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How to Handle Hel in the Arena (Archived - Updated to Nu Wa Patch)

61 2 243,251
by TormentedTurnip updated May 11, 2014

Smite God: Hel

Build Guide Discussion 79 More Guides
Choose a Build: Confident Stance Dancers Only ("Early Burst Build")
Confident Stance Dancers Only ("Early Burst Build") Passive Playstyle ("Invincibility Build") High CC Skill Sequence
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Hel Build

Standard Full Build

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Rod of Asclepius Rod of Asclepius
Build Item Focused Void Stone Focused Void Stone
Build Item Breastplate of Valor Breastplate of Valor
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Heavenly Agility Heavenly Agility
Build Item Purification Beads (Old) Purification Beads (Old)

Game Start

Build Item Shoes Shoes
Build Item Magic Shoes Magic Shoes
Build Item Purification Beads (Old) Purification Beads (Old)
Build Item Heavenly Wings Heavenly Wings

Core Items

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Breastplate of Valor Breastplate of Valor
Build Item Rod of Asclepius Rod of Asclepius
Build Item Focused Void Stone Focused Void Stone

Aggressive Ending Choices (5 & 6)

Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation

Passive Ending (5 & 6)

Build Item Magi's Cloak Magi's Cloak
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti

Best Actives

Build Item Heavenly Agility Heavenly Agility
Build Item Purification Beads (Old) Purification Beads (Old)

Alternate Actives

Build Item Aegis Pendant Aegis Pendant
Build Item Combat Blink Combat Blink
Build Item Enfeebling Curse Enfeebling Curse

Items to Fear

Build Item Weakening Curse Weakening Curse
Build Item Brawler's Beat Stick Brawler's Beat Stick
Build Item Brawler's Cudgel Brawler's Cudgel
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Divine Wrath Divine Wrath

Hel's Skill Order

Decay / Restoration

1 X Y
Decay / Restoration
4 6 8 10 11

Hinder / Cleanse

2 A B
Hinder / Cleanse
3 12 13 14 15

Repulse / Inspire

3 B A
Repulse / Inspire
1 2 5 7 9

Switch Stances

4 Y X
Switch Stances
16 17 18 19 20
Decay / Restoration
4 6 8 10 11

Decay / Restoration

1 X
DECAY (Dark Stance) - Hel fires an orb of decay that deals damage and passes through minions. The orb will explode in a 12 unit radius if it hits a god or reaches max range.

RESTORATION (Light Stance) - Hel fires an orb of restoration that damages enemy minions and stops on gods. Hitting an enemy god deals damage. Hitting an allied god provides that god and Hel Health and Mana.

Ability Type: Line, Heal, Damage
Dark Damage: 70 / 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 (+60% of your Magical Power)
Light Heal: 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 + 4 per level
Light Mana Heal: 55 / 70 / 85 / 100 / 115
Light Damage: 70 / 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Cost: 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 / 65
Cooldown: 8s
Hinder / Cleanse
3 12 13 14 15

Hinder / Cleanse

2 A
HINDER (Dark Stance) - Hel debuffs all enemies in the targeted area, reducing their Magical Protection and slowing them for 3s.

CLEANSE (Light Stance) - Hel cleanses all allied gods in the targeted area, removing all Crowd Control effects instantly and protecting them from future ones for a duration.

Ability Type: Circle, Debuff
Dark Protections Debuff: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 + 5% Magical Protection Reduction
Dark Slow: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
Light CC Immunity: 1.5s
Range: 55
Radius: 20
Cost: 60
Cooldown: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12s
Repulse / Inspire
1 2 5 7 9

Repulse / Inspire

3 B
REPULSE (Dark Stance) - Hel conjures a burst of dark energy around her, damaging all nearby enemies.

INSPIRE (Light Stance) - Hel conjures a burst of light energy around her, healing herself instantly and applying a heal over time to nearby allies that ticks every 1s. This heal is half as effective when healing minions. Hel gains Increased Movement Speed, and allies gain a reduced amount (10%) for the duration. Hel and allies also gain 20% Attack Speed while the buff is active.

Ability Type: Circle, Heal, Damage
Dark Damage: 70 / 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 (+75% of your Magical Power)
Light Self Heal: 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 + 6 per level
Light Heal Per Tick: 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 / 18 + 0.9 per level
Light Movement Speed: 20%
Light Duration: 5s
Radius: 30
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 12s
Switch Stances
16 17 18 19 20

Switch Stances

4 Y
Dark Stance - Hel's abilities cause damage and she gains increased Magical Power.

Light Stance - Hel's abilities heal and support her allies and she gains increased Protections.

Passive - Hel gains increased MP5 and half of all benefits gained, including Physical Power, from Switch Stances are shared with allied gods within 55 units.

Ability Type: Buff
Dark Magical Power: 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70
Light Magical and Physical Protections: 13 / 16 / 19 / 22 / 25
MP5: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35
Cost: 0
Cooldown: 1s

Part I






Table of Contents










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 off 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!

New Hel








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.


Expansion




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


Expansion







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:



Stance Attunement

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!

1. When the bar is fully purple, damaging spells will have a 20% increase from her passive, and healing spells will have no increase from her passive.

2. When the bar is fully white, healing spells will have a 20% increase from her passive, and damaging Spells will have no increase from her passive.

3. At the midway point, both damaging and healing spells will have a 10% increase from her passive.

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.




Decay / Restoration

These are fun skill shots that -kind of- rival the cooldown of He Bo's Water Cannon, simply because of your stance swap. Unless there is a high amount of CC on the opposite team, I will generally prioritize it above cleanse; i.e.: put a point into it every level that Repulse / Inspire is unavailable. But as they are inferior to your Repulse/Inspire nuke/heal, they should always be leveled afterwards.

If the composition allows you to level these as second priority (below Repulse/Inspire), then you will be able to land seriously devastating blows to the enemy team (provided you can, well, land them...)

Remember that Decay has an AoE effect and that Restoration will heal you.





Hinder / Cleanse

Hinder ain't too bad of a skill; it can be useful for increasing or decreasing the gap between teammates and enemies, as well as making skillshots easier to land. Cleanse, on the other hand, is where the majority of Hel's effectiveness comes from, and it is the single most fun skill in the game. Beginners can use it to troll Ymir by hiding behind teammates and waiting for him to cast his Frost Breath, immediately removing the CC on anyone within the radius. More advanced uses of cleanse will be discussed here.





Repulse / Inspire

It is an Area of Effect spell that is cast with you in the center. Therefore, you need to be near to enemies to hurt them and near to teammates to heal them. This is probably the most dangerous part about Hel because she has to get in pretty close to cast them, despite having low health, resistances, and a lack of escapes. Fortunately, it both hits and heals like a truck, and it's pretty much impossible to miss.

