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Attacker's Blessing over Mage's Blessing. Reason? Penetration. And yes, just because it doesn't say Magical penetration doesn't mean it doesn't work on your abilities for some reason. Flat penetration is a premium states for mages, all items that give flat penetration for mages are superior then their respective counter parts with exception to Spear of the Magus and Toxic blade. Spear of the Magus offers too little for it's price and it's ability is only usable on damage over time mages. Toxic blade, while very efficient value wise, offers no magical power which makes it rather inefficient for burst mages, even Scylla despite her passive can't make use of it alongside some unorthodox polynomicon build. only auto attack centered mages have true use for it, and it's debatable whether they should even get it over Divine Ruin anyway.
The downside is you're going to have to be tactful with your mana and cool downs. But really, Scylla's early game isn't something you should be thinking about circumventing too much, it's horrible no matter what you do and trying to fix it by rushing something like chronos pendant only hurts your damage while trying to fulfill a role you're not suited for.
If you're playing Conquest, you'd have to go Mage's Blessing though.
Divine Ruin if the enemy has built in healing and/or high regeneration in their kit, Spear of Desolation if they don't. You're going to buy both eventually no matter what. Shoes of the Magi gives you more damage over it's Focus counterpart, you'll be sacrificing 10% cool down and a bit more Mana, but honestly I've lost count over how many times the enemy has gotten away from death with double digit health whenever I pick up Shoes of Focus, I'd say the trade off is more then meets the eye and worth the sacrifice. You're a burst mage anyway, leave the spamming to the spam happy damage over time mages and just erase their existence with a 1 and a 2.
Soul gem's ability is one of the strongest abilities for any item, regardless of if you're capable of spamming abilities or not. Typhon's Fang helps capitalize on your life steal. Alone the item is 110 Magical power with 10% penetration thanks to it's life steal stack ability, the extra healing is rather negligible and while it can save you, don't count on it, especially since building anti healing is a staple in almost every build these days.
Soul Reaver is unquestionable better on mages (and "tanks") that have dot (damage over time) abilities, but it's still good even on burst mages. It's more a case of there's no viable alternative really. Obsidian shard should finalize things more selfishly, but if you wanted to you could get Pythragorem's Piece instead for a cheaper more supportive item that doesn't affect your damage output. Really thanks to Scylla's Crush you already have built-in 25% penetration as long as you can afford to keep it on the floor before triggering it, which is possible if the enemy isn't capable of escaping your Sic 'Em/crowd control allowing you to use your ultimate for a maximum damage combo wombo.
You can get the Mantle of Discord alternative to damage, but it was severely hamper you ability to kill as you won't be able to two-shot them anymore. Don't forget the elixir of speed to replace your boots.
Purification beads is always a must. Belt of Frenzy is a very good purchase if you upgrade it as the 10 penetration really helps make difference sometimes when the enemy tank has both magical protection aura items alongside whatever else is helping the squishes passively. Blink if you're confident you can get a quick kill on someone, Aegis if they have too many burst mage/assassin shenanigans, though I would recommend not getting use to it given it's best used to block a single ability.
The reason for this order, otherwise of their abilities alternative effect bonus when maxed, is due to Scylla's passive Quick Learner, granting you and extra 25 magical power per maxed out ability. When competed you'll have a free 100 magical power boast to help you burst things down, but while the game is progressing you can max out your Crush and Sic 'Em during early game's end allowing you to have a quick 50 magical power bonus on top of their bonus effects for some potent burst damage during the mid game that can lead you to two-shot some squishes even.
I'm a Monster is hold back due to it's marginal damage increase number which doesn't make up for the overall damage and effectiveness you'll have from maxing out the other abilities first. That and you're forced to max it out last regardless, all ultimate are, so there's no real reason to put point into it until the end as Scylla.
Tap each threat level to view Scylla’s threats
Hello, Scylla main #26009. Been playing since season 3, there's been a lot of changes but for most of smite, there's always been a go to build order for burst mage Scylla. I mean, there was a time you could get poly on here, but Kuku just did it better. Anyway, now that enough changes have happened and I've thoroughly experimented with different builds and I think I've found the most efficient builds, bang for buck wise and just overall strength. At peak late game strength, you should be able to one shot any squishy with just your ultimate alone and with one supplement being a red potion, Belt of Frenzy or a damage camp buff. Don't forget to read the notes explaining my choices!
