This is Part 7 of 7, the final installment of mini-guides providing a few mod builds for each lancer. Hope it’s helpful — feedback appreciated as always.
Rask
Rask
- Crippling (2) — Aftershock (3) — Trample (3) — Unrelenting (1) — Rejuvenating (1)
- Primal (1) — Aftershock (3) — Pounce (2) — Shielding (3) — Rejuvenating (1)
These two are the best Rask builds. For #1, you use Second Wind or Regenergy, Fetter, and Chronosurge. For #2 you use Regenergy because it’s an energy build. #1 is more oriented towards CC and teamplay. #2 is more about getting off lots of ultimates. Rask is a clear choice for Fetter because you can get to people when your ult is about to go off, and root them in your ultimate as well. Plus damage.
Rufflebucket (Rampart)
Rufflebucket (Rampart)
- Danger Zone (3) — Posture (2) — Rocket Lance (2) — Invincible (2) — Wake (1)
- Danger Zone (3) — Nothing (0) — Rocket Lance (2) — Show (3) — Live to Fight (2)
- Danger Zone (3) — Bunker (2) — Radamantium (3) — Nothing (0) — Boosters (2)
- Danger Zone (3) — Bullrush (3) — Nothing (0) — Terrifying (3) — Wake (1)
Rufflebucket, as he’s known, is about consistent pressure. Danger Zone gives him very competitive damage, and is the only thing I consider a must-take.
#1 is the most consistent build I can think of. #2 is a damage-oriented build. #3 is just meant to illustrate some other decent tech options for purposes of mixing and matching. #4 is a CC build — details below.
It’s up to you whether you want to take anything on Rufflebucket’s wall that relies on blocking attacks. Energy, damage, health — all decent — all depends how likely it is (based on enemy skill level and freelancer composition, among other things) that you’ll be blocking multiple attacks with your wall.
I like Rocket Lance for the range but Radamantium Tipped Lance can be good where enemies are lined up. I would also add Gone Fishin’ as an alternative (though not listed above) for comps where you want the enemy to be in a specific spot (Zuki big one, etc).
Catalysts are generally Second Wind, Fetter and whatever Blast Phase catalyst you deem necessary (Echo Boost isn’t bad if you’re doing the Show of Force build — extra turn of haste, unstoppable and might — but otherwise Chronosurge, Adrenaline and Probe are the standard solid options).
The CC build would likely use Brain Juice and has a massive potential CC rotation as follows:
- Move
- Move
- Get on a target — let’s say you pull them with Fusion Lance. Target is CC’d.
- Terrifying Presence slows them. Target is CC’d.
- Bullrush roots them (you don’t actually need it for this build if slows work for you — alternatively you can drop Danger Zone to pick up both Bullrush AND Engine of War if you need a lot of roots). Target is CC’d. Pop Brain Juice this turn.
- Fusion Lance is back up, so pull the target.
- Terrifying Presence.
- Bullrush.
- Ult if you have it. If not, Chronosurge for CC.
- Fusion Lance.
- Terrifying Presence.
- Bullrush.
- Ult or Chronosurge, depending on what you did at #9.
- Fusion Lance.
- Terrifying Presence.
- Bullrush.
- Fetter.
- Fusion Lance.
- Terrifying Presence.
- Bullrush.
- We may have second ult by now. If not, this is the first turn we don’t have a CC for the target.
Titus
Titus
- Power Hitter (3) — Momentum / Ham (2) — Barbarian (3) — Nothing (0) — Exec (2)
- Power Hitter (3) — Nothing (0) — Barbarian (3) — Cheap / Flurry (2) — Battle Rage (2)
- Triage (2) — Harvest (2) — Rallying (2) — Flurry (2) — Executioner (2)
Build #1 is a damage build. Build #2 is just a variant showing some other options. Momentum and Hamstring are both reasonable on the charge, and Cheap Shot and Flurry of Daggers are both reasonable on the dagger. Executioner and Battle Rage are both fairly good — depends whether they’re likely to be low or you’re likely to be low (which may depend on comp). Titus hits hard with this build — basically firepower-level damage, with a huge health pool. Of course, he’s also melee. And lacks a bit in the way of crowd control.
Build #3 is a sustain build. By gaining health on three different abilities, Titus can actually keep himself up for a significant amount of time. This build is great with someone like Helio where you aren’t receiving any heals, or if you need to be by yourself for a while (say, you charge in deep to distract a few enemies).
I’m very fond of Flurry of Daggers to get my knife back up quickly, because I think it’s a very strong ability (counters dashes and invis, can potentially counter shields, and no real downside if they didn’t do it). I’ve also seen some Titus players run Puncture for the pierce and make quite good use of it, so that’s an option as well.
I didn’t include a Terrifying Cry build, but I think it’s very good against invisible enemies. Just work it into any of the above builds — it’s only 1 point so you may be able to pick up a luxury somewhere else.
Finally, I’ve heard people insist that Hamstring is needed on Titus to allow him to stay on his targets, but his charge already slows the first enemy hit. So, you have to judge for yourself if you’re going to be likely to hit multiple enemies with it during the game and how important the extra CC is to your team. It’s not a bad option in any event.
I recommend Second Wind, Fetter and Adrenaline / Chronosurge as catalysts. You could also consider Might for the damage build, but you already get it on your roar so I probably wouldn’t.
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Anyway guys, this concludes the mini-guides. Hope you enjoy. I’ll be updating them sometime next week as I refine certain builds. Nev:3 isn’t included yet — still figuring out her builds but I think I know what I like to use. There’s a hidden post on the blog with a Nev:3 update from yesterday discussing what builds I liked, and in any event you can read my review of her which I think was pretty reasonable as well overall.