SMITEFire Community Guide to Sobek (Support/Solo)

Blessing of the Nile

• Because of this passive, you’re more durable early-game than most other enemy Supports / Solo-laners, which means you can be aggressive with fewer repercussions.
  
  
• The stacks are built by both ability use and basic attacks. When you're playing as Support, if you're going to dive the enemy, get some basic hits in on the minion wave to build those stacks first.

Charge Prey

• Place a point in this skill at level 2 when playing as a support. Players usually won’t be aware and you can easily throw the enemy ADC in the middle of your minions and ally ADC, dealing a good amount of harass damage or even getting a kill.
  
  
• Avoid targets that cannot be pulled (e.g. Jormungandr) and targets that can easily dash out of the middle of a pluck (e.g. Jing Wei).
  
  
• The dash also stuns, meaning it can interrupt various enemy abilities.
  
  
• Be aware of the status of your teammates at all times. Plucking enemies at the wrong time, and in the wrong direction, can be very dangerous to allies that are looking to retreat or stay back in a fight due to low health.
  
  
• Think about enemy Gods that would be best to pull at a specific time; sometimes it may be throwing a squishy enemy into the midst of your team that they can easily kill, while other times it may be a durable God that you displace so they cannot influence the fight with crowd control abilities. Your best targets are often those with no mobility.
  
  
• The knock-up immunity while dashing works against most knock-ups. However, it doesn’t work against all of them (e.g. Kumbhakarna’s Epic Uppercut which has priority over this and will knock Sobek out of his dash).
  
  
• When peeling for escaping teammates, allow the enemy to pass you before using this ability, to throw them away from your teammate’s retreating path.
  
  
• Can also be used as an escape mechanism if you don’t need to peel for a teammate.
  
  
• Sometimes the threat of being plucked can do wonders for zoning opponents, which can provide you with strong lane pressure.

Tail Whip

• This ability applies a knockback, and can be great to combo after plucking an enemy with Charge Prey.
  
  
• If possible, save this ability when facing enemies with channeled skills, as the knock-up can interrupt them.
  
  
• Since this ability knocks back enemies, don’t use this on the minion wave if your ADC has a line or area wave-clear they plan to use, as it can disposition the wave making it more difficult for them to confirm the hit on all of the minions.

Sickening Strike

• Don’t forget this skill has an anti-healing component! Target enemy healers with this ability whenever possible.
  
  
• This ability is your quickest damaging ability, so if you need to confirm a kill, Sickening Strike will more likely get the job done.
  
  
• This ability will keep you healed, you just have to make sure to always hit at least 3 targets to benefit from the maximum amount of healing. This doesn’t apply in cases where you have to secure a kill on an escaping enemy, that’s always worth it.

Lurking in The Waters

• Keep in mind that you regenerate mana while submerged and you can use this bonus regeneration to your advantage.
  
  
• This skill can exercise some great control as the slow becomes a very potent late-game ability.
  
  
• Like most of Sobek’s abilities, Lurking In The Waters does wonder for zoning. You can close off a choke point, which gives both defensive and offensive advantages for your team.
  
  
• You can still be damaged while submerged, so pay attention to what’s happening around you, damage-wise!
  
  
• Keep in mind that the ability can be canceled early to emerge and damage enemies around you. However, emerging early will reduce the amount of damage. This can be useful when you really need to cast your other abilities or you want to damage enemies that are escaping the ability’s radius.
  
  
• This ult is effective at countering many other enemy ults, as it provides Sobek with CC immunity.

Early Game

Main facts to keep in mind:

• Take advantage of your early durability and health sustain by playing aggressively. Pluck enemies with Charge Prey to put them out of position and into a vulnerable state where their first priority is escaping rather than dealing damage to the minion wave.
  
  
• You can use your early threat for intimidation and push the enemy back toward their tower. This can preemptively force the enemy to use escape abilities, at which point they need to play very defensively until the ability is off cooldown. You may consider zoning them and freezing the wave to prevent the enemy duo from gaining farm.
  
  
• If you're being pushed back toward your tower, this is also not a bad thing. Enemies pushing toward your tower give your jungler an opportunity for an easier gank attempt, and Sobek is a major threat to pluck enemies into his tower if the enemies push too close.

• With a base of protections and some other items, you can play even more aggressively. Remember that your first priority is setting up kills and peeling for your teammates.
  
  
• Your ability to pluck enemies is great when you're rotating to different lanes. If you come in behind enemies, it may scare them into using escape abilities, at which point you can pluck them back toward your teammates for an easier kill.
  
  
• Your ultimate is very functional for zoning. Use this in the middle of a fight to try to force enemies to separate and isolate.

• Remember that you are the front-line for your team. Your job is to keep enemy focus off of teammates, while disrupting them as much as possible with your abilities.
  
  
• At this point, you need to be extremely careful with when you decide to use Charge Prey, as it can have a huge effect on a teamfight. Knowing when enemy escapes and other abilities are down (or still available) is important. Throwing an enemy toward your team, just for that enemy to then use their ultimate and disrupt them, can be a huge detriment.

Early Game

Main facts to keep in mind:

• You have 3 regular damaging abilities, including self-healing, knockup, and throw. Use these to your advantage to disrupt any channeled abilities and prevent the enemy from easily clearing their wave. If they have healing, poke as often with Sickening Strike as possible.
  
  
• If you need to play more safely near your tower, this is okay. Sobek is considered a "staller," and his typical playstyle in Solo is to farm efficiently and wait for items and levels to help you come online. You're not going to out-clear most enemies, so allow them to come closer to your tower, where they're more vulnerable to ganks or being plucked into your tower range.
  
  
• When your ult is online, consider how best to utilize it. Sobek is CC immune while he is channeling his ult, which makes it very effective at countering many other enemy ults, especially those with displacement or other CC effects.

• Unless you're in danger of losing your T2 tower, you should not be hard-pushing your lane to take down towers unless there's nothing else to do. Your best function is in teaming with your allies to secure kills and gain advantages in numbers.
  
  
• If you picked up Teleport Glyph as your first relic, remember you can always teleport back to your tower if your tower is in danger of being destroyed.
  
  
• One thing you can do as you rotate is consistently drop Wards to give your team more vision. With good farm in Solo, you can consider picking up Chalice of the Oracle to always have wards handy.

• If you picked up Teleport Glyph, consider upgrading if you haven't already, as you can use it to teleport to wards. This is incredibly helpful to relocate yourself where you might be needed ASAP.
  
  
• Remember that you are the front-line for your team. Your job is to keep enemy focus off of teammates, while disrupting them as much as possible with your abilities.
  
  
• At this point, you need to be extremely careful with when you decide to use Charge Prey, as it can have a huge effect on a teamfight. Knowing when enemy escapes and other abilities are down (or still available) is important. Throwing an enemy toward your team, just for that enemy to then use their ultimate and disrupt them, can be a huge detriment.

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