Smitefire logo

Join the leading SMITE community.
Create and share God Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

x

Vote received! Would you like to let the author know their guide helped you and leave them a message?

Banner for Thanatos guides

[WIP] A (Hopefully) In-Depth Thanatos Guide

5 1 37,306
by Swampmist1142 updated September 30, 2013

Smite God: Thanatos

Build Guide Discussion 27 More Guides
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Thanatos Build

Set out to War

Build Item Bloodforge Bloodforge
Build Item Reinforced Greaves Reinforced Greaves
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
2

Sharpen The Scythe

Build Item Bloodforge Bloodforge
Build Item Reinforced Greaves (Deleted) Reinforced Greaves (Deleted)

The Execution

Build Item Jotunn's Wrath Jotunn's Wrath
Build Item Shifter's Shield Shifter's Shield

No Irony For You

Build Item Void Shield Void Shield
Build Item Breastplate of Regrowth Breastplate of Regrowth

The Alternate Colectors Kit

Build Item Hydra's Lament Hydra's Lament
Build Item Brawler's Beat Stick Brawler's Beat Stick
Build Item Titan's Bane Titan's Bane
Build Item Bracer of Replenishment Bracer of Replenishment
Build Item Fatalis Fatalis

Deaths Recreational Activities

Build Item Shielded Teleport Shielded Teleport
Build Item Fist of the Gods Fist of the Gods
Build Item Restoration Shard Restoration Shard
Build Item Combat Blink Combat Blink
Build Item Cloak of Meditation Cloak of Meditation
Build Item Heavenly Wings Heavenly Wings

A Measley Substitute for souls

Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
Build Item Teleport to Towers Teleport to Towers
Build Item Sentry Ward Sentry Ward
Build Item Potion of Power Potion of Power

Thanatos's Skill Order

Death Scythe

1 X Y
Death Scythe
2 4 12 16 18

Scent of Death

2 A B
Scent of Death
6 8 11 15 19

Soul Reap

3 B A
Soul Reap
1 3 7 10 14

Hovering Death

4 Y X
Hovering Death
5 9 13 17 20
Death Scythe
2 4 12 16 18

Death Scythe

1 X
Thanatos flings his scythe at an enemy, dealing damage and an additional 10% of the target's maximum health against enemy gods. Enemies hit are slowed for 3s and heal Thanatos based on damage dealt. Consumes 4% of Thanatos' current HP when used.

Ability Type: Projectile
Damage: 100 / 170 / 240 / 310 / 380 (+60% of your Physical Power)
Bonus Damage (Gods): 10% of Max HP
Healing: 50% of damage dealt
Slow: 20%
Cost: 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 65
Cooldown: 12s
Scent of Death
6 8 11 15 19

Scent of Death

2 A
Thanatos senses death, gaining immunity to Slow effects and additional move speed and Physical Penetration for 6s. His speed bonus increases up to double when moving toward an enemy god within the instant kill health threshold of his Ultimate. Consumes 4% of Thanatos' current HP when used.

Ability Type: Buff
Penetration: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30
Move Speed: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30%
Bonus Speed (Low Health): 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30%
Cost: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40
Cooldown: 13s
Soul Reap
1 3 7 10 14

Soul Reap

3 B
Thanatos swings his scythe, dealing Physical damage and Silencing enemies he hits. Thanatos moves at a reduced rate while swinging. Consumes 4% of Thanatos' current HP when used.

Ability Type: Cone, Silence, Damage
Damage: 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 (+70% of your Physical Power)
Silence Duration: 1s
Cost: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45
Cooldown: 14s
Hovering Death
5 9 13 17 20

Hovering Death

4 Y
Thanatos flaps his wings and ascends for 5s, unable to be hit. While airborne, he moves unimpeded at an increased speed before diving to his target location, dealing damage. Enemies below a Health threshold are instantly killed. All others are Stunned. Consumes 8% of Thanatos' current HP when used.

Ability Type: Circle, Stun, Damage
Damage: 110 / 145 / 180 / 215 / 250 (+80% of your Physical Power)
Kill Health Threshold: 24 / 28 / 32 / 36 / 40%
Stun Duration: 1.5s
Bonus Move Speed: 150%
Radius: 15
Cost: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80
Cooldown: 90s

Intro

Hi, I'm Swampmist, but you can call me Swampy, And this is my first guide. I have a lot of experience with Smite, I have played since around Anhur's Release, and I've decided to try to give an In-Depth, or at least fairly so, Guide on the Bad-*** God of Death, Thanatos.

