SMITE Arachne Guide

SMITE Arachne Guide by SilentMourner

I will do a TL;DR at the bottom, so skip there if you don’t want the long, drawn out version with stats and explanations.

There will be a Jungle guide, and lanning guide and as well as items, ganking and how to survive her biggest weakness and how to counter her as well…

Disclaimer: Any ability with a ? next to it is my best guess at it from repeated testing. If someone has found hard numbers that differ from my guesswork, please feel free to leave a comment. Thank you!

Personal:

Arachne is my favorite hero in the game currently, even if she isn’t the strongest hero in the game. In this guide i will explain the pros to this hero, the cons to this hero, how best to use her and how best to counter her from my own personal experience. I’ve played Arachne in over 30 games, most of them jungle and I’ve rolled people and been rolled as her. I’m fairly confident i have the hero’s strengths and weakness figured out, but i know I’m not perfect, nor am i a theorycrafter, so if any of you brainiacs out there know something i don’t, please feel free to speak up. I will be updating the information on this page as new info becomes available to me.

How do you know if Arachne is right for you?

–Arachne is a DEDICATED assassin. All of her abilities are offensive based. Her description lists her as “melee” and “assassin”. That’s it. Remember that!!!!

–She has no reliable get away mechanic, so champs with AoE ult’s like Hades can trap you in their ult’s and there is just not a d*** thing you can do about it. Characters with leaps can jump over your Tangled Web ability without much difficulty, and almost any hero in the game with an AoE nuke can kill your spiderlings easily enough. Oh, and ANY ranged hero in the game can kill your egg sacks with one to two hits, including the casters at low levels. If you want a hero that can run into the front lines and kill people, choose a different hero. You wont like Arachne. But if you like sneaking around in the jungle, disrupting the enemy team and having one of the most game breaking ult’s if used correctly, then read on my friend. Read on.

Arachne’s Base Stats: Start to Finish

HP: 445 + 79 per level. 2025 max level.

Mana: 210 + 21 per level. 630 max level.

Speed: 360

Range: 12

Attack/Sec: 1 + .02 per level. 1.4 max level.

Physical Power: 38 + 2 per level. 78 max level.

Magical Power: 0 + 0 per level. 0 max level.

Physical Defense: 13 + 3 per level. 73 max level.

Magical Defense: 30 + 0 per level. 30 max level.

HP5: 9 + .67 per level. 22.4 max level.

MP5: 5 + .46 per level. 14.2 max level.

Arachne’s Abilities: From the Ground Up.

–Poison Claws:

Ability Type: Passive

Mana Cost: N/A

Cool Down: N/A

Base Damage: 5

Physical Power (PP): 10%

Duration: 3s

Number of ticks: 6

Interval between ticks: .5 seconds

Max stacks: 3

Slow: 3-5%

–Her passive is the unsung hero for Arachne. Most people don’t think much of the damage on it, and its not, with one stack. With 3 stacks you deal 15 damage plus 30% of what your PP… so with 50 PP, your passive will be doing 15(base)+15(30%PP). so 30 damage every .5 second for 3 seconds. 6×30=180 damage. and that’s with ONLY 50 PP. i would say 80% of my kills i get from early ganks are from her passive. I’ve done a lot of tests to see if her passive slows, and it turns out it does. Not by a whole lot, but it does. I’d probably say 3-5% per stack, so somewhere between 10%-15% at 3 stacks (I’m aware that 3×3 is 9). Also, the damage from her passive is NOT added together. You’ll just see the same small number pop up faster. IE: if your poison is doing 5 damage a stack (0 PP) with 3 stacks, then you wont see 15 damage popping up, you’ll just see 5 damage 3 times as often.

–Broodlings:

Ability Type: Active

Mana Cost: 60/65/70/75/80

Cool Down: 15s/14s/13s/12s/11s

Egg HP: 1?

Egg Duration: N/A

Number of Eggs: 5

Spiderling HP: 200?

Base Damage:25/35/45/55/65

Physical Power (PP): 17%

Spiderling Poison Damage: 25/35/45/55/65

Poison Duration: 3s?

Poison slow: 20%

Number of Spiderlings: 2

Skill Priority: One point at level 1, max 4th.

