Thanatos

It's quite late so I'm sure I forgot to mention a whole lot of things. I'll edit this if I see something and if someone else finds any mistakes / feels like I left some stuff out, feel free to comment.
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# Building

##General

For builds, check [this page](http://www.smite.guru). While building in Smite is very situational, grappul offers a nice basic build that off of which
you can base your own, optimized build. If you want me to go into details on a certain item feel free to ask.


#Skills

##Skilling
Keep in mind that everyone has their own preferences and that the "best" way to skill is the one that best suits your playstyle. There are, however, some basic guidelines that are worth following, which are what I'll try to list below.

###Priority
1>3>2>4


###First five levels
1-3-2-1-4

##General

Don't skill until the very second that you're going to use it. Keep your skillpoint ready incase the enemy tries to invade / your team needs you. Be ready to put a point in your escape ability if you need to get out quick: it's better to
lose out on a little bit of earlygame power instead of giving away first blood.

##Harvester of souls
Incredible passive. Shows you enemies that are below your ults threshold aswel as healing you back up and reducing your active cooldowns if you get a kill on an enemy. Keep in mind that your abilities cost health aswel as mana.

##Death Sythe
Your bread and butter. Does insane damage, heals you back up, applies a slow, what more do you want?

##Scent of death
An incredible skill that is often very underestimated. Gives you movementspeed (even more if you're facing an enemy that's within your ults threshhold) and makes you immune to slows. It also gives you a lot of penetration.
##Soul Reap
Decent AOE ability. Good for hitting multiple enemies and applies a short slow. Mainly useful in teamfights or to counter the use of a very specific skill (e.g. stopping Poseidon from using his ult for 1.5 sec for you to hit your 1).

##Hovering Death
Insane ult. You swing up into the air for 5 seconds and you become untargetable (appart from a few skills like Nu Wa's ult). You can fly around freely and if you decend on an enemy that's within your threshold, you'll insta kill them. This ability also applies a one second stun.

#Tips

###General
Thanatos is an earlygame God. His skills have a great ammount of base damage, which means that they'll hurt a lot right at the start. Your 1 also takes another 10% of your targets max health, which also greatly helps earlygame. Later in the game, he's less dominant (his scaling is relatively bad, 60% on both his 1 and 3) but far from useless. He's great at picking off key targets and with the right build, stays viable till the very end.

Being an earlygame focused God, means that you have to utilize the earlygame as much as possible. Thanatos is wonderful for invading and thrives on earlygame agression. Push your enemy back, force them to back, have them watch as you steal their buffs. You're the perfect ganker, even if you're ult is on cooldown, and there's hardly any God who can survive a well executed Thanatos gank.

###Utilize your passive
People don't do this enough. Your passive allows you to fight multiple enemies one after the other or even at the same time. Get the killing blow on someone (especially with your 1) and you'll be ready to fight again. Don't underestimate the visability aspect of this either: it's great to keep track of low-health escaping enemies, allowing you or your teammates to finish them off.

###Aim ahead when using your 1
Your 1 is a projectile and as such has a travel time. When using your 1, you have to consider this. Aim a head of where the enemy is going or get very close to them in order to make sure that you hit it. Appart from being your main way of getting back health (other than finish someone off), it also costs health to cast and as such can put you in a bad spot if you miss it.

###Use the range on your 1 advantage
Thanatos is one of those Gods that can finish enemies off when they're under their own tower with 40% health left even earlygame. Use the range on your 1 for this. If you see an enemy in his tower that's relatively low, sneak behind him and hit him with your 1 (make sure to apply your 2 for additional damage). This will often times kill them.

###Your 2 is not just for the movement speed
This is insanely important and very underestimated. The Penetration your 2 provides gives allows you to shred even tanky targets.

###Don't forget about the additional effect on your 2.
People seem to forget about this all too often: you get additional movementspeed if you chase after an enemy that's within your threshold. Use this to your advantage when chasing after someone. This bonus speed also applies to your ult, if your 2 is active!

###Think before you spamm your 3
The main use of your 3 is not to do damage. It has a silence, albeit a short one, that you can use to stopp enemies from using skills at key points in the game. Your main target should be mages, as they oftn rely on their skills and are a good target for you due to their squishyness. Keep in mind that you move slower than usual while using this skill.

###Your 3 is good to deal the killing blow
With Thanatos, you'll often find yourself at low health. You either finish your enemy off within a second, or it'll be a close fight. Your 3 can really help with this, especially if you're up against meele characters. The range allows you to keep out of the enemies basic attack range while silencing them. This is great if you're both very low. You can use your 3 to finish them off and heal yourself back up.

###Your ult is a wonderful initiation
A lot of people get confused as to why you wouldn't prioritize your ult on Thanatos. While this might work well in low level games, it doesn't in high level play. You'll most often use your ultimate to initiate. The one second stun is invaluable and greatly helps with landing your 1. Often times ulting in and hitting the enemy with your 2 is enough to bring them down to 10-30% health. This makes chasing after them with your 2 and finishing them off very easy.

###Utilize the threshold, especially against tanks!
Instakilling someone is always nice, but there are some targets where it is more valuable than others. Killing a squishy mage at 40% health is nice, but could perhaps easily be done by someone else or with your 1. Instakilling a tanky Ymir at 40% however, saves your team a whole lot of work.

###Don't be afraid to use your ult to escape
If you're in trouble, if you see 4 people rotating towards you, if you picked a fight you can't win, don't be ashamed to ult out. You'll get your revenge, no reason to give them free kills.