality applies more to being more defensive in playstyle and some mediocre upgrades. It can still provide decent function but you're probably better off going with other starters at this time. NOTE Only usable by physical gods!
Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Sigil of the Old Guard Infused Sigil Sigil of the Old Guard (Defensive Mitigations): Provides dual protections but focuses more on magical. Decreases your damage and provides some good healing when you're hit with enemy abilities. Infused Sigil (Aggressive Frontlining): This is a situational item with interesting offensive potential. If you expect to take damage and often look to dive and disrupt the squishy enemy backline, the burst damage this can provide may help secure kills or at least force the enemy to retreat.

Tainted Steel	Main Purpose: Anti-Heal Best for: When you really, really want (need?) anti-heal. Can be considered for teamfight modes. Current Use / Popularity: The base stats aren't bad in a general sense. But it doesn't have any inherent sustain on its own, so you need to take advantage of an enemy's healing (which steals some from them and gives it to you). You'll need to build HP5 / MP5 through other items, and likely pretty early in the match if you need sustain. While anti-heal can be helpful, don't expect it to have a huge impact on your early game. If you're building this item, it's with the late-game in mind, especially if multiple enemies will have lifesteal and healing. While other starters may see use in multiple roles, this one is fairly niche.

Upgrade Options (Available at Level 20) Tainted Breastplate Tainted Amulet Tainted Breastplate (Higher Physical Prots): The power and protections on this item aren't bad...in fact, the physical protection this provides is one of the highest in the game. This is where the anti-heal potential of the tree shines, as it offers the highest anti-heal amount of all items, and for the longest duration. Tainted Amulet (Higher Magical Prots): Slightly less power and a shift in protection balance, being more strongly emphasized on the magical side. This item serves the purpose to counter magical healers. Like Breastplate, the anti-heal applies when you damage enemy gods. The twist is that the healing you reduce is converted to healing for yourself, providing an interesting take on self-sustain.

Support Starters

*NOTE* Support starters are not available in the Joust mode!

Support Starters

Support Starters

Sentinel's Gift	Main Purpose: General Sustain / Gold Gain Best for: Supports / Tanks looking to keep things traditional, playing as a standard support that sticks close to and assists teammates more than aggressing on enemies. Current Use / Popularity: This provides universal stats to help Supports support. Small base protections and health, decent health and mana sustain, and bonus gold gain to help the Support keep up with farm in the early game. This sees a lot of use for its overall balance. If you aren't sure which starter to use, this is a safe option. The upgrades offer significant benefits as well.

Upgrade Options (Available at Level 15) Sentinel's Boon Sentinel's Embrace Sentinel's Boon (High Sustain): This is Sentinel's Gift on steroids, providing good physical and magical protections, a large chunk of health, good mana sustain, and continued gold/health/mana for assisting. Can help you get back up in health through minion waves to continue to participate in another upcoming fight, but has strong enough base stats (at a cheap enough price) to be appealing. Consider this a selfish upgrade compared to Sentinel's Embrace, and is really functional in non-Conquest modes. Sentinel's Embrace (Team Protections): This is the significantly stronger team-focused upgrade that gives nearby teammates from 12-30 added protections (split evenly from 60 depending on how many teammates are close). Consider it Gauntlet of Thebes on steroids. This is your go-to upgrade for Conquest.

Benevolence	Main Purpose: Farming Early / Damage Functions Late Best for: Supports that have an end-game in mind (Teammate Damage Mitigation, Aggressive Play / off-meta Supports w/ basic attack functions) Current Use / Popularity: This starter has an interesting mechanic that gains stacks for assists, and when you're not near an ally. Those stacks convert to healing for you and the ally once you're in range, and you gain gold as those stacks are used up. If you go this route, you have a specific end-game strategy in mind via one of the upgrades.

Upgrade Options (Available at Level 15) Compassion Heroism Compassion (Damage Absorption): This is a balanced upgrade that typically provides extra gold, gives good magical protection, health and mana sustain. While the base stats are generally good for health and health sustain, this is all about the passive. When nearby teammates are damaged, your presence helps them mitigate a portion (up to 100) of incoming damage. That damage is instead transferred to you as magical damage. This is an interesting way to provide tankiness to the teammates that are more likely to be targeted for damage, and is a solid option for Supports / Tanks that stick closer to teammates for peel, rather than front-line for disruption. Heroism (Single Target Support): While this doesn't provide protections, it can give a nearby teammate that gets hard-CC'd a significant health shield that can possibly save their lives.

War Flag	Main Purpose: Aggressive Play Best for: Supports that plan to play an aggressive game and have good early damage or CC potential. Current Use / Popularity: This starter provides interesting aggressive utility, in that assists not only give you and nearby allies health and mana, but also a small movement and attack speed buff as well. This can be great in the early game for chasing down an enemy and getting your team an early kill. You'll see the best early advantage if your Support + ADC combo has strong early game potential and better general mobility.

Upgrade Options (Available at Level 15) War Banner Spartan Flag War Banner (Moving Fights): This is a stronger version of War Flag. If you stick close as a group, you can see some great mobility traveling through the jungle or clearing lanes, and pretty easily catch up to enemies if they're forced to flee. And for basic-attack heavy comps, if you can get those assist stacks up, you're giving those teammates up to 40% attack speed (!!!!!!) for the duration. You'll have to be good about keeping those stacks, but there's a lotof utility potential in this item. Spartan Flag (Fights Around Objectives): This upgrade also provides power, but rather than focus on general mobility or fights that involve a lot of movement, this one is stronger in protecting / sieging objectives. The flag you call down gives teammates in the radius a 10% power and 15% AS boost, which can be very strong late-game with full builds. While the flag can't move, the radius is very large (70 units), giving your team an advantage if you choose to fight enemies under their phoenix, or when attempting to secure or steal the Fire Giant under pressure.

Special / Off-Role Starters

Special / Off-Role Starters

Fighter's Mask	Main Purpose: Full damage for gods that are typically tanks Best for: Tanks that are looking to play off-roles as a Mid-laner or Jungler in Conquest or a fully offensive god in teamfight modes. Current Use / Popularity: Not very popular...often, people playing the tanky gods prefer to go bruiser with at least one or two protection items, and they can often still do very good damage. You almost never see this in Conquest, but people have fun with it in the less serious teamfight modes. NOTE Only usable by Guardians and Warriors!

Upgrade Option (Available at Level 20) Rangda's Mask Rangda's Mask (Full Damage): You only have the one choice here for an upgrade, but it's the upgrade you were aiming for anyway when you pick up Fighter's Mask. As long as you build at least 200 physical power or 300 magical power from items, you don't get the Weakness debuff applied, and instead you gain stacks of Strength which give you a max of 15% damage dealt and 10% movement speed. Basically, it forces you to build full damage.

Protector's Mask	Main Purpose: Sacrifice damage to be a tank Best for: Assassins or Mages looking to play as a full tank/Support Current Use / Popularity: This is a more popular item than Fighter's Mask but is still very niche. There are select assassins and mages (almost no hunters) that can play effectively as a tank due to strong CC effects, such as Ne Zha and Nox. If you're looking to be as tanky as possible and aren't looking for the effects provided by the more standard Support starters, this can be a fun one to tank a ton of damage late-game. NOTE Only usable by Assassins, Hunters and Mages!

Upgrade Option (Available at Level 20) Lono's Mask Lono's Mask (Full Tank): As with the other mask, you only have the one choice for upgrade (which isn't much of a choice at all), but it's what you wanted anyway. The opposite of Rangda's Mask, you want to build high protections to avoid the debuff it can apply. As long as you build 225 or more protections from items, you'll avoid the Cowardice debuff (which reduces damage and healing output), and instead gain Bravery, providing up to 10% damage mitigation and an aura of 20 protections to all nearby teammates.

Movement Speed Scaling & Movespeed Items

Early Level Movement Scaling

All players will gain movement speed as they level at the following rate:

Players at level 1 will have +0% Movement Speed
Players at level 2 will have +3% Movement Speed
Players at level 3 will have +6% Movement Speed
Players at level 4 will have +9% Movement Speed
Players at level 5 will have +12% Movement Speed
Players at level 6 will have +15% Movement Speed
Players at level 7 through 20 will have +18% Movement Speed

Items that provide additional movement speed are covered below. They can enhance mobility for faster rotations, as well as provide other utility not found in other items. Many of these are picked up fairly early in a match, when needed in a particular build. Examples include or for Mid-Lane Mages, and the Katana tree (e.g. , , and ) for Assassin Junglers.

