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                    Assassin's Blessing
                                    
                    Lost Artifact
                                    
                    Mana Potion
                                            
                    Healing Potion
                                            
                    Chronos' Pendant
                                    
                    Shoes of Focus
                                    
                    Spear of the Magus
                                    Do these in either order. Soul Gem will help you with healing off of a camp and getting back into a team fight as well as maxing out cdr, while Gem of Iso will help you chase.
                    Soul Gem
                                    
                    Gem of Isolation
                                    Grab the Ruin if you need antiheal.
Rod or Typhons are both good options if you want more raw power and your enemies aren't tanky enough to worry about getting another pen item.
Hide of the Urchin is a good option if you're too squishy and need some defense, but choose Stone of Fal to counter bursty mages.
                    Divine Ruin
                                    
                    Rod of Tahuti
                                    
                    Typhon's Fang
                                    
                    Hide of the Urchin
                                    
                    Stone of Fal
                                    
                    Shaman's Ring
                                    
                    Assassin's Blessing
                                    
                    Chronos' Pendant
                                    
                    Shoes of Focus
                                    
                    Spear of the Magus
                                    
                    Soul Gem
                                    
                    Gem of Isolation
                                    
                    Rod of Tahuti
                                    
                    Chronos' Pendant
                                    
                    Shaman's Ring
                                    
                    Spear of the Magus
                                    
                    Soul Gem
                                    
                    Gem of Isolation
                                    I typically go Blink and Beads. I sub out beads for aegis if they don't have significant CC. This allows Merlin to blink in and still have a blink out, or to double blink on someone who thought they were definitely out of range and stared to back.
                        Purification Beads
                    
                        Blink Rune
                    
                        Aegis Amulet
                    1/X/Square: Frostbolt is a good burst ability, comparable to Kuku 1. It slows and does a significant amount of damage. This is a good solo engagement skill or a good finisher. Eclipse or Radiate are both good for clearing a camp or a lane when you are in those stances.
2/A/Cross: Blizzard and Dragonfire are very good for clearing a camp quickly at first level. In addition, they are both very good zoning tools, and both apply an effect: Blizzard slows and Dragonfire reduces protections. Vortex is useful for dragging enemies back towards you in a chase to finish them off.
3/B/Circle: This is a Blink.
4/Y/Triangle: This is Merlin's Stance Change. I have 2 things to say about this:
First, This ability also does AOE damage around you, and has an effect based on your CURRENT STANCE. (Fire: burn, Ice: slow, Arcane: knockup)
Second, You can choose your stance! By default it cycles Arcane (1) > Fire (2) > Ice (3) HOWEVER, after you use the ability, you can press 1(X/Square) to change to Arcane, 2(A/Cross) to change to Fire, and 3(B/Circle) to change to Ice. If you press the option for the stance you are in, it will instead change to the default order.
I find it useful (especially in the early game) to bounce between his ice and fire stance. Ice is a good engaging stance due to the slow, followed by fire, dropping a Dragons Breath to reduce protections and finishing off with Radiate or another ult > ice stance.
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Merlin doesn't need
I don't see why you need
If I can buy
The fact that your build has
For lifesteal options, Bancroft's is usually best when you expect to take damage, as you need to take damage to get more from the passive. SG is often better for gods that attack from range can stay safe from farther away.