Vote received! Would you like to let the author know their guide helped you and leave them a message?
Gem of Focus
Chronos' Pendant
Spear of Desolation
Soul Reaver
Obsidian Shard
Doom Orb
Purification Beads and 
Aegis Amulet. They will both upgrade through the game while completing the quests for them!
You start with Purification Beads and Aegis Amulet. They will both upgrade through the game while completing the quests for them!
Temporal Beads
Aegis of Acceleration
The Alternate Timeline can literally win you games. Especially in arena (when you reach the 10 - 10 points mark!) but in ANY mode can literally give you a second life, another rotation of abilities and hopefully some kills!
Book of Thoth provides you with lot of mana and TON of power... but you gotta stack it!
Charon's Coin you can easily swap this with Obsidian Shard in case you want extra movement speed over an extra 10% of pen
Warlock's Staff is also quite decent for Raijin. Gives mana (to increase the damage from 
Tablet of Destinies) and also health that can help in some nasty situations! The Alternate Timeline can literally win you games. Especially in arena (when you reach the 10 - 10 points mark!) but in ANY mode can literally give you a second life, another rotation of abilities and hopefully some kills!
Book of Thoth provides you with lot of mana and TON of power... but you gotta stack it!
Charon's Coin you can easily swap this with Obsidian Shard in case you want extra movement speed over an extra 10% of pen
Warlock's Staff is also quite decent for Raijin. Gives mana (to increase the damage from Tablet of Destinies) and also health that can help in some nasty situations!
perfected road of tahuti can be really good for Assault!
for more informations check down below!
The Alternate Timeline
Book of Thoth
Charon's Coin
Warlock's Staff
Perfected Rod of Tahuti
Divine Ruin instead of Chronos' Pendant!
Ethereal Staff can be a replacement for Soul Reaver in case you want some extra health.
Polynomicon and 
Cyclopean Ring are a very situational items for a fast burst. Usually it is just for fun but absolutely work in some specific situations.
If you want to get anti-heal (and you most likely want it in the early stage of the game) get Divine Ruin instead of Chronos' Pendant!
Ethereal Staff can be a replacement for Soul Reaver in case you want some extra health.
Polynomicon and Cyclopean Ring are a very situational items for a fast burst. Usually it is just for fun but absolutely work in some specific situations.
Divine Ruin
Ethereal Staff
Polynomicon
Cyclopean Ring
Buy only 1 mana pot if you can get access to mana buff.
You con also consider buying 2 health and 1 mana potion. depend from each game mode!
dont get any potions in Arena!
Healing Potion
Mana Potion
Potion of Power
Elixir of Power
Chalice of the Oracle
Prophetic Cloak, Tablet of Destinies, 
Gladiator's Shield for 
Pridwen, Cyclopean Ring, 
Berserker's Shield. You will be more oppressive, safer during your ult thanks to Pridwen but you will overall tank less.You can swap Prophetic Cloak, Tablet of Destinies, Gladiator's Shield for Pridwen, Cyclopean Ring, Berserker's Shield. You will be more oppressive, safer during your ult thanks to Pridwen but you will overall tank less.
check down below for more informations!
Sundering Axe
Prophetic Cloak
Tablet of Destinies
Gladiator's Shield
Genji's Guard
Soul Reaver
Prophetic Cloak, Tablet of Destinies, Gladiator's Shield for Pridwen, Cyclopean Ring, Berserker's Shield. You will be more oppressive, safer during your ult thanks to Pridwen but you will overall tank less.
Talisman of Energy to help ADC and/or mana regen and most of all movement speed instead of Genji's Guard
Contagion or 
Pestilence for antihealing instead of Genji's Guard
You can swap Prophetic Cloak, Tablet of Destinies, Gladiator's Shield for Pridwen, Cyclopean Ring, Berserker's Shield. You will be more oppressive, safer during your ult thanks to Pridwen but you will overall tank less.
Talisman of Energy to help ADC and/or mana regen and most of all movement speed instead of Genji's Guard
in case of need, you can get Contagion or Pestilence for antihealing instead of Genji's Guard
Pridwen
Cyclopean Ring
Berserker's Shield
Talisman of Energy
Pestilence
Contagion
ALL of these are viable! Check below for more information!
this is my personal priority/preference order.
