This Is Isis

Hey there, if you're looking to learn how to play or master Isis, the Goddess of Magic, you've come to the very right place. Here I'll be going over what items are the best to build on her, how to best handle her abilities and how to manage and counter your enemies.

Enjoy reading this guide and upvote it (OR ELSE!).

But before moving on to the guide itself, let's take a look on how Isis looks in game, as well as checking her skins.

In Smite, Isis is a very interesting mage since she can fill various roles in teamfights, such as initiator, battle mage or backline mage. She's got the damage and the crowd control to keep control over teamfights as well easily win 1v1 duels.
Got your attention already?


Let's take a brief look on Isis' strengths and weaknesses.

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As I've mentioned just earlier, Isis can fill a lot of roles in a teamfight, and since Arena "generates" massive tamfights every minute or so, this makes Isis a valuable asset to any team.
Spirit Ball can set up kills, followed by Dispel Magic to keep the enemy from escaping or to silence any enemies that try to help/save the focused enemy. Isis can also follow up after set up abilities such as Confound or Frost Breath with Spirit Ball to keep enemies under cc effects. Great damage output from Wing Gust and the heal from Circle of Protection help in taking down enemies as well as keeping your teammates' hp high in the middle of any teamfight.

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Isis can pick off enemies that are out of position with Spirit Ball and prevent them from escaping with Dispel Magic. This means she can do both a tank's job -to set up kills- as well as the mage's duty -to do the damaging part-.

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Starting with Talon Trinket gives Isis the potential to clear out a minion wave, at level 3, with 2 abilities and 3 basic attacks, much faster than a lot of mages. It may not seem much, but an early wave push can force the enemy team into defending, missing last hits and lose a lot of HP.

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Isis' damage is fine all around, but the ability to instagib an enemy mage/hunter/assassin with her ...


...combo makes her pretty scary.
Her ultimate becomes a lot more stronger as Isis' magical power grows, being of much more help at this point of the game in terms of both healing and damage.

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This is her main weak spot, the lack of a proper escape is very punishing when Isis is out of position. It also makes chasing and escaping a lot more harder, especially with Spirit Ball on cooldown. Actives can mean life or death in certain situations, which brings me to the next topic.

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This means that not grabbing safety actives early in the game can result in deaths and thus, in a bad start which can lead to a whole bad match.
Why is it a con? Every god needs actives. This also means that this can delay her core items from being completed before the enemy can adapt. One or two early kills spares Isis of all the trouble, but not every match can have a good start.

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Of course, every mage is squishy, but Isis is also escapeless. This makes the concept of "glass cannon" Isis not a good idea unless her team has a very good front line that can protect her via frequent heals/knock-ups/knock-backs/shields etc. Building even just one part-hp item such as warlock's sash helps a lot with her survivability.

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Due to her "spammy" nature, the need for all her abilities in a short time window to be fully effective drops her mana low very fast. Relies a lot on the "mana buff" and "mana potions" to avoid going back home every minute.
Items like Book of Thoth, Breastplate of Valor or warlock's sash help a lot with this issue.

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This is Isis' passive and it boosts Isis' and enemies' closer to her HP5 and MP5 by 2 per stack (which means 20 HP5 and 20 MP5 since it caps at 10 stacks). Stacks are gained whenever a player dies (regardless of friend or foe) nearby Isis' location. All stacks are lost on death.

Not an amazing passive for a gamemode that doesn't have a boring laning phase, allowing players to go back at the fountain in between teamfights and regain HP and Mana.

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This is Isis' main damaging ability and her sensational waveclearing ability. It allows Isis to move backwards without losing speed (no backpedal penalty). This comes in very handy when a god is chasing you, meaning that you can retreat at full speed while damaging the chasing god.

The speed buff it provides to Isis (25%) makes Wing Gust a great ability to poke enemies, or chase/escape during a teamfight.
Isis is also immune to knock-up/knock-back and root effects while casting this ability, but can still be interrupted by stuns and mesmerizes as well as slows. This can be very annoying since Isis cannot use actives while the ability is casting.

Tips:

Moving during this ability makes Isis very difficult to be interrupted as well as counter attacking for the targeted or nearby enemies.

