This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page
Vote received! Would you like to let the author know their guide helped you and leave them a message?
This Build is quite average, never fails me I am a all up in their face type of mage, I do not like Archmage's Gem because anything can proc it with merlin including basics.
Gem of Focus
Shoes of Focus
Rod of Tahuti
Spear of Desolation
Soul Gem
Obsidian Shard
So sundering axe for me is a sort of "Soul reaver" for tanks, this in turn dictates that i will need slightly more CDR oriented build.
My suggestion is to go with this item after you finish your soul gem (hitting lvl 20) but not buy the starter. This in turn gives a weaker start until you get spear of desolation.
BECAUSE OF AXE YOU DO NOT NEED EXTRA PEN.
7th item you can definitely go something with more damage, but if need be, you can get an Obsidian shard.
Shoes of the Magi
Spear of Desolation
Rod of Tahuti
Soul Gem
Chronos' Pendant
Sundering Axe
Conduit Gem
Magic Focus
Mana Potion
Multi Potion
Magic Shoes
Mana Potion
Multi Potion
-Soul reaver for health oriented tanks that dont have many magical prots
-Divine for anti healers (can be kept for later use)
-Obisidian in case you can't make face to their defenses
Soul Reaver
Divine Ruin
Obsidian Shard
The previous start on merlin in season 7 was switching stance onto ice and upgrading Blizzard but that is because you'd throw it over the wall and run. This time you need to pick it up and stand to fight a little. Upgrading your Eclipse is the best choice Compared to the other two, because for ice you have a low cooldown and spam it, but once you get to the wave you'll be at a disadvantage. Same applies to the Fire stance, because it doesn't go on cooldown until it finished casting. So by the time you get to the wave, you'll again be at a disadvantage.
Back in season 7 arachne would choose to gank you with blink in middle lane and the usual choice was to get your 3 after your 1, now it's no longer an issue unless the jungler chooses a different start(that i am not aware of) so if you feel in danger and unsafe, you can upgrade your 3 before your 2 and stay under tower for 1 lvl.
Upgrading your ultimate over maxing your 3 is a personal preference. I don't find myself in danger all that often and have to keep reusing my 3 to get out. I use it as a last resort, but my ulti i find using a lot more for the damage but also need to switch stances more often too (because of the combo i will explain).
Y
B
A
X
Tap each threat level to view Merlin’s threats
Tap each synergy level to view Merlin’s synergies
First 5 minutes of the game are really crucial, from the moment you start till the moment you reach your second item built or lvl 9.
1) Starting: Go to the red buff, upgrade 
Eclipse and wait till Red Buff spawns. DONT HIT IT YET. Wait until the ADC starts it and only then you hit it with your 1. Make sure your ADC does not leave you alone until the monster is at most 80HP
2) Pick up the red and go to middle, do not line up with the wave, use the increasing size of Eclipse to hit the back archers as well.
IMMEDIATLY AFTER YOU CASTED IT, switch stances to either ICE or FIRE to clear the remaining minions.
2.1) Note if you are going the sundering axe build, you will be behind on damage dealt, it's better to go with ice stance and retreat under tower than take the extra poke damage.
3)After the second wave, the jungler should already be on his way to rotate, this is a choice moment based on how well your team does.
3.1) Pressure the Solo-side harpies and force them to go for ADC-side ones
3.2) Give up the Solo-side harpies and go straight for the ADC-side ones
3.3) Quickly clear midlane with your Jungler and push the mid under his tower then rotate for ADC-Side harpies and Oracles.
Merlin is a god made for taking control from distance not fighting up-close, the moment someone gets close, Merlin doesn’t have a lot of ways to avoid damage but a small teleport. He of course has his fire stance for quicker damage output and fighting up-close but don’t rely on it to instantly kill someone if you blink in, it’s for kill confirms or self-defense.
The best poking stance is ice of course, with the 1 having the lowest cooldown, fastest projectile and having a really long range that ends in a small AOE. The Ability 2 is for zoning so you can better poke someone but even then, they usually get hit by 2 ticks (around 200 damage) so again still good for poking or quick kill confirms.
The void stance is the best for crowd control and zoning. With the center pull and the persistent 1 this stance can make someone think twice. It does do a lot of damage and can hit multiple people but usually try to keep it for team fights instead of poke damage. If you don’t have success with your Ice stance then you can switch to the void stance and poke with it but be weary that it has a longer cooldown.
Fire stance is only for kill confirms, protection shreds, an obstacle or if someone jumps on you. This stance is not very good for poking because it’s a channeled ability and it won’t go on cooldown until it has expired. That’s why this stance is the least used unless needed for lane clearing or close combat
The combo starts with void stance, throw your 1, pull them in, throw a basic attack before teleporting and switch stance to ice for a double knock up in a short period of time and use your 1 for instant damage, they will be slowed for 25% at that point throw your 2 if they are still alive and they will be slowed for 30% and increasing for about 1 to 2 seconds wile inside of your 2.
The dash is not necessary to complete the combo if they are close enough.
If at any point of the combo, the enemy stops it (either running away, aegis or beads) do recall that you just dashed in so there might not be any counterplay you can add to run away. So be careful before you do this.
The most full optimal(and situational) combo is:
Start Void Eclipse > basic attack > 
Vortex > basic attack > Flicker > basic attack > Elemental Mastery ice > 
Frostbolt > 
Blizzard. All this needs to be done within 3 seconds.
SMITEFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new god, or fine tune your favorite SMITE gods’s build and strategy.
Copyright © 2019 SMITEFire | All Rights Reserved
Also for your sundering axe build I don't really think it makes sense to pair soul gem with sundering axe seeing as it's a low power item, and I think Soul Reaver should really be present in the build as Merlin is one of the best users of it. Saying Sundering means you don't "get more pen" is very questionable to me, as in the lategame percent pen is highly relevant to all targets.
Atm, for sundering, i'd probably go: CDR Boots > Tahuti > Divine/Deso > Coin/Shard > Reaver > Sundering (Sundering when you can get it ofc) > boots for Deso (Or estaff / myrddin if you didn't need divine).
With the recent buff to Divine also you'll probably be running it pretty often again.
Getting 4th item 30%/40% pen into reaver and then into sunder is of course a smart choice but how often will you be able to deal that 300 extra damage on squishies? Because i'd rather have soul gem which also heals me but does a little less damage and 40% cdr with chronos.
But i consider trying to implement myrddin now.