Smite Aphrodite Build Guide: Aphrodite Support (S6, Conquest)

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This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

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Smite God: Aphrodite

Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Aphrodite Build

Early

Guardian's Blessing

Shoes

Mana Potion

Healing Potion

1350G-1450G

Shoes of Focus

Chalice of Mana

Healing Potion

Mid

Notes is mandatory and should be rushed. Next item is preferred to be defensive, but it mostly depends on the situation:

if you feel they are doing more damage than you can handle. In most cases its enough protection against a physical team.
if your team is ahead and you don't need more damage.
against 3 tanky players.
against teams with 3 mages (support not included).

When you get to 40% CDR or if you are struggling with mana, replace healing potions with 2 mana potions. Replenish mana potions at each back or death.

Chronos' Pendant

Spirit Robe

Pythagorem's Piece

Stone of Fal

Spear of Desolation

Final

Notes Pick along with . Finish first, unless there is a reason not to. If you are not wasting too much mana, should give you enough MP5 at this point to not need the extra mana potions.

Sell for

Doom Orb

Rod of Asclepius

Rod of Tahuti

Situational

Notes against healers.
if you are getting focused in mid - late game. If not, you should not pick it up. can be useful if the enemy team has a lot of slows.

Divine Ruin

Gem of Isolation

Shaman's Ring

Common Build

Shoes of Focus

Chronos' Pendant

Spirit Robe

Doom Orb

Rod of Asclepius

Rod of Tahuti

Introduction

Hello I'm LumielGR, I have about 650 hours played as Aphrodite support, and this is my Aphrodite support guide. It's based on my playstyle so you might not like it. Reminder, this guide is not working in Conquest, it's only working for me, my playstyle, and my goals, which are not necessarily about winning, but having fun and challenge myself with a squishy support mage.

!!!! Attention !!! This guide is not viable for normal conquest or ranked conquest. It's just the way I play and it's only effective if your team members are fully aware of Aphrodites capabilities and how to help her support the team without a need for defensive items. - Spoiler - They won't.

Establishing concept and recognizing limitations

- Aphrodite is NOT a meta Support, and this build is NOT meant for higher levels of play (e.g. serious ranked games).

- This build is for a very specific and aggressive playstyle. This playstyle's success also depends in part on your ADC (god choice) and being aggressive to take advantage of the sustain Aphrodite brings to outlast or force the enemy to back/lose on farm.

- Best success is likely to be seen in a pre-made team where you can balance the Aphrodite support choice with specific picks in other roles.

Aphrodite's shortcomings as a Support

- Aphrodite lacks damage (only 2 abilities with damage) and CC (only a 1s stun and a very minor knockback with a fairly minor slow). The lack of CC is what makes her a fairly lackluster Support in the meta vein. Typical Supports provide good amounts of CC to help set up kills or peel for teammates, and need to be able to tank some damage to survive long enough to be a deterrent in a fight, or to be the focus of an objective push/secure.

- When building her with no major protections and lacking a strong escape ability (the increased movement speed does help some but isn't a true solution against high mobility junglers or hard CC), she can easily be the target of any group fight/gank. It also imbalances the team in that there's a lack of a frontline tank typical to that role.

- Aphrodite's strength is healing, and this can also be very easily countered by both god abilities and items, drastically reducing its effectiveness.

- Since she can't really dictate the flow of the game herself, she's going to need to rely a good amount on the skill of her ADC, and also on their choice of god. She also will need to hope that her Jungler can keep tabs on the enemy Jungler (Ward and warn of incoming danger), or keep them occupied and off her back.

Aphrodite's advantages as a Support

- Obviously, her strength is in her healing and buffing. She is the definition of a complimentary utility god. High single target healing (along with self-healing), situational damage increase from Jealousy, increased movement speed for her and her soulmate, and a get-out-of-jail Beads/Aegis rolled into one. To take advantage of this, you AND your partner need to be aggressive, take some hits to deal some hits, and try to outlast them in lane with the healing. Unfortunately, with this build, you can't take too many hits...you can take a couple, then back off and heal, but you can't take multiple shots.

- Her passive can help a bit by providing some protections in a fight with multiple enemies.

Team requirements for highest chance of success

There are too many variables in each match to say this build doesn't work. That said, in dealing with the disadvantages of choosing Aphrodite in a Support role, and additionally in building her squishy, the best success will come with a pre-made that knows how you're planning to play/build Aphrodite. Having a standard tanky Solo (rather than a bruiser or squishy off-meta pick), and possibly a bruiser mid (e.g. Zhong) and/or Jungler with some CC will help give the team back some frontline presence and control.

Abilities

Center of attention

Aphrodite's passive. It looks great because it can give you up to 36 physical / magical protections, but in reality you will die anyway.

Kiss

Probably the most important Aphrodite ability. It gives movement speed to you and your soulmate, helps them escape, stuns an enemy for just enough time for you to attack with and , and for your soulmate to kill the enemy player. Has second priority in ability upgrading.

Back off!

Does damage and pushes back the enemy. Try to use it only when originating from your soulmate, so a slow is also applied, and your soulmate can chase and kill the enemy player. Also enables the evolved passive of in combination with . Love birds is a slow moving ability so it needs to be used first in the combo so you can get the additional damage over time.

Love birds

A powerful ability, but sometimes hard to hit successfully. Should be used in a combo after and before . To use it effectively you need to go deeper into the fight, the enemy, then return back to your original position by turning 180 and . It can also heal allies, and yourself, so it has the first priority in ability upgrading.

Undying love

A powerful ability with a low cooldown. It makes you and your soulmate invulnerable to damage, for just enough time to escape a fight. There are multiple ways to use this effectively, I usually keep it until the last miliseconds before the soulmate or myself die. The reason is players usually ult when you are at very low health, so by doing this you can also force their ults which will do no damage to your or your soulmate. Use it in combo with so you can heal up while moving away from the enemy team

Threat analysis

Before listing all gods I need to explain about what are threats to Aphrodite.

Aphrodite relies on movement to defend herself, since she needs items with power to heal effectively. This means to counter her the enemy needs items like Gem of Isolation or Abilities like Hinder. She is also very vulnerable to burst damage, since her healing is over time, and basic attacks from hunters with a lot of attack speed.

Aphrodite has non-existent early game. She can only stay in duo lane and can barely defend against 2 gods, and that is true until she gets to 40% CDR with Chronos' Pendant. To add to that, Aphrodite with a "normal build" has very little movement. This means she can't rotate easily, especially in early game. An enemy team can and should exploit that to either push another lane (solo or mid), or just attack the duo lane repeatedly and keep Aphrodite from getting any XP.

Aphrodite will be unable to carry her team if they have trouble succeeding in early game. A good enemy mid will be lvl 20 by the time Aphrodite manages to get to lvl 15 as a support, and that 5 lvl difference can be devastating. She will be able to stay alive in these situations, but she will be unable to heal her teammates at that point.

Major

Missing

Soulmate analysis

Hunters:

Assassins:

Mages:

Warriors:

Guardians:

Build Analysis

Todo

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I made a build update for the new patch. It's still too soon so there is always room for adjustments, but I like Aphrodite in this patch.

(143) |

Where’s the example build?

Are you being serious or trying to flame me again? If you are being serious, I can add one now. I just think that this reduced CD for birds opens possibilities for more builds now.

edit: I've just added one. The problem with this example build is that it lacks 400 health than going with Pythagorem's + Gem of Isolation. So you should be aware of that before picking it up.