Oh and, when I say jump or jumping I mean using Scylla's Sentinel ability that lets you leap across a short distance, not actually jumping in-game.
I'm sure some of you might have questions on why not X item instead of this. I'll try to see if I can catch any of them here.
[*] Q: Why not get Book of the Dead in your first build?
[*] A: Book of the dead would help you survive a single ability, but without protections, they'll still be doing massive, sometimes true damage to you regardless. The shield you'll get would simply melt away. I once took 1749 damage from a Ne Zha ult. Think Book of the Dead would save you then? As a stand alone item, it's 100 Magical Power is unimpressive for it's cost of 2600, there are too many better alternatives, even for build 2, especially for build 2 considering you have to purchase Mantle of Discord which really hurts your damage output and makes it so you can't two-shot anymore unless you stack.
[*] Q: What about more Maximum Health Items like Warlock Staff to help counteract the need for Mantle of Discord?
[*] A: Same reason why you can't use Book of the Dead, the lack of protections simply devastates you. I tried fitting in both Book of the Dead and Mail of Renewal given cooldowns are hard to insert into builds nowadays, and I could still two-shot but without protections you're just a giant sack of meat with a plastic shell.
[*] Q: What about Lono's Mask?
[*] A: You can actually run Lono's mark with build #2 and still two shot people, but you need multiple buffs to pull it off, specifically red potion buff, belt of frenzy (upgraded) and damage camp. Assuming your team and the enemy let you get all that you could use Lono and your survival would be slightly better, but not by much. I did manage to survive with one digit health after being chased by a Mulan across the entire map once while using a life steal and Lono mask build so there's some fun with that.
[*] Q: Anyway to make poly Scylla work again?
[*] A: Yes, but there's no need for it given you can already two shot squishes without needing to auto attack. Tanks doesn't care much for Poly though warriors might be brought down if you're glass with it. Thing is, Freya is infinitely better with Poly then Scylla right now, and even back when you could run it normally on Scylla, Kukulkan was more efficient at it just by using his Zephyr + auto attack to two shot squishes.
[*] Q: Pure Life steal build?
[*] A: Just play Anubis. You can do it with Scylla, but your abilities have too long a cooldown to save you from other life steal mages (Or just getting burst-ed in general) that can also do damage over time. Though I will say life steal is really strong right now, as with healing in general.
[*] Q: What about Bancroft's Talon?
[*] A: Not as effective on Scylla with her cooldowns, it's better on damage over time mages. Soul gem by comparison, while meant for more spammy mages, can also make or break a one shot attempt thanks to it's ability, as well as have 10% cooldown reduction and 150 health. The damage you'd get from Bancroft could push you over Soul gem, but you'd have to stack it to five, and by then you're probably already dead anyway. better to have the initiative as Scylla instead of being able to play with fire like Anubis can.
Both builds can allow you to one shot with your ultimate, one is just quicker then the other. You should be able to two shot squishes around the mid game as well. Keep in mind your goals when playing Scylla, as a burst mage you want to do as much damage as possible, but you ultimately want to dish it out to the squishy carries or assassins on the enemy team. Tanks are not your priority, including any off-tank warriors. Focus on other mages, assassins or attack damage carries (Unless they counter your kit pretty hard with un-targetable moves like He Noob's ult, in which case, VVGL).
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First thing I found was a missconception with soul reaver in your notes. You say it's better for DoT mages, however it is just as good. The passive will only proc once per opponent per ability cast for multi hit and DoT abilities from my experience (haven't tested thoths 1 though). So the only advantage DoT gods have is that they will be able to proc it for longer if people who weren;t hit by it walk into it again.
The subsequent hits are from other abilities hittign after the first proc.
another misconception is that DoT mages use CDR better, however they are often less reliant on it as most of their abilities will go on CDR when cast ticking during the active phase of the ability.
Why are you lvling your ult last? I can understand the rush in the first 2 abilities for the extra effects, however rushing Sentinel for a damage increase of 25 power (so 20 damage on 1, 22.5 on 2 and 30 on ult at lvl 16 a total damage increase of 72.5% compared to 200-300 on the ult that helps you multiproc it (hence why most people lvl it when available) for easy pentakills.
