Bacchus Support Guide (Season 2, Post-Ravana)

Bacchus, God of Wine is a Guardian. But don't feel guarded when he drives you home tonight as he chugs his way to get smashed.
Bacchus is by far the burstiest of supports and one of the more damage-focused guardians out there. But the problem with Bacchus is that his early game is just too bad. But don't worry! This guide will teach you to Belly Flop your way to victory as you chug your wine to forget about the scarring memories of your early game!

Scenario/Situation

START

---

Watcher's Gift is a great starter Item because it allows you to gives you extra gold and EXP even if you don't last hit the minions which you shouldn't be doing. I recommend getting Mark of the Vanguard instead if you're against an Ares since it'll reduce the damage from his Shackles which deal A LOT of damage early on, and since Shackles cripples you you can't Belly Flop away.

---

Even though this item got nerfed to oblivion, I still recommend it since Bacchus's early clear is so poor. If you have an adc with amazing early clear like Neith with her Spirit Arrow, you can replace this with a Creeping Curse.

---

You ALWAYSbuy this item when you start as Bacchus. It regens both health and mana, and you will see later in the guide that mana is very important early as Bacchus.

---

This is what aggressive players start with while playing support, since you'll be losing more health. I play aggressive, so I'd rather have Healing Potion to not have to back too early. This is also good as Bacchus since it's dangerous to clear early (see Early Game chapter). This can be replaced by 2 Ward, but you'll probably need to return to base sooner. If you take the Ward, take 5 Multi Potions instead of 4

---

CORE

---

---

There is many options for shoes, but my favorite is Shoes of the Magi since what makes Bacchus viable is his mid to late game damage and the early penetration helps you get your damage online faster. Shoes of Focus gives you a bit more utility at the cost of damage. It will help you apply more CC instead of dealing more damage. I hate Traveler's Shoes and Reinforced Shoes as Bacchus since they take so much power and utility away from you.

---

You'll see this Sovereignty pop up a lot in various support builds. The reason why you pick up Sovereignty and not any other item coming from Steel Mail is that:
1.It's cheap which allows you to get health and physical protection early.
2.It has a magical protection aura which'll make your Mid laner/ADC a bit less squishy when you are in their respective lanes.

---

The reasons why you pick this item is the same as Sovereignty.
1.It's cheap which allows you to get health and magical protection early.
2.It has a physical protection aura which'll make your Mid laner/ADC a bit less squishy when you are in their respective lanes.

---

DEFENSIVE

---

This can potentially be replaced by Mystical Mail or Hide of the Nemean Lion but this is my favorite out of the 3. It reduces hunters' and in-hand based gods' DPS and movement speed, and it gives a good amount of protections and a good amount of health. Another advantage is that it's cheaper than Mystical Mail. The reason I prefer Midgardian Mail instead of Hide of the Nemean Lion is because it reduces the attack speed and movement speed of all enemy gods that hit you, so in the end it contributes to the whole team and not just you. Hide of the Nemean Lion will basically make enemies try their best to not attack you and since you're a support you're not the most important role on the team in a late-game team fight, so your survival won't be essential, and you'll be taken out once the rest of your team has been. If there are no in-hand based gods in the enemy team composition (which will be very unlikely) go for Mystical Mail since it's the only one that'll really help you since Hide of the Nemean Lion won't deal any damage to them and Midgardian Mail won't really debuff them since they don't need their attack speed.

---

Pestilence is a good item when facing gods with heals. It can even be viable against Sylvanus's Wisps or Neith's Unravel although you still can get better items. It can even replace Heartward Amulet in the core build if you're facing an Aphrodite support or Hel support who rely on their heals, although they are uncommon in the meta right now.

---

This item isn't the best right now, but I still like it on Bacchus. It gives you mana, which is great since Bacchus consumes a lot of mana. It gives you a great amount of physical protection, and it gives you cooldown reduction (CDR) which is great if you took penetration boots, which you most likely will have. I still would rather have Midgardian Mail over Breastplate of Valor, but if you feel like you have too long cooldowns, or you're against a very physical damage heavy team, this is a good pick-up.