Load more comments (2 more replies) →

(143) |

wrote:

Are you being serious or trying to flame me again?

Just find it funny considering you literally put:

wrote:

"Reminder, this guide is not working in Conquest, it's only working for me, my playstyle, and my goals, which are not necessarily about winning, but having fun and challenge myself with a squishy support mage.

!!!! Attention !!! This guide is not viable for normal conquest or ranked conquest. It's just the way I play and it's only effective if your team members are fully aware of Aphrodites capabilities and how to help her support the team without a need for defensive items. - Spoiler - They won't."

Also I see you building doom orb/tahuti/pendant for your heal scaling without pen, but whats happens when you have anti-heal applied to you? That power will have one relevant benefit left (ability damage), and is essentially non-impactful in that scenario without some pen from say, obs shard or magus, or even just a tiny bit from void stone.

I think you should give an alt build that shows what you could build when an enemy team is itemising heavily into antiheal (cursed ankh, beatstick, pestilence, divine), which would cause you to shift to a more defensive build and also consider item's like Lotus Crown.

wrote:

I was having a break from smite and forgot to check Smitefire for updates, just saw your post. Yes, I need to add an alt build for heavy antiheal teams. I like your idea about switching to pen in that case but I will have to give it a try before making an update.

Added Set and Horus to soulmate chapter. Will slowly start adding threats now.

(13) |

I have to disagree with one of your Soulmate Analysis.

"Susano: Susano is usually not a good soulmate for Aphrodite."
In a similar way to , it's very frustating to play against a when he's linked to an . His high mobility + high burst makes him hard to lock down, and when you finally manage to do so, Aphro will grant him a free Aegis + Beads and heals. Definetly not a bad link.

For threats, I'd add any god with anti-heal on their kits: , , (this is a big one), , etc.

Susano can be good but my rankings are mostly from experience with queuing as solo. I plan to make the descriptions bigger for each god, and add information about how all their abilities affect Aphrodite. But it will take time :)

wrote:

For threats, I'd add any god with anti-heal on their kits: , , (this is a big one), , etc.

Yeap, I will add these today, and maybe more, since I will have some free time today.

(105) |

I think the thing you say what makes good is also why it doesn't make him that well of a soulmate: His mobility. Aphro isn't as mobile and the link can easily be broken. Also considering he is melee and you will need to be more at the front for it too.

Load more comments (1 more replies) →

Exactly. Aphrodite needs soulmates that can act as tanks with a lot of damage. My rankings are mostly how it usually works in games where I queue as solo, so it also can be different with a premade group. But I'm always free to suggestions and improvements to the guide.

I've removed the super aggressive build for now but maybe I will add it again later. Going to make more tests before I come to a conclusion. I have a lot of success with this updated build but I've been extremely lucky with match making, so it's hard to see if it's really working. Currently placed #1 Aphrodite in the world just by playing ranked for 1-2 days.

When I deleted the build I forgot about the threat tabs that is now gone. So I've decided to add a chapter for threats and one for soulmates. Since I've hit this milestone (Diamond frame and #1 Aphrodite for now - I'm super happy with both !!) I can relax playing other gods and writing more of this guide.

Any tips about the soulmate analysis chapter are welcome. I can copy from another guide because I'm not great at designing :D

(143) |

No.1 Aphro in what? Ranked Conquest God Leaderboard?

Load more comments (8 more replies) →

Check the Ranked Conquest Leaderboard for Aphrodite. It was a fun weekend but now it's time to feed with other gods :p

I know the placing is very volatile so I'm more happy with the Diamond frame which I couldn't even get in S5 for some reason.

(143) |

I don't know what platform you're on and Smiteguru doesen't have it's leaderboards up yet.

Still, even if you are No.1 and have a good Aphro record that doesen't mean we're going to change our opinion on the builds. AzureBlaze was Masters on PC Ranked Conquest and his builds were trash, and he was misinforming new players to use builds that weren't good.

wrote:

Still, even if you are No.1 and have a good Aphro record that doesen't mean we're going to change our opinion on the builds. AzureBlaze was Masters on PC Ranked Conquest and his builds were trash, and he was misinforming new players to use builds that weren't good.

Well I never said it's a good build for new players. I've also added many warnings on the guide about it. Maybe it's an "end game build" when you are pretty proficient with this god, maybe it's just about having fun.

Now I just need some ideas for the threats / soulmates table, and maybe some positive words to counter all this negativity in this thread :)

(143) |

Well as a threat you can add everyone except Khepri and Geb because they have minimal lane pressure, and Hel/Nox/Chang'e, who are also lacklustre supports just like Aphro. Soulmates, well what is there? Link to your Mid, ADC or Jungle, whoever needs the most peel or whoever deals the most damage with the damage increase, nothing too complex.

wrote:

Well I never said it's a good build for new players. I've also added many warnings on the guide about it.

So, who IS the build for then? Just yourself? Why even go through the effort to upload to Smitefire then? Surely you know the build by memory, or use the in-game item builder?

wrote:

Maybe it's an "end game build" when you are pretty proficient with this god, maybe it's just about having fun.

End game build? You mean lategame? Or since you don't seem to be very sure about the purpose of the build, then... there is no purpose?

wrote:

So, who IS the build for then? Just yourself? Why even go through the effort to upload to Smitefire then? Surely you know the build by memory, or use the in-game item builder?

I'm very against people locking their profiles and not sharing their builds. Just that is enough for me to share it. Also discussing other builds is important, which helps me improve my build. By end game build I mean, when you are absolutely at your best with playing a God, then that build will benefit you, while it will probably not benefit others. Aphrodite has healing, so staying alive with 10hp is enough for her, and in the process she will have done more damage, or mitigated (taken) more damage, than running away with more health. To do that you have to have a great feel and experience about the abilities of a God.

I've also found another build that looks very promising for a solo Aphrodite, from another player that shares his build. Maybe I will try it when I feel like playing Aphrodite solo, but I don't really need to try it to understand it's working, the numbers are very revealing. I will probably add it to the guide soon.

I'm on PC. It's working in Game (Pick God - About - Leaderboard)

edit: damn just got demoted to #2 :p

(394) |

Time to play some more Aphro then, huh? XD

Hehe, I made it once, it's good enough for me :) I want to focus on recording plays now in casuals, and making a more readable / presentable guide. That's going to be harder than winning :p

Comment has been deleted

(394) |

PsiGuard's non-Admin account for testing?

Shhh, don't tell anyone. :P

I've added a new build to the guide. It's a bit more defensive but doesn't ruin the experience completely. It's not battle tested, however I'm having trouble losing with this build so far. Unfortunately is also more boring. I also haven't find the time to make the guide more thorough but I plan to do it soon.

In case I want to make this the default in the future (if it proves to be a good build), is there any way to reorder the builds? or I will have to delete the first one and create it again?

p.s I'm subscribed to this guide but I see no notifications, any tips why are welcome!

thanks!

(394) |

The subscription functionality on the website is broken and has been since I've ever known, unfortunately. I can ask if the devs can look into this.