–Her first ability, the one you should take first always, and the one that makes her pretty OP early in the game, Spiderlings are useful for way more than they should be. This is the only utility ability Arachne has, though i still consider it an offensive ability since most of the time you’ll be using them to help kill other Gods, push a lane and kill jungle creeps. The egg sack itself is a ward before it hatches, so placing them in junctures to alarm of incoming ganks its highly advisable, as well as the Fury and the Fire Giant later in the game. This is also a must for jungling to start with, but I’ll get more into that in the jungle section.

The spiderlings themselves are much more powerful than they should be starting, doing 25 damage per attack, once a second and putting a DoT on them that slows them by 20% as well as does 25 damage a second for roughly 2-3 seconds. The slow stacks with your passive, so you can potentially slow someone by about 30%-35% without Tangled Web.

–Drain Life:

Ability Type: Channeled

Mana Cost: 65/70/75/80/85

Cool Down: 15s

Base Damage: 30/40/50/60/70

Physical Power (PP): 15%

Duration:3

Number of ticks: 6

Interval between ticks:.5

Health drained: 100% of damage dealt.

Skill Priority: First point at level 2, max first.

–Arachne’s main damaging ability, her main form of hard CC, her only healing ability and the ability most likely to kill you. Drain Life has a range only slightly farther than your auto attack, so you need to be very very close to someone before you can use it. When you do, you jump on their back (which is pretty d*** funny looking honestly) and begin to bite them. While you on their back, you can’t be hit with auto attack from the person your riding, and they’re silenced for the duration. What they can do is run around, and if your not careful you’ll go running strait into a tower with them or right into the middle of the enemy team. You’ll mainly use this as a way to keep an enemy from using spells to get away from your ganks. Prayer Beads do NOT remove Arachne’s Life Drain, but you can be knocked off by ANY form of hard CC, including knock backs, so be careful if your fighting more than one person. You an also cancel the ability at any time by right clicking.

–Tangled Web:

Ability Type: Active

Mana Cost: 70/75/80/85/90

Cool Down: 15s

Duration: 10s

Slow: 20%/25%/30%/35%/40%

Skill Priority: 1 point at level 3, max second.

–Tangled web is probably one of the largest slows in the game, AoE wise. You really can cover an entire lane with it if you place correctly, though the sides will be thin. I get one point at level 3, and then max it second, after Life Drain. This ability requires some practice to place correctly because the initial missile speed is pretty slow, so its hard to catch people with more than half your web unless your already pretty close to them. It also doubles very well as a get away slow in case the hunter finds himself the hunted.

–Cocoon:

Ability Type: Active

Mana Cost: 100

Cool Down: 30s

Base Damage: 100/150/200/250/300

Physical Power (PP): 50%

Stun Duration: 1s

Skill Priority: One point at level 5, max 3rd.

–And the ability that ties everything so well together is this. Arachne shoots out a web in front of her in a strait line and the first enemy GOD and then pulls them to her, the enemy god is stunned for one second and takes a moderate amount of damage. Think Meat Hook from DotA or Rocket Grab from League, although your ability goes through creeps. You’ll need to practice using this ability since its a bit fickle. When you cast the ability Arachne will stop moving and brace herself before firing the web. This animation takes about .5s to 1s, so make sure to take that in to consideration before firing her web.

Playing Arachne: The Pros and Cons of Having Eight Legs.

–Pros:

–Arachne is strongest from levels 1 to 15ish. She has a very strong presence and can run most heroes over if she has even a slight advantage on them. That being said, Arachne is an assassin without ANY type of leap or CC reduction/Immunity so if your fighting more than one person you should run away unless your fed. Your ulti has a 30s cool down, so use it often and don’t let it bother you too much when you miss.

–Jungle:

Arachne is the fastest jungler in the game, being able to reach level two and have both the blue and green buffs before the first creep wave has even started fighting in lane, if you have HotG. This allows for easy early ganks, just be careful not to die and lose your buffs.

–Counter Jungle:

Arachne is also one of the best counter jungles since she doesn’t need HotG to kill jungle creeps, just her spiderlings. Stealing buffs, any buffs, from a jungle is almost always a crippling blow to them early in the game. This includes friendly junglers too, so make sure NOT to kill your own jungle creeps unless you have permission from the jungle. I’ve gotten a few kills off of enemy junglers from spiderlings because they were running around at low hp.