I find it funny how you consider poly only a kuku pickup while scylla can still make great use out of it allowing her with a Book of Thoth build to pop people by using Sic 'Em Crush and an auto. remaining a threat without ult. But yes I agree a double pen build is a lot stronger and meta atm.
Small note that the Book of Thoth build shows up as your second build. While I agree with not needing Book of the Dead, I don't agree that you always need Mantle of Discord. This points to a lack of positioning.
Good note about warlocks on top of that Ethereal Staff does the same thing so much better. not gonna comment on the masks as I never use them as I find the drawbacks to large).
Lifesteal quite as strong as it already was. Also your build comes pretty close to a pure lifesteal build if you grab pytaghs reaching 51% lifesteal (obviously not counting boots as they will be replaced), while cap is 65% on magical lifesteal. Swap gem for bancroft's and you have it.
On the note of bancroft's I also don't really prefer it on non boxing mages or mages that are do not need to get close like He Bo, Hades, Anubis.
With that out of the way the build. Not really going to review the thoth build apart from noting: No boots? Also want to note that physical don't have that much flat pen options and flat pen caps at 50 anyway. Celestial remains good against assassins as most of their combo's are negated by the stacks.
So the first thing I have to ask is the spot you pick boots is it 1st, 2nd or 3rd? If it's 3rd rotations and running are going to suck.
While your start isn't that bad I am not so sure about the mid game ramp. I just feel % pen is delayed. While you do say to focus the squishies in most team fights the solo laner will be trying to kill you zoning you away from their squishies and with your note of low amount of CDR (which assuming you have mage's blessing in conquest will hit 30% which is sufficient). I myself would probably swap some things around to get at least some % pen in slot 4.
All in all scylla has several build paths she can take and while this build is not bad itemwise IMO the order can use some work. I don't see much value in getting % pen that late unless you're heavily ahead, thus making the regular double pen build (blessing- Shoes of the Magi/ Shoes of Focus(playstyle preference)- Divine Ruin- Spear of Desolation- Soul Reaver- Charon's Coin/ Obsidian Shard (pick one)- Rod of Tahuti swapping boots for Soul Gem, Polynomicon or Chronos' Pendant dependign on preference) better IMO.
Lastly you mention CDR is not as good, however this is totally play style reliant. The reason some people still rush chronos has to do with them preferring a spammy poky playstyle. This allows them to be less punished for missing their abilities or poking enemies during the "stare down phase" before the teamfight. e.g. Hitting a nice crush might force an opponent to go to base as they take a lot of health, prompting an engage from your frontline etc. Game modes also prefer one style over another like assault (where the better poke team can easily win) or arena (where the constant teamfighting prefers the ability to spam spells)
You don't need %pen until the end when you get Soul Reaver. The Flat pen you get is enough to finish off squishes, especially if you get Belt of Frenzy to help offset any auras. Don't forget Crush has an innate 25% magical protection debuff effect if you leave it on the field under them, which should allow you to finish off a wounded tank with a full combo as is (Though you wouldn't get a reset on your ultimate, it's a trade worth doing if you just have to kill that tank).
As Scylla, I really did enjoy the idea of trying to box, even trying to fit toxic blade to replace Divine Ruin, but why would you take a Scylla to do that when there are simply better god picks for that. The same can be said for spam happy mages, you're simply not getting the most out of Scylla if you try something unorthodox with her kit. Not saying you shouldn't, it's your business how you want to play, but it's not efficient is all in our current state. I made these two builds to help optimize her talents the most, and you shouldn't be in the thick of it as Scylla, monopolizing a team fight means you should be waiting for the opportune time to melt the squishes, especially if their frontline over commits. Sure you can blink in and maybe get a cheese kill, or get punished and melted for it. As I said in the notes, either build will allow you to two shot any squishy with a Crush and Sic 'em alone, no AA needed. As long as they aren't surrounded by magical protection auras or have a defensive pick up, which this doesn't happens usually in the mid game even unless they're desperate, and assuming you're farming right to get your third core item in time to two shot them anyway.
