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Endless Tide

1 0 21,986
by SkullxBoy updated May 22, 2015

Smite God: He Bo

Build Guide Discussion 4 More Guides
Choose a Build: When in mid/solo lane... (Basic Build)
When in mid/solo lane... (Basic Build) He Block (Support/Tank)
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

He Bo Build

Starter

Build Item Shoes Shoes
Build Item Vampiric Shroud Vampiric Shroud
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
Build Item Heavenly Wings Heavenly Wings

Core (pick one of the boots)

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Warlock's Staff Warlock's Staff
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard

Offensive items

Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Book of Thoth Book of Thoth
Build Item Soul Reaver Soul Reaver

Defensive items

Build Item Ethereal Staff Ethereal Staff
Build Item Mystical Mail Mystical Mail
Build Item Magi's Cloak Magi's Cloak

Example Final Build

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Warlock's Staff Warlock's Staff
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Soul Reaver Soul Reaver

He Bo's Skill Order

Water Cannon

1 X Y
Water Cannon
2 7 10 12 14

Atlas of the Yellow River

2 A B
Atlas of the Yellow River
3 15 16 18 19

Waterspout

3 B A
Waterspout
1 4 6 8 11

Crushing Wave

4 Y X
Crushing Wave
5 9 13 17 20
Water Cannon
2 7 10 12 14

Water Cannon

1 X
He Bo fires a short burst of water from his sleeves, damaging all enemies in front of him. Lane Minions and Jungle Camps take an extra 20% damage.

Ability Type: Cone, Damage
Damage: 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260 (+80% of your Magical Power)
Range: 35
Cost: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80
Cooldown: 4s
Atlas of the Yellow River
3 15 16 18 19

Atlas of the Yellow River

2 A
He Bo unfurls his scroll in a line, releasing the flood waters. Allies on the water are immune to slows and move faster, while enemies are slowed.

Ability Type: Line, Buff
Slow Debuff: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
Speed Buff: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
Lifetime: 7s
Range: 80
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 14s
Waterspout
1 4 6 8 11

Waterspout

3 B
He Bo calls forth a geyser, causing it to burst out with tremendous force at his target location, damaging enemies while knocking them into the air.

Ability Type: Circle, Knockup, Damage
Damage: 70 / 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 (+60% of your Magical Power)
Range/Radius: 55/10
Cost: 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 / 85
Cooldown: 10s
Crushing Wave
5 9 13 17 20

Crushing Wave

4 Y
He Bo transforms into a wave and crashes forward, damaging all enemies in his path.

Ability Type: Line, Damage
Damage: 370 / 450 / 530 / 610 / 690 (+115% of your Magical Power)
Range: 55
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90s

Intro

Hi, I'm SkullBoy. You might have played against me under my Smite alias, MikeJordan. I'll change it eventually. I'm posting this guide for He Bo, even though a lot of people play him, I've played with so many people who can't adapt their build to the situation that it's almost necessary. Also, many of the guides available for him now are outdated following the season 2 patch. He Bo is best as a mid or solo lane god. However, he can also be a deadly carry, and a semi effective support player when absolutely necessary.

Update Log

V 1.0- Created the guide and published it
V 1.1- Responded to mistakes i made in the guide, as pointed out by the comments section
V 1.1b-Created the Update Log, and added the changes to the build

Pros / Cons

A quick rundown of his skills and weaknesses
Pros:

    High Damage
    Low cooldown on most of his abilities
    highly mobile, with his two and four allowing for quick entrance and escape
    good at clearing creeps
    effective in the jungle
    excellent in 1v1 battle
Cons:
    Weak without defensive items
    Mana depletes quickly

Skills

Most people playing He Bo should know his skills, so this is for perspective players:



Steady Flow: He Bo's passive is steady flow. Each time He Bo uses an ability, he gains the steady flow buff which increases his magical power for 5 seconds. With a max of three stacks, it makes He Bo a much more powerful god. With this passive, it's a good idea to chain attacks together to get maximum damage with this buff.


Water Cannon: He BO's first ability, water cannon, is a good ability for finishing off opponents. It's low cooldown makes for a effective weapon for initiating a fight and ending an enemy who is on low health. This is the second skill i max, because the ability has less use and range than the others, and can still do its job at low level.


Atlas of the Yellow River : Atlas of the Yellow River is He Bo's chase and escape ability. This ability provides a speed buff for all allies and a debuff for all enemies who step in it. This can be used to chase a retreating enemy, as well as escape when you are low on health. This is the third ability i max out, with the reasoning that he bo needs to do damage more than he needs the extra speed when escaping. In jungles, this ability is also particularly useful, because it covers most of the narrow passages.


Waterspout : Waterspout is He Bo most useful ability, in my mind. It's a ground target attack that damages and knocks up enemies hit by it. It's the first ability i max out, because it has a very high damage, at best dealing 85% of your magical power plus 280 magical damage to his opponents. It also sport a very low 10 second cooldown, making it useful for repeat attacks in team fights. Be careful though, using any of his low cooldowns too often will quickly drain you of your mana.


