The Magical Guide to being a Magical Mage! (Patch 3.12)

Hi! I'm wittisy, and I've played SMITE for 2 years right now. I religiously played SMITE for that duration and I main the middle lane if I play Conquest. I also follow the pro scene of SMITE a lot so I learned a thing or two from them. And the middle lane just so happens to be the popular lane for Mages

I've noticed a lot of you guys have been building the Mage very inefficiently, whether it be in modes like Arena, Joust or Conquest. By creating this guide I hope new players can learn how to make full use of their build!

But wittisy! I checked your SmiteGuru profile and you are unranked in Conquest! Also, you fed your brains out sometimes! You suck!

Apollo sums it up for me

Yeah and I do legitimately do bad sometimes, but who hasn't, right?

Also, I don't play ranked Conquest because I don't know when my internet service will **** the bed and cost me and 4 other members a loss. It happened before and I'm not letting that happen until I move to somewhere with stable internet connections.

But better unranked than double stacking Warlock's Sash and Book of Thoth!

Please do take your time to read every section of the guide, as they are all important!

Before we continue lets understand the role of the mage class. We can first split Mages into 4 categories.

AOE Nuke

This mage is the main source of damage in team fights, with the potential to deal damage up to 1.6k to multiple targets with full build. Prime examples of the AOE Nuke Mage would be Scylla, Ah Puch, Anubis, Raijin etc. You get it, they deal a **** tons of damage to multiple people at once. These type of mages typically plays in the middle lane

Utility

This mage is able to provide utility to help their team outside of pure AOE damage. For example, Janus can mobilize his whole team across the map with his ultimate or teleport a teammate with his Portal , Hel can cleanse her teammates from CC and heal. One that can be argued as a utility mage is Zhong Kui, as he is built to be tanky to be in the front line dishing damage and CC. Other examples of the Utility mage are Ra, Chang'e and Aphrodite. Many mages in this category sees play in the solo lane, due to the fact that a lot of utility mages have good sustain.

ADC

This mage isn't the typical mage that does AOE damage, instead they play like other ADCs by dishing out huge damage with their auto attacks late game. Freya, Sol and Chronos are the only 3 that fits this category perfectly. Unorthodox ones includes Poseidon and Vulcan. These mages are played in the duo lane as the ADC and sometimes in the Solo lane.

Assassin

This really only belongs to Ao Kuang only. Close range burst with the capability to bring down a squishy before they even know it. Ao Kuang is played mostly as the jungler.

12/07/16: Patch 3.12 changes, fixes on errors. Added Anubis section and Bancroft's Talon to the "The 5th and 6th item: Almost literally anything" section

The following build order is only for the Traditional Mid Laners. Exceptions to this build order would be Chang'e (Although she can still use this build order, albeit being less effective on her), Zhong Kui, Ao Kuang, Freya, Anubis, Aphrodite and Hel. These gods will have a separate section for them alone at the bottom!

Also do take note that not all Traditional Mid Laners follow this build order, Poseidon for example can opt for an early Gem of Isolation rush, though sacrificing his power overall, his Whirlpool becomes a Purification bait or else becomes one of the most potent CC ability a mid laner can get before mid game even arrives, thanks to a Pseudo Slow and Cripple being built into Whirlpool while Gem of Isolation makes Whirlpool feel like walking through a field of glue.

Starter items are the best items in the game in the sense that you get so much benefits from it for only 800 gold. These items however has limited influence and should be sold after you finished your 5th item and have enough gold to complete your 6th item (Just do the math, say if you want to buy Soul Reaver for your 6th, just look at your current gold count and add 533, the selling price of starters to it and see if you have enough gold.) Another thing worth noting is that you DO NOT buy starter items in arena. Remember starter items are made to help with sustain/clear, and you need none of those in arena.

What does it do?

"Hitting an enemy with a basic attack tears out and stores a portion of their soul, granting +4 MP5. At 5 souls, your next damaging ability will consume all of the souls and deal damage with +60 Magical Power." In addition to that it gives 20 magical power and gives 100 base mana.

When should I get it?

