Sobek - Fling It Whip It then Eat it

hi there this is my 5th overall guide and its going to be on sobek who is one of the top tanks in the game i used to main him at a point in time and did rather well with him so this guide may be more similar to my early guides as it will cover some areas in great details

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for those that might not know:

AD = Attack damage

AP/MP = Ability/magic power (same thing im just used to using AP but its MP really)

AoE = Area of Effect

FG = Fire Giant

GF = Gold Fury

AA = Auto Attack

CD = Cool - Down

CDR = Cool - Down - Reduction

HoG = hand Of the Gods

OOM = Out Of Mana

MIA = Missing In Action

Pros:

+ lots of CC with charge pray and Tail Whip
+ natural healing reduction with Sickening Strike
+ High Damage AoE slow with his Lurking In The Waters
+ gets a bit of protections from his passive Blessing of the Nile
+ has a great fear factor when in lane with a good partner such as Anhur or Xbalanque or Apollo or even Neith
+ has good self sustain with his Sickening Strike
+ Lurking In The Waters regenerates mana while submerged

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Cons:

- can have some early mana issues if poorly managed
- if you miss your Charge Prey you may find your self into a bad or fatal position
- Charge Prey is a bit of skill shot
- needs to have a actual good carry that can follow up with sudden a Charge Prey
- often tower dived when on low HP for reasons unknown to me
- somewhat long CD on spells early on and needs the CDR
- all spells cost 110 mana at max rank which sometimes leads to mana management issues
- can be hard to learn at the start
- hard to master

Passive: Blessing of the Nile: you gain 5 protections for 4 sec each time you hit a enemy god stacks up to 3 times

spell 1: Charge Prey: you dash forward stopping and stunning the first thing you hit dealing some damage and then fling them behind you towards the start of the dash

Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 mana.
Cooldown: 15 seconds.

in general: this is your CC skill you usually get it at LvL 1 unless soemthing comes up you max this last

spell 2: Tail Whip this is your knock back skill deals some damage and pushes the enemy around a bit

Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 mana.
Cooldown: 12 seconds.

in general: i usually max this 2nd as it lets me deal some wide spread damage while dispersing or peeling for the carry usually you get this at LvL 3

spell 3: Sickening Strike this spell hits in a wide cone AoE dealing some damage and healing you for each target hit up to a max of 3 targets it also lowers healing so its good vs gods like Hel

Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 mana.
Cooldown: 13 seconds.

in general: this is the skill you get at LVL 2 usually its your self sustain skill as well as your small poke and healing reduction skill so you max this first for that

spell 4: Lurking In The Waters sobek submerges him self into the ground with a pool that slows by 15% and he can move in this state that lasts for 4 sec while submerged he regenerates 10% of his mana per sec up to a max of 40% after 4 sec he emerges from the pool doing heavy damage this spell can be canceled early but for less damage

Cost: 80/90/100/110/120 mana.
Cooldown: 90 seconds.

in general: your ultimate you get it when you can it deals high damage and regenerates mana so its rather nice but since a lot of gods will get counter items for this since its damage is high some general counter are escape spells(jumps/dashes) some actives such as Combat Blink and Aegis Amulet also counter this there is also sprint overall you need 2 develop a sense for when the enemy has none of the above up so that you can use the ultimate properly also it can be canceled early but for less damage

as the tank your job is to help the carry and the team you should ask and consider what you may need more depending on the enemy team some really good actives for you could be:

1- Eye of Providence free wards every 60 sec that latter turn into supper wards that ignore walls in there vision these are awesome and let you ward for free with careful placement you may not need to buy ward till the mid/late game with this

2- Fist of the Gods this item is a additional stun that you can get if your team already has a normal Hand of the Gods already if they dont get that in order to secure objectives like FG and GF

3- Creeping Cursethis can be useful early and late game as its tier 3 branch offs are Weakening Curse that counters healers and heavy life steal you can use it on key targets or the whole enemy team(ideally) right before some strong or after some strong burst in order 2 prevent recovery or you can go with Enfeebling Curse this will stop AA based gods and is even more effective if you happen to have a witch stone

4- Heavenly Agility a team wide speed buff and makes the team slow immune as well a good pick to counter slows and partially counter the above active