Defensive wise, I did try to use Ethereal Staff, but as I said in the notes, if they get the drop on you like any good assassin would try to do, you're pretty much dead without blowing beads. Celestial is a terrible choice if you expect it to save you from assassins, especially since most of them rush Crusher or can DoT (Or just do true damage anyway built into their kit). The Mantle is mostly useful just for it's stun, which is the very reason they did a slight nerf to it. Though I would hope they would give us more option in that regard, I feel if any one item invalidated a role, it would probably be too broken as is unless the item is very impractical to pick up in most situations. The amount of damage Assassins do would easily penetrate a book of the dead, much less Ethereal Staff. It's a good pick up if you're fighting a team of tanks, but otherwise it's not your business to go after them anyway.
DoT mages have the advantage of Soul Reaver ticks, and while it's nerf'd damage, it's still very efficient at melting tanks. DoT mages in particular are very good at melting tanks given they're usually on a sustain and over saturated kit of shenanigans, either from a ton of built in lifesteal or an adapt to the situation Merlin experience. I wasn't saying Soul Reaver is especially meant for them, just that it's most efficient on them, and there's no alternative to either of it's effects currently. Oh and, yeah CDR with DOT mages wasn't right, they need magus now to help butcher tanks after all.
As for Sentinel over ult. I've personally never experienced a moment where my ult hasn't finished off someone even at one point. More often then not you'll be using your ult to clean up anyway, your 1 and 2 will be doing most of the work, and maxing out Sentinel does has it's minor advantages of escaping and extra ward vision. Not something you'd expect me to say given I said this build was meant to optimize her damage, but from experience I just haven't had a need to add points into my ult just for an overkill. At the endgame, you'l be able to one shot with just your ult alone, but only after you're fully prepared, so no matter what you'll be lowering your emphasis on using your ultimate other then to avoid CC or cleaning up (Unless you missed a crush or a Sic 'em, but I wouldn't recommend a panic ult given how easy it is to dodge and punish you.)
Oh, and Physical does have way more options for flat pen. Almost every build gets something, usually crusher (Which helps against Celestial), except crit builds, but it's item pool is more flexible. By more options I just mean they have more items to pick from. For mages, you'd probably be doing a disservice to your build if you didn't have to pick up Spear of Desolation and Divine ruin now sadly.
Whoops, forgot the boots. I updated the guide to better reflect the starting build order. Shoes of the Magi always. The 10% CDR from Shoes of Focus is nice, but like I said in an earlier note I've let enemies live with barely any HP left after a Sic 'EM and Crush (Crush first then Sic'Em landing mind you.), it bothered me to no end, and shoes of the magi is just a direct buff to damage regardless if you're stacking thoth or going a lifesteal build now with it's current state directly supporting both builds.
I would only grab CDR boots in a thoth build (or a poke game mode like arena) as that 11 power difference is barely noticeable, otherwise you are playing to ability reliant and don't use an animation cancel to weave in a basic attack (either in a 2-1-AA-2 combo or if you wait for the slow a 2-AA-1-AA-2 combo).
You don't need %pen until the end when you get Soul Reaver. The Flat pen you get is enough to finish off squishes, especially if you get Belt of Frenzy to help offset any auras. Don't forget Crush has an innate 25% magical protection debuff effect if you leave it on the field under them, which should allow you to finish off a wounded tank with a full combo as is (Though you wouldn't get a reset on your ultimate, it's a trade worth doing if you just have to kill that tank).
There we have it a full combo on a wounded tank. I know about the 25% pen on crush and it does a lot vs tanks, still I guess you have never really played a lot of tanks or bruisers and be able to chase a scylla off cause of your protections. Especially in game modes like clash where magic prot is often a rush after getting shoes and/or thebes.
Getting that early % pen allows you to chunk tanks for pretty much 50% of tanks/bruisers their health having them rout instead of them on you killing you waiting for your CD to return. I have seen my fair share of tank/bruiser vs burst/nuke gods and without that pen (and soul reaver) you're putting yourself at a to big of a disadvantage to win it.
As Scylla, I really did enjoy the idea of trying to box, even trying to fit toxic blade to replace Divine Ruin, but why would you take a Scylla to do that when there are simply better god picks for that. The same can be said for spam happy mages, you're simply not getting the most out of Scylla if you try something unorthodox with her kit. Not saying you shouldn't, it's your business how you want to play, but it's not efficient is all in our current state. I made these two builds to help optimize her talents the most, and you shouldn't be in the thick of it as Scylla, monopolizing a team fight means you should be waiting for the opportune time to melt the squishes, especially if their frontline over commits. Sure you can blink in and maybe get a cheese kill, or get punished and melted for it. As I said in the notes, either build will allow you to two shot any squishy with a Crush and Sic 'em alone, no AA needed. As long as they aren't surrounded by magical protection auras or have a defensive pick up, which this doesn't happens usually in the mid game even unless they're desperate, and assuming you're farming right to get your third core item in time to two shot them anyway.
