Ra, The Tank that Isn't

When i play Ra I almost always go mid, and when I go mid there is usually another Magic caster as well. This guide is designed mostly for survivability and sustainability. When fully equipped a tank Ra can easily dive towers and pheonix's and if you cast solar blessing and stand in it while melee gods try to attack you, you can easily take down a good portion of health while still gaining hp. If i'm alone I go MP5 early game(ie meditation to spam abilities), if im in a party I go Reinforced boots for the CC reduction and movement speed with Ras passive for better ganking early and for easier avoidance of the enemy team ganks. Always be mindful of the minimap and the MIAs, if i'm getting ganking a lot (and hopefully not dieing) then i like to buy a few wards and place them near mid. Also try to grab the damage buff if you dont have a jungler to give you that bit of an edge. Ive played as Ra over 100+ games and i have a pretty good K/d with him, ive had games where ive done 85k damage and taken 70k damage and still gone completly positive, and just to give you an idea of how much healing, in an average game Guan yu might heal close to 5-10k, ive had games with Ra where ive healed 25K+. Its just amazing the survivability and survivability that Ra has. Played correctly he is nearly impossible to kill and pretty easy to handle if you hit your abilities, and if you get bancroft's talon then you can be low health and deal massive damage and then just heal right back up.

Pro:
- Great sustatinability
- Great survivability
- Even great damage output
- Can dive towers and pheonixs as well as gold fury and fire giant
- Great at initiating
- Small CD on ult and long range for sniping (+ High damage)
- AOE heal for teamfights
- Blind+Slow
- Can tank objectives and enemy abilities.

Cons:
- Very slow early game
- No jump to easily escape so ganks are a problem
- Takes skill to hit abilities
- Not great at ganking until you have boots
- If focused (like most gods) will easily go down.

This is your bread and butter with ra, always try to use this against moving creeps, or against moving enemies. When an enemy is standing still this will only hit once, you want them to be moving so there is a possibility of it hitting them multiple times which is what makes tanky Ra such a threat (updated, since the path of 3/13/13 ra's first ability will only hit once, they have understood that this makes ra who he is and are monitering that if this change will affect ra's ability in ranked or casual gameplay). I max this Second.

This ability is only used for the slow and blind that it puts on, do not ever try to use this to deal any good amount of damage. I always use this ability first to slow the enemy and then use Celestial beam to increase my chance of hitting the enemy god. I max this last.

This ability is arguably the best healing in the game. It heals you and buffs you while damaging enemy gods and debuffing them. I always put a point in this first and put it on top of the melee minions and if im level 2 then i use celestial beam while in the solar blessing because of the buff i get. Remember if you cast solar blessing to always stay inside, it buffs and heals you. Which includes magical and physical buffs so your basic attacks also do more damage as well as your abilities. If a melee god is trying to kill you, DO NOT RUN. (unless theyre fed) Cast solar blessing and stand inside, if they dont go inside to kill you then run, but if they run inside and try to kill you. Then cast divine light and try to hit them with celestial beam and maybe your ult. If you hit any number of these abilities they will be severely damaged and will be debuffed while attacking you, if your abilities are on CD then just basic attack while solar blessing is on, and remember you have at least a +15% movement speed, so move around and make it difficult for them to hit you.

I also just completely love this ultimate. Its one of the shortest ultimates in the game (aside from arachne's ult). It is also one of the harder ones to hit. So 60% of the time in the early to mid game i dont even use this ability against enemy gods unless i think it can score the kill in one hit. I do however still use it. Since it is a shorter ult then the enemy god then what you want to do when you hit level 5 isnt try to score your first kill because unless they are anubis or agni who have to stand still to use their ult then your ult will be almost impossible to hit with any consistency. What you want to do is wait for them to get next to their minions and while they are auto attacking or using their ability, use your ult to wipe our their minions and hopefully your minions will start auto attacking that god, with any lucky you can use divine light and celestial beam to score a kill that way.

1. When I start mid i almost always goChrono's Pendant, why? Because the Mp5 is amazing, as well as the focus and magical power. Once you go back and finish it off, the 25% CD is literally amazing on a god like ra. Once you hit level 5, your ult already has a decreased time then others, but once you get 25% CD reduction the time is nuts, once i hit level 20 with just 25% CD reduction ill have 34.5 second Ult that can hit 1000+ damage from very far away.

