Smite Guide: How to Build Chang'e

Chang’e Smite Build Guide

Chang’e is a strange character, even among the weird and wonderful gods paraded across our screens in Smite. She doesn’t have a great deal of basic power, but she can stick around causing trouble like a bad smell. She’s a mage who deals (surprise, surprise) magical damage at range. That being said, the range on all but one of her in-hand abilities is pretty poor. So she’s a mage that likes to get up close and personal. Chang’e even has a little pet which gives her a unique advantage in Smite. She can send it off to buy items for her.

This opens up a whole new avenue of gameplay for the Chang’e player. When we usually look at Smite builds, they have within them an assumption that you’ll be going back to base to upgrade your items. Chang’e doesn’t have to go back to the base, making her a tricky customer to deal with in Smite‘s lanes. She can just dance around shooting stuff to farm gold then has enough damaging capability in her pockets to dish out some terrible hurt on unworthy gods. Chang’e even has a heal under her belt and a skill that allows her to avoid any ability, but we’ll get to that.

Chang’e’s other passive ability makes one of the most difficult aspects of Smite, movement, a little easier to deal with. Whenever she uses a Dance ability (of which there are three) her speed is increased by a small amount. This small boost can mean the difference between life and death in tight situations. She makes for a surprisingly good ambush harrasser if played correctly. Then again, if played poorly, she can make for a great red pool on the floor next to someone’s axe.

That’s why this guide is here. Building a character up in Smite, also known as a Smite Build (imaginative, I know) is one of those things everyone has a way to obsess over when they get deep into the game. So let this handy little guide to getting the right Chang’e Smite Build for you take your hand and show you the way.

Not through the medium of dance don’t worry.

If you know exactly what you’re looking for, then we have a page dedicated to skills, using said skills, and the items that a Chang’e player should look at purchasing.

 

Skills

Other than her aforementioned passive, Chang’e’s skills are sort of split up into two groups. Her first ability is a conal slice called Crescent Moon Dance which damages all enemies in a small yet wide area. Yeah, it’s a little simple, but when used on a pair of pesky gods or a wave of minions, the attack can be potentially life-ending. When taking on a minion wave, come at them from a side-on angle rather than straight on. That’ll give you more enemies to hit at once along with safety in the knowledge you did literally everything you could.

Chang’e’s second spell in Smite is at first a little pointless to the untrained eye. For each ability tick that was avoided, you and your allies regain a little mana. Big whoop, right? Wrong. Moonlit Waltz is a total lifesaver in Smite when used correctly. If you see an attack streaking in from Ra or hear the recognisable sound of Thor preparing to crash down, popping this can save your life and give you a little boost of mana to launch a counter attack. When used poorly, though, Moonlit Waltz is indeed the most useless ability in Chang’e’s arsenal. When you know Smite though, it becomes a true godsend.

Moonflower Dance is an AoE heal that also damages enemies while reducing their ability to receive healing. It’s short range and radial so there’s no long range damaging capability here. What it lacks in outright power though, it makes up for in available utility. Even a small heal can be the difference between life and death in a Smite team-fight. Heck Moonflower Dance is also a key part of putting Chang’e’s ability to stay in a lane indefinitely into practice.

Rounding out the abilities Chang’e has at her disposal in Smite we have the Waxing Moon Dance. Right out the door, this is an immensely powerful long-range attack that damages all enemies in front of Chang’e while stunning them too. It gets even better when you take into account that the more gods it strikes, the longer they are stunned for. Want to make it an even more attractive prospect? Then remember too that Waxing Moon classes as a dance, so Chang’e can move slightly faster when using it.

When upgrading these skills, it’s always best to power up Crescent Moon Dance as a priority. That is, of course, after collecting all three of the major abilities (as well as ensuring you grab Waxing Moon Dance as soon as possible). After that, Moonflower Dance takes priority over Moonlit Waltz in terms of empowerment. The only thing that beats that, is getting Waxing Moon Dance at max level whenever possible

 

Putting the Skills to Use

It’s all well and good being able to heal yourself, to dodge enemy attacks, even to stun a swathe of foes. That doesn’t mean you can just set them all off without a little due care and attention. Using all of Chang’e’s abilities together effectively in a sort of synergy is the key to unlocking her own brand of Smite-based awesome-sauce – now available at all imaginary food stores.

