Begginer Cthulhu Guide - The Only Thing They Fear Is... Us

If you are searching builds, tips, mindsets on how to play the Great Dreamer, then finding this guide was already written in your fate.

Despite being new to the game SMITE in general, or just new to the god itself, this guide covers what you basically have to learn to improve as Cthulhu. Be aware that he’s a solo laner, if you want to play him on conquest, the role of support is not really fit for him as much as solo, so if you’re looking forward a Cthulhu support, guide, I’ll make one very soon.

However, you are free to think beyond what it’s written here, the guide has tips in general on what you need to know to perform well and improve your Cthulhu playstyle, a lot of things that I will say here, also apply for support and other game modes as well, if you’re looking forward to play him in one of those.

• Passive: Prey on Fear: Your final basic attack of your chain of basic attacks apply a stack of torment in the enemy gods, so as your abilities, each of these stacks have 5s duration. On reaching 4 stacks of torment, the enemy god becomes Insane, each insane enemy god near you will provide you extra 25 power (Max of 125 magical power), the Insanity lasts for 20s.

• First ability: Sanity Break: You fire a blast of black energy in a cone area, enemies hit by this ability gains 1 stack of torment, 2 if the enemies are facing Cthulhu. This ability also makes enemies deal less damage to you for 6s, and have their attack speed reduced.

If the enemy god hit is Insane, Cthulhu consumes the insanity, applying fear, and permanently increasing the mitigations gained towards the enemies on Sanity Break (Max to 30% Mitigations).

• Second ability: The Mire: Cthulhu summons a portal on the sky, firing two shots, and creating the mire. Each shot applies 1 stack of torment. The first shot slows enemies hit, while the second one roots them. This ability prevents you from using your other abilities, but it can be cancelled early

• Third ability: Rushing Terror: Cthulhu spread his wings, creating two projectiles on each of his side, dashing forward, enemies hit by Cthulhu are stunned for half a second, and knocked back, the projectiles travel slower than Cthulhu, but also at long range. Cthulhu and the projectiles provide 1 stack of torment each.

• Ultimate: Descend into Madness: Cthulhu reveals his true form, gaining 30% of his maximum health, becoming cc imune and having the same mitigation effects of Sanity Break around him, enemies who stay near Cthulhu also gain stacks of torment, they can gain it faster if they are looking to Cthulhu. In this form, his kit is also changed.

• First ability on Ultimate: Sever: Cthulhu swipes 3 projectiles on the ground, damaging and applying a protection reduction debuff on the enemies, stacking up to 5 times. This ability doesn’t proc any item effect.

• Second ability on Ultimate: Devastate: Cthulhu fires a psychic blast of energy that damages and knock-ups enemies hit.

• Third ability on Ultimate: Transfuse: Cthulhu tranfuses 6% of his max health to his allies, providing them power, movement speed and a heal that scales of his maximum health, if Cthulhu’s below 20% health, this ability won’t take Cthulhu’s health, but will provide only half the stats to allies. This ability also damage enemies the closer they are to you.

Cthulhu is a guardian, but, is designed to be a solo laner, or, a special kind of warrior in other cases.

To understand that, people need to know where that two roles separetes: the guardians (or supports), are meant to be the tanks that will stick to their more fragile allies and prevent them from dying or setting up a play for them to be safe, the warriors (or solos) are meant to be the frontliners who will give more fragile gods a hard time, they set up more than the supports, but can kinda act alone, that’s why they are built bruiser in most cases (part tank, part damage).

Cthulhu has the same playstyle of a warrior, although he’s not a simple one, his kit makes him able to fight squishies pretty well and even kill them, however, with his ultimate, you will be able to control team fights to your advantage. As much people you get with your ultimate (the preference is still targeting squishies) better. Your ultimate allows you to bully squishies, debuff the tanks’ prots, heal your allies and provide them power and movement speed, and also cc the enemies.

The stats of your ultimate along with the right build won’t lie, Cthulhu will be a literal monster boss through these teamfights, and you’ll feel the power of being the one in control of them. But be careful, ulting when you are alone against a team, or a duo will certainly get you killed, the trick stands into team up with your allies so they can fulfill the hard damage that you will lack as a bruiser god, so in other words, your “set up” for a play or fight is actually more powerful than the average. Although there are scenarios that you’ll still need to be careful, even when you have your teammates.

Just like a warrior, Cthulhu’s extremely versatile too, so one of the main secrets will be adapt from situation to situation. There will be gods that will be strong right away, so when that happens, back off, play a little more safe and wait till you get the items you need to fight, also, with some enemies, you will be stronger early, but they will be even stronger than you once the time passes, when that happens, you’ll need to take the lead, and prevent them from getting there in the first place, if that don’t happen, try to play around with your team and try to eliminate them first, usually those kinds of enemies are mages or hunters, keep an eye on those.

