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Thanatos - Slayer from Above

7 0 32,801
by Porz21 updated February 12, 2014

Smite God: Thanatos

Build Guide Discussion 6 More Guides
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Thanatos Build

Damage Focused Build

Build Item Death's Toll Death's Toll
Build Item Heartseeker Heartseeker
Build Item Ninja Tabi Ninja Tabi
Build Item Jotunn's Wrath Jotunn's Wrath
Build Item Magi's Cloak Magi's Cloak
Build Item Titan's Bane Titan's Bane
Build Item Witchblade Witchblade

Standard Jungler Build

Build Item Death's Toll Death's Toll
Build Item Warrior Tabi Warrior Tabi
Build Item Jotunn's Wrath Jotunn's Wrath
Build Item Qin's Sais Qin's Sais
Build Item Magi's Cloak Magi's Cloak
Build Item Witchblade Witchblade
Build Item Titan's Bane Titan's Bane

Actives

Build Item Fist of the Gods Fist of the Gods
Build Item Aegis Amulet (Old) Aegis Amulet (Old)
Build Item Purification Beads (Old) Purification Beads (Old)
Build Item Heavenly Wings Heavenly Wings

Optional

Build Item Hide of the Urchin Hide of the Urchin
Build Item Voidblade Voidblade
Build Item Devourer's Gauntlet Devourer's Gauntlet

Thanatos's Skill Order

Death Scythe

1 X Y
Death Scythe
2 3 6 7 10

Scent of Death

2 A B
Scent of Death
4 15 16 18 19

Soul Reap

3 B A
Soul Reap
1 8 11 12 14

Hovering Death

4 Y X
Hovering Death
5 9 13 17 20
Death Scythe
2 3 6 7 10

Death Scythe

1 X
Thanatos flings his scythe at an enemy, dealing damage and an additional 10% of the target's maximum health against enemy gods. Enemies hit are slowed for 3s and heal Thanatos based on damage dealt. Consumes 4% of Thanatos' current HP when used.

Ability Type: Projectile
Damage: 95 / 165 / 235 / 305 / 375 (+60% of your Physical Power)
Bonus Damage (Gods): 10% of Max HP
Healing: 50% of damage dealt
Slow: 20%
Cost: 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 65
Cooldown: 14 / 13.5 / 13 / 12.5 / 12s
Scent of Death
4 15 16 18 19

Scent of Death

2 A
Thanatos senses death, gaining immunity to Slow effects and additional move speed and Physical Penetration for 6s. His speed bonus increases up to double when moving toward an enemy god within the instant kill health threshold of his Ultimate. Consumes 4% of Thanatos' current HP when used.

Ability Type: Buff
Penetration: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25
Move Speed: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30%
Bonus Speed (Low Health): 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30%
Cost: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40
Cooldown: 13s
Soul Reap
1 8 11 12 14

Soul Reap

3 B
Thanatos swings his scythe, dealing Physical damage and Silencing enemies he hits. Thanatos moves at a reduced rate while swinging. Consumes 4% of Thanatos' current HP when used.

Ability Type: Cone, Silence, Damage
Damage: 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 (+70% of your Physical Power)
Silence Duration: 1s
Cost: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45
Cooldown: 14s
Hovering Death
5 9 13 17 20

Hovering Death

4 Y
Thanatos flaps his wings and ascends for 5s, unable to be hit. While airborne, he moves unimpeded at an increased speed before diving to his target location, dealing damage. Enemies below a Health threshold are instantly killed. All others are Stunned. Consumes 8% of Thanatos' current HP when used.

Ability Type: Circle, Stun, Damage
Damage: 110 / 145 / 180 / 215 / 250 (+80% of your Physical Power)
Kill Health Threshold: 24 / 28 / 32 / 36 / 40%
Stun Duration: 1.5s
Bonus Move Speed: 150%
Radius: 15
Cost: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80
Cooldown: 90s

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my Guide for Thanatos Hand of Death.
Thanatos is a magnificent Jungler with high damage potential and a constant threat to every lane. He may also be played in Solo/Mid but competitively you only see him in the jungle.



