Loki - The One-Hit Wonder

early in the morning?

Loki is, as you probably know yourself, the newest god in SMITE and as well the first dedicated 'ASSASSIN' character as well. Loki can create a large burst, has one of the best init ultimates... and totally lacks any sort of defense.
If you use Loki, you can crash HARD, feeding the enemy and constantly dieing. And as with all gank-specialists: If they go underlevel'd, that's the game for you. Even more so for Loki because he's not exactly a teamfight specialist either.

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Where to go?

For Loki, there aren't many options:
His creep farming skills are horrid and unless you run Meditation, he's entirely unsuited for mid lane. As well he can't go for full jungling, because he doesn't have the sustain to do so (It's possible, but requires you to constantly have blue AND green... which won't happen often).
Accordingly, Loki's only position is a dual lane with occasional jungle trips.
I strongly recommend to pair him up with a good lanepusher. Burst mages work best, if they got a stun it's even better (Agni, Anubis).

The start doesn't need to be commented, it's simple and obvious.
Mana Potion for right lane, Healing Potion for left (opposing your own buff camp).

Why Jotunn's Wrath? Simple: Every build needs a CD item. Loki's speciality is burst, which requires raw physical power. There is no CD item which gives physical power AND CD, but Jotunn. ADDITIONALLY you get an increased mana pool. Which is perfect for Loki, given his mana-hungry playstyle.
Getting Jotunn's Wrath second will vastly increase your sustain midgame and even lategame.

Obviously, after that you get The Executioner, as it's the best dps item there is (next to crit-ones).

For the last three items, your best bet is to check the enemy builds. I quite always recommend Qin's Blades as 4th item.
If you feel like the enemys are often running from you, grab Frostbound Hammer. It will as well give you some health (which is always good to compensate your squishyness with).
Voidblade will give you some protection against other DDs, whilst increasing your damage noticeably, Deathbringer is obviously raw power, whilst Titan's Bane will help against a tanky team.

1. PASSIVE - Behind You!

   
   You think this ability gives you awesome backstabbing capabilities? No.
   In this game, 'backstabbing' will cause the enemy to turn around if he didn't already. It doesn't work that way well (unless the enemy is REALLY inattentious).
   However, there are two important aspects to this passive:
   First off, you can use the damage boost to increase your damage against minions whilst they're brawling with your own minions. Of course this leaves you back-to-enemy-gods, so you better not to do this if they're in range to attack you.
   Secondly, this passive increases you damage against FLEEING gods. Do you realize fleeing enemys are running and facing away from you? 20% dmg boost, assuming you got the slows to keep them down.
   

2. 1 - Vanish

   
   This skill will be your main escape mechanism. And whilst it gives you OMG invisibility and 50% more speed, added with an immunity to slows... it still doesn't prevent any damage, does not permit you to pass obstacles (though you can run through minions/enemys) and as well will be counteres by any sort of stun (and yes, a good anubis WILL stun you after vanishing, occasionally).
   If possible, ALWAYS keep this skill on CD and save it for escape maneuvers. Using it to increase your burst damage is a bad idea, as (in this build) it won't deal much damage till late midgame.
   Alternatively, this skill can be used to 'close a gap', but keep in mind this will leave you highly vulnerable (and if you use this to initiate, be ready to run through a hell lot of AoE).
   If you want to use Vanish to get rid of enemys, wait with it's use (if applyable) until you reach a crossing of any sort. Vanishing here means the enemy will be forced to pick a random path in an attempt to chase you. Use your enemys aggression against him: Take the most direct path to your nearest tower. If you reach a crossing, launch Vanish, THEN (important to start turning AFTER vanishing) turn around and run past the enemy. It's important to leave the enemys field of view before Vanish cedes. CB and you should usually be safe.
   An important note: The first basic attack after vanish will use up it's bleed-effect, regardless of whether you hit or not. Aim well if you ever use Vanish for offense.
   

3. 2 - Decoy

   
   This IS an AoE, but it has a quite high delay and not exactly much damage. Don't try to use it as your casual AoE-skill, it won't work.
   Decoy can, however, be a great utility tool with quite a few uses:
   Most obvious use; drop it onto the range minions of a wave, watch the melee minions run back and hit the whole wave with low damage. This works even better if you use this to make pushing minions run back and forth inside of your tower's range.
   As well you can use decoy to damage pushing enemys by luring minions out of your tower again, causing the tower to target the hero (combine this with your ultimate's stun for an eventual kill).
   This ability will as well help you a lot in early jungle camps. Drop it BEHIND the jungle minions, it will draw three seconds of DPS and expose the minions back to you, giving you 20% more damage (and the damage from decoy itself).
   Additionally, you can use the decoy to lose minion aggro, f.e. if you need to pass by a group of enemy minions or want to burst down an enemy close to them without loosing a lot of hp due to the minions.
   Do NOT use this ability for creep farming until it's on rank 4 (and call ranged oneshot) OR you got manabuff and too much mana.
   

