Hel Guide Copy For Mowen & Team

Didn't bother to redo the skill-sequencing and build stuff, but if you think I should I'll edit it.


It cuts off in the Defensive Cleansing section when I accessed it while not logged in, but I see everything when I am online. Splitting it into two chapters works, but if there's an easy fix that lets me merge everything, I'd appreciate it.

Introduction Up to Speed The Cookie Joke Pro's and Con's Skills and Leveling How to Build Invincibility Build Early Burst Build Actives Playstyle Defensive Cleansing Offensive Cleansing Healing Reductions Tips and Tricks Videos Example Scores Changelog Credits

Howdy there, partner! Something tells me that you came to this guide hoping to a learn a little bit about the most unique and fun god in Smite. I'd be glad to help you with that!

What makes Hel so unique and fun, you ask? Well, simply put: she trades of having an ultimate for six skills, she's the only god in the game that can break CC on her entire team, and she does a damn fine job of melting her enemies' faces (and killing them, too!)

So what makes me a reliable source for Hel (and arena) information? Well:


Granted, I'm not an infallible Hel player; I still mess up some cleanses and get too greedy, but I should be able to improve your playstyle.







There are quite a few things you should know before attempting to play Hel if you haven't played her since she had shared cooldowns.

For starters, those are gone! Casting a spell in one stance no longer puts the corresponding spell in the opposite stance on cooldown. It's an excellent change, but it doesn't come without consequences; there is now a one second delay on all skills when switching stances, and the base/scalings of Decay / Restoration and Repulse / Inspire have been decreased. Fortunately, her new passive reduces their reductions, albeit it does come with repercussions.

In addition, she can no longer cast two consecutive basic attacks (which is likely the reason for the delay on all skills when switching stances), and she no longer receives a free rank-one ultimate at the start of the game (although she can still swap stances, she does not receive the Dark Stance and Light Stance benefit until points are placed into the ultimate).

Included among the previously mentioned changes are ones such as Inspire's speed buff scaling rather than being static. These have been updated, but are not necessarily discussed in the guide.

Oh, what am I doing? Clearly the most important change to her is the remodel! Silly me!









The cookie joke is the single, most important reason to play Hel. Forget team composition - have you heard it?! No? Well, then what are you doing reading this guide? Load up Smite so you can spam VEL!

In fact, all of her taunts, jokes, and laughs are the epitome of epicness, and now that the tumor many referred to as a "disc" has been replaced with a smexy galaxy, she's perfect in both kit and aesthetics.

Oh, and that voice pack is phenomenal. Still trying to figure out which anime character Light Stance reminds me of...

[The] Anti-Peeler. Excellent AoE heals. Excellent sustain and burst. Ability to prevent and/or remove crowd control.

High Skill Floor. No leap or dash. No true ultimate. No hard crowd control.

As previously mentioned, Hel is unique in the sense that she has six skills and no true ultimate. Each spell generally has an inverse effect to its corresponding spell in the opposite stance, but it's not as simple as hard-contrasting. Currently there is a one-second delay on all skills when switching stances, so planning ahead is important.

So without further adieu, here's Hel:

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Wait, what? Hel actually has a passive now? No wai! There are disadvantages to this, considering her base numbers would likely not have taken quite as much of a hit if she had not received this passive, but it gives you the option to be a dominant mage and a good support, or an excellent support and a useful burster.

So, how does this passive work? Zhu Li, bring the pictures! _{"Yes, sir."}


The left section is fully attuned to the Dark Side, the right section is fully attuned to the Light Side, and the middle section is an attempted half-attunement to each side.

So, what do these positions mean, exactly? List time!


Basically what I'm saying is that it's not an exponential increase; the benefit from the passive increases at a constant rate.

In case you were wondering, it takes exactly three seconds for the meter to begin moving after swapping stances, and it takes exactly five seconds for the meter to cross one extreme to the other. Therefore, if you are in Light Stance and want maximum Dark Attunement for a Repulse, you will have to wait eight seconds, i.e.: you have to plan ahead on which stance you want to be in to gain maximum benefit from her passive. Gone are the days of defaulting into Light Stance!

For more (but mostly redundant) information on Stance Attunement, follow this link to my Reddit post that links to both a photo-album and an excel spreadsheet.

