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Starting Build: Vampiric Shroud,
Emerald Ring, Health Potion. Complete
Shoes of the Magi before finishing into
Hastened Ring.
This example build provides early sustain from Vampiric Shroud and consistent attack speed from the Ring tree. It finishes up with high damage potential from
Rod of Tahuti and the
Blood-Soaked Shroud upgrade.
Replace Shoes late with Elixir of Speed and another item of your choice. Suggest one of
Bancroft's Talon (added lifesteal),
Toxic Blade (anti-heal),
Magi's Cloak (counter CC).
Choose one starter and upgrade path:
Vampiric Shroud ->
Sacrificial Shroud: Early lifesteal pairs well with
Brisingamen's Blessing for early sustain. The upgrade drastically increases her damage potential at the expense of a bit of her health.
Death's Toll ->
Death's Embrace: Reliable early sustain translates into strong late-game sustain that isn't affected by anti-heal (health restore, not lifesteal).
Death's Toll ->
Death's Temper: Reliable early sustain converts to attack speed and huge basic attack damage potential with easy stacks from minions or teamfight kills or assists. Suggest pairing this with strong lifesteal to maintain health sustain.
Gilded Arrow ->
Diamond Arrow: Farm early and bide your time, upgrading to huge attack speed potential late game. Suggest pairing this with a
Bancroft's Talon +
Typhon's Fang build path to provide health sustain.
Shoes of the Magi (Lifesteal): provides lifesteal that, combined with her passive, will provide enough sustain in the early game to allow you to build into your core attack speed items ASAP. This is the better option if you rush
Hastened Ring.
Shoes of Focus (CDR): provides CDR, which can be incredibly helpful, even to a basic-attacker like Freya, as she still relies on her abilities for ranged DPS.
Traveler's Shoes (Utility / MP5): provides slightly higher MS than the other options, which helps survivability for a god that has no mobility. The MP5 is extremely useful as she can burn through mana quickly.
Hastened Ring (Boxing Mobility): the passive's temporary movement boost when basic attacking can allow you to juke and dance around enemies when boxing, or to keep up the pressure when chasing. The additional base MS is also helpful for survivability and chase. Optional at any point of a build.
Demonic Grip (Core Penetration): this is your core penetration (protection reduction) choice for high DPS and strong penetration against all enemies. Core mid-game item for EVERY match.
Telkhines Ring (Basic Attack Damage Boost): this provides bonus basic attack damage that is helpful for overall DPS. Best built later in a build.
Ring of Hecate (Lifesteal + AS): functional option if you want the combined stats of lifesteal and attack speed. Typically considered early-game, depending on start.
Toxic Blade (Anti-Heal): possible late item to counter enemy healing.
Bancroft's Talon (High Lifesteal): This item is great when expecting to take damage even as you deal it. The increasing lifesteal and higher power when fighting will help you get the upper hand in a 1v1 fight.
Typhon's Fang (Lifesteal Boost): It provides enhanced lifesteal, working synergistically with Freya's passive and
Ring of Hecate. Also provides some %pen which is helpful against tankier opponents.
Rod of Tahuti (High Damage): An item for the most confident, it provides high power, especially against low-health enemies. Pick it up late-game if you're confident in fighting the enemy and you're steamrolling them.
Choose as suits your playstyle or needs for defensive use.
Mantle of Discord (Universal Protection): survival option with high protections and a passive stun.
Magi's Cloak (Anti-CC): survival option, counter to strong enemy CC.
This list of relics is short, but likely to be the only ones you'll ever really want/need.
When in doubt, the combination of Purification Beads (anti-CC) and
Aegis Amulet (anti-burst) will help prolong your life or get you out of sticky situations.
Magic Shell is a great defensive utility pickup when you don't need both of the other two relics. Upgrade it to gain the "Block" effect to counter enemy basic attackers.
Heavenly Wings is a situational utility pickup, useful to counter lots of enemy slows. Upgrade it to gain the "Haste" effect when
Hastened Ring's passive is on CD, and use it to chase or escape as needed.
Starting Build: Death's Toll,
Emerald Ring, 3x potions. Complete Shoes of choice before finishing into
Bancroft's Talon. Shown here is
Shoes of Focus for more ability uptime.
This example build provides early sustain from Death's Toll and
Ring of Hecate. It finishes up with high damage potential from
Rod of Tahuti and the
Death's Temper upgrade.
This build example uses Hecate + Typhon's for lifesteal, since the Temper upgrade drops the sustain.
