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Merlin (Arena)

13 7 92,820
7.2
by andreyz5z updated July 15, 2020

Smite God: Merlin

Build Guide Discussion 18 More Guides
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Merlin Build

Main universal build

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard

Situation

Build Item Polynomicon Polynomicon
Build Item Charon's Coin Charon's Coin
2
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Blink Rune Blink Rune

Example build - enemy have no heal (no herc, chaac, healers, e.t.c.)

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Charon's Coin Charon's Coin
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Purification Beads Purification Beads
Build Item Bracer of Radiance Bracer of Radiance

Example build - no using heal characters, 1 tank (rly only 1 battle from 50). Maximum dmg.

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Purification Beads Purification Beads

Enemy have strong heal, have more 1 tank

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti

Assault build

Notes Change Bancroft's Talon to Spear of the Magus, and
Rod of Tahuti to Obsidian Shard if you want.
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion
3
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti

Merlin's Skill Order

Eclipse / Radiate / Frostbolt

1 X Y
Eclipse / Radiate / Frostbolt
1 4 5 7 9

Vortex / Dragonfire / Blizzard

2 A B
Vortex / Dragonfire / Blizzard
2 6 8 10 11

Flicker

3 B A
Flicker
3 15 16 18 19

Elemental Mastery

4 Y X
Elemental Mastery
12 13 14 17 20
Eclipse / Radiate / Frostbolt
1 4 5 7 9

Eclipse / Radiate / Frostbolt

1 X
Arcane: Merlin conjures an orb of condensed celestial energy that grows in size as it travels, dealing damage every 0.4s and marking Enemies hit.

Enemies marked take additional damage if they stay within the outer range of Eclipse.

Fire: Merlin channels a beam of intense fire for 2s that deals damage every 0.25s. Each time Radiate hits an Enemy, it also applies a Burn, dealing additional damage over time.

Ice: Merlin hurls a Frostbolt that explodes if it hits an Enemy, dealing an additional 15% damage if they are slowed.

Ability Type: Line
Initial Arcane Damage: 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 (+55% of your Magical Power)
Arcane Damage Per Tick: 5 / 15 / 25 / 35 / 45 (+8% of your Magical Power)
Arcane Duration: 3s
Arcane Cooldown: 14s

Fire Damage Per Tick: 6 / 12 / 18 / 24 / 30 (+18% of your Magical Power)
Fire Burn Damage: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 (+5% of your Magical Power)
Fire Duration: 2s
Fire Cooldown: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12s

Ice Damage: 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+55% of your Magical Power)
Ice Cooldown: 6s

Range: 60 / 45 / 70
Cost: 60
Vortex / Dragonfire / Blizzard
2 6 8 10 11

Vortex / Dragonfire / Blizzard

2 A
Vortex (Arcane): Merlin deploys a field of arcane energy at a location. After a delay, a Vortex deals damage and pulls Enemies towards the center.

Dragonfire (Fire): Merlin summons forth two ethereal dragons that spout flames towards each other, dealing damage to Enemies every 0.25s. If caught in the center of the area, enemy god's protections are reduced. The dragons last for 3s.

Blizzard (Ice): Merlin creates a Blizzard at a target location. After a brief delay, shards of ice start hurling down every 0.7s. Enemies hit take damage and progressively get more Slowed while they stay within the area.

Enemies hit take damage and progressively get more slowed while they stay within the area.

Ability Type: AoE
Arcane Damage: 50 / 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 (+60% of your Magical Power)
Fire Damage Per Tick: 8 / 11 / 14 / 17 / 20 (+20% of your Magical Power)
Fire Protection Reduction: 4%
Fire Max Stacks: 4
Fire Debuff Duration: 4s
Ice Damage Per Tick: 10 / 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 (+15% of your Magical Power)
Ice Slow Per Stack: 8%
Ice Max Stacks: 5
Ice Slow Duration: 2s
Range: 60 / 50 / 65
Radius: 20 / 30 / 20
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown (Vortex / Blizzard): 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12s
Cooldown (Dragonfire): 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 / 14s
Flicker
3 15 16 18 19

Flicker

3 B
Merlin quickly teleports a short distance in front of him.

Ability Type: Teleport
Range: 30
Cost: 70
Cooldown: 24 / 23 / 22 / 21 / 20s
Elemental Mastery
12 13 14 17 20

Elemental Mastery

4 Y
Merlin taps into his inner potential, exploding with energy in the stance he is currently attuned to. During this time Merlin can choose which stance to enter into next.

After the explosion reaches its apex, it collapses in on itself. Enemies are dealt damage from the both the explosion and the implosion and suffer different effects depending on which stance's energy they are being hit by.

Ability Type: Buff and AoE
Damage: 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 / 260 (+15% of your Magical Power)
Arcane: Knockup
Fire Damage Per Tick: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 (+5% of your Magical Power)
Ice Slow: 20%
Slow Duration: 1.5s
Radius: 25
Cost: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80
Cooldown: 30 / 27.5 / 25 / 22.5 / 20s

Merlin Threats

Tap each threat level to view Merlin’s threats

Max
2
Major
2
Even
4
Minor
0
Tiny
0

Items

Basis instructions for play Merlin is not the presence of items, but an aggressive/safe style of play. You can buy many different other items, but your damage anytime will be the same. With good play-style you can have no items, but you will be top dmg :)
I tried to buy different combinations of items, but I think:
Chronos' Pendant 2nd not give me good burst. But need get it anyway as 2 or 3 item.
Spear of the Magus 2nd - we will be always without mana. Take Spear of the Magus if you want be more useful for team (not take, if yours team as 3 phys like warrior, adc, assassin + weak mage). You can replace with it Shaman's Ring or Obsidian Shard. Or replace Divine Ruin in main build if enemy heave weak heal.
Best 2nd I think - Gem of Isolation. He early helped your team kill same enemy's and they get more trouble to escape from Eclipse.
You can buy Shaman's Ring as 4 item it's can give you more average dmg. Now most teams play with more than 2 fat gods with good magic def, so I get Obsidian Shard most time.
Bancroft's Talon good in assault as 3rd item after 1st Chronos' Pendant and 2nd Divine Ruin.
I never take defensive items. They no need.

