4,200 Miles: Sobek, Egypt's Pride (Joust, etc)

This is my first Smite-Fire guide, so I apologize if the formatting is kinda jank, but it has to be done. As things are now, Sobek is rated as a bottom-tier god, despite having natural sustain with his 3 and a great escape in his 1. My goals in making this build were to create a high-damage Support that can safely initiate and end teamfights. I prefer to use this build in Joust because it is easier to support your whole team in one lane and easier to push against only three opponents, although that is just a personal preference and I have done well in the crazy team-fighting that is Arena. Before I explain any further I would like to apologize to the "Sobek is OP Club" for breaking their only rule; I think it's time for people to know.

Pros:

I'm just going to cover Sobek's passive real quick: hit stuff, get scary. Pretty much a microcosm of this whole build. You should be landing basic attacks on minion waves while you wait for your three to come back up, but more on that soon. This will make you all the more scary when enemy gods come for you.

The Skill order here is very important, and it's easy to mess it up because Sobek's entire kit is awesome and I know you just want to put points into everything, but trust me on this order; a strong Sobek is a mobile Sobek. Your ability to snatch away an assassin chasing your poor squishies, and then to throw him over your shoulder all willy-nilly into a tower is a dang scary one and your job is to master your only skill-shot as quickly as possible. And do take those shots carefully, it's your escape too and you don't want it down for no reason.

(Found this on the internet so you have something to look at)

As powerful as your charge is, it gets to stay a one-point-wonder for as long as it can because its utility comes from the fact that it exists. The first thing you want to dump points into is your 3, Sickening Strike.

This is the sweet mana and butter of your build; in combination with the meditation relic and a blue potion you can stay in lane for ages. When your team retreats without you to upgrade their kits, its all to easy in the early-game to hide in minion waves and vampire off of enemy minions, who should always be your target with this ability. If things somehow go south, you should be saving your Charge as an escape whenever you're alone. If played carefully, Sobek can transition from an unkillable monster into a rampaging, unkillable monster. Do play carefully.

The next thing you get to spend a point on it your 2, Tail Whip. You know, it really is unfair how many awesome abilities Sobek gets? as if your 1 wasn't enough, now you can knockup in a full 360 with nice damage backing you up later game when you begin to snowball. Early game the primary advantage from tail whip is an increase in your control of enemy god positioning.

Snatch foolish gods with your 1 and beat them into position with your 2 whenever your teammates are backing you up. Easy combo and you get all the assist gold you could want.

There is no feeling more satisfying than running into the enemy team, Cursing, and literally diving straight into your ultimate. The look of fear on those poor squishies while they desperately crawl around in circles and your teammates prey on their confusion is incredibly satisfying, but regardless your ability to zone control is impressive, if you need to push a tower with your team, take the shots with this and you'll be fine.

(^If you aren't Sobek and you see that, run like it's the plague)
One final note, it's okay to shift around a bit in a team fight to keep enemy gods guessing, but you should ultimately (haha get it) be sticking to a single target, it is of course better to take down one than to miss them all.

I know, I know, this item build looks super sketchy for a Guardian like Sobek, but you have the tool's in your kit to make this work, as long as you take it really slow at first and have teamates to back you up. It's also worth noting for those of you who are new to Sobek that he is in act a magical damage god despite the complete reliance on melee abilities and basics.

What you're looking at here is a heavily defensive start that escalates 0-100 real quick, with two items relying on your presence against enemy gods to build power, and another two directly converting pieces of your endgame health pool into magical power. Of course its all up to you in-game, and if you decide to fill in your build with traditional items you can, but oh man it feels good to be strong.

First up is the Mark of the Vanguard if you're in a game-mode that is starter item friendly.

The Mark is a classic on supports for a reason, in Conquest especially this will greatly boost your survive-ability at level one alongside Charge Prey (1)

Starter or no starter I prefer to go straight into Urchin to start building stacks off of assists, but boots are cheap and I get it, swiggity-swooty you need that speed. First item choice is personal preference.



If you've had to back more than once for each item you've picked up so far, bulk up with mail of renewal first, which I've chosen because of how important abilities are to Sobek. Assuming you're chunky enough already however, the Gem of Isolation is a fantastic item in terms of increasing your control of enemy god movement, in other words, this is the magical equivalent of "Frostbound Hammer" for all you warriors who love that thing.



