Smite Raijin Build Guide: "First I bang the drum, then I bang your Mum." *outdated*

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Smite God: Raijin

Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Raijin Build

General Final Build Order

Shoes of the Magi

Warlock's Staff

Void Stone

Dynasty Plate Helm

Hide of the Urchin

Spear of Desolation

Shoes Start

Vampiric Shroud

Shoes

Healing Potion

Mana Potion

Purple Potion Start - Risky

Soul Stone

Potion of Magical Might

Healing Potion

Mana Potion

1st item - Boots

Shoes of the Magi

Shoes of Focus

2nd Item - Stacks

Warlock's Staff

3rd & 4th items - Penetration & Protections

Void Stone

Dynasty Plate Helm

5th item - Protections

Hide of the Urchin

Magi's Cloak

Spirit Robe

Bulwark of Hope

6th item - Final Power

Spear of Desolation

Spear of the Magus

Rod of Tahuti

Ethereal Staff

Consumables

Healing Potion

Mana Potion

Ward

Useful Relics

Aegis Amulet

Magic Shell

Purification Beads

Cloak of Meditation

Raijin's Skill Order

Percussive Storm

1 X

2 10 11 12 14

Raiju

2 A

1 4 6 7 8

Thunder Crash

3 B

3 15 16 18 19

Taiko Drums

4 Y

5 9 13 17 20

2 10 11 12 14

Percussive Storm

1 X

Raijin pounds his drums sending forth a peal of thunder in a line, then another, then two at once, each growing wider as it travels. The thunder deals Magical Damage to Enemies it hits.

Ability Type: Line, Damage
Damage Per Shot: 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+30% of your Magical Power)
Range: 65
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70
Cooldown: 10s

1 4 6 7 8

Raiju

2 A

Raijin marks a target enemy by dismissing his ally Raiju, who deals damage as he hides in the enemy's navel. While asleep, Raiju slows and reveals the target to Raijin's team on the minimap. The next time Raijin hits the target, Raiju awakens and claws his way out, doubling the slow and damaging the target and 5 nearby enemies every .5s for 2.5s in his attempt to flee. Subsequent enemies hit take decreased damage.

Ability Type: Target, Slow, Damage
Initial Damage: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+15% of your Magical Power)
Damage Per Tick: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+15% of your Magical Power)
Bounce Damage Per Tick: 14 / 21 / 28 / 35 / 42 (+10% of your Magical Power)
Mark Duration: 4s
Slow: 15%
Radius: 12.5
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11s

3 15 16 18 19

Thunder Crash

3 B

Raijin sends a bolt of lightning crashing down at his ground target location mesmerizing enemies, while Raijin himself ascends into the sky. Shortly thereafter he crashes down at that location, doing a burst of damage to all enemies in the area.

Ability Type: Circle, Mesmerize, Damage
Thunder Damage: 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 / 120 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Mesmerize Duration: .3s
Range/Radius: 60/25
Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90
Cooldown: 17 / 16.5 / 16 / 15.5 / 15s

5 9 13 17 20

Taiko Drums

4 Y

Passive: Raijin gains increased Attack Speed.
Active: Raijin flies above the battlefield, beating his drum 4 times to summon peals of thunder. With each hit, he has a choice of three beats:

Beat one: 100% damage
Beat two: Taunt and 50% Damage
Beat three: Fear and 50% Damage

While in the air, Raijin suffers a 20% Movement Speed Slow.

Ability Type: Line, Crowd Control, Damage
Damage Per Hit: 100 / 135 / 170 / 205 / 240 (+40% of your Magical Power)
Taunt Duration Per Hit: .5s
Fear Duration Per Hit: .5s
Attack Speed: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25%
Range: 100
Cost: 90
Cooldown: 90s

Introduction

Hi guys and girls,
I'm CakeSlapping or CAKE SLAP, a casual player who's been enjoying Smite since the Xbox beta.
I've loved the thrill of PvP ever since the first time I played against my brother at Micro Machines on the PS1, and have since become competent at various PvP genres, however Smite is my first MOBA.

So, here is my build guide for playing Raijin which will hopefully help improve your gameplay to a level you're happy with.
Hope you enjoy.

A note on my impossible skill levelling

Now, you may (or may not) have noticed that the skill levelling order I have created is impossible, and you would be right in thinking that, however let me explain why it's how I (sort of) intend it to be.

In order to get Raiju maxed as early as possible I use point-skipping. This means not putting a point into a skill at a particular level up.

