Love, find your mark! - A (Lovely and) Complete Guide for all modes (Y10, 10.9, WIP)

Pros

1. Easy to play
   Simple skills and mechanics that make it possible for all people (newbies or skilled players) to play with him.
   
   
2. Great Burst Damage
   The combo Heart Bomb and Fields Of Love provides a ridiculous amount of damage against a single target plus you have your basic attacks that really hurts.
   
   
3. Decent cooldowns
   They aren't low but aren't too high for what the skills offer.
   
   
4. Permanent Attack speed buff
   Your 3rd skill Flutter gives you a permanent attack speed buff even when you don't use it. Just upgrade the skill and gain attack speed.
   
   
5. High sustain in battle
   With some lifesteal, the skill Share The Love, a decent dash and some "play safe", only a really good gank or hard engage on you can kill you because the damage you take in lane can be easily restored with Share The Love and remember you can counter ganks with wards and the most of enemy engages are predictable. Also, his healing can be somehow helpful to the team during the game. If you do max cooldown (40%), you can regenerate 600 health (200 per heart) every 8 secs and you have 1885 health at maximum level, so almost 1/3 of all your health can be regenerated, but only out of combat. In assault, this is a big advantage since you are not a healer for the game even that you can heal.
   
   
6. Has a good Escape
   You have a quick dash that travels a nice distance and leave a trail to allies move faster too, keeping you safe from a good amount of threats
   
   
7. Utility God
   ( Cupid is flexible meaning you can fit him in almost ANY TEAM COMPOSITION. Due ALL HIS SKILLS provide some kind of "Buffs" to the team/"debuffs" to enemies, such as stun, slow, cripple, heal, and movement speed, he can combo with almost every character in the game letting you do AWESOME combos bringing a lot of utility compared to other hunters that usually brings a soft/hard cc and damage only.)
   
   
8. Very cute and lovely
   (The cutest voice lines and such adorable character. Also gives you love advice: "Love is a Battlefield")
   
   
9. The Cutest Cards in the game
   (His cards are the cutest in the entire game, there's no way to don't think it!)

Cons

1. Very squishy
   He dies very fast to almost everyone in the game and absolutely, any debuff can be the sentence to death to him, such a simple 1s stun.
   
   
2. Your healing isn't useful in fights
   Your heal is only powerful in mid/late game (due to its enhancement by your physical power) and if you/your teammate pick ALL the 3 hearts. If you or 3 different people get each one 1 heart they won't be able to get a good amount of healing. So, this heal only works well if all the 3 hearts are picked by the same person and only mid/late game. Now think about a very big team fight...Do you really think people would be able to stop fighting and get the hearts?... So, healing? Only out of combat, unfortunately.
   
   
3. Escape is good, but not great
   At early game is a reasonable big cooldown (16s) so you have to use it wisely to always have an escape. Also, you CAN BE STOPPED while doing your dash and without your dash, I'm almost sure you are dead. Beside it, it's not a leap and you don't become invisible or walk through walls limiting your escape potential.
   
   
4. Mesmerize effect on his ultimate is broke by damage.
   If it was a Stun, would be very good, but I think it's gonna be OP, anyway, this effect is useful only if you are alone and trying to escape from someone so you slow the target and do a mesmerizing effect gaining time to escape or if the target is far from you and you need to get closer to don't lose it (considering the target don't take any damage to wake him up, such as minions for example). Notice that if you do the item The Crusher, this effect is useless since the item passive will break it as soon as the Fields Of Love explode.
   
   
5. Only 2 damage skills
   You have only Heart Bomb and Fields Of Love to help your damage output. Yes, they hurt a lot but compared to other hunters that have even all the 4 skills doing damage, that's a problem for you.
   
   
6. Falls at late game
   Cupid only has 2 damage skills and although they have a pretty decent scaling, Cupid can't compete directly with a lot of other hunters late-game that have more damage abilities or are all focused on basics.
   
   
7. EXTREME ANNOYING VP (THE DEFAULT)
   While some of Cupid's skins have good voice packs like Bizzy B, GUTTERSNIPER, Trick or Treat, and Gadget Goblin, the standard VP is very annoying, sharp, and, most importantly, loud. So do your team a favor and use another skin, the standard voice pack, or text chat instead of VGS. They'll thank you for it.

• Try always stay at maximum stacks 'cause it enhances, even more, the damage of your skills, so put in your mind that stacks the 8 hearts is the priority before you do anything else.
  
  
• The damage/ heal that these skills will be increased are up to 16% and is calculated based on the flat damage/heal and based on the percentage of enhancement from your physical power. For example, Heart Bomb does a total of 340 + 150% of your physical power, with Lovestruck fully stacked it will do ridiculous 394 + 174% of your physical power. Observe that is increased by 16% of 180% which is almost 26%. That's the reason this must be stacked first.
  
  
• You will listen to a lovely sound and a heart (or something else in his skins like a black stone in guttersnipe) will follow you when you are fully stacked, so you won't need to look to the meter every single second.
• It's high viable doing some attack speed on him, even when you are not going to do a god based on the basic attacks, to help to stack it.
• You don't have to deal damage on your basic attack, you JUST HAVE TO HIT something and you gain the stack, so, hit jungle minions outside the range camp counts, pets, and even the medusa's stones.

• This skill is the core of Cupid. To play nice with him you will need to master this skill. Avoid miss it!!!
  
  
• Notice that the damage enhancement this skill has is up to (with the passive) 174% of your physical power, however, the base damage is ****, especially early game, so you will NEED a good amount of physical power to apply decent damage on the enemy.
  
