Khepri: Hug-Bugging in Smite 2!

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I already talked a lot about items and you should already have an idea of how to counterbuild based on what i said above... but let's sum it up!


War Banner: this item is one of the 2 best starters in the game for you. In Arena you surely want a tank with this cause movement speed is REALLY valuable so, if you are tanking alone, in 90% of the case you will end up with this! In Conquest you are you free to chose between this and Heroism.
The item provides you with early sustain through his passive (by assisting on minions) and also movements speed and atk speed buff... which is very useful for the laning phase with you ADC!


Heroism: this is the other best starter you can build! If you want to deny a big burst of damage from enemies following up a hard CC, you should go for this! A shield equal to 8% of your health might definitely save a squishy ally!
It will also help with early sustain from minions assists just like War Banner!


Phantom Shell: overall the relic you are going to pick up most of the time: the very classic relic for a support. With this you will be able to shield all the allies around you and boost their survivability. The shield also reduce the damage taken and allow players to move through walls! (not jungle walls! only walls from players!)


Blink Rune: personally i think this is the second best relic you can go for. It allows you to blink during combat... helping you to close the gap between you and your target to Abduct them. You can also consider to use it from bushes if the target isnt close enough but they are passing by.
Dont be too afraid to also use this as emergency disengage from a fight. Khepri isnt great at running!


Purification Beads: this is a niche relic for when you think you are going to get focused hard by displacing ults that can put you in danger (and most likely kill you). Cleansing yourself might end up vital. (you can buy Talisman Of Purification for similar reasons making the relic even more niche if you plan to get it)
Remember: a dead bug cant support!


Sundering Arc: the items deals a lot of damage to camps, helping you to clear them faster and so rotate faster to get more experience. The damage against gods isnt really that good so outside the camp usage the item doesnt really shine.


Gauntlet of Thebes: the item provides you with health and protection. It's fairly easy to stack in arena and overall, especially if you are solo tanking, it should be the best first item you can build!


Stone of Binding: both in conquest and joust (where there are only 3 enemies and the damage taken is less compared to a 5v5 situation), this item should replace Gauntlet of Thebes in most of the cases. The item provides both kind of protections but not health. You will tank a bit less compared to Gauntlet of Thebes but you will shred enemies protections, making them taking more damage!
Even in arena, if you are not solo tanking and you dont need to costantly soak damage, you can get this over Gauntlet of Thebes!


Ruinous Ankh: this is the item you wanna build when you need anti-healing. The item provides both kind of protections so you can definitely just get it as first/second item with ease!


Lifebinder: this is one of the best support item in the game!
...i know what you are thinking: but it's an active and i dont like it!
it's an attive item with a short CD and it's also a skillshot BUT the effect is soooo good! The shield coming after someone hit the marked target is actually solid enough and the CD of the item is really short. It's like having a 5th ability! Try it even if u dont like actives!
I suggest to buy it whenever you dont need to get extra tanky and you can focus at being a support!


Stampede: another absolutely core item for a support to me. It provides physical protection, health and a bit of HP5 which is really good especially in early game.
What it is realllly good is the active effect that makes your entire team spriting! Great to chase, great to retreat! The cooldown is also relatively short!


Talisman Of Purification: one of the absolute best actives in the game. Gives you CDR, magical protections and health. The active effect cleanse your entire team from CC making it a Purification Beads but for everyone! absolutely massive effect that can turn team fights in your favour!


Screeching Gargoyle: another great active item that provides magical protections as well as a solid amount of CDR. The effect silence enemies in front of you and it's farily great to prevent them to escape or use abilities. I think the item shines more in arena rather than conquest but it's solid nonetheless in any mode.
If you feel like there arent many CCs in the enemy comp, you can consider going for this instead of Talisman Of Purification.
If you are playing in Arena and you are going full tank, also you can consider buying this over Lifebinder for some extra protections.


Hussar's Wings: the item is costy but the effect is actually insane on a god with low mobility like Khepri: being immune to slow is absolutely insane! The shines more in arena than conquest but still provides you a lot of tankiness and a great passive. You should definitely consider getting this in any mode toward the end!
I dont suggest really rushing it due to the cost.


Breastplate of Valor: a very solid item when you want to get some physical protection and a high amount of CDR, which is really good on Khepri! The passive also basically increase the overall CDR!


Genji's Guard: a very solid that i think shines more in Conquest rather than Arena due to the fact that in arena there are better options!
The item provides magical protections, CDR and something that you might lack if you plan to stay around for a lot: mana regen!
The passive basically increase the CDR every 45seconds which isnt bad when you want to fight!


