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I've read a few guides regarding Arachne - a lot of which were before the God changes. This guide is an amalgamation of this research plus concepts and ideas I have incorporated into my play style for this God.
I do not intend for this guide to be "best practice" or even the ultimate guide - I'm very aware that it's most undoubtedly not. This is also my first guide so please be kind!
I'm not new to MOBA's although I'm relatively new to SMITE but hopefully have enough grasp of its basic concepts for this to be of help to someone.
FYI this guide is aimed towards Conquest. I'll try and keep this updated as much as possible - don't forget to read the comments below - There are some very good alternative items and tips described by other readers which may not be included in the guide itself.
This guide will be split into two sections (based off of the two item purchase orders above).
With Arachne I always intend to Jungle - from what I have read and witnessed Arachne is one of the strongest Jungle clearing Gods and therefore this is my main objective.
The main premise behind this build strategy is to build up large amounts of attack speed (1.9), Life Steal (45%), Crit chance (50 - 100%) and accompany that with Arachne's enemy slow & chase prowess.
It does leave area's of exploitation but knowing these faults is key to being able to utilise this build to its full potential.
As above, so below - this guide is my proffered method of playing Arachne that I enjoy - do not forget that this is a game that is to be enjoyed - 90% of the time I play this build I will go positive and be a benefit to the team. The strongest game saw me go 46/9/10.
This guide is how I play Arachne - it won't be the best possible build but I know I play well with it. I'm open to further suggestions and welcome constructive criticism as this is my knowledge of the game and this character so far so improvements are encouraged!
Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where building for a jungle character isn't possible (it's rare but it has happened) situations may include:
I have seen some people say that Arachne's abilities do not have a well developed 'synergy' and are muddled with no distinct combo patterns. To some degree I can understand this but I think that Arachne's abilities are useful together but can also be used singularly; both with advantageous effect and deciding to combo burst abilities or prolong activation is purely situational. This section will outline the main concepts behind each ability - further detail as per their use will be covered in the game phases sections.
Okay now for the Nitty Gritty...
As with every God in SMITE...the key to success is gaining a good start and maintaining that advantage throughout; with this build this seems to hold more weight than I've noticed with other Gods.
Item | Cost (individual) | Cost (cumulative) |
Boots | 300 | 300 |
Healing Potion x2 | 50 | 400 |
Bumba's Mask | 800 | 1200 |
Item | Cost (individual) | Cost (cumulative) |
Boots | 300 | 300 |
Healing Potion x2 | 50 | 400 |
Death's Toll | 800 | 1200 |
This phase is where this build starts to take shape.
Your main objectives should be as follows:
This phase, if everything has gone to plan, is where this build starts to dominate.
Hopefully by this point your God should be the highest level in the game. If this is the case you're in very good stead and it is crucial that you take advantage of it.
As you have invested farm into Life Steal, you're able to quite easily counter heal any damage dealt to you. This phase deals with increasing your Crit chance and overall damage (and in-turn your Life Steal).
You are effectively employing the same tactics found in the Mid game phase but you're able to do it with a lot more aggression. Roam the map, kill Jungle Camps, gank where possible and continue to kill the Gold Fury (Respawns every 5mins - check the icon on the map and do not forget that your Web can be used to ward the Gold Fury / Fire Giant). As you are aiming to be the highest level God in the game this will give all your lower level team mates a much needed boost.
I focus on farming a Deathbringer asap. Once this is done you should be dealing significant damage.
Once complete get yourself Rage. Another boost to Physical Power and a substantial increase to Crit chance.
Edit:
Some suggestion has been made to switch the build order between these two items - I have read in other guides to buy Rage before Deathbringer keep this in mind - try mixing it up. This guide is flexible so make it work for you.
With this setup you should be able to effectively kill anyone, although care should still be taken in team fights. High burst enemies such as Loki can be a problem as it gives you less time to recover your health although I've successfully won fights with these Gods even when they have the initiation advantage (the Soul Eater 300hp is just enough to keep you alive). It's not out of the realms of possibility to reach Cries over 800 with this build and with the relatively high attack speed you can see how quickly enemies can drop. 2/3 hit kills are quite common and with 45% Life Steal on an 800 Crit is tasty mid fight.
Some may have noticed that I haven't said to buy any actives...They are listed in the Purchase Orders. I like to get my main items as quickly as possible - feel free to buy actives along the way but expect them to push back your late game items by a few minutes. Some would argue that these items would increase farm...I don't know why but this is the only build I buy actives last.
Once I have the above items I don't need the money and I get the actives for the final stages of the match just for some extra control and escape options.
You should be pushing back to the enemy base by this point. Grab kills, kill Phoenix's and as you all know get that enemy titan down.
Final item list: Ninja Tabi, Devourer's Gauntlet, The Executioner, Soul Eater, Deathbringer, Rage & Situational Actives.
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Please leave comments if you want me to detail more some aspects! :)
Arachne is the only jungler I play really, I like to play support/carry roles mainly.
Yeah I've seen - looking forward to seeing it finished!
Anyway, I can also provide some information regarding good/bad match-ups.
Enemy gods that will help you snowballing:
Jungle : no leaps hum? Love it!