  
• The damage of this skill will be increased by Lovestruck in (up to) 16% and is calculated based on the flat damage and based on the percentage of your phsycal power. In numbers Heart Bomb does a total of 340 + 160% of your physical power, applied in two ticks (hit/explosion). With Lovestruck fully stacked it will do 394 (340 + 16%) + 186% of your physical power (160 + 16%), notice that it is increased by 16% of 160% which is almost extra 26% of your scaling.
  
• It deals 100/160/220/280/340 (+160% of your Physical Power) damage to the target by default and 155/248/341/434/527 (+248% of your Physical Power) damage with your passive fully stacked to minions.
  
  
• Heart Bomb gives to Cupid a big burst potential since you can fire your basic attack, the Heart Bomb, and then a basic attack again very quickly (Auto reset). So, try to do this all the time and you will surprise your enemies with the damage done.
  
  
• This skill is a powerful weapon late game; you do almost the same damage from your ultimate, but it returns in twelve secs or less if you do some Cooldown Reduction Items ( Jotunn's Wrath/ Fail-Not).
• Your damage is divided into 2 ticks: 1 when you hit the target (and it applies only to the target) and the other when the heart explodes, and this explosion causes damage in an area.
• Use this to help you clear minion's waves faster. At mid/late game just this skill kills the entire minions' wave if they are grouped up.
• You can use this on a target that is running away from the battle to kill him but play safe, if you are not sure/if you miss this, stop chasing the enemy.
• Only shoot this if you are SURE you will hit the target. Remember even if you miss the skill will be put in cooldown and your stacks will be consumed.
• Try to ALWAYS stack your passive before shooting this to have more damage and a stunning effect, but don't let an enemy go away if it's not fully stacked.
• Remember that this skill will ALWAYS consume all the stacks even when it`s not fully stacked.
• The arrow has "travel time" and a maximum range, so pay attention to learn how to fire it, sometimes you will need to do a prediction to hit the target, it isn't like Hou Yi's Mark.
• Early game prefers to use your ultimate before the Heart Bomb due to the higher damage your ulti will provide in combination with Lovestruck unless you need the stun to keep the enemy inside the ulti. Late game, you always should try to hit HB instead of FOV first because the stun will be helpful, and the damage won't be that different.

• Try always use it with your passive fully charged 'cause your heal will be enhanced in 16%, that's a lot late game.
  
  
• After the healing rework on patch 10.3, this skill no longer scales with power but Hirez allowed it to stack your passive per heart you or ally pick up to compensate the nerf (what a f*cking joke).
  
  
• The heal that this skill will be increased by Lovestruck is up to 16%. In numbers Share The Love heals a total of 375 (with all 3 hearts), with Lovestruck fully stacked it will heal 435 HP. That's the reason you must stack your passive first, extra healing is extra healing.
  
  
  
• Always fire it where your teammates can see and get it.
• In assault, this is an extremely useful skill and a powerful source of healing. You heal yourself and your teammates and when heals your teammates you get mana, so it sustains you very well plus they won't have a healer there!!!
• Remember YOU ARE NOT THERE TO HEAL, YOU ARE THERE TO KILL, so don't trust too much on your heal, and say to your team do the same. You JUST HELP with this heal, but you are not a Hel or Aphrodite.
• Use this to restore your mana when you need it. Each heart restores 30 mana and the skill costs 50 so if your teammates get all hearts, you will gain 90 mana. If you have stacks from your passive, you'll regen up to 34 mana per heart totalizing 102 mana restored (you restore the mane you used and gain another skill use).
• This skill doesn't increase the cost by upgrading it nor consumes your stacks from your passive, so use it freely.
• A useful tip: You fire your hearts always forming a triangle (one in the front and to at the back) and these hearts bounces along the surfaces, so, it's smart to fire this skill near a wall then the front heart will align with one of the back hearts and you can pick both very quickly/2 at once.

• Just saying, Cupid can be interrupted while doing the dash (it isn't like Agni's Dash).
• Be careful using this 'cause Cupid WILL ALWAYS dashes forward even when you aren't moving forward (it isn't a Thoth's dash).
• This is your escape, so don't throw it like it's nothing, this skill is your only chance to survive if someone chases/engage you.
• Upgrade this skill to get a permanent attack speed buff.
• You can use this to help some teammate escape or the opposite, to help him get in the fight quickly, just like a taxi :v .
• This is the only skill of Cupid that doesn't have any connection with the passive so use it without thinking in your hearts stacked.
• You can use this to chase an enemy, just don't be suicide going into the enemy team to kill one guy.
• This skill doesn't increase the cost by upgrading it and you decrease the cooldown by 1s per level.

• This is the most powerful Cupid's Weapon 'cause everything in this skill is good (Damage, cooldown, debuffs, range, and radius) so use it wisely, especially at late game, when this skill can do/help in a Deicide (Kill the entire enemy team).
  
  
• The damage that this skill will be increased by Lovestruck is up to 16% and is calculated based on the flat damage and based on the percentage of enhancement. In numbers Fields Of Love cause a total of 520 + 100% of your physical power, with Lovestruck fully stacked will do ridiculous 603 + 116% of your physical power of damage, notice that it is increased by 16% of your base damage and the scaling. That's the reason you must stack your passive first.
  
