Little Feat: Vamana Guide (S7)

Greetings fellow users of Smitefire, Stuke here with a new guide. In this new installment of my warrior series, I'll be looking at the most humble, underestimated, and smallest Avatar of Vishnu, Vamana.
Note: you don't have to follow this guide to the smallest detail, these are suggestions on how to play Vamana. I encourage you to look at the comment section below and see other suggestions.

Vamana is a physical melee warrior that is great at being a counter to other physical gods thanks to his passive Sleeping Giant as a chunk of his power comes from his physical protection. Extremely well in the solo lane, Vamana is the most underrated warrior in Smite. As usual underrated doesn't mean bad, and Vamana can do some serious damage.

• High Defense
• Good Sustain
• Decent Damage
• The King of Stalemates

• Slow in Colossal Form.
• Problem against anti-heals, protection reduction, and penetration.
• Only form of sustain comes from his ultimate.

This passive is unique as the more hits you take during your ultimate, the longer it lasts. Also, the more physical protection you get, the more powerful you become. When playing Vamana takes full advantage of this passive and uses it properly.
It's your standard dash and knock-up ability. Not much to this ability, but it can be used to catch up to your target, run away, or create confusion in a team fight.
Your standard cone-shaped attack; it might seem like his abilities are straight-forward, but when they are used in conjunction with his other abilities they can surely do some damage.
This is what puts Vamana in the solo, this ability is a great lane clear and since it has a double-tap effect it can make clearing the lane when at higher levels a lot easier. this ability also has a slow effect when you hit an enemy with it.
This is where Vamana shines, his ultimate makes him a giant, and his protection and power increase for the duration. His basic attack also turns into AoE damage.

Vamana's itemization is heavily reliant on his kit, specifically his passive and his abilities to support his basic based playstyle. Protections (specifically physical), power, and movement speed to help keep up with an enemy that tries to run away. Here is a selection of items that can synergize with Vamana that could be a nice addition to your build.

While for most basic-attack warriors they would want to take Frostbound Hammer but for Vamana getting Hastened Katana works better since you want to go faster instead of making the enemy slower.

• Build Dependency
  His passive, Sleeping Giant, gives him more power the more physical protections you have so you need to build him accordingly to not only get the passive to go off but to be able to take on any opponent whether they be physical or magical.
  
• Get Big
  While Vamana has good ability damage, the best way to take care of an enemy god and or tower, use your ultimate Colossal Fury for your main form of aggression as you gain a significant boost in protection, power, and even get a Health per Second that is perfect for when you want to make a big push in your lane or team fight.
  
• Slow Down or Speed Up
  While in his Giant Form, Vamana cannot use his abilities or relics. So, before you pop your ult, you need to find a way to either keep you fast or slow your target down to keep applying more and more damage. The best options are to either: hit them with your abilities to get close the gap or use your Heavenly Wings or Horrific Emblem relics.
  
• Simplicity is the most Complex
  While Vamana’s abilities seem simple in design, his kit is very complex as you got to know which ability to use at the right time and combo them properly to get the most out of it.

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Want to do quick damage or long term control, it's up to you for the situation. I'd recommend you get Hastened Katana before using Combo 2 more often so you can keep up with your target.
Slowing down and smacking around any enemy gods or minions during the laning phase will be your standard combo while clearing or damaging combo during a fight.
Combinging Combo 1 and 2 with the addition of your ultimate to keep up the pressure as well as becoming a absolute tank your yourself and you teammates.

During this stage of the game, you need to wait it out as Vamana is a Late Game god and his abilities, protections, and basic damage are low at this point but is great at being a problem as his Stalemate Game is very strong throughout the game.
This isn't the part where Vamana is his best yet but now you can deal enough to take out an opponent or tower.
Vamana shines the brightest in this stage as he is now a serious threat when he becomes a giant and can tank about everything the enemy team tries to throw at him.

To sum up it up, Vamana is a great god that not many even consider running mostly because not many know how to play him. Proven to be a great threat in the lane and team fights, Vamana can be a deciding factor of winning or losing the game if he can pull off his kit and build correctly. Always remember to build up with your excellent stalemate potential, catch the opponent out when they get fed up with you, and finish them off with your ult. Playing Vamana takes patience, but it will all work out in the end with massive punishment to the enemy.