As for reordering builds...unfortunately you can't do that either. You'll have to delete or alter the first when you want to reorder. I find it helps to keep 2 windows open. 1 with the page as it's viewed, and 1 with in the editor. You can then quickly reference and recreate in a different order.

wrote:

The subscription functionality on the website is broken and has been since I've ever known, unfortunately. I can ask if the devs can look into this.

Thanks, that would be great if possible :)

wrote:

As for reordering builds...unfortunately you can't do that either. You'll have to delete or alter the first when you want to reorder. I find it helps to keep 2 windows open. 1 with the page as it's viewed, and 1 with in the editor. You can then quickly reference and recreate in a different order.

It's OK, not a big deal, I will probably do it anyway to make it more friendly to new Aphrodite players.

Load more comments (1 more replies) →

(394) |

I've already put in word. Will see what they say.

(13) |

wrote:

In case I want to make this the default in the future (if it proves to be a good build), is there any way to reorder the builds? or I will have to delete the first one and create it again?

AFAIK, you can't reorder the builds, so the only way I know is to swap the builds manually (deleting and re-adding items).

wrote:

p.s I'm subscribed to this guide but I see no notifications, any tips why are welcome!

You're subscribed here in the comments section? I don't think anybody commented on the guide since the last time you logged in, but you can test now to see if you get notified.

wrote:

You're subscribed here in the comments section? I don't think anybody commented on the guide since the last time you logged in, but you can test now to see if you get notified.

Yes, I'm subscribed in the comments but I get nothing, I only count the comments each time I log, how do you get notified? by email? Or in the top right corner? I get nothing in both :(
I've also tried to unsub and resub but nothing changed. Thanks anyway

Load more comments (6 more replies) →

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I double-checked with the staff and it looks like the Subscribe button isn't really supposed to be showing yet. We have a notification system on MOBAFire but it hasn't been built yet for SF (the infrastructures for each site can be surprisingly different). Currently we don't have a notification system up and running for SMITEFire, sorry.

I'll be sure to pass on that there are people looking forward to the feature though. It helps the devs to know what kinds of features community members are looking for so they know what to prioritize.

(105) |

@psiguard We have a thread for this on the forum somewhere too if you haven't noticed it yet

Thanks Psi. While the subscribe button should not be working, I think other people get notified because they have commented in the guide (I might be wrong). Maybe that can be extended to the one that posted the guide? Or maybe just mine is bugged.

(143) |

wrote:

I think other people get notified because they have commented in the guide (I might be wrong).

They likely checked recent comments.

(56) |

This. People returning to your guide to comment most likely scrolled down on the main SMITEFire page and checked on the right hand side of the screen to see if there were any new comments made (or comments addressing them).

OK cool :D

(13) |

I don't know how it works, because I never subscribed to any guide :p

But Bran already said that it's bugged, so I don't think there's a fix for it :/

(143) |

So somehow gem of iso, Pythags and Asclepius makes a build defensive?

Well they don't just add up to the build, they replace offensive items with pen and a lot of power. It's more fun to see the enemy panic from damage than chase you for the kill :)

Load more comments (13 more replies) →

(46) |

Lumiel, i don't quite understand what youre saying...???

wrote:

Lumiel, i don't quite understand what youre saying...???

To quote myself:

Quoted:

I've added a new build to the guide. It's a bit more defensive but doesn't ruin the experience completely

I'm saying that compared to the previous build, this is more defensive. There is no Shaman's ring, no Spear of the Magus, and no Spear of Desolation. So that's -45 magic power (minus passive from shaman's, -25 penetration (also minus passive from magus), -3% movement. Instead there is +600 health, +12% lifesteal, bonus to healing etc. This is indeed a more defensive build.

There are many ways to support your team with Aphrodite. Having a more defensive build will let the enemies fight as a 5man group against your team longer. They probably have a guardian support so team fights are not what you should be after. With a more offensive build you can make fast a lot of damage and separate the 5man group into smaller groups, which are easier to defeat.

Also having a more offensive build can finish a game in 15-20 minutes in your favor, but with this build I think it will take more than 33-35 minutes in general, unless you are hard carried. The only reason I started looking at more builds is that I've noticed very long games (45+ minutes) that the offensive build can't keep up with anti-healing and enemy teams end game builds, so I need something different. The good thing is that they have the same core so you can basically choose your build depending on the flow of the game.

(143) |

"+600 health, +12% lifesteal, bonus to healing etc" Doesen't make a build defensive. If I build Warlock's Staff on a mage in an otherwise general damage based build that doesen't really make the build defensive.

Your reluctance to build Lotus Crown on Aphro in a support build is also foolish, especially when considering your build has a lack of aura items. Doesen't really look like a functional build for support role.

"With a more offensive build you can make fast a lot of damage and separate the 5man group into smaller groups, which are easier to defeat." - yeah im calling ******** on this one. "Make fast a lot of damage", English please?

These builds are on caliber with the enemy support Aphro that I encountered a few times last season in duo lane that ended up feeding to me, feeding much more than any duo lane matchup i've faced. In fact I felt sorry for the ADC they were partnered with that match.

What is funny is that you complain about my English (I'm not a native speaker), still you are trying to distort my posts. I nowhere said it's a defensive build, but you keep repeating it. I'm not going to play this game with you :)

With a 57,3% win rate in 300 games (including experiments), I'm fine with her success.

(46) |

What is yiur native language, if you dont mind me asking?

I'm Greek (adding GR to the nickname also makes it easier to find one) :p

(46) |

Could've also been Germany or Greenland.

True, I wasn't implying it is obvious, but when we are having trouble finding a nickname in games we just add the GR at the end :D

(394) |

Germany likely would have been DE. And no one lives in Greenland. XD

(46) |

Although Gulfwulf has a thick accent, he unfortunately doesn't speak Greek. No one on this site speaks Greek, so sorry there's no one here to speak with you comfortably.

(394) |

I think Lumiel does fine getting their points across.

(46) |

I just wanted to jab gulf

(394) |

Yeah, he shouldn't be attacking your grammatical accuracy. Please keep comments to the build itself, Kriega.

I do think is out of place in this build (shouldn't be in the build at all IMO), and I think Shield of Regrowth can be an option, along with Lotus Crown (even though I still don't personally like it on him, the physical protection and passive is helpful).

(81) |

I know you've stated that you don't really like to build defense on , but I think you should consider the following:

Celestial Legion Helm. This item provides power and a stacking defense buff that's easily refreshed. Plus it has good MP5, which will help with your skills.
Void Stone. Extra power, magical defense, and protection reduction for any enemy within 55 units (basic attack range). This, combined with Spear of the Magus, can really melt a squishy and help against magical gods that have to get in close like Ao Kuang.
Jade Emperor's Crown. An early item with some power, physical defense, health, and physical power reduction aura. Sell late for something else.
Rod of Asclepius. Sure the passive keeps getting "adjusted", but the power, health, and MS do come in handy.
Reinforced Shoes. The passive really helps with tick damage.
Pythagorem's Piece. Why Pythag's? It has power, CDR, health, lifesteal, and it turns Aphro into a team healer instead of just a single target one. If you don't like Pythag's, there's always Soul Gem, but I think the former is more useful on Aphro.
Stone of Binding. This item really fits into your very aggressive play-style because Kiss and Back Off! will activate the passive (I'm not sure about Love Birds, but I don't think it does), making both you and you allies do more damage. This is also a bridge item and probably should be sold late.
Mantle of Discord. You're going to be focused, so why not make your attacker pay? Also has CDR and very good protections. It also helps you when Undying Love is down.
Ethereal Staff. Power, health, CCR, plus you steal health and mana from your target. The enemy won't target you if they're afraid of dying.
Traveler's Shoes. For when you want to rotate quicker. Can be sold for an Elixir of Speed or Shoes of Focus late.
Bumba's Mask. Don't be a pansy* and stop at Messenger's Mask, go hog wild! Sure you might take more damage, but they have to catch you first. ;)

Thoughts?