If you count throwing an AA poly to boxing I have no clue what your understanding of boxing is. What I do know is that when trading as a nuker of any kind the moment your stuff is on CD you disengage and that it's easy to weave in 1-2 AA in a combo.
Like I said the CDR is a playstyle thing and in some game modes or situations more advantageous. The problem with holding your combo is going to impact your team fight if your team is not forcing an all-in immediately or you have another team mate that can poke. Every time the enemy successfully pokes your team the pressure your team has drops and can run into a lost fight. Ability damage dealers main stats for damage are therefore power, pen and CDR.
Defensive wise, I did try to use Ethereal Staff, but as I said in the notes, if they get the drop on you like any good assassin would try to do, you're pretty much dead without blowing beads. Celestial is a terrible choice if you expect it to save you from assassins, especially since most of them rush Crusher or can DoT (Or just do true damage anyway built into their kit). The Mantle is mostly useful just for it's stun, which is the very reason they did a slight nerf to it. Though I would hope they would give us more option in that regard, I feel if any one item invalidated a role, it would probably be too broken as is unless the item is very impractical to pick up in most situations. The amount of damage Assassins do would easily penetrate a book of the dead, much less Ethereal Staff. It's a good pick up if you're fighting a team of tanks, but otherwise it's not your business to go after them anyway.
You totally missed the point on my mention of ethereal staff, since you did not notice warlock's in there anyway.
If you read further below you can notice I was unaware of the interaction between The Crusher and Celestial Legion Helm. Last time I used it crusher was still bonus damage vs towers anyway or brawler's was picked up on the enemy assassin.
DoT mages have the advantage of Soul Reaver ticks, and while it's nerf'd damage, it's still very efficient at melting tanks. DoT mages in particular are very good at melting tanks given they're usually on a sustain and over saturated kit of shenanigans, either from a ton of built in lifesteal or an adapt to the situation Merlin experience. I wasn't saying Soul Reaver is especially meant for them, just that it's most efficient on them, and there's no alternative to either of it's effects currently. Oh and, yeah CDR with DOT mages wasn't right, they need magus now to help butcher tanks after all.
I think this was cleared up by Kriega and would also request you to re-read the part of: It will only proc once (1 time) per ability cast (so 1 ability even if it ticks multiple times) per god (multi hit abilities like Raijin 1.
As for Sentinel over ult. I've personally never experienced a moment where my ult hasn't finished off someone even at one point. More often then not you'll be using your ult to clean up anyway, your 1 and 2 will be doing most of the work, and maxing out Sentinel does has it's minor advantages of escaping and extra ward vision. Not something you'd expect me to say given I said this build was meant to optimize her damage, but from experience I just haven't had a need to add points into my ult just for an overkill. At the endgame, you'l be able to one shot with just your ult alone, but only after you're fully prepared, so no matter what you'll be lowering your emphasis on using your ultimate other then to avoid CC or cleaning up (Unless you missed a crush or a Sic 'em, but I wouldn't recommend a panic ult given how easy it is to dodge and punish you.)
the only one of those benefits that applies to Sentinel is the vision. As the CD does not get lower the advantage of escaping is just as good as lvling your ult.
I know most scylla's will ult for cleanup, however I have seen enough reasons to ult early in a teamfight. and well you talked about it being frustrating to see someone run away with a slither of Hp after the 1-2 combo IMO it's more frustrating to see someone run away and not get the reset from your ult as while it did chunk for 50% of Hp (on that bruiser or tank) or 70% (of that squishies hp). Those are my 2 cents about why I would lvl the ult actually at max priority. making use of the point skip at lvl 9.
Oh, and Physical does have way more options for flat pen. Almost every build gets something, usually crusher (Which helps against Celestial), except crit builds, but it's item pool is more flexible. By more options I just mean they have more items to pick from. For mages, you'd probably be doing a disservice to your build if you didn't have to pick up Spear of Desolation and Divine ruin now sadly.
okay let's count flat pen items:
the Mace tree has 3 flat pen items, which mirrors the Magic Focus tree. Atm in both pretty meta builds we often see 2 of these items per class.
