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Goddess of Domination - Persephone (8.3) (Advanced)

76 14 95,874
8.5
by Iinux updated March 26, 2021

Smite God: Persephone

Build Guide Discussion 16 More Guides
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Persephone Build

Starter Items

Notes Sands of Time provides efficient lane sustain and cooldown reduction which Persephone needs in the early levels. Conduit Gem & Archmage's Gem is also reasonably good but it will almost never be as efficient on Persephone as it can be on e.g. Scylla or Nu Wa due to her damage being consistent poking meaning she will almost never take full advantage of all the 20 stacks.

Notes

Sands of Time provides efficient lane sustain and cooldown reduction which Persephone needs in the early levels. Conduit Gem & Archmage's Gem is also reasonably good but it will almost never be as efficient on Persephone as it can be on e.g. Scylla or Nu Wa due to her damage being consistent poking meaning she will almost never take full advantage of all the 20 stacks.

Build Item Sands of Time Sands of Time
Build Item Lost Artifact Lost Artifact
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
2
Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion

General Build

Notes Purchasing Order: Shoes of the Magi > Rod of Tahuti > Spear of Desolation > Charon's Coin > Spear of the Magus > Pendulum of Ages > Boots Replacement

Anti-Healing Path:
After Spear of Desolation buy Divine Ruin and continue with the general build.

Healing Path:
After Charon's Coin buy Rod of Asclepius and continue with the general build.

Boots Replacement:
Replace Shoes of the Magi with Staff of Myrddin or Spear of the Magus if not built yet.

Notes

Purchasing Order: Shoes of the Magi > Rod of Tahuti > Spear of Desolation > Charon's Coin > Spear of the Magus > Pendulum of Ages > Boots Replacement

Anti-Healing Path:
After Spear of Desolation buy Divine Ruin and continue with the general build.

Healing Path:
After Charon's Coin buy Rod of Asclepius and continue with the general build.

Boots Replacement:
Replace Shoes of the Magi with Staff of Myrddin or Spear of the Magus if not built yet.

Build Item Pendulum of Ages Pendulum of Ages
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Spear of Desolation Spear of Desolation
Build Item Charon's Coin Charon's Coin
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus

Relics

Notes Purification Beads is a diverse relic that can help you in a lot of scenarios, especially whenever you're using your ability Flourish you may be at risk to be locked down by opponents.

Aegis Amulet provides you with a short amount of immunity and can be a potent relic in situations where you can completely void an otherwise lethal ability or burst damage, e.g playing against a Scylla, Thanatos, Poseidon or Neith.

Magic Shell is a great relic in situations where you are either facing auto-attack focused gods like Bakasura, Arachne or Mercury as it gives you 2 Absorb stacks, completely negating their damage for a short duration, giving you enough time to either flee or kill them. This relic is also a good choice over Aegis Amulet in this scenario or when either your support or your solo is not picking up a Magic Shell

Notes

Purification Beads is a diverse relic that can help you in a lot of scenarios, especially whenever you're using your ability Flourish you may be at risk to be locked down by opponents.

Aegis Amulet provides you with a short amount of immunity and can be a potent relic in situations where you can completely void an otherwise lethal ability or burst damage, e.g playing against a Scylla, Thanatos, Poseidon or Neith.

Magic Shell is a great relic in situations where you are either facing auto-attack focused gods like Bakasura, Arachne or Mercury as it gives you 2 Absorb stacks, completely negating their damage for a short duration, giving you enough time to either flee or kill them. This relic is also a good choice over Aegis Amulet in this scenario or when either your support or your solo is not picking up a Magic Shell

Build Item Purification Beads Purification Beads
Build Item Aegis Amulet Aegis Amulet
Build Item Magic Shell Magic Shell

Items To Replace Shoes

Notes Staff of Myrddin: Helps a lot with your combo during your ult and also providing you with extra penetration to help against heavy tank focused comps.

Spear of the Magus: You will only replace Shoes of the Magi with this item when you're building Divine Ruin.

Notes

Staff of Myrddin: Helps a lot with your combo during your ult and also providing you with extra penetration to help against heavy tank focused comps.

Spear of the Magus: You will only replace Shoes of the Magi with this item when you're building Divine Ruin.

