Rama conquest guide

Since Rama is such a popular ADC in the current meta, I decided to make a guide for him so that people knew how to use him correctly. This guide is pretty much a manifestation of what I've learned from playing a lot of Rama, as well as watching the Rama god himself Marvalz, and other top ADCS on stream and in the SPL.


This is my first guide on this site, so I have no knowledge of how to do any of the coding to make this look nice. Any comments would be appreciated, though I would prefer they stay positive and helpful. Thanks!

Rama is perhaps the most unique hunter in the game, as he has no direct damage ability beyond his ultimate. All of his damage comes from his auto attacks and how he enhances them. Rama's a hunter who's obviously viable in ADC, and with the right comp in the mid role as well. He's characterized by his weak early game, snipe ultimate, and lategame carry potential.

Pros:
Decent but awkward laning phase
Long range kill secure
Lategame carry potential
Safe
Slow and cripple

Cons:
Low early pressure
Ultimate only damaging ability



Decent laning phase- Rama can auto the whole wave with astral arrows, which is pretty nice. However, if you want to hit the whole wave, you have to stand in front of it and will obviously take a lot of free poke. This is why Rama is a more passive early nicolas cage.

Long range kill secure- Rama's ultimate has a long range, so if you can hit your ult shots, then you can secure a lot of kills your team wouldn't otherwise get. The ultimate also does a lot more damage than most people give it credit for. At full build it can kill a squishy around half to a third health.

Lategame carry potential- Rama's steroid gives him 50% attack speed, so he has massive lategame carry potential with crit and qins.

Safe- At max rank Rama's roll has an 8 second cooldown, the shortest of any hunter. His ultimate also takes him completely out of the fight for a few seconds, which can be key in teamfights to surviving assassins.

Slow and cripple- Rama's astral arrows provide a stacking slow, and the next auto attack after rolling with cripple. This provides Rama with some control and boxing ability.

Ultimate only damaging ability- Rama lacks any sort of direct damage, such as an impale or spirit arrow. This is part of why Rama's early game is considered to be weak. It also can make securing objectives difficult.

ADC- When playing Rama as an ADC, he uses the standard start of death's toll, boots 1, and health and mana pots. This provides good sustain for the laning phase as long as you're playing safe. From there you'll get warrior tabi, since with the steroid the extra attack speed is unneeded. After that ichaival for boxing potential. After ichaival, the build comes to a crossroads. If you want extra damage, go for qin's sais. If you want lifesteal, go for asi. I prefer qin's as it gives me a clear edge when boxing the opposing hunter, and is overall a huge powerspike. Asi is also useful, if you're getting poked and need sustain, or if you're doing an objective like gold fury soon. From there the build is pretty straightforward. Titan's bane, rage, sell ichaival for deathbringer.

I use this ADC build over stacking builds because it allows me to box and have impactful rotations in the early and mid game without having to worry about stacking.

For mid, just do the transcendence start over the death's toll start. I go trans with Rama in the midlane since clearing the wave quickly is much more important in mid. This means that Rama can go through a lot of mana in a single wave with astral strike. The build is pretty much the same to the ADC build, with trans replacing ichaival. Similar to ichaival, if you want more damage over mana lategame sell trans for deathbringer.

Pasive: Astral Quiver
Rama will passively generate astral arrows over time, with successful auto attacks making them charge faster. Rama can hold a maximum of 5 arrows.

1: Astral Strike
Rama's auto attacks go through everything (walls, players, etc.), do additional damage, and slow. Enemies hit after the first take less damage. Every auto while astral strike is active will consume 1 arrow. This is your lane clear and buff clear. I level this and max it first.

2: Pick me up

This ability has both a passive and active factor. Passively, it gives Rama a chance to drop an arrow every time he uses an arrow consuming ability (combat roll and astral strike), if an arrow drops, Rama can pick it up for a free arrow. This is useful for more arrows, but the ability is more for the active part. When activated, pick me up grants Rama at max rank a 50% attack speed steroid. I pick this up at level 4 and max it last. This ability is very mana-heavy, so use it sparingly in lane.

3: Combat Roll

Rama rolls in whatever direction he is moving. His next auto attack after rolling with deal flat additional damage, give Rama a fatalis effect for the auto, and cripple the affected enemy for 1 second at rank one, up to 2 seconds at max rank. I level this second and max it second, for the reduced cooldown and increased cripple duration.

4: Astral Barrage

Rama goes into the air for five seconds. During this, he can shoot 3 shots, each one decreasing in size and increasing in damage. I level this at level 5 and max it third. Astral barrage is Rama's calling card ability, as it allows big damage and kill secure if the user can hit their shots.

Rama, while having a unique kit, isn't an especially unique god in playstyle. As long as you play passive early and farm up to carry lategame, you should be fine. The major key here is in playing safe and not being too aggressive unless you have ward vision, vision of the enemy team, and the confidence that you can take a fight with the enemy hunter.