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Shoes of Focus
Gauntlet of Thebes
Genji's Guard
Breastplate of Valor
Void Stone
Ethereal Staff
Shoes of Focus
Jade Emperor's Crown
Breastplate of Valor
Hide of the Urchin
Void Stone
Breastplate of Regrowth
Shoes of Focus to start with this build but i chose the 
Reinforced Shoes to compensate a bit for the lower health.
Oni Hunter's Garb instead of 
Pythagorem's Piece at the last spot but if you plan on doing that go with Shoes of Focus
you can still go Shoes of Focus to start with this build but i chose the Reinforced Shoes to compensate a bit for the lower health.
If feel like you will be focused a lot you could also go Oni Hunter's Garb instead of Pythagorem's Piece at the last spot but if you plan on doing that go with Shoes of Focus
Reinforced Shoes
Stone of Binding
Breastplate of Valor
Void Stone
Spirit Robe
Pythagorem's Piece
Shoes of Focus
Pythagorem's Piece
Pestilence
Breastplate of Valor
Void Stone
Soul Reaver
Shoes of Focus
Spear of Desolation
Breastplate of Valor
Gauntlet of Thebes
Void Stone
Ethereal Staff
Rod of Asclepius Rod of Asclepius
shield of regrowth
are options here if not used in the 2nd item slot
Shoes of Focus
Shoes of the Magi
Reinforced Shoes
Gauntlet of Thebes and Hide of the Urchin can be placed here for sustain, but not as aggressive a start due to sacrifice of power. Both items are flexible and I have placed them anywhere between slot 2-5 in my builds. Ethereal Staff and Spear of Desolation can be options at the end of your build if you don't use them here.
Gauntlet of Thebes and Hide of the Urchin can be placed here for sustain, but not as aggressive a start due to sacrifice of power. Both items are flexible and I have placed them anywhere between slot 2-5 in my builds.
Ethereal Staff and Spear of Desolation can be options at the end of your build if you don't use them here.
Stone of Binding
Ethereal Staff
Jade Emperor's Crown
Spear of Desolation
Gauntlet of Thebes
Hide of the Urchin
Pestilence or 
Contagion 3rd if you need one of them). pick any of the other items as the other mid-build item. Void Stone and Genji's Guard are pretty flexible and i regularly find myself building them anywhere between slot 3-5.
BoV core as 3rd or 4th item(take Pestilence or Contagion 3rd if you need one of them). pick any of the other items as the other mid-build item. Void Stone and Genji's Guard are pretty flexible and i regularly find myself building them anywhere between slot 3-5.
Breastplate of Valor
Pestilence
Contagion
Void Stone
Sovereignty
Heartward Amulet
Genji's Guard
I have this category in here because these items can work well mid build or late build depending on what you are trying to do.
Spirit Robe
Shogun's Kusari
Bulwark of Hope
Talisman of Energy
Midgardian Mail
Spectral Armor
Oni Hunter's Garb
Mantle of Discord
Magi's Cloak
Celestial Legion Helm
Breastplate of Regrowth
Ethereal Staff is an options here if not used in the 2nd slot. If you choose Charon's place it in the 5th spot or possibly in the 4th slot as well if it feels like you can get away with it in a match.
Ethereal Staff is an options here if not used in the 2nd slot. If you choose Charon's place it in the 5th spot or possibly in the 4th slot as well if it feels like you can get away with it in a match.
Pythagorem's Piece
Rod of Tahuti
Charon's Coin
Soul Reaver
Divine Ruin
Staff of Myrddin
Y
B
A
X
Hi there, and thank you for taking the time to go through this guide. I will be explaining my personal arena build for Sobek and the reasoning behind it. I will also be offering build choices for each phase of your build. I will not being going in depth on those choices but feel free to leave a post in the discussion if you have any questions about those choices.
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This section is just to briefly discuss my skill order leveling sequence. After getting my main three abilities leveled I like to level up Tail Whip first because of the disruption it provides. Despite the heal from Sickening Strike I like to level Tail Whip first because it is also easier to hit enemies with. You really don't have to aim it. Tail Whip jut automatically hits any enemy around you in it's radius of effect.
