Susano Build Ideas

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Aaron is a lifelong gamer that loves a good challenge. Competitive multiplayer games like MOBAs have provided a perfect environment for him to thrive. Outside of video games, he enjoys doing anything creative, such as writing, creating art, or music. He loves to apply his outside-of-the-box thinking to competitive games, creating new tactics and strategies wherever possible

Abilities

Before I go over the builds, I will explain Susano’s abilities to explain why the builds work the way they do. His passive ability, Gathering Storm, builds stacks whenever he does damage to an enemy god. Once he reaches four stacks, his next ability does bonus damage.

His first active ability, Storm Katana, does damage in the shape of a cone in front of him. If activated again within 3 seconds, he does damage in a circle around him. If activated once again within 3 seconds of the last Storm Katana attack, he does a dash, damaging any enemies he passes through. Susano can use other abilities and basic attacks in between Storm Katana attacks.

His second active ability, Wind Siphon, does damage in the shape of a cone in front of him. If an enemy is in the center of the cone, they are pulled towards Susano.

His third active ability, Jet Stream, creates a small circle that does damage over time. If the ability is activated again, Susano teleports to the circle. If the circle damages an enemy god, it attaches to them. Additionally, if Susano teleports to the circle when attached to an enemy god, the cooldown is reduced.

His ultimate ability, Typhoon, creates a large circle that slows enemies and slightly pulls them towards the center. The circle grows over 2 seconds and, at max size, is launched in the direction Susano is facing, dealing damage and knocking enemy gods into the air. The circle can also be cast early at reduced damage.

Builds

General Build

I use this build the most often when playing as Susano since it’s effective in all modes and roles that he is typically played in. It’s primarily offensive, but I find the added protections later in the build make him far more versatile.

We’ll start this build by getting Bluestone Pendant, giving us power, mana regeneration, health regeneration, and increased ability damage. For our relic, we’ll get Purification Beads, which will make us immune to crowd control for a short amount of time when activated.

We’ll get Spiked Gauntlet for some power, early lifestyle, and to upgrade later. Getting Healing Potions with the leftover gold is not a bad idea.

You will want to upgrade Spiked Gauntlet into Soul Eater as soon as possible. This item offers power, lifestyle, percentage-based penetration, and cooldown reduction. It has a passive effect that makes your abilities heal you based on a small percentage of damage dealt.

You will also build stacks whenever anything around you dies. The stacks themselves don’t do anything, but at full stacks, the item evolves, providing more power and healing for a higher percentage of ability damage dealt. Next, get The Crusher, which provides power, attack speed, and flat penetration.

It also offers additional ability damage, similar to Bluestone Pendant. The attack speed isn’t necessary to this build, but it will help when your abilities are still on cooldown.

After that, get Serrated Edge. This item provides power, lifestyle, movement speed, and a large amount of percentage-based penetration. You also gain increased power and lifesteal for every non-Ultimate ability on cooldown. At this point, you can likely get your second relic.

Either Aegis Amulet, making you temporarily invulnerable, or Blink Rune, teleporting you forward by a short distance, are good choices.

Now, this next item might be a little surprising. We’ll get Pridwen, providing both magical and physical protections and a significant amount of cooldown reduction. It has a passive effect that, whenever you use your ultimate, gives you a shield based on the number of your protections.

When the shield is destroyed, it damages nearby enemies based on its size and slows any enemies hit. Now, at this point in the build, the shield will be very small for now, but we’re using it for the initial protections, cooldown reduction, and the slowing effect.

For the final item slot, get Heartseeker. This item provides a significant amount of power, mana, mana regeneration, and percentage-based penetration. It also does additional ability damage based on a percentage of the target’s health.

Finally, rather than upgrading Bluestone Pendant, we’ll replace it with Mantle of Discord. This item provides the final amount of cooldown reduction that we need to hit the cap and a large amount of magical and physical protections.

Furthermore, if you fall below 30% health, you stun all surrounding enemies and become temporarily immune to crowd control. This item will help you stay alive in the late game and make Pridwen’s shield a little bit stronger.

The Final Build Should Look Like This:

Mantle of Discord
Soul Eater
The Crusher
Serrated Edge
Pridwen
Heartseeker

As for upgrading abilities, I focus on upgrading Storm Katana as it deals the most overall damage. The exact order isn’t too crucial outside of Conquest.

Joust Build

This build is designed specifically for Joust, where I find that ability-based Assassins like Susano typically do best as a supportive role. Ensure that your team understands that you will not be providing the basic attack damage needed to take out objectives and that they should bring either a Hunter or a basic attack Mage like Sol.

Let’s start this build by getting War Flag, offering physical and magical protections, mana regeneration, and health. This item has a passive effect that provides stacks every time you get an assist, and these stacks temporarily give you and your nearby teammates increased attack and movement speed.

