Persephone Build Ideas

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Aaron is a lifelong gamer that loves a good challenge. Competitive multiplayer games like MOBAs have provided a perfect environment for him to thrive. Outside of video games, he enjoys doing anything creative, such as writing, creating art, or music. He loves to apply his outside-of-the-box thinking to competitive games, creating new tactics and strategies wherever possible

Abilities

Her passive ability, Pomegranate Seeds, has several of her abilities place Harvest Plants, and when those plants wither, she collects Pomegranate Seeds.

When she returns to the fountain where you spawn and buy items from, she sells the seeds for 3 gold each. Additionally, during the time between when she dies and respawns, she’s able to wander the map and plant 6 Harvest Plants.

Her first active ability, Bone Rush, is a line ability that does damage, passing through minions but stopping on gods. It drops a Harvest Skull where the ability ends, whether that’s the end of the line or at an enemy god that’s hit. Enemy gods that are hit with this ability are slowed.

Her second active ability, Harvest, does damage in a circle and places 3 Harvest Skulls on the outside of the circle. When activated, Harvest Skulls heal Persephone. If not activated, the Harvest Skulls grow into Harvest Flowers after 4 seconds. When Harvest Flowers are activated, they charge forward and do damage to an area around them. The Harvest Plants, both in Harvest Skull and Harvest Flower forms, are activated by being hit with Persephone’s basic attacks.

Her third active ability, Flourish, is a leap that can go either forward or backward and does damage in a circle around her as she first leaps. If there are any Harvest Plants in the circle, they immediately turn into Harvest Flowers and are activated.

Her ultimate ability, Grasp of Death, makes Persephone immune to crowd control as she throws a projectile forward that traps the first enemy god hit, and creates a large circle that chains all enemy gods to the Entrapping Vines in the center, slowing them and preventing them from leaving the circle. The Entrapping Vines can be destroyed by 5 basic attacks, ending the ability.

Her abilities are fairly ordinary outside of the Harvest Plants, and so it’s those plants that make Persephone so unique. They provide both healing and a way to do consistent damage even when her abilities are on cooldown, as well as the potential to do damage at further ranges than most gods are capable of.

Her leap also does a significant amount of damage for an ability that on the surface seems to be little more than a way of escaping, allowing her to adapt to playing more aggressively than most Mages.

Builds

General Build

My General Build for Persephone works in every game mode and both Mid and Solo roles in Conquest. You might want to fit in some more protections early in the build if you plan on playing Solo, but thanks to Persephone’s range with her plants, you can play it safely instead.

To start, get Conduit Gem, which gives power, mana, mana regeneration, and a passive ability that gives additional ability damage. You’ll also want to get Magic Focus to upgrade later, and Purification Beads to make you temporarily immune to crowd control.

From there, upgrade Magic Focus into Divine Ruin. This item provides a lot of power and flat penetration, along with a passive effect that reduces healing to any enemies hit by your abilities. Now, anti-heal items aren’t always necessary, but the early flat penetration and power are crucial, and so I find myself using Divine Ruin in almost every match.

After that, get Soul Gem, which provides power, health, lifesteal, and cooldown reduction. It has a passive effect that makes every fifth ability do extra damage and heal both you and your teammates. This item is important for sustainability, and the cooldown reduction is a great bonus.

Next, we’re going to be defensive and get Spirit Robe. This item provides both physical and magical protections, cooldown reduction, crowd control reduction, and increased mitigation whenever you’re hit with a hard crowd control effect.

Around this time in the match, you’ll want to get Aegis Amulet which gives temporary invincibility in exchange for not being able to attack while invincible. With Persephone’s low health, this item is really important for surviving enemy ultimate abilities.

After that, get Soul Reaver, which provides power and mana. More importantly, it has a passive effect that does additional damage based on a percentage of the enemy’s health. This is useful in taking out enemy tanks.

Then, you want to get Rod of Tahuti. This item provides a lot of power, mana regeneration, and percentage-based penetration. It also gives you additional power against enemies with less than half health. You can further upgrade the Rod of Tahuti into either Calamitous Rod of Tahuti, providing extra ability damage, or Nimble Rod of Tahuti, giving extra attack speed. I think Calamitous Rod of Tahuti fits this build better.

Finally, upgrade Conduit Gem into Gem of Focus. This item gives power, health, and mana regeneration. It also has a passive effect that provides temporary buffs when you use abilities, giving you increased movement speed, increased damage dealt, and damage taken is reduced

The final build should look something like this:

Gem of Focus
Divine Ruin
Soul Gem
Spirit Robe
Soul Reaver
Calamitous Rod of Tahuti

As for upgrading abilities, the order isn’t too crucial outside of Conquest. That being said, I normally focus on upgrading Bone Rush first because of its wave-clear potential.

Joust Build

This build is designed for the unique gameplay of Joust. Typically, the ideal team comp is a tank, an ability-focused character for wave-clear, and a basic attack-focused character for taking out objectives. Persephone makes for a great ability-focused character to pick in this mode, but you often will want a more nuanced build than pure ability damage.

We’ll start by getting Sands of Time, which gives power, mana, and mana regeneration, as well as increases mana regeneration for every 10% of missing mana. We’ll also want to get Magic Focus to upgrade, Purification Beads, and some potions.

From there, upgrade Magic Focus to Divine Ruin. The early flat penetration and anti-heal abilities are really strong.

After that, get Spear of Desolation, which provides additional flat penetration, power, and some cooldown reduction. It gives further cooldown reduction on god kills or assists. Then, get Pythagorem’s Piece. This item gives you power, health, lifesteal, and percentage-based penetration. It also has an aura that increases the power and lifesteal of nearby allies. This item is very strong in Joust.

You’ll want to get Aegis Amulet at this time in the match.

Next, get Ring of Hecate, providing power, attack speed, and lifesteal. This item has a really interesting passive effect that temporarily steals power from enemies hit by your basic attacks. The main purpose of this item in this build is to help you take out enemy objectives. Sometimes the basic attack-focused teammate won’t be around when you have the opportunity to attack.

For the last item slot, get Typhon’s Fang, which provides power, mana, lifesteal, and percentage-based penetration. This item increases healing from lifesteal by 25%, and further increases power by twice the amount of lifesteal you have. You could get Nimble Rod of Tahuti instead if you need more attack speed. Both items will give you large amounts of power.

Finally, upgrade Sands of Time into Pendulum of Ages. Pendulum of Ages is a strong Sands of Time, and also gives power in addition to the mana regeneration based on missing mana.

The final build should look something like this:

Pendulum of Ages
Divine Ruin
Spear of Desolation
Pythagorem’s Piece
Ring of Hecate
Typhon’s Fang or Nimble Rod of Tahuti

Mid Build

My Mid Build for Persephone is a little different from what most people are building right now. I feel like Doom Orb and Charon’s Coin are both underrated items at the moment, and I think the movement speed they provide works well with Persephone.

To start, get the Conduit Gem, the Lost Artifact, Purification Beads, and potions. You might want to get Aegis Amulet instead of Purification Beads if you know the enemy in your lane has an ultimate ability that can take you out in one hit.

From there, upgrade the Lost Artifact into either Doom Orb or Charon’s Coin. Doom Orb provides a very large amount of power, mana, mana regeneration, and movement speed. It also builds temporary stacks that further increases power and movement speed.

Charon’s Coin provides less power, a large amount of percentage-based penetration, mana regeneration, and health regeneration. It also builds permanent stacks that increase health regeneration and movement speed. Doom Orb is a little more expensive and better against the enemy Mid, while Charon’s Coin offers penetration that will help a lot more in the late game.

After that, get Divine Ruin and then Soul Gem for the same reasons as the General Build. I find that they’re both particularly useful for Mid Lane as the enemy will typically be relying on some form of healing, and Soul Gem allows you to get some additional healing without being otherwise useless.

Even if the enemy builds for anti-heal, probably getting Divine Ruin themselves, Soul Gem is useful for its damage and cooldown reduction. Around this point in the match, get either Aegis Amulet or Purification Beads, whichever one you don’t already have.

Next, get Staff of Myrddin, providing power, percentage-based penetration, and cooldown reduction. It also gives increased cooldown reduction after using your ultimate ability, going beyond the cooldown reduction cap of 40%. Then, get the Calamitous Rod of Tahuti to put your damage over the top and be capable of controlling the fight.

Finally, upgrade Conduit Gem into Gem of Focus.

The final build should look something like this:

Gem of Focus
Doom Orb or Charon’s Coin
Divine Ruin
Soul Gem
Staff of Myrddin
Calamitous Rod of Tahuti

For abilities, I start with Bone Rush for wave clear. At level two, I normally get Harvest, but sometimes I get Flourish if I feel like I need an early escape. At level three, I get whichever one of those two I don’t already have. At level four, I go for Bone Rush again.

At level five, I get her ultimate, Grasp of Death. From there, I focus on maxing out Bone Rush as soon as possible and then doing the same for Harvest next.

Solo Build

I personally really like using Persephone in Solo Lane. She’s really good at safely clearing enemy waves, does decent damage even when built defensively, and her ultimate has strong crowd control that helps the whole team.

To start, if you know the enemy is going to do physical damage, get Vampiric Shroud. If you’re not sure, you might want to opt for Warrior’s Axe instead. Vampiric Shroud offers power, physical protection, health, and lifesteal. Warrior’s Axe provides power, and both physical and magical protections instead. Both of these items have similar passive effects that restore both mana and health, but the effect Vampiric Shroud provides is slightly stronger.

You’ll want to get Teleport Fragment so that you don’t leave your lane unattended for long in the beginning, losing out on precious XP. You’ll also want to get Imperial Helmet to upgrade later, and some Healing Potions.

From there, if the enemy god in Solo Lane deals physical damage, you’ll want to get Jade Emperor’s Crown. This item provides physical protection, power, health, and crowd control reduction. It also has a debuff aura that lowers enemy gods’ physical power. However, if the enemy does magical damage, you’ll want to Void Stone first. Void Stone gives health, power, and magical protections, and has a debuff aura that lowers enemy gods’ magical protections.

After that, get Breastplate of Vigilance if you got Jade Emperor’s Crown, or Spirit Robe if you got Void Stone. Breastplate of Vigilance provides physical protections, mana, mana regeneration, and cooldown reduction. It also has an effect that reduces basic attack damage received after using your ultimate ability.

Next, get Divine Ruin as an offensive item. Even if the enemy in Solo isn’t using healing, which is rare, you’ll most likely see it in team fights.

Around this point in the match, you’ll want to get Purification Beads. After that, get either Void Stone or Jade Emperor’s Crown, whichever one you don’t already have. Then do the same with Spirit Robe or Breastplate of Vigilance, getting whichever one you don’t already have again.

Finally, either upgrade the Vampiric Shroud into Blood-soaked Shroud, or Warrior’s Axe into Sundering Axe. They’re both essentially just stronger versions of their predecessors, and both will help greatly in late-game team fights.

The final build should look something like this:

Blood-soaked Shroud or Sundering Axe
Jade Emperor’s Crown or Void Stone
Breastplate of Vigilance or Spirit Robe
Divine Ruin
Void Stone or Jade Emperor’s Crown
Spirit Robe or Breastplate of Vigilance

For abilities, I get Bone Rush first just like the Mid build. However, I focus on maxing out Harvest first. The ability to do damage from a distance with Harvest is really useful in Solo Lane since your opponent will typically be a melee character. If they get close to you for long, they’ll probably kill you, so don’t let that happen.

Mage Meta Build

You’ll see a lot of people default to this build when playing as mages right now, especially in ranked matches. Each item is considered to be very strong right now, largely because of buffs to penetration items last year. It works better on some mages than others, but it works well on Persephone, so you might want to try it.

To start, get Sands of Time, Magic Focus, Purification Beads, and potions.

We’ll upgrade Magic Focus into Spear of Desolation first. Unlike in Joust, you don’t benefit as much from getting anti-heal items as quickly as possible, so the cooldown reduction is more useful. We will get Divine Ruin next though. It’s a strong item, and this is at the point where your enemy might start building for lifesteal. If not, it’s still useful for its power and penetration.

Next, get Soul Reaver and Aegis Amulet when you can.

Then, we’ll get Obsidian Shard. This item provides damage and high amounts of percentage-based penetration. It also has a passive effect that gives an ability for additional penetration every 10 seconds. Percentage-based penetration is important for taking out enemies with high protections, and you’ll be encountering those gods from other lanes that build for protections at this point in the match.

Finally, get Calamitous Rod of Tahuti and upgrade Sand of Time into Pendulum of Ages for the last bit of power you need.

The final build should look something like this:

Pendulum of Ages
Spear of Desolation
Divine Ruin
Soul Reaver
Obsidian Shard
Calamitous Rod of Tahuti

Fun Attack Speed Build

Persephone’s basic attack animation wasn’t intended for her to have high attack speed, and it looks hilarious when you do. She’s not ideal for a magical Carry, but she does surprisingly decent with an attack speed build. It’s not a competitive build, but it is a lot of fun. I recommend trying it out in Slash or Casual Joust.

Start by getting Gilded Arrow, which increases health, basic attack damage, and mana regeneration. It has an interesting passive effect that marks the highest health enemy minion every 10 seconds, and killing the marked minion gives you gold, mana, and an attack speed buff. You’ll also want to get Belt of Frenzy for a temporary attack speed boost, Emerald Ring to upgrade, and some potions if you want.

From there, Upgrade the Emerald Ring into the Ring of Hecate. The attack speed is obviously what we’re after, but the lifesteal and power stealing passive will help us a lot as well.

Next, get Spear of Desolation. This is for the penetration and large amounts of power of course. You could get Demonic Grip instead, but Spear of Desolation is strong right now and we may as well use it.

After that, get Hastened Ring, which provides power, attack speed, and movement speed. It also removes the basic attack movement speed penalty whenever you hit an enemy god with a basic attack. This will help us a lot in dodging enemy attacks.

You’ll want to get Purification Beads as your second relic. Then, get Nimble Rod of Tahuti, both for the power and attack speed. After that, get Telkhines Ring, which gives power and attack speed, and has a passive effect that increases basic attack damage. This is a no-brainer given what we’re going for in this build.

Finally, upgrade Gilded Arrow into Ornate Arrow. Ornate Arrow gives Persephone increased basic attack damage, attack speed, and health. It would give her critical strike chance if she did physical damage, but unfortunately, she does not. It also increases all gold received, and you receive an attack speed buff based on how much gold you have.

The final build should look something like this:

Ornate Arrow
Ring of Hecate
Spear of Desolation
Hastened Ring
Nimble Rod of Tahuti
Telkhines Ring

FAQs

Question: Is Book of Thoth a good item for Persephone?

Answer: Yes, it can be. It provides the most magical power of any item at full stacks. However, it takes time to build those stacks, and so you can fall behind with it if you’re not careful. It’s a really strong item to have in the end game though.

Recently, matches have been ending too early on average to get full use out of it. With the most recent patch, health for all gods was increased by a significant amount, so matches might last longer. If they do start to last longer, Book of Thoth could be a great item to get. In that case, it would take the spot of Spear of Desolation in most of the builds here.

Question: Is Chronos Pendant a good item for Persephone?

Answer: It’s great for mages in general, but I feel Persephone doesn’t need it. When not using abilities, Persephone still has her Harvest Flowers to shoot forward to do damage. Building for max cooldown isn’t a bad idea by any means, but I feel like an item like Soul Gem that gives other benefits on top of cooldown reduction is stronger for her.

Question: Is Persephone still a viable choice after her rework?

Answer: Absolutely. She’s not nearly as strong as she used to be, but she was overpowered before the rework. She’s still one of the strongest mages at the moment and has the unique ability to be able to consistently do damage at a further range than any other god with her Harvest Flowers.