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Horus, the Support with a Hint of Jungling

12 1 44,841
9.1
by AtomicPie525 updated March 6, 2020

Smite God: Horus

Build Guide Discussion 31 More Guides
Choose a Build: Support
Support Jungle
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Horus Build

Out of base

Notes Generally with Horus I find an even mix of health and mana potions to be the best. You have health potions up until the point that you geth your 3, where mana potions can take the lead in keeeping you alive. With this philosopy it is key that you level your 3 for the second time once you hit level 4.

Notes

Generally with Horus I find an even mix of health and mana potions to be the best. You have health potions up until the point that you geth your 3, where mana potions can take the lead in keeeping you alive. With this philosopy it is key that you level your 3 for the second time once you hit level 4.

Build Item Guardian's Blessing Guardian's Blessing
Build Item Boots Boots
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion

Core

Notes I don't like saying that you have 4 core items, but unless you've got a team with practically 0 basic attack damage Shogun's Kusari is a valuable asset. As a support, I often find that these are my most common items.

Notes

I don't like saying that you have 4 core items, but unless you've got a team with practically 0 basic attack damage Shogun's Kusari is a valuable asset. As a support, I often find that these are my most common items.

Build Item Gauntlet of Thebes Gauntlet of Thebes
Build Item Sovereignty Sovereignty
Build Item Shogun's Kusari Shogun's Kusari
Build Item Pridwen Pridwen

Reasons Horus is better than guardians

Notes I don't know how many times I've been playing guardians and not been able to buy Ancile against a Bacchus, Cerberus, etc. As for runic and void shield, they do have magical counterparts, but I find these ones to be better for whatever reason.

Notes

I don't know how many times I've been playing guardians and not been able to buy Ancile against a Bacchus, Cerberus, etc. As for runic and void shield, they do have magical counterparts, but I find these ones to be better for whatever reason.

Build Item Void Shield Void Shield
Build Item Runic Shield Runic Shield
Build Item Ancile Ancile

Physical defense

Notes While they are nerfing Hide of the Nemean Lion's passive for season 7, it will still be a powerhouse for physical defense, and the passive will still be more useful than the 20% CDR on Breastplate of Valor.

Notes

While they are nerfing Hide of the Nemean Lion's passive for season 7, it will still be a powerhouse for physical defense, and the passive will still be more useful than the 20% CDR on Breastplate of Valor.

Build Item Contagion Contagion
Build Item Hide of the Nemean Lion Hide of the Nemean Lion
Build Item Void Shield Void Shield
Build Item Midgardian Mail Midgardian Mail

Magical Defense

Notes Genji's Guard and Pestilence serve as great full tank items while Ancile and runic shield are great bruiser items with equally great passives.

Notes

Genji's Guard and Pestilence serve as great full tank items while Ancile and runic shield are great bruiser items with equally great passives.

Build Item Genji's Guard Genji's Guard
Build Item Pestilence Pestilence
Build Item Ancile Ancile
Build Item Runic Shield Runic Shield

Other items

Notes So glad I can Finally get a healing item on Horus. Other than that you have your split defense items and utility items.

Notes

So glad I can Finally get a healing item on Horus. Other than that you have your split defense items and utility items.

Build Item Caduceus Club Caduceus Club
Build Item Spirit Robe Spirit Robe
Build Item Mantle of Discord Mantle of Discord
Build Item Relic Dagger Relic Dagger
Build Item Witchblade Witchblade
Build Item Winged Blade Winged Blade
Build Item Magi's Cloak Magi's Cloak
Build Item Shifter's Shield Shifter's Shield
Build Item Brawler's Beat Stick Brawler's Beat Stick

Relics

Build Item Blink Rune Blink Rune
Build Item Magic Shell Magic Shell
Build Item Heavenly Wings Heavenly Wings
Build Item Cloak of Meditation Cloak of Meditation

Full Build

Notes This is set up in a way that you would sell Warrior Tabi for Void Shield at the end of the game. Aside from that this is generally a build that will do ya well. Good protections all around, great healing with Cad Shield, and respectable damage.

Notes

This is set up in a way that you would sell Warrior Tabi for Void Shield at the end of the game. Aside from that this is generally a build that will do ya well. Good protections all around, great healing with Cad Shield, and respectable damage.

Build Item Warrior Tabi Warrior Tabi
Build Item Gauntlet of Thebes Gauntlet of Thebes
Build Item Sovereignty Sovereignty
Build Item Shogun's Kusari Shogun's Kusari
Build Item Pridwen Pridwen
Build Item Caduceus Club Caduceus Club
Build Item Void Shield Void Shield

Horus's Skill Order

Updraft

1 X Y
Updraft
1 6 8 11 12

Fracture

2 A B
Fracture
2 15 16 18 19

Protector's Surge

3 B A
Protector's Surge
3 4 7 10 14

To The Skies!

