One God To Tank Them All

OUTDATED!!! Might update after items are finalized and the game is released!!!

Welcome to my first Smite guide for Bacchus, God Of Wine

Bacchus is a seriously underplayed tank in casual games and pretty much every guide for him is outdated, so I decided to fix both issues with one guide. This guide contains a full tank build for Bacchus so you can burp, smash and drink your way to victory.

If you like (or absolutely hate :D) the guide, please consider leaving a vote so I know if i did a decent (or bad) job. If you vote could you also leave a comment saying what's good and bad about the guide so I can improve it.

You're probably thinking, who does this pretentious noob think he is to talk about the God of Gods. Well, I've finally reached God Rank 10 with Bacchus, And I'm at 100 wins, 300 kills and 3000 assists, so I do have some authority on the subject.

Check out my profile to keep track of my wins with Bacchus:
Grimskull player profile

This guide helped me out a lot while creating this guide. Check it out to improve all your builds
Smite Math Guide

Thanks a lot to Flareb00t for creating this guide.I t helped me a lot. Here's the link to his reddit post: http://www.reddit.com/r/Smite/comments/1ofi3b/the_word_of_thoth_a_smite_mechanics_formulae_and/

This guide is based on the concept of getting a maximum amount of Total Effective Health. If you want to get more information on Total Effective Health, watch this vid: Play Video
Thanks for reading,

Grimskull

P.S If you read the skill sequence you might notice I put my 8th skill point in Belly Flop. This isn't possible in game, but it means you have to spare it until lvl 9 and then put a point in both Belly Flop and Intoxicate.

19 October 2013: Some major gameplay changes to the skill sequence, items and strategy sections. check them out to see what's new.
27 October 2013: Huge changes to the item build and skills chapters. Check it out to improve your favorite drunkard.
29 October 2013: Fleshed out some item descriptions.
30 October 2013: Added Operation IMB, added Midas Boots as a situational item, added Divine Ruin as a situational item, fleshed out the Strategy chapter and added some general improvements to the guide as a whole.
31 October 2013: Removed Soul Reaver and Winged Wand from the list of possible 6th items. I realized that, as a support, getting items that improve your team as a whole are more important than your own damage or speed. Added Witch Stone to the possible 6th items list as a replacement. Tidied up the purchase orders.
6 November 2013: Removed Magi's Cowl from the build because Magi's Blessing allows you to get your Belch of the Gods off a lot more which is a better advantage then the 40 extra protections. Also changed the order in which you should buy the items.
4 December 2013: removed [Watcher's Gift] as a secondary item. In solo queue it's just not worth it because your laning partner usually doesn't focus on getting last hits. Changed the description of the boots as well. Moved Magi's Blessing from third item to 5th item.
7 December 2013: Changed description of Eye of Providence according to the latest patch. Might start experimenting with other actives. Will let you guys know what I find out.
11 December 2013: Changed a few things in the items section. Replaced Shoes of Focus with midas boots. Rewrote quite a bit of the strategy section.
10 January 2014: Few visual updates, updated the number of votes received in the intro text, removed some text in the intro. Eye will be staying as an active after the recent ward changes. Rest of the build stays the same.
15 January 2014: Added a little paragraph about Geb in the introduction, since I think my Bacchus build will work wonders on his shield ability.
18 January 2014: Changed the build quite a bit. Bulwark of Hope got replaced by Hide of the Urchin, since I like it's passive more. Magi's Cowl became the default 5th item, with Magi's Blessing as a substitute if the enemy team is heavy on CC. Pestilence got removed as a substitute and Void Stone replaced Spear of the Magus as a possible 6th item.
22 January 2014: Forgot to add Bulwark of Hope in the build order. Fixed now.

