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Tabi
Ninja Tabi
Combat Blink
Heartseeker
Winged Blade
Shifter's Shield
The Executioner
Qin's Blades
Bumba's Mask
Tabi
Ninja Tabi
Heartseeker
Winged Blade
Shifter's Shield
The Executioner
Healing Potion
Sentry Ward
Teleport to Towers
Potion of Power
Purification Beads (Old)
Aegis Amulet (Old)
Y
B
A
X
Thanatos is the latest addition to Smite and as a melee physical assassin I notice a lot of people wanting to play him critical and I also notice a lot of people wanting to rush with him.
For me, this typically results in witnessing many, many Thanatos deaths. The idea I had was to build him almost purely speed and to enjoy reaping people the way that a collector of souls would: quickly and efficiently.
Thanatos does do a lot of damage, but his 3 activates slowly, he has less health than every other assassin, his basic attack chain isn't as fast and furious as some and the kicker is all of his attacks hurt himself.
This warrants a different play style than them, I thought. In this build, the way to use Thanatos is capitalizing on his steroid and bursting enemies down before making a quick escape. Tested primarily in Arena, but also in Conquest (with great results), this is a versatile Thanatos build that when played properly should work well in any situation.
Ninja Tabi are the starting piece to buy when beginning to build Thanatos. Skipping on the 
Warrior Tabi isn't a big deal since Thanatos has built in physical penetration in situations where it is necessary. The cooldown becomes useful for activating Hovering Death more often and Scent of Death.
Heartseeker comes in to the build as an additional source of physical power and given some time, a considerable aspect of the build. The reason heartseeker is chosen over other items is because Thanatos is not going to have a great team fight presence early game, except to confirm kills, so he'll have plenty of time to gain stacks on minions and jungle farming. Soul Reap is great for clearing minions and camps and getting stacks quickly and the additional movement speed helps to give Thanatos even more of a threat potential. Scent of Death, lowering his Hovering Death cool down to about 60 seconds, adding additional health to give him a few more seconds to chase/escape and giving him a movement speed buff in the event enemies try to use slow CCs to escape. 
Jotunn's Wrath technically would work also, but more so for the damage rather than the penetration and mana, both with Thanatos doesn't explicitly need. winged wand is also much cheaper. Death Scythe he gets an additional 5 physical power, 2 for Scent of Death and Soul Reap and 7 for Hovering Death.
The Executioner is a late game purchase for Thanatos rather than an earlier one. This is because Thanatos will mostly be confirming kills in situations that they wouldn't otherwise be gotten and when coming in for ganks out of the jungle. The executioner helps him whittle off health from tanks quicker for a clutch Hovering Death kill and to burst down squishier enemies before getting taken out himself.
Qin's Blades are purchased, Thanatos should be able to harass just about any god in any circumstance. Qin's Blades are still useful for the movement speed and kill potential that comes from the amount of damage he puts out at higher attack speeds, especially with the third hit of his normal attack combo. The health is a bonus, but these are picked up because the provide more attack speed and physical power than 
Rage while being slightly cheaper. I prefer the health, but it's possible to go either way with it.
Harvester of Souls
What it does: When an enemy is under a "kill threshold" they are revealed on the mini map (to the player only) and can be instantly killed by Thanatos' ultimate. When Thanatos gets a killing blow, he heals for 20% of the maximum health of the god slain and 10% of minions. All of his skills take health to use.
Using it: It is a passive ability so it is always in use, but to maximize on team work marking enemies who are running behind cover, be in the jungle or walls in arena, can help secure kills when they are outside Thanatos' reach. It effectively turns him in to a "kill confirm ward."
Death Scythe
What it does: Thanatos throws his scythe at a medium range in front of him which deals damage (+10% enemy's max health), heals Thanatos and slows the opponent.
Using it: Death Scythe is Thanatos' engaging ability early game in modes like Arena and Joust. It's basically a ranged Qin's Blade with life steal and the slow helps Thanatos chase for the kill. Death Scythe is his primary damaging ability even over Soul Reap, with higher damage potential and lower cool down. It's a skill shot so when a guaranteed hit is necessary Soul Reap may be the way to go, but there are several good times to use Death Scythe.
Scent of Death Heartseeker, 
Fatalis or winged wand. At maxed rank it is like adding the penetration of a 
Titan's Bane as a hot key with the movement speed buff of all three of the previously mentioned items combined. Considering many of the first purchases of players are some form of shoes, having Scent of Death provides enough penetration to ignore tanks at the beginning of the game. The movement speed in combination with shoes gives Thanatos a major advantage in chasing, juking and escaping enemies. The extra speed when stacked with items in a speed build starts to hit the impressively absurd levels around the mid ~500ish movement and can be used to dodge linear attacks easily while approaching an enemy. Scent of Death makes it so that even enemies with sprint should not be able to escape you.
Soul Reap
Hovering Death|
Proper Usage Tips
+ Executing an enemy who is running away and alone + Executing an enemy after whittling them down in a 1v1/team fight, when it is of no danger to yourself + Executing an enemy after they have used their/dash leap to escape + Diving (tower or team fight) with a Combat Blink and Scent of Death at enough health to escape+ To get a stun on a nearly dead enemy to go in for the kill with Soul Reap and then Scent of Death and if necessary Death Scythe+ Escaping a situation without the need of  Purification BeadsHovering Death is actually a bit counter intuitive because it makes it seem as if it is typically a good idea to use it when the threshold is met. More experienced opponents will try to bait Thanatos by taking the damage and retreating behind cover/allies and using a  Aegis Amulet to prevent the execution from taking place. This will leave an unprepared and completely squishy Thanatos to be the ironic victim. Hovering Death is his ability that requires the most amount of caution to use when engaging. |
Improper Use
- Rushing in for a kill where the enemy is surrounded by allies - Rushing in for a kill against an enemy who can heal/leap and hasn't already - Rushing in for a kill against an enemy with an AoE attack who has placed it on their own location - Using it preemptively, but the kill was already confirmed, except diving in anyways - Charging in the middle of a fight while taking damage, but not having enough health to survive the charge (especially with DoT effects) - Diving an enemy when your own death would cost your team the game Hovering Death can make or break games on occasion and poor usage will cause Thanatos to become the scapegoat for flames. It is possible for a resourceful Thanatos to bait enemy escape mechanisms before diving or to wait the duration of the aegis (if possible) to get the kill anyways. |
This is not my first guide before, but this is my first guide on Smitefire and I'm not exactly sure what information people will be looking for in one. If anything is deemed necessary, I'll try to update semi-regularly to improve the guide's quality.
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Arena tested only
I really like this guide, gives really good insight on his pros and cons, what to do and what not to do, (even if it may be obvious) some people need it to be stressed to them, also I myself build heartseeker and get great results, Its rather easy to build it with his 3, a video would be nice but more importantly I think you should add some screenshots, It would be really cool if u made a screenshot of you in your ult looking at an enemy team and title it "Bad ult engagement." and another aiming at what you feel is a "Good Ult engagement" and label it accordingly. I have good result with golden bow and heartseeker, try it out and tell me what you think, its pretty much becomes fatalis. also could you perhaps explain why not to use jotuns wrath or hydra's lament? I don't see it on your build and alot of people use it (Jotunns wrath, not so much Hydra) overall really good guide man =) ( I personally like Jotunn and Hydra but thats me, I may be ignorant)
He included an explanation under Winged Wand, perhaps after your review.