Shogun's Ofuda: this item can be swapped with Genji's Guard. This is for when you want to help your ADC with the atk speed passive!
better descriped in the Conquest section!


Void Shield: same as above, can be interchanged with Genji's Guard. The passive help physical carries, reducing the physical protections of enemies around you. It's the physical counterpart of Void Stone
Better explained in the Conquest section!


Void Stone: same as above, can be interchanged with Genji's Guard. The passive help magical carries, reducing the magical protections of enemies around you. It's the magical counterpart of Void Shield.
Better explained in the Conquest section!


Spectral Armor: a solid item when you want to counter AA carries... especially when they are building crit rate. The passive infact reduces the atk speed and the crit chance of enemies around you! You can build this instead of braestplate of valor!


Hide of the Nemean Lion: another item to counter AA carries... unfortunately it's an active item so you cant build it often. The effect causes you to reflect a large amount of pre-mitigation AA damage from enemies carries, forcing them to stop hitting you!
It's honestly a niche item due to the fact it's active... if you reallllly want to counter multiple AA carries, you can consider this over Talisman Of Purification. After all, if the enemies has many AA carries, they might lack AoE hard CC so you might not need Talisman Of Purification.


Prophetic Cloak: the fully stacked item isnt bad at all but it requires A LOT of time to stack it. It also requires a solid amount of protections to get the mitigation effect from the passive so build this only if you think that the game will be very long or at least if you think you can poking efficiently enemies (which requires a LOT of mana you may not have!).
Ideally this item is better in Conquest rather than Arena... for the simple reason that Arena ends a lot faster. If you plan to get this, buy it instead of Gauntlet of Thebes, Stone of Binding and lifebinider and get it FIRST.


Spirit Robe: a niche item that gives you a big chunk of protection after being hard CCd. Mostly for arena when you are solo tanking and enemies might throw a lot of abilities on you after locking you down!


Glorious Pridwen: overall the item isnt bad... gives you protection and farily good amount of CDR as well as a shield. The shield is insanely big so the item is really niche. Not totally useless tho! It pairs nicely with a selfish build with items like Prophetic Cloak, Gauntlet of Thebes, Stone of Binding and Spirit Robe.
(Also it's an active so you would need to build it over the 4 great actives i mentioned above)


Yogi's Necklace: it's a solid first/second item for when you wanna stay around for a LOT. The passive gives you a great health regen and in addition it gives you a massive chunk health as well as a goood amount of both MP5 and HP5.
Consider this especially for Assault (or Conquest if you dont really wanna back and you dont need many prots).


Eye Of The Storm: now onto items that i actually never mentioned above but you could consider building in a mode like Joust where being incredibly tanky might not be needed.
This item has a no CD active effect that slowly pulls enemies toward you. This can be good both against gods with an escape (forcing them to use it) or gods without an escape (so they cant literally get out of it). The effect is toggable and consuder your own health... which is why i dont really suggest it in Conquest or Arena cause in 5v5 scenario it's hard to actually keep the effect up. In a 3v3 scenario like Joust the item might be more effective!


Gem of Isolation: the item applies a good slow on enemies gods and you many abilities to make use of it. It's not absolutely great but it could be decent just like Eye Of The Storm! (so in Joust!)


Triton's Conch: the passive effect gives allies around you a bit of extra power. It's not really MASSIVE but in a mode where you dont necessarely need many protections like Joust, it could be a solid option for some extra damage!


Divine Ruin: it could be considered for Joust when you dont need to be super tanky and you need antihealing.

Passive - Fortitude
Fortitude is an amazing passive ability that will shine mostly in out of combat scenarios.
The passive will in fact stack a shield of 2% health on each pulse every 5 seconds to ALL nearby allies stacking up 5 times (max 10% of maximum health of the ally). The pulsing rate is slowed down to 10 seconds after you take damage and enter combat.
Starting a fight with a whole team affected by 10% of their max health as shield is great! It's going to be obviously unlikely that you will have your whole team under your fully stacked passive effect but it will still be a significant help.

Tip: remember that your passive will still pulse during teeam fights even if every 10 seconds. When you see your passive meter about to be pulsing, try to get close to at least 1 ally to make a use of it!
It will only be a 2% shield of course but if you are close to another frontliner, you will shield him for 2% of his max health.
Said that, dont put yourself in danger or ignore a more squishy ally just to make use of your passive. The rest of your kit, or even just bodyblock enemies (or their AA) to save a squishy ally, will be more useful then your passive!

