Ah Puch's passive,
Hollow Ground, is his main source of sustain for mana and health. After deploying corpses with either
Undead Surge or
Fleeting Breath you can walk over them to restore 5% of your maximum health and 3% of your maximum mana. Not only is this passive useful for self-sustain, absorbing one of these corpses also reduces the cooldown of
Undead Surge and
Fleeting Breath by 2 seconds each, so be sure to gobble up any spare corpses for extra cooldown reduction.
Hollow Ground Video
There are two main uses for this ability:
Self Sustain
Thanks to the percentage health and mana regen from this passive, whenever you use
Undead Surge or
Fleeting Breath and DO NOT intend to combo
Corpse Explosion you should walk over the corpses to keep your health and mana topped up in lane, or even in the middle of battle.
You can always spam
Undead Surge and
Fleeting Breath out of combat or into walls to abuse the passive and fill your health up rapidly, but bear in mind early game or without
Book of Thoth, the 3% mana might
not repay the mana used to cast
Undead Surge and
Fleeting Breath, so you might be losing mana for health.
Ah Puch's 1st ability,
Undead Surge, throws two zombies in a wide line attack which explode at max range
or when you re-activate the ability, doing damage and slowing enemies. The damage with this ability by itself isn't great, but it is his main combo initiator thanks to the slow and large area. It also drops two corpses upon detonation, which can be used in conjunction with
Hollow Ground for sustain or
Corpse Explosion for massive damage.
Undead Surge Video
There are four main uses for this ability:
Damage Combo
While the damage on this ability alone isn't
dreadful, its damage potential skyrockets when used in conjunction with
Corpse Explosion. Casting this ability for some initial damage and then immediately detonating the corpses with
Corpse Explosion is one the quickest and simplest damaging combos on
Ah Puch, and you will use this damage for both clear and poke.
Remember, the actual zombies that move in the line do NOT need to hit the enemy to apply the damage, rather the circular radius must hit them at the moment of detonation. You can apply this damage in two ways: allow the zombies to reach maximum range/hit a wall naturally, or manually re-activate the ability when the target is within the circle. Then, cast
Corpse Explosion on the dropped corpses for a surge of damage.
Crowd Control and Lockdown
While the vast majority of the time this ability is used for damage, it also carries a hefty slow of up to 40% at max rank.
Offensively, this can be especially potent during teamfights or during a friendly gank - fire the ability at an out-of-position enemy or a target for focus fire and you'll allow your allies to follow up far more easily and make the enemy have a difficult time escaping. In situations like these, it is better NOT to use
Corpse Explosion, as you can simply eat the corpses from
Undead Surge and use the ability again much earlier thanks to the 2 second cooldown reduction from
Hollow Ground.
Defensively, the slow from
Undead Surge could be vital to allowing you to escape from a pursuer because of your lack of mobility. In this situation, a neat little trick is to cast
Undead Surge forwards while running away and immediately activating it. Assuming your attacking is right behind you, the explosion circle will apply the slow to them, and you will also immediately run over the corpses, reducing the cooldown of
Undead Surge so you can use it earlier and re-apply the slow to help you escape.
Zoning
A quite niche, but nonetheless useful application for
Undead Surge is zoning. See an enemy jungler approaching your lane? Drop this ability at the entrance to the lane to ward them off with the threat of a
Corpse Explosion, allowing you to farm in peace. See an enemy looking to engage onto you? Cast
Undead Surge and re-activate it immediately at your feet, and again they will know not to approach for fear of a
Corpse Explosion.
Sustain
The final use of
Undead Surge abuses the fact it drops two corpses and its interaction with
Hollow Ground. If you are low on health or mana (as long as you have over ~1000 maximum mana), then just repeatedly cast
Undead Surge into wall or at your feet and walk over the corpses to regain you health and mana rapidly.
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Ability 2: Corpse Explosion |
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Ah Puch's 2nd ability,
Corpse Explosion, produces a small circle of damage, but that also causes any corpses dropped by
Undead Surge or
Fleeting Breath to explode for extra damage. This is Ah Puch's main source of damage, especially when used in a combo after
Undead Surge or
Fleeting Breath. Following
Corpse Explosion after
Undead Surge is also your main wave clear tool, so level
Corpse Explosion first.
Corpse Explosion Video
This ability only has one main use:
Damage Combo
Corpse Explosion does very little damage on its own, but activated on corpses and it hits very hard indeed. For quick, wave-clearing damage, you should first activate
Undead Surge, and while it is travelling immediately cast
Corpse Explosion where the corpses will land. This is because
Corpse Explosion has a short build-up, so it should detonate at the perfect time to explode the corpses from
Undead Surge, dealing massive damage to the entire wave.
