Season 5 In-depth Guide to Support Hel

In case you live under a rock, Hel is a Norse mage that also happens to be a stance switcher. Hel finds most success as a mid or support, since she has team-helping abilities. Her passive and abilities are as follows:

	STANCE ATTUNEMENT
	When Hel is in a stance, she gradually attunes to the strengths of that stance, gaining up to 20% damage in the Dark Stance and 20% healing in the Light Stance.
	ABILITY: BUFF	AFFECTS: SELF

DECAY (RESTORATION)

Decay (Dark Stance) : Hel fires an orb of decay that deals damage and passes through minions. The orb will explode in a 12 unit radius if it hits a god, a wall, or reaches max range.

Restoration (Light Stance) : Hel fires an orb of restoration that hits gods only. Hitting an enemy god deals damage. Hitting an allied god heals that god and heals Hel on a successful hit.

LIGHT DAMAGE: 70/120/170/220/270 (+50% OF YOUR MAGICAL POWER)
LIGHT SELF HEAL: 60/90/120/150/180 (+30% OF YOUR MAGICAL POWER)
LIGHT ALLY HEAL: 60/90/120/150/180 (+30% OF YOUR MAGICAL POWER)

DARK DAMAGE: 70/120/170/220/270 (+50% OF YOUR MAGICAL POWER)
COST: 70/75/80/85/90
COOLDOWN: 8S

HINDER (CLEANSE)

Hinder (Dark Stance) : Hel debuffs all enemies in the targeted area, reducing their Magical Protection and slowing them for 3s.

Cleanse (Light Stance) : Hel cleanses all allied gods in the targeted area, removing all Crowd Control effects instantly and protecting them from future ones for a duration.

ABILITY: GROUND TARGET
DARK PROTECTIONS DEBUFF: 5/10/15/20/25
DARK SLOW: 20/25/30/35/40%
RADIUS: 20

LIGHT CC IMMUNITY: 1.5S
AFFECTS: ALLIES
COST: 60/65/70/75/80
COOLDOWN: 16/15/14/13/12S

REPULSE (INSPIRE)

Repulse (Dark Stance) : Hel conjures a burst of dark energy around her, damaging all nearby enemies.

Inspire (Light Stance) : Hel conjures a burst of light energy around her, healing herself instantly and applying a heal over time to nearby allies that ticks every 1s. All targets affected gain increased Movement Speed for the duration.

ABILITY: AREA
REPULSE DAMAGE: 80/130/180/230/280 (+70% OF YOUR MAGICAL POWER)
RADIUS: 30
COST: 60/65/70/75/80
COOLDOWN: 12S

INSPIRE SELF HEAL: 60/90/120/150/180 (+30% OF YOUR MAGICAL POWER)
INSPIRE HEAL PER TICK: 10/15/20/25/30 (+5% OF YOUR MAGICAL POWER)
LIGHT MOVEMENT SPEED: 10%
LIGHT DURATION: 6S

SWITCH STANCES (LIGHT)

Dark Stance : Hel’s abilities cause damage and she gains increased magical power.

Light Stance : Hel’s abilities heal and support her allies and she gains increased Protections.

Passive : Hel gains increased MP5 and Half of the benefits gained from the stance are shared with allied gods within 30 units.

ABILITY: BUFF
DARK MAGICAL POWER: 20/30/40/50/60
LIGHT MAGICAL AND PHYSICAL PROTECTIONS: 5/10/15/20/25

MP5: 15/20/25/30/35
COST: 0
COOLDOWN: 2S

From this point on, Hel’s abilities are subject to change in future patches, and so may her stats. And let’s be honest, hopefully her in-game model is too. Let’s get into her role as a support.

Screenshot (5).png — Who even plays Support Hel? Ew…I do

To test out Hel, I went into a few games of conquest and looked at some builds in jungle practice.

I will outline a couple of my games and builds to provide a better idea of how Hel fits into this undefined meta we have going.

The first thing that is to be noted about our team composition is that we aren’t heavy on hard CC. We have Nox’s 1-2 combo, Hou Yi’s mark if it procs, Nike’s knock up, and Thor’s wall and ult. The other team has a reliable source of hard CC on each god. Hard CC isn’t everything, but in a game like Smite, it contributes a lot to kills and team fights.

In this game I started off at duo lane, because that is where you are going to usually see the support. Some exceptions might be in higher level games where supports are placed in the lane they will best serve the team in or an assassin support that starts in the jungle.

When NOT to pick Hel:

When there already are sufficient anti heal gods picked on the other team (Cerberus, Chang’e Serqet, Sobek, Odin – are some of the most prominent ones)
When the enemy support is an aggressive laner (Sobek, Bacchus, Artioish)
When your team is lacking a tank front line
If there are already 2 or more mages in your lineup

Starting:

For starter items you can grab mage’s blessing, but I find that Hel can be easily focused out in the early part of the laning phase. Guardian’s blessing helps deal with Hel’s rough start. I almost never buy the first tier of boots anymore, ever since the beginning of Season 5, they have become too expensive and the itty bitty amount of movement speed isn’t worth. I opt for Glowing Emerald, which will lead into Gauntlet of Thebes. 100 health is a good starting stat, seeing as Hunter’s blessing is a thing, and the HP5 is good for any support since it takes a lot longer to reach level 5.

600 G
+100 Health
+10 HP5

Don’t forget your pots, play around with how much you get of each. I like to just go 3 mana pots and a health pot, because I feel like that one health pot might save my life.

Leveling Abilities:

Optimal Leveling Order: 1-3-1-2-5-3 (Continue to max out 1st and 3rd ability)

If you’re having a hard time laning: 1-3-2-1-5-3
(You might want to get the cleanse earlier if the enemy team has a lot of CC)

Tips for Laning:

Stay at a good distance, there is no reason for you to be in Khepri’s face or trailing the enemy Ullr. Try to not turn your back on the enemies; you can’t predict when to cleanse if you never see it coming. Hel is super vulnerable and if both you and your lane partner can play back and clear minions efficiently, then you’ll soon be able to pass this horrible phase.

Rotating:

The good thing about Hel is that she is very quick, this and her sustainability are what make up for her lack of escape. If you do decide to build Traveler’s Boots, then you can easily get to the exp camps and lane faster than most Guardians. To speed yourself up during rotations, it’s important to know that your “Inspire” ability gives a hefty AOE movement speed boost. This is ideal for bringing in a few teammates for a swift gank. It’s best to start rotating once you have hit level 5 or 6 (or when the other support starts to rotate), because it’s easier for Hel to maneuver her way and survive in the jungle. One of the best things about Hel is that you will have the ability to clear exp camps by yourself and more frequently than the other support. Take advantage of this.