Nemesis Season 3

Hello and welcome to my first God Guide! Before a delve in here are a few tidbits of information about myself: I have been a casual SMITE player since the game's launch and my most preferred roles are Hunter, Assassin, and Mage, though I can also play Guardian and Warrior pretty well too. My general play-style is a balance of aggression and defense, with the latter tactic mainly falling into retreat since I primarily play squishier roles.

I am open to and welcome CONSTRUCTIVE criticism (telling me that my guide is terrible or that I suck doesn't help me in any way).


Notice:
I am going to add more in-depth ally pairings in the future as well as counters for Nemesis.

Nemesis is a powerful Assassin that relies on her abilities to secure her kills. She has incredible mobility because of Swift Vengeance and locks in her killing potential with the slow and damage from Slice and Dice. One of the most unique traits about Nemesis is her ability to generate a shield that reflects damage back to the attacker with Retribution. This makes it much easier for her to tower dive and provides her with a little bulk when things go awry.

Her ultimate, Divine Judgement, is the pinnacle of her kit, providing her with a bonus 25% movement, stealing up to 50% of the target's protections, and a low cooldown timer. Almost every time she uses this ability, it is best to immediately follow up with Slice and Dice for a bonus slowing effect and intense damage burst.

• High Mobility
• High Kill Security
• Shielding
• Decent Amount Of CC
• High Burst Damage
• Good Early Game Camp Clear with Bluestone Pendant and Bumba's Mask
• Easy To Hit Foes with CC Abilities

• Squishy
• No Leap Move For Escapes
• High Cooldown on Swift Vengeance
• Easily Countered By Foes With Crippling Abilities
• High Mana Consumption

Scales of Fate
This is Nemesis's passive ability that, with the introduction of season 3, has become one of the best Assassin passive abilities in the game. Each basic attack reduces the target's power by 4% and increases Nemesis's power by 4% stacking up to 4 times and lasting 5 seconds. This makes it so she can rely on attack speed items without feeling the damage loss that would plague most other Assassin's. this ability fo course can also be used with the more damaging items to raise her offensive stats to absurd levels.

Swift Vengeance
The primary use of this ability is mobility as its damage is relatively low. Because of this, it should be the last ability maxed out. Despite the low damage, it can be great for securing kills on fleeing enemies with low hp. Also some players may advise using this ability to get around the map, I'd advise against it until late game as this ability has high mana consumption early game.

Slice and Dice
This ability is the keystone of Nemesis's kill potential as it has incredibly high damage(40/65/90/115/140 + 25%) in a wide cone as well as slowing (30/35/40/45/50%) all enemies caught in thinner middle cone. When stacked with Divine Judgement Nemesis's enemies will likely cry themselves to death if her sword doesn't bring it first. Use this ability when entering most all conflicts with single enemy gods. This is the ability you should max out first.

Retribution
As stated earlier in this guide, this ability is very good for tower diving. It provides a decent shield and reflects 30/35/40/45/50% of the damage back and a max level, heals Nemesis for 60/70/80/90/100% of the damage received. The usefulness of this ability skyrockets as the match continues and should be the second ability you bring to maximum level.

Divine Judgement
This is Nemesis's beautiful ultimate ability that makes Nemesis who she is. This ability deals damage equal to 30/35/40/45/50% of the enemies' CURRENT hp, NOT THEIR MAXIMUM. It also drains the target of 30/35/40/45/50% of their protections and gives them to Nemesis as well as slowing the target by 25% and increasing Nemesis's movement by 25%. The debuff lasts for 5s while the buffs on Nemesis last for 8s and, with the introduction of season 3, only has a 70s cooldown timer! Unfortunately, making this an area of effect would be far too over powered so her ultimate can only effect one enemy God.

Warrior Tabi
This set of boots is better fit for this build as it provides +40 physical power and the +15% attack speed from [[Ninja Tabi] is redundant as the slowest attack speed Nemesis will have is 1.9 hits per second (WHICH IS PRETTY FAST OK) with this build. The +40 damage is also a necessity for Nemesis's early game.

The Executioner
The Executioner has always been a staple item for Nemesis because of the 25% attack speed and INSANE physical protection debuff. With each basic attack hit, the target's physical protection is reduced by 8%, maxing at 32% at 4 stacks. This means even tanky targets can have difficulty dealing with Nemesis in a sustained fight.

Runeforged Hammer
This is item that I would never even considered putting on Nemesis pre-season 3. With season 3 this item was given a new passive: Abilities deal an additional 15% of your physical power as additional physical damage and 30% of your physical power against targets that are crippled, rooted, or, you may have guessed it, SLOWED. While it may only give a 15% damage boost to Divine Judgement, the bonus 30% will apply to Slice and Dice and Swift Vengeance so it amps the killing potential astronomically. For me, this item has become an absolute must.

