Sinking Ships Trying to Eat the Crew - Scylla

This has to be my single favorite item in the game. Great base stats, plus tons of mana and you get more magical power from having mana. This item is on 95% of my mage builds because it just allows you to have more mid-game sustain and more damage. Rushing this item first also allows you to have much more mana than the enemy god, letting you poke them much more than they can poke you.

If, like me, you feel so inclined to double stack items and build for the late game in tune to Destroyer of Worlds, than buy this for your 3rd item. If you are feeling really really frisky or the enemy team isn't rotating well, jungler not ganking you ever you can even buy this second and put boots off for 3rd item. You get some bonus health and a good bit of magical power from it. And the extra 400 mana means more ability spamming as well as +12 magical power if you have Book of Thoth. That is on top of the 110 magical power this item gives you at full stacks, so +122 magical power, that's A LOT!

This item is all about that penetration. The only time I wouldn't buy this is if the tank is the only enemy god with magical protections. If the rest of them were not smart enough to buy even a little, go for Chronos' Pendant or Gem of Isolation instead.

You might think, "Hey! That item isn't great dude! 30 MP and no special passives! That's for tankies or melees mages!" You could be right, or you could be horrible mistaken about how the items work together. First off, the health and mana you get will keep you alive and allow you to cast abilities without your mana ever getting near being depleted. Second, let's do some math (I know some of you hate it, but I'll do it for you XD)

Consider the passives from your other items: 3% of mana to MP, 2% of health converted to MP, and the stacks...
Between just Book of Thoth Warlock's Sash and Ethereal Staff all fully stacked you receive 1575 mana! You also get a cool 1200 health! That sounds awesome, for a tank... but the passives, oh the passives. On top of the 240 magical power from the items themselves, this translates into an extra 71 Magical Power.
You are thinking oh ok +71 MP, "Woo..." A lot of items have that. Yes they do, but that is a total of 311 magical power for 3 items, not including Soul Reaver and Rod of Tahuti two of the other very few items that have 100 Magical Power naturally.
Also, once you add Rod of Tahuti into that mix, thats +388 MP! For 3 items!
Honestly though, if you build these three with Shoes of the Magi Rod of Tahuti and Gem of Isolation you end up with a total of +720 MP from items. If you are lucky enough to get Damage Buff and Potion of Magical Might you should be well over 900MP close to 1000MP. I'm a Monster should then be hitting gods without protections for close to 1800 damage...

Tahutis... Every mage gets this item, not buying this would be like not buying Deathbringer on an ADC, you almost have to buy it... +125 Magical Power and +25% to your Magical Power!

+100 Magical Power and 12% Lifesteal. Those are good base stats, but on top of that it gives you extra Magical Power for every percent of health you are missing. This doesn't mean sit out in lane with 10% health because you get +90 Magical Power... This means "Oh, I've been hit and I'm being chased" then you use your ult and hopefully your team stunned or mesmerized them so you can turn around and hit them hard. The lifesteal is also nice in midgame for sustain since you can clear an entire minion wave with your Crush.

A lot of people build this on every mage they play. I can understand why, 25% CDR, 75 Magical Power and 25 MP5, it's a good item. There are better items for the price, but Scylla does have some fairly long cooldowns and this is definitely a useful item on her if you aren't building Warlock's Sash and Ethereal Staff.

This is a good item, gives mana, lifesteal and a good chunk of Magical Power. The passive isn't huge on Scylla since you are generally killing enemies with Crush or I'm a Monster but it still can have a place in the build. The biggest reason to have Poly is for when you have a stubborn enemy and combo them with some basics. Root them with Sic 'Em hit them with a basic, throw Crush on them, basic them then pop hit.

This is a good item to buy if you are getting harassed by another mage pretty hard, especially a melee one. Generally I accept the role of Glass Cannon and forego this for more damage, considering you shouldn't be in the front lines and your tank should have this for team fights anyways.

