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Merlin mid laner build and guide for beginners (S7 Conquest)

19 3 74,469
8.9
by TheL updated March 5, 2020

Smite God: Merlin

Build Guide Discussion 10 More Guides
Choose a Build: Without Antiheal
Without Antiheal Antiheal build (If enemies have heal abilities)
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Merlin Build

Starter Items

Build Item Magic Shoes Magic Shoes
Build Item Lost Artifact Lost Artifact
Build Item Multi Potion Multi Potion
Build Item Purification Beads Purification Beads

1-5 Items (In that order)

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Charon's Coin Charon's Coin
Build Item Soul Reaver Soul Reaver
Build Item Pythagorem's Piece Pythagorem's Piece
Build Item Aegis Amulet Aegis Amulet

6th Item (Choose one)

Build Item Ethereal Staff Ethereal Staff
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation

Sell boots (Choose one)

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

Merlin's Skill Order

Eclipse / Radiate / Frostbolt

1 X Y
Eclipse / Radiate / Frostbolt
2 7 8 10 11

Vortex / Dragonfire / Blizzard

2 A B
Vortex / Dragonfire / Blizzard
1 4 6 12 14

Flicker

3 B A
Flicker
3 15 16 18 19

Elemental Mastery

4 Y X
Elemental Mastery
5 9 13 17 20
Eclipse / Radiate / Frostbolt
2 7 8 10 11

Eclipse / Radiate / Frostbolt

1 X
Eclipse (Arcane): Merlin conjures an orb of condensed celestial energy that grows in size as it travels, dealing damage every 0.4s and marking Enemies hit.
Enemies marked take additional damage if they stay within the outer range of Eclipse.

Ability Type: Circle, Damage
Initial Arcane Damage: 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 (+55% of your Magical Power)
Arcane Damage Per Tick: 5 / 15 / 25 / 35 / 45 (+8% of your Magical Power)
Arcane Range/Radius: 60/15,25)
Arcane Duration: 3s
Arcane Cooldown: 14s

Radiate (Fire): Merlin channels a beam of intense fire for 2s that deals damage every 0.25s. Each time Radiate hits an Enemy, it also applies a Burn, dealing additional damage over time.

Ability Type: Line, Damage
Fire Damage Per Tick: 8 / 14 / 20 / 26 / 32 (+18% of your Magical Power)
Fire Burn Damage: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 (+5% of your Magical Power)
Fire Duration: 2s
Fire Range: 45
Fire Cooldown: 14 / 13.5 / 13 / 12.5 / 12s

Frostbolt (Ice): Merlin hurls a Frostbolt that explodes if it hits an Enemy, dealing an additional 15% damage if they are slowed.

Ability Type: Line, Damage
Ice Damage: 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+55% of your Magical Power)
Ice Range/Radius: 70 / 15
Ice Cooldown: 6s

Cost: 60
Vortex / Dragonfire / Blizzard
1 4 6 12 14

Vortex / Dragonfire / Blizzard

2 A
Vortex (Arcane): Merlin deploys a field of arcane energy at a location. After a delay, the Vortex deals damage and pulls Enemies towards the center.

Ability Type: Circle, Knockup, Damage
Arcane Damage: 50 / 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 (+60% of your Magical Power)
Range/Radius: 60 / 20
Cooldown: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12s

Dragonfire (Fire): Merlin summons forth two ethereal dragons that spout flames towards each other, dealing damage to Enemies every 0.25s. If caught in the center of the area, Enemy gods have their protections reduced. The dragons last for 3s.

Ability Type: Area, Debuff, Damage
Fire Damage Per Tick: 8 / 11 / 14 / 17 / 20 (+20% of your Magical Power)
Fire Protection Reduction: 4%
Fire Max Stacks: 4
Fire Duration: 4s
Range: 50
Cooldown: 16 / 15.5 / 15 / 14.5 / 14s

Blizzard (Ice): Merlin creates a Blizzard at a target location that lasts for 4s. After a brief delay, shards of ice start hurling down every 0.5s. Enemies hit take damage and progressively get more slowed while they stay within the area. Enemies hit take damage and progressively get more slowed while they stay within the area.

Ability Type: Circle, Slow, Damage
Ice Damage Per Tick: 10 / 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 (+15% of your Magical Power)
Ice Slow Per Stack: 8%
Ice Max Stacks: 5
Ice Duration: 2s
Range/Radius: 65 / 20
Cooldown (Vortex / Blizzard): 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12s

Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Flicker
3 15 16 18 19

Flicker

3 B
Merlin quickly teleports a short distance in front of him.

Ability Type: Teleport
Range: 30
Cost: 70
Cooldown: 24 / 23 / 22 / 21 / 20s
Elemental Mastery
5 9 13 17 20

Elemental Mastery

4 Y
Merlin taps into his inner potential, exploding with energy in the stance he is currently attuned to. During this time Merlin can choose which stance to enter into next.