So, at level 8 you will actually want to put no points into any ability, which will then allow you to put a point into both Raiju AND Taiko Drums at level 9, meaning you will have a max rank Raiju a whole level earlier than if you'd spent a point at level 8.

It might not seem like a big deal, but the extra damage much earlier can make all the difference.

Who is Raijin?

Raijin is the God of Obnoxious Noise and Electricity based Puns.

He is a resilient Mage with great natural HP and protections scaling as he levels, giving him great natural survivability.
He is capable of putting out incredible amounts of burst damage, to multiple targets, through use of his abilities, and has an ultimate which gives a choice of 2 CC's that can be used to influence the flow of teamfights.

Something to watch

Umm, well, I haven't put together a proper collection of clips yet so please enjoy my hilarious, crazy Raijin laggy drum solo.

Pros and Cons

Pros
-capable of doing shocking amounts of burst damage
-great wave clear from a very low level
-fast moving, decent distance leap, which causes mesmerise CC, is great for initiating or escaping
-great natural health and protections scaling
-brilliant long range ultimate offers choice between 2 forms of CC or high damage, across 4 shots
-CC immunity during ultimate
-Ultimate can shoot through walls
-Drumming skills to rival even Donkey Kong!

Cons
-Very long cooldowns
- Raiju can be difficult to land against mobile opponents
-long startup on leap
-can be CC'ed during startup of leap
-slightly mana hungry early game
-long startup and very slow movement on ultimate

Abilities

Passive - Static Crescendo

A fairly simple passive, grants you a basic attack's worth of bonus damage, to a single target, on abilities, once you have built a number of 'charges'

Ba-dum, Tshh!!

Percussive Storm

is a simple ability which is great for wave clear and poke. Upon casting, bangs on his drums and fires out 4 shots in a straight line in front of him.

Drumming up a storm

Raiju

You send out (your BFF for life) who climbs into, and takes a nap inside, an enemy's belly button (as you do). When you then damage that enemy wakes up and damages the enemy, and 5 other enemies around them, because he's so grumpy about being woken up.

Get in mah Belly!

Thunder Crash

is a fast moving leap, which causes 2 hits of moderate damage, upon leaping and landing.

Ride the Lightning!

Taiko Drums

When using , rises (2 feet) above the battlefield and can drum out 4 shots of thunder, with a choice of effects, in a line in front of him.

Time for the drum solo!

Item Build

With his high base damage and power scalings, paired with his high natural health and protections, Raijin works very well as a bulky Mage, which is how I build him.

Starter items

You want to pick starting items to give you the best opportunity to not fall behind early game.

There's a storm brewing...

1st item - Boots

Buying boots second will give you much needed movement speed to help you chase, escape, and move around the map in general, as well as early power to help you bang things.

Kick it up a notch

The cooldown on will allow you to use your abilities more often, giving you a little more flexibility in combat.

2nd item - Stacks

Building a stacking item 2nd will give you a steady power snowball heading into the mid game.

Fat Stacks in my pocket...

3rd & 4th items - Penetration and Protections

Buying items which give both protections and power+penetration will give you a great boost to your damage, while giving you more survivability. The order in which you buy these will depend on your lane opponent(s).

Shocked to the core

dynasty late helm gives you physical protection to help you deal with physical opponents, and power and penetration to boost your damage output against them.

5th item - Protections

Buying a pure protections item now will make you much bulkier heading into mid-late game teamfights.

Can't hurt me!

The main draw of magi's blessing is the passive which completely negates a CC used against you once every 70 seconds. This is particularly against CC heavy, and particularly stun heavy teams.

6th item - Power

A final damage item will give you a great boost of damage to throw around in the late game.

Bang them harder!

Game Strategy

Don't die, and kill people, basically.

I'll be writing in a bit more detail soon...

Conclusion

Raijin is a brilliantly fun Mage who can dish out some serious damage.

He can put out some incredible burst, but also has some versatile CC on his kit, which can make him very useful in many team comps.

Hopefully my guide has helped you understand Raijin and my way of building him, and hopefully it has helped improve your game.

All constructive feedback is welcomed, so please feel free to leave a comment, and upvote if you found the guide helpful.

Thanks for reading!

My other Guides

Please feel free to take a look at my other build guides, on this site:

"I am the one who Nox"

"Winter is Coming" - Joust Guide

Land of the Rising Sun - Amaterasu Jungle Guide

Thanks for looking!