Crushing Wave : He Bo's ult is among the deadliest of all abilities in Smite. At max level, it deals 690 magical damage plus 115% of his magical damage. The attack itself rushes forward, slamming enemies for a high damage count, and will most likely have them running for their base with a little pee in their pants. Follow this up with waterspout and you can absolutely wreck most gods.

Items

These are the essential item when playing He Bo, no matter the build:

width=20] This item is just as good, if not better (thanks to the season 2 updates) than the Shoes of Focus. This is because of the mana it provides, +250 mana specifically, as well as +65 magical power and the requisite +18% to movement speed. I will say that, with the most recent update, Shoes of the Magi are the essential first item pick up in all game modes. The mana is needed, and it's attack power doubles the shoes of focus.
I take this item becuase it provides the highest addition of magical damage. He Bo is primarily built to deal high ammounts of damage, and this item is always a must buy,even when building a tank.
Warlock's Sash This is an item i take for it's versatility. It provides a good addition to your health and mana, as well as a minor damage buff. Also, it provides minor health and damage buff stacks, of which there are 100.
The gem of isolation is the Warlock's sash backup. While it doesn't have the potential to provide the same damage and health, it does sport the ever so helpful speed debuff, making enemies move 25% slower for 2 seconds.
Polynomicon, or any mana item for that matter, it very necessary item when playing He Bo. He consumes so much mana, that the decision to buy a item that increases mana can very well make or break your game.

Alternates

I would take this item because of the CDR, making He Bo's cooldown even more of a deadly weapon. It also provides a high movement speed increase, and no god should ever be without some variation of the boots. I think that the Shoes of the Magi now outclass them, but they are still quite useful.

Team Work

As with most gods, teamwork is critical to your success in matches. Atlas of the Yellow River is a good tool to use when an ally is being forced to retreat, in that the movement speed increase can help them to escape. Also in helping injured allies shake a chasing god is Waterspout . This is because of the knock up it causes, giving your ally precious second to gain some distance on a chasing god. When entering team fights, I like to initate with waterspout, and follow it up with Water Cannon to deal maximum damage to enemy gods. Because of its cone attack pattern, it's useful for dealing damage to enemy gods bunched together. The low cooldown also gives you the luxury of having that an ability that you can land one after the other with a meager two second gap. You can also enter team battles with Atlas of the Yellow River, but I normally only do that when my allies outnumber my enemies. Once you initiate, try and keep your allies in good health. In my experience, He Bo is only as strong as his allies in team battles. I'm not saying don't be aggressive, just keep an eye on their health. If you enter the battle late and the enemy is retreating, finish 'em off with your ult. The most important thing in my mind for team battles is to dictate the pace, whether you're more conferrable pushing the enemy, or waiting them out behind a tower or phoenix.

SkullBoy's final thought

My final thoughts on playing He Bo are very simple, use with caution. This is not the right god for someone new to smite, let alone new to MOBAs. I would recommend playing a god with less of a learning curve, Ymir or Thor for example. Once you've gotten good with your easy to learn god, then take the step to he bo. If you're familiar with the game and how to play, he bo can be a deadly asset. He play in any of the lanes, and I've seen a good he bo bring a team from the possibility of losing a phoenix or even the titan, to pushing the enemy back to their phoenix on the other side of the battlefield. Play him right, and you'll be on the fast track to dominating your opponents. The guide you just finished will put you on the path. Good luck and have fun.

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1
SkullxBoy | May 22, 2015 6:58am
VorakGames wrote:

This build feels like an old one, i have been playing hebo for about 2 years now and while the final build is good I don't think most of the item recommended here are good with the current meta. For example: Shoes of focus may have been good on him before season 2 but now Shoes of the magi is a way better pick since he needs alot of burst and mana early, but doesn't really need the cdr since his skills all have very low cool down. Then I would go chronos as my second item for more damage and cdr. Just given out my opinion, take it or leave it.

I guess I'm just old fashioned. But seriously, you raise some good points. This guide was initially crafted before the season 2 patch, and I have neglected updating it. Working on updating it currently.
1
VorakGames | May 14, 2015 2:56am
This build feels like an old one, i have been playing hebo for about 2 years now and while the final build is good I don't think most of the item recommended here are good with the current meta. For example: Shoes of focus may have been good on him before season 2 but now Shoes of the magi is a way better pick since he needs alot of burst and mana early, but doesn't really need the cdr since his skills all have very low cool down. Then I would go chronos as my second item for more damage and cdr. Just given out my opinion, take it or leave it.
1
SkullxBoy | March 9, 2015 8:41am

Two things, great build for He Bo, I just started playing him recently and have a similar build, but I take Chronos' Pendant in order to max CDR.
The second thing is you say the abilities do 280 OR 85% magical power when they actually do 280 PLUS 85% magical power :)

Would also like to see more detailed sections to make it an actual guide rather than a short build.

Whoops. My bad, fixing it now. I'm working on extending it, but my studies are taking up most of my time as of late. Thanks for the corrections.
1
KamikazeKitty (4) | February 26, 2015 10:30am
Two things, great build for He Bo, I just started playing him recently and have a similar build, but I take Chronos' Pendant in order to max CDR.
The second thing is you say the abilities do 280 OR 85% magical power when they actually do 280 PLUS 85% magical power :)

Would also like to see more detailed sections to make it an actual guide rather than a short build.
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