Finally, it's time to amp up your power, the Ethereal staff is a balance of even more health which it sacrifices into raw magical power (and also the reason we've been prioritizing health over defenses)


Finally you have a choice between Soul Reaver and the Book of Thoth. It's more than a little late for building stacks so Thoth isn't ideal, but the additional health to magical power conversion is awesome. Personally I prefer Soul Reaver for the guaranteed 15% damage on your abilities.

For team play you're looking for anyone in your lane who can either deal high amounts of damage quickly so that you aren't taking hits from the whole enemy team for very long. Any god that can heal you will come in pretty clutch too, with Ra being my favorite. (not for any particular reason...) A lot of the ideas for this build actually came from a game of Joust I played with a friend of mine as Ra and a very helpful Fenrir diving in and out of the fight, so I can personally confirm that the combo is pretty strong, as it forces the other team to waste Purification on Fenrir only to be snatched away by you.

Rawr he's so scary (also just pulled from the internet)

No, I'm not saying you should go jungling, that was just to get your attention, I mean this build is crazy enough already. You are allowed to go into the jungle to help your assassin get the buff at the start of the game however, because you're a chunky monkey and he's not. I've spent a lot of time building up the hype for how OP you can get, but above all, you are playing the support, so act like it. When someone needs something, you help, no questions asked. If things go to Duat that's on them, but if you don't even try to save your team, then you're not doing your job and that's on you.

That being said, your second main goal is Do. Not. Die. Why should you? You are not a high risk, high reward kind of god. Especially in the early game, the only way you end up dead is from doing something stupid, you're just too bulky to get 100-0'd in any reasonable amount of time. The Trick here is to learn from your mistakes as you go and find a balance between sustain and backing. As a general rule for this build you should let your squishy teammates back first while you hold down the fort by hiding in minions and turtling under your tower if things get serious.

Starting in the Mid-Game you are going to be plenty strong enough to take tower shots, and your primary goal all the way through late game should be making objectives less stressful for your vulnerable squishies. Protect them! Beyond that, once you've reached the late game feel free to immediately kill anyone who gets in your way and stays there, but chasing deep into the jungle is generally a bad idea for you, because you thrive off of minions and being able to reach cover. If you think someone is trying to bait a gank just let them escape in their maimed condition; all they've accomplished is wasting their own time.

Teamfights are your final important duty. You should be the one to initiate, and you should do it with your 1, 2 combo to separate a squishy but preferably high-damage member of the enemy team. Bonus points if you nab a mage because they traditionally lack any kind of escape. If you trust your team to put down the enemy god, leave your back to the god you named and press the advantage with your Curse, Ult. combo. Most teams react poorly to their buddy getting hauled away into a hail of damage by a giant crocodile while half of them focusing fire on you and the other jumping over to try saving their friend. By now you should be familiar with your role as a separator, so of course your play is to push the gods focusing fire to you with your ult. Any logical player will stay outside your circle, which further separates them from their buddies. Kill or no kill, as soon as you're done pushing, fall back hard with your charge and regroup.

How about if none of those sweet pro-strats work? Say the god you nab jumps away, everyone stays back and focuses fire on you, and then idk, maybe Fenrir goes afk because his Mom is making him walk the dog, what do you do then? Never forget that you can cancel your Ultimate if you need to access a more useful ability, such as Sickening Strike, and then into Meditation to heal yourself and your teammates (except Fenrir, they can have him lol). The most important thing to remember here is to always have a plan for getting back to your team if you're overextended. If everything goes well you will actually be super annoying to your teamates because of the crazy kill-steals you'll be nabbing with your Ult and 2, even if you're not going for them.

During the time of the Romans Egypt was the breadbasket of the world, and only because the Nile sustained the Egyptians in midst of unforgiving desert. To the Egyptians, the Nile was everything, and they attributed Sobek to its existence. Be that Sobek to your team. More than anything, Save those squishies!

:D This is my first guide, so I'd love any kind of feedback in the comments. Are there things I could be doing better? Sobek is an old favorite of mine so I'd love to know.

^Sobek: "I got you bro"