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Sands of Time
Magic Focus
Healing Potion
Mana Potion
Shoes of Focus
Spear of Desolation
Charon's Coin
Staff of Myrddin
The Alternate Timeline
Rod of Tahuti
Genji's Guard
Spear of Desolation
Charon's Coin
Staff of Myrddin
The Alternate Timeline
Rod of Tahuti
Staff of Myrddin lategame.
Sell boots for Staff of Myrddin lategame.
Shoes of Focus
Rod of Tahuti
Divine Ruin
Soul Gem
Gem of Focus
Obsidian Shard
Y
B
A
X
Tap each threat level to view Hera’s threats
This is a build I have had lots of success within both conquest and other game modes such as clash.
Hera is a mage that deals most of her damage through Argus, the Defender. Hera on her own is strong as well but does lack a proper escape ability, which makes her quite vulnerable. However, Hera does have something else to defend herself that currently no other mages have aside from 
Eset. It is her ability to shield herself. The only flipslide is that Hera needs to use her shield Divine Shroud to make the most out of Argus, the Defender.
This build will make make Hera into a very disruptive and sustained mage. By having full CDR + the effects from Spear of Desolation and Staff of Myrddin your abilties will be up a lot especially during team fights. With Staff of Myrddin you will be able to chase gods very effectively with Argus.
Pros
WIP
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2. This isn’t even updated for Season 8, of course it’s not going to be optimal.
If you want some defenses, why not pick-up hybrid items?
And for the most matches, the enemy team will have 2 sources of magical damage, the mid and the support. The support can dive you, but he won't deal that much damage. And the enemy mid will focus on your frontline, so I don't see a reason to get magical defense unless their jungler is a mage.
As Kriega said,
Also, Poly is really bad on Hera.
Edit: A build example.
Edit: The difference between Focus and Magi in a Thoth build is 2 power.
Edit:
Your suggested build has
Poly is bad on Hera because? I find it to be extremely useful in this build. You basically gain an extra damage ability. Hera has
I do, however, advocate that Poly gets replaced by something else. Why? Because
Take
Also, Poly is taking the slot of your %pen item in the build (Either
And yes,
Also you are missing the fact that
This builds main weakness are heavy tanks which is also stated in my pros and cons.
- Slow amount: Hera's
Polymorph CCs does have a slow but it's 20%. Kukulkan's 
Zephyr is 20-40% depending on rank. As such, at the point he's picking up Poly, it's likely to be over 20% meaning he'll have an easier time hitting a follow-up basic.
Gem of Isolation: This is another functional item for Kukulkan (not saying you always pick it up). Adding a slow into his 
Whirlwind is another way to more easily confirm a Poly proc.
- Range: Kukulkan's range on his 1 is standard basic attack range, I believe (55 units). This means any time he uses it, he should be in general range for a basic as well. Hera, on the other hand, has extended range on her 2. I'm not saying she won't be in range for a basic after use, as she can also use this ability for some self peel, but as she'll also use this for poke, the enemy might be out of range. Inconsistent function with her 2, then.
- Knockup: Hera's ult has knockup, yes, which would make it very easy to confirm a Poly proc. But you'll also be casting this at distance sometimes so follow-up isn't assured.
- Power &
Book of Thoth: Kukulkan is the biggest user of this specifically due to his passive interaction with total mana. Although pretty much all mages can appreciate having a practically unlimited mana pool, his use makes the most sense. That power boost is also why it makes sense to get Poly on him, since Poly's passive damage boost relies on power. Interaction with Hera isn't particularly synergistic.
- Damage Potential via penetration: Your build examples contain 1 flat pen item and...situationally only, one % pen item (
Soul Reaver), which is only 10%. You DO state your build isn't strong against tanks, but I'd argue your build choices are also handicapping your damage against squishy gods. The one flat pen item is fine (2 is better but balancing build is also important), but you really should consider building a bit more pen. Keep in mind, even Soul Reaver's damage potential is magical damage (not true), which means more pen from other items will also help Reaver's damage.
I think having a Poly build is fine, and your own take on a build for Hera, and seeing success with it, is great.Additionally, although Urchin provides mana which will help with Thoth's power contribution, it's only 7.5 power. Building a pure protection item is going to cut into Poly's damage potential.
I do think the build does need some further considerations, however. It's just lacking too many things and the synergy you're building into her isn't fully compatible with her kit. I'm sure the survivability is pretty amazing though.
