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Ninja Tabi
Frostbound Hammer
Hastened Fatalis
Ninja Tabi
Breastplate of Valor
Frostbound Hammer
Hastened Fatalis
Void Shield
Soul Eater
Hydra's Lament
Rage
Runic Shield
Creeping Curse
Aegis Amulet (Old)
Purification Beads (Old)
Aegis Pendant
Y
B
A
X
Hello, and thank you for coming to check out my 
Vamana guide! This is my very first guide and I am quite proud of it. I hope you find the builds above to your liking. So sit back, relax, and enjoy! And remember, this is a mere guide: If it does not suit your play style, you can always change things: You do not need to follow this guide word for word. If you are looking for gameplay tips only, skip to section 7.
Vamana is an interesting god, in that he has some of the tankiness of a tank, but yet some of the damage of assassins. You could say most bruisers are this way, but I think Vamana is unique. In general, Vamana has good survivability, can output decent damage, is often a good initiater, and sticks to people like super glue.
For all the people, new to Vamana, we are going to look at his skills.
Passive: 
Sleeping Giant: Interesting passive. Good because it converts your protections into power! In addition, if gods attack you during your ultimate, it makes it last longer.
Clear The Path: A nice loooong dash. Doesn't hit very hard, but that's not really the point. It is useful to chase, escape, and even as a last resort minion clear. I cannot stress enough, however, that unless you plan to intiate, always always always save this for an escape. Vamana in general is at a lack of escapes, so Clear The Path should almost always be saved for this purpose, especially early game.. Due to the only upgrade for this being the damage, I put one point in it early game and then max it last.
Armored Umbrella: A nice poke. Hits quite hard if you have built damage. Not much else to say except don't waste it on minions, that's what Umbrellarang is for. I try to get this maxed by at least level 15.
Umbrellarang: Typical waveclear ability. Comes packaged with a very nice slow. Don't underestimate it's damage, however, if you hit the same god twice, it can actually take quite a toll. I max this first for the good waveclear.
Colossal Fury: Ah, the ultimate. I am not going to lie, it's a tad underwhelming. It gives a large amount of physical power, along with protections and regen. The thing is, you're going to feel invincible if you have built tanky, and you're going to hit like a truck if you have built damage, but not the other way around: As in, if you have built tanky, don't expect a huge jump in damage, and if you built damage, don't expect to be invincible.
"Support Bruiser
Pros
+Can survive decently in teamfights
+High Sustain
+Good sticking ability
+Good at assisting teammates in fights
Cons
-Sacrifices some damage for a little more survavabilty
-Requires a huge level of caution when entering lanes.
Overall, I would say this build is best for new Vamana players, or players that like to play support tanks.
"Tanky, yes, Tanky."
Pros
+Insane amount of protections
+Excellent assist and harass power
+Emphasis on teamwork
+Good initiate
Cons
-Not as much damage as the other builds
-Hard to secure kills
-You may be focused down for your harass
If you liked it when Vamana was a tank, and still think he can be played that way, or you just need a tank, give this build a try.
"O, Damage! O, Critical!"
Pros
+You can 3 shot pure mage builds
+Excellent chase game
+Amazing hit+run
Cons
-Die extremely fast
-Forced to play more of an assassin than a bruiser
-Almost forced to buy 
Purification Beads.
If you are a player who likes to play bursty gods, this build is best.
Ninja Tabi: The whole idea behind this build is to support. Having Ninja Tabi reduces your cooldown, and allows you to assist with things like Umbrellarang more often than usual. Frostbound Hammer: You can chase far better with this item. You can slow the enemy enough for your fellow gods to take them down. Hastened Fatalis: Having both Frostbound Hammer and Hastened Fatalis is even more support than before. Remember to use your basics as you chase them down! Ninja Tabi during the early game period. You have several other options, however. I would highly recommend picking up Frostbound Hammer ASAP for the benefit, but you can also pick up other sustain items and get Frostbound Hammer later on. Remember, if you need more protections, get something that has CDR on it, such as Breastplate of Valor, but never go over the cap. Hastened Fatalis, if you haven't done so already. If you are feeling you are dying too fast to physical gods, pick up a Voidshield, as it adds to Sleeping Giant. The variety is wide open however, during this stage, after you get the three core items, feel free to pick up your favorite bruiser items, such as a Soul Eater. Rage. The possiblities are limitless. A word of advice, however: Do not get a 
Deathbringer! This item does not suit this build at all and does not have good synergy with the other items.
