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Full build example including starter blessing. Good for Conquest mid-lane, but can easily be considered for any other game mode.
Mage's Blessing
Shoes of Focus
Chronos' Pendant
Spear of the Magus
Gem of Isolation
Rod of Tahuti
Shaman's Ring
Book of Souls is a weaker start compared to S5, and 
Book of Thoth has been weakened in early portions of a build. Chronos' Pendant rush: 
Lost Artifact + potions Spear of the Magus rush: 
Magic Focus + potions
Shoes, but your early game will suffer.Mage's Blessing start preferred because S6's Book of Souls is a weaker start compared to S5, and Book of Thoth has been weakened in early portions of a build.
Besides the blessing, you can start a couple of ways:
Chronos' Pendant rush: Lost Artifact + potions Spear of the Magus rush: Magic Focus + potions Shoes, but your early game will suffer.
Mage's Blessing
Lost Artifact
Healing Potion
Mana Potion
Shoes of Focus is suggested first for CDR to help with long CD on 
Flicker, along with higher frequency of poke potential.
Shoes of the Magi is not needed, due to prioritizing Spear of the Magus early.
Shoes of Focus is suggested first for CDR to help with long CD on Flicker, along with higher frequency of poke potential.
Shoes of the Magi is not needed, due to prioritizing Spear of the Magus early.
Shoes of Focus
Chronos' Pendant is excellent to drastically shorten CDs for higher frequency of poke potential and to have Flicker up more quickly. MP5 is also helpful. Spear of the Magus is very easily stacked by multiple abilities to help deal high damage. Better for single engagement burst damage compared to Chronos.
Pick up your preferred first item between the two, then choose the other.
Chronos' Pendant is excellent to drastically shorten CDs for higher frequency of poke potential and to have Flicker up more quickly. MP5 is also helpful.
Spear of the Magus is very easily stacked by multiple abilities to help deal high damage. Better for single engagement burst damage compared to Chronos.
Chronos' Pendant
Spear of the Magus
Gem of Isolation easily applies a slow with multiple abilities to provide a lot of control, and works synergistically with 
Frostbolt to provide bonus damage.
Gem of Isolation easily applies a slow with multiple abilities to provide a lot of control, and works synergistically with Frostbolt to provide bonus damage.
Gem of Isolation
Obsidian Shard brings inefficiency for protection reduction/pen stats, but is chosen specifically to counter tanky enemies (e.g. Solo laner) that are ahead and pressuring you. Rod of Tahuti is good if you're ahead / are able to be aggressive and not worry too much about tanks. It allows your abilities to deal very high damage, especially when enemies are below 50% health. Synergizes well with 
Potion of Magical Might, as well as the Red Power Buff.
Choose one as the situation demands.
Obsidian Shard brings inefficiency for protection reduction/pen stats, but is chosen specifically to counter tanky enemies (e.g. Solo laner) that are ahead and pressuring you.
Rod of Tahuti is good if you're ahead / are able to be aggressive and not worry too much about tanks. It allows your abilities to deal very high damage, especially when enemies are below 50% health. Synergizes well with Potion of Magical Might, as well as the Red Power Buff.
Obsidian Shard
Rod of Tahuti
Elixir of Speed) depending on the match, and may be a situational (but not preferred) substitute for Item #5. Shaman's Ring's passive bonus damage is solid, plus the base MS is helpful for safety purposes.
Divine Ruin is great for anti-heal. Consider against high enemy healing at any point you feel it'll help, but preferably after the core items.
Soul Gem can provide the only health sustain you're likely to see outside of teammate heals.
Doom Orb is a late-game offensive consideration due to the price. Goes great after Rod of Tahuti for massive power.
Bancroft's Talon is a functional lifesteal item that gets more use the more damage you take. Consider if you look to maximize your kit's function via all abilities near and far (including fighting/comboing with the explosion from 
Elemental Mastery). Can be considered early or late.