Vibrant Shard
Horn Shard
Wing Shard
Y
B
A
X
Tap each threat level to view Raijin’s threats
Tap each synergy level to view Raijin’s synergies
|
Pros:
|
Cons:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Potion of Power late game) to cycle through your whole kit as fast as possible! Divine Ruin instead of Spear of Desolation you can also buy this earlier according to your needs! Gem of Focus once you hit lv20!|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pestilence or Contagion instead of Genji's Guard. You can consider the latter only in case enemies lack magical damage cause otherwise you just lose magical protections over extra physical ones! Contagion will actually help with dealing damage! Prophetic Cloak, Tablet of Destinies, Gladiator's Shield for Pridwen, Cyclopean Ring, Berserker's Shield. The proc from Cyclopean Ring is quite similar to Tablet of Destinies if you can land it on your main target. You will also get atk speed to proc it often and chonk away health from enemies (even on quishies the damage is quite good) while also reducing the cooldown of your abilities thanks to your passive! This build can end up being better but you can tank less... so you need another forward that can efficiently engage and setup! Berserker's Shield + Cyclopean Ring really makes you AA-ing fast! Also remember that your AAs are a bit wider than normal (you can read it in the passive as well!)
Items
|
|
|
|
Vibrant Shard: this is prob the go-to shard. You will deal more damage while leveling up just for moving around!
Wing Shard: usually that's what i buy in Arena or Slash. It got me out of troubles many times thanks to the movement speed burst!
Horn Shard: this is the best one in case you wanna cycle your ability. It's quite great on Raijin!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ItemsKit & Tips
|
|
|
|
|
|
AbilitiesCombos
|
|
|
|
|
|
CombosGameplay
gameplay
Thanks to the following people:
Kriega1 For adding clarity with some items! (discussion in the comments)
Branmuffin17 For adding clarity with some items! (discussion in the comments)
ThePerfectPrism For suggestions on a better presentation!
SMITEFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new god, or fine tune your favorite SMITE gods’s build and strategy.
Copyright © 2019 SMITEFire | All Rights Reserved
Breastplate of Valor
Gem of Isolation
Conduit Gem
Lono's Mask
Blood-Soaked Shroud
Shogun's Kusari
Glorious Pridwen
Reverent Pridwen
Breastplate of Determination
Breastplate of Vigilance
Rod of Tahuti
Calamitous Rod of Tahuti
Charged Tempo
Ward
Vision Shard
Sentry Ward
Keep in mind that the builds are not updated every patch and considering how big is next patch (10.6) in terms of balance, the builds will most likely change! :3
He shouldnt really struggle much in late game tbh. (you can also make a great use of the passive + desolation + chronos by cycling your rotation A LOT when you manage to get a couple of assist during a fight).
said that... surely the 20% scaling nerf hurt a lot... and i get that in some game modes outside of conquest (actually all game modes beside siege), many other mages, can shine a lot more (...and tbh the list is long). Raijin is still fairly decent in good hands tho.
As a suggestion... i can tell you that if you are in a good matchmaking game (so with everyone at the same level), try to focus more on melt their tanks cause Raijin can really shine there cause they cant threat you that much (especially when u build ethereal staff... and if you think that s the best way... get Soul Reaver after the obsidian shard).
DONT try to melt enemies squishy if all of them are up and are keeping an eye on you... cause you are gonna most likely get interrupted out of your 1 and/or 3 (when you try to escape): keep the distance, hit those tanks hard, and after the jungler/assassin or other bursty team mates nuke 1 squishy you can move more freely and, after you reset your abilities with spear of desolation/chronos pendant and your own passive, you can even jump in and delete 1/2 squishies yourself.
P.S. the tank build is not bad if you know what you are doing and have some experience as a bruiser (you are not fully a tank... lets say you are bruiser... something around a "solo" laner in terms of survivability). I personally played some high elo clash/arena as Raijin tanks (5man premade vs 5man premade) where i knew they could shut me down pretty easily... and i could have done a lot more by surviving their burst and spreading divine ruin and gem of isolation effects with my 2. The main issues is that your team mates need to know what you are going for ... otherwise they are just gonna blame you! ^^
hope this insight can help you a bit :D
Just saying solid guide overall, though I'm only really commenting on the standard build rather than the fun ones.
I do want to say that I agree with Kriega that situationally at least I think that Ob Shard is mentioned a bit late. I get your reasoning and you explained your side so that's fine, but Ob/Charon is going to be fairly functional by the 4th/5th item in most cases...squishies that build 0 prots and aren't affected by auras will have 48 at level 20, and that's good enough for the equivalent of ~10 flat pen, which isn't awful. And for tanks that have built at least 1 prot item, their prots will usually be over 100 at that point, so at least ~20 flat pen equivalence.