Build Item Staff of Myrddin Staff of Myrddin
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus

Persephone's Skill Order Notes Harvest is the most versatile ability at level 1 in the game, it provides you with either a heal, AoE damage & slow or long range single target damage. It outdamages Bone Rush and will provide you with the tools to possibly also get a kill at level 1. People might debate however that Bone Rush can be used to plant a few plants early in the mid but it hinders you to further use the plants versatility and combos (detailed further below).

Notes

Harvest is the most versatile ability at level 1 in the game, it provides you with either a heal, AoE damage & slow or long range single target damage. It outdamages Bone Rush and will provide you with the tools to possibly also get a kill at level 1. People might debate however that Bone Rush can be used to plant a few plants early in the mid but it hinders you to further use the plants versatility and combos (detailed further below).

Bone Rush

1 X Y
Bone Rush
2 8 11 12 14

Harvest

2 A B
Harvest
1 4 6 7 9

Flourish

3 B A
Flourish
3 15 16 18 19

Grasp of Death

4 Y X
Grasp of Death
5 10 13 17 20
Bone Rush
2 8 11 12 14

Bone Rush

1 X
Persephone calls forth a Skeletal Warrior from the underworld. This warrior charges forward, damaging minions and stopping on gods. Enemy gods hit are slowed for 2.5s. Whenever it stops its skull falls, becoming a Harvest Skull.

Ability Type: Line, Slow, Damage
Damage: 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 (+90% of your Magical Power)
Slow: 20 / 22.5 / 25 / 27.5 / 30%
Range: 65
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 12 / 11.5 / 11 / 10.5 / 10s
Harvest
1 4 6 7 9

Harvest

2 A
Persephone summons an explosion at a target location that places 3 Harvest Skulls. She can activate these Harvest plants with her Basic Attacks. When the Skulls are activated she restores health to herself. After 4s the Skulls turn into Harvest Flowers. When activated these Flowers charge forward in the direction hit, biting any target that gets close. Enemies recently bitten take reduced damage from other bites, stacking 3 times. She can have up to 5 / 5 / 6 / 6 / 7 Harvest Plants out at any time.

Ability Type: Circle, Leap, Damage
Explosion: 90 / 140 / 190 / 240 / 290 (+70% of your Magical Power)
Heal: 18 / 30 / 42 / 54 / 66
Bite: 40 / 75 / 110 / 145 / 180 (+30% of your Magical Power)
Reduced Damage: 50 / 75 / 87.5%
Range: 50
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 13s
Flourish
3 15 16 18 19

Flourish

3 B
Persephone floods the ground with necrotic energy that propels her from the ground directly forwards or backwards; based on the direction she is moving. Harvest plants inside the area immediately become Harvest Flowers and activate, charging in the direction Persephone is facing. Enemies caught in this area take damage.

Ability Type: Circle, Damage
Explosion: 65 / 105 / 145 / 185 / 225 (+55% of your Magical Power)
Range: 45
Radius: 20
Cost: 70
Cooldown: 15 / 14.5 / 14 / 13.5 / 13s
Grasp of Death
5 10 13 17 20

Grasp of Death

4 Y
Persephone conjures Entrapping Vines that she throws forwards, entrapping the first enemy god or wall it touches. Entrapped gods are crippled and rooted. Vines then spawn from the Entrapped target, seeking nearby enemy gods. Gods bound are crippled, can no longer move further than 55 units away and are slowed while running away from the center. Entrapping vines are destroyed if hit by 5 Basic Attacks (3 if it trapped a Wall), ending all effects.

Ability Type: Line, Crowd Control, Damage
Damage: 175 / 245 / 315 / 385 / 455 (+85% of your Magical Power)
Vine Damage: 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 / 165 (+30% of your Magical Power)
Slow: 15 / 17.5 / 20 / 22.5 / 25%
Duration: 5s
Range: Global
Radius: 55
Cost: 100 / 110 / 120 / 130 / 140
Cooldown: 90s

Persephone Threats

Tap each threat level to view Persephone’s threats

Max
1
Major
7
Even
4
Minor
3
Tiny
2

Persephone Synergies

Tap each synergy level to view Persephone’s synergies

Ideal
2
Strong
2
OK
0
Low
0
None
0

Introduction

Most people refer to me as "the guy who only plays female gods" which I rarely like to admit but when you like to make fun of yourself you gotta do what you gotta do.

I chose to make a guide on Persephone solely because unlike a lot of people, I actually enjoy playing her, she fits my play-style, she's very fast-paced and if you enjoy being quick with button pressing and movement this is a god for you.

