Smite 2: Anubis Build Guide - Open Beta 1

Anubis: The Jackal God of the Afterlife

Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of mummification and the afterlife, makes his presence known in Smite 2. Revered as the guardian of the dead and the protector of tombs, Anubis wields powerful magic to control the forces of life and death. His skill set reflects his mastery over decay and restoration, allowing him to inflict devastating damage on his enemies while offering support to his allies.

In the game, Anubis excels in dealing high burst damage with his spells, making him a formidable mage in battles. His iconic abilities include launching deadly projectiles, debilitating foes with ailments, and summoning the essence of the underworld to vanquish his enemies. With a combination of crowd control and damage over time, Anubis stands as a formidable force on the battlefield, ready to guide souls to the afterlife while leaving his opponents in despair.

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Jackal-headed Anubis holds the ultimate judgment over the dead, measuring every heart against the weight of Truth. Nephthys, wife of Set - the God of Darkness, desired a child, yet her husband was infertile, so Nephthys disguised herself as Eset, the wife of Set’s brother Osiris, and seduced him. From that union, Anubis was born. Osiris cared for Anubis as his own, but when Osiris was murdered by his evil brother, Set, Anubis embalmed his adopted father and mummified the corpse so he would not rot. This preservation passed down to the Faithful, for if it was good enough for the Gods, it was good enough for man. None enter the abyss of the Underworld without first being tested by Anubis. When corpses are preserved, he is the embalmer. When time for judgment comes, he is the final arbiter.

In his realm, he keeps legendary weighing scales. On one side, the massive weight of Ma’at – truth and order. On the other side, he places the heart of the deceased. Should the weight of Ma’at prove infinitely heavier than that of the heart, Anubis casts the soul deep into the darkness of the Underworld, where it is forgotten, never to be reborn.

1. High Burst Damage: Anubis excels in dealing significant burst damage with his abilities, making him a formidable threat to enemy gods. His combo potential can quickly eliminate targets, especially squishy mages and hunters.

2. Strong Crowd Control: With abilities that apply crowd control effects, Anubis can effectively immobilize enemies, allowing for strategic plays and team fights. This control can turn the tide in battles, providing your team with opportunities to secure kills.

3. Sustain Through Lifesteal: Anubis has the ability to heal himself through lifesteal when dealing damage with his abilities. This self-sustain enables him to stay longer in fights and outlast opponents, making him a resilient choice.

4. Unique Playstyle: Anubis offers a distinct playstyle that revolves around managing distances, positioning, and timing his spells. This complexity can be highly rewarding for players who enjoy a strategic approach to combat.

5. Synergy with Items: Anubis benefits greatly from various mage items, enhancing his damage output and survivability. Building correctly can amplify his strengths, making him a powerful force in both early and late-game phases.

6. Team Fight Impact: In team fights, Anubis can deal massive area-of-effect damage, making him invaluable when engaging multiple enemies. His ability to control the battlefield can lead to decisive victories for your team.

7. Aesthetic Appeal: As a character steeped in rich mythology, Anubis's design, voice lines, and animations are captivating. Players who appreciate lore and aesthetics will find playing Anubis an immersive experience.

8. Engaging Lore: Anubis's backstory as the god of mummification and the afterlife adds depth to his character, enhancing the overall experience for players who enjoy narrative-driven gameplay.

Playing Anubis not only provides a fun and challenging gameplay experience but also allows you to wield the powers of one of mythology’s most iconic deities in the battlefield of Smite 2.

1. Strengths

• High Damage Output: Anubis boasts exceptional burst damage with his abilities, capable of quickly eliminating enemies. His kit is designed to deal substantial damage, especially to squishy targets.

• Area-of-Effect Abilities: His abilities often affect multiple enemies, allowing him to control team fights effectively. This makes him a valuable asset in clustered battles.

