Kukulkan has had a tumultuous history in Smite. He has spent a lot of his life as a low-tier god, but he received a buff in Patch 6.11 and has been a monster ever since. Kukulkan has been nerfed in every patch of season 7, but he remains a strong mid laner. Due to his passive, Kukulkan loves to build mana and this leads players to use builds unique to the Serpent of the Nine Winds. In this article, we will examine a few items and builds that Kukulkan can put to great use.

Kukulkan’s passive is called Power Of The Wind Jewel. The ability causes Kukulkan to gain magical power equal to 4% of his maximum mana. This is the reason why Kukulkan makes great use of some itemization options that other Mages don't buy. Kukulkan loves building items in the Spellbook tree. All of these items provide mana, so they give Kukulkan some power in addition to their own effects. Kukulkan will always buy at least one Spellbook, and sometimes he’ll grab all 4.

Book of Thoth is a core item for Kukulkan. The Book comes with 80 power, 250 mana, 15 mp5, and a couple passives. It is a stacking item that gains mana per stack, up to 750. Book of Thoth also causes you to gain power equal to 6% of the mana from your items. Once fully stacked, Book of Thoth evolves and converts an additional 3% of mana from items into power.

Kukulkan synergizes with Book of Thoth because both the item and his passive cause him to gain power based on his mana. With a fully stacked book, Kukulkan gains 13% of the mana from his items as pure power. Book of Thoth ends up with 1000 mana, so Kukulkan gets 130 power out of the passives, for a total of 210 power just from one item. The more mana items Kukulkan buys, the better Book of Thoth is on him.

You want to stack Book of Thoth as early as possible and should start the game with Book of Souls, the tier 2 version of Book of Thoth. Then you farm up 1300 more gold and get the full Book of Thoth. This build spends a while without boots, but Kukulkan can farm safely under his tower or drop a Whirlwind and roam if he needs to. You can also start with a Mage's Blessing and Spellbook for mana security, but this delays the completion and stacking of Book of Thoth.

Book of Thoth is a core item for Kukulkan.

Several Mages build Breastplate of Valor as a 3rd or 4th item for defense, but it is even better on Kukulkan. Breastplate of Valor comes with 65 Physical Protection, 300 Mana, 10 MP5, and 20% Cooldown Reduction. Breastplate of Valor can be built to keep the Mage safe from the jungler or a heavily physical team. It is also a great pickup when the Mage is the only source of magical damage on your own team. The enemy team will mostly build physical defense and try to focus the Mage, but Breastplate allows the Mage to survive in cases they wouldn’t otherwise. Dead DPS deal no DPS, so trading a damage item for the safety of Breastplate of Valor can be valuable, just ask Paul, the reigning world champion.

With Book of Thoth, Breastplate of Valor turns into a Bruiser item. The 300 mana means the wearer gets 27 bonus power. Kukulkan instead gets 39 power, pretty nice for a defensive item that also comes with great cooldown reduction. Book of Thoth, Shoes of Focus, and Breastplate of Valor is a solid 3 item set that provide a lot of mana. CDR, damage, and safety. The build does lack penetration, which should be built next. If you want the penetration third, you can always build Breastplate of Valor as a fourth item.

Breastplate of Valor is a good defensive item for Kukulkan.

Polynomicon is another 3rd item option on Kukulkan. Polynomicon builds out of the Spellbook tree and has 85 power, 300 mana, and 12% lifesteal. The passive gives your next basic attack within 3 seconds of casting a spell 75% extra power scaling. The burst is great for killing structures and squishy characters. A Zephyr into poly-empowered auto is devastating in the late game when Kukulkan has massive amounts of power from his items and mana-loving effects. Building Polynomicon 3rd gives Kukulkan strong damage if he can hit his empowered auto attacks, but again lacks penetration. Building Poly 3rd is great when ahead to push a lead, but may not be the best choice if Kukulkan needs pen or defense to have an impact in the game.

Polynomicon provides a burst of damage after casting spells.

Speaking of Spellbook items, Kukulkan can make use out of a four-book build. The books are: Book of Thoth, Polynomicon, Book of the Dead, and Soul Reaver. You just buy the whole tree. Book of the Dead is generally a more situational itm and provides 100 power, 200 mana, and a passive that gives you a shield equal to 20% of your mana if you drop below 40% health. This book feeds into the mana build. It contributes mana for power gains and benefits from the mana on other items.

Soul Reaver is an often-built Mage item that offers 110 power, 300 mana and 10% penetration. In addition, your abilities deal an additional 2-7% of the target god’s max health, scaling with the target’s hp bar. Procs within 3 seconds of each other deal half damage. Soul Reaver gained the penetration in Season 7 and is an item that most Mages buy for its damage. Kukulkan gets another 300 mana and usually buys Soul Reaver regardless if he’s running a four-book build or not.

Altogether, these 4 books provide 375 power and 1800 mana. The mana generates 234 more power for Kukulkan. All this mana and power strengthens the power of the Polynomicon and Book of the Dead passives. This build requires at least one more penetration item to be built and you can use Book of the Dead or Polynomicon as a 7th item to finalize the build after selling boots. The 10% cooldown reduction on Potion of Power makes up for the loss of utility of Shoes of Focus.

Kukulkan can make use of a build with 4 Spellbook items.

Obsidian Shard got reworked in Season 7 and now every 10 seconds it makes your next spell cast gain 10% penetration. This extra penetration can ignore the 40% cap on magical penetration introduced in Season 7. Obsidian Shard is an item that is seeing play on Kukulkan in the European SCC. The European Kukulkans were building light penetration for four items, often just Soul Reaver, and then Obsidian Shard. A build that was run a few times started with Book of Thoth, then had Shoes of Focus, Breastplate of Valor, Soul Reaver, and then Obsidian Shard. They finish the build with Polynomicon and highlight every lesson in this article.

The problems with Obsidian Shard are that it procs whether you hit the ability or not and that you want to use the proc with Whirlwind or Spirit of the Nine Winds if you can. Consuming Obsidian Shard on the Zephyr to set up another ability is a slight waste, so the best use of Obsidian Shard is ulting off of a teammate’s setup. This is not always feasible, but picking up Obsidian Shard as a 5th item so you have 30% penetration is still a good overall damage option.

Obsidian Shard can be built on Kukulkan, but you have to be careful to not waste procs.

Kukulkan has a passive that opens up unique builds to him. Power of the Wind Jewel provides Kukulkan with power equal to 4% of his maximum mana. This passive encourages Kukulkan to build mana items such as Book of Thoth, which also converts mana into power. Items such as Breastplate of Valor and Polynomicon become more powerful in the dragon’s hands. Kukulkan can also make use of a build that incorporates all 4 items from the Spellbook line that gives him loads of mana and beneficial effects. Obsidian Shard got changed in Season Seven and provides additional burst every 10 seconds. Kukulkan has been a monster in Season 7 and keeps getting nerfed. With the Smite Pro league resumed, it will be interesting to see how the top players prefer to play and build the mana-loving winged serpent.