Apollo, God of Physical Carrying

Before reading, please remember to post in the comment sections with feedback. This might be my build, but it is the community's to critique, and taking feedback and making it better is the goal.

Apollo is the latest god to be added to the Smite Roster. He is an exceptionally powerful carry, able to harass effectively and deal tons of damage in both short bursts and extended fights. His excels both offensively and defensively, with a short-range AoE CC, an escape/initiate, and a global ultimate. However, he still takes some getting used to despite his well designed kit and must be played safely as he is quite squishy.

This guide will focus on gaining an early advantage so that you can dominate the early to mid game. His late game becomes more difficult to win on even terms, as physical carries such as Artemis can out damage you while mage carries such as Anubis will 100-0% you in one combo if you're out of position.

Pros

High Damage
Decent Poke
Good defensive tools and mobility against assassins
High ganking potential with ultimate
Powerful early and mid game

Cons

Very Squishy
Mana Intensive (especially with long-range ultimates)
Slightly weaker late game

(Please Highlight abilities for effects)

Passive - Audacity
This passive allows Apollo to out duel and out farm many people in the early game. It also makes him extremely deadly with any items that have on-hit effects such as life steal or armor shred. Most importantly, it makes him able to take objectives extremely quickly.

1 - So Beautiful
So beautiful it hurts...a lot. This spell makes Apollo extremely bursty and pokey early on, and gives him exceptional wave clear. In the mid-late game, the poke it does is also quite good though be careful for initiators like Hades or Arachne, as going in to land one of these puts you in the danger zone for a lot of CC if you get focused.

2 - Serenade
One of the best defensive spells in the game, especially against melee bruisers and assassin's who may get the jump on you. However, Any damage breaks it, meaning more often than naught your team mates may end up getting you killed, or minions may break the CC too early.

3 - The Moves
A powerful initiate/gap closer as well as an excellent escape utility. Using it offensively triggers his passive quicker, knocks back and slows. Defensively it allows you to escape after a Serenade or just in a sticky situation. It even slows down enemies/speeds up allies, making it a good team-based tool.

4 - Across The Sky
This ultimate is a lot trickier than it may seem. It allows you to traverse the skies to find nearly dead targets to assassinate or to initiate a fight. In some cases it can be used as an escape, but the considerably long cast time to get into the air makes it risky. Keep in mind that while the initial cost is only 10 mana, every second in the air costs an additional 50 mana so using it to get back into lane may put you at a disadvantage. Believe me, your mana pool disappears fast with this ultimate.

Starting Warrior Tabi + 3 health potions allows Apollo to trade pretty safely early game. Upgrading to tier 3 right away gives him excellent mobility as well.

Picking up The Executioner next gives him the ability to dominate any god early game, even tanks. As Apollo doesn't deal a lot of damage/hit, abusing his quick attacks to shred the physical protection of your enemies and deal insane damage gives you an edge most won't expect from your 2nd item pickup.

This selection is debatable, but I prefer Soul Eater as my third item. The lifesteal it provides pretty much make him an immoveable target at this point in the game. The health, attack speed and aura effects also give him an additional boost in power and utility in early team fights.

The Rage Deathbringer combo is a pretty much must have late game if you're going to keep up with scaling carries such as Artemis. The insane boost to his crit chance and damage makes him a force to be reckoned on most gods, though some gods will still outright shut him down.

Situational Items

Fatalis - Movement speed, Attack speed, and the ability to permanently stick to and kite certain targets make this an excellent choice for games where you are already extremely far ahead and might be missing kills by just one or two auto attacks. Pick this up instead of Soul Eater if you're that far ahead, but remember it won't increase your damage that greatly in team fights.

Frostbound Hammer - Another items great for sticking to targets. This gives his attacks a bit more power behind them, and provides him with some extra health to boot Again, only if you're really far ahead, pick this up over Soul Eater if not, it is still an excellent 6th item, though not as good as some other options if you're that far ahead.

Golden Bow - This item turns you into a nuisance for the entire enemy team, not only does it support the crit synergy of your other late game items, but it makes grouped enemies ripe for the picking.

Qin's Blades - This item is a must have if you're facing a super tanky team. With each hit dealing 2.5% maximum health, his passive makes it a crazy-good choice. This can be picked up either early or late, depending on how quickly the enemies tanks get their items.