4 Y X
To The Skies!
5 9 13 17 20
Updraft
1 6 8 11 12

Updraft

1 X
Horus uses his wings to create an updraft around himself, knocking nearby enemies into the air.

Using the currents from the updraft, Horus' next Basic Attack within 5s will create a gust of wind that travels forward, damaging enemies and slowing them for 2.5s. This attack cannot crit. Enemies that are knocked up when hit take bonus damage.

Ability Type: Circle, Knockup, Damage
Damage: 50 / 95 / 140 / 185 / 230 (+75% of your Physical Power)
Gust Damage: 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 + 100% of your Basic Attack Damage
Gust Bonus Damage: 1.5x
Gust Slow: 25%
Radius: 12
Cost: 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75
Cooldown: 14 / 13.5 / 13 / 12.5 / 12s
Fracture
2 15 16 18 19

Fracture

2 A
Horus dashes forward a short distance, ready to strike with his weapon. If Horus hits a god he stops and stuns the god for 1.25s. He will then wind up a heavy cleave. Enemies hit have their Protections reduced for 3s.

Ability Type: Line, Dash, Damage
Dash Damage: 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 170 (+30% of your Physical Power)
Cleave Damage: 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 (+50% of your Physical Power)
Protection Reduction: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30
Range: 40
Cost: 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75
Cooldown: 15 / 14.5 / 14 / 13.5 / 13s
Protector's Surge
3 4 7 10 14

Protector's Surge

3 B
Horus rushes to the aid of an ally. After selecting an ally, Horus will leap to their location before descending. Upon landing, the selected ally and all nearby allies have their health restored and gain protections for 3s.

Ability Type: Leap
Heal: 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160
Protection Buff: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30
Range: 60
Cost: 45
Cooldown: 13s
To The Skies!
5 9 13 17 20

To The Skies!

4 Y
Horus sends a mirror image of himself into the sky that scouts for a location to fly to. Upon selecting a ground location, Horus will begin to channel for 2s. Allies near Horus after these 2 seconds are flown to the location Horus' image chose. Horus and his allies land with such force, enemies take damage and are knocked away from the landing location. Horus and his allies at the landing location gain a protective shield for 4s.

Ability Type: Circle, Buff, Damage
Damage: 150 / 250 / 350 / 450 / 550 (+80% of your Physical Power)
Shield: 160 / 240 / 320 / 400 / 480
Radius: 20
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 100s

Horus Threats

Tap each threat level to view Horus’s threats

Max
3
Major
5
Even
6
Minor
6
Tiny
1

Introduction

My goal with this guide is to educate people not one what to build, but on how to build. It is my firm belief that rising smite players need to know how to build if they want to see any progress in their abilities.

To this end, it helps knowing how protections work. Its through a relatively simple mathematical formula: 100/(100+X) where X is your protections. If you have 100 protections it reads 100/(100+100) or 1/2. You take 1/2 damage from attacks. 200 protections yields 1/3 damage taken. 300 protections yields 1/4 damage taken. This being said, come season 7 with percentage pen taking place of nearly all magical flat pen, it may not be worth building any more than 200 protections when you can instead build damage to just retaliate better. We shall see in a couple of days. Information about protections and many other mechanics in the game can be found in The Word of Thoth. Very useful if you are looking to get better at the game fundamentally.

Pros and cons

Pros:
Fantastic single target Crowd Control
Respectable damage without power
Insane damage with full power
High mobility
Provides team mobility with ultimate ability
Is bird-man


Cons:
Extremely susceptible to cripples
Main escape requires an ally or minion to be nearby
Can be killed while targeting ultimate
Ultimate can be hard to use without good communication
Low area Crowd Control

Items

There is always the possibility that a good item has slipped under my radar, if you think I've missed anything crucial, please let me know!

Core Items

Simply put, these are the items I find myself building almost every game. They are going to do you well in nearly every situation and you really can't go wrong with buying them

Gauntlet of Thebes doesn't do anything special for you or your team, but it sure does give you the ability to take a hit. With 60 of each protection and 275 health, it is a defensive powerhouse once you get it stacked, which is really easy to do you can get it online early. Even the, it is still worth building 4th item or so just to have the defensive stats.

Sovereignty was all around, a good grab for supports in season 6. Going into season 7 it is getting a buff to its aura, which I am definitely not complaining about when I say it probably didn't need it. Giving an aura of Hp5 might not seem like much at first, but when you take a look at how much it actually gives, 35 in season 7, you are getting 7 health per second. Suppose you and your team are engaged in a long team-fight, everybody is just poking at the enemy for a while, but health is being lost. That 7 health per second can add up. After just a minute and a half you will have recived 630 health from the aura on this alone, not counting natural Hp5. On top of that it also grants a small boost to your allies physical protections. It is hard to go wrong with sov, especially since it is one of your physical protection powerhouses.