A good Hel will do his/her best to position his/herself to heal multiple teammates rather than just the one being focused the hardest, while also not wasting too much time trying to incorporate everyone into its range. This is much harder to do when you queue alone, grouping you with morons that spread apart from your heals. (/rant)

Be very aware of Inspire's speed increase as well (between fifteen and twenty-five percent, depending on rank) and that it affects everyone in its radius, not just Hel.

This is your AoE nuke/heal, and should be leveled to maximum before any other skill. I almost always put two points into it at the start of the match, and one point into Hinder / Cleanse.





Switch Stances

This is your "ultimate." Instead of having a real ultimate, Hel can use this spell every few seconds to switch the stance she's in. A good Hel will be able to Stance Dance while maneuvering around and rotating through cooldowns. Be aware that all skills are on lock-down for one second after switching stances (please remove this, Hi-Rez!)





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.



Always start every match with one point in either Hinder / Cleanse or Decay / Restoration and two points into Repulse / Inspire.

Low CC Skill Order

> > >


High CC Skill Order

> > >


Standard High-Damage Ability Sequence


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20


Standard High-Support Skill Sequence

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20







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. :(



CORE STATS



Cooldown Reduction

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.


Magic Power

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.



BENEFICIAL STATS



Movement Speed

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?


Crowd Control Reduction

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.


Protections

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.


USEFUL BUT NOT TO BE BUILT TOWARDS



Health

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.


Pentration

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.


Mana

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.






These items focus on getting a mix of both MP and defensive items early, as well as capping out CDR at 40% on the second item. It is useful against teams that have high burst potential, as well as high amounts of CC.



Core Items





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

Shoes of Focus

These provide the magic power that will make your early game Repulse / Inspire hit extremely hard as well as heal extremely well. The cooldown reduction is also essential for Hel and, combined with Breastplate of Valor, cap you at 40%.

You start the game at level three with 1,500 gold, which lets you purchase rank 2 of these with the exact amount of leftover money to purchase rank 1 of Heavenly Agility (Sprint) and rank 1 of Purification Beads.



Breastplate of Valor

This provides a wealth of mana and physical defense, and most importantly 25% cooldown reduction. Combined with Shoes of Focus, you will have your cooldown reduction maxed out. Basically, rushing this makes you a great support; you have the mana to sustain, CDR to keep your team cleansed and healed, and enough early game physical defense to laugh off any physical offensives. However, it comes at the cost of low early game MP and low resilience to magic damage, which is harder to avoid than physical damage.



Focused Void Stone

This provides both magic power and magic defense, as well as a nice chunk of penetration. Considering you will have no penetration from boots and you have to get close to your enemies to nuke them, this item synchronizes perfectly with Hel. If you want more early game burst, healing, and magic defense, get Focused Void Stone before Breastplate of Valor. The two items are both essential for her and it is up to you which one you buy first.



Rod of Asclepius

Yeah, this item is amazing. First off, it gives a pretty good amount of MP. Second, it gives a good deal of health - not as good as protection, but it still makes you harder to kill. Third, it is one of the only items with MP that also provides movement speed! And my, oh my, is movement speed excellent for both initiation and survival, especially on a god with no leaps or dashes. And most importantly, this item has one hell of a passive: your heals will be significantly increased on all allies within range. So that's a three-point-five out of four. Ding ding ding, core item!



Beneficial Items





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.

Hide of Leviathan

This provides a great deal of physical and magical defense, as well as some added health and mana. In addition, it comes with the Resolve passive, which reduces all crowd control durations by 30%. This can really save your life when you are focused, and combined with Breastplate of Valor and Focused Void Stone, gives you all the defense you need.

The only reason why this isn't a core item is because of your cleanse, but considering how beneficial its stats are, combined with the fact that you can't cleanse yourself while affected by CC, it is an excellent item.

I highly recommend Magi's Blessing over this item if you are not experienced with preemptive cleansing. However, the shield will still be consumed even if cleanse is active, so I feel its usefulness degrades as your skill-level increases. But even if you're excellent with cleanse, it can still be very helpful against very experienced enemy Ymirs, Athenas, Anubises, etc.



Bancroft's Talon

This works amazingly well with Hel. First, it provides quite a large bit of Magic Power, excellent for both nuking and healing. Second, and the least important of the item, is that you will heal yourself even by damaging the enemy due to its lifesteal. And finally, the passive works excellently when you're in a tight spot - the lower your health, the higher your magic power and therefore the greater your panic heal will be.

This would be a core item if the lifesteal were replaced with something more useful. Movement speed anoyone? :D



Gem of Isolation

This provides the always useful magic power as well as health and mana. It also makes your damaging spells apply a 25% slow for two seconds. If you're getting harassed by melee gods hard and there's no peeling, or if you are doing a lot of solo fighting, this item is essential, especially because the slows will be your only form of crowd control.



Rod of Tahuti

This provides the most magic power out of any item in the game, and the more magic power you already have, the more it will give. As this Invincibility Build has less MP than others, I feel this item is not essential. It is still a tremendous increase in both healing and damage, however, and I wouldn't recommend passing it up.




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.





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.


Core Items






These items cannot be counter-built and provide necessary stats that will benefit you in every game.


Shoes of Focus

These provide the magic power that will make your early game Repulse / Inspire hit extremely hard as well as heal extremely well. The cooldown reduction is also essential for Hel, and combined with Breastplate of Valor, cap you at 40%.

I always start out with rank two of this item, and purchase the first rank of both Heavenly Agility (Sprint at the time) and Purification Beads. You start with 1,500 gold, giving you just enough to spend 1,000 on shoes, 200 on Sprint, and 300 on Beads.



Rod of Asclepius

Even in, or possibly especially in, a build focused on damage rather than sustain, this item has everything you need. First off, it gives a pretty good amount of MP. Second, it gives a good deal of health - not as good as protection, but it still makes you harder to kill (and makes it safer to initiate). Third, it is one of the only items with MP that also provides movement speed! And if movement speed isn't excellent for both initiation and survival, especially on a god with no leaps or dashes, then I'm a communist. Furthermore, this item has one hell of a passive: your heals will be significantly increased on all allies within range (including you, buddy!).



Focused Void Stone

What better way to begin balancing defense items in than an item that also provides MP (and penetration that you lack from getting CDR boots!)? There's not much to argue about, really; this item benefits Hel in every possible way, and is a core item for her in every game that has at least one enemy mage (so...every game). Get it before Rod of Asclepius if there is a lot of magical damage on the enemy team, but get it afterwards if there is a lot of physical damage on the enemy team.



Breastplate of Valor

Let's face it: CDR is one of the most important stats for Hel, and it just so happens that 15% + 25% = 40%, which is the CDR cap. This also provides Hel with the necessary defense to offset the dangers of having such close ranges on her skills and her lack of escapes. Oh, and who could forget free mana as well? (clearly not me! That "oh" in no way implies I had almost forgotten about it!)



Beneficial Items






These items work great with Hel, but you can pass them up if you're stupid if you feel like it.


