On Wings of Victory, onward to Season 2! (under construction)

0.1: Copied the layout from my other guide. Added introduction, build, skills and matchups chapters. Added BBcoding and general formatting.

Hey all,
Welcome to my guide for Eset, The Goddess of Magic.
There are many guides just like it, but this one is mine.
I have put a lot of time and effort into this guide, trying to give you, the reader and player of this amazing game and god, a better understanding about Eset and how to build her.

Isis is a very strong, skillshot based mage. She plays differently than other mages, as in that her Wing Gust is sort of channeled, and her Spirit Ball and Circle of Protection have to be detonated by pressing their button again for maximum potential.
This gives her a much higher skill cap than most other gods, but if played correctly she can carry insanely hard.
Also, her teamfight potential in the mid- and lategame are ridiculous. So ridiculous I've even added an extra chapter for it (and because I couldn't fit it in anywhere else in the guide)

Above is pretty much an alt-tab guide, and I will explain my reasoning below.
I do however suggest that you read through the entire guide, as again, I have put a lot of time and effort into this, and also the alt-tab guide is useless if you don't know WHY you are skilling the way you are or buying the items you are buying.

Constructual critisism is welcome, bashing however is not.

Start:
You start with Magi's Blessing, Tiny Trinket, 2x Health Potion and 1x Mana Potion. You can switch the potions around if you are really confident but I would suggest getting 2 health potions for if you escape an early gank you can just heal up and farm longer other than going back and missing a wave.
Try to stay for 1550 gold for Golden Sash (1450 gold) and 2 Wards (50g each).

A lot of people rather buy Shoes of the Magi (or even Shoes of Focus) but I like to start stacking as soon as I can, since Eset is squishy early on and Warlock's Sash gives a lot of health.

Midgame:
The term 'teamfight ready' from my alt-tab guide above is really awkward for a mid laner. As a midlaner you will get ganked more often, gonna have to contest mid camps, maybe even rotate when your enemy is rotating, or actually rotate yourself if you see the dual lane pushed in like crazy and you can help your jungler make it a 4v2 fight.

Let's just say you should about finish these items by the time your other teammates have their cores up. Warlock's Sash for tankyness, Shoes of the Magi and Bancroft's Talon for damage and magical lifesteal.

Lategame:
I'm going to split this section up in 2 sub-sections, items when ahead, and items when behind. This makes a massive difference with Isis, more so than with other gods, so be sure to build the right stuff.

If you are AHEAD:
If you managed to dominate your midlane, secured your mid camps and maybe pulled off a succesful gank or 2, you can consider these items. This will give you less sustain, but a lot more firepower, but since you're ahead, you can get away with it. These are the items you will go in 70% of your games.

Rod of Tahuti speaks for itsself. This is the strongest magical item in the game, giving you a whopping 125 magical power PLUS it increases your magical power by 25%. So let's say you have 400 magical power, just the passive, will give you 100 extra magical power for a total of 500.
NOTE: This item actually provides a total of +156.25 Magical Power due to its passive, along with +15 MPS.

Obsidian Shard gives that rather big amount of magical power you have amassed by now another 33% magical penetration, which is huge.

If you are BEHIND:
When things went wrong, when the enemy Thanatos got 2 kills in the solo lane in the first 2 minutes, when you haven't won a single gank, or when the enemy Nu Wa destroyed you in lane making you go 0 5 0 in 12 minutes (don't ever do this, please!), and all hope for snowballing out of control is gone, go for these items.

Void Stone gives you some much needed magical protection against your mid laner, giving him a harder time killing you. It's aura also reduces nearby enemies magical resistances, which will help you deal some pretty good damage even though you are behind.

Breastplate of Valor is pretty much the go-to physical protection item for casters, for several reasons. 1) Physical protection, obviously. 2) Mana. 3) Cooldown reduction.
Do I really have to explain more? No? Good, I knew you were a smart one. Have a cookie.


Magi's Blessing
Ok, I see you thinking, why is this a seperate paragraph, and not included in the 'if you are behind' paragraph? I'm snowballing, let me snowball!
Exactly, you are snowballing, get this item!


Actives:
I don't give you a choice here, you get Greater Purification and Greater Aegis. Why? Because you have to survive in teamfights to zone, stun, silence and damage/heal burst with your ult.

WHEN to get your actives however is kind of up to the game really. I tend to get Purification Beads and Aegis Amulet around the time I finish my Bancroft's Talen, but it's really up to how the game progresses. Greater Aegis is really good to stop a Poseidons Release The Kraken!, Greater Beads is awesome to stop that rotating Ares from ulting you time and time again. Mid is more reactive, especially when it comes to actives, than other lanes. Keep this in mind.

