S10 Chliodhna Carry Build and Gameplay Strategies Joust/Assault/etc

I am a mostly casual smite player since ~2017. I play on and off but I never had a God that I felt truly matched my play style. Luckily, Cliodhna was released.

At first I thought she was complicated mostly because of her unique passive, her low CD 2 charge ult, and how her abilities interact with her passive. After a couple games of playing her I realized how truly unique she is and how she can really put pressure on the enemy, even when you are across the map.

When done right, you will notice your enemies avoid walls and walk all the way back to second tower before backing. Because they usually cannot be sure which wall you are in, this happens even when you are across the map. You essentially terrorize your enemies, and force them to always have their guard up. Many times you can deal incredible damage without even leaving the wall, and thus not putting yourself in any danger. An added bonus is scaring the daylights out of enemies with that first kill confirm of the match from inside a wall.

I currently have ~3,500 worshipers on Clio and she is my most played God. I am by no way an expert smite player, and I would say I am still learning new techniques to employ with her, as well as cool interactions. That being said, I have in this guide gone through and thoroughly explained her abilities, what items I build, when, and why, and some strategies you can use on enemies. Feedback and advice is appreciated as I am not the authority on Cliodhna.

Thank you and happy hunting!

Passive:
Clio's passive allows you to travel though walls. This can be used as an escape. If your 3 is on cool down, you can pop into a wall, wait for it to be off cool down, and dash very far away.
When in the wall, you can also see enemy's in a short radius. This can be useful to scout enemy positions and determine if you want to ambush someone.
One extremely powerful use of the wall that may not be apparent at first is avoiding abilities. You can escape an Odin ult if it is against a wall. When Surtr ults, you can bait him onto you, and at the last second escape into the wall to avoid all damage. etc etc.
When in walls you have a limited amount of time before you start losing significant health. This is why I always build ability life steal. You can pop into a wall at low health, and use her 1 or ult to regain almost all of her health.
Additionally, when exiting a wall, Clio gains ability life steal. Consider using this to heal off of minions or a jungle camp, especially early game. Always be aware of the passive and other escapes cooldown when deciding how aggressive to be.
Lastly, Clios passive cannot be used past a certain health threshold or when cc'd by certain types such as a stun, knock up, root, etc. This is the one huge counter to her. I have been in a favorable situation about to go into a wall when I am cc'd and shredded down to low health. Then as I am about to escape into a wall my health goes just below the threshold and I am stuck. There have been many moments of rage because of this haha.

Banshee's Wail (1):
Clio's 1 is an aoe cone attack, that fires over 3 ticks. The 3rd tick does the most damage and silences. It is essential to get off the 3rd tick for damage in most situations. This ability can be used preemptively to silence many abilities. For example, when Nike goes to attack with her staff, you can silence her before she can use her 3rd hit. When Chiron goes to escape, you can scare him with the initial ticks prompting him to dash, silence him with the final tick mid dash, disabling it and putting it on cool down. etc etc. This can put many gods abilities on cool down and negates effects.
Clio's 1 also makes her immune to knock ups. This means you can attack a god like Vulcan, and use her 1 to avoid his 3 meatball knock up and silence him. This also works if you wish to avoid a Surtr ult knock up and silence him immediately after. etc etc.
Clio's 1 operates a little differently when used inside walls. The cone is widened, but the damage and ticks remain the same. You can use her 1 on a wall, immediately coming out after. This means you will be right on the god when they are silenced, allowing you to deal damage and potentially follow them with your 3 when the silence ends and they try to escape. Additionally consider using her 2 to remain semi-invisible, or save it as an escape option. You can also pop into a wall and use her 1 to heal off of whoever was attacking you with ability heal items. You can go into a wall at very low health, pop the 1 and/or ult, and come out with full health.
A final use for her 1 inside of walls is for safely stealing buff camps. The issue with this is you cannot see the health of the camp, so you may end up helping them complete it instead. Try to pay attention to the movement of the enemy as they get close to completing it, or estimate when it will be completed. Or consider using the silence on the enemy and popping out to finish the buff with your other abilities.

Flickering Visions (2):
Clio's 2 is a mid range attack that has a small aoe radius on impact. This ability turns you invisible to any gods hit by the aoe impact. Additionally, you will get a movement speed buff if any gods are marked by this ability, whether they can see you or not. It is very important to note that you are not invisible to anyone while taking damage or attacking.
This ability can be used as an escape. After getting a kill or retreating, use this on as many enemies as possible, or at least the most dangerous. You can use the movement speed to get where they cannot see you before the invisibility runs out. This will also give you time to reset your cool downs or your passive. You will find that while you are invisible enemies might assume you will go towards your tower. Use this as an opportunity to go the opposite direction into the jungle, and immediately back while they try to figure out where you are. This may be less effective the more you do it or if they have wards.
You can also use this ability to close the gap on enemies trying to escape, thanks to the movement speed buff, and the inability for them to see you on the map.
This ability can also be used to engage. Consider making yourself invisible to the enemy support and charge the back line. In cases where the support is not paying attention this can work great. However, in many cases the support will rush to help the back line, making this tricky. Consider timing this as the support goes to attack your own back line. Be creative with who you choose to be invisible to. If an enemy is consistently hitting you with annoying poke and cc, I sometimes try to hit them with this ability as much as possible, so I am invisible to them most of the time.
I anticipate there is more strategies for this ability that I have not yet discovered.

