Everyone loves Aphrodite's uhm... healing?

Hello and welcome to my guide to Aphrodite! Since I only play arena, I will base my guide on that. Although most of this guide is viable for any situation.
Aphrodite has quite nice survivability and alot of healing to both self and others when linked with her Kiss-skill. She also has quite alot of damage when using her heal/dot and aoe spell, which I will go more in detail further down this guide.

As mentioned earlier I only play arena, and these pros and cons might not affect your experience in conquest or domination, although the playstyle might be the same.

PROS
-She is an awesome support
-High healing power when built properly
-Her healing-skill is a HoT-heal (Heal over Time)
-She is able to slow or knock back with her AoE-skill (Area of Effect)
-Descent damage when built properly
-Invulnerability for a short time when using ultimate

CONS
-Kind of squishy throughout the whole game unless built tanky
-Mana ***** early- and mid-game

LORE
There are too few words to describe the radiance, the magnificence, the inequitable glory of Aphrodite, Goddess of Beauty. So wondrous is she to behold that one look can inspire tears, desire, jealousy, and love. Yet, beneath her flawless exterior resides a heart burdened with insecurity.

Inattentive and hideous to look upon, her husband, Hephaestus, unknowingly leaves Aphrodite feeling lonely and worthless. She finds consolation in the arms of other men such as Ares, or validation by competing in any contest of beauty she encounters.

At a wedding attended by all the Gods, a golden apple appeared, inscribed with the words "to the fairest." Immediately Aphrodite, her mother Hera, and sister Athena quarreled over it. Zeus elected Paris, Prince of Troy, to choose a victor. In exchange for being named the fairest, Aphrodite offered any woman in the world as his wife, so Paris agreed. However, he chose Helen as his wife, and their love began the catastrophic Trojan War.

Now, a new war brews, but this one between Gods, not men. While the battlefield is no place for the fairest of all, Aphrodite recalls the destruction between the Greeks and Trojans. Perhaps, this time, her beauty can be used to stop a war instead of start one. Perhaps, this time, she will discover the beauty within.

NOTE: This guide is made strictly out of my own opinion and does not necessarily have to be followed 100%, I have made this guide to help new players along or maybe even give some heads-up to players who already play her. While following this guide may work for you I suggest you find your own playstyle or even make your own builds, there are endless different ways to play each god.

Loving Embrace
Key Bind: Passive

Gaining Aphrodite's favor is a blessing in that 30% of all mana gained by Aphrodite is granted to her soul mate.

Ability: Buff
Affects: Soul Mate

More detailed info/tip: This simply gives mana to whoever is linked to you with your Kiss-skill, so if you choose to have Meditation as a ability and use that, 30% of the mana you recieve from that will also go to the linked god, mana-potions do the same and also passive MP5 is shared.


Kiss
Key Bind: 1

Aphrodite blows a kiss to an allied god, making them her soul mate and giving them both increased movement speed. If the kiss hits an enemy god, they are stunned and Aphrodite's soul mate gets jealous, making them deal increased damage.

Ability: Projectile
Affects: Gods (Enemy or Ally)
Movement Speed: 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 %
Stun Duration: 1s
Jealousy Damage Increase: 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 %
Jealousy Duration: 8s
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70
Cooldown: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 s

More detailed info/tip: This skill links you and the targeted friendly god with a pink beam, or stuns the targeted enemy god. You should always have someone linked to you, as you passively get increased movement-speed. If you have a linked friendly god, and use this skill to stun an enemy, your linked god will get increased damage for 8s.
NOTE: When changing between friendly targets, you don't get a cooldown.


Back Off!
Key Bind: 2

Agitated by all the attention, Aphrodite commands enemies to get away from her, doing damage around her and knocking them back. If Aphrodite has a soul mate, they get agitated instead, and the damage originates on them, dealing the same damage and slowing.

Ability: Point Blank
Affects: Enemy
Damage: Magical
Radius: 20
Damage: 90 / 160 / 230 / 300 / 370 (+60% of your magical power)
Slow: 25%
Slow Duration: 2s
Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90
Cooldown: 12s

More detailed info/tip: This skill is a damage-skill with knockback when not having a linked god. But when having one, the damage originates from the linked god and instead of knocking back the enemy gods they are slowed. This is very nicely utilized by building Gem of Isolation at some point. Prioritize having your link on a melee god for this reason.


Love Birds
Key Bind: 3

Aphrodite calls forth a flock of beautiful doves that fly forward in the area in front of her. The doves circle around all enemies in the path, damaging enemies every .5s for 3s. Aphrodite and her soul mate are healed for the same amount.

Ability: Line
Affects: Enemy and Allies
Damage: Magical
Damage per Tick: 10 / 17 / 24 / 31 / 38 (+15% of your magical power)
Heal per Tick: 10 / 17 / 24 / 31 / 38 (+15% of your magical power)
Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90
Cooldown: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 s

More detailed info/tip: This is Aphrodite's heal, which heals herself and the linked friendly god for an amount every half second for 3s. Practice quickly changing targets with your Kiss-skill to make the most out of your healing. This also is a damage over time-skill.