• Self-Sustain: Anubis can heal himself through lifesteal when dealing damage, giving him an edge in prolonged fights and allowing him to stay alive longer.

• Strong Crowd Control: Anubis has access to crowd control effects, which can immobilize and debilitate enemies, setting up kills for himself or his teammates.

• Good Lane Control: His abilities enable him to clear minion waves efficiently, making him a strong presence in the laning phase and allowing for pressure on towers.

• Versatile Build Options: Anubis can adapt his build to suit different playstyles, enhancing his burst damage or survivability, which keeps opponents guessing.

2. Weaknesses

• Low Mobility: Anubis lacks mobility skills, making him vulnerable to being caught out of position. His reliance on casting spells can leave him exposed to aggressive enemies.

• High Skill Floor: Mastering Anubis requires good timing and positioning to maximize his damage output and survivability, which can be challenging for new players.

• Vulnerability to Burst Damage: While he can deal high damage, Anubis can also be quickly eliminated by enemy burst mages or assassins if caught off-guard, especially if he is out of position.

• Dependence on Skill Shots: His abilities often require precision and aim, which can be difficult against mobile opponents who can dodge or evade his spells.

• Mana Reliant: Anubis can run low on mana quickly if his abilities are spammed without care. This reliance on mana can limit his effectiveness in longer engagements or team fights.

Understanding these strengths and weaknesses will help you leverage Anubis's capabilities while being mindful of his vulnerabilities, allowing for a more strategic gameplay experience in Smite 2.

Probably the most important thing to remember, not only as Anubis, but in general: when trying to get a kill (and provided that the enemy has such an ability up their sleeve), unless you directly saw them using their escape ability, always assume it's available for them to use instantly. By assuming as such, it prevents you from wasting an ultimate on an enemy that will simply jump out of its range. When you do see them use it, paired with the fact that their relic like Aegis Amulet is on cooldown as well, then you can attempt trying to score a kill; this time is commonly called the Kill Window.

If you find yourself out of position while using Death Gaze or Plague of Locusts, you can right-click to cancel the ability early and move to a more preferable spot.

If you're chasing someone with low HP through a narrow path, such as in the jungle, put your Grasping Hands a bit ahead of your prey, that way you'll cut his escape route and he will be forced back by this fact. You can easily finish him with Plague of Locusts then.

If you see a Hercules running towards you willing to knock you up to his team using Earthbreaker, you can time your Plague of Locusts to gain knockup immunity for that crucial moment, right click to cancel it right away and retreat.

You can use Death Gaze defensively to gain crowd control immunity for to avoid geting pulled by Ares' No Escape or caught by Fenrir's Ragnarok.

Anubis definitely should not be the character responsible for engaging enemies; keep your distance and strike when the fight has already begun.

Sometimes, you're going to find yourself in a scenario where you don't have any chance of escape, which may happen often because of your limited mobility. In such cases, you have to stand your ground and deal as much damage to the enemies as possible, with Grasping Hands + Plague of Locusts or Death Gaze. In combination with lifesteal, you might be able to win the fight, and even if you fall, you hopefully have dealt enough damage to the enemies that it'll be possible for your team to chase them down and avenge you.

You're a walking defense turret for your team. If you see an enemy doing something stupid very brave, like a hunter jumping onto you with his escape ability, you're free to wipe him out instantly with your ability combos.

If you see an enemy assassin preparing to strike; like Loki going invisible and heading towards you, or Thor in the air looking at you, you can put Grasping Hands directly beneath yourself. This will either discourage them from attacking, or deal a bit of damage to them and heal you slightly thanks to your lifesteal in case of an attack. Sometimes it might mean the difference between a dead Anubis and a dead assassin.

Death Gaze pierces through everything including walls, you might be able to kill a low health enemy in such a way.

• Skill 2 + Skill 3 + Skill 1.
• Skill 2 + Skill 3 + Skill 4.

Anubis can go Solo Lane or Mid Lane.