Reinforced Greaves: The staple in most tank builds, really. The CC reduction for the small amount of protections make Reinforced Greaves a nice pair of boots.
Sovereignty: Tons of physical protections and health are going to make you hard to kill. Your damage won't be low either, thanks to Vamana's passive, Sleeping Giant. Hastened Fatalis: I may sound like a broken record here, but these items are great in supporting your team. Reinforced Greaves. If you want to go straight to tankiness, the check out the mid game items. However, if you want a little bit more, check out maybe a Voidshield or another similar item. Sovereignty will give you a ton of tankiness, but don't stop there at all! Pick up a second layer of your choice. I prefer Breastplate of Valor for the CDR, but really, it's up to you. Just try to buy an item with a high amount of protections and/or health. Hastened Fatalis will provide quite nicely for this. I also like to get 
Jotunn's Wrath if I didn't get to pick up Breastplate of Valor. If you have some spare room left over, consider getting another utility item, such as Frostbound Hammer. Hastened Fatalis: Yup, this is the only item that is super important in this build. I say that because everyone builds differently when they make a build like this. However, this one item is important for chase.
Tabi you use. Both are very viable in this build. You should probably get a Voidshield eventually, but I would say get it ASAP. Hastened Fatalis, as always. What comes next is up to you. I like 
Asi or Soul Eater for the lifesteal, but any other attack speed item will suffice./
Qin's Sais? If you do, then go for Rage and Qin's Sais. If you don't, however, make sure that Rage becomes a 
Malice and use Deathbringer instead of Qin's Sais.
Golden Bow: Gonna be honest, not my favorite. Some people may choose it, however, because it does have synergy with Colossal Fury, giving him even more AOE. Hydra's Lament: A decent alternative in build 3. Allows for a little more damage in a chase situation. (Example: Use Clear The Path, basic attack, Umbrellarang, basic attack..)
Mail of Renewal: Further sustain is always nice. If you feel you are being forced to base too often, buy it. Purification Beads in this situation, however. Jotunn's Wrath: A decent item in all builds, due to the penetration, mana, power, and CDR. Qin's Sais: Very good in build 1, following the theme of tank busting. Runic Shield: Good against a mage heavy team, especially mages that rely on their abilities, such as Isis.
Hide of the Nemean Lion: I would get it if 
Loki, 
Fenrir, or other physical assassins give you trouble.
Creeping Curse: Granted, sometimes you just need it to secure that last kill. I would get it almost always along with Purification Beads.
Purification Beads: Must I even explain? Once again, I would get this always alongside Creeping Curse.
Aegis Amulet: If you really are one of those people who refuses to take Purification Beads, then at least get this for the damage mitigation when you need it.
Aegis Pendant: If you are into the new jazzy item, pick it up instead of Aegis Amulet.
Ah, finally! Let's learn how to play Vamana! In the next few sections, I will be going over General Strategy, Combos, and gameplay awareness.
Either way, tank or damage, you need to understand: You are not an assassin. You will not going flying around the map with insane mobility and go 30/0/0. That is Loki's job. Vamana holds several advantages when it comes to god killing
1. He can pick and choose what battles he does and does not want to fight.
2. He allows almost no escape.
3. You are ignored.
Let me explain. What I mean by picking your battles, I mean that, especially as a tank, you can pretty much bypass any fight, due to your Clear The Path. If some Fenrir is running at you, you can Clear The Path directly through him and into the jungle. He can attempt to chase you, but he can't catch you. If he gets even close to you, you can turn around, Umbrellarang him, and run the other way. The slow will keep him at bay while you make your timely escape.
