Honorable Hel

About the Author
Greetings fellow dieties, I am Krymson and, to be honest, I wanted to give guide creation a whirl here on SmiteFire. This guide was created by me, but the format was heavily inspired by jhoijhoi of the MobaFire community.

Why play Hel?
Hel is a ranged magic champion that excels in a support or mage role. Her greatest strength is her flexibility to heal and support allies and then switch to a debuffing damage dealer that is able to clear creep waves with relative ease.

What will this guide cover?
This guide will cover gameplay, item choices, and some additional tips for whether you're playing mid or helping in a side lane.

Last edited:
2013-03-28

As with all champions, Hel has both impressive strengths and exploitable weaknesses.

Pros Able to play the role of a mage or support healer Starts with her ultimate ability Able to provide immunity to crowd control effects Great sustainability 8 different abilities at level 3!

Cons Naturally squishy No game-changing ultimate ability Suffers from multiple personality disorder No escapes 8 different abilities at level 3!

Dark Stance / Light Stance (Passive)
Indicates Dark or Light stance
Technically does nothing other than indicate whether Hel is in Light Stance or Dark Stance. All the passive bonuses are conveyed by the ultimate ability

Repulse / Inspire
Point blank area of effect ability used to either damage nearby enemies (Repulse) or heal nearby allies (Inspire)
The most frequently used button in a Hel's arsenal. This ability is equal parts able to clear minion waves, inflict grievous damage upon enemy gods, or heal yourself and/or allies. Max this first!
Decay / Restoration
Projectile nuke that inflicts damage and either inflicts AE damage (Decay) or heals Hel (Restoration)
A fantastic poke ability that is able to inflict splash damage upon nearby gods or minions. I don't tend to use the light variant of this unless I've already exhaused Decay and Repulse or I need to prioritize a self heal. The dark abilities simply inflict more damage. Max it second if you're in a solo lane or last if you're supporting a lane.
Hinder / Cleanse
A non-damaging ability that is used to snare and magically debuff enemies in an area of effect (Hinder) or purge any crowd control effects and provide a temporary crowd control immunity (Cleanse).
This is a powerful utility ability that can be used to chase, debuff, or protect yourself and your allies from a multitude of pesky abilities. While this does not wholesale remove the need for Prayer Beads, it does reduces their usefulness against many of the gods. Max it last if you're in a solo lane and max it second if you're supporting a lane.
Switch Stances
This is the ability that makes Hel who she is. It is granted at level 1 and determines which active abilities and passive abilities are active.
Used to switch between Light and Dark stances. This is what determines whether you see Decay, Hinder, and Repulse or Inspire, Cleanse, and Inspiration on your ability bar. Grants a passive advantage based upon stance. This gives Hel a massive sustainability bonus in early game by switching to Light Stance when not actively using any Dark Stance abilities.

Hel is quite vulnerable to being locked down and ganked as it is abysmally difficult to whittle her down. As such, she benefits greatly from increased mobility and being able to escape stuns, snares, roots, and pulls. It may be worth looking at the following ability items to shore up these weaknesses:

SPRINTSprint
Movement speed increase and a soft crowd control breaker!
This is the more flexible choice for crowd control reduction as it gives you a boost of movement speed to either chase or flee as needed. Unfortunately it doesn't have the all-encompassing catch-all granted by Purification Beads

Purification Beads
All-in-one crowd control break and prevention!
Nothing gets you out of a jam quite like these! Frozen? Stunned? Rooted? No problem! Their only downsides are an unusually long cooldown time and their very focused nature. If the enemy team is ignoring you, these are just taking up space.
Aegis Amulet
Damage prevention in a can
While not the anti-Ares item that it used to be, this item is a great way to nullify almost any burst damage ultimate. The downside is that you are unable to move for the duration (which can get you focused) and that it has an unusually long cooldown.

Boots of the Magi - While Reinforced BootsREINFORCED BOOTS are viable, I prefer to start with the Boots of the Magi rank 1 and a Circlet of Focus. I feel the extra survivability you gain for the flat HP from the Shroud outweighs the HP5 and eventual Resolve bonus from Reinforced. You also get some extra magic power to help with pushing and trading damage with other gods.
Void Stone - Combines magic power with some magic defense and rounds it out with pseudo-magic penetration for nearby enemies.
Polynomicon - Unfortunately this no longer works with your Change Stance ability, but you still have 6 abilities at your disposal that you can use to trigger the bonus basic attack damage.
Rod of Tahuti - Expensive! After a few +Magic Power items, this becomes the largest +Magic Power boost you can get.
Book of Thoth - Once you get this far it's time to consider defensive items. If you're fed or don't need the physical protection, get this. Otherwise, skip it or pick it up later.
Breastplate of Valor - Great for picking up some survivability against physical, it has the added bonus of granting a lot more mana and granting cooldown reduction for your abilities. Lets you click buttons more faster!

This concludes my first ever SmiteFire guide. Hopefully this has helped at least one person gain some insight on playing my favorite god in the Smite pantheon, Hel.
In no way do I consider this guide to be complete. God vs. God strategies, improved item builds, and Stat/Altar upgrade paths if/when they ever come back.

I have a lot to learn still and would greatly appreciate any and all feedback or tips on both this guide and on playing Hel. Thanks much, and I'll see you in game!

2013-03-28
Updated purchase order.
Updated broken passive icon.
Updated item breakdown to account for changed purchase order.
Fixed a typo in the Conclusion.