When you are playing a god struggling with early game lane clearing, or really, any God that doesn't clear lane easily before level 5. Examples are Scylla, Nox and Hel. Auto attack the wave 5 times and throw your AOE ability to clear the whole wave. In team fights don't forget to try and throw in a few autos before casting abilities if you can, do not go out of your way to do it. You would usually pair Soul Stone with Health, Mana pots and the 450G power pot.

What does it do?

"Killing an enemy restores 10 Health and Mana." Similar to Soul Stone, it also offers 20 Magical Power but instead of mana, offers 100 health.

When should I get it?

When you're playing a god that does not struggle with clear early. Vampiric Shroud used to be unchallenged as a mage starter item, every mage gets it until Soul Stone got buffed, quite the testament to how strong Vampiric Shroud is. With this item you would want to make sure that you get to last hit minions, if not you wouldn't proc the passive. Usually pair Vampiric Shroud with Lost Artifact and one each of Health and Mana potions.

What does it do?

"Your Basic Attacks deal +10 True Damage and your Abilities +10% Damage versus Jungle Camps. You are healed for 10% of a Camp's max. Health, and if you have an ally nearby, you get the normal gold reward as if you were solo." One important part is that you get solo farm even if you split camps with your teammate, if you can as a jungler, always try to do camps with your teammates so you all get farm. Outside of that you get 10 MP5 to help with sustain too.

When should I get it?

When you are playing as a jungler, mages that functions well as junglers are Ao Kuang and He Bo, outside of those two.....there really isn't a lot of good Mage Junglers. Freya jungle is an unorthodox choice that not many plays nowadays.

First lets take a look at the choices

Shoes of the Magi

Shoes of Focus

Shoes of Focus

Janus

Chang'e

Hel

He Bo

You usually have your stacking item as your second item after your Starter item, you can also opt to buy your stacking item after your boots or not buy stacking items at all.

The reason to buy stacking items is that stacking items when fully stacked becomes very worth the money. Book of Thoth for example offers >150 magical power when fully built, on most mages that is invaluable.

What does it do?

"You gain +2 Magical Power per stack, and receive 5 stacks per god kill and 1 stack per minion kill. Half of your stacks are lost on death. (Max 50 stacks)." This is on top of 40 Magical Power, 200 Mana and 7 MP5. Underwhelming, yea? But when fully stacked this item gives you 140 Magical Power for a mere 2050G, pretty insane value for gold right there. Drawback being having half your stacks taken away if you die.

When should I get it?

Never buy it if you know your lane is being camped or you have already died once or twice. Doom Orb is TERRIBLE when you are playing from behind. Buy it when you are confident you can dominate your lane, 140 Magical Power early game is some serious snowball potential.

What does it do?

"You permanently gain 10 Mana per Stack, and receive 5 Stacks for a god kill and 1 Stack for a minion kill (max. 75 Stacks). Additionally, 3% of your Mana is converted to Magical Power." This is in addition to 125 mana, 15 MP5 and 100 base Magical power. If you do get Book of Thoth it will be the only item you need for mana, it practically offers infinite mana with the MP5 and 875 mana at full stacks. Keep in mind most mage builds finds MP5 in other items too, for example Chronos' Pendant and Rod of Tahuti

When should I get it?

When you are very hungry for damage. This item offers no survivability but it is the single most effective power item outside of Rod of Tahuti. Consider not going for Book of Thoth if you are dying a lot or against burst gods like Loki or Ao Kuang. Kukulkan should always get Book of Thoth, no exceptions, his passive stacks with Book of Thoth and basically provides another boost of >100 magical power.

What does it do?

"You permanently gain +3 Health and +.6 Magical Power per Stack, and receive 5 Stacks for a god kill and 1 Stack per minion kill. (Max. 100 Stacks)" This is in addition to 50 magical power, 300 health and 400 mana. At full stacks, Warlock's Sash provides a total of +110 Magical Power and +600 Health along with +400 Mana.

When should I get it?

When you are playing gods that requires you to go closer to deal damage without having a reliable escape or if this mage needs to stay in the fight longer due to their contributions outside of pure damage, like Chang'e and Ra. Get it too if you are facing a burst heavy opposing team, Warlock's Sash is sort of a defensive item in the sense that it gives a lot of health. In general, Warlock's Sash is a much more versatile item compared to Book of Thoth. You may sacrifice 50+ power and mana but that would be in exchange for 600 health, which helps you survive a lot longer than you usually would. You can consider getting Warlock's Sash in every single mage build outside of Chronos, Freya, Kukulkan and Ao Kuang. In the case of Kukulkan, unless you really need the health, do not build Warlock's Sash over Book of Thoth, and NEVER build both.