Passive: Funeral Rites
Not the most impressive passive in the game. Gives health and mana regen based on an amount of stacks. Every kill/assist gives a stack, for a maximum of 10 stacks.
This once again proves that Eset is a teamfight god, and that survivability is important.

Wing Gust
Eset flaps her wings 4 times, dealing damage in a line in front of her. This is channelled, and can be interrupted, so try to wait for most CCs to be used before you use it. This is especially important during the laning phase since this is your lane clear ability.
The best parts however about this ability, are that it gives 25% movement speed with NO backpedal penalty, and makes Eset immune to root and knockback effects while channeling, which makes it awesome for mobility too. (read: to run away very quickly while dealing damage)

Spirit Ball
Eset sends a ball of pure energy towards the enemy, hoping he/she will catch it with his/her face, dealing damage and stunning them. You can make the Spirit Ball exploding by pressing its button a second time. The further the ball travels, the more damage it deals, up to 150% damage, and the longer it stuns, up to 1,5 second (close range is 1 second).

Dispel Magic
This is a really cool spell, stealing enemy protections, slowing them and silencing them for a short period of time in a medium sized area of effect. This makes hitting your Spirit Ball a tad easier, but is just a really big nuisance in teamfights if the enemy is grouped up.

Circle of Protection
One of my personal favourite spells in the entire game. Isis plants her staff in the ground, marking a rather big area, wherein allies take 15% less damage (teamfight god!!). ANY damage dealt in the area charges the staff, and after 5 seconds (or when you activate the skill again) it will deal damage to enemies and heal allies. Numbers taken from the smite wiki:
This ability can deal up to 240/400/600/840/1120 (+75/100/125/150/175% of your magical power) damage and heal for up to 120/200/300/420/560 (+37.5/50/62.5/75/87.5% of your magical power) at max charge.

THIS is the reason, why I made the defensive build, because you have to stay alive to pop this. This is why you build 2 defensive active items, becaause you have to ****** stay alive to pop this awesome skill! THIS can turn teamfights around in the blink of an eye! This is THE skill to make comebacks happen!

Since Eset has to channel her Wing Gust, and her Spirit Ball can be easily dodged by gods with high mobility, she has a number of really good, and really bad matchups. Therefor I will cover most popular mid choices.

Agni
Has decent mobility with Path of Flames, and can stun with Noxious Fumes. A good Agni who knows how to abuse this, is a nightmare. Play careful, this matchup is slightly Agni favoured, but not unwinnable.

Anubis
This is not even fair. Anubis has to stand still for Plague of Locusts, his main clear ability. You can stun or silence him out of this, interupting his skill. If he maxes Graspin Hands because of this, he will have less damage, already giving you an advantage because he will lose gold to tower shots. Try to use Wing Gust while being right behind your melee minions in order to dodge Mummify and you should easily win this lane.

He Bo
A knockup in the form of Waterspout with a low cooldown means this is already heavily in He Bo's favor.
The fact that Water Cannon hits as hard as Crushing Wave after a few items, does not help.
Atlas of the Yellow River's speed buff is the least of your worries.

Janus
A half decent Janus does not need Portal to clear the wave and he will try to put it under you while you are channeling Wing Gust. Move while channeling to confuse him, it's kinda hard but not impossible to dodge. Janus favourited matchup, hard, but not impossible.

Kukulkan
Has no real mobility other than a speed increase in the form of Slipstream, but other than that he's a very easy matchup. Completely Eset favoured.

Nox
Also has a silence, which is a fast moving projectile. See if you can bait it before using Wing Gust. This is a very skill-based matchup, no real favoured side in my eyes.

Nu Wa
Can just clear with auto attacks and Mysterious Fog while keeping her stun combo for when you use Wing Gust. Then she will send her Clay Soldiers forward and let them explode with Shining Metal to stun you. Hardest mid matchup from my experience.

Poseidon
The knockup from Tidal Surge gets cancelled by wing dust, and you can easily move out/around Whirlpool because of the 25% movement speed. He can however burst you with his Whirlpool, Release The Kraken!, Tidal Surge combo, so be weary of that, other than that this is completely Eset favoured.

Ra
Ra is a really boring matchup. Even though he has no real mobility, his passive Speed of Light can be slightly annoying. He has no CC other than that blind of his (but just turn your back), so he can't kill you unless you are HORRIBLY out of position (or gets help), but you can't kill him because of the heal from Solar Blessing unless you get help.

Scylla
Has a stun with Sic 'Em, so hide behind your melee minions, has pretty good burst, and a good escape with Sentinel. Hard to kill although not 100% impossible. Her bad early clear should give you an edge though.



Thanatos gets a honourable mention for having the most annoying gank skill ever, in the form of Soul Reap