The Rapid Fire Adc: Apollo Guide ♫ (s9)

Hey, SmiteFire community! My name is Ozanoku I've been playing smite for years and I spent almost 5000 hours of my life in this game. I am not a professional player and I am still learning new things about the game. Yet, I am willing to share my experiences and thoughts with you. This is going to be an Apollo guide. I love playing Apollo because he has a global ultimate (who doesn't like to ride a chariot across the sky?) and also he is not so hard to play. I believe that Apollo needed a fresh guide and some attention after all that visual rework and item changes.In this guide, I won't just focus on Conquest, I will try to cover every mode as much as possible. Apollo is a consistent hunter he has always been a strong pick. Even after nerfs he still performs really well. He is mainly played in ADC role but I will also give examples of possible roles that he can be played such as Apollo jungle.

Passive: Audacity "♫Me-me-me-me-me-me-me!♫"

This passive helps you cap your attack speed even before the late game which allows you to make more use of items that have on-hit effects such as Qin's Sais Odysseus' Bow Ichaival or Silverbranch Bow as you start to cap your attack speed limits.

Tips:
-The more enemies you hit with your damaging abilities the more stacks you get.




1. Ability: So Beautiful "♫ Plays his lyre ♫"

This ability is Apollo's one and only wave clear ability. You should be leveling up this ability first and maxing it out first. This ability is often underestimated but it does so much unexpected damage.

Tips:
-It is a great ability to do killing blows, secure kills.
-It goes through walls.
-It can be used to steal objectives, jungle camps.

2. Ability: Serenade "♫ Aaaah! ♫"

This ability can be used both aggressively and defensively. It has a short range around Apollo.

Tips:
-You should use this ability to cancel the channeling abilities of enemy gods. For example, Guan Yu uses his Taolu Assault on you, You can stop him with this ability.
Chanelling ability examples: Nike's Rend Ares' Searing Flesh Cabrakan's Tremors
-Keep this ability as long as you can and not waste it early. In case enemies collapse on you and gank you.
-This ability gives you physical protection, when you are 1vs1 ing in your lane you can pop this ability during a fight when enemies aren't in your range.





3. Ability: The Moves "♫ Yeah! Hahaha! ♫"

This ability can be used both aggressively and defensively as well. It is a dash that deals damage to enemies also slows them. It also increases your and your allies' movement speed.

Tips:
-Try not to use this ability aggressively when you can't make sure whether it's safe or not.
-Try to hit as many enemies as possible with this ability as it increases your Audacity for each enemy hit.





4. Ability: Across The Sky "♫ Woooo! ♫"

His ultimate ability can be used in so many different ways: chasing the enemies down, ganking, going back to your lane, rotating, escaping, avoiding enemy ultimates (Ares', Cerberus'), objective stealing, objective defending (fire giant, gold fury, etc.), split pushing, and more...

Tips:
-Do not dive in multiple people even when you guarantee a kill it would most likely not be worth it.
-When you are to land your ultimate on an enemy god, do not hurry! Wait for them to use their dashes, leaps then land your ultimate.
-Use this ability to to distract enemies while they are doing objectives such as fire giant or try to steal it!
-Check your mana before ulting, your ultimate costs mana every second and you are forced to land when you run out of mana and possibly find yourself surrounded by enemies depending on where you will be touching the ground.

Apollo is an auto-attack focused hunter, therefore his itemization mainly focuses on gearing towards his auto attacks on not ability power. He utilizes attack speed builds that include Silverbranch Bow very well, due to his passive Audacity, which will help in getting a substantial amount of extra power by over capping his attack speed. He is a high mobility god, with a global ultimate, a basic attack stim with his passive and self peel. Just like every other ADC Apollo's primary objective is to farm and get ready for the late game. Because of his global ultimate, Apollo should be on the lookout for ganking opportunities. For example when there is an enemy running away with low hp. That means free exp and gold for you. In teamfights you should position really well and always try to hit autoattacks so you can stack your passive. Early Game
Apollo has a decent early game. His lane clear isn't the worst.