Don't like having to kill minions or wait for your items to actually become good? Well, that is fine, the meta is actually shifting towards this play style lately, and as a result people are starting to find alternatives for their second item.

What does it do?

Provides flat 45 magical power, 30 physical protection and 15 magical penetration for only 1700G

When should I get it?

When you just want a very cheap item that is also very efficient. You may think 45 magical power when compared with the other stacking items makes Dynasty Plate Helm look really tame in comparison, and you'll be right, it isn't an item you want to buy if you want to deal damage, it however does help you deal a lot more damage than you usually would with the 15 magical penetration it provides, which if combined with Shoes of the Magi you would have 25 magical penetration in total against 30 magical protections, the base magical protection for every mage. That would mean that with those two items you would be dealing near true damage against your opponent. Also very importantly, it protects you from Physical Junglers early on with that 30 physical protections

What does it do?

Provides flat 70 magical power, 250 Health and 250 Mana. Also, enemies hit by your damaging abilities will move 25% Slower for 2 seconds.

When should I get it?

When you are playing Poseidon or Kukulkan, more elaboration in the "5th and 6th item" section. You shouldn't rush Gem of Isolation on many other gods, it delays your build too much and you can't easily make use of the passive to good effect unless you are playing Poseidon or Kukulkan. To a certain extent, Chang'e and Zhong Kui too but that will be saved for later.

This will usually be your Cooldown Reduction Item. There are 2 popular choices for this slot.

What does it do?

Provides 75 physical protection, 20% Cooldown Reduction and 300 base mana

When should I get it?

Get it if you are playing against a jungler that has huge burst and deals physical damage during the early phase of the game. 75 physical protections early game means that Breastplate of Valor is basically an item that screams to physical damage dealers that you are untouchable by them during the early game. 300 base mana isn't shabby at all too, keep in mind that 300 extra mana synergizes with Book of Thoth too due to it's passive.

What does it do?

Provides 75 magical power, 20% Cooldown Reduction and 25 MP5

When should I get it?

When you are going for a glass cannon build, in other words, when you want more damage. Trading 75 Physical Protections for 75 Magical power makes you much more vulnerable in the early game but helps you deal a lot more damage with it. Get it as long as you are sure that you can survive ganks from the enemy.

What if I don't want any Cooldown Reduction?

Dynasty Plate Helm

Congratulations, you've made it to the 4th item and that means that your team isn't completely terrible and you did not F6 at 10. Welcome to the 4th item slot for the mage, and this is where you would want to get an item that will give you a spike in power.

What does it do?

Provides 70 Magical Power and 33% Magical Penetration

When should I get it?

When you are playing a mage. Seriously. This item is almost objectively better than Spear of the Magus currently. You may question: But wittisy! I thought you said power spike! How the **** does 70 power give me any significant boost in power?. Well son, I don't have much time to explain to you how Penetration works right now so I'll just rip this section from a redditor, /u/Naketsu. Click this link here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Smite/comments/3bz2m1/how_important_is_penetration/csrdplh

Seriously read that thing.

Anyway, now that you understood how penetration works, Obsidian Shard may not deal as much damage against squishies, but their extra effectiveness against Warriors and Guardians makes up for it, not to mention that the extra 30 power provided by Obsidian Shard over Spear of the Magus covers a bit of ground against squishies.

With Obsidian Shard you are looking at an upwards damage increase of 32%, which is pretty much a power spike for me.

What does it do?

Provides 40 Magical Power and 15 Magical Penetration. Your abilities reduce your target's Magical Protection by 10 for 5 seconds (max. 3 Stacks).

When should I get it?

Yeah, I did say that Obsidian Shard is almost objectively better than Spear of the Magus currently. However, that statement is only true if you are facing a typical 5 man composition of Guard, Warrior, ADC, Mage and Assassin, where 2 or 3 out of 5 members build some protections against you. Spear of the Magus has the potential to completely nullify a squishy's protection, meaning you will deal True Damage against them in a perfect situation. Against a mage, that will only take two ticks of your abilities to reduce their 30 Magical Protections to 0. Against an ADC at level 20 who has 48 Magical Protections, Spear of the Magus can reduce their protections to a mere 3 in the right situation, effectively making you deal TRUE DAMAGE to them.