Movement speed has high value in Season 11's Conquest map, due to the large size of the map.

Universal Movement Speed Items

Breastplate of Regrowth	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. While it requires using a god that has healing in their kit, it provides good physical protection and a nice boost to movement speed that can be used quite often. This provides CDR and a boost in power as well, providing well-rounded defensive and offensive functionality.
Lotus Sickle	Viability, Usage & Status: Situational Viability. Only functions well for gods that are able to heal others, but provides some helpful protections that should make it a supportive consideration. An item you can consider for select gods with teammate healing, such as Guan Yu, Sylvanus, Terra and Yemoja.
Relic Dagger	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. The draw is the passive relic CD effect which is particularly great for Blink Rune users and for any teamfight relics. It's very cheap and has high health, with some added CDR, which makes it a pretty well-balanced item. Just make sure you're using those relics often to get max effectiveness.
Talisman of Energy	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. It has good health and protections, but it requires kills / assists for temporary stacking of MS and AS, making it better for laning stages than late-game situations. This item is not currently in favor, due to an influx of new items and a revamp of other items that saw their effectiveness increase. This could see a buff to bring it more in line with other items. Can be useful in non-Conquest teamfight modes like Slash or Arena.
Toxic Blade	Viability, Usage & Status: Low Viability. Utility option for basic attackers to add anti-heal function. While it can be nice to decrease enemy healing, this item has no power and while the attack speed boost is potentially large, it's generally overshadowed by the Envenomed Executioner glyph for anti-heal effect for basic attackers.
War Flag	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Considered a support starter but its stats are somewhat mediocre. More functional in teamfight modes. This item provides some decent gold gain and health/mana sustain, but is touted for the movement and attack speed it can provide situationally. It's meant for aggressive play but when minions aren't being cleared, it's not providing much benefit. The upgrades for this starter also have an offensive focus, which are often overshadowed by more defensive options.
War Banner	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. One of the upgrade options for War Flag, it provides enhanced stats of the base item but comes with the same issues. If you like what War Flag brings in the early game, you might feel the same about this upgrade. If you find War Flag's passive benefits too situational, you'll feel the same about this as well.
Winged Blade	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Defensive utility option for Tanks or Bruisers, as a counter to slows. Picked up late for added utility, especially in teamfights. For a low price, you get added movespeed and some tankiness to enemy slows. The passive shares the slow immunity and MS with nearby teammates, making it quite helpful.

Magical Movement Speed Items

Charon's Coin	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Mostly an offensive item that provides power and % pen, with a unique passive giving some HP5 and movement speed. This provides the same base % penetration as Obsidian Shard, but with a strong utility feel. Solid mid/late-game item. This or Ob Shard should be generally core for ability-based mage damage builds.
Doom Orb	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Expensive, but provides very solid power and a ton of utility. Great for rotations in Conquest. Some rush this early in Conquest for the huge boost in power, decent mana, and strong rotation speed. Otherwise, it's a solid mid/late game item if you want offensive potential with MS.
Hastened Ring	Viability, Usage & Status: Situational Viability. Used by magical gods with strong basic attack function. This item grants 6 seconds of high mobility for boxing when basic attacking, before requiring a 25 second CD to become available again. Can see some good effect for some magical gods such as Chronos, Freya, Olorun, and Sol.
Rod of Asclepius	Viability, Usage & Status: Situational Viability. Optional item for healers to enhance group healing. Not only does this item enhance healing, but the added move speed and health provide good survival utility for healing mages, since they usually don't have escapes. Usually picked up after movement speed and CDR items, but can be purchased late if other items are preferred earlier.

Physical Movement Speed Items

Atalanta's Bow	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Mid to late-game AS and pen option for basic-attackers that adds situational mobility. The combination of power, attack speed, % penetration, and enhanced mobility makes this a functional item for basic attackers, but it's often overshadowed by other basic attack items.
Bladed Boomerang	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Crit item that provides situational (possibly inconvenient) added buffs. While the general stats are helpful, the passive requires you to pick up a deployable to gain the added benefits (MS and more crit chance), which can be difficult or annoying while in the middle of a fight.
Demon Blade	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Formerly called Wind Demon, this is a well-rounded item for crit builds. This item provides well rounded offensive stats with added % penetration and movement speed for a time when you critically strike.
Golden Blade	Viability, Usage & Status: Situational Viability. Strategic item to aid minion clear for gods that have weak clearing abilities or want to save their abilities for fighting gods. Core for certain Assassins in the Jungle, and can also be seen in the Solo lane. Not typically recommended for teamfight modes. This is a specialized item for Assassins in the Jungle, allowing for quick and efficient camp clear without the need to use abilities. This can ease mana consumption and allow abilities to be ready for enemy god encounters, and is essential for some gods whose abilities don't clear camps well (e.g. Arachne). Solo-laners also pick this up situationally in the early game for quicker camp clear and early pressure. WARNING: Assassins & Warriors only! Cannot buy for Hunters!
Hastened Katana	Viability, Usage & Status: Situational Viability. Strategic option for basic attacking Assassins and Warriors, specifically to help stay close to enemies. Picked up at all stages of the game. This is a specialized attack speed item, allowing you to move at full speed even when basic attacking (as long as you connect), which is particularly helpful when boxing. Popularly used for Kali and Bakasura. WARNING: Assassins and Warriors only! Cannot buy for Hunters!
Serrated Edge	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. High % pen option for gods that utilize both abilities and basic attacks. This item provides well-rounded stats in a main option for % pen. Provides some lifesteal, with a boost of power and lifesteal the more abilities you have on cooldown. This makes it great for continuing to engage with basics after using a lot of your abilities.
Shadowdrinker	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Utility item for Assassins that are looking to jump from target to target without being detected. The power is good, but the flat pen isn't that high, so you're picking this item specifically for the passive, which gives you a stealth and MS boost effect for a short time after killing an enemy. Requiring you to get the last hit in a teamfight might make this niche for late-game use, but it can allow you to sneak around without getting targeted.

Stacking Items

These permanent stacking items are useful for their powerful, fully-stacked stats. Because stacks are built by dealing damage, it takes time to reach its max-stack, evolved form. They are thus most effective when purchased early, and in modes where matches are longer.

This doesn't mean you can't effectively build stacks in Arena, for example, but care and thought as to team composition and need should be utilized.

*NOTE* This list doesn't include stacking items such as that are stacked differently (via god kills / assists). It also does not cover items that stack effects temporarily, such as , or .

Magical Stacking Items

Book of Thoth

... Base Stats ...

*78 Magical Power*
200 Mana
+20 MP5

... Full Stacks ...

*126 Magical Power*
10 Magical Penetration
800 Mana
+20 MP5

PASSIVE: You permanently gain 6 Mana per Stack, and receive 5 Stacks for a god kill and 1 Stack per 450 Damage Dealt to minions or 225 Damage Dealt to gods. You gain Magical Power equal to 4% of your Mana from items. At 100 Stacks this item Evolves, gaining 10 Magical Penetration and increasing the Magical Power gained from Mana to 7%.[/i]

Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Helpful for gods looking for good power and a huge mana pool.

This is a popular pick for almost any Mid-Lane / Damage Mage looking for high power and a mana pool that essentially guarantees they won't run out. It should be built early to build stacks. If you need some early CDR, grab Sands of Time as a starter.

*NOTE* The true power contribution of this item depends on the total mana of the god & items chosen. You can easily see a final power contribution from this item at over 160 power.

In modes where backing often is common, the huge mana pool isn't needed quite as badly, and other, non-stacking items might be suggested.

Warlock's Staff

... Base Stats ...

55 Magical Power
100 Health
200 Mana

... Full Stacks ...

80 Magical Power
400 Health
200 Mana
10% Magical Penetration

PASSIVE: You permanently gain +3 Health and +0.25 Magical Power per Stack, and receive 1 stack per 550 Damage Dealt to or taken from minions or 275 Damage Dealt to or taken by gods. At 100 stacks this item Evolves, gaining 10% Magical Penetration.

Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Interesting set of stats, especially for a stacking item. The power is nice and the added health provides good survivability.

This item sits in an interesting spot, providing good power and health, along with % penetration. Being a stacking item, you typically want to purchase it early. This is a good consideration for a bruiser Mid-lane or Solo mage.

Physical Stacking Items

This section will discuss two physical power items that require stacking; they provide significantly different stats.

Devourer's Gauntlet

... Base Stats ...