Celestial Legion Helm is a counter to physical damage. If you're needing to play defensively (hopefully not as you have long range poke and a mini-Blink) against high physical damage threats, then you can consider this. You'd probably consider a bit earlier in the game.
Soul Reaver is a late-game situational item that can work well for many mages. It sees a bit less effect when comboing quickly with abilities, but can provide good additional burst damage, especially against tanky enemies.These items may be considered as item #6 and Shoes replacement (via the purchase of Elixir of Speed) depending on the match, and may be a situational (but not preferred) substitute for Item #5.
Shaman's Ring's passive bonus damage is solid, plus the base MS is helpful for safety purposes. Divine Ruin is great for anti-heal. Consider against high enemy healing at any point you feel it'll help, but preferably after the core items. Soul Gem can provide the only health sustain you're likely to see outside of teammate heals. Doom Orb is a late-game offensive consideration due to the price. Goes great after Rod of Tahuti for massive power. Bancroft's Talon is a functional lifesteal item that gets more use the more damage you take. Consider if you look to maximize your kit's function via all abilities near and far (including fighting/comboing with the explosion from Elemental Mastery). Can be considered early or late. Celestial Legion Helm is a counter to physical damage. If you're needing to play defensively (hopefully not as you have long range poke and a mini-Blink) against high physical damage threats, then you can consider this. You'd probably consider a bit earlier in the game. Soul Reaver is a late-game situational item that can work well for many mages. It sees a bit less effect when comboing quickly with abilities, but can provide good additional burst damage, especially against tanky enemies.
Shaman's Ring
Divine Ruin
Soul Gem
Doom Orb
Bancroft's Talon
Celestial Legion Helm
Soul Reaver
In almost all instances, these will be your relics of choice.
Purification Beads
Aegis Amulet
Potion of Magical Might can be picked up anytime after the 4th main item, when you can fit it in your budget. It provides a temporary 10% CDR and a boost of power. It synergizes well with Rod of Tahuti's passive. Elixir of Speed is a very late-game item used to take place of the MS from Shoes. You'll sell your Shoes and replace it with an additional, full T3 item of your choice.
Potion of Magical Might can be picked up anytime after the 4th main item, when you can fit it in your budget. It provides a temporary 10% CDR and a boost of power. It synergizes well with Rod of Tahuti's passive.
Elixir of Speed is a very late-game item used to take place of the MS from Shoes. You'll sell your Shoes and replace it with an additional, full T3 item of your choice.
Potion of Magical Might
Elixir of Speed
Y
B
A
X
All credit for the original build goes to DMBrandon, per his YouTube video below. Like him or not, his general knowledge is solid and his reasoning makes sense.
First Level Options
Vortex / Dragonfire / Blizzard is safest due to the range. Use 
Blizzard on the Speed Buff camp, then switch to fire stance to use 
Dragonfire on the minion wave safely at distance. Eclipse / Radiate / Frostbolt. However, this is riskier, because in order to hit the entire wave with 
Radiate, you have to stand adjacent to the front minions while channeling, putting you much closer to the enemy and making it easier for enemies to hit you. In addition, during the channel, the enemy can decide to get hit briefly, turning the minions on you for high early damage. Flicker for the escape, though it can also be used offensively to gank. Otherwise, prioritize Eclipse / Radiate / Frostbolt, and pick up Flicker 4th if you're confident in your safety. Elemental Mastery as it is an additional ability that provides damage in addition to your other abilities. Eclipse / Radiate / Frostbolt first. (Also, suggested to use Instant Cast for this ability) Vortex / Dragonfire / Blizzard (but pick up Elemental Mastery as soon as it's available at level 13/17/20). Flicker when it's the only option. Frostbolt has low CD and has great single hit burst potential. Blizzard has incredible range, and provides great AOE CC damage. Radiate is good for medium-range encounters, and to follow up control of an area by Dragonfire Dragonfire provides good minion clear, and is also used for the protection debuff. Although it can be cast at range, you may consider using this at your own feet when a melee enemy engages with you...stand in the fire to force them to attack you while taking damage and the debuff themselves.