The difference is in Heartseeker.
However we should also consider how base protections work with magical prot being 48 for every god at lvl 20 and physicals ranging from 60-80. meaning magic pen is objectively more effective than physical.
Sure, you can weave your 1-2 and AA. Or you can just 1-2 and skip the AA since they'll be dead anyway. As for boxing, I was under the impression a mage that can box would be one that either has built in sustain, prefers to build into bulky itemsets and/or has inherit tankiness. Anubis/Zhong for sustain, Ah puch/Baba for bulky, Cabrakin/Bachus for tankiness (Even though those two are suppose to be guardians, they can play a role of roll face over keyboard damage pretty well.)
And like I said, if having maximum CDR early is your good vibe check then you do you. The build I outlined as Standard will eventually give you 40% CDR during the endgame with the red potion anyway. I made these builds under the impression you will land what you throw, and that which you throw will annihilate any squishy purely on their own merits, you simply need to hit. Tanks are not the focus for Burst mages in general, if your focus is to kill a tank you're already off your designation, especially during the early/midgame when you want to stomp out your competition so you can start the ball rolling on the carry aspect of Scylla. If the tank is the only thing left, you're still going to be doing pretty good damage to them, but it's no loss if they get away as no tank is going to kill you alone unless they build damage, which doesn't make them tanks anymore. Void stone isn't enough anymore to have tanks faceroll people like they use to. The only time I would take utility over damage is if the compromise doesn't also compromise the integrity of your objective. Chronos pendant and/or CDR boots dampens your damage by just enough, and Poly makes you position more precariously just to get that sweet looking combo you didn't even need if you skipped the luxury and built with confidence. You're never going to full combo one shot a tank (Unless they're way behind), even going maximum pen, don't waste your cooldowns on the distractions and aim for the bigger fish.
If you read further below you'll notice we talked about the misunderstanding with Soul Reaver already.
Again, speaking from experience, the extra point into your ult doesn't make as much difference as it seems, no squishy will usually be able to survive a Crush or Sic em' + ultimate, let alone a full combo. This is the only acceptable compromise I've found forgoing a little bit of damage, for a little bit of utility. If it wasn't for Scylla's passive helping the issue, I probably wouldn't consider it, but as it stands it's never been an issue for me to secure a kill with my ultimate unless you're far behind, which as a carry, is probably the worst thing to have happen to you. Only furthers the idea of playing within your territory, so to speak.
And don't forget Asi. And Stone cutting. And Silverbranch Bow. Toxic blade is certainly more viable with physical attackers, though the beatstick is probably the choice they'd go anyway unless they're heavily AA reliant like Bakasura. Mages have more %penetration options, physical has more flat penetration options. When your goal is to kill squishes, I'd take flat pen over percentage any day of the week (Unless it's something absurd like 60%). Most assassins usually rely on their DoT alongside crusher and Heartseeker, others just do pure crit, and some have built-in physical pen and can hold W like Kali or Bakasura with his true damage. Man, sometimes I wish Scylla's Passive gave her flat pen instead...
Sure, you can weave your 1-2 and AA. Or you can just 1-2 and skip the AA since they'll be dead anyway.
okay let's test this shall we grabbed scylla at lvl 12 with your lvl order (maxed 1 and 2) items stacked blessing-stacked thoth-divine cause that is the middle of mid game ending aroudn 4 or 4.5th item start late game. 1 build runs focus 1 runs magi
damage magi:
1: 542
1 with 2 debuff: 594
2: 694
AA: 124
total highest damage of 1+2: 1288
damage focus:
1: 537
1 with 2 debuff: 589
2: 689
AA: 123
total highest damage of 1+2: 1278
including an aa it's an 11 damage difference and both will kill a lvl 12 scylla only without the basic. if she is lvl 13 you need that basic on both builds. And the basic is only 5 ft shorter than the 1 that you are probably not hitting at full range.
As for boxing, I was under the impression a mage that can box would be one that either has built in sustain, prefers to build into bulky itemsets and/or has inherit tankiness. Anubis/Zhong for sustain, Ah puch/Baba for bulky, Cabrakin/Bachus for tankiness (Even though those two are suppose to be guardians, they can play a role of roll face over keyboard damage pretty well.)