Rod of Tahuti

This could honestly be labeled as a Core Item; not only does it provide a whopping 125 magic power, but its passive is just...beautiful. Before you build Tahuti, you'll have 200 MP, and after it's built you will have doubled that to just over 400. What's that, mr. 15 MP5? I can't hear you over the sound of doubling my MP!



Gem of Isolation

Your own form of CC is a slow from Hinder, so anything you can build that provides a form of CC is likely to be helpful. You have three damaging spells: Restoration, Decay, and Repulse, and they all have short cooldowns. What does this mean? Well, sir, it means you'll piss off the enemy team with all the slows. That's what.



Obsidian Shard

While I did say penetration isn't a core item for Hel because she plays more of a role than a simple damage dealer, she can certainly pack a punch. Since the only penetration you would have comes from a hybrid item, Focused Void Stone, this item is great if you prefer mage-man-mode Hel. It's cheap, provides a respectable amount of MP, and it totally matches her eyes.



Bancroft's Talon

The first rank of this item is incredibly cheap, costing little more than five-hundred gold. If you're planning on building this instead of Rod of Asclepius, and no teamfights occur by the time you have enough money to finish the shoes and get rank 1, make a quick trip back to base to do so.

It's overall a very cheap item that synchronizes perfectly with Hel; it has a whopping 100 MP, and it also increases the heal you receive from your Restoration (as well as Decay and Repulse to a lesser extent). In addition, the lower your health, the more MP you will have. The means that when you're ****ting your pants because you're getting focused and have less than 20% hp, your panic heal is going to piss off the enemy team (or a mighty Repulse that results in an instant deicide).



Others


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.


BEST ACTIVES



Heavenly Agility

This seems like an active almost tailored specifically for Hel. It increases healing received during its duration, affects all teammates around you, and gives you an escape that you would otherwise completely lack. It can also be used offensively to help your team chase down a dirty little ****er like Chronos or Mercury.

I, personally, purchase it almost every single game. If it's not your playstyle, you don't need to get it. Unless the enemy team builds Weakening Curse, in which case you'd be insane to not purchase HA.



Purification Beads

I'm telling you right now, never replace Purification Beads. You are going to get focused at one point or another, and not only will this break you free of any and all crowd control, provide CC immunity for longer than a maxed out cleanse, but also reduce all cooldowns by 5 seconds. With the max CDR of 40%, Inspire will have a 6 second cooldown. That's essentially two back to back heals that, combined with Heavenly Agility's healing buff, can really troll the hell out of the enemy team.

Just like Inspire, Repulse will have a 6 second cooldown, and you can therefore land two Repulses as well as multiple Decays and Restorations in a short window. Yeah, He Bo won't be expecting to get royally ****ed by her, but you're about to teach him his place.



BENEFICIAL ACTIVES



Aegis Amulet

This can indeed save your life, but I feel it is not as effective as either Heavenly Agility or Purification Beads; negating some damage that you could've avoided with Heavenly Agility anyways is all fine and dandy until you realize that two seconds of no movement on a god without a dash or leap means you're about to get wrecked.

The new Aegis Pendant on the other hand, can be extremely useful because you can still move around. I prefer Heavenly Agility and Purification beads, but this tiered variant is definitely superb.



Fist of the Gods

This will provide a one-second stun, which can be useful against things like Thor's spin-to-win or Ares's Searing Flesh. It's also fun to use early game to help push a minion wave through the enemy's portal while they're clearing buff camps on the side.




BAD, COMMONLY PURCHASED ACTIVES




Meditation / Salvation

Meditation Meditation
Don't get this. You will have plenty of mana from items and MP5 from your passive, and there will be frequent returns to the base, i.e.: you ain't gon' run outta no mana. An okay heal isn't near as good as an escape when you're playing the best healer in the game.








*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.

Part II





This is only updated to the Nu Wa patch, and updates to this section are on indefinite hold. I intend to completely reformat it when I finally get around to updating it.



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.

-COLOR CLASSIFICATION-

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.


Agni: If you're in the very center of his Noxious Fumes, you ain't gettin' out without getting stunned, so pop a cleanse. It's only a 1 second stun though so don't prioritize it if you think more CC is coming. Unless you're the one in the center, then you'd better cleanse yourself and GTFO.

Be aware that he can detonate his Noxious Fumes on his Path of Flame, so even standing to the side of the path can be dangerous.


Ah Muzen Cab: This guy doesn't have any hard CC, but his stringer applies a three second cripple that you should be wary of if an extremely low-health teammate with a leap is stung. Other than that, he really just has a highly effective slow from his honey, but nothing to prioritize if other CC is imminent.


Anhur: You can troll Anhur by running horizontally past him while in between one of the four pillars in arena and casting a cleanse on yourself. He will likely try to Impale you into the wall and end up crying because he's finds out he's too weak to move a goddess one inch backwards.

His Shifting Sands is always a danger zone because of his Impale, but because of how much easier it is to land the stun on a Thor or Ymir wall, always be careful around them.

His leap also causes a knockback that sets him up for an easy impale, so if you see him leap into the air towards a teammate, popping a cleanse on them isn't a bad idea.


Anubis: His Mummify> Death Gaze combo can melt a teammate so make sure you get them out of it so they can juke his ultimate. It's one of the longest stuns in the game so any teammate not cleansed out of it is very likely to be chain CC'd.


Ao Kuang: His Squall affects all targets hit with a slow, and his Spirit's Tempest applies a knockup effect. It's up to your teammates to avoid it, but if they're CC'd and he casts his ult, cleanse them immediately because that thing hits like a truck.


Aphrodite: Her Kiss has a one-second stun duration, so there's no point it cleansing after it lands because by the time you'd get to cleansing most of its duration would be in effect. The best time to cleanse for the kiss is offensively - such as when Ares is chasing a low health enemy with his Searing Flesh, preventing it from being canceled.

Her Back Off! applies a short duration slow if she's linked to one of her teammates. It can be useful to cleanse to help a teammate escape or catch up to an enemy.


Apollo: While he is one of the best range AD carries in the game, he doesn't have all that much crowd control. His Serenade has a short duration unless it's at maximum rank, and even then it will break the instant your teammate takes damage. It can still be dangerous, however, as it can give enough time for the enemies to catch up to you or your teammate. If Apollo charges directly into someone, he's most likely going for a mesmerize - cleanse teammates where he dashes to.

His dash, The Moves, causes a knockup (and a short slow), but it's highly unlikely that you'll have the reaction time to prevent it, and it's more often used for an escape/gap closer anyways.

Across The Sky also causes a short knockup that'll give him enough time to land a free auto-attack unless cleansed, but you will not be able to prevent its damage.


Arachne: Arachne's Cocoon is one of the trollziest spells in the game. If you see her put a tangled web down on her feet with no teammates in it, she is going to attempt to pull in a teammate. Typically this will happen right after a teammate is stunned. It really depends on the Arachne on when you need to cleanse. Confident Arachne's will put down the web beforehand so that they can get more basic attacks in, whereas less confident ones will put the web down immediately after pulling a target in.