I occasionaly play Thanatos in the Jungle but mainly I created this guide because a friend of mine asked me to do one so this one's for you Necidia. Still I have an overall solid knowledge of the game and can provide you with info's you may not have had and help you in being a better Thanatos player.
Be aware: This is no Guide for Jungling, but for a Jungler! If you are looking for an In-Depth Guide for Jungling you will find enough of those here on Smitefire.com.

"Mine will be the last Guide, you'll ever see!" - Thanatos

Items

Items

I have created two possibilities for Jungling with Thanatos which differ in damage output and tankiness. The first is focusing on damage and requires patience and care to be successful. The Standard Jungler keeps a balance between damage and protection and you will be able to stay in fights longer but do significantly less damage.
In the following I will explain the Items; but not twice for each build.

I know usually Jungler's start with Bumba's Mask, nonetheless on Thanatos you will be better off with Death's Toll simply because your Passive Harvester of Souls will provide you with enough sustain in the Jungle and you will also gain more damage with Death's Toll. So please if you're jungling with Thanatos Get Death's Toll!

I would reccommend to get the Ninja Tabi instead of Warrior Tabi because the cooldown reductions you get from it are usefull in spamming you Nuke Death Scythe and the rest of your Abilities. This is crucial because your main damage comes from your Abilities not your basic attacks. And also being able to use your ultimate as often as possible is brilliant for getting kills and therefore Health. But if you won't get that much Penetration in the Rest of your Build you will want to buy the Warrior Tabi to be able to touch the tankier Gods.

Heartseeker is an Item which at the start will set you behind in damage a little bit but as soon as you get close to the 50 Stacks you will be very strong and have a ton more damage output. Another option instead of Heartseeker are the Devourer's Gloves which will also get you Lifesteal and permanent Stacks, so you don't have to farm these Stacks back up again after every death.

The Cooldowns this item provides you with are precious for the same reason why I reccommended the Ninja Tabi and after getting Jotunn's Wrath you will have enough CD-Reduction throughout the game.

Magi's Blessing You may have noticed that Thanatos isn't on of the Gods who can take a lot of damage but it is a fear of every Thanatos Jungler to get CC'd (stunned, slowed etc.) in the midst of a fight. And you will most likely die if that happens. So getting Magi's Blessing will give you low protections but giving you the Bubble through it's passive to stay alive and be CC-Immune for the first CC-ing ability that hits you, giving you a chance to flee the scene.


Now you will need Penetration to keep up the high damage you do against the protections your enemies will have most likely bought against you. To do that Titan's Bane is a good method because it gives you exactly this and more damage. If you're looking for Penetration and some Physical Protection yourself you can exchange this item with the optional Focused Voidblade.

Witch Stone For last item you will need some protections yourself, since Thanatos falls off a bit in late game. Now this is a bit tricky and you don't want to buy Witch Stone against a magical based enemy team for example.But if the enemy carries are physical damage based and deal their damage through basic attack Witch Stone is the perfect choice because it gives you physical protections yet it also reduced the opponents attack speed in an aura around you and reduce their damage output by a lot. If you're looking for more protections tho, you might also get the second optional Item Hide of the Urchin, because (even without the stacks) it is the best protection Item in the game giving you both kinds of protections.


If you are looking for some more Basic Attack damage you will want to buy Qin's Sais. But keep in mind that you do more damage the less Health your Opponent's have so you will want to get in the teamfight late and deal a devastating amount of damage to everyone. The passive applies only on your Basic Attacks tho.


Abilites
Mandatory for every Jungler to keep up the early Camp clear and for the additional Stun. Get this every game you are Jungling.

If your enemies have a high burst damage focused team.

If the enemy team has high CC output and you can't dogde it easily. Very viable option for Thanatos since he is really weak if it gets to getting focused.