Far as using Chang’e’s abilities in synergy with themselves goes, there’s not a whole lot to talk about, as each has its situation. What is worth talking about here is the use of dances in synergy with the desire to move quickly in Smite. If an aggressive warrior or annoying guardian has its beady eyes on your life, throwing out Moonflower dance for a burst of speed and quickly following it up with Moonlit Waltz is never a bad idea. This way you’ll deal a little damage to the closing opponent, move away from them quickly, then be protected from any incoming storm of death that they’ve got lined up for runners.

It can also be used to engage in hit-and-run tactics. Move around the minion waves to get at the tasty gods, then whack them with Crescent Moon Dance, using the speed boost to get up into them. Follow it up with a quick Moonflower Dance for a burst of healing before throwing out Moonlit Waltz and zigzagging away as fast as you can for a clever in-and-out attack streak from this generally close range mage.

An important thing never to forget with Chang’e is her ability to theoretically go back to the base for mana, health, or items. Thanks to that trusty Jade Rabbit, she can stock up on item upgrades or potions without the need to ever recall. That is, unless she is dead or there’s no mana/health at her disposal in Smite. By making good use of Moonflower Dance, you can in theory keep fully healed at all times. This becomes especially possible when you take the right items, including for keeping that mana up. So, let’s go look at these item things.

Shopping for Items as Chang’e

Essential Items

The only thing stopping Chang’e from being a beast of healing and destruction in Smite is that of her cooldowns. They aren’t incredibly long by any stretch of the imagination. The lower they are, the sooner your enemies will fall. For this reason, it’s often a good idea to start out a match by aiming for as much cool down reduction as possible, while augmenting the unique ability Chang’e has in Smite to negate any need to go back to the base. That is, unless she’s killed.

It’s extremely worthwhile to make Chronos’ Pendant your first choice when building Chang’e in Smite. Taking the path toward this item may prove risky at times, but when you consider the relatively MP5 given at its second stage, the decision becomes almost a moot point. Chang’e has an incredibly high capacity for hanging around in a lane indefinitely so using this will go further in guaranteeing this than anything else in the early stages. When you’ve amassed enough gold for the final stage of Chronos’ pendant you’re done. That decrease in ability cooldown time will lead you to victory much more easily than others.

Taking other items like Boots of Focus and Polynomicon are also important early on for their ever-desirable cooldown reductions. To spend a long time in the lane in Smite, Chang’e has to be able to frequently have access to her heal and ability-avoidance skill in order to stick around when enemies falter. Polynomicon is also incredibly important for the amount of Magical Power it bestows upon this magic user. She may not have many attacks, but those she has can be devastating with the correct itemization.

On a personal note, purchasing Meditation is never a bad move. Chang’e can slowly but surely regenerate health with ease in Smite, so the ability to get a healthy portion of her mana back every 2 minutes is enough to tip the balance in the favor of Meditation. It’s far from essential, but definitely one to consider if you plan on never returning to base.

 

Advised Items

Soul Reaver might look at times like something of a gimmick. Take a closer look though, and you find an item that’s almost been built for Chang’e and her late game escapades in Smite. All but one of her in-hand abilities is capable of damaging gods over a wider area than just single target. With the proper movement and involvement in team-fights as they crop up, Soul Reaver’s 15% maximum health damage on hit in addition to her damage itself sounds the deathbell for any enemy team with a high-health guardian in their ranks. That and the bonus 300 mana along with 100 magical power aren’t exactly anything to be sniffed at.

Chang’e doesn’t have as much in the way of basic magical damage as some of her other mage compatriots in Smite (here’s looking at you Ra). As such, beefing up her magical power stat becomes almost mandatory. That isn’t the only thing you’ll be wanting to look at for damage output though. Magical Penetration is a force to be reckoned with when properly used as part of a Mage’s build, and Chang’e is no different. Picking up the Obsidian Shard for a delightful 70 magical power along with a passive 33% bonus to magical penetration will make sure the hurt gets laid down onto those irritating warriors and guardians.

We’re going back to the item tree that gave us Chronos’ Pendant this time for the Rod of Tahuti. Why? An additional 15 MP5 along with a whopping 125 Magical Power AND a passive boost of 25% to all Magical Power. You need to know more? 25% extra Magical damage on top of the reservoir you’ve already amassed and you’re still asking questions?

Ok fair point that these might not always be the perfect items for every battle or situations, but they form a good build basis. If you’re indulging in loads of Arena or Assault then Pythagorem’s Piece and Spear of the Magus will grant yourself and your teammates a healthy does of stats you’re likely to need.

These aren’t by any stretch of the imagination set in stone. You may have your own preferred build or Hi-Rez Studios may patch more or less power into each item as time goes on. Let us know your Chang’e builds in the comments down below.