At the Smite World Championship, Osiris was one of the dominant solo laners. In the patch following the SWC, Osiris was hit by some pretty hard nerfs. Many players have proclaimed Osiris in the solo lane dead. Let’s have a look on what exactly they changed.

So, on the initial glance, the changes don’t seem all that significant. It even says they’re minor, so they can’t be all that bad! Let’s compare the numbers. The key thing to understand about attack speed in Smite is that % increases are a function of base attack speed. Executioner, for example, grants 25% attack speed. On a character with 1 base attack speed, it adds .25. On a character with .9 base attack speed, it grants .225 attack speed. Knowing this allows us to calculate Osiris’s attack speed at level 20 without items.

1.1 base * .008 attack speed/level * 20 levels + 1.1 base= 1.276 pre-nerf vs.
.95 base * .014 attack speed/level * 20 levels +.95 base=1.216 post-nerf

It comes out to a difference of .06. That doesn’t look all that bad. However, the real pain comes from the reduction in base attack speed. It means Osiris gains less from each item than he did last season, compounding on the loss. The second nerf comes in the form of the nerf to Osiris’s favorite damage item, Qin’s Sais.

This change effects Osiris in a pretty huge way. Osiris’s hit chain meant he relied on Qin’s Sais for his damage. Osiris’s hit chain deals 4 attacks over 3 seconds, meaning Qin’s Sais (whose damage is not effected by the lowered damage for the 2 faster attacks) was proccing more frequently than a character without the progression, but with the same damage. The 20% damage decrease was in effect a 20% hit on Osiris’s DPS. In addition, the loss of 10% attack speed combines with the base attack speed nerf to really slow down Osiris.

With all these changes, many players have abandoned Osiris. Playing him feels sluggish in comparison to old Osiris. Proving them wrong is Team Dignitas’s solo laner Harry “Variety” Cumming. In the 2 SPL games Team Dignitas won last week, Variety brought out Osiris to great success. Certainly, Osiris has some potential. However, what do we need to do make him work?

One option is to de-emphasize the role of Osiris as a carry and emphasize his potential as a tank. Osiris’s passive, granting up to 16% physical damage mitigation, combined with his 3, mean Osiris is pretty tanky without items. This is the path Variety took, abstaining from building Qin’s Sais until his last item. This path trades quicker burst damage for longer, more sustained damage over a fight. While this playstyle can be difficult to adjust to for Season 1 Osiris players, there is no question that it is effective.

The other path is to try out some new itemization to build Osiris as a basic attack carry. This path means sacrificing a lot of the tankiness potential that Season 1 Osiris had in order to get a matching damage value. In Seasson 1, Osiris had no need for penetration outside of Warrior Tabi. However, without penetration on Warrior Tabi, Osiris has to look elsewhere for penetration.

Ichaival is Season 2’s new premier boxing item. 30% attack speed, 10 penetration, and the physical power steal combined with Ichaival’s cheap price mean that Osiris’s looking to trade basic attacks should look to pick this up. The great thing about Ichaival on Osiris is that Osiris’s hit progression means that you can apply the stacks quicker than your opponent, boosting your boxing capacity even more.

In the same vein are Asi and Executioner. Asi provides lifesteal in addition to attack speed and penetration, while executioner provide massive protection reduction. Both should be considered on Osiris to make up for the reduction in attack speed on Qin’s Sais and Osiris’s base stats. Howeverm it should be noted that multiple Exeuctioner’s won’t stack, and Executioner is a core item for most hunter builds.

The last thing to consider is basic attack cancelling. While this technique has always been important, the attack speed nerfs make it paramount for optimal Osiris play. When you cast your first ability (Sickle Strike), it resets Osiris’s hit progression back to the beginning. Because of the delay between the second and third hits of the progression, casting it then will speed up your basic attacks. Until you hit about 1.9 attack speed, this creates a net increase in your DPS

Despite significant changes to Osiris’s damage, he still has a potential to be a force to be reckoned with. In the face numerous naysayers, Osiris still has the capability to dominate games. He may not have the same capacity as he did last season, but Osiris definitely can still win. However, the proper steps need to be taken to adjust to the changes; you can’t expect to play and build him the same as last Season and still be successful.