Neith the Ravager (Most Game Types)

I have played Smite off and on since Beta. I used to main Ao Kuang before he was switched to Kukulkan, then I mained Kukulkan after a shock when my precious Ao Kuang had none of the abilities I remembered. I've also mained Neith for quite a while, always picking her when I didn't feel like playing my serpent. Now that Kukulkan is down in the dirt after being nerfed, I've been playing a lot of Neith. So after I went 19 - 3 - 13 in an arena match and being able to stroll on into a group of 3 or 4 enemies without dying, I figured I'd share the wealth with others.

That poor, poor Loki. He tried his darn diddly best to take me from behind, but he wasn't able to take 10 steps away from me before he hit the ground. Yes, he tried to run.

STARTER ITEMS
Many people will buy the first tier boots and invest in other items, possibly a couple of potions. By investing your gold into the second tier boots and a Light Blade, you will have the advantage in maneuverability and wave clearing. Due to not being able to purchase potions or wards, you must stay vigilant in the first few minutes - though the game is fairly passive during this time, compared to later on.

MID-GAME
By this point you should have already upgraded your boots to Ninja Tabi, giving an even split between physical power and attack speed (and an acceptable boost to mana). Unlike many Neith builds, this one focuses on ramping your attack speed alongside your other stats so that on-hit effects trigger more often.

Executioner is a nice, cheap item to be bought after Ninja Tabi. It grants a decent chunk of power and attack speed, and helps to mitigate early defenses put up by the opposing gods. This will become especially useful later on, as the 12% decrease stacks 3 times. You may consider Asi in place of this or Odysseus' Bow (if there is another god along side you that is able to clear minions) if you find yourself in need of that sustain earlier than expected.

Odysseus' Bow is a straight (but immense) attack speed bonus to help jump-start the stat, with its passive being great for clearing waves. Of course it is nice to catch a god with the lightning, but our real focus is to help clear out the walls of minions so that you can get to pushing and poking (generally being more aggressive than sitting behind your minions holding your basic attack). If you are fighting alongside another god capable of clearing waves easily, consider one of the sustain alternatives.

LATE-GAME
Speaking of on-trigger effects, Qin's Sais should be your next target. It provides a large boost to physical power, the long-term goal of attack speed, and a nasty on-hit effect that will especially help with poking. At the point in the game at which this is bought, you are still likely to heavily rely on your abilities for damage rather than your basic attacks, unless it happens to be a more aggressive progression. You may also consider buying this later if the state of the game makes other choices more desirable. That being short on gold, or heavy counters.

Wind Demon is the snowball that pushes you off the cliff and down the mountain. It's where we first see critical strike chance, and a 1/5 chance with the attack speed you have now is no problem at all. Not only that, but it buffs your attack speed (and movement) even more when you pull off a crit. It seems somewhat unfair if you're shooting upwards of 2 shots per second, with an already great physical power.

Deathbringer is the cherry on top, it boosts your critical strike chance up to a 40%, grants you a nicely wrapped gift of physical power, and turns your critical hits into small explosives. It has a fairly high price, which is why it is last (the benefits of the others outweigh the time it takes to grab this).

SUSTAIN ALTERNATIVES
If the other team is all attack but no defense, Shifter's Shield is a solid alternative as well. It keeps your highs high, and your lows a bit higher. But with both you are sacrificing attack speed and critical strike chance and so I would recommend these only in dire situations.

An Asi is a fine choice for an early item, as it provides the desired attack speed, with a small boost to penetration and life steal. The additional 25% life steal can really help in a pinch as well - if you're short on gold, feel free to replace the Qin's Sais with an Asi.

ANNOYING ALTERNATIVES
I'm not going to cover all of the items on the Annoying Alternatives list, as none of them should be taken seriously (except Titan's Bane). These are all items that contribute to your goal of attack speed and on-hit effects, while making life difficult for the other team. I would strongly recommend purchasing the core build over these items - only consider some of these if you are very confident your team is going to win, and you can afford to have fun watching the tears build up. Oh, there is also some healing reduction in here, so if your other team has a lot of healing properties you should probably look into the Toxic Blade.

OPTIMAL RELICS
Relics are always situational, but 90% of the time your two relics will be from this short list. Aegis Amulet is a scape-goat from explosive team encounters, Purification Beads is a scape-goat from all those annoying stuns and grapples that you are bound to run into, Phantom Veil is especially great for escaping walls from Ymir and Odin (or any other gods with similar abilities), and Meditation Cloak is just a small piece of sustain to keep your guys out there and fighting a bit longer. From this list, you are likely to take Aegis Amulet and Purification Beads the most.

This is where a lot of controversy may arise. Originally I was going to start off with Unravel for the multi-targeted damage and healing, but Spirit Arrow is a much better choice - it can travel through enemy minions, meaning that even if you have a wall in front of you, you can still try to poke opponents. Unravel is taken second though, because the healing is very useful when you have no way of healing (other than teleporting back). Backflip is simply utility with Neith - I rarely find myself using it for damage. At your third level, take it so that you can become flexible with your movements and escapes. From here on upgrade Spirit Arrow every other level. Backflip is the last ability to be focused on, as again, it is largely just utility with this build.

Ultimately, the goal of this build is to be able to attack quickly to rapidly land your on-hit effects, in turn snowballing into critical hits and massive damage. Quite a few Neith builds focus solely on damage and critical chance, but that doesn't do much good if you are only shooting 2 to 3 arrows every 2 seconds.

Playing with upwards of 4 to 5 shots every 2 seconds is devastating, especially when you get to trigger lightning, extra crit chance and movement speed, and ruin physical protections - really just keep your target on lockdown.

Well, I hope you enjoy your newly found machine of death. Of course bad teammates will ruin it just as well as an over-powered opposing team. You can't win them all, so please feel free to try this half a dozen times or so - that way you can get a feel for a truly good game.

This is also my first guide, so please let me know how it is and how it has worked for you! Thank you to those who read through the entire thing before trying it!

(I'll continue to update this guide as I play and fine-tune the build.)