After the explosion reaches its apex, it collapses in on itself. Enemies are dealt damage from the both the explosion and the implosion and suffer different effects depending on which stance's energy they are being hit by.

Ability Type: Circle, Crowd Control, Damage
Damage: 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 210 (+15% of your Magical Power)
Arcane: Knockup
Fire Damage Per Tick: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 (+5% of your Magical Power)
Ice Slow: 20%
Slow Duration: 2s
Radius: 25
Cost: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80
Cooldown: 30 / 27.5 / 25 / 22.5 / 20s

Merlin Threats

Tap each threat level to view Merlin’s threats

Max
4
Major
2
Even
0
Minor
0
Tiny
0

Introduction

Introduction

Hey, I am L and this is my beginners guide for Merlin. So, I am doing this guide with my friend, who was 1st Merlin in the world in S6 ranked conquest. I hope you will enjoy reading my guide and learn something new.


So, this guide will help you understand how to build, position and play as a Merlin.

Items

Build Order

So firstly I'd like to talk about items.

Starter Items

You will start with Magic Shoes, Lost Artifact and 1 Multi Potion, because it will save you gold from buying Mage's Blessing.


Item #1

After you get 800 gold you should back and get full Shoes of Focus and potions or wards.


Item #2

After finishing Shoes of Focus, you should buy Chronos' Pendant in order to to have MP5 and lower cooldowns.


Items 3-5

After finishing core items, check if enemy team has any healing abilities. Then choose the 3-5 items accordingly.


Item #6

For 6th item you can choose between Gem of Isolation (It will make you easier to chase kills) or Ethereal Staff (It will make you tankier and will help you to counter tankier opponents).


After selling Shoes

After selling Shoes of Focus you can choose between Magi's Cloak (If enemies have hard crowd control) or Rod of Tahuti(It will make you STRONGER).

Abilities

Skills

So, now I'll talk about the skills.

Passive - Overload

Every time Merlin casts a spell he gains a stack of Overload. When Merlin next fires a basic attack it will be augmented with lightning, dealing extra damage to the first Enemy.

Arcane Stance

1st ability - Eclipse

Merlin conjures an orb of condensed celestial energy that grows in size as it travels, dealing damage every 0.4s and marking Enemies hit.
Enemies marked take additional damage if they stay within the outer range of Eclipse.

Ability Type: Line
Initial Damage: 40/60/80/100/120 (+55% of your magical power)
Damage per tick: 5/15/25/35/45 (+8% of your magical power)
Duration: 3s
Range: 60
Cooldown: 14 seconds
Cost: 60 mana

2nd ability - Vortex

Merlin deploys a field of arcane energy at a location. After a delay, the Vortex deals damage and pulls Enemies towards the center.

Ability Type: AoE
Damage: 50/80/110/140/170 (+60% of your magical power)
Range: 60
Radius: 20
Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana



Arcane stance is best late game stance for long range fights.



To achieve the most effectivity with this stance, you should use Eclipse to do damage and right after use Vortex to lock them in Eclipse.


Fire Stance

1st ability - Radiate

Merlin channels a beam of intense fire for 2s that deals damage every 0.5s. Each time Radiate hits an Enemy, it also applies a Burn, dealing additional damage over time.

Ability Type: Line
Damage per tick: 10/20/30/40/50 (+30% of your magical power)
Burn Damage: 5/10/15/20/25 (+5% of your magical power)
Range: 45
Radius: 5
Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds
Cost: 60 mana

2nd ability - Dragonfire

Merlin summons forth two ethereal dragons that spout flames towards each other, dealing damage to Enemies every 0.25s.
If caught in the center of the area, enemy god's protections are reduced. The dragons last for 3s.

Ability Type: AoE
Damage per tick: 8/11/14/17/20 (+25% of your magical power)
Protection Reduction: .5/1/1.5/2/2.5% (max 8 stacks 4/8/12/16/20%)
Protection Reduction Duration: 4s
Dragon Duration: 3s
Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana



Fire stance does the most damage of all other stances, but it has smallest range.



In order to achieve the most damage in fire stance you should use Dragonfire
on enemy and after that use Radiate to chase down enemies.


Frost Stance

1st ability - Frostbolt

Merlin hurls a Frostbolt that explodes if it hits an Enemy, dealing an additional 15% damage if they are slowed.

Ability Type: Line
Damage: 60/95/130/165/200 (+70% of your magical power)
Bonus Slow Damage: 15%
Range: 70
Cooldown: 6 seconds
Cost: 60 mana

2nd ability - Blizzard

Merlin creates a Blizzard at a target location. After a brief delay, shards of ice start hurling down every 0.7s.
Enemies hit take damage and progressively get more Slowed while they stay within the area.