Replace Shoes late with Elixir of Speed and another item of your choice. Suggest one of
Hastened Ring (mobility),
Telkhines Ring (basic attack DPS), or
Toxic Blade (anti-heal).
Starting Build: Gilded Arrow,
Tiny Trinket, 5x potions. Complete Shoes of choice before finishing into
Bancroft's Talon. Shown here is
Traveler's Shoes for added mobility (also helping get back to lane ASAP for efficient farming).
This example build focuses on early farming rather than pressure, and can be a useful build direction against a strong early lane opponent. The starter is upgraded into Diamond Arrow, which can stack to provide a huge AS boost.
This build example uses Bancroft's + Typhon's for lifesteal, since the Arrow tree doesn't provide sustain.
Replace Shoes late with Elixir of Speed and another item of your choice. Suggest one of
Hastened Ring (mobility) or
Rod of Tahuti (damage boost).
Standard skill leveling sequence.
Option to level Irradiate at level 3 for early aggression / kill potential. Otherwise, put another point into
Pulse for wave-clear.
If you find yourself boxing a lot and getting kills, you can prioritize maxing Irradiate before putting further points into
Valkyrie's Discretion.
***NOTE*** Build itemization discussion is now only at the top of the guide.
Recent Updates:
2021/2/15: Guide is current as of Patch 8.1 Bonus Update. Builds updated.
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Freya’s necklace grants her additional Magical Lifesteal. (10% + 0.25% per level, max 15%) Discussion: This is an ability you don't have to think about. Having built-in lifesteal is great, but keep in mind the individual lifesteal effect per each target is somewhat lessened when you're using an AOE ability (e.g. ![]() Built-in lifesteal means you can delay a lifesteal item if preferred, but you should always consider a lifesteal item at some point to enhance your survivability. | |
Freya activates a Buff that makes her Basic Attacks do bonus Magical damage (40/55/70/85/100 per attack). Duration 5 seconds. CD 11 seconds. 25% scaling. Leveling Priority: Max this 2nd. General Use: Burst Damage Discussion: This is an ability you'll use situationally, to provide extra damage to your basic attacks. Typically, it will be activated after ![]() Tips: Consider using this without ![]() ![]() | |
Freya activates a Buff that makes her Basic Attacks ranged, dealing additional Magical damage (20/30/40/50/60 per attack) and Slowing the target (25%) and all nearby enemies. The area effect and Slow is lost when Irradiate is active. Duration 6 seconds. CD 11 seconds. 15% scaling. Leveling Priority: Max this 1st for minion clear and overall damage output. General Use: Wave Clear / Ranged Damage Discussion: Activate for efficient minion clear and ADC ranged boxing function. Use alone to provide control on an enemy (via the Slow). Combine with ![]() Tips: It may be tempting to always use ![]() ![]() ![]() Warning: The AOE from ![]() | |
At her ground target location, ![]() Leveling Priority: Max this last. General Use: Initiation / Escape / Control Discussion: This can be used as an initiation, continued attack, or escape tool. The small affected area means it's slightly difficult to land consistently, but when it does, it allows you and/or teammates to close the gap or run to safety. You can use more aggressively to initiate when your main "escape" tool, ![]() Tips: Banishes make the affected enemy untargetable. This means you should use the ability with discretion, as untimely use can cause teammate abilities or ults to completely miss. Although the enemy is untargetable at the height of the banish, as they fall back to the ground, you can hit them, so you can get in an easy hit before they can even do anything about it. | |
![]() Leveling Priority: Level this as it becomes available. General Use: Escape / Teamfight AOE Damage / Finisher Discussion: Many players will just consider this for its offensive capabilities, which are impressive...the large AOE blasts can hit multiple enemies for good damage, and have longer range than her ranged Aurora Blade, helping her finish enemies just out of normal reach. However, ![]() Tips: It provides her with CC immunity and allows her to escape from player-made obstacles, making it a great, easy counter to abilities such as ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
So that's it! If you like what I've done and how I try to improve the guide, anyone is welcome to suggest a god for me to work on next...preferably a god without a solid guide...and of course, I have to own him and/or want to play him =P but I'll let you know...
Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any and all comments, suggestions, etc. Feel free to add me/invite me if you want to play!
Brandon / PC IGN: Muffinman17 / PS4 IGN: Branmuffin17
Thanks to the following people:
For helping with Conquest builds and some tips |
For general Arena knowledge and in-depth help with builds / calculations |
For multiple suggestions for better presentation! |
For aesthetic ideas and templates to make the guide prettier |
For suggestions for build options and missing info |
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I'll try that out.
Uhhh...honestly no clue on Eye's viability. Do you feel it's viable enough (compared to the other starters) to include? If so, suggested start?
Magi Shoes > Pyth (or Hecate if you don't care about late efficiency) > Hastened > Demonic > Telk > Protector > boots for Typhon's
Just an efficient stat stick.
I'll consider; I still don't really like the passive for her and she's typically not a safe ADC to start invading enemy jungle to steal camps.
Could also go Magi > Hecate > Hastened > Demonic > Typhon's > Telkhines > Sell boots for Magus.
I interchange Hastened/Demonic depending on need for the match. I can agree to Typhon's as 5th/6th. I don't know that Magus is that important for her...other items will give her increased damage, and she's single-target bursting enemies down, where the damage increase for all teammates isn't going to necessarily be as impactful. I'll need to play around with that and see how it feels.
I'd at least maybe list one bancrofts build: Bancrofts, three rings, Coin and Doom Orb/Tahuti.
Some things should be taken into consideration.
The more significant damage output, at least when considering clearing the wave, is usually going to be more actual hits, not higher scaling, and the only way for her to do that is through attack speed. Hecate will allow about 2 more hits per use in the early game, and at that point your
This isn't to say
But over the course of the game, when you also consider damage against structures, I will side with Hecate over Bancroft's in a general sense.
You're right, though, I will offer a Bancroft's build option, and will add that now.
So I forgot that I deleted my completely revamped builds, and only had partial completion there. Fixes incoming. LOL
Toxic ALSO has pen, but is NOT placed in the pen item group. This is a good observation.
But, what needs to happen then is that "penetration options" really should be better identified as "main penetration options." Dynasty AND Void should be taken out of that group, and put into the "additional item considerations" section. Even though they provide pen, that's not their big defining feature of why you choose those items.
*edit* adjustments made.
Here, in synergies and match-ups part, you mention:
"
Since the item was removed, you should change that part.
Although she has some lifesteal in her kit, it's been nerfed over time. So it's difficult to rely on that for early sustain. At the same time, she's a very weak early god, and only really feels like she comes online mid-game once she has at least something like Bancroft's, Shoes, and Demonic. I guess you could also consider Hecate to cover early lifesteal.
If you're not focusing on her basic attack potential, then she's going to really suffer, so I just don't see her being built with protections. If you needed, I would probably consider Shogun's, and that's about it.
Meanwhile, gods like Cthulhu have strong base damage, and his 1 is a great counter to Freya. He's got mitigations, CC in all his abilities, etc. He's an awful matchup against Freya and I'm not surprised you're having a difficult time. If you're attacking early and you don't have Hastened, you'll be slow and an easy target to connect on both hits of Mire. You can't banish him when he's in ult form, making you an easy target with no CC of your own to truly slow him down. Your only protection is going to be Aegis and when you're in your ult...and your ult lasts way less time than his.
In laning, he can just level his 2 and hit the wave from far back. You have to be close. Even if you stick under tower and clear at the line, he can hit you with it and continue poking away at you.
As such...the only things I can think of would be...1) don't play Freya solo, 2) ask for constant ganks to relieve pressure.
I would add a section, but I just don't think she's best suited to the Solo role, especially not right now. You could get away with it in S4 and maybe earlier, but you're just going to struggle IMO against all the best regular soloers. Sorry I can't really help you with tips / suggestions.
I find myself going 3 rings + 2LS (Bancroft + usually Typhoon/Poly) most times. Still trying to figure if I need Typhoon and what final item will be.
It's always worth buying Tahuti if you can get away with it. Massive power boost and helps you more quickly finish off tanks that have built high prots. But as you've mostly found, you're typically solid on DPS with the 3 rings, Bancroft, and Typhon's, plus any of Magi's, Mantle, Ob, Magus, etc.
The times I'd consider Typhon's more are when facing a bit less burst (allowing you to survive and outlast enemies, and/or when enemies have gotten enough lifesteal to really hinder Bancroft's.
I still need to try BTalon + BoThoth + BoDead + 3rings
Also for the Mid lane build I would just start with tier 2 bancrofts as Freya clears wave very quickly plus her passive gives mana sustain.
And add Pythags as an option somewhere.
As for Magus, agreed.
And for Celestial...it doesn't need to be replaced. It still has function despite the nerf in specific situations, and would be situational just like Dynasty.
And Mid build, agreed also.
I think a delayed Thoth (not Thoth rush, hence I got rid of that one) is still viable situationally and brings a bit of a different feel to the build, without killing the basic attack function.