Pros

Amazing Crowd Control (CC)
Amazing initiation
Very Tanky
Great damage on his ultimate aside from the enormous CC
In my eyes he's somewhat more "nimble" than the other tanks. Hard to imagine on him but he's one of the quickest tanks and his Belly Flop gives him loads of escape

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Cons

Enormous Mana consumption
Low damage (except for his ultimate)
No minion clear
Lacking in prolonged CC except for his ultimate

Bacchus is a tank. Tanks do NOT get kills. Tanks do 4 things:

Initiate teamfights
Set up kills for the rest of the team (Feed the Carry)
Save people from getting killed (Taking one for the team)
Zoning dangerous enemies out in teamfights

This means you are going to take a lot of damage, so you have to take items that reduce damage. The thing about protections is they give diminishing returns. After you get a certain amount of protections, it's just better to get extra health instead. That's the principle this build is built on.(pun intended)

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Since you have no healing abilities as Bacchus, a Healing Potion will help you stay in lane a little longer. A Mana Potion is a small help to counter Bacchus' infinite mana consumption but every little bit helps. Keep buying these early game if you have gold left after a purchase. Mana Potion gets priority over Healing Potion.

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Mark of the Vanguard gives you health, protections and its passive gives you a flat damage reduction which really helps against early game minion damage. You won't be getting the Reinforced Greaves so this item will give you some much needed early game tankiness.

When you have finished your 6th item, sell Mark of the Vanguard to make space for something else.

Watcher's Gift is a possibility as well but only when laning with an ADC who can reliably get last hits. This will only happen in the higher levels of league, so unless you play at that level I suggest you stick with Mark of the Vanguard

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Midas Boots\

Tanks go Midas Boots because we're gold hungry scum. These boots give you health, mana and 5 gold for every 5 gold you gain. You'll be swimming in gold if you get these, BUT you forego the tankiness from the Reinforced Greaves and all the bonuses from Shoes of Focus, so you'll have to be very CAREFUL early game to make sure you stay alive. On the bright side, these boots will allow you to get Sovereignty a lot earlier which means your mid game will be a lot better.

When the build is completed, switch the midas boots for the Shoes of Focus. The Shoes of Focus give you magical power, mana and Cooldown reduction. I've been noticing a lot lately that ,while I have no problem staying alive as Bacchus, i'm having some troubles keeping team mates alive because my abilities are always on cooldown. This is why I started trying out Shoes of Focus to reduce my cooldowns and it has worked out really well. Also, the extra mana helps out tremendously with mana issues.

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Look at those protections! Following Flareb00t's math, Sovereignty is the best tank item in the game. It gives you loads of health and protections and even shares some of those protections with your team (aura of protections).

You might think 20 physical and magical protection isn't a lot but because your team mates usually don't get any protections, these protections will increase their Total Effective Health tremendously (there aren't any diminishing returns yet).

If the enemy team is composed of 4 or 5 magical damage gods, get Hide of the Urchin first and get Bulwark of Hope after it instead of Sovereignty.

Bulwark of Hope gives loads of health and magical protections. It also has a hugely useful passive that reduces damage taken by 50% for 1s if you drop below 25% health. It is pretty much the best magical protection you can get and will make sure you can easily withstand the enemy mages. Together with Hide of the Urchin handling enemy mages should be no problem.

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Hide of the Urchin gives health, mana, magical and physical protections. Pretty much everything a tank needs. It's passive also gives you +2 magical and physical protections for every god kill or assist, which means it'll only get better over time.

If the enemy team is almost all magical, get this before Sovereignty so you get the magical protections to withstand mages while also having the physical protections to tank towers. (towers deal physical damage)

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Magi's Cowl\ Magi's Blessing

Magi's Cowl gives you extra protections, loads of health and CC reduction. This nicely rounds out our protections so we can get started on the damage part of the build.

Magi's Blessing is the way to go if the enemy has a lot of CC. It trades out some of the protections of Magi's Cowl for increased CC reduction and a passive that allows you to negate a hard CC every 45s. This allows you to get off your burp without it being interrupted.

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Ethereal Staff gives you a huge amount of health, loads of mana and some magical power. Its passive converts 2% of your maximum health to magical power. If you've been paying attention you'll have noticed that all the items in the build except for the Shoes of Focus give decent amounts of health. This makes the passive on this item up your combat potential tremendously. Since we wanted to focus on health next there's no better way to go.