This guide will primarily focus on what I've learned about Persephone and the hidden knowledge that I've managed to uncover. IF you are looking for a beginners guide this is not for you as this guide will only focus on the advanced parts of Persephone *This is also my first guide ever so feel free to tear me to shreds in the comments*

- Linux

This guide is still very much work in progress and will be updated continuously with new information and new chapters.

Ability Description

Passive - Pomegranate Seeds

Persephone gains Pomegranate Seeds when her Harvest plants wither. If she has more than 25 Seeds she can spend these to resist death, continuing to fight at full mana for 8s but dealing 60% reduced damage and moving 20% slower. This can be cancelled before the revive occurs by right-clicking. Additional seeds are sold when she enters the fountain for 3 gold a seed. Persephone can hold 100 Seeds.

Pomegranate Seeds is overall a good passive but it isn't Persephone's defining characteristic. When you are about to revive and there's next to no possibility of doing anything resourceful that might change the outcome of a fight, I recommend skipping the revive and instead keep the seeds and you will be able to sell over accumulated seeds when you spawn while also instantly securing 25 seeds for the next time you die to revive instead, if you are in situation where you aren't able to gather enough seeds for a revive.


1 - Bone Rush

In-Game Description: Persephone calls forth a skeletal warrior of the underworld. This warrior charges forward 35 units or until it comes into contact with a god. It charges with such force that when it stops it topples, sending bones flying forward and damaging enemies in its path. The skull from this warrior flies forward and becomes a Harvest Skull when it lands.

Bone Rush can deal a large chunk of damage equal to 1-2 Harvest sprouts, it requires great care with it being a rather advanced skillshot. You will be required to get some practice in with it's targeting and timing and you should be able to hit at max distances. Bone Rush will most of the time be used for the damage as a filler between her plants usages and also yielding Harvest skulls for you to use as either damaging plants or use it as a heal as well, don't be afraid to step out of the fight if you've taken significant damage and use Bone Rush and Harvest to restore some health and continue fighting.


2 - Harvest
This ability is her main damage source as she's able to continuously plant more Harvest and deal damage, making Persephone quite good at poking and dominating enemy mid laners. Persephone should always look to plant a few plants around a fight but never too many as you may need to heal or also peel someone off you, with the heavy damage that it can deal to people who come too close to you.

Using Flourish transforms the next skull you place into a Sprout giving you the option to burst someone down without them expecting it. You should always look to use Flourish in a safe manner that allows you to spawn a Sprout instantly giving you more options in a team fight and 1v1s, however, if you are in need of healing you will be forced to plant the sprout to then plant a skull as you will either way after casting Flourish have your next plant be a Sprout. Though this ability can provide you with large amounts of damage it can be reduced if you activate too many plants at once dealing less damage. I've put together a spreadsheet for you to see how Harvest applies its reduction to each Sprout from using only 1 to using 6 together.

Plants
1
2
3
4
5
6

Total
Base Damage
220
132
79,2
48,4
48,4
48,4

576,4
% Scaling
65
39
23,4
14,3
14,3
14,3

170,3
As you can see Harvest is considerably being reduced if multiple Sprouts are dealing damage at the same time. However, if you activate them separately within a short of 1.5 to 2s you will avoid this reduction as the reduction is only applied on consecutive hits within the same activation. Don't get this wrong however, her damage is still overwhelmingly good but can be even greater if you avoid the damage reduction. (Will add a spreadsheet for Flowers at a later point)

Harvest can be very mana consuming in the late game and to maximise your damage output, I recommend building MP5 to give you endless amounts of harvest plants making you a destructive force to deal with.

3 - Flourish
Persephone floods the ground around her with life giving energy that propels her from the ground directly forwards or backwards; based on the direction she is moving like Rama's Rolling Assault and Thoth's Evade and Punish. Harvest plants inside the area immediately grow to their next stage and activate. After using this ability the next Harvest cast is pre-germinated and spawns as a Sprout.

This ability is her only form of movement and is an average escape but can be extremely good in a situation where you leap over walls to separate yourself from the enemy. Flourish should only be used to either get a Sprout, activate multiple plants at once or using it as a means of escape to peel off enemies. When using this as an escape you should always look to plant a few plants beneath you before you use Flourish this can help you peel off enemies who are nearby the explosion from Harvest.


