Ravana Build Ideas

About
Latest Posts

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

I’m going to quickly explain Ravana’s abilities before getting into the builds since builds are largely determined by a god’s abilities.

His passive ability, Chain of Blows, builds stacks every time you hit an enemy with an ability or basic attack. Every 8 stacks, he receives a shield based on a percentage of his max health, as well as a movement speed buff. This shield and movement speed buff can stack up to three times.

His first active ability, Prana Onslaught, does damage in the area of a small cone in front of him. Any enemies hit by this ability are slowed. His second active ability, Overhead Kick, does damage in a line in front of him. During the ability, Ravana becomes immune to crowd control and gains increased movement speed.

His third active ability, 10-Hand Shadow Fist, does damage in a line in front of him and roots the first god hit. For each enemy hit, Ravana is healed by a small amount.

His ultimate ability, Mystic Rush, is a leap that deals damage where Ravana lands. Ravana gains a buff, temporarily increasing damage mitigation, while enemies hit receive a debuff, temporarily increasing damage received.

Builds

General Build

This build takes advantage of Ravana’s flexibility, using a mix of offensive and defensive items. It even takes advantage of Ravana’s ability to heal himself by using an item that provides a buff whenever that’s done. We’ll start this build by getting Bumba’s Dagger, which provides a small amount of each power, health, and mana. It makes you deal additional damage to jungle monsters, and killing jungle monsters restores health and mana.

We’ll also get Round Shield to upgrade later, and it provides a tiny amount of power and physical protections. For a relic, we’ll get Blink Rune, which is used to teleport a small distance. This is useful for catching enemies by surprise. With any gold leftover, you may want to get Healing Potions to increase health regeneration, but it’s optional.

After you’ve earned enough gold, upgrade Round Shield into Berserker’s Shield. This item provides power, physical protections, attack speed, and health regeneration. If your health drops below 40%, you gain damage mitigation.

Next, get The Crusher, providing power, attack speed, and flat penetration. It has a passive effect that deals additional ability damage for two seconds after hitting an enemy with an ability. After that, get Frostbound Hammer. This item provides power and health. Any enemies hit by your basic attacks have their movement speed and attack speed temporarily reduced.

At this point in the match, it’s a good idea to get Aegis Amulet as your second relic. This relic makes you temporarily invincible when activated.

For the next item, get Serrated Edge. This item provides power, lifesteal, a significant amount of percentage-based penetration, and increased movement speed. From its passive effect, you gain increased power and lifesteal for every non-ultimate ability on cooldown.

For the last item slot, we’ll get Shield of Regrowth, providing a large amount of health, health regeneration, mana regeneration, and cooldown reduction. After healing yourself with an ability, you gain increased movement speed for 4 seconds. This synergizes well with 10-Hand Shadow Fist.

At level 20, upgrade Bumba’s Dagger into Bumba’s Hammer. Bumba’s Hammer provides a significant amount of health, mana, and cooldown reduction. After using an ability, your next basic attack does additional damage, reduces cooldowns, and heals you.

Finally, replace The Crusher with Qin’s Sais. Qin’s Sais provides power and attack speed, and basic attacks deal additional damage based on the percentage of the enemy’s health.

The final build should look like this:

Bumba’s Hammer
Berserker’s Shield
Qin’s Sais
Frostbound Hammer
Serrated Edge
Shield of Regrowth

As for upgrading abilities, I focus on upgrading 10-Hand Shadow Fist both for its healing effect and rooting effect.

Joust Build

While some Assassins can fill the role of having the high basic attack damage per second needed to take out objectives, I find Ravana struggles there since he has no real escape. Given his past as a Warrior, it should be of little surprise that he’s better off playing a supportive role in Joust. His crowd control effects and sustain make him able to protect his teammates to great effect.

We’ll start this build by getting War Flag, providing both physical and magical protections, health, and mana regeneration. When you get an assist, you provide a movement speed and attack speed buff to you and your nearby teammates.

At three stacks of this buff, your abilities that damage an enemy god will restore health and mana to you your nearby teammates and gives you a small amount of gold. For a relic, you will want to get Cloak of Meditation, which temporarily gives increased health and mana regeneration to you and your nearby teammates.

You will then want to get Round Shield to upgrade and Multi Potions to give you temporary increased health and mana regeneration when you need it.

From there, you will want to upgrade Round Shield into Gladiator’s Shield. This item provides power, physical protection, health, and cooldown reduction. This item also provides additional ability damage based on the number of protections you have. This item will allow you to build defensively without sacrificing too much power.

Next, get either Brawler’s Beat Stick or The Sledge. Most of the time, I get Brawler’s Beat Stick, providing power and flat penetration. This item has a passive effect where hitting an enemy with an ability temporarily reduces the healing they receive.