Vortex pull, Elemental Mastery knockup). It also has good range for poke potential.
Eclipse has pretty good poke function, but moves a bit slow so is less reliable unless you're fairly close. Vortex also provides good poke function, and can help provide a measure of control with its pull, especially in a teamfight situation.
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The Overarching Arena Guide |
The Overarching Assault Guide |
The Overarching Conquest Guide |
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Shifu Guan Yu: The Battle Master |
Loki: The Backstabbing Bastard |
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Also maybe consider getting gem of iso after tahuti and shaman's.
Lastly I would delay the level 5 point for the ult until like level 6 or 7, and I would prioritise maxing both the 1 and 2 completely before putting any further points into the ult.
I do wonder, with the Mid-Season nerf, if Chronos' second is still a huge priority. That early-game stance-switch CD is pretty harsh. Would like some further feedback on this point before making an official change.
With the Iso nerf, I can agree with the delay. Also agree on the skill leveling.
With this being more of a community guide, I'll make these changes after above feedback request, and if others have any further comments, I can change as needed.
FYI build updated. Also, I added details to the Reaver tooltip to include its recent nerf info.
Of course,
And as a general rule, I honestly think
1. If the mage has a very high burst damage ability (
2. If the enemy team has 3 or more gods building health items (Blackthorn, Warlock's, etc.).
Otherwise, I'd only build it in a Thoth build.
Oh wait...are you saying, more higher health enemies due to Blackthorn? If so...okay, now I get it. Just seemed a bit out of the blue, lol.
In the same way all hunters can go trans. But Anubis just doesen't work well with Thoth.
Merlin is not 100% strictly that case. Also Raijin and Agni can both do well with Reaver (and both can go a book of thoth build). Hades is awful with book of thoth because you have to get
And as a general rule, I honestly think Soul Reaver should only be built alongside Thoth.
I completely disagree. If you were referring to
Soul Reaver's passive means it does less damage with constant usage though. So it really isn't as strong as you think. Can it be good? Of course. Is it core? No.
Also it's only picked up sometimes by pros: https://smiteprobuilds.com/Builds?p_filters_page=1&p_filters_search=&p_filters_god=3566&p_filters_pro=~&p_filters_opponent=~&p_filters_role=Mid&p_filters_league=~&p_filters_sort=~
And even then lots of times I would consider
Also, Wlfy mentioned builds here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVQYf-346tA&t=1004s
And Wlfy mentions Reaver if you're going a
CDR/pen boots, chronos', magus, gem of iso you typically want in your Merlin build.
But
I'm sure you could pick up
Thing is, you usually do special things for Conquest. You have longer travel to the middle of the lane. In mid, you're mostly going to be alone. You need to worry more about mana consumption and sustain, because being forced to back means losing out on valuable farm and early pressure on your tower.
And this is historically where stacking items come in. You buy them, they're fairly expensive but they allow you to sustain or give you a chance to stay in lane longer.
This build doesn't have that. You don't have to worry about early stacking. In Joust, you have teammates that can usually cover for you if you have to back (which you will do way more often than in Conq).
You're building quickly into high CDR for poke, and high pen for massive damage.
Thus, it's okay to use just as it is.
Now, any adjustments to consider might be depending on some factors.
Book of dead is pointless as you're not building book of thoth.
Also Bran I would add Doom Orb as an alternative item.
Answer there is...no. He's got some great ranged abilities. He can poke without too much threat of damage, AND he has a mini Blink. So getting that passive damage boost is unlikely to happen that much. Bancroft is always a solid item just for the base stats, but he won't always get the most out of it like others would. If you want lifesteal, you're likely best going with
The rest of your mentions are already in the listing of the build. Do those explanations help?
Keep in mind, I haven't played Merlin yet. I just basically converted DM's video into a build.
Edited.