*That's a joke. Don't kill me.

(143) |

is worse than . Do not buy it over it if you choose between the two.

(394) |

Celestial is a great consideration. Building early will allow her to take more damage, whether from minions or a standard hunter ADC, while also covering her mana sustain enough to possibly not have to buy the extra mana potions or maybe the Chalice. I will continue to maintain that not getting wards because you have and extra mana potions is an awful idea.

Void is situational (maybe great early against a magical duo). Don't like Jade here. Rod as I also stated in my other comment is an obvious option. I'd probably stick with Focus over Reinforced, honestly, cuz the CDR and mana early is gonna be important.

Pythag's is definitely better than SG if she wants to go that route, but it's probably a bad choice as it just screams for even more anti-heal to be built by the enemy, unless you're playing against people that don't counter-build at all (in which case damage Support Aphro is probably okay, LOL).

Binding is an interesting one, and something you could activate mid-game if you're roaming with the Jungler and looking for ganks.

Mentioned Mantle. Ethereal is also interesting. Don't like Traveler's. And again, don't really like Bumba's unless trolling.

Thanks for the suggestions, to be honest I haven't tried most of these items because they didn't look very appealing, but I can definitely try them. From a first look, the problem with most of the items is that they don't address the MP5 / CDR problems that Aphrodite has, and picking them will definitely reduce the scaling of Aphrodites power (you can't have everything, right? :D). Ethereal staff looks interesting. I didn't remember it having that passive, and I will try it out instead of Gem of isolation for a change.

Bumba's Mask is a strange item :) It's not easy to find out if it helps or not. I've used it a couple of times in mid successfully, but I'm still afraid of using it more regularly.

Mantle of Discord is always on my build page, but I rarely use it :) One scenario which helps is if a bursty enemy Zeus or Ra is on the enemy team.

Rod of asclepius is a nice item. I used to use it all the time, but the damage scaling nerf to Aphrodite makes this not so appealing any more. I will have to calculate the math to see if I'm right or wrong though :)

(143) |

wrote:

Rod of asclepius is a nice item. I used to use it all the time, but the damage scaling nerf to Aphrodite makes this not so appealing any more. I will have to calculate the math to see if I'm right or wrong though :)

As you said it was a scaling nerf. Her base healing values are unaffected. Again, as has been suggested multiple times, Lotus Crown exists.

(394) |

Alright, Lumiel, some feedback on the build as you intended. TL;DR.

Establishing concept and recognizing limitations: I know you said you'd update when you have time/ideas. I think a bit more writeup at the beginning, when proposing off-meta concepts, is helpful to get the point across. Some won't even read that or care, but it at least legitimizes the concept with a bit more explanation, and gives newer players a warning/heads-up.

In that vein, not sure you'll agree, but I would have these points:

- Aphro is NOT a meta Support, and this build is NOT meant for higher levels of play (e.g. serious ranked games, etc.).

- This build is for a very specific and aggressive playstyle (as you briefly stated but could expand upon). This playstyle's success also depends in part on your ADC (god choice) and being aggressive to take advantage of the sustain Aphro brings to outlast or force the enemy to back/lose on farm.

- Best success is likely to be seen in a pre-made team where you can balance the Aphro support choice with specific picks in other roles.
Aphro's shortcomings as a Support: Aphro lacks damage (only 2 abilities with damage) and CC (only a 1s stun and a very minor knockback with a fairly minor slow). I'm sure you know this, but making sure this is clear...the lack of CC is what makes her a fairly lackluster Support in the meta vein. Typical Supports provide good amounts of CC to help set up kills or peel for teammates, and need to be able to tank some damage to survive long enough to be a deterrent in a fight, or to be the focus of an objective push/secure.

When building her with no major protections and lacking a strong escape ability (the increased MS does help some but isn't a true solution against high mobility junglers or hard CC), she can easily be the target of any fight/gank. It also imbalances the team in that there's a lack of a frontline tank typical to that role.

Also, her greatest strength can be very easily countered by both god abilities and items, drastically reducing its effectiveness.
Aphro's advantages as a Support: Her passive can help a bit by providing some protections in a fight with multiple enemies. 16 of each protection in the beginning of the game in the Duo lane isn't bad.

Obviously, her strength is in her healing and buffing. She is the definition of a complimentary utility god. High single target healing (along with herself), situational damage increase from Jealousy, increased MS for her and her soulmate, and a get-out-of-jail Beads/Aegis rolled into one. To take advantage of this, you AND your partner need to be aggressive, take some hits to deal some hits, and try to outlast them in lane with the healing. Unfortunately, with this build, you can't take too many hits...you can take a couple, then back off and heal, but you can't take multiple shots.

Since she can't really dictate the flow of the game herself, she's going to need to rely a good amount on the skill of her ADC, and also on their choice of god. She also will need to hope that her Jungler can keep tabs on the enemy Jungler (Ward and warn of incoming danger), or keep them occupied and off her back.
Team requirements for highest chance of success: There are too many variables in each match to say this build doesn't work. That said, in dealing with the disadvantages of choosing Aphro in a Support role, and additionally in building her squishy, I feel the best success will come with a pre-made that knows how you're planning to play/build Aphro. Having a standard tanky Solo (rather than a bruiser or squishy off-meta pick), and possibly a bruiser mid (e.g. Zhong) and/or Jungler with some CC will help give the team back some frontline presence and control. And again, I think pointing these things out in a quick writeup would really help.

Now, onto the build.

I can understand the Chalice of Mana. That said, it's a chunk of money, and a lot of her priority probably should be to get some wards up, as there are likely to be some gank attempts. Your notes in the "Mid" items list say to continue buying more mana potions after you get Chronos, which I assume is on top of the Chalice of Mana you already built. There's no room there for any wards, individual or Chalice of the Oracle, and that's a bad move IMO. Warding is especially the Support's job (but is EVERYONE's job TBH), and I can't endorse this concept.
You put in Messenger's Mask, when I'm pretty sure you meant Bumba's Mask. That should be fixed. And that also makes it pretty rough. The CDR and MS is nice, but taking extra damage when you're already squishy makes things pretty damn risky. MS might not help much if you get jumped from behind (cuz you don't have wards up) or you get hard CCd...you'll need to make sure you don't miss your stun, and that they don't have additional mobility to get around your temporary slow...and that's only talking about yourself...you might get away, but your ADC might be screwed.
There's an MS soft cap once you hit 457 MS, and ANOTHER one once you hit 540.5. I'm not going to bother doing the calculations, but when you consider the 18% MS from Shoes of Focus, 35% MS from Bumba's Mask, and 10% MS from Shaman's Ring, not to mention the 20% MS from Kiss, I'm pretty sure you're getting some major inefficiencies in MS overall. I find Shaman's Ring to be overkill, and the other stats just don't make up for it. I think it's a very poor item for her in this concept and not well thought out...she's not a damage dealer, and isn't going to get all that much from the situational damage increase, especially as you're basically only canceling out the -10% damage dealt from Bumba's Mask.
Spear of the Magus is a questionable item for her. Yes, she can build those stacks with Love Birds, but unless she's right up on the enemy or the enemy is stunned/easy to hit (maybe Kiss -> Birds combo), there's a good chance she'll completely miss it. And getting close to the enemy to more easily confirm the kill means she's in more danger herself, without a way to survive much burst due to no added item protections and increased damage taken from Bumba's.