Try to hit as many enemies as possible while casting this ability in teamfights as gusts go through enemies and minions.

When chased by an enemy, don't hesitate to use Wing Gust while facing your chaser as you move just as fast even backwards when casting it.

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This is Isis' main CC skill, it has a huge range, great for securing kills or stop fleeing enemies and amazing for damaging enemies from a safe distance. It deals a lot of damage and it stuns the enemy for 1 second at point black to up to 1.5 seconds at max range.

This makes it a great ability to set up kills as well as secure escapes, keep enemies under heavy cc in teamfights or steal buffs as the ball can travel through walls.

Tips:

Saving this ability for teamfights instead of using it on the minions past level 4, when Wing Gust can get the job done, is highly recommended.

This ability can travel and can be detonated after going through walls, so use it if an enemy is about to escape, to secure a buff camp kill or to interrupt an enemy looking to return to the fountain while hiding behind a pillar.

This ability has an area of effect stunning all enemies in its area, use it in teamfights on a handful of enemies to give your team the upper hand.

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This is what makes Isis even more useful in teamfights. It silences any enemies in the area for 2 seconds at max rank and it has a 35% slow along with 30% protections stolen which goes very well with both Spear of the Magus and Obsidian Shard. This can be used on a blikymir trying to stun you or you teammates, or a Fenrir ready to escape or a Hel ready to heal any endangered enemy.

Dispel Magic is also what makes Isis a good duelist, taking away the enemy's ability to counter attack for 2 seconds and slowing them.


Tip:

Using this after a Spirit Ball hit is much better than using it before the hit, to prevent the targeted enemy from escaping or counter attacking.

Don't use this ability just for the sake of annoying the targeted enemy, save it for much better moments such as silencing a Loki ready to go invisible or an Agni ready to dash.

Protect your squishy teammates by keeping an eye out for the enemy tanks and their intentions. Silence Athena as soon as she dashes in or Ymir/ Kumbhakarna as soon as they use Greater Blink.

In teamfights mages deal most of the damage, so look for the enemy mage and silence him as soon as he is looking to do some damage.

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Not a great ultimate at first glance, but this can be a huge asset in any teamfight. It has damage reduction for all teammates inside it, which comes great with Pillar of Agony or No Escape or in any situation when the caster will most likely take a lot of damage. As the friendly gods take damage, the ability will charge up and deal up to 3.5x more damage, depending how much damage was dealt by the enemies or enemy structures. When the ability is detonated it also heals all the gods inside it, a great ability to dominate a teamfight, do last second saves or to zone enemies.

Tip:

Always use this in the middle of teamfights, empowering your teammates and revealing its true potential as it charges up. It will other force enemies out or deal some huge damage.

Don't hesitate to use this when cornered by 2-3 enemies, it will buy you some time until reinforcements arrive by forcing enemies out of it or doing some severe damage.

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What a cheap item to start and greatly boost your somewhat weak early game. It enables very fast clearing and greatly boosts your damage. Rushing this however means no mobility and no starter actives, but I will detail the outcomes of this choice in another section.

Its passive also comes great when cornered and a "panic ultimate" is necessary, boosting both the heal and the damage.

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50 Magical power, 200 mana and the mobility much needed for an escapeless god such as Isis are enough reason to get early on. The 15 pen greatly increses the damage of Wing Gust. Comparing the two options for boots, Shoes of the Magi provides more damage, especially on Wing Gust. The 10 second cooldowns on Wing Gust and Spirit Ball aren't affected that much by the 15% CDR from Shoes of Focus (10s -> 8.5s).

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Boosting your fellow mages' damage while having more pen for yourself makes this item a must have. It's very cheap and the results are outstanding! It provides 15 flat penetration + an additional 10 + 10%/stack.

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A must have in any mage build, getting it this early makes Isis a fearless opponent to face. 125 magical power and 25% extra magical power greatly boosts Isis' damage, allowing her to dominate teamfights.

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While its passive is pretty difficult to manage, it proves very useful in teamfights and exceptional in 1v1/1v2 encounters or against tanks. Even if ignoring the passive, the stats alone (100 magical power, 300 mana) make this item a great deal.

