Bellona - Critical Killer

Hi RsngX,

You're right, builds are personal, and having a unique build can be a great thing...we don't want multiple guides suggesting basically the same build over and over.

Here's some constructive feedback as requested. I'll be referring here and there to things that are covered in my Items guide.

(Cool Latin title, by the way..."if you want peace, prepare for war." And no, I don't know Latin, had to look it up)


So, this is just something to consider...not saying you can't have your build or that it isn't effective. With the passive from Wind Demon active, your attack speed is actually just slightly below the 2.5 cap...I was amazed, thought it would be overcapped, but she doesn't have an attack speed steroid, so it makes sense.

That said, the other thing to consider is her basic attack chain. In her 3 various forms, none are really great for utilizing the Qin's Sais passive. Shield Bash is 0.5/1/1, Bludgeon is 1.5/1/1.5, and Scourge is 1/0.5/1.

The progression matters, because faster attacks (not just from attack speed) really help get more use out of Qin's. The more progressions under 1, the better. The premier Qin's attackers, as examples, are Kali (1/0.5/0.5) and Erlang Shen (0.75/0.75/0.75/1.1/0.9). You're making up for her very average progression with a ****ton of attack speed...but therein lies the biggest issue...you're having to compensate, which means you're just not going to be quite as efficient, build-wise. Again, that's your choice, but this is a reason why I'm guessing Papa has an issue.


Understanding the properties of her various weapons/abilities is perhaps more important than just spamming her basic attack.

Being a Warrior, she's not inherently squishy, but if you don't build any health or protections, it's not going to make a lot of difference between you and a true squishy god. I'm guessing you're making up for this with your DPS, but consider the other things at her disposal. Other than her pretty good range on her ult, her Shield Bash distance is pretty ****py. So she doesn't have much of an escape or mobility, unless you want to waste your ult. This means she's more susceptible to getting hurt, and protections and health really help your survivability.

I looked some of your matches up on Smite Guru...won't link them here, but as an example, one of your recent matches as Bellona had you going 11/14/10. You had a crazy 41,992 damage, but you also took 40,652 and mitigated 24,468.

Understand that in an Arena match especially, K/D is very important. Tickets are deducted every time you die. 40k damage is very nice, but you didn't do your team any favors by taking that much damage and dying that much. Basically, other things not being considered, if you only got 2 kills and 1 death, it would have been more of a help to your team's points. (of course, your Zeus and Geb did absolutely nothing to help either, so you were likely bound to lose anyway)

Part of what will really help is getting at LEAST 1 good protection item...something like Hide of the Urchin would do wonders to help you take more damage without dying. Sure, it won't help your DPS, but again...DPS isn't everything. If you were to replace one item, I'd say it should probably be Qin's Sais or Hastened Fatalis, considering the rest of your build. I also would just not get Bloodforge on her...but that's me.


More commonly, people will build her with some focus on abilities. Bellona is fine built as a hybrid bruiser...getting some basic attack support to go with ability-based items, plus health/protections. This would, of course, be a huge deviation from your current build, which is basically like one a Hunter/ADC would build.

These are some of the popular items people usually get on her: Jotunn's Wrath, Breastplate of Valor, Frostbound Hammer, Brawler's Beat Stick, Titan's Bane. Not saying this is a build...just incorporating some of these items can help in different ways.

Specifically, with regard to Hastened Fatalis, dude, the passive IS awesome. I like to incorporate it, but one thing to consider is that it is absolutely a compromise item...the passive really helps you stick, but it has 0 power and 0 penetration. It's good that the rest of your items provide these (though The Executioner needs to be stacked for optimal use), but you get a lot of damage from Bludgeon, with the potential for great scaling. Taking this out of your build and subbing it for something else might be more effective, but again, it probably means you move away from true basic attacker to hybrid.

Bloodforge really is better for a god that has great burst damage to take down an enemy and then escape. Well, you can secure kills with your DPS, so you'll get use out of the shield...but the other thing, in Arena in particular, is that it's expensive...you've already got Qin's Sais (which again I'd consider passing on) and Deathbringer, which makes it harder for you to complete your build. If you're way ahead, sure, go ahead, more power to you, but otherwise, it might be more functional to consider a different item (again, really suggest at least a good solid protection item, built earlier than the last item).

Anyway, that's my feedback. Will reiterate that I'm not saying your build can't kick butt in the right circumstance, but you might consider some other options and see if it might increase your survivability and whatnot.

Well... I tought that a build is a personal and individual thing. If you have any problem with a build, just don't use it. If you have something constructive to say about this build, please, be welcome. Bellona IS the Godess of War, I just made a build that's honor her name.