Cthulhu usually get rewarded by poking his enemies and tormenting them with his normal kit, hitting the minions and the gods with your abilities will surely help you and your team, once the minions are cleared, you will have the green light to fight in the early game. This goes for solo as it goes for every other game mode, but be careful not to get carried away, your dash is way too precious for you to use it right when you have it, if you don’t have the abilities, use your basic attacks, if you are laning with more than one person then don’t spend too much time close to them, sometimes, it won’t be worth it.

Basically what you’ll always try to do is torment people when you can and try to put up a tough time to those you can’t. If you are fighting a better god, or a tougher composition in general in the early game, don’t panic, try to get some farm, group up with your allies and focus on doing your job, which is killing or harrassing the squishies, or, controlling teamfights, hitting as many people as possible in your ult form and always healing allies, or providing them power.

1. Cthulhu’s 2 can be cancelled early and still hit the 2 shots. 1 second after the first shot, the ability will go on and you will be free from the animation to use something else. If you cancel it too early, you might cancel the first shot, but with a little bit of practice, you may be able to catch his timing.

2. Cthulhu is immune to knockbacks on his 3 while dashing, so if you are having a hard time dealing with some specific abilities from other solo laners or characters in general, that might be a good help. Gilgamesh is a perfect example, if you’re getting in trouble because of his dropkick, time the specific time that he will want to use that on you so you can dash right through it, and eventually stun him.

3. Cthulhu’s projectiles on his 3 apply stacks of torment and also do damage, make sure to always aim to hit enemies between you, and the projectiles.

4. Your ult is too precious to be wasted. Your ult is not your dash, neither is something you will want to use just to run, if you are low, and enemies are approaching you, don’t use your ultimate, you’ll be more rewarded to die without using it so it’s avaliable in a teamfight or even in a 1v1 later than not dying but don’t having it in the middle of a Fire Giant fight.

5. Cthulhu’s 3 is a short stun, but it’s still a stun. Besides being a really short stun, you can see how much of a bless it can be when you cancel other abilities such as Guan’s 3, Cerberus’ 2, Ares’ 3, Bellona’s 2, and many others, it can be very useful to stop wave clearing and putting pressure to the enemy. However, remember that it’s also your escape, I recommend not doing it right in the early game, neither dash in into 2 enemies too early.

6. Always stack your passive. This is a very precious tip most people don’t understand about Cthulhu, having mitigations on a tank it’s really powerful, then being able to stacking it can totally change your games. This is a tip that I suggest you to follow always, you will be able to do your job more easier even if you are behind by stacking your passive, and even if you are winning, this can prevent them from doing a comeback and will bully your enemies even harder. While it can be difficult to do it at first, don’t worry, because the passive goes up right in your ultimate and also gets up as long as you hit those abilities, so everytime you see na enemy with your passive, make sure to consume it, and also, don’t be sad if by chance you missed it or wasn’t able to get it, the duration of it can be refreshed by adding another stack, so just do it and try again after.

7. Your basic attacks works a lot. Not just the third basic attack of Cthulhu apply a stack of torment, but also works as a cleave, so it can hit multiple targets as one, use that to clear minions faster, and also, use it as a follow up with your 1, the damage mitigation you receive it’s there so you can bully them, just like this, not to mention, his second and third hit of the basic attacks are longer than normal, use that to your advantage.

8. Never use your ultimate just because. This is also a main aspect of knowing how to play Cthulhu, you always want to get something out everytime you ult, be a kill, an assist, a save from an ally, a 1v2, or at least, a relic, you never want to ult just to fight unless you get something out of it. You want to always have a huge impact everytime you ult, but of course, you can also save yourself from a Fenrir’s, Ares or Xing Tian ult too, be careful tho, their cooldowns are much shorter than yours.

9. Flex your build, but always work around what is good. It’s time to learn the stats that work on Cthulhu, and those are basically health, protections and cooldowns. Your ultimate scales of your maximum health, so not building it it’s not really na option, protections work so you can tank more, and cooldowns will allow you to have your abilities sooner, it’s very good to have full 40% cdr if you are still learning him and his abilities, but it’s definetely necessary to have at least 20% cdr on him so you can have your ult more times.

10. If the enemy has healing, Cthulhu is always the one who should have anti-heal. Since Cthulhu’s design is to always be down for a fight between teams, he’s also the first one who should be taking care of all of that healing from mages, hunters or even assassins, however, never use Pestilence or Contagion, it’s always Divine Ruin or Tainted Breastplate/Amulet. Why? Aura is 55 units range from you, applying 25% anti-healing. The tranform into ult itself is 40 units, however, the Transfuse (your third ability in ult form) is 60 units of range. Now, if your abilities are bigger than your aura and are appying even more anti-heal (Divine Ruin: 40% anti-healing; Tainted Breastplate: 50% anti-healing; Tainted Amulet: 30% anti-healing), why would you use anti-heal aura?