Those protection reduction stacks CAN be extremely effective, perhaps if you're paired with a magical ADC or Jungler, or you have 3 magical gods on your team (including yourself). But in a squishy build, unless you're absolutely steamrolling the enemy, I find this a hard item to suggest.
In the same vein of other MS items, Doom Orb is also doing less for you due to the soft MS cap. The power is very nice for the heal scaling, but I just don't think it's a good item for her here. If you want the power for the scaling, Rod of Tahuti might be the better choice, especially as the passive comes into effect for teammates getting healed from below 50% health.
Spear of Desolation is maybe an alt to Magus if you want a bit of pen for more damage, but also not sure it fits in this build. It's okay as an option, I guess.
Gem of Isolation is perhaps one of the smarter choices, in that it can at least provide a bit of extra CC (long lasting if you hit them with Birds) to her general lack thereof.
But what's missing is Rod of Asclepius to either boost her healing, or at least counteract any anti-heal to some small degree. Yes, it also provides MS, but maybe that allows you to start altering the build to balance MS, or you possibly try to drop Bumba's or something. Lotus Crown can be another option. Shield of Regrowth is another MS option, all trying to help get rid of Bumba's if you still want that burst of speed.
And at least one or two protection items should be in consideration. Mantle of Discord if you're getting jumped, or something.

In general, I'm okay with the off-meta concept if you're warning your team/you're in a pre-made and they're cool with this choice, but I think the build needs improvement to get better effect.

I've updated the guide with your comments, and tweaked the build a bit. I've played several games replacing mana potions with chalice of the oracle yesterday and today, but I'm feeling the loss of sustain isn't worth it. I will add buying wards as a recommendation in the guide but I don't think it will ever work as expected. Aphrodite is just that mana hungry.

I've also started playing ranked again. I was Platinum II in S5 for a while, but I doudb't I can make it this far in S6 with the current meta. This will help me make better adjustments and write guide suggestions about ranked as well - which you should never try with this build anyway -

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wrote:

I've also started playing ranked again[. I was Platinum II in S5 for a while, but I doudb't I can make it this far in S6 with the current meta. This will help me make better adjustments and write guide suggestions about ranked as well - which you should never try with this build anyway -

Here's a tip, don't play support. Then maybe you will climb higher in ranked.

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Hit save and publish. I Don't see your changes

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VVGO !! I could see the changes and thought everyone else did! thanks for the tip

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Yep, LumielGR out here with the fake news.

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wrote:

Yep, LumielGR out here with the fake news.

Don't make me start calling you Donald Kriega.

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I mean Kriega is an option too. Or rude swine. Or unsightly fellow.

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wrote:

Or rude swine. Or unsightly fellow.

did you suddenly start dissing gulf?

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Im dissing myself, fool.

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wrote:

did you suddenly start dissing gulf?

Calm down, Boogie. Kriega may be British, but I have Irish and Native American in my background and I can butt heads with the best of them. I try to moderate my comments because I have a lot of respect for Bran, but our word play hasn't contained any real insults, so I'm not worried about it. As I told Kriega before, I respect his knowledge, but he severely lacks social skills and I'm gonna beat 'em into him even if it kills him.

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No no, you misunderstand. With him being ****tish British, I'm legitimately wondering why he'd call himself a filthy swine?

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Don't try to back-peddle out of what you said, fool.

:P

Thanks, these are some great suggestions, and about the advantages / disadvantages I probably couldn't have typed it better myself. It is alright if I copy some of these on my guide? I still need to familiarize with the editor and bbcode and write an introduction chapter.

I actually meant Messenger's mask, the idea is to spend only 1200 gold and have both CDR and MS. At that point of the game you are usually still at duo lane so it also gives you the ability to rotate to mid and follow the enemy support. It's just the cheaper item for this job, and it gives you the early boost that Aphrodite lacks. Soon after buying it you will probably be near mid lane at that point of the game, and you can start slowly buying Chronos pendant and run back to mid without losing any fights. You can replace it later with a spear of desolation or a similar CDR item. But I could also investigate how selling boots later in the game and upgrading it to a bumba's mask can affect the build, but I'm not confident I can take 10% more damage as a squishy support.

I will probably phase out Shamans ring and replace it with Gem of isolation as a 5th item, it's something that I haven't been able to try yet since all the games today finish before 25 minutes :)

Not having wards is a big disadvantage, but Aphrodite is in a very bad state at the moment and this is the only build I've thought of that looks slightly viable for a damage support.

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I'm okay with you copying into your guide, no problem.

Interesting that you don't build fully into Bumba's. Cuts out a lot of danger in one sense (10% more damage), but also doesn't give you that huge MS boost that can make you dance. I think, and this is only theorizing as I usually do, but I think it's something where, if you're not willing to go into the full T3 item, it's questionable to be purchased in the first place. T2 items, unless replaced late, just don't have good enough stats to hold up in the later parts of a build. The question then becomes...is worth it to not have a full T3 item through the majority of the match? 1,200 gold for 10% CDR and 10% MS (and a piddly amount of power) seems almost worth it (mostly for the CDR), but...I would just have reservations about choosing a T2 item without planning to go into T3. I'd prefer to build toward a T3 item always.

Also, with a planned 30% CDR in Focus + Chronos, I think it's important to consider the final 10% CDR. Later, you can always pick up a , or you might want the CDR from another item, but you probably shouldn't need to rush max CDR that quickly.

What do you usually do once you break off from the ADC? Are you clearing camps and staying next to the mid? Are you tagging along with the Jungler? Are you wandering between Mid and ADC and just helping where needed? Curious to hear what you typically do.

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Ideally I would pair up with the jungler and slay everything in the way. She can give sustained damage to an assassin for a small amount of time, usually enough to kill 1-2 people. If it's an assassin with a a lot of MS, I can't keep up so I will pair up with mid and try to destroy the towers as fast as possible. Aphrodite can defend her mid tower well enough against 2-3 people for a while, and bait them into jumping in the tower - then stun them and let the tower do the work :)

Generally, from mid to late game I will pair up with the more aggressive person on the team. Usually it's Jungle -> ADC -> Solo -> Mid. I like healing a lot so I will switch targets fast and heal up whoever has the lowest health. This is an important part of this playstyle.

I try to stay away from Solo lane if possible because it makes it harder to rotate back, and also makes it very obvious where Aphrodite is, so the enemy team can rotate and kill her.

For me, Aphrodite needs to act as a bait - Center of attention. She can rotate to mid lane at level 7 for example but if the enemy support don't bite, she will have to be very fast to return to duo lane. She can bait offensive ults so your team doesn't have to deal with them (Kukulk, Ares, Hades). She will have problems with more bursty and fast ults like Scylla, Ra, Mercury, Bakasura, and probably Anubis, Zhong, Anhur because their ults last longer than her ult. In these cases your soulmate needs to help you, it's a symbiotic relationship.