Note: Every game mode has some pro & cons about your passive.
In Arena you will most likely be close to many of your allies so you will shield many of them! On the other hand you will often be in combat reducing the pulse rate of your passive.
In Conquest you can make a better use of the pulse rate since you wont be in fight as much as in arena BUT you wont be able to shield many allies.
In your duo lane the shield in early game gonna really be cool tho!
In Assault the passive gonna also be great since nobody can go back heal up in the fountain and will act as some sort of sustain. Especially you playing defensively and stay out of combat.
Slash and Joust are basically a mix between everything said above!

Abduct
Abduct: you will dash forward and grab an enemy for a few seconds (based on the level of the ability).
This ability will grant you protections but they are not really worth leveling up the ability. If enemies interrupt this ability you are gonna be in danger cause you dont have anything else to run away. The protection only stay while you are grabbind an enemy, so after you get interrupt, you wont retain them.
For this reason, level up Abduct as last and ALWAYS be careful of when you use this.
This ability also interrupt enemies abilities since you will silence them during the grab. The silence is there from the first level so you dont need to level it up for it!

Tip: trying to engage in a 5v5 scenario will most likely end up with enemies interrupting this and you will take ton of damage from them since you are going to be a punching bag (or bug eheh). This is mainly why Khepri doesnt really shine as a frontliner. Try instead to peel away melee enemies from a squishy target. In a 2v2 scenario this ability is simply great cause they cant interrupt you and if they actually do you wont be dying cause 5 enemies smash you down.

Tip: you can cancel this ability earlier! Sometimes you just want to interrupt an enemy god so you can dash in, grab, cancel the ability and go away!

Tip: it's really nice to use Abduct from bushes while you are stealthed!


Rising Dawn
Rising Dawn in my opinion one of the best abilities in the game. The utility from this ability is unmatchable.
You can debuff enemies, making them lose up to 25% of their physical protections. This is gonna make your physical carries dealing TON of extra damage especially to enemy tanks.
You also gonna buff all allies that get hit by this, granting them up to 30% mitigation... and it's A TON of mitigation!
Since you have multiple effect depending of what you hit (ally or enemy), you can play each fight differently. (look down here for the tip!)
This ability also ends up in a bursting AoE where you can also buff yourself in case you are standing within it!
Rising Dawn is an ability that you MAY want to level up as first depending on the game mode/comp.
In Conquest you surely want to level up this as first cause you want to clear as much as you can.
In Arena you dont really need to clear but this ability can still turn out being great for another frontliner that goes in against 5 enemies. Said that i suggest to level this up as second in Arena (Level up Rising Dawn as first)
In Assault you dont really need to clear but since nobody can go back and heal up, drastically reducing the coming damage might be super helpful. If there are telegraphed BIG AoE ult/abilities, consider leveling Rising Dawn up... otherwise level up Solar Flare
In Slash and Joust really depends about the comp. Do you need to help with clear? If yes, level this up, otherwise level up Solar Flare


Tip: You can go aggressive, use Rising Dawn on an enemy tank and let your hunter melt it... or you can stay passive, play as backliner, and use Rising Dawn in order to protect allies from either the enemy hunter or from big and telegraphed magical AoE abilities.

Tip: remember that Khepri shines the most as BACKLINER and not as frontliner for above reasons!

Solar Flare
Solar Flare You will drop down a sun beam that will root all enemies in the targeter area after a short delay. The delay is fairly easy to understand and you will learn how to successfully land this ability easily.
Overall it's a quite solid ability and the only way for you to actually zone enemies. The area isn't huge but can be big enough to root 2 or 3 enemies... especially if you are fightning in a jungle.
Solar Flare is the ability you wanna level up most of the time when you dont need to clear. (for more detailed information about what to level up, check above in the Rising Dawn paragraph or down below in the gameplay chapter)

Tip: after hitting an enemy with Solar Flare you can follow up with Abduct to extend the CC on a single target. Try to wait till the root from Solar Flare is almost depleted to maximize the duration of the lockdown.

Tip: a very efficient way to use this ability is peeling away melee enemies from your squishy allies. They wont be able to chase them if they are rooted and they can only deal damage in melee!

Tip: you can also bait escapes with this ability. If an enemy gets rooted, most of the time he will use his escape. Consider rooting a target and then grab someone else with Abduct: they wont expect that! (especially cause if you dont do that, they would waste an escape for nothing)

Tip: Enemies with escapes usually tend to be confident about escaping your Abduct after being rooted. Against enemies with escape try not to wait for Solar Flare to actually root them and istantly use Abduct to grab them. Only do this if you are really confident about hitting the grab tho... otherwise just go for targets without escape!


