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How To (Actually) Play Pele SEASON 9 UPDATE

261 27 239,992
9.8
by DiscoFerry updated August 12, 2022

Smite God: Pele

Build Guide Discussion 25 More Guides
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Pele Build

Start

Build Item Eye Of The Jungle Eye Of The Jungle
Build Item Mace Mace
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
3
Build Item Multi Potion Multi Potion
2

Full Damage Build

Notes Starter upgrade as soon as possible

Notes

Starter upgrade as soon as possible

Build Item Jotunn's Vigor Jotunn's Vigor
Build Item The Crusher The Crusher
Build Item Arondight Arondight
Build Item Heartseeker Heartseeker
Build Item Bloodforge Bloodforge
Build Item Seer Of The Jungle Seer Of The Jungle

Full Bruiser Build

Notes Starter upgrade as soon as possible

Notes

Starter upgrade as soon as possible

Build Item Jotunn's Vigor Jotunn's Vigor
Build Item The Crusher The Crusher
Build Item Soul Eater Soul Eater
Build Item Caduceus Club Caduceus Club
Build Item Spirit Robe Spirit Robe
Build Item Protector Of The Jungle Protector Of The Jungle

Situational Items

Notes See "Situational Items" section.

Notes

See "Situational Items" section.

Build Item Brawler's Beat Stick Brawler's Beat Stick
Build Item Magi's Cloak Magi's Cloak
Build Item Mantle of Discord Mantle of Discord
Build Item Titan's Bane Titan's Bane

Relics

Build Item Blink Rune Blink Rune
Build Item Purification Beads Purification Beads

Relic Upgrades

Build Item Corrupted Blink Rune Corrupted Blink Rune
Build Item Temporal Beads Temporal Beads

Pele's Skill Order Notes Dont level an ability at level 8 to get a point in Pyroclast and Volcanic Lightning level 9

Notes

Dont level an ability at level 8 to get a point in Pyroclast and Volcanic Lightning level 9

Pyroclast

1 X Y
Pyroclast
2 4 6 7 8

Eruption

2 A B
Eruption
3 10 11 12 14

Magma Rush

3 B A
Magma Rush
1 15 16 18 19

Volcanic Lightning

4 Y X
Volcanic Lightning
5 9 13 17 20
Pyroclast
2 4 6 7 8

Pyroclast

1 X
Pele flourishes and fires out a magma orb ahead of her in a line, dealing damage and granting fuel per enemy hit. Once the fiery projectile reaches maximum distance it hovers for a brief instant, solidifies, and then returns back in pieces, dealing damage to enemies on the way back. The number of shards returning is dependent on the rank of this ability.

Pele has 2 charges of this ability.

Ability Type: Line, Damage
Damage: 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 (+60% of your Physical Power)
Return Damage: 30 (+15% of your Physical Power)
Fuel Gain: 5
Range: 60
Cost: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60
Cooldown: 15s
Eruption
3 10 11 12 14

Eruption

2 A
Pele fiercely erupts energy into the ground, exploding in an area around her, causing damage and Knockup to all enemies.

At ranks 3 and 5 the area expands again at a delay, dealing less damage and a smaller Knockup.

Ability Type: Circle, Knockup, Damage
Inner Damage: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+80% of your Physical Power)
Outer Damage: 140 / 180 / 220 (+60 of your Physical Power)
Radius: 15 / 25 / 35
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 15s
Magma Rush
1 15 16 18 19

Magma Rush

3 B
Pele churns the land around her, dealing damage to nearby enemies and providing constant movement speed while this ability is active.
Toggle this ability again to enter an amplified state, expending more fuel but dealing more damage and providing additional movement speed.
This ability has no cooldown but uses fuel and cannot be activated when below 10 fuel.
This damage does not trigger Item effects.

Ability Type: Circle, Buff, Damage
Damage: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+5% of your Physical Power)
Speed: 30%
Amplified Damage: 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80 (+20% of your Physical Power)
Amplified Speed: 60%
Initial Fuel Cost: 5
Cost: 10
Cooldown: 0s
Volcanic Lightning
5 9 13 17 20

Volcanic Lightning

4 Y
After a short warm up, Pele dashes forwards dealing massive damage and a slow to the first enemy God hit, and dealing additional damage to enemies behind in a cone.