Shogun's Kusari is an item that my buddies and I have always felt is a fantastic item, and I am actually really surprised to see that it is getting a buff into season 7. It provides top tier magical protections, Mp5, CDR, CCR, and a fantastic aura increasing allied attack speed. Some teams benefit from this more than others, but I always find that it helps out a lot if not just for your own attack speed. Being a warrior, Horus' basic attacks can actually hit for a decent amount, so it is definitely worth having it. If your team really doesn't use basics much, it may be worth grabbing Genji's Guard instead.

Pridwen is pretty decent if not just for the moderate protections and CDR. I am unsure if you gain extra shield when you ult with Pridwen as both your ultimate and the item grant a Shield. Regardless its not bad, and the extra damage and slow from the blast can be really nice too. So much so as it has secured kills in the past. As it's passive can be better utilized on other gods that perhaps have more oppurtinites to use their ult, it may be a better idea to opt into a Mantle of Discord instead for increased protections as well as its really nice passive.

Reasons it's great to be a warrior

physical characters generally have better bruiser items than magical characters these days. To this extent, I am often glad that I can pick these up as Horus as they work quite well in the right spots

Void Shield is overall just a good item. You get respectable health, power and physical protections as well as aura protection shred that your allies can use as well. It might not be the best super-tank item, but it will sure help out a lot and also make you deal more damage. Going into season 7, it is important to note that the 20 flat penetration on this item has been converted into 15% protection shred. It's pretty good

Runic Shield isn't one tht I build often, but it can be one of the best ways to counter magical ADCs since Hide of the Nemean Lion doesn't seem to do anything to them, and its getting nerfed pretty good. Much like void shield, this item provides respectable health, power, and protection bonuses. One key difference is that this item is magical protections versus physical. It also has the added bonus of reducing nearby enemies magical power by 50. That doen't really sound like a lot, but when you are getting shredded by a sol/olorun/freya, every little bit helps

Ancile is probably my favorite thing about Horus being a warrior instead of a guardian. The ability to silence channeled magical abilities is fantastic against many guardians such as Bacchus, Cerberus, or ares. Generally the channeled abilities can do a LOT of damage so cancelling the early proves to be super helpful. On top of that you get respectable health, magical protections, and 10% CDR to boot. Overall a good item to grab agains gods with channeled abilities.


Physical Defense

Physical defense can be a little hard to come by, as many items only have 50 or fewer on them, but they'll come with extra passives that help out in the right spot.

Contagion. Despite providing great physical protections, decent health, mana, and Mp5, the main focus of this item is allowing for a support to get anti-heal. The 25% anti-heal aura can prove really helpful against teams with healing gods, especially when you don't need the magical protections provided by Pestilence.

Hide of the Nemean Lion is receiving a pretty big nerf to its passive going into season 7. Having the reflected damage reduced from 25% down to 15% it may not prove extremely useful, but it still holds onto 70 physical protections as well as some decent mana and Mp5

Void Shield. As mentioned before, it gives you all around respectable damage alongside respectable defenses.

Midgardian Mail is somewhat situational due to the fairly low amount of protections and passive that only helps counter basic attack based gods, but it does have 300 health to accompany those 40 physical protections. It's passive also counters basic attack based gods very well stacking up to 3 times for a 24% movement and attack speed slow. If needed this can also be combined with the debuff from witchblade to really punish those basic attack based gods.

Magical Defense

I often find magical protections a little easier to come by than physical protections. It just feels like there are better items providing magical protections than physical protections to me.

Genji's Guard is not an item I can often find room in my build for due to other great items, but it can really be a powerhouse for magical defense as well as CDR. It is definitely more effective against teams with 3 or more magical gods due to the way its passive works. On top of all the defenses and CDR, it will also cure any mana problems you may have had with 40 Mp5.

Pestilence is one that I often don't buy since they added contagion as a good physical defense item, but sometimes you do need more magical protections. When you do need a lot of magical protections, this is they way to go with the single highest amount on any item. The 200 health and anti-heal aura is also really nice to have for the team

Ancile. Despite its great passive and good power, this item also provides 50 magical protections with is respectable enough and worth a pickup in the right situations. It should be noted that if the passive wont be silencing anything, it may be more useful to pick up a runic shield instead

Runic Shield. You've got power, you've got protections, you take away the enemies magical power. All around, pretty useful bruiser item

Other items

While there are your obvious items with good protections and other supportive effects, there are also many other items that can help you turn the tides of a fight. Most of these items have their own special effects that prosper in the right situations.
Caduceus Shield


Extra defenses

Caduceus Shield is an item that I am very happy to have in the game. As a healer, Horus should not be underestimated by any means. A burst of 250 health late game can be a lot of extra damage to absorb, perhaps even life-saving for you or an ally. While the ability does scale in healing, it is only 10% so even with full power you would be luck to see a heal for 300. The additional 25% healing from this item could prove extremely useful turning your heal for 250 into a heal for 312.5, a very respectable increase. On top of that it provides moderate protections for you as well as a fair amount of power.