–Anti-Counter Jungle:

I’ve gotten quite a few of double kills and even one triple kill before creeps spawn from people trying to counter jungle Arachne. Spiderlings are just to powerful so early in the game, and if they run into two or three egg sacks there just isn’t a d*** thing they can do but die. They can’t even run because spiderlings are FAST, and they slow by 20%.

–Map Awareness:Arachne’s eggs give vision around them just like wards, so be sure to place them in major junctions. Early in the game you should try to place one near the junction at the speed rune and the blue rune so that you’ll always know if middle is coming to gank you. You can have up to five total, but you’ll only ever really need to use one or two at a time, unless your killing the Fury or some such.

–Cocoon:

What makes Arachne useful to the team no mater how late the game goes, Cocoon has changed the dynamic of many of the team-fights I’ve been in. Its also what makes her such a great ganker. I’ve seen lots of Arachne set up eggs before trying to gank, and I’ve seen it work well, mind you, but if your fighting an enemy who knows whats going on then laying that egg will do nothing alert the player that your trying to gank him. In team-fights you should always try to grab a caster or their highest DPS hero. If there is a Hel, go for her first whenever possible.

–Hard CC:

Arachne has two forms of hard CC. Drain Life, which silence’s her victim while your on top of your enemy, even if it doesn’t say it on her ability description, but it also renders you incapable of taking any action while its active.

Her second is her ultimate which stuns whoever she grabs for one second.

–Soft CC:

Arachne has 3 different slows which all stack with one another. Her passive, her spiderlings and Tangled Web. Tangled Web slows by 40% at max level, Spiderlings slow by 20% and her passive slows by between 10% and 15%. While the move speed reduction DOES stack, its multiplicative rather than additive, so there is diminishing returns, but no one has ever managed to out run me if I’ve had all three of my slows going.

–Early Kills with Spiderlings:

Laying Spiderling nests close together is a double edged sword. On the positive side, if you can lay two Spiderling eggs around a corner and then bait someone into running into them then you can easily turn around and turn it into a counter gank. I’ve gotten triple kills this way on several occasions using this tactic, but it only really works early in the game when people can’t AoE one shot the Spiderlings and it doesn’t work on (smart)ranged heroes because they can just one shot your egg sacks before they hatch.

–Dot Damage:

Mostly people don’t take into consideration how much damage Arachne does with “small” numbers. Her auto attack numbers early are pretty small… but combined with spiderlings and her passive, the damage she does multiplies quickly.

–Casters Taste Good:

Arachne can kill pretty much ANY caster God without much trouble if she gets the gank. She still has a really good chance to kill them even if they get the gank.

–Cons:

–Arachne is not designed to go toe to toe with any physical DPS God in the game, at least not late game. I am NOT saying that she isn’t able to kill them, just that shes not designed to rush in and fight on the front lines like Bastet, Kali or Wu Kong and kill people. Arachne is a DEDICATED assassin. She has a fairly low HP pool, has no AoE abilities and doesn’t have anything resembling a get away ability.

–No escape mechanic:

She has a bunch of slows, and one stun. That being said… Tangled web is a ground slow, and while its AoE is large, any God with leap ability will jump it and then laugh in your face. Your Spiderlings are great, unless the enemy god attacks the egg before the Spiderlings hatch or they do enough AoE to just flat kill them (Pretty much every hero in the game can do this once they have a few items). Your passive… lasts 3 seconds and you have to attack them 3 times for it to have any real effect. Your ultimate drags them to you and only stuns for one seconds. Not a great way to run from someone.

–No AoE:

Arachne does simply amazing single target dps… but she has no AoE damage. None. 0. ziltch.

–No Nukes:

Arachne has no strait nuke ability, and yes, i am including Arachne’s ult. Her ultimate does 300 damage at max level + 50% of your PP. Which is a decent amount, if you stack PP… but its on a 30 second cool down and its your freaking ult. if your using it as a nuke, your using it wrong. Though to be fair i have killed a fair number of people, even if it is on accident. Her Drain Life ability does good damage, but its over 3 seconds and the person you use it on can still freaking run, so if your not careful you’ll find yourself in an enemy tower with creeps surrounding you.

