Lovin' in the Solo Lane (Aphrodite Solo Guide)

loving embrace is a passive that has no effect on Aphrodite herself, but instead is a buff to her soulmate, in which 30% of all of the mana regenerated by Aphrodite is given to her soulmate. Given how you need a teammate for this passive to even exist, and you are in SOLO lane, this is a pretty useless passive, for solo lane at least. It should be noted though, that increases to her mana regen, such as mana potions, the mana buff, or meditation will also give her soulmate 30% of the benefit, so it has some use if in the late game, your allies are pretty mana hungry

Kiss is a spell unique to Aphrodite which enables her to link up to a teammate and become their 'soulmate'. This also happens to be the spell that Aphrodite's entire kit is designed around: it is what enables her to use her passive, and all four of her other spells gain additional affects when she has a soulmate. The attack itself is 55 units long, and about two character spaces in width:
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This spell also behaves differently depending on if you decide to target an enemy or ally with it. If an ally is targeted, Aphrodite will kiss them, becoming their soulmate, and giving both Aphrodite and her soulmate increased movement speed (4/8/12/16/20%). Allies that are your soulmate are connected to you via a pink tether:
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Enemies that are targeted with Kiss will be stunned for 1 second. If Aphrodite has a soulmate when she kisses an enemy god, her soulmate will become jealous, receiving a (4/8/12/16/20%) boost to their physical/magical attack (depending on what they use). The stat boost provided by jealousy lasts for 5 seconds.

Lastly, a few things you should keep in mind about Kiss:
1. If both an enemy and ally are close to each other when aiming Kiss, ally gods will take priority over enemy gods. Be aware of this if you are trying to stun an enemy in a team fight.
2. Kissing an ally will reduce the cooldown of Kiss to 3 seconds.
3. Aphrodite's soulmates can only travel so far from away from her. If about 100 units or more comes between Aphrodite and her soulmate, their link will be broken.
4. Finally, Aphrodite can only have one soulmate at a time. Kissing an ally when she already has a soulmate will end the first connection in favor of the new one.

Back Off! is Aphrodite's primary burst spell. The spell inflicts damage to all enemies within a 20 unit radius of Aphrodite, knocking them back to the explosion's edges (20 units away from Aphrodite:
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Additionally, if Aphrodite has a soulmate when casting this spell, a second explosion will emanate from them as well, and will also applying a 25% slow for 2 second. However, if an enemy is in range of both explosion, only the one from Aphrodite will affect them.

A few things to keep in mind when using Back Off! are:
1. Only the explosion from Aphrodite will affect her enemies if they are hit by both explosions. This means that is you want to apply the slow to enemies, you cannot be close to your soulmate when detonating.
2. Knock-back is a hard CC; you can use this spell to remove the aura of magi's blessing so your opponent is vulnerable to more valuable CC moves like Frost Breath, Confound or No Escape, and can also interrupt certain channeled abilities like Bludgeon (though knock-up/back immune channels like Taolu Assault or Wing Gust are unaffected)
3. Pay attention to your enemy's positioning when you use Back Off!; you could end up knocking them into another ally's moves, like Transgressor's Fate Crush or Fields Of Love. Or you could do the opposite and accidentally knock them AWAY from these moves, or away from your allies in general.

Love Birds is without a doubt Aphrodite's crowning spell, both offensively and defensively. This spell is your main attacking move, your main wave clear, and your heal. The spell has a range of 70 units in length, and is about 3 character spaces in width:
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Additionally, on top of being a very powerful self-sustain move, your soulmate will also be healed if this spell was cast after linking to them

When using Love Birds keep in mind:
1. Love Birds is a heal over time, healing every 0.5 seconds for 3 seconds. Do not treat this like a burst heal like Conviction or Inspire, it will take time to receive the full heal. As such, be careful when timing this when you (or your soulmate) are on low health.
2. Be careful about 'over-healing' your team. Since you can only heal yourself and your soulmate, it is both time consuming and mana expensive to constantly switch soulmates and heal your entire team. Try to avoid this if possible.
3. When laning, be sure to time your use of Love Birds; you don't want to have it on cooldown when waves meet each other.
4. If there is an Ah Puch on the enemy team, pay extra close attention to him, AND your soulmate when casting Love Birds. If you or your soulmate is under the affects of Fleeting Breath, do NOT cast Love Birds (unless one or both of you would die without the heal), the bonus damage and stun from that spell is deadly. Try to avoid using Love Birds until you are out of range of Fleeting Breath, the spell's duration has expired, or you know it is on cooldown.

Undying Love is not an 'ultimate' per say. Rather, it is a counter ultimate, designed to allow your and/or your soulmate to defy death, if for a short time. This ultimate takes the aspects of both Greater Purification (the CC immunity) and Aegis Pendant (mobile damage immunity) and combines them both: on a shorter cooldown than either no less! Additionally, excluding knock-up and banish, this can be used out of ALL FORMS OF HARD CC. This was especially noticeable after the nerf to Greater Aegis, as Aphrodite is the only god in the game to be able to immune herself out of something like Loki's Assassinate, Anubis's Mummify/ Death Gaze combo, or Ymir and Scylla's Frost Breath/ I'm a Monster combo without needing to use both active slots. Just to make this spell even better: your soulmate also receives the damage and cc immunity when this is cast, if they are going to die, just activate this to save their skins, or allow them to do something that would otherwise be suicide.
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Just to note, when using Undying Love:
1. You cannot perform any other action other than moving while Undying Love is being channeled. Your soulmate on the other hand, can still freely attack while immune.
2. Although Greater Purification reduces all cooldowns by 3 seconds, Undying Love does not. Don't waste your ultimate thinking you can reduce your, or your soulmate's cooldowns with it.

soulstone
I've honestly fallen in love with soulstone on my mages, and Aphrodite is no exception. In fact, I think she is arguably one of the best users of the item. Aphrodite's kit already offers incredable healing capabilities. Combine this with the fact that soulstone offers much more MP5, and an additional 100 mana, this a much better starting items than Vampiric Shroud for Aphrodite

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soul reliquary
Book of Thoth is a core item in this build, and soul reliquary is the starting item for it. It offers a nice small boost to magical power and your mana pool, so its a nice starting item to pick up.