30 physical power
15% lifesteal

... Full Stacks ...

50 physical power
22.5% lifesteal
15 physical penetration

PASSIVE: You permanently gain 0.4 Physical Power, 0.2 Physical Penetration, and 0.15% Physical Lifesteal per Stack, and receive 1 Stack per 600 Damage Dealt to minions or 300 Damage Dealt to gods. At 50 stacks this item Evolves, gaining 5 Physical Penetration.

Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Early option for health sustain (via lifesteal) and good power as stacks are built. Lacks attack speed.

"Devo's" is most commonly built on Hunters as the 1st main item in a build. For the basic-attacking hunter, this provides good stats for the cost. It's not usually suggested on more ability-reliant hunters or other classes.

The 15 flat penetration it provides at max stacks is helpful for early damage and overall damage against other squishy gods.

Transcendence

... Base Stats ...

*31 physical power*
300 mana
+10 MP5

... Full Stacks ...

*46 physical power*
1050 mana
+10 MP5
10 Physical Penetration

PASSIVE: You permanently gain 15 Mana per stack, and receive 1 stack per 700 Damage Dealt to minions or 35 Damage Dealt to gods. You gain Physical Power equal to 2% of your Maximum Mana. At 50 Stacks this item evolves, gaining 10 Physical Penetration.

Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Standard pick for an ability user looking for a huge mana pool.

Picked up mostly by ability-reliant gods that rely on burst damage, or hybrid gods that use both basic attacks and abilities often. Can be seen in both the Carry (ADC) and Jungler roles, as well as for strong damage-scaling Solos such as Chaac.

This item provides an incredible pool of mana as it stacks, making it a good item for modes where longer stays in-lane are important and mana use is potentially high.

Since it doesn't provide health sustain, it's a better choice if the god has some healing within their kit; otherwise, they'll likely have to supplement with specific lifesteal items later, such as Asi, Bloodforge, Crimson Claws or Serrated Edge.

Note that the indicated base and full stack power contribution is only that of the item itself. The god's base mana and any additional items providing mana will increase the total power gained by Transcendence's passive.

Magical & Physical Protections (Quick & Dirty Resource)

This section provides a quick summary for T3 items with survival stats. Categories are separated into Universal protections / health, Magical protections and Physical protections. I will briefly indicate typical users and the most important functions they provide.

Universal Protection / Health Items

This section contains items that provide dual protections, health, or both. Not all items that provide health are listed here...only the ones where health/survival is a large part of its contribution to overall stats.

: Key Functions: Apply negative CDR to enemies. Typical users: Aggressive tanks.

: Key Functions: Burst basic attack damage. Typical users: Aggressive tanks.

: Key Functions: Enhanced healing. Typical users: Healing tanks. Limitations: Physical gods only.

: Key Functions: Anti-Shield. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Quicker wave clear for early lane pressure. Typical users: Aggressive tanks.

: Key Functions: Balanced protections, team protection aura. Typical users: Supports.

: Key Functions: Damage mitigation to all incoming damage sources. Typical users: Non-standard gods in a Support role. Limitations: Assassin / Hunter / Mage only.

: Key Functions: Anti-CC. Typical users: Tanks, desperate squishies.

: Key Functions: Sustain in teamfights. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Bonus damage for teammates. Typical users: Aggressive Tanks.

: Key Functions: Balanced protections / CDR. Typical users: Tanks, diving Assassins/Junglers.

: Key Functions: High CDR / Dual Protections. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: CDR / base mitigations. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: CDR / Anti-CC / mitigations. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Team penetration / aggression. Typical users: Tanks / gods with lots of CC.

: Key Functions: High health sustain. Typical users: Tanks.

Magical Protection Items

: Key Functions: Team CC immunity. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: CDR, situational health shield. Typical users: Healing supports.

: Key Functions: CDR / mana sustain. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Magical protection aura / team mana sustain. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Damage mitigation. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Anti-heal aura. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Team attack speed / objective damage. Typical users: Tanks w/ basic attack function.

: Key Functions: Team mobility / team aggression. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Team magical bonus damage. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Team movement speed / anti-slow. Typical users: Tanks.

Physical Protection Items

: Key Functions: anti-physical / basic attack boost. Typical users: Basic attacking tanks.

: Key Functions: CDR / mana / mobility. Typical users: Healing tanks.

: Key Functions: High CDR / mana. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Anti-Heal. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Objective offense / defense. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Anti-physical / ability bonus damage. Typical users: Ability-based tanks / Solo-laners.

: Key Functions: Added protections on healing. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Anti-basic attack. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Aggression / minion clear. Typical users: Solo-laners, aggressive tanks.

: Key Functions: Minion clear / wave push. Typical users: Solo-laners.

: Key Functions: Team physical protection / health sustain. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Anti-crit. Typical users: Tanks.

: Key Functions: Team physical bonus damage. Typical users: Aggressive Warriors / tanky Assassins.

Penetration / Protection Reduction

Protection Reduction / Penetration Calculations

Protection Reduction and Penetration items are extremely functional and necessary for damage-dealers in all game modes. Both types aim to increase your damage output, but are calculated in different ways, and have drastically different effects in various situations. We will look at both groups separately, as well as how they can work together.

Firstly, however, it's important to know the calculation hierarchy when dealing with these stats:

% Protection Reduction > Flat Protection Reduction > % Penetration > Flat Penetration

What exactly does this mean? Specifically, the effect from the first type (% protection reduction) is calculated first. Adjusted numbers are then modified down the line, in that order.

*NOTE* One final calculation is made after Protection Reduction and Penetration. This is called Damage Mitigation, and is applied by very unique items, such as , , and . Some gods also have this built into their kits. However, that will not be discussed further in this section.

The main point of inefficiency comes when you mix any protection reduction with % penetration. This isn't necessarily a big deal, but any protection reduction that is present reduces the amount that % pen further reduces. Here are some examples of calculations to show you what is happening in these situations.

Calculations and Examples

Further Discussion on Penetration vs. Protection Reduction

Inters3ct's Video Guide Explaining Penetration, Protections and Mitigations

Gods with Protection Reduction / Penetration

Some gods even have built in skills or passives that give similar stats. Here is a list of gods and the skills they incorporate:

Gods with Protection Reduction or Penetration Skills

Key Differences

Finally, let's look at key differences between Protection Reduction and Penetration.

Key aspects of Protection Reduction:

Pros

Cons

Protection Reduction is a debuff. This means that when under the effects of Protection Reduction, ANY damage source of the same type (magical / physical) will be enhanced...not just yours! (Note that minions and objectives deal physical damage)
Protection reduction DOES affect Gold Fury, Fire Giant, and Titan.
Stacking items such as The Executioner and Demonic Grip don't overlap stacks, BUT if two gods have the same stacking item and are attacking the same target, max stacks can be achieved quickly.

Decreases effectiveness of % penetration items/skills.
DOES NOT affect minions, towers or phoenixes.
Identical auras (such as having 2 Void Shields or 2 Void Doumarus) DO NOT stack.
Stacking items require multiple hits to reach full potency.
Stacked Protection Reduction can be CC cleansed (e.g. Purification, Hel's Cleanse, Chang'e's Moonlit Waltz, etc.), and would have to be reapplied.

Key aspects of Penetration:

Pros	Cons
Both Flat and % Penetration enhance your damage vs objectives such as towers and phoenixes, as well as objective minions such as the Gold Fury, Fire Giant, and Titan. These items don't require stacking, and are thus very functional for use with both ability-based and basic-attacking gods.	Penetration is a personal buff. It directly increases only YOUR damage. DOES NOT affect minions. Effect of % penetration is reduced by ANY Protection Reduction item or skill.

Magical Protection Reduction Items

There's only one major offensive protection reduction item, and two tank items that are usable by both physical and magical gods.

Demonic Grip	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Huge mid-game damage for basic-attacking Mages. This is an essential penetration item for Mage ADCs focusing on basic attack damage, such as Chronos, Freya, Olorun and Sol. The attack speed increase, paired with high % protection reduction, gives a huge boost to damage output.
Stone of Binding	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Aggressive item for tanks with lots of CC to apply protection reduction to their targets. Solid tank item with offensive function, providing health, balanced protections and some mana sustain. This item now scales fairly well into the late-game due to the passive decreasing protection reductions to affected enemies.
Void Doumaru	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Good magical protection item with some offensive function for aggressive tanks. Because it applies magical protection reduction, it's best used by magical tanks, and specifically those that are looking to front-line the enemy so they can apply the aura. Also provides some CC reduction and high MP5.

