Nemesis - Should I update this after 2 years?...

So as one of the most popular and well rated guides on this website, I was thinking about updating it for season 4. I pretty much didn't play smite at all for season 3, but I'm slowly getting back into it. Would you guys be interested in an updated season 4 Nemesis guide?

The Goddess of Vengeance, Nemesis herself, has entered the battlefield! She is blind, wielding a big *** sword, and half naked. What could possibly go wrong? *Goes 2-16* Well that I suppose... But no really. This chick is very powerful right now and can easily be built as an assassin or warrior, depending on your playstyle and match needs.

I have played her 100+ times and tested a few builds. Im going to go into her skills, item purchases, and basic first impressions of her combat and strategies I, myself, have begun using and having success with.

I will be sure to update this guide as I continue to test her and gain more knowledge in her strength and weaknesses. I always start a new god in arena and 3v3 to try and get the best feel for basic laning and teamfight combat.

I will be adding an in-depth conquest guide in the coming days as well, but for now, Id like to spread how I have had the most success and hopefully help others do just as well. The Conquest guide is in the works though and should be done soon.

For now, I hope you enjoy the guide and I hope it helps. Feel free to comment with your own experience and lets help this guide grow together! For now, most people seem to enjoy her Assassin build. People just love gettin them kills...

• Two, count em TWO, 50% slows
• Double Dash
• Great counter-burst
• Incredible Chase Potential
• Very Versatile
• Very Good Burst or Tankyness, Depending on build
• Is Half Naked

• If Built as Assassin, is very squishy
• Very Short Shield Effect
• Can be easily countered by Slow Immunity (Sprint)
• Some Decent Melee Skill Required
• Early Mana Problems

How you build Nemesis will be essential to how your playstyle will turn out. Depending on whether you want more burst or bruise will make your purchases accordingly. As an Assassin, I can get in, nuke a target down, and dash out before they know what happened. As a Bruiser, I stay in their face, blast constant slows, and keep them away from my teammates while doing decent damage and letting my fellow gods roll through them. Proceed to the Area of Choice. I find Assassin is most popular. People just love killing...

Passive: Scales of Fate

Her passive isnt too complicated. Every swing of your basic attack, the enemy loses 3% power and you gain 3% power. The main thing to note is it is stealing power. They lose 3% of THEIR power and you gain 3% of THEIR power. Now seeing as Magical gods get a lot more power overall, you only steal 1.5% of their power. This is still a good chunk when they begin to reach the 500+ area, as you will be gaining 25-30 power for free and cutting their power by 50-60.

This passive is very helpful to either build. As an assassin, you do a lot of 1v1 fights. That makes this usefulness pretty obvious. They hit softer, you hit harder. As a bruiser, I try to jump to more opponents. Spread the weakening aspect of it as much as possible. Either way, I wouldnt underestimate this passive. It can REALLY REALLLLY hurt.

Swift Vengeance

So this ability is amazing. It is a double-dash. Thats right, not just 1 dash, but 2. The utility this skill gives you is brutal. You can finish someone with it and quickly retreat. You can gain massive ground with a blink then double dash, catching almost anyone. You can run further away then anyone else in almost just as fast. It is truly beautiful.

Now the biggest thing to note here is this IS a dash. This means that walls like Odin's Rings, Ymir's Wall, or Thor's Stun can not be jumped over. However, with the latter two, you can dash around it very quickly. Bring up the targeter and make sure you can dash to just past the edge of the wall, dash, then quickly turn the camera away from them, and dash again.

Also, it has a bit of a longer cooldown then most movement abilities, standing at a solid 14 seconds. Not very short at all, though if you went with my bruiser build, it is dropped to about 8-9 seconds and can be spammed much more often. On the flip assassin build, this thing hits twice, making it 50% scaling if you can land both.

Overall, I can't praise this ability enough with just how much extra utility it gives you by making it a double. Learn to use it properly, and this will be a godsend.

Slice and Dice

Now this one... This freakin ability right here... WTF! This guy has a dirty 30% slow that levels to 50% and can hit like a brick. It is split into 3 zones, with the middle zone applying the slow and hitting twice as hard as the outer zones. All together, all 3 zones are almost a solid 180* circle, making it massive in size. Oh... And did I mention it is on a 10 second cooldown? Again I say... WTF!1! Ok so now its a 13 second cooldown... But it still rocks!!!