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This item is a must on ANY build, in ANY situation. This is especially true for mages, due to their lack of mobility and defense, and their extreme vulnerability without their spells. This is especially true for gods like Aphrodite who already have very weak early games, and need to avoid ganks as often as possible.

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This is really just to help keep you in lane a little longer, as early game you cannot always have the mana buff equipped, and soulstone only provides a small amount of MP5. If you are able to manage your mana usage however, feel free to swap this out for another Ward.

Book of Thoth is an excellent item on any mage, with Aphrodite being no exception. This item gives a nice 100 magical power, 125 mana and 15 mp5 for additional sustain, and that's at no stacks. Max it out to all 75, and that magical power jumps to 126, and a whopping 875 mana. Heck, just the stats this one item offers can prevent you from running out of mana if you use your abilities wisely, and that's not including other sources of mp5. One thing to note though, is how the item's passive is calculated. Book of Thoth's passive functions as follows:
(Maximum mana - god's base mana pool) * 0.03 = additional increase to magical power
Basically, what this means is that the additional power offered by this item is calculated only using mana provided by your ITEMS, not your whole mana stat. So basically, the more mana your equipment gives you, the more powerful this item becomes.

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or
The choice between Shoes of the Magi and Shoes of Focus is entirely up to you. Shoes of the Magi offer stronger but less spammable spells, while Shoes of Focus do the opposite: weaker spells that are more spammable. I personally prefer Shoes of the Magi since it allows you to build other cooldown items like Winged Blade or Mail of Renewal without over capping cooldown. Plus, once you hit endgame, having your heals and attacks be much stronger is much more valuable than using my spells about half a second faster (at least from personal experience). If you are building no other cooldown items however, Shoes of Focus are a better pick-up.

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This item is a MUST on any mage, with the possible exceptions of Ao Kuang Freya or (ironically) Chronos. A massive 25% cooldown reducation to all of your spells, an impressive 75 magical power, and a very helpful 25 MP5 makes this a magical solo laner's dream item. By the time you have Book of Thoth Shoes of the Magi and Chronos' Pendant online, you'll have enough healing capability and mana regeneration (especially with mana buff) to never need leave lane except by choice.

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Finally, we have Rod of Tahuti. On top of the insane 125 magical power, this item also offers an additional 15 MP5, giving you even more mana sustain. The real catch about this item though, is its passive: your entire magical power stat receives an additional 25% increase, allowing you to reach insane power levels, have tremendous burst damage with Back Off! and Love Birds, and easily heal yourself back to max health almost instantly with Love Birds.

Spear of the Magus is basically to allow you to shred through the protections of any enemy you hit with Love Birds. Since its passive will activate for any spell damage recieved, this makes it especially potent for damage over time spells, which can trigger the passive multiple times with one spell. Just hit an opponent with Love Birds then follow up with Back Off!. The protection shred from Love Birds will allow Back Off! to do significantly more damage, if not outright true damage to opponents who build no defense.

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Gem of Isolation works in the same way that Spear of the Magus does. Just hit an opponent with Love Birds to continuously activate the item's passive. However, while Spear of the Magus offers a protection shred, Gem of Isolation offers a 25% slow, allowing you to really stick to your opponents (or prevent them from sticking to you).

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Divine Ruin is a MUST HAVE ITEM if your are soloing against opponents with high healing capabilities, such as Hel, Chaac or Hades. Additionally, Divine Ruin also gimps gods that rely heavily on life steal for sustain, so it can really help against Anubis or hunters, who need to life steal as often as possible. Like Spear of the Magus or Gem of Isolation, Love Birds will reactivate Divine Ruin with each tick of damage.

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Rod of Asclepius offers additional magical power, allowing her to hit much harder, and movement speed, allowing her to stick to/outrun her opponents even easier than before. This also doubles as a nice defensive item, giving you a little extra health makes you harder to kill, plus the 15% increase to your healing can help you out in a pinch.

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soul reaver is good for 1 thing, and 1 thing only: providing massive burst to the opponent instantly. Once every 60 seconds, this item will allow you to deal an additional 15% of the target's maximum health in TRUE damage. Given how [[aphrodite is based around sustained damage, as opposed to burst damage, this will allow her to inflict much more burst damage in a short period of time (especially against warriors and guardians).

My personal defensive item of choice on mages, Winged Blade does so much for so little. For the low price of 1850, you will gain an extra 300 hp, and a additional 10% movement speed buff (for chasing/fleeing), attack speed buff (helping you take down structures faster) and cooldown reduction (making up for the lost cooldown depending on boot choice). The real seller to this item, however, it its passive. Every 30 seconds, whenever you are hit by a slow, you become slow immune and gain an increased 20% movement speed increse (both of which last for 4 seconds). If you opponent happens to be reliant on slows for cc or set up *cough**chough* Ah Puch*cough**cough*, pick this up to make them a non-issue.

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or magi's blessing
The choice between Spirit Robe and magi's blessing is a tough one, however, in the end, it comes down to two factors: How aggressive is the enemy team, and how much cc does their team have? If the enemies play rather passively and are light in terms of cc, magi's blessing is a better choice. Against a more aggressive and cc heavy team, however, and Spirit Robe is a better pick. If there is a mix of the two, it comes down to personal preference.

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lotus crown
lotus crown is a must if you are fighting an aggressive physical as your solo opponent (such as Bellona, Hercules or Tyr) or against a physical god who can easily and constantly poke you in lane (such as Chaac or a solo hunter). This item also scales very well into late/end game, where its passive could end up making or breaking teamfights for your team, especially since Aphrodite typically serves as the team's (specifically the carry's) secondary support in the endgame.

