Size isn't Everything! - A Complete Guide for Junglers and Solo Laners (Y10, 10.1, WIP)

• Your job as solo is now to start fights, tank a little and help your team get kills. You are NOT supposed to be a total tank and frontline in a team fight.
  
  
• Help people whenever is possible. Remember you have Through the Cosmos, one of the best ultimates in the game, so USE IT.
  
  
• Hold your ultimate in case of ganks (if solo), or hotter situations, 'cause you can really save yourself. I strongly recommend you build some CDR.
  
  
• If solo, you can be aggressive and push your lane against your enemy tower and if you see yourself in trouble just retreat using your ultimate or Dart. By doing this, you will force your enemy solo to stay near the tower more than the normal, lowering the possibilities of the gank/help other lanes and making him lose some money.
  
  
• If you have ever played Ratatoskr solo you probably know that Evergreen Acorn is the best choice by far for early sustain. However, ratatoskr CAN SELL the acorn and buy another one, so if you are playing solo, maybe switching the evergreen for Thickbark Acorn (that's better late game on teamfights) is a good thing.
  
  
• No matter which acorn/build you have, it's part of ratatoskr gameplay:
  • Strong early-game (after level 2 or 3)
  • Very Strong mid-game
  • Okish (mediocre) late-game
  No matter the matchup or how good you are, you will always have a game like this. You start weak (lvl 1), then at mid-game you can one-shot people with a single combo, and at late-game, you suffer on a teamfight to get a kill or 2 without dying in the process. It is inherent of his kit this gameplay, of course, acorn may vary this a bit but in the end, it's always the same.

Before reading this section, remember that Solo and Jungle builds are completely different and your playstyle will also be completely different too, so, don't forget to click on the "Solo build" button on the top right near the "Newest gods part" ;).

Now I will talk about each rat acorn so you can understand each one and choose the best option for your match.

Acorns! Humm yummy

Evergreen Acorn

This acorn is made for sustain. Whenever you need to heal yourself a lot during fights this is the acorn. Due to the %HP healing it works better in a bruiser/tank build and can be combined with Soul Eater/ Bumba's Hammer for insane regen. On solo, it is a particularly effective way to compete with your enemy in sustain, especially if he doesn't have any sustain at all or can heal only on ultimate, but it cannot outhealing gods with a standard healing ability. It doesn't shine as much as the other option, discussed later, so it feels kind of a meme most of the time.

Thickbark Acorn

This acorn is made for tank/bruiser builds. It steals physical protections which means anything in the game deals less damage to you (including your enemy if he is also physical) and you do more damage to them too. Usually, the standard option for solo and support because you heal yourself a bit but can deal good damage while tank due the protections stole. You actually can use it in jg since Flurry is the skill that normally hits harder in your kit plus you have 2 charges meaning double damage, however, it is only useful on bruiser builds because you do have to spend a lot of time using 2 flurries and if you are purely power you can die for a combo doing that, plus there's already an acorn to burst damage that I will talk next. Remember that you can always switch Evergreen Acorn into this one late game if you have built it during the early game for sustain.

Thistlethorn Acorn

This acorn is the most traditional Ratatoskr (before this last rework). It allows rat deal good damage using only his skills and auto-resets. This falls a bit at late game but you may still capable of 100-0 a squishy target most of the time. This one is better the end of the early game, mid and the start of late game when compared with the crit one, exactly the opposite. Pretty standard option for the jungle and burst damage in general.

Bristlebush Acorn

This acorn is made for also burst power. If you are facing multiple squishies or just want to blow the enemies very quickly, this is the acorn that you need. It provides a giant burst with crits and although rat is not a basic attacker he can use it well the crits due to Dart being able to crit with this, doing massive damage with 1 button (almost an Anubis). However it's a totally mid-late game build. Early game/mid game you are throwing yourself in front of the enemy to kill or be killed and you literally can't count with the crit on Dart hit due the low crit chance and rush crits without power is also dumb because it won't do burst damage you need, so it is very risky and meme to be built sometimes, totally dependent of your luck and people usually avoid it because the last acorn I talked about has just a bit less burst but is consistent basically throught the entire course of the game. So why you would be luck dependent when you can have something that is certain? HOWEVER, now that games are longer, crits are op and everyone is tankier, if you manage pass the early game, with the example crit build, this can delete everything in your way, even tanks (due the regen + ability spam). You just need to survive until there and prey for your team do not feed the enemy.

Now I will talk about how you should build Rat properly, what your build must have to be decent and viable on a Ratatoskr.

how to build

What a rat build must have?

