Arena Bellona

You are going with a concept similar to what I am doing. I have been doing a LOT of playtesting with offensively building/counter building for her in arena. It works really well. Something to consider when you are not fighting much in the way of basic attack oriented gods is to use Blackthorn Hammer instead. A lot of times you can even put that as early as the 2 spot, before protections become a dire necessity. That early it will give you sustain and also help with mana regen/cooldown(although I don't ever really build cooldown on Bellona, this is just a nice item and the bit of cooldown is just a bonus) and it gives you a decent power boost early game.


To kind of lead into my next portion of this post, I looked you up on smiteguru, although there are 2 profiles, with a total of 4 matches with Bellona for a combined record of 6/25/10. There was one match on a pc account from 4 months ago and 3 recently on xbox. I am guessing that you just never merged the accounts. That sample size is not really enough, imo, to be putting out a guide for other players, especially when your kda in that small sample size is pretty bad.


Don't take this the wrong way. I have kind of been where you are. I waited a lot longer to put out a build as a new player but I at least was able to find some success with the build I originally put out there, but these types of builds will only be situationally successful, and looking at your smiteguru profile whatever you have been doing has not had any type of success at all.

This post is going to be far into the realm of tl;dr material for a lot of people. I have played over 400 matches with Bellona, and looking my profile up, my record might not seem very impressive with her(I just got her over a 2 k/d/a recently) but I went through a long process similar to what it looks like you have started here and I still have a long way to go to be where I want to be with Bellona but I had much more success when I started listening more to input from the awesome smite minds on this site while also finding ways to incorporate items I felt would be useful to my playstyle. I dug a really deep hole with her when I first started because I had a certain way I wanted to play in mind.

What I ended up finding out is that I could still play that way, basically, but because you are playing other people who can adapt/react/etc, especially with a tanky class you have to have protections in some form most of the time. I have an AA build I developed with and ran for a good while, but my k/d/a was only like a 1.58 about 300 matches in and I kept seeing the deaths far out match the kills. Don't get me wrong, I had some good matches and a few great ones, but overall it was loss after loss and I was losing games for other players as well.

This being a team game, it is only fair to TRY to win. If something isn't working, it's time to go back to the drawing board. If you are constantly dying you are doing something or multiple things wrong(even if the other team is playing well) and you really need to evaluate how many of those deaths are occuring because of bad in game strategies and how many are occurring because of bad build choices and then modify how you play accordingly. This should be an ongoing process.

Before I get into the next walls of text, there are some basic things to consider about Bellona.

She is built to be a pest. You should be getting under the other teams skin the whole match. This isn't to say that you should be diving into the enemy team all the time, because that isn't annoying, that is just free kills and most of them will be happy for an easy match. Bellona can be used very well in disrupting what the other party will be doing with her ult, she is good at saving other party members from ganks with her shield bash slow(you can lead with that and then disarm them with scourge in that situation) or her ult(which you could then go scourge to disarm and shield bash to keep from continued chasing or escape if you can secure kill), when picking spots correctly she is really good at running into combat and wrecking some havoc and then getting back out, and she is just really good at escaping in general, partly due to her passive and also due to the fact that in a pinch she has 3 escapes built into her kit(shield bash and the ult are escapes and if you are being chased even using bludgeon after shield bash can give you just enough space to get away when you otherwise would have died).

You can definitely be successful with playing a more offensive type of style on Bellona, but you still have to give a lot of thought to defense, even if you aren't taking straight defensive items. You did have a really good observation with the Reinforced Shoes. I normally love Ninja Tabi for her, but when going more offensive minded you really do need the extra protections from reinforced. I haven't had a chance to rearrange my own guide more, but I will be inputting some builds for what I believe is kind of what you are trying to do.