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Despite its nerf(s), it still is a useful item to have and a Spirit Ball hit can ensure a basic attack hit. The extra lifesteal can do nothing but help in teamfights and its passive it's free damage afterall (250-300 free damage vs squishies late game).

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Even if the stacks are not built (take it one will get it as 5th/last item), 100 magical power and 3% of Isis' mana converted into magical power is a great deal late game. Its price it's average as well, worth getting if out of options.

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While other mages benefit more from CDR, this is not a bad pick for Isis if one is looking to have her abilities ready faster than usual. Not a better choice than Breastplate of Valor however,unless the enemy team has less than 2 physicals.

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Such a great item to have in the Arena on a squishy mage such as Isis. 350 extra health, 40$ CC reduction and free Purification Beads every 45 seconds that can spare you the trouble of fearing Athena, Arachne or Sobek.

Having both this and Greater Purification means double the safety. Even if the passive can be somehow hard to manage, especially against gods like Geb, Agni or Athena who can just casually consume it, just for the stats alone it's worth it.

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Isis has very good waveclear, so getting this is an obvious choice if one is looking for more survivability. The stacks can be finished pretty quick and the results are totally worth the time. 600 extra health make Isis no longer the squishiest and most likely god to be focused, along with 110 MP and 400 mana it makes this item a must buy.

Even with no stacks, it provides 50 magical power, 300 health and 400 mana.

Tip: Don't get it if:

-There is another god relying or usually building stacks, such as Ao Kuang, Anubis or Zhong Kui or any hunter starting with devourer's gantlets.

-Your team is being over aggressive, this means that teamfights are very likely to occur very often and having Wing Gust on cooldown means Isis' damage will be drastically reduced.

-The enemy team has a lot of ranged CC that can isolate you very fast (Tyr/ Hercules/ Athena/ Fenrir/ Sobek).

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A great item if you are looking for more CDR and protection against assassins/hunters that have set their eyes on you. The extra 550 mana helps a lot with staying in battle more to help your teammates. This however won't increase your damage in any way, so choose wisely.

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Getting focused a lot? 600 extra HP will make Isis look like a "warrior" while keeping her damage through this item's passive (2% of Isis hp gets converted into magical power) and its flat 30 magical power.

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Isis has no dash, as mentioned before, sprint and Wing Gust being her only way of chasing or escaping, getting this as soon as possible helps with safety and securing kills. As soon as a teammate gets Heavenly Agility, upgrade Improved Sprint to Heavenly Agility yourself too.

While Heavenly Agility makes all the allies in the area immune to slows while granting them a 40% speed buff, it has a 90s cooldown unlike the 60s on Improved Sprint. You may get in trouble sooner than expected and having 2 Heavenly Agility can secure your safety (more or less).

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This can get you out from any... uncomfortable situation such as Confound, No Escape, Pillar of Agony and so on. Don't ignore this lifesaving item and don't ignore its passive (5 second ability cooldown decrease), this can help secure a kill or a last second save.

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Ignore burst damage such as Release The Kraken! or Unstable Vortex using this, to easily kill your enemies afterwards or have your teammates help you after its 3 second damage invulnerability.

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Be sure to get this if you are getting focused by hunters/assassins, it decreases both their more speed (40%) and their attack speed (30%), securing your escape. This also means that some of their damage will be taken out in teamfights and they will be vulnerable thanks to the slow.

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Sometimes only one weaking curse is not enough to shut down the enemy team, be sure to get this if there are enemies such as Hercules, Vamana, Hel, Aphrodite or Chang'e.

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Get this right after Shoes of the Magi if an enemy healer such as Hel or Aphrodite is making killing enemies difficult AND if your peeler hasn't got Weakening Curse yet. Go on with your usual build otherwise.

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It is better than Spear of the Magus against tanky enemy teams, in case they have built magical protection over 150-200.

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Make Isis' become a small well by building this item. It provides 70 magical power, 15% lifesteal and 300 mana and it boosts your AND your fellow mages power by 20 and an additional 10% lifesteal.

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Isis already has a lot of CC and a 30% slow on Dispel Magic, having a slow on each of her abilities could be useful, especially if you are having problems with hitting with Wing Gust, but this item is expensive for the only 70 magical power it provides. She just doesn't benefit from it as much as Poseidon, Nu Wa and other mages depending on slows.

