SMITE Ravana Guide

SMITE Ravana Guide by Zambash

Hey all, there have been a lot of posts about Ravana, people complaining about various things and still saying he doesn’t stand up to other warriors in particular, which is just flat out incorrect, hopefully this guide will explain why.

A. Where to play Ravana?:

Ravana is viable in both the jungle and solo lane. I prefer him in the solo lane as he is a 1v1 powerhouse( YES!!! Even though his ultimate is useless 1v1, you will see why), who thrives off of farm, and his early ganks aren’t super strong out of the jungle. That being said, he can be played successfully out of the jungle if you have some decent communication with your teammates.

B. How should I skill Ravana?:

Whether jungle or solo, you will want to get 1 point in all 3 of your basic abilities. And just put 1 point into your ultimate for the early game. Then if you are in the jungle you will want to max your Prana Onslaught first, while in the solo you will likely want to max your 10-Hand Shadow Fist first, for the better sustain and long-distance clear. Then you need to max the one you weren’t maxing. Leave your 2 and your ultimate for last. If you are teamfighting a lot, prioritize your ultimate above your 2, if not, prioritize your 2.

C. How should I fight with Ravana?:

If you are fighting 1 on 1, just use your 3 to get close, use your two to dodge large damage or CC from your enemy, and stick on them using your basic attacks (You will build frostbound) and use your 1 whenever you have max stacks or if they get just out of reach of your basics, your 1 has a slightly longer reach than your basics and does a fuckton of damage with stacks. Only use your ult in a 1 on 1 situation if you are absolutely sure you can secure the kill on the fleeing opponent.

If you are team-fighting (this is where Ravana shines) or really any time your are fighting more than 1 person. Lead off by using your ultimate on whichever enemy deals the LEAST damage and then continue as before.

D. What items should I buy on Ravana?: THIS IS THE IMPORTANT ONE THAT PEOPLE DON’T UNDERSTAND AND WHY THEY THINK RAVANA SUCKS.

Rule number one, DO NOT BUILD QIN’S ON RAVANA. To understand this we need to take a close look at Ravana’s hit chain, which most people don’t seem to realize is BY FAR the strongest in the game, and NOT because it is fast, remember we are NOT building Qin’s.

Attack Chain Speed: 0.5, 0.5, 0.75 Attack Chain Damage: 0.5, 0.75, 1.0

Now if you have any concept of math you should be able to look at that and immediately think “HOLY FUCK!!! That is so absurdly insanely strong compared to every other god in the game!!”

Here I will spell it out for those of you who may be mathematically challenged. Unlike other gods, Ravana’s attack chain has its damage offset from its speed, in the positive direction. Look at the second hit, it only takes half the time of an unmodified hit, yet deals 75% of the damage of an unmodified hit. This means that on the second hit of his attack chain, Ravana gets a MASSIVE 50% MORE effectiveness from all power on items, and his CRITS relative to attack speed are a MASSIVE 50% STRONGER than anyone else’s on the second hit of his chain. On the third hit which is relatively weaker than the second, being a 0.75 speed with a 1.0 power, he still gets a GIANT 33% boost to the effectiveness of all his power and his crits.

This right here is what makes Ravana strong, even if you think his skills are weaker than most other gods (Which they really aren’t by the way.), his basic attacks are objectively the strongest in the game by a HUGE margin.

So what does this mean? This means that with IDENTICAL items, you will severely outbox every other god in the game in a straight up left-click battle.

Now, since this is the items section afterall, what items should you build? Your three core items are Ichaival, Ninja Tabi, and Frostbound Hammer. With these three items there is NO ONE that will beat you in a boxing match with an equal amount of gold spent. Next you want to go into Executioner to give yourself another big damage boost and help you shred anyone who is building protections. Next up is the new and improved Soul Eater, this item is freaking amazing now, especially on Ravana for reasons I will explain in a minute. It gives HP, Attack Speed, Lifesteal, Physical Power, and Physical Protections all on a VERY cheap item (along with the added bonus that two of those stats are auras which will help your team).

The next item is where your damage explodes, get Rage. As mentioned earlier, crits are HUGELY more effective on Ravana than on any other god, you will start destroying everything you can touch once you get Rage online. Finally you will want to sell your early game Ichaival for a Deathbringer.

So your final end-game build is: Ninja Tabi, Frostbound Hammer, Executioner, Soul Eater, Rage, Deathbringer.

Now you may be thinking, “But Zambash, there’s no protections there, I will get shredded with your shitty build!”. WRONG! Ravana’s ultimate may seem shitty at first, but it’s strength comes from the way it lets you itemize. In late game teamfights, all you need to do is start off by using your ultimate on the enemy tank. This build gives us 700 extra HP between Frostbound and Soul Eater. Your ultimate gives you 60% DAMAGE REDUCTION from everyone other than the tank that you ulted. This means that for the next 5 seconds you will be tankier than anyone else without building a single protection item, and be doing more damage than anyone else due to your insane attack chain.

For actives you will likely want Beads, and then the other is entirely situational, could be Curse, Blink, Heavenly, whatever you need for the game.

E. Conclusion:

Many people think Ravana is bad because they don’t realize how absurdly strong his basic attacks are, and they are still building Qin’s and tank items on him because they don’t properly utilize his ult which enables building nothing but damage and HP while still being extremely resilient. Ravana is in a good place right now, and just takes some practice to get good at. So go start practicing and trying a proper build, then make your judgement. I believe that currently the VAST majority of players have no idea about how his attack chain works.

EDIT: A note about Qin’s. When I say not to buy it I am not trying to say that it is necessarily a bad item on Ravana. It is a fact that he has the fastest hit chain in the game, and therefore does use Qin’s better than any other god. But most of the time, while Qin’s are good, Crits are just significantly better. If you are against several targets with very high HP, then I would probably ditch the Deathbringer in favor of Qin’s. You absolutely MUST have at least a Rage in the build though, for the absurd way that his attack chain scales crits.

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