Ability Type: AoE
Damage per tick: 10/25/40/55/70 (+20% of your magical power)
Slow per stack: 8%
Slow Duration: 2s
Max Stacks: 5
Ability Duration: 4s
Range: 65
Radius: 20
Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana



Frost stance is the best for wave clearing and quick enemy poking.



In order to achieve most damage with your Frost stance, you should use Blizzard and Frostbolt to trap enemies in ice rain. Also you can poke enemies with Frostbolt.


3rd ability - Flicker

Merlin quickly teleports a short distance in front of him.

Ability Type: Teleport
Range: 30
Cooldown: 24/23/22/21/20 seconds
Cost: 70 mana


4th ability - Elemental Mastery

Merlin taps into his inner potential, exploding with energy in the stance he is currently attuned to. During this time Merlin can choose which stance to enter into next.
After the explosion reaches its apex, it collapses in on itself. Enemies are dealt damage from both the explosion and the implosion and suffer different effects depending on which stance's energy they are being hit by.

Ability Type: Buff and AoE
Damage: 100/140/180/220/260 (+20% of your magical power)x2
Arcane: Knockup
Fire Damage per Tick: 5/10/15/20/25 (+5% of your magical power)
Burn Duration: Every .5s for 2s
Ice Slow: 20%
Slow duration: 1.5s
Radius: 25
Cooldown: 32/29/26/23/20 seconds
Cost: 40/50/60/70/80 mana

Early Game Tactics

Early Game Tactics

So now I'll explain, what you have to do in early game.

In your fountain change stance to frost and upgrade 2nd ability. In the map you can see your movements in first minutes of the game. You start at speed (it is shown on the minimap as number 1). At 0:19 after minions have spawned use Blizzard through the wall and go to middle lane (number 2). Then you stance switch to fire stance and use Dragonfire on wave. After clearing wave and reaching level 2 head to your damage camp (number 3). Try to burn damage camp with Radiate and Dragonfire. Then change your stance to frost and clear waves. At 700 gold back to base and get Shoes of Focus.

Late Game Tactics

Late Game Tactics

In late game you should stay in the backline. I like to start teamfight in Arcane stance and then transform to fire (to defend myself in close range) or frost (if I want to chase enemies and make them slower). Note that Merlin can burn down objectives very quickly (just use all abilities in the stance you are currently at and transform to fire stance).

Summary

Summary

This is the end for my guide. If you have any questions or suggestions let me know in the comments. Thank you for reading. Have fun playing Merlin in your games.

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Collapse All Comments

2
Gulfwulf (81) | February 17, 2020 10:43am
Thel,

Instead of copy-pasting all of the ability information, you list combinations and when to use what ability in what stance. I can look at the abilities via hyperlinks or on Merlin's main page, but that doesn't tell me what are good combinations.
1
TheL | February 17, 2020 1:32pm
Thank you for your suggestion. I updated my guide to inform people about late game strats and Merlin stances.
1
Gulfwulf (81) | February 17, 2020 2:17pm
Thanks. The guide is visually appealing, but there wasn't much content in it.
1
Kriega1 (143) | February 17, 2020 1:01pm
Yeah this isn't really much of a guide. Ability description but not any mention of when to use certain abilities/stances except for level 1 / early game.
0
Revenant7755 (1) | February 17, 2020 9:12am
Build should have Spear of the magus as core, and Charons Coin and Pythagorem's Piece should be situational. Also you didn't specify if this is a Conquest but you did reference it a little so I will assume this guide is for it.
1
Kriega1 (143) | February 17, 2020 12:57pm
Spear of the Magus isn't core. Spear of the Magus since the Season 7 changes is pretty trash on anyone that isn't called Anubis.

Also it's terrible on Arcane stance for Merlin, and outclassed by deso unless you get like 5+ ticks in fire stance or something and even then deso has cdr.

>"Charons Coin should be situational" - nope. It has 20% pen and should be built most games.
2
Kuzenbo | February 17, 2020 9:42am
Spear of the magus got a huge nerf. Even if it gives 10 flat penentration still isnt a reason to build that item. Also the only good and valuable flat pen item is divine ruin because spear of deso is too expensive and very bad in late game. So i wanted to say that merlin doesnt need flat pen at all because he deals enough damage on squishies without flat pen. Charons coin and pythags are op in this meta. If you dont know how and when to use them that doesnt mean they are situational. Try this build by yourself and thank TheL for teaching you something good and useful.
1
Kriega1 (143) | February 17, 2020 1:00pm
Kuzenbo wrote:
because spear of deso is too expensive and very bad in late game.


Deso bad lategame? What?
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League of Legends Build Guide Author TheL
Merlin mid laner build and guide for beginners (S7 Conquest)
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Items
Abilities
Early Game Tactics
Late Game Tactics
Summary

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