Magical Penetration Items

Magical penetration items are picked up at all points of a build. Flat Penetration is typically more helpful in the earlier stages of a build, and are more effective against squishy enemies. % Penetration is usually more useful in the later parts of a build, though some of these items are more commonly picked up mid-build.

NOT listed here are starter items that provide some penetration, such as .

Book of Thoth	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Early stacking item for high mana. This is a stacking item that should be built early to gain the stacks. Once completed, you should have enough mana that you'll virtually never run out. Better for bigger maps like Conquest.
Charon's Coin	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Utility offensive item that is often built in the mid portions of a build. Building earlier helps gain stacks. This item provides strong % pen and is best considered as a higher-utility version of Obsidian Shard. It has an interesting but complex passive that gives added HP5 and movement speed. When it evolves, you can get a health shield or an additional boost of MS. You typically want to build it before the late stages of a build for the stacks. Gives offensive gods some level of added sustain and survivability, while also being great at damaging tanks.
Divine Ruin	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Anti-healing counter item. This is a strong counter item to healers of all types. Good to pick up in the mid-game, and the flat pen is effective against squishier targets.
Doom Orb	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Functional item for high power and movement. This is an item that some gods can take good advantage of due to the boost of speed typically gained from clearing minion waves and jungle camps. Can be especially useful for gods that lack mobility in their kits.
Last Gasp	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Situational offensive function for healers. This is an item that should only be picked up by gods that can heal others, and provides additional offensive function based on how much health your teammate is missing. Rarely used due to the niche function.
Obsidian Shard	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Main penetration / anti-tank function. This can be used as a main penetration item for ability-users against tanks, where it will deeply cut through their protection. Best to pick up in the late game.
Rod of Tahuti	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Mid to late-game damage item for mages, functional boost for healers with low health teammates. This expensive item provides high power, with a significant boost in power application toward low health targets. This power converts to bonus damage to help finish low health enemies off, while on the flipside, it can boost heal scaling for low health teammates. Due to the strength of the stats, it can be purchased fairly early in a build, but due to the high cost, is easier to purchase later.
Spear of Desolation	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Mid to late-game damage item for mages, niche use for aggressive guardians. The combination of power, CDR, and flat penetration is useful for basically any magical god looking for extra damage.
Spear of the Magus	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Provides decent base stats for the user, with added lifesteal and a small damage increase for all teammates that attack the affected target. Decent universal offensive item that provides bonus damage that can be helpful in teamfights, but the bonus damage is fairly minor.
Staff of Myrddin	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Mid to late-game CDR + burst item for mages. This item provides some well-balanced stats, but the passive interaction with the ultimate means it's not going to be extremely effective for all gods. Great for gods that initiate with ults and immmediately follow up with other damaging abilities.
Toxic Blade	Viability, Usage & Status: Low Viability. Utility option for basic attackers to add anti-heal function. While it can be nice to decrease enemy healing, this item has no power and while the attack speed boost is potentially large, it's generally overshadowed by the Envenomed Executioner glyph for anti-heal effect for basic attackers.
Typhon's Fang	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Functional as the 2nd lifesteal item for select gods, and possibly as a 1st lifesteal item for gods that already have lifesteal in their kits. Is often seen in the middle to late portions of a build. There are specific gods that will get the best use out of this item. Magical ADCs use this well, but the most well-known user of this item is [[Anubis], who relies on lifesteal to stay alive in most engagements. The passive lifesteal boost can partially counteract anti-heal.
Warlock's Staff	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Interesting set of stats, especially for a stacking item. The power combined with the health is functional for a bruiser. This remade item provides a variety of offensive stats while also adding a good chunk of health to support a bruiser build. Build early to gain the stacks.

Physical Protection Reduction Items

There's only one major offensive protection reduction item, and one tank item that is shared with both physical and magical gods.

The Executioner	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Mid / late-game basic attacker's option. Popular penetration-type item for basic attackers. Requires stacking from basic attacks to gain full function.
Stone of Binding	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Aggressive item for tanks with lots of CC to apply protection reduction to their targets. Solid tank item with offensive function, providing health, balanced protections and some mana sustain. This item now scales fairly well into the late-game due to the passive decreasing protection reductions to affected enemies.
Void Shield	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Aggressive tank item. This revived item is great to provide some physical protection, health and HP5, but the unique aspect of this item is the aura of physical protection reduction, allowing you and other physical teammates to deal more damage.

Physical Penetration Items

Physical penetration items are picked up throughout a build. There are a wide variety of options, with various effects at different stages of the game.

Atalanta's Bow	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Mid to late-game AS and pen option for basic-attackers that adds situational mobility. The combination of power, attack speed, % penetration, and enhanced mobility makes this a functional item for basic attackers, though it's not often preferred over the many other available options.
Brawler's Beat Stick	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Anti-heal for mid to late game ability-reliant gods. High power and flat pen combined with an anti-heal effect is a great offensive counter to a self or group healer. Often a good choice for a Warrior, to counter an enemy Solo-Laner such as Amaterasu, Chaac, Guan Yu, Hercules, or any magical healer. Also popularly picked up by ability-based ADCs and Junglers.
Demon Blade	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Formerly called Wind Demon, this is a well-rounded item for crit builds. This item provides well rounded offensive stats with added % penetration and movement speed for a time when you critically strike.
Dominance	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Strong penetration item for gods that rely on basic attacks. This builds off the same tree as Transcendence and Heartseeker, sharing high power and a source of mana. The bonus penetration on basic attacks makes it a key item for Hunters, but as it only works on basic attacks, doesn't apply to abilities or item-based procs such as Qin's Sais or Odysseus' Bow bonus damage. Strong for crit-based builds, basic-attack pen builds and when you want some mana sustain.
Fail-Not	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Hunter-specific, offensive utility for teamfights. This item provides good power, along with high CDR, some crit chance and % pen, providing solid stats for hunters that want CDR that's especially helpful for more ult use. The passive will find better use in a teamfight, as it creates a crit debuff on affected enemies, allowing ALL teammates the chance to deal critical strikes. However, the main draw will be for the main stats.
Heartseeker	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Strong aggression with burst damage potential, especially against high-health targets. This is a strong item that is typically built late game, due to the high price and the stronger effectiveness against high-health targets. Best for gods that rely heavily on ability damage, and more effective with a full damage build.
Hydra's Lament	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Great damage boost for gods that attack cancel. Provides bonus damage on basic attacks performed immediately after using abilities. Along with CDR and penetration, it makes this a key damage booster for select gods that use both basics and abilities (mainly Assassins such as Awilix, Susano, Ravana, Loki, etc.).
Jotunn's Wrath	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Early to mid-game CDR for ability-reliant gods. People generally buy this for the CDR to help spam their abilities, not for the penetration it brings, which is just an added bonus. Usually picked up in the early to mid game, and is not recommended for most basic attackers.
Serrated Edge	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. High % pen option for gods that utilize both abilities and basic attacks. This item provides well-rounded stats in a main option for % pen. Provides some lifesteal, with a boost of power and lifesteal the more abilities you have on cooldown. This makes it great for continuing to engage with basics after using a lot of your abilities.
Shadowdrinker	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Utility item for Assassins that are looking to jump from target to target without being detected. The power is good, but the flat pen isn't that high, so you're picking this item specifically for the passive, which gives you a stealth and MS boost effect for a short time after killing an enemy. Requiring you to get the last hit in a teamfight might make this niche for late-game use, but it can allow you to sneak around without getting targeted.
Silverbranch Bow	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability Late-game, high attack speed item that provides benefit from overcapping attack speed. This item sees the most benefit from builds building high attack speed and incorporating Qin's Sais, due to the attack speed and penetration. Gods w/ steroids can most easily overcap AS, and crit builds with enough AS can also see good effect.
Soul Eater	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium / High Viability. Power + lifesteal/sustain item for hybrid basic / ability attackers. This is an interesting item that is provides lifesteal from abilities (e.g. ability-reliant hunters, some assassins). Standard physical lifesteal only allows lifesteal from basic attacks. Although it's a stacking item, it won't take long to evolve, as ANY nearby death (friend or foe, including minions) will provide stacks. That said, it's used very situationally and mainly in the Solo lane, with some Junglers finding some use as well. Without providing any protections, it's used early for the sustain and to maintain pressure.
The Crusher	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Mid to late-game damage option for hybrid gods that provides strong bonus damage. This is a mid to late-game pickup for gods that use both basics and abilities, providing a great combination of damage-focused stats. Due to its passive scaling, it's most effective in high-power builds.
Titan's Bane	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Specific anti-tank function. The main benefit is for ability-users against tanks, where it will deeply cut through their protection. The passive can allow for penetration past the 40% cap. Best to pick up in the late-game.
Toxic Blade	Viability, Usage & Status: Low Viability. Utility option for basic attackers to add anti-heal function. While it can be nice to decrease enemy healing, this item has no power and while the attack speed boost is potentially large, it's generally overshadowed by the Envenomed Executioner glyph for anti-heal effect for basic attackers.