---

Now, I love Void Stone. I find it underrated. First of all, it gives magical protection. A decent amount of it. Then, it gives magical power. This is perfect for Bacchus and other damage heavy guardians. And it also gives a magical protection reducing aura. Bacchus will always be in the heat of the fight, sticking to people using Belly Flop, so this aura will be very useful. I think the only guardian this item goes better with is Ares. I almost put this item in the Core Build I find it so good, but it's all preference so I decided not to. It's also both defensive and power, but it gives 10 more magical protections so I decided to put it in defensive

---

POWER

---

Ethereal Staff is another good item. It gives a lot of health, and the more health you have the more power it gives which makes it great for tanky gods. It also gives a lot of mana which is useful for Bacchus. If you feel like you don't have enough health, this is a great way to provide both health and power.

---

This item is good for guardians in general, but it goes particularly well with Bacchus and you'll see why. It gives a good amount of power, a decent amount of health and mana and a passive that works to perfection with Bacchus's kit. If you Belly Flop a target, the target then has a 25% slow which will make sure the target can't get out of Belch of the Gods range. Then the slow renews EVERY TIME Belch of the Gods DOES DAMAGE(4 times) and the target is slower for another 25. This is generally a good pickup, but better for targets that don't have any escape. It's still good for targets with an escape, since the slow will allow your team to catch up with the target once he's used his escape.

---

Soul Reaver is another good item for Guardians, since it's passive deals 15% of the target's maximum health as additional damage whenever you use an ability. This passive can only apply every minute, but since you're the one that initiates, you're the first to use an ability, your cooldown will come up faster in the teamfight if it lasts more than a minute. Also the fact that this passive deals percentage damage is great since Bacchus has little (none depending on your build) penetration, and has a hard time dealing with targets that have magical protection. This item also gives a great amount of magical power and mana, that are both useful stats as Bacchus. I reccomend this as a last item since it is quite expensive, and it's very useful against the tankier team comps.

---

Now this is for the greediest of the greediest. This is strictly for when you are pretty far ahead and you have a lot of gold in the bank. I mean A LOT of gold in the bank. With the money you're spending on wards and getting your actives to max rank, 3320 gold is not easy to come by.

---

ACTIVES

---

Wrath of the Gods is great for stealing/securing objectives. Even though the true damage is only 1000 instead of the old 25% maximum health damage, this item is still very good for securing. Trust me, it doesn't feel good when the enemy Hercules ults and R.I.P the Gold Fury. And then you tell yourself: Damn, if only I had Wrath of the Gods to secure it. Because 1000 true damage is still more than most mages can do to a Fire Giant, since it has a decent amount of protections. And Bacchus is great for stealing objectives when using Belly Flop because of the knock-up.

---

If you find your team too squishy this could be a good item. Pop it in a team fight or while you're escaping, this will provide your team with more survivability in any situation.

---

If your starting active was Creeping Curse you should probably get this and not Enfeebling Curse. This can be very useful during a team fight, slowing all enemies and removing any kind of healing including lifesteal which can be fatal to the enemy hunter. This is especially good when you're against a heal heavy team comp.

---

Since Bacchus doesn't need Greater Blink to initiate since he has Belly Flop to initiate, Greater Purification can be a great active to replace that. Having Crowd Control Immunity is GREAT as a support. If you're against a very CC heavy team, or even if they don't have much CC but it's very annoying, Greater Purification can be a good choice.

High burst damage Amazing passive when full Great objective stealer High CC

Terrible early game Belly Flop is his way of initiating but also his escape Extremely mana hungry Actually has counters

Kumbhakarna DIFFICULTY MEDIUM

Basically, however you clear the wave, ***bha will make you pay for it. If you use Belch of the Gods, he can use Mighty Yawn to mesmerize you and then Groggy Strike to root you and the hunter can poke you a lot during that root, but you'll always have Belly Flop to escape if needed. If you use Belly Flop to clear the wave, you'll actually help clear it but he can use Groggy Strike to root you or Throw Back to poke you as you retreat. Tips and Tricks I'd recommend using Belly Flop to clear otherwise you'll just waste mana by using Belch of the Gods since Kumbhakarna will cancel it. While retreating, move from left to right to make sure he doesn't hit his Groggy Strike or Throw Back.

---

GOD NAME DIFFICULTY EASY

Apollo can use Serenade to cancel your Belch of the Gods. Tips and Tricks Whenever you're trying to stun Apollo using Belch of the Gods, try to stay at max range from him since the range of his Serenade isn't very big. If you're clearing the wave using Belch of the Gods, make sure Apollo doesn't get too close to you.

To conclude, Bacchus is a very damage heavy Guardian and is definitely the burstiest. Bounce and Belch your way through the game as your opponents ask themselves: How did I get killed by a drunk fat man?