Cats; you either love them or hate them. They are known to be quite stubborn; prancing around, doing whatever they wish to do. But they're also fierce and protective of their territory. And no cat is more fierce and protective as Bastet - the Egyptian Goddess of Cats.
I swear I don't only play female gods, but Bastet is just one of the more capable assassins in Smite and relatively easy to handle. Bastet, daughter of Ra, was conceived solely to protect Ra from an evil serpent named Apep. Once she had slain the horrendous beast, she was able to roam the world as she pleases, and currently her gaze is set on the gods fighting each other in Conquest. She'll show them what a cat is truly capable of.
ABILITIES
OPEN WOUND
Open Wound is an amazing passive that you never have to watch. What I mean by that is that it doesn't change; ever. When you play gods like Janus for instance, it's a must to keep your passive activated for you to fully optimize your damage output. Bastet's Open Wound allows you to afflict 15% more damage on enemies with her abilities if you've hit them with either Pounce, Razor Whip or Declaw beforehand. It's just a nice bonus to her damage output and you can just do what Bastet does best without having to think about it.
POUNCE
Oh how I love this ability. Pounce is probably the most annoying ability in Smite, as it negates the opportunity to chase you if you're in a 1v1 and you need to get out. Pounce functions as a jump, known by many other gods, but what sets it apart from other jumps is that it allows you to jump back to the spot you initiated the jump for 4 whole seconds. It's a great ability to throw people off by running away from them, pounce back to the spot you jumped from and run in the opposite direction. In addition to that, it does a hefty chunk of damage; 340 damage at max rank with 100% scaling!
RAZOR WHIP
"Bleed, you shall," said the enraged cat to the dog. Razor Whip is an amazing ability early-game and does an excellent job securing kills in the end-game. Bastet swipes at her enemies, causing them to bleed for 4 seconds, applying 4 ticks of pure devastation onto the opponent. This is a great ability to clear jungle camps as it has an AOE effect and has some nice power to it (105 damage at max rank per tick, plus 25% scaling). I recommend you start out with this ability as it's your main minion clear ability and will help you secure jungle camps quickly.
DECLAW
This kitty is full of tricks. Not only can she scratch you from up close, she can also hurt you immensely from afar. Declaw is a projectile ability that pierces through towers and applies a slow onto the enemy. Though it's damage isn't extremely significant (especially in the early-game), the slow it applies can be of great help when you're chasing an enemy and your pounce is on cooldown. The fact that it pierces through towers also helps with securing kills if they're hugging the tower and baiting you to get into tower range. In the end-game it does a butt load of damage as well, so all in all it's an amazing ability!
CAT CALL
Cat Call is a very versatile ability. First of all, it does a ton of damage! Like.. a ton. Especially early-game, it basically secures a kill every time you use it at the right time. The cats have quite a lot of health, slow the enemy, inflict damage and receive the aggro from minions and objectives. And it's not just 1 cat either, you get THREE. Three cats that scratch at your opponent like they're a ball of yarn. We all know how cats can be around a ball of yarn. Use this ability if your opponent has used his escape already, cause there's no way he can burst down all three cats before dying himself; especially at the lower levels. Bottom line is: don't mess with these cats.
Here are the pros and cons of playing Bastet
PROS:
Great AOE damage with nearly all of her abilities
Has a jump (!) that also allows you to jump back
Declaw pierces through towers
Has 100% scaling on Pounce and Declaw
Cat Call serves as a great ability to dive towers
CONS:
Crowd Control is Bastet's worst enemy
Very mana hungry in the early game
Pounce's return pounce is easily countered in group fights
Very squishy
Pounce is the ability that makes Bastet so amazingly fun to play and you should be able to fully utilize it with ease. Whenever you play Bastet, know when to pick your fights, as you are still an assassin and not a hard carry like ADCs are. Bastet shines in the lower levels and can definitely secure a few kills in the first 10 minutes. Her Declaw and Cat Call both apply slows, which serves as great CC for yourself and for your team, as they can catch up to them if you're out of health/mana to pursue the opponent yourself. When it comes down to it, Bastet can hold her own, as she can escape her opponents quite easily if she's not ready for a fight and she can engage out of nowhere and burst you down in a matter of seconds if she wants to fully commit to a fight. She isn't extremely difficult to play and she's pretty fun in general!
Whereas hunters can occupy several different lanes, Bastet (and most assassins in general) only shines in one place; the jungle.
Do NOT play these roles
ADC: Bastet isn't an auto attacking god, it's easy as that. You rely completely on landing your abilities to have a high damage output. Even though your auto attacks hit pretty hard, you cannot rely on them to do the job, as it's too risky to stick around an enemy for too long as you're really squishy and need to get in and out of a tough situation in a matter of seconds. It's what your kit is made for as well, so don't push your luck and build her as an ADC.
Support: Even though you have CC in the form of slows (2 slows to be exact), you're too squishy to function as a support. A support is supposed to be able to stand their ground and take hits for days, and Bastet is just not made for that. In the early-game her cats could function as tanks, but they're too easy to kill in the late-game, and your damage will be insignificant if you build as a tanky Bastet.
Middle Lane: Razor Whip does a ton of damage, don't get me wrong. Even Pounce and Declaw do a bunch of damage, but it's nothing compared to the AOE burst most mages can do. I'm not saying it couldn't work, because it could. But in the late-game, you require a hard hitting mage to hit enemies on both the physical and the magical side. And since Bastet is a physical god, your magical burst will suffer and might eventually lose you the game.