Other Items (Mentioned in comments below)

Voidblade - I was asked about this item below in terms of giving Apollo some much needed protection against assassin's such as Loki. This item does offer that safety while still fueling his damage, but unless you continue to build into physical protection its viability falls off after 5-7 minutes. On top of that, it has to be grabbed early, regardless of the enemy assassins' farm, so you may miss out on other essentials to pick it up as an end game Loki will find a kill on you regardless if you're caught out.

Witch Stone - Also mentioned in the comments, and for the same reason as the Voidblade it is a difficult item to pick up. It will save you early but falls off later.

Actives

Aegis Amulet - Invincible for two seconds may be just enough time for Serenade or The Moves to come off cool down and get you out of a sticky situation. When used in conjunction with the next active, this baby can turn an otherwise squishy Apollo into a target ripe for wasting ultimates and baiting fights.

EDIT: Aegis Amulet is now only 1.5 seconds, making it a lot less valuable of an item unless timed perfectly. You're much better off going Purification Beads first, and Girdle of Might second now.

Purification Beads - I consider this a must have if you're up againast a CC heavy team, as you'll almost always be the focus as Apollo.

Meditation - Really only a good choice for new Apollo players who may wish to stay airborne with their ultimate for long periods of time and still have mana in the lane or following team fight.

Girdle of Might - Enemy has no CC at all? Stick it to them with this excellent damage buff.

Other Considerations

Creeping Curse - If you are having the issue mentioned above where you can't seem to land the last few hits, spending 250 gold on this instead of several thousand on a major item may help you far more.

Apollo has a very easy time farming. Utilize his passive and So Beautiful by pushing back lines down to low health with auto attacks and then using So Beautiful on the entire wave if you're looking to push and have a good creep score. If you're just looking to last hit, build up stacks of Audacity on several different targets before using the attack speed buff to land multiple last hits.

In early laning, try to auto attack minions as often as possible to trigger his passive. Once Audacity is active, do your best to land auto attacks on enemy gods who come in for CS, while also ensuring you get last hits in the process. Poking them out of CSing with So Beautiful is also an effective way of farming and keeping the enemy gods from gaining anything on you. Be wary of mana however.

Once your The Executioner has been picked up, look to grab kills across the map on overextended lanes. Running into an extended lane before popping Across The Sky will keep your mana up and give you a serious edge if your lane is prepared for your gank. Use Serenade and The Moves to ensure they don't escape, and spam So Beautiful whenever it is up.

Once you pick up Soul Eater look to secure solo objectives such as towers or gold buff. With the lifesteal and Audacity Apollo can take these objectives very quickly and very safely, losing almost no health or mana in the process.

As you pick up more items try to force team fights as often as possible. Apollo excels at getting in and out of fights similar Xbalanque, and can easily scare targets away from him with a single strum of his lyre. Be wary of enemy assassin's however, as they will look for wasted skills to jump on you and tear you apart.

Split pushing with proper ward coverage gives Apollo a lot of map control, able to use his ultimate to escape ganks spotted with wards, or even run away with The Moves. Remember that if you're caught out, you're dead, so don't waste abilities other than So Beautiful on clearing waves and always watch your mana.

Always focus the nearest target to you in a team fight, even if they are a tank. His short range make it too easy for enemies to lock you down and kill you before you can use anything, especially gods with silences. However, if you can get in range of a So Beautiful on an enemy carry safely, always do it. The burst it does is just incredible.

Finally, remember that Across The Sky damages enemies when you're on the way down, so long as when you select their location they were initially in the location you selected. Even if they move out of the way they will still take this damage. Use it to surprise low health enemies and do lots of area damage in team fights.

Take neutral buffs as often as your jungler allows it, especially movement speed and damage buff.

Apollo is one of my favorite gods to play and has an extremely low skill cap. His excellent poke and safe play make him a great choice for new comers and a tantalizing reason to buy an Ultimate God Pack. If you're on the fence about getting him, just do it. I promise its one god you won't regret picking up.

For some conquest gameplay footage see my video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04YbH5t3fbM

Enjoy and make suggestions below!

3/30/2013 - Added an additional "Other Items" section to address item concerns in the comments below.
- Added Witch Stone and Voidblade into the "Other Items" section.

3/31/2013 - Adjusted recommended active Aegus Amulet due to the reduction in its active time.