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Void Stone is your go-to defensive item when fighting a solo guardian. Most guardians deal relatively low (but constant and annoying) damage, this will help mitigate their already low offensive stats, while also giving you a nice increase to your magical power. Additionally, almost every offensive option a guardian has involves them needing to be within 30 units of you, which is within rage of Void Stone's passive aura, which decreases their magical defense, allowing you to punish them even harder for being offensive.

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Mail of Renewal has recently became one of my favorite items in the game, and for good reason: you regenerate 15% of your maximum health AND mana over the course of 5 seconds whenever you get a kill or assist on an enemy god, fire giant or gold fury (or siege monster if you're playing siege). Combine that passive with an additional 15% cooldown, sizable chunk of health, and more physical protections, and this item can easily turn the tide of battle in your favor if you're fighting a primarily physical team.

Greater Sprint is picked up for the same reasons that Winged Blade is: To help avoid slows and outrun your enemies (especially since without a soulmate Aphrodite is one of the least mobile gods in the game).

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Heavenly Agility is basically Greater Sprint on steroids. In exchange for a 30 second longer cooldown, and 1 second of duration, you gain a 25% increase to all of you healing. More importantly though, these affects will be given to not just you, but ALL ALLIES WITHIN 70 UNITS OF YOU. So any enemy ultimate that possesses a lareg AoE slow (such as Fields Of Love, Shards of Ice or Lurking In The Waters) can be completely ignored with this active, allowing your entire team to simply walk out of it, with just the click of a button (especially those that cannot be detonated early).

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Your ultimate will not always be available to you. That's where this thing come is, allowing you to be able to survive another round of burst when Undying Love is on cooldown (or you need to save it for something else). Just remember with Aegis Pendant, you are still vulnerable to cc, and Greater Aegis paralyses for the duration. Additionally, unlike your ultimate, neither aegis can be used while under the affects of stun, memorize, taunt, silence or fear.

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Like aegis, you ultimate does what Greater Purification does, plus more. However, this is still a MUST BUY ACTIVE, regardless of you kit having a build in purify. Against cc heavy teams, you cannot always have your ultimate up, so this is the only thing capable of saving you in those situations. Or, as with the case with aegis, you might want to save your ultimate for something other than cc immunity/cleanse. Additionally, Greater Purification does something that your ultimate cannot: it will reduce the the cooldown of all of your abilities by 3 seconds, allowing you to use it offensively or defensively.

Early game with Aphrodite is all about farming, and should equip yourself accordingly. Soulstone is a very powerful starting item for Aphrodite. Casting Love Birds when you have all 5 souls will increase the spell's heal and damage, giving you better sustain and lane control than your opponent. More importantly though, try to have 5 souls by the end of the wave, since each stack provides 4mp5, 20 mp5 at max stacks (to put that in perspective, blue buff gives 25 mp5), allowing you to out-sustain your opponent in both health and mana. One last thing to note is that soulstone only increases your next spell damage at 5 stacks; so you can use your abilities at 4 or less stacks to still keep some of the passive mp5.

As for what to spend your additional starting money on, you have two main choices: begin rushing Book of Thoth or buying Shoes with some wards, potions, and/or actives, based on your play style. The earlier option works better if your main goal is to just safely clear from under tower and let your minions push up alone while you sustain under tower. The latter option works better if you plan on doing some pushing with your minions, due to increased movement speed, and safety that an active and well placed Ward can provide. Additionally, for either of the two builds, you can rush Winged Blade over Shoes if you happen to be fighting a solo laner with potent slowing ability (or are often ganked by a slow heavy jungler).

In terms of fighting early game, most of your damage is going to consist of catching you opponent with Love Birds while the two of you try to out-clear each other. To make this easier for you, if you have the mana to spare, you can try using Kiss to stun them in the middle of the wave, allowing you to both clear lane and chip away at your opponent's health. If you begin to out-clear your opponent, feel free to add a Back Off! and a couple of basic attacks to increase the chip and burst damage you can inflict on your opponent.

One last thing to note is early game ward placement. Aphrodite is a god that is extremely vulnerable to early game ganks due to a combination of lack of mobility and low early damage output, so some well placed wards can mean life or death. In my experience, if you are trying to be offensive, the best spots to place a ward are:

The placemnt of the wards here prevent side ganks from the opposing blue buff, as well as both possible entrances for back ganks from the jungle. If the jungler is coming from the side, just retreat normally. If they are coming in from behind, you have two options, if the solo laner is low on health, is backing or has backed, or has poor chase potential, feel free to retreat through the jungle (possible go around fire giant or to mid lane if they catch on). With luck, you can get away without engaging. If your solo opponent is waiting for the gank and trying to bait you, back off IMMEDIATELY, and save Back Off! and Kiss to distance yourself from the opposing opponents (ideally after they use their leaps/dashes).

The same applies to defensive warding. If your opponent is being agressive early, there is a chance they might have convinced their jungler to gank you from your jungle. Despite being close to your tower, it is still better to be safe and not risk the gank, even if you are pinned to tower. You are going to want to ward from the side (your blue buff) and from behind, since some junglers (like Nemesis, Loki and Thor) can gank you from behind tower with little risk.

One last important note: be wary of junglers who can get past wards without alerting you ( Ratatoskr Thor Thanatos Loki and Ao Kuang being the most common). With junglers like these, you might need to place wards deeper into the jungle to catch them before they go into the air or go stealth. Also, keep an open ear, all of their moves that let them ignore wards have loud audio cues. Stay vigilant.

Well, that was certainly a long segment. Digression aside, the longest (and most difficult) part of the game is over for you. Mid game is where Aphrodite really begins to pick up. By now, you will ideally have 3 or 4 of your core items online.