Sprint If you think the Magi's Blessing Passive is enough to shield you from most of the stuns but you are getting slowed a lot by Nemesis for example.

Abilities

Ability Description


Passive: Your Passive Harvester of Souls grants you Healing when you kill enemy minions or Gods so that you will have lifesteal in the early stages of the game and you won't need anymore for the rest of it. Also you might consider, despite being low health dealing the killing strike to enemies to get back some health and the kill.

Ability 1: Your first ability with Thanatos is the Death Scythe. It is a strong single target Nuke that, if you hit it gives you 10% of the enemies maximum health, dealing a high amount of damage and also slowing the enemy down to be able to chase him down or safely getting some health back.

Ability 2: The Scent of Death speeds you up, makes you immune to slows and gives you penetration. It therefore is an ability you want to use just before you engage in a fight, chasing an enemy or escaping slowing abilities.

Ability 3: The Soul Reap is a cone ability that does a decent amount of damage while also silencing your enemies. You will want to pick this ability first due to the cone damage and minion clearing potential. If you are fighting enemies you will want to silence them before they jump out of your range or to strip mage's like Ra from their damage potential against you to finish them off.

Ultimate: Hovering Death is an execute. This ability enables you to instantly kill an enemy. Although no hard to hit ability you will have to use it with care and do not underestimate the difficulty to hit a target. If you miss your ultimate you will most likely end up dying, because it just consumed 10% of your health. Also keep in mind that your opponents will try to avoid getting hit by using their escaping abilites so you want to wait for them to activate those and kill them after. It is also a good Ability to Gank an opponent that is fighting one of your teammates on his own. You will stun him and you and your teammate can then quickly burst him down.

Pros/Cons

Pros

+ High Burst Damage
+ High Sustain through Passive
+ Natural Lifesteal in Abilites
+ Good Escape/Chasing through Ultimate
Thanatos is a high burst get-in-get-out based god that doesn't stay long in fights and tries to put down enemies standing on their own. He can quickly Burst enemies down and get out again, or target the next victim that is on his own, because you get much health from a kill. You can also get free kills if your teammates damage enemies drastically but can't finish them off. You can just fly in with your ultimate and finish the job.


Cons

+ Very Squishy
+ Prone to Crowd Control
+ Damages himself by using Abilities
+ Reliant on a succesful hit from Death Scythe and Hovering Death
The Problems while playing Thanatos are that if you can't burst down enemies quickly you will have a hard time trying to survive until your abilites come off Cooldown again. Also if you get caught out in a teamfight by some sort of Stun you will get focused and end up dead in 9/10 Scenarios. Also if you keep missing your abilites you will rip yourself the chance from helping engaging in a teamfight by damaging yourself. It is not much but can cost you your life.

Strategy Guide

Early Game

Always start with your Solo Laner.
When the Solo Lane is on the left side of the map you will start at your Speed Buff use your [Hand of the Gods] and take that Buff, then help him take the Blue Buff and proceed by going into the lane with him and maybe contest the enemies after you have cleared the first wave of minions at their Blue Buff.

When the Solo Lane is on the right side of the map you will start by taking the Damage Buff on your own (using your Hand of the Gods while the Mid and Solo Laner are taking the right mid camp. Then you help the Solo Laner take his Mana Buff, but be careful since the enemy Jungler and Solo Laner might contest you there. Afterwards you'll go to lane with your Solo Laner.

You will then stay in Lane with your Solo Laner until the 1:30 - 1:40 Mark. Go then to your own defensive XP camp and then you will contest the Mid camp nearest to the solo lane and you will want your Hand of the Gods to be ready then because these Mid Camps are the most important XP-Camps you will want to obtain to get.

From now on I won't explain the Jungle Meta anymore!