In the rare circumstance that the enemy isn’t using too much healing, The Sledge may be the better option. This item provides power, health, mana, and crowd control reduction. It also provides protections based on the number of enemy gods nearby.

Hide of the Urchin is the item we’ll get next. This item provides both magical and physical protections, health, and mana. You gain stacks that provide additional protections for every god kill or assist. At 7 stacks, whenever you haven’t dealt or received damage for 5 seconds, you will receive a small health shield every 2 seconds.

For your second relic, you will most likely want Purification Beads. After that, get Talisman of Energy, providing magical protections and health. When you get a kill or assist, Talisman of Energy provides stacks to you and your nearby teammates that provide increased movement speed, attack speed, and mana regeneration.

For your last item slot, you’ll want to get either Hide of the Nemean Lion or Spectral Armor. Hide of the Nemean Lion provides a large number of physical protections, mana, and mana regeneration. This item has a passive effect that builds a stack of block every 10 seconds, up to three, which mitigates 65% of the damage received from a basic attack.

Spectral Armor provides protections, health, mana, and mana regeneration, as well as reduces critical damage received by 40%. I would say Hide of the Nemean Lion is typically better, but Spectral Armor is far better if the enemy is using critical damage.

Finally, you will want to upgrade War Flag into War Banner. War Banner has the same effects as War Flag but to a stronger extent, except it doesn’t provide any gold. You shouldn’t really need gold at this point though.

The final build should look like this:

War Banner
Gladiator’s Shield
Brawler’s Beat Stick or The Sledge
Hide of the Urchin
Talisman of Energy
Hide of the Nemean Lion or Spectral Armor

Jungle Build

Given that Ravana’s an Assassin, it’s no surprise that excels in the jungle. This build, in particular, uses a mix of ability damage and basic attack damage. We’ll start this build by getting Bumba’s Dagger, the Mace to upgrade, and Blink Rune as your relic. You will also want to get wards to keep an eye on what is happening in the jungle.

From there, you will want to upgrade the Mace into The Crusher. I find this item to be crucial in clearing jungle camps early on in the match and is just overall an extremely strong item early on.

After that, get Runeforged Hammer. This item provides power, health, mana regeneration, and health regeneration. It has a passive effect that increases your damage by 20% against enemies affected by crowd control effects. This will help you deal burst damage and quickly secure kills after catching enemies off-guard with 10-Hand Shadow Fist.

Next, you will want either Brawler’s Beat Stick or Void Shield. I normally go for Brawler’s Beat Stick, but on rare occasions, the anti-heal isn’t necessary. If that’s the case, I get Void Shield, providing power, health, and physical protections. Void Shield also has a debuff aura that lowers the physical protections of nearby enemies.

For your second relic, you will want to get Purification Beads. After that, get Serrated Edge. Not only will the movement speed help with moving through the Jungle, but the cooldown reduction and high penetration will be super helpful. The lifesteal is just a bonus.

For the final slot, get Dominance if you use basic attacks more or Heartseeker if you use abilities more. Dominance provides power, mana, mana regeneration, and percentage-based penetration. It provides additional percentage-based penetration on basic attacks.

Heartseeker provides the same amount of mana, mana regeneration, and percentage-based penetration, as well as slightly more power. It does additional ability damage based on the enemy’s maximum health. At level 20, replace Bumba’s Dagger with Bumba’s Hammer.

Finally, you can replace The Crusher with either Arondight or Spirit Robe. Arondight provides a large amount of power and cooldown reduction. After using your ultimate ability, this item reveals all nearby enemies. When moving towards a revealed enemy, you gain a movement speed buff, and the first hit on a revealed enemy does additional damage.

Spirit Robe is a good choice if you want to be more defensive, providing both physical and magical protections, cooldown reduction, and crowd control reduction. It provides additional damage mitigation when hit by a hard crowd control effect like a root or a stun.

The final build should look like this:

Bumba’s Hammer
Arondight or Spirit Robe
Runeforged Hammer
Brawler’s Beat Stick or Void Shield
Serrated Edge
Dominance or Heartseeker

For abilities, I always get 10-Hand Shadow Fist first, as I think it’s his strongest active ability by far. I typically get Overhead Kick second since it can save Ravana from crowd control effects. That means I get Prana Onslaught third. I’ll upgrade 10-Hand Shadow Fist again at level 4 since I focus on reaching the max level of that ability first and then get Mystic Rush at level 5.

Basic Attack Assassin Meta Build

This is the build I’ve been seeing basic-attack Assassins use over and over again in Ranked lately. I’ve seen a few variations depending on the character, but this is how I see it most often. I like using Ravana as a basic-attack Assassin, so I’ve been playing with this build a lot lately, and it works really well.

