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Neith is an Egyptian goddess belonging to the Hunter class in Smite and is one of the ten characters that are permanently free. Like others in the Hunter class, her primary role is as a Carry. Also, like other Hunters, she has a powerful, ranged basic attack that will serve as the primary way to deal damage.
She’s a favorite of mine, being the first god I got to level X mastery and was my main in Ranked Joust and my main Carry in Conquest for a really long time. She’s a little different from what you may see on the surface, and that means her best builds might not be what you expect.
If you’re struggling with finding the right build for her, I can help. Personally, I recommend going with what I call my General Build for Neith, but I’ll run you through several builds to find what fits you the best.Â
Her stats are mostly average for her class, meaning that she can do a lot of damage, but her low health and movement speed make her an easy target. However, it’s important to note that her health regeneration is also low, even for Hunters. Her basic attack damage and attack speed are also on the low end of Hunters as well but are high if you’re comparing all classes.
While Neith is a Hunter that relies on basic attack damage, where she really stands out from other Hunters is her abilities. She’s good at keeping distance between herself and the enemy, which is crucial for Hunters. She also has a heal built into her kit, meaning that life steal isn’t always necessary.
Her passive ability, Broken Weave, leaves behind little circles where the enemy god dies for two minutes. The purpose is how they interact with her first two active abilities, so I’ll explain those.
Her first active ability, Spirit Arrow, shoots an arrow that can pass through multiple enemies, and it roots any enemy hit, stopping them from moving. This is incredibly useful both for defensive and offensive purposes. When an enemy is rooted, they can’t chase you, but they also can’t run from you. It can give you an easy escape or an easy kill. Additionally, if the arrow hits the Broken Weaves, it does an additional 100% damage and roots any enemy in a large radius.
Her second active, Unravel, does AOE damage at a range, debuffs the attack speed of any enemies hit, and buffs her own attack speed. More importantly, it heals her for every enemy, or Broken Weave hit. Her third active, Back Flip, is a backward leap that creates a Broken Weave and also damages any enemies in a cone directly in front of her. Any enemies that take damage are also slowed.
Finally, her ultimate, World Weaver, is an arrow that locks on to any enemy and is guaranteed to hit the target, doing a lot of damage and stunning the target. It can be a great way to secure a kill for you or your teammates.
Now, for the actual builds. Do you focus on attack speed? Critical? Life steal? You could, but I recommend embracing Neith for Neith. As a Hunter, we’re still going to focus on the damage per second (DPS) with her basic attack, but we’re going to focus a little more on abilities than you might normally with a Carry.
This will ultimately mean her basic attack DPS will suffer in the endgame, but she will be an unstoppable force in the late mid-game, giving you more wiggle room and versatility for the endgame.
By focusing on abilities, there are three things we have to consider more than we normally would as a Hunter: mana, mana regeneration, and cooldown rate. We want to be able to use our abilities whenever necessary as you never know when you’ll need to escape or a heal.
Builds
General Build
This general build is my favorite build for Neith and a great starting place when learning how to play as her. It has a lot of room for tweaks if necessary as well. It provides a good mix of sustainability and both basic attack damage and ability damage. Building for ability damage isn’t the norm among Hunters, but Neith’s kit benefits a lot from it.
So, for the general build, start with Death’s Toll, Morningstar, Purification Beads, and then it’s up to you whether or not you want to buy potions with the leftover gold. Death’s Toll will provide sustainability and early damage, while Morningstar is the first step in getting Transcendence.
Purification Beads makes you immune to crowd control effects for a short time, which will help when you need to escape.
From there, upgrade Morningstar to Transcendence. Transcendence is the star of the show here. It gives you a good amount of power, a lot of mana, and mana regeneration. Killing enemy gods and minions after getting it builds stacks up to 50, and each stack provides more mana.
On top of all of that, it converts 3% of your mana into additional power. This means it’s both a significant source of mana but also a significant source of power. It also pairs well with any items that give you extra mana since that means they also give you extra power as well.
After that, get Asi. Asi is important in that it not only provides life steal and also provides attack speed and penetration, which are very important for basic attack DPS. It also doesn’t build stacks, meaning you get the full power of the item immediately. Yeah, Neith has a heal, but with her low health regeneration, life steal is still important.