  
• All enemies inside the range CAN'T use movement skills and if they have already used it, Fields Of Love will stop it. Examples of blocked skills: Guan Yu Warrior's Will, Tyr Fearless, Ratatoskr Dart, Awilix Feather Step, Fenrir Brutalize and Unchained and many others, so a well-timed Fields can break the enemy combo and put them in a complicated situation, but be careful, Hachiman Mounted Archery, Freya Valkyrie's Discretion, Ratatoskr Through the Cosmos, Guan Yu Cavalry Charge and many others are movement skills, but with CC immunity, so they can escape easily from your field and turn the game against you. Da Ji One Thousand Cuts ISN'T A MOVEMENT SKILL (even though it is :p), so FoL does not stop it. Also, fire it when you are near the target so you can combo with Heart Bomb and basic attacks killing almost everything that doesn't have any protections.
  
  
• Try to combo it with your Heart Bomb and you will kill almost everyone, 'cause you will slow the target in 55% (there are diminishing returns here, so it isn't real 55%), you did damage by hitting the Heart Bomb, you will do damage by the explode from the heart, will do damage by the Fields Of Love exploding and you will have stun from the heart (if you were fully stacked) and the mesmerizing effect. If all of this doesn't kill, just fire some basic attacks and it's done.
  
  
• This skill is a nice combo with Odin's Ultimate Ring of Spears, Scylla Ultimate I'm a Monster, Ares' Ultimate No Escape, Da Ji's Ultimate Paolao and a lot of others. Combining with other players' skills increases the chance of success.
  
  
• Since this ultimate slows movement speed you could use it when are getting away from an enemy chasing you to slow down them. It also applies a 1 mesme effect so the enemy will "sleep" for 1 secs and remember that only JG bosses/gods/structures can shut down this effect. So if you ulti defensively, unless the enemy has beads or the cloak, he will lose you of sight.
• Try always to fire it with the enemy at the center making it extremely hard to escape from it.
• If you fire it too much near the map limits, the circle will lose a part of it.
• I will recommend you put the Cupid skills as "instantaneous" in settings but this skill I recommend you let it in the "default" 'cause you can see the Fields before firing or at least as "quick", on your first matches of course.
• This skill WILL ALWAYS consume your hearts stacked from the passive, even when it's not full.

Heart Bomb

Share The Love

Flutter

Asi

• Fields of Love - Your 1st priority, level this up as soon as possible
  
  
• Heart Bomb - Your 2nd priority, level this up first.
  
  
• Share the Love - Your 3rd priority, level this up second.
  
  
• Flutter - Your 4th priority, level this up last.

Heart Bomb

Flutter

Share The Love

If your ultimate is down at level 9
then upgrade Heart Bomb first, if it is ready, then upgrade Fields Of Love

• Fields of Love - Your 1st priority, level this up as soon as possible
  
  
• Heart Bomb - Your 2nd priority, level this up first.
  
  
• Flutter - Your 3rd priority, level this up second.
  
  
• Share the Love - Your 4th priority, level this up last.

Share The Love

Flutter

Heart Bomb

• Share the Love (STL) - Your 1st priority, level this up above everything else.
  
  
• Fields of Love - Your 2nd priority, level this up as soon as possible after you have STL completely upgraded.
  
  
• Heart Bomb - Your 3rd priority, level this up right after STL..
  
  
• Flutter - Your 4th priority, level this last.

• The standard """combo""" you will do with Cupid. Since this is the only skill that provides damage besides his ulti, just fire it and keep hitting the enemy with basic attacks. Remember the enemy will take a slow while with the heart so it will be easier to hit him, plus this skill by itself, late game, can do almost 900 damage AFTER MITIGATIONS. Pretty easy, isn't it? Use this to clear the wave.
  
  
• If you already have Ichaival consider hit 3 basics on the wave to stack its passive gaining power then fire Heart Bomb.

• A burst combo for your Cupid. Just like Teemo in LoL can use a AA + Q + AA, you can fire a basic attack, immediately fire Heart Bomb and again a basic attack, 'cause HB recovery time is 0 secs. Use this to poke your enemy. If it is a good idea keep hitting him, else, retreat.

• This is a chasing burst combo. You noticed your enemy is trying to escape with less than half of his HP? Then use this combo to kill him, just don't be suicide :p
• If your Fields Of Love is down, then use just Flutter + Heart Bomb + basic attacks.
• If you are sure you will get the kill, don't forget to turn and don't see the explosion, 'cause cool guys don't look to the explosions 8)

• This is your burst combo. Try to take half of your enemy HP and you probably will have success with this, getting easily a kill. Don't forget to keep hitting him with basic attacks while you wait for the explosions.
• If you fire this combo at the right moment, or the enemy waste their relics to survive or they will die.

• Combo for when the enemy jumps on you. You cripple slow them and run away.

• Farming: As you probably know, farming is the most important thing in a game of conquest. At the early stages, you have a reasonably clear, so if you just have to focus clear the wave. The more you farm, the bigger you get and by getting bigger you may help your team and do your job, carry the game, as soon as possible. Start on the purple buff near your lane and GET the buff. It provides a minor protection reduction and Attack Speed, very helpful to you. Then farm your lane minions. Once you got to level 2 you may go and farm the harpies close to your lane but be careful these harpies take some time to kill and you need to clear them with your support, farm alone is a waste of HP and time. Keep farming your wave and avoid unnecessary backs to not lose the farm.
  
  
• Watch you Health and Mana closely: Watch your Health and Mana. If you are out of mana, you are an easy target because you won't have Flutter, your only escape. Don't try to force fights unless you're confident you can either kill your opponent or escape alive. If in doubt about your mana or HP, return to base. BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY!
  
  
• Be careful with the mini-gods...I mean minions: Early fights usually happen with minions around. When you attack the enemy gods, their minions turn to you and start to hit you. Be careful. Minions at the early game are almost like gods and can do more damage than the enemy gods (mainly the ranged ones) so be careful fighting around enemy minions, also you can use this tactic in your favor, trying to force the enemy to fight near your minions. Also, the wave has always priority over harpies and even your purple buff!
  