The base stats are this are great, 100 Magical Power and 300 Mana. The passive is amaze-sauce if you can time up your ult you can most certainly one-shot most of your adversaries. Even if you don't time it with your ult, you will be hitting an extra 15% of their max health with your abilities, all of which will already do a lot of damage.

This item is somewhat dependent on either your play style or the team comps. If you have enemies with good mobility I would get this. If your team has a lot of hard CC (stuns, mesmerize) I might skip this for a different item. This item is good because on top of the slow from Crush you get a slow from this. The main point of the slow is to make it easier to hit them with I'm a Monster.

If you absolutely have to buy physical protections this is my main choice because of the mana and CDR. The only exception is if they have two gods building crit that are focusing you, then I recommend Celestial Legion Helm.

Agni

- Hard
He is going to be difficult. His ult doesn't cost mana and his escape also does damage. His combos stun and can burst you down quickly. The best way to counter Agni is to always have your Sentinel ready for an escape (which you should do anyways) and stay away from minions. Only use your Sic 'Em after he has already dashed unless he is already below half because he will dash away before you can finish him if he has high health. Other than that just use your Crush to poke him if he gets close to the minions.

Anubis

- Medium
Anubis can be easy or difficult depending on the player. If they have an Anubis that hits his Mummify a lot, then you are going to have a bad time. If he can't hit Mummify to save his life, he'll die a lot.

Aphrodite

- Hard
Aphrodite isn't terribly common in mid lane, but the rare chance that you do run into her is somewhat unfortunate. She has heals and her ult is like an Aegis Amulet. Just stay out of minions and do your best to push her under tower since her early lane clear isn't as good as yours.

Chang'e

- Hard
Chang'e has her own version of Aegis Amulet that can make your ult a wasted attempt. And it gives her mana back if you hit her while she does it. She also has a heal and a stun. As with Aphrodite, play it safe but try and push her under tower to get ahead in farm.

Chronos

- Medium
Playing against Chronos is more about their skill, as with Anubis. If they are really adept with Chronos, you might have a rough time, not so much if they don't use him to his fullest. He's mostly going to be difficult because he's going to be annoying with his Rewind if he almost dies. He can easily kill you with abilities or basics due to his passive and the combination of his abilities. Stay out of the way of Stop Time and you shouldn't have too hard of a time.

He Bo

- Hard
How I dislike the Hebus (yes, that's his new name dubbed by BlitskriegBunny, Lostntime and myself). His poke does ridiculous damage, his Water Cannon can be spammed fairly frequently for ridiculous damage as well and his ult will always take at least half of your health bar away. I recommend staying well out of the way of minions so he has to choose between getting his farm or poking you, which he will do anyways. Focus on pushing lane early game as that is when he is weakest.

Hel

- Medium
Hel is easy and hard at the same time, hence being a medium level adversary. She is difficult because her burst heals can heal minion waves and herself, along with CC immunity and her ability to slow you and remove protections. Hel is easy to lane against because she has a weak early game and tends to run out of mana. If you can push her back into tower and even get a few early kills, you can get ahead on her and stay ahead. Hel has to get into the minion wave to effectively clear it quick enough to not lose farm to tower, which is when you can poke her with Sic 'Em and Crush and force her to use all her mana healing herself.

Eset

- Medium
Isis is more annoying than anything else, she has a silence and a stun, but doesn't do an exceptional amount of burst damage, giving you the time to Sentinel out of there. The biggest thing is avoiding her Spirit Ball and not standing in her ult as she can detonate and do some serious damage if it's charged. Stay out of minion wave so you don't get caught in her Wing Gust and you should be fine.

Janus

- Hard
Janus is at least Medium-Hard difficulty against up to Extremely Difficult depending on how good the enemy is with him. His Portal can save himself from your abilities, as well as banishing you to keep you from teleporting to your Sentinel or detonating your Crush. He can Portal you to set you up with an Unstable Vortex to the face, and it does enough damage to nearly one-shot you. Stay off of his Threshold as it scales his damage against you significantly. Stay away from minions and try and stay out of reach of his Portal. And watch for him to portal in from jungle behind you as this will happen when you get low on health due to his ability to do lots of damage with his Unstable Vortex.

