Arena poses a totally different realm for
He Bo. Everyone knows
He Bo's strengths lie in the jungle and surprise gankfests; however, in Arena there is not much jungling opportunities and the battlefield is open wide. I will try to give recommendations based on what I have tried in Arena. Honestly, in my opinion
He Bo is not the best when it comes to Arena as there is no surprise elements from him in open space.
Arena Item Considerations:
He Bo is dangerously squishy in Arena. More than ever you will need movement to counter all the aggressive overextending gods. I have been testing around seeing if getting
Spear of the Magus is still a good option first and I honestly cannot say that it is anymore. I see myself needing the ability to move and even more so to move fast. In Arena, I start out by buying 2x
Boots of Celerity just to reinforce that movement is important for
He Bo's survival. Below are some spot items to really consider in Arena:
Starting Items:
Shoes of Focus - Movement is key in Arena. Unfortunately with the changes to
Boots of Celerity, movement does not trump 15% cooldown, 250 mana and 50 magic damage. These boots also help cap the cooldown percentage when using
Breastplate of Valor or
Chronos' Pendant.
Aegis Amulet and/or Purification Beads - These items are almost necessary now if you are opposing
Ares,
Hades, and
Zeus. If you ever get caught without these versus
Ares in a 5 v 1 situation... you are instantly dead 90% of the time. Don't be that one guy that gets pulled multiple times! If you get pulled by
Ares once... be sure to purchase one of these and do your team a favor. The only concern is the timing of the item use. Because unless you want to waste money on getting rank 3 versions of these, it takes a bit of practice/skill to be able to use these just right. Note... you can use your ultimate to get yourself out of bad situations too.
Combat Blink - This is almost a necessity against
Odin. Other times, you can maybe skimp out on this as your ultimate can get you out of trouble. You can go offensive with the regular Blink if you feel gutsy.
NOTE: Say NO to healing/mana potions in Arena. Relying on these is an inefficient use of your funds. Heal when low instead of buying these potions.
Core Items:
Breastplate of Valor - Odd you might say getting defensive with
He Bo... but this really helps! The mana bonus, 25% cooldown, and last but not least the high physical protection!
Loki,
Fenrir,
Neith,
Xbalanque and all the other annoying physical gods can now eat it! Ultimately, the longer you last the more DPS you output.
Bancroft's Talon - This item seems to be too awesome to overlook. In Arena you tend to have low health majority of the time since the battles are team battles. With a massive 100 magic power boost and the lifesteal nothing else is better at this price point early on.
Rod of Tahuti - Like in Conquest, this item is just a must for all mages. There is no reason NOT to purchase this. I recommend getting it later in the game due to the high costs.
Rod of Asclepius - This is something I felt is a great replacement from
Polynomicon in the main build. It has good damage, +health, and 10% movement to skeet skeet all over with the river. This is all before even mentioning the good passives for your teammates!
Preference Items:
Obsidian Shard - Sometimes in Arena, you will face a total of 0 tanks. This is really odd so hence why this is a preference item. Other times when you see 1 or more tanks, this becomes a necessity to carve them out.
Void Stone - In Arena if one person has this on your team, you could choose to omit it. This is a great item to have especially when going up against other magic damage gods. I find this to be a necessity in Conquest, not so much in Arena.
Gem of Isolation - I am still mixed about this. I find myself not needing this as much in Arena.
He Bo is squishy so a few more hp doesn't help that great big of a deal especially since most battles are team battles. Use this if you really feel the need for more health or a way to slow enemies down for your teammates or yourself.
Book of Thoth - If you like overkill like I do... you can consider using this for the extra 100+ magic power. I find myself having more money than I could spend due to having 10+ kills majority of the time.
Chronos' Pendant - This item is insanely good in Arena. With the non stop action that can be found on the open field, you want to take every chance you have to unload your skills. This also helps with
Steady Flow buffs staying up for the majority of time. I decided this could most likely be the second item I purchase in Arena if no scary physical gods are around. Also thanks to the 15% from
Shoes of Focus, you can now cap your cooldown while having enough extra mana to use your skills.
Below shows my Arena build in action... you can't win them all especially solo queuing.
Arena Group Play Mentality:
Arena group play is tricky with
He Bo. About 50% of the games, you will have either
Ares or
Hades on your team. The thing with
He Bo is that his ultimate
Crushing Wave isn't the best in combination with the other gods. In fact, more often than not
Crushing Wave can get you killed if used at a non opportune time. Sometimes a 1-1 trade off with an enemy god is not optimal in Arena due to the tick loss of 5 points. I tend to use Flood Waters and
Water Cannon right on the enemies while saving
Waterspout for utility.
The key to group play is to slow and disrupt enemy gods for your team to kill. As much as
He Bo can dish out the damage, he doesn't have the awesome escapes that many other gods have to get out quick from danger. This is a serious consideration when playing
He Bo in Arena... do you really want to get that kill potentially sacrificing your own life? I wouldn't recommend it at all. Stay alive, support your teammates with Flood Waters and
Waterspout. Kill minions with ease, lure them away from your minions and punish them with
Waterspout. Sure if you are going to kill a god go for it, but keep in mind in Arena, most gods are with a teammate so you are free pickings when you use
Crushing Wave.
SECRET BONUS BUILD
I have been experimenting a bit with a newer build after seeing other mages like
Ra do the same. This build focuses more on mana and a balanced defense for the early game. I realized after playing a good few Arena games lately that
He Bo just dies to
Loki,
Fenrir, and any other competent melee god. I also noticed that I would have been able to kill said
Loki or
Fenrir if I had more mana or life left. With these two thoughts, I altered my build and opted for
Breastplate of Valor early on. The magic damage loss did not seem to hurt in my testing as I had more mana to dish out more damage. Also by maining Voidstone helps with maintaining my damage at a decent level as well as keep my magic protection up. Please if you read this and try this build out, let me know how it works out for you. I have yet to test this in Conquest... so use with caution.
Also very funny explanations, WTFPWN, STFUppercut, added to my vocab lol
Thank you anyway, great guide
Otherwise I do find this a ridiculously good, informative build, having both a conquest and arena section, and very informative, aesthetically pleasing sections throughout.
Definitely a +1 in my book, especially for the continued updates!
Here's a question: Is a He Bo tank build viable? He has a low range nuke, an ultimate that requires him to go to enemy territory and some nice crowd control.
To be honest, I have tried to make my He Bo tanky and it doesn't seem to be as effective especially in team games. Most people expect that your He Bo will be dishing out good damage. I do know He Bo is squishy which is why I opted to build him the way I did in a hybrid form. Max cooldown reduction to get away from players, dish out extra damage, and have a great pool of mana with those two cooldown items. I need to revisit this guide again as I took a quick break and recently came back to a new looking He Bo. If you want my build to be more tank like, you could potentially opt for the movement tank boots. Also, you might get an earful if you lose and they see your build :P
I'm going to try this guide next time in Conquest . I hope its still works perfectly with Conquest .
Thnx dude :)
I might have to re-evaluate this in Conquest, most of it should still apply but things like Bancroft's Talon is very good so that might be something to consider.
Thnx dude :)