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Sell Shoes of the Magi lategame for
Elixir of Speed and
Ethereal Staff or alternative.
Sell Shoes of the Magi lategame for
Elixir of Speed and
Obsidian Shard or alternative.
Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for
Elixir of Speed and
Soul Reaver,
Mantle of Discord, or alternative.
Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for
Elixir of Speed and
Ethereal Staff or alternative.
Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for
Elixir of Speed and
Mantle of Discord or alternative.
Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for
Elixir of Speed and
Soul Reaver,
Obsidian Shard or alternative.
Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for
Elixir of Speed and
Mantle of Discord or alternative.
Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for
Elixir of Speed and
Pythagorem's Piece or alternative.
E.g. say against you're Ao Kuang or
Ares/
Da Ji etc...
Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for
Elixir of Speed and
Ethereal Staff,
Mantle of Discord, or alternative.
Sell Shoes of the Magi lategame for
Elixir of Speed and
Ethereal Staff,
Obsidian Shard, or alternative.
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For example, the bancrofts builds. Bancrofts makes Zhong Kui harder to kill early game not just because of how much lifesteal it can grant with it's passive but the potential power spike as well which can let him turn fights very easily.
But then lets look at say... rushing Spear of the Magus after boots. This is when you are not focused on sustain or tankiness, but rather putting out as much damage possible (via application of Zhong's 1 or his ult which are tick damage and so hence work well with magus) early without having to rely on something like Bancroft's passive.
And then lets compare it to an early Pythags. With pythags you're looking at lower kill potential than rushing bancrofts or magus, but you're gaining CDR, higher BASE lifesteal (than Bancrofts - not including bancroft's passive) for sustain, a good team aura (Aura is especially great on physical gods), a little health and all at a cheap price.
Reasonings for particular item choices:
It also works well with the ult since it allows him to keep dealing damage simply by being there with his ult active while enemies are stunned.
In general protection items are are very strong compared to damage items until (typically) lategame when the enemy carries tend to have percentage penetration/reduction like
Team comp can also sometimes effect item choices. Some games I get comps where only 1 character on my team can effectively frontline, so sometimes I might pick Zhong Kui Mid and go a more tanky bruiser build so teamfights can go better.
Now im not going to explain every since item choice since this isn't a guide, it's just meant to show you what the typical builds could look like in certain games, and that you could generally use.
If you want to know when to build certain items, and why, then you could do these things:
1. Keep up to date with Patch notes changes, items get buffed and nerfed, increasing or decreasing their relevance.
2. Look at how experienced/high level players build, why they choose certain items and when, and on specific characters. You could do this on Twitch when say... pro players are streaming and ask them in their chat, you could ask them on their Youtube videos in the comments, you could watch SPL games and look at the items they build in those matches (You can use Smiteprobuilds for this, but it's better to see the actual match itself to help understand the item choices better).
3. Understand how the game's stat mechanics work. Which is where the Word of Thoth mechanics guide comes in: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ow_ls0iB2wi2jbgU1FZv7RWWbqRDBGpt/view (Word of Thoth - Game mechanics guide)
4. Understand the character's kit does and what item's benefit them. E.g. Characters with high power scaling on their abilities can benefit a lot from high power, that's just one example. Another example could be starters and starter items, for instance mages like
Read their kit, whether thats in-game, or on the Smite Wiki. Look at what base stats they have, how the stats scale per level etc...
5. Look at the item's guide here on Smitefire: https://www.smitefire.com/smite/guide/an-in-depth-discussion-on-item-choices-s6-patch-6-8-quot-mid-season-quot-14522
Needs minor updates in few places but overall explains certain item choices. Now it may not help you specifically teach you how to build every character in every situation, but it helps explain why and when certain items can be bought.
6. Ask on Smite reddit. You may or may not get good answers, but it depends on how experienced/knowledged the person is that answers them.
7. Though not strictly related, watch this video and it might explain some of the things I mentioned, alongside things I haven't:
Yet further proof Kriega (possibly) has a sense of humor!
Of course +1 vote for the builds.