Aphrodite, cheater of death

Early Game
Firstly, this guide takes advantage of Aphrodite's 'mp5 share' passive, whereas her tethered ally receives a portion of her incoming mana. Thus:

Chronos pendant. Cdr, decent magic power, and sweet sweet mp5. This amulet grants Aphrodite the ability to healspam with decent mana sustain early game. As well she supplies a +2 trickle of mana regen to allies, helping laning partners, or low mana sustained assault allies.

Meditation. I personally only get the first level, because I can already heal allies, and my mana sustains pretty well mid game. However, in those moments where you blast off your full skill-set, you may find yourself in dire need of some sweet sweet mana. A fraction of the mana bleeds to your tethered ally, allowing them to keep up that assault when after utilizing their full mana supply.

The next 3 slots

Shoes of focus: Buying these will grant you exactly maximum cdr. Now you have your full heal-spam potential. Furthermore, your ulti will now only take 45 seconds. This means if you save it for, say, Hades or Ares, you will always have it ready when they're able to use it again. Also, if you happen to miss your kiss on a tether switch, having maximum cdr really saves lives.

Bracers of Replenishment: Mp5 increase, Hp5 increase(not valuable but not unwelcome). Also, it has a passive of hp5, mp5 further stacking with yours. This allows you to supply mana to everyone in a team fight, and heal damage that isn't worth switching your tether to heal. Keep in mind, although you can see see the mp5 you are granting your ally over their head, the aura doesn't factor into this. So if it is giving them +5's per tick, they are also taking another 10mp5 that you don't see.

Rod of Tahuti. Great mp5, and Magic Power. Increasing damage and healing output.

The last 2

Most of the time, by this point in the game, my team is doubling too tripling in kills, because I simply don't let my teammates die. If this is the case, I suggest getting 2 more auras to boost your teams potential. Asking what auras they would prefer you to get is a good idea.

If the enemy team has been focusing you to cut off the teams source of healing, I suggest getting on of the items listed with relative protection.

If the enemy is dominating your team without focusing you, chose items that boost mp5, so you can detour the enemy more efficiency.

This is my first guide. I generally get praised mid-endgame for keeping the team in working order. I play a lot of assault and arena, which explains my favor of auras. This guide is not about getting a lot of kills, it's about getting your teammates lots of kills. You are best support in the game, and this guide aims to push Aphrodite's support potential to it's limits.

However, even while my primary interest is support, and my actions fully reflect that interest, it is not uncommon to end the match with the top amount of kills anyways. In-fact, I would say 85% of my Aphrodite kills are accidents, but I'm not complaining.

If the idea of being a good team player is appalling to you, I would suggest still skimming the rest of the guide so you can adapt my techniques to your play style.

Also, I use the term 'Golem' to refer to your tethered ally.

Float around your teammates. The only time you should be alone is when your entire team is back at base. In this case, go kill the minions. Swoop in, launch your 3, fall back. When your mana regen is lower, save your mana mostly for heals, until you have more sustain. Wait for one of them to initiate an attack, stun/slow him, and your team should slaughter him.

You can be really aggressive with your number 3, but remember that in this build, your 3 is primarily a heal. Spam it whenever anyone needs it. You're building mana regeneration, and you have meditate, don't wait.

Practice with your 1 if you're not very good with it. Missing a kiss when you are trying to switch golems to someone with low health often results in their death. If you get good at hitting with it, you can switch allies often and easily, with no consequences.

It's a good Idea to keep you kiss ready to stun. Your number 2 is always helpful if you hit an enemy god. And try to keep your number 4 ready for worst case scenarios. Sometimes it's worth using to deny a stun/slow rather then to block a fatal hit.


All the skills are expanded upon in great detail in the skill section for those interested.

Levling priorities. Max out lovebirds quickly. Your 1 and 2 are still useful weak. Always put into your ulti when available, and regard your kiss as more important then your back off! This is because it increases the strength of all passive effects, rather then just damage.



1-Kiss
A very valuable skill that I rarely seen used to it's full potential. There is a lot to keep in mind when using this skill:

...stunning enemies... When is going to murder one of your low health or squishy allies, blasting off a quick kiss is the quickest solution to their salvation. Mind you it is only a 1second stun, so backpedal, drop your 3, and cover the allies retreat/heal. When an enemy is attempting to escape, a 1second projectile stun is extremely helpful in allowing your team to catch him, as well as get your tethered ally in range for a number 2 blast.

...Increased golem damage... Kissing an enemy while you have a golem, grants your golem bonus damage based on the skill level. Thus, if you have a golem, it's most efficent to stun a target he is actually going to attack. It might be worth choosing a new golem that is attacking the enemy, and then stunning, just to grant the damage boost. This is an acceptable option because :

...0 cooldown if you kiss an ally... This means you can keep switching between allies to grant your mana regen, the mana from your meditate, the jealousy bonus, and the movement speed. Not to mention, changing who you are able to heal. However switching excessively can leave you low on mana, which means seconds of uselessness. If you fire a stun, and accidentally hit an ally, this also means you can shoot to stun right aways.