Undying Love
Key Bind: 4

Aphrodite pledges undying love to herself and her Soul Mate. While this is active, her and her Soul Mate are invulnerable to all damage for a short duration. All crowd control effects are also removed when activated.

Ability: Buff
Affects: Self and Soul Mate
Invulnerability Duration: .8 / 1.1 / 1.4 / 1.7 / 2 s
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90 / 85 / 80 / 75 / 70 s

More detailed info/tip: This is kind of a combination of Aegis Amulet and Purification Beads, being so that you are invulnerable to damage and also crowd-control effects while having it active.
Keep this off cooldown as much as you can if you are against a Loki, since he will most likely target you alot of the time, and if the Loki gets fed, this is your savior. Wait for Loki to use his ultimate on you, then use this and run away while healing yourself. The same tactic works if you want to guard someone else.

The priority of which I level up the skills are as follows:
1. Love Birds
2. Undying Love
3. Kiss
4. Back Off!

Build 1 - Glassy with amazing healing


Boots of the Magi
(20/35/50) Magical Power
(20/135/250) Mana
(10/15)% Movement Speed
UNIQUE - +21% Movement Speed. PASSIVE - You gain +15 Magical Penetration. (Speed does not stack with other boots).

Why this item and when to build it?
This is almost a must-have for any mage god. I usually don't finish building the boots before I have finished the second item. So I usually start with building the first rank of boots and the first rank of the second item.


Chronos Pendant
+(10/30/50) Magical Power
+(5/15/25) MP5
PASSIVE - Your ability cooldowns are reduced by 25%.

Why this item and when to build it?
Build this as your second item, right after the first rank of your boots, since you would want to have as low cooldown as possible, as early as possible. Since Aphrodites heal and link-skill has a (in my opinion) quite long cooldown, this is a must have item. Finish building this item before finishing your 2nd and 3rd rank on Boots of Magi.


Book of Thoth
(30/65/100) Magical Power
(25/75/125) Mana
(5/10/15) MP5
PASSIVE - You permanently gain 10 mana per minion kill (max 50 stacks).Additionally 3% of your mana is converted into magical power.

Why this item and when to build it?
Why build a stacking-item on Aphrodite when your not going to kill creeps you ask?
I choose to build this item simply because it is one of the best magic power-items in the game, it also has MP5, which is highly needed the further you get in a game.
And as a bonus, if you ever do kill creeps, you gain stacks and get even more powerful.


Gem of Isolation
+(30/50/70) Magical Power
+(50/150/250) Health
+(50/150/250) Mana
PASSIVE - Enemies hit by your damaging abilities will move 25% slower for 2 seconds.

Why this item and when to build it?
I build this as the 4th item, after finishing Book of Thoth.
This item gives you a descent amount of magic power aswell as a slow, this slow stacks with the slow you have on your Back Off-skill, if detonated on a linked god. Making it effectively a 50% slow, which is really helpful when helping someone chase after the enemy, since you both run faster aswell.


Rod of Tahuti
+(25/75/125) Magical Power
+(5/10/15) MP5
PASSIVE - Increases magical power by 25%.

Why this item and when to build it?
This is the most powerful magic power-item in-game, build it, no matter what. I usually have this item as either my 5th or 6th item, depending on what type of enemy gods I have against me.

Choose what item you think is best as the last item

Bancroft's Talon
Magical Power {20/60/100}
Magical Lifesteal {4%/8%/12%}
PASSIVE - You gain 1 additional magical power per 1% of your missing health.

Hide of the Nemean Lion
+(30/55/80) Physical Protection
+(50/100/200) Health
PASSIVE - Reflects 30% of all basic attacks damage back to the attacker as physical damage.

Stone of Gaia
+(30/50/70) Magical Protection
+(5/15/25) HP5
+(3/6/10) MP5
PASSIVE - Regenerate 2% of your maximum health every 5 seconds.

Why do you have to choose between these items?
The answer is simple, I use the 6th item as a "bonus" item, since it's not always guaranteed that you get to actually build the 6th item in arena. If I don't have any enemies that specifically target me I just build Bancroft's Talon, just because this item has alot of magic power, and the lifesteal can be handy to have aswell in the final push-fight.
If I mostly get targeted by physical I usually build Hide of the Nemean Lion, this is one of the items which has the highest physical protection, aswell as the passive which reflects 30% of basic attack-damage. This is a must-have item if you are playing against a Loki, you might also consider swapping this and Rod of Tahuti for that reason.
I choose to build Stone of Gaia if I'm playing against a fed Freya or Agni, since they both can have insane damage if played correctly. I use this item because it is the item with the highest magical protection in the game, and it also has alot of HP5 and some MP5.

Build 2 - A bit tanky