For the next 10 seconds or 4 attacks, every time Pele hits an enemy with a basic attack, she instead deals ability damage in a cone originating from that enemy. During this time Pele's basic attacks deal 40% reduced damage.

Ability Type: Cone, Slow, Damage
Damage: 180 / 265 / 350 / 435 / 520 (+60% of your Physical Power)
Cone Damage: 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 / 260 (+50% of your Physical Power)
Slow: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
Slow Duration: 3s
Range: 60/35
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90s

Pele Threats

Tap each threat level to view Pele’s threats

Max
0
Major
3
Even
3
Minor
1
Tiny
0

Introduction

"9.5 out of 10" - Inters3ct



Guide updated for season 9! Bumba's Hammer is a dead item, as is Shifter's Shield. Added glyphs, relic upgrades, removed boots. Cleaned up and reformatted the build to be clearer about which items you should be building.



Hi there! I'm DiscoFerry, and I'm a long time masters ranked player and (ex) not-so-secret Pele one trick. I have around 250 games on her, with a 70% win rate and a 3KDA from masters ranked games, on top of dozens more games in scrims and tournaments. I made this guide to share my builds and some of my tips for her with the community.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Overall Pele is a strong god, with lots going for her. Some of her biggest strengths are:

+ Tons of burst damage, both single target and AOE.
+ Strong mobility with the movement speed on Magma Rush and the dash on Volcanic Lightning
+ Decent cc with the knockup on Eruption and the slow on Volcanic Lightning
+ Amazing early game pressure without really falling off lategame


Pele's downsides are few, and not too glaring. She lacks instant mobility outside of her ult, her passive is prone to antiheal, she can suffer against knockup immune gods, and her cc isn't great, but that's about it.

Abilities & Leveling Order

Here's a quick rundown of all of Pele's abilities and their uses:


Everlasting Flame

Everlasting Flame Gives you a large power and lifesteal boost when you go under half health. This allows you to turn a fight around quickly, especially early game where the enemies don't have antiheal to counter it.

Pyroclast

Pyroclast is your main clear and damaging ability. She has two charges of this ability. You want to level this up first.

Eruption

Eruption is a circular knockup ability that increases in range as you level it up. This is used to set up a Pyroclast auto-attack cancel combo.

Magma Rush

Magma Rush is Pele's best ability in my opinion, it's what allows her quick, fluid, in and out playstyle to work. When toggled on twice, it gives 60% movement speed, and does a solid amount of dps too. This is also your level 1 clear ability. Managing Magma Rush's fuel properly is important to play her to her fullest potential.

Volcanic Lightning

This one's the fun one. Volcanic Lightning is a nutty ability. A long, fast dash that does way too much damage, followed by three cone auto attacks that do ability damage in a large area. This ability alone can 100 to 0 a squishy lategame, while also almost killing anyone behind them. The dash is also cc immune, making this an amazing chasing, killing, and cc dodging ability.


Leveling order:



Level 1-5:


3
>
1
>
2
>
1
>
4

Maxing Order:

1
>
4
>
2
>
3

Don't level anything at level 8 so that you can put a point into Pyroclast and Volcanic Lightning at level 9.



Magma Rush is your best level 1 clear, so you start with it. At level 2, your best kill potential is with a combination of Magma Rush and Pyroclast, so get that next. At level 3 you want Eruption, and from there you start leveling your abilities as above.

Volcanic Lightning and Pyroclast are your main damage tools, and so you want to level them to max as soon as possible. Next, level Eruption for the larger knockup area and damage. Lastly, level up Magma Rush for some extra damage.

Starting & Core Build

The starting build is pretty self-explanatory, and is what you should be building on every ability-based jungler like Pele:


The core build items are the first items you should build in (almost) every single game on Pele:
  • Jotunn's Wrath is now buildable again due to the Bumba's Hammer nerf, as you wont be overlapping CDR by building both now.
  • The Crusher is a strong early game damage item, with decent power, pen, a damage passive, and attack speed which is more helpful than you'd think due to quick AA canceling combos and her ult autos.
  • Arondight is probably the single best item on Pele, as 75 power is super strong, and the passive will activate immediately after the dash of Volcanic Lightning finishes, meaning that the damage will activate on the first auto-attack of the ult. The movement speed passive also helps you continue chasing if you run out of fuel on Magma Rush.