CDR: Item Combos and the Need (?) to Max

CDR (Cooldown Reduction) is a highly prized stat that is greatly appreciated by all gods that rely heavily on their abilities to be effective. The stat is generally capped at 40% (outside of picking up ), which means it's important to think ahead when planning your build...there are many choices, and simply getting two 20% CDR items (e.g. + ) means you could limit yourself from getting full effectiveness from other items that could potentially provide better function, or risk overcapping and wasting stats.

In addition, there are a couple of temporary buffs that increase your CDR temporarily: the Blue Mana buff and the . If you regularly pick these up, you may not need to go beyond 30% CDR.

This chapter will go over CDR options, and provide some examples of item combinations to get the most out of the stat.

Universal Defensive / Utility CDR Items

Breastplate of Regrowth	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Functional protection and CDR option for tanks that heal. This item is similar to BoV, providing good physical protection and mana, but while it trades off a bit of CDR, it gains high utility via a boost in MS and power triggered by your healing.
Breastplate of Valor	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Anti-physical item with a huge boost in mana pool and CDR. This is a physical protection item for tanks, specifically for the mana pool and the CDR. It is usually picked up fairly early in a build. In extreme situations, can be considered by Mages as an alternative to Chronos' Pendant if they're struggling mightily with physical enemy ganks. It has 2 glyph options for added effect, making it quite appealing.
Bumba's Hammer	Viability, Usage & Status: Situational Viability. Can provide great extra CDR for very specific gods. This is one of the upgrade options of the Jungle starter Bumba's Dagger. The bonus CDR it provides is best gained through attack canceled abilities in back-to-back combos. A couple of examples of gods that utilize this effect well include Ravana and Susano. It's not for everyone.
Bumba's Spear	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Well-rounded Jungle starter upgrade with CDR and penetration. The other Bumba's Dagger upgrade, this item provides balanced offensive stats and is the best upgrade option for most Junglers.
Fae-Blessed Hoops	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Can provide helpful, additional healing support to teammates. Gods picking this up need to be able to easily heal other teammates. Provides pretty good general stats including high MP5 and CDR, but the passive effect has situational function, due to the need to pick up the drops, which can be inconvenient in the middle of a fight.
Genji's Guard	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Great anti-magical item with great mana sustain. This may be the most balanced anti-magical protection item. It provides some of everything...high protection, a bit of health, great mana sustain, and a passive that situationally gives you better than 20% CDR for some abilities.
Gladiator's Shield	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Strong early / mid item for ability users to counter physical enemies. The bonus damage the passive provides allows this to be a functional item for boxing, both reducing damage intake and increasing damage output. Helpful early game in the Solo lane.
Lotus Sickle	Viability, Usage & Status: Situational Viability. Only functions well for gods that are able to heal others, but provides some helpful protections that should make it a supportive consideration. The stats aren't bad, but the protections provided to you and teammates you affect are not very high. Can still be helpful and comes at a low price so can see situational use for gods that can quickly and easily apply healing to multiple teammates, such as Guan Yu, Sylvanus, Terra and Yemoja.
Magi's Cloak	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Balanced Protections w/ a passive effect to counter enemy CC. Decent balanced protections accompany the CDR. The specific appeal here lies in the passive effect, which allows you to absorb/cancel a single hard CC effect once every 70 seconds, which also gives you an additional second of CC immunity. More specifically, however, is that this offers 2 glyph items, 1 for offensive aggression and 1 that can protect nearby teammates from CC as well.
Mantle of Discord	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Expensive but effective late-game protection item with utility survival function. The balanced protections are higher than Spirit Robe, but this item is more often picked up as a single protection item by squishy gods that like to dive the backline. The passive causes a shockwave, stunning nearby enemies and potentially allowing you to finish of an enemy and survive. Of course, tanky gods can also pick this up if they want that stun disruption effect.
Potion of Power	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Reasonably-priced consumable (500 gold) for mid and late-game boost. If you're able to play it reasonably safe and have good teamwork, getting this 5 minute consumable can provide a good payoff. At the 10-minute mark (when this item unlocks), you won't have maxed CDR, and the power boost is helpful, especially for gods with high-scaling abilities. The availability of this item means you don't necessarily have to get a full 40% CDR from items if you're okay with this consumable.
Pridwen	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Mid / late-game protection option for tanks looking for a high boost to CDR. This is a solid pickup for tanks looking for a large boost to CDR, while also getting some protections. The shield gained upon ulting is very functional for teamfights. As it doesn't provide any health or mana sustain, it's better after some those are purchased. Note the functionality of when the ult activates; it only activates when the ult has ended. This can create weird, non-synergistic function for certain gods. A big draw is that this offers 2 glyph upgrades for additional protections / damage.
Prophetic Cloak	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Strong option providing balanced protections, CDR, and a constant mitigation effect. Note that the max stacks make this item very strong, but it requires stacking to reach there, which can be a while depending on the situation. At full stacks, and especially with a high protection build, can give you great damage mitigation.
Rangda's Mask	Viability, Usage & Status: Situational Viability. Interesting starter/upgrade for Guardians/Warriors to deal high damage in off-meta roles. This item is only purchasable by Guardians and Warriors, and allows them to deal bonus damage as long as they've built enough power from items. It is not a common pickup and is usually picked up when people are just looking to have fun with off-meta picks.
Relic Dagger	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Popular with Supports wanting to use teamfight relics often. Best and most common use of this item will be for gods that are looking for a lot of added utility, due to the high health, CDR, CC reduction, and movement speed. The passive takes a significant amount of cooldown time off of relics, which can provide some great function late-game in teamfights. Almost a core item in teamfight modes for gods like Odin and Ares when combining with Blink Rune for initiation purposes. A major draw is that this offers 2 glyphs, one of which ( Bewitched Dagger) is particularly useful to counter basic attackers by slowing their attack speed.
Sphinx's Baubles	Viability, Usage & Status: Low Viability. Increases max CDR limit at the expense of other stats. This is an interesting item that allows you to increase your CDR past the cap of 40%. 10% extra isn't all that much, and you have to invest so much into CDR items that you likely miss out on other helpful stats. Not typically recommended except for funsies.
Spirit Robe	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Universal protection function, anti-CC. This provides a great balance of stats with great anti-CC function, useful for almost any tank. A big draw is the passive's ability to situationally mitigate a good portion of incoming damage.

Magical CDR Items

Chronos' Pendant	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Highest CDR in an offensive magical item. The somewhat high price makes it a better pickup in the mid to late-game. The CDR it provides is invaluable, and with the passive, provides better than 20% CDR equivalence.
Cyclopean Ring	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Well-rounded item for basic attacking mages, providing hybrid functionality due to the added CDR along with added burst damage function. This item is great for later portions of a match for mages that want added attack speed. It counts as a hybrid item due to the CDR, and it also has burst damage potential from the passive, stacked and applied by basics.
Rod of Asclepius	Viability, Usage & Status: Situational Viability. Utility CDR item for group lifesteal and power. This and Soul Gem are similar options providing lifesteal and CDR. However, the CDR is provided as an aura, so nearby teammates gain the effect. In addition, all healing is increased by 30%, which makes this a functional item specifically for teammate-healing gods.
Soul Gem	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Utility lifesteal item for burst damage, survivability, and minor team healing. This item is focused a bit on utility since it also has lifesteal and situational bonus damage output. The burst damage it provides at full stacks is helpful, but to get enough healing out of it, it's better for gods that have low CDs on their damaging abilities.
Spear of Desolation	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Mid-game pen option for damage boost. The combination of power and flat penetration is useful for basically any mage looking for extra damage, especially in the earlier stages of a match due to the flat penetration. Many will want to pick this up, but you might consider skipping this item if you need to counter a healer (in which case, you'd Divine Ruin is the common substitute which still provides some flat penetration).
Staff of Myrddin	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Mid to late-game CDR + burst item for mages. This item provides some well-balanced stats, but the passive interaction with the ultimate means it's not going to be extremely effective for all gods. Great for gods that initiate with ults and immmediately follow up with other damaging abilities.
Sands of Time + Upgrades	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Popular starter item for early CDR. Both upgrades provide CDR plus other benefits. Sands of Time is a popular starter for Mid-Lane Mages, and mages of all types in other game modes. It also provides some mana sustain. Pendulum of Ages is the offensive, high CDR upgrade, purchased specifically for that function. The Alternate Timeline is the utility / defensive upgrade that provides decent protections, along with a Khepri ult-like function to prevent your immediate death.