One thing I find weird, and I'm guessing you just made an error, is that
Another thing that I think is an oversight is that you have
I also think you're missing
Anyway, besides those, this seems pretty good overall. In the future, if you're looking to add more info, you might want to talk more about the combos you state, and you might add usage info to the item explanations (like where/when to buy them in the context of build order). And if talking about the contest, one major missing component here is gameplay.
in my opinion obsidian shard / charon coin is better as 5th/6th item (so actually after Chronos Pendant. i am gonna fix the fact that is shown as replacement for boots. i am gonna swap the position with tahuti). you really lose much damage on squishy and the pressure on tanks is usually enough before the late game (where you actually get the obsidian shard for). talking about enemy squishy: you have 15 pen from spear of desolation and 10% from SR, which is not bad. I think Raijin shines better with this kind of build where you prefer the utility of some items (like ethereal staff and SR ... or even gem of isolation later on) over early obsidian shard. (also you are talking about 4th/5th.... i d say 5th/6th so we are not diverging that much from it :P)
note: in S6 i used to get obsidian shard in all game modes as 4th items (and i was getting spear of the magus for extra pen even earlier). so i can definitely see your point. BUT in the current state of the game where many items lost their pen (shard got nerfed, magus got nerfed) and SR got buffed... i d rather go for a more healthy build (basically building around the ethereal staff, which trust me, IS GREAT) and getting the obsidian shard a bit later than i used to... to counter tanks even more while remaining safer in early stages of the game where raijin doesnt shine. (especially with warriors and assassin that harass you).
I actually thought about saying this in the guide itself... but if someone just started playing... it s kinda pointless to talk about other itemization and why i changed it. simply cause they dont know (and prob they dont care) about what happened before they started playing the game! :D
about the charons coin.... ye that s kinda a mistake xD or well... i expressed myself in a bad way. i remember why i said it but it s definitely something that can get wrong so i am going to fix it and change the words i used! (spoiler: basically i wanted to say that obsidian shard is a bit better cause provide a bit more % pen. while charons coin lose a bit of % pen and you get 10 more power. so charons coin is a bit better against squishy and obsidian shard is a bit better against tanks. so i definitely need to change that)
about overcapping the CDR. as you said at the end you are gonna sell back mage blessing. (well... if you bought it. i said it s kinda mandatory in most of games mode but in arena or clash you may skip it. i personally dont skip it but ... you know... maybe someone prefer to get booots).
If i have to be honest i also dont like much the fact that you wont make usage of the 10% CDR of the potion of power till you sell boots as well (which is basically the same reason you were talking about) BUT those 2 passive are just too strong. you can definitely waste 10% of overcap for those 2 passives. (yes... when you get chronos pendant you are gonna sell mage blessing VERY soon if not just selling it when you complete it, as you mentioned)
... And yes.... in MANY situations you get divine ruin instead of spear of desolation for the anti-healing so in that case you wont overcap! :D (i am not sure if i mentioned that you should get divine ruin specifically instead of spear of desolation... i am gonna check it!)
about phytagoream: i dont like it anymore. it was a cool item to build around and change a bit your itemization with the 10% CDR it used to have. now i didnt mention it cause i find it underwhelming over many many many other items. i d rather mention typhoon fang with bancroft if someone really want lifesteal ... or even book of the dead for an extra shield in game modes where maybe it can make a difference. but overall i dont suggest building these super niche items.
about gameplay: i think i basically talked about it in all the tips. that was my idea at least! infact i think there maaaany tips compared to other guides but that s cause i used them to also explain how to efficiently use raijin kit and so the gameplay!
about things like positioning (which is the other aspect of the gameplay) i said multiple times during the guide that Raijin is squishy and a safer placement is better (even in the tip for thunder crash). so... there s much of the gameplay in the tips and all along the guide! (also, as i said, it s general guide... not only for conquest. I didnt want to go for a game-mode specific guide. and i dont kinda want to add a part like that cause it would be redundant with tips. i dont want to repeat myself too much!)
About combos, same as above, i used tips for that :D (infact the combos was in the same chapter actually... but then an admin suggested not to use spoilers inside a spoiler.... so i moved it out of that chapter). (as an other example... you can see that i explained the combos about the ult itself ONLY in the tips... cause sadly there wasnt an icon for the multiple projectiles of the ult!)
About item order: well.. yes... i think i could be more direct about the order actually. even if as i mentioned in the guide... you can chose the order yourself and nothing is supermandatory cause all games are different. (i mean... if they have 5 tanks... you are gonna get that osbdian shard far earlier xD)
so... in conclusion... i try to fix all the things i said as soon as possible! (which is probabily now... gonna add more clearance and swap a couple of item position!)
happy you kinda liked it tho! :D was my first guide and already making it looking colorful was hard and took a lot of time xD (was totally new to the BBC code)
EDIT: i edited the guide: added more clarity and added 1 other build more damage oriented (same itemization but different order)!