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Collapse All Comments

(3) |

nice build for raijin

(29) |

It really isn't. It was okay when Raijin first release as a 'utility Mage' and had great protection scalings, as he levelled, to complement the build, but once they changed that (almost a year ago) this build became hopeless.

It's always been better to build him for burst anyway.

(401) |

Hi Cake!!! Long time no see!!!

And if you don't know...I almost think sunny is a troll account...that's all sunny says in all of their comments...

Load more comments (2 more replies) →

(33) |

Don't try to insult lord sunny!!!
We know you are jealous because your guides aren't nice enough for him.

(14) |

Bernardo speaks the truth!

Upvoted cuz title lmfao

(46) |

wrote:

I don't like building this tanky on Raijin.

wrote:

His health and protections scale like a tough Mage, like Zhong or Hades, so I find it effective to build him this way.

(29) |

**** this game. Now I have to redo the entire guide!

(41) |

this patch is going to be so lose( for guides :(

Load more comments (1 more replies) →

(401) |

F you guys with your guides. I've already put hours into the updates for mine, and I'm not done yet!!

(29) |

Haha, sucks to be you ;)

(1) |

Interesting build. Though I feel like Celestial Legion Helm is a far better option than Dynasty Plate Helm even if not going up against crit ADs but if you are, it becomes invaluable.

Edit: Just thought I'd also add that I fully intend to test this build out (with that one change though).

(29) |

I do feel is a decent item, but I would only ever get it if there's AT LEAST 2 enemies building crit (enemy team has carry and jungle, for example).

If you're not getting regular use out of the passive then you've spent an extra 500-odd gold, over , for a little more power and a little more protection, with 0 penetration and passive you're not using.
That 500 gold goes a long way to getting your next item completed, so I find it inefficient to be spending it on , if you're not regularly getting use from its passive.

(1) |

I can agree with that though I usually play Joust so I have no problems with gold lol.

(46) |

I have to ask, why no lifesteal?

(29) |

I don't personally find it so effective on higher health Mage builds. By all means feel free to fit it in if you want to, but you'll have to decide when and where based on how the game is going.
(I'd generally recommend building lifesteal after your 1st protections, or stacking item, and decide what you don't need later, as the match progresses)

(2) |

I don't like building this tanky on Raijin. He's a burst mage like Zeus or Scylla, not a bruiser like Zhong or Hades. His strengths come from his ability to remove 1 or 2 players from a team fight, and when he gets played at a professional level its all about damage.

(29) |

I do! I find it works remarkably well!

His health and protections scale like a tough Mage, like shong or hades, so I find it effective to build him this way.
I get what you're saying about bursting down the squishies, but once you've done that you're generally still left balls-deep amongst 2-3 enemies, out of position and likely without an escape off cooldown, which is very risky.

A tankier build, I find, lets me stay around much longer, effectively putting out more damage but over a longer period of time.

(41) |

Btw- The PP (Purple Potion) start is done with , not .

(29) |

WhoopsyDoodles! Didn't realise I'd clicked on shroud by accident. Sorted it now.

(46) |

Upvoted. Not very often I see a build with and . Great title, by the way.

(41) |

Upvoted, Upvoted and Upvoted. amazing guide, love the name of the guide lol

(25) |

As of right now the main thing I have to say is that I simply love this build; bruiser-ish mages seem to be like the way to go currently (with some exceptions of course), the only "problem" would be that it won't be dealing that much damage to the tanks, but can't have everything I guess- leaving this task to hunters an focusing more on squishies will do.

So, I won't have much occasion of testing it in actual game as I simply don't get 's playstyle (not to mention recent into into instalocks every game kind of forcing me to fill), but I did it on bots at least as some reference to the overall experience.

The thing that came to my mind was that unless you really are able to make a good use of 's passive, the best default option for the last item would be the generic - with Spear the build provides 360 power, with Rod- 456; so it comes down to 96 power VS 20 penetration & the passive. It felt for me as if that much additional power was a better deal, but maybe that's because I don't like relying on that CDR after kills, as someone else can always claim the finishing blow making it a bit unreliable in my opinion.

(29) |

wrote:

the only "problem" would be that it won't be dealing that much damage to the tanks, but can't have everything I guess- leaving this task to hunters an focusing more on squishies will do.

You'll still be doing enough damage that you'll easily be able to burst down squishies with your ability combos, so like you say you can focus tanks with teammates, or leave them to better suited teammates. Either way I tend to get on just fine damage wise.