Pros / Cons

Pros:


Kills Quickly
Tank-Busting For Days
Good Sustain with Passive and 1
A fairly long silence on His 3
Can Pick Up otherwise lost kills
Great Mid and End game
his 2 gives him Penetration and speed immunity

Cons:


Very Squishy
Uses Health for Abilities
No Real Escapes, other than ulti and possibly the 2
Can Be very hard to use if you don't take the time to learn him
Early Game can be challenging
lack of CC

Stats

Here, I will detail what Every Stat does for Thanatos, before going into my item choices because of this.

HEALTH


Contrary to popular belief, Health can be quite beneficial to Thanatos. Say you get an Item that gives you 200 health. Yes, your 1 now costs 20 more health to cast, but it then leaves another 180 extra for use in survival! It's, as always, a choice of preference, but don't pass over getting health just because he hurts himself.

POWER


The Best thing Thana can build, it makes everything he has better. Simple as that.

PENETRATION


The other best thing he has, but you don't need quite as much as, say, loki simply because Thana's 2 gives him it.

LIFESTEAL


This is one of the 2 things that Thana needs to NOT die in lane, as his abilities do take a fair bit of his health. It also helps against other Thanatos, simply because you can stay above the enemies insta-kill threshold and he may not be able to do the same to you.

PROTECTIONS


This is the other thing that keeps you alive, and if your doing anything as thana, you'll probably need some. That's about it.

COOLDOWN


Cooldown doesn't really help Thana much, as spamming abilities will end up killing you more often than not, but it DOES let you use your Ulti more often, so it's ok, Just don't get too much.

MANA


Mana does next to nothing for Thana, as he has a fair bit in relation to the tiny costs of his abilities. Don't focus on it, but picking some up isn't the worst thing in the world.

CCR


This can, honestly, be quite helpful for Thana, as he has no real escape other than his ulti, and his 2 in a few situations. Depends on the enemy team's composition, really.

REGENERATIONS


HP regen can be quite essential on a Thana, especially if you have a little less Lifesteal. It helps your abiltiies basically cost less, and yeah.

CRIT CHANCE AND ATTACK SPEED


I'm lumping these together because They basically have the same summary: Thana uses his abilities more than he does his basics, so these are much less useful as such.

SPEED


Again, his 2 gives a bit of it, and it goves him a slow immunity as well, but a bit can help his ulti immensly, as it's only a speed boost.

Items

BloodForge:
This is an amazing item. More lifesteal as you attack more, and it starts with lots of both it and power. Perfect for Thana's kit, and you grab it early to get the most use out of it over-all.

Reinforced Greeves:
This item gives a few things that Thanatos Needs to lane: Defence to help him not insta-die to minions, and CCR to keep him out of many abilities that would otherwise screw him over, especially stun-chains.

Jontunn's Wrath
Jotunn's gives a few nice things to Thana: A bit of Penetration, A bit of Mana, a bit of Power and the one bit of CDR you need. Over-all a good item, but you may want to grab it after you get the more defensive items, and\or the Eye

Eye of RetaliationEye of Retaliation:
This item is one of the bets boosts to physical power in the game, and with thanatos damaging himself it becomes even better! and that 12% lifesteal ain't so bad either. Get this 3rd if you are farming and killing well, but I don't tend to because you need the defence items for squishiness stopping.

Shield of RegrowthShield of Regrowth
Although seen as the weaker of the 2 shields, this item can be incredibly effective for team-fighting as thana. With the boost to regen, you can easily stay in a fight for a while, despite basically killing yourself by attacking. The Defense and damage is also super nice for lanning, I'd pick it up fairly early.

Focused VoidbladeFocused Voidblade:
More of that Delicious penetration and Power combo, and a bit of defense as well. Some may prefer normal voidblade, especially if you have another Assassin and\or a bruiser on your team, but this is in general the better pick up, because it can give you a bit of true damage on other squishys, which will help you to get them low enough for a fairly easy kill.

Hydra's Lament:
Hydra's is the main alternative to Jotunn's, simply because it gives a bit of CDR, although less than Jotunn's, and makes doing 2-3-basic attack a fairly potent strategy. You do lose out on some Penetration and the mana, though.