There really isnt anything bad about this ability besides the fact that it is just a tad short. If the range were a tad longer, you could clear waves instantly. But as is, you can only reach archers from minions if they have moved up just a tad bit. That said, I usually go just to the side and hit the archers with my middle zone and the melee's with the outer zone.

Either way, if you build my bruiser build, enemy's will HATE you. You will be swinging this bad boy every 5-6 seconds and people will have an almost permanent 50% slow. This IS one of the most annoying moves in the game to face. On the assassin side of things, the middle zone has double the base and scaling. Unfortunately, they already halved the scaling, which is gonna hurt, but it should still hit really hard with the base damage alone.

LOVE THIS MOVE! HAVE BABY"S WITH IT!

Retribution

Now this is an ability that requires a bit more skill to use. It can be a crazy powerful move in the right hands. For 1 second, you are immune to all damage and reflect back a % of that damage, while healing the same % reflected.

Ok so 1 second? Not very long... But you ARE immune to all damage, so fair enough. At level 5, the %'s go to 50%. This... Can be deadly. Oh no, incoming Ao Kuang ulti? *Shield* Aww Ao... Did you just hit yourself for 800 damage while healing me for half my health bar?... My bad... Oh no! Incoming Ra ulti! *Shield* Aww Ra... Dude... You just killed yourself...

You get the idea... Use this at the right time, and it is such a dirty dirty move. I have made it a habit of purposefully running into ulti's just to pop this and reflect the damage back, while healing myself right up. Like Poseidon needed another nerf lol...

A small note is that the damage reflected is a bit tricky. You reflect the full damage back at them, but then their protections reduce their own damage sent at them by your shield. This basically means if his ultimate was supposed to do 1000 damage before your protections, it will sent 1000 damage back but then his protections reduce said damage. Only the enemy's. You will, however, heal a full 1000 hp. Your own protections dont reduce the heal. Your protections dont mean a single thing when this ability is active. It also reflects the same type of damage back, be it physical or magical.

The major note here is that hard CC renders this shield useless. Now the damage hits first, so as with the Ao Kuang example, you still reflect and heal, but then the knockup still sends you flying. That being said... See an Anubis about to mummy you? Dont use this. You see a Ymir about to freeze you? DONT USE THIS! Be aware of who has hard CC and prepare accordingly.

And finally, this ability has been nerfed from a 12 second CD to 18. In my humble opinion, a major over-nerf. I think 15-16 would have been fine and this is going to hurt her bruiser build much more then her assassin build. It gave her very good sustain as a tank, but as an assassin, odds are you are only going to use it once a fight anyways. That being said... Use it sparingly...

NOTE: Popping Purification Beads essentially void's the hard CC weakness of the shield, making you fully immune to everything for that second. Yet another reason why I suggest it.

Divine Judgement

Now the glorious ultimate. This is not the shiniest of ultimates, but it still packs a solid punch. This basically hits them for a % of their HP, slows them, speeds you up, and steals their protections. The %'s all max at 50%.

Now a few notes. This move does indeed STEAL protections. So using this on a tank is most effective in that respect. If they lose 100 protections, you gain the same. If they lose 1 protection, well sux for you, you gain the same. This also means you can turn that super annoying super tanky Hercules into a squishy little baby. Hit him with this and have a bit of pen yourself, and he will melt as fast as that annoying Zues in the backfield.

The movement aspect is much like your passive though. It DOES NOT steal. They lose 25% of theirs and you gain 25% of yours. You wont become faster by using this on a sped up Chronos or slower by using it on a slow as hell Ymir.

The final note is, much like Geb's ultimate, your 50% hit is prone to protection reduction. This means if they had 200HP and 50 physical protections, and you hit them with this at level 5, they will take 50% of their HP (100 damage) which is then reduced by their protections. (50 protections) They take 50 damage.

All that taken into account, this ability will give you the most protections but do the least damage against tanks, but on the flip side, give you less protections and do more damage on a squishy. As such, in my assassin build, I try and use it on my squishy targets. In my bruiser build, I try and use it on a tank during a teamfight. It is a very flexible ultimate.