In addition, he allows no escape. This is due to excellent chase game with Clear The Path and Umbrellarang, but also because you bought Frostbound Hammer. It is quite easy to catch up to someone and make sure they aren't going anywhere. I will explain the chase combo in the Combo section.
Finally, you are ignored. This may seem rather obsolete, but this is actually a huge advantage because nobody sees your insane damage output. Instead, they may worry about the 
Neith next to you. But then you can run in and Umbrella him to death. Never saw it coming.
So, how can you use these to your advantage?
By picking your battles, you can easily deny farm on gods that require farm to get powerful (Such as most mages). This also comes into play with allowing no escape. It's extremely easy to keep up with people.
By being ignored, you can roam earlier, and its less likely to draw suspicion.
In addition, the enemy laners may push farther up the lane, thinking that Vamana "isn't really that good anyways." They would be wrong. Therefore, it's easy to set up ganks in your lane due to the fact that they are more comfortable pushing up father.
Most people totally do not suspect that you have these combos up your sleeve. They are rather quick and sudden, allowing no avoidance or retaliation.
Quick Poke:
Armored Umbrella into Umbrellarang.
Basic poke. Hit them with Armored Umbrella and then Umbrellarang them for some decent damage.
Aggressive poke:
Umbrellarang into Armored Umbrella into Clear The Path
A high damage, aggressive poke that will leave you vulnerable if you don't do it properly. Hit them from afar with Umbrellarang, followed by charging forward and using Armored Umbrella. When you are done, you can either Clear The Path away from them or through them for a quick hit and run. However, make sure you are not still vulnerable at the end of Clear The Path.
Chase Sequence:
Clear The Path into Umbrellarang into Armored Umbrella
Very simple chase combo. Clear the path right into fleeing enemy. Just as you get the knockup, cancel out of it and using Umbrellarang for the slow. You can then hit them with Armored Umbrella and continue smacking at him. If he flees again, repeat. If you bought Hydra's Lament, make sure to basic attack in between abilities.
Intitate Teamfight:
Clear The Path into Armored Umbrella into Umbrellarang into Colossal Fury.
Only use this if you are planning to kill in a teamfight. Clear The Path for a quick rush to the enemy team, Armored Umbrella for the damage, Umbrellarang for the slow, and then go ahead, ult, and start the pounding.
Vamana. Vamana's strengths lie in moving around the map as the need arrives. Because you can provide chase, damage, and tankiness, you are going to have to play what role suits you best. With the first build, you will find it easier to handle both roles. 2nd and 3rd build are more specialized to tank and damage respectively, but you can still hold your own as a temporary tank. If there is a teamfight, you need to be there.
Well, this is it. I have said everything there is to say about Vamana. Please feel free to leave constructive criticism as this is my first guide. Thank you.
11/3/13: Published.
11/20/13: Vamana's Colossal Fury regen buffed from 3% to 5% per second.
12/31/13: Changed Rage for Malice in both the first and third build. Reworded the "Gameplay Awareness" section to emphasize importance. Fixed Typo in "Alternative Items" section.
1/1/14: Huge overhaul to builds. Core Items became Build Items. Core Items become more of an explanation and less of a list. Added Aegis Pendant to all builds. Switched or added in Hastened Fatalis to all the builds. Switched some items around. "My Favorite Build" has been removed in favor of a Support Bruiser build. This is the first of many big overhauls to come! Fixed Typo in the changelog (How did I even manage to do that, anyways?)
3/2/14: Added more information to "General Information".
3/4/14: Changes 
Qin's Blades to Qin's Sais
5/14:14: Typos fixed.
6/18/14: Changed items so they are current.
7/1/14: Removed Ankh.
7/8/14: Fixed passive.
9/4/14: Added more info to Combos.
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Look! A
Oh wait....
Get outta here penta, your drunk.
Oh wait....
Already upvoted it, but I just noticed;
You build
Hey,
I always use boots in all my builds for the cheap, but strong, early game bonus.