Brawler's Beat Stick:
This item is here for only really 1 reason: The Healing reduction. It's pretty much the only counter your going to get to people like Herc and Ra, so you may want to pick it up if the enemy has too much healing for you to burst them down.

Titan's Bane
This one is pretty simple: Power and Penetration, and it stacks well with the 2 because it's percentage based. That's about it.

Bracer's of Replenishment:
This is what I would pick up to replace the bit of mana you miss from getting Hydra's over Jotunn's. It gives you regen up the butt, which is nice, and it keeps your team out of other thanas' kill range(s).

Fatalis:
I haven't tried this one out, but as I said in the Stats section, Speed could be fairly nice on Thana because of his ulti. Also the passive can work well with Bloodforge and can help with late-game jungle-farming.

Actives

MeditationMeditation:
I always have meditation as an option in my builds, especially because health give. Not really worth it unless you can buy the whole thing, but always an option.

SprintSprint:
Sprint is one of the items that greatly helps thana's escape, and it also gives his passive a little boost. Still, Combat Blink is probably better in most scenarios.

Shielded Teleport:
I am someone who constantly buys teleports to get back in lane, so picking this up may be good for ganks and such. Your Call really.

Fist of the Gods:
This item can really help with lanning, and gives him a bit of hard CC outside of his ulti, which can be very helpful. I'd probably try to pick this up if you aren't sure what to buy.

Restoration Shard:
This item is a nice alternative to meditation, especially if the enemy team has a few nasty spellcasters. Meditation's better if your lanning against ADCs of Assasins, though, so I'd think carfeully before you choose between the 2.

Combat Blink:
This is one of the best escape items in the game, and could very well end up saving your *** in many a fight. The long cooldown could mess you up, so there are alternatives.

Skills

Harvester of Souls:
Passive. Enemy gods within his ultimates execute threshold are revealed to Thanatos. Dealing the killing blow to enemies also empowers Thanatos, granting him health based on the max hp of his target, 20% if it's a god, 10% if it's a minion.
This is one of the main things that off-sets Thana's use of health for his abilities. It helps alot to offset his 3, although it falls off late game. It also helps him gank very effectively mid-to-late game because of the whole revealing thing.
Death Scythe:
Skill 1. Thanatos flings his scythe at an enemy, dealing 100/170/240/310/380 (+60% of your physical power) damage and an additional 10% of the targets maximum health against enemy gods. Enemies hit are slowed by 20% for 3s and heal Thanatos by 50% of damage dealt. Consumes 10% of Thanatos max hp when used.
Cost: 25/35/45/55/65 mana.
Cooldown: 13 seconds.
This is the only other part of Thana's kit that gives him health back, and only really if you use it to poke as it uses up more health than anything but the ult by 5%, which can be a good bit. It does good damage, and the slow can really secure those kills that your going to need to be getting to get any kind of item. Especially late game, it does a lot, and Busts Tanks like there's no Tommorow. I get a few levels of this early to help with poke, and then stagger it with the 2
Scent of Death:
Skill 2. Thanatos senses death, removing and gaining immunity to slow effects and gaining 10/15/20/25/30% move speed and 15/20/25/30/35 physical penetration for 6s. His move speed bonus doubles when moving toward an enemy god within the instant kill threshold of his ultimate. Consumes 5% of Thanatos max hp when used.
Cost: 20/25/30/35/40 mana.
Cooldown: 13 seconds.
This is one of Thanas big killer later in the game. While it ndoesn't help much early because your basic attacks will be less of what mkills the enemy, and the kill-threshold isn't that high, late-game this thing gives hyou everything you need to kill everyone in your path. Very nice, but I don't pick it up for a bit because it's way less useful without the ult.
Soul Reap:
Skill 3. Thanatos swings his scythe, dealing 100/150/200/250/300 (+80% of your physical power) physical damage and silencing enemies he hits for 0.5/.75/1.00/1.25/1.5s. Thanatos moves at a reduced rate while swinging. Consumes 5% of Thanatos max hp when used.
Cost: 25/30/35/40/45 mana.
Cooldown: 15 seconds.
This thing not only kills enemy gods with the silence and the crazy damage, but ti also clears minions like you wouldn't believe. I rush this thing after I get the ult because so much killing potential and farm,ing comes of it, but you can't neglect the rest of his kit.
Hovering Death:
Ultimate. Thanatos flaps his wings and goes airborne for 5s, unable to be hit. During this time, he moves unimpeded with 100% additional speed and can click to pounce to his target location, dealing 90/125/160/195/230 (+80% of your physical power) damage. Enemies below a 24/28/32/36/40% health threshold are instantly killed. All others are stunned for 1s. Consumes 15% of Thanatos max hp when used.
Cost: 40/50/60/70/80 mana.
Cooldown: 90 seconds.
Thana's ulti does SOOOOOOO much for his kit. Every level increases your kill rnage, making your 2 and Passive better, and it's great fior escaping as well as picking up kills that most others would miss. Kill Stealing is also an option, but it's kinda frowned upon in general because yeah. Also, the speed boost it gives scales with yours, so certain items and abiltiies could work quite well with it.