Spirit Robe... Honestly, I would like to see spirit robe around a bit more. It certainly has its uses. I feel going further into season 7 its passive percentage mitigations could make it more useful than some other defensive items but for now it is generally outclassed unless you are against a team with a LOT of hard CC.

Mantle of Discord is another item that I would like to be able to grab more, but is often outclassed. Based on raw protections and CDR alone it is a decent item, but not 2900 gold decent. The passive is one that I have seen save lives many a time. Nevertheless, I often find myself going for more utility based items over this one. Has it's uses but is generally unnecessary in my experience.

Utility

Relic Dagger. Ya ever just really wanted to blink, but its on cooldown for another 30 seconds? Annoyed that your stun is on a, like, 10 second cooldown but your blink is on a 120 second cooldown? Do I have the item for you! While blink on Horus isnt as devastating as guardians like Geb, Ares, or Cerberus, it really allows you to close the distance on that one enemy god that you need to not move for a few seconds. The ability to use your relics 30 seconds sooner everytime is a fantastic thing. I'm partial to blink, but I can't sell it short for your other relics like an upgraded magic shell. It can be life-saving for your team.

Counter building

Witchblade is definitely situational, but I do enjoy having it. Especially with the nerf to Hide of the Nemean lion, this is going to be one of your best counters to basic attack gods. On top of its useful aura, it gives you quite a lot of health, along with CDR, move-speed, and attack-speed. While I buy the item for its aura, one of my favorite parts is the attack speed boost. Especially if you grab Shogun's kusari, you will start hitting fairly fast. It all adds up, especially being a warrior.

Winged Blade is one that I often don't find room for in my build, but I do keep my eye on it. It is particularly good against teams with a lot of slows, particularly from ultimates, I.E. cupid. Slows are often not what are going to kill you as a horus, but cripples sure will. Watch out for cupid in particular because of the cripple on his ultimate. Grabbing winged blade will, in most situations, allow you to get out of the field and continue to aid your team with healing and stuns. Highly situational, but invaluable in the right situation

Magi's Cloak. Honestly, I haven't bought this item since it had a cooldown of 45 seconds. It's been a while... I have been seeing it around more and I get the concept, just in most situations It really isn't useful. It serves its purpose best against teams that don't have much in ways to proc it. This is because if they have a lot of hard CC they can just hit you with a less valuable one before bring out the big boy CC into play. The only situation I consider building it more than a spirit robe is against an Ao Kuang. It just makes it really hard for him to use his ultimate on you. That's about it. Seems good on paper, doesn't work out in my experience.

Situational damage

Shifter's Shield is a good item to pick up later in the game while you are ahead. While you are above 75% health it will give you a lot of extra power to play around with. With the base power and the passive you get up to 70 physical power, which should increase your damage output a fair amount. Alternatively, when your health gets lower, the passive will trigger and you will be left with only 35 power, but you'll have 50 physical and 35 magical protections to help keep you alive just that much better

Brawler's Beat Stick is very situational and should only be bought in the right situations. That said, I should probably define the situation that this would help out. First off, you need to be in a spot where you can afford to not build protections. This item will not help you take any more hits from the enemy, but can still prove useful. Second, you need to actually be able to use the anti-heal. While it will help in most situations, anti-heal is best used against healer mages/guardians or warriors with their insane sustain. If you can afford to not have extra protections from your last item, the extra anti-heal could end up helping your team in the long run.

An insight on building

As a support, you're going to be staring danger in the face all the time. As such, it is important to know what to build so you don't just get beaten down before you can even think about initiating a fight.

Starting out

The first few minutes of the game can be crucial. You don't have your any items yet, and minions do a LOT of damage if they target you. Enter Guardian's Blessing. There are 2 key purposes for getting Guardian's Blessing. Number 1: Hp5. The Hp5 you get from this blessing is invaluable early game. It allows you to take extra fire from gods and minions. That being said, 7 Hp5 really isn't anything to write home about so you still can't go all in taking all the aggro from the minions early on, so you still have to watch yourself. Number 2: Gold. As a support, you have a predisposition to sharing farm that means you get less money. Less money is less than bueno as somebody who knows a very limited amount of Spanish might say. Guardian's Blessing helps counter this by giving you an extra 4 gold every 5 seconds. Basically, in conquest, you gain 3 gold every time your gold increases passively. With Guardian's Blessing you will get 4 gold every time, thus increasing your passive gold gain by 33%, its a nice boost, and you really need it.

Guardian's Blessing isn't the only thing that you are going to take out of the fountain with you for the first time. Personally, I like to get your tier 1 boots. Realistically, as a tier 1 item, they don't do anything for you, but they are relatively cheap and allow you to get a plethora of potions. It also allows fro some flexibility in what your first item is going to be. Some games go better than others and you can stay in lane until you get 2300-2400 gold, allowing you to get your full Gauntlet of Thebes all at once. Other games, you only get to take 1100 gold back home to get Warrior Tabi online, either way, it sets you up pretty good going into lane after that

Second item

Your second item a relatively simple choice, basically its either gonna be finish boots or finish Guantlet of Thebes. It's real, real simple.