Once you reach three stacks, damaging enemy gods with abilities restores mana and health to you and your teammates and gives you a little bit of gold. This is an excellent supportive item, especially for Joust, as it provides aura effects for your team and a way for you to make extra gold without clearing the minion waves.

Before you leave the fountain, you will want to get Round Shield to upgrade later for its small amount of power and physical protections. For a relic, get Cloak of Meditation to create a mana and health regeneration aura, and get Multi Potions to increase your mana and health regeneration when needed.

Try not to return to the fountain until you have enough gold to buy Gladiator’s Shield. This item provides power, physical protection, health, and cooldown reduction. It has a passive effect that deals additional ability damage based on a percentage of your protections.

This item will be an integral part of this build, allowing you to get a lot of protections without completely giving up damage. From there, get Pridwen.

Next, get Brawler’s Beat Stick if the enemy is using a lot of healing; otherwise, get The Sledge. Brawler’s Beat Stick provides power and flat penetration and has a passive effect that makes enemies hit by your abilities receive reduced healing.

The Sledge offers power, crowd control reduction, health, and mana. It also has a passive effect that increases your protections based on how many enemy gods are near you. At this point, I recommend getting Purification Beads.

After that, get either Shogun’s Kusari or Mail of Renewal. If there’s a strong Mage on the enemy team, get Shogun’s Kusari, providing magical protections, health, mana regeneration, and cooldown reduction. This item has an aura that increases attack speed for you and your nearby teammates.

If the Mage is a little on the weaker side, get Mail of Renewal instead. Mail of Renewal provides health, health regeneration, and both physical and magical protections. This item has a passive effect that builds stacks that temporarily increase your protections whenever you receive damage.

You are immediately healed if you’re hit again at five stacks, and nearby teammates receive increased health regeneration.

Get either Hide of the Nemean Lion or Spectral Armor for your last item slot. Suppose an enemy god is doing a lot of damage from critical hits. In that case, you will want to get Spectral Armor as it has a passive effect that reduces critical damage received and provides physical protections, mana, health, and mana regeneration.

Otherwise, get Hide of the Nemean Lion, providing a slightly more significant amount of physical protections, mana, and mana regeneration. This item builds stacks every ten seconds, up to three, that is used to block most of the damage from the next basic attack received.

Finally, you’ll want to upgrade War Flag. I always go with War Banner, providing much of the same effects as War Flag but to a more potent effect. War Banner does not provide any gold, but that shouldn’t be an issue at this point in the match.

The Final Build Should Look Like This:

War Banner
Gladiator’s Shield
Pridwen
Brawler’s Beat Stick or The Sledge
Shogun’s Kusari or Mail of Renewal
Hide of the Nemean Lion or Spectral Armor.

In terms of this build’s abilities, I often focus on upgrading Wind Siphon. Upgrading it doesn’t increase the abilities’ crowd control effect, but it should be the ability you’re using the most often here, so you may as well have it do increased damage.

Jungle Build

With Jungle being Susano’s primary role, I end up using this build about as often as the General Build. To start this build, get Bumba’s Dagger. This starter item provides power, health, and mana increases damage to jungle minions and restores health and mana when killing jungle minions.

You’ll want to get Blink Rune to ambush enemies and Wards to know what’s happening in the jungle. Before leaving the fountain, you’ll need to consider whether you want to build primarily for ability damage or a hybrid of ability damage and basic attack damage.

If you’re going for ability damage, get the Mace to upgrade. If you want a hybrid build, get the Katana to upgrade. If you can’t decide, the Mace still allows for a hybrid build.

If you got the Mace, upgrade it into The Crusher. If you got the Katana, upgrade it into Golden Blade. Golden Blade provides power, movement speed, and attack speed, and shares basic attack damage dealt with nearby enemies. Both items help greatly with clearing out jungle camps.

Next, get Jotunn’s Vigor if you’re going for a more ability-focused build or Hydra’s Lament if you’re going for a hybrid build. Jotunn’s Vigor gives power, mana, flat penetration, and a large amount of cooldown reduction. It has a passive effect that, when you drop below 40% health, you temporarily gain increased movement speed and lifesteal on abilities.

Hydra’s Lament gives you power, cooldown reduction, percentage-based penetration, and mana regeneration. This item has a passive effect that increases the damage of the following basic attack after using an ability and further increases mana regeneration based on missing mana.

You will want to get Serrated edge after that. When you get your second relic, you want to get Purification Beads. For the next item, which one you get depends on how aggressive you want to be. If you want to be super aggressive, get Arondight, providing a large amount of power and cooldown reduction. After using your ultimate, you temporarily reveal all nearby enemies.

You gain increased movement speed when moving towards exposed enemies, and the first hit on a revealed enemy does increased damage. If you want to play more defensively, get Mantle of Discord. For the last item, get Heartseeker.