For the maximum damage combo, you should first throw out both
Undead Surge followed by
Fleeting Breath in quick succession so that all the corpses ideally hit the target and also are grouped up. Then, you should fire
Corpse Explosion so it detonates all of the corpses, dealing huge damage from the TRIPLE corpse explosion. However, while the damage is great so too is the mana cost and kit investment, so only do this if you need heavy poke or to go for the kill.
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Ability 3: Fleeting Breath |
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Ah Puch's 3rd ability,
Fleeting Breath, is a small circle attack that inflicts enemies with a damage over time effect. If the enemy is healed while afflicted by the DoT, they will receive additional damage and be stunned at the end of the duration. Most of the time, you should throw this onto the back archers of a minion wave during early clearing, and tag enemies with it for extra damage, especially if they have a heal in their kit. Also, the ability drops a corpse for you to sustain off of
Hollow Ground or detonate for more damage with
Corpse Explosion.
Fleeting Breath Video
This ability has two main uses:
Anti-Heal
Due to the extra damage and stun which occurs if the enemy heals while under the effect of
Fleeting Breath, it is a potent way to restrict or counter enemy healing. During a teamfight, you can deliberately target this ability at an enemy healer to heavily reduce their impact during the brawl for 4 seconds - they either must refrain from healing themselves for the entire duration, or be punished with the extra damage and stun which your team can follow up on.
Damage Combo
Served much the same purpose as
Undead Surge,
Fleeting Breath can also be used to amplify the damage an enemy receives upon casting
Corpse Explosion. Not only is the DoT damage itself quite strong, it also drops a corpse which therefore increases the damage from
Corpse Explosion as well.
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Ultimate: Empty the Crypts |
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Ah Puch's ultimate,
Empty the Crypts, is one of the most effective area damage and zoning abilities in the game, with a 'radius' of 50 metres! After activating the ability, the entire area is filled with moving Wraith projectiles which damage an enemy each time they collide with one and applying an antiheal effect. This is most effective in large teamfights where the area can affect multiple enemies, but it has other uses as well.
Empty the Crypts Video
This ability has main uses:
Teamfight Damage
Thanks to its huge area and constant damage,
Empty the Crypts is a highly affective way for
Ah Puch to inflict mass damage on multiple enemies during a teamfight. Towards the start of a teamfight, you want to put this down just after either team has engaged to ensure amidst the chaos they don't have time to flee from the damage. This will give your team a huge advantage, as hopefully there entire team will be chipped down by
Empty the Crypts and allowing your allies to clean up the kills without too much difficulty.
Moreover, because of the healing reduction of
Empty the Crypts, this is also a potent way to make sure the enemies aren't able to heal the damage they take during the teamfight, making it doubly deadly.
Zoning
Even outside of teamfights,
Empty the Crypts is also incredibly versatile through its zoning capabilities. Enemies will be dissuaded from entering the swarming field of Wraiths because of the damage, and so placing this to gaurd an objective or prevent their retreat will allow you to control the map before a fight has even taken place, whether that be taking a Fire Giant in peace or forcing them to retreat.
Peel
In addition to its offensive utility, in cases where you are or your ally is under attack
Empty the Crypts can be crucial for peel.
Activating your ultimate upon enemy initiation achieves one of two things. Firstly, the damage from it may be enough to allow you or your ally to kill the attacker before they kill you, or two they may be forced to retreat because of the threat of the damage from
Empty the Crypts. Either way, the ultimate has been successful in peeling for your team and making sure no aggressor is able to kill you.
Mage's Blessing
Warlock's Staff
Shoes of Focus
Spear of the Magus
Gem of Isolation
Book of the Dead
Shaman's Ring
Spear of Desolation
Divine Ruin
Soul Reaver
Rod of Tahuti
Chronos' Pendant
Ethereal Staff
Pythagorem's Piece
Obsidian Shard
Magi's Cloak
Spirit Robe
Mantle of Discord
Y
Path of Flames
Void stone + celestial helm together in mid lane?
Start:
Build:
More variation/examples of builds: https://smiteprobuilds.com/Builds?p_filters_page=1&p_filters_search=&p_filters_god=2056&p_filters_pro=~&p_filters_opponent=~&p_filters_role=~&p_filters_league=SPL&p_filters_sort=~
Bean, I can't recommend your guide as it currently stands because of the builds you suggest. If you remove the unnecessary items like
I still do think Warlock’s Staff can be good in brawly game modes such as Clash, but I should definitely make the distinction between Conquest and non-Conquest builds.
I kinda wanted to throw out some sort of hybrid builds with things like
Thanks again!