Third item

At this point, you are kindly greeted with a few different paths you can take. Basically, the way I look at is based on what protections you need. You've either been getting beaten up by something in particular, or you've not really been in the situation where you've had to worry about it too much. Should you be taking a lot of damage, you need to pinpoint where it's coming from. Under most circumstances, you'll be looking at the enemy support or ADC for who is doing the most damage to you, but sometimes you will only ever be taking damage from their Jungler or mid-laner because they won't leave you alone. The point is, build against what is killing you If you need physical protections, grab Sovereignty. Should you need magical protections, Get Shogun's Kusari. Sometimes, you're just overall doing pretty well and you can buy Caduceus Shield and mess around with you new ability to be more aggressive with increased healing.

Fourth Item

Generally speaking by the time you get your fourth item, you either know what you need pretty good, or you are lacking in one type of protections. It hasn't been uncommon that I build Caduceus Shield as my third item recently. Should you follow in my footsteps there, you are at an even split with your protections. so you are given another branching path for items to grab.

If it's physical protections you're after, its never a bad idea to look towards Sovereignty for both its protections and the invaluable Hp5 aura in extended team-fights. In other cases, you may opt to protect your team by killing the enemy. If that were to be your choice, Void Shield wouldn't be a bad idea.

Perhaps it's more magical protections you need and your team would probably enjoy a 25% extra attack speed. Shogun's Kusari is a great pickup, especially with its extra 10% CDR. Maybe you're fighting against a Bacchus who has been having a blast burping on all of your friends? Say no more, Ancile has your back.

There are other times where CDR speaks louder than protections so you could grab Pridwen and have some drastic changes to your effectiveness that way.

Last items

At this point, you may be noticing a theme. That theme continues, but gets a slight twist. Continues thinking about the type of protections that will keep you alive, but also keep in mind that you may not need any more protections, but rather a little bit of damage is in order, should that be the case, Shifter's Shield would be a great pickup for you. Perhaps a Brawler's if you need that anti-heal

My last piece of advice as far as building is to play around with some items like Witchblade or Relic Dagger. They have more specific uses, but are very, very useful once you figure out what those applications are.

Relics

Most relics have their fair share of uses, While I vastly prefer some to others, I want to talk about them all, due to the nature of this guide being a support guide, but touching on jungling capabilities down further.

On support? no, absolutely not. If you choose to play Horus somewhere else, perhaps jungle, then maybe. Definitely not as a support.
I can't say its one that I get very often, but it definitely has its uses, particularly for objective pushing. Be it towers, phoenixes, titan, or fire giant, every second counts. This will help you shave off a few. It can also help you out in a team fight, but my generally unexperienced feel with it says its better for objectives.
Absolutely. I do not care where I am playing horus, I will buy blink 99% of the time. It allows you to sneak in an 1-shot an enemy if you are building damage. It allows you to catch up to an ally in need to lock down an enemy or hit them with a heal if you are playing support. 10/10, great relic. I absolutely recommend it. Side note, I also find my self building blink instead of Aegis in nearly all situations on damage characters. It just seems to be more useful as it lets you get in and out depending on your needs.
Bracer of Undoing Absolutely not as a support, maybe as a jungler. I don't generally buy it over beads or Aegis
Every so often you fill find yoruself against a team of mega-healers. I've seen teams with a Hel, Sylvanus, and Guan Yu among other self heals. In these places Cursed Ankh is almost a must-have coming from a support's perspective. As a jungler, this is probably not the item for you, especially since the idea with a horus jungle is they can't heal if they're dead.
Generally speaking, Heavenly wings is the same kind of situational as a Winged Blade. The movement speed and haste are nice bonuses, but the immunity to slows is probably its most shining quality to me, but then I play support mainly. As a jungle Horus, you don't need it in most circumstances, but the hast could help you run people down if they survive the ol' 1-2 combo.
Often times, I will opt for a Heavenly Wings before Horrific emblem, just do the the nature of a slow being able to be cleansed, Horrific certainly has its benefits, like the attack speed debuff.
This is one of your quintessential support relics. Especially once upgrade, it can help your team absorb a lot of damage in the middle of a fight. Under most situations this is what I'll grab first as a support. Generally, there is much less use for it as a jungler.
meditation cloak One of the best things about Meditation Cloak over Magic Shell is the fact that you can use it whenever. Health is not a fleeting thing like a shield is. The crucial difference that sways magic shell as the better of the two is the block stacks when upgraded, which can be invaluable late game. The mana regen is also important to note from Med Cloak
This one is extremely situational. Generally speaking it is a necessity when dealing with an Odin and can be extremely useful for other gods like Yemoja or Cabrakan. You could see some use of it against something like a Thor or Ymir, but its really not worth it with them. Generally only worth it with the Odin and the Yemoja.
As a support, you really shouldn't be buying beads as far as I am concerned. There are just better things for you to grab to help your team out. As a jungler though, absolutely you should buy beads. When you aren't a tanky character, beads is an absolute necessity.
Thorns is definitely viable on Horus, though I don't build it much. Its best use when using your ult in the middle of an active battlefield. You will often take a lot of damage there because the enemy won't be too fond of whatever it is you're about to do generally. Alternatively, you can always pop it when the enemy carry is beating you down to reflect as much damage as possible back to them.
No.
Teleport Glyph Realistically you can play Horus solo, but I'm not here to talk about that. Other than that you generally have better options to help out your team more effectively
Considering you have it anyway and it isn't a permanent decision like the others, I cannot stress more that you should use it. Wards are extremely useful and a free one every 2 minutes is a great addition to your arsenal. Generally speaking, I like to Get chalice of the Oracle as soon as I feasibly can. Once that is done, this isn't the most useful anymore.