Basically, get this when your enemy team is comprised purely of squishies.

What does it do?

Provides 125 Magical Power and 15 MP5. Your total Magical power is also increased by 25%

When should I get it?

When your first 3 items has a more than around 150 Magical Power. Rod of Tahuti is very ineffective for its cost if you lack base magical power to start with.

Rod of Tahuti is pretty much the definition of a Power Spike. Even if you buy it alone, it already provides around 150 magical power by itself. If you have Shoes of the Magi, Book of Thoth fully stacked and Chronos' Pendant, you are looking at an increase of 228 Magical Power once you complete Rod of Tahuti.

This is where things get a bit complex. If you opted for Rod of Tahuti as your 4th item, it means that you have enough power to do most of your job as a mage. This is where you decide whether you want to start counter building a bit or continue pushing for full damage.

Before I proceed, do take note that Obsidian Shard and Spear of the Magus are both viable options for this slot. In fact, always make sure your full build has built in penetration from one of these two items, no amount of magical damage in this game can make up lost ground without Penetration.

What does it do?

Provides 100 Magical Power and 300 Mana upfront. When a god takes damage from your abilities, they take 10% of their maximum Health in additional damage. If multiple gods are hit, the damage is applied to the one with the greatest maximum Health. This can only occur once every 40 seconds.

When should I get it?

When you are looking for more damage in your glass cannon build. This item should be you 6th item, after completing Rod of Tahuti and Obsidian Shard/ Spear of the Magus. It has very high efficiency against a Tanky team as it deals %percentage damage from their health. But, this wouldn't exactly be the best luxury item for Mages. For around 900G more, you could get.....

What does it do?

Provides 140 Magical Power and 20 Magical Penetration upfront. If you kill an Enemy God all of your cooldowns are reduced by 8 seconds. This cannot activate more than once every 30s.

When should I get it?

When you are filthy ****ing rich. Won't recommend getting this if you are behind as it will SEVERELY DELAY your build. Get this if your current build is already dealing enough damage against the enemy team and you can afford to wait longer to finish this item for snowballing. DO NOT get this if you are behind and desperate for more power as your 5/6th item, it is simply not worth the wait. Instead, opt for Soul Reaver or Gem of Isolation (Only for certain gods like Kukulkan or Poseidon) instead.

What does it do?

Provides flat 70 magical power, 250 Health and 250 Mana. Also, enemies hit by your damaging abilities will move 25% Slower for 2 seconds.

When should I get it?

When you are playing gods that deals DOT damage and you are not very confident of hitting all your skills/you just wanna be an annoying piece of ****. Biggest patrons of Gem of Isolation would be, as mentioned already, Kukulkan and Poseidon. In some builds, Chang'e uses this too as it will ensure that the enemy sticks around to take her Crescent Moon Dance and Moonflower Dance spam, more on that later.

What does it do?

Provides 75 Magical Power, 300 Mana and 10% Magical Lifesteal. But, the main point of this item is this: Using an ability gives your next Basic Attack within the next 8 seconds +75% of your Magical Power as additional Magical Damage. The effect can only apply once every 3 seconds.

When should I get it?

When you are playing a god that can land autos reliably as a follow up to your abilities. You will be getting >500 damage on your follow up auto if you use it right.

Preferably, build this on gods that has abilities that makes their enemies stand still, AKA Stuns or Roots (Except Nox because Shadow Lock makes her unable to auto attack while casting). Examples of Mages using Polynomicon are Scylla with her Sic 'Em, Nu Wa with her Clay Soldiers + Shining Metal combo and to a lesser extent, Janus as a follow up to Portal, though you'd usually use Unstable Vortex as the follow up instead.

There are many other examples too, specifically in Chronos and Ao Kuang....but more on that later.

What does it do?

Provides 100 Magical Power and 12% Magical Lifesteal. You gain additional Magical Power scaled from missing Health. This caps at 100 power at 25% Health.

When should I get it?

