When we pick our favorite gods we tend to only consider their potential for damage but as great as their 1-4 may be, your passive can decide the outcome of an engagement. There are a number of passives that work incredibly well in certain situations, Hun Batz's 'Infused Strikes' is a great way to do some extra damage provided a little luck is on your side. Others such as Ra's or Agni's are solid additions to their kits; both work well in conjunction with their abilities and feel like a natural part of their skill set. Each of the skills outlined below are my choices for the ten best passive, as of the Nemesis patch (2/6/2014), based on how well any god could utilize them.

Can you name them all?

10. Dead of Night

Xbalanque's passives gives him an additional +5 physical power per god kill up to 6. Combined with the addition damage and potential range from 'Branching Bola', Xbalanque is perhaps the single hardest hitting Hunter currently in-game. However Xbalanque's passive is reliant on getting kills, preferably early in the game. His awkward and relatively weak waveclear makes Xbalanque easier to shut down compared to say Neith.

In addition his early kill potential relies on his 'Poison Darts' into 'Rising Jaguar' combo. Both skills have rather substantial cooldowns and are easily interrupted during the casting animations. A fed Xbalanque can easily carry the team to victory but lacks the crowd-control and hard farm potential of other hunters.

9. Drunk-O-Meter

Bacchus is the people's tank. Boasting the only flat damage reduction outside of Mark of the Vanguard and Idol of Concentration, Bacchus is the ultimate at stealing objectives, throwing his weight around so to speak, as he gloriously 'Belly Flop's on top of the unsuspecting enemy. A massive magical power buff after using 'Intoxicate' combined with his inherent tankiness makes Bacchus a deadly foe during the dreaded 'Drunk State'. Bacchus's inherent weakness lies in his high mana costs and low mana pool. A single 'Chug' will cost nearly a fifth of Bacchus's base mana. Bacchus will quickly 'oom' himself if he, true to his nature, overindulges.

8. Unbound Runes

Fenrir has a fairly strong passive because it augments any of his four abilities and with the 'Unbound Runess' refreshing for every kill he can chain kills together and remain at full power. 'Unchained' gives him a fairly easy to land stun, on top of reducing the cooldown by half. “Seething Howl' provides the highest physical power buff, 75 physical power for 6s, in-game while providing incredibly strong lifesteal. 'Ragnarok' has the distinction of being the longest, ground targeted, cc-immunity ultimate in-game and at max level will grant Fenrir over 100 additional protections.

Fenrir's main strength lies in selectivity; at max Runes Fenrir has the option to initiate, extended sustain and power and perhaps the best AoE damage of any assassin. The downside lies in building Runes. During an engagement Fenrir may not have the opportunity to refresh his stacks. Lastly, Fenrir has no choice of when to activate 'Unbound Runes'; similar to 'Lovestuck' after building the five stacks the next ability will always consume them.

7. Marked for Death

Kali, the dive queen herself, lives for the chase. Massive passive physical penetration against her target and the best healing potential in-game, Kali excels during the mid-game and will shreds most targets with ease. Kali has a lot of potential if she can chain target kills in quick succession. Kali also excels in the jungle due to a passive 25% gold increase on target kills. Many junglers need to pay attention to their farm so as to not fall behind but Kali is disproportionately rewarded for prioritizing ganks over hard farm.

However, her strength comes with an inherent weakness: without a way to effectively communicate her target to her team, a dive can go wrong fast. Kali is one of the few gods where an accidentally 'kill-secured' can turn ann easy gank into a 1 for 1 trade.

6. Harvester of Souls

Thanatos has an unbelievably strong passive that's perfect for his role. One of the few junglers who can do without, nay, excel without 'Bumba's Mask, Thanatos has one of the strongest jungle clear due his passive. All jungle and lane minions heal Thanatos for 10% of their max health. Combined with his low mana cost due to the unique nature of his abilities Thanatos has near limitless sustain. In addition Thanatos has great map-awareness when it comes to chasing low health target and few can escape their fate.

Finally Thanatos gets 20% of the target maximum health on god kills and refreshes his cooldowns by 5 seconds. This is perhaps the strongest part of Thanatos' passive: he may have the lowest health pool in-game but a few well-timed 'Death Scythe' to chain kills together and he'll live to return anew or go down swinging.

Swinging? Get it?

5. Demon Bag

Zhong Kui has a very strong passive for a mage. Considering he has a shorter effective range than most mages, 'Demon Bag' makes perfect sense. The 40 free protections he gains make him one of the hardest gods to kill during the laning phase. Very few gods can rival Zhong Kui's protections and none gain them as early or quickly as Zhong Kui. During 'Recall Demons' these protections double and with extended cc-immunity, Zhong Kui won't go down easily. A strong self-heal on 'Exorcism' means Zhong Kui will stand toe-to-toe with other common mids.

With Zhong Kui's obvious strengths comes an inherent weakness. As previously mentioned he has a shorter effective range than most mages and a very predictable waveclear. A well-placed 'Tornadoes' or 'Whirlpool will deny Zhong Kui the opportunity to stack his passive and force him to proceed with caution.

How did you get out of the bag?

4. Hard as Rock

Geb's passive may not make him as innately tanky as Bacchus but renders a major source of damage, the ADC, inherently useless against him. Geb has a unique secondary effect of hindering several other gods, such as Ne Zha and Hun Batz. Geb has a strong overall kit: with extended cc-immunity on a short cooldown, strong mobility and an instant cast ultimate, Geb is more than capable of steamrolling past the enemy frontline and targeting the damage dealers. With high base gains in protections and the third highest base health, taking Geb down is a feat in and of itself.

3. Unyielding

Tyr's passive makes him a nightmare for tanks to deal with. Tyr laughs at several of the strongest teamfight ultimates in the game, for example Chang'e's 'Waxing Moon' and Chaac's 'Storm Call' which prioritizes the crowd-control effects rather than the damage. Several other gods such as Anubis and Thor rely on stuns to maximize their damage output and, without being able to lockdown a target, are significantly weaker. Combined with his high mobility and excellent heal, Tyr is another god that can rush past the frontline and bring the dps into the fray.

2. Graceful Winds

Ao Kuang has an unbelievably strong passive which many gods would envy. With his base mana gains Ao will get an astounding 58 magical power for free. With a fairly standard build this can easily double. The free 60 power he gains passively is equivalent to items like Chronos Pendant or Demonic Grip, valued at ~2300gold. Ao can get the equivalent of several midgame items simply by doing what he does best: farming the lane.

1. Sorrow

Anubis has a completely bloated passive: enhanced magical lifesteal, protection shred and steal and built in CC-reduction. Since Anubis is solely reliant on DoTs, it is very easy to effectively build stacks of Sorrow. However, his potency and his biggest weakness lies in his tick damage: a burst mage without guaranteed damage coming means his passive is often forgotten as many gods can counter him by casually walking away.

Compared to He Bo's 'Water Cannon', the base damage of 'Plague of Locusts' will do nearly double the damage but requires the enemy to stand in the ability for over 2 seconds to be as effective. Still Anubis is at his strongest when doing damage and as many of us know Anubis has damage in spades.

Many of the passives seen here have a few things in common: enhanced damage, crowd-control reduction, free stat gains and healing. All of the gods here, with the excpetion of Anubis, are common picks in ranked and competitive games. Would these gods be as viable with alternative passives, perhaps? But many of the weakest picks, Hades and Vulcan to name a few, have rather lackluster passives so there may be some truth in a strong passive making a strong god.

Special thanks to members of the Smite subreddit if you participated in the poll. Your input is appreciated now and in the future.