  
• Be aggressive but with moderation: Yes you can attack enemy gods and try to hurt them even though you are not an early game God. Watch your support behavior, try to use VGS to sync your behavior with his, and work together. Remember that you have a 1-sec stun on your Heart Bomb and this can be useful to you since your support probably will have another hard cc to help. Combining CCs early game may result in a kill. However be careful, you are "extremely fragile and breaks for everything!", in other words, you also die easily, so it can be too risky to be aggressive, so use your brain, be aggressive once you have cleared the wave, or when the enemy cannot avoid your attacks, you know the enemy JG/mid is not around.
  
  
• Attacking the enemy tower: Just attack the enemy tower if you have a good vision of the enemies on the map. Sometimes you might see yourself alone in the lane and you look at that tower asking to be shut down, but if you don't have any vision of the JG or enemies, don't go because it's too risky and you might get ganked and die. If you're pushing lane and hitting the tower after enemies have returned to base when the enemy comes back to the lane you can easily throw your ult down across the lane behind you to slow them down due to the mesme effect, especially if you are fully stacked...that's of course if you're not going for kills, and then you might finish your job taking down the tower.
  
  
• Wards: An important habit to play at conquest and mainly as ADC is ward. Check the ward section to where I explain the right spots to ward. Buy Wards is something extremely important and with well positioning you can run for your life even before a gank happens. Remember that people (usually) are not idiots, if they are passive and suddenly they become aggressive that means a possible gank is incoming and if you don't have any wards you won't be able to confirm it so you can miss a chance of turn the fight at your favor and punish the enemy. So, never forget wards especially at the early game where ganks are more deadly. Also, DO NOT STAND NEAR THE ENEMY TOWER YOU ARE A FREE GANK DOING THAT. Not even wards can save you sometimes if you have a bad positioning like this. Also, remember that until LVL 12 everyone has a free ward called Vision Shard
  
  
• Ganks: Gank is when you start a fight with help of a teammate surprising the enemy. Use vgs to request ganks or to cancel them. Don't let your teammate start a fight and retreat without saying anything. Usually, I would recommend you follow the ganks and help your teammates but try to get the kills, you need to get bigger :p. Use "VG3", "VG1", "VGG", "VVX" are examples of commands you might use. Also always remember to say when the enemy is missing so the JG won't waste time going there when there are only minions. Don't ask for ganks when the enemy is under the tower, early game it's too hard to dive, Retreat and let the enemy farm away from his tower then you engage.
  
  
• Positioning: About your positioning my comment is, stay behind the support whenever he is there and don't go in the middle of the wave else you will be hit by both minions when attacking the enemy. Also, don't stay too close to the enemy tower when you don't have the vision of the enemy mid and JG, else you are asking for a gank.
  
  
• Sustain: Different from other hunters you have your own sustain that is Share The Love. This skill is great because you can heal your support and yourself allowing you to apply some extra pressure on the enemy and even if you are fighting against a god that pokes a lot like Ullr, you still have enough sustain with your potions and this skill. You also gain mana every time an ally is healed by you so it is interesting to heal them if you need mana and just pick the hearts yourself if it is really needed.
  
  
• Fighting and Poking: Fight behind your support if possible and do not stay near the wave, minions will melt your HP and for the enemy turn the fight in his favor later it is extremely easy. Also, try to poke your enemy with some basic attacks and mainly the poking combo. If you are against an ADC without sustain (rushing Transcendence and no lifesteal in the kit) at this game stage you can win the lane by using this tactic. You also have a Stun on the kit that can be something REALLY powerful in the first early stages mainly if you have aggressive support.

DON'T CHASE AN ENEMY IF YOU ARE NOT SURE YOU'LL KILL, just go if you have the Heart Bomb and/or Fields Of Love and you hit the target. DON'T GO IF THE ENEMY HAVE TEAMMATES NEAR HIM or IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE THE ENEMIES ARE.

Prefer to don't try and stay alive instead of dying trying and feed the enemy. Don't forget to use your heal on your teammates to get mana!!

• Keeping up with the Farm: Just because the lane phase ended that doesn't mean you shouldn't farm anymore. Farm the neutral camps and buffs (with allies) to still getting bigger. You must not forget your farm or you will fall and won't be able to do anything.
  
  
• Staying alone at Lane: At some moment, mainly in mid and high elos you will be alone with the other ADC on your lane. Remember the poking and fighting scenario from the early game, try to poke your enemy, and then, when he is at Medium/Low HP finish him with a burst combo using your ulti. Watch out with enemy ganks, DON'T FORGET TO WARD, and if you don't have any vision of the enemies be careful, better safe than sorry. If you feel (or hear) that enemies are coming for you, retreat. DO NOT STAY "UNDER" the enemy tower facing the enemy ADC else you will be asking to die there, your lane is longer than others and your dash short. Once you took the enemy tower rotate. If it's too early like 10min then stay in the lane but keep farming and don't stay too close to the Tier 2 tower.
  
  
• Aggressive playstyle: Now it's time to become a little aggressive. Your damage scales very well now (mainly with the build I did). I recommend you start playing a little more aggressively, but not too much. Remember that your kit is not the best in the game and CANNOT save you from some hotter situations. So you can blow enemies with your combos and your ganks, mainly with the ulti so use it in your favor.
  