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Okay, with the Jungler was what I was hoping the answer would be, and I like the rest of the explanations you've provided. Cool.

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God, how I missed these huge walls of text <3

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This isn't a huge wall it's the entire Great Wall of China

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Now if Simon Kriega would write like this we would have less issues on the site...

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Are you mocking me, filth?

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Yes I am. Now calm the **** down.

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Get down on your knees and lick the dirt off his boots like the lowly peasant you are... jk please stop walking towards me with that belt.

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But I wanted to test out the steal spikes I installed!

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I won't deny :v

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Is magus even good on her? She only has the one tick ability and it's pretty easy to avoid. I think Obsidian shard would probably be a better choice.

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Yeah Magus is decent on Aphro, but not in a support build (most circumstances).

wrote:

Is magus even good on her? She only has the one tick ability and it's pretty easy to avoid. I think Obsidian shard would probably be a better choice.

Thanks Gulfur for your suggestion. I usually select my builds by trying items, so I'm not sure about the math on Magus. There is possible there are items that I might miss that can improve Aphrodite. So I'm always open to suggestions. So far I find magus pretty good for peel. Along with a soulmate, one combo (Kiss - Birds - Back off) can reduce a tanky solo or a support to half health or less.

The "easy to miss", is also part of this guide. I try to make this guide based on a near perfect Aphrodite game, so it's not expected to work on someone with little Aphrodite experience. I think of it as the end goal build. Meaning there are a lot of things you need to do perfect for this playstyle / build to have a slight chance of succeeding. I always initiate with a stun kiss, then hit the enemy with birds. This way it's almost guaranteed it will make damage, or it will force an enemies ult / relic to defend it.

I'm not trying to kill people with Aphrodite, I'm trying to force them into panicking and making mistakes. This will help my team to chase and kill them (your kiss gives them movement speed so it's easier to catch up). There are a lot of things I need to add to the guide, and I also need to record a youtube video as an extra step.

Also keep in mind that these items are not the optimal build for Aphrodite. Most of these items are forced on Aphrodite because of the recent nerfs to her power / damage, recent released gods, and the meta. I've been using Lotus crown since S3, but I can't find a place for it at the current meta. Gods like Chernobog and Jurmogandr can out rotate you easily, gods like merlin, hera and arthur will make you super squishy, so there is a need for improved mobility that wasn't needed in S5 for example.

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wrote:

I'm not trying to kill people with Aphrodite, I'm trying to force them into panicking and making mistakes.

And you're going to achieve that by building squishy and get instantly deleted unless you have your ultimate? The delusion is strong with this one.

wrote:

I've been using Lotus crown since S3, but I can't find a place for it at the current meta.

That's your problem and self-difficulty then. Others are more capable.

wrote:

gods like merlin, hera and arthur will make you super squishy,

Well no suprise there, look at the build! Of course you're going to be super squishy built like that.

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It's good for boosting your magical allies damage, if they're not building Magus already.

Also, it enchances the damage of her combo ( > > ).

I never thought of this that way. I just updated the guide to pick after chronos, I think it can help mid laner in mid game a lot.

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Actually it should only be prioritized if you are far ahead in the game at that point. Shamans still looks like a better option after chronos.

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Look at the example builds here for how to better build Aphro for support role: https://www.smitefire.com/smite/guide/aphrodite-support-builds-all-modes-6-1-21492

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I’m flattered that you linked something I did as a recommendation.

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I've only ever had a problem with your "Neith Solo" build. Anything else was fine or needed minor tweaks.

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I’m still gonna republish that build, just need to figure out what to do.

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wrote:

I’m still gonna republish that build, just need to figure out what to do.

Do ADC builds like I suggested? And clarify you have a Warrior or something in ADC lane?

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You know that’s not my goal. But I’ll figure something out.

I’m thinking about something like Deathwalker’s builds for in solo.

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Don't even start of thinking of something like that.

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I wanna see you try to stop me :p

Thanks for your comment. This is how I like to play Aphrodite (as a single target healer) so it won't change.

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wrote:

Thanks for your comment. This is how I like to play Aphrodite (as a single target healer) so it won't change.

Well, that’s exactly what she is, a powerful single target healer. The build won’t change that.

wrote:

Btw you linked a build with a million items, I don't even understand what he is trying to build.

I listed all of the items I consider viable/worth mentioning for Aphro, that’s why there are so many options. If you want a “cookie cutter” build, check the “example build” section. I’d also recommend that you read the notes of each section.

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I don't really see anything interesting in your build. I have an aggressive playstyle so I don't see how it will help. I can give it a try though and give you my opinion.

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Well, you can be as aggressive as you want, but the primary role of a support is to be able to tank damage. With Aphro you’re already lacking a frontliner, so bulding her full damage as a support will put your team in an extreme disadvantage.

As boogie said, if you want to build her full damage, play her in Mid. In Solo/Support she needs at least 3 defensive items.

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I don't see your point. This is a full power support guide. If you don't like it you can downvote it and don't use it. This conversation has no point. You want me just to agree, and it won't happen.

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wrote:

I don't see your point. This is a full power support guide.

This is exactly my point. “Full power” and “support” on the same sentence doesn’t add up. Supports doesn’t build damage items. Period.

The same way ADCs and Mids doesn’t build full defense, supports doesn’t build full damage. Like it or not.

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I'm making a guide on my playstyle and people are free to use it, comment about it, or suggest things that make it better as a DAMAGE support build. I downvote the comments because I don't think they add anything to the discussion.

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How is it a support build then if it's a damage one? You don't even have hybrid items in your build. Who's going to be the "support" if you're building damage?

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If you're so aggressive, and you focus so much on damage, why play aphro in the duo lane? Why not just mid lane with her?

This isn't a guide based on damage. It's cd > movement > power build. Aphrodite is usually bad in mid because of her bad rotations. The point of power is to be able to heal herself and others up quickly and be ready for another fight.

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Not a guide based on damage no? Did , , , and just insert themselves then? My goodness you are a jester.

How about we consider an actual, possibly viable support build?

, Lotus Crown, , /Shield of Regrowth, , /?

It has CDR, has movement, and power from boots/pythags/asclepius is over enough for healing.

Another example of another possibility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1joRk0N8WH0&t=190s

Damage is just a result of this build, Aphrodite will never do enough damage to justify picking her in place of another mid. Of course you can play her in mid, but you lose all the joy of playing a single target healer, and you still have to play as support since you can't survive on your own.

Winged blade is actually nice and I should add it as situational in pretty bad situations, and start using it more often.

You are so confident I will change my playstyle, I've been playing like this since S3 and I don't find anything exciting into building a Defensive Aphrodite. I don't get how someone would find it exciting. Also Aphrodite solo is boring for the same reasons.

p.s Is there a way to get notifications about new comments? I'm only seeing them by luck.

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wrote:

So you just argued against building damage on her? Ok. A bit different to your previous stance.

wrote:

You are so confident I will change my playstyle, I've been playing like this since S3 and I don't find anything exciting into building a Defensive Aphrodite. I don't get how someone would find it exciting. Also Aphrodite solo is boring for the same reasons.

The point isn't if it's "exciting" or not, it's whether it's viable. If you really want to contribute a bit of damage get only and leave it at that. No or or , which is absurd to build on a support.

wrote:

p.s Is there a way to get notifications about new comments? I'm only seeing them by luck.

