Bellybutton Warrior - Joust

Hello community!
This is my first ever guide, and contribution to the smite community.
This is currently a work in progress, and I am attempting to make this "guide" as neat as possible, and as little of an eye-sore as possible. (*Stares at guides without pictures.)

Since this is a work-in-progress, I am glad to receive any feedback, criticism, suggestions, etc. etc.

I will be attempting to finish this guide as soon as possible, however it may take a little bit of time, as ripping/creating the images and such takes majority of the time.

In the meantime, feel free to read over what is posted, and thank you for visiting!

Pros
High Burst
Strong Early Game
Great Wave-Clear
Great Multi-Targeted Fighting ('splash damage' raiju?)

Cons
Low sustain (without lifesteal)
Relatively Squishy (without protections)

Raiju - Raiju is Raijin's best ability, excluding his ultimate. This skill is useful for all aspects of joust; clearing minion waves, chunking enemy gods' HP, and even acting as a short-term mobile ward in the opponents bellybutton! (Warding a stealth loki? :D) This ability will jump to 5 other nearby enemies, making wave-clear easy, by applying Raiju and auto-attacking or using your #1 (Percussive Storm) to activate the effect.
I max this skill first because it is versatile, and it has an extremely high damage output (especially when using the passive bonus!)
Percussion Storm - Percussion storm is another skill great at clearing waves, as it sends out three damaging projectiles in succession. These projectiles will pierce through minions, and stop at the first enemy god it hits.
I max this skill second because it is not as versatile as Raiju. While this skill is great at clearing out minion waves by itself, it is quite not as reliable when an enemy god comes. If an enemy god body-blocks a minion wave, this skill will do no damage to the minions. In addition to this, it is not as easy to catch an enemy god with this skill, as people can juke the shots.
Thunder Crash - This is my personal favorite skill on Raijin. This skill has many functions; mobility, damage, kill-security, and dodging! This skill can help follow up on that Chang'e you have been trying to kill, who has just ran away from you with a smidgen of health. You can also use it to save yourself from death, and even for stealthy-clutch kills! This skill works similar to Poseidon's ultimate, in the sense that you will have the most damage output if an enemy is inside the tiny circle!
I max this skill out last for one reason; I personally like to play it safe. In a joust, bolting in to kill or damage a person may not always be safe when you have two fully healed enemy gods waiting to blast their entire kit on you, knowing that you have just used your only escape!
Taiko Drums - The skill that has Janus weeping in despair. This skill has a very high damage output, a very big range, and casting time once inside the 'ultimate form' is relatively low. In addition to this, the skill can be utilized to have CC effects by sacrificing damage! (Which may not be a bad idea, as getting four hits on a target is better than getting one hit on the same target who jukes most of the hits). This ultimate will melt anyone early-game. Anyone. Using the CC versions by pressing either 2 (taunt)or 3 (fear) may help secure a kill from a god with high mobility.
You want to max this skill as soon as possible, as every morsel of damage is critical when trying to wonk your opponent with those drums!
Static Crescendo - This is Raijin's passive ability. Every basic attack you do (hit OR miss) will give one charge of static. When all four charges are collected, your next ability will do extra damage equal to 30% of your magical power.
It is advisable to be basic attacking the minions, enemy gods, or even the air any moment you get! Any time you cast a skill without this effect is damage lost!
A common misconception about this ability is that it gives your next ability +30% power. This is incorrect. It calculates 30% of your power, and adds that number onto your damage as additional damage. Example - (1000 power) Charging your passive will not make you have an extra 30% power bringing you to 1300 power, but instead will take the flat number (30% of 1000 = 300) and add it on to your next ability, to deal an extra 300 damage!

Guides are quite tricky, as no match is typical. For this reason, I have posted a sample glass cannon build I normally run with, along with some situational items I use. No build is perfect, and none are better than the others, as it depends on what you are up against!
I will instead be breaking this down into two parts : General Goals, and Item Reasonings.

Cooldown Reduction ~30% - Cooldown is a very important aspect of Raijin, as he is a burst mage. His damage does not come from his auto-attacks like freya or chronos, or any hunter, so having your skills available sooner is critical for your damage output. (Using your skills more often means doing more damage!)
I personally seek out 30% cooldown reduction as my goal, as it is easy to obtain, and probably the best bang for your buck. By not maxing it out, you lose perhaps 1 or 2 seconds of potential cooldown on your main skills, but can gain other utilities such as more power, or more protections! (Although it is possible to obtain another 10% by some power items or protection items!)

Penetration - In order to kill objectives, you will need penetration to lower the amount of damage mitigated. In addition to objectives, penetration will also help damage those gods sporting extra tanky builds.

Magical Power (500~700) - Since Raijin is a mage, magical power is the primary source of damage scaling for skills. The more you build, the more damage you will do! While it is possible to build a mage to obtain over 1200 magic power with buffs and potions/elixirs, a more realistic, day to day build should have at least 500-700 in my opinion. When forming a build, you must consider : will the tradeoff of power for protections be worth it? If you are rarely taking hits, and the enemy gods don't have an easy time killing you, it would be best to go for more power than protections, as long as you can play it with minimal risk!


Shoes of Focus - These are my go-to boots for any mage. I recommend these overShoes of the Magi for one reason; cooldown. While it may seem better to get another 15 power, and 10 penetration fromShoes of the Magi, I personally feel that the 10% cooldown is a much better trade-off. You will probably be picking up a penetration item later on anyways, so this serves as both movement speed and cooldown, instead of only movement speed. The bonus 15 power is an insignificant amount to give up 10% cooldown.

Book of Thoth - A great item for mages. This item will give you a decent amount of MP5, a ton of mana, and most importantly, lots of magical power. The reason why I prefer this overDoom Orb is because this is a more reliable form of DPS, since your stacks do not reset on death. I sometimes choose to build this item first, as it will give a substantial amount of power, and you can start building your stacks sooner. Boots can come later, as long as you save your teleport skill for mobility!

Chronos Pendant - This item is a must have for burst mages, as it serves various important roles;cooldown, power, MP5. If you are going to be going for as much power as possible, without sacrificing your cooldown, this is the item to go for. If you feel that you are getting hit too hard by a physical god, you can replace it for a Breastplate of valor, to trade the 75 magical power for 75 physical protections. I do not recommend this, but if you want more well rounded protections, get aSpirit Robe instead, so you have 40 protections of each, at the cost of 10% less cooldown.

Rod of Tahuti - This item is a must-have item for all burst mages. It gives 125 magical power, 15 MP5, and a bonus 25% magical power! What more could you ask for?

Obsidian Shard - This item is needed if you are fighting against a person with high protections, or any objectives. There are other items in the game which give magical penetration, such asSpear of the Magus, however two issues arise;Spear of the Magus no longer gives % penetration as of the latest patch, and that you are a burst mage without skill-based auto attacks. The problem with this item is that the penetration applies after each hit with an ability. As raijin, this may not be a plausible source of penetration, because the full effect of the item may not get applied until you have already used your full kit on the opponent. For this reason, I recommend sticking to the Obsidian Shard for penetration on Raijin.

Spear of Desolation - I like to grab this item as my last, because it will give you a greedy amount of power. If you are building to be a glass cannon mage, this item will help you get over the 1000 magical power threshold, with the help of some buffs. If your games actually last long enough that you have a full build with these items, you will be hitting like atruck. This however is also a good place to substitute the item for anything you may be lacking, such as protections, or other effects such as the onePolynomicon provides.

Charging up yourStatic Crescendo before all abilities will help you deal more damage.


You can activateRaiju by castingPercussion Storm.

When usingTaiko Drums, if your opponent has high mobility, such as jumps or teleports, you may wish to cast option#3 (fear) of the ultimate to ensure that you get the hits.

If an enemy god is very low on health, and has retreated to their phoenix to recall, you can sneakilyThunder Crash into their jungle to get closer, and cast yourTaiko Drums to finish them off. Usually people get caught off guard, as they are looking through the item catalogue if their tower is still up!