By this point in the game, it is also very likely that you or your opponent have lost a tier 1 tower. When it comes to solo laning, getting tier 1 tower essentially means you 'won' lane, or allowing the 'victor' more freedom to rotate to help in teamfights and objectives, with less fear of actually losing lane then their 'defeated' opponents.

If you have 'won' lane, you have the choice to begin rotating, or continue pressuring lane with your new found dominance over lane. If you choose to rotate, never travel alone, as getting caught alone in the middle of the jungle with Aphrodite is a nightmare (especially if an enemy assassin catches you). Your job when rotations primarily consists of healing your team, providing your team with ganks, a secondary damage dealer, providing your soulmate additional damage and set up with Kiss, and using your ultimate to deny enemy damage and set up. Lastly, when rotating, keep an eye on the map. Your rotation means the odds of your lane being split push is much higher. Only rotate when it matters to minimize this.

Should you choose to stay in lane though, you main objective is pressuring, if not taking what's left of solo lane. If you find yourself pushed up to the tower WARDING IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR SURVIVAL. You'll be pushed up so far that a good rotation is all but guaranteed to kill you. I've found that this deep into enemy territory, these are the best spots to ward:

As for pushing that remaining tower, you are likely going to need to flat out kill your opponent (it's unlikely you can just keep poking them until they back like earlier, a good team will gank you long before they get to that point). If they are pushed up, trying to even out the lane, it will be relatively easy to kill them before they reach their tower (especially if they were pushed up to your tier 1). If they are sitting under tower (which is likely if you are pushing up), you will likely need your jungler, mid or support to rotate to your lane to provide enough damage or pressure to kill them or force a retreat. Once this happens, you can pretty much guarantee that tower is going down unless the enemy is already on their way (which is what the wards are for).

If you've been outpushed, all is not lost. You main focus is going to be evening out you lane. Be sure to keep your jungle warded, as you are going to be over-extending quite a bit to push your lane up (offensive and defensive warding positions from earlier are good spots). If the enemy soloer is rotating, be sure to call missing, and keep calling often (I typically call missing every 10 seconds or so unless one of your teammates know where they are). If most, if not all of the enemy team happens to be pushing a different lane, or fighting the rest of your team, that is the most ideal time to split push, followed by rushing over to the right once that tier 1 is down (if needed. If your team is sure they doesn't need help, feel free to push up to their tier 2 as well).

If you are pushed back to you tier 2 tower, ward defensively, and ask for a rotation/ gank over to your lane. After you get the kill/force the retreat, push your lane accordingly (but don't over-extend).

Late game, you have two main roles: to function as a secondary supporter, and keeping your team's carriers (typically the adc and/or mid laner) alive (don't exclusively help them, but they are your main concern). By this point in the game, most of the towers will be taken, so your team is going to focusing on taking what few towers are left, the phoenixes, and fire giant control.

Never try traveling alone unless you have too; getting caught out alone at this point in the game WILL kill you. If you are going to separate from the group to try and split push, try and go with the jungler or adc, and keep each other safe.

Team fights are very common in this stage in the game. You should NEVR be engaging the fight as Aphrodite (get a free poke in if you can, but never engage), that's a job for your team's front liners. Just focus on healing them, keeping them in the fight, and providing extra stuns and knock backs to lock down specific members of the enemy team. When not healing your front liners stay linked to your carries, healing them whenever they's sustained damage, providing them with a steroid from Kiss, and using Undying Love to prevent a large enemy ultimate from nuking them.

easy
Solo Ao Kuang is meant to counter warrior and guardian solos, due to his whole kit being based around shredding tanks and executing opponents. He loses hard to any opponent who can easily out clear him, especially if the can do so safely (i.e: you). He also happens to be very squishy with no healing (outside of his ultimate), so he is easy to poke out of lane. Just play it safe, out clear him, and deny him farm. Ao Kuang is one of those gods who offers very little if he begins to fall behind, so take advantage of that. As a few notes:
-ANY damage (even 1 point) will remove his Water Illusion stealth; hit him with Love Birds when stunned to prevent sneaky escapes.
- King of the Eastern Seas is a delayed execute, if you use Undying Love (or Purification Beads) RIGHT before he throws you into the air, you can avoid the execute and put it on cooldown. Same applies to your soulmate.
-Get in the habit of calling missing if he remains stealthed for more than a few seconds, he can rotate very easily and quickly when stealthed.

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easy
Low mobility, poor early clear, and very mana hungry, but great poke with Waterspout and even better kill potential since He Bo's kit is essentially 3 ultimates with a speed buff/debuff for flavor. Just play it safe, try to avoid taking too much poke, and heal up when he is able to hit you. Ask you jungler to gank every now and then, and you should have no problem with He Bo, as like all burst mages, he falls off very quickly if he falls behind.

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] easy
If you think Aphrodite has a bad early game, let me tell you Hel's is virtually 10 times worse. She has strong sustain, good clear and ok burst, but her problem is she can only choose to do one at a time (unless you stand in the minion wave when she uses Repulse). The best way to beat Hel is to starve her out of lane: use Divine Ruin to gimp her healing, and try to take her mana buff whenever possible, as Hel runs out of mana faster than arguably any other god in the game (and unlike the other stance dancers, she doesn't have strong basic attacks to fall back on).

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easy
Vulcan is a lot like He Bo, low mobility, but a crazy ton of damage. And like He Bo, he has a weak early game and is easy to be poked out of lane. Take advantage of this. Avoid the meatball, i mean Magma Bomb because it does a lot of damage and causes a very disruptive knock up. Inferno Cannon behaves a like a tower in regards to the fact that it targets the first thing that comes into it's range. Backfire is a mini dash backwards that hits hard, and also marks you and causes Inferno Cannon to prioritize you over all other targets. Lastly, his ultimate Earthshaker is a large AoE nuke, but is thankfully easy to avoid without setup. Treat him like He Bo, just play safe and ask for ganks if he overextends. Once he begins to fall behind, it is nearly impossible for him to catch back up.