A box mage is a mage that relies on their AA as the act of boxing is trading by relying on throwing AAs at each other. An ability rotation is just seen as trading or all-inning.
And like I said, if having maximum CDR early is your good vibe check then you do you. The build I outlined as Standard will eventually give you 40% CDR during the endgame with the red potion anyway. I made these builds under the impression you will land what you throw, and that which you throw will annihilate any squishy purely on their own merits, you simply need to hit. Tanks are not the focus for Burst mages in general, if your focus is to kill a tank you're already off your designation, especially during the early/midgame when you want to stomp out your competition so you can start the ball rolling on the carry aspect of Scylla. If the tank is the only thing left, you're still going to be doing pretty good damage to them, but it's no loss if they get away as no tank is going to kill you alone unless they build damage, which doesn't make them tanks anymore. Void stone isn't enough anymore to have tanks faceroll people like they use to. The only time I would take utility over damage is if the compromise doesn't also compromise the integrity of your objective. Chronos pendant and/or CDR boots dampens your damage by just enough, and Poly makes you position more precariously just to get that sweet looking combo you didn't even need if you skipped the luxury and built with confidence. You're never going to full combo one shot a tank (Unless they're way behind), even going maximum pen, don't waste your cooldowns on the distractions and aim for the bigger fish.
Most tanks/bruisers don't even need(ed) void stone their base damages CDR focussed build and high EHP would win them the day. their only damage item being CDR boots or warrior tabi.
I'm going to wish you luck hitting the squishies when zoned by the solo laner/bruiser, your adc tries to burn down while your frontline is getting melted by 2 damage sources.
And don't forget Asi. And Stone cutting. And Silverbranch Bow. Toxic blade is certainly more viable with physical attackers, though the beatstick is probably the choice they'd go anyway unless they're heavily AA reliant like Bakasura. Mages have more %penetration options, physical has more flat penetration options. When your goal is to kill squishes, I'd take flat pen over percentage any day of the week (Unless it's something absurd like 60%). Most assassins usually rely on their DoT alongside crusher and Heartseeker, others just do pure crit, and some have built-in physical pen and can hold W like Kali or Bakasura with his true damage. Man, sometimes I wish Scylla's Passive gave her flat pen instead...
Okay, but since when are nuker physicals(you know your Susano, Hun Batz, Thor) building Asi, SCS or silverbranch.
nukers have 3 reliant flat pen options from which they often build 2 if not going trans.
AA users are a totally different story as they will often grab 1 of those and combine it with The Executioner. inbuild pen for a nuker is only a Thanatos thing iirc.
Thoth passive gives flat pen. Still 30 flat physical pen only increases the damage by 14.4%. meanwhile magical flat pen increases damage by 17.2%. combine this with the power magical items provide vs physicals and I think you already know, which class hits harder ability wise.
I see, I thought mages that AA are just known as MPADCs like Sol, Freya, Olorun or Chronos. The ones that are designed to AA.
I've never been solo'd by a tank building just tank items before. They can do some serious damage if you just let them wail on your like Horus or Fafnir in ultimate form, but unless they're building damage, I don't have to worry about them aside from being CC locked for their backline to pick me off, which I don't put myself in a position for them to do easily. You can always use your ultimate to perform a getaway with it's CC immunity and 35% movespeed, it's not a bad thing to do if they over commit, allowing you to re-position for their squishes. I'm also planning under the assumption you have a frontline as well, so you can monopolize when they get caught, retreat with Sentinel if needed. Being pressured by tanks and blinking Assassins is nothing new for a Scylla, you should be use to it and quick to adapt, I just don't put myself in situations where you're easy to get jumped on immediately as you should with Scylla.
My point was that they simply had more options. Not all assassins would consider Silverbranch bow or Asi obviously, Susano prefers Crusher and Heartseeker, Hun Batz likes to go crit and ignore defense with titan's bane, Thor I've seen so many builds used even I don't know what he likes to build mostly. It depends on their assassins, but there's an item for everyone. For mages, it's Desolate and Divine ruin for maximum effectiveness, and rather the only logical option we have anyway for flat pen. The statistics on magical flat pen is probably why they removed it on Magi. Still, making some carries get Belt of Frenzy again is pretty nice and it helps the team so it's not all bad.
