Big Forg's Early Gilgamesh Raiding aka “It’s not about the size of your spikes, it’s how you use them.” - Orna patch 3.3

Build Intro

Hello and welcome, it’s your friendly neighbourhood amphibian. After the recent rework of Spiked Shield you no longer need an extremely min-maxed, high-end build with tons of ward to have a decent damage with the SS skill family. In this guide I’ll try to focus on the performance of SS1 in 3 different scenarios:
1. Entry-level Gilgamesh (around 100-120k ward)
2. Mid-game Gilgamesh (around 120-180k ward)
3. Endgame Gilgamesh (above 180k ward)

Keep in mind, this build is not built around pumping extremely huge numbers, it performs well in all raids, has really high survivability and not a lot of key pressing. The rotation is pretty much based on 1 skill and 1 temp buff.

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Gear
​Firstly, I’ll list out all the decent ward gear you should be looking out for. We won’t be focusing on 2-handed weapons since we’re mostly looking for ward and the best way to achieve it is to get a good 1-handed weapon and a shield. I’ll also note which items are obtainable only during certain events throughout the year, the rest are mostly farmable through dungeons and kingdom or world raids. With that said, the damage is nothing to scoff at

Head

• Abyssal Helmet
• Arisen Avalon Helmet (event)
• Arisen King’s Crown (event)
• Arisen Riftguard Helmet (event)
• Ashen Phoenician Helmet
• Fey Yeti Horns
• Old Nothren Crown
• Tarnished King’s Crown

Body

• Abyssal Armor
• Arisen Armor
• Arisen Avalon Armor (event)
• Arisen Riftguard Armor (event)
• Arisen Surtr’s Cuirass (event)
• Ashen Phoenician Cuirass
• Bulwark
• Fey Yeti Coat

Legs

• Abyssal Greaves
• Arisen Avalon Leggings (event)
• Arisen Riftguard Leggings (event)
• Ashen Phoenician Greaves

Off-hand

• Arisen Rhada Greatshield (event)
• Arisen Shield
• Arisen Tizona (event)
• Ashen Phoenician Shield
• Atlas
• Fallen Shield
• Polished Aegis
• Spiked Greatshield (event)
• Ymir Coiled Shield (event)

Weapons

• Abyssal Axe
• Arisen Colada (event)
• Arisen Demeter’s Halberd
• Arisen Fey Neman Havoc
• Axe of Gilgamesh
• Demeter’s Halberd
• Fey Neman Havoc
• Finesse’s Greatsword (event)
• Finesse’s Katana (event)
• Ymir World Eater (event)

Accessory

• Carl’s Ring [T10] - great boost to pretty much all stats, recently it also received built-in ward
• Immortal’s Ring - Probably the biggest ward buff you can get, slightly lowers your attack and mana

You could also equip other accessories that protect you from status effects but with Gilga’s Steadfast passive you’re better off equipping something to boost your ward

Adornments

• For armor use your best 2% ward adornments you have, some better options include: Greater Bull’s Eyes, Jewels of Creation, Jewels of the End
• For weapons you usually want to adorn at least one Ruby or Ashen Ruby as a way to regenerate your HP while attacking. Fill the rest with the best ward adornments you have, for example Arisen Teardrops. Some other adornments worth noting: Assassin’s Jewels for T. Def ↓, T. Def ↓↓, Blackened or Dark Eyes of Kerberos for ward and pet action rate.

Pets
There are quite a few options, I’ll mostly focus on 2 types.

Defensive - ward regen + turns:
Gorynych, Son of Mountains
Living Arch-Armor
Ortanite Golem
Fey Yeti
Steward Golem

Offensive - buffs:
Ashen Phoenix - Deific Channel (with enough action rate it also keeps up the ward turns)
(Fey) Chimera - Berserk 1 buff
Apollyon's Apprentice - Elemental alignments, also some hp regen and ward turns
Very Scary Skeleton - Wallop for T.Def↓↓
Phoenix - Deific Channel

Please remember that for some of those pets you need a higher action rate to make full use of their buffs. You can achieve that by equipping a Freyja Charm as one of your accessories (and by that, sacrificing a little bit of your ward) or adorning your weapon using Blackened Eyes of Kerberos or Dark or Dark Eye of Kerberos.

Amities
Some of the best amities to look out for are:
Increases (faction element) damage by 20%
Your accessories will be 25% more effective
Positive effects will last 50% longer
You will recover 5% Ward each turn

Specialization
Cataphract is your best bet when raiding with Spiked Shield, the ward regen and huge hp boost is simply great for this build.
Oracle could also be an option if you have two 5% ward regen amities.
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Showcases

Buffing will look pretty much the same for all levels:
Ward of Ortanite > Golem’s Fortitude > Barrier II > Divine Bastion II > Wyvern Speed II > Bear’s Might > Faction Affinity

Then you can also add Prism wall if you’re using Cataphract and Gunnr if you’re sure you’re not going against hard raids like Morrigan
Using Berserk Mushrooms from Arena is also good if you have a lot of them and you have Ruby or Ashen Ruby in your weapon
Remember to keep Osmostrike/Osmostrikes in your loadout in case you don’t get a lot of Ruby procs.
Adding Omnistrike/Omnistrikes or Exploit for debuffs is also advised.
If you’re not using a weapon with a lot of pet action rate with Ashen Phoenix then you also must put Deific Channel in your loadout.

Be sure to check out all 3 of the different level showcases below most relevant to you!

​1. Entry-level
[Level 237 Gilgamesh without any ascensions - 117k Ward]

• Skill rotation after buffing
• Sharpen (also repeat when it wears off) > Spam SS1
• You can use Ward of Ortanite to regen your ward. 
• With ward regen amity you would get more ward than you spend.
• 180k-250k per turn with all buffs

Showcase run vs Fey Chimera (2min 45s)

Big Forg SS showcase 1 stats

Big Forg SS showcase 1 gear

Big Forg SS showcase 1 amity

2. Mid-game Gilgamesh
[Level 237 Gilgamesh without any ascensions - 145k Ward]

• Besides the normal skill rotation we’re adding Gait of Gunnr
• Skill rotation after buffing
• Sharpen (also repeat when it wears off) > Spam SS1
• You can use Ward of Ortanite to regen your ward. 
• With ward regen amity you would get more ward than you spend.
• 380k-420k per turn with all buffs

Showcase run vs Fey Chimera (1min 40s)

Big Forg SS showcase 2 stats

Big Forg SS showcase 2 gear

Big Forg SS showcase 2 amity

​3. End-game Gilgamesh
[Level 250 Gilgamesh, Ascension level 41 - 259k Ward]

• Going against easier raids we can entirely skip the Golem + Barrier part and focus only on attack buffs
• Using Bear’s Might gives us Def/Res↓↓ which is useful for regaining mana from Gilga’s passive. You can use Panacea later on if you start taking too much dmg
• Skill rotation after buffing
• Sharpen (also repeat when it wears off) > Spam SS1
• You can use Ward of Ortanite to regen your ward. 
• With ward regen amity you would get more ward than you spend.
• 600k without DC, 1.2mil with DC

Showcase run vs Fey Chimera (less than 1min)

Big Forg SS showcase 3 stats

Big Forg SS showcase 3 gear

Big Forg SS showcase 3 amity