Big Blue [Physical Tank Ymir]

Who am I?
I am someone who really enjoys playing smite among other MOBAs. I am not someone who enjoys the ranked style of play. However, I am competitive and like to do well in my games. This is my personal build I've developed from playing Ymir and I find it works very well for my play style.

What type of build is this?
The focus of this build is to embrace the big, fat, cc monster that Ymir is. Despite the recent change of adding more magical damage to Ymir's Frost Breath I still believe the best use of Ymir is as a Bruiser Tank. The key element here is doing enough damage and cc to get the enemies attention while building enough defense to survive once you have it.

Be the Fat
Ymir is one of the biggest gods in smite. Use that to protect your weaker teammates. Your job here is to get up in the enemy face, body blocking skill shots while you beat them down with your hammer and disrupt whatever plans they had going on.

Pros

Strong melee presence
Embraces being a tank
Lots of cc and debuffs

No magical damage increase
Reliance on laning partner

Core Items
vs. Physical
vs. Magical


Mystical Mark
Physical Protection and Health alone make this a great it but the real selling point is that damage aura. Once finished, this item guarantees no melee god is going to want a prolonged fight with you. Has the added bonus of helping push lanes early game, something Ymir is weaker at than other gods.
Reinforced Boots
The boots, everyone gets em. These combined with the recent base run speed buffs are why I place so little importance on magical protection. With a bit of skill and knowledge of enemy god's skills most magic damage can be avoided just by dodging. You cant be a tank if you cant quickly insert yourself into the thick of it.
Frostbound Hammer
This is the last item that I always take regardless of the enemy team composition. The main reason as you would expect is for the slow on melee hit. Ymir has no problem closing on enemy gods with his skills and this item makes sure they stick around even when those are on cooldown.
Breastplate of Valor
By now the enemy should be scared to get anywhere close to you and team fights are about to be a lot more common. Ymir is all about absorbing damage and CC. This item lets you do both better and the 20% skill cooldown is quite noticeable.
Witch Stone
Protection, physical damage, attack speed, and a very strong passive debuff to all enemies around you. This is an all around great item to bring to a team fight and give your side that little edge it may need. Less useful if someone on your team has already completed it. In that case I would recommend switching it out for an earlier Voidblade or maybe an Ankh of the Golem.
Voidblade
Honestly few games last long enough to get here but assuming mine do I like to finish with this against physical. It's a solid choice but by no means essential. If the enemy mages are starting to give me problems at level 20 I'll sometimes swap this out for a Magi's Blessing.
Stone of Gaia
A great regeneration item for health with a bit of mana regen as well. That combined with the magical protection make this a truly fantastic item. The protection from this will help you survive those hardhitting ults from gods like Zeus or Anubis that sometimes can't be avoided entirely.
Qin's Blades
By now you should have no trouble closing on those pesky mages and locking them down while you and/or a laning partner beat them down. But what about the tank on their team protecting them? This item is a gift for him. It will only take a few whacks with this item before he learns he cant stand toe to toe with you like he planned. As a side benefit that faster attack speed only makes your Frostbound Hammer even better.
Magi's Blessing
Not a bad way to finish off the magical build. The passive ability absorb on this can really mess with gods like Anubis or Agni who rely on a very predictable set chain of skills affecting you. And as always extra health and mana never hurt. Feel free to switch this one out for something that feels right for the current match.



Disclaimer: The items from these two builds are meant to be mixed and matched depending on the flow of the battle. Using common sense over blindly following any guide will always yield better results. That is all.

Frostbite(Passive)
This is why a physical Ymir is such a beast. A straight up 50% damage boost to any enemy for several seconds after you hit them with a skill. Honestly one of the best passives in the game right now and most people don't even know about it.

Ice Wall
While it lacks the flash of a big skill this may be one of the best moves in the game. The range is great and with clever placement you can divide up the team fight anyway you choose. The wall can be a little iffy about what skills it blocks sometimes but knowledge of that just comes with playtime. If you're quick enough you can use the wall to cancel out many movement based ults that are immune to standard cc such as He Bo and Guan Yu. Another great wall tactic is to Freeze Breath, throw up an Ice Wall behind the enemy, and then Shards of Ice next to them. This gets most gods every time unless they have a jump off of cooldown.

Glacial Strike
This can be a hard skill to land on enemy gods. That's why most Ymir players will chain Frost Breath into this. Once you have have Frostbound Hammer you should find this a little easier to hit with. If you set up a wall in front of an oncoming enemy creep wave the enemy archers will bunch up with the soldiers and you can hit them all with a single strike. Keep in mind this tactic is really only effective mid to late game when mana isn't an issue.

Frost Breath
This single skill has won many a team fight. I almost always max this skill first. Now that this skill damages on top of the stun I can see a strong case being made for a tank/mage hybrid Ymir build. The stun from this will chain should be what you use to chain into your other skill sets. If you can hit a god with this as he jumps in to initiate its gameover for him. Even very strong gods like Sun Wu are susceptible due to the slight activation times on some ultimates.

Shards of Ice
Don't miss.

At the start of the game you want to pick a side lane and play very passive, hitting enemy creeps from behind your line of swordsmen. Frost Breath will allow you to scare off enemy melee gods or sometimes even set up an early kill if they aren't paying close enough attention. If the enemy god such as Anubis or Freya has an easy to spam ranged AOE skill early it may require you to play even more passive. The reason I get the wall at 4 is so when I get my ult I can set up a quick kill that much easier.

I personally enjoy laning with ranged "fighters" or any god that I can chain stuns with. I've had great luck laning with Anhur, Artemis, Loki, and Anubis. Assuming you're not in vent/mumble with your laning partner the best thing you can do is just to learn quickly how they play and adapt your style. You can't play the same way every game. This seems like common sense but far too many people get mad at laning partners because they don't act how one might expect them to. Its hard to lane with someone who hates you because you yelled at them for being "bad"(read as: not how I want you to play).

Once you get out of the laning phase try to insert yourself in every team fight. Always looks for the maximum payoff for Frost Breath. It may be tempting to Frost Breath the enemy team's initiater when he jumps in but take a look and see if you can get his 3 teammates coming in behind him instead. By the time they get free your team can kill the initiater without his backup. I realize this is all common sense stuff to most people but honestly, I assume if you're still reading at this point you may have found it helpful in some small measure. I appreciate you taking the time to check out my guide and I hope you found something here to take away from it and adopt into your own play style.

Do This

In team fights look for maximum payoff on Frost Breath, not first available
Use wall to divide team fights in your favor or block escaping gods
Protect the squishy mages
Chain your Frost Breath into your Glacial Strike
Use your wall to block enemy movement reliant ults
Embrace your big fat blueness

Spam the wall at enemy gods or block chasing teammates
Use ult on a god with a jump skill off cooldown
Leave squishys in the lane for that shiny jungle buff
Stand still when fighting enemy mages
Think about going on a diet