5- Girdle of Might this you get for a extra edge in a team fight upgrades into a Girdle of Support since you dont need the other tier of it as its a self buff and you need the team buff

6-shell this active gives bonus protections to your team and its 2 tier 3 branch offs are both great i prefer shell of absorbtion as the 15% additional damage reduction is awesome vs heavy burst/damage teams or late/end game in general

7- Shielded Teleport this can be somewhat useful if you were far away from your team and that they need you there right now you can use this to teleport to a nearby ward or if they have a ward or Eye of Providence they can drop 1 and you teleport to them right there this can also let you pull off assistance ganks with the consumable teleport as well as you can go from 1 tower to another tower/ward gank help ect then teleport back to yours if you need 2 ect...

this concludes actives

here i will explain my builds and other options as well

1- Mark of the Vanguard this items is a good decent starter item as it makes you more tanky gives some HP but most of all it passive can make you immune to minions for the most part which is great as you will often be pulling players past minions and drawing there attention to yourself you replace this item late game with the 6th item

2a- Reinforced Greaves these are my boots of option i like there speed and there passive i sometimes get witch stone first as its also a fair pick if im up against a enemy ADC with my ADC as its passive gives us a good advantage as the AD reduction is very powerful early on i would then follow up with the build in the same proper order

2b- Shoes of Focus if your going for max CDR then these are the best way to do it

3- Breastplate of Valor this gives us so much CDR protections and Mana its a rather great item in my opinion

4- Bulwark of Hope this item gives us a lot of HP and magic Protections and its passive can be a life saver sometimes

5- Pestilence this item has a aura that reduces healing and regeneration which works with our Sickening Strike in case the enemy has a more feed AD type god then get Hide of the nemenalion here instead

6- Hide of the Nemean Lion this item is a general counter to most AD gods and its stats are awesome so i quite very much like it

7-witch stone id be getting this last if the enemy ADC/duo lane was not a threat as its movement speed is great and the passive is still good late game though can be replace with other counter items such as Divine Ruin to counter those pesky healers or heavy life steal based gods(looking at you Fenrir and your Seething Howl) other items can include Gem of Isolation for bonus slows or [gem of binding]] as AA with a 25% slow are so good on tanks even more so if the tanks heave good chasing power

some items that can be used as well but are not listed here for some reasons such as personal taste:

-mystical mark this item has some good stats and is also rather strong early it can also help push and see Loki in stealth if your as fast as him ect...(and when you can see him in stealth due to the damage numbers you can Charge Prey him out of stealth)

- Sovereignty this item gives a lot of HP and a good aura get it if your team needs every bit of protections they can get or if you need a lot of HP and are vs a lot of AD based gods

- Hide of the Urchin 60+ of both protections at full stacks and some HP whats not to like you can also get its other form hide of the leviathan in case you went with max CDR with the Shoes of Focus but still need the CC reduction

- Stone of Gaia this item gives some heavy sustain and can be made into a constant 20 - 40 HP or so per sec healing potion thats always on depending on build but i dont like it as it does not give direct HP which does not contribute to direct to how tanky you are ect... but rather how long you can sustain still if your stuck in a solo lane due to a DC or troll you can get this if your foe is a mage in case of a AD Mystic mark does batter and helps push

know for a effective play you need to know what your job is so will will list what you need to do in order to do well as a tank in the early/mid/late game in order to win:

Early Game:

1- set up kills for the carry with Charge Prey try and aim to pull them either after there creep wave is somewhat destroyed or before it(then hog the wave which should be grouped up on you) to make the best use the skill is to make your minions also hit them or to fling them into the tower you can in both of above scenarios follow up with a Tail Whip

2- ward with a Eye of Providence or wards in general if you dont have Eye of Providence

3- disrupt the enemy if you can with your Charge Prey and Tail Whip in order to prevent poke to your carry the creep wave and your self both of the above skills can for instance prevent thor from teleporting to his hammer after he hurls it

4- protect the carry with your body if you can manage it on time and well this is a critical skill for a tank the ability to walk around your carry as there fighting and into enemy AA in order to make your carry take the least amount of damage you do this if your side does not have minions at the moment as usually minions can be used for this purpose by the carry