Sickening Strike with it's extra utility is leveled up next. Since it can damage multiple enemies, give you a heal from up to 3 enemies hit and also applies a healing reduction to enemies hit I give it priority over Charge Prey.
Charge Prey is finished next and I follow a standard balance leveling sequence for Lurking In The Waters because with the combination of scaling with it's damage and the scaling of the slow applied at each level I feel it is worth it to do so.
My builds provide sufficient protections for the purpose they each serve in arena, 30-40% CDR, decent health and the ability to contribute to team fights and hold your own in solo fights throughout a match.
I have builds listed with Breastplate of Valor core and builds listed with 
Pridwen core. Either style can work fine, personally though, I feel like i have more flexibility when i run Pridwen.
Charge Prey
Tail Whip
This is a useful combo because you can isolate a member of the enemy team and then disrupt their movement immediately after to give your team time to lockdown/kill them. This can become a 3 move combo if you can hit the enemy with sickening strike after, but this is a difficult move because you don't know which way the enemy will be going as you turn around to aim the cone of affect. It can also become a 3 hit combo if you hit Lurking In The Waters it can become a 4 move combo if you manage to land Charge Prey Tail Whip Sickening Strike and then Lurking In The Waters
Combo 1
Tail Whip
Charge Prey
Combo 2
Charge Prey
Tail Whip
sometimes Tail Whip will miss if enemy has high movement
Combo 3
Charge Prey
Lurking In The Waters
Combo 4
Charge Prey
Tail Whip
Sickening Strike
another more difficult combo like combo 2, because you may miss with Tail Whip and the enemy may go the opposite way from where you turn around to hit them with Sickening Strike
Combo 5
Tail Whip
Sickening Strike
Charge Prey
Combo 6
Sickening Strike
Tail Whip
Charge Prey
Combo 7
Sickening Strike
Tail Whip
Charge Prey
Lurking In The Waters
Thank you for taking the time to go through my guide for Sobek. I really enjoy playing him and hope that all of you will give him a try or a second run if you've tried him already.
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Gluf covered the majority of them:
1)
2)
3)
4) My personal preference here: For your vs Magical build, you reach max cooldown a little too late into the game. By that point, you can just by a
5) Not sure about
6) Just my personal preference, but a lot of people don't like to read long and lengthy guides. Get to the point without the fluff.
For example: "This is a useful combo because you can isolate a member of the enemy team and then disrupt their movement immediately after to give your team time to lockdown/kill them. This can become a 3 move combo if you can hit the enemy with sickening strike after, but this is a difficult move because you don't know which way the enemy will be going as you turn around to aim the cone of affect. It can also become a 3 hit combo if you hit Lurking In The Waters it can become a 4 move combo if you manage to land Charge Prey Tail Whip Sickening Strike and then Lurking In The Waters"
Just say this instead:
2 hit combo:
3 hit combo:
4 hit combo:
Speaking of combos, I recommend you try this one out:
There's an option to add lines and rulers onto your screen. Add them. Put all of your skills onto instant cast. Try
If you want an aggressive damage sobek build, try this:
Sell shoes for whatever you want late game. You can also replace
Gluf covered the majority of them:
1)
2)
3)
4) My personal preference here: For your vs Magical build, you reach max cooldown a little too late into the game. By that point, you can just by a
5) Not sure about
6) Just my personal preference, but a lot of people don't like to read long and lengthy guides. Get to the point without the fluff.
