Bacchus is one of the oldest gods in Smite, but the god of wine has always been one of my favorite characters to play and I want to share my knowledge with you! I know it can be frustrating getting the support role if you didn’t choose it as one of your desired roles. The hope is that this guide will help you get through some of the finer points of this character and his kit so that you can help belch, belly flop, and chug your way to victory!

Abilities

Drunk-o-Meter

Let’s start with Bacchus’ passive, Drunk-o-Meter. Like many gods, utilizing a passive effectively is the difference between a good Bacchus and a great Bacchus. The more intoxicated Bacchus is - the stronger is passive buff is. The Drunk-o-Meter has two categories, Tipsy and Smashed. When Bacchus is Tipsy, he gains 10 magical power and 5% damage mitigation. When Bacchus is Smashed, Bacchus gains 30 magical power and 10% damage mitigation. It also enhances Belch of the Gods to be a stun instead of just being a damaging ability, though we'll go over that part in a little bit. The key to this passive is making sure you are able to manage your mana consumption so you can stay Smashed and take full advantage of his passive without mana-starving yourself.

Chug

Bacchus' first ability, Chug, is how he maintains his passive. It's also the source of a lot of his mana consumption. The key to being an effective Bacchus is knowing when to Chug. Chug is available at rank 0, but it does not provide protections at rank 0, only allowing Bacchus to build up his Drunk-o-Meter. Chug provides 40% increase to your Drunk-o-Meter and 15/20/25/30/35 physical and magical protection for 6 seconds and is on a 10 second cooldown. Bacchus is able to consistently have this protections buff on him if he has a full 40% cooldown reduction, but most Guardian/Bruiser builds won't give that to you, so being careful when you don't have those extra protections is one of the finer points of mastering the fat man.

Belly Flop

Bacchus' best form of CC comes from this second ability. Belly Flop knocks up enemies as well as applies a 20% slow for 2 seconds. Using Belly Flop effectively can make or break a teamfight. It has a relatively small targeter as well as a longer cooldown (16 seconds), so you have to make sure you're leading your targets correctly to hit the knockup so your team can burst the enemy before they have a chance to get away.

The numbers for Belly Flop are as follows: 90/130/170/210/250 (70% of magical power). It can pack a punch especially if you rank it up early on.

Belch of the Gods

This two-fold ability is what can really bring Bacchus to the table. Belch of the Gods has a built-in 50% healing debuff on any enemy it hits, so if there is a major healer of the enemy team, consider taking Bacchus to help keep those healing numbers down. The second half of this ability is the stun at the end of the belch. This is a bit rough because Belch does damage every .5 seconds for 2 seconds and the stun only happens at the end of the damage, so it can he easily interruptixble or dodged. The stun is a great way to lock down a single opponent and follow up with a Belly Flop for a near-confirmed knockup.

Belch of the Gods deals 20/35/50/65/80 (+15% of Magical power) per tick and ticks .5 seconds for 2 seconds. The stun after last for 1 second and as I mentioned before it applies a 50% healing reduction on enemies for 4 seconds.

Intoxicate

Intoxicate is a massive damage dealer that intoxicates all enemies that get hit with it. When an enemy is intoxicated the character moves in an unpredictable zig-zag pattern which makes it difficult to flee. Bacchus also gains a magical power buff for 5 seconds after using Intoxicate, so it's a great initiation tool to deal the most damage.

The numbers on this bad boy are 250/325/400/475/500 (+70% of your Magical Power) for the damage and a 20/30/40/50/60 Magical Power buff on Bacchus that lasts for 6 seconds after using it. The Intoxicated debuff lasts for 6 seconds. What an ability.

Build

When it comes to a build for Bacchus, you're generally gonna need a new things - protections, health, and just a touch of extra damage. Luckily there are items that can fill multiple needed slots.

Start: Guardian's Blessing, Boots, and mana and health potions.

The reasoning behind the start?

• Well, without Guardian's Blessing, you're going to put yourself so far behind in gold and experience in a role where farming gold and XP is already difficult enough, it's creates almost an impossible hole to get out of.
• Getting Boots allows you to get a head start on getting your first power spike when you complete them. You only need 1050 gold to finish Shoes of Focus, which give you that touch of damage that I was mentioning earlier as well as extra mana to help you spam those abilities.

Rest of the Build: Gauntlet of Thebes, Pestilence if enemies have excess healing on their team, and, if they don't, Oni Hunter's Garb is the play. Followed by Spirit Robe and Mantle of Discord.

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• Gauntlet of Thebes provides aura of protections for yourself and teammates and as a support, you're most likely going to be near your team so they can take full advantage of those auras.
• Pestilence decreases healing and gives you a good amount of magical protections and health. If the enemy team does not have any healers, Oni Hunter's Garb provides a percentage based damage reduction based on the number of enemies around you, as well as magical protections and mana per 5 seconds (MP5)
• Spirit Robe also provides percentage based damage reduction when hit with enemy crowd control, such as a stun or knockup. It also gives you both physical and magical protections to help give it the tanky edge.
• Mantle of Discord gives 60 magical and physical protections along with a special passive that stuns nearby enemies (melee range) when the wearer get below 30% health and also gives the wearer CC immunity when that 30% threshold is reached. I cannot tell you how many times this passive has saved my life. I always build it on all supports and solo laners.

Relics

Relics are usually going to depend on what your team wants. I typically ask my carry which relic they want and I generally get that first. It's usually Magic Shell, Heavenly Wings, or Horrific Emblem. If they don't have a preference, Magic Shell is a good way to go that can save lives easily.

I almost always grab Blink for my relic at level 12. It's the best initiation tool for Bacchus because you can Blink then ult, gaining that extra power, and then Belch or Flop to make sure all your damage gets through.

Teamfight Responsibilities:

Finally, I want to talk about your responsibilities during a teamfight. This is something that is often glazed over, but I want to give you a good baseline for what you should be doing. It’s going to get a little tricky because your responsibilities depend on your team’s composition, the enemy team’s composition, how well your teammates are playing, how much you trust your teammates, and a myriad of other situations. This is going to be a baseline, not a gospel. It's also important to note that your role may switch over the course of the match - playing and watching TrixTank play are gonna be the best ways to learn what your responsibilities need to be and when.

Generally speaking, you're going to be either on peel duty for your damage dealers or initiate duty on their damage dealers. Regardless, you're going to be yelled at for not doing the other. #SupportLife.

As the game progresses, if you feel like you’re doing most of the initiating, utilizing your Blink immediately into Bacchus’ ultimate is a great way to start out a fight and cause disruption and burn some actives on the enemy side. By using your Blink and saving your Belly Flop, it enables you to have that Belly Flop available if an enemy tries to get away or if your team is losing the engagement and needs to fall back. The Flop is an excellent tool to peel for your teammates or disengage for yourself.

So there you have it, a pseudo-comprehensive guide on how to build and play Bacchus, the God of Wine. Feel free to drop me a follow on Twitter and see all the other memes I post. They're mostly good.

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