Every single one of her spells has some form of crowd control, but because the only thing that cleanse can completely negate (without immense luck and skill) is her Tangled Web, I believe she is in the orange category.


Ares: Everyone should have beads and aegis so you can focus on more constant crowd control, but if used at the correct time your cleanse will stop the pull from No Escape. I try to save cleanse for it if I can so that I can use beads for my super nuke. Even at the .5 second duration at rank 1, if I'm not drugged out on pain meds I will never fail. Mathematically speaking, make sure the CC immunity is active during the pull - 2.5 seconds after he casts it. That means that at rank 1, you need to cast cleanse between 2.0 and 2.4 seconds after he casts it, and at rank 5, you need to cast cleanse between 1.2 and 2.4 seconds after he casts it. It's really something that you'll become accustomed to through playing Hel often.


Artemis: While not the most dangerous things in the world, the traps are one of my favorite things to cleanse and walk through. They still do damage, so beware, but there is nothing funnier than Transgressors Fate strangling thin air.

If Artemis ults near a teammate, run towards the teammate and cleanse both of you. If she ults closer to you, run towards a teammate and cleanse both of you. That is, unless you have a low rank cleanse. Then just GTFO and cleanse yourself. Also be aware of the distance between the Calydonian Boar and every teammate. You don't want to end up having the pig chain halfway across the arena.

It's fairly common for an Artemis to cast her ultimate and use the short stun to place a trap under her enemy. While it isn't as effective now that she can lay a trap at a further distance, she will be much closer to enemies - a ranged AD with no escape brought herself practically into melee range, so use that opportunity.


Athena: Because your teammates will be moving during her Confound, it's harder to cleanse once they have been affected as compared to Ymir's Frost Breath. Typically an Athena will taunt immediately after setting up her Shield Wall, so throw a cleanse on anyone she's looking at right after she pops that.

Her Preemptive Strike also applies a short slow.


Bacchus: It's very easy to cleanse his Belch of the Gods, so that shouldn't be a problem. You can troll his Intoxicate with cleanse. Even though it's a 10 second duration, the cleanse gets rid of the debuff completely because it's not effect that is constantly reapplied. Have fun watching him stop for a second when he notices all 5 players he just hit are moving around perfectly normally.

Now that Bacchus's Belly Flop is 30% slower, you should have more enough reaction time to toss out a cleanse to prevent the knockup.

IMPORTANT NOTICE - using the alternative camera mode currently has a bug that prevents you from being able to place the ground targeter for cleanse at your feet when intoxicated.


Bakasura: His Regurgitate slows and cripples anyone in its AoE, but unless he has Frostbound Hammer, that's it. Once he has his build going, healing isn't going to save anybody from the insane damage he can put out, but while incredibly dangerous there is no crowd control for you to cleanse.


Bastet: Cleanse should give you or your teammates enough time to put a bit of distance between you and those pesky kitties. Her nine tails skill also affects its targets with a short slow.


Chang'e: Gem of Isolation is a core item for Chang'e as she can keep almost a 100% uptimte on it due to her low cooldowns. It can be useful cleansing the slow, which will be applied from her Crescent Moon Dance.

Oh boy, the big one. This is quite possibly one of the best CC spells in the game. It's essentially instant cast, has a long range, and is about as wide as Niagara Falls. I present to you: Waxing Moon! If your entire team is bunched together, it's very likely she will cast this spell, and it will be devastating if you're caught up in it, preventing you from cleansing your team. Always have Purification Beads handy in case you get caught in it along with many teammates.

If she catches multiple teammates in it, but they're not all within the radius of your cleanse, it is generally best to prioritize the furthest targets as they will be stunned the longest. However, depending on the health of each ally and how much focus they're under, it is up to you to decide the most important teammates to cleanse.


Chronos: Chronos's Stop Time will apply a slow to the target before stunning them. This is easiest spell to cleanse because of how slowly it travels and the fact that it doesn't stun until one second after it hits.

Because of its slow speed, you will typically see the Chronos use it for a chain CC, or if they are in melee range of the target. He will also use it to escape; He will Accelerate and turn around to Stop Time. Cleanse your teammates out of it - don't let that ****er get away.

His Rewind will reset all of his cooldowns, so many Chronos players will use it offensively; a lot of damage can be output from Stop Time> Time Rift> Rewind> Stop Time> Time Rift, especially if they are in Section III of Wheel of Time, so be careful of that.

Think that's bad? A Chronos can use Rewind in conjunction with rank 3 Purification Beads; there is nothing that can survive Stop Time> Time Rift> Rewind> Stop Time> Time Rift> Purification Beads> Stop Time> Time Rift. Your only way to counter this is by double cleansing by using Purification Beads yourself. That will hopefully make him miss his Time Rifts.

Add all of that with his insane basic attack damage and ridiculous movement speed, along with the fact that your lack of hard CC prevents you from preventing his Rewind... seriously, just stay the hell away from this guy.


Cupid: Cupid's Heart Bomb will add a 1 second stun to all teamates that it explodes upon if he has 10 stacks of his passive. You can tell if it'll stun if he shoots a Heartbomb while he has a heart visibly swirling him at about waist heighth.

More important than his 1 second stun, however, is his Fields Of Love. It's a large AoE that, along with a fair amount of damage, will slow and cripple all that are inside of it. When it detonates, everyone inside will be mesmerised for something like 3 seconds. Focus on cleansing gods such as Anhur or Neith so they can leap out. If someone is in the center without a leap, don't cleanse them immediately. Instead, apply cleanse to them at a time that will ensure they'll be immune to the mesmerize when the ultimate detonates.

This ultimate is also extremely deadly in conjunction with gods such as Hades. Gods such as Neith will likely not have beads prepared for Hades's Pillar of Agony, since he does not cripple them. However, Cupid can time his ultimate with Hades to affect everyone caught in Hades's ultimate with a cripple, which will prevent leapers from escaping. Tossing a cleanse on them will let them backflip/leap out of it.


Fenrir: With a previous patch, it's now much easier to troll Fenrir as Hel. You can cleanse after Fenrir actually grabs somebody with his Ragnarok, and his ult will end. Still, go ahead and cast it right before he bites a teammate so they're not even brought a step towards the enemy team. When your teammate has already been grabbed, you can actually cleanse anywhere on Fenrir and they will be freed.

Credit goes to Steele for the extra Fenrir input.

His Unchained will also stun if he has 5 runes from his passive, Unbound Runes, which means that you -need- Purification Beads in order to escape his Ragnarok if he leapstuns you into his ultimate. Most Fenrirs I face though aren't too good with working the passive into fights, but it's definitely something to be wary of and another great example of why Purification Beads are a must-have item.


Freya: You cannot cleanse Banish once your teammates are already in the air. But I find that chain CC's occur quite often after they fall back down, so be prepared to cleanse immediately after they land.

Don't underestimate cleansing her slow; she hits -extremely- hard so doing anything to help you or your teammates juke her pulses is a good thing.