-If you have pressure on your enemies early game you should keep pressuring them as Apollo. Call for ''Attack'' and dash in once you have level lead upon your enemies. Be careful with the ganks though.
-If enemies have pressure on you and you have a hard time clearing your wave, keep back until you feel confident to fight. Mid Game

This phase begins as you get your first 2-3 items, which would most likely be an item that would keep you alive such as Asi and a power item Ichaival

-Now that you have items, you can surprise enemy squishies with your ult and kill them.
-You can start rotating to different lanes and call for objectives.
-Look for possible fights in the mid lane
-Try to destroy towers Late Game

In this phase, you completely leave your lane and always stay as a team or split push.

-Be where you are needed, he is great at shredding objectives. So, you shouldn't be farming for exp&gold when your team is grouping on Firegiant.
-If you know that the enemy team is doing Firegiant and you can't help it... Split Push! Apollo is one of the best split pushers in smite due to his ultimate.

Apollo's builds uses attack speed items mostly and he is the best user of Silverbranch Bow because of %100 attack speed increase on his passive Audacity. We will be using that item a lot, since he easily caps his attack speed.

Item 1/ Starters
We have 3 option here: Death's Toll Leather Cowl Gilded Arrow
Every one of these work really well on Apollo.. Depending on play your playstyle, you can select any of these and feel good.
I personally like Death's Toll because it is safe and gives you mana and health back on successful hits. Since Apollo is really good at basic attacking, you can easily make us of it. You can also upgrade it to Death's Temper which is a super great item. It gives you increased basic attack damage when you kill minions and enemy gods (up to + %35 increase). Note that you can't build this starter on Joust. Leather Cowl is also a great item it gives you movement speed, lifesteal and attack speed aura once it is upgraded. Gilded Arrow does not have lifesteal but you can earn more gold by building this starter. You just need to do the killing blow on selected targets. Item 2/ Main power
As the second item, you should get an item that would give you a power spike. You should be able to clean camps, minions, and fight if needed. I reccommend Ichaival, The Crusher or Transcendence at this stage. Ichaival is best for 1v1ing and Apollo is a great user of it. It gives you power and reduces enemy's attack speed. Crusher makes your abilities deal extra damage. Lastly Transendence makes your mana pool bigger and increases your power as your mana pool gets bigger. I reccomend you go for Ichaival because Apollo's playstyle doesn't really work well with ability damage builds, especially in late game. Item 3/ Sustain
The third item you need should be a lifesteal item to keep you alive in the lane and help you farm more. I am excluding Devourer's Gauntlet at this point because at this stage of the game it is too late to stack, also there are better lifesteal item options. I reccomend you build Asi or Atalanta's Bow. Asi gives you penetration and up to %50 lifesteal with its passive. Asi saved my life in teamfights multiple times and it's a perfect item.

When asi activates it has a visual effect (a pink vortex) around your god that lets you know when it activates.

Another option is Atalanta's bow it allows you to do critical hits but gives less sustain compared to Asi. Item 4,5/ Crit, Pen
At this stage, it is almost late game and you start to group up for teamfights. You should be getting Silverbranch Bow because you begin to cap your attack speed and for % penetration it has. Also start to build crit. I reccomend you build Wind Demon+ Atalanta's Bow or Wind Demon + Deathbringer (into Envenomed Deathbringer once you finish your build) these items work really well together. Item 6/ Situational Item

Shadowsteel Shuriken , Toxic Blade : Build one of these items when there are lots of healing in enemy team such as Sylvanus, Hades , Anubis...

Magi's Cloak: When Purification Beads isn't enough you can get this item. It provides you with a shield that negates the next enemy crowd control effect on you.

Bloodforge: If you are comfortable shredding enemies, but you need more safety. Get this item, it gives you more lifesteal and so much power. It gives you a shield when you get kills.

Dominance: If you need more %penetration get this item. It gives you %25 penetration in total with its passive. Relic Options

Aegis Amulet: It is wise to get this relic when the enemy team have burst damage characters like Poseidon , Scylla
Purification Beads: You should get this relic almost every game, it is hard to find a matchup that there is no stun in enemy team.
Cloak of Meditation: This relic is a great option in assault since you cannot return to base. Also can be picked up in other modes but its only good in the early game.Upgrade options: Temporal Beads , Aegis of Acceleration

My final considerations are that Apollo is always a strong pick, especially in modes that you need to destroy towers and kill objectives. He is very versatile and can help a team in so many aspects. He can easily split push, shred objectives, steal or protect objectives. His abilities are easy to land and he is so fun to play.