4. 3 - Aimed Strike

   
   This will be this build's main damaging skill. Don't underestimate it's burst potential, it's often capable of taking down 40-50% of the enemy hp. AND slow them.
   It as well has a quite low mana cost (50mp), which should make you use this skill whenever possible instead of others.
   Use it to slow and damage enemy gods who are close to your minions and far of their own. Use it on a jungle buff carrier to reduce the time you need to kill it.
   Chain it into your ultimate combo for raw damage output.
   Sidenote: Aimed Strike's damage buff (opposing to Vanish) will only be consumed if your attacks connect (or the 5s run out). Don't worry if you miss once.
   

5. ULT - Assassinate

   
   Loki's ultimate fits him well. It's an instant, teleporting, burst damage + stun skillshot, which will instantly bring you into melee range (even behind the enemy, which will add a few points of damage via passive).
   As well, however, it's the single most powerful escape mechanism SMITE has to offer. Do NOT hesitate to use your ult to instantly warp out of a dangerous situation. Better ult down then Loki down.
   There are a few interesting things to note about it, though:
   Your ultimate is near-instat, it DOES have a short windup of about 0.5 seconds though. This is not enough time for an enemy to dodge the attack per se, but it matters when you're using your ult to escape. Don't waste to the last moment, it's annoying (and lethal) to be stunned whilst performing the ult animation.
   Your ultimate is a AoE, no matter what it tells you. Whether bug or intentional, it will stun ALL enemys in the (small) radius. Even more amusing, if you miss the enemy, but he walks into the AoE during your ult animation (~0.5 seconds after teleport) he will be stunned as well (though he doesn't seem to take damage). Don't rely on either of these effects, though.

And no, it's not 'hitting all keys at once'.
You CAN intiate with 1-3, but keep in mind you will be open to stuns whilst attacking the target. And Loki usually doesn't survive focus longer then 2-3 seconds. Initiating this way will often cause either both your target AND you to die (bad) or forces you to bail out by using your ult, eventually surviving (since your target survived as well, that's not much better).

Instead, use 3 first. Only engage if you can hit the enemy with 3. This can either be by means of someone else initiating (stun from a mage f.e.) or by sneaking up behind the enemy.
After dealing 3+a few autoattacks, the enemy will react. Most often, this means he will pop his escape-move or a CC.
If your enemy has a stun, instantly use Vanish and back off after hitting him with Aimed Strike. Most enemies WILL throw the stun around in an attempt to hit you. Sometimes you will have to abort here and just run off. F.e. if Artemis dropped her boar (which will not stun you whilst your invisible, but afterwards). Still a success, you traded some mana vs tons of damage (and maybe even wasted an enemy ult).
If your enemy does not have much CC, but an escape move, instead dont back off, but run towards his tower. In most cases he will dash right into you. If so, punch him some more. If not, start running after him. Wait until 3 is off cooldown (did I mention it's cooldown is LOW). Pop 3, ult the enemy, apply 3 by using your free first attacks on the stunned enemy.
If he isn't dead by yet, you either picked the wrong (overleveld or tanky) target or are horribly underleveld.

NEVER attack head-on into a group of enemies. However, if there's a low-hp (as in REALLY low hp, 30% or les) target in the enemy group, preferably at it's back, you can try to onehit it with 3, then use Vanish (or, if necessary, your ult) to make a quick escape. Just ensure noone saw you before (aka, flank them via jungle and strike from behind) or you will die, regardless whether you killed your target or not.

Since you're running HoG, whenever it's on 10 sec or off cooldown, use VVVJ VVB and dash off to the nearest adequae jungle camp. Exspecially green and blue are important to loki (early game) to compensate his squishyness and the mp-hungry playstyle.

To kill a camp, simply run in, drop your decoy BEHIND the buff leader, hit HoG and then keep attacking the leader. In case of ogre's, you can drop Aimed Strike onto him to speed things up (watch your mana consume, though).
Try to never use Vanish against the camp itself.
Junglers are VERY easy targets whilst clearing camps. And Loki is quishy. Loki in camp = food.
When you see an enemy engaging during your camp, hit vanish and run off. This will automatically de-aggro the camp, resetting it's hp. Use your ult if necessary to escape.
Though often you can just use Vanish to run around a corner, wait two seconds, then rush back in and steal the buff with your Aimed Strike (or HoG), before ulting off (or killing the enemy, depends on his level, god, hp).

