Mage Itemization in Early Season 5

Season 5 has brought a lot of changes to Smite, including a minor overhaul of Mage itemization. Rod of Tahuti was seen as overbearing and too large of a power spike, so it got nerfed and several items saw power increases. Season 5 also introduced and reworked a few items to encourage diverse build paths and playstyles. Today, we will look at some of the popular Mage build options early on in Season 5.

Mages saw a lot of changes at the start of Season 5.

To start building hype for the SPL, Hi-Rez asked several professional players about their roles. Mid laners gave mixed responses on recommended Mages but were unanimous in what the best build was. They all talked about Warlock’s Staff and most also mentioned Book of the Dead and Book of Thoth. This is the popular core build being run by pros and high level mid laners and is finished off with penetration and Chronos Pendant or a situational item. It should be noted that jungle Mages should not go this build as it takes too long to farm up the necessary stacks. This build has been nerfed in 5.3, especially Book of the Dead, which allows for more flexibility in item choices. 

This build has three stacking items if you include the Blessing. It revolves around the synergistic bonuses to health and mana within the items. All 3 core items provide mana, which feeds into Book of Thoth’s passive, adding to an already high power total. The build also contains a large amount of effective health in the form of actual hp and the shield from Book of the Dead. The shield is based on mana, so scales nicely with all the mana flowing in the build. 

As always, boots are mandatory and the Season 5 map is larger, so movement speed is even more valuable than before. Penetration is always included in carry builds and there is variance as to which penetration item to get based on which god is played and on the enemy team. With the heavy nerf Rod of Tahuti took in 5.1, it is no longer a mandatory item, which opens up a slot for a situational item.

In Season 5, Mages stacking both Warlock's Staff and Book of Thoth are powerful.

 The build starts with a Blessing and Uncommon Staff. Mage’s Blessing is the most common choice, but some Mages, such as Freya, benefit more from Hunter’s Blessing. Mage’s Blessing provides additional damage on abilities and MP5. When fully stacked, the Blessing also grants 10% cooldown reduction.

At the end of Season 4, Golden Sash was a common item to build at the start of a match. Even with a tier 2 completed, some players waited to complete their Warlock’s Sash until after they finished their boots. Players will continue to vary completing Warlock’s Staff and their boots in Season 5 based on back timings and immediate need unless one option is found to be greatly superior.

 Boots are a staple item in Smite. For Mages, Shoes of the Magi, the Penetration option, provide the most damage and are the most common pickup. Shoes of Focus can be used on some gods and the mana synergizes with the build, but this option is more expensive now and early CDR can be achieved through Mage’s Blessing.

 Warlock’s Staff was changed in Season 5 to be less powerful early, but it is still one of the strongest items in game and likely the best item in this build. It starts off with 65 power, 200 health, and 400 mana. When fully stacked, the item provides a total of 115 power, and 600 health. These are absurd stats on a single item, with massive power in addition to tons of health and mana. Warlock’s Staff makes a Mage safe and a damage threat early on.

 Book of Thoth is usually built third in this setup. It is another stacking item that needs time to powerup. Book of Thoth comes with 100 power, 125 mana, MP5, and a passive that grants 3% of the user’s mana as magical power. Once fully stacked, Book of Thoth provides 875 mana, which becomes 26.25 additional power through the passive. Double Stacking was not encouraged in the past, but with the amount of mana in this build, the passive from Book of Thoth puts in a lot of work. The additional mana and MP5 also benefit Book of the Dead.

 Book of the Dead was reworked in Season 5. While keeping a defensive aspect, Book of the Dead transitioned from a lifesteal item into a more in-combat option. It comes with 100 power, 200 health, and 200 mana. If the user drops below 50% health, they gain a shield equal to 15% of their current mana. The shield lasts for six seconds and has a 90 second cooldown. The shield is not based on max mana, but current mana, so it can be quite small if it gets triggered late in a fight. However, if suddenly jumped or bursted, the Mage has a way to survive and respond with spells of their own. The high mana in this build serves to keep the shield as strong as possible while still allowing the mage to participate in fights. Book of the Dead is not always built right after Book of Thoth but can be built after Penetration or later.

 Penetration is necessary in damage dealing builds and Shoes of the Magi does not have enough to carry a build. Obsidian shard is a good generic option as it allows Mages to hurt frontlines and do respectable damage to carries. It starts with 20% penetration and increases in value against targets with more than 40 magical protection. The other Magic Focus items provide 15 flat penetration and have situational benefits. Spear of the Magus should be built on gods that can keep up its stacks through dots or low cooldowns. Divine Ruin provides anti-heal and Spear of Desolation comes with a lot of power and cooldown reduction.

 Chronos Pendent saw an increase of power to 100 and is a very popular item right now. It was gaining traction at the end of Season 4 and the momentum has not stopped. It provides 20% cooldown reduction, MP5, and every 10 seconds, it knocks 1 second off of all abilities currently on cooldown. As a sixth tem, this often replaces Mage’s Blessing and is a direct upgrade, losing nothing and only giving more of the stats the Blessing provided. The high damage values and very high CDR provided by this item can make Mages a sustained dps threat in the right circumstances.

 

A full stacking build could look like this

Some alternative options have been popping up and experimented with. Some pros are starting with Lost Artifact in place of Uncommon Staff to eventually build into Chronos Pendant or Rod of Tahuti The build then proceeds as normal. Starting lost artifact provides 5 more power, 20 mp5, for 100 gold cheaper at the cost of 75 health and delaying Warlock’s Staff.

Even though Book of the Dead ties the build together, it is replaceable. It can be substituted for a more damage-orientated item if the player feels safe enough. Alternatively, Ethereal Staff, Gem of Isolation, and Rod of Asclepius are Mage items with health, but trade the shield for other benefits.

Bancroft’s Talon and Typon’s Fang is a powerful combination of items that has emerged in Season 5. This combination is especially potent on gods with built in lifesteal such as Anubis and Freya. Players can start Tiny Trinket with a blessing or Talon Trinket and built them into Bancroft’s Talon before or after boots. Bancroft starts with 100 power and 15% lifesteal and gets more powerful as the user’s health gets lower, capping at an additional 100 power and 20% lifesteal at 25% health.

Typon’s Fang provides another 100 power and 10% lifesteal by itself. Its passive increases the healing from lifesteal by 40% and provides additional power equal to the amount of lifesteal you have. Both Bancroft’s Talon and Typon’s Fang provide mana, which can feed into the book items.

While not health, this lifesteal combo allows some Mages to effectively drain tank. This lifesteal style does have an earlier power spike, which means it is good into the stacking build early, but its power is cut by anti-heal, which is one of the reasons why the beefier build above is more popular.

The nerf of Rod of Tahuti has changed the power curve of Mages in general. It gained 25 power, but its passive was gutted. Instead of a 25% multiplier on magical power at all times, it now grants that effect only against targets at 50% health or lower. Due to other itemization, Mages are more powerful in the middle part of the game than they used to be but lack the top end they had in Season 4 due to the lack of such great bonus power against high health targets.

The introduction of Typhon's Fang allowed for a new, lifesteal-oriented build to exist.

Mage itemization saw quite a few changes in the seasonal transition. A new popular build utilizes Warlock’s Staff, Book of Thoth, and Book of the Dead. These items synergize together and provide a lot of health and mana. Itemizing into a large amount of lifesteal is also a powerful option on some Mages. The landscape of Mage itemization was shaken up in Season 5 and will likely be optimized and shift as the Smite Pro League truly tests these builds.

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