  
• Rotating: After you destroyed the enemy tower unless it's too early and you didn't even finish your stacks you will want to rotate, going to other lanes to help in fights and ganks or to do some objectives. Just don't forget to come back often to your lane to defend it, else the enemy will split splash (push) your lane and will destroy both towers and sometimes even the phoenix. And yes, some people are pure bots and won't rotate, that doesn't mean you also should stay there too, just mean that you need to return often to defend it ;)
  
  
• Objectives: REMEMBER THAT OBJECTIVES ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN KILLS, so it's time to start do your job, carry the game doing the objectives. This means that whenever your team starts an objective like fire giant or gold fury you must be there because from mid to late game you are the highest DPS of the team, and these objectives and structures are killed/destroyed with DPS, Basic attacks, so, help them.
  
  
• Wards: This is the time you will need to pay a lot attention. When you stay alone on your lane it means you have 0 help, so if someone ganks you, there's nobody to help you so, ward the map. Check the section "Warding" to learn how to do it.

• Farming Occasionally: Just because the match is at advanced stages that don't mean you don't need to farm. Remember that even full build you can buy potions like Elixir of Speed and Potion of Power or even Elixir of Power. So, even though you already finished your build keep getting some farm OCCASIONALLY to stay ahead of your enemy and get these consumables that can change your match. Of course, you won't leave your team to farm away from them but if you notice some EXP, buff, or minions near F A R M.
  
  
• Grouping Up: At late game, a key point to the carry is group up with your team. They do need you and you do need them. You are probably the highest DPS on the team and they really need you to destroy any remaining objective, be the constant damage on the teamfight and you also need them because you are a big glass canon walking around any engagement on you can be a sentence to death. So you help them and they help you gotcha? (In theory, of course, :p). Stay behind your team, especially your tank (support and or solo) and DO NOT walk alone or stay in the front line.
  
  
• Self Peeling: Unfortunately, you are very squishy, so YOU DIE VERY FAST at the late game for other mids, carries and some jgs so DO NOT AVOID the "self peeling". Peeling is when you basically protect a teammate to help him get a kill, if someone dives into the backline to kill you, do not avoid using your ulti on your feet or fight back, yes try to run but if you can't better die fighting than just die. You have enough CC for self peeling against most part or Gods that dives you, so use it, you won't help the teamfight if you die before it starts, so forget the TF for a moment and defend yourself. Call for help if necessary!!!!!
  
  
• Wards: Late game wards are important to know your enemy position. Don't forget especially to ward the Gold Fury AND the Fire Giant, these objectives can change the game's destiny depending on when and how they are made. You also must ward the JG so you can see enemies and maybe get a kill on someone walking randomly and then force a teamfight while they are 4 vs 5.
  
  
• Objectives: These are the priorities late game. Stop rushing for killS and start to destroy/kill objectives. Remember that you can't split splash (split push) because you don't have the highest DPS of the entire game (there are better hunters for that like Izanami) nor has a great escape to get out of there without dying so I recommend you group up with your team and rush objectives together.
  
  
• Late game Teamfights: This is where you shine, teamfights. Your ulti really hurts and can easily force relics from enemies to your team attack. While fighting, focus always on a single target, preferentially the squishes first, and then tanks, and don't forget to run for your life if someone dives you.

• You MUST play safe and aggressive only when you finished killing enemy minions or when your support is tanking it for you because you can't heal yourself neither has your escape. Wait for your support start fights for you and focus preferentially the enemy carry.
• To better clear your lane you may fire Heart Bomb on the back minions and focus them because they do more damage, are easier to kill, and hit you immediately when starting a fight with other gods while the melee ones need to get closer of you to hit you and deal less damage. Just be careful to expose yourself too much 'cause to do this you will need to get very close to the wave.
• Another tip is, if possible, to fire basic attacks before the enemy wave meets your wave so the front minions will get very closer to the back ones and 1 Heart Bomb can deal damage to the entire wave helping the clear.
• Start clearing your purple buff and pick it. The AS and extra pen worth. You may let your support pick it if he is a Ymir or Sylvanus because they might do a better job with it in the first minutes.
• Pokes really hurt you so avoid them.
• Focus on the minion wave, it's the most important thing at early game, mainly at level 1,2,3...Remember minions do a lot of damage at early game and tank a good amount of damage and you don't even have a good clear, so I think you can imagine how this is bad for you if you try to fight vs your enemy with minions around.
• Once you clear firstly the enemy wave, always try to poke him, with basic attacks or Heart Bomb, but be careful to don't call attention of his jungler.
• Ward as soon as possible to avoid ganks. You are pure cra* at early game and some junglers shines on early game, like Ratatoskr so you cannot be ganked. (See Warding section)
• Focus objectives instead of Kills but don't be a stupid guy trying to carry every single objective alone or you will die. You work better with your team.
• Your presence on a teamfight is strong, mainly in mid to late game, so try to always participate with your ulti.
• Try to stole enemy gold objectives such as Golden Fury or Fire giant, even that you need to sacrifice yourself to do it.
• When you destroy your first tower it's recommended you start to rotate and help your team but, return to your lane asap to protect your tower.

• If there is some healer in enemy team, do Brawler's Beat Stick or Toxic Blade to neutralize part of his heal. (Maybe it's interesting against enemies with big lifesteal such as Anubis and Freya). If an ally did some anti-heal, don't do the same item and think twice if the team really need a second anti-heal item and if no one can do it for you because in both cases you don't apply it very well (you don't hit a lot of basic to apply toxic neither has area damage except your ulti).
• If possible (it isn't a must item), ask to the Support do Shogun's Kusari as some mid-late game item if you have other basic attack gods such as Kali or Erlang Shen. It'll increase all allies attack speed in 25% so it will helps you a lot, letting you skip an AS item to other more interesting thing.
• I strongly recommend you don't stay alone in this mode in the early game. Stay with someone to better chances of survive (You must stay with someone in early game but in mid/late it's optional, but high recommended, even when you start to rotate and can sustain yourself).
• In late game, when you and your team are running to do the last objectives stay together and you behind them providing damage and support with your skills.
• Always group up in the late game 'cause just one death can change everything.
  TOGETHER YOU ARE STRONGER.