Your Best Friends and Enemies (and your worst of both ;P)

This section will be a little bare for now until I can get some more testing done, but these a few examples that I have from my time playing Thana.

Friends:


Ra:
Ra gives a few things to thana that help him a lot: Healing and clear. With these 2 working together, you have pushing potential for days and the ability to heal if you hurt yourself too much when farming. Over-all a great partner, but he may be stolen from you by mid ;P.


Enemies:


Thanatos:
Other thanatos can either be the bane of your life, or the thing you get fed off of. Depending on your play style he can be your worst or best enemy, but if he ganks you your probably the one who's going to die.

Ymir:
Ymir is one of the best examples of Thana being good. Ymir can't effictively fight a thana and Thana just gets to use his Detah Scythe to steal health all day long. Just don't try to rush him without support, because he will either run away or call in some support.

Herc:
The worts guy you can fight as Thana, and the entire reason Brawler's is in the build. He'll heal anything you do to you, and then smash you into the ground in like 3 hits. If you fight him, you will need support, without a shadow of a doubt, as long as their even semi-decent. And if he has a reliable healer? VVGG, your dead.

Summary

Now, this guide is by no means completely done. I still need to do fairly extensive testing for his laning partners and enemies, and I have a few more builds thta I need to add, but with school and other activities that I do I don't have much Time to work. So, please suggest things to me, parts to add to the build, ect. Again, this is a WiP, althouhg this build is just about done, as there are a few others that need to be tested.

Leave a Comment

You need to log in before commenting.

Collapse All Comments

1
Swampmist1142 (8) | November 22, 2013 4:55pm
this guide was originally during the thana patch, still haven't gotten many chances to update it.
1
Subzero008 (112) | November 22, 2013 4:26pm
The Reinforced Greaves feel kind of out of place, especially when you could just buy Magi's Blessing for what I feel is a superior effect and stats. (Speaking about the 40% CC reduction, not the lack of protections).
1
ThatOneDemopan | November 5, 2013 6:00am
As far as enemies go, Loki and Arachne are pretty hard counters to Thanatos, due to Than's low HP and their very high burst damage. Bakasura is rather weak to Thanatos because of his Death Scythe lifesteal and damage.
1
Swampmist1142 (8) | October 6, 2013 4:36pm
...what?
1
FishTacklz | October 6, 2013 4:08pm
i dont agree with any of the stuff above^. Better luck next time
1
Swampmist1142 (8) | October 6, 2013 4:31am
well, as I said in the actives chapter, it's for the final level's health regen. I agree though, I don't tend to pick it up because lack of mana consumption, but if you can get last level it can be pretty great.
1
NightCobra123 | October 6, 2013 1:33am
I dont see why you would have meditation on it thanatos barely uses any.
1
Swampmist1142 (8) | October 1, 2013 6:14pm
yeah, sent the request. I figured out that your bio had it, but that may have been what you meant...
1
Raventhor (158) | October 1, 2013 6:12pm
Oh right, my sig doesn't appear on guides...that's soooo annoying.
It's DecimusBrutalis
1
Swampmist1142 (8) | October 1, 2013 6:00pm
hey, Raven, how do I access your sig? Also, Turnip, what's your IGN?
1
TormentedTurnip (96) | October 1, 2013 5:56pm
Don't worry, my proposal is very tentative! So count it as 4.2324, repeating of course.
1
Raventhor (158) | October 1, 2013 5:56pm
Fine by me. IDC who plays Thanatos and who plays Cupid, I'm down for anything. Anything to break the monotony, heh
Loading Comments...
Load More Comments

SMITEFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new god, or fine tune your favorite SMITE gods’s build and strategy.

Copyright © 2019 SMITEFire | All Rights Reserved