Scarab's Blessing
Scarab's Blessing is your ultimate. After casting it, the ally will get bonus movement speed and, if it dies, he will get revived at your position.
Scarab's Blessing can also be cast through walls but the range is quite short: be careful!
You want to max out Scarab's Blessing this whenever is possible maily due to the increased bonus health upon reviving!
Sometimes using this ult efficiently is tricky (especially when you are not playing with friends but with randoms). Your positioning gonna be a key aspect of your ult.


Tip: sometimes you want to ult someone and then run away, leaving the fight and revive it as far as you can but this can be end up losing the fight. If you are too far from the fight, you will basically provide nothing to anyone and you will put your team in a numberical disadvantage. On the other hand, if you are too close, you might revive your ally too close and he might die again afterward. If you are winning the fight you can simply stay far from everyone otherwise it's better to stay close. Even if the ally you ulted will die again, they will still need to kill him and he might able to use abilities as well before dying a second time.

Tip: remember that the target also get a HUGE boost of speed once ulted. Sometimes you can just use Scarab's Blessing to increase the speed of an ally in order to chase and kill an enemy!

Positioning and Team FightningKhepri shines as a true support. That means that you usually want to stay behind your allies (or on their side) in order to peel warriors/assassins away from them through Abduct or Solar Flare and also help the mitigate the huge upcoming AoE Abilities or AA from hunters thanks to Rising Dawn.
Said that, you have a HUGE model. You can definitely go in and bodyblock auto attacks or even blocking enemies retreat in jungles with your massive and well-rounded body!
In scenarios without many enemies around (so that you wont get squashed right after it), you can also just go in and grab someone with Abduct!
In a team fight you also must consider the position when you use Scarab's Blessing. Try to stay around your team if the fight isnt going in your favour, in that way you can still help them while reviving someone. If they revivde ally dies again, he might still be able to use some abilities after getting revided and enemies still cant ignore him!

TimingThe only delayed ability is Solar Flare but, once you play a bit with this god, you wont have any issue landing it. Timing is still an important factor for this ability. First of all for the classic combo: try to wait till the root is almost depleted before using Abduct to maximize the single target CC chain. And as second, as said above, enemies will try to escape when they see you approaching them after getting rooted by Solar Flare. Try not to wait for Solar Flare to actually root them and istantly use Abduct to get them. Only do this if you are really confident about hitting the grab tho! (only agaisnt enemies with escapes obviously!)

Lane, Wave Clear and Ability Maxing OrderYour clear isnt great but the mitigation from Rising Dawn affect your minions too. Usually you cant hit both whole waves (your one and the enemy one) but you can still hit all enemy minions and your melee ones! Try to do that! (outside of conquest is not really important)
About the level order, go for this:
Conquest: Rising Dawn
Arena: Solar Flare
Joust: Rising Dawn or Solar Flare
(if you need more information, check above in the kit & tips chapter under the Rising Dawn paragraph!)

WardingIn the game modes where you may get ganked (and your allies killed), you should REALLY buy Vision Ward.
Try to place Vision Ward at crossroads close to your lane, where usually enemies must pass in order to reach you! (keep in mind they can still leep behind a wall... you are not 100% safe but vision is super important in game modes like Conquest or Joust.
There are also Sentry Ward that will allow you to destroy enemy Vision Ward in its range. Consider buying it if you know that enemies have a ward in a specific position that you want to remove!

Note: in Arena you can definitely skip Vision Ward usage but i tell you a secret: gods that use stealth usually try to stealth from the buff area to sneak behind your team and kill the backline! Even in Arena, when the enemy team has stealth gods, consider buying Vision Ward (at least in the later stages of the game when assassins can nuke an allied) and use it at the red buff spawn point! Knowing where the stealth god is coming will help you (and your team mates) to stay alive and counter it! In addiont you can also place Vision Ward in the bushes to check if there is someone hiding there!

Gank!Your gank potential is not too bad.
Even if you cant jump from behind a wall and actually pick up an enemy, you can come from behind. If you arent confidend about ganking them from behind, you can still help your ally! (in Conquest you should leave duo lane if the enemy support isnt there and your ADC can efficiently farming minions! Rotate to mid lane and go help and, potentially, gank!)
You still have a huge lockdown with Solar Flare and Abduct so the enemies might no be prepared!

Note: the gank potential increases if you are hiding in a bush! ambushing enemies while stealthed is always quite cool and deadly!

ZoningYour zoning is not great. You dont have big aoe zoning abilities.... BUT Solar Flare may serve this purpose. You can easily zone narrowed areas (like the jungle in Conquest) with it!
Your HUGE model can also act as a wall. Trust me. Khepri is BIG BUG! Bodyblock enemies!