Lurching Claw (3):
This ability is a mid-long distance dash with two instances of damage. The initial dash does some damage, but at the max distance or when clicked again Clio performs a slash that does much more damage. For max damage, dash through an enemy and flick around and cancel to slash them. Then you can follow up with basics attacks and body block(!), as well as other abilities.
This ability is probably the easiest to use as an escape, since it is such long distance. That being said, it is great for quick bust damage and to proc basic attack items like frost bound and hydras lament. This ability does slightly more damage than her 1 and also attacks aoe.
When inside a wall, you can use this ability on the wall to exit. After dashing from a wall you can use a basic attack very quickly after. You can actually use this some distance from the exterior of the wall to make up long distances very quickly. This makes her 3 and passive combination great for long distance escape or hunting.

Tearing the Veil (4):
This ability has two charges, and places a portal of sorts which banshees fly out of, dealing damage consistently. The initial hit does the most damage, dealing less after each hit, but the damage adds up and deals a lot if they are stuck in your line.
It is important to note that these can be destroyed with basic attacks. Gods like Jormungandr can almost instantly destroy one of these with basic attacks. You might find in casuals, or even higher level play, that people will not target the ult. If they do target it, usually the hunter can take it out the quickest. So if the hunter is occupied you should get more life out of it. To avoid this, do not make it easy to hit the ult or let them learn how effective it is to destroy it. You should condition the enemy not to destroy it if possible, but at the end of the day you may just have to deal with it. Remember that as long as you get off the first couple of ticks you are doing significant damage. You can also place it on the other side of a wall or another place where it cannot be targeted.
This ability can also be used inside a wall. If there is no enemy in front of it, it will be placed on the exterior of the wall as a trap. It will then go off when any sort of enemy walks in front of it. You can store up to 3 of these traps on the map at once.
Zoning. The most powerful way I use this ability is as a deterrent. You can place the ability in front of where a God is escaping or engaging, and they have to either take damage, attack the portal, or wait it out. There are many ways to use the ult this way. In team fights, I use this ult to force the back line separate from the front line engaging. This means I can either engage the front line without the support of their back line, or try to hunt down or further pressure the back line. This may not work depending on enemy comp and skill level. Your hoping for a break down in communication. If I am chasing a God, I can form a dead end with this ult and the wall. Often times they will eventually try to go through it, but the time they waste on hesitation can close the gap and free up cooldowns.
Sniping. Often times, especially at the beginning of the game, the enemy will hide behind a wall or in tower while they back. Because this ability has long distance and can be used secretively inside a wall, you can fire it at the enemy while they're backing. When they are at low health, all it may take is the initial tick of damage to kill them. Consider using one charge of this ability on the God, and the second charge where they will be escaping to, usually the direction of their Titan. Follow up with a dash or more abilities if necessary. Remember that the enemy will be on guard after the first time you do this, so it should not be as easy after that. Make the first use count.
I also use this ability to hit CC'd gods. You can preemptively drop this ability on a Maui, Ares, or Daji ult to deal serious damage. Use both charges at once to deal double damage or block off the escape. You can also use this on smaller CC's like Geb's knock up to deal decent damage as well.
Buffs camps. Since this ability has such a low cool down, especially with high CDR, you can use it to confirm or steal buff camps if really necessary. On maps like joust, you can solo the BDK extremely early on by dropping both charges on it. The enemy doesn't realize how easy it is to solo BDK with her so you can really surprise them and make some huge plays. This can also be good for confirming or quickly soloing siege monsters in slash. Lastly, you can put the ult up as a trap directly in from of buff camps you want to protect. For example, place a trap right in front of BDK. When the enemy goes to attack it, I almost guarantee they will either walk into the ult trap or pull BDK into it. At this point you will be able to see the damage go off and rush over to intercept.

I will often use my 2 to get close, basic attack to bait dash, use my 3 to land in front of them, and body block while basic attacking. Make sure to body block! You can mix in the 1 to break up abilities and deal damage. You can use her ult to deal heavy damage by aiming it in the line they are walking, and/or use it to block the path of escape.

You can use her 1 inside of a wall on an enemy(s) and walk out just as the silence hits them. You can follow up with basic attacks, or use your 2 to cause more confusion. In some instances consider saving her 2 or 3 to escape, chase down, or both.

For S10 joust map, when attacking speed buff camp at beginning of game, you can unload all abilities on buff camp, grab the yellow buff, and walk through the wall towards blue buff to make great time. The passive recovers roughly by the time you get to lane, but usually not soon enough to pop through their blue buffs wall to steal. If they are straggling it is always an option to pop through their blue buff wall and steal.

For S10 joust, if you can get to your blue buff by about -20 to -15 secs, you can get to their blue buff by the time it spawns. You can usually solo their blue buff in casuals before they get there, especially now that ward shard isn't standard and it likely isn't warded. Try not to do this to repeat enemies, they will gank you at blue. Also try to get there early enough that if there is a mage you can make the decision to meet your team at blue or let the mage do damage and steal. DO NOT initiate the camp if you are even a couple seconds late, the enemy will usually get to you before you can finish. Worse case scenario you lose out on yellow and blue buff xp, give away first blood, and lose first wave xp. You can take buff camp even faster with claw shard.

For S10 Slash, you can go straight through the wall behind the titan, and then dash as soon as it lets you to get to red buff really quick. Then you can slip into a wall and deal early damage to squishies, leaving them for a disadvantage at red buff fight, or to begin conditioning them to be scared of walls and you :)

For Assault, there is only 3 walls that I am aware of that you can go through. The wall protecting your titan and the enemies, and the one in the middle of the map. I will often rush to the middle map wall even when enemies are there. Once inside, you can watch the back line start to fall back. If not, or sometimes regardless, you can pop off some damage from inside the wall or dash out at them. This is risky as if they can cc you before you get in you could die.