4 - Grasp of Death
Persephone conjures a mass of Entrapping Vines that she throws forwards, entrapping the first enemy god or wall it touches. Entrapped gods are crippled, rooted, and have reduced Attack Speed. Vines then spawn from the Entrapped target that seek nearby enemy gods. Upon finding an enemy god it binds them, crippling them and preventing them from moving away. Entrapping Vines are destroyed if hit by 5 Basic Attacks, ending all effects.

Grasp of Death is one of the best mage team fight ultimates in the game. This ability can cripple and semi root, 1 to 5 people for 5s and deal damage. If enemies without CC Immunity or Beads are caught in this ultimate, they are mostly guaranteed dead if Persephone is able to land an entire army of Harvest plants and Bone Rush. Using this ultimate you should always try aiming for a target that you can guarantee hitting considering it's range is big enough to trap additional players.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Pros:
  • Endless amount of damage output with Harvest.
  • Long range damage with Bone Rush and Harvest flowers.
  • High sustain in late game with Harvest skulls healing you 90-120 for each skull.
  • Grasp of Death can be a team fight determining utimate due to its CC and AoE CC.
  • Extremely good laning pressure.
    .
    .
    .
Cons:
  • Flourish can help her activate a large amount of plants at once but it leaves you with no means of escape at the cost of being aggressive.
  • Her damage is very hard to confirm and requires an extend period of time spent perfecting your usage of her abilities.
  • Persephone needs to basic attack her Harvest plants to activate them which can put you in an awkward position.
  • Poor objective secure

Playstyle

Laning:

Persephone can be a highly aggressive goddess, and can dominate the mid lane through her Harvest plants and her teamfight ultimate Grasp of Death. She isn't afraid for fighting enemies. During laning don't hesitate in pressuring the enemy mid and support if you have your relics or your ultimate as you will have enough peel for yourself to kill them before they will have a chance to kill you.

Persephone should always look to apply her Harvest Sprouts to deal damage and slow enemies to give her flowers a considerably greater chance of hitting its bite dealing massive damage.


Team Fight:

During team fights you can either be spending time as a backline focused mage, peeling off enemy tanks and jungles off yourself and your ADC or looking to deal damage to the enemy adc and mid, considering your extremely long range you are free to choose to simultaneously juggle both at the same time.

Your ultimate Grasp of Death will in some scenarios be the best team fight ultimate on your team and you should always try to look for trapping as many enemies as possible ensuring its full potential is being expended. This ultimate can burn beads and apply anti heal and other debuffs in a large area. If you have built 30-40% CDR you shouldn't be afraid of using it every time it comes off your Cooldown as you will easily have it up for the next fight or maybe even get to use it a second time during a slow team fight.

Tips & Tricks

  • Seeds that are used to plant Harvestskulls is affected by Cooldown reduction and will increase your seed generation exponentially. This includes passive cooldown reductions like Spear of Desolation and Chronos' Pendant.

  • Persephone can abuse the travel time of her basic attacks to activate a Sprout instantly when placed if it's timed correctly.

  • Harvest is best used on Instant Cast to rapidly place an exponential amount of plants in a short amount time.

  • Activating a Sprout will apply a slow giving your flowers a considerably greater chance of hitting its bite on the slowed enemy. Always look to activate Sprouts when the enemy mid is looking to clear minion wave and activate your flowers to deal even more heavier damage.

Conclusion

Persephone can be a very strong god if in the right hands. She can deal large amounts of damage while also providing a lot of team fight presence. Harvest is undoubtedly what makes her damage so strong and should always be levelled to ensure you're dealing maximum possible damage, people who tell you otherwise just don't fathom the damage It brings over Bone Rush.

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1
Sparkler110 | July 17, 2021 6:43am
I made an account just so I could comment on this build.

I LOVE persephone. This build is crazy. I can pretty much destroy and never die.

Thank you so much for sharing this!!
1
Sunbro Kev | June 26, 2021 12:02pm
Very in depth, great reasoning. Very advanced build, I get why others don't understand it. This is OP.
0
Kriega1 (143) | February 11, 2021 7:13am
I’d mention Reaver as a boots replacement. I don’t get why you would ever get Doom Orb as a Boots replacement.
1
Iinux | February 11, 2021 8:04am
Reaver isn't really a viable option unless you're playing against a heavily focused tank composition which in this meta isn't really going to happen that much making the obsolete rather obsolete with its low power and overall performance being outclassed by other items. Doom Orb was however an error on my part, meant to be Staff of Myrddin.
0
Kriega1 (143) | February 11, 2021 8:16am
I mean, Reaver is good dps against all targets, just best against tanks (which you may as well optimise your build later towards dealing with as you can burst squishies late anyway), and Perse is one of the better users of Reaver considering how she can spam her plants.
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1
Draisaitl (7) | November 10, 2020 11:56am
Nice to see you keeping this updated and continuing to expand it with more info. I still have to agree with what Kriega said with Spear of Desolation being core, I genuinely think that you just get more value out of Spear of the Magus and that's if you don't need Divine Ruin in which case I'd skip it altogether. But I see your point, you like CDR. Not saying your opinion is wrong, just giving my two cents on it.