Due the Ratatoskr rework at patch 7.7 he can build almost any kind of item he wants to, depend on the role you are playing him with. He can be Solo, Support, Jungler and if you are skilled enough you can even try Mid. He just cannot build the items listed below:

Items you shouldn't build:

• Attack Speed items: like Hastened Katana, Golden Blade, Odysseus' Bow...Because as mentioned before his kit cannot purely lockdown enemies with basics like Kali and Erlang Shen does.
  
  
• Lifesteal (from Basic Attacks): For an obvious reason that you won't keep yourself hitting basic attacks on the target so items like Asi shouldn't be built. So, get an entire lifesteal item exclusive to regen from basics is not worth. Soul Eater is acceptable although I don't know if you really need it.
  
  
• Penetration/Protection Reduction (from basic attacks): Like The Executioner 'cause you won't keep hitting basic attacks on the target to proc decently.

jungle

Powerful Chipmunk (Thistlethorn Build)

This is usually your standard way to go conquest as jungler. This build provides a particularly good amount of burst damage, excellent to melt squishies such as the ADC or MID. This also provides CDR so you can use and abuse your combos. Exceptionally good early game, good mid game but falls a bit late, so do your best to gain an advantage early/mid (it still able to melt people it's just not so one shoot). If needed, consider building Brawler's Beat Stick if you are facing people with too much lifesteal or healing.

Nuke Bomb Chipmunk (Burst Build)

This is your kaboom build. You can really destroy quickly squishy targets with this build using auto-resets. It might not be the best build for the actual meta but it is fun af, so this build is all made around the concept of quickly burst a target using crits. REMEMBER this build sucks early game so you need to play carefully to not be stomped early and get into a snowball. If you manage to push the game to mid/late game you will be unstoppable.
You may get Heartseeker instead Serrated Edge if you feel you are not in need of more pen and mainly if you feel you don't need lifesteal on your fights.

Strong Chipmunk (Alternative Thistlethorn Build)

This is an alternative to the first build using eye as starter for better boxing however until you get Hydra's Lament you will face a lack of mana sustain. It does the same thing as the first with that minor difference. If you need antihealing, I strongly recommend you go with the standard build because if you swap any item here you lose something important on your build while that one has Bloodforge that can be easily swaped for brawling beat stick with no major lost.

"There are more information on the notes of each build!!!
Don't forget to check it!!! It might be useful!!!"

solo

Tank Chipmunk (Bruiser Build)

If you are sure your opponent will be a magical just build the magical protection first and the Gladiator's Shield as 2nd. Then just follow the rest of the build. This is your standard way to go conquest as a solo (facing physical oponent). This build provides decent tank capabilities while also causing decent damage. Our traditional tank chipmunk build, a bruiser playstyle.
If you prefer, you may get Evergreen Acorn early game and sell it at late game, though if your enemy is physical, Thickbark Acorn is way more useful. Pestilence is a replacement for Genji's Guard if you are having troubles with enemy healing.

Ratatank (Defensive Build)

If you are sure your opponent will be a magical just build the magical protection first. If you do want to be a ratatank you can choose this build, being litteraly a walking meat shield. I recommend this one when your team is really relying on you to tank the stuffs and they don't need much more damage. If the enemy also has too much healing? then get Pestilence as magical defense.

You may pick " Corrupted Bluestone" to reduce attack speed and get extra prots but sacrificing the extra tankiness from mitigations of your start.

"There are more information on the notes of each build!!!
Don't forget to check it!!! It might be useful!!!"

• Ratatoskr was released at SMITE Version 2.7.2766 (June 2, 2015) (Season 2)
  
  
• Ratatoskr had 4 different acorns at his launch, each one doing something different (opening a lot of possibilities of builds).
  
  
• All ratatoskr skills were balanced/modified when he was reworked at patch 3.9.3413 (Season 3) (May 24, 2016).
  
  
• Ratatoskr is mentioned in INCREDIBLE 24 different patches, where ONLY 2 WERE BUFFS. The rest of the patches were bug fixes, the rework, and nerfs after nerfs. (And yet he is NOT WEAK!)
  
  
• Ratatoskr used to be able to use, incredibly, 6 dashes of 35 unities when he was launch using Dart. Every dash could fire lightnings that were able to crit, allowing ratatoskr to deal almost 8k damage with this skill against squishy comps. That's 1 skill, you had other 3 :p.

Art by TheYaminoTenshi via FurAffinity

• Rat (along with Bellona, Baron Samedi and Guan Yu) is considered one of the most overpowered gods ever launched on this game.
  
  
• Ratatoskr first rework was a mistake because it removed his other acorns keeping only one as a single option and his kit became a " Thor but better", until Thor, at patch 6.8.5557.1 (July 24, 2019) received major buffs and a slight rework on his 3, then Thor became a " Ratatoskr but better". At least Rat was always more fun/funny than Thor.
  