Quoted:

" concerns"

To be honest I've begun to dislike the Spear. It's just too damn expensive! It is a great item, but the price just doesn't justify the benefits. By the time you get it online your opponents likely will have already bought their final items well before you, even if you're ahead. I will be taking it out of the guide, but I accidentally published it before I had it finished.

(401) |

Holy hell, Cake...that title...

Lol, that said, um...don't think you can level to 5 at level 8. You'll probably want to put 1 into at level 8, ult at 9, then finish off at 10.

AND...now I've ready your "impossible skill leveling" section, and you want to point-skip, so I got it, and nix the above. I'm not deleting cuz I'm just going to keep writing.

Question: although it does slightly less damage, wouldn't you want the longer ranged to be leveled before to help hit all minions in the wave? Although it does some AOE damage and has higher magical damage scaling, you won't see bigger effect until you've built more items.

Regarding build, has a range of 55, which is a bit less than the max range of and probably the first hit of , not to mention the 100 range of , so you won't always get the full effect of the protection reduction. Trying to figure out how to still have your build balanced but provide more reliable pen...obviously, something like would be great, but I see what you're trying to do here, by providing both offensive and defensive qualities in the 3rd and 4th items. I think I'd personally prefer to default to 3rd and 4th. That would give some CDR and equal protections, and then potentially more effective penetration (depending on target and build, of course).

Also, I don't know how well does on him, but it seems like it would be effective.

Bah, what the hell do I know...I've never played the guy!!! LOL

(29) |

wrote:

Holy hell, Cake...that title...

Haha ;)

You raise a lot of good points bran, thanks for the feedback!

Quoted:

Question: although it does slightly less damage, wouldn't you want the longer ranged to be leveled before to help hit all minions in the wave?

I think actually does a little more damage if you land all hits, but I still prefer to level first, as its (imo) easier to confirm the high damage on your opponent with.
Now, I've switched to ALWAYS using the start, as it adds an extra 60 damage to your , making it a great wave clear even at level 1, giving me the freedom to level for the burst on opponents, as I'm confident with my wave clear. (Hope that made sense)

Quoted:

"concerns about penetration"

I definitely need to play around with this as I do think you're right that I could make it more efficient (in the long run), it's just the idea was building into prots+damage early will allow you to bully lane earlier, but I see it may leave you with less desirable stats later on in the match.
The range of isn't generally a problem with my playstyle, as the tankiness in the build allows for a balls-deep sort of aggression keeping me within range while I do my burst.
But, like you suggested, offsetting pen till a little later will give me a more efficient build late game, so ill play around with that a bit.

Quoted:

Also, I don't know how well does on him, but it seems like it would be effective.

As all of your burst usually happens very quickly, I feel it's not so effective for himself, but it's a great help for his team. Especially during teamfights, as most of your abilities will be hitting several enemies.

(401) |

I'm a scaredy-mage, I guess. Your build is definitely tankier than a glass cannon, so yeah, maybe that works. Understood.

I updated the pop-up info so it should now read with potential max damage by hitting all 3 shots...and although the base power is just slightly less, the scaling is higher, so yeah, as you get any power, it'll start making a bigger difference.

Thing with , even if it's easier to confirm, it says the radius is 12.5. If you place him on the first minion in the wave, not sure it's enough to hit the back archer(s)...do you need to aim this on a melee that's in the middle of the wave? How does this work?

Load more comments (1 more replies) →

(29) |

Whenever I place raiju on the first minion it hits the back archers just fine, so the space between minions must be 12.5 or less?

(29) |

Whoopsy, just accidentally published this before it got finished, with my fat thumbs (damn iPhone!).
I'll leave it up because it's almost done anyway, but I will be adding some extra info, BBcoding and whatnot.

Anyways please leave me some feedback!

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"First I bang the drum, then I bang your Mum." *outdated*

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Table of Contents

Introduction

A note on my impossible skill levelling

Who is Raijin?

Something to watch

Pros and Cons

Abilities

Item Build

Game Strategy

Conclusion

My other Guides

"First I bang the drum, then I bang your Mum." outdated

Smite God: Raijin

Raijin Build

General Final Build Order

Shoes Start

Purple Potion Start - Risky

1st item - Boots

2nd Item - Stacks

3rd & 4th items - Penetration & Protections

5th item - Protections

6th item - Final Power

Consumables

Useful Relics

Raijin's Skill Order

Percussive Storm

Raiju

Thunder Crash

Taiko Drums

Introduction

A note on my impossible skill levelling

Who is Raijin?

Something to watch

Pros and Cons

Abilities

Item Build

Game Strategy

Conclusion

My other Guides

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