The only time you won't go these three items first is when you desperately need the antiheal from Brawler's Beat Stick, you would generally replace The Crusher with this.

Situational Items

I'll briefly describe the use of each situational item and when you should build them:

  • Brawler's Beat Stick is a strong penetration and antiheal item, and should be built either before or after Arondight if you require antiheal (for example if the enemy team has a Hel, Aphrodite, or lots of self-healing or lifesteal. You can also rush this item straight after boots if you are desperate for early antiheal.
  • Magi's Cloak is great for avoiding getting cc locked while your Purification Beads are on cooldown. It can be built anywhere between fourth and sixth item in either build if you are getting picked by something like Confound or Anvil of Dawn when your Purification Beads are on cooldown.
  • Titan's Bane - hard to recommend really, but if their comp is very tanky you can maybe grab it. Get one of the other items preferably though.
  • Mantle of Discord - the pickup if you are getting blown up in the damage build path. I probably wouldn't buy this if you already have Spirit Robe. Get it instead of Bloodforge or Heartseeker.

    I'll give a quick mention here to Hydra's Lament, which I don't build, as it doesn't proc on Magma Rush, and Volcanic Lightning halves your basic attack damage while the cones are active, which kinda screws over your hydras passive.

Relics

Purification Beads. Blink Rune. That's it. Order is up to you.

Please don't build anything else. This is true for almost all junglers.

Some junglers can skip Blink Rune for Aegis Amulet, for example gods like Thor who has his ult and hammer to engage, but Pele needs blink to engage without Volcanic Lightning so she cant really skip it.

Go Purification Beads first if you think cc will either get you killed or stop you getting kills early game (like a ***bakharna), or rush Blink Rune if you are confident you can get kills with it early.

Playstyle & Tips/Tricks

If I had to give you only one tip for playing Pele, it would be this:

You aren't being aggressive enough.



When playing Pele, you should be telling yourself repeatedly "I am Pele. I win this fight." 2v1? You probably win. Half health 2v1 vs 2 early game gods and a full wave? You probsbly still win that one too. Obviously don't be dumb, but err on the side of over-aggression until you get the balance down.

Pele's biggest power spikes are:
  • Level 2. Pele is the best level 2 jungler in the game. No, there are no exceptions. Hell, she's arguably the best level 2 god in the game full stop. The only argument would maybe be Hercules.
  • Level 5. Remember earlier in the guide when I said that Volcanic Lightning "can 100 to 0 a squishy lategame"? The same is true at level 5. This ability does 480 base damage at RANK 1. And that's not even counting the auto-attack damage and the abilities you will be using too.
  • Arondight completed. This gets its own power spike mention due to how much power it gives to her, as mentioned in the item explanation above.

You should be extra aggressive at these times.

Some more advanced tips:
  • Always fight or clear with Magma Rush toggled on fully. You should only use the first form of this ability for mobility, and even then not very often.
  • Keep Magma Rush above 40 fuel when out of combat, you don't want to get caught with no fuel when you really need it.
  • Learn the timing of Eruption so that you can activate it early so it erupts right as you get into knockup range.
  • Make sure to auto-attack cancel between your abilities. A normal combo is (with Magma Rush toggled on fully): Eruption > auto-attack > Pyroclast > auto-attack > Pyroclast > auto-attack.
  • Save Volcanic Lightning for either chasing an enemy after they use their movement ability, or to immune a cc that will stop you from killing someone. An exception to this is when the cones can kill someone that you wouldn't be able to reach otherwise.
  • Volcanic Lightning's dash does cone damage behind it when it hits an enemy, so you get 4 cones in total if you hit it.
  • If you are close to half health while out of combat, consider letting a camp or minion wave get you down to half hp so that Everlasting Flame activates and you can heal.

Conclusion

Hopefully after reading some or all of this guide you've learned something about playing Pele. If you have any questions about the guide feel free to comment, dm me, or find me on discord DiscoFerry#6038 and I'll do my best to answer. Thanks for reading!