Now I didn't even have this item in here before Patch 3.12, but this patch literally buffed its passive by 25%, it's in a decent spot now, even if Magical Lifesteal is terribly inefficient, on gods like Anubis where you would be dealing a lot of your damage while draining your health away to opponents, the extra 100 power totaling up to 200 power without counting the extra scaling from [{Rod of Tahuti]] is pretty important. Get it if you want to be disgustingly powerful and insist on building lifesteal, or if you are always so close from killing someone while overextending yourself

What does it do?

Provides 50 Magical Power, 15% lifesteal and 150 Mana. Enemies hit by your abilities have 40% reduced healing and regeneration for 8 seconds.

When should I get it?

When you are facing a healer heavy composition or you just want to build against Hel. This item is absolutely trash, stat wise, but when you use it against healers you will realize how good this item is against the right team. In fact, build this ahead of the order as soon as you find out that you are struggling against healing.

What does it do?

Provides 70 Magical Power, 10% Cooldown Reduction, 15% Magical lifesteal and gives an aura that gives +20 Magical Power and 10% Magical Lifesteal to all allies within 70 units.

When should I get it?

When your team is Magical based and you reeeeaaally want to use Magical Lifesteal. Magical Lifesteal is an incredibly inefficient statistic to build for unless you are Freya or Chronos. But still, Pythagorem's Piece's aura is quite useful anyway, and it also gives Cooldown Reduction, unlike other Lifeteal Items.

What does it do?

Provides 40 Magical and Physical Protection, 10% Cooldown Reduction and 20% CC Reduction. You gain an additional 15% Damage Mitigation for 3s whenever you are hit with a hard Crowd Control Effect. This can only occur once every 10 seconds.

When should I get it?

When that pesky Loki just won't leave you alone even after you built Breastplate of Valor against him, or when you just can't survive the follow up after a Ymir Frost Breath, or when you can't survive Insert Hard CC. Also, having some Cooldown Reduction is pretty sweet too.

What does it do?

Provides 60 Magical and Physical Protection and 15% Cooldown Reduction. If you take damage below 30% health you unleash a shockwave that stuns all enemies within a range of 20 units for 1s and gain CC immunity for 1s. This effect cannot trigger more than once every 90s.

When should I get it?

This item is incredibly effective against melee auto attack based gods. Say that you get focused by the enemy and they group hug you, they will end up getting stunned together while you are cleansed from whatever CC you were affected by, giving you a grace period of 1 second, which is actually pretty huge. 1 more second for you escape to come off cooldown, one more second for your teammates to reach you, 1 more second to gain ground towards your fountain and force the opponent to give up the chase. If the opposition is clearly focusing you and most of them have to come up close to deal damage, build this item.

What does it do?

Provides 90 Physical Protections, the highest amount of Physical Protections provided in one item, 200 Mana and reflects 20% of all Basic Attack damage back to the attacker as Physical Damage.

When should I get it?

This item doesn't have to be exclusively built against auto attack gods, though that would be preferable. 90 Physical Protections alone is enough to justify its 2200G price tag. Loki can't come close to one shotting you now, and other Physical gods just had their damage reduced by around 47%. Build it when the enemy team is full of Physical Gods, assuming that you didn't already build Breastplate of Valor.

What does it do?

Provides 60 Magical Protections, 200 Health and 20% CC Reduction. When you take damage and are below 30% Health, you gain a Shield with health equal to 150 +10 Per Player Level for 20s. Can only occur once every 60s.

When should I get it?

Replace every mention of "Physical" with "Magical" in the Hide of the Nemean Lion section and there you have it. Build it if you are struggling against Mages of the enemy team. In fact, it's passive shield helps out a lot against other gods too.

A good build must have enough damage, yet if the situation calls for it, enough defense. When you do need to build defensive items, do not neglect damage too! You are the mage, after all.

PLEASE, PLEASE REMEMBER TO SKIP THE STARTER ITEM IN ARENA

The Glass Cannon

Starting with Vampiric Shroud/ Soul Stone --> Doom Orb/ Book of Thoth --> Shoes of the Magi --> Chronos' Pendant --> Rod of Tahuti --> Obsidian Shard --> Sell Starter Item, buy Soul Reaver/ Spear of Desolation

The go to build for many players. Typically allows a mage to one shot or combo a squishy to death. Obviously very, very attractive, after all, who doesn't like huge damage numbers? Well, most of the time, huge damage numbers under the wrong hands leads to huge death counts! Always counter build when you are struggling.

