Apollo, the Do's and Dont's

Hello Smitefire! This is going to be my first guide here for you all, and I figured I would start with a god that everybody builds differently.

Apollo.....stuck up and immature, yet piercing.

His kit is one that is surprisingly full of utility, and something that you need practice to know how to use it to its full advantage, or the willpower to read the rest of this guide!

Pros


-High burst damage
-Good poke and harassment damage
-A full-immunity ultimate
-Moderate CC, with hard-lock potential
-Some of the highest mobility in the game

Cons


-Very Squishy
-Difficult to play on a high Ping
-Ultimate of little use in Arena
-Burns through Mana very quickly
-There are better carries for team fights

The above builds offer a variety of build options for Apollo, the first of which is the one that I use almost every time on a game - to - game basis.

Death's toll is pretty self explanatory; it lets you stay in lane longer, and not taking advantage of the total heath that you get from using this item would just be silly. Every 2 hits is a tick from a health potion. It is worth more than any LS early game.

I have seen people use Ninja Tabi recently, maybe just trying it out, but I don't see the need. The penetration is going to be much better than 7% crit, which is so low that it almost makes no difference. The penetration effects every shot, crit or not and is going to take you much further.

Devourer's Gloves This item can be overlooked for Soul Eater on Apollo, but the fact of the matter is, Apollo has one of the best steroids in the game! His passive is his Steroid, and his 3 feeds into the number of APS that you can reach very nicely as well.

Now for the elephant in the room. Very few people recommend using this item, but on Apollo it is simply too useful. Apollo can be very mana hungry, and his ultimate will burn through your mana much faster than you think. Getting out transcendence early enough will be very useful to you for the rest of the game, as each kill only adds to your mana pool. This item also adds a sizable amount of physical power, which only goes up over time, and scales well with each level. Investing in Transcendence will pay off far more then wasting an active on Meditation that would be better spend on Aegis or Beads.

This is one of the most necessary items on an AD carry, and cannot be overlooked, the penetration and AS that it brings to the table are without substitute. USE IT.

Without this item, your damage will fall off late game. This is not an item that should be rushed on Apollo. Apollo has high base damage on his auto attacks and can do a hefty bit of damage without Death-bringer, but in order to increase your damage output to its maximum, you NEED Death-bringer, you can't go without this as a late item.

Eye of Retaliation This is one of my favorite items in the game, that is often overlooked. There is an entire god-passive that mirrors this item, it is damn good. The added physical power is not going to be beat on any other item at this point (which will provide you with as much utility) but as you already have Devourer's gloves, this is not a mandatory item, something to play with as you see fit.

This another one of those items that people say is needed on an AD carry, but it is also something that you can live without. If you want to murder people faster, buy this, if you need more utility go for Eye of Retaliation or Void-blade.

I hope this makes sense!

Unlike normal skills sections, I am not going to break down every skill, you have a mouse, mouse over the tool-tips in game. That is all.

On a more helpful note, what I am going to cover in this section is when to use your abilities. Your poke (1) is a very useful ability for its ability to hit enemies through walls, through minions, through just about anything really. It is moderate damage, that scales very well with level, and not so well with abilities. Use this as a finisher or as a poke, just try not to spam it needlessly, as it is quite a bit of mana early on.

Your 2 is by far the crown jewel of your kit, it is everything a Carry can ask for, it is a hard CC, an interrupt, and a defensive steroid. The applications for your 2 are endless, you can immobilize somebody, leading to chain CC, you can interrupt abilities from other gods that have slow animations or cast times.
-Thor's Berserker Barrage
-Hun Batz' Overhand Smash
-Isis' Wing attack
-etc...
As a last resort feel free to use Serenade as a simple boost to protections. Stuck in Poseidon's 3 with low health? keep running and use serenade to damp the damage, i have escaped with very low health through this manner many times in the past. Its a last-resort-only action, but it serves its purpose.

The moves! Its a pretty bad escape, the speed boost does almost nothing and you can be interrupted by any snare at any point while traversing the ground, unlike almost every other AD carry. But it has one great offensive purpose that the other carries don't get to take advantage of, this is about as close to a direct steroid as your going to get. By hitting multiple targets with you can almost instantly fill your audacity bar and double your attack speed for that ever so needed AD damage.

All carries function best when partnered with a CC tank, because if your enemy isn't moving, you should have no problem hitting them.

Apollo is no exception to this fact, if you are in lane with a Ymir, Hades, Sobek, or even Ares, you should be fed in no time.

Auto attack first and use your abilities when needed, to get that little extra range, to hit through a minion, don't open with your finishing moves. Don't open with your ult when possible, you ever seen a Freya open with an ult? No...BECAUSE IT ISN'T A GOOD IDEA.
You can dive into a team fight with your ult sure, switch lanes, but don't just initiate a gank with it, run in lane like a normal carry and use the insane utility ultimate as a finisher if somebody gets away, or as an escape if you get countered. It is not as high damage as you might think.

Hold left mouse, point at jungle creep....walk to next camp. Jungling with Apollo is easy after level 7....but until then good luck downing a camp without using all your mana and health. This is not to say that it can't be done....but it just isn't worth the time early game, you get better farm in lane.

Good luck to you all, please post comments and whatnot below! I always love criticism, but lets try and keep it constructive? I hope this was helpful.

That's all for now, see you in the Jungle!

Gfüa