‘Rise, my minions!’ : Ah Puch In-Depth Guide S6 (WIP)

Lore

Buried beneath the crust of the world descends the cruel hells of torment. The topmost of which are realms of torture and vile inhumanities, home to denizens of darkness and malice. Yet, further into the black below, at the inkiest recesses can be found the horrific ninth hell. Here dwells a deity of true evil, gloating over each corpse he’s claimed with macabre glee, and relishing the moment more of these lesser souls are his. He is Ah Puch, the mightiest lord of the ninth hell.

When night falls, Ah Puch roams the land, crowned by a wreath of human eyes, gruesome skull face bared for all to witness, accompanied by the shriek of ghostly owls. All that live are his for the taking. If Ah Puch finds a human in the night, he kills and drags the unfortunate into endless oblivion. Only those already wracked by his servants, those caught in gut-wrenching wailing, moans of agony, and fits of mania are safe from his touch.

Hide now, all men and Gods, for the age of eternal night has come. Ah Puch will reap anything that lives. There is great vacancy left in the nine hells, and the Horrific God of Decay wishes only to fill it.

Role

In Smite, Ah Puch is a ranged, magical damage dealer in the Mage class who combos his high damage abilities together to blow up his enemies (literally). He is also very much an area damage god, able to spread damage across large AoEs rather than single targets. Finally, with two built-in antiheal abilities ( Fleeting Breath and Empty the Crypts) Ah Puch is the perfect counter to enemy healers.

In Conquest, he usually fills the role of a Mid Laner, and in other modes he is the main source of magical ability damage on a team.

Passive: Hollow Ground

Ah Puch's passive, Hollow Ground, is his main source of sustain for mana and health. After deploying corpses with either Undead Surge or Fleeting Breath you can walk over them to restore 5% of your maximum health and 3% of your maximum mana. Not only is this passive useful for self-sustain, absorbing one of these corpses also reduces the cooldown of Undead Surge and Fleeting Breath by 2 seconds each, so be sure to gobble up any spare corpses for extra cooldown reduction.

There are two main uses for this ability:

Ability 1: Undead Surge

Ah Puch's 1st ability, Undead Surge, throws two zombies in a wide line attack which explode at max range or when you re-activate the ability, doing damage and slowing enemies. The damage with this ability by itself isn't great, but it is his main combo initiator thanks to the slow and large area. It also drops two corpses upon detonation, which can be used in conjunction with Hollow Ground for sustain or Corpse Explosion for massive damage.

There are four main uses for this ability:

Ability 2: Corpse Explosion

Ah Puch's 2nd ability, Corpse Explosion, produces a small circle of damage, but that also causes any corpses dropped by Undead Surge or Fleeting Breath to explode for extra damage. This is Ah Puch's main source of damage, especially when used in a combo after Undead Surge or Fleeting Breath. Following Corpse Explosion after Undead Surge is also your main wave clear tool, so level Corpse Explosion first.

This ability only has one main use:

Ability 3: Fleeting Breath

Ah Puch's 3rd ability, Fleeting Breath, is a small circle attack that inflicts enemies with a damage over time effect. If the enemy is healed while afflicted by the DoT, they will receive additional damage and be stunned at the end of the duration. Most of the time, you should throw this onto the back archers of a minion wave during early clearing, and tag enemies with it for extra damage, especially if they have a heal in their kit. Also, the ability drops a corpse for you to sustain off of Hollow Ground or detonate for more damage with Corpse Explosion.

This ability has two main uses:

Ultimate: Empty the Crypts

Ah Puch's ultimate, Empty the Crypts, is one of the most effective area damage and zoning abilities in the game, with a 'radius' of 50 metres! After activating the ability, the entire area is filled with moving Wraith projectiles which damage an enemy each time they collide with one and applying an antiheal effect. This is most effective in large teamfights where the area can affect multiple enemies, but it has other uses as well.

This ability has main uses:

Combo 1: Sustain

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This is a non-combat combo which allows you to sustain your health and mana at the maximum rate by abusing the corpse drops of Undead Surge and Fleeting Breathand your passive Hollow Ground. Here's how:

• Cast Undead Surge at your feet
• Cast Fleeting Breath at your feet
• Utlize your passive Hollow Ground by walking over the corpses to regain a total of 15% health and 9% mana

This combo can be used repeatedly and very often through the 2 second cooldown reduction of Undead Surge through Hollow Ground to regenerate a lot of health and mana, especially outside of combat.

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Combo 2: Primary Wave Clear

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After level 3, this combo should be your staple wave clear, allowing you to pretty much full clear with just these two abilities. You can also poke enemies at the same time as clearing due to the large AoE on both Undead Surge and Corpse Explosion. Here's how:

• Stand a little to the side of the wave and cast your Undead Surge, re-activating it at the right moment to hit the entire wave with the damage.
• Quickly use your Corpse Explosion to detonate the corpses so that both the explosion and initial damage hits the wave. You must do it quickly before the enemies can destroy your corpses with 2 basic attacks.

You can also fire Undead Surge as the wave is walking to hit the front Brutes, and then detonate with Corpse Explosion after they have walked over it for a slightly safer but less effective version of this wave clearing combo.

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Combo 3: Full Damage

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This combo is the ultimate damage that Ah Puch can inflict with one rotation of his kit, hitting them with damage from Undead Surge and Fleeting Breath and dropping 3 corpses that go BOOM! thanks to Corpse Explosion. Perfect for massive poke or going for the kill, here's how to pull it off:

• Fire Undead Surge at the enemy target to tag them with the slow as well as some initial damage.
• While they are slowed, quickly lob in your Fleeting Breath for more damage and another corpse.
• Immediately cast your Corpse Explosion directly on top of the enemy target AND your 3 corpses for a final burst of HUGE damage.

For maximum damage, you need to hit every single instance of damage, including the Undead Surge, Fleeting Breath and the inital + all 3 corpse explosions from Corpse Explosion. To make this easier, I highly advice building into Gem of Isolation alongside all of your other damage items to guarantee this combo.

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Combo 4: Full Antiheal

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Pesky enemy healers always keeping their team full HP? Hit em' with this combo in a teamfight and severely punish them for healing. With the combination of the extra damage and stun from Fleeting Breath and the insane 60% healing reduction from Empty the Crypts, enemy healing will be ineffective and only cause more CC and damage for your allies to follow up on. Here's how:

• During a teamfight, seek out the enemy healer and hit them with Fleeting Breath to discourage AND punish any healing.
• As the teamfight progresses, use Empty the Crypts to inflict a massive area of antiheal upon the enemies.
• Repeatedly drop Fleeting Breath upon the enemy healer throughout the brawl to minimize healing and allow your team to collapse on them if they do decide to heal themselves.

Hopefully, by chaining the durations of Fleeting Breath and Empty the Crypts like this you ensure the enemy healers are also being subdued, either through healing reduction or extra damage and CC for being foolish enough to try and heal.

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Thanks for reading! Hopefully you are an Ah Puch adept now, and if you found this helpful please give me and upvote. Also, check out my other guides on Hachiman, Sobek, Erlang Shen, Osiris and Nemesis. Any feedback or advice is welcome in the discussion section!