Xbalanque - The Hidden Jaguar Sun (updated 30.01.2013 Vulcan patch)

Hey guys,
first of all: This is my first Guide for Smite but I hope it will be an useful introduction for all those who haven't played Xba yet.

Xba is one of the best gods for ganking in my opinion. your biggest advantage are the first minutes (when you got Rising Jaguar and your Poison Darts) because Xba's abilities are really powerful. Playing against squishy gods (like Loki, Bastet, Kali, Artemis ...) should always grant you at least one or two early kills.
But be careful playing against cc gods. Especially Ymir's stun is really dangerous.

Branching Bola

This ability gives Xba a basic-attack buff which increases his damage by 50 on level 5. Besides, hitting an enemy unit, the bola splits up and does 30% additional dmg. Every attack now consumes mana until you deactivated Branching Bola with a right-click.

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Poison Darts

Together with Rising Jaguar it's the most important ability at the beginning. Activating this ability Xba will shot 10 darts in a cone in front of him. You can hit one enemy with up to 3 darts while the 2nd and 3rd just do 30% damage. An poised enemy gets physical damage every 0.5 seconds and is slowed.
Always use this ability before you cast your Rising Jaguar.

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Rising Jaguar

After you have poisoned your enemy use this ability to rush forward and hit all enemy units close to you with darts dealing physical damage. If the enemy got poisoned before casting this ability he will get 30% extra damage (not updated here on smitefire).

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Darkest of Nights

Xbalanque's last ability is really unique. No other god in Smite has a global ultimate yet. Activating Darkest of Nights will shroud the enemy gods in darkness for 3 seconds. During his ultimate Xba moves faster and his basic-attackrange is increased by 40 feet. All enemies moving at the end of his ultimate get stunned.
You can use his ultimate for ganking fleeing or to catch up with your enemies. Always look at the map and save your teammates life's activating your ultimate.

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Dead of Night

Updated
Anytime Xba kills an enemy he gains 5 physical power permanently, up to a max of 30 physical power.

Heartseeker

I use to play many physical ranged with heartseeker because it will grant you a really nice damage if you can handle it without dying. Especially with a high attackspeed it will do really awesome damage especially at the beginning.
Besides it will give you 10% extra movementspeed which is nice for escaping or ganking.

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Warrior Tabi

Of course... boots are a must for every hero in my opinion giving you a nice movementspeed. They also increase your damage because of their physical power, attackspeed and critical strike chance.
They will permit you the possibility of ganking mid (without losing too many exp for not being on lane because of their movementspeed) and later a good way to escape slower heroes.

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Fatalis

Fatalis just gives you a better movementspeed and a really nice attackspeed. Together with full-stacked Heartseeker it does tons of damage :)

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Brawler's Beat Stick

Yeah I know there are many other lifestealing-items but this one reduces the enemy healing by 50% (which also includes enemy's lifesteal). Especially against enemy carries it's a really strong item.
Moreover it increases your critical strike chance by 15%.

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Rage

This item increases all our damage-stats (attackspeed, physical power, critical strike chance) and gives a really awesome passive. Whenever your basic-attack doesn't hit critical your critical strike chance will increase by 5% (to a maximum of 50%). Together with a high attackspeed it will grants us a really high dps.

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Deathbringer

Another must-have item for any physical hero in my opinion. Its the only item increasing your critical strike damage (It also increases critical stike chance and physical power). Together with Rage and a nice critical strike chance this item is really useful doing tons of damage :)

When you have finished your itembuild I would recommend spending your gold for:

• CritChance (maximum) -> together with Rage you will nearly always hit critical
• Physical Penetration -> to increase your dealt damage vs defensive builds
• Attackspeed -> With full Heartseeker a huge attackspeed is really awesome
• Lifesteal -> As much as possible so u won't lose that much health in teamfights

At the beginning buy lvl 2 Heartseeker and Meditation. Chose one lane (I'd rather choose right lane, cause the enemy squishy gods are likely there because of the manacamp). Stay defensive until you are at least level 2 rather 3. Now your Poison Darts and Rising Jaguar will do nice damage (Be aware that you can control your god in the air -> moving during the jump will increase your area).
When you have enough gold for lvl 3 Heartseeker and Health Potions immediately return to base so you can farm stacks.

Returning to lane with your lvl 3 Heartseeker you have to farm minions as much as possible. But always make sure you can retreat (for example playing against Ymir) because dying and losing all your saved stacks is the worst case.
Try to use your skills as often as you can even if you cant kill the enemy gods they have to return to base or waste their Health Potions which gives you a gold and/or exp advantage.

When you got your kills and the next items ( Warrior Tabi maybe even Fatalis) try to help your middle lane by ganking the enemy midgod.
You should be higher than lvl 5 now so you can use your Darkest of Nights before you finally engage (make sure the enemy god has pushed the lane so he cant escape in towerrange).

In the lategame make sure you activate your ultimate in teamfights and dont get focused by too many enemy gods. You have to avoid all stuns in the teamfight. Don't forget: you do tons of damage now, but you are still squishy without your lifesteal.

Pros:

• High Utility
• Very high early game damage
• Global ultimate
• Awesome ganker due to his high movementspeed and his ultimate
• Since Xba's passive got buffed getting some early kills is more important because each kill will add you 5 physical power (max 30), which is really awesome at the beginning.

Cons:

• Very squishy

Here are some useful tips playing Xba:

• Never go for towerdive against Ymir (you shouldn't do that with any god :D)
• You CAN go towerdiving even with lowlevel (3-5) against nearly dead enemy gods (but always go back while you are still in the air)
• Use Darkest of Nights to:
  • rescue yourself or other teammates (so watch the map)
  • catch up with an enemy god
  • help the other lanes to get their kills
• As you should do with other gods too, try to hit the enemy with your basic attacks and finish him off with your Poison Darts and Rising Jaguar
• If you aren't sure of engaging or not DON'T do it (the risk of losing your stacks is too high)
• You can get hit by stuns or disables during your jump

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