Baalinor's Gilgamesh Cataphract Raiding with Spiked Shield 3 - Orna patch 3.2

Build Intro

Baalinor - 2022-08-17

One of the best (fast and safe) ways to raid as Gilgamesh is focusing mainly on Ward and secondly on Attack, to use the Spiked Shield 3 skill (SS3).
It's a skill unlocked at level 240 and the mechanics behind it changed not too long ago: this is important to say because if you see guides/videos before Orna 3.0 they are now obsolete.
To raid with SS3 you need a lot of ward and a good amount of attack, so the following build focuses on this.

Side note: two big questions that normally come as Gilgas: 
"how much ward do I need to be able to deal decent damage with Spiked Shield skills?" and "is SS2 still ok for raiding?"
I would say 120k+, and not exactly.
If you don't have the above mentioned amount of ward or you still didn't unlock SS3, I would suggest you to try two good Gilga alternative builds for raiding: 
-  Warrior's Pavane (Charmer skill) with 4-5 Assassin Jewels in your weapon
- Realm Strikes with Crit adornments (Ferocious Eyes) in the weapon. Specialisation can be Raider, Zwei-Fencer, Cataphract
They may be covered in different articles.

Loadout screenshots and video guide available at the bottom of this guide!

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Speaking of my SS3 build: 
Gear:
 Axe of Gilgamesh is the go-to choice, because of Ward and still decent attack.
Good weapon alternatives: Finesse Greatsword (more attack, less ward), Fey Neman Havoc/Arisen Fey Neman Havoc (even more attack but less ward)
In my Axe the adornments are: 2x Ashen Ruby, then go with the 2% ones with highest attack you have (I'm using Arisen Tears and Furious Bull's Eye)
I also enchanted it with Water element (my faction) to deal more damage without need to cast the Affinity skill.

Accessories:
something with Attack, HP/Mana and/or Ward. Carl's Ring are a solid choice,
but you can use Immortal Rings if you need more Ward/HP, or ones with attack if you need more penetration (Arisen Ring, Arisen Arch-Gizmo)

Offhand: a good ward shield

Head/Chest/Legs: items with a lot of ward, and if possible with HP/Mana/Attack to increase your SS3 damage even more.
Fey Yeti Horns and Fey Yeti Coat in my screenshot (abbreviated).

Gear adornments: everything superior or better for the 2% ward.
Personal list (ordered from best): Jewel of Creation, Greater Bull's Eye, Saturn's Eye, Jewel of the End

Amities
Anything that allows you to deal more damage: the first two I can think about are faction element and ward regen ones.

Pet
Fey Chimera for Berserk1 skill

There may be some alternatives that give you different offensive buffs or help you with ward regen, but I'm a fan of the [Fey] Chimera.

Stats
The stats in my screenshot are from a lv250 player with 44 ascension levels, I normally get 2k ward per ascension level.

As I said the most important one is ward. Attack is also important, betweek 4k and 5k I think it's the best.
Because of how SS3 works, you should have enough attack to penetrate the enemy defense, but after a certain amount is normally better to invest on ward.
It also depends on the enemy and the amount of damage you'll do in a single run.
I also like to have at least 1500-2000 mana.

Specialisation
Cataphract because of extra HP and so ward, and also ward regen
Raider can be an alternative because of Berserk 3, but I don't really like the negative HP bonus 
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​​Skills and Rotation

Ward of Ortanite (abbr. WOO), Prism Wall (optional), Golem's Fortitude (optional, remove atk- with potions if you get it), 
Elementless/Element Affinity of your faction (if needed, based on the element of the weapon), Divine Bastion 2 (abbr. DB2),
Mimic's Mischief (use potions to remove negative effects if you get any and don't want them), Warcry, Gait of Gunnr,
Deific Channel, Wyrm's Song (optional, if you want crit+ for Osmostrike3 or just T.Atk+), Spiked Shield 3

Then it's based on if you still have Deific Channel up or not, how much damage you get, etc.

If you need some ward turns and ward recovery: WOO
If you need a lot of ward recovery: DB2
If you have DC up: spam SS3 till your ward gets to 50% of your total ward

Then it's just optimising the equation/balance of how much ward your SS3 will use, how much ward you enemy might deal to you,
how much ward you'll automatically recover per turn and the amount of ward you might recover via skills.
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Loadouts
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​Skills

Gear

Weapon Adornments

Stats

Videos covering all these concepts in detail: