Top Dog! Season 4 Anubis Guide

Overview

An updated guide for patch 4.1. The details of how to play and build Anubis effectively.

Introduction

Welcome to SMITE! If you’re new to this game, due to it’s recent steam intergration, this guide will help you become familiar with one of SMITE’s gods, Anubis.

Now, For new players, Anubis can be a scary god to play against and a difficult god to play with, but through this guide, you’ll learn about how to play with or against an Anubis.

The guide will focus mostly on how to utilize his abilities and what items work well on him, while not for any particular game mode.

Basic Information

Anubis, as you might know, is the Egyptian god of the dead. In SMITE, he is a mage, meaning he can deal a lot of magical damage using his skills. But, he himself is easy to kill due to his low defenses.

Now, mages come in different varieties. While they are capable of dishing out damage, they cannot take it. To counter this, some gods have a means of protection.

Gods like Nox, Agni, and Scylla have escape skills to run away from danger.

Gods like Zhong Kui, Aphrodite, and Hades sacrifice some damage by having healing, crowd control, or higher protections.

And then we get to Anubis. His biggest weakness is his lack of any escape. Instead, he has a ship-load of damage. Raw damage. He deals some of the highest damage out of all the gods to make up for his otherwise weak defenses. This is what we call a ‘glass cannon.’

At low levels or players just learning to play, Anubis is pretty easy, and doesn’t require too much skill to master the basics. A rather low skill floor.

But as gameplay grows more complex and players more knowledgeable, they learn to counter Anubis easily. His skill ceiling is mid to high, and revolves on keeping himself alive.

In Season 4, Cooldown reduction (CDR) and Crowd Control Reduction (CCR) have become more common on items, which is a good thing for Anubis. This will help him survive what would be certain death, but Anubis is still a bit risky to play at higher levels. That is, of course, unless you know what you’re doing.

Here’s a block at his Level 1 stats, for those who want to know. The number in parentheses represents how much Anubis gains with each level.

Abilities

This is one of the best passives a god can have, and it offers Anubis some survivability in battle due to his lack of mobility.

A: Enemies lose protections while you gain protections
B: Lifesteal you get from items increases
C: Hard Crowd Control affects you for less time. This does stack with CCR items

This opens up several different builds for Anubis, while still pumping out damage consistantly.

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This ability hits pretty hard. At level 1, it can be used to entirely clear a wave of minions. But you root yourself while casting, so that means you become an easier target. This skill has two great uses:

• Clear Minions while the enemy is not present
• Clear Jungle camps
• Damage a CC’d enemy

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This ability is very straight forward. This is the only hard CC Anubis has in his kit, but it has many uses.

• Set up a kill
• Disrupt a channeled ability
• Stopping a melee god to get distance
• Stun a fleeing god to chase them

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Even though Grasping Hands deals the least damage out of all of Anubis’s spells, it’s the safest due to its range. It’s the most reliable and safe ability, and it will be used the in almost any scenario. This includes farming, pushing, damaging, zoning, and securing.

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This ability hurts. And that’s an understatement. Unless the enemy has heavily invested in HP and Magic Protection, Death Gaze will surely be able to kill them. This ability has a very thin line, so make sure your target is under some CC before you activate it. Like Plague of Locusts, You root yourself while casting in, leaving you wide open for an enemy to damage you. But you do render yourself CC immune while channeling it, meaning your damage won’t be interrupted. This ability is also very good for securing kills on the Gold Fury, Fire Giant, Wild Juggernauts, and even Titans.

Leveling Skills and Combos

So, let’s talk about leveling up Anubis’s abilities. Most gods like Neith or Ares, have a very simple way to level their skills. More often than not, you will want to prioritize damaging abilities, and the same is true for Anubis.

First things first: Level Death Gaze at every opportunity. This should be a no-brainer. More damage, more kills. At levels 5, 9, 13, 17, and 20, you will be leveling Death Gaze.

Starting Levels

Now, there are specific ways to start leveling in certain gamemodes. For Siege and Conquest, you must make a decision as to what skills should be prioritized early on.

• Arena, Joust, Clash: Put one point into each ability. Simple.
• Siege: When playing Siege, you’ll start at level three. At the start, put one point in Plague of Locusts and Grasping Hands. SAVE THE THIRD SKILL POINT. Here, you’re going to ask yourself a question: “Is the enemy going to invade the jungle and attack us early?” If the answer is “Yes”, then put the remaining point in Mummify. If you are certain the enemy will not invade, level up Grasping Hands to rank 2. This will help you clear the jungle buffs with your allie’s faster, and let you get to lane quicker. By the time your team steps into lane, you will be level 4, and then you have the opportunity to finally get Mummify.

• Conquest: Unlike other gamemodes, you only start at level 1. The best choice will often be Grasping Hands due to it’s safe clear potential. Now, at level 2, you will have to consider returning to lane to face the enemy mid laner. If you suspect they will play aggressively and attempt to harass you out of lane, Mummify is a good way to stop them for a split second. If the enemy is playing rather timidly or trying to avoid confronting you, Plague of Locusts will help you clear to level 3.