Click "Subscribe" under the discussion tab. Should be right next to "Quick Comment".

wrote:

So you just argued against building damage on her? Ok. A bit different to your previous stance.

Actually I didn't. The reason I get power items is because healing and damage scale with her magical power. Also because every item in the list gives something more than damage. Shaman's gives power + movement. A with evolved will slow an enemy while cutting his health in half. That's a support move, this will help your soulmate kill an easy target.

Gives you power and cooldown reduction, it's not just about the damage. You could get a in it's place, but it would not scale as well.

wrote:

The point isn't if it's "exciting" or not, it's whether it's viable. If you really want to contribute a bit of damage get only and leave it at that. No or or , which is absurd to build on a support.

It's viable, but not in every game. Check this recent one, even against a very meta team - where their numbers are insane, and while we got destroyed in early game, it almost turned in our favor. We actually got 2 Fire Giants and with a little more luck it would be our game.

wrote:

Click "Subscribe" under the discussion tab. Should be right next to "Quick Comment".

Thanks :)

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Correct on your comment below, boog. Minimize deaths as much as possible. Decreases enemy farm, increases your farm when not dead.

Lumiel, since you provided the match details, I'm going to go through my evaluation of the match, if you don't mind. This will include a lot of the things I consider when looking at things from just a numerical standpoint.

Early stages of SmiteGuru Elo (which has very questionable accuracy anyway, but I still find function for it at a high level) due to the S6 reset, so unreliable but just to point out, Lumiel's team is at a disadvantage in that consideration.
Both teams have only 1 true tank class ( King Arthur on the enemy team, Bellona on Lumiel's team). That said, of the two Supports (assumed), one went with a tank build ( Ne Zha), while the other (Lumiel as Aphrodite) went extreme squish, as proposed in this build/guide. This means 1 team had 2 frontliners, while the other only had 1, and Bellona and Aphrodite both lack the stronger CC as seen by some other tank gods.

As I said in a previous comment here, playing Aphro Support puts the team at a disadvantage (not just due to it being Aphro Support) unless the team balances somehow by going a bit tankier elsewhere...and this wasn't the case here.
Build review.

King Arthur: reasonable build. Probably should replace Glad shield late, but it does retain some function.

Agni: probably reasonable build?

Rama: assume Elixir of Speed was purchased, and Shifter's Shield replaced Tabi late-game. Double-lifesteal is a bit questionable. Toxic Blade wasn't a terrible choice due to countering healing by Aphrodite and Neith and lifesteal from Discordia and Hera, but would probably prefer Brawler's Beat Stick, personally, especially since you don't need as many Qin's procs due to generally lower health of Lumiel's team, and the flat pen being good due to only facing one tank.

Scylla with Spear of Desolation first? Or did that replace shoes late? Soul Reaver 2nd? Bancroft's Talon? Not an optimal build, at least with regard to order. At least they got anti-heal. BTW, who was the jungler??? Scylla or Agni???

Ne Zha with the hot tanking. Generally reasonable build, and tanked a ****-ton. This guy did his job from what I can tell.

Hera with Obsidian Shard 3rd is too early. Build isn't terrible, I guess, though I'd prefer Pythag's or SG for lifesteal over BT. I'm honestly not sure on optimal builds for Hera, and I'm not going to bother looking it up. I don't like the god XD And I'm not sure, but again, which god was Jungler??? Hera or Discordia???

Lumiel's Aphrodite build, again, is just something I can't get behind, at least in this matchup. Don't think Spear of Desolation is a good item for a Support. Pythagorem's Piece would have been a much better early item. Shaman's Ring is nice for the MS, but she's not looking to deal damage as her priority, so I'd introduce more survivability by considering Shield of Regrowth maybe...or some protections. Spear of the Magus could be okay due to having 2 other mages on the team (ugh), but that's only if you're able to get in close, confirm the Love Birds DoT, etc. With no protections...guess what, Magus is probably unused, or it just leads to deaths. 13 deaths is not surprising in this case.

Discordia should have switched Obsidian Shard and Divine Ruin. Otherwise, build isn't bad. Discordia did some work for Lumiel's team, with the lowest deaths, highest kills, and highest damage by a significant amount.

Neith was a detriment to the team. Build is horrible, from what I can see. Rush Trans? That's okay if that's what happened. Hopefully replaced boots late, instead of getting O-Bow early. I will never be able to get it through people's heads that you don't build O-Bow early. Asi as an item with no power, for a god that has some healing, AND scales well with abilities? Deathbringer, ahhh, Deathbringer. Of course. Only fitting to round out this terrible build, especially with no 2nd crit item, and DOUBLE FREAKING LIFESTEAL, oh hi Bloodforge, didn't see you there. Stream of thought done.

Bellona also did work for the team. Reasonable damage. Great tanking, but unfortunately lots of deaths. Probably because of the rest of her team. Did get Hastened Katana (probably late?), with 0 pen of any type (like Void Shield at least) to help her actual damage output. Hide of the Nemean Lion and Midgardian Mail counteract each other to an extent, as with Nemean you WANT people hitting you to get that reflection, and Midgardian SLOWS how often they hit you. In addition, Rama didn't even build crit, so Nemean's potential is lessened. Not a great build, but far from the worst.

In all, this is a mix of players that are questionable as to knowledge on builds. Based on god choices (why can I not tell who the jungler is???), people either didn't care, or don't think about balanced compositions.

Aphro is already one of the weakest gods, due to her kit and ease of counter-building. Throwing her in Support without being a normal Support with some tankiness is asking for it, at least when considering players that know how to counter, and know to focus/gank. Despite the high power of the build, in a 46 minute match, I'd consider the 25k teammate healing to be on the low side, but a lot of that is likely due to being dead a lot of the time. Aphro's ADC didn't help matters any, of course.

My suggestion stands. If deciding to play Aphro support, you need the rest of your team to help balance things so you don't have just one front-liner. Magus is extremely questionable as Support, as is Desolation and Shaman's.

wrote:

Correct on your comment below, boog. Minimize deaths as much as possible. Decreases enemy farm, increases your farm when not dead.

Yes, but early deaths are not that important. Respawn timer is fast and there isn't much the enemy team can farm on, and you don't lose enough farm to be that noticable. You are investing in a mid-late game build, which may pay off in the long run.

wrote:

with first? Or did that replace shoes late? 2nd? ? Not an optimal build, at least with regard to order. At least they got anti-heal. BTW, who was the jungler??? Scylla or Agni???

It was Scylla, I was also confused for a while in game. Hera and Scylla junglers.

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was a detriment to the team. Build is horrible, from what I can see.

Yeap, not only that, but she was nowhere near the towers when they fell. I had to defend alone. You definitely need a good ADC to support with Aphrodite.

wrote:

also did work for the team. Reasonable damage. Great tanking, but unfortunately lots of deaths.

Bellona was OK but kinda demoralized from deaths and started feeding. If she could stay closer to Aphrodite she could have done a lot more.

I'm testing now but I need to find a reasonably hard game to see if it makes a good difference.

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wrote:

Yes, but early deaths are not that important. Respawn timer is fast and there isn't much the enemy team can farm on, and you don't lose enough farm to be that noticable.

Are you joking?