  
• Ratatoskr received since his launch 35, I repeat, THIRTY FIVE nerfs and ONLY 4 buffs in all patches he is mentioned (not considering PTS changes). Ironically, 2 of these buffs were directly reverting previous nerfs.
  
  
• Ratatoskr is a Tree Squirrel. (I guess)

Art by Andantonius via DeviantArt

• The skin "Squirrel Squad" could have been based on the character Rocky the Flying Squirrel from the American cartoon The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends.
  
  
• The name "Ragnatoskr" is a mix between the word "Ragnarok" and "Ratatoskr". As you see, he wears a costume of Fenrir, the bringer of Ragnarok. Rat shouts a lot in this skin Voice Pack so it might be a bit annoying during a stressful game.
  
  
• On his festive Skin, Rat is dressed like Rudolph. He also seems to sing when saying his "Ultimate is ready/down" line. This skin has the calmest voice lines of all ratatoskr skins.
  
  
• Kitsune was the first skin where Rat is not a Squirrel, instead, he is a Fox. This is the first time a Ratatoskr skin with a custom VP doesn't mention nuts and it's also one of the few skins in the game to use cell shading (those black lines around the body) (which also made it kinda "ugly"). It also has 2 recolors, Kage (Shadow in Japanese) and Zenko. By having all the 3 you automatically unlock a 3rd recolor "Final Fusion" skin. Although they are all recolors of Kitsune, each skin has its own voice pack.

• This guide name is based on a Ratatoskr line when he destroys a Structure.
  
  
• The Curious Creature, his the best skin, is a reference to the Disney movie Zootopia. This skin was based on A Fanart made by Ena Lorenzo, who works at Alacrity Arthouse, and made a draw called "Smetitopia", honestly, best skin theme ever. Both this skin and Heavy Hitter Anubis are in the card art of Geek Beak Thoth skin, which shares its theme with both.
  
  
• Curious Creature used to be one of the banned skins of SPL along with Kitsune + its recolors, probably due to low sound on some abilities, especially the Ulti. However, at Season 7 HR fixed it and all these skins were allowed again.
  
  
• Rat also has one of the most annoying laughs in the game. His Standard VP is also pretty damn good, better than a lot of Standard VP and better than a lot of skins...Including Curious Creature.
  
  
• Ratatoskr dance is based on "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Born This Way" (At 0:53) from their 3rd movie (I do hate that movie, they should have made it based on "How we Roll" from the first movie. Even the music would fit him better).
  
  
• Ratatoskr received a second rework on patch 7.7 (July 14th, 2020) "bringing back" his acorns. They didn't come back as they were but after this patch, he was allowed to choose between 4 acorn options again, each one with a different passive and stats.

• Ratatoskr tail always glowed according to the color of the acorn he was holding. During his first rework, as he only had 1 blue acorn option, his tail remained blue. However, at launch/after his 2nd rework, with each acorn having 1 color, his tail changes the color according to the acorn you have.
  
  
• After 2nd rework, they added a acorn near ratatoskr for a dumb reason. In their words: "it should help people see which acorn ratatoskr has and find the best way to fight against him". Apparently, they think that we can't press the score button (TAB on PC) to see it :p
  
  
• Ratatoskr is one of the few characters in the game that ACTUALLY IS NOT A GOD. Other examples are Scylla, Medusa, King Arthur, Merlin...
  
  
• Ratatoskr is one of the few gods in the game that are complete animals (Egyptian gods are most part made by a head of an animal and a human (humanized) body). Other examples are Kukulkan, Camazotz, Jormungandr, Fenrir...

Art by livesinabag

• Ratatoskr Raxolotl is the first skin where Ratatoskr is not a mammal. In April of 2020, the Smite main Twitter account conducted a poll to decide which species this skin would be based on. The choices were between a red panda, an otter, a cat, and an axolotl.
  
  
• Ratatoskr Deep Space skin is the first skin he is not an animal and one of the worst skins in the game.
  
  
• Ratatoskr Raxolotl on the full card art shows Kuzenbo and his kappas minions, Cove Queen Nu Wa and Poolseidon Poseidon in the background. This was the second skin of ratatoskr that is not a squirrel.

Remember what rat says!

Art by Conmanhyena

Ratatoskr just want to ask to hirez...

Art by karulox via DeviantArt


YOU ALREADY: REMOVED MY ACORNS, REWORKED ME TWICE, AND NOW KEEP NERFING ME PATCH AFTER PATCH, PLEASE STOP! ;-;

If you have any doubt that rat can do any role, watch this!

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