When you can, you will want to upgrade Bumba’s Dagger. If you got Jotunn’s Vigor, get Bumba’s Spear. If you got Hydra’s Lament, get Bumba’s Hammer. Bumba’s Spear provides power, percentage-based penetration, and cooldown reduction. It has a similar passive effect to Bumba’s Dagger, dealing additional damage to jungle monsters, and restoring health and mana when you kill them.

What’s unique is that it provides a temporary power buff when killing jungle monsters. Bumba’s Hammer provides health, mana, and a more considerable amount of cooldown reduction. It has a passive effect much like Hydra’s Lament, dealing additional basic attack damage after using an ability. It also reduces cooldowns and heals you when you use the buffed basic attack.

Finally, if you want, you can replace The Crusher or Golden Blade with stronger items in the late game. I don’t personally ever feel the need to with this build, and a lot of items wouldn’t be that useful since we’ll already be at max percentage-based penetration and cooldown reduction.

If you do replace those items, Bloodforge would probably be the most useful, providing a lot of power, lifesteal, and movement speed. When you kill an enemy god, you get a temporary health shield and further increased movement speed for as long as the shield is up. This could help you get that final deicide that will win your team the game.

The Final Build Should Look Like This:

Bumba’s Spear or Bumba’s Hammer
The Crusher, Golden Blade, or Bloodforge
Jotunn’s Vigor or Hydra’s Lament
Serrated Edge
Arondight or Mantle of Discord
Heatseeker

For abilities, I start by getting Storm Katana for clearing camps because it does the most overall damage. At level 2, I typically get Jet Stream just in case I need to escape early, so I get Wind Siphon at level 3. I upgrade Storm Katana at level 4 and get Typhoon at level 5.

After that, I focus on getting Storm Katana fully upgraded as soon as possible, following with Wind Siphon. Jet Stream can do more damage than Wind Siphon, but I find it most useful as an escape, meaning it’s the least vital ability to upgrade.

Ability-Based Assassin Meta Build

The meta for Assassins is split between ability-based and basic-attack-based builds, and with Susano’s Gathering Storm passive, he’s definitely an ability-based Assassin. This is the build you’ll most likely see being used by ability-based Assassins playing the Jungle role in ranked Conquest.

I don’t use this build very often, but it is an excellent one that many people prefer. We’ll start this build much like the Jungle Build, getting Bumba’s Spear, Blink Rune, the Mace to upgrade later, and Wards.

Rather than upgrading the Mace into The Crusher, we’ll upgrade it into Jotunn’s Vigor. Compared to the Jungle Build, this means that you will be clearing clamps more slowly, but you’re more equipped to get early kills. After that, we’ll get Transcendence.

This item initially provides only a fair amount of power, mana, and mana regeneration, but it has two passive effects that make it incredibly strong. The first is that it builds stacks for every enemy you kill, with each stack providing mana, up to 50 stacks. At max stacks, you gain cooldown reduction, and the item will provide the most mana of any item in the game.

The second passive effect is that it converts 3% of your mana into power, which also gives it the potential to give you more physical power than any other item in the game. However, if the enemy Jungler isn’t using an item that builds stacks, they’ll have an advantage over you until you build enough stacks.

From there, we’ll finally get The Crusher. This will significantly help you clear camps. Next, get Purification Beads as your second relic and Titan’s Bane for your next item. Titan’s Bane provides power and a large amount of percentage-based penetration and will give an ability further percentage-based penetration every 8 seconds.

The additional ability penetration goes beyond the 40% cap that percentage-based penetration has. For the last item, get Heartseeker. This will significantly increase ability damage. Finally, upgrade Bumba’s Dagger into Bumba’s Spear, hitting the cap for cooldown reduction and percentage-based penetration.

The Final Build Should Look Like This:

Bumba’s Spear
Jotunn’s Vigor
Transcendence
The Crusher
Titan’s Bane
Heartseeker

Solo Build

Susano does surprisingly well in the Solo role despite lacking the sustain that most Solo picks have. He has decent wave clear and excels in team fights. You might not even notice the lack of sustain with the right items. We’ll start this build by getting Bluestone Pendant, which will significantly help us with wave clear.

We’ll get Teleport Fragment as our relic, allowing us to get back to lane quickly when we need to return to the fountain. We’ll get Spiked Gauntlet to upgrade later and because it gives us a small amount of power and lifesteal that will help us stay in lane for more extended periods of time. Finally, before you leave the fountain, get several Healing Potions.

You want to upgrade Spiked Gauntlet into Soul Eater as soon as possible. The lifesteal it provides will make up for the lack of sustain Susano has. Unfortunately, this often puts us behind the opponent in terms of defense, so be prepared to use Storm Katana or Jet Stream to escape when needed.

