Sniper Cupid: Solo MID or Duo Lane

I did not see a guide for cupid on the site. I figured since I like to consider cupid my main god why not see if I can help some aspiring cupid players out. Cupid is a Ranged Physical Damage God and should be played like an AD carry for those familiar with LoL. Cupid has self sustain, one of the best chase/escapes, a great ultimate for team fights and lastly some of the best burst currently in the game.

PROS

Great Early/Mid/Late game damage.
Self Sustain for Health, and Mana if others on your team are around.
One of the best chase abilities that also doubles as a great escape.
Very easy to build with some variations depending on mid/laning/jungle.
Ultimate is great in late game team fights either for initiation or CC.

Squishy,Squishy,Squishy if your Flutter is down and caught out.
Needs to get some decent farm or early kills to get out ahead.
Landing the Ultimate can be tricky at times.
Skillshot dependent if you really his damage potential reached.

Cupid's passive plays an important part in his burst sniping ability. For every 10 normal attacks on a creep or god he will gain a of buff indicated by a floating heart. Your next Heart Bomb or Fields of Love will stuff the target when it completes.

This is single most important skill to Cupid's kit. The delayed explosion allows for a lot of interesting tricks as well as netting you numerous kills when a god otherwise may have escaped any other player.

Here is your sustain skill. Cupid puts down 3 hearts that can be picked up by yourself for health or by your teammates allowing you to recover some mana. This skill also helps Cupid to be an efficient Jungler.

Here is your defensive workhorse as well as chase ability. Flutter is a very fast dash forward that increases your attack speed for a few seconds. I solely use this ability either to chase down a target that I know is going to run, or to get out of bad situations.

Lastly, is Cupid's Ultimate. The field placed down is large. The same size as Ymir,Hades,Agni ultimate for an example. This skill is great for either initiating a team fight or CC'ing in the midst of a team fight. I see a lot of Cupid's often waste or miss due to the delay before your arrows explode. I have some tips for get more consistent hits or better use explained later in the guide.

For items Cupid builds like most of the Physical Assassin or Ranged carries. There is always room for some counter building, but there are a few items a Cupid should always have.

TIP: Regardless of the item build I have planned I always take the 1st rank in at the beginning. I then finish my 2nd item then rake Rank 2 . After that I don't complete my boots till after I have my full it build. The reasoning is that with flutter you have plenty of speed. It's important you ramp Cupid's damage up ASAP. The faster you get into the later items in your build the more kills and quicker farm you have. Cupid is one of the easiest gods to let get out of control early game. You want to be this pint size terror running around sniping everyone :)

MUST HAVES


Obvious Choice for boots for any Ranged AD in the game. Movement Speed,Crit Chance,Attack Speed and Power. Everything a Snipe Cupid needs.

Building on the attack speed kick is the Fatalis. More attack speed means more regular attacks which means more Heart Bomb stuns. The cooldown reduction doesn't hurt either.

OFTEN RECOMMENDED

Devourer's Gloves
One of the two choices often used for Lifesteal to help with sustain. Devourer's Gloves are great if you mid as you will not be fighting for last hits on your creeps allowing you to stack up to the max fast.

I have seen a lot of players take this as their first item for early game sustain. If you are going to go that route only take it if your mid and sell it once you can get a full Devourer's Glove. The glove just scales better for mid and late game.

Attack speed + Power + Armor Pen = Big damage. Really there isn't a reason not to take this at some point in your build.

Soul Eater is the 2nd most common item used for Lifesteal. The added benefit of the team aura just makes it that much better in late game team fights.

Huge boost in Power, Crit change and Crit Damage. Often I see this early taken really early or as a last item. This item is very expensive so I don't recommend you taking this as your 2nd or 3rd item unless your well ahead in your lane or getting a good number of player kills.

COUNTERS


I generally take Quin's Blades if the enemy team has Bruisers (Tank melee's like Odin/Thor/Vamana) or straight up tanks (Ymir, Sobek, Hades) that are building health. Qin's proc will really help chew through those big health pools.

Usually The Executioner is more then enough for Physical Defense reduction. If you see the enemy team building against you with Physical Defense items a late game Titan's will help keep your damage high.

Very rarely used. It's great as a last item against teams with Hel,Guan,Baka,Cupid to reduce that their healing. I personally only take this if the team has two Gods with heals and they are ahead to try and prevent them from snowballing due to better team sustain.

Regardless of role or lane Cupid should play aggressive. Always look for opportunities to get your on an enemy God. Even if you don't get a kill the poke damage can usually force them out of the lane. This gives you opportunities to pick up lane buffs or just farm without harassment.

Some useful tricks with especially when Solo laning is to attack the ranged creeps till you get one low. A lot of players tend to hide just behind their ranged creeps to shield from abilities. With a full stack of popping that ranged creep will usually instantly net you a stun on the enemy player. You can then follow up with your Ultimate or a Flutter past them to snipe if they are low enough. Another trick I found helps with your ultimate. I find leading off with a Love Struck really helps with getting your to land. First off your then immediately hit them with . More often or not the slow from the will keep them in the aoe just long enough for stun. Then right after that stun the field should detonate getting you the mez stun.

If your are Laning with a partner always pick up . The power of taking your lane buffs can not be underestimated. I always look for a buff to take as soon as my is off cool-down. Not only does this make you more formidable in the lane it will also Counter the other teams Jungling by taking away their buffs. This can put champs like Arachne,Bakasua and Kali considerably behind since they tend to not lane well early game whereas Cupid excels at both Jungling and Laning.

Another useful tip with is to use it as a surprise initiation on someone. This works great when mid laning. Simply wait for the opposing God to push past the mid way point of the between yours and his towers. If you have a good number of his creeps down or they are at half health or less all the better. Simply through them as the skill will avoid physical detection. You now have them trapped between you and your creeps. Most players panic as their reflex escape route is now cut off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY-kh8vUT4w

I will post some additional videos of Cupid as I get them.

Cupid is definitely a great God to pick up if you like to play Ranged Carries. His burst damage often catches a lot of players off guard as well as his chasing capability. He also annoy's players as being a very difficult God to catch and kill if played smart. He brings quite a bit to a team providing sustain through healing, great initiation and cc with his Love Struck passive and Ultimate, and great damage at all periods of a match. Thanks again for those that took the time to read my guide any comments or critiques about the guide are always welcome.