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In conquest, the mp5 from her ultimate is a different story, but in arena I feel that while it is nice to have, it's better to go ahead and level up the rest of your skills. The magic power increase in Dark Stance is also less than the base damage increase of both Decay and Repulse, and the team aura is lackluster compared to six fully ranked skills at level fifteen. Since you can switch stances without a single point in her ultimate, I spend all five points in a row from level 16 to 20.

Decay / Restoration and Hinder / Cleanse should be leveled at different rates depending on the enemy team's composition; if the enemy team has a Hades (due to his Pillar of Agony) or heaps of crowd control and you are being too focused to be able to go into Dark Stance often, level up cleanse more in order to be a better support. If your team is able to get free reign though, highly leveled Repulses and Decays can pack quite the punch, especially early game.

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Your build should be flexible, meaning that it should change depending on the enemy team's composition. However, there are certain stats that are necessary to build towards every game, and they're obviously listed below - that's kind of the point of this chapter.

Unfortunately, the days of building physical items on Hel and stance dancing for two instant, empowered basic attacks are gone, so I can no longer say to build physical power and critical strike chance. :(

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You may be thinking "Dr. Paco, clearly Magic Power is more important for a mage than Cooldown Reduction!" Well, you're damn right that MP is a very sexy stat, but it ain't got nothin' on CDR. Not only does capping CDR to 40% lower Hel's cooldowns enough to bring out the fluidity of her playstyle, but it also means you will be able to heal and cleanse, something that doesn't scale off MP, on a regular basis.



As awesome as CDR is as a stat, it's very easy to reach its cap. You'll therefore need to spend your focus on raising your MP. Why is MP so important? Well, without it, you're essentially a cleanse-bot. If you don't want to hit like a wet noodle, or heal one one-billionth of a carry's healthbar, then you're going to need to get a good few MP items.

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Considering you have no leaps or dashes, your biggest nuke has short range, and your teammates try to outrun your heals, doncha think it'd be wise to add a little bit of movement speed into your build?



Because you can't apply cleanse to yourself while CC'd, and you are very susceptible to death when you have cleanse on cooldown, CCR is a great "stat" to gear towards.



As a healer, protections are more important than health, because it takes fewer spells to return to full health. And as a squishy god that has spells requiring close proximity, and a kit that focuses on strings of skills rather than short bursts, protections can easily be argued to be core stats.

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Don't you go stacking health! Some core items carry health, and more health is better than less health, but gearing specifically towards health, rather than towards protections as a healer ain't too smart.



Although penetration is useful in dealing damage, penetration does not affect heals. Therefore, penetration is simply a nice bonus that can come with other, more important stats, but should not be sought after directly.



Well, no mana means no spells, so it's obviously a necessary stat, but the frequent recalls to the base in Arena means that you'll usually have plenty of mana.

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These items are essential to Hel and, unless the enemy's composition is extremely cheesy, they will be excellent choices every single game.

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These items may not always be the best to use, but can be excellent choices based on both the enemy and your team's composition.

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There are other items that can be useful to Hel, but I believe that these are the most important. If you need some extra magic defense you could pick up a Bulwark of Hope, or if there's a very pesky Loki, Midgardian Mail will shut him as well as many other physicals down.

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Although the guide shows Heavenly Agility and Purification Beads after the build is complete, they should both be put at rank 1 after Shoes of Focus have been fully upgraded. Do your best not to use them until you get the first three items completed, and then it is usually a good idea to upgrade them both straight to max (with Beads higher priority than Agility). If you have very recently used either and would have enough to start your Hide of Leviathan, go ahead and build it because three or four minutes of useless 850-1700 gold is, well, useless.







Because of the scaling on her Repulse, Decay and Restoration, Hel can put out insane levels of damage at early levels. Building high MP at the start, and balancing defense into her build after the cheesy damage starts to recede is the best way to build her if you are experienced with her and the enemy team does not have high burst potential. It is very easy to snowball with this build, and you'll have your fourth item built in no time.

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Figure them out yourself you lazy bastard.







There should be no deviation from Heavenly Agility or Purification Beads unless you are particularly attached to Aegis Amulet or really need the hard crowd control from Fist of the Gods. If they enemy has a lot off CC, replace Heavenly Agility as you desire. If they have virtually no CC, too bad don't replace Purification Beads as it can lead to some pretty impressive burst or double heals and cleanses.

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*First step in your determining your playstyle? Looking at the enemy team's composition during the loading screen. Hopefully you're facing a team that sacrifices damage for crowd control, but still doesn't have so much crowd control that you have to really focus on the best time to use cleanse.

