Loki: The Perfect Arena Assassin *PROOF INSIDE*

THIS IS NOT A CONQUEST GUIDE. THIS IS AN ARENA GUIDE.

Loki, the Master Trickster is one insane AD Assassin. His skill set allows for quick kills on just about any other god, even those on the tankier side of things. In the Arena game mode Loki skill set can be utilized to essentially remove any enemy god from combat at any given time with a quick assassination. Loki's presence alone in the Arena forces the enemy team to stick together and be weary when jungling at all times due to the knowledge that they can be taken out as soon as they stray from their allies.

This guide will aim to teach you how to play Loki to be the best Arena Assassin you can be, and to have your enemies on their toes at all times when you are in their game.

Pros

Absolutely ridiculously strong burst damage
Can deny any one god their entire game essentially
Has a stealth
Late game damage is OP
Decent mobility

Squishy
Squishy
Squishy

Loki has a very simple and straightforward skillset when comparing him to other gods. All of his abilities compliment one another and can be used in quick conjunction to remove an enemy from the battlefield.

MOUSE OVER THE ICONS TO READ THE ABILITIES


Behind You!
Loki's passive ' Behind You!' pretty much defines him as a god. It is where you will aim to spend all of your time while assassinating an enemy god. When you are hitting an enemy in the back you are doing 20% extra damage from your basic attacks! That is absolutely HUGE. So make sure as often as possible you are striking your enemies in the back, this can really frustrate ranged gods - giving them a hard time to hit you, and we like that.


Vanish
Vanish is your 3 second stealth. You must learn to use this skill at the proper and opportune moments. Mainly we will use the speed and invisibility it grants us to run up behind an enemy and unleash our damage, however it also provides us an opportunity for escape in some dangerous situations. It's best to use this bleed along with Aimed Strike right before stabbing an unsuspecting enemy in the back and locking down that kill. Vanish can also be used to chase enemies that are low on health that would otherwise escape the fray of a team fight. Don't let them escape, Vanish and make sure your team doesn't lose its kill.

Decoy
Decoy
Decoy isn't an especially awesome or defining ability, but it serves a couple solid purposes in the arena. Most of the time you will use it to stop a creep wave from reaching your portal or kicking the **** out of you after you damage a nearby enemy god, but it also serves an often overlooked purpose. You can actually place it directly in front of a retreating enemy to block their movement - albeit for a very short time, but often long enough to get in a potential killing blow on them. Another purpose Decoy serves at the moment but probably not for much longer is that it confuses enemy gods who are unfamiliar with Loki's abilities. Often times, gods will run to avoid it helping you escape or separate a turtling team.

Aimed Strike
Aimed Strike
This skill will provide us with most of our damage on an opponent aside from using Loki's ultimate. When behind an enemy in stealth activate Aimed Strike to hit them in the back for an unfair amount of damage. This skill also slows the enemy by 25% which allows us to follow retreating gods while constantly striking them in the back. There are some situations where you may find it appropriate to use this skill while out of stealth just to apply the slow in an effort to escape an enemy in pursuit.


Assassinate
What Assassinate does is all in it's name. Use it to teleport to just about any enemy guide and land a kill. The damage output when you Assassinate > Vanish > Aimed Strike > Basic Attack an enemy is almost always a guaranteed kill. Only the tankiest will survive, and even then, only if they are lucky. Assassinate can even be used as an escape, but I wouldn't recommend putting it on a cooldown to do so in less the situation is super important (i.e. the enemy team needs 5 points and you are about to die).

The build is meant to get in, get a VERY FAST kill, and get out. I think the items that I chose to use fit the play-style of Loki perfectly.


Warrior Tabi

The Warrior Tabi is super standard on all AD. It gives us the movement speed we need to catch up to enemy gods as well as a handful of other useful stats. It doesn't take much to see why we would chose to build this item.


Deathbringer

Deathbringer will give us great early game damage output. It will help us rack up some quick kills and snowball into the rest of the build. What it does for our critical strike damage will land us MASSIVE crits late game, and the 50 physical power doesn't hurt either. Another item that is just an obvious fit for Loki.


Titan's Bane

Titan's Bane is an often overlooked MONSTER of an item. Seriously - try it out. It's very cheap and quick to get. It allows us to eat through 45% of Physical Protection. That alone can provide more effective damage against tankier gods, and help to obliterate gods with little armor. The 30 physical power it puts on top of that makes it a great item.


The Executioner
The Executioner gives us attack speed, physical power and then an important effect. It reduces the physical protection of enemy gods by up to 60! That isn't hard to reach as you only need to land 3 basic attacks - which are guaranteed out of stealth. It is such a strong item on Loki and should not be passed over.


Qin's Blades
Qin's Blades provide us with another important effect - further tank shredding ability. It gives us more attack speed, a little more damage, and a 30% chance on hit to do 10% of the target's maximum HP. Another item that helps us to swiftly tear through the defenses of enemy gods.


Voidblade
Finally, we have the Voidblade. It gives us a little more survivability, and further reduces the physical protection of enemy gods with an aura your whole team can benefit from. It even gives us some more damage. A solid final pick.

Loki's main purpose is to shut down enemies that are giving your team issues. Mainly so, the carries of the opposing team. Loki gets in, kills his target faster than they can blink, and gets out. This is what he was made to do. He can be utilized to essentially ruin the game for a single enemy god with repeated and unrelenting ganks, or he can pick off just about everyone - one by one. His mobility can be used to secure kills that your team may have otherwise lost.

Loki when used correctly can also be one of the most intimidating gods in the game. The mentality you can stick to your foes by punishing them so hard for their mistakes can really make them flustered and playing poorly. Your field presence can force them to be playing out of their comfort zone. A good Loki can have the squishy gods on an enemy team playing passively the entire match, and the brawlers and tanks weary of moving too far ahead. The psychological aspects that Loki inflicts do a lot that may often go unrealized.

When it comes down to it, Loki is an assassin that takes out carries with massive burst damage, forces the enemy team to play very conservatively, plays mind games, and just generally disrupts the other team's game play. Use his tricks to your advantage and make the other team play poorly. That is what Loki does best.