We’ll start this build by getting Manikin Scepter, providing increased basic attack damage and physical protections. Any enemies hit by your basic attacks take additional damage over time, and their attack speed is reduced while suffering from this effect. If a jungle monster dies under this effect, you restore some health and mana. We’ll also get the Katana to upgrade, Blink Rune, and wards.

As soon as you can, you will want to upgrade the Katana into Golden Blade. This item provides power, attack speed, and movement speed. Your basic attacks will deal additional damage to nearby enemies, making this item super effective at clearing jungle camps.

The next item to get is Asi, providing power, lifesteal, attack speed, and flat penetration. You temporarily gain increased lifesteal when below 35% health. Not only will this greatly increase your basic attack damage per second, but it’ll also make you extremely hard to kill when combined with Chain of Blows’ effect.

After that, get Qin’s Sais, providing power and attack speed, as well as additional basic attack damage based on a percentage of the enemy’s health. This will help you take out those tanky enemies.

When you can, you will want to get Purification Beads. From there, you will want to get Dominance. The additional penetration on your basic attacks will further help you with tanky enemies. For the last item slot, we’ll be getting Serrated Edge. While other items will make your basic attacks stronger, this item has a mix of effects that will make things much easier for you overall.

Once you hit level 20, you will want to upgrade Mankin Scepter into Manikin Mace. Mankin Mace provides more basic attack damage and physical protections, as well as health. It has the same passive effect as Manikin Scepter but to a stronger extent.

The final build should look like this:

Manikin Mace
Golden Blade
Asi
Qin’s Sais
Dominance
Serrated Edge

Solo Build

This build is what I use in the Solo Lane with Ravana, and it’s a little on the complicated side. It has a lot of branching paths because there are a lot of variables you have to be prepared for in the Solo Lane. Don’t worry; it will all make sense in the end.

With Ravana, early sustain isn’t much of a concern. He has a strong basic attack which means it’s not a big deal if he runs out of mana, and his passive provides a lot of sustain when it comes to health.

While you could go for the more common starter items in Solo like Warrior’s Axe and Bluestone Pendant, I feel like Ravana simply doesn’t need them. Meanwhile, Animosity and Infused Sigil are upgraded versions of starters that are much stronger than what could get otherwise.

When you start, decide whether you want to get Animosity or Infused Sigil. If you want Animosity, skip getting a starter at the beginning. The predecessor to Animosity, Benevolence, is pretty useless in the Solo Lane. However, if you want Infused Sigil, then you’ll want to go ahead and get its predecessor, Warding Sigil.

This item provides a small amount of power, both physical and magical protections, and health. You temporarily get additional protections when hit by an ability. You will then want Teleport Fragment to get the lane quicker if you die or need to return to the fountain, an item to upgrade, and Healing Potions with the leftover gold.

For the item to upgrade, you first have to decide whether you want Berserker’s Shield, Gladiator’s Shield, or Soul Eater later on. Each of these items are great, but they don’t work together well. I go with Berserker’s Shield most of the time. If you prefer ability damage, Gladiator’s Shield is generally the way to go.

However, if the enemy in your lane does magical damage, or you just like high sustain, you will want to get Soul Eater. This item provides power, lifesteal, percentage-based penetration, and cooldown reduction. It has a passive that allows your abilities to heal you by a percentage of damage dealt, or in other words, ability lifesteal, as well as builds stacks anytime something dies near you. At max stacks, you gain additional power, lifesteal, and ability lifesteal.

Once you decide which one you want, get the tier 1 predecessor of it if you got Warding Sigil or the tier 2 predecessor if you plan on getting Animosity. The confusing part is over; you’re ready to leave the fountain now. When you can, you will want to upgrade that predecessor item.

After upgrading those items, you’ll want to get either Brawler’s Beatstick or Jotunn’s Vigor. I normally go for Brawler’s Beat Stick, but on rare occasions, you don’t need anti-heal items. In that case, Jotunn’s Vigor is a great alternative, providing power, mana, flat penetration, and a significant amount of cooldown reduction.

It has a passive that provides a temporary movement speed and ability lifesteal buff when you drop below a certain percentage of health. Next, get Runeforged Hammer. This is just an all-around great item for Ravana.

For your second relic, you can’t go wrong with Purification Beads. If you plan on getting Animosity, now is a good time to get Benevolence. Benevolence provides health, mana regeneration, and health regeneration. It has an interesting passive effect that builds stacks over time when not near a teammate.