Although her Banish is not an ultimate, and therefore has a short cooldown, the fact that you can't cleanse a teammate in the air puts her at orange level, simply because there's nothing you can do unless it's done preemptively.


Guan Yu: His Cavalry Charge applies an AoE stun to anyone in his vicinity when he dismounts from his horse. He can dismount by right-clicking, meaning he can apply the stun whenever he decides to. Typically, he will attempt to hit someone at least a few times before dismounting, and it's very rare that he will ever get more than four hits in. This means that if he lands three hits on you in one charge, you should use your cleanse; if he only lands one or two hits on you in one charge, he will likely attempt to turn around for a second assault - in this case, save your cleanse until his first strike on the rebound. If he's focusing another teammate, cleanse them the moment you see him jumping off his horse.

His charge, Warrior's Will, will apply a minor slow to anyone hit. It's typically not a huge deal, but it can make it easier for the enemy team to land other CC's.


Hades: You can cleanse his Shroud of Darkness. This is best done preemptively. Let's say your teammate is Thor, and he just used Spin-to-Win on a poor enemy Anubis. You see Hades floating over towards the Thor - cleansing him will prevent Spin-to-Win from being canceled, resulting in a dead Anubis.

Early game your cleanse will not be enough to get anyone out of Pillar of Agony unless they are near the edge. If everyone is in the center though, it's still worth a cleanse so they can all spread out just enough to prevent everyone from getting hit by ults such as Ao Kuang's Spirit's Tempest or Ra's Searing Pain.


He Bo: Gem of Isolation is part of most He Bo's core build, and with the incredibly short cooldown on his Water Cannon (as well as massive damage) don't underestimate a cleanse out of the slow.

His Flood Waters can sometimes be worth cleansing, especially if it's stacked with another slow. As it's his only escape, (other than his Crushing Wave) if you and multiple teammates are chasing him and he casts flood waters, a cleanse is a good idea to offensively cleanse.

The most important time to cleanse his Waterspout, which causes a knockup, is when you see a teammate running towards him and he's facing them - he will likely waterspout them into the air into a combo with his water cannon, which is a whole heck of a lot of damage. Preventing the knockup will have the squishy He Bo in much closer range to your teammates than he expected.


Hel: Unless she has Gem of Isolation built, her only form of crowd control is Hinder. And unless it's maxed out, the slow is absolutely pathetic, so the only way to counter another Hel is to be better than her with your cleanse as well as your harass and burst.


Hercules: If your teammate is knocked backwards by his Earthbreaker, he will most likely try to use his Driving Strike to push them even further from your team; cleanse your teammate before he can push them backwards, and he will end up spending his gap closer without moving your teammate.

A Hercules will typically build a Frostbound Hammer sooner or later, and with enough attack speed he can slow a teammate indefinitely. If your teammate has no dash or leap, a cleanse could be helpful.


Hun Batz: His Fear No Evil is cast extremely quickly; with upwards of 80 ping it will be literally impossible to cleanse the moment you see his totem. Due to its ability to fear his targets in the direction he desires, this is an incredibly powerful ultimate. If you're not caught in it, decide which teammate he focused it on (putting the totem behind them fearing them into the enemy team, or in front of them, preventing them from securing a kill) and cleanse them. If your team is bunched together and he leaps into you all, put a cleanse down immediately - you're gonna see that totem pop up as soon as he can cast it.

His Somersault affects any targets that it hits with a short slow.


Isis: Her Spirit Ball is incredibly slow but large enough to hit often. Fortunately, it's probably one of the easiest skills to cleanse, as you will almost always know if you can or can't dodge it so preemptively cleansing isn't a hazard.

Her Dispel Magic is easy to hit, impossible to dodge, and is an effective slow, debuff and silence. You can't cleanse yourself but it can be a good idea to cleanse a teammate that's caught in it.

Cleanse teammates that are CC'd in her Circle of Protection so they can escape without taking damage.


Kali: she has a one second stun on her Incense which also grants her a physical power buff. Because of this, Kalis will always use their stuns when the get into close range in order to deal more damage, so it's on of the easiest spells in the game to cleanse. She gets in close = cleanse.


Loki: Hard crowd control is typically more important to cleanse, but if you hear Loki's Aimed Strike go off right behind a squishy or yourself, cleanse immediately and they won't be slowed, preventing him from doing much damage.

You can also preemptively cleanse the stun off of his Assassinate - if you see him running after a teammate and is about the distance of a Repulse away and he activates Aimed Strike, throw a cleanse on your teammate and you'll likely get a chuckle out of him basic attacking thin air for a second or two.

While the amount of CC he brings to the table is low, the amount of damage he can cause while your teammates are slowed or stunned puts him at orange level. You can seriously save a squishy by stopping the slow on his Aimed Strike.


Mercury: This little Jew has some pretty dangerous CC's, which are also difficult to avoid. His Special Delivery can be very devastating if not cleansed quickly, as he can use it to toss your teammate into a pile of hungry enemies. Even worse, you have to cleanse yourself preemptively as you are unable to perform any action while he's holding you. If you do manage to preemptively cleanse it, he will simply charge through you; if you cleanse a teammate after he grabs them but before the toss, they will simply be able to walk away; if you cleanse a teammate when they're in the air...bid them adieu for me.

It's difficult to preemptively cleanse his ultimate, Sonic Boom, but it's easy to prepare for it - he will clap and start glowing as he's charging up. Make sure to spread apart from your teammate and, if other enemies are around, save your cleanse for his Special Delivery, which he typically casts immediately after casting his ultimate. If he uses it in the middle of a teamfight, though, it's usually best to cast cleanse right away.


Ne Zha: Your cleanse will prevent his Wind Fire Wheels from doing any damage and taking his target into the sky. I find he often ults right before you make it into your base. For this reason, as well as many others, I ALWAYS cleanse when I reach tower range as I'm running back to base. He will always try to ult his way out if he's surrounded, so pop a cleanse on everyone.

Also try popping a cleanse on someone he is chasing after, because even if he doesn't ult, it will prevent your teammate from being stunned by his Armillary Sash. It's pretty damn funny to see him connect the sash, slowly fly towards where your teammate -was- and realize that the gap has actually increased by using his gap closer.

Be aware of how long Universe Ring Toss can keep two teammates slowed if they are somewhat far from each other and there are no other targets nearby. (Thanks, leblinski)


Neith: You can cleanse your teammates out of her Spirit Arrow and the stun in her World Weaver. Her backflip also affects your teammates with a slow.

Be aware of her Broken Weaves, as they cause her Spirit Arrow to snare anyone within a wide radius from them.


Nu Wa: she comes with a minor, small AoE stun on her Flame Strike and a hefty slow on her Pillars of Heaven. Her flame strike is often used for initiation and it has a minor delay, so you can preemptively cleanse it when she gets in close, but it's a better idea to simply attempt to dodge it. It can be very helpful to cleanse someone who passes through her ultimate, as the slow is immense and can easily lead to them being focused and dying.


Odin: Any Odin worth his salt will have Frostbound Hammer in his build; be aware of how long Odin can keep a teammate slowed. His Gungnir's Might also applies an impressive AoE slow. There's nothing you can do about his Ring of Spears but keep your teammates immune to cc so they can evade attacks.

-Odin's ultimate Ring of Spears is extremely dangerous for Hel, especially early game. Avoid being trapped at all costs.-


Poseidon: Your cleanse can prevent the knockup-stun from Release The Kraken!, which can keep the group together and give them a better chance of recovering from it. It's also a good idea to cleanse leaping gods out of Poseidon's annoying as Hel (teehee) Whirlpool.

His Tidal Surge will also knock-back unless cleansed, and I have never seen a Poseidon without Gem of Isolation.


Ra: Any Ra worth his salt with have Gem of Isolation in his build, and that combined with his Divine Light makes him one of the most powerful soft CC god in the game.

Due to his Divine Light constantly reapplying and its long duration, there's not much you can do about him; even at rank 5 you can't prevent his entire slow, and even while cleansed you can still be affected by the blind. (BS, I know)


Sobek: Sobek is where the much harder but far more rewarding trolling comes into play. If your ping is high, you're going to have serious problems, and with the .5 second duration of cleanse at the start of the game, trolling his 1 can be very difficult. The best I can say is if you see him aiming exclusively at one god and he has a direct line on them, cleanse them. Get a hearty chuckle out of him charging them, making contact, and throwing some air mixed with a few of his tears back at his teammates.

If a Sobek does land his Charge Prey, he will either use Tail Whip to knock your teammates further away from your thrown teammate, or knock your teammate even further backwards to his team. Depending on the direction he's going, decide who to cleanse if you have it off cooldown.

You can get maybe one or two Recall trolls on Sobek in a game. Try beaconing back when he's near, and if he starts running towards you, throw a cleanse on yourself when he looks ready to charge, and make sure to VET while running around him.

It's also effective to charge straight towards Sobek while popping a cleanse, and he will likely waste his Charge Prey - giving your team an opportunity to initiate with one of the best peels in the game on cooldown.

Without fail, 90% or more of every Sobek ever will use his charge on a god right when Lurking In The Waters ends. You should be able to tell who he's focusing on keeping in his ultimate and as soon as he pops back up throw a cleanse on that teammate.
Sun Wukong:: It's incredibly easy to cleanse the stun from his tiger form of 72 Transformations, as the turning mechanics force him to attack head on. Very often, Wukongs will initiate with the tiger, and then immediately casts Master's Will. Unfortunately, the low duration of low-ranked cleanses will not save anyone from both the tiger and the knockup, but a rank four or five cleanse can prevent both. The instant cast time and basic animation make it incredibly difficult to preemptively cleanse when it's not chained off of his transformation skill. As with all knockups, the cleanse has to be cast before it takes effect, or else even CC immunity provided a millisecond after it's cast will not end the knockup.
Thanatos: This guy has three forms of CC: a slow, a silence, and a stun. Ironically, the stun is the least devastating of his CC's, and it's because it is applied from an ultimate that is generally used to instantly kill someone. His slow, applied from his long-ranged Death Scythe is typically used for initiation or to prevent escape, rather than for his own escape, so it is fairly easy to respond to. In addition, Death Scythe has a slow, obvious wind-up time, making it very easy to preemptively cleanse, nullifying its silence. However, while it's easy to cleanse his abilities, it's best to not be affected by them at all - keep your distance and try to save cleanse for other CC's.


Thor: Landing the cleanse against his Anvil of Dawn is more is more important than on his Tectonic Rift, but when he's just on the ground like regular if you see him backing up while aiming at teammates, throw a cleanse as he is about to attempt to stun you all.

Although he has two stuns and one of them is not an ultimate (short cooldown) he's still only orange because the stun from Tectonic Rift has a short duration. Its most dangerous effect is the shaping of the terrain, and no matter how hard you cleanse, that wall is not going to dissolve.


Tyr: You cannot cleanse his knock-ups or knock-backs once any teammates have been affected, so the only way to prevent them is by preemptively cleansing them. Tyr will try to get in front of your teammates (or you) in order to push you back into his team. Therefore, toss a cleanse on a teammate that is in between him and his team, and he will charge directly through them without affecting them with crowd control.

Sometimes a Tyr will use Lawbringer to get behind you or your teammates in order to easily land a Fearless chain, pushing you or your teammates into the enemy team. Just like regular, this must be done preemptively.

The slow from his Lawbringer cannot be nullified, but only hindered for the duration of cleanse even if cleansed preemptively.


Vamana: His Clear The Path causes a knockup and his Umbrellarang applies a short slow. For a warrior, he really has very little crowd control.

You should be able to tell if his dash is going to collide with a teammate, so it's a very easy spell to cleanse.

Like any Bruiser, (because that's what he really is) Vamana should be building a Frostbound Hammer. It can be important to cleanse your teammates if he uses Colossal Fury within range of them, as he can pack quite a punch of your teammates that can't leap or dash to safety.


Vulcan: Other than the minor slow from his passive and his hard-to-preemptively-cleanse Magma Bomb, he's doesn't pose a high amount of threat CC wise. However! He has the single, highest damaging ultimate in the game - if you see him launch those nukes in the air and your teammates are CC'd, you better cleanse whatever affliction they're under. Unless of course you want them to take two-thousand damage to the face...then just sit back and laugh.


Xbalanque: His Darkest of Nights stuns anyone moving when the last block connects into the circle. Everyone should be aware and stop, but there are times where just that tiny little duration of no movement gets you killed. Cleanse prevents the stun, and therefore if you're being chased it can save your life.


Ymir: If there's a blink Ymir, they will ALWAYS cast Frost Breath IMMEDIATELY after blinking. Make sure you're on your toes. If you troll them at least a few times, the Ymir in that specific game -might- try to troll you by holding out the blink. if Ymir lands right by you with the blink, I would go ahead and cleanse and then either make some distance or juke his freeze by running around right in front of him. If he lands near teammates but not you, hold out to see if he casts it. Remember this is only after you have trolled him a few times. Always cast cleanse immediately after he blinks the first few times.

If Ymir sees three targets close together, he is going to haul *** towards them and try to freeze them. It's very likely he'll be so focused on getting there quickly that he won't notice you cleansing them all before he freezes them. Essentially: the more teammates grouped together, the easier it will be to preemptively cleanse because the Ymir's prize is extremely obvious.

Ymir's typically open up by freezing and then casting their Glacial Strike. Since they're a tank they are not afraid of rushing forward to get that freeze, and the moment before he gets into stunning range is the best time to cleanse.

Ymir's often throw up a Ice Wall behind an enemy to force them in a direction that makes it easy for them to freeze. Be ready to pop a cleanse.

For his Shards of Ice, enemies will try to cc your teammates that are inside of it. Just make sure you prevent that from happening.