Which item you get next depends on what type of damage the enemy in your lane does. If they do physical damage, get Gladiator’s Shield. If they do magical damage, get Ancile instead. Ancile provides power, magical protections, and cooldown reduction.

It has a passive effect that, every 30 seconds, silences all enemies close to you after you are hit by an ability that does magical damage.

After that, there are a lot of directions you can take the build. Most often, I get Pestilence, offering magical protection and health and a debuff aura that reduces the healing received to nearby enemies. If you don’t already have Gladiator Shield, it’s not a bad idea to get it here, though. Brawler’s Beat Stick and The Sledge are good options if you want to be more offensive. At this point, you’ll want to get Purification Beads.

You’ll likely be getting into team fights by now, so we’ll want our next item to provide cooldown reduction. I usually go for Pridwen, but Jotunn’s Vigor also works well if you want to be more offensive. However, if you have both Gladiator’s Shield and Ancile, you’ll want to get Spirit Robe.

This item provides both magical and defensive protections, cooldown reduction, and crowd control reduction. When hit by hard crowd control effects like a stun or a root, you will gain 15% increased damage mitigation for 3 seconds. The cooldown reduction of Spirit Robe is to a lesser extent than Pridwen or Jotunn’s Vigor, so you want it as to not go over the cooldown reduction cap, which is just a waste of gold and item space.

For the last item slot, get either Hide of the Nemean Lion or Spectral Armor to defend against the Carry, depending on whether or not they’re using critical damage. Spirit Robe is also a good choice if you still need that last bit of cooldown reduction and haven’t gotten it yet.

Finally, replace Bluestone Pendant with Titan’s Bane since Titan’s Bane will typically increase your ability damage more than upgrading Bluestone Pendant.

The Final Build Should Look Like This:

Titan’s Bane
Soul Eater
Gladiator’s Shield or Ancile
Pestilence, Gladiator’s Shield, Brawler’s Beat Stick, or The Sledge
Pridwen, Jotunn’s Vigor, or Spirit Robe
Hide of the Nemean Lion, Spectral Armor, or Spirit Robe

Fun Power Build

This build is about getting the most physical power we can. It’s not necessarily the best build for Susano, but it is a lot of fun. I typically only use this build when playing game modes like Slash and Arena. For a starter item, it’s not too important which one you get, but I think Bluestone Pendant will be the most useful.

I would then get Morningstar to upgrade Purification Beads and maybe some Healing Potions. As soon as possible, we’ll want to get Transcendence. Not only will this item provide the most power of any of our items thanks to its passive, but the additional power can go over the power cap.

After that, we’ll get Bloodforge. This item is tied for having the most direct power, and the lifesteal can be helpful early. Next, we’ll get Arondight. This item is tied with Bloodforge for having the most direct power. The cooldown reduction is a great bonus.

Aegis Amulet is an excellent second relic to get. From there, we’ll get Heartseeker. This item doesn’t provide quite as much power as Bloodforge or Arondight, but it is a lot.

For the last slot, pick up Dominance, providing power, mana, mana regeneration, and percentage-based penetration. It has a passive that gives basic attacks additional percentage-based penetration, but that’s not why we’re getting it in this build.

There is an item that directly provides more power, but we won’t get to use it all because of the cap. With Transcendence’s passive, the mana that Dominance provides power going over the cap. Finally, replace Bluestone Pendant with Titan’s Bane.

This item doesn’t provide nearly as much power as the others, but it doesn’t need to because of the cap. The penetration it gives will make the power we already have translate into more damage.

The Final Build Should Look Like This:

Titan’s Bane
Transcendence
Bloodforge
Arondight
Heartseeker
Dominance

FAQs

Question: Are ability-based Assassins any good right now?

Answer: It depends on the god. Most ability-based Assassins have been significantly weaker since the 9.5 update, but Susano is still strong. Nearly everything has more health now, including jungle camps, so burst damage isn’t as effective as consistent damage output. However, Susano’s abilities allow for a potent mix of burst damage and consistent damage output, so the update didn’t negatively affect him.

Question: Is a build focusing on basic attack damage good for Susano?

Answer: I wouldn’t recommend it. Susano does have naturally high basic attack damage output, but where he shines is his ability damage. If you like basic attack builds, there are simply much better Assassins than Susano for that. If you like a mix of ability damage and basic attack damage, there are plenty of items that benefit Susano’s basic attacks that do work well with him, such as Hydra’s Lament or The Crusher.

Question: Does Susano do well with defensive items?

Answer: Yes. Susano can have defensive items in his build without sacrificing too much damage. Susano benefits a lot from power, with two of his abilities getting over a 100% of his power as additional damage. Still, he also doesn’t necessarily need the power to do damage. His abilities have a lot of base damage.