Loki, Nemesis, Mercury, Ratatoskr, Thanatos
Solo-lane : no escape hum? Run baby, run!
Hel, Aphrodite, Nu Wa, Chang'e, Hades (even tho he has a leap, but if he uses it for lane clear he's dead), Guan Yu
Enemy gods you don't want to deal with:
Jungle : stop jumping around, I can't get my broodlings to bite you!
Serqet, Bastet, Awilix, Hun Batz, Fenrir
Solo-lane : I almost had you, which did you ult???
Bellona, Sun Wukong
Yeah at some point I should start writing my own guides! xD
PS: I did :p
The build looks good! (maybe make your own guide aswell?) I don't think it'll fit well with how I like to play but i'm definitely going to try and fit in Mail of Renewal somewhere as That's a really good suggestions IMHO!
Thanks again for your input throughout.
Even if I'm not the best jungler, I keep winning a lot more often with Arachne than with any other (jungler) gods. My win/lose ratio is currently 77% after 26 games (207 kills, 101 deaths, 200 assists). She's in B+ tier in most tier lists I can see, but I don't feel like I need a specific comp around me to do good.
In the current meta, even on Arachne, using Mail of Renewal (or Spirit Robe) is still a valid choice, especially if you go with Qin's Sais.
As a consequence, my builds have evolved a bit.
When I'm fed :
Ninja Tabi, Jotunn's Wrath, The Executioner, Qin's Sais, Mail of Renewal, Rage.
When I'm OK but want to go all in :
Ninja Tabi, Jotunn's Wrath, The Executioner, Qin's Sais, Rage, Brawler's Beat Stick.
When I'm behind / dying too often :
Ninja Tabi, Jotunn's Wrath, Mail of Renewal, The Executioner, Frostbound Hammer, Soul Eater.
A few remarks:
- With her 70% steroid, you don't have to go too much in attack speed, but I still go up to 2.05 in most cases as I love to box fast.
- Arachne can afford to put defensive items. Remember that if you're dead, you're useless! :D
- Brawler's Beat Stick is always a good situational item against Hel/ Aphrodite/ Chang'e since Weakening Curse does no longer block all healing.
- Asi is really interesting if you have a good support from your team ( Geb or Hel) and can affort to go deep.
- Qin's Sais is only to be used against tanks, otherwise you'd rather prefer more criticals with Deathbringer or more lifesteal to box.
If your game last forever, putting Qin's Sais is always a good idea. In that case maybe Soul Eater works better than Frostbound Hammer
There's a lot of flexibility with Arachne and I think that's why I like playing this God. You can switch up your playstyle and still be a good benefit to the team which is always my goal in every game.
I'm not sure that the two critical items are mandatory, maybe Deathbringer can be replaced by Brawler's Beat Stick for better penetration against tanks. It has worked well for me! :)
Regarding actives, Weakening Curse + Greater Purification are perfect for Arachne. I usually max Weakening Curse before 10 minutes, except if many have dashes in the opposite team, in which case I might go with Greater Blink to catch up.
If your target is running away from you, he/she's most likely dead. Love it.
The toughest part is to always have the speed buff when chasing. In order to do so, I ward on their jungle to steal it when I can.
I did that a few times, it helps a lot for the snowball effect. If the solo laner is squishy early game ( Hel, Aphrodite or Loki for example) it's really easy to take the advantage.
The last game I had was more difficult, Hun Batz was really a problem compared to most junglers. As I was behind, I tried the Frostbound Hammer : it works fine. The HP helps to cover the difference in level when boxing, combined with Soul Eater.. you can solo the Gold Fury real quick at lvl 15.
The aim for this role is snowball or bust - it has limitations but so do most builds - otherwise everyone would just play that :P The choice for the two Life steal items is to counter the lack of health / defensive items - I've found with the above items you can usually out heal 90% of damage taken but it does fail sometimes.
The boot choice is to gain some early attack speed increase as well as the movement increase but i'll try your suggestions for sure.
As for the Devourer's early - I've not found it too difficult to gain the stacks actually. The jungle doesn't provide many I admit but I've found that dipping into lanes for quick minion kills & ganks they soon add up by the time i'm ready for the Gold Fury.
The lack of slows would be useful - although the web + Ult are usually enough to catch anyone to be honest! But yeah maybe buying one of the listed Actives earlier could assist with that.
I wouldn't say this build is hyper carry but if you pull it all off quickly you can destroy their team before their hyper carries really get going...Yeah just avoid or approach teamfights with caution!
Oh and early skills - You can plant two webs early and by the time the Jungle camps spawn you have full mana from regen :)
Thanks again.
but seriously, I think it could work. No good for teamfights, but she already sucks in teamfights, lol.
I also agree with the point of taking Rage before Deathbringer I don't know why this ever changed to Deathbringer Rage in S2 as Rage always gave 2-3 DPS more (except for Artemis because passive) then the Deathbringer first.
especially now DB is getting nerfed the Rage db is going to be stronger.
as last thing my recommendation would be to not take a Devourer's Gauntlet as stacking can be pretty hard in the jungle. and to only take one lifesteal item. because your build could use a Jotunn's Wrath for some CDR or a more defensive item