Well in most cases you will easily be able to get away from the tank as it takes quite long for them to kill (unless they manage quite a lvl lead) and it also depends on the tank. Someone like Xing Tian or Sobek will be able to, but a Ganesha or Khepri much less likely.
If your team is nearby or at least 1 of your frontliners knows they have to peel it won;t happen that quickly unless they have a solo lane/bruiser build also assuming the adc hits them.
In that case you're true, still most won't consider all those as they aren;t really viable for them or at all (hi silverbranch).
Hun Batz isn't really using crit anymore since the passive got changed. More often using a 1 or 2 Mace items (cause he can utilize all 3 for different reasons) hydra's and hearteeker.
The reason flat pen got nerfed was mostly because of the damage guardians could also dish out with it.
As such, at level 12, the only difference between Neith and Ra is base health. Neith has 1,335, and Ra has 1,201. Mages typically have a lower health pool than hunters, but even within mages there's variance.
Yes you're going to build Soul Reaver anyway.
And subsequent hits, I believe is talking about from other abilities on the same god after the initial Reaver proc after 3 seconds from the most recent Reaver porc.
this was consisten in matches and other tick abilities. Even abilities like Raijin's one or ult if you hit an enemy multipel times.
Yeah, but I could have sworn at some point Reaver was influenced by all kinds of ticks, and was the main reason you'd see it being run on gods like Fafnir and Cabrakin just to melt people. Ah well...
Double Flat pen is just better, for Arcane and Ice which are your main lategame teamfight stances. Fire Stance is pretty much just for early clear and objective dps.
With the Lifesteal build you can still heal a good chuck, the main reason is it's the only alternative to Thoth I could find that actually gives you ridiculous damage starting upwards, and it's the cheapest. You have % penetration, flat penetration, anti heal and sustain. The only thing you're going to be hurting for is defense, which is going to haunt you in the endgame if you're not careful.
See my notes as to why I would say Soul Gem or Pythagorem is better then Bancroft.
E.g. Magi Shoes Deso Divine Reaver Typhon's Soul Gem could be an ok build, and sell Magi shoes late for Tahuti.
If by hit hard you mean around 600~700 (1500~1700 with ult) damage against their 3000 health pool then yes. Your physical carry would be far more effective still, go kill theirs without being AA'd yourself.
Unless you get divid by an assassin you will not 2 shot, probably only do 2/3 of their health without ult. the biggest divers are the solo laners or tanks to draw aggro. And get important cooldowns. This will allow an assassin to jump in without getting CCed and squished like a bug.
I don’t think a build should have more than 2 or 3 lifesteal items once boots is sold though (also I’m counting magi Shoes as a lifesteal item).
Pythags + Typhon’s and Bancrofts + Typhon’s is usually common on mage ADCs, Typhon’s + Soul Gem can work on some Burst mages.
I have seen Bancrofts + Typhon’s work on gods like Raijin (SPL / Ranked), and Pythags + Typhon’s work on Zeus (PrettyPrime trying it out in Ranked), but they’re not common and Double Flat Pen mage Build is kinda the meta right now.
But lifesteal build or not, if you’re playing a burst mage your build (usually) needs Reaver.
(With some exceptions like Morrigan depending on the build path, but usually by the time you sell boots you may have it).
These builds are obviously NOT meant for Conquest, as it's suggested to get Attacker's Blessing.
1st item rush is either Deso or Divine, depending on if you need anti-heal or not, but that you'll "eventually" get both. Then it's SotM. Then I can't tell if it's "SG + Typhon's" or "SG OR Typhon's," finishing up with Reaver, then either Ob Shard or Pythag's as shoes replacement. If it's SG OR Typhon's, I wouldn't consider Shoes of the Magi as strong enough base of lifesteal to make Typhon's worth that added function.
The notes also say you're going to pick up Deso AND Divine at some point anyway, which means the total item count is over.
I would agree on odd and not particularly optimized. Although SG is fine as a lifesteal option, I wouldn't go Typhon's with her, let alone following that up late-game (potentially) with Pythag's. 3x lifesteal on Scylla? Yeek.
At that point, I would say better clarification on which are options to choose from and which are always purchased would be helpful.