Team Work

Vs. one player blink to him and use:
( Blizzard + Frostbolt) + Elemental Mastery (change to arcane ) + ( Eclipse + Vortex)
(or change to fire) ( Dragonfire+ Radiate)
vs. group players save Flicker and use him for escape after combo. You need maximize 1-st and 2-nd skill, ignore ultimate. Usually fire stance not really good. Radiate good vs. only one enemy, arcane skills more universal vs. several enemy's.

In long game sometimes useful change arcane skill order ( Eclipse + Vortex as Vortex + Eclipse). People get used to the usual skill order and make mistakes if it is changed. They bypass the Vortex (this skill usually missed), but get to the center Eclipse after.

You main team damage dealer - not use arcane combo in single target before main battle. Single target have 90% chance escape from Arcane combo and in main battle you do nothing. Use frost skills to them and change to Arcane when main battle start. After battle change to Fire and try kill low HP targets. You need initiate main battle (if your team have cowards xD) - look for good enemy group and use arcane combo in full HP targets. If you want get some kills - wait when good team will do all the work for you and you can kill targets with less than 50% HP (not recommended).

Success of your actions - true Flicker use and quick use combo between Flicker on cool-down. Flicker is an incredibly effective skill - you can escaped Hercules's Driving Strike before he hit you... need only good reaction... Except skills that block movement - Siphon Darkness, Whirlpool, Entangling Vines - they a some problem.

Pros / Cons

PROS:

    breaks down any cohesive enemy group,
    has a good escape,
    deals a lot of damage,
    feels equally good against groups and singles.
CONS:
    has not enough mana all time (one good combo can spend all),
    vulnerable for focusing by 2-3 control heroes.

Notes

Merlin will be nerfed in next patch... Now he is top dpm (damage per minutes) and gpm (gold per minutes) among all my heroes...
Upd:
After patch the average damage fell by ~10 thousand, but Merlin still strong.

After nerf Gem of Isolation - I not see fell damage. Still buy Gem.
02.08.19 Upd:
Remove Shaman's Ring to situation. Сhanged items buy order in main build. You can still change this order at your discretion.
Add additional situation items.
After 3-rd nerf:
Eclipse - Decreased Magical Power Scaling of the Initial Hit from 60% to 55%, Decreased Magical Power Scaling of the tick damage from10% scaling to 8%
Blizzard - Increased the Time to Deploy of this ability from 0.5 to 0.7
Elemental Mastery - Increased Cooldown from 28/26/24/22/20 to 32/29/26/23/20
It became more difficult to be top team dmg. But if play good - you can do this.

15.07.2020 Upd:
Remove Shaman's Ring from all builds. Remove Staff of Myrddin from situation items. Add Charon's Coin for some builds.

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Collapse All Comments

1
boogiebass (46) | July 8, 2019 10:00am
Going by everyone's previous comments, you still haven't listed spear of magus as core.
1
Kriega1 (143) | July 8, 2019 11:32am
They’re not going to and it doesen’t really matter at this point
1
boogiebass (46) | July 8, 2019 11:45am
Pls disregard my earlier comment. I just saw his most recent comment.
1
boogiebass (46) | July 8, 2019 11:45am
I saw he updated the build and I was just wondering if he forgot to include it since you, gulf, and Bran all suggested it be core.
-1
andreyz5z | July 8, 2019 11:39am
Yes, now a have 4 stars on merlin and still think what spear of magus not required. I have same dmg with spear or without.
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2
Kriega1 (143) | March 9, 2019 9:32am
"Basis instructions for play marlin is not the presence of items, but an aggressive/safe style of play. You can buy many different other items, but your damage anytime will be the same." - Have dumber words been spoken? By your logic I can build 6 magical defense items and still have the same damage output.

Anyway...

Where is Spear of Magus in the main build? You know Magus is incredibly effective against squishies right?

Here is a revised build order: Shoes of the Magi, Chronos' Pendant, Spear of the Magus, Gem of Isolation, Divine Ruin/ Soul Gem/Situational, Shaman's Ring/ Rod of Tahuti/ Doom Orb/situational.

So an example build: Shoes of the Magi, Chronos' Pendant, Spear of the Magus, Gem of Isolation, Rod of Tahuti, Soul Gem.
0
andreyz5z | March 10, 2019 11:58pm
I tested different builds, including yours. I see many builds when play, include 2 stars Merlin with Book of Thoth and Polynomicon (can't understand him)... Spear of the Magus already nerfed and cost more gold, and most time more need antiheal. Now I see only careful teams, too hard realize ours full potential. Combo with arcane often missed. Gameplay now looks like as 2 hit in frost style.
3
Kriega1 (143) | March 22, 2019 5:24pm
I can't understand most of what you're saying. Are you using a translator?

Anyway Spear of the Magus is still good on Merlin, even after the nerf.
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League of Legends Build Guide Author andreyz5z
Merlin (Arena)
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