Roll. roll, roll the Sun

HELLO EVERYONE AND WELCOME TO MY VERY FIRST SMITEFIRE GUIDE!!!

Why did I decide to make a guide? Because Khepri is way too awesome!

Seriously though. I play a lot of Guardians (my favourite pre-Khepri were Ares and Cabrakan), and mostly those who help your allies to get the kills, other than just tank and/or heal them.

Well, Khepri can tank, Khepri can CC, Khepri can FREAKING REVIVE YOUR ALLIES, introducing an all new level to the concept of "kill stealing"!!!

Actually, I think we could all say that this god will BUG your enemies!!!

So, let's have a look at this guy.

PROS

-Very tanky
-Good CC, and possible CC chains
-Versatile in his way to control battlefield
-Did I mention that he REVIVES ALLIES?!?

CONS

-Little damage
-Beads can make him less useful
-Bad wave clear
-Takes practice to use the ult at the right time

FORTITUDE
Key Bind: Passive

Every 5s, Khepri applies a shield to himself and nearby Allied Gods for 3% of the target's Maximum Health for 15s. The rate is slowed to every 10s while in combat. (Max 15%)

Radius: 20

Ok. The passive. It's been since Cabrakan that I was waiting for a good, supporting, tanky passive. And there it is. Shield for everyone.
You think this is not so much? What about I told you that the max shield on Khepri can take 3 PHOENIX'S HITS BEFORE BEING CRASHED???
Oh yeah. It does.


ABDUCT
Key Bind: 1

Khepri lunges forward, dealing damage to enemies he passes through. If he connects with an enemy god he stops, grabs them, and starts pulling them backwards. Enemies are silenced for the duration of the pull.

Damage: 80 / 140 / 200 / 260 / 320 (+40% of your magical power)
Pull Duration: 1.5 / 1.7 / 1.9 / 2.1 / 2.3s
Range: 40
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Cost: 60 mana
Ability Type: Dash

While this can be really good for lure enemies into your allies' ultis, or into your tower, or just near (or far from) your allies to get the kill, you OUGHT TO REMEMBER that silencing your enemies does not prevent them from attacking you with their autoattacks. Just keep that in mind.
What else to say? At first it seems that this ability is just good to get enemies for killing purpose, but you can also get enemies FAR from your almost-dead allies, in order to prevent an enemy kill.
Don't be afraid to dash through minions, 'cause they ain't stopping you. Hell yeah.


RISING DAWN
Key Bind: 2

Khepri rolls the sun forward, setting ablaze all enemies it touches, reducing physical protections, and dealing damage over time. Allies that are hit take reduced damage from enemies for the duration.

Damage: 12 / 15 / 18 / 21 / 24 (+5% of your magical power) every 0.3s
Protection Debuff: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25%
Damage Reduction: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50%
Duration: 3s
Range: 70
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Cost: 40 mana
Ability Type: Line

This one. Oh, I LOVE this one. I cannot count the number of kill I got with this one. Like Aphrodite's doves, Serqet's venom, or Kukulkan's tornadoes, it's easy to underestimate an ability that damages you over time.
But that's not what this ability was made for, is it?
NOPE! This ability is the core of Khepri's versatility: You lower physical protections, you lower damage income to your allies, you get some damage done...
Just imagine you trying to get near your allies which is 1v1 on an enemy. And you shoot this one. Your ally gets less damage (UP TO 50% LESS!!! HOW ABOUT THAT S**T!!!) and could get more damage on the enemy.
Seriously. I'm in love with this one.


SOLAR FLARE
Key Bind: 3

Khepri calls down the sun's ire at the target location, dealing damage and rooting all targets in the area.

Damage: 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 (+30% of your magical power)
Root Duration: 1.3 / 1.4 / 1.5 / 1.6 / 1.7s
Radius: 15
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana
Ability Type: Ground Target

And then this. Like the 1st ability wasn't enough CC for a single Guardian. And like the 1st, the possibilities are infinite. What could I say more? Yeah, remember that ROOTED is not like STUNNED. But a still enemy is always an easy target.


SCARAB'S BLESSING
Key Bind: 4

Khepri blesses an allied god, immediately cleansing them of all crowd control as well as granting them Power, Movement Speed, and immunity to slow effects. If the marked ally would die while blessed, they are instead revived with a percentage of their maximum Health at Khepri's location.

Revived Health: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60%
Power: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25
Movement Speed: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
Duration: 5s
Radius: 15
Cooldown: 90 seconds
Cost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 mana
Ability Type: Ground Target

Anf then there's the ult. Like, seriously. I am not only talking about the REVIVE THING. Look at how muche health gives back to the revived ally. And he is revived right BEHIND Khepri!!!
Only thing I can say is it's not that easy knowing when to activate the ult. But in the end 5s is a fairly big amount of time, and even the buffs are really good.
Like all the previous abilities, the keyword for this one is VERSATILITY. Pity you can buff just an ally.

