Fast Ymir Arena Guide

Ymir is one of the very first gods we play and we all know him. In arena he tends to get forgotten once you get some of the other guardians which seem to do a better job. There's a lot of bad builds out there - you see too many Ymir damage builds failing miserably, equally a lot of the defensive guardian builds are tough but slow and lack sustain.

Imo major flaws in Ymir (and most guardian) builds tend to be building protections without sustain or mobility - so low HP5, life steal is no good as you don't do enough damage. Hence they might be tough but you can wear them down and they can't escape. They then switch to damage items adding power for pretty small damage increases (in comparison to a proper damage dealing god) which they can't really use as they have to keep (slowly) running back to base for health, or because they are dead.

If you want to play Ymir in arena this build works better. This fixes the above problems and makes Ymir really fast which means he's much better at getting to where he's needed in time, and much harder to gank as he can outrun the enemy team. Your team will love you as you keep saving them, and trapping enemies for them to kill. While your damage might be low because you don't keep having to run away you will probably still get as many kills as a *damage* Ymir as you are there to get the finish.

Pros:
+ Very fast: +24% movement out of combat, +10% in it and another +20% of someone tries to slow you.
+ Very high sustain: Effective 140 HP5 in combat, 164 HP5 out of it. 23-43 MP5 (depending on build).
+ Low cool downs: 35% reduction.
+ Very hard to kill: 188 magical, 214+ physical protections combined with the speed, slow protection, HP5 and cool downs.
+ Build is cheap: Only $11650-11900 for items, and you get approx 75 gold/minute extra from shoes.
+ Lots of fun: you get to charge around, use your abilities lots and hardly ever need to go back to base.

Cons:
- Low damage.

Passive Frostbite
This is a pretty rubbish passive. Even double damage for basic attacks is still very little damage. Perhaps if you went for some weird adc damage build it could be fun, but that's not what Ymir is good at. I suppose it's better then nothing.

1. Ice Wall
This is very useful for stopping enemies getting to your team mates, or using some ability to drag/bounce/throw them back into their team. It's also great for stopping enemies getting away. Be aware a surprising number of abilities seem to allow players to escape straight through the wall. Xing Tian's leap is particularly silly as at no point does he even come close to leaping over the wall and he just leaps straight through it, however if he uses his Whirlwind of Rage and Steel ult you can catch all your unlucky team mates with your wall as he tries to throw them. Equally a surprising number of attacking abilities go straight through the wall (e.g. Anubis's Death Gaze, and your Frost Breath). Look at the enemy team and learn assess what they have that the Ice Wall will or won't block.

2. Glacial Strike
This is a great minion clear. It also applies Frostbite so your basic attacks go from completely useless to just pretty bad. Anyway best used to help clear a minion wave, let them all run into you and bunch up then strike the lot of them. It also slows so you can use it to slow an enemy god, although then tend to be harder to hit.

3. Frost Breath
Ymir's best ability is both easy to hit with, completely takes enemy players out of the game, and lasts for ages. Don't waste it. Use it mostly to save team mates, it's particularly good at catching assassins in the act. Loki hates it as you can use it the moment he goes invisible which freezes him in place and breaks the invisibility (you see a white Loki stuck there). Be careful to not waste it on someone who is cc immune (e.g. Xing Tian while ulting). If you are using it in attack make sure you combine it with an Ice Wall.

4. Shards of Ice
Is not particularly useful in arena a lot of the time as it's easy to dodge and leaves you very exposed. Early game before we get our protections and health pool that means we end up dead. It takes 4 seconds to go off which is an eternity as even slowed enemies can get out of it in that time, and you have to absorb 4 seconds of being completely exposed to damage. Damage is very dependent on the level so until you get it levelled up it's not going to do enough considering the risk you take using it. You can detonate it early which does hardly any damage but does allow you to escape. The best way to get someone is to Ice Wall / Frost Breath them first but until you level up those abilities they won't last long enough to stop enemies escaping. Hence this really is a late game ability in arena, but late game it is devastating, and can easily do 1000 damage to some squishy mage if you have a little pen (e.g. Void Stone).

1. Travelers Shoes
Massively underrated these give you a huge additional +14% movement out of combat. 25 HP5 out of combat. As Ymir is mostly out of combat (i.e. not damaging or being damaged) you will get the buffs most of the time. Note: Ymir's Ice Wall does not count as "combat" so you can place that and keep charging. In addition you get 30 gold for each god hit once every 90 seconds (i.e. a max 150 gold every 90 seconds). This probably equates to an extra item by the end of the game. Important for a god who isn't going to earn that much money.

2. Winged Blade
This gives another 10% speed, now we are really motoring. That speed means you can charge over and get that wall down between your over aggressive team mate and the whole enemy team before they die. It also means we are very fast and hence hard to gank, particularly with the slow protection Winged Blade gives. The 300 health and 10% cool down are also very useful. 10% attack speed not so important although Ymir's basic attacks after applying Frostbite does some damage so it does make a small difference.