–Not a Late Game Stomper:

Arachne’s strength lies in her early to mid game. Late game characters like Sun Wukong will find Arachne easy pickings after they reach max items. If you playing against these heroes, make sure you have Prayer Beads AND another teammate. Don’t fight people 1v1 unless your positive the enemy team is all accounted for and a long ways off, and that you can kill the person your fighting 1v1.

Jungle: Lions, Tigers and Furies, Oh my!

–A Quick List of Runes:

Blue: 7 MPS

Green: 15 HPS

Yellow: 20% increased Physical and Magical Defense.

Red: 20% increased Physical and Magical Power.

Orange: 20% increased Move Speed.

White: 20% increased Cool Down.

Gold: 300 gold to each team member. (Think Dragon from LoL)

Fire Giant: 100 PP, 70 MP, 30 HPS, 30 MPS. (Baron Nashor from LoL, Roshan from DotA)

–Getting a good start in the jungle is paramount to doing well with Arachne. As soon as the game starts, you need to buy your items as fast as possible and then RUN to the blue. I generally start with Warrior Tabi I, Hand of the Gods (HotG) and 2 health pots. You should have extra gold and that’s perfectly OK. If you want to buy more potions, that’s fine as well but you probably wont need them. I only get the health pots so that when the green rune wears off I can keep ganking if I want to.

–After you’ve bought your items and your on your way to the blue, choose Broodlings as your first skill. As soon as your at the blue, place 4 eggs in the MIDDLE of the blue spawn. The Spiderlings will kill the blue by themselves. After your 4th one is placed, run strait to the green rune. If your fast enough you can get to the green rune just before creeps spawn and place an egg in the middle of the spawn area. If not, that’s OK, place the egg in front of the main creep and WAIT FOR YOUR SPIDERLINGS TO SPAWN. There’s two reasons for this. The first being you want your spiderlings to tank for you, not you tank for them. The second is because HotG kills your egg sacks. I’ve done this countless times and while you can still kill the mob pretty easy, you kill much much faster if you have Spiderlings to help out. If you do this right, you’ll have both blue AND green before the lane creeps have even met yet.

–At this point you can either a) gank or b) continue to jungle. I don’t really recommend ganking this early unless the enemy Gods are way over extended. If they’re staying back (staying at least half way between the two first towers) then jungle. I generally go after the yellow rune and then by the time I’m done with that HotG has cool down and i can kill red easily enough and in decent time. I’m almost always a level 3, almost level 4, by the time most people are just barley level 2. If your ally in left lane has allowed the enemy God(s) to push then you pretty much have at least a single kill in the bag, and even a double kill if done correctly (and there are two enemies to fight). Having 4 runes when most people are level 2 makes you so much more powerful than any god you’ll face its laughable. Just watch out for the lane creeps, they can burn through your hp quickly if your not paying attention. Make sure you come from behind them and use your Tangled web ability before you engage. try to make certain that you place the edge of it just behind the enemy Gods so they can’t see it but once they turn to run from you they have the whole AoE of the ability to through. I almost always drop an egg sack as well, to catch fleeing enemies or just to slow down the next creep pack.

–Once I’ve ganked I’ll either go back to buy (if i have enough money) or I’ll continue to either gank middle or kill the Orange rune and the White rune. When i have enough money or i need to heal, i go back and buy. Once you’ve done this, look at the right side and see if they need help. if they do, go gank right. Just remember that the person on the left is pretty much always going to be fighting two people.

–After I’ve cleared the jungle the first time and i have my ult, i pretty much just gank all the time and just kill Jungle packs in between them.

Lanning:

–Arachne is great at soloing left if you have a jungle (though if your not jungling with her your wasting a whole bunch of this characters potential).

–My item choice to start is generally Warrior Tabi I and Devourers Gloves I with a mana potion. I still start with spiderlings because they’re great pushers as well as wards so you can see their jungle if they try and gank you. If you play correctly you can get most of the last hits as well. You should try and let the enemy gods push your lane till your back at your tower. You shouldn’t try to push until you reach level 5. If your in your turret when you hit level 5 and the God your fighting is dumb enough to get to close enough, you have an almost guaranteed kill on them by pulling them into the turret. Once you have your ult, it should be pretty easy to kill the people your fighting a couple times with your jungle before they get their ults.