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\ \ Witch Stone

If you're still feeling the hurt from the enemy mages, get Void Stone as your last item. With its magical power and protections boost, those mages won't be hurting you while you'll be dishing out some damage yourself. It's passive reduces the magical protections of nearby enemies, which helps out friendly mages as well.

Divine Ruin will shut down the enemy healer completely. It gives decent magical power, mana and magical lifesteal. The passive is where it's really at though: Hitting an enemy with an ability reduces healing by 25% for 3s and you can apply up to 2 stacks of this. A god like Hel will have her healing completely ruined with this item.

Witch Stone is the item to use if the carries (hunters), assassins or bruisers on their team are the most dangerous. It has good physical protections but with a bonus to attack and movement speed you'd think this wouldn't be the best item on a tank. The passive is (once again) where it's really at. The passive on Witch Stone provides an aura which reduces the enemies physical power and attack speed. This will help shut down any overpowered physical gods on the enemy team. This is more of a defensive item which you wanna get when you're team is having trouble with the enemy ADC. (hunter)

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Eye of Providence gives you a ward every 90s (tier 1), a ward every 60s (tier 2) or a sentry ward every 60s (tier 3) every 60s. Since you can carry only one ward at a time, this item will allow you to ward without having to return to base all the time. A must have for any support!

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Hand of the Gods gives you some minion clear early game and helps you and your mate get the early jungle buffs. At tier 3 it will kill the Fire Giant or Gold Fury as soon as it's below 25% health and this allows you to steal the buff from right under the enemies noses. I tested this, it works and you feel like the ultimate troll if you succeed. (I wish there was a way to see the enemy chat whenever I do this)

Skill priority: see Skill Sequence

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The Drunk-O-Meter is AWESOME. The more you drink, the better you get. (If only it were like this in real life) It has 3 stages: Thirsty, Tipsy and Smashed.

Thirsty does nothing (Duh)
Tipsy gives you 7% damage reduction, 10 magical power and adds an extra effect to your second and third ability
Smashed gives you 14% damage reduction, 30 magical power and adds an extra effect to your ultimate

Basically, STAY SMASHED ALL THE TIME!! WOOHOO!!. The damage reduction is vital to your early game survival. If you're out of mana, Get yourself a blue buff with the help of the jungler or look for an opportunity to return to base to buy potions. If you can't keep your Drunk-O-Meter up you aren't of any use in lane.

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Chug fills your Drunk-O-Meter. It fills it more with each point in it, also gives you protections for 6s when you use it. You get more protections with each point you put into it. This is going to be your main mana hog. Use it:

If you're about to go Tipsy
Before initiating
When you're about to take a ****load of damage

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Use Belly Flop to:

initiate
escape
save allies

Belly Flop throws enemies up in the air and damages them. If you're Tipsy it also slows your enemies, which is a huge advantage (so keep chuggin'). Try to hit groups of enemies at once. It might take some time before you're able to predict enemies movement reliably enough to get consistent hits with this ability.

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BURRRRRRRPPPPPPPPP!!! Belch of the Gods does damage and applies a stun and healing debuff if you're Tipsy, so make sure your Tipsy if you use this. The stun gets applied at the end of the ability (which lasts 2s) and since it's very easy to avoid or interrupt Belch of the Gods make sure your enemies are distracted while using it. Because it hits 4 times, This is a great ability to apply the effects of Spear of the Magus or Divine Ruin with.

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SPREAD THE DRUNKENNESS AROUND!!!

Intoxicate makes everyone drunk. Oh, and it does a ****load of damage (for a tank). When hit by Intoxicate, enemies will be unable to walk straight for 8s. If you're smashed, you will also gain a magical power buff for 5s.

This is what you use to initiate team fights. The CC and damage will give your team an opening to attack. Make sure you hit as many enemy gods as possible when you use this.
If you need a quick kill and your carry is unable to get it, Intoxicate is a great ability to secure the kill.