2.5. Emerald Talisman
This is the lvl 2 item on our way to getting Stone of Gaia. Obviously we want both Stone of Gaia and Breastplate of Valor as they give us both types of protections, sustain and cool down but which one do we go for first? A compromise is to go for Emerald Talisman first as it must be one of the best lvl 2 items in the game, still giving us most of the benefits of Stone of Gaia for a super cheap 1480 gold, then build the Breastplate of Valor, then finish off our Stone of Gaia. However it depends on the enemy team and what sort of damage they are doing.

3. Breastplate of Valor
This gives us our first big chunk of physical defence, 250 mana, and most importantly the 25% cool down. Now we are able to spam our abilities that much more.

4. Stone of Gaia
With the Stone of Gaia you get the 70 magic protection and 100 health which will keep us alive. You also get 10 MP5 which will help you stay out longer. What you get most of is HP5, 25 + 2%/5 seconds works out at up to 88 HP5 depending on max health. Combine that will Ymir's base HP5 and the 25 HP5 from the Travelers Shoes and we have a lot particularly this early in the game.

5. Sovereignty
Another 50 physical protection, 20 magic protection, 200 health and 25 HP5. The protections and health will keep us alive, and the aura's will keep our team alive. We now have a huge 75 HP5 + Ymir's base HP5 + 2%/5 seconds. That works out at the max 100 HP5 when Ymir is max level + 2%/5 seconds = effective 164 HP5.

A choice here:
1. Void Stone
This gives us the 50 magic protection but instead of the rest we get a little magic power and more importantly 15 penetration. This will make quite a difference to the damage done to squishy gods that only have 30-48 magic protection. Late game we have our full ultimate so that extra pen means >1k damage to a mage and hence is well worth it. Because it's an aura other magic damaging gods in our team will get the benefit of it too.

2. Heartward Amulet
This gives us 300 health, 50 magic protection, 20 physical protection and 20 MP5. We need that extra magic protection. The Aura giving physical protection and MP5 will help keep our team alive and in the fight. The 20 MP5 almost doubles our MP5 to 43 and means we really never run out of mana. Without it we will have to head back to base to get more mana now and again and every time we do that our squishy team mates get themselves killed.

Which is better is very much up to you. Generally I'd go for Void Stone for the penetration buff, but take a look at what your what your team and the enemy team have built - if someone already has Void Stone then the penetration doesn't stack, or if your team is mostly physical gods it's not going to help, or if most of the enemy has very high protections then Void Stone's flat 15 isn't going to do much. In those cases Heartward Amulet is better, however if your team has mages with huge power and little penetration, or the enemy team has lots of gods with no magic protection items then clearly Void Stone is the way to go.

1. Greater Purification
This is smite, you nearly always need beads as it allows us to escape so many forms of damage.

2. Enfeebling Curse
We want something that can help in attack, and defence. As we are really fast an Enfeebling Curse means we can run away if we are getting ganked, or we can help a team mate to run away. It also gives us a way of turning a team fight by slowing the movement and attack speed of the enemy team. Finally we can pop it just before using our ultimate for a double slow to stop enemies escaping and slow their attacks on us as we sit there waiting to go boom.

3. Weakening Curse
An alternative to Enfeebling Curse if the enemy team has lots of healers.

Your main job is to keep people alive, that means not wasting your Ice Wall or Frost Breath as the moment you do the enemy will jump in and kill all your squishies. If you are waiting for someone to initiate have your Ice Wall primed so you can react instantly if someone tries something. Watch their assassin's and if you see one make a move have your Frost Breath primed so you can freeze them the moment they appear.

You can however use your Glacial Strike to kill minions, just don't stick around after using it to basic attack the minions - you'll do very little damage but probably take a lot.

Remember your body also makes a good wall, get in the way to stop them either running down your team mates or escaping if you think they can kill them.

When a huge team fight has started don't rush your Frost Breath, wait that little bit so you don't miss and catch as many with it as possible.

To initiate for your team wait till one of their players is exposed, then Frost Breath/ Ice Wall, or Ice Wall/ Frost Breath. Put the Ice Wall directly behind them, and then run forward to stand on one side blocking escape that way. You can then either use your Glacial Strike and basic attack them or Shards of Ice ult. If you are going to ult then don't forget to pop your Enfeebling Curse for a double slow. Don't initiate by ending up far in front of your team as they won't be in range and by the time they get there the enemy will have escaped and now your whole team is exposed and you don't have any abilities. Hence using Greater Blink to jump forward usually isn't a great move. Obviously pick on the squishiest enemies that can't escape through your Ice Wall.

Don't over extend - you are tough and fast but not that tough or that fast. Also the moment you run off the enemy teams assassins will move in and kill your team mates so stick close to the team. Be very careful early game as you won't have enough protections to take the hits until you've built your 4th item.

When running away be aware you can place your wall directly in front of you and it will appear behind you unless you are slowed in which case you embarrassingly wall yourself.

Another use for your Shards of Ice is to get the big minion in. If it's almost there then ult'ing at the enemy portal is a good way of persuading the enemy team to not get too close and stop it.

Finally Shards of Ice makes you CC immune, hence if say ares ults you can activate your ult and he won't pull you in. Even better if he lands in range or your ult you can damage him.