Kukulkan

- Medium
After the nerf on the Tornado he is not as much of a threat as he once was. Stay away from minion wave and Sentinel out of there if he hits you with hi Zephyr as he usually follows it up with an Ult or Tornado. Try and keep a reasonable distance from him if you know his Ult is up to give you ample time to get out of the way, or buy Aegis.

Nox

- Hard (?)
I will be honest, I haven't played much against Nox, or really played her at all yet. Nox has a 3 second ability that can do decent damage, making her constant poke fairly dangerous. Her silence is extremely annoying, and her combos can easily take half your health in a second. Stay away from her, and if you get shrouded in darkness, just Sentinel back to tower to avoid taking serious damage, especially if you are around half health already.

Nu Wa

- Medium
I was on the fence about this one, but really she shouldn't be that difficult if you play safe. Don't get anywhere near her minions as the combo with Shining Metal will make you instantly regret that decision. If her minions do dash you, don't be afraid to Sentinel away as the stun and bonus damage will probably lead to your death. If you can watch her basic attacks and try and get an idea when her passive root is up. The best Nu Wa combo is to root with passive, Minions and Shining Metal them when they dash you, stunning you. While you are stunned she will throw her fog at you and basic you if you aren't already dead. Stay away from minion wave (as always) and try and push her under tower. Use Sic 'Em on her if she's trying to frisky because your minions will attack her as you escape.

Poseidon

- Extremely Hard
I think Poseidon gets his own category of difficulty for one simple reason; Whirlpool + Gem of Isolation. This is one of the rudest things in the game right now. The stacked slows keep you from being able to run out of the Whirlpool while the cripple prevents you from using your Sentinel to tele out. The only thing you can do is buy Greater Purification AND Aegis Pendant / Aegis Amulet. Winged Blade is also a viable option for a third means of protection at the cost of being able to do some damage. Poseidon is a jerk and he knows it, he's going to Whirlpool you for fun, for poke, and to set up the Kraken to get a kill. Using Aegis on the Kraken is the only sure way to survive it, or you can try using the Beads to get out of the Whirlpool if the Aegis is down.

Ra

- Medium
Ra is difficult early game because he has better lane clear than Scylla and the ability to heal minions to push them into tower easier. About midgame when you are clearing waves in a single Crush you should be able to push him back into tower pretty easy. If he throws his Solar Blessing down but isn't within range, try and root him with Sic 'Em so he wastes the mana and doesn't heal. Also watch out for him using his Divine Light to slow you and lay down some burst damage. Other than that, just stay out of minion wave because his Celestial Beam does hurt and focus on pushing minions into his tower.

Vulcan

- Hard
Vulcan is more often seen in Solo Lane than in Mid Lane (in my experience anyways) but in the odd chance you do come up against him you are going to probably have a rough time. His turret is going to be the bane of your existence early game, preventing you from being to push too hard. On top of that he can use his Backfire to push himself out of the way of your ult. He can also throw his Ult on top of you Sentinel if he knows you are trying to back out of a fight and you will almost always be killed by it if that happens. Overall, he has a lot of ways to make your job hard.

Zeus

- Hard
Zeus can do a lot of damage very quickly. The most dangerous thing is the charges that get stacked on you. With 3 charges his basics do +90% damage and his Detonate Charges will hurt a lot. Stay far enough away from the minions that his lightning will not arc to you. Also if he drops his ult on you, just Sentinel out of there, living or dying can be the difference between that one lightning bolt hitting you.

Zhong Kui

Medium
Zhong Kui isn't generally difficult to play against as Scylla, but he can do enough damage fast enough and be annoying enough that he can't be considered easy. If he hits you with a tag, which he really shouldn't because you don't need to be in minion wave to hit your abilities, you should run away until it disappears. Be careful of his stun, as that will usually lead to your death or a lot of damage. Early game you need to try and push the lane as hard as you can without taking any damage since he has get in line with minion wave to hit his Expose Evil.