Chaac, the Lane Bully. Chaac, the Lane Bully.

Duo-lane Chaac is an experiment to attack the Conquest meta from a new angle. Chaac purposes to stall out the duo lane, putting the enemy Carry more and more behind. For a bruiser he has just the perfect kit for bullying the lane: his passive and a healing ability for high amounts of sustain; his axe throw as both great clear and poke; a pseudo-teleport ability; a potent Ultimate for initiating team fights. However, for Chaac AD Carry to pay off in the end game, it is mandatory to have a Hyper Carry in another position onboard the team.

The god build discussed here is that by Zapman. The article closely follows his way of building, leveling, and playing the character. For more on Zapman, see his Twitch channel.

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Build

Items Starter 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

Death’s Toll

Heartseeker

Warrior Tabi

Witchblade

Qin’s Sais

Runeforged Hammer

Chaac starts out with Death’s Toll, Morningstar, and a health potion. He then finishes rushing Heartseeker in order to begin stacking, and continues with the remaining core of the build: Warrior Tabi, Witchblade, and Qin’s Sais. The fifth item slot is dedicated to Runeforged Hammer or another defensive item in its place (Bulwark of Hope, Shifter’s Shield, Midguardian Mail, Pestilence). Death’s Toll is eventually sold in the late game for Titan’s Bane (more penetration) or Magi’s Blessing (against crowd control).

Chaac aims to counterbuild against the enemy team and, in particular, the enemy duo lane composition. With such a modular build, he can modify the build order and even swap out certain items of the build. For example, Witchblade (3rd item) can be bypassed for Hide of the Urchin should Chaac draw too much hate, and Qin’s Sais (4th item) can be swapped out for Jotun’s Wrath in case there be a lack of durable characters on the enemy team.

Chaac’s AD Carry build as pictured above is significantly cheaper (by 905 gold) than the current standard crit hunter build (cf. Rama AD Carry Guide).

Overflow, Chaac’s passive, gives him the sustain necessary for the mana-hungry duo lane. After 5 successful basic attacks (towers included), the next ability Chaac uses (including his Ultimate) costs no mana at all as indicated by Chaac’s on-screen meter. Noteworthy, as well, is Chaac’s three-hit combo chain, with the finishing hit dealing 1.5 times the normal damage (full progression: 1/.5/1.5x damage).

Actives 1st 2nd

Greater Sprint

Greater Purification

Greater Aegis

In the vast majority of matches Chaac builds Greater Sprint plus either Greater Purification or Greater Aegis — not necessarily in this order. Only rarely is it required to build both Beads and Aegis without Sprint, when, for example, there are enough crowd controls and nukes on the enemy team to justify doing so.

Which situational active to buy all depends on whether the enemy team is heavy on high-damaging nukes (Release The Kraken!, Death Gaze, I’m a Monster!, etc). The rule of thumb is as follows: whenever there are less than two nukes, Chaac builds Greater Purification; but whenever there are two nukes or more, Chaac builds Greater Aegis.

Zapman prefers to get as far down the build chain as he can before investing into any actives. In his own words, “Getting actives too early is a huge money sink and delays your power spike which you want to achieve as early as possible.” Finishing Warrior Tabi gets Chaac his first power spike, so investing into actives from that point on is not unreasonable if the match situation calls for it.

First 5 Levels Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

1

2

1

3

4

In the early game Chaac needs to unlock his entire kit first, with the focus lying on his Thunder Strike ability (1) for the clear and poke.

Ability Leveling Order

1

4

3

2

In general, after the first five leves, Thunder Strike (1) has the highest leveling priority, followed by Chaac’s Ultimate, Storm Call (4). Zapman then maxes out Rain Dance (3) for the sustain and ability to stick to targets. Chaac’s teleporting axe spin, Torrent (2), is maxed out last.

Play Style

Chaac is especially strong in the early and mid game. If the enemy fails to watch out, the otherwise farm-heavy duo lane is apt to quickly turn into a kill lane early on and even without a high-damage support by Chaac’s side. In the late game Chaac still contributes to team fights with his capability to take poke in the frontlines and his ability to initiate and secure kills.

Starting Positions

Playing Chaac in the duo lane does not open up any new possibilities in terms of starting positions or opening variations. On the left side Chaac can either start directly at the mana buff, or, given a support with great clear, he can begin with the back harpies into mana buff opening for the extra experience. Starting on the right side, Chaac is limited to mid harpies into mana buff.

For a comprehensive guide on the different starting positions and openings in Conquest (including map illustrations), see the article Conquest 101 — Starting Positions for Every Role.

Early Game

The early game is all about outpushing the opponent.

Chaac is an expert at shutting down lanes and forcing the opposition to stay under the tower and lose out on farm. His Thunder Strike (1) features such a massive hit radius that, with some precision, an entire stationary minion wave fits into it. The enemy Carry can be zoned out as well with it, as it cannot be juked easily.

As always, it helps to push the first minion wave hard in order to gain the lane advantage for the first 3–5 minutes into the match depending on how active the enemy jungler is. Also, in terms of sustain, Chaac has his Overflow passive — a free ability use for every 5 successful basic attacks — and Rain Dance (3) to outwalk the damage taken from poke and for sticking to targets.

In any case, it is beneficial for Chaac to master all the interactions of his various axe abilities with his kit.

The enemy jungler usually shows up in the duo lane looking to gank around the 3:00 minute mark, the arguably best time to gank for a jungler. By three minutes into the match the wards initially placed on the map have run out and no longer provide the necessary map vision to detect hidden enemy movements.

Mid Game

The mid game is all about items, rotations, and Gold Fury.

Once his third item, Witchblade or Hide of the Urchin, is finished, Chaac is in great shape for rotations. Chaac may never be able to vaporize towers like other AD Carries, but even at this stage of the game he excels at team fights thanks to his mobility and damage, survivability and his Ultimate which can initiate as well as secure kills.

Mid game is also the phase where securing Gold Fury off the backfoot of rotations and team fights is one of the prime objectives. With his massive sustain, Chaac can solo-secure Gold Fury reliably at this stage of the game with his axe out and the heal from his Rain Dance (3) ability.

Late Game

The late game is all about team fights, split-pushing, and Fire Giant.

Chaac reaches late-game form sooner than most, once his fourth item, Qin’s Sais, is finished and work on Runeforged Hammer or another defensive item has begun. Chaac gains on tankiness, and he is now capable of dealing actual damage to durable opponents.

In the late game Chaac is the frontline and initiator in team fights, not the split-pusher or AD Carry. For that the team has the Hyper Carry onboard who should be favorably ahead now of the enemy Carry, thanks to Chaac’s lane pressure and constant harassment in the duo lane in the early to mid stages of the game.

Spotted some esoteric SMITE lingo you don’t recognize? Look it up in the SMITE Dictionary — more than 300 entries specific or related to SMITE explained in concise and easily understandable terms.