Fun, but tough
- Solo Lane: Honestly, if I hadn't accidentally experienced this for myself, I wouldn't have thought it could work. In one of my games, the solo lane occupant disconnected, so I had to fulfill his role as solo laner. At first I was terrified, having not built for the situation, but I was totally able to hold my ground! It might have helped that my opponent in the solo lane was a squishy mage (Agni), but you can definitely out-burst and out-clear certain gods, giving you the lane pressure you need. You can be very aggressive with Pounce as there's only one side the opponents can invade from, allowing you to do a lot of damage in a very short amount of time.
This is what you're made for
- Jungle: As mentioned here above; this is precisely what you were made to do. Your abilities can do a lot of damage to jungle camps and you have a lot of mobility with Pounce. You can trap opponents with Cat Call and finish them off when they're not even looking at you with Declaw. Even though you can hear Pounce coming when you gank your opponent, they'll have nowhere to run if you place it right. Summon your cats and trap them with the slow they apply and burst them down with Razor Whip and some basic attacks. Voilà, you've got yourself a clean kill. And what's that? That's right, you still have 50% of your health left.
Let's look at some of the best items available to Bastet. This build will optimize your damage and make you little less squishy as well.
STARTER ITEMS
Nearly every assassins has this item as their starter item (perhaps not Thanatos). Bumba's Mask has a bunch of benefits regarding jungling. First of all, it gives you +10 mp5 so that you don't run out of mana as quickly. It also grants you +10 true damage on your basic attacks and +10% damage on your abilities if used on jungle camps. On top of that, it heals you for 10% of any jungle camp's monster's maximum health. This provides you with some nice sustain. Oh, and did I mention that it doesn't matter if someone else helps you clear the jungle camp? You still get the gold as if you cleared it solo. Ka-ching!
This isn't exactly an item, but also a must-have for a good start in the jungle. Hand of the Gods deals 480 damage to the enemy minion or jungle camp monster with the highest amount of maximum health within a 15 unit radius. My recommendation is to get tier 2 of this, Rage of the Gods. It has 30 seconds less cooldown and hits TWO minions for 480 damage. This will greatly improve your early game jungling shenanigans.
Also grab both a health and mana potion, as you'll need them in the lower levels. Those minions hit hard.
CORE ITEMS
Start off by purchasing boots. As you're a jungler, you need to be able to move across the map in a quick pace and quickly gank a lane. You can't do that if you have 0 movement speed. As Bastet is an ability based god, I recommend you get Warrior Tabi over Ninja Tabi. You won't be hitting a lot of basic attacks in fights, so the 20 extra power that Warrior Tabi gives, will make up for the 15% attack speed you'll miss from Ninja Tabi.
I recommend you get Transcendence next, as it's a stacking item and it requires a bit of time to utilize it to it's full potential. It helps with the mana trouble Bastet suffers from constantly casting abilities and grants you a huge chunk of physical power in the process. It's honestly a must-have for any Bastet, otherwise your damage won't be very high.
Jotunn's Wrath is a good item for most junglers, so I'd get it third. It gives you 25% cooldown reduction, which is very important for any god that has to use abilities as their main source of damage. It also gives you 150 extra mana, which adds to the power you get from Transcendence, and 11 penetration to get through the early game armor of your opponent.
As I mentioned in the pros and cons, a lot of CC is a huge danger for Bastet. That's why you should get Magi's Blessing. It gives you crowd control immunity every 90 seconds, basically functioning as a second purification beads. Once it activates, you'll be immune to new crowd control effects for 1 second, allowing you to pounce out of a tough situation. It also grants you +10 physical and magical protection and 350 health!
FINAL ITEMS
Ah, the penetration everyone needs. Hunters can get their penetration from basic attacks with The Executioner, but assassins rely on something else to negate all those protections. That's why you need Titan's Bane. It grants you 33% physical penetration on ALL your attacks and 30 physical power. Even the tankiest of tanks will shudder at the sight of you now.
PICK ONE
Shifter's Shield is a great item. It gives you 40 physical power and +15 physical and magical protection. What truly makes it great is its passive effect though. If you're above 50% health, you'll gain an extra 20 physical power. Great for bursting down your opponent. But if you're in a tricky situation and you fall below 50% health, you'll gain 20 extra protections! That might help you to stay alive long enough for you to get out and return to base.
Even though Shifter's Shield is great, Winged Blade also has its benefits. It gives you 300 extra health, 10% movement speed, 10% attack speed and 10% cooldown reduction! The movement speed definitely helps with jungling, as does the extra cooldown reduction, since you are ability based. Combine this with Jotunn's Wrath and you'll nearly cap the maximum cooldown reduction permit. It also makes you immune to slows for 4 seconds every 30 seconds. It even INCREASES your movement speed by 20% when this goes into effect. I'd choose this over Shifter's Shield, but if you need the protections, go with Shifter's Shield.
ACTIVES
As I mentioned in the Neith guide, Greater Purification is a must-have for any god. It cleanses crowd control and makes you immune to new CC effects for 3 seconds. It also reduces cooldowns by 3 seconds, maybe allowing you to use Pounce just in time to get away.
As you've already purchased this at the start, build it into Wrath of the Gods whenever objectives start to get very important. With Pounce you can jump in and steal objectives from the enemy team and get away with it as well. It's sure to piss off your opponents if you do this, so expect some sassy private messages.
Your cat-tastic build is now complete and you should be able to play Bastet pretty well with this build. Of course, you need to know which fights to pick and when to retreat, but you'll learn in no-time that your Pounce is your best ally regarding this field. Good luck scratching!