If you wanna know how annoying this ability is, get hit by it. Seriously, it's horrifying.

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How to use your skills together

Teamfight combo

==> ==> ==>

When setting up an attack Chug first to reduce incoming damage. After that, jump in with Belly Flop, Intoxicate everyone, and use Belch of the Gods to stun dangerous enemies or squishies to make sure they don't get away.

Alternative Combo

==> ==>

If Intoxicate is unavailable, Chug first to reduce damage, initiate with Belly Flop, stun with Belch of the Gods and hope you hit someone.

If you know the enemy has a CC to interrupt your Belch of the Gods, try to get him to waste his CC and use Belch of the Gods after it. If he flees, burp anyway so he uses his CC on you and not your laning partner so he can try to get the kill.

After initiating, if the fight lasts long enough for your abilities to recharge, use your Belly Flop and Belch of the Gods to help teammates in trouble.

If you keep playing as Bacchus. You will eventually figure out how and when his skills are used to best effect but I will try to upload a good match I had with him whenever possible.

Early Game (Laning)

Try to get someone as a carry in your team during god selection and immediately call out to be in lane with him. As a tank I usually try to take command of the team. Try and ask people nicely if they want to fill up a missing role instead of being the 4th assassin on the team. Give them advice throughout the match, type something motivating or funny in chat. Team spirit is just as important as skill. (Of course, if you're not comfortable taking command or don't want to this is completely optional)

Get Mark of the Vanguard, a rank of Hand of the Gods, a rank of Eye of Providence, a Healing Potion and a Mana Potion to start. After this, follow the rest of the item guide throughout the game (see above). Upgrade Eye of Providence to tier 3 after you get tier 3 of your midas boots and upgrade Hand of the Gods to tier 3 as soon as your team wants to go kill the Fire Giant or The Gold Fury.

After you buy your items, put a point in Belly Flop and move out. Now there are 2 situations that can arise:

1) The duo lane is far away from the right mid harpies
The duo lane is close to the right mid harpies

In situation 1, you and your carry need to move to the duo lane to make sure your blue buff doesn't get stolen. If your carry is a nice and bright guy, try to steal the enemy blue buff. After you get your buff or the enemies their blue buff, move in lane, put up a ward to protect from ganks and start farming. The rest of your team should go for the right mid harpies.

In situation 2, you, your carry and mid need to take out the right mid harpies. After this, get your blue buff and start farming. Do NOT take the red or orange buff because you will rob the jungler of valuable experience. Also keep an eye on your blue buff before the furies spawn so it doesn't get stolen and quickly put a ward at the left mid harpies so you know how many enemies are there. If there are 0-2 enemies there, go ahead and steal the harpies with Hand of the Gods. The jungler and solo lane should get the buffs in the solo lane jungle. Many junglers won't know this, so if they come mid as well just let them.

NOTE: You can chose to give blue buff to yourself or your carry. If they know what they're doing, give them blue buff so they can push and poke more effectively. Otherwise, take it yourself. If you give blue buff to the carry, put your next point in Belch of the Gods instead of Chug because you will run into mana issues if you don't.

When you get to lvl 2, put a point in Chug and start drinking. Constantly keep your Drunk-O-Meter up by drinking. (you'll think this is easy, you are very very wrong). You'll upgrade this ability last after putting 1 point in it because its mana cost increases exponentially with every point in it. (we don't want that)

You want to be careful early game, you haven't got a lot of protections and believe me, minions do a lot of damage. Stay behind your minions while helping your laning partner taking out the enemy minions. Keep using Chug to keep your Drunk-O-Meter up. Use Belly Flop to poke at the enemies, but don't do it when loads of enemy minions are around or you will take a lot of damage. Try to look for opportunities to get enemy minions to follow you so you can quickly get them together and take them out with Hand of the Gods without taking too much damage. Don't waste your abilities on killing minions unless they're about to get in tower range.