5- as a last resort if your both low i know its not very fun but if you need to make the choice between you and your carry chose the carry and body block fatal AA or spells just make sure that your not going to body block a penetrating spell and give them a double kill or something (example you can block the Death Scythe from Thanathos but not Ra and his Searing Pain or similar skills that go in a line through all targets other spells you can block are squall but there risky as they have a small AoE on detonation so the block needs to be accurate)

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Mid Game:

1- your duty now grows to set up kills for any carry or meamber of your team when you can

2- your duty to protect now grows as well and you will have to make some hard choices for instance do i save our Anhur or do i try and save Ra instead. you will need to take into account the enemy positions the cooldowns and mana cost of spells as you save them since lets say you Charge Prey and fling away a Loki but anhur is OOM and cant jump away then the Loki just ults on him and and kills him while you lose a skill that goes on CD while you now make the choice and try to determine if your Tail Whip will be able to save Ra from Zhong Kui and Ymir as well as the Loki you flung towards him either way my point is make sure to save those that can really be saved from there chasers(like the loki example) and that you dont make the situation worse by trying to save some 1 who has very little to no escape change if you can save some with a much higher escape chance ect... unless there the only ones to save (so to wrap it up in a choice between 2 gods that you can save chose the ones that are harder to catch and have a batter escape chance but make sure to take the CD of there spells in consideration along with there current amount of mana)

3-Initiate good fights as in try and pull out vital targets and then knock away the other to stop them from helping what ever happens do not for example fling a Ymir into your Ra or Anhur as it may get them killed also flinging Ymir when he is not near death into any 1 is a huge no for us and the 1st golden law for us also as a 2nd law we never and i mean EVER fling Ares into our whole team as it will waste our beads or CC immune ults to avoid his Pull which will give the enemy a advantage

4- body block the main enemy ADC AA when they try to kill some 1 your guarding

5- when they run Charge Prey the best targets(the ones with escapes on CD or with escapes at all)

so to clear that UP:

1.Thau Shall Not Charge Prey enemy Ymir's or Ares's into your team's
2.thau shall ward the objectives (GF/FG) and counter ward the enemy's wards
3.Thau Shall Body Block the Enemy ADC and Denny then Kills
4.Thau Shall Charge Prey the Enemy whose escape spells are on CD and make the regret it
5.Thau shall spam the tounts/jokes/laugh emotes on they foes for every good play thau makes

the 5th is optional but can have a good psychological effect on some types of players sometimes making them tower dive you

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late game:

1- fling foes into there doom(as at this point the damage out put of your team should kill them before they get to land on there feed)

2- peel for the carry(aka Tail Whip any one who goes near the carry(assassins or the enemy ADC) and body block for them but at this point in time you should stick to the best damage out put on your team which is usually the adc which means the rest of your team should be more careful as you devout yourself to protecting

3- Ward a whole lot more (the more vision your team has the batter)

4- Make sure to destroy the enemy wards while doing the above

at the start your both at your weakest and strongest points that is to say your not very tanky yet but Charge Prey scares all foes since a fling into a minion wave + whip can hurt a lot even more so if the ADC with you has some CC as well such as Anhur any way you can have the following few starts:

Start 1: this is the start i would advise: get HoG and Eye of Providence and 1 HP and 1 Mana portion then get your duo lane blue buff so that they cant steal it and ward in case they try to steal it and get first blood you can also ward and if they try to steal it jump them for a first blood you then pick up the blue if you need it but if your Partner has good or batter poke then you give it to them as spell spamming is nice

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start 2: this is the risky play:you get a HoG and Eye Again but this time you dont go for your blue buff but instead try and steal there blue buff if there going for there mid neutrals but this can backfire if they catch you so warding and making sure all 5 of them are at neutrals is a good move

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start 3: this start is only valid if the jungler is starting from the duo lane and that the red buff is on that side in that case you get the same as above actives and consumables ward your blue buff or have it checked then 4 of you get mid neutrals and mid goes mid the jungler and you 2 go for red buff were the jungler should use HoG to get it fast and then you HoG the blue buff this is a optimal start when your red buff is near the duo lane the 1 guy who is not starting with you can do the starting normal neutrals on there side then hit the lane