Prioritize stop enemy team healing, healing yourself and your team.



In Assault if your team get some character with group healing skills he is considered a healer but Cupid is not a healer to Smite, so if you get him on your team probably won't have another healer on the enemy team.

Ok his heal is not powerful, but is better than nothing and provide a great sustain of mana to him.

• At the beginning of the match be careful, there are a lot of crazy people that just rush for a kill. Remember that everyone starts with the ultimate ready.
• Play safe and ALWAYS throw your hearts. Share The Love should be always in cooldown because you are using it as soon as available ;)
• Participate (but from some distance) of the teamfights and remember your ultimate here is ridiculously strong, mainly in early game due usually no one does another relic except the Meditation Cloak. At level 12 with the second relic things should be less broken to your side.
• Always try to push objectives instead of rush for kills.
• Try to poke with Heart Bomb and don't be poked, remember pokes hurt you a lot and here you have to literally Share The Love with your teammates so avoid take unnecessary damage, else you will need to take your own hearts, wasting mana and letting your allies die.
• If well played, Cupid in Assault will destroy the enemy team and is a HUGE pain in the *** to deal with.

• Consider do the highest cooldown reduction here to use frequently Share The Love.
• Your main start item here is Jotunn's Wrath and not Bloodforge. You can heal yourself and the 20% cooldown is more helpful than the extra 35 damage, so for the god of love DON'T DO THIS ITEM as the 1st item!!!
• Prioritize build items to counter the enemy healers
• Don't go in fights that you are at disadvantage like 4 vs 5.
• Go carefully to kill someone 'cause your team will miss you a lot in a teamfight and your little heal.
• I already said it but I will repeat 'cause it's one of the keys to success to play Assault well with Cupid: Always throw your hearts to your team get it because they will help them and you. They will regenerate their health and you will regenerate your mana, so it makes you high sustain in battle.
• And seriously, don't throw the hearts near the enemy/where your team don't see it or will only lose mana. Also be careful to don't make a bait to your teammates with the hearts, remember that the enemy can see where your hearts are.
• Remember that you CANNOT RETURN TO BASE AT ANY CIRCUNSTANCIES. You can only buy your items if you die and there is a large time to respawn.
• ALSO: REMEMBER, OBJECTIVES > KILLS

• Here you can build the starters if you want or just rush your first item. Get your favorite relic and go to the buff camps get some XP.
• I recommend you try to get the attack speed buff, it's more helpful at the beginning.
• Once the buffs are done, move to the center to kill some minions.
• When your ultimate is ready, it's time to shine. Start to combine your skills with other and you'll get a kill or an assist.
• Protect your portal. Don't let minions approach. Killing is good but minions can turn the battle. I already lost a match due minions. I'm not kidding, focus minions. Of course you will not let your entire team die to kill some minions but also you can't ignore them all the time.
• Group Up with your team. Try don't go alone and stay with your team always behind them. You are not a front line.

• I recommend you do not walk alone in these mode. The maps are small and if you are ganked by 2 or 3 people, you usually will not be able to run.
• In Joust and Slashfight for the red buff. Do not throw it to the enemy. The first thing to do in these matches is secure de red buff as soon as possible. Then you can farm minions wave and then go to the others buff/camps such as blue buff.
• When your ultimate is ready, it's time to shine. Start to combine your skills with other and you'll get a kill or an assist.
• Fights are intense. Usually, Slash has constant fights, try to participate safely and get some kills.
• Group Up with your team. Avoid walk alone and stay with your team always behind them. You are not a front line.
• Joust and Slash you should ward the map. Put some wards into the jungle to avoid invades, ganks, surprises...
• Slash has the Juggernauts, that push lanes for you. Protect then when possible and remember that when there is a juggernaut you can teleport from your base to it by entering into the portal in front of the base. Juggernauts can really f*** with enemy tower/phoenixes so they can be very helpful.
• In Slash, do the side juggernaut and your back juggernaut camp to get an extra juggernaut and pressure the enemy in one of the two sides.
• In joust, do the bull on the side of the map in your enemy never get out of the tower/phoenix.

• Power: Cupid has big scalings so power is essential on his build to make him a big threat. Avoid build a cupid with low physical power or you may not have a decent performance.
  
  
• Penetration: As any ADC, Cupid will always need penetration on his kit to make him a big threat to avoid part of the natural defenses of each god and to pass through tank defenses.
  
  
• Attack Speed: Well, just like any Carry, AS is always welcome. Cupid tend to be a hybrid god, so your skills can hurt but you need to finish the job with basics and for that, attack speed is essential.

• Crits: If you are facing multiple squishies (gods without protections) then build crits is a way to blow even more your enemies.
  
  
• Mana: Cuspid casts a lot of skills which can make him mana hungry if you are not careful enough/don't have a teammate to pick your hearts or you are being forced to heal yourself with the hearts. So, build mana items is not core, but recommended.
  
  
• Anti-heal: Some enemies will require anti-heals if you want to beat them and ability or basic attack anti-heals like Brawler's Beat Stick or Toxic Blade can be decent options for you if you want to fight in a 1 vs 1 against an enemy with healing or lifesteal.
  