The All Rounder

Starting with Vampiric Shroud/ Soul Stone --> Warlock's Sash --> Shoes of the Magi --> Breastplate of Valor --> Obsidian Shard --> Rod of Tahuti --> Sell Starter Item, buy Soul Reaver/ Spear of Desolation

Much more defensive compared to The Glass Cannon, trading ~150 power for 75 Physical Protections and 600 Health.

No CDR + Plate Helm

Starting with Vampiric Shroud/ Soul Stone --> Doom Orb/ Book of Thoth/Warlock's Sash --> Shoes of the Magi --> Dynasty Plate Helm --> Obsidian Shard --> Rod of Tahuti --> Sell Starter Item, buy Soul Reaver/ Spear of Desolation/ Mantle of Discord --> Sell Dynasty Plate Helm, buy whatever that you didn't buy as your 7th.

This build was used by Panthera's Yammyn and SoaR's Hurriwind in the Dreamhack Finals, both used this build while playing Raijin. Pretty cost efficient, just that there's no CDR at all.

Luck Foki

Starting with Vampiric Shroud/ Soul Stone --> Warlock's Sash --> Shoes of the Magi --> Dynasty Plate Helm --> Breastplate of Valor --> Sell Starter, Obsidian Shard --> Rod of Tahuti --> Sell Dynasty Plate Helm, buy Soul Reaver/ Spear of Desolation ,or if you are still afraid of Loki, buy Spirit Robe or Hide of the Nemean Lion

Only build this if you are really....REALLY afraid of Loki. You are sacrificing a lot of Power to completely counter Loki, which is actually fine cause Loki is countered by teamwork....and that's non-existent in pubs anyway.

Queen of Burst

Starting with Vampiric Shroud/ Soul Stone --> Book of Thoth --> Shoes of the Magi --> Chronos' Pendant --> Polynomicon --> Rod of Tahuti --> Obsidian Shard/ Spear of Desolation

As I said, Scylla and Nu Wa can really use this build well. They will be dishing out around 1.6k damage with 2 abilities and 1 auto attack if you execute the combo correctly.

Ao Kuang, Chronos, Freya, Chang'e, Hel, Aphrodite, Anubis and Zhong Kui?

Yeah they're coming.

Ao Kuang functions as a jungler, and currently one of the most overpowered characters in the game. His Wild Storm activates Polynomicon and effectively grants his Wild Storm 115% Scaling on a 7 SECOND COOLDOWN WITHOUT REDUCTION. Wild Storm also consumes a dragon from Dragon Call for each target, if you do the math you would realize that by mid game, he's gonna walk up to someone, press 2 and 3 to take off 70% of their health easily.

The build

Starting with Bumba's Mask --> Shoes of the Magi --> Chronos Pendant --> Polynomicon --> Soul Reaver --> Obsidian Shard --> Sell Starter Item, buy Rod of Tahuti --> Sell Soul Reaver, buy Spear of Desolation

You don't need stacking items to one shot squishies with Ao Kuang, he is that broken.

THE COMBO

Initiate with Blink or Water Illusion --> Activate Dragon Call --> Wild Storm --> Magically make their health bar disappear --> Whack them once to consume another Dragon Call dragon --> An enemy has been slain

He's that simple to play

Freya is probably the best late game ADC, drawbacks being her lack of a certain escape. But Pulse has a built in Frostbound Hammer effect while Irradiate in combination deletes a squishy in 3 shots. She is also harder to build against as there is only Runic Shiled that is an anti-AA item with Magical Protections, and Runic Shield would rarely be an item that people would build.

The build

Starting with Vampiric Shroud --> Shoes of the Magi --> Hastened Fatalis --> Demonic Grip --> Pythagorem's Piece/ Polynomicon --> Spear of the Magus --> Sell Starter Item, buy Rod of Tahuti --> Make people cry

Demonic Grip

Obsidian Shard

Spear of the Magus

Freya

Pulse

Demonic Grip

Up there with Freya, Chronos is very, very potent late game character. He barely needs any items to boost his attack speed nor need Hastened Fatalis because of Accelerate, he can simply build full Glass Cannon or throw in one Demonic Grip for good measures.