From there, get Jotunn’s Wrath. Jotunn’s Wrath provides additional power, mana, and penetration, but most importantly, cooldown reduction. This is important if you want to be able to use your abilities when necessary. It also has glyph options in the forms of Jotunn’s Ferocity and Jotunn’s Vigor. Jotunn’s Vigor adds additional defensive effects, but since Neith has a great escape ability, I recommend Jotunn’s Ferocity instead for its bonus damage.
At this point, you can probably get your second Relic, in which case Aegis is a good choice. With low health and high damage output, you’re going to be a big target. The short-lasting invincibility can save you from getting one-hit from a strong ability.
Qin’s Sais is next to ensure your basic attacks are both viable and consistent on tanks. It increases power and attack speed but also does extra basic attack damage based on a percentage of enemy health. This means you will do more damage to tanks. You could build for critical damage instead, but Qin’s Sais offers greater consistency and more DPS against towers.
Finally, we’ll get Heartseeker. This item increases power, mana, mana regeneration, and penetration. It also makes your abilities do extra damage. As I mentioned earlier, items that increase mana pair well with Transcendence, and the increased ability damage and penetration will benefit you a lot.
You can also upgrade Death’s Toll to Death’s Temper if the match isn’t over yet. It’s not the most important item, but it will increase your basic attack damage by a decent amount and can be the final push you need to secure the win.
Now, for abilities. The exact order of ability building isn’t too important outside of conquest, but I do recommend turning ability auto-level off. This way you can level up your skills based on the situation. Perhaps you want more sustainability, in which case you would want to level up your second ability before the others.
However, I typically level up her first ability the most as it’s her main damage dealer, plus the root is super helpful. This General Build is definitely my favorite overall, but here are some builds more specific to the various game modes and roles.
Carry Build
For Conquest, the main role for Neith is Carry, so this is a build focusing on that role. It’s very similar to the general build, but with two potential paths based on how the enemies are making their builds.
To start, we’ll still get Morningstar and Purification beads. We will replace Death’s Toll with Bluestone Pendant, though. Conquest is about playing the long game, and so slow but steady pressure in your lane is often the way to go. Bluestone Pendant helps a ton with this, as it directly provides both health and mana regeneration. This makes it more consistent than Death’s Toll.
Next, we’ll build Asi like normal.
Then we have another change by adding Fail-not, but only if no one on the opposing team has built Spectral Armor yet since it negates a significant portion of critical hit damage. Fail-not is a lot like Jotunn’s Wrath, but with critical hit chance instead of extra mana. Critical hits will massively increase your DPS against enemy gods which is a big part of your job as a carry.
You should be able to get Aegis around this point in the match. However, don’t upgrade Bluestone Pendant.
From there, we’ll build Qin’s Sais like normal.
Now, for the last slot, it depends on whether or not the enemy team is building Spectral Armor. If more than one enemy god has built Spectral Armor, go with Heartseeker like normal. However, if they haven’t, get Wind Demon. It will increase your DPS output while also giving you a movement speed buff whenever you get a critical hit.
Finally, we need to replace Bluestone Pendant. If you went with Heartseeker, replace it with Dominance. If you went with Wind Demon, replace it with Malicious Deathbringer. Dominance will act a lot like a second Heartseeker, but it increases basic attack penetration rather than additional ability damage. The penetration is really useful late game.
On the other hand, Malicious Deathbringer both increases critical hit damage and gives you the ability cooldown on every critical hit. This is a pretty overpowered item, but it’s also incredibly expensive. By the time you get it, it’s already quite clear which team is going to win. It’s either a way to play catch-up or the last push you need to win.
For abilities, you’re going to want to get her first active, Spirit Arrow, as the first ability. This helps a ton with wave clear as the ability passes through the entire minion wave. Next, you’ll want her third active, Back Flip, to escape in case of an early gank.
Third, you’ll obviously want her second active, Unravel before leveling up the other two. Fourth, you’ll probably want to go Spirit Arrow again. Fifth, you’ll obviously get her ultimate, World Weaver. From there, it’s personal preference and situational, but Spirit Arrow is generally going to take priority for a Carry role.