–Wait till you have 1595 gold before going back so you can buy Devourers Gloves III.

Items:

–Items on Arachne are pretty strait forward. 3 of her abilities AND her passive get bonuses from Physical Power(PP), so you want to get a damage items. I’ll give you my build, but by no means is this the end all be all build. Its just how i prefer to build her.

1st: Ninja Tabi:

–Arachne has a 360 base move speed and with boots I its around 396 MS. This allows you to chase down any hero without boots, excluding Sun Wukong because his passive gives him 10% MS out of combat… So he basically starts with boots I anyway.

2nd: Devourers Gloves:

–My personal favorite is Devourers Gloves as a first complete item on Arachne, and i rush to upgrade it. At max stacks it gives you 20% life steal and 50 PP which gives you sustainability and a nice bit of damage to add to to Drain Life.

3rd: The Executioner:

–Gives you 20% increased attack speed which is VERY VERY HELPFUL because of your passive. The faster you get 3 attacks off, the faster your passive will start doing max damage. Also gives 60 armor reduction with 3 stacks so you can chew through those nice squishy casters and light melee even faster.

4th: Frostbound Hammer:

–I’m completely aware that I’m going to get flamed for saying frostbound hammer by all those Arachne’s that scream her passive slows already… but i have some good news for you guys. the slows STACK! ZOMG! frostbound hammer also gives PP AND HP! no way! it doesn’t just slow? Once you have Frostbound Hammer nothing will be able to run from you ever again, baring characters with leaps. And even then, if your ults up that wont save them. I mainly use this item because it gives you health, damage AND it slows. Why wouldn’t you want that on a low hp assassin character?

5th: Quinn’s Blades/Heart-seeker/Deathbringer

–After the 4th item, it really depends on who your fighting. If your fighting Gods with tuns of HP, get Quinn’s blades. If not then get another damage item like heartseeker (the MS bonus is godly) or the Deathbringer. I almost never get the Deathbringer, but it’s still a solid item on her.

6th: Hide of the Leviathan/Titan’s Bane

–If you want more defense because they have a tun of CC, i generally get Hide of the Leviathan, or if your smashing willy-nilly i like the Titan’s Bane for the extra damage against tanks.

Buying Abilities: What abilities should i buy on Arachne?

–Defensive:

–Purification Beads… this ability has saved my life more than i can count. It gives you a chance to get away from Hades, Sun Wukong and any other champ that can shut you down. This ability is a MUST HAVE if your fighting Sun Wukong late game or he will crush you in his fear.

–Aegis Amulet: Pretty much the only way Arachne can survive focus fire. Buy this if you find yourself the target of a lot of nukes.

–Sprint: So you can run like the wind. Great for catching people, but i normally use it as a get away tool or to travel long distance faster when i need to.

–Offensive:

–Creeping Curse: Creeping Curse is a HUGE AoE slow. I’ve used it several times to slow down an enemy hero so i can finish killing my main target and then catch up with him. Also works well with Life Drain.

–Sprint: For the same reasons stated above.

–Meditation: If you never run out of mana, then you can pretty much gank indefinitely. You can alternate between using this and getting the blue rune for maximum mana efficiency.

–Ganking: Ganking on Arachne takes a bit of time to get used to, even if the skill order is pretty easy.

–The first rule of ganking with Arachne: Whenever possible, don’t use your ult first. Your ult is, in my opinion, her strongest ability (which is good since its her ult) but the damage on it, especially at low levels, is terrible. It starts out doing a wopping 100 damage, and only goes up by 50 per level. Because of this, i normally only put on point into my ult when i reach level 5, and then skip leveling it till I’ve maxed out Life Drain and Tangled Web.

–The best way to gank anyone in a lane is to try and get behind them (duh), so they dont know your there and you can get into melee range before they see you. As your running towards them, throw Tangled Web just behind them and lay an egg (if you have enough mana) to slow down creeps or to catch them as the flee from you.

Once Tangled Web is on the ground, just run right up to them and attack them at least 3 times. 3 is a magical number on Arachne. Once you have max stacks form your passive on your chosen target you can either use Life Drain to silence them (if they have an escape ability) or keep attacking them.