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average
Smite's advertised 'anti-healer', Ah Puch can prove to be a rather annoying opponent. Undead Surge is an annoying, hard to avoid slow that also perfectly sets up his main burst move: Corpse Explosion. Fleeting Breath is a DoT that punishes you for healing , as well as powering up Corpse Explosion even more. Lastly, Empty the Crypts allows him to provide massive area denial to all of his opponents. He is a master of zoning, and enjoys keeping his opponents as far away from him as possible. Best way to beat him is to avoid healing with the Fleeting Breath DoT on you, and to bait him up to your tower, leaving him an easy gank for your jungler. He gets caught out like this, and he's dead for sure since he's up there with Anubis for least mobile god in the game. Speaking of whom:

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average
Anubis is like He Bo in regards to having very little mobility, a tiny amount of crowd control to protect himself, but a truck ton of damage to keep you at bay. Unlike He Bo though, Anubis actually has pretty good survivability thank to his passive Sorrow giving him very high magical lifesteal; all he has to do is drop a Grasping Hands when he has a lifesteal item to lifesteal about half his health back. This makes Divine Ruin a reasonable item to fight Anubis. Be sure to have your jungler gank if he gets aggressive, as Anubis is arguably the least mobile god in the game. Just be very careful, as any poke from this guy can do about a fifth of your health PER TICK. Oh, and try to avoid Mummify, if he lands that stun, he can shred you within a second.

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average
Not too much to say about Chronos. He has a weak early game, but lots of sustain with Accelerate providing him a little bit of of health regen or free spell casts for a few seconds. But he as he has high damage, even early game, with lots of poke potential from Time Rift. And if you decide to engage him, remember the golden rule of fighting Chronos early: don't burst him down, slowly chip away at his health to minimize the effectiveness of Rewind.

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average
Although rare, Janus is seen in solo lane from time to time. First thing you want to know is you can outclear him pretty easily, ad it is near impossible for him to full clear a wave with just Unstable Vortex. Next, his damage HURTS. Don't be surprised to see half your health bar disappear if you get hit with one ball from Unstable Vortex, 2/3 if he gets the double tap with it. Lastly, unlike pretty much every other burst mage, Janus is extremely mobile, being able to portal through walls, and give himself a massive speed boost. What's more, this mobility can also apply to his teammates to allow some truly creative strategies. As will all high mobility opponents call missing often. Other than that, he's just like pretty much every other mid lane god: high damage but low sustain, take advantage of that.

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average
Nu Wa is a mage that can farm lane very safely. Mysterious Fog can be used to clear the whole wave from behind tower, while Shining Metal can pretty much full clear the wave when she have about 2 items online. This safe clear is offset by her lack of sustain and low defenses, so just poke her whenever the chance comes to eventually force her out of lane. Also, the Clay Soldiers explosion will hurt, possibly 1 shot you if detonates all 3 on you. This is her only burst, however. Avoid this and she cannot force you to back.

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average
With both strong lane push and high sustain, Ra is a formidable opponent. He's a lot like you in this regard. Divine Ruin is a must in this match-up, not because it reduces his healing, but because it reduces the healing his minions. A very common strategy Ra uses is to drop a Solar Blessing on his minions as the waves clash to clear wave and keep his wave at high health. If you can, avoid trying to clear when the heal is in effect; attack them before or after he has used the spell. The rest of his kit is pretty basic though: speed boost for his passive, hard hitting straight line shots for his Celestial Beam and Searing Pain, and an AoE slow/blind with Divine Light. Just focus on not losing lane, and get your jungler to gank if he over extends, and he shouldn't be a difficult opponent to deal with.

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average
The goddess of the sun is a very powerful opponent to lane against. Her clear with Stellar Burst is very potent, and can really do damage to you if you stand near the minion waves. She can easily get away or chase you with Disapparate (and thanks to the incorporeal aspect of it, can safely tower dive you). Lastly, she has pretty ok sustain with Radiance. The key to beating Sol in lane is to slowly pick her while remaining defensive, as she cannot fight you without over commiting, and her sustain is based on a percent of her MISSING health, so she won't heal much unless she's in the red. Her main deadliness comes from her ability to push towers though. NEVER leave a Sol alone in your lane, and try to back only when she does. Even at levels 3-5, if she forces a back, that 30 seconds you were gone could be a free tower for her.

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average
Zhong Kui is a weird hybrid of burst mage, sustain mage, control mage and bruiser. He does well in all categories, but doesn't excel in any particular one. He is also pretty mana hungry, since his entire kit revolves around the Expose Evil and Exorcism combo. This combo gives him his sustain, wave clear and extra protections from his passive, Demon Bag. Divine Ruin is quite helpful here, since he is capable of healing quite a bit, despite it being a delayed (and interuptable) heal. He also has a small AoE stun around himself in the form of Book of Demons, but this is easily avoided. Just find ways to mana starve him, and ask for ganks when possible, and he should be no problem to beat.

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hard
If there was ever a near impossible opponent for Aphrodite to fight 1v1, it would be, or rather is, Chang'e. Like Ah Puch she is an anti-healer, though in different regards. Ah Puch punishes you for using ability heals with Fleeting Breath. Chang'e (especially with Divine Ruin, which odds are, she'll be rushing against you) outright prevents healing (and health regen for that matter) with Moonflower Dance. This is why I personally consider her to be Smite's true anti-healer. Now, onto how to beat her in lane: you can't. Or at the very least, it's VERY unlikely. Chang'e has arguably the best lane sustain of any god. Sure other gods have good lane clear, good sustain through heals and mana buff, and some are good at avoiding damage. Chang'e is good at all of these, though she has one advantage that no other god (except situationally Ratatoskr) has: being able to buy items while still in lane. This means that she can constantly get equipment, actives and wards while you two stall out together in lane while you can't, giving her a huge edge over you. My best advice is to NEVER attempt to fight her alone, you will lose every exchange if you do. Crescent Moon Dance does a lot of damage for such a short cooldown, she can avoid burst with Moonlit Waltz, and heal herself and prevent you from healing with Moonflower Dance. You're main goal is just to not lose lane. Just keep clearing wave, and camp under tower until mid/late game. Once late game comes, the best ways to deal with her are to have your team either instantly burst her and/or cc lock her (please note, try to bait out her Moonlit Waltz before, or make your set-up hard to predict. This single ability is basically your ultimate on a 10 second cooldown, though she cannot use it our of hard cc, only avoid it). Lastly, keep a close eye on positioning; staying grouped up can make Waxing Moon dance the most lethal ultimate in the game, not because of the damage, but because the stun it offers can essentially take someone (or possibly your whole team) out of the entire fight.