*All right, so the game starts. After you buy rank two of Shoes of Focus, head towards mana/CDR camp (left side of the Arena) while spamming VA1 VHH VEA VEA.¹ After your team has gotten the message, switch back into Dark Stance to gain the full benefit from her passive, and you'll almost be able to one-shot the smaller ogres with your (rank two) Repulse. If enough teammates came, help them clear the Power camp and then head back to middle lane (don't forget to heal up from the ogre-massacre).


Previously, it was best to default into Light Stance in order to have your heal and CC breaker ready, but her new passive changes things a bit. If your team is generally the initiators, then default into Dark Stance; if the enemy team is generally the initiators, then default into Light Stance. If you don't level her ultimate until level sixteen, this decision is very easy because there won't be any loss of MP5.



*Typically, if the enemy team initiates, I will wait to attack in a fight until I've used my cleanse. Your most important job is to prevent teammates from being focused by using your Cleanses as well as keeping your team in the game with your Inspires. Hel can still throw down some hefty damage though, so use Hinder if you're confident there's no incoming CC, and cast a Repulse followed by a Decay and then swap stances for a quick Restoration. Just keep circling around the targets, worried more about dodging than facing them because Repulse is so easy to hit. Don't auto attack; just focus on juking the enemy while rotating through all your cooldowns.

If your team initiates, and there is no imminent CC, then you can unload your burst. A great example of initiating would be immediately attacking with Thor after he places his Tectonic Rift. If you two are coordinated, you will instantly melt squishies through the combination of Thor's Mjolnir's Attunement and Spin-to-Win with your Repulse and Decay.


*Rank 3 Purification Beads reduces your cooldowns by 5 seconds, so you can dish out damage that Anubis would kill someone for by casting Hinder>Repulse>Decay>Repulse>Decay over the course of 2 or so seconds.


*This build gives you a hefty amount of damage while also giving you leeway for failed jukes. If you get focused after failing your cleanse and both your Heavenly Agility and Purification Beads are on cooldown, though, you'd better hope that your teammates have some excellent peels coming.

*With the addition of the speed buff to Hel's Inspire, you will be able to maneuver around extremely effectively as you will can conceivably have a 100% uptime on its duration. It also speeds up teammates, so you can really get them out of sticky situations with the heal, speed boost, and CC immunity combined. Even Aphrodite can't help multiple teammates escape so well.


*Hel is not the minion *****, but her Repulse can wipe out an entire minion wave (minus the big guy) by rank 3, so don't hesitate to send some minions flying if you're passing by a wave. This can be very advantageous because the enemy team's tickets will go down by one point for each last hit, and you're guaranteed the last hit if you can take them from 100% to 0% instantly. Even Ao Kuang can sometimes get the last hit stolen by a minion, but not Hel.





This is only updated to the Nu Wa patch. Please let me know of any outdated information.



Cleanse only lasts half a second at rank 1, meaning that unless you're protastic like me, it should be saved for after an enemy lands CC on a teammate to prevent chain CC's or simply reducing its duration.

However, its best use is through preemptive cleansing. While it is riskier due to the fact that it could be put on cooldown and counter no CC, it is a lot more effective than removing CC that has been placed. This is especially true for any gods that cast channeled spells. If they cast them and are CC'd, the spells will be put on cooldown and give no benefit. Cleansing right before they are targeted by CC will ensure that their channel will not end.

By rank 5, it has a 1.3 second duration. Not amazing, but it's enough for you to preemptively use it so that Ymir's Frost Breath doesn't even make your team stutter, or to provide you or your teammates with CC immunity for a duration long enough to escape Hades's Pillar of Agony. Here's a list of some of the trolling you can do and how to best do it.

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Red - This god has either multiple crowd controls that are not an ultimate, or a single crowd control with a long duration. They are typically an initiator or peeler and their CC's are usually top-priority.

Orange - This god has multiple hard crowd controls with a short duration, or a very dangerous effect on his/her ultimate. Due to its effect, this god's spell can have a higher priority than that of a Red god

Yellow - This god has one hard crowd control with a short duration, or an ultimate that can be dangerous. While not top priority, it's important to be aware of the effects and to respond accordingly depending on the situation.

Blue - This god only has soft crowd control. Due to the low level of danger of the effects, it's less often a priority but it's still important to be aware of the effects and to respond accordingly depending on the situation.

White - Upcoming/newly released god that I will update once I have played as and against them multiple times.

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