Physical CDR Items

Arondight	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Unique offensive utility for offensive gods (e.g. Conquest Jungler) looking for easier ganking potential after ulting. This item provides high power and some CDR. The passive is best used to track and kill retreating enemies, or to surprise an unsuspecting enemy. Great for gods that start a fight with their ults.
Blackthorn Hammer	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Early item for Solo-laners/tanks. This revived item provides good power, health and mana, along with situational CDR or a huge MP5 boost to make sure you never run out of mana for long. While the stats are generally good, its effectiveness falls off late when you have more base mana and MP5 from other items, so consider replacing it then.
Caduceus Club	Viability, Usage & Status: Situational Viability. Functional utility for physical team healers. This item provides well rounded utility stats, including some power, health, MP5, and CDR. The interesting features are the passive and aura, which increases healing and provides nearby teammates with CC reduction and a bit of movement speed. It should only be purchased by gods that can heal others, such as Guan Yu and Horus.
Fail-Not	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Hunter-specific, offensive utility for teamfights. This item provides good power, along with high CDR, some crit chance and % pen, providing solid stats for hunters that want CDR that's especially helpful for more ult use. The passive will find better use in a teamfight, as it creates a crit debuff on affected enemies, allowing ALL teammates the chance to deal critical strikes. However, the main draw will be for the main stats.
Hydra's Lament	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Great damage boost for gods that attack cancel. Provides bonus damage on basic attacks performed immediately after using abilities. Along with CDR and penetration, it makes this a key damage booster for select gods that use both basics and abilities (mainly Assassins such as Awilix, Susano, Ravana, Loki, etc.).
Jotunn's Wrath	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Early to mid-game CDR for ability-reliant gods. People generally buy this for the CDR to help spam their abilities, not for the penetration it brings, which is just an added bonus. Usually picked up in the early to mid game, and is not recommended for most basic attackers.
Malicious Deathbringer	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Functional Glyph version of Deathbringer that gives you some CDR when critting. While many people building Deathbringer will opt for the Envenomed Deathbringer variant, this one is underrated to provide significantly reduced CDR for abilities on cooldown, which can be greatly helpful for hybrid basic attackers.
Sekhmet's Scepter	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Extra CDR for aggressive healers. This is an interesting item that combines 2 effects...healing and offense. After healing yourself or a teammate, when you damage enemies, you get some CDR for your non-ult abilities. It's potentially great for certain gods that have self healing but want to deal continuous damage.
Soul Eater	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium / High Viability. Power + lifesteal/sustain item for hybrid basic / ability attackers. This is an interesting item that is generally meant for gods that are more ability-based and looking for some health sustain. The passive lifesteal allows you to gain health from ability use. Although it's a stacking item, it won't take long to evolve, as ANY nearby death (friend or foe, including minions) will provide stacks. That said, it's used very situationally and mainly in the Solo lane, with select junglers potentially considering it as well. Without providing any protections, it's used early for the sustain and to maintain pressure.

Item Combos and Maxing CDR

When looking to build high CDR (usually 30-40%), it's important to combine the right items together for the specific god and situation. A lot of build progression is covered in Chapter 2, but we'll talk specifically here about the focus on maxing CDR.

A lot of people are set on hitting that 40% mark. However, in many cases, you should understand that 30% CDR is already quite high, and other, non-CDR items may provide more utility in your full build. It is also a bit more important to build more CDR in teamfight modes such as Arena, Clash, and Joust, where you're constantly engaged with the enemy.

In any case, here are some general suggestions for CDR item combinations for the various classes.

Full Damage Assassins

Most Assassins focus on offense. In Conquest, you can find them both as Junglers with an emphasis on offense, but can also build them tanky (similar to Warriors) in Solo-lane roles. This section targets offensive Assassins. If you're building tanky, reference the Warrior section below.

Note that you also have the option of using the starter and its upgrades and . Those can provide additional CDR as well, meaning you would potentially adjust your other CDR item choices to fit.

Universal Offense / Basic Attack Canceling: Jotunn's Wrath, Hydra's Lament.

The 1-2 punch of a offensive physical ability user is Jotunn's + Hydra's. In most cases, Assassins are pretty adept at weaving basic attacks in-between ability use. In most cases 30% CDR is sufficient. Some whose ability scaling is high may consider adding Transcendence as a mid-game item specifically for the high power.
Gank Potential: Add Arondight.

The reveal and MS boost are great for catching up to fleeing enemies. Best for gods that use an ult at the beginning or middle of a teamfight and want to continue fighting after.

Tanky Guardians

Guardians will typically build tanky as they are most often played as Supports, with more emphasis on protections and counter items, and less emphasis on damage (at least in Conquest). Here, we'll only be talking about protections. If you're using a Guardian in a more offensive role, you can reference the Mage section below to check various offensive options.

Universal Protection: Prophetic Cloak, Spirit Robe, Magi's Shelter.

This is a standard combination with dual protections. It provides 30% CDR, added mitigations, and CC reduction. You can also drop one or two of these and consider either Breastplate of Valor or Pridwen.
High Mobility (for healers): Add Breastplate of Regrowth.
High Blink Use: Add Relic Dagger.

Consider this as Ares, Cabrakan, or other gods that utilize Blink Rune well.

Mages

Almost all mages benefit greatly from CDR. Remember also that at the 10-minute mark, becomes available for an easy (albeit temporary) power and 10% CDR boost.

Unless you're focusing on basic attacks (e.g. ), consider the following combos.

CDR-Focused Mage Build: Sands of Time or Chronos' Pendant

Early game, if you're intent on getting CDR, you can start with the Sands of Time starter. You could alternatively pick up Conduit Gem as a starter to go along with Chronos' Pendant. You don't want to necessarily max out CDR too early, as there are a variety of other items Mages will want to consider.
Teamfight / Burst Function: Add Spear of Desolation, Soul Gem or Staff of Myrddin.

Spear of Desolation is a popular early-game item that provides some flat pen. It's a better pick if you don't need the anti-heal from another early pen item ( Divine Ruin), but they can also be built together.

You'll usually pick Soul Gem up mid to late-game for the health sustain you'll get from the lifesteal, though it also helps in teamfights with a minor group heal and extra burst potential.

Staff of Myrddin is a solid pick when you ult at the start or beginning of a teamfight; it can give you extra damage on abilities cast immediately after ulting.
Healing: Add Rod of Asclepius or Lotus Sickle.

Rod of Asclepius is great for overall healing function, while Lotus Sickle is a tankier option providing some added protections.

Warriors

Most Warriors build fairly tanky, but benefit from building some power / penetration as well. In Conquest, you can find them mostly in the Solo-lane, but can also build them for damage (similar to Assassins) in Jungler roles. This section targets bruiser, ability-based Warriors, and these combos can be used in Conquest or teamfight modes. If you're building for higher offense, reference the Assassin section above.

Common CDR combos for Solo-Laners (pick 2 or more): Blackthorn Hammer, Gladiator's Shield, Genji's Guard, Magi's Cloak, Spirit Robe.

These are all common items you can pick up for CDR; there is no set-in-stone item combination for bruiser Solo-laners.
High Mobility (for healers): Add Breastplate of Regrowth.

If your god has healing abilities, add this into the mix when you see fit (mid-game or later). Consider skipping Breastplate of Valor altogether.
Early Aggression: Add Soul Eater or Sekhmet's Scepter.

Soul Eater allows you to lifesteal from both basic attacks and abilities, and is best for gods that can be aggressive early with multiple damaging abilities, such as Mulan or Shiva.

Sekhmet's Scepter is for self healers, allowing them to heal up and stay in a fight with aggression and lower CDs.

Lifesteal

Lifesteal is a direct means to help sustain in lane, or outlast an opponent in a fight. Magical and physical lifesteal work differently, though, so the individual sections will discuss their best uses.