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hard
Freya offers one thing, and one thing only: metric tons of damage. Her clear is meh at most stages of the game, so try to pressure her from pushing. Do note though, that she has very high lifesteal in the form of Brisingamen's Blessing, so don't expect to poke her out of lane any time soon. And in the event that she decides to engage between waves, ESCAPE AT ALL COSTS, as she can easily kill you in 3 or 4 basic attacks if she's enchanting them. She can even Banish you if you try to escape, making it near impossible to do so (imagine He Bo or Anubis, except with the ability to stick to you). Overall, her deadliness comes from the fact that she's one of the only gods in the game with access to constant burst; you specialize in avoiding instant burst. Lastly, the best way to beat her is to have your jungler gank her often if she's aggressive, as Freya's early game is appalling. Just try to avoid falling behind her though, a fed Freya is one of the most terrifying things in the game.

easy
Although not very common, Odin can be played in solo. He has high burst damage with his 'bird bomb' ( Lunge and Raven Shout), but that's really all he offers for the most part. Just don't stand near your minions when he goes for the bomb, and he has no real way to even damage you. This combo also uses both his shield and jump, so if your junlger is nearby when he dives, capitalize on this. Other than that, the only 'threat' he offers comes from his ultimate, Ring of Spears, which prevents you from healing and traps you for a few seconds (though this is really only problematic late game). Just keep your distance, and he can't even poke you, let alone beat you in lane.

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easy
Ravana should be no challenge for you what-so-ever. He has decent damage and a slow with Prana Onslaught if he stacks up his passive. He can avoid damage and cc with Overhead Kick (like Chang'e's Moonlit Waltz), as well as do a little damage and get a small speed boost. He has a root and heal with 10-Hand Shadow Fist. Lastly, he has a dash in the form of Mystic Rush (though he needs a viable target to dash too); this ability grants him massive damage mitigation to everyone but the person he targeted with this ability, making him a true tank in teamfights (in solo lane 1v1 though, it's just a glorified chasing tool). Just don't let him near you and poke him whenever possible, and this should be an easy lane to win.

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easy
Literally, every easpect of your kit hard counters Vamana in lane. His passive rewards him for building physical defense, whereas you deal magical damage. You can knock/stun hum out of his dash, Clear The Path, his only projectile ( Umbrellarang) is very slow and easy to dodge, he can't really poke you with Armored Umbrella while line clearing. If that wasn't bad enough (for him), you can literally just outrun him while he is in his ultimate Colossal Fury (unless he's sporting Hastened Fatalis or Frostbound Hammer), leaving him with no way to actually confirm damage on you. And what little damage he does land can be easily healed back up. In short, arguably your easiest lane match-up.

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average
The goddess of war herself, Bellona is a worth adversary. The most important thing you need to know about fighting her is to respect the area between you and her; keep your distance and she's harmless, but let her get close and chances are, you'll be forced back to base, one way or another (if you catch my drift). It is best to camp under tower against Bellona, as she has massive all-in and chasing potential with Eagle's Rally and Shield Bash. Her deadliest ability though is Bludgeon... IF you let her slam the hammer down on you. If she's aggressing on you with Bludgeon just use Back Off! (or Kiss) to knock her out of it, essentially canceling her only burst attack. The key to winning this lane is slowly poking her out of lane, as her sustain from Scourge is VERY weak. Patience will win you this fight.

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average
Much like the goddess of war, the saint of war is a very difficult opponent. Guan Yu is one of the few opponents you'll find that you will likely not be able to force out of lane (only exception being if you can force him to back due to lack of mana). Avoid getting hit with Taolu Assault, as combined with Bluestone Pendant you'll be taking a MASSIVE amount of tick damage, more than you actually can heal that early in the game (he's also knock back immune for the duration). Warrior's Will provides him with a nice gap closer, a bit of burst, and massive slow if it lands. Conviction is why you can't poke him out of lane: it's a small heal that increases in size for every tick of damage he takes, or inflicts to an enemy god. Lastly, save your ultimate for his: Cavalry Charge is a deadly ability to any squishy god, and that stun at the end could spell your death. You might not win lane, but do your best to not lose it.

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average
Sun Wukong is one of those gods who excels at laning. Ever since the buff to Bluestone Pendant, Wukong (or the aptly named 'bluekong') has been regarded as the king of solo lane. All is not lost though, as you can safely clear wave, and clear wave nearly as effectively as he can (though it will take a few more levels and an extra item or two). Combine that with the fact that you can easily heal off the poke from The Magic Cudgel and Master's Will, and you'll be one of the few gods who he cannot poke to death. Lastly, even though you might not get the kill (he has an amazing escape with 72 Transformations), his only form of sustain is from his ultimate, Somersault Cloud, which only heals him for a quarter of his maximum health. Just avoid getting baited into a trap, and you will always go even with him in lane, if not beat him.

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average
Fighting Tyr is all about keeping proper positioning. If you can prevent him from catching you with assault stance Fearless, you can be pretty... 'fearlessly' fight him... (sorry). If you do get caught with the Fearless Power Cleave combo though, there's a good chance that you're not making out. Other than that though, he as pretty good early game sustain with Power Cleave, and is extremely mobile (for a warrior), as Fearless can be used to dash twice if Change Stance is available, plus Lawbringer for a long range jump to close even more distance. Just don't get caught out, and the lawgiver will eventually fall to you.

