Discordia - Strife will reign! (Season 4, Patch 4.25)

Discordia is a fun mage focused around causing chaos on the battlefield and controlling space well. This guide will teach you everything about her, from how to build her most effectively, to showing you any cool or interesting techniques.

For this section, I will assume that you have already read through her kit, but I will go over certain aspects of her abilities that you may not know or parts that may be very important.

This passive is simple to understand: have top damage, get a damage buff. There's not much to state here, but don't be upset if you don't have it. Whoever gains the buff from Contest of Gods will gain a HUGE buff. On a physical god, 40 physical power at level 20 is noticeable boost in DPS for hunters and 70 magical power is a large amount for a mage- however hope that your warrior or guardian doesn't gain the buff as they will not benefit from it as much as assassins, mages, or hunters would. This is one interesting ability given the way it functions. When clearing the minion wave, look to target the circular portion of the ability onto the enemy archer minions, if the minion wave is stationary, or aim it towards the center of the minion wave if the minion wave is moving.

One tip with Unruly Magic is to not overthink its projectiles. Yes they can deal extra damage but you will deal more damage when you directly hit an enemy with it. Another thing about this ability is that the main projectile will travel to wherever you aim it towards- this is important as so you won't accidentally aim it on your feet and be surprised that it doesn't go far. You will want to prioritize skill points into this ability first and obtain it at level 1 as it is your main wave clear tool and is also your main damaging ability. If you're played Serqet before, Strife is at its simplest form, an easier version of Cobra's Kiss in that you deal damage to enemies and force affected enemies to damage each other. For Discordia, Strife is her main crowd control ability due to its Madness debuff and a root if on a single target. I would level this ability second as the added damage helps out Discordia's weak early game. At first glance this ability seems like a poor escape tool with a gimmick but it is a huge part to Discordia's success. When you are within the area that is created by Erratic Behavior, you will gain movement speed, which helps you to stay mobile while in the area, and also every 0.5 seconds, you will reduce the cooldowns Unruly Magic and Strife. Abusing this feature of Erratic Behavior will increase how effective you are in fights as you will be able to send forth exploding stars after exploding stars, and root after root. The damage able to be inflicted by repeatedly casting these two abilities really adds up. For this main reason, I prefer to prioritize it second, right after Unruly Magic. Normally, I would prioritize this ability second instead of Strife but I began to value the extra early damage that Strife was able to provide. Leveling Erratic Behavior second is still a viable route though Strife is a safer bet. This ultimate is another component to Discordia's strong zone control and damage. When landing this ability, be mindful of the slow projectile speed of the giant apple- ideally you'd want to use Golden Apple of Discord if you are in close proximity to an enemy or if your allies have applied crowd control onto an enemy. Another thing to be aware of is that if you are playing against Discordia, do not use Aegis Amulet or similar abilities on the first instance of damage from Golden Apple of Discord. Instead wait for the delayed instance of damage, as it does the most.

I recommend similar to Hou Yi and Kuzenbo, to not worry too much about the fact that you have an ability that can bounce off of walls. Most of the time it is better to just go for the straightforward hit instead of trying to be fancy and going for a bounce. Also Golden Apple of Discord has a slow travel time so chances are that your opponent will simply dodge it. One additional thing to note is that Golden Apple of Discord is not a good ultimate to secure objectives with, such as the Gold Fury and the Fire Giant. I recommend investing a skill point into this when available,
as the damage per level is decent.

This section will cover how to correctly combo Discordia's abilities to get the most efficient usage out of them and to be able to inflict your damage in a quick amount of time.

Discordia is a damage oriented mage, and as such, magical power and magical penetration are core offensive stats to ensure that you have great damage potential. One other stat to prioritize is cooldown reduction. Cooldown reduction is fantastic on Discordia as she is very reliant on her abilities and having cooldown reduction gives her more control in fights in conjunction with Erratic Behavior being able to reduce the cooldowns of Unruly Magic and Strife. This section will cover an optimal item build and also discuss a few items and if they are worth your time or not.

Discordia is my new favorite goddess- she requires a bit of understanding and thought before hopping into a blind game with her and expecting to succeed. I hope that this guide has helped you pick her up and maybe even you'll love her as much as I do <3