Solo and Mid Builds
For less conventional builds for more experienced players, here are some tweaks to the general build to work for mid or solo lanes. I do not recommend using Neith in these roles for new players, and doing so is pretty dependent on who the rest of your team is playing as.
You want to keep a pretty good mix of physical and magical damage on your team. If your team is magic damage-heavy, Neith can be a decent mid-lane pick. If your duo lane is a mage and a warrior, Neith can be a decent solo lane pick. Her good escape, heals, ability damage potential, and wave clear potential make her a pretty flexible pick.
For Mid, the build is really simple. Do the same build you would for carry, but do not build for critical damage. Replace Fail-not with Jotunn’s Ferocity. This means the items should be Transcendence, Asi, Jotunn’s Ferocity, Qin’s Sais, Heartseeker, and Dominance in the end.
You may also want to replace Qin’s Sais with Brawler’s Beatstick if the enemy god in your lane is using a lot of heals. The abilities for Mid are the same as Carry. Interestingly enough, this role might actually be where Neith excels the most at the moment.
For Solo, replace Bluestone Pendant with Manikin Scepter if the opposing god does physical damage. Also, replace Purification Beads with Teleport Fragment. Build Transcendence as usual, but then replace Asi with Soul Eater. Soul Eater is cheap and gives early cooldown reduction at the same time as life steal.
Build Jotunn’s Ferocity after that. Replace Qin’s Sais with Brawlers Beatstick if the opposing god is using a lot of heals. Otherwise, go for The Crusher, which gives less basic attack DPS than Qin’s Sais but more ability damage. From there, get Heartseeker. Finally, upgrade Manikin Scepter into Manikin Hidden Blade, which gives damage reduction and can also do bonus damage and slow gods if you haven’t been in combat in 5 seconds.
Abilities for Solo are similar to Carry, but swap Unravel and Spirit Arrow. Solo is all about endurance and sustainability, so the extra sustainability provided by a heal is important. Unravels wave clear potential is also nearly as good as Spirit Arrow. The only problem is that it has no crowd control effect, but that’s less of a problem when you’re in a 1v1 as is the case with Solo lane.
Joust Build
There was a time when I was really into Joust, and my go-to pick was always Neith. Her passive ability makes her incredibly strong in the tighter spaces because you can often root multiple enemies if and when they make a push. While the general build is largely okay for Joust, there’s a big problem. Death’s Toll isn’t allowed in Joust.
Obviously, the first step in this build is to replace Death’s Toll. Sustain isn’t nearly as important in Joust as Conquest, so we’ll go with Manikin’s Scepter. The added basic attack damage is super helpful for taking down towers, which is going to be your most important duty as a Hunter in Joust.
From there, build Transcendence as usual. It’s just a great item all around for Neith. Next, we’ll have The Crusher. This item is great for its attack speed and flat penetration, but it also has the bonus of doing additional ability damage, which is great for Neith.
After that, we’ll finally get Asi. As sustain isn’t as important in Joust, we can afford to wait a bit and get it later than we typically would.
From there, we’ll get Wind Demon. The critical damage is nice, but we’re getting this item more for the attack speed and movement speed buffs. You could also get Toxic Blade instead for the same reasons, but rather than critical damage, it offers reduced healing on enemies hit by your basic attack. It’s a great pick if the enemy is using heals or pre-emptively got Spectral Armor.
Finally, we’ll get The Executioner. It increases attack speed and damage, but the real benefit is that it lowers the protections of any enemy god hit by your basic attack. This is generally better than penetration as it benefits your whole team, and since nearly the entire match will be a team battle, it’s super beneficial.
Meta Attack Speed Build
This is the go-to build for Hunters that everyone seems to going with right now. The build is entirely focused on basic attack DPS, which is where Hunters shine after all. Some people will add in critical hit items, but I haven’t been seeing that as much lately.