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hard
Great poke, great wave clear, and great sustain both mana and health wise, Chaac is quite a difficult opponent to lane against. Thunder Strike Allows Chaac to very easily clear wave almost instantly (especially combined with Bluestone Pendant), as well as very easily poke you to no end. Torrent provides him with even more lane clear, as well as the ability to jump to his axe if used within 5 seconds of using Thunder Strike. Chaac also has amazing sustain and slowing capability with Rain Dance, and if used within 5 seconds of Thunder Strike, a second, larger AoE slow will spawn at the site of his axe (these 2 slows also stack, keep that in mind). Last but not least, Storm Call provides a large AoE attack that silences for 3 seconds (plus extra damage and a knock up if detonated on his axe). Combine all of that with a passive that allows him to cast a 0 mana spell for just hitting a few basics, and you've got a deadly opponent to deal with.

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hard
Hercules, the Champion of Rome, lives up to his title. Now, his line clear is nothing too extraordinary, and he can burn his mana very quickly, but there are 2 very deadly factors to him: his sustain and his ability to pluck you out of your tower. I'm pretty sure everyone by now is well aware of the deadly Earthbreaker into Driving Strike combo, which forces people out of position. Avoid getting hit by this at all costs, as a single pluck will pretty much mean death for you (imagine Tyr, but can force you out of position). As for his healing, BUY Divine Ruin! This cannot be stressed enough. Due to the health return aspect of Mitigate Wounds, you will need to inflict around a minimum of 2200 damage (at max rank) within the channel of this ability for there to even be an actual net-gain for damage dealt. And last but not least, his ultimate, Excavate, allows Hercules to throw a giant boulder, and if he throws it at a good angle, can essentially play pinball with the scenery. Just the base damage of this attack is extremely deadly; take into account the scaling and ricochet damage, and that can pretty much be all of your health in one attack.

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hard
The Broken God of the Afterlife certainly can be a broken opponent to lane against. Osiris has a LOT of burst potential for a warrior, and the combination of Sickle Strike and Spirit Flail allows him to stick to a target indefinitely. Throw in a Judgement Tether to reduce your damage and stun you, and you really need to respect the distance between you and him. The deadliest part of him though, is his ultimate: Lord of the Afterlife. This lets him close a large distance between you two. However, should he land on you with this attack, you will be rooted in place for a short amount of time, as well as be unable to heal for 6 seconds. The safest way to deal with Osiris is to just be careful when clearing, and save Kiss and Back Off! for if you need to recreate distance between the two of you.

easy
Bakasura is up there with Vamana and [ravana]] for one of your easiest solo opponents. He has NO line clear without Hand of the Gods. His heal requires him to be in the middle of the minion wave (and only kills 1 minion btw). His biggest burst comes from his steroid, Butcher Blades, but simply repelling him with back off!] or [[kiss will deny him virtually all him damage. And if he decides to combine his steroid with his ultimate, Regurgitate, simply cast Undying Love (or Greater Sprint/ Heavenly Agility if you have it) to run away from ALL of his possible damage. Bakasura solo is all about kill potential, and your ability to deny him that renders him near useless. Just force him under tower, deny him as much farm as possible, and watch as your lane pushing becomes easier and easier.

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easy
Loki is all about 2 things: kill potential on squishy gods, and safely farming lane. Aphrodite however, is virtually the only squishy god in the game that can avoid Loki's massive kill potential. Decoy allows him to safely clear wave from his tower. Vanish allows him to turn invisible for a short period of time, reduce all damage he takes by 25%, increase his movement speed by 35%, and apply a deadly DoT to the first enemy he hits. Thankfully, any hard cc removes these buffs, and Kiss just so happens to home in on any target in range, if you were facing in the general direction (about a 45 degree cone) of him when you used it, regardless of stealth or not. As for his burst, use Back Off! if he tries to walk up to you, or Undying Love if he uses Assassinate on you (remember, the ultimate itself isn't the deadly part, its the follow up attacks that are, especially with his passive Behind You! and steroids, Vanish and aimed strike). Just be careful farming against Loki. Once you make it to endgame, you offer a lot more than he does, so keep him from reaching it first.

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average
This guy is just nuts. He has fast clear with Acorn Blast plus the fact he has AoE basics. From here, he can go one of several routes: early game burst damage with the Sapphire Acorn, sustain with the Emerald Acorn, control with the Topaz Acorn, or late game burst damage and disruption with the Opal Acorn. Odds are, the solo rat is likely going to be emerald, but don't be surprised to see a different type used. In terms of how to deal with each type though:
- Emerald Acorn: Avoid standing in the middle of the creeps. Acorn Blast can pierce targets, additionally, his AoE basics will still cleave through minions and get additional damage on you. He has a LOT of sustain early game, so don't expect to poke him out of lane often.
- Sapphire Acorn: Stay away from the melee minions. Unlike with the emerald blast, Acorn Blast will become sticky grenades with the sapphire build, and as such, will not pierce targets. Once Acorn Blast is down, you can be a little more aggressive, but do note that as an assassin, he still has very high single target damage.
- Topaz Acorn: Try to stay about 40 units away from him. This acorn augments Dart over Acorn Blast, and is all about locking down targets. If he dashes through you twice within 10 seconds, you'll be stunned for 1-2 seconds, letting him get a lot of free damage on you. His clear suffers from this though, so be a bit more aggressive, but stay cautious.
- Opal Acorn: Disruption at its finest. Like with the topaz build, this changes Dart, but focuses on late game damage, disruption, and mobility over control. His clear is still a bit weaker than if he went emerald, but Dart will hurt... a LOT. This acorn also allows his dash to triple in width, and trigger on hit item affects, as well as critically hit, so be careful about him building items like Deathbringer or Brawler's Beat Stick.
In short, Ratatoskr is a very versatile opponent, as well as one of the most mobile gods in the game. Respect his damage output and mobility, and keep an eye on his build, as this will greatly affect how to deal with him. Also, note when Dart and Through the Cosmos are down: this is when he's most vulnerable and the best time to burst him down.

