Loki - Nemesis

Let me first start off by saying, Loki is not squishy. If you believe this to be the case, then perhaps you should find another guide, because this one will not suit you. All of my builds are designed around being hit as little as possible. If you often find yourself on the receiving end of a beat down while playing Loki, then you are doing it very wrong.

Moving on...


Loki is an AD beast, and general all around badass. If you find you are like me, and prefer the most fast paced, high risk high reward style of gameplay, then you are in the right place. Loki is designed purely around surprise attacks, and dealing massive burst damage while avoiding as much damage as possible.

The arena, a place where I feel Loki is most at home. With high situational awareness, and a good knowledge of what each god is capable of, you will find yourself enjoying this fast paced game mode in no time.


As Loki, you have two jobs in the arena...

1. Take out enemy gods who pose the highest threat to your team. You can accomplish this in many different ways. Whether it be by killing them out right with a well timed string of attacks, or by weakening them so much that they become an easy target for the rest of your team, forcing them to play more cautiously or return to base to heal up.

2. Picking off stragglers, or chasing down wounded targets that would likely escape back to base. Some may call you out for stealing kills, but in arena the only thing that matters is the score, regardless of who kills them.


As long as you are doing your job in the arena, the enemy team will have a very difficult time trying to recover from deaths to coordinate any form of offense.

Conquest, a place where I feel Loki can take advantage of a very interesting play style. Here, I prefer to play Loki as a lane jumper. Keeping the enemy team on the defensive as much as possible by constantly rushing out for ganks, and distracting creep waves to allow my team to push towers with ease.


As Loki, you should be focusing on a few things...

1. Being aggressive. Loki is not a "Sit back and wait" god. He has two of the most powerful initiation/escape abilities in the game. If played well, you should have no problem dealing with any enemy god.

2. Calling ganks. Your team cannot know your intentions unless you tell them. If you coordinate well with your team, no enemy will stand a chance.

3. Be a distraction. Loki is the trickster god after all. And having the enemy constantly worrying about where you are, or what you are doing fighting a creep wave behind their tower radius is a good thing. It will give your team time to back, push up or even kill a confused or unsuspecting enemy.

First things first. All of my builds contain a Heartseeker, dying on Loki is not something you should be doing often as he has too many abilities that easily prevent it. If you are not comfortable with using a Heartseeker, you can simply swap it for Devo Gloves. But I would recommend learning to stay alive, as using Heartseeker really makes a huge difference in these builds, the movement speed alone makes the item worth it.


As for Fatalis, this item seems to get a lot of hate. Not really sure why, but that isn't important. For those of you who are anti-fatalis, and are asking why would I use it. The answer is simple, I am an aggressive player. I like to be at the enemies throats as much as possible, and Fatalis aids in that. Shorter CDs means that I get to use the skill that guarantees a kill much more often, and with the CD on my ulti being lowered, it nearly lines itself up perfectly with Heavenly Agility/Creeping Curse, both of which prevent enemies escaping. Also, movement speed is amazing. But if that isn't enough for you, swap it out for something else.

This is my primary arena build. The general idea is to be constantly picking off unsuspecting enemies. You can do this by flanking them around the outskirts of the arena, or by using pillars to break direct line of sight on you. They will be much less likely to pay attention to you if they cannot see you in the open.

This build is purely designed for my aggressive playstyle. It is a very high risk, high reward build. It may not work for some, as it provides nothing in the way of defense.

You will have two options to engage enemies with...

1. Vanish(1): The best method. You can open with a bleed, combined with your Aimed Strike(3) you can deal a huge amount of damage in a small amount of time. Vanish also functions as an amazing gap closer for those pesky players who like to hide behind the safety of their team.

2. Assassinate(4): My least preferred method. Initiating with your ulti can be great, if there are no other enemies present or if the target is in a crowd with low health and is a guaranteed kill. But ONLY if your Vanish(1) is not on cooldown, as you will need a quick way to get to safety without being noticed. The best use of your Assassinate(4), is to pick off an enemy that is getting away, or to escape to safety yourself.

The number one thing to always remember though, is to NEVER use your Vanish(1) and your Assassinate(4) at the same time to get a kill. It will likely lead to your death, with you having no way to escape if being attacked. The only exception, is if you are certain that there is no threat in doing so.

This build is very similar to my aggressor build. The main difference being that instead of trying to get as many kills as possible, you use your high mobility to harass the enemy players constantly. This build has slightly less sustained damage potential, and more burst capability.

The way you would want to play this build, is to jump an enemy and deal as much damage with your Assassinate(4) and your Aimed Strike(3) as possible, before you use Vanish(1) to escape to safety. The only time you would want to stay and fight is if the enemy was very close to death, at which point you would finish them off before using your Vanish(1).

An ideal situation would involve you using your Decoy(2) on the enemy before using your Assassinate(4) to teleport to them, stunning them inside your Decoy(2) for the extra damage. Then popping your Aimed Strike(3) to deal instant up front damage. You may get another hit or two in before they can react. Then you decide if you should Vanish(1), or stay to finish them off.

Once again, this build is very lacking in defensive capability, so it would be unwise to attempt going toe to toe with most gods.

~~~ IMPORTANT!! This build is most effective with the "Turn Minions" ability. ~~~

This build is designed around causing as much chaos in a match as possible. The primary item in this build will be the "Turn Minions" ability. You will want to purchase it early on after finishing boots, and proceed to sneak up between enemy towers, turning their minions to fight for you. This will put a lot of pressure on enemy towers, and allow your team to push lanes easily with no enemy creep wave to worry about. You can also turn enemy fire minions on their own phoenix, giving your team time to recover from losing your own phoenix.


This build works well in either the duo lane, or mid lane. Generally, you will want to lane long enough for you to get your boots maxed, and pick up the Turn Minions ability. At which point you need to decide which lane can be pushed easiest, or which lane needs the most help. Then sneak between their towers, and turn their minions to fight for you. The enemies will have a hard time trying to keep your team back while having to run back to defend their tower.

This is best done after you have reached level 5, as the distraction will create a great ganking opportunity for you and your team, and can lead to early game tower losses. To maximize effect, wait for the enemy lane to push yours back near your tower. This way the turned minions will have plenty of time to beat on the enemy tower, and your team will have plenty of open lane distance to setup a gank before the enemies can reach the safety of their tower.