  
• Lifesteal: You can use Share The Love to heal yourself, but not while in combat. In this case, you will need lifesteal, and you can build both ability-based lifesteal such as Soul Eater or basic attack ones as Asi. (consider Death's Toll a lifesteal)
  
  
• Utility Items: Generically, items with some utilities for your match like Bloodforge to keep you alive after killing someone in a teamfight, Magi's Cloak to absorb a hard cc, Ichaival to reduce enemy AS…
  
  
• Cooldown Reduction: Cupid can make a very good use of his skills, specially Flutter and Fields Of Love, so build some CDR can be functional sometimes.

• Tank Items (except for duel): You usually won't need to build some tank items as Stone of Gaia, defenses in general, Blackthorn Hammer, Mystical Mail…

Love Machine Gun (No-Crits Build)

Spectral Armor

Geb

Hou Yi

The Ferocious Executioner

Item		Explanation
		Death's Temper Remarkably high sustain in lane not needing to care about mana ever. Once you get the upgraded version you increase your dps with particularly good stats and a single assist on a teamfight turns you into a killing machine.
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		Devourer's Gauntlet This item offers a great amount of lifesteal allied with a great amount of power and flat pen that is extremely powerful early game, sure you may stack it, but it isn't a lot of stacks and as long as you rush it you may get it in a great moment. You have good scaling on your damage abilities, so the power and flat pen are a real bless.
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		The Ferotious Executioner Good stats overall and the %prot reduction allows both your qins and basics hurt a lot more against tanks and objectives like gold fury, pyro, and fire giant. Remember this item not only increases your damage but EVERY PHYSICAL DAMAGE DEALER on your team, ince you are reducing directly the enemy physical protections and of course, the enemy takes more damage of you and everyone that deals physical damage, INCLUDING OBJECTIVES, STRUCTURES AND THE TITAN. Get the glyph version once you reached 5 full items or more.
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		Qin's Sais It will enhance your basic attack damage allowing you to better boxing people, especially tanks. Due the HP pool changes, it can be helpful since early game but late game, especially against tanks that will have a lot of HP this will totally melt them.
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		Titan's Bane This item helps with the DPS on your basics and abilities provinding pen since the very first hit, and so, it helps destroying structures too, taking down fire giant and the tanks on the enemy composition. It does help other items and can increase the damage of them.
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		Odysseus' Bow For last, this item increases your dps due to the extra attack speed and passive + you become able to hit multiple gods even though you are focusing only one.

Replacements

• About Hunter's Cowl: The starter Leather Cowl allows you sustain a bit in lane, but the MP5 is usually not enough so you may have to bring mana potions with you or the first minutes. The upgrade version gives ton of power and allows allies also have increased attack speed. If you are alone on a boxing boomerang + this movespeed and your 3 allows you chase target or simply dance around while shooting making you an incredibly hard target to hit.
• Toxic Blade is a replacement against lifesteal and HP regen in general. If you are facing an Anubis, Freya, Aphrodite, etc., in the game, consider building it.
• The Crusher can be used in this build as the last item, offering extra damage on your skills. Can counter stealth gods too.
• Death's Embrace it makes your early slower but late game helps you regen good amount of hp per basic without need to worry about damage output like lifesteal in general. It also has some minor cdr built in. Very effective against tanks.

Nuke Love Bomb (Crit Build)

Deathbringer

Item		Explanation
		Death's Temper Remarkably high sustain in lane not needing to care about mana ever. Once you get the upgraded version you increase your dps with particularly good stats and a single assist on a teamfight turns you into a killing machine.
.
		Devourer's Gauntlet This item offers a great amount of lifesteal allied with a great amount of power and flat pen that is extremely powerful early game, sure you may stack it, but it isn't a lot of stacks and as long as you rush it you may get it in a great moment. You have good scaling on your damage abilities, so the power and flat pen are a real bless.
.
		Bladed Boomerang It's the "new Shadowsteel Shuriken" but without antihealing. It will offer you tons of attack speed and quick access to crit chance and ok power. Additionally, if you can pick the drops, you become extraordinarily strong, gaining crit chance + movespeed and sometimes it drops very close to you, so you know what to do...
.
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		Dominance You choose this item because it has good power, necessary to your crits, the attack speed which is very welcome to crit more and of course for 20% pen to cause some damage on tanks and structures. Unfortunately, the pen is restricted to your basic attacks which means you damage abilities won't deal that much damage, being only a support to your basics
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		Fail-Not Great stats overall and the cdr allows you self-peel/use your 3 for boxing much more often. The %pen is welcome and works on both skills and basics. Combined with other crits, you get a reasonable crit chance, and with the passive you can easily reach 100% crit chance on your target.
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		Envenomed Deathbringer This item will increase your crit damage while also increasing your crit chance allowing you burst down objectives and squishes. Instead of starting the next item ust to stop and upgrade your starter, pick the glyph version of Deathbringer, it's super busted and will help you immensely on teamfights reducing healing and shields.

Replacements

• About Hunter's Cowl: The starter Leather Cowl allows you sustain a bit in lane, but the MP5 is usually not enough so you may have to bring mana potions with you or the first minutes. The upgrade version gives ton of power and allows allies also have increased attack speed. If you are alone on a boxing boomerang + this movespeed and your 3 allows you chase target or simply dance around while shooting making you an incredibly hard target to hit.
• Qin's Sais can be used in this build as a starter replacement if you feel tanks are being too annoying for you.

• Cupid is the Roman version of Eros (Greek God).
  
  
• The difference between Cupid and Eros is that Eros is much more the Physical Love (Body Desire) (also known as Sex) and Cupid is more related to the True Love (the feeling of loving someone).
  