Note that lifesteal is only 50% effective against minions and jungle enemies.

Magical Lifesteal Items

Magical lifesteal items are generally picked up by Mages. Guardians almost never pick up lifesteal items, though can be seen on the occasional in the Jungle (aka Junglemir), specifically for the extra damage it provides.

Magical lifesteal is gained by both abilities and basic attacks. It is usually picked up in the early to middle stages of a build, after movement speed items are obtained.

*NOTE* Lifesteal is reduced to 33% effectiveness for any ability that deals AOE or multiple target damage.

Bancroft's Talon + Glyphs	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Lifesteal item for aggressive gods, and those with short-range damage abilities and high exposure. Why short-range? The added benefit from this item is seen when your health is reduced. Other options provide utility...this is pure damage. Thus, it is an aggressive option for Mages that expect to take some damage due to vicinity, but expect most matchups to end in their favor, such as Anubis and Hades. Due to the high power to cost ratio, this is also a popular sustain pickup for a variety of Mages in the early game to aid aggression. The Glyph upgrades provide some different focuses. Bancroft's Claw is for ability users, providing a damage bonus and a shield for extra survivability. Nimble Bancroft's Talon is for basic attackers such as [{Freya]], providing a nice attack speed boost.
Polynomicon	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Added basic attack damage for builds with high magical power and some added measure of control. The passive requires you to get a basic attack in after using an ability to apply the added damage. Also, the added damage is directly tied to magical power. Thus, this is an option for a high magical power build where they can easily follow up ability use with a quick basic attack. Abilities with CC are extremely helpful to confirm basic attack hits. Popular users include Kukulkan, Scylla and Ymir.
Pythagorem's Piece	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium / High Viability. Utility team-wide sustain choice for teamfights. Has functionality in the presence of teammates, providing everyone within range with additional power and lifesteal to help outlast the enemy team. Utility Mages and aggressive Guardians can make good use of this item in teamfights due to the spread of stats.
Soul Gem	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Utility lifesteal item for burst damage, survivability, and minor team healing. This item is strongly focused on utility rather than pure damage output. The burst damage it provides at full stacks is helpful, but to get enough healing out of it, it's probably better for gods that have low CDs on their damaging abilities.
Spear of the Magus	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Provides enhanced function as a team-based alternative to other lifesteal items, allowing teammates to deal bonus damage to affected targets. This is a mid-game lifesteal option that is focused on helping your team burst down enemy gods due to the bonus damage it can apply. Provides well-rounded offensive stats but the bonus damage has been nerfed into near-ineffectiveness.
Telkhines Ring	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Basic attacking mage option providing well-rounded stats. This item provides all of the key stats a basic attacking mage prefers, at a very good cost. Good early option for Freya.
Typhon's Fang	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Functional as the 2nd lifesteal item for select gods, and as a 1st lifesteal items for gods that have lifesteal in their kits. Is often seen in the middle to late portions of a build. There are specific gods that will get the best use out of this item. Magical ADCs can use this, but the most popular user of this item is [[Anubis], who relies on lifesteal to stay alive in most engagements. The passive lifesteal boost can partially counteract anti-heal.
Vampiric Shroud + Upgrades	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Starter and upgrade options providing early lifesteal. This starter is a solution to provide lifesteal at the start of a match. Has good early sustain, and can form the base of your lifesteal with enhancement from a later Typhon's Fang. The upgrades provide additional utility: Blood-Soaked Shroud is an enhanced version of the starter, increasing lifesteal and adding some health. It's the safer upgrade option. Sacrificial Shroud is the more offensive upgrade, causing you to lose some health every time you cast an ability, but if you're confident in your damage, you may gain that health back with the lifesteal enhanced by a significant boost in damage.

Physical Lifesteal Items

Physical lifesteal items support sustain and boxing. They are mainly picked up by Assassins, Hunters, and occasionally by basic-attacking Warriors whose builds focus strongly on damage.

Beware: Other than and , physical lifesteal only works with basic attacks, so should only be picked up by basic attackers.

*NOTE* Lifesteal is reduced to 33% for each connecting regular basic attack for , as well as for AOE abilities that trigger basic attack effects.

Asi	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Strong balanced stats for basic attackers. The combination of power, attack speed, and lifesteal makes this an extremely functional early game item for basic attackers and is probably the most popular physical lifesteal item for them in most modes.
Bloodforge	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Early or late-game lifesteal option. The high power is wonderful, and some hunters may choose this early game as an alternative to Devourer's Gauntlet, as it doesn't need to be stacked and provides higher power immediately. Can also be very effective for an Assassin later-game, looking to get in, secure a kill, and get out alive.
Crimson Claws	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium High Viability. Sustain option that allows for an overcap of health. This is an interesting item that situationally allows you to gain a shield that basically overcaps your health. If you can build up the health before a fight via minions, the extra health will obviously be helpful. But within a fight itself if you haven't built it up, you're unlikely to overcap your health, so is mainly useful for the base stats, which support all basic attackers via the good power and decent attack speed.
Devourer's Gauntlet	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium Viability. Early sustain option for Hunters. At full stacks, this item provides high physical power and good lifesteal. Although it takes a while to build stacks, it is a very strong option for early sustain. Needs to be picked up as the 1st or 2nd item, in order to build the stacks and keep you competitive in lane.
Jotunn's Vigor	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Glyph providing ability lifesteal and movement speed. When you're under 60% health, the passive triggers giving you movement speed and allowing you to lifesteal from abilities. For ability users, it's your only lifesteal option if you don't want to pick up Soul Eater, and the base item Jotunn's Wrath is already great for the CDR.
Leather Cowl + Upgrades	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Early sustain option for Basic Attacking Hunters. This is a solid item for basic attacking hunters, and they benefit with basic attack speed when teammates are nearby. If they're alone, it provides movement speed to help you escape dangerous situations or chase a fleeing enemy in a 1v1. The upgrades are solid to support higher damage. Hunter's Cowl provides a nice aura of attack speed, and should be a strong consideration anytime you have other basic attackers on your team. Leader's Cowl provides bonus damage
Serrated Edge	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. High % pen option for gods that utilize both abilities and basic attacks. This item provides well-rounded stats in a main option for % pen. Provides some lifesteal, with a boost of power and lifesteal the more abilities you have on cooldown. This makes it great for continuing to engage with basics after using a lot of your abilities.
Soul Eater	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium / High Viability. Power + lifesteal/sustain item for hybrid basic / ability attackers. This is an interesting item that is generally meant for gods that are more ability-based and looking for some health sustain. The passive lifesteal allows you to gain health from ability use. Although it's a stacking item, it won't take long to evolve, as ANY nearby death (friend or foe, including minions) will provide stacks. That said, it's used very situationally and mainly in the Solo lane, with select junglers potentially considering it as well. Without providing any protections, it's used early for the sustain and to maintain pressure.

Basic Attack Progression / Physical Damage Spikes (Qin's Sais / Critical Strikes)

This section discusses the general mechanics and variation of basic attacks, as well as itemization for physical, basic-attacking gods, and discusses the merits and disadvantages of choosing specific damage enhancement items, namely and critical damage options.

First, let's establish base of knowledge on basic attacks and attack progression.

Basic Attacks: General Information and Attack Progression

Basic attacking, from god to god, can be vary drastically, based on their stats and functions. The main areas of differentiation are as follows:

Physical / Magical Damage: Every god has a base value for basic attack damage. This value increases by a static amount per level. Power gained from item purchases will increase damage potential.

For physical gods, power provides 100% scaling. This means if you build physical 100 power, your base damage (before mitigations/protections are calculated) will increase by 100...at least for attack progressions of 1 (more on that in a bit).

For magical gods, power provides 20% scaling. If you build 100 magical power, your base damage will increase by only 20.
Single Target / Cleave: Most basic attacks, when no abilities are considered, are single target. Whichever target it hits first, it damages, and the attack is over. However, some attacks can cleave (hit multiple targets in range). Cleaves can affect the base damage stat in select cases, and also affects lifesteal amount.
Attack Progression: Attack progression is a much more complex stat. For reference, look on the individual god pages on the Official SMITE Wiki. You'll find progression information in the Summary section. It refers to both attack speed and the damage multiplier, which I will explain shortly.

0 Progression: The easiest to understand are gods with no progression, or rather, no variation in their attack speed. Hunters are a prime example. Each basic attack will be timed equally apart from each other. The only variant that will change the basic attack is the attack speed stat. Reference Neith as an example. All basic attacks will deal the same damage, given the same target and no change in protection values of the target.