Personally, I don’t use this build with Neith often because I’m always tempted to run a build with Transcendence when I play Neith, but it works decently with her abilities. When you take the ability damage away from Neith, her abilities are still pretty useful. Spirit Arrow is still good for rooting, Unravel’s heal will be much weaker, but it still gives a good attack speed buff, and Back Flip is still a good escape.
Her ultimate will be a little lackluster, but being able to stun from across the map can be a good tool in helping your teammates.
We’ll start with Death’s Toll, Purification Beads, and the precursor to The Crusher, a Mace.
That means the first step from there is to upgrade a Mace into The Crusher. This Item will be the only one to give additional ability damage beyond straight physical power, and that’s not even the point of it in this build. The real point is that it gives power, attack speed, and flat penetration upfront without having to build stacks.
I would say it’s ultimately weaker than Transcendence with full stacks, but it takes time to build stacks. The Crusher gives you immediate power, and that early advantage can allow you to control the flow of the game. From there, we’ll build Asi like normal. Remember, Asi has the same advantage over most life steal items that The Crusher has over something like Transcendence, and that’s how it gives you immediate power.
Next, we’ll build Qin’s Sais earlier than normal. We’re not going for ability damage here, and Qin’s Sais is simply a great item for basic attack DPS.
Don’t forget to pickup Aegis as your second relic at this point if you can.
Now, we’re going to build two items I have yet to talk about here but are absolutely fantastic for hunters because of their basic attack DPS potential. The first is Silverbranch, which offers further power, attack speed, and penetration.
We build it late because the penetration is as a percentage, meaning that it needs flat penetration to be useful and because it offers further power if you go over the attack speed cap. Basic attack speed is capped at 2.5 attacks per second, and with the buffs from Death’s Toll and Unravel. You will be going over that, meaning extra power instead.
The other item we will build is Odysseus’ Bow, which gives a large attack speed boost and makes every 4th basic attack chain to surrounding enemies. This is great for team fights. On top of that, the attack speed boost will have right up to the attack speed cap even when not using buffs, so your buffs will basically just mean extra damage.
You should be able to upgrade Death’s Toll into Death’s Temper around this point in the match.
Finally, because Death’s Temper gives additional attack speed, you can sell The Crusher for Dominance for additional power basic attack power. Your abilities will be pretty underpowered at this point in the game, and your basic attack will be pretty overpowered, so you may as well double down on basic attack damage and use abilities just for utility purposes.
Fun Tank Build
This final build isn’t exactly the best, but it is a lot of fun. It’s not for taking things seriously. Thanks to power of Transcendence, defensive items that give you mana are also giving you power. That means you can have a little bit of both. I mainly use this build for when I’m messing around in Slash.
To start, we go with Manikin’s Scepter, Morningstar, and Blink Rune. Blink Rune is just a fun relic to catch enemies by surprise.
From there, of course, upgrade Morningstar into Transcendence.
Now for fun. We’ll build Breastplate of Valor, which takes up a lot of the same space as Jotunn’s Wrath but offers physical protections over physical power.
Next up is Shogun’s Kusari. It gives magical protections, mana regen, and cooldown reduction. Unfortunately, it gives health instead of mana, but that’s still nice. Finally, it gives an aura that buffs the attack speed of all surrounding teammates, including yourself.
Then we build The Sledge, which gives a mix of health, mana, power, and even protections with its passive effect.
Belt of Frenzy is another fun relic you can use here, giving surrounding teammates a damage and attack speed buff.
Finally, we go with Toxic Blade. On top of health and attack speed, it gives penetration, which this build has been otherwise lacking, and movement speed, which is just a fun mechanic to play with. It also reduces the healing of any enemies hit with your basic attack.
FAQs
Question: Do I have to follow these builds exactly for them to work?
Question: Will role/game mode-specific builds like the Carry or Solo lane builds work in other roles or game modes?
Question: Is Neith even a viable pick anymore?
Neith Build Ideas: Conclusion
With so many options, it can be hard to find the right build, but these will surely help. Play around with these builds and see which of them work best for you and in which scenarios. Ultimately, these builds are just suggestions, and you shouldn’t be afraid to deviate from them to better fit your situation. Being able to adapt your build on the fly is a great skill and can singlehandedly win you matches.