JustFold's Melee Deity Raider PvP Fallen Champion Build - Orna patch 3.3

The Idea

​In the later swiss rounds of the last pvp tournament, Z6 skunked me 2-0 with a realmshifter build that got me thinking. The big takeaways I had from that set were that:

- Ashen Phoenix might be the best all around pet for melee pvp when you get its action rate high enough to have reliable access to Deific Channel. Deific Channel>other pets basically.
- Raider synergizes in every way that makes Ashen good. 

In my first swiss set with Z6, he zeroed out most of my Ultimas and crushed me with 1HKO crits. It wasn’t close at any point. After that loss I knew I wanted to make my own version of the build, but as a deity instead of realmshifter (which is of course a good thing). This build would become my go to for live pvp and is an overall powerhouse.

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The Core

​Since we need to get follower action rate high enough to have Deific active most of the time, Blackened Kerberos Eyes stand out as the most accessible and stat efficient way to get there. Here was a quick test I ran at one point to see what Phoenix’s actions look like with 12/9/6 Blackened eyes (there’ll be a higher margin of error given the smaller sample size but this gives you an idea):

​6 eyes had a much higher no action rate than I would have guessed, and 12 almost never whiffed. 9 was a decent midpoint but I decided it wasnt enough because in this build we also rely on Ashen Phoenix for our ward turns. 10 was the number I settled on, with the idea that anymore would be diminishing returns. 

Among our strongest options for high slotted weapons, we have 2 handers like Ymir Feathers/Arisen Labrys or Finesse Greatsword that can offer atleast 10 slots. Finesse has great stats and leaves our offhand/accessory slots free from being locked up by a 2H build. I had a good one too so thats where I started.

​(Note I'm using normal eyes for this article so with full superior+ factor in another 10% ward)

From here we can go a number of different ways with the build. We have ward turns covered with Phoenix, so given that we want a decent sized ward pool there are two metagame considerations Im gonna point out that informed which options I went with:
- Berserk 3 and DC also boosts dexterity among everything else. With these multipliers we can approach a dodge chance that most meta pvp builds can’t.
- Assassin is a clear counter to this type of build, and I wanted to have broad protection against status immunities to avoid randomly dropping games I didn’t have to.

​Arisen Hels Garb and Beguiled Mystic Katar work really well together. You have Burn/Rot/Frozen/Paralyzed/Stun/Blind covered without any overlap and 525 built in dexterity. Can we get more ward going with other choices like FYC and Arisen Shield? Of course, but the tradeoff is warranted I believe in how these two pieces round out the rest of the build. 

But where do we go from here? In the Orna Champions tournament, up against high damage powerhouses like Ratakor and Z6, there was an obvious flaw going this route with raider; our HP pool is close to low enough where we become vulnerable to 1HKOs even with ward turns up.

We can mitigate this a few ways. One is to gain the foresight advantage and not open ourselves up to a turn 1 attack without Berserk 3 and ward turns from Phoenix. Thankfully we have a headstart on foresight by running both Blackened Eyes and Katar offhand, but often times thats not going to be enough. 

Another way to mitigate this is to expand our HP pool, making us less vulnerable to having our whole health pool penetrated by a big, early attack. Luckily Beguiled Appolyon armor does both this and foresight well. Given who my opponents were in the Top 4, I settled on the warrior set for the head/leg slots.

Can we build to zero out opponents better with Old Nothren Crown or Arisen Fey gear? Sure. Is that necessarily better? In some spots you’ll definitely want to adjust in that direction but going first is extremely important when our first spell is Berserk 3. 

“But what about your ward pool? Arent you giving up alot of ward not using something else?” 

Not as much as you might think. Beguiled gear is actually pretty good in terms of ward, particularly if you adorn them right. Thats because based on the way ward is calculated, 2% adornments weight better when its 6%+2% as opposed to 32%+2%. (I could be wrong here but thats how I understand it.) Add that to the giant HP pool that the Beguiled Warrior set has, and we come out with a very nice ward total. 

​Red Pinions and Ashen Pinions are my first choice to adorn the head/legs. Add another 240 dexterity to our count with 16% crit / ward. With another 4% Crit from the Katar we’re closer to our baseline crit requirement. Luckily we set aside 2 adornment slots on the Finesse Greatsword as a flex spot. Ferocious Bull’s Eyes are an easy fit, and that just leaves the adornments on the chest/Katar.

​“Turul Feathers? Really?” Well, is 28% crit chance enough? Theres already some variance with 40% + Wyrms Song so I don’t think we can accept too much less than that. Can we get it other ways? Im not convinced we want anymore negative stats from ashens; each one hurts more than the last and 4 might already be too many. Can we cut a blackened eye or two to get closer? Possibly, but I don’t think we want to trade away critical chance variance for Ashen Phoenix variance as the latter is the more gamebreaking of the two. Maybe if you have follower action rate as a secondary amity trait, but I dont. Theres a ward loss to using turul feathers, sure, but the dex/crit combo is the missing link at this point in the build.

Since our gameplan will often involve multiple turns of buffing to outscale the opponent, Arisen Arch Gadget is a must in the accessory slot. As for the other slot I lean towards Ankous ring to complete the basic status protection but I could also see a case for Carl’s Ring or a singleton Lugus Gauntlet in its place.

As for the amity, generally we will want whatever gives us the most survivability and/or dmg. In the PvP top four I opted for 3% Ward Regen/10% to block dmg at 90%+ of hp, but now that I have the 40% crit amity that strikes me as much better in a vacuum.

The Final Build

​I wont go too deep into the skills beyond the general gameplan. 
- Berserk 3 turn one just about every game.
- Buffing damage or defense is optional beyond this point, but we always want to be within 1-2 hits of killing the other guy so we also often want to go for Mimics Mischief. If you can tell your wall will be effective against your opponent spend a turn getting def/res++
- My favorite big damage skill is Osmostrike 3 for the extra survivability but I usually will opt for any of the higher penetration single hit crit skills as the go to damage. The attack button is your last resort in terms of penetration but its a good one.
- Early into sets I like to throw out some debuffs if I think I have a turn or two to safely probe.

*Ascension level 30

So we have high penetration crits, a 40k HP/90k ward pool that we can extend with Osmostrike 3, a tough defense wall, higher dodge chance, immunity to assassins, high foresight, free ward turns, a really clutch second chance, and modest pet damage. 

Theres also some room to meta game tweak here and there. Up against a wall and need more penetration? Unless theres a tremendous mismatch you can’t get walled out with Lugus Gauntlet while fully buffed. Need more foresight? Swap out the Arisen Hels Garb for the beguiled warrior chest. Against magic? The build works the same way with the beguiled mage set equipped.

A vulnerability I noticed with this specific version of the build is that if we’re matched against someone that can deal both high attack and magic damage, they can get through alot of our defenses. As the Deity Ashen Raider, this is where we will want to consider whether the tradeoff with the Beguiled set is worth it and if it would be better to run higher ward/lower foresight options.

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I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on this build and maybe get a chance to tinker with it yourselves!