For example: "This is a useful combo because you can isolate a member of the enemy team and then disrupt their movement immediately after to give your team time to lockdown/kill them. This can become a 3 move combo if you can hit the enemy with sickening strike after, but this is a difficult move because you don't know which way the enemy will be going as you turn around to aim the cone of affect. It can also become a 3 hit combo if you hit Lurking In The Waters it can become a 4 move combo if you manage to land Charge Prey Tail Whip Sickening Strike and then Lurking In The Waters"
Just say this instead:
2 hit combo:
3 hit combo:
4 hit combo:
Speaking of combos, I recommend you try this one out:
There's an option to add lines and rulers onto your screen. Add them. Put all of your skills onto instant cast. Try
If you want an aggressive damage sobek build, try this:
Sell shoes for whatever you want late game. You can also replace
Thanks for the feedback. A couple of things that i'll just kind of address on the general scope of my builds. When i am looking at aggression, I understand that most of the community on this board is going to probably interpret this to mean a good deal of pen. For me, pen is included in that but i very highly value anything that will add extra punch and while also increasing health. So, while you will see my builds have some pen, a lot of times health+power will be my early focus right after boots and before prid. While ethereal early goes against the grain, I have had a lot of success with it in that spot, so based on my own experience i will leave that as an option early, but i did already have a note that it can be used late game as well on the early item options listed. On the physical build i will place JEC in ethereal's spot so newer players have a more traditional defensive item that still does what i want to do there and also optimizes the passive for JEC.
In arena I feel like usually BoV builds are lackluster and i don't have as much survivability for ulting. This isn't to say that i don't use them and i haven't had some that are effective i just have more success using my prid builds.
With prid, even when getting it earlier than what is usually common, i have found my ability to survive after ults is a lot better. I can usually almost always get away in bad situations after ulting with prid where i usually am lucky to have a 50/50 chance of getting away after ulting in bad situations without it.
With void, a lot of times I am sacrificing some defense for more offense, so usually if i get void early I am basically using that as my magic resistance and then supplementing that with what prid gives and then going for more health/sustain, team utility and continuing to add a bit more pop to the build at the same time. I know that adding SoB early combined with Void late can do that but the health element that i prioritize is then severely limited if i do that and go prid, so i would rather personally have the health, the shield from prid to go with those late game preferences. I do go JEC pretty often early as well against balanced comps with void right after and that typically goes well for me with ethereal and pythag's late. As far as the GoT, i had already covered that with Gulf, but i had forgotten to make the change with it as of late because I got wrapped up in editing my other guides. I have already listed it in the early offense/sustain/aggression item listing for the guide but had not updated the actual early aggression build to rework with either GoT early or removed from the build entirely.
As for the vs magical build, i did have
I just redid the combo's section and i did not see the lines option you mentioned but i will look for it again later this week. I have used
I will give that build and those alternate choices a try when i get the chance. It looks similar to things i have done with BoV before, just as i mentioned before i stopped doing a lot of those builds because i just have more success with the prid builds in arena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVSBW8DYeJM
Start at 3:13
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVSBW8DYeJM
Start at 3:13
Thanks for that link..was trying it out, but my pc started having brain farts and i got some wierd lag.
I know this is Arena, but I still prefer to build items on guardians that will directly or indirectly help my team and Deso isn't really one of them. Reaver isn't either, but I can see using it to either finish off an enemy or force them to back out of a fight.
By the way, I apologize for not getting back to you about your
I know this is Arena, but I still prefer to build items on guardians that will directly or indirectly help my team and Deso isn't really one of them. Reaver isn't either, but I can see using it to either finish off an enemy or force them to back out of a fight.
By the way, I apologize for not getting back to you about your
Thanks for all the feedback man. I understand with continuing the trend on directly and indirectly helping with build choices. Deso is a selfish pick for sure and I don’t use it all that often myself early, but I have had plenty of success using it early in the right situations. I don’t use it much late either but also has worked pretty well situationally. I usually prefer health with power when looking at being more aggressive and I have kind of gotten to the point where I take the feedback I can from everyone and measure it against how different arena is from the other modes and my own experiences with things I’ve tried and sometimes I end up staying against the grain on some things. I prefer myself to go sustain/power early i.e. Ethereal/Jade Emperor’s Crown.
I understand your points on Ethereal, Bran has explained that in depth to me as well. It just works out pretty well for me a lot of times in that spot when I get a feel for a match and don’t really think I need the defense started out quite so early. I would put pythag’s as an option there instead as well but as Bran has discussed with me about it, that would be wasting pen early because a lot of the time no one is going to have defenses built up enough to make full use of it then.