When it comes down to it, your core relics are going to be Blink Rune, Magic Shell, Heavenly Wings, and meditation cloak if you're a support. When I run Horus as a Jungler I almost always have a Blink Rune, Purification Beads combo. It doesn't deviate much

Abilities and Combos

Resolute
Effects: Horus' passive grants stacks of 1.5 protections, 1.5% CCR and when the effect wears off, 2+0.75 per level healing.

My Thoughts:Horus's passive is a jack of all trades, master of none type thing. Of the 3 things it does, none of them are anything to write home about, but together they can be fairly useful. Due to the nature of this passive stacking each time Horus takes damage, it helps more in battles with multiple enemies or against gods with damage over time. Now for what it actually gives you at a full 10 stacks. 15 protections: I mean, its nice to have around, but this won't be saving you much health in the grand scheme of things, especially since it has to get stacked before you get all 15. 15% CCR: This is actually fairly significant. It's no Unyielding but it is roughly an items worth of CCR. 20-170 Healing: While this heal is probably the thing that will notice most readily in game, it isn't going to be super helpful unless you are against a lot of small DoT damage from gods like Cernunnos, Ah Muzen Cab, or Khepri. It should be noted as well that the defensive bonuses from this passive cannot bring you over the limits you can get from items. All in all, pretty decent passive
Updraft
Usage: Close range CC, your only real AoE CC, and lots of damage.

My Thoughts:While this ability does serve as your main source of damage, it is very useful to remember that not only is it a knock up, its a big one. Knock ups are, in my opinion, the best form of CC in the game for 1 reason in particular. They aren't effected by CCR or diminishing returns and unlike banishes, which function the same way, the enemy remains targetable during most of the knock up. Some of the bigger ones like Charge Prey may not work with this, but Horus will.

There are a few things that are of key importance to note with this ability. First, the gust hits 50% harder to enemies that are knocked up. Fortunately, Horus does that himself with the first hit from the ability so unless you don't fire it immediately or you get CC'ed out of it, you are pretty much always going to do the bonus damage unless you are out of range. Second, the gust counts as a basic attack and item effects apply, save for crits. That means, though it isn't really that effective, you can stack Frostbound Hammer with the innate slow on the ability. Lastly, and perhaps more importantly is this fair warning...

WARNING: The single most annoying thing about playing Horus is that sometimes this ability will glitch, it has gotten drastically better but I still see it occasionally. What happens sometimes is that the first part will go off and the gust will cancel. I've dropped many kills from this glitch before and it is painful every time.
Fracture
Usage: This ability is your main initiation and set up ability and a functioning escape in a pinch.

My Thoughts:I would be wrong to undersell the damage on this ability just because it doesn't get as crazy high as Updraft. That said a total of 360+80% is pretty darn good. Damage numbers aside this is a fairly simple ability that
has a stun one it, but requires a bit of finess to use. This ability has a sort of windup on it, and if you have ever dashed into another CC dealing dash, you will know that certain ones take precedence over others, this one is at the bottom of that list and will be cancelled by any, even remotely hard CC. If you are having issues with this ability, I recommend you try him out in a jungle practice or custom games and try to hit moving targets where you have nothing to lose and no people to get mad at you.
Protector's Surge
Usage: Healing yourself and your allies as well as getting in or out of a fight.

My Thoughts:Personally, this is my favorite of Horus's abilities. It allows you to have some high sustain in lane and even into late game. Should you heal all 5 of your team members at once you will be healing for 1250 once it is at max level, and that is assuming you have no power and haven't bought Caduceus Shield. As a healer, Horus cannot be underestimated. This is also the best escape you have in a rough situation, especially since it is considered a jump and can therefore go over walls. One thing that you absolutely need to keep in mind with this ability is that you cannot dash without an allied god or minion. One of those is more reliable than the other, especially when they realize that they are like 1 foot too far away from you and can get back. If you are having issues, it may be worth trying to party up with some people are just use the in game chat to get your allies closer to you.
To the Skies!
Usage: Initiation from a distance with your team, getting your team out of sticky wickets, or backdooring objectives with your allies.

