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Shoes of Focus
Demonic Grip
Polynomicon
Rod of Tahuti
Hastened Fatalis
Obsidian Shard
Soul Reaver
Book of Thoth
Chronos' Pendant
Ethereal Staff
Hide of the Urchin
Magi's Cloak
Focused Void Stone
Eye of Providence
Purification Beads (Old)
Girdle of Inner Power
Aegis Pendant
Cloak of Meditation
Shoes of Focus
Hastened Fatalis
Polynomicon
Rod of Tahuti
Demonic Grip
Y
B
A
X
Hey guys and welcome to my Zeus guide.
I often see people building and playing their Zeus as a nuker that hits really hard , but also has a pretty hard time setting up the stage, mainly relying on Chain Lightning and Lightning Storm to build up stacks , deal damage , etc. That is the kind of build that is usually played from afar , advances very carefully while covered by the teammates and turns around and runs to save himself from enemies with high single target DPS.
I , on the other hand prefer my Zeus agressive and In-Your-Face bursty with damage. The core of this build is extremly high speed of stacking 3 charges on a target , which allows you to stun it really quickly + huge damage from Polynomicon while doing so.
Hastened Fatalis , while listed as optional is almost always present in my BO , allowing me to chase my targets even more agressively and be more nimble mid-fight dodging lots of cc and\or ground based damage abilities.
This guide/build is intended for all game modes.
*note*
I continue to experiment with my PO , and Hastened Fatalis has been steadily moving from my 5th item to my 2nd item, and i really like the early-game chase potential and agility it gives, when purchased this early.
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Overcharge is your passive. Each charge on the enemy adds 30% to your basic attack damage. Maximum is 3 charges per enemy , and you stack them by either auto-attacking , or by hitting with your spells.
Detonate Charge is your main "nuke" , your bread'n'butter ,your Alpha and Omega. Deals a lot of damage , stuns for 1 second, has a fairly short cooldown and doesnt need to be targeted.
Maxed first , because the damage increase it gets is a very good boost to your early game burst + this is the easiest spell to hit with out of your arsenal.
Chain Lightning is your secondary damage spell , which is more often used to get charges on your targets (more so if there are 2 targets singled out to bounce between) , even though it does a good amount of damage. Becomes really powerfull against pairs, but can be used on solo targets to activate the Polynomicon.
Maxed second(aside from taking 1 level in Aegis Shield and Lightning Storm) both because it also adds to your burst when leveled early and because the other spells dont contribute to your early game as much.
Aegis Shield is your defense and escape ability , which is also used to activate Polynomicon midfight when other spells are on CD.
For mid\late-game survival purpouses this is maxed 3rd - both increased chase\escape speed and additional protections help you secure the advantage you gained earlier in the game , when you leveled your damaging abilities first.Is also maxed before Lightning Storm to help you balance the overall agressive gameplay this PO\build offers.
Lightning Storm Huge AoE , lots of damaga and the most important part - charges for everyone. Is great for area denial , teamfight damage , and sometimes chasing runners due to its range+radius , which often allows you to get that 3rd charge on the running target.
Is used mainly to stack charges on several targets at once untill late-game. Chain Lightning and Detonate Charge suit early-mid game better for damage purpouses , because 5v5 teamfights with mass CC on your team's side (which is where Lightning Storm would shine the most) dont occur untill late game most often.
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Shoes of Focus : You generally want CD reduction on your boots , since you both cover your penetration needs with Demonic Grip and with the optional Obsidian Shard , if enemy stacks m.def. Usually Demonic Grip is more then enough.
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Demonic Grip : The second item in your build order , gives a good mix of m.power, a.speed and m.pen , that stacks on your target, which is really good for other mages in your team. |
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Polynomicon : One of the main sources of the damage you'll deal. Zeus has a very easy time spamming his skills , as he hardly needs to aim with them or place them on the ground like other gods , so after each skill you'll have a huge boost to your basic attack. *note* even after having its cd doubled (was 2 seconds , now its 4) still is a very potent item , though youll need a bit more timing practice to activate it several times during a fight |
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Rod of Tahuti : Adds a ton of m.power. Simple as that. Makes your Polynomicon and Detonate Charge hit like a truck full of bricks.
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Hastened Fatalis : Fatalis is a good option when you have squishy opponents that either die fast to your skills+ Polynomicon burst combo , or kill you instead. Which is nearly every game, to be honest.Getting 3 charges to allow you Detonate Charge to stun your opponent as fast as possible + not being an easy target mid-brawl + chasing those runners = Hastened Fatalis.It does take you over the maximum a.speed on your 3rd and 4th basic attack swings , since those have x2 speed by default , but the first 2 swings often decide the fight - you either make those 3 charges in time to stun or you dont. The midfight and chasing potential is also really great with this version of Fatalis. |
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Obsidian Shard : If you need m.penetration - this is a great choice. Take it if enemy has lots of m.def items in their team , or if their tank has 3 m.def items. |
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Book of Thoth \ Soul Reaver : Take these if you feel confident and\or have a good initiation+cc in your team to maximise your spell damage. |
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Ethereal Staff \ Hide of the Urchin : Defensive items. Don't build Hide of the Urchin if enemy has penetration , just pick Ethereal Staff for the HP and m.power bonus.
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Magi's Blessing
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Magi's Blessing : A great defensive option against gods like  Artemis that can kill you during their CC , but die even faster to your burst.
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Chronos' Pendant : Can be used to shorten the CD on your Detonate Charge and thus cc to the absolute minimum, but this would lower your burst damage. Can be mostly replaced by the blue buff, which makes it optional.
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Focused Void Stone : Is good to have , when the enemy team has a lot of magic damage and have some m.def items to penetrate through. Being a balanced item it is often a safe bet for your last slot. |
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Eye of Providence : If you go mid in conquest - you might want to take Eye of Providence and ward both mid fury camps all the time. Place the wards in a way that will both show the camp and the jungle intersection that is closer to your tower. This way the ward will serve both defensive and offensive purpouses - you'll see ganks coming and the enemy jungler attacking the camps.
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Purification beads : Take these , if the enemy has  Ares,  Anubis and\or other hard CC in their team.Enemy teams will often have a CC+AoE combo like Ares+ Ao Kuang or Anubis etc.By using the beads right before Ares pulls you in with his ultimate you dodge that combo , make enemies potentialy waste their abilities on the area you are expected to be CCed at and can counterattack with your Lightning Storm , as the enemy will often not expect agressive actions in that situation , but will instead be gathered in an easy to AoE group while they prepare to spam your CCed self down with skills.
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Meditation and Girdle of inner Power : These are newb-friendly and are best for all the other cases, if you have just picked Zeus and don't have much expirience with him. |
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Meditation
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Meditation serves several purpouses:
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Girdle of Inner Power is pretty simple - it boosts your damage output when you want to hurt the most - usually thats when you are either burning an opponent down , or generally right before a late-game teamfight. It becomes even more important in prolonged games , where you are at 6 items already and still need your character to be stronger , like when you picked defensive items in your 5 and 6 slots, and deal less damage then with full 6 damage items' set.
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Purification Beads + Aegis Amulet \ Aegis Pendant : This is an advanced combination of actives , that is built to improve your burst potential tremendously , without sacrificing utility.  Purification Beads have an almost entirely different purpose here , thus they are listed again.The idea here is to use Purification Beads 3rd level passive to recharge Detonate Charge almost instantly. |
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Detonate Charge has a base cooldown of 10 seconds , -15% from Shoes of Focus that is rounded up , making it a 9 sec cooldown. By using fully upgraded Purification Beads after Detonate Charge we cut the cooldown to mere 4 seconds , which we use to stack 3 more charges and for Polynomicon damage. Make sure you use Chain Lightning and Aegis Shield before that as well , to make the maximum use out of the cooldown reduction. All this results in a huge explosion of damage , thanks to virtually non-stop skill spam. It is a good idea to get the max level of Purification Beads early - either right after your 2nd item , or during your 3rd , because this is the part of the game , where your Chain Lightning and Detonate Charge damage has just skyrocketed (which is why you max them as early as possible) and being able to spam them more often is a really serious threat to the enemy. |
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 Aegis Amulet and Aegis Pendant come to fill the anti-cc and anti-burst gap , that is left when we use Purification Beads agressively.You'll have to decide which version to take depending on enemy team composition :
Buy one level either during your 3rd item, or right after it , then finish it by the time you finish your 4th - just spend any 300g you have leftover when you come to the base to heal. |
Situations and general moments to keep in mind:
Lightning Storm has a very wide area + a good cast range, which makes it the skill with the best reach in your arsenal to stack charges. It can also be used through terrain, walls, etc, where the enemy would otherwise have escaped. You can also use it to finish off people, that hide under their tower on low hp. Chain Lightning , use your Aegis Shield to boost your speed and help to better tank the remaining creeps' damage and rush at your enemy. You will often have a much easier time stacking the remaining 2 charges and thus secure a stun for a good harass , or potentially a kill. Lightning Storm around yourself - this will at least stack 3 charges and allow you to stun much faster , potentially as soon as the CC ends. Detonate Charge for stuns with Blue.