Variable Progression: Many gods attack differently and at different speeds if you basic attack multiple times in a row. The easiest way to see this is to hold down your basic attack button.

The attacks can vary by being sped up (values below 1), or slowed down (values above 1). They will typically have different animations, so you can see a visual difference. In addition, and it's important to note...attack damage is affected by the progression value.

Let's put all of this information into some examples I will discuss in more detail. If you're learning about progression, read in order, as I cover some basic info with Ratatoskr, but employ different points in the others.

Ratatoskr - Range of Attack Progression + General Breakdown

Kali - Quick Attack Progression

Guan Yu - Slow Attack Progression, Cleave, Range Variance

We'll discuss build strategies with this knowledge in a bit. But it'll be good to cover those damage spike items that are most commonly involved first.

Qin's Sais / Critical Strike Items

Now we'll get into a closer look at and the critical strike item options. ' passive benefits mainly from high base attack speed and quick attack progressions + high penetration, and is more effective against high-health targets. For appropriate gods with a proper accompaniment of items, crit builds can be extremely effective and will typically offer stronger individual DPS. People will typically build either into either Qin's OR crit, and situationally both.

Qin's Sais	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Mid to late-game damage spike for basic attackers. This item is often picked up in the mid/late-game as the centerpiece of a basic-attacker's build targeted against high-health/tanky comps. Pairs well with penetration items and requires high attack speed for maximum effect. This is an item that works extremely well for gods that have short attack progression, such as Kali and Arachne, and finds a lot of use in many Hunter builds when paired with items such as The Executioner and Odysseus' Bow. More in the next spoiler.
Bladed Boomerang	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium / High Viability. Crit item that provides situational (possibly inconvenient) added buffs. While the general stats are helpful, the passive requires you to pick up a deployable to gain the added benefits (MS and more crit chance), which can be annoying while in the middle of a fight.
Deathbringer	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Late-game crit item for standard crit builds. With high single-item crit chance and a passive that further increases bonus damage from crits, this is an essential item when building into crits. Typically built as a 2nd crit item due to the high cost. The glyphs upgrade the utility: - Devoted Deathbringer: This increases your crit chance by a multiple of 1.3, and if you overcap on crit chance (max 100%), you gain power. - Malicious Deathbringer: For those gods that rely at least partially on abilities, this allows for a CDR effect.
Demon Blade	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. This is a well-rounded item for crit builds. This item provides well rounded offensive stats with added % penetration and movement speed for a time when you critically strike.
Fail-Not	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Hunter-specific, offensive utility for teamfights. This item provides good power, along with high CDR, some crit chance and % pen, solid stats for hunters that want CDR that's especially helpful for more ult use. The passive will find better use in a teamfight, as it creates a crit debuff on affected enemies, allowing ALL teammates the chance to deal critical strikes. However, the main draw will be for the main stats.
Ornate Arrow	Viability, Usage & Status: High Viability. Late-game starter upgrade that can provide high DPS. For potentially longer matches (e.g. Conquest), this item provides great stats for a crit build. It takes a full build and gold in hand to have max effect, but combined with 2 standard crit items it provides a great DPS boost.
Rage	Viability, Usage & Status: Medium / High Viability. Mid-game 1st crit option for huge increase in crit chance. Due to the need for stacking, you'll want to purchase this mid-game rather than late, but the crit chance you get from this is significantly higher than any other option. Lacks attack speed, but some gods won't mind that due to getting crit chance in their abilities (e.g. Serqet) or have enough attack speed through steroids (e.g. Artemis).

Employing Build Strategies with Consideration of Attack Progression

So the question is, with the higher damage potential of a crit build, when would one choose , and when are crit builds better? And how can we utilize our knowledge about attack progression to improve our build choices?

Choosing Qin's Over Crit

Choosing Crit over Qin's

Why Not Qin's AND Crits???

References

Here are some references you might find helpful.

The Word of Thoth: A Smite Mechanics Guide: Provides in-depth explanations about how everything is calculated in SMITE, including damage, protection, etc.
Team Dignitas' Guide to Attack Speed And Building On Hunters: fairly short and sweet article discussing optimizing damage by appropriately balancing attack speed and power items.

Some Of My Guides

If you liked this guide, check out my other ones below!

The Overarching Series

The
Overarching
Arena Guide

The
Overarching
Assault Guide

The
Overarching
Conquest Guide

~~~~~An In-Depth Discussion on Item Choices~~~~~

Individual God Guides

Bacchus:
An Alcoholic's Chugging Guide

Freya:
Pulsing to
the Beat

Ganesha:
Selflessly
Gifting Kills

Shifu Guan Yu:
The Battle
Master

Loki: The Backstabbing Bastard

Medusa: Getting Everyone Stoned

God Guide Collaborations

Anubis:
Towards The
New Season

with Daelinn

Ares:
50 Shades
Of Flame

with KingScuba

Nox:
I See A
Red Door...

with Tlaloc1050

Kuzenbo:
King of
the Kappas!

with Gulfwulf

Conclusion

So that's it. Let me know if you think I've missed a major topic, provided some incorrect information, or anything else that comes to mind. Hope this helps your understanding of items!

Brandon / PC IGN: Branmuffin17

Special thanks to KingScuba of the official Smite forums for feedback, suggestions, and reference material.

Type:	God & Skill:
% Protection Reduction	Artio: Decompose Atlas: Gamma-Ray Burst Charybdis: Capsize Chiron: Masterful Shot Cthulhu: Sever (Ultimate form) Fafnir: Cursed Strength (in Dragon form) Eset: Dispel Magic Khepri: Rising Dawn King Arthur: Twin Cleave / Bladestorm Merlin: Dragonfire Nemesis: Divine Judgement Serqet: Deathbane
Flat Protection Reduction	Anhur: Enfeeble Anubis: Sorrow Cerberus: Ghastly Breath Cernunnos: Shifter of Seasons (Autumn Decay) Ganesha: Dharmic Pillars Guan Yu: Taolu Assault Hades: Pillar of Agony (if Blighted) Hel: Hinder Ne Zha: Universe Ring Toss Nike: Rend Nu Wa: Clay Soldiers Ratatoskr: Flurry Sylvanus: Verdant Growth
% Penetration	Izanami: Death Draws Nigh Kali: Marked for Death
Flat Penetration	Scylla: Crush Thanatos: Scent of Death Thoth: Dead Reckoning

An In-Depth Discussion On Item Choices (Y11, Patch 11.1 "Year 11")

Smite God:

Introduction

Build Progression Basics for Roles/Classes

Full Damage (Glass Cannon)

Starter Items

Movement Speed Scaling & Movespeed Items

Stacking Items

Magical & Physical Protections (Quick & Dirty Resource)

Penetration / Protection Reduction

Protection Reduction / Penetration Calculations

Gods with Protection Reduction / Penetration

Key Differences

CDR: Item Combos and the Need (?) to Max

Full Damage Assassins

Tanky Guardians

Mages

Warriors

Lifesteal

Basic Attack Progression / Physical Damage Spikes (Qin's Sais / Critical Strikes)

References

Some Of My Guides

The Overarching Series

Individual God Guides

God Guide Collaborations

Conclusion

Leave a Comment This author would like to receive feedback
and suggestions about their guide.

SmiteFire & Smite

Smite 2 Gods

Smite 1 Gods

An In-Depth Discussion On Item Choices (Y11, Patch 11.1 "Year 11")

Smite God:

Introduction

Build Progression Basics for Roles/Classes

Full Damage (Glass Cannon)

Starter Items

Movement Speed Scaling & Movespeed Items

Stacking Items

Magical & Physical Protections (Quick & Dirty Resource)

Penetration / Protection Reduction

Protection Reduction / Penetration Calculations

Gods with Protection Reduction / Penetration

Key Differences

CDR: Item Combos and the Need (?) to Max

Full Damage Assassins

Tanky Guardians

Mages

Warriors

Lifesteal

Basic Attack Progression / Physical Damage Spikes (Qin's Sais / Critical Strikes)

References

Some Of My Guides

The Overarching Series

Individual God Guides

God Guide Collaborations

Conclusion

Leave a Comment This author would like to receive feedbackand suggestions about their guide.

SmiteFire & Smite

Smite 2 Gods

Smite 1 Gods

Leave a Comment This author would like to receive feedback
and suggestions about their guide.