My Thoughts:Of all the gods I have played and taken a linking to, Horus probably has the most difficult ultimate to figure out how to use effectively. Seemingly, the most obvious is a full team dropship onto an objective of sorts. Maybe a backdoor on titan or a fight over the fire giant. In reality, this is unlikely. As someone who has also played as the teammate of a Horus, a stray Horus ulting near you is a sketchy prospect if you don't know where its going. As such, there are two decent ways to use your horus ult. I'll go in depth on this ability below.

To the Skies!, In-depth advice




Alright, Here's how you give the ole Razzle Dazzle.

\
-\_
---->
-/
/


As a Horus, this is your quintessential combo. It can be performed without blink or an ultimate, but its better with them. Let it be known too that an Awilix can benefit greatly from Updraft.

Gameplay as a support

Laning Phase:

With the changes to the jungle near the duo lane, the way you handle yourself changes a little bit as far as your farm is concerned.

Your start these days should be to grab your purple buff right out of the gate and then hit the first wave of minions. You should be able to do it in time to not lose any xp, but if you are truly worried about it and/or are having issues you can always buy [[hand of the gods[[, though I must say that I never do. After you hit the first wave things go on fairly normal. You can hit your elder harpy or apply pressure the the enemy purple buff if they decided to start with the first wave. Depending on who is winning lane will dictate if you are really going out to get the elder harpies in the nearby jungle. If you are really ahead you can keep the momentum by taking the enemy elder harpy and purple regularly, but just know that you are asking to be ganked by the enemy.

As for Horus and how he works, Horus is a dominant force in lane, most supports only have 1 hard CC outside of their ultimate. Horus has 2, and they do a lotta damage. In lane, if Horus stuns you, chances are good that you lose well over half of your health. Once you get accustomed to exactly how fracture works, you will be in a fantastic spot to set up your carry for easy kills.

Aside from being a high damage CC bot for your carry, Horus is really good for supportive needs too. This is why I believe you should level up his heal a second time at level 4. Mostly, for the fact that the healing doubles in strength from 50 to 100. Once you have it at level 2, the healing beomes really good for keeping not only you and your carry alive, but also your minions. It's not crazy good or anything, but you can heal your minions. It helps a little bit... sometimes. The more important part of that you can heal minions is that you can use your 3 to dash to them if you are the only god in lane. That really helps a lot.


Rotations:

Generally speaking, I like laning as long as possible, but that is not to say I won't go over to mid and help out there, especially if the enemy support has decided that it is time to stop laning. Generally I won't stray so far as the solo lane unless I'm positive my carry won't need me (and we can actually do something over there.) I find in most situations that I am just trying to make sure that my mid and carry aren't getting pushed too hard, helping out where ever I am needed most. Don't be afraid to use your ult to move around faster when you are rotating as going in is one of two options feasible in that situation. You can either use it to get yourself in the fight or save it to try and get your allies out.


Late game:

Horus doesn't bring as much to team fights as some other supports, but he cannot be discounted in his own effectiveness. His ability to lock down single/closely grouped targets can prove invaluable, but perhaps even more than that the healing and ultimate. I went more in depth on the ultimate above, but it can really help your team if you use it effectively. Play around with it and get a feel for it. While in fights take advantage of the fact that you can rush into the enemy and disrupt whatever they are doing and immediately fly back out to heal yourself and your allies.

Warding

Unfortunately, I don't have a map (Or honestly, the know how of how to make one) so I'll do my best to describe the locations

I do have this though


In lane there are primarily going to be 2 places to ward, the entrances to your lane closes to the purple buff. This is not a ward that you can just casually place from lane however. There is a certain spot you can put it that will reach both the wall by the purple buff as well as the outer wall of the gold fury pit. If you place it here, any gank that doesn't involve going over walls will be seen before the enemy can get their claws on you.

Outside of your lane you will still want to be warding. If you are in mid there are generally 4 places to be warding. Those being in the jungle directly adjacent to the towers. Just place your ward deep enough in the jungle that it catches some of the intersection walls in the jungle so you can see a gank from as far away as possible.

Additionally you should be warding around fire-giant and gold fury as they are going to be contested objectives and you want to know if the enemy is there. Obviously this will start to be a real thing once the objectives spawn and, in the case of the fire-giant, it will likely not be contested much until the 15-20 minute mark, in my experience.

Finally there are a couple more places to be warding depending on if you are pushing the enemy titan or defending your own. Directly between the phoenixes there is a thick wall with a 3 way intersection in the jungle. Getting a ward in these spots will grant a lot of helpful vision. This is especially true when defending a phoenix as you can see if an enemy splits off the pack to try and backdoor your phoenix..