I do usually prefer to get Thebes early but I have also gotten it later in builds where I am more aggressive early and it has typically worked out for me but I’ll go ahead and modify that portion.
I don’t have
With
I like SoB but more and more I’m seeing that comparing to getting something like JEC or Ethereal that the extra health/power from those items has seemed to serve me better than the passive from SoB. I still use SoB but usually when I feel like or have seen early on that I can just run aggressively the whole match and not have to worry so much about having more health.
The
Just some builds I’ve used in the last couple of days as example of things I’ve run:
Won’t really list the whole match but just to show how I’ve been doing(despite what competition might be like lol)
7/5/21 loss
4/1/25 loss
5/4/21 win
7/7/13 win(did 27k, mitigated 97k and took 47k damage. Combo of too aggressive early with no help in that one that was a by the hair of our chinny chin chin win me and another player got one of theirs when we had 5 points and they had 10)
3/5/20 loss—same as above build but
10/3/17 win
11/7/12 win
6/8/19 loss—same as above but deso instead of tahuti.
0/2/18 loss
I can provide match id’s on any if you want to look at any.
Don’t worry about it man. This has been a crazy year and life can be busy without all the bs that has been going on. I was actually surprised it was still in the top rated builds section. I see all these other builds with 300-400k+ or a 1mil+ views and there that Vulcan is in the middle of that list with like 118k I think. Lol.
Also, thanks for the warm welcome back, especially as the clueless arena main i am. XD I am lurking a lot..just not contributing much lately.
And number 6, really? I mean it's a good item, but core?
That's a big reason why i prioritize health early whether going more defensively or offensively with the lack of help. either smack them hard enough to make them run away while taking a few extra hits or be able to take a few extra hits to get away.
Ok. *readying disagreement face*
- % Pen. Examples include
Soul Reaver, 
The Executioner, 
Titan's Bane, 
Charon's Coin, 
Pythagorem's Piece, 
Charon's Coin, 
Demonic Grip, 
Typhon's Fang. Early game, enemy protections are low (due to low level starting stats, lack of protection items, etc.). 10% pen off of 30 is the equivalent of 3 flat pen. 10% pen off of 100 is 10.
- Bonus damage on total enemy health. Examples include
Ethereal Staff (steals more), 
Qin's Sais, 
Soul Reaver. Obviously all gods start with lower health and gain with each level. Certain items also provide added health. Later game makes more sense for these items, and these tend to be higher cost as well.
- Bonus damage from your own power. Examples include
Soul Gem, 
The Crusher, 
Heartseeker, 
Polynomicon, 
Odysseus' Bow. The more power you build, the higher the damage output. That said, 2 of these items are pretty common to be built earlier: 
The Crusher and 
Odysseus' Bow (sometimes). O-Bow has both base damage and added damage, and the chain lightning effect can really help with early and mid-game wave clear. 
The Crusher's base stats make it appealing in the early game, as it provides good power, attack speed, and flat pen. The other items are usually built a bit later...
Soul Gem is typically mid-game when you want lifesteal, 
Heartseeker is a late-game item due to the price, etc.
- Increased effect from protections. Examples include
Pridwen and 
Stone of Fal. Prid's shield increases the more protections you have, so previous tank items are key to getting the most out of the passive. The explosion damage is based on the shield's initial health. 
Stone of Fal gives you 20% of a teammate's magical prots (as long as they're close enough).
So I get what you're trying to do. You want a bruiser build that can deal good damage, while also being tanky enough to soak some. You're fortifying that as much as you can by adding lifesteal (3 lifesteal items in your example build!!!) to help you stay alive.That said, Sobek already has some healing in his kit (granted it's not a ton and is much more useful for early laning in Conquest Solo-lane as opposed to Arena). And you can argue either way, but building into that much lifesteal to me means it's easier to shut down the majority of the purpose of that build direction with anti-heal items. You might argue that it helps counter any anti-heal the enemy builds, but to me that's just decreasing your build's efficiency instead of going in a different direction and fighting against the current.