Zeus , if he is laning against a hard pusher , that also has potential to harass. Usually due to poor early wave clear youll be swinging your auto-attacks as often as possible to spread and stack charges on as many minions as you can. This allows enemies like 
Eset or Ao Kuang to aim their harass with less effort , because you'll be often moving slow thanks to those auto-attacks that youll need to keep up. Make sure you buy 
Mana Potion and 
Vampiric Shroud to allow yourself to use your skills more often. You also need to lasthit as many minions as you can for Vampiric Shroud to work. The main idea here is to survive untill level 6-8ish (depending on how good your opponent is) without getting yourself harassed out of the lane or killed.Foes:
Most of your foes have either a really nasty spammable CC, or a set of skills that can kill you in 1 combo. Good examples would be 
Ymir,
Chronos and 
He Bo.
Also 
Odin can ruin your day - his ult simply blocks a major part of your damage potential , since you can't get in or out of his ult , and thus all your basic attacks are blocked.
Friends:
Most of your best friends have an area CC. Good examples would be 
Hun Batz , 
Guan Yu, 
Hades , Ares and 
Chang'e.
Hope this guide was of any help and will allow people to see Zeus in a different light!
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Fenrir
Nu Wa
Zeus has absolutely no Stun whatsoever. He has slow, but thats it.
Go back to the date when this guide was updated last time. that's 1.5 years ago.
search a video around that time (or just look at the launch tournament or how they called it)
Sadly im a bit busy lately and don't have time to update the guide according to the latest patches , but ill definately make it up to date as soon as i have some time.
One thing iv noticed with the attack progression removed and
So for the next update ill be cleaning the item secotion from the removed items and will make some changes to the alternative buy order. Might also add some more to the friends\foes and how to deal with them as you suggested.
I don't like people saying Fatalis is a first-buy core item on him when it's situational. Sometimes you need to play back and safe away from them, so you only move in for spells and let THOSE wreck them, instead of just holding down your left mouse button and hoping you hit them enough before they eat you alive.
I'm sad that they removed
Overall, I love the guide, it's got a simple template (Which I personally love. Some people are like Michelangelo with their guides, and I like mine simple and straightforward.) and is easy to read, with sections it needs and a decent skill/build order. I expect you to expand on it every now and then - a Laning phase section maybe, more gameplay tips, expanded friends and foes (Like how you counter Chronos, how to fight spell-based melee that don't auto attack into your shield like Fenrir or Tyr, etc)
Still a +1 from me.
I do disagree with one part; Hastened Fatalis doesn't give a drop of magical power, and I find that Gem of Binding can be used for the same purpose without compromising damage.
When you say Gem of Binding I assume you either mean Demonic Grip which actually has the atk speed bonus replacement but he mentioned already so I think you actually mean Gem of Isolation, which I find to be a good Zeus item that should be under the situational section because it contributes to both power and sustain but it's best quality is that it essentially gives Zeus a slow for retreats.
The reason why Gem of Iso doesn't replace the Fatalis is because Zeus benefits more than the average mage from attack speed and the move speed isn't bad either. Since his core mechanic is based on stacking charges as fast as possible getting him a quicker attack (over 1s speed at least IMO), regardless of how you achieve it, makes using his skills much more efficient and harassing other heroes much easier. Essentially you can't live off your skills with his CDs and his basic attack is more important than many other mages so sacrificing some power for the speed is more than worth it.
Edit: Apologies to OP, just realized there actually used to be a Gem of Binding. Now the best we have is Gem of Iso. Binding would've been better for Zeus but still not a replacement for Fatalis.
Thanks for the guide dude, having a blast with build ;)
Glad you like it, mate =)
The guide seems pretty solid overall, really helped me getting into zeus since I didn't played him before.
Just wondering why Warlock's Sash is not under situational items, personally find it more suitable then Book of Thoth for example but that may just be me^^ (new to smite afterall)
If u plan on expanding the guide a short note on how about to lane against casual lane enemies may also be pretty helpfull.
+1
thanks for the feedback , mate!
as for Warlock's Sash - you shouldn't compare it with
the only difference between
and lastly can you please define a casual lane ? =)