Anubis is great at killing single enemies with his quick combos. Anubis lacks mobility so stay safe and stick with your teammates in fights. Lifesteal will give Anubis good sustain in extended fights.

1. Conquest-Specific

Grasping Hands has quite a long range, and can be cast through walls. You can put them over the wall to help your jungler in clearing camps in mid-lane. Similarly, you can try to cast them over the wall if you're certain the enemy team is clearing the camp at a given moment, for a chance of stealing some experience and gold or at least poking your enemies without leaving the safety of your lane.

There's an option for an advanced, very aggressive start resulting in good first blood potential: purchase Talon Trinket as a starting item, which provides 60 magical power right away. It all comes down to outclearing and getting to level 2 first. You then have a decision to make: put a point in Mummify, so that your own minions deal serious damage to the opponent, or in Grasping Hands which deals considerable damage while also slowing them, allowing your minions to also make a few attacks. It depends on the opponent's position, and intuition about it comes with time.

Thanks to Anubis' high damage it is entirely possible to score an extremely early Gold Fury kill with the help of the jungler without enemies even noticing this fact. A good time to attempt it, to make sure no one will interfere, is when the enemy mid-laner is going to help his jungler on their back experience camps. Full ability combo including Death Gaze can provide enough damage that the jungler will be able to finish the kill.

If you've chosen Anubis as a jungler, a thing worth considering is to buy an early Blink Rune. It'll greatly improve Anubis' ganking capabilities as he does not own any gap-closing abilities. In such cases, though, ganks are always all-in fights; there's no option to retreat.

2. Warding

Especially when queuing alone, you can't always rely on your teammates to warn you about their missing lane opponents (though it's a kind and much appreciated gesture if they do). With that in mind, it is YOU who have to be responsible for your own safety regarding potential ganks and surprise rotations. Here are the main examples of decent spots to place wards. More information about warding in general can be found in The Overaching Conquest Guide.

• Mid Lane Warding: Per Estidien: You can also placing a ward directly in front of the enemy tower, which can give you a lot of information if you keep an eye on the mini-map. If they are sitting on the ward in mid, you know where they are. If their icons push further into the lane, you can assume they are pushing. If they go towards the right or left jungles you can make early calls on "Be Carefuls" or "Enemy Incoming" or you can assume they are doing their buff camps. If their icons move backwards towards their tower you can generally assume that they are going to one of the back pathways into the jungle, likely to clear camps.
• Jungler / Objective Warding:

This is a lot less straightforward. Generally, you just pick up the slack that everyone else hasn't taken care of.

Try to fill in the spots your teammates are missing. As a Jungler, you cover a lot of the map, so it's rather easy for you to ward the tough-to-access spots. If you ever see some place where you want to have a ward, just go place one the next time you're over there.

If your teammates aren't warding, you have to prioritize. Keep the main objectives (Mid camps, Gold Fury, and Fire Giant) warded first, and then start doing other spots once you get that under control.

• Late-Game Warding

As objectives start to crumble, the distance between safe areas becomes further and further away, opening up the game to a lot more random play. Players will be less likely to be found in their starting lanes, and there will be teamfights aplenty. Warding during this time really helps your team coordinate attacks, or retreat in an out-numbered situation.

Remember, minions act as moving wards in the lanes, and are able to spot nearby gods. If your towers are down, keep your minions pushed up as much as possible to provide eyes...if they're pushed back to your towers, your priority is to defend those towers.

3. Gameplay

Anubis does not have a really weak phase in the game; actually at levels 1 to 2 he is amongst the best gods, with a lot of damage potential. His main weakness comes from his absolute lack of mobility, and if he falls behind, it'll take a lot of time for him to become relevant again.

The enemy jungler will try his best to take advantage of this fact, and is likely to show up in your lane quite often. That's especially the case when you are given an unfavorable matchup, such as against Eset or Janus - all you can do in these cases is to play a safe, farming game until the teamfight phase begins. In other matchups you'll have an easy lane and will be able to push your lead over the opponent.

