Sustained Ratatoskr ( Joust )

Hi, this is my first build on smitefire and I thought I would give it a go by starting of with one of the more difficult gods to play (in my opinion). One of the main issues I have come across with Ratatoskr is that he has hardly any survivability, so my build is focused around countering the dramatic health drops, with ridiculous health gain.

With my build Ratatoskr does have mana issues, but I feel as though that is just Ratatoskr in general. Therefore feel free to purchase some mana pots at the start of the game, for that little bit of assistance.

First of all, starter items are a great with many people. Ratatoskr is no different, his early game is not great therefore Bluestone Pendant is a nice way to amp the damage slightly.

At the start of the game, you want to have Bluestone Pendant, your Starting Acorn, and Tier 1 Boots. With the remaining gold, you could also buy either Tier 1 Purification Beads or a Tier 1 Aegis, as well as some mana pots due to Ratatoskr's high mana use.

Next you want to buy the Tier 2 Blue Acorn, and finish off building Warrior Tabi.
Once these items are built, move on to building Bloodforge for some early game life-steal and power.

Then to finish off the healing aspect of this build, upgrade the Tier 2 Blue Acorn, to the Emerald Acorn.

For the increased power and protections, next build Shifter's Shield

Finally, build Rage then Deathbringer for the critical hits to kill your targets quickly

At the start of the game, you want to level each of Ratatoskr's skills once each.

As we get Bluestone Pendant for our starter item, the first skill we level up with Ratatoskr is his Flurry of Acorns, to increase his early game potential. Once you reach level 5, you want to level up Ratatoskr's ultimate Through the Cosmos, after which you continue to level the Flurry of Acorns until it reaches level 4, at which point you will level up Ratatoskr's Dart.

At each possible interval, level up Ratatoskr's ultimate Through the Cosmos. Once level 10, apply the final level to Ratatoskr's Flurry of Acorns. After the Flurry is at max level, continue levelling up Ratatoskr's Dart. After the Dart has reached max rank, finally begin levelling up his Acorn Blast.

You may be wondering why I decide to level up the Acorn Blast last seeing as the acorn I have chosen is for that skill. The answer is simple, Damage. I level up the Acorn Blast last because with Bloodforge, you have enough sustain survive encounters but not enough damage to kill, therefore the Dart is levelled up second instead, in order to constantly keep up with the damage curve. If on low health Ratatoskr can easily nip into the jungle with bloodforge, take one camp and have gained roughly 1/3 of his health.

As an assassin, it is imperative to keep a jungle presence, therefore it would be preferable if the other two gods on Ratatoskr's team can hold the middle lane without him fairly well. This gives Ratatoskr the time he needs to jungle for levels.

As Ratatoskr is very 'squishy' it would also help if there was a tank on his team who can initiate a teamfight, or a tank with someone else who has an initiate. Communication and Co-ordination are the two main keys to Ratatoskr. Good team communication allows for Ratatoskr to charge and use his ultimate Through the Cosmos, in preparation for his team-mates initiation.

For general Ratatoskr fighting, the ability use order, would be:

Flurry of Acorns, then
Dart (as many times as possible, whilst keeping one Dart for an escape)
Acorn Blast