I just feel like the cooldown reduction is to good to waste, especially in that specific built.
However, I will try it out and certainly, at the least, put it in as an alternate item.
Thanks for the advice though!
You build
I appreciate your upvote, thank you very much! I tried putting voidblade sooner in my build, and it seemed like I died less early game. Great suggestion! Thanks again.
Wow. This was a lot better than I expected. I appreciate that you were honest with me, however. I did touch up some things (Such as splitting the builds into 3 different tabs). I tried what you said with "Core Items" and then the rest of the items in separate purchase orders. It looks pretty good, and I tried to emphasize that really, certain items could certainly be taken over others, if that's what the player prefers.
I didn't do over any of the strategies yet, but that's because I'm busy and don't have time today, but I'll certainly get on that later.
Thanks again for the in depth review, I appreciate all this stuff.
Thank you, first of all, for your review. "My Favorite Build" was more of a one time thing that just happened to work well. I have replaced it in favor of a support bruiser build. I saw what you meant with Thebes and ditched it, and I saw what you meant with Hastened Fatalis, too. Regarding the explanations, I wasn't really trying to write an essay about each item, but more how they work together to form a build. I'm not sure if you're gonna dig the new explanations (As I decided to make it more "Pick what you think is best, but follow this guideline" rather than "Pick this item".
Thanks again.
Although I find most of your builds to be iffy, the detail in this guide is great and I hope you continue making more guides. So +1.
Althought for buikd 3 I would say get voidblade sooner. Much more powerful of an item than Asi, Asi does synergize well for this build. giving him the LS more pent and AS to stack slow quicker.
Also, Vamana is known for being pretty tanky in his ult form, this increases that potential at low health.
Another thing to note: I did try this build with Hammer, but I'm still a firm believer if you're going damage Vamana, Hastened is the way to go nowadays. Frostbounds still great for tankier builds though, and it helps you assist your team (locking them down, rather than chasing them).
Build
Eh, they're kinda weird. I would prefer splitting them up instead of putting them all in one section, but that's just me. I would also like it if the alternative options were split into categories, like Offensive and Defensive options, etc. But that's just my OCD side.
One major problem is that each build seems to assume that you will reach a full build, especially the last one. I'd split each build into a few "core" items, and present the last ones among a list of available options.
For example, for the O Damage O Critical build, you could put Ninja Tabi, Frostbound Hammer, and Deathbringer as the core items. they will be the items you would be getting every single time. The rest are just bonus, so why not prioritize those first?
Items
I honestly don't like how you assume we'll get all six items finished by the end of a match.
Your explanations could afford to go a little more in-depth, but what is there is adequate.
(Oh, and arguably,
Skills
Very good. You give an overview of what the skill can do, and what it should be used for, as well as when to use it.
Guiding/Gameplay
Firstly, you don't give any strategies on what to do for early game or mid game. You just give a list of general tips. Seriously, that "General Strategies" Section seems more like a "Why Pick Vamana" or a "Strengths" section.
The combos, however, are very nice. They also give a very basic idea of your role in a fight - initiation, damage, and chasing, as well as a role in lane - poking and aggression. Quite intuitive, but I'm not sure if this was intentional.
Overall, this section was kinda weak, but what's there is nice.
Details
I like how you give separate pros and cons for each build, and an individual item explanation for each.
Unfortunately, you don't give a role, which is a very bad thing. You give a few general ideas, and how to use your abilities in fights, and combos and such, but you don't give a clear role for him. Is he a solo bruiser? A jungler? You skipped a lot of work by neglecting this part.
BBC coding is practically nonexistent, and I won't lie, the guide can get a little hard to read at times. But for the most part, it isn't too bad.
For the combos, I'd also advise you to place a section on when to basic attack.
Summary
This guide is pretty good.
As I explained earlier, this guide lacks focus. A reader like me can get overwhelmed the not only the lack of a recommended build, but the missing role. I wish this guide had a little more...guidance. (rimshot)
But what I do see is informative and useful. Congratulations. You found yourself an upvote.