Nevertheless, whatever you do, always, ALWAYS keep an eye out on the minimap. It can provide you with information on the enemy locations, especially their jungler.

Furthermore, your gameplay will become better the more you know about your opponents; so don't get discouraged and just keep training!

• Early Game

AKA "Laning phase." Basically all you want to do is to farm, preferably more efficiently than your opponent. This can be achieved by outclearing the minions and forcing them under their tower (losing gold along the way), and taking the harpy mid-camps when they're spawned.

If you feel confident, put a point in Plague of Locusts on the very first level instead of the safer Grasping Hands, because Plague of Locusts has higher base damage, allowing for quicker wave clear. This can open up possibilities for poking the opponent.

If you happen to win lane against your opponent; and he is forced to go back to base, you can consider a quick rotation to one of your teammates' lanes to hopefully help them secure a kill. Minion waves and mid-camps should be given the main priority, as when you fail to kill an opponent during your gank all you have done is waste time and possible gold and experience that could be gained when staying in lane.

• Mid Game

By this time, you have hopefully bought and progressed a bit on your stacking item, and have a pair of shoes and some lifesteal as well. You should still farm lane when possible, but now it will be a lot easier, even feasible to clear a whole minion wave with a single use of Grasping Hands.

The mid-game is when the teams will start grouping up more, creating greater possibilities for teamfights. In such cases, you'll want to stay behind tankier teammates and wait until the fighting begins. You'll want to look for a chance to catch somebody off-guard and out of position, thus creating a kill opportunity. You should save your ultimate to combo it with your team in order to secure a kill on high priority targets, like an enemy mage or hunter.

If your team happens to win a fight and most of the enemies are waiting for respawn or were forced back to their base, it is a great moment to attempt a Gold Fury or Fire Gianttakedown- it'll provide your team with a considerable amount of gold. If you still have your Death Gaze available, do not hesitate to use it on these objectives; thanks to its damage you'll be able to kill it a lot faster and be on your way back to the lane or base.

• Late Game

Now is the time for Anubis to shine; he can provide his team with that much-needed damage to either wipe out the enemy team or smoothly secure a Fire Giant or even Titan kill.

Even though you have the potential of sending everyone to the underworld, you're still extremely susceptible to enemy damage. Never go on your own crusade thinking you can cope alone...you simply can't. Stay with your team and wait for the fight to begin. In a sense, you can serve as a defensive tool for your allies: Someone hastily engages on you? Too bad for him, he's literally deleted by your abilities.

As long as you're alive, your team is likely to win most of the damage races, and has the potential of rushing the Titan given the chance. In case your team storms into the enemy base hoping to end the game, do not try to secure kills, just treat the Titan with Grasping Hands and Death Gaze; you're able to do damage equaling more than half of his HP with this combo.

Anubis stands out as a formidable mage in Smite 2, offering players the chance to wield devastating magic and control the battlefield. With his high burst damage, crowd control capabilities, and self-sustain through lifesteal, he can quickly turn the tide of battles in his favor. His area-of-effect abilities make him a valuable asset during team fights, where he can wreak havoc on clustered enemies.

However, mastering Anubis requires careful positioning and timing, as his low mobility and dependence on skill shots can make him vulnerable to burst damage from assassins and other mages. Understanding his strengths and weaknesses is crucial for maximizing his potential in combat.

For players who enjoy a strategic playstyle and are willing to invest the time to master his intricacies, Anubis offers an engaging and rewarding gameplay experience. Whether you’re a newcomer or a seasoned veteran, embracing the power of the Jackal God can lead to exciting victories and unforgettable moments on the battlefield of Smite 2.

So, if you're ready to unleash the might of Anubis, prepare to dive into the world of ancient Egyptian magic and dominate your foes!