  Now that all three core skills are available, put as many points into Grasping Hands as possible, while still leveling Death Gaze every chance you get.

  Once Grasping Hands is maxed out, we can focus on leveling either Plague of Locusts or Mummify. Both have their advantages, but it boils down to either more damage or more CC. You can do a few things here, but in the end, it’s your choice.

  1. Max Plague of Locusts – More Damage over CC
  2. Max Mummify – More CC over damage
  3. Alternate between leveling both skills – A balance of damage and CC.
  COMBOS

  Now we can get into effectively using your skills in tandem with each other.

  Jungle Clear Combo:
  

  Use Grasping Hands into Plague of Locusts to quickly kill Jungle Buff Monsters. Early on, this combo won’t be enough to kill the buff keeper alone, so either have an ally assist you or throw in some basic attacks to finish it off. Mummify has no effect on any jungle monsters, so don’t bother using it on a jungle monster.

  Anti-Assassin Combo
  
  Assassins are high-damage melee physical gods who excel at ganking enemies. In their eyes, Anubis is a prime target for a beat down, and will try to attack you 1-on-1. But Assassins are often squishier than other melee classes, so if an enemy gets close to you, simply stun them with Mummify and use Plague of Locusts to force them to back off or kill them outright.

  Poke Combo
  

  This is a safe, simple way to deal damage to an enemy at range. Mummify will force the target to take multiple ticks of Grasping Hands. Any nearby minions will also take heavy damage, and un-stunned gods will disperse from the radius.

  Wombo Combo
  

  This is Anubis’s main source of quickly bursting down a squishy enemy. The stun from Mummify will help set up the perfect area for Grasping Hands, followed by a Plague of Locusts for extra kick. As long as the enemy doesn’t have a teammate advantage, this combo is a good way to heavily damage an enemy while Death Gaze is on cooldown. Speaking of which…

  Wombo Combo 2.0
  
  This is just the same principle, using your ultimate in place of Plague of Locusts. This combo allows for far more damage and a little extra range, allowing you to kill all but the tankiest of targets.

Items: Part 1

Let’s start with the best Starting Item for Anubis:

Vampiric Shroud

• Cost: 800 Gold
• +20 Magical Power
• +100 Health
• +4% Lifesteal
• Passive: Killing an enemy restores 10 Health and 5 Mana

Between this, Sands of Time, and Soul Stone, Vampiric Shroud fits perfectly on Anubis. Power and Health is always handy, but the lifesteal and passive from this item provides a lot of sustain. Killing a whole wave of minions will return at least 60 health and 30 Mana. A good choice for a Conquest start, but not 100% necessary. *Note, be sure to sell this item late game to make room for a sixth item!

—Core Items—

These are items Anubis will pick up in nearly every game. Granted, there are only 6 items slots, so a few items below can be switched out depending on your teammates and enemies.

Shoes of the Magi

• Total Cost: 1600 Gold
• +45 Magical Power
• +10 Magical Penetration
• +18% Movement Speed

A solid block of stats for a cheap price. A perfect choice to build early in the game, since Anubis doesn’t quite benefit from any other choice of boots.

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Bancroft’s Talon

• Total Cost: 2300 Gold
• +100 Magical Power
• +15% Magical Lifesteal
• Passive: You gain additional Magical Power and Lifesteal scaled from missing Health. This caps at 100 power and 15% Lifesteal at 25% Health.

A good, reliable item for power and lifesteal, which Anubis takes full advantage of. The lower your health, the stronger this item gets. At a quarter of your max HP, the power from this item is doubled. Now that’s health insurance. I would recommend buying this item after Shoes of the Magi.

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Rod of Tahuti

• Total Cost: 3300 Gold
• +125 Magical Power
• +30 MP5
• Passive: Your Magical Power is increased by 25%

A huge power spike for any mage late game, you’ll see this is a staple for most mages. But, it’s the most costly, and you won’t be able to grab this super early. I recommend buying Rod of Tahuti as your final item.

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These Items can be picked In order to maximize killing potential in conjuction with your Core Items.

Book of the Dead

• Total Cost: 3000 Gold
• +100 Magical Power
• +15% Magical Lifesteal
• +200 Health
• Passive: Healing from Magical Lifesteal can continue to affect you at max Health and is converted to a Health Shield. This Shield caps at 20% of your current HP. This shield has no duration.

Think of this as the lovechild of Bancroft’s Talon and Rod of Tahuti. It’s powerful, but costly. This item helps offer a little safety along with the massive damage. The health bonus and ‘overheal’ effect helps make up for Anubis’s squishy nature. Picking this item up will give you the potential to absorb 1/5th of your HP. A little more damage, a little tankiness. Probably my favorite item from Season 4. Buy Book of the Dead 4th, after you’ve gotten some penetration.