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It's great for early game starts in other game modes such as siege, but in Arena leveling up doesn't take much nor does gathering gold, not to mention that stacks are lost on death and deaths are not as rare as in other game modes. Not worth.

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Looking for magical penetration? Forget about this item. Looking for more protection against enemy mages? Forget about this item. 50 magical protection and 40 magical power are no good stats for its price. Not to mention that a max range Spirit Ball goes beyond its protection debuff area.

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Talon Trinket makes it very easy to clear off the first waves of minions, with just two abilities:


The mana potions help a lot with staying in battle with enough mana to be useful past level 5-7.


After dealing with the mana buff camp, go and clear the minions.

If the enemy waveclearer hasn't arrived, hit the remaining minion with basic attacks to knock him back and have your minions ignore him, use Spirit Ball on the incoming minion wave to stun them and have your minions ignore them and get into that portal. Accomplishing this would give your team a great headstart.

If the enemy waveclearer has arrived however, use Wing Gust on the wave and focus the enemy with Spirit Ball and basic attacks, protecting your minions by doing so.

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Rushing Bancroft's Talon gives Isis enough early damage to be able to delay upcoming items at the cost of buying life-saving actives. Choosing between Greater Purification and Greater Aegis will be detailed in the next section (Countering high-cc).

These core items can of course be subject to changes if the enemies are troubling you. For example, if the enemies have a lot of CC, don't mind delaying spar of the magus or Rod of Tahuti to get an early magi's blessing or Breastplate of Valor in order to be safer.

Don't stack too much defense though because Isis is no tank, she can usually apply the same CC from afar as well as up close, so there is no need to be in the middle of the battle when the same CC and damage can be done from afar.

For example, there is no need to stack magical protection or hp. Mages can be avoided easily with actives such as Aegis Amulet/ Purification Beads/ Improved Sprint while enemy assassins/hunters can be a real pain even with these actives.

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First off, her basic combo against enemies stands in:

Spirit Ball has great, solid CC and it's easy to hit on close-medium range. This has the enemy stunned for 1 second up to 1.5 at max range. To prevent the enemy from escaping or counter attacking (situational), Dispel Magic is a great follow up, also debuffing the enemy's magical protection by 30% at max rank. After these abilities have been used, Wing Gust helps getting the job (or kill in this case) done.

No Circle of Protection there? It's "forgotten" for a good reason. Circle of Protection is a great teamfight ability, using it to damage just an enemy may take a lot of Isis' teamfight presence or her chance to survive a 1v1/1v2, it would be a waste of an ability afterall.

Spirit Ball can also be used on incoming enemies if the targeted enemy is low hp. This will save time for Isis to finish the poor enemy with Wing Gust.
Dispel Magic can prevent an enemy Hel from healing the poor enemy or the enemy tank from interrupting you.

So basically, to prevent a poor enemy from escaping, use Spirit Ball on enemies relying on basic attacks and Dispel Magic on enemies that can interrupt/damage/save the poor enemy by abilities.

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When massive teamfights occur, make sure to help your teammates by placing Circle of Protection right in the area where the fight it's at its best, silence or stun the main enemy damage dealers (mages/hunters) using either Dispel Magic or spirit balls, not both at once however to get the most out of each effect's duration. Detonate Circle of Protection as soon as it's charged up or before the enemies leave its area and follow up by using Wing Gust on as many enemies as possible or on any enemies trying to flee the battle.

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Early game Isis benefits the most from the mana buff, as it can help her stay in battle past level 6 and gain enough gold to finish Bancroft's Talon and start 1/2 actives after her 1st ride home.

Mid-late game her damage gets a serious boost from the damage buff, so make sure to get it as often as possible. Always announce your teammates of you are about to do and make sure to see where all the enemies are before going for it.

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Being an escapeless mage can often lead to getting focused by enemy tanks and, if followed by hunters and assassins, it can get you killed in the matter of seconds. getting countermeasures such as rushing Greater Purification and Improved Sprint can help with preventing enemy CC setting you up as an easy kill.

Don't hesitate to get magi's blessing as 3rd item if the enemy team has lots of CC, a great passive along with 40% CC reduction and 350 HP help a lot with survivability and safety, it may help you walk out of impossible situations.