Basically the premise is that, yeah you are going to be packing a much better punch, but basically rotate on your item choices. If you go boots and blackthorn's or if you feel you want Frostbound Hammer{although I wouldn't suggest that this early, I wouldn't put it in until at LEAST the 4 or 5 and I normally don't do it until last. I have tested frostbound at the 2 at different times and I haven't really gotten much in the way of positive results from it and it provides you really with no utility early, which Blackthorn Hammer does by helping you sustain with mana regen and boosting your cooldowns a bit) go with a defensive item like Gauntlet of Thebes Void Shield or even Hide of the Urchin or Masamune right after. If you did not go Masamune in the last spot you could do it here if balanced opponent team with 3 magical or Stone Cutting Sword if balanced opponent team with 3 physical. Lets look at where we're at in this example and lay it out as an example: Reinforced Shoes Blackthorn Hammer Void Shield Stone Cutting Sword and now we can look at your last two items. I would probably go Masamune at the 5 and then Shifter's Shield at the 6 but it is still an option to do Frostbound Hammer at the 6 for exactly why you inserted it at the 2.


Example builds:
This post is already going to be epically long, so if you are looking through and have questions about builds or item choices in builds feel free to ask me either here or you can even message me from your profile page is you like and I will be happy to discuss anything you think to bring up.

Just a few sample builds with no need for really specific countering. Also, something to keep in mind with some of these builds is that your assists may not be as high because, while you can tank pretty well and mitigate and take damage pretty well, with situational protections from items like Shifter's Shield Stone Cutting Sword you probably won't be able to stand in the pocket for as long as if you just build regular defensive items. This will mean more trips to base some matches and losing out on being around to contribute to other kills.

Reinforced Greaves Blackthorn Hammer Gauntlet of Thebes Void Shield Masamune Shifter's Shield(a good deal of people don't care for this item, but when combined with other items to make up for the health this doesn't provide it can be a solid choice. The protections it gives you when applicable really help a lot and the boost in power when you get it is a nice extra punch)

Reinforced Greaves Blackthorn Hammer Void Shield Ancile Masamune Shifter's Shield

Reinforced Greaves Gauntlet of Thebes Void Shield Runic Shield Masamune Stone Cutting Sword


vs healing


Reinforced Greaves Gauntlet of Thebes Toxic Blade Masamune Qin's Sais The Executioner(this would be a pretty aggressive build and I would usually run Ninja Tabi with qin's and exe but you'd really need the extra protection from reinforced and toxic gives you some attack speed as well.

Reinforced Greaves Gauntlet of Thebes Brawler's Beat Stick Masamune Shifter's Shield Stone Cutting Sword

Reinforced Greaves Void Shield Pestilence Masamune Shifter's Shield Stone Cutting Sword

vs tanky

Reinforced Greaves Gauntlet of Thebes Void Shield Masamune Stone Cutting Sword The Crusher

Reinforced Greaves Blackthorn Hammer Void Shield Stone Cutting Sword Masamune The Crusher

Reinforced Greaves Blackthorn Hammer Void Shield Stone Cutting Sword Qin's Sais The Executioner(not optimal attack speed since none built in before qin's but still workable)


tanky and healing


Reinforced Greaves Gauntlet of Thebes Pestilence Void Shield Stone Cutting Sword then The Crusher or Toxic Blade or Masamune

Reinforced Greaves Gauntlet of Thebes Toxic Blade Void Shield Qin's Sais The Executioner

Reinforced Greaves Gauntlet of Thebes Brawler's Beat Stick Masamune Stone Cutting Sword The Crusher


These are just suggestions off the top of my head. Depending on your team comp, the items they choose and what you are dealing with on the opposing team, some of the situationals could be switched or might not be needed, since something like two teammates getting Pestilence wouldn't stack but if someone got Pestilence you could go Toxic Blade or Brawler's Beat Stick

Not trying to blow up your discussion but just want to help. Feel free to check out my smite guru profile. https://smite.guru/profile/700969464-silentshell

I still get blown up bad at times but things have been a lot better for me since I have found a way to combine basic smite concepts, meaningful contributions to my team and my own playstyle preference together.

Not sure I'm understanding the choice of Jotunn's Wrath when you're not hunting for full CDR on your builds. If you're looking for something from that tree The Crusher Synergizes well with her playstyle.

Jotunn's wrath?