  
• Cupid means "Love" in Roman. For Romans, he was the personification of true love.
  
  
• Cupid is the son of Venus and Mars, corresponding in Greek version to Aphrodite and Ares. So we can say Aphrodite is his mother and Ares his father.
  
  
  Art by CaptainAki13 via DeviantArt
  
  
  
• His mother Aphrodite has a skin called Venus. It's a reference to the real mother of Cupid in roman mythology. However, it's a shame that this skin doesn't have ANY reference to Cupid.
  
  
• Cupid wasn't a kid as we see in the game, actually, he was a handsome young (but not a kid) man with wings and a golden bow. This version of Cupid we use today (As a kid) was created in centuries 14th to 17th in some paints and then Valentine's day started to use the "new Cupid" in the cards around 1800.

• Cupid was the first Roman god introduced in SMITE
  
  
• Cupid, Ne Zha, and Ratatoskr are the only male gods voiced by a woman. The actress who voiced Cupid, Brina Palencia, also voiced Artemis.
  
  
• The guide name "Love, find your mark" is a reference to Cupid voice line when he fires his Heart Bomb.
  
  
• Cupid was turned into a magical god for a brief period of time but was eventually changed into what he is today.
  
  
• Cupid can say at Low Health "I keep bleeding love...Ouch!". This is a reference to the song Bleeding Love.
  
  
• Cupid when kills Sobek may say, "See you later, alligator!". This is a reference to the song See You Later, Alligator.
  
  
• One of Cupid's taunts, "Shot to the heart and I'm to blame, baby", is a slightly altered version of a line in the song You Give Love a Bad Name
  
  
• Hi-rez DO NOT SHOW LOVE to cupid since 2016 >:(
  Cupid was one of the gods that hardly ever were picked and due to that HR doesn't change his kit (buffing or nerfing or even reworking it) since Season 3 (3.18). However, he has received 5 skins from the last balance. He also recently received a little boost on his clear since Heart Bomb is dealing +55% extra damage to minions at the cost of nerfing the rest of his kit. It's not the "buff" I was expecting, but it is what it is.
  
  
• The Little Devil skin is one of the few skins that still uses its 3D model for its Card instead of a digital painted card art.
  
  
• The Lucky Baby Fuwa skin was based on traditions of the Chinese new year, such as firecrackers and dumplings that are common on this holiday. This was the first skin to replace Cupid's bow with a slingshot. This skin is horrible.
  
  
• Cupid along with Anhur, Artemis, and Sobek are the only gods from SMITE Closed Beta that have yet to receive a major remodel. He received a minor change, making him "less chubby" and a little taller. Little Devil however remains with the original model.
  
  
• Cupid is the only god in the game with two Tier 1 skins (2 recolors) that you can buy with favor.
  
  
• In Loverboy skin, the abilities Share The Love and Fields Of Love have their hearts replaced by Sweethearts. This also is one of the few tier 1 skins that has custom effects
  
  
• In Bizzy B skin, the intro line "Bee. I'm a bumblebee, and I buzz buzz buzz, and I buzz buzz buzz!" is a reference to the viral video "The Kitty Cat Dance". His low HP, he can say "Can't touch this, honey!" is a reference to the song "U Can't Touch This" by singer MC Hammer. His line for when he dies "I'll bee back." is a reference to the Terminator.
  
  
• His line in Bizzy B Skin for destroying a tower "Go Jackets!" is a reference to the Yellow Jackets who have a wasp as their mascot. Coincidentally (or not) the Yellow Jackets home state is Georgia, the same state where Hi-Rez studios are located Helder of Titan Forge, smite developer.
  
  
• Beemo is a Teemo skin on league of legends that is remarkably similar to cupid Bizzy B, even more, if you consider that Cupid is considered by a lot of people the teemo from Smite.
  
  
• Bizzy B Cupid is in Bacchus Bearly Buzzed skin aiming an arrow on him while he eats honey.
  
  
• Guttersniper is the only skins where cupid doesn't have wings nor anything else to justify why he is flying.
  
  
• Head Over Heels skin is a joke on how big Cupid head is compared to his body. He has the biggest head in the game compared to his body. The smallest is Hercules, which also has "fun" skin. "Head over heels" means someone that is in love.
  
  
• In trick or treat skin there are 3 kids below cupid wearing Halloween costumes. They are references to Kuzenbo, Enchanted Chang'e and Aphra Cadabra Aphrodite. This skin also has the best joke in the game: "What a scare bee calls? BOO BEES" (lol, I love the way he tells you this joke).
  
  
• The Dr. Mad Love skin intro line "Today will finally be the day we take over the world! Mhahahah!" and his line for when he dies "Ok so, maybe tomorrow is the day we finally take over the world!" are both references to the famous animated show Pinky and the Brain.
  
  
• The Spooky Nightmares skin could have been based on the children's book “Where the Wild Things Are”. Also, this skin shares its theme with Spooky Dreams Kumbhakarna and the wallpaper of these skins is also shared.
  
  
• The Spooky Nightmares skin has a Plushie Ganesha in its full wallpaper held by a kid sleeping.
  
  
• The Cupid Skin Deadnaut has a shorter “win scene”. That's because Cupid win scene is him using his arrow to fire himself up, then he goes to the screen to write something with the fingers, and then he blows the screen showing the phrase “I love wins <3”. For last, he erases it using his little butt. However, since he is using a helmet on this skin, he wouldn't be able to blow the screen, so all this part was removed, and he only fires himself up.
  
  
• The Deadnaut skin could be based on the movie Destroy All Humans!.
  
  
• Invader Zin is his best skin and whoever disagree is wrong!!