If you're looking to pick up one of the most powerful mages in the game, then you'll need the best SMITE 2 Hecate builds. This powerful mid-laner has the kit to wear down enemy gods from a distance before pouncing when the opportunity arises to decimate her enemies, whether she's leading the line or supporting her teammates.
Our community of SMITE 2 experts, with their endless knowledge of the game, have come through with a comprehensive guide to Hecate, explaining her abilities, dropping some helpful tips and strategies, and of course, outlining the best Hecate builds. Combine this guide with some handy SMITE 2 tips and you're off to the races - let's get into it:
Hecate abilities explained
As a goddess of magic in Greek mythology, some may expect Hecate to play more of a supportive role in SMITE 2, but in reality, she's an aggressive mid-laner. Her abilities allow her to buff and heal herself and her allies, letting you continually push forward into the enemy team, dishing out high magic damage. Over to JHenckes for a quick explainer on her abilities:
Mythic Ritual (Passive): "Her passive is very good for protecting structures and pressuring opponents. It creates a buff area that gives mana and life regeneration to your team, as well as increasing their power and intelligence."
Triplicate Form (first): "This is your main skill and the one that will deal damage to your opponents. The skill shoots a projectile that deals magic damage and alternates between two types: Power Form and Hex Form. Both types deal magical damage, and Power Form marks enemies hit (so they take bonus damage from gods) while Hex Form mesmerises enemies."
Spell Eater (second): "This skill buffs the first one. Hecate creates a ball of energy with a large, marked area. With each skill cast within that area, the ball of energy charges up, dealing extra magic damage (combining these first two skills is essential to winning the mid-lane from the start of the game)."
Repel Magic (third): "Another buff, this time as an active skill. Hecate grants a magical shield to herself or an ally. This shield protects from magical damage and deals damage to nearby enemies when the skill is activated. It also increases movement speed."
Open The Gates (ultimate): "This one is really cool, and so is the name. Hecate creates two portals in the ground, dealing damage and stunning the enemies above. In addition, these portals can be used for teleporting (it's very strong in a team fight if used at the right time)."
If you'd rather learn the abilities in video form, Cloggedbean's whirlwind overview will tell you what you need to know:
The consensus on how to play Hecate effectively is to keep your distance for the most part while waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. And while Hecate doesn't have a particular combo like most other gods, DiscoFerry places plenty of importance on the Spell Eater ability, and how to get the most out of it:
"Hecate doesn't really have a set 'combo' to speak of, but try to place the second ability down before you use your other abilities so that it charges up during the fight, and you can use it for a big chunk of damage at the end."
As JHenckes explained earlier, Hecate's ultimate is very powerful if used correctly, and luckily for us, raccoonbro has gone into great detail about how to get the most out of it:
"The fourth ability is a massive area both around you and in front of you (with the area in front being able to be moved closer or further. The area around you is unchangeable). Once cast, enemies in each area take massive damage and teleport to the other area. A side effect is that after it is cast, two smaller portals are left on the ground where your two larger areas were, which you can interact with to teleport to the other portal.
"There are two prime ideas with the ultimate. Hit the enemy with the area you cast out to bring them closer to you, then cast all your other abilities on them and they should blow up. The other scenario is if you're getting dived, in which case you cast your ultimate so that those around you get teleported away.
"The big thing to remember when using the ult in this way is that you want to make sure you're not in a situation where you want to continue fighting after getting the diver off of you and that no one is in the other teleporting area, as they will be brought to you while the diver is teleported away."
Abilities are all well and good, but for yan57436, the most important thing about succeeding with Hecate is positioning:
"Positioning is the most important thing with her, as you need to be behind the team, poke and buff allied skills, as well as getting a good fit for your ult."
Best Hecate role
Hecate's best role is pretty conclusively regarded to be in mid-lane, and while DiscoFerry agrees, they think she has some potential as a flex support:
"[Hecate would] be considered a mage by the SMITE 1 class system - ranged magical damage with high damage and low defences - and so is most often/best played in mid lane in conquest. She has a good mix of solid damage along with some supportive capabilities like some crowd control and a shield, so you could also try flexing her into support (although she's definitely better in mid)."