If enemy assassins and hunters find you as their main target make sure to get Breastplate of Valor even at the cost of losing some magical power, safety is always better than power. The extra mana and CDR is a great trade for the lost power.

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Behind your guardian at all times, there are plenty of enemies that isolate you in the matter of seconds such as Tyr, Arachne or Sobek. Safely clear the wave with Wing Gust while constantly moving sideways, if not, rely on your temamates to do it along with your basic attacks.

Keep your safe distance in teamfights as well, there is no point in going in when Isis can do the same amount of damage from a safe distance.
While Wing Gust can be easier to hit from a closer distance, it's not wise to close in on the target to do so, with enough practice and predicting enemy movement all gusts can be hit from max distance.

That low cooldown that is so stupidly easy to hit can be a real pain.
The best option right here is by far a rushed magi's blessing, but Improved Sprint + greater beads can help you escape too.
greater beads + Combat Blink is a guaranteed escape, but on a high cooldown.

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Counter No Escape by getting Aegis Amulet followed by greater beads and then upgrading to Greater Aegis for a lower cooldown in case Ares builds full CDR.
magi's blessing is useful if the enemy team doesn't have as much ranged CC as to constantly take down its passive.
Improved Sprint/ Heavenly Agility can be useful to escape Shackles as well as to help your fellow teammates slowed by Ares.

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Athena can find it difficult to reach an Isis and taunt because of Dispel Magic, use it every time an enemy Athena tries to taunt any teammate or yourself, she will either buy blink to surprise your teammates or give up. Greater Purification can help you every time Dispel Magic is on cooldown or taken by surprise.

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Same story for Bacchus as well, his stun has along casting time and can be interrupted by Dispel Magic or Spirit Ball. If you get stunned however, Purification Beads can get you out of trouble.

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The slow from his Rain Dance can get you in trouble, so be sure to grab Improved Sprint as well as Greater Purification for his 3s silence that can shut down all mages.

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A full runes Fenrir can stun you with Unchained then grab you using Ragnarok and carry you to a guaranteed death. Don't miss out on Greater Purification to counter his CC and silence that Brutalize as soon as he targets anyone with it using Dispel Magic.

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Counter his Pillar of Agony by getting an early Greater Purification and using Circle of Protection if there any teammates trapped inside it.

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A good Hercules can show up out of nowhere and push you back towards his teammates. Always be prepared by having Greater Purification and/or magi's blessing.

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Batz has a very strong slow on Somersault, so an early Improved Sprint can help you escape the upcoming basic attacks which will most likely hurt like hell due to Infused Strikes, his passive.
Counter his 2s fear from Fear No Evil with Greater Purification and he's no longer a danger.

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Probably the most hated god at the moment, but he can be so easily countered that you'll never hate him ever again.
His "blink-ins" are quite often so both magi's blessing and Greater Purification are good to have. Silence his Groggy Strike whenever he will try to consume magi's passive with it (and if he's any good, he will).

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Nu wa's massive area slow can hurt a lot, so make sure to get Heavenly Agility as well as asking your teammates to do the same. pillars of heaven's low cooldown will make more than one Heavenly Agility needed. Her flame strike can be countered with Greater Purification.

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Heavenly Agility comes at great help during Sobek's ult to make sure no teammate gets damaged and magi's blessing will deny him any pulls. Make sure to stun/silence him as soon as he tries to consumes Magi's passive using Tail Whip.

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He will try to Greater Blink and push the squishies and escapeless enemy god every 45 seconds, however magi's blessing's passive can be somehow hard to manage, so when that's on cooldown, use Greater Purification.

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A blinkymir can be difficult to silence everytime, so it's good to have Greater Purification and magi's blessing ready. Heavenly Agility helps your whole team vs his 2 massive slows.

... to TormentedTurnip (yet again) for helping me (yet again) with BB coding and being so awesome.

... to Jordenito for creating this amazing guide, indirectly helping me with my poor BB coding knowledge.

... to the in-game player gluman for giving me some really good suggestions, helping me with my build a lot.

... to HR for bringing this amazing goddess into this amazing game.

Any kind of feedback is greatly appreciated as long as it is constructive and I can evolve this guide after reading it.