And when you don't focus fully on damage, you're cutting into the amount of healing you're getting from lifesteal.
So I don't feel SG is a good item for him. He's got a ton of CC in his kit, so as you mention
Although the argument that you haven't built much protections means a weaker
But if you consider those 3 things (Focus, Binding, Pridwen), it means you're really lacking in one other tank stat...health. You might consider one of two things in a 3rd position, with Prid in the 4th...either
I would never, ever consider
- % Pen. Examples include
Soul Reaver, 
The Executioner, 
Titan's Bane, 
Charon's Coin, 
Pythagorem's Piece, 
Charon's Coin, 
Demonic Grip, 
Typhon's Fang. Early game, enemy protections are low (due to low level starting stats, lack of protection items, etc.). 10% pen off of 30 is the equivalent of 3 flat pen. 10% pen off of 100 is 10.
- Bonus damage on total enemy health. Examples include
Ethereal Staff (steals more), 
Qin's Sais, 
Soul Reaver. Obviously all gods start with lower health and gain with each level. Certain items also provide added health. Later game makes more sense for these items, and these tend to be higher cost as well.
- Bonus damage from your own power. Examples include
Soul Gem, 
The Crusher, 
Heartseeker, 
Polynomicon, 
Odysseus' Bow. The more power you build, the higher the damage output. That said, 2 of these items are pretty common to be built earlier: 
The Crusher and 
Odysseus' Bow (sometimes). O-Bow has both base damage and added damage, and the chain lightning effect can really help with early and mid-game wave clear. 
The Crusher's base stats make it appealing in the early game, as it provides good power, attack speed, and flat pen. The other items are usually built a bit later...
Soul Gem is typically mid-game when you want lifesteal, 
Heartseeker is a late-game item due to the price, etc.
- Increased effect from protections. Examples include
Pridwen and 
Stone of Fal. Prid's shield increases the more protections you have, so previous tank items are key to getting the most out of the passive. The explosion damage is based on the shield's initial health. 
Stone of Fal gives you 20% of a teammate's magical prots (as long as they're close enough).
So I get what you're trying to do. You want a bruiser build that can deal good damage, while also being tanky enough to soak some. You're fortifying that as much as you can by adding lifesteal (3 lifesteal items in your example build!!!) to help you stay alive.That said, Sobek already has some healing in his kit (granted it's not a ton and is much more useful for early laning in Conquest Solo-lane as opposed to Arena). And you can argue either way, but building into that much lifesteal to me means it's easier to shut down the majority of the purpose of that build direction with anti-heal items. You might argue that it helps counter any anti-heal the enemy builds, but to me that's just decreasing your build's efficiency instead of going in a different direction and fighting against the current.
And when you don't focus fully on damage, you're cutting into the amount of healing you're getting from lifesteal.
So I don't feel SG is a good item for him. He's got a ton of CC in his kit, so as you mention
Although the argument that you haven't built much protections means a weaker
But if you consider those 3 things (Focus, Binding, Pridwen), it means you're really lacking in one other tank stat...health. You might consider one of two things in a 3rd position, with Prid in the 4th...either
I would never, ever consider
Okay, so i didn't realize you had posted here Bran and so fast forward almost 2 months. lol. I was able to get back around to looking at things today and I'm modifying some things. I am going to have a tab for BoV builds and one for Prid builds. I prefer the prid builds..i tend to survive significantly better with them in arena, but he definitely works with BoV(despite it not being my prefernce) and I think BoV is a much more popular item on him for most who use him. I have been pretty much running Ethereal second(similar to a lot of warriors i play, i have had success bumping some guardians' health with some extra power early and then going defensive after that). I do use Urchin at times and i like it on plenty of gods. With your input on Asclepius i am taking it completely out of any builds and build choices.
build concepts
against magical
against physical
here are my aggressive build ideas which are not set in stone, they would be modified somewhat by the end of the match based on if extra offense/defense is needed or if specific counters would be needed. Even with aggressive build styles i have found that prioritizing defense mid match works best for me and then i have the flexibility to build the extra defense or offense late. more aggressive end builds might be
Also, generally, aggressive for me in the context of a guardian is not necessarily stockpiling the most pen and power. I do like my
I really would have liked to have
MiMiiQ, in reference to
aggressive physical
aggressive magical
Fret not Kriega, i am going to do another round of testing to see if i get different results with my other choices in the 2 slot, but it has been working for me better than my other choices listed in that spot.