The build

Starting with Vampiric Shroud/ Soul Stone --> Shoes of the Magi --> Book of Thoth --> Demonic Grip --> Pythagorem's Piece/ Polynomicon/ Chronos' Pendant --> Obsidian Shard --> Sell Starter Item, buy Rod of Tahuti

Chronos

Polynomicon

Chronos

Time Rift

Accelerate

Anubis is very special. His passive, Sorrow is bloated beyond belief, his damage numbers dwarfs every other ability in the game. His drawback? No escape, food for any god that has mobility. But you can change that! (not really) They can't kill you if you kill them first!

The build

Starting with Vampiric Shroud/ Soul Stone --> Shoes of the Magi --> Book of Thoth --> Bancroft's Talon/ Pythagorem's Piece/skip lifesteal --> Gem of Isolation/ Chronos' Pendant --> Spear of the Magus --> Sell Starter Item, buy Rod of Tahuti --> If you skipped lifesteal, get anything from the "5th and 6th item" section depending on the situation, or get whatever you didn't choose from Chronos' Pendant and Gem of Isolation

Anubis

Sorrow

Spear of the Magus

THE COMBO

Stun with Mummify --> Cast Grasping Hands below your target --> If the coast is clear, Plague of Locusts in front of his/her/its face or fully commit with Death Gaze

The listed gods above share one thing, they are all considered healers, Chang'e less so, but they are still similar. They do however share a lot in common for their build

The build

Starting with Soul Stone --> Shoes of Focus --> Warlock's Sash --> Lotus Crown --> Breastplate of Valor/ Chronos' Pendant --> Spear of the Magus/ Obsidian Shard --> Sell Starter Item, buy Rod of Tahuti or Rod of Asclepius.

Elaboration and Alternatives

Your last item, the Rods, while I won't exactly recommend getting Rod of Asclepius as the power boost from Rod of Tahuti buffs your healing anyway, the extra health and movement speed Rod of Asclepius provides can help these 3 gods immensely due to their lack of an escape. You can however simply skip the penetration options and build both Rods, building Rod of Asclepius first. You can also completely ignore Spear of the Magus/ Obsidian Shard if you just want to heal more than dealing damage and go for defensive items such as Mantle of Discord, while replacing Shoes of Focus with Shoes of the Magi.

One last thing. Chang'e can opt for replacing Lotus Crown with Gem of Isolation due to his Crescent Moon Dance having a Cooldown of like 3 seconds when you build cooldown reduction, ensuring an eternal hug for your enemy <3, they just can't get away!

Zhong Kui is unlike every other mage. He has high base protections scaling and health scaling, that clearly shows that he is meant to be played like a Magical Warrior in the Solo lane. As a result, your build should be looking to be tanky while dishing out on-hit effects with items like Gem of Isolation.

The build

Starting with Soul Stone --> Shoes of the Magi --> Warlock's Sash --> Hide of the Urchin --> Breastplate of Valor/ Chronos' Pendant --> Gem of Isolation --> Sell Starter Item, buy Spear of the Magus/ Obsidian Shard.

Expose Evil

Gem of Isolation

Exorcism

Book of Demons

Recall Demons

Spear of the Magus

But...but muh damage!

This sucks! I want to have more damage!

You spoiled child, you. Well fine. Here is the build order used by Yammyn in Dreamhack when he picked Zhong Kui

Soul Stone --> Warlock's Sash --> Shoes of the Magi --> Dynasty Plate Helm --> Obsidian Shard --> Rod of Tahuti

Notice anything? Yes indeed, no Cooldown Reductions at all and without the 65 protections buff from Hide of the Urchin your role in team fights is reduced to a damage dealing machine. Use this if you are playing mid lane Zhong Kui instead of Solo Zhong Kui.

I started writing this on and off since Patch 3.10, and by the time I finished this, its a day before the release of 3.12. I will try to update the guide from patch to patch, after all, new Bancroft's Talon has serious potential.

I want to thank nanoyam's Guide to creating a guide in helping me learn how to make my first guide in SmiteFire. Hopefully, I would make more guides for SMITE for skrubs like you.

And of course, since this is my first guide, any feedback is appreciated!