Ymir is one of the best peelers in the game, so offensively cleansing him will be discussed in the next chapter.
Tips



Zeus: His Detonate Charge now applies a 1 second stun to all targets affected by 3 stacks of his passive. Zeus typically detonates immediately after he gets his first stack of 3 on your teammate, so cleanse then to prevent the stun. If he can keep auto attacking your teammate, he will likely get 3 stacks on them before he can detonate again, so cleansing would be a waste of time. Now he'll just be focused on keeping the stacks up for when his detonate comes off cooldown.


Zhong Kui: His Expose Evil will slow all targets affected by 20% for up to five seconds (25% for up to seven seconds with GoI build). In addition, his Book of Demons will apply a short-ranged scaling stun between .5 to .9 to enemies unaffected by Expose Evil, and between 1.0 to 1.8 seconds to enemies that are.

Due to BoD being Zhong Kui's only short ranged spell, as well as his lack of escapes, it is very likely that he will attempt to stun you or your teammates when he gets in close - so that is the best time to be prepared to cleanse. He will apply more damage if he does not instantly use Book of Demons after Expose Evil, but it is unlikely he will spend four seconds in close-range just to squeeze out a bit of extra damage.
Please note that this section does not refer to how deadly each god is, but how effective and dangerous their crowd control is.







The above chapter focuses on different CC's enemies will cast on your teammates and when to best expect it. However, it is also possible to offensively cleanse - that is, cleansing a teammate that is chasing an enemy and on the verge of killing them or channeling/casting a spell. The use of cleanse as an offensive weapon is what makes Hel an amazing anti-peeler.

For example, like mentioned in the previous chapter, Thor's Spin-to-Win can be offensively cleansed so that no crowd control can be placed upon him, ensuring that a full duration hits the helpless enemy team. Or when you see a friendly Bakasura chasing an enemy with low health and an enemy Sobek has its eyes on Bakasura, you can cleanse him so that Sobek's Charge Prey won't separate Bakasura from his prey.

There are an infinite number of scenarios that include multiple factors, so offensive cleansing is not something that can be broken down and explained like defensive cleansing. It's just something that you should be aware of if you want to use Hel to her fullest potential.






Healing Reductions can be applied through certain gods' skills, or through the use of items or actives. It's obviously very important to be aware of them as a healer. Here's a list of all the different healing reductions:






Healing Debuff Items





Brawler's Beat Stick




This is the Healing Debuff item that physical gods will pick up if you are giving them trouble. It applies a 40% healing reduction each time they land their basic attacks capping at one stack, meaning being hit again simply refreshes its duration but doesn't increase the magnitude of its effect. Its duration lasts eight seconds, so there's really no point in delaying a heal; even if they don't land a single additional attack, the typical healing spell with a solid build will have completely run its cooldown by the time its effect wears off.

Its third tier variant, Brawler's Cudgel, has been temporarily removed, but is likely to apply its effect in a similar fashion to Divine Ruin.


Divine Ruin




This is the Healing Debuff item that magical gods will pick up if you are giving them trouble. Similar to Brawler's Beat Stick, it applies a 40% healing reduction each time you or your teammates are hit by the enemy god's abilities. Because its duration also lasts eight seconds, use the same advice I gave for Brawler's Beatstick. Fortunately, the effects of Beatstick and Ruin do not stack even when built on different gods.

Its third tier variant, Divine Wrath, has, like Brawler's Cudgel, been temporarily removed. It will be likely to apply its effect similarly to Brawler's Beatstick.


Pestilence




If this item is build on an enemy god, it essentially means you will have a static 20% reduction to your heals (only when they're in range, but when else would you need heals?) There's not much you can do other than cancel it out with Rod of Asclepius, but be aware of it.



Healing Debuff Actives




Creeping Curse




At rank 3, this active can be upgraded into Weakening Curse, which applies a 100% healing reduction for its duration. Cleanse will only prevent the slow if cleanse is cast preemptively; if cleanse is cast after the curse takes effect, then it will only hinder the slow for the duration of cleanse. The healing debuff cannot be removed, even if cast preemptively, so do not cast cleanse in an attempt to setup a heal.

Heavenly Agility is a must when this item is built on an enemy god, and I highly recommend that you request a few of your teammates to build HA as well.




Healing Debuff Abilities




Sickening Strike




This is Sobek's third skill. It applies a 50% healing reduction on all affected targets for four seconds. Many Sobeks will purchase both Divine Ruin and Creeping Curse in order to rotate through pretty insane healing reductions. For instance, a Sobek could Charge Prey> Tail Whip to apply Divine Ruin, and then cast Sickening Strike to apply 90% healing reduction. He can then apply Creeping Curse a few seconds later for an increased duration of healing reduction. That's a long time without a heal.


Belch of the Gods




This is Bacchus's third skill. It applies a 25% healing reduction to all affected targets for two seconds when the belch ends (when the stun occurs). It's not quite as dangerous as Sobek's Sickening Strike as it's an easily preventable CC, but beware that even if you cleanse it, only the stun will be nullified: the healing reduction is not removable. And a Bacchus with Divine Ruin can still be very dangerous because his Belch constantly reapplies Divine Ruin over the course of its duration. This means that simply by building DR, Bacchus can have a three second long 40% healing reduction, followed a three second long 65% healing reduction and then a five second long 40% healing reduction.

Remember that the healing reduction doesn't occur during the belch - it's an effect that is applied at the end of its duration, so healing during the belch will still give the full effect (provided he does not have Divine Ruin built.


Moonflower Dance




This is Change's third spell. Not only does it heal all of her allies, but it applies a four second 50% healing debuff to all enemies for four seconds: exactly the same as Sickening Strike. Due to her ability to spam her spells, she could easily stack this spell with a Divine Ruin and really mess up your day. Fortunately, the spell effect has rainbow colors and it is cast with her in the center, so it should be very obvious and she has to risk getting in closely if she uses it offensively.


Know that healing reduction is additive, and that its cap is 100%. This makes things really simple; let's say your teammate afflicted is by Tornadoes from an Ao Kuang who has Divine Ruin built and he's also under the effects of Bacchus's Belch of the Gods. This means that he will have a combined healing reductions of 65% because of the 40% healing reduction from Divine Ruin added to the 25% healing reduction from Belch of the Gods. In addition, negative healing (taking damage from receiving a heal) can never happen.


Make sure you know that Aegis Amulet not only prevents all damage, but also prevents heals! If you see an ally pop Aegis DO NOT HEAL THEM until the effect wears off, as it will unfortunately do nothing.






When being chased, if you are near an active buff camp, use your Restoration on one of the stationary guardians. This way, you won't lose any movement time by turning around to hit an enemy with it. Plus, you are guaranteed to hit the spell and therefore the heal.

Cleansing yourself before charging into close range will allow you to get your Repulse and Decay off and hopefully waste some enemy CC. I do not recommend initiating like that unless you have Purification Beads off cooldown, though.