Best Hecate mid build
NiteDark is fully on board with Hecate as a powerful mid-laner, and has an excellent build to boot: "Hecate is a powerful mage in SMITE 2 with a versatile kit that allows her to poke, crowd control, and deal massive burst damage. Her abilities focus on area damage and debuffs, making her a strong force in team fights and excellent at controlling space in the mid lane."
Ability leveling order
Triplicate Form (first ability) -> Open the Gates (ultimate) -> Spell Eater (second ability) -> Repel Magic (third ability).
Item build
Starting Items:
Conduit Gem (Standard starter for mages, providing mana and intelligence.) and health/mana potes.
Core Items:
Book of Thoth (provides intelligence and mana), Soul Gem (Provides power, lifesteal, synergizing with Hecate aggressive playstyle) and Spear of Desolation (Offers cooldown reduction and penetration, plus it refunds cooldowns when you get a kill or assist, making it excellent for snowballing in fights).
Mid to late game items:
Rod of Tahuti (Huge power spike and bonus damage on low-health enemies, perfect for finishing off targets), Soul Reaver (Extra damage based on enemy health, great for shredding tankier opponents) and Obsidian Shard (Provides magical penetration, essential for dealing with enemy tanks or high protections).
Situational items:
Gem of Isolation (Slows enemies hit by your abilities, making it harder for them to escape ), Polynomicon (Works well with Hecate passive and enhances burst damage with empowered basic attacks) and Chronos Pendant (If you need more cooldown reduction for consistent poke and spellcasting).
Best Hecate support build
As mentioned earlier, while Hecate is largely agreed to be a mid-laner, she has some potential as a support god, which Suricata agrees with: "[Hecate is] not a face-on God, even as support, but an amazing engager and poker. Positioning right could make a huge difference in every fight regardless of whether you're on the mid-lane, support or others."
Ability levelling order
Starting ability: 1. No other option has a better or similar value at level 1.
Levelling order : 2* -> 1 -> 4 - > 3
*The second and first abilities are levelled together but the second is maxed out first.
Item build
Starters: Selflessness or War Flag.
Core items: Thebes, Amanita Charm (mushroom), Spirit Robe, Soul Reaver.
Situational items: Oni Hunter, Yogi's Necklace, Phoenix Feather, Ruinous Ankh and Divine Ruin.
Relics: Blink, Sunder or Shell.
Lastly, for a fairly quick and easy build, Empen outlines one near the end of their video:
Hecate tips
Great builds are all well and good, but they aren't worth very much if you don't know how to use them. That's why we've compiled a few tips to get you started.
NiteDark has provided an overview of how a full game on Hecate should go, roughly outlining what you should focus on during each stage of a match:
"In the early game, focus on wave clearing using Triplicate Form and keep pressure on the enemy mid-laner. Try to hit both the minions and the enemy god with your poke, farm efficiently and look for opportunities to roam or assist your jungler if a kill is likely.
"In mid-game, rotate to side lanes and assist in securing objectives like Gold Fury. Hecate crowd control and ultimate are game-changing in skirmishes. In team fights, cast Spell Eater on clustered enemies.
"Finally, in the late game, in team fights, position yourself safely but close enough to land your abilities. Keep an eye on enemy carries and hit them with Triplicate Form and Spell Eater and Use Repel Magic to protect the team.
DiscoFerry explains how useful your third ability is, and how it can be used to massively support your team when they go for kills:
"Generally you want to be applying your third ability to your frontliners when they dive the enemy backline, as it gives them shields for the enemy magicals, and also does a lot of damage to the backliners around them."
Lastly, be sure to take a look at ChrisTDickson's guide to Hecate in the video below for some expert tips on how to use her:
Is there an item you think is a must-have for Hecate? Do you have any tips that we haven't covered? Let us know in the comments!
Some text has been edited for brevity, clarity, or spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You can find the original wording here. Image credit: Titan Forge Games
Created at . Page last updated at .