Anyways, the main reason I'm commenting again is on the pros/cons section. You have weak objective secure under her cons, but I find this to be the exact opposite. You can still help do damage on objectives with Harvest stage 2 and Bone Rush. Just leave 3-4 seeds for when the objective is almost dead and use Flourish to detonate them all as stage 2 and I find that her secure is actually pretty solid (particularly in the late game when your damage is really online). It's no Vulcan or Poseidon secure but when I think of weak objective secure, I think of gods like Merlin, not Persephone. Would like to hear your thoughts on this.
1
Iinux | November 15, 2020 2:31pm
Yeah, I might be biased in that case.

Why she has weak objective secure is simply because of the low burst it has compared to a Release The Kraken! and Earthshaker and it requires you to set it up in advance which also hinders you from dealing damage to it before hand. In a scenario where you are 3 people (Or a time where your ADC isn't nearby) and you can't afford to wait with your plants. It's really just awkward as her to secure an objective which isn't to say that she can't but more that she is worse at it compared to a lot of the mages who are considered good at securing it hence my description of her.
1
Draisaitl (7) | October 15, 2020 6:54pm
Guide was a nice read and the builds seem decent. I personally wouldn't say CDR is "crucial" for Persephone like it is for some other gods. Just having the 20% between Mage's Blessing and Shoes of Focus will typically be enough to get you through the early/mid game without issue. Though I have to agree that CDR is nice on her. I always like to pick up a Chronos' Pendant later on, opting usually for Doom Orb earlier but that's just personal preference.

I'm curious though, why do you level Harvest at Level 1 before Bone Rush? If you leave the base quickly, you have enough time to use Bone Rush to get a seed planted at speed and 3 in lane. Then you use the plant's damage on top of Bone Rush and I rarely get outcleared this way.

EDIT: I also think you should level Flourish at Level 3 always. It helps with clear as well as gives you an option for both safety and aggression. Waiting until Level 4 seems like a bit of a waste.
1
Kriega1 (143) | October 16, 2020 2:22am
Also I don’t think you have to max CDR on Perse (though I do usually get at least 20%), and neither Chronos’ or Deso are core on her (though both good options, but rarely are you going to get Deso over Divine or Magus early). And if going Chronos’ early on her I would prefer Magi Shoes.
1
Iinux | October 16, 2020 2:42am
Read my notes and my comments on why Chronos' Pendant and Spear of Desolation is core.
If you're going to max Harvest and be as effective with your plants as possible it's highly recommended to increase her seed generation by building CDR. If you want to use her Flourish as often as possible with her plants and as a means of escape CDR is also greatly favoured in this case. Her ultimate, perhaps one of the best mage team fight ultimates should be used as often as possible (CDR is great in this scenario as well) as this will help Persephone engage and setup for her other abilities which will guarantee most of the time a kill. Her Harvest damage is only bloated if you expend a large amounts of plants consistently which is only possible with a high amount of CDR.
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1
Kriega1 (143) | October 16, 2020 2:19am
You can start with the 2 like seen here (I prefer starting the 1 though):
1
Iinux | October 16, 2020 12:45am
Not sure if you've read my notes on it or not but why CDR is crucial for Persephone is solely because her Harvest seeds generation, think of it as Yemoja's Omi, she gains more Omi from building CDR, and in the late game Harvest is her main damage source and what makes her bloated overall. This generation is also benefitted from the Cooldown reduction passives from Chronos' Pendant which basically gives you a seed every time the passive is triggered and the same is applied for Spear of Desolation hence why those items are so favourably looked upon from my perspective.

I level Harvest because it simply outclears, brings you versatility with cc and pushing capabilities giving her at level 1 a better chance to gain pressure and possibly even a kill.

About Flourish, that was a mistake on my part, it's suppose to levelled at level 3. Thanks for pointing that out.

Hope I answered your questions and thank you for the feedback! :)
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