Before I explain my thoughts on the early start, I want to quickly remind you all that this is mostly for conquest, so the start here is about Cthulhu Solo if you are new to the god.

Now, for the early game, you won’t be the most terrifying god in most match ups, for some helping with that, a rush on Mystical Mail will give you a nice advantage.
You may see or hear from Other players that Mystical Mail was nerfed on defense and it’s more expensive now, while that is true, it’s damage wasn’t exactly nerfed, and the stats with health on Mystical Mail will help you a lot even on such an early game, however, the prime reason for Building it’s the actual damage it provides even when it’s offering 0 power, the magical tick damage around helps you clear buffs, waves and makes you able to brawl really easily as well, and against most Warriors, being able to trade damage by doing constant damage is an actual must if you don’t wanna get behind those Warriors.

Right now, snow-balling on SMITE is easily done, as a solo laner you need to hurt constantly, and be able to handle a quite amount of damage, since Cthulhu don’t hit that hard compared to Other Warriors and has less damaging and more slowed autos, Mystical mail is the constant damage you need to compete against most match ups.

So, before explaining the build, here’s basically what Cthulhu requires to be decent: At least 20% cdr, prots, anti-heal and health.

So, to help new players to be Strong all around, I suggested a build that you would be able to be Strong all around, even in the early game.

For Starter item, Warrior’s Axe is the best starter for Cthulhu, giving him the prots, the sustain through fights, you’ll be able to have some PvE with it too. This starter will allow you to play safely during laning phase and after.

Mystical Mail

Yes, first best item you could get on Cthulhu is actually Mystical Mail, maybe you hear it different from other guides with more specific builds, but this is actually the one item who will help you the most – That Only applies if you’re Fighting a physical character of course –. The stats of it are not really the best for the build, but this item should help you fight against Warriors in general. You gain some health and prots for the early game, but on top of that, you receive a damage aura around you that deals 25 (+ 1 per level) magical damage, but it’s constant damage, and as Cthulhu, you mosto f the time will keep sticking close to the Enemy with it, and close to the minions as well, not to mention the buffs that you have to clear as well. It’s all about the constant damage it does, and how it helps you stick to your fight and clear minions in camps in a more efficiently and faster way.

Breastplate of Valor

It gives you a lot of physical prots, mana, mp5, and 20% cooldown reduction. And what’s the rule for Cthulhu? At least 20% cdr. This item is almost core on Cthulhu due to how good it works on him, it never fails fail for When you’re in lane, neither in late game.

Bulwark of Hope

+80 Magical protection, +250 Health, +20% Crowd Control Reduction (CCR) and when you’re low on health, the item gives you a shield equal to 12% of your max health. This item not Only synergizes with you or your build on the stats, but also provide you a really good passive, especially on a god like Cthulhu, who can gain 25% of his max health back on his ultimate, especially great When you’re Fighting, providing you more chances of being a threat When you ult on a teamfight.

Mail of Renewal

This item is at the moment, one of the best items of health for Cthulhu, it may have not that much health as Gaia has, but it’s definetely Worth it, since it’s not immediately destroyed by Qins Sais or Heartseeker, it should definetely help you with your way around teamfights, and that because the item is worked on being bruiser, you receive +250 health, +20 magical and physical prots, and the passive allows you to receive more prots for some time, and When the stacks reach it’s max you are healed immediately for 15% of your max health, and as we estabilished earlier, this is insane on a character like Cthulhu, who extends their max health.

Divine Ruin

As stated before, one of the rules for Cthulhu is actually Always going anti-heal if your team needs it (And They most likely will need it Every game), and divine ruin is better not Only because of the anti-heal being higher, or because it’s easily more spread by Cthulhu, but also because the status of power and flat penetration are so precious on Cthulhu, since you Always wanna go somehow bruiser on him, +110 Power and +15 Pen are definetely gonna make the difference When you dive the backliners.

For late game you would mostly concentrate on getting the Elixir of Defense first, +50 prots, +10% Mitigations and 20% Crowd Control reduction is not something you wanna miss When playing Cthulhu in late game, but do remembre that this is Only after getting full build, and don’t mind getting power potion first When you can. However, one final note is that Mystical mail is more likely ok to sell on late game, it’s not gonna help you as it helped you early and you could get na item that helps you more with what you need, and that will dependo n what you actually need, examples are gonna be on the recommended items, and for starter upgrade you definetely go for Sundering Axe, although, consider going Hero’s Axe if you need your team mates to survive, just remembre to stick more with them if that’s the case.

I want to thank you for Reading until here, I may not be the most experienced player ever to play Cthulhu but one thing for sure is that I spent a lot of my time learning this god since release, observing all of the ways hee can be built and dedicated much time and thought on writing this guide.

I’m more than open to questions and talks and look forward on writing more guides of Cthulhu.

May the Great Old Ones whisper about your success through the dark corners of SMITE