Smite has been in a tank meta for a while now as junglers are often tanks. They can take the form of Warriors, Guardians, or even Assassins building health and protection items. In this article, we will cover the Assassins that can be built with tank items and the changes Patch 4.23 brought to the role.

With Patch 4.23 pushing Assassins into more a damage and burst-oriented playstyle, why would you build Assassins tanky? One reason is that you or your team just want more in the frontline. Your team could be running a Mage support such as Nox or Hel, so you want the jungler to bring some beef to pick up the slack. You could also have very strong carries, especially if they are Hunters, so you want to provide utility and set them up. The Assassins listed below all provide protection shred and other utility. You can also adjust the build path to be more bruisery or even full damage if you find yourself hard carrying and decided you don’t want to be a setup player.

Serqet is the premier Assassin to be built tanky. Her kit allows the build to work wonders. Serqet’s Deathbane ability strips physical protections from those hit, allowing your physical carries to do more damage. Last Breath, Serqet’s ultimate, does a set amount of true damage, so building damage items will not increase its damage. Serqet’s passive, Catalyst, also does not scale off of power, but will deal more damage with the penetration she will be building. Serqet has a moderate amount of crowd control to lock down opponents and she does decent damage while your carries follow up. She also has a lot of mobility, allowing her to quickly get into and out of fights backed up by her tough build.

Ratatoskr is another Assassin that is great with defensive items. He has AoE physical protection reduction in the form of Flurry and crowd control in all of his other abilities. Ratatoskr’s ultimate, Through the Cosmos, provides long range initiation with a knock up. It can be used to CC chain enemies and set up for his allies while remaining durable. A tanky Ratatoskr trades some of his damage potential for safety and utility.

Ne Zha is an Assassin that can go tanky. Universe Ring toss shreds physical protections and slows multiple targets, even if they are loosely spread. Ne Zha’s ultimate, Wind Fire Wheels, can take a particularly annoying opponent out of a fight for a couple seconds or soften off a priority target for guaranteed fallow up. The drawback to running tank Ne Zha is that you won’t one-shot a squishy with Wind Fire Wheels and if you team is behind, ulting a target may just result in your death, but can be an incredible force from ahead.

Some Assassins have been built as bruisers for years and can be built a little tankier, such as Thor and Fenrir. These Warrior-like gods have channeled spells, initiation, high base damage, and power steroids in their kits, which allows them to be effective with high defense builds.

Ancile is a core item in the tanky Assassin builds.

The tanky Assassin build itself has a couple core items and some variations. After Warrior Tabi, Ancile and either Mystical Mail or Gladiator’s Shield are usually bought. The build includes Titan’s Bane for damage and is filled out with situational items.

Ancile is one of the best items in the build and a gateway for allowing Assassins to build these tanky builds. While being a hybrid item, Ancile heavily leans on the aggressive side. It provides 40 power, 50 magic defense, and 10% CDR. In addition, it brings a passive that silences enemies in an AoE when the user is hit by a Magical attack, with a 30 second cooldown. Ancile can be bought early not just to dive Mages or against magical compositions, but also because its high power allows for fast jungle clear and kills.

Mystical Mail and Gladiator’s Shield are the most common early physical defense items. Both items provide physical defense and a source of damage. Gladiator’s Shield is a bridge item and is best on gods that can make use of its CDR and passive to hit multiple abilities for extra sustain. Mystical Mail provides more defenses and pulses AoE damage to deal moderate damage spread across the enemy team over time.

Titan’s Bane is the primary damage source for the tanky Assassin build. It grants 30% penetration, which equates to a lot of flat pen even on squishy targets. Because there is not a lot of power in this build, penetration does a lot of work to boost its damage.

Other items are used in defensive-oriented Assassin builds. Situational defense items are bought to fill out the build based on the enemy composition and damage profile. Gladiator’s Shield is often sold in the late game for an item with more stats. Hybrid items like Masamune can be picked up to deal some damage while still providing effective health. Jotunn’s Wrath has been picking up steam as a second item. Jotunn’s Wrath allows for early playmaking with damage, penetration, and cooldown reduction.

Patch 4.23 saw some item changes to push Assassins into a playstyle more evocative of their class. Jotunn’s Wrath and Hydra’s Lament were buffed in this patch. As we discussed, some players have been building Jotunn’s Wrath before building tank items and the buff helps out this middle of the road build path. Hydra’s Lament is a very strong item that has been a key point in many current jungle builds, but does not fit into a defensive build because it relies on other damage items to boost its own damage. Patch 4.24, the patch worlds will be on, did not include any item changes, so tanky Assassins may still exist for certain players and compositions at the Smite World Championship.

Jotunn's Wrath and Hydra's Lament have recently been buffed, prompting more Assassins to use full damage builds.

Some Assassins can be built tanky in Smite. This itemization allows gods like Serqet and Ratatoskr to be survivable while still proving utility and damage. Items such as Ancile, Mystical Mail, and Gladiator’s Shield provide the core of builds and can be backed up by more defensive and hybrid items. Penetration option such as Jotunn’s Wrath and Titan’s Bane are picked up to do damage. Patch 4.23 pushed Assassins towards a more damage-oriented playstyle, but we are likely to see at least some Assassins built as tanky utility junglers at the Smite World Championship.

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