I do feel if you clarify a combo section then it's always good to have at least some quick discussions on it, rather than just the list. I did note you talking about combining abilities and how to do so in your skills writeup (really liked your explanations in that section), but even just a one-liner or brief paragraph under each combo would be good reference.
sometimes is cool... maybe you are low health and want to heal a bit up... you clear 1 wave with it + bancroft and you can do another fight. sadly, if you go for it it means you are gonna lose either CDR/passives or Health/SR ... which is not helpful. You prob gain more health with 1 ethereal staff proc than a 2+1 combo with lifesteal in teamfight (and count that you are gonna most likely have 2 ethereal proc even in a conquest)... so it s nice to discuss with you about lifesteal usage ... but i wouldnt suggest it in the guide itself xD (but well... maybe someone read the comments!)
note: there would also be Spear of the Magus that i also mention in the guide... but i highlighted it in red. like "ye it s not bad... but not worth it". I think i played it in like 1/2 games... it s prob as niche item as typhon... (basically if u build spear of the magus, you are snowballing and you dont need nor ethereal staff or SR or Doom Orb or Lifesteal and other items i mentioned xD) (and snowballing with Raijin is actually nearly impossible in good high elo match ups. you can still be lucky with kills tho :P)
about combo: well... later today i am gonna add some lines for it!
...and prob 1 small chapter about gameplay (even just positioning, and minion clear.. things like that). cause sadly Raijin is not very popular... and having a guide that i can update each patch to keep it fresh can be cool for everyone :D
Also... btw... i edited guide again and added lines for the combos... and most of all i added the gameplay chapter! :D (i would take a loot at it... there is a super secret ward usage for ARENA! U.U ... super worth reading!)
ofc if the enemy team has 3 tanks that has over 200 magical prot quite fast... well... you have no other choice by building
Also don't build Estaff right after boots, please...
for the vast majority of the games modes you want it after desolation tho
basically in that case, with physical harassers, you want more sustain than damage itself: extra health, extra physical protection are what you need in order to survive and being more tanky.
Book of thoth can be a good call but it requires time to fully stacks it. while it gives you lot of power i wouldnt buy it over soulreaver and gem of isolation.
i think you can go for it in a couple of situations like : you know you can easily stacks it (conquest, even if it requires time; arena but you gotta be sure that people will let you stack, prob a bit faster); they dont have 2 tanky targets (outside of conquest and arena, enemies may only have 1 tank. which makes soulreaver less effective. it still gives you some pen tho. so be careful if you want to pick book instead of SR); enemies have plenty way to escape... jumps... leap... and so on, which makes gem of isolation less useful (especially with less than 2 tank)
i think i may add a paragraph there saying these things actually... may be something useful!
about mantle. it s not bad item and i was thinking about adding it in the fun support build. then i thought: "do u usually buy it?" ... no. even in the support build i chose the spirit robe cause you most likely gonna soak CCs and you dont use much the mantle of discord passive cause you are very tanky and not many things can nuke you with that build.
BUT i digressed a bit. lets go back to the "physical prot build". In that case you want to prevent assassin to kill you which makes mantle passive great. Still breastplate gives you 10% more CDR which is definitely worth over the mantle. in late game, once you bought the 500gold flask that gives you 10% extra CDR (so you ll still cap CDR which is really important!), you may consider buying mantle of discord especially in game modes without many many team fights like conquest and even siege (basically... you wont die much and you ll keep the effect of the potion without buying it again! :P)
P.s. even this things about mantle of discord can be added there i guess... i think they can help others as well ^^ interesting discussion :D
I wish you the best and good luck! :)
... i am not sure where i could add more organization tbh but i ll take a look again and try to improve it again ^^
about the paragraphs of the "leveling skills" well... that actually makes sense. I ll add it for sure :D
i added: spoilers to clean up that "big wall"! i added extra info about leveling order an abilities themself (as suggested above) and i added a section for combos always in the last chapter :D
if u have other suggestions i ll do my best to make it better :D
As for other suggestions, I see you've explained to Kriega your use of Ethereal Staff right after boots in a physical defense build. It would be nice if you could also add information like that to your guide. Add any detail of information you think is worth sharing to both players who are completely new to the character, and information that could benefit people who are looking to improve their Raijin. Maybe positioning tips, when and who to focus with Raijin, Raijin's Threats and Synergies. There's a tab in the God Builder specifically for threats, that would improve your guide a lot.
Thank you for listening to our feedback! It's heart warming when a creator listens to our insights instead of just bashing us. <3
i think now you should see all the things i modified! i pressed it! :D
if you have more suggestions now that you can see the whole changes (hopefully xD).... i still listen to them :D
For some final considerations, never put a spoiler inside another spoiler, like you did with the combos. When you open a spoiler, the spoiler inside it automatically opens as well. I would suggest you open another tab for the combos alone.
In your threats, you mention other gods in the description (Like in
Aside from that, your guide looks amazing and I'm so grateful you're so responsive and eager to take our insights in. Good luck!
and yes... i was raelly looking forward for insights... when a guy asked me on reddit to post a guide here i was sceptical. when i noticed there actually wasnt a single guide for Raijin i wanted to contribute to it! i know he is not popular... but maybe someone will need some help :D