However like MimiiQ already noted some things are better to do.
gonna agree with him on lvling
another thing is that bruiser guardian mostly scale on CDR and pen instead of power. Therefore is shoes of focuss a better choice.
So I dunno about the pridwen interaction with his ult, however I do know
then after
my own preffered build is:
However like MimiiQ already noted some things are better to do.
gonna agree with him on lvling
another thing is that bruiser guardian mostly scale on CDR and pen instead of power. Therefore is shoes of focuss a better choice.
So I dunno about the pridwen interaction with his ult, however I do know
then after
my own preffered build is:
As much as I love my
I do like
With
Sometimes I do run with two power and/or pen items after void at the 4th spot, but I usually build regularly based on how my matches go. A lot of times lately I need the extra protections AND health from
I like your build. It looks pretty solid. I like Stone of Binding in that spot as well and have used it frequently there. My SoB build would typically be something like
I feel like, given the paremeters I have placed for a build similar to the build I have been using that the option choices I have set are valid. I realize that it seems that no one likes soul gem in this build on him and i will do some runs with the other items i like in that spot, but it seems like i have had the best results in those paremeters with this set up. Who knows, i could have just been having a bad run of it to sufficiently being give my aother item 2 choices an honest go. I can definitely re-evalutate that, especially with all the social distancing going on, i have nothing but time. lol.
On the low end i have been averaging 25-30k mitigated and taken(usually steam rolls either way) with about 19-22k damage. On most "normal" matches i am averaging probably around 45-50k mitigated and taken and usually run between 25-35k damage. I have matches with this setup where i am getting up into the 60-70k mitigated range as well. I feel like those numbers for Sobek are pretty good for me on a consistent basis vs the variance i have had with him in the past.
I think that you need to have some Physical defense earlier in the build, as it's the more common damage type, and physicals have more base damage which means more early game damage. I would say either a Breastplate of Valor after Pythag's for some mana sustain and CDR, or you can go a higher damage route in something like a Jade Emperor's Crown.
For the endgame power items, I wouldn't recommend Spear of Desolation or Charon's Coin, while these are both good items, they aren't good that late in the game, especially with a Guardian that isn't building full power. Spear of Deso is a cooldown tool and you should have enough CDR at that point to replace it. Charon's Coin will be impossible to get stacked last item in arena.
Another issue I had with reading this is ability leveling.
Not trying to sound too critical, especially if it's something you enjoy. I did enjoy the guide, I hope you have a wonderful day :)
I think that you need to have some Physical defense earlier in the build, as it's the more common damage type, and physicals have more base damage which means more early game damage. I would say either a Breastplate of Valor after Pythag's for some mana sustain and CDR, or you can go a higher damage route in something like a Jade Emperor's Crown.
For the endgame power items, I wouldn't recommend Spear of Desolation or Charon's Coin, while these are both good items, they aren't good that late in the game, especially with a Guardian that isn't building full power. Spear of Deso is a cooldown tool and you should have enough CDR at that point to replace it. Charon's Coin will be impossible to get stacked last item in arena.
Another issue I had with reading this is ability leveling.
Not trying to sound too critical, especially if it's something you enjoy. I did enjoy the guide, I hope you have a wonderful day :)
Thanks for the feedback. On the
On to your points about
I like to run high cooldown on Sobek(30-40%).
I forgot about Jade Emporer's Crown providing some HP along with the physical defense and power. I do like that item and have used it in the past, but for the reasons I mentioned I do prefer
I understand your issues with
As for
Don't worry about being too critical. I welcome any feedback and if I feel points are valid enough I will make modifications as necessary(as i did adding jade emporer's crown to build choices) Thanks for taking the time to look through my guide and comment on it.