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start 5:in case the jungler wants to try or has a non regular jungle route he can start at a buff camp give you the buff(usually a blue) then you hit the lane clear a wave and inavade the enemy blue buff which you can try to steal with a HoG or spells actives for this kind of start can be as above but it is possible to replace the Eye of Providence with 1 of the other actives from above or to replace Hand of the Gods for instance Creeping Curse can let you escape if things go south or net you first blood if things go well

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start 6: at this start you only get Eye of Providence or HoG as a active and make sure that your sides buff are safe in case red is near you you tank it for the jungle without hog in case you got Eye of Providence and then the jungler uses hog on the blue of said side if you have a HoG then use it on red buff as you normally would this leaves you a open active slot for counter actives you use the extra gold to buy some wards in case you did not get Eye of Providence

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start 7:in case that the red buff and regular jungle route is on your solo lane side you can grab either of the above mentioned actives HoG or Eye and grab the weak neutrals of your side and then in case you got HoG grab your sides blue buff then hit lane and make sure to buy ward with the extra gold in case you got the eye and not HoG then hit lane right after the weak neutrals (aka the small neutrals camp) both options are fair i would advise cheking what type of jungler they have and making a choice after that

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start 8:this is what some players copy off of the stream/tournament: all 5 go for the same mid neutral camps which is not ideal as a 4/5 man exp split is not that great they then help with the red and blue buffs as they split up ect... this is what i see most teams do and i think they dont realize why this happens on the stream/tournament that is to say they just copy what they see without realizing that those are most often competitive starts and are made to prevent early invades or ect... there in general done since both teams have great vision and that if they split up to grab a camp and not make a 4/5 man exp split they run the risk of getting ganked while doing a camp and either having the buff stolen along with the exp or worse they may die ect... this start i would advise only if your in a 5 man party and have above map vision and know what the enemy team may try to do something like a invade or may try and steal buffs ect.... in other words to avoid a very long wall of text for specific reasons why this is not ideal in casual games which my guide covers for the most part all of the above starts are of course also viable in competitive play as long as you have the vision and know you wont get ganked or similar ect....

after any of the above starts you move into the lane and thats the start of the early game

as mentioned above in the role and you section you follow those steps but here are some details and tactical advise the obvious stuff is covered in your role and you this is some little less obvious stuff :

1- you can run into the back side of a wave use HoG and pull some 1 right away

2- make sure to only fling the enemy carry and not the tank unless they have a support and not a tank since both are easy to kill but you still prefer the carry in either case

3- call MIA on your lane as soon as you see that they are not in your line of sight

4- if possible steal the enemy buffs with your ADC and jungler

5- take the CD of both your carry and the enemy carry into consideration before any action catch them when there best spells are on CD while the ones of your Carry Are up

6- when body blocking near your tower on a near dead carry and that the enemy carry is also low you can fling them into the tower and follow up with a tail whip while moving backwards or turning around then follow up with more body blocking either for your carry or preventing the enemy from walking out

when mid game starts and teamfights start happening in addition to the obvious stuff explained above in the your role and you section you also want to:

1- isolate key targets away from a fight (in case a fight brakes out but that the enemy has some 1 who can really make some trouble for your team you can try and fling them away from the fight and slow them down while your team finished off there ally's or runs away depending on the conditions) a good sobek can be quite creative a fling + enfeebling curse + tail whip can go a long way in those terms

2- Disrupt hard hitting spells - some spells can be canceled mid cast like Excavate this spell can be canceled out with both Charge Prey and Tail Whip which means if well played you can stop Hercules 2 times from throwing his ultimate into a fight

those are the only 2 hints of advise for the mid game i can offer i covered the more obvious stuff in your role and you

most of the stuff was already covered but here are some unusual plays that can be made:

1-Blink + Charge Prey for a unsuspected initiation

2- you can use Charge Prey to follow up long range CC from your team for batter initiation in case the enemy is awesome at avoiding Charge Prey

3-blink through a wall for even batter unsuspected initiation or counter initiation if you were rushing towards your team and that the enemy started a fight a sudden blink in through a wall + Tail Whip can go a long way followed by either a Fist of the Gods or Weakening Curse or Enfeebling Curse then followed by Charge Prey on key targets + Lurking In The Waters can be quite brutal and brake up a fight or turn it to your favor

