Sol’s kit has undergone various modifications in order to capitalize on her strong lane push potential. Her abilities and passives now deal more damage, while her essential attack projectile speed receives an increase.
Bancroft’s Talon is an indispensable item for Sol, providing her with high magical life and damage. For optimal performance, it should be built prior to the Dynasty Plate Helm.
1. Bancroft’s Talon
Bancroft’s Talon, a Tier 3 item released this season, offers tremendous power with an accompanying passive that scales with your missing health. It is ideal for a mage like Sol who can use its power to increase her damage output, while its passive gives her more chances at life steal from abilities or basic attacks.
Starting or building as Sol’s fourth item, this magical penetration item provides Sol with an excellent starting item or four-item build depending on what value is placed upon power over-penetration. The bonus magic penetration negates more of a tower or Phoenix’s protections than any other item can, providing Sol with an edge when facing opponents with considerable area-of-effect abilities.
Other options that would work well for Sol include Dynasty Plate Helm, which provides powerful mage abilities while giving the possibility of building into Doom Orb later in the game. While not core, Dynasty Plate Helm should only be pursued if your build aims for high burst potential.
2. Dynasty Plate Helm
Smite has, over the years, shed many features and items from its repertoire due to either their no longer fitting in with gameplay or for other reasons. Yet some penetration items remain, including Dynasty Plate Helm, which provides 15 flat penetrations.
This helm is inexpensive yet valuable in early games, making it an excellent choice for magic-using characters like Zeus or Anubis when facing physical assassins. Additionally, it pairs perfectly with items from Tier 2, such as Rangda’s Mask and Tyrannical Plate Helm, which both provide flat penetration that slows enemy movement speed.
A helm may drop from Foot Soldier enemies found throughout Leyndell or purchased from the Church of Elleh merchant for 1000 runes, as well as having a chance of dropping from heavy Gelmir Knight Set in Gelmir Hero’s Grave dungeon. Furthermore, pieces of Dynasty Plate sets can also be created at smithing benches using steel plate / scaled armor plates as materials.
3. Doom Orb
Sol is an expert at dishing out damage and needs items that will allow her to deal as much damage as possible. Doom Orb is an excellent option as it offers massive magical power with great mana returns – perfect for early wave clearing and jungle camp clearing operations!
This item provides Sol with an ample supply of magic power at a highly reasonable cost while also offering her an effective passive that increases her lifestyle upon attacking more frequently. As a result, this piece makes an ideal item for solo lane play, as Sol will be better equipped to sustain herself early in the game.
Bancroft’s Talon can serve as a suitable replacement, although not by any means an exact one-for-one replacement. Also, this item doesn’t provide enough life steal to warrant its construction; instead, it makes for more damage output if desired or when there are no other options to build with.
4. Book of Thoth
Since its discovery in 1995, the Book of Thoth has been eagerly anticipated as it may serve as an Egyptian equivalent of the widely known Greek Hermetica. It consists of an extensive dialogue between an unknown deity (presumably Hermes Trismegistos) and a mortal, covering topics including scribal craft, temple ritual, sacred geography, underworld knowledge, and animal wisdom – to name only some topics covered within its pages.
One of its more striking characteristics, however, is Thoth’s incantation that transforms him into a fiery vortex that damages foes and sets the ground on fire around her – this effect typically lasts three seconds after each basic attack and allows healing and regeneration of mana during that time.
Book of Thoth is typically built as the third item, but due to its excellent penetration, it may go even earlier on Sol. Due to this item’s high penetration rates, it makes an ideal choice for lane pushers and other mage who rely heavily on AoE spells, yet its high gold cost prevents it from being an option in an environment reliant on CDR.
5. Soul Reaver
Soul Reaver is a dark and atmospheric tale of corruption and cyclical violence set in Nosgoth. While not ideal, the game offers excellent design and playability; even its technical shortcomings (notably no loading screens ) are overshadowed by its ability to convey an atmosphere of decay through environmental art and world-building.
Soul Reaver follows Raziel, who can transition effortlessly between his material and spectral realms. In particular, he can climb walls in his spectral domain and pass through gates at total health while also inheriting powers from fallen clan brothers as he defeats them.
Sol has undergone several changes designed to play up her strengths in a duo lane, particularly her late-game power. Her passive is reduced while her ultimate will no longer cleanse Roots; additionally, when Sol has Heat, her basic attacks become stronger, making fighting her much simpler; further, her Unstable Manifestation now grants a bonus attack damage for every 4% heat and does not reduce while active.
6. Spear of Desolation
Once Sol consumes her passive stacks, she casts the spell to ignite the ground around her, dealing damage over time. If an enemy steps on it, then an explosion occurs, which deals even more damage! This chain reaction continues until more enemies walk over it, causing more destruction to ensue.
Sol can quickly clear the lane with this item as she will take less damage and gain more mana from it than most items on her build, providing her with superior early wave clearing and jungle camp clearing abilities. Furthermore, this piece pairs well with damage over time items like Polynomicon and Soul Reaver for maximum effectiveness.
Patch 7.1 saw this item undergo significant revision to help balance Guardian damage more evenly across the board. Before its revamp, this item granted flat penetration that enabled mages to deal actual damage on soft targets while dealing significant damage on tanks. In its revised form, this item still boosts dot damage but now only causes subsequent hits to sell 5% more damage per hit – up to six times greater. It makes this an ideal option for any mage who relies heavily on AoE damage but may struggle to land enough auto shots to maximize items like Chronos Pendant or Demonic Grip.
7. Spear of the Magus
As Sol attacks and casts spells, she builds up Heat, which adds +1% Magical Power for every 4% Heat she amasses – though over time, this heat dissipates gradually.
Sol’s primary source of damage is her ultimate ability, and this item extends its duration by two seconds while simultaneously increasing damage output upon use for the first hit. It provides significant additional damage as a standalone asset as well.
Sol has made this item one of her go-to pieces for boosting initiation damage and providing much more reliable backline poke action.
Early in the game, the Dragon Shield can be an invaluable ally as it reduces 33% of tower and Phoenix protections. As your third item or even later on, if necessary, consider building this as soon as possible for optimal use.
Obsidian Shard is not ideal in late-game because it competes with Obsidian Shard as an item with superior penetration capabilities. However, it still makes a practical choice for squishy gods such as Agni, Ah Puch, and Kuku tornado that would benefit from increased auto attack penetration.
8. Shoes of the Magi
Shoes of the Magi is an impressive tier 3 item for Sol that can offer both damage and utility in her duo lane position, such as providing magic lifestyle, health, movement speed boost, and cooldown reduction. Additionally, its active offers bonus elemental attack damage when building up heat – making this piece especially valuable when engaging enemies regularly in duo lanes.
Shoes of the Magi also provide penetration, amplifying Guardians’ base damage and helping them deal more damage in battle before enemy carries accumulate too much health. While Shoes of the Magi may be adequate for Sol, other options such as Polynomicon and Hastened Fatalis offer more chasing, boxing, and sticking potential with low enough cooldowns for early development without CDR requirements.