Purification Beads reduce all cooldowns by five seconds when at max rank. With Shoes of Focus and Breastplate of Valor built, your cooldowns are low enough to cast Repulse>Decay>Repulse>Decay back to back, with the added bonus of being uninterruptable for two seconds. Major downside: No panic CC breaker.

Aegis Amulet negates all heals while it's active. If a teammate has popped Aegis, no matter how much pressure they're under and how low their health is, DO NOT HEAL THEM until the instant it fades.

The enemy team's tickets will decrease by one point for each enemy minion that your team last hits. Because Repulse will one shot all regular minions by rank 3, you can ensure the enemy team's tickets drop every time. Beware of casting it too early though: if all of the enemy team's minions are dead, there's nothing to prevent them from getting the last hit as well.

It -can- be a good idea to let someone sit in a crowd control a bit in the hopes that the enemy team will blow the rest of their CC on him, and then you nullify the rest, leaving the enemy team with a faulty initiation and no peels.

You can discourage enemy offensive simply by being in Light Stance, and inversely, you can bait an enemy offensive by being in Dark Stance while being ready to switch over at a moment's notice.

If the game will end before you have enough time to finish off another item, go ahead and spend the 400g on a Potion of Magical Might. Likewise, if you (unlikely but a fun, rare occurrence) have a completed build and the gold to spare, don't forget about the Elixir of Power.







Here is my first (hopefully) helpful video, giving some tips on cleansing Ymir's breath and stuff:

Here is a short display of "maneuvering around" that I attempted to explain earlier:

And here is a short, fun video of killing an afk'er in his base using the beads tactic. :D

Chasing into the enemy base:

Cleansing Sobek's charge:



As I said, videos that actually help will hopefully be produced in the future. Until then, deal with these ****ty ones.

















Cup Runneth Over (old build, fine but not suggested):








Patchnotes

Changes to Hel as written in patch notes since August 7th, 2013.[/size]


Summer 2013


Fall 2013



Changes

Any updates with no mention in the changelog are spelling or grammatical fixes.


Summer 2013


Fall 2013


Winter 2014


Planned future updates:
  • reworking the defensive cleansing section into a tiered format (and content update).
  • counterplay section against a few of the nastier gods.
  • rework of the playstyle section.





HiRezKala is the artist behind the beautiful banners that I've used to separate the chapters.

Leblinski has notified me of outdated information and helped me test various healing reduction queries.

Lightsage has helped improve the build.

Raventhor is just awesome, or something. (There's totally not a gun being held to my head...no need to call the cops. Seriously) help.

Romanians has notified me of outdated information regarding Vulcan. Like, way outdated, so props to him.

Sanguis has given me a beautiful template that integrates MOBAfire's skillsequence coding into Smitefire, which he put to great use in his top-notch Ymir Guide. He's also helped me with the anchoring tool, and without his help I probably never would have transitioned the guide into a custom table of contents.

Steele has given some extra Fenrir input.

Subzero008 has, as always, provided a very and in-depth helpful review. If you make a guide of your own, make sure to send him a PM requesting a review - not that you'll really need to, he'll probably find it and review it anyways.

Swampmist1142 founded a section focusing on stats to gear towards, which I think is a great chapter to precede which items and actives to purchase.

Guide format inspired by users such as Scorcherland, Dark Jaw, and Piederman. I'd also like to thank the vast amount of members of MOBAfire for their many guides to BBCoding and the like - this guide would be nothing like it is without them.


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1
TormentedTurnip (96) | May 5, 2014 2:01pm
It was pretty much just transformed into Void Stone, so just switch it out for that.
1
cronomiko | May 5, 2014 9:56am
Hi, i really like your guide but i have a question. Now that focused void stone which item should i replace it ?
1
TormentedTurnip (96) | April 7, 2014 6:30pm
Word, you can't go wrong with those items in any game mode, although there might be slight variances to their priorities. I think I have posted some examples in these comments somewhere, so go ahead and check through them - if you still have any questions, feel free to ask some specifics and I'd be glad to help.


Also, I don't think I'll have time to provide any updates to this guide for at least another month. :/
1
JakuuSNSD | April 7, 2014 6:00pm
Hey I love your guide! I was wondering if this build would also work for other game modes, and if not, how to build her for things like joust and conquest.
1
TormentedTurnip (96) | April 1, 2014 7:44pm
Just an update I don't have time to work into the guide right now: the Bastet patch changes the game-start purchase order once again... Now you can't go rank 2 boots, r1 HA and r1 beads anymore (by 100g, yay).
1
TormentedTurnip (96) | March 31, 2014 6:04am
Sorry for the late response, there's a problem with the comments updating properly. All right, I'll make my next goal to update and improve this guide. I've got a lot of work to do with the Defensive Cleansing section, but I'll send you a PM when I'm done. ;)
1
Tea100 (6) | March 20, 2014 12:21am
I found a link to it somewhere ^^ And I'd rather update this one. It is good, only a few things are outdated. Plus, it is not supposed to be a simple show of build, it is rather an explanation of how this god works. I read it all and actually I did not have a need to skip anything.
1
Subzero008 (112) | March 19, 2014 2:36pm
so i herd u archived this guide
1
TormentedTurnip (96) | March 19, 2014 11:00am
Thanks! I'm curious if you'd like/think it'd be helpful if I published a secondary, more concise guide to Hel in the future. I actually have this guide archived currently while I work on a reconstruction of several major sections, so I'm a little confused how you were able to comment on it, o.O but I'm glad it's still helpful in its disorganized and somewhat outdated state. :)

Anyhow, I'm thinking about making a synoptic guide for Hel, since I've been told there's too much to take in for some people so they end up skipping it altogether rather than reading a few chapters. It's also be easier to maintain xD
1
Tea100 (6) | March 19, 2014 7:11am
One of the best guides out there. Actually encouraged me to play Hel and now I main her with decent results :P Cheers mate!

P.S. I also think that they should remove the cooldowns after switching stances. Ullr now has no cooldown...
1
TormentedTurnip (96) | March 12, 2014 2:49pm
Heads up: there's currently a site bug that renders images un-linkable, so the guide is somewhat broken until it's fixed. This will be archived until the images appear.
1
TormentedTurnip (96) | February 19, 2014 5:51pm
I haven't played Conquest since before they changed the prices of each tier of shoes, so I don't know what starting items you should choose in Conquest, to be honest. If you're going to get Vampiric Shroud, though, make sure you get it first - it's a starting item after all, so don't get it midgame.

The problem with getting the penetration boots is that you won't have any CDR until you build BoV. In Conquest, I'm sure the pen boots would be fine as early game you'll be casting as few spells as possible, and it'll help with waveclear. But definitely do not get shoes of the magi in Arena. Maximum CDR is easy to obtain and very important in Arena, so I would recommend capping it.
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League of Legends Build Guide Author TormentedTurnip
How to Handle Hel in the Arena (Archived - Updated to Nu Wa Patch)
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