4- you can also do the above trick but use Tail Whip to brake it up and then Heavenly Agility to help the team retreat and re-group there are other methods of the above trick like blinking in and using a salvation(team like meditation) with a High HP build can save a near deal teammate

here i will explain some of the combos and synergy that sobek has with the following ADC's

1. Anhur works well with sobek as its easy to Impale a target thrown backwards with Charge Prey this is were most players stop thinking about it and attack but there is additional move that can be done right after the impale anhur can place a Shifting Sands pillar next to the enemy god and the natural wall then sobek and anhur move in fast towards the enemy god and cut off all paths forming a sort of triangle around him with there 2 body's and the pillar forcing the guy to take AA in the Face for 7+ sec if there escapes were down which is usually a kill for your carry though this combo has risks and is not good vs Ymir for example as he can stop a good portion of it in cases like that the normal Charge Prey + Impale + Desert Fury combo is batter as it has a high kill chance on a 70% - 80% HP target

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2. Xbalanque the way this combo works is simple Charge Prey hits you then pull the unlucky target while there being thrown backward Xbalanque lands a few AA then hits Poison Darts 1 or 2 more AA then uses Rising Jaguar to maximize the damage out put by hitting that skill right before the Poison Darts were off he can then position him self while landing from Rising Jaguar to land a few more AA or to retreat

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3. Neith there combo is a simple one sobek flings with Charge Prey while neith roots with her Spirit Arrow also if sobek flings some 1 exactly over a Broken Weave neith can score a easy double effect Spirit Arrow + AA

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4. Apollo a simple combination sobek pulls with his Charge Prey and Apollo lands AA when his passive is up while sobek makes the target simpler to hit with Tail Whip the low HP foe can then be finished up with So Beautiful or followed with The Moves if they run with there escape in case of a chase with The Moves he can also stop them in place and then re position him self with Serenade then finish them of with AA or as a last resort even Across The Sky

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5. Artemis this combination is a simple one but hard to execute one sobek starts off with Charge Prey and artemis will place Transgressors Fate traps on there landing(they usually land at the spot from were Sobek started his dash with Charge Prey artemis then hits Suppress The Insolent as sobek follows up with a Tail Whip as she uses her steroid Vengeful Assault to deal a lot of damage if the enemy had there escape up no big deal as the steroid gives movement speed she can catch up and hit with Calydonian Boar which will then help secure the kill

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6. Cupid this combo is simple sobek starts off with a Charge Prey cupid hits his Heart Bomb at 10 hears for the stun about 0.5 - 1.5 sec before the stun he uses Fields Of Love as sobek uses Lurking In The Waters cupid then stops AA and lets the enemy god stay mezzmerized by his ult until sobek hits his Lurking In The Waters cupid then hits the last few AA for the kill this is a 100 - 0 combo in case the enemy was not at 100% of there HP there is no need for sobek to use Lurking In The Waters

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these are the best partners for sobek and as you can see in most cases sobek does not even need to use Lurking In The Waters as it has a high killing chance but we want the carry to get the kills so we only use it if we must but in most situations they will out run it or counter it but with cupid thats harder to do and thats why we use Lurking In The Waters with him as he has a ult that lets us fully charge ours in other fighting scenarios
we usually dont get that chance as they avoid it by then

i will not be covering magical partners as there are no true magical partners for him some can work with strong early burst like Anubis but this is a bad choice as they can counter this really hard and just plain murder the Anubis who is also batter in solo/mid then in duo with sobek (focused fire from 2 gods into a single Anubis will eliminate him fast in the early game)

Sobek is in general a strong team pick and is most dangerous in aggressive lanes with a Anhur Xbalanque Apollo Artemis or Neith (i just dont like Cupid since there are some counters to there combo(like Xbalanque his Rising Jaguar is a cc immune dash/jump thing which renders the stun and cripple of there combo( Purification Beads can also mega counter it)

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i hope this guide helps you i will latter post links to my other guides when i finish more of them i only have a few done right now and published and id rather not update all of them every time i make a new guide so i will update when i do all of them... ect...