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Spear of Desolation

• Total Cost: 2800 Gold
• +80 Magical Power
• +20 Magical Penetration
• +10% Cooldown Reduction
• Passive: Receiving a Kill or Assist on an enemy god will remove 1 second from all ability cooldowns.

Spear of Desolation is a nice item for breaking through some light magical protection, but the passive is where this item shines. If you’re fortunate, you will able to string your combos rather quickly in the heat of battle. Again, it’s rather costly. Picking this item up early will require a bit of a gold advantage over the enemy.

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Divine Ruin

• Total Cost: 2400 Gold
• +80 Magical Power
• +10 Magical Penetration
• Passive: Enemies hit by your abilities have 40% reduced healing for 8 seconds.

A bit of a situational item. Definitely buy this if the enemy team has more than one ability with massive healing. Hercules, Aphrodite, Sylvanus, the list goes on.

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Spear of the Magus

• Total Cost: 2150 Gold
• +50 Magical Power
• +15 Magical Penetration
• Passive: Your abilities reduce your target’s magical protection by 10 for 5 seconds (max 3 stacks, up to 30 removed protections)

Lost of people say that Spear of the Magus is the perfect penetration item for Anubis, and there is some truth to that. All of Anubis’s abilities deal tick-based damage over time, so a single ability will get put this item to full effect. Your passive, Sorrow, also strips and additional 21 protections, which will greatly help shred enemies with low to moderate magical protections. It’s cheap, too, so picking this up after Bancroft’s Talon is not a bad idea.

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Obsidian Shard

• Total Cost: 2300 Gold
• +60 Magical Power
• Passive: You gain 33% Magical Penetration.

The important thing to note here is that this passive is percentage based. It is NOT the same as +33 Penetration. This means a third of your target’s protections will be ignored, rather than a flat amount. So, after crunching the numbers, Obsidian Shard is more effective the more magical protections your enemy has. Pick this up if your enemy is building purely magic protection.

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Warlock’s Sash

• Total Cost: 2650 Gold
• +50 Magical Power
• +300 Health
• +400 Mana
• Passive: Killing a minion will grant a stack, and killing a god grants 5 stacks. For every 1 stack, you gain +3 Health and +.6 Magical Power. Max 100 Stacks.

At 100 stacks, this item grants a total of +110 Magical Power, +600 Health, and +400 Mana. A massive bonus, sure. But to get the most of this item, it’s wise to buy this item early, or even start building it as the first item. Costly, for the first few minutes of the game. Secondly, gaining 100 stacks takes a long time… even if you have a lane all to yourself. A heavy investment early for a big payoff later.

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Ethereal Staff

• Total Cost: 2700 Gold
• +90 Magical Power
• +200 Health
• +20% CCR
• Passive: Your abilities deal bonus Magical damage to enemy gods equal to 5% of their max Health. This can only happen once every 10s.

An iffy item, but still has its uses. The passive is only an extra bit of bonus damage that can still be mitigated by protections. But the extra health and power is useful, and the CCR does stack with Anubis’s Passive. Handy for the stats, an okay passive, and not terribly expensive mid to late game.

Items, Part 2

Before we get into relics, let’s talk about another item.

Stone of Fal

• Total Cost:
• +70 Magical Power
• +40 Magical Protection
• +10% Cooldown Reduction
• Passive: Anytime you would be dealt more than 30% of your Max Health by a single Magical ability, that damage is instead reduced to deal exactly 30% of your max Health. This effect can only occur once every 60s.

So the deal with this item is that it counters heavy burst mages. So if you’re playing Anubis in mid lane and a god like Scylla is giving you trouble, you should probably get Stone of Fal.

But the interesting thing is that Anubis can counter Stone of Fal. His abilities deal such high damage that if one ability triggers the passive, another ability can bypass the damage blocking. An interesting interaction to keep in mind.

Now, onto the rest of the items.

Relics

I’ll be really frank here, these two relics are the best ones to get on Anubis, simply because they do the best job at keeping him alive. Sanctuary prevents damage, and Purification removes CC. Simple as that.

Now, lastly, let’s talk about the best ritual on Anubis.

Flickering Ritual.

Remember back in Season 3, the active “Combat Blink”? Flickering Ritual is basically that. You can quickly teleport a short distance, in combat or not. It costs 750 gold, and only has one use. This is more oriented to late game when all the spare gold piles up. It’s a quick panic button to disengage from a fatal situation.

Conclusion

Time to wrap this up. (Sorry.)

So, for those of you who skipped right to the end, here’s the gist of Anubis.

He’s a mage capable of insane amounts of damage, but has no mobility, and can easily be killed with poor positioning. In casuals, he can be seen as overpowered, and is a seriously risky choice in ranked.

Building Power, Penetration and Lifesteal are great items to have on Anubis, and he can buy a defensive item or two if the going gets tough. (These may be very old and a bit dated, But still relevant.)

And thanks for sticking around to read this. Let me know if there’s another god you want to see a guide on.

[VVGL] [VVGF]