Gameplay as a Jungler

[spoiler= A brief guide to a full damage horus0
Naturally, the game is different when playing Jungle vs support. I play a much simpler rendition of Horus when I play Jungle. Its simple really: Do whatever the normal start for junglers is, hit level 2, blink on the mid-laner and look for a kill. If you can get an early kill out of this you should be set to go take your camps and just keep farming. If you do it right, you should snowball out of control and be able to practically one shot anybody you come across save for the support or solo. Just, uhh.. be careful and try not to get behind and you should be all set. Also know that your major power spikes will come when you get Crusher, Transcendence, and Hydras Lament. From there you just get more power and its all nice, but nothing huge.

It is important to know where your damage really comes from. That being said, fracture hurts pretty bad, but the true damage comes from updraft. On top of your basic attack damage it adds 50 extra damage and then increases that by 50%. You already have a lot of damage there, but it counts as a basic attack right? Unfortunately HiRez was smart enough to not enable critical hits with this ability, but you can still proc Hydra's Lament. All that said and done, I have seen the gust alone hit for 1000 damage. You may not be able to get there anymore due to the 10% nerf on Hyrda's passive, but damage will still be insane.
[/spoiler]

Conclusion

Thats about that for now, going into season 7, if I can find the time between classes, I'll keep this rolling with the updates as I can tell what's going on.

If y'all have anything to say, please do let me know, I would love to have some feedback.

Huge shoutout to Branmuffin17 for the coding used in the abilities table, I definitely would not have figured that out by myself. And thanks to all those in the comments as well, I appreciate all the feedback!

Maybe you're like me and like egyptian supports, not sure what it is, but they're all my favorites. Only one up to date is Geb. Feel free to check it out!

Thanks for checking out my Guide!

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1
AtomicPie525 (5) | February 26, 2020 12:29pm
I've gotta give credit where its due, right now the table I am using on the abilities tab is basically carbon copy from that of Branmuffin17, but with different colors and content. I'd like to edit it more so that it is more something of my own, but the entire section of code is lost when I go into the editor so that is not exactly possible. I don't dare edit the guide to try and figure out what is going on in lieu of the contest, I don't really want all the information in that section lost as I don't have time to redo the whole thing with College and whatnot.

If anyone passing through has seen this issue and knows what's up, please let me know.


The issue has been resolved thanks to the mods doing whatever it is that they had to do. Minor as the adjustments may be, I have been able to go back in and customize the table to be a bit more of my own creation
1
boogiebass (46) | February 15, 2020 8:31pm
Is horus still a bad pick for jg?
1
Kriega1 (143) | February 16, 2020 10:01am
Horus jungle was never a thing.
1
AtomicPie525 (5) | February 16, 2020 10:05am
It's mostly a fun thing you can run in casuals. Which is why I don't go very in depth on it. Horus can practically 1-shot a mage or a carry provided he doesn't get CC'd to death.
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1
AtomicPie525 (5) | February 16, 2020 9:56am
I don't think he's a bad pick, but he will definitely be outperformed by some actual assassins (namely the busted ones like Thor). That and, in my experience, if you get behind it can be hard to get back up where you need to be. The only recent change that would really get him is the Hydra's nerf, but I don't think the 10% from that is going to stop you from being able to dive a backline god and get back out.

Edit: I should note that I haven't actually done too much Horus jungle since the Hydra's Nerf.
1
boogiebass (46) | February 11, 2020 10:40am
I don't think shifters and crusher have a place in a support build.
1
AtomicPie525 (5) | February 11, 2020 10:49am
I can definitely agree with Shifter's not really being in its place here, but as far as getting something for physical protections outside of Void shield and sovereignty it seems to fit the bill? I suppose you don't really need it because you could opt for something like a Mantle of Discord or a Spirit robe.

As for crusher, it is incredibly situational is is basically intended for pick up if and only if you are dominating the enemy and as a last item. When you don't need the protections in your game it does help out. I might take it off the main item builder, but still discuss it down below with the other items for that reason.
1
xmysterionz (71) | February 11, 2020 10:58am
Funny but I would say that your example fits better for shifters than crusher
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1
boogiebass (46) | February 11, 2020 10:58am
If you need just physical defense, there are other items that fit the bill better than shifter (you listed some of them like contagion).

Midgardian mail is a really good one, especially when combined with witchblade.

Regarding crusher, if you're dominating and want damage, just get something like brawler's beat stick. It has functionality for the whole team
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1
ISK Hughey | February 7, 2020 1:03pm
Great guide!! Very well done!!
1
Gulfwulf (81) | January 30, 2020 8:01pm
I see tier 1 Boots, but I don't see what you build them into.
1
AtomicPie525 (5) | January 31, 2020 2:01pm
Obviously that is because I couldn't put Midas' Boots in since they've been gone for the length of 5 seasons now. Definitely not because I forgot to put that stuff in... Definitely not that.
1
Gulfwulf (81) | January 31, 2020 2:50pm
Uh-huh. :P
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