Alright. Now that we had a quick brief on Khepri's skills, let's talk about the order of purchase that I suggested.

First of all, i maxed out RISING DAWN. Why? well, it's actually pretty much simple. In early game, while you don't have all your protections and HP regeneration items, you are not THAT tanky against enemies' abilities. Which means that, even with the passive, in early game it's not that wise to dash into enemies and act as battle initiator. BUT, thanks to Rising Dawn you get to give a really strong early game to your allies, not only lowering enemies Physical Protection (good for your ADC in Conquest, or for any hunter/assassin/warrior in any other mode) but also and mainly for the damage income reduction! And since you cannot buff yourself, it's good to spend first levels behind your allies to help them this way. Well, IMHO.

Second maxed out ability is ABDUCT. Now, I get that some of you could say that SOLAR FLARE could be a better ability to max out as second. Let me tell you why I chose this one. By the time you are actually leveling up your second, if you focused on RISING DAWN first, you got at least STONE OF GAIA and/or SOVEREIGNITY, which means that your protections start to rise, like your health regeneration. WHICH MEANS that you can start to take your role as tank and battle starter.
But this does not answer the question, does it? Well, I chose ABDUCT over SOLAR FLARE because of the higher progression of CC time (2s per level against 1s per level of SOLAR FLARE). That's it.

I hope I made my motifs clear enough. Obviously opinion may vary.

Let's get now to the part where i speak about the build itself.

I think we can all agree to the fact that Tank Guardians need at least 2/3 things:

-Protections;
-Health (and HP regen);
-CC reduction (optional IMHO).

so, why the hell did i take items like SHOES OF FOCUS and BREASTPLATE OF VALOR???

Well, while I take it that Khepri, like Cabrakan, has already low CD, I think that he relies on skills even more than other Guardians. Also, having an ulti like Khepri's every 55 seconds or so is a really tide-turner on the battle.

Let's speak about the Starter Item for Conquest: WATCHER'S GIFT. I find it really useful on a Guardian, even more on a Guardian who wants to max out CDR, for gold purpose. Also, with a passive like Khepri's, you don't really need MARK OF THE VANGUARD to prevent enemies from killing you. Again, it's just a suggestion, but getting your build sooner it's really a big plus.

About other items, what can I say. STONE OF GAIA and SOVEREIGNITY get you a really high hp regen, and a fairly good protection from enemies. Not only they won't kill you easily, but you don't even need to rush back on the fountain. Just stay behind for a bunch of seconds, and you will be ready to battle again!

You may note that I didn't include on situational items good defensive and HP items like BULWARK OF HOPE, PESTILENCE, or MIDGARDIAN MAIL. While i know they are really good to raise your Health and yoru protections, I think their passives are not worth:

-BULWARK OF HOPE's shield lasts 1s. I don't think it will be THAT effective to save you;

-PESTILENCE is good just if enemies have healers, or in Assault mode.

-MIDGARDIAN MAIL is a better item for a Warrior than for a Guardian, but then again it's my opinion.

About the other situational items I put? Well it's entirely up to your way to play Khepri, and to the enemies' team.

-Against a balanced team i suggest HEARTWARD AMULET and HIDE OF THE URCHIN. You may think that taking the latter as last item would be unpractical, but in late game kills and assists happen very often. Also that's not your MAIN income of protections.

-Against a mostly physical team I recommend MYSTICAL MAIL and HIDE OF THE NEMEAN LION, Especially if there are a lot of hunters or autoattack assassins, like LOKI, KALI, ARACHNE; or for when you ABDUCT enemies.

-Against a mostly magical team, or if your team has a lot of mages, I recommend VOID STONE for penetration purposes. Less tanky item, but makes you supportive for mages, and not only for physical teammates.

Now, about the ACTIVES: I don't think I need to speak about GREATER PURIFICATION, or HEAVENLY AGILITY, for all that matter. I want to focus on the other 2 I suggested.

-SALVATION: this item helps you staying longer in lane, and needing less to get back. Which is good to just defend while your adc goes completing his build. Why SALVATION? because Khepri does not heal, and he needs a lot of teamwork. so, HEALTH AND MANA FOR EVERYONE!!!

-SHIELD OF THE UNDERWORLD: this is entirely made to help you get less damage while using ABDUCT. No other reasons. But, believe me, it will make the difference.

EARLY GAME


Early game, as I previously said, you can stay behind your allies, in order to buff them, while you debuff enemies. This combo is pretty useful, more if you manage to hit allies while you hit enemies with RISING DAWN.

MID TO LATE GAME

Or, as I call it, the "COME, STAY AND DIE".

Note that RISING DAWN can be used in any moment of the combo, which relies primarily on the CC couple. Thing is, you can FIRST debuff enemies and THEN go get them, or vice versa. But since RISING DAWN is a bit slow and can be dodged, I like to first get my enemy where i want him, and then debuff him while he cannot dodge.