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Collapse All Comments

1
CookieTheBest | November 17, 2022 6:23pm
This helped a lot. Know whenever I seethe enemy team it goes like this:
"See that enemy? GONE!"
"That one escaping? Roasted and toasted"
"The one trying to kill me? Scrambled with a side of toast."
"That other guy trying to kill me? Burnt like my toast."
"See that other guy also running away? Prepare their funeral."
1
Tyranthrxus | June 29, 2022 1:20pm
Can we get a season 9 update to this?
1
Cranberry sauce | April 25, 2021 9:54pm
Question about the starter does it work for joust as well
1
Kriega1 (143) | April 26, 2021 7:57am
No. In Joust you'd probably opt for War Flag or Bluestone or maybe Axe. Also you'd probably go Bruiser with at least Shifter's + Ancile.
1
ImTiny | March 11, 2021 9:12pm
I really appreciate this guide! I've recently started picking up jungle (playing set and pele with the new skin <3) and you gave me a great idea of pele's strengths and weaknesses and it's saved me a ton. Extremely well explained and structured. It never felt like you rambled on or that you got off track. Big love!
1
puppeht (1) | February 15, 2021 12:03pm
I cannot agree with you on soul eater, it synergizes so well with the passive. It's a personal preference item.
1
Caldog1996 | January 25, 2021 11:27pm
This build shreds people
1
DKage (1) | January 21, 2021 6:09am
I am struggling SO HARD trying to use Pele. I am an Arena main, and for the life of me, I tend to get destroyed when I play Pele. Despite watching the video and following your recommendations, I get wiped so fast without Soul Eater. I end up building hella prots just to try to stay alive. Am I being too aggressive? Poor positioning? Choosing too healthy targets? Suggestions?
1
DiscoFerry (3) | January 21, 2021 6:25am
Difference with arena is you're commonly attacking groups of like 4-5 people. If you have say sledge and void shield you might be able to survive a few seconds of them hitting you, but if you want to go full squishy you have to go on either isolated targets or go in when their abilities are mostly down. Its about picking your timings really.
1
Devampi (105) | January 21, 2021 11:36am
Agreed, most glass cannon assassins builds perform pretty poorly in arena as isolated targets are less common or terrible to reach. flanking opportunities are also almost nowhere to be found too.

If your timing is off you're likely dead without getting half your damage off, which if it happens just too often puts you to behind that when you do get your damage off it feels lackluster.
Timing is crucial and that makes assassins very difficult to play in most teamfight from the start modes.
1
Kriega1 (143) | January 21, 2021 6:18am
If you’re engaging a lot you’ll have to go bruiser yes, if you’re going glass cannon you’ll have to be more selective in your engagements. Soul Eater usually isn’t worthwhile unless enemy team is building 0 antiheal.
1
DKage (1) | January 22, 2021 6:11am
I do think that I try to target lower health/isolated players. I am still trying to get a handle on the auto-cancelling mentioned in the guide. It just gets frustrating when you think you're doing well, but the other team keeps collapsing on you. Thank you all for your ideas and advice. Maybe I need to practice more or possibly accept that her play style may not be compatible with mine.
Load more comments (6 more replies) →
1
OneYeetyBoyo | November 1, 2020 4:46am
Yo am I high or does the ability build not work?
2
DiscoFerry (3) | November 1, 2020 1:33pm
If you mean the skill order, you should skip a point at level 8 to level the 1 and ult at level 9. I explain it in the guide but there's no way of showing it in the skill order thing on this site
1
OneYeetyBoyo | December 23, 2020 9:47pm
Ah, gotcha, I eventually figured it out, but yeah, the skill order seemed borked. I get it now though.
1
Kriega1 (143) | November 1, 2020 5:31am
What do you mean, “does not work”?
1
OneYeetyBoyo | December 23, 2020 9:49pm
It was the skill order, as DiscoFerry said in reply to my comment.
1
Big Damage (37) | November 1, 2020 5:34am
Probably because of the former.
2
Branmuffin17 (400) | October 12, 2020 12:50pm
Another solid build and tips Disco.
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