Laning/Jungling Phase

Thanatos is not very different from usual Junglers in this state of the game but as soon as you hit Level 5 you will want to look out for kills. Also with your ultimate it is easy to gank in the Mid lane and Burst the enemy Mid Laner down if you're assisted by your allies Mid laner. The Ability usage then is either Hovering Death to stun him, then Soul Reap to slow and silence the enemies then get a few basic attack off, as soon as he's out of your basic attack range use your Death Scythe to deal high burst damage and then your Death Scent to chase him down. If you haven't used your ult by then you may activate it only if you can kill him too, otherwise you don't have your escape if you get attacked afterwards.
Rest of the time you will be taking your jungle and looking for kills to get fed, since a fed Thanatos is a threat to everyone in the enemy team.


Late Game/Teamfights

Your late Game differs only little from the earlier stage of the game. You don't want to be on the frontlines if a teamfight emerges, rather try to sit back try not to get focused and look for easy picks. Easy picks are enemies running around alone. If you get caught out in a teamfight against more than 1 enemy try to silence them with Soul Reapto get away or if you can't kill them try to fly away with your ult.
But you don't want to get caught out because your Utlimate Hovering Death is extremely useful to execute any unlucky survivors and may change the fate of battle and get a win out of a teamfight that seemed lost. Or you may also use your Ultimate for initiation to stun as many enemies as possible allowing your team to engage with the advantage of the first strike.

Summary

But in the End you are the face of Death and everyone facing you alone will most likely die apart from Gods like Arachne that you cannot face 1v1 Enemy Hunters/Mids/Solos are the ones you want to target. As mentioned before you should keep an eye out for CC and Stuns from enemies because these can be your own ironic death and can shut you down easily.
Your own burst damage is brutal tho and can finish off enemies really fast if you're not hopelessly underfed.

Thank you for taking the time in reading my Guide for The Hand of Death Thanatos



You May also want to check out the other Builds I made:

Solo Lane Ra
Support Sobek
Solo Lane Tyr

Have Fun and Smite on, greetings

Porz21

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1
Gaarthar (1) | February 11, 2014 7:16am
Well , imo AA build is stronger in late game , while early game is safe anyway with the amount of damage the skills provide, so the only place i can see cdr build better is midgame-ish.
1
Porz21 (3) | February 11, 2014 4:55am
The Build you are proposing is aimed at Basic Attack damage which I understand and is good too, but as I've explained in the Guide I like the Cooldown Reduction Build More but yes you're right about the ultimate in the late game stage. I'm not criticizing your Build I just perfer going for the Cooldown Build because it is a bit safer.
1
Gaarthar (1) | February 11, 2014 2:37am
Id switch Jotunn's Wrath , Heartseeker and witch stone for Asi, Deathbringer and Malice, and since Asi and Scent of Death bring you to 50 pen , which is usually enough - id also switch Titan's Bane to Qin's Sais

You also might want to add that in lategame teamfights damage on both sides is so high , that using your ult to chain-cc a group of enemies with some other mass-cc like Guan Yu's ult and buying enough time for your other team members to deal a ton of damage is a very common tactic.
1
Necidia | February 10, 2014 9:14am
Thx for the guide, now i can finally try bringing death to all my enemies in the jungle!
1
Porz21 (3) | February 10, 2014 8:32am
Thanks and yeah I might consider renaming that one :P
Also I'll include the Devourer's Gloves as optional.
Thanks for the Feedback
1
Jordenito (66) | February 10, 2014 5:55am
Very good short guide. Really nothing much to say. Although I would recommend a couple of things:

That is only my preference, but 99% of the time I get devourer's gloves instead of Heartseeker. The damage is about the same but you don't lose stacks and 8% movement speed is nothing compared to 25% lifesteal. But it's only me.

Secondly, and least important, just an annoying note, a glass cannon build shouldn't feature not a single defensive item. It's glass cannon. Pure damage. So I don't think that calling a build with magi's blessing and witch stone a glass cannon one.

As you can see these are all petty little tiny notes, this is a great guide.

An upvote from me.
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Porz21
Thanatos - Slayer from Above
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