–If the enemy god doesn’t run, because hes either an idiot or really fed, then wait to use life drain until your either at a little more than half life or until they turn to run. Remember to strafe left and right, so you can at least dodge a couple auto attacks and even spells if your lucky.

Once the Enemy God starts to run, you can do one of two things. If Tangled Web is still up then just wait for them to reach the end of its AoE before using your ult to pull them back into the middle of it. If Tangled Web is not up, chase until the CD is down, throw it and then use your ult to pull them back through it.

–Don’t fight fed Gods 1v1. Your hero is strong, but not so strong as to overcome a 2-3 level difference or a full item difference, so pay attention to who your ganking.

Arachne’s Biggest Weakness: Revealed!

–Arachne’s largest weakness can be summed up in two words… Team Fights. Arachne has a low HP pool and no escape mechanics. I know I’ve said this before, but its important to stress. Early to mid game Arachne is a monster terrible to behold. Late game shes sup par compared to other melee heroes except for ONE thing… her ult. If you can grab the enemy teams DPS, any one of them really, it turns a 5v5 into a 4v5… and if grab their carry and kill it before it can do damage… the team fight is pretty much yours.

–Arachne is also very very good at chasing, but remember not to go to deep. Arachne is only mediocre vs more than one person.

–Do not engage in the middle of a team fight. You’ll get focused down and killed. Stay at the edges of team fights and try to pick off their ranged DPS and supports. Prepare to run away into the jungle if you need to. If your lucky only one person will follow you, if not than you just dragged two people away from a team fight and its not 3v4.

Countering Arachne:

–Travel in at least pairs. If your a squishy, make sure whoever your with can knock Arachne off her life drain. If you interrupt that then shes pretty easy to kill. Also remember that you can hit Arachne with abilities and auto attacks when shes on someone else. Any type of CC ability, including knock back effects will cancel the ability.

–Sun Wukong is probably the largest counter to Arachne. He has way way more late game potential than Arachne, even if she is stronger earlier in the game. His ultimate is is what kills me most often though. The two second fear from his ult is generally enough to let him almost kill me if my Purification beads are on CD. Its also not helpful that he has a leap that’s a nuke/slow as well as 2 other nukes. His ult does damage in an AoE, though its not a whole lot.

–Counter Jungle: Don’t go after the blue or the green super early in the game, you’ll probably just feed her, but you can take other runes. I once fought someone who bought smite and laned, but whenever smite was up he and his buddy would go into the jungle and steal a rune. The first was the Yellow Rune and the second was the Red rune. Since there were two of them going everywhere together i couldn’t just kill him either.

TL;DR:

–Arachne is an assassin hero, play her as such. you can win pretty much any 1v1 fight early and mid game. If its 2v1, run away unless your really good with her. Late game you fall off.

–Use her ult as much as possible, gank as much as possible and dont run into team fights. You’ll die if you do.

–Jungle. If your not jungling your wasting your heroes potential. Use HotG because it makes you jungle FAST and at full life and mana almost always.

–If you can, dont use your ult first. Its almost always better to use it later rather than earlier if the enemy doesn’t know your coming.

–Get damage items.

–Don’t play aggressive late game. You’ll die. Stay with your team.

–Purification Beads! Purification Beads! Purification Beads!

Skill Order:

–Broodlings: One point at level one, max last.

–Life Drain: One point at level two, max first.

–Tangled Web: One point at 3, max second.

–Cocoon: One point at 5, max third.

Items:

–1st(Jungle) :Warrior Tabi I(Max second), HotG, 2 hp potions

–1st(Lane): Warrior Tabi I(Max second), Gloves of the Devourer I, 1 mana potion

–2nd:Devourers Gloves (Max first)

–3rd: The Executioner

–4th: Frostbound Hammer

–5th: Deathbringer/Quinn’s Blades/Heartseeker

–6th: Hide of the Leviathan/Titan’s Bane

Abilities to buy:

–Purification Beads/Creeping Curse

–Sprint

–Meditation/Aegis Amulet

I would love to hear what you guys have to say about my guide, so please feel free to comment. Unless you want to flame me for using HotG and Frostbound Hammer. HotG is used to so i can gank faster. Less time killing Jungle creeps means more time ganking.

Thank you!!!