Bane of (Fire)Giants - Fafnir 9.2 Masters Guide All Modes

In a world of Gebs and Khepris, why bother with little ol' Fafnir?
In simple terms Guardians fall into two categories, those who engage and those who peel.
For example, an Ares should actively look to start a fight, while a Khepri may be more focused on making sure your team is safe and not getting run down by Warriors and Assassins. Some Guardians are strong at both, such as Geb. This is where Fafnir comes in, not only is he capable of protecting his team and engaging fights, theres a third trait that is almost entirely unique to Fafnir(in terms of Guardians), buffing his team and debuffing your foes. The buff in question is of course, Coerce. By leaning our build into Aura items such as War Banner and Shogun's Kusari we can turn ourselves into walking beacons of empowerment, drastically increasing the damage output of nearby allies, a playstyle which few gods can offer to the extent that this dwarf does. Fafnir is considered by most to be on the upper end of difficulty when it comes to Guardians, this just makes the path of mastery even more satisfying.

"Wow, Fafnir truly is the Dark Souls of SMITE!"

-AlterarionBlue, world renowned washed up GRANDMASTER Terra player

Passive - Endless Greed

Endless Greed

Cursed Strength

• Don't be afraid to readjust your aim after you cast the ability, theres a brief delay before the hammer is actually launched
• Sometimes holding your hammer can generate more pressure than risking a miss, many gods will fear you knowing they could be stunned any second.
• average players tend to dodge/juke in the same pattern throughout the entire game. If you notice a Ra constantly strafing left/right or a Kali attempting to get behind you try taking this into consideration while aiming this is something you get better at naturally over time
• Be aware this ability is both a stun and slow, meaning Winged Blade will be triggered
• This ability can go through walls

Coerce

• Coerce allows Fafnir's team to absolutely shred objectives such as Gold fury,Fire giant, even towers and the Titan.
• Coerce works best with gods whos kits emphasize basic attacks, such as Rama because their high attack-speed facilitates many instances of Coerce's damage, as well as boosting the god's themselves abilities such as Astral Quiver.
• Unless you need the heal, avoid using this ability until the moment combat begins to maximize value
• Even when placed on physical gods coerce still applies magical damage, as it originates from you. This also means coerce can apply item effects such as Spear of the Magus, Soul Gem and Gem of Isolation, essentially giving your teammate a free frostbound slow
• Get familiar with saying the "Group up!" VGS command before activating coerce in dragon form in hopes of hitting as many targets as possible

Underhanded Tactics

• It's a leap, meaning you're untargetable during the ability cast
• Disarms stop the target from using basic attacks -- most effective against hunters, assassins and attack speed-based warriors
• In an ideal situation when fighting allow the entire duration of Underhanded Tactics to nearly expire before applying your hammer's stun. overlapping crowd-control is something many players make the mistake of doing

• First, after landing your Cursed Strength immediately use the ultimate while standing near the enemy god, this will almost certainly hit the poison effect unless the target has a movement ability
• Second, Fafnir is untargetable and CC-immune while transforming AND CC-immune while de-transforming. This can be used to evade high damage or dangerous crowd control abilities like No Escape or Earthshaker
• Fafnirs transformation process takes several seconds, which is plenty of time for an Assassin to get in on your team and cause problems. In addition the enemy may try to burst you as soon as you finish transforming. In both cases, transforming before a late-game teamfight is completely acceptable. If they take the fight you're powered up and ready, if they try to wait out your ult go for an objective
• Speaking of objectives, transforming on top of one and then giving all nearby teammates coerce is a great way to ensure you melt the objective and are prepared to fight anyone trying to stop you
• If you win a fight and your team is no longer in danger, cancelling dragonic corruption early can be a good idea to ensure you will have the ability again next fight.
• Keep an eye on the timer located in your buff bar, the duration at level 1 is short and de-transforming at the wrong time may get you killed.

I know what you're thinking. That sounds terrible.. So I spent a few days playing Mage Fafnir to make this montage to show you what I'm talking about.

Explanation

To begin, this style of damage Fafnir is specifically to have fun. Don't do this in ranked, it's best played in Arena. You could call it a meme build. Fafnir has many sources of damage and can boost his own damage even further with Coerce on top of having solid magical power scaling on his abilities can really delete people. That's probably what has kept me playing him for so long, the satisfaction of landing everything and watching them melt.

Instead of maxing Cursed Strength into Coerce, your priority shifts to Underhanded Tactics after Cursed Strength for the damage increase.
As a Mage, I prefer going primarily flat pen items coupled with lifesteal and CDR. Shockingly most Mage build work on Fafnir with the exception of stacking items such as Book of Thoth.

Start Talon Trinket, which will become Bancroft's Talon or start Restored Artifact into Chronos' Pendant. Instead of aura-boosting effects go for Purification Beads. Your second relic can be Aegis Amulet, Belt of Frenzy, Blink Rune, or Sundering Spear depending on what you need.

Next, lets either get flat pen or a specific counter-build item. Bulwark of Hope is great to give us breathing room for lifestealing purposes and Jade Emperor's Crown is just too nice against physicals. For flat pen, Spear of Desolation is Fafnir's favorite item. A major factor that Titanforge has to consider when balancing dragonic corruption is how many ability rotation's Fafnir can pull of before being forced back into dwarf form. Cooldown items such as Desolation and Chronos' Pendant break this entirely. Soul Gem can be a great buy as well for the purpose of deleting squishies.

Calamitous Rod of Tahuti is quite strong on Fafnir as landing a hammer secures the meteor strike unless they have CC reduction. Typhon's Fang is great in combination with Bancroft's Talon, be careful not to overcap too much. If you choose to skip Typhon's Fang Spear of the Magus is a great pick instead, increasing all damage on a target is very useful both on Guardian and Mage Fafnir. Divine Ruin is an option for antiheal, buy it early.

I don't buy starters on mage Fafnir often although if I do, its Gem of Focus. Everything it offers helps you big time.

Some example final builds from my recent games -
For fighting teams with multiple tanks
Bancroft's Talon Spear of Desolation Typhon's Fang
Spear of the Magus Calamitous Rod of Tahuti Obsidian Shard

For diving squishies
Gem of Focus Divine Ruin Soul Gem
Spear of Desolation Calamitous Rod of Tahuti Spear of the Magus

For enjoying lifesteal(good if your team has little to no healing)
Bancroft's Talon Chronos' Pendant Spear of Desolation
Typhon's Fang Calamitous Rod of Tahuti Divine Ruin

Fafnir genuinely is one of the most flexible and unique gods in the game. I hope that his learning curve doesn't turn you off, and that you found this guide useful in some way. If you struggle don't give up, keep trying! With that I'd like to thank you for reading and say goodbye.

Thanks to Zilby for his prompts and "Guide to Guides".

Patch 9.2 Summary - Little has changed for Fafnir other than Jade Emperor's Crown becoming a late game item and Stone of Binding getting a small buff to protections.