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Vulcan - Shaking Mid Lane

4 0 86,429
by GeouZu updated November 17, 2014

Smite God: Vulcan

Build Guide Discussion 4 More Guides
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Vulcan Build

Starting Items

Build Item Vampiric Shroud Vampiric Shroud
Build Item Tiny Trinket Tiny Trinket
Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion
2
Build Item Ward Ward

Core Items

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti

Situational Items

Build Item Book of Thoth Book of Thoth
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Magi's Cloak Magi's Cloak
Build Item Warlock's Staff Warlock's Staff
Build Item Ethereal Staff (Deleted) Ethereal Staff (Deleted)

Actives

Build Item Aegis Pendant Aegis Pendant
Build Item Combat Blink Combat Blink
Build Item Greater Aegis Greater Aegis
Build Item Greater Purification Greater Purification

Example Build

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Book of Thoth Book of Thoth
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Greater Aegis Greater Aegis
Build Item Combat Blink Combat Blink

Vulcan's Skill Order

Backfire

1 X Y
Backfire
2 3 6 7 10

Inferno Cannon

2 A B
Inferno Cannon
1 15 16 18 19

Magma Bomb

3 B A
Magma Bomb
4 8 11 12 14

Earthshaker

4 Y X
Earthshaker
5 9 13 17 20
Backfire
2 3 6 7 10

Backfire

1 X
Vulcan blasts a fireball out of his Forge, pushing him back and dealing damage to all enemies in its path, marking the first god that is hit. The Inferno Cannon prioritizes the marked target and deals 15% more damage to that god.

Ability Type: Projectile, Dash
Damage: 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 / 250 (+70% of your Magical Power)
Mark Lifetime: 4s
Cost: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60
Cooldown: 9 / 8.5 / 8 / 7.5 / 7s
Inferno Cannon
1 15 16 18 19

Inferno Cannon

2 A
Vulcan constructs an Inferno Cannon that shoots fireballs in a cone that deal damage to the target every second. The Inferno Cannon lasts until destroyed or another is placed. This inherits Vulcan's penetrations but does not apply on-hit effects. Inferno Cannon takes 50% additional damage from non-god sources.

Ability Type: Pet
Damage: 45 / 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 (+40% of your Magical Power)
Health: 220 / 300 / 380 / 460 / 540
Protections: 5 / 15 / 25 / 35 / 45
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70
Cooldown: 12s
Magma Bomb
4 8 11 12 14

Magma Bomb

3 B
Vulcan tosses a bomb that explodes in a radius on impact with the ground, damaging and knocking back nearby enemies.

Ability Type: Ground Target
Damage: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+80% of your Magical Power)
Radius: 15
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70
Cooldown: 10s
Earthshaker
5 9 13 17 20

Earthshaker

4 Y
Vulcan launches a rocket that explodes on impact with the ground. The rocket starts at 80% strength, and increases in damage the further it travels from Vulcan.

Ability Type: Ground
Damage: 400 / 520 / 640 / 760 / 880 (+130% of your Magical Power)
Radius: 30
Cost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120
Cooldown: 90 / 85 / 80 / 75 / 70s

Introduction

Hey SmiteFire, GeouZu here, with my 3rd guide that is about Vulcan. He is very fun god to play , and in right hands he is very strong. I usually build Vulcan full damage, and sometimes magi's , warlocks sash or ethereal staff for a bit of defence.

Pros & Cons

Heavy Shot





Nature's Protection
PROS
Great Damage

Long Range Ultimate

Good wave clear
Nature's Protection

CONS
Bad Passive

Backfire is the only "escape" ability

Tricky to use your magma bomb

Ultimate is hard to hit from far away
Heavy Shot



Skills

Heavy Shot

Your passive. Let's say that the passive is really bad. Vulcan is not auto-attack based god, so the passive is worthless, and it is hard to benefit from it.


Your main clear ability. It has great damage and is on low cooldown. Also when used it pulls you to the opposite direction of the shot, so it can be used as a short dash, although it is pretty short and won't help against gods with dashes/jumps (any gap closers ). Although you can avoid some abilities if you use backfire quickly.


Your "pet". It has good damage late game. You put 1 skill point at the start of the game, just to help you out clearing jungle camp ( additional damage + tanking creep damage), although you will want to max this skill last.


Your only CC. It has good damage, and knocks your opponent to the opposite direction where the bomb hits. So if you throw the bomb in the back of your enemy, it will knock him forward. This can be used to do some combos, like your main combo that will be explained in the appropriate section.

Your ultimate. It has high damage and a big area of damage. Also its distance is great. It is great to gank lanes, or to use when you are ganked. You will want to use this skill from jungle , or the point from which your enemy won't see you using this skill. Also you can use this skill when you are ganked, and enemy is close to you. You just ult at your ground location. This might turn around the fight if you are 1v1 or 1v2, although if there are more enemies, it will probably not save you, unless they are very low on health. It is also great for stealing objectives.

Skill Sequence Explanation

Backfire is your main damage/clear skill that is on low cooldown. Because of that we max it first.

Inferno Cannon - We mostly put a skill point into this skill at first level. We do this because the turret will help you clear the jungle camp, and it will take the damage ( tank it), although we will max it last, because it is easily destroyed and we need damage from our 1 and 3 first.

Magma Bomb We max it 2nd. It has good damage, and combined with your Backfire it does pretty good damage.Also it is great for initiations and combos.

Earthshaker Out ultimate. It has great damage and we level it up whenever it is possible (level 5,9,13,17,20).