After buying the first 3 items, you are left with a question: "Do I want to rely on crits to burst my squishy foes to pieces or do I want to rely on sustained combat tactics and shred my foes defenses?"

Personally, I prefer the latter as it works better for team fights and remember, SMITE is a team based game. This build focuses largely on sustained hits over crit bursts so even though the item damage is relatively low for a level 20 Assassin(190) the holes it pokes in the enemy defenses are generally enough to compensate and help secure kills for your allies as well as yourself.

Preferred Build
Bloodforge
The reason I chose Bloodforge over Soul Eater is the sheer damage it has in comparison. While Soul Eater may provide a higher attack speed, movement speed, and lifesteal, the no-stacks-required base damage from Bloodforge is imperative for this build and after 3 basic attacks, Nemesis's item power rating will be 205 with a lifesteal rating of 24%.

Stone Cutting Sword
This item works very well on Nemesis because of the bonus movement speed(which even further increases her chase potential from Swift Vengeance) as well as the physical protection buff and debuff from the passive. With each hit, the enemy's physical protection is reduced by 10 and your physical protection is increased by 10. Although this bonus may seem minimal, and it kinda is, it can help a lot when dealing with tanky Warriors. It also provides 50 physical power, which is very high for physical damage gods.

Ichaival
Oh Ichaival, how I love you so. Ichaival increases attack speed by 30% and gives you +10 physical penetration in addition you increases your physical power and decreases your enemy's physical power by 10 with each basic attack, maxing out at 3 stacks. THIS IS SUPER USEFUL, but not so useful that it should take priority over the other items in this build. That being said, there are times when this should be built before Stone Cutting Sword simply because of the attack speed bonus that helps shred defenses faster.

How these items( and over build) tie in with the abilities:
After taking into account Nemesis's passive, Scales of Fate, upon the 4th basic attack hit against an enemy god, they have had their physical/magical power reduced by 16% + 30 and their physical protections reduced by 32% + 30 while you have gained 16% + 45 physical power, had your physical protections increased by 30, and your lifesteal rating increased by 12%.

Other Options
Shifter's Shield
There are times when your defense buffs arent enough. Either the enemy just has too much penetration or you are having difficulty taking them on in team fights. This is when Shifter's Shield comes in. While the base protections are low, upon dropping to 50% hp your protections increase by an additional 20. Should this circumstance occur, I'd recommend forgoing Bloodforge and Stone Cutting Sword in favor of this item and Jotunn's Wrath to compensate for the loss of penetration with Soul Eater compensating for the lifesteal and attack speed loss. This should give you just the right amount of bulk to find the right position to fall into retreat as well as give you a nice enough boost to your mana for one last dash out of there.

Jotunn's Wrath
This item was a staple on nemesis for along time. Before season 3, her ult cooldown of 90s just couldn't cut it so the cooldown reduction of 25% from this item was a necessity. It also provides 10 penetration to help break the enemy defenses and 150 mana for one more ability use. This item should only be used in this build if you are choosing to skip out on Ichaival.

Rage
A common item among crit bursting builds, Rage builds crit chance like no item in the game, literally. In addition to providing you with +20% crit chance, each basic attack hit that doesnt crit gives you a stack( max of 6) that increases your crit chance by 10% (that's a total of 80% at max stacks from only this item). If you choose to add Rage to your build, make sure to build it with Deathbringer, and Soul Eater or Malice to maximize it's usefulness.

Deathbringer
Increases crit chance by 20%, physical power by 50, and critical damage by 40%. It's obvious why you should choose this if using Rage.

Wind Demon
This is a very interesting item. Not only does it provide +20% crit chance and 40 physical power, it makes it so critical hits reduce the targets healing by 40% for 3s. When combo'd with Rage and Deathbringer, it makes your crit chance a minimum of 60% and messes up enemy lifesteal and regeneration. If you choose to skip out on any lifesteal in this build, pick this in it's place. After all, "triple crit" has made something of itself in the new meta. Just note that if you choose this over Soul Eater, your attack speed will only be 1.6 so The Executioner wont be as effective against tanky targets.

Soul Eater
I would recommend this item only if you choose to not use Bloodforge and Ichaival as its main purpose in this build is to compensate for attack speed and lifesteal loss incurred by the use of Shifter's Shield. Jotunn's Wrath, Rage, Deathbringer, and wind demon.

ALL GODS WITH SLOWING, CRIPPLING, OR ROOTING ABILITIES

Examples:
Amaterasu
Artemis
Ymir
Poseidon
Hades
Ares
Neith
Cupid
Odin