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hard
Fenrir is a god that is capable of doing virtually anything, and solo laning is no exception. He has great clear and harass in the form of Unchained and Brutalize, insane lifesteal with Seething Howl, and one of the most disruptive spells in the game with Ragnarok. The best way to lane against Fenrir is to NEVER stand near the minions: you'll simply allow him to effectively clear and harass you. Should he decide to stick to you with Brutalize, use Kiss to stun him out of it (he's immune to knockback when using this, so Back Off! is a waste unless it will kill). As for his ultimate, just counter it with yours. In terms of laning against him, you will need to be careful early game, he is a LOT stronger than you. Once you can start full clearing wave, that's when you can begin to force him under tower and lose farm (always be cautious though, he can easily turn a bad situation in his favor). Fighting Fenrir is all about knowing what both of you are capable of. Respect what he can do, and what you can do against him. And note: is he does get ahead, he is impossible to fight alone; fighting him 1v1 is the worst possible idea you could have. Don't be afraid to ask for help against someone like Fenrir.

average
Hades does one thing, better than pretty much every other god: control his lane. The massive burst from Devour Souls can insta-clear your wave. Add in his passive Blight and not only can he fully clear the wave (at around level 3 or 4), but pretty much fully heal himself and his whole minion wave. First things first, NEVER stand near your minions when he's around, that burst can easily chunk over half your health instantly. Always keep your distance when minions are around. Also because of the massive burst heal he can give his minions, try to save Love Birds until after he uses his clear. Additionally, be very careful when he has Pillar of Agony up: your ultimate cannot reliably get you out of it until rank 3. To top it off, he has great mobility with death from bellow (which also slows if you're blighted), as well as a 2 second silence from Shroud of Darkness (which also becomes a fear if blighted). However, the biggest downfall with Hades however, is that even though he excels at laning, he has a much weaker team fight than most other solo laners, so if you can keep him from snowballing, he can't do anything really crazy.

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average
Xing Tian is a very unique solo lane opponent. He has no direct healing (though his passive Smouldering Rage offers some very high health regen). His line clear is very weak (though his damage to enemy gods is very high). And lastly, he prefers to be in around as many opponents as possible to maximize his disruption, yet he is going to be 1v1 for the majority of the game. The best way to fight Xing Tian is to take advantage of his poor clear early. Clear wave quickly and force him under tower; the loss of gold and experience will really hurt his effectiveness when he begins to rotate. The last thing to note with him is how disruptive he can be. He can jump into the middle of the fight with Sky-Cutting Axe, and his combo of Whirlwind of Rage and Steel into Hook Slam into Furious Roar can single handedly wipe an entire team if he has follow up. Always save your ultimate for his, as this can save 2 of you from certain death. Always try to be as ahead of him as possible: it makes him less effective and you more effective at countering what he does.

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hard
Sobek is a complete counter to Aphrodite. He is able to easily sustain both his health and mana, he can reduce your healing, and can re-position you. Combine that with his natural tankiness, and you have no easy way of fighting him. Firstly, do everything you can to avoid Charge Prey: if he catches you, you will be very deep into enemy territory (or worse) with no easy way out. Next: keep your distance if you need to heal, as he can smack you with Sickening Strike to significantly reduce your heal (this ability is also his main clear move, so don't stand in the middle of the minion wave). Next, his ultimate, Lurking In The Waters provides a lot for him: a 30% defense increase, the ability to regen 40% of his mana, a massive slow and a VERY powerful burst damage attack to boot. Lastly, due to his heal, natural bulk, and mana regen, dont expect to force him out of lane very often, so don't be afraid to ask for help often until he becomes more manageable.

average
Neith is very versatile for hunter standards, and also the only hunter that meets the 'traditional' solo laner criteria. She has great lane control with Spirit Arrow and Unravel (the latter also doubles as a potent heal), good mobility with back flip, and global presence with World Weaver. She is near impossible to deny farm to, and can still 'rotate' without leaving lane thanks to her ultimate. Really, the only effective way to counter her in solo is kill her: something you can't easily do alone... while on even playing fields. Gank her early and often, the more she dies, the less control she has upon her return, eventually getting to the point where you can reliably kill her on your own. Like all hunters, she offers very little from behind, get her there and you will win no doubt.

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hunters in general
Hunters are a very unique class in solo, and despite all of them having different kits and play styles, they are relatively the same in terms of how to lane against them. All hunters who are played in solo do so for one reason: to get to endgame faster than they would in duo, thanks to the isolation and solo farm. First things first, make note of how they clear wave: Anhur, Apollo, Hou Yi and Rama use straight line shots; Artemis, Chiron, Cupid, Medusa, and Xbalanque use AoE/cone effects; and Ah Muzen Cab Neith and Ullr can use both: avoid taking poke from their clear accordingly. Next, note how much mobility they have: Artemis or Ah Muzen Cab are less mobile then a Neith or Xbalanque, who are less mobile then an Apollo; have the jungler gank/rotate with them accordingly. Lastly, be very careful when it comes to fighting these guys 1v1 (even when they don't have mana), as all hunters have very powerful basic attack (most of which have steroids/debuffs to make them even stronger), and don't need abilities to do damage to you. All hunters, however, share one fatal flaw: they are all damage dealing focused gods. The farther behind they become, the less effective they are. If you can work with a jungler to help shut them down early, they become less useful the more often they are killed. Use this flaw to your advantage. Be careful, however, as if they do start to get ahead, they become some of the single strongest opponents in the game, easily able to kill you in just a couple of basic attacks.