2. My second item depends on who i am facing mid, i usually go forStone of Gaia if its a god like Agni or who can continuously deal damage to you from far away, or if you are facing someone who is good with the god they are playing, this item will help you sustain more due to the Hp regen and it gives you that +70 magical protection to help defend against the nukes that anubis can drop on you. If you are feeling more aggressive but still want to be tanky you can always getVoid Stone, i usually go with this item if im facing a magic god that cant deal damage from far away, or the person is missing a lot of his abilities i will get a lot more "in your face" and this item helps. And for a second item if you are not facing another magic caster i usually goWall of absolution for my second item.

3. My third item is alwaysReinforced boots because this really helps with survivability when gods use any CC on you, and anyway to reduce CC is great on a mage, it could mean the difference between living and dying. If youre playing a more pro setting and need to gank early then go Reinforced boots first and buy meditation for the sustainability, because if you are facing someone good then they will want to deal some tower damage any time to recall.

4. My fourth item is usuallyrod of tahuti because at this point you really dont have a lot of "oomph" in your abilties, but you have a pretty good sustatinability and survivability. So this item is usually best to build to start to put a little more hurt into what you do.

5. Once you get past the fourth item it usually depends on the people you are facing, but once i get rod of tahuti which gives me a good amount of damage i like to start going magic penetration at this point, now of course in the span of the game you should also try to put some money into magic penetration skills. I normally goObsidian shard, if you are feeling confidant then you can always godoom orb for that extra magical power, i would highly advise not to go doom orb this late, this item is only for games where you break 20k gold and are confident that they will not be able to kill you or you will be able to escape. If you still want to get doom orb then id advise it first or second, You can substitute doom orb for the chronos pendant or you can go reinforced boots first with meditation and then buy doom orb second.

6. The last item is again completly about who you are facing but i usually gowall of absolution because it balances out magic and physical protection while still giving some magical power. Of course if you are going for more tanky you can always go this item 3rd or 4th, i usually get this item if the team has a fed physical carry or the team is mainly phys, but i really like having a little more magical power and penetration mid game instead of a tankier basic attack counter. Just my opinion.

The reason i go boots as my third item is because with Ra's passive you get +5-10% movement speed when you use an ability. This passive is great and is the ONLY reason why i go boots third, if you are trying to gank early due to increased teamwork then go boots first, with this guide in mind i created it for the loner that has to go mid and he will feel confident with a god, even if that enemy mid god is even kind of decent. If you are in a party i would advise boots first, then void stone, then wall of absolution.

You can play Ra in most roles (ie solo lane, mid, or support) and each role you can actually chose a different selection of skills, these are just my choice and may not be right or may not work all the time, but its how i consistently do it. Ive also seen other people use some of the selections.

Mid(solo que) - Selection order (1-4): 3-1-2-1-4 then max in order 1-3-4-2
Mid(party or competitive que) - Selection order (1-4): 3-2-3-4-3-1
*Explanation* now you may be thinking "What in the world..." Let me stop you, Ra in a party or competitive scene will not do a ton of damage early game, when you go to help your jungler clear a camp, or help your jungler gank the enemy jungler, your heal will be the biggest threat. +60 hp and a buff/debuff is too good early game to ignore. So what i do is put a point in my 3, then my 2 for the early game counter gank to the enemy jungler doing mid harpies, then i save a point instead of putting it into my 1. then i lvl my 3 then my ult then save a point and put them into 3 again. So by lvl 6/7 you have your 3 almost maxed out and thats a huge threat. The biggest thing here is youre not farming mid, but youre helping your jungler, and if the enemy backs, then to gank. You can easily push a wave with your 3 and then go farm jungle with your jungler.

Solo Lane - I dont even get my 2 on Ra in the solo lane since the enemy team probably has a (Odin/sobek/vamana/vulcan) Which all (excluding vulcan imo) are pretty tanky and will take more than the 1 man gank (of course unless done lvl 3-4) so since your slow doesnt do all that much dmg i dont really get it until lvl 8-10.

Support - Its close to the mid competitive selection but i dont save skill points (unless playing ra support competitively) so i just max my 3/1/4/2

So i hope you enjoyed reading my Ra guide, i almost always go positive with the Tanky/DPS build because its just so hard for people to kill ra, unless of course 3+ people gank you then that will be a problem. But ive had times where Odin + hades have both use all 8 of their abilites against me and still not put a dent into my hp because of my protection and solar blessing. I mean ive had games where after i finish the pendant ive faced the mages untill i had 5k+ gold and i still had full hp and full mana, its a great build.