When nearby a teammate, these stacks will be automatically used to heal both you and your teammate, as well as provide gold to you. Since at this point in the match you will start to be nearby teammates pretty often, this item can be useful now.

Next, you will want to get either Pestilence or Talisman of Energy. Pestilence provides magical protections, health, and a debuff aura that reduces the healing nearby enemies receive. Talisman of Energy also provides magical protections and health, as well as temporary stacks to you and nearby teammates whenever you get a kill or assist. These stacks provide increased movement speed, attack speed, and mana regeneration.

For the last item slot, you will want either Midgardian Mail, Hide of the Nemean Lion, or Spectral Armor. If you plan on getting Animosity, you will want to get Midgardian Mail. This item provides a large amount of health and physical protections.

If an enemy hits you with a basic attack, they temporarily have their movement speed, and attack speed reduced. If you got Warding Sigil, Hide of the Nemean Lion or Spectral Armor will typically be better options. If the enemies are using critical damage, get Spectral Armor; otherwise, get Hide of the Nemean Lion.

Finally, upgrade your starter. Animosity provides a larger amount of health, health regeneration, and mana regeneration. It also makes your basic attacks deal additional damage based on your maximum health. Infused Sigil provides a significant amount of health, power, and both physical and magical protections.

Every 4 times you’re hit with an ability, the item deals 600 damage to all enemies in a small radius around you. Both of these items allow you to do a decent amount of damage for how defensive the build is.

The final build should look like this:

Animosity or Infused Sigil
Berserker’s Shield, Soul Eater, or Gladiator’s Shield
Brawler’s Beat Stick or Jotunn’s Vigor
Runeforged Hammer
Pestilence or Talisman of Energy
Midgardian Mail, Hide of the Nemean Lion, or Spectral Armor

Fun Critical Hit Build

This build is really just for fun. It’s a lot of fun. I could see it being used successfully in the Jungle role in Conquest, but I use it in Slash. While it can be effective in some scenarios, it has a lot of downsides as well.

The biggest issue you will run into is Spectral Armor which reduces your critical strike bonus damage by a massive 40%. You’ll still do a lot of damage, but it’ll slow you down long enough that the enemy might just turn around and kill you instead. However, I can’t emphasize how fun it is enough.

We’ll start this build much like the Meta Build, getting Mankin Scepter, Blink Rune, and wards. Rather than the Katana, though, we’ll get the Short Bow to upgrade later.

From there, upgrade the Short Bow into Atalanta’s Bow. This item provides power, attack speed, lifesteal, and critical hit chance. Whenever you get a kill or assist on an enemy god, you gain a buff for 10 seconds that further increases attack speed as well as decreases movement speed penalties.

After that, we’ll get Rage as a temporary item. This item provides power and a large critical strike chance. Getting a kill or assist on an enemy god further increases the critical strike chance this item provides. I’m normally not a fan of this item, but it can be useful as a quick way to get a nearly 100% critical strike chance.

Next, get Wind Demon. This item provides power, attack speed, and critical strike chance. Whenever you get a critical hit, you gain a buff that increases your attack speed, movement speed, and percentage-based penetration.

As usual, get Purification Beads when you can. To start doing serious damage, get Envenomned Deathbringer. This item provides power, critical strike chance, and increases critical strike damage. Critical strikes will temporarily debuff enemies, reducing their movement speed and the damage they deal.

At this point, I sell Rage and get Shadowsteel Shurikin instead. This item provides power, attack speed, and critical strike chance, as well as another debuff when getting a critical strike on enemies, reducing any healing they receive.

We don’t need any more critical strike chance, so we’ll get Dominance next. This will just make our basic attacks stronger overall. Finally, upgrade Manikin Scepter into Manikin Mace.

The final build should look like this:

Manikin Mace
Atalanta’s Bow
Shadowsteel Shuriken
Wind Demon
Envenomed Deathbringer
Dominance

FAQs

Question: Is Caduceus Shield a good item for Ravana?

Answer: It definitely can be, especially in Solo Lane. I don’t personally use it with Ravana, but it’s certainly a viable option.

Question: Can Ravana be played as an ability-based Assassin?

Answer: Yes. Ravana is really versatile. Focusing on his basic attack makes more use of his really strong passive ability, but his damage-dealing abilities are also really strong. It’s all up to personal preference.

Question: Is Hydra’s Lament a good item for Ravana?

Answer: It seems good on the surface, but the passive effect is largely wasted on Ravana. The first attack in Ravana’s basic attack chain only deals 0.75x damage, meaning the additional damage from Hydra’s Lament will always be 25% less on him when compared to other gods. However, Ravana is a great character for mixing abilities with basic attacks. I prefer to get an item like The Crusher, Jotunn’s Vigor, or Dominance instead.