...movement speed... Generally everyone can benefit from movement speed. For example, when running back into the fight from the shop, tether anyone you see just so you guys can return to battle a bit quicker. When an enemy is fleeing, kissing the fastest ally around might ensure the kill. An ally looking to retreat would also love you to tether them, and escort them to safety. Considering you have max cdr, a stun and a heal and an invincibility ulti, all your intended extractions will succeed if you use your skills right.

...mana regen... As I've repeatedly said, your tether grants your golem a fraction of your incoming mana. This means they get a chunk from meditate, and they get a constant regen (on top of their own items). In assault, mana is invaluable since you can't return to base. If you see an ally out of mana, using your meditate can keep him on the offensive while his meditate cools down. In consideration of your mp5, it's best supplied to your most aggressive ally, so they can be a little more confident in spamming their abilities.

...healing... when you have a golem, using your number 3 (love birds) heals both you and your golem. Heal up whoever has the lowest health, unless that person is safe, and someone is currently tanking. You should probably keep the tank alive till he falls back, then heal the weaker one. If you already have bracers of replenishment, you can keep tethering the one in combat, and just stay as close as you can to the weak allies, healing them slowly, while you wait for a better oppritunity to make them your golem.

When no one is in need of any of these 6 things, you can pick whoever you want as a golem. Ideally melee characters, so they can safely close the gap, and you can effectively cover their retreat, and heal them back up for a repeat attack. If the rest of your team is ranged, this is especially effective.


2-Back Off!
When you do not have a golem, this ability does damage, and a 360 degree push. This can be used to knock characters away from allies, push them into traps, deny a fenrir/loki in their sticky flurries, and of course, give yourself some breathing room.

When you have a golem, however, the blast's origin is the golem. Not only that, but it now does a slow, instead of a push. This is best used to keep enemies from escaping, or to slow enemies running past your golem, so they don't hit you or anyone in the back lines. Often, when trying to slow enemies for your allies, you will end up stealing the kill.

When your magic power is up, this ability can kill all lane minions if you can get them all in the area of effect.


3-Love Birds
2 simeltaneous uses of this skill. Your primary attack (damage over time if enemy is in it after first second.) as well as a powerful heal on your golem, and self. Clearly, heal up weak people. With your cdr and mana regen you should be able to keep your whole team healthy. The damage portion will often get you accidental kills from weak enemies you weren't aiming for, or from the DOT snagging the last hit (the perfect excuse). This attack is in the shape of a long rectangle, that can easily hit all of the minions in a lane at once.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DEAL DAMAGE TO HEAL. SPAM IT TO KEEP PEOPLE HEALTHY. This results in more heals per minute then if you wait.

***NOTE***
Once your initiate your heal on the golem, you can switch your tether and he will still get the rest of the heal. So if there's no risk of gank, and your ally is fleeing, you can drop him the heal, and stay with your allies. Or you can drop a heal on an assassin ganking a squishy target, then switch back to someone who might need your ulti/speed/mana


Undying Love
This grants invincibility for .8-2seconds depending on its level. This applies to both you and your golem. While invincible, all crowd control is also ignored. Allowing you, or your golem to escape hades ult, ignore ares ult, or save people in dire need from the last attack. 2 more great specific uses are when fenrir/arachne grab an ally, you can pop your ulti to free them instantly.

You can play a few mind-games to lull your enemies into wasting their ulti's if there are no enemies on the other team you feel you should save your ulti for. However, this ability is best saved for dire situations, to deny the enemy a kill.

Pro's
+Entire team kept in good health/mana
+Increase the damage potential
+Keeps enemy kills (and kill rewards) low
+manages still get alot of kills
+Allows tanks to build with more damage, thanks to your healing.
+amazing escape potential

Con's
-Some don't have fun being support
-squishy (although heals + escape potential makeup for this)

Arena - Unless the other team is overly aggressive, you should be able to keep atleast 2 allies on the offensive at all times. Often when allies flee toward base, they will turn around if you drop a heal on them, and let you sustain them. If they don't turn around, keep escorting them to base so you can deny things like thors/apollo's ulti's with your own. This is also your chance to buy things, since you should never actually NEED to return to base for healt/mana.Since Arena is won through tickets, focus on denying the enemy kills, rather then giving your team kills.

Assault - Earlygame, save your mana for heals mostly. Stay alive as long as possible. If an ally over extends, let him die. You are more important, because everyone benefits from your life. Keep your team alive, and it keeps them off your tower. Since this game-mode enforces teamfights, auras are awesome here.

Conquest - I think the best lane partners are tanks that build with some more damage (since your heals makeup for their lower defense), bruisers with a bit of some tank items/abilities.

Mages and Ranged physical units are pretty good too, (especially if you keep them in the mana), however this greatly reduces your opportunities for blasting off your number 2, and you can get steamrolled by an aggressive twosome.

Make sure your lane partner understands that you require and expect protection. IE: Herc could save his dash to push gankers off you since you cant push them away if you've tethered a golem. A smart enemy will focus on killing you, which makes them more predictable. Plan your counter attack carefully.

That's all I have to share. Thank you for reading, and hope you success in your attempts to use this build. Remember, all this is simply my opinion, and I decided to share it after getting great praise. Consider assists your most important stat, and you will not disappointed.

My scores with this build are generally 5-15/0-4/25+

Would love to hear how some of you do with this build.