S5 Bellona Arena Warrior

Ok. Final build and options look good.

Hi Bran,

So far I have only tested your tanky bell and still not as much as I'd like but enough to know that it has a lot of promise and that I really enjoy it.

It's worked wonders for me so far, haven't lost a match yet and maintained a decent k/d/a, and as of right now there's only a few items that I'd scratch off my list for sure. Two of which are the boots warrior and ninja tabi (I apologize but I haven't figured out how to put in the item link yet). While both good, I found that they just didn't work as well for me when trying to build bull tank while reinforced greaves did a much better job in my opinion.

Everything else I found to be pretty situational in one way or another. Breastplate of valour and genji's guard I found to be my two other cores but even those depended on the other teams composition. If the team was fairly balanced in terms of magical and physical users I get both as my second and third item but if the team was more magical I found it helped more to scrap breastplate of valour and get genji followed by another magical protection such as bulwark of hope or pestilence if they have healers.

The rest of the items you mentioned for tanky bell I have ready in my build but are used more as the situation demands and for counters though masamune is starting to become a favorite 6th item for me as it still provides protections but the power boost I like for late game arena as it's in the last few minutes of the match where both sides can get desperate when it's close and the extra power provides that little extra push to help clean up (from what I've found so far). Shogun's Kusari is a nice addition that I like to have in there but have rarely used as of yet since I don't usually have enough basic attackers to make it worth getting in my opinion.

All in all though your suggestion for a tanky Bell has worked really well for me so far and I plan on updating the guide with what I've found. Haven't tested bruiser bell yet but it's something I plan to do so I can add that to the guide as well :)

Hi Diabolic,

Welcome to the site and awesome that you're looking for feedback/willing to listen.

Okay, Bellona in Arena is a flexible one, to a degree. In Conquest, she's a solo laner and will usually be built almost fully tanky, but with perhaps one or two items that have bruiser potential (by which I mean items that have both offensive and defensive function...your choice of Masamune fits that category). I would say it's pretty similar in Arena in terms of optimal build style, but in that mode, you don't have to worry about some things you would in Conquest.

Firstly, understand that Bellona has both ability and basic attack function...aka she's a hybrid. You seem to have built her with that in mind, as you have both ability items (mainly Jotunn's Wrath) and basic attack items ( Ninja Tabi, Stone Cutting Sword). You also have 2 protection items, both of which are good items, but you might need some balancing.

In response to some of the comments you made in the writeup, yes, Bell doesn't deal the most damage, but her base damage is solid. Warriors often rely more on their base damage (rather than building a lot of power items. An indication of this can be seen with ability scaling. With abilities, scaling in the range up to around 60% is considered average. When it starts getting closer to 100%, that's where you see that higher power/pen is often best.

With your current build, I would say it's not necessarily bad overall, but it just doesn't have much focus to take advantage of any specific qualities. The issues I see:

• Jotunn's Wrath is an offensive ability-based item. However, some of your other items focus on basic attacks. That's generally okay to mix the two, but it's like a jack of all trades, where you're master of none.
  
  Also, in your writeup, you talk about getting Jotunn's 2nd because enemies won't be leveled enough to melt you. Trust me...they can melt you. You have to be in close to deal all your damage, so you'll often be a target. In most cases, you'll want a protection item 2nd, not a pure offensive one.
  
  
• You only have 1 attack speed item in Ninja Tabi, and thus you may find Stone Cutting Sword to be less helpful. In getting SCS, you may want to incorporate more attack speed in your kit.
  
  
• Midgardian Mail is a good item, but you may be building it a bit early. It does offer control for any that are basic attacking you, and provides some good tankiness, but it's an item you may consider building later, once more attack speed items are built by the enemy team.
  
  
• So Stone Cutting Sword may be out of place in this build, as previously inferred. Only 1 attack speed item means slower stacking of its passive. But, without this, you have very, very little penetration/protection reduction, which means a lot of your initial damage won't translate to actual damage. You may consider replacing SCS with Titan's Bane, Brawler's Beat Stick, or The Crusher, for more oomph from all of your abilities AND basic attacks without the need to stack.

Tanky Bell:

For safest application, you'd probably want to build more on the tanky side in more of a support-type role, with protections, health, some CDR, and counter items. In this case, your focus will be ability use, and you want to avoid 100% offense items, such as Jotunn's Wrath, since it has no protections or health. Yes, more ability use can sort of count as utility defense, but let's not consider it in that light for this discussion.

A common build in this case would be something like:

• Warrior Tabi (more offensive), Ninja Tabi (added basic attack function), or Reinforced Greaves (more defensive)
• Breastplate of Valor (physical defense, high CDR, mana pool)
• Magical defense options: Pestilence (anti-heal), Genji's Guard (all-around magical tank + CDR item), Bulwark of Hope (selfish protections), or Shogun's Kusari (basic attack team function if you have multiple basic attackers on your team)
• Fill the rest of the build with situational defense/counter/bruiser, including things like Masamune, Spirit Robe, Mantle of Discord, Midgardian Mail, Void Shield, Witchblade, etc.

You would probably only use Ninja Tabi in these cases if you considered picking up additional basic attack items later...things like Shogun's Kusari and Witchblade, which also have basic attack speed.

Bruiser Bell:

If you're not the only tank, and can focus a bit more on offense, you can then consider inserting any of Jotunn's Wrath, Brawler's Beat Stick, The Crusher to the mix, replacing one or two of the above items.

Basic Attack Bell: This one is sort of what you did, due to adding Ninja Tabi and Stone Cutting Sword. However, I think SCS is probably not the best item for her, even if you focus on basics...it's not terrible, just not her greatest strength. If you went overboard on basic attack items, I can see it adding function, but that all depends on other things...1) you can't be main tank. 2) rest of your team needs to be pretty well balanced.

Here would be a build I might consider running with that basic attack focus:

• Ninja Tabi
• Void Shield
• Shogun's Kusari
• The Crusher
• Stone Cutting Sword
• Situational defense

This build incorporates enough attack speed to give her good function that way, has 3 sources of penetration (Void's 20 prot reduction, Crusher's 15 pen, SCS's situational 30 prot reduction), some protections through the 2nd and 3rd items, and possibly more with the last item. You could consider better control with Frostbound Hammer's slow, or get Mantle of Discord at that point. You might also delay items in the middle of the build and get Hide of the Urchin as a nice balanced option which will make you quite tanky (and is easy to stack in the Arena mode).

If you try out both of these directions, let me know how they work out. Remember you'll want to give them multiple tries. You're at an early account level still, and that means your games will be littered with various skill levels in teammates and enemies, and these can have a huge impact on how effective you can be. Each match is different.

And also remember, Bell can deal good damage from her base damage, without the need for pure offensive items. It's about how often you can engage, and how well you choose the right situations to go in.