Lokis is an excellent Counter-Jungler as well. If you predict someone to be grabbing a camp, get into range (usually this equals hearing range). If you know it'S somebody who can't outright kill/stun you, drop vanish, run into the camp and use HoG/Aimed Strike to steal the buff, then attack the (hopefully low hp) enemy.
It's fun to steal a low-hp enemy's green or a low-mp enemy's blue and then proceed killing them.

Early game

Grab the starting itemset and communicate with your team about your position. Left or right, Loki can play both.
Assuming you're left, move over to the blue camp and call left lanemate and (if he got the time) mid laner to guard blue (and get free exp). Kill the minions with decoy & hoG (to minimize damage).
Then go to the lane and CONSTANTLY SPAM decoy (until your mana buff expires) to get more pushing power. If an enemy places himself to far forward, punish him with Aimed Strike and INSTANTLY back off again (drop vanish to avoid minion dmg if necessary). Keep in mind your HP are STRICTLY limited, whilst you can freely waste mana on everything.
If you're right, grab the right camp, preferably guarded by your right lanemate. Do only use autoattack and HoG, dont waste mana.
For the laning itself, do not use decoy at all (unless you really need to distract minions) but instead melee the enemy minions down, always in cover of your own minions (watch for AoE specialists or lanemages). If you take too much damage, fall back for a dozen seconds to recover hp.
Punish enemy gods trying to attack you with Aimed Strike as you would on left lane, though try to avoid using vanish unless necessary (eats mana).

After HoG is online again, you can either grab a buff from the outer lane or sneak along the jungle to grab the enemy (green/blue) buff. Latter is of course not applyable if the enemy grabbes his already. If you go for a camp in outer jungle, ensure the enemy is not trying to gank you there. May grabbing a sidecamp won't be feasible, in that case either use HoG on a wave of minions (+decoy to hit all of them) or dash into a jungle camp, use HoG and run off again (grabbing the money from the 2 sideminions).

Assuming the enemy did grab his buff in the beginning, it will respawn around 4:15-4:30 (depending on how fast they were. Keep in mind, buffs respawn after 4 minutes). Retreat from the lane some time BEFORE that (if you run into the jungle right when they see the buff respawning they WILL gank you. If you run off and the buff spawns 10 seconds later, they may not). Don't forget to announce VVVG VVB to your lanemate. Grab their buff via HoG (use aimed strike to speed this up), then run back to your own buffcamp and grab it as well (utilizing the mana buff you have/will have to spawn it down with aimed and decoy.

Mid game

By now things should be getting more intense, as everyone got his ultimate. If you got a squishy target on the enemy side, try to harass it (Strike-and-runoffwithvanish or your teammates abilities, that's why burst/harassmages are good here). Once it's hp drops sufficiently, attack them with your teammate's ult (if applyable, depends on teammate's god) and finish something off with your own ult. This is the best case. If necessary, don't be afraif of ulting into the jungle, before instantly CB'ing. Using Vanish before you ult can help in disguising your move direction.
Keep your HoG on cooldown, throw it preferably at camps (which should fall within ~5 seconds by now). If possible, help out your other lanes with ganks, etc, now the casual DD/Ganker midgame tips apply.

End game

By now, your burst + DPS will be able to kill everything that isn't above your level or tanky. Especially an underleveld mage is no match for you.
Use whatever combo fitting the situation to 1on1 them whenever possible. Always try to keep Vanish or your ult ready for a quick escape. Keep in mind, it's not worth to kill an (underleveld) enemy if you die yourself.
Be advised: With this build you will have A HARD TIME trying to solo GF or FG. Don't try GF before level 14+buffs / 16. Don't try FG unless you got yellow|green and level 19+. Of course you can easyly DPS either of those down (apply normal DD levels) if you got a teammate to tank it.

Don't stick as strictly to teamfights as you would usually do. Loki is a 1on1 specialist. Do never run into teamfights, always stay on some steps distance, preferably in the jungle behind the enemy. Drop in to kill a low-hp target, eventually ult something if the enemy side has already lost 2-3 of his players.

If there is no real teamfight going on, roam on the lanes, use decoy to push waves (stay out of the lane and their sight radius though. If the enemy doesn't know where you are, life's easier) and grab all buffs you come across. If you see a target you can kill and it's alone, kill it and proceed.
Loki is the one guy who's meant to push left and right whilst everyone is staring at each other in mid.

Utilizing Loki's assassin-style burst damage gameplay to it's fullest, this build will give you loads of power, combined with the casual CD item and a good chunk of health to compensate for his lack.

Pro

- Burst damage which raises to oneshots lategame
- Great finisher
- Good dueler against people without CC
- Excellent ganker/counterjungler past earlygame

Con

- Cannot initiate head-on (early+mid). Is reliant on enemy inawareness or a teammate
- Extremely prone to any sort of hard CC (Stun, Fear)
- Low health and no instant escape but his ult
- Sub-par laning early on