Combos


Spoiler: Click to view


Anti-Gank

Spoiler: Click to view

Items

So now lets get into items and their explanation. We need magical power, magical penetration and cooldown reduction.

Starter item for every mage. It gives us magical power, health and mp 5. We will need those during our early game. Also the passive that gives us 10 health and mana is pretty useful.


Useful item that will give you 20 magical power and 4% lifesteal early on, and then we will build/update this item to Bancroft's Talon


A must on any god. It gives you magical power and mana, but most importantly it gives you movement speed. Vulcan has no escapes except a small dash on his Backfire, so movement speed is very especially important on Vulcan.


Talon is a great item for mages. It gives you good amount of magical power, but most importantly it gives you passive 12% lifesteal and additional magical power for your missing health.


I love this item. It is great item on every mage because of it's magical power and cooldown reduction. And cooldown reduction is pretty important not only for Vulcan but for every other mage.


One of the items that gives you the most magical power. It is good as a 5th or 6th item because of it's passive. You need as much magical power as possible to be able to use the passive of this item at it's max.


In my opinion it is a very efficient item. It gives you 131 magical power just without any other items, so if you want max. damage - then get book of thoth.


70 magical power. not bad, but it is not the most important stat of this item. It is 33% penetration. Penetration is important stat for us, not just because we will shred tanks better with it, but it will make us deal more damage to the gods without any protections too.


Magi's Blessing

I buy this item rarely, but sometimes you really need it. When you are behind and enemy has much CC. Coupled with beads it will really help out.


Warlock's Sash

Another stacking item. It gives you big amount of health, mana and some magical power. Although the biggest downside of this item is that you need 100 stacks to use this item on it's max. And 100 stacks is a big amount.


This item is like warlocks sash described above, although it gives you less hp and mana, but you don't need to stack it. So it is great if you need tankiness in mid-late game when you are rotating and can't sit in lane to farm 100 stacks.


I am not the biggest fan of this item and I use it rarely, but it can work on Vulcan. It has good magical power and it's passive is useful with Earthshaker or Magma Bomb


You need them. Every time you go to base try to get 2 wards with you, so you can ward mid lane, it will keep you safer, but even with wards don't overextend for too much.

Gameplay

Early Game

Your main objectives in early game are - Farming and poking your enemy to make him farm harder or even make him go to base. You should place the ward on the side of Solo lane, because enemy jungler can gank you from that side. After level 5 you can rotate to mid or solo lanes if you see that enemies are overextended and you can gank and kill them or make them go to base.

Remember: Don't lose farm. Rotate only when you clear the wave , this is very important because you want to be fed as possible.

Mid-Late Game

Here the fun begins. You will be able to clear the wave with just your Backfire, meaning that you will clear faster, easier and be able to rotate more. You will mostly want to rotate with your support or jungler, or alone if you see that it is an easy prey.

When you try to gank an enemy you should go from back, and use your Magma Bomb to knock your enemy up, and then put your Inferno Cannon and use your Backfire. If you are confident then you can go to lane and use your ult on low-health enemy and finish him.

When the teamfights start you want to be in the back lines and spam your abilities from there. In teamfights your main objective is to pick off one single enemy and deal maximum damage to them.

Tips & Tricks

Backfire is great to reposition yourself and can be used as a small dash.

Magma Bomb is good escape skill if enemy is close-ranged. Imagine that Mercury is attacking you, you keep running and throw Magma Bomb at your feet. It will knock up Merc and coupled with backfire will help you escape.

Earthshaker is great for stealing Gold Fury/Fire Giant and unexpectedly ganking enemy lane from jungle.

Summary

So here the guide ends. I tried something new for me (writing a guide about mid lane) and i tried my best to provide information but don't make the guide too long and like a wall of text. I hope you liked the guide and most important - got some new information here.

If you have any advice, criticism, or you found a mistake feel free to post in the comments and I will fix it.

Thanks for reading.

Credits

Here I want to thank everybody who helped me make this guide.

Jordenito and TormentedTurnip for their Code Blue: BBCoding for Beginners . I used BB codes from there cause so check it out if you want to create your guide.

Subzero I used his template for pros. and cons.

And big thanks and shotout for people who are on SmiteFire and who make this community good ;) Love ya guys <3

Changelog

11/11/2014

Spoiler: Click to view

Leave a Comment

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1
Sparky911 | April 9, 2015 12:51pm
i just did a vulcan support
10/10 you should add
1
Greenevers (105) | November 16, 2014 4:03pm
Nice guide. Build and skill order is solid.

One thing on your combos. Now I don't play Vulcan that much but I understand his general kit. You generally want to Inferno Cannon -> Backfire due to your turret prioritizing the god and dealing more damage. It's a very annoying combo and I hate dealing with it.

I would just add in a bit more gameplay. It usually is the lacking chapters of the guide. Instead of just writing mindless paragraphs talk about starting in either the mid lane/solo lane, zoning, stealing/invading for buffs, fights at mid camps, team fights, etc.

For the most part, this guide is well done and looks nice!
1
GeouZu (12) | November 12, 2014 12:59pm

Very detailed guide, and looks really appealing, just a question since I play Vulcan alot could you do a match up section
+1


Heya, thanks for the feedback. I might do that in future.
1
wetcoolguy101 (12) | November 12, 2014 11:37am
Very detailed guide, and looks really appealing, just a question since I play Vulcan alot could you do a match up section
+1
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