Most importantly, PROTECT YOUR LANING PARTNER. This is your most important job. Even die if it keeps him alive (but try to stay alive). Next, get your laning partner fed (make sure he gets kills). If you manage to get your laning partner fed it will make your life a lot easier. Also keep an eye out for ganks and call missing if the enemies aren't in lane. Don't forget to keep putting up wards with Eye of Providence to protect your lane from ganks by the enemy jungler.

Try to steal your enemies mana buff if it's up (good time to do this is when you kill them) and keep claiming the mana buff on your lane for yourself. It's VERY IMPORTANT to have a mana buff on you as much as possible because you will run out of mana very quickly if you don't have it.

Mid Game

If you start to get the upper hand in your lane, as long as your carry can survive on his own, don't be afraid to gank middle lane once in a while or help the jungler get a jungle buff with your Hand of the Gods. If you gank middle lane, put up a ward to make his life easier. Keep the enemies on their toes.

When the enemies in your lane leave, call missing. If they run into the jungle, FOLLOW THEM. This is called rotating. They might be looking to gang up on a team mate, you need to make sure that doesn't happen.

If you're getting pushed, don't do reckless moves just to keep minions away from your tower. Lull them into a false sense of security and ask the jungler for a gank. Be sure to CC the hell out of the enemies when he comes to gank. As soon as the enemies get minions in tower range, they will try to do damage to the tower with auto-attacks. Now it's time to play meat shield for the tower. Get in the way of their attacks and remember that if they hit you the tower will start attacking them instead of the minions. Also focus on getting those enemy minions away from your tower asap.

Also don't underestimate your damage if you got Shoes of Focus. If there's a squishy at 50% health, a combo of Belly Flop and Intoxicate should be able to kill him. Of course, try to give the kills to your laning partner.

When team fights start to appear, hope your team doesn't consist of newbies and waits for you to initiate (Initiating means jumping in and CC'ing the enemy team so your team has a window of opportunity to attack). Initiate and keep your teammates alive. Don't go for kills but play meat shield for the squishies on your team.

When initiating use VAA to let your allies know you're about to jump in. Sometimes, they'll be a little more prepared if you let them know you're attacking.

End Game

STAY TOGETHER! This is very important late game. The enemy team will be moving as a group if they're anything decent and so should you. Getting caught alone is a sure way to get killed. VVVG is a very important voice command here.

At end game tank the towers (actually, onwards from lvl 12 you can tank towers) and phoenixes while keeping an eye on your teammates so they can kill them. If you're going for the Fire Giant remember that tier 3 of Hand of the Gods kills it at 25% health. You can also use this item to steal the Fire Giant kill from the enemy team (make sure to ward the Fire Giant so you know when they are going for it).

Lastly, be sure to push when you're given the opportunity. As soon as you win a team fight, don't go back to base to buy an item. Attack a tower or phoenix, keep the pressure on and only return to base if your health starts to get low.

Remember, this strategy won't necessarily win you the game, but if you practice and follow these guidelines you should be able to get out of games with decent stats more often than not.

N01 handicap of tanks: you need a good team to excell. This explains it very well: you have to look at a tank as a multiplier: if your team is 2, it becomes 4. If your team is 5, it becomes 10. If your team is 0, it stays zero.

Don't take this as an excuse to blame others for the loss of a game though. Always reflect on a game to see where you made mistakes and make sure you don't make those mistakes again. If you think you've made zero mistakes in a game, you've reached the limit of your potential and won't get any better. The more mistakes you make, the more room for improvement there is.

As a tank you should get satisfaction out of saving teammates and seeing your team excel because of your initiating, NOT out of getting kills.

If this does not apply to you, either don't play tank or play Ares (Ares players will understand this, he should be a friggin mage :D)

I hope this guide will help you guys with playing THE MOST AWESOME, INCREDIBLE, OP, UBER-TANK GOD OUT THERE!!!

If you liked the guide and it helped you please consider leaving a vote and a comment to make me feel good :D

Thanks for reading and see you in game!