That said, I would agree with others that that build direction
However, I don't think you have tried the build out yet. This build is not a powerhouse build. But it is a build to survive longer. If you want to build full power and pen that comes with the price that you will be very very squishy. Lategame it is very frustrating to be squishy and every death can cost you the game (late game).
I have tested this build many times and it doesn't feel like I am lacking damage when I play with it. Argus damage is something not to be underestimated. Hera just has to survive in order to keep argus up as much as possible. I do not agree with "hurting the builds damage potential vs squishies" with only one flat pen item. It really is enough and please consider trying it out.
I'm not saying this is the one and only way to build
One thing I didn't mention is that I do plan to try this out just to get a feel for it. But understand that you 100% are nerfing her damage potential against squishies. It's basically straightforward in that regard due to lack of pen in general, and that you're building some protections instead of damage. That's just straight numbers.
The flipside is that you can't do damage if you're dead, and this is sort of what you're pushing. I think part of her optimal playstyle is still trying for as much damage as possible, and part of that has to do with teammates (out of your control), your positioning, awareness of others players' positioning (your teammates and the enemies), and the situation and which abilities have been used so it's safer for you to go in deeper. Optimally, as a damaging mage you want to try to build as few defensive items as possible. I think this is a safe build for newer and average players.
Your suggested build has
Actually Magi Shoes has mana which can work with book of thoth passive, though I also do think Focus Shoes makes more sense.
On the original build from the Author, Focus is clearly the superior option.
Of course it's not the same as Bancroft's for teamfights, but for the laning phase it helps.
1) mana AND health
2) Physical AND magical protections
3) Its passive which fits the theme of this build.
4) its not expensive.
5) Breastplate is limited to only physical protections. Its not bad
In this build urchin is a core item. This build is meant to be more beafy and less squishy, but not to the point where you deal lots and lots less damage.
Honestly, try this build out and tell me what you think.
The results of my test was that % pen does affects argus damage. On a 250 prot target of lvl 20 argus hit for:
with cdr boots and
with cdr boots and soul reavr it hit for 22 and iirc 30. shroud hit for 10 (10% pen. Should have dealt reduced damage with your statement. It does not proc soul reaver passive on any of those.)
before you ask this is because the items give different power then hover over the items and you will see both give 110 power.
when I tested this by adding
% pen hit for 34 and 64 shroud hit 13
15 flat pen for 17 and 27 shroud hit for 11
thereby I declare your statement false % pen works just fine.
Also I think I would consider grabbing
I used
My question for you is, have u tested the soulreaver with the full build? if so then the damage increase would be cause of the mana power conversion from
Right now My damage from
30 ; with
29 ; with
Grabbing
So in conclusion, you might be right about the %penetration statement I made is statistically not correct, but this is only the case if protections are in the 250 range, which is very unlikely.
I will edit the statement I made in my build though.
250 is a lot and I mostly picked it as I was testing if percentage pen would work (making anything below 150 with 10% pen (which also hits 15) harder to see clear differences). Also not that uncommon. supports easily hit it and most solo laners can easily hit around 200 prot (or more commonly above 175 prot), unless they focus a lot on damage and therefore losing their ability to frontline.
I used
My question for you is, have u tested the
Right now My damage from
30 ; with
29 ; with
Also flat pen will always outperform % pen when targeting squishies as they usually won't hit 75+ (considering you're picking up a 20% pen item). They do stack though so grabbing both is never bad.
Grabbing
My reasoning was more that usually in teamfights you're either going to be bursted by an assassin or slowly whittled down by their solo laner. So the stun and cc immunity would be pretty usefull.
So in conclusion, you might be right about the %penetration statement I made is statistically not correct, but this is only the case if protections are in the 250 range, which is very unlikely.
I will edit the statement I made in my build though.
(y)
1. Any competent support player will reach 250 prots in a game. Thebes + Sov + Heartward + Spirit Robe will give you around 220 prots each, and this is a pretty common build path for supports. So no, it's not unlikely to face a target with 250 prots.
2.
That's why
In the same sense, that's why hunters get
Well that usually and sometimes the enemy jungler as well. Also if the enemy team is running any weird picks like Set ADC.
That's why
In the same sense, that's why hunters get
You are both right and wrong, it depends on your team comp and what kind of mage you play. Not all mages are good at bursting down tanks. I think melting tanks is mainly the role of a Hunter.
And don't forget that non-tank characters also have inate prots, and they increase per level. Also, a support with auras will make squishies less squishy, so %pen is always a good idea.
Also, double flat pen is the "meta" build for mages this season: