Bellona - Hardcore jungler

Hello, I am Tonchi91 and this is my first SmiteFire build/guide. I chose to start with Bellona since she is my favorite god in game. I have been playing her a lot and found that a lot of people are playing her wrong, and that is the reason I am doing this.

Before I start with everything, I know Bellona can be played in a lot of different way, but in most times people don't understand her abilities and her passive. Bellona is intended to be basic attack god, so she need attack speed items. Her passive is getting protections by stacks, which means you need attack speed so you can finish stacks faster. Your 1st ability gives you absorb while attacking, which means you need attack speed to gain absorb faster. Your 2nd ability is used for clearing minions and buffs, which means you have to build attack speed to clear it faster. And your 3rd ability gives you heal on every 3rd successful basic attack while in that stance, which means you need attack speed to heal faster.

You can play Bellona tanky, but I don't see the point for it, since she don't have quality CC (her ultimate only stun for a second and it is hard to CC more then one enemy with it). The other point why I don't like playing Bellona tanky is because you have passive which gives you protections and by buying more then 2 protections for her, you are wasting slots for better items.

• High defense
• Good minion/buff clear
• Good damage
• Stances that makes her hard to kill, good to clear minions and to make healing

• Bad to initiate the fight
• Hard to run away if ultimate is on CD

Master of War is one of my favorite passives in this game. By hitting with basic attack, you are gaining stacks that gives you protections and movement speed. This passive is main reason why I don't buy Frostbound Hammer on Bellona. You don't need to slow the enemy to kill him. Buying Frostbound Hammer in my opinion is a waste of slot for other item.

This ability is my main ability for attacking, and I will explain why.
With Shield bash you are slowing enemy by 15% to 35% and that is great percentage of slowing. Also by hitting enemy with basic attack while in this stance, you are gaining stacks of block. Each stack of block provides you an absorb to entire damage of single basic attack. This ability is my main reason why I don't go with more then 2 protections in entire build.

Bludgeon is ability mainly used for clearing buffs and minions. With this ability you are gaining 3 types of damage. First you spin around with hammer, making damage to everything in the circle range of Bludgeon. Second type of damage is after spinning, when she smash with her hammer in front of her, and third type of damage is while making basic attack in that stance. While making basic attack in that stance you can hit more then one minion, which makes that ability OP for clearing minions and buffs. My advice is when clearing minions to stand in the middle of the minion wave so you can spin trough every single minion, smashing only last minions to kill them and finish first minions with basic attack. While doing those basic attacks to kill them, you are gaining protections from passive so you don't need to worry about being killed while doing that.

Scourge is a good ability for sustaining yourself so you don't have to go to base so often. It provides you healing on every 3rd successful basic attack, disarming the enemy for a short amount of time (enough time) and making some damage. I found myself using this ability when entering the fight, by disarming the enemy, you get enough time to get close to him. Also you can use that ability to heal yourself on minions/buffs and to kill someone with low amount of health when someone is escaping from you. You would be surprised how many times you can make kill like that. I don't like to enemy to escape with such low healts.

Most people is using Bellona's ultimate wrong. I will explain why. You have to understand what this ultimate is doing and what is its weaknesses.
When you use your ultimate with her, try to stun the enemy who don't have escape with leap or dash, otherwise you wasted your ultimate. I use her ultimate in two type of situations. First, when I have to escape from certain death (after that I dash just to move some further distance away), and when I am catching someone to kill. When you are catching someone to kill, wait for enemy to leap/dash first then jump on him, so the enemy can't escape from you. The best example is when playing Bellona against Neith. Bellona is her natural counter god. Use your dash so you can be in stance for absorb and attack her. When she leap away from you, then jump with ultimate on her to stun her and finish her of while still in your absorb stance. That is the main Pro's of her ult. You are staying in the last active stance after you jumped with her ultimate.

I am using Ninja Tabi and not Warrior Tabi on her cause she is mainly basic attack god (read Introduction). Ninja Tabi is providing her with some attack speed so you can gain passive from the start, which means you will be much more secure from the start.

Runeforged Hammer is good on her cause you will gain health, protections and damage from passive of this item.

Everyone knows what Asi is. But why Asi on Bellona? You will gain everything you need from it to not be dependent on your 3rd ability too much.

Not many people are familiar with Ancile. Ancile is a very good item, on Bellona even better. You need some cooldown reduction, and Ancile will give it to you, and you will still gain needed magical protection, you gain damage and you are gaining healths on stacks which you can build on buffs, mid and backcamps.

Now we are on optional item. I use Ichaival when there is no Guardian or Warrior in solo lane. I use it mostly when there are 2 hunters in enemy team. You will gain more power by it, more attack speed and you will reduce enemy physical damage.

We are now on second optional item. I use The Executioner instead of Ichaival when there is Warrior or Guardian in solo lane. With The Executioner you will reduce their protections so you and solo laner can deal more damage when you gank solo lane.

We are now on last item. Why I chose Deathbringer as my last item on Bellona? Since I am building her primarily as basic attack god (which she is) crit is a good choice to end with. You will deal a lot more damage with basic attack and you will finish your enemy a lot easier.

I will not tell the basics of jungling here. I will only tell what do I do when I gank.

First of all, don't let anyone from your team makes you initiate the fight. As I said, Bellona is bad in starting the fight. Let your team mate start it so you can get from behind. Use your 3rd ability to disarm and quickly activate 1st ability to dash on that enemy which is disarmed. Just basic attack that enemy so you can gain absorb and fill passive. Wait until your target dash or leap and quickly land with your ultimate on him with the center so you can stun him and quickly finish him of. If your target is managing to escape you with a small amount of health there is a very big chance you can finish him of with your 3rd ability which will get from cooldown when it comes to it.

Use your ultimate ONLY when someone is escaping with dash/leap or when you have to run away to survive.

And remember, when you use your ultimate, you will stay in the last known active stance you were right before you used your ultimate. So if you dash with first ability and stack for absorb and then used ultimate, stacks will stay active since you stayed in that stance.