Sorry but, I really think you need to learn the game properly. Here's a blog with useful links, and maybe one day you will laugh at yourself for thinking "damage" aphrodite support was ever a wise choice:

https://www.smitefire.com/smite/blog/kriega1/online-text-link-for-online-linking

(394) |

No offense, but on that first comment, I would argue early deaths are extremely important. Yes, you're looking to build for late-game, sorta, but you're still losing out on farm if you and/or your ADC die multiple times early. That's a difference in the enemy getting their ult before you do. It's a difference in losing your Void buff and maybe more nearby camp buffs, and straight up losing the opportunity to invade and steal theirs. Not only is your death giving them extra farm, but then they increase that lead while you're not there.

2 or 3 deaths early and that's like 2 levels. 2 levels where they have more and stronger abilities to deal more damage, have more base health, etc., etc. I'm not sure when you died in that example match...maybe it was only a couple in the first 10, I don't know. But I will maintain, choosing Aphro support requires team finesse to be effective...you'll rely on others (and if you're not in a team queue you don't know how much you can even rely on them, look at your Neith), and again if they don't choose another tankyish god elsewhere you lose frontline. The higher the skill level, the more they start honing in on you for early ganks, and building anti-heal to shut you down (which means Asclep could help counter that just a bit).

(13) |

wrote:

Yes, but early deaths are not that important. Respawn timer is fast and there isn't much the enemy team can farm on, and you don't lose enough farm to be that noticable.

It's not about the respawn timer or the farm you'll lose, it's about the gold and exp your enemy will gain by killing you.

wrote:

You are investing in a mid-late game build, which may pay off in the long run.

If you have a lot of deaths in the first 10 minutes, the match won't reach the mid-late stage.

The problem is that you are all looking at this as a conventional game, which with Aphrodite is not. It is more balanced than previous seasons because of the scaling nerfs, and buffs to other gods, but there is still a little room for this magic Aphrodite brings.

I've only been playing Conquest since S5, but my elo just with Aphrodite damage support was in 2000+ range, and my MMR was matching me with players like Wfly, Dardez, Nika, AlphaJackal, and some other players ranked 1-200 in the world in leaderbords. You know this is true, because I've sent you the games in PM in reddit.

My current K/D/A for all seasons is 5,256 / 8,112 / 22,465 - so it's expected to have more deaths, without that meaning that you can't win the games.

Of course it's much more different now in S6, as Branmuffin17 correctly said, this build is not intended for high level ranked games, and the reason is that Aphrodite can't easily carry like she used to. But it's a fun build, and can lead to some exciting games.

I also posted a hard game example just to show that while their team was stomping us, it was still possible to almost win the game. If you want easy winnable games, I can post some recent ones.

Here is one against all meta gods, and with our team making many mistakes, for example ADC thought he was doing all that magic by himself and started feeding for a while: Link
They had 10+ more kills than us for most of the game, but it wasn't that important in the end ;)

(13) |

Regarding matches, I played this one yesterday. I was testing some suff, and I rushed first item.

There was also this match from a while ago, but SmiteGuru changed the website and the data is lost :/. I talked about this match here.

thanks for the analysis, I'm @ work so I will have to reply later to this :)

p.s I've subscribed to the guide but I still don't get any notification :(

(81) |

Hell, the mitigated more.

(143) |

I think it's THAT time now.

Actually, lets wait, give the author some time to clean up the builds first.

I'm not sure what you are waiting for, the build might get tweaked a bit, but it will never change. It's damage support, and as we discussed in the forum topic, it's OK since I've added the disclaimers and such.

(143) |

wrote:

Actually I didn't. The reason I get power items is because healing and damage scale with her magical power.

Everyone knows that. Do you know what also boosts healing? and which at least give you a bit of health rather than be purely offensive.

wrote:

Also because every item in the list gives something more than damage. Shaman's gives power + movement.

gives power + movement and boosts healing.

wrote:

A with evolved will slow an enemy while cutting his health in half. That's a support move, this will help your soulmate kill an easy target.

Cut their health in half? Not without some pen in the build, and not without using her birds tick ability first with spear of magus. "support move" - if the enemy is chasing your mid/carry sure, but as a pure offensive action? Thats not a support move. The playstyle you're describing seems more like a solo lane Aphro.

wrote:

Gives you power and cooldown reduction, it's not just about the damage. You could get a in it's place, but it would not scale as well.

As you said get Pythags. You still haven't mentioned Lotus Crown anywhere which is really good on her.

wrote:

It's viable, but not in every game.

Did I say get Magus every game? No. If it was me I wouldn't even build Magus on Support Aphro.

(143) |

"18,879 damage given (least in lobby), 54,955 damage taken ,19,805 damage mitigated"

So you finally go against a team that knows what they're doing and realise your builds' flaws?

You are picking the numbers that suit you. Assists is an important number, and you completely ignore the healing number. Combining damage and healing puts Aphrodite in about 42k. That's second after Discordia.

Our team composition was not ideal. For example Ne zha is a very bad match up for early game Aphrodite. But it's not that important since the early deaths are not giving much to the enemy. Bellona against Arthur.. hmm? Discordia did a nice job against their mage, and she was my main soul mate for the rest of the game. Bellona could also be my soulmate but she was running too deep and dying alone.

Our team wasn't that good either, Rama was more experienced than our ADC, our adc wsan't even present when both towers fell (I had to defend alone), Hera as jungler was very defensive and died a lot, even when I kissed her she got very hesitant to attack, which would have gained us more kills.

You can see from damage taken that nobody is focusing Scylla, which is also squishy and the main reason we were losing.

Before I moved to mid lane the score was something like 26/9 in their favor, and we managed to push them back and get 2 fire giants, destroy all of their towers and one phoenix, before we make a mistake and lose. This could very well be our game from my point of view, if somehow we have dealt with Scylla sooner.

(46) |

Hi. Am I reading this correctly? You have 13 deaths?

wrote:

Hi. Am I reading this correctly? You have 13 deaths?

Yes, but this game is an extreme case, if you look all of the numbers. Even with so many deaths you can turn the game around. The reason is that most of these deaths happen in early game. We could basically win the game at that point, since we got the upper hand with fire giant, but we made an extra mistake before them. (Basically ****ing up in gold fury and me and adc dying by Scylla ult, then the big respawn timer made it gg)

(46) |

But that's 13 times you've fed the enemy experience and $. Branmuffin17 taught me that it's better to go 2/2/10 (KDA) rather than 12/10/0 (KDA). The less you feed the enemy, the better. Participate in team fights, but don't die.

(394) |

Although pythag doesn't scale as well as deso, if you're using her for support purposes, pythag wins hands down. Besides, with scaling, you're talking about a total healing difference between the two of 25 or less. You'll do less damage due to not having the pen, but your teammates will do more due to the power aura, along with more sustain from the lifesteal aura. I cannot support the concept of deso over Pythag.

I didn't mean in https://www.smitefire.com/comment-link?comment_id=140596 that Pythagorem's is a bad item. I mean that it can be an alternative item with Cooldown at that point. But I will have to try it and see how it changes things.

Also keep in mind that I get it as last item after replacing , so having it in build is not going to make a lot of difference in the early - mid game.

(143) |

The thing is even if the healing is slightly lower due to power difference (30 power? Not much), the aura is giving teammates power AND lifesteal, and by that bonus power is assisting the lifesteal as lifesteal is healing based on the amount of damage you do.