**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
A post to make Masterpuff proud
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An in depth guide to Ronin, a hidden gem within the skill class
I haven't written one of these in a while due to having less time on my hands recently, but I wanted to do one for Ronin since he is far better than most people probably realise. If you've ever been unsure of what he can do or he just sits in your roster at rank one, you might find yourself surprised at what he's actually capable of. Hopefully this will be helpful to a few people who aren't quite sure what to think of him.
**Overview:**
Ronin is not a champion that is often talked about but certainly has a lot of potential. One of the great things about him is that he doesn’t need his signature ability to be worth adding to your team, whilst it’s nice to have he can still bring varied utility and some above average damage to your roster. His character design and animations are some of the best in the game in my opinion and that only makes him even more appealing to me. From basic attacks to specials, each of Ronin’s movements feel incredibly smooth and very satisfying to use overall. His victory animation is just as good and really completes the character from a cosmetic perspective.
As part of his base kit Ronin can trigger precision and cruelty passive effects and also inflict bleed on sword attacks with a 15% chance. If any of your sword attacks are critical, (all basic attacks aside from your final light or second medium) the chance for that attack to inflict bleed is raised to 100%. As a result, the precision passive can provide a significant increase to your damage output. In order to activate the precision passive, you will first need to build up seven cruelty stacks. There are a few ways to do that which are as follows:
* Switch stances.
* Attempt to inflict bleed on an opponent that is immune to bleed.
* Whenever the opponent evades or causes one of your attacks to miss.
You cannot gain more than seven cruelty stacks at any given time, when you have seven stacks switching to any other stance will activate the precision passive. All of your cruelty passives will be consumed when using a special attack so it’s best to launch them soon after precision activates. That gives you time to rebuild it before the precision expires. If you’re going for SP3 you can usually get to seven, use the precision for an increased critical hit rate and then get it ready again whilst you continue to build power. You won’t lose cruelty unless you use a special attack so you won’t need to worry about that until you reach three bars.
**Stances:**
Understanding when and how to use each of Ronin’s stances is critical to using him properly. Each one provides different benefits and knowing which one to use in difficult matchups can have a huge impact on the fight and give you the advantage. One of the great things about Ronin is how versatile he can be, he has a lot of tools at his disposal to overcome a variety of different nodes and champion abilities. Each of Ronin’s light attacks have a different stance tied to them, dashing back after specific light attacks will switch him into the desired stance. The only light attack that doesn’t have a stance tied to it is the final light. You can use this at the end of combos to avoid switching if you wish to remain in a particular stance. If you end with a medium attack and then dash back, you’ll switch back to demon stance as the last light you performed was the third one.
Guard Stance:
To switch to Guard stance, you need to dash back after striking with your first light attack. This doesn’t have to happen immediately though; you could actually stay still or block a few hits before dashing back and still switch stance. As long as your first light attack was the last one you used it’ll work. You can even use medium attacks to avoid triggering it, the delay is best used when you know a debuff will be coming soon but isn’t quite there yet, it’s especially useful against void. When entering this stance Ronin will shrug off one debuff (making him very useful for bleed/poison nodes or even suicide masteries if that’s something you run). In addition to shrugging debuffs in Guard stance he also gets the following benefits until he switches to a new one:
* He can parry stun non-contact attacks, for example IMIW mediums or Ebony Maw
* He has a 35% chance to perfect block (can be very helpful for the stubborn global in Alliance Wars since you’ll need to block often to remove the indestructible)
Wraith stance: Ronin passively reduces the opponent’s ability accuracy by 40% whilst in wraith stance. It’s extremely useful in certain matchups such as fighting Electro (to avoid static shock damage) or when going up against the Thing since he won’t gain rock stacks on many of your attacks. To enter wraith stance, you need to dash back after landing your second light attack.
Demon stance: Demon stance is very straightforward; it allows you to inflict bleed through blocks and also increases the ability accuracy of your bleed effects by 75% to make them trigger more frequently. If you end a five-hit combo on a medium attack and then dash back at any point before landing another light Ronin will enter demon stance if he isn’t already in it. This stance is tied to his third light attack.
**Special Attacks:**
All of Ronin’s special attacks are useful in their own unique ways. Sometimes you may choose to prioritise utility over damage, which will influence which special attacks you rely on in that fight.
SP1- There are two things that are helpful with this first special attack. It has a 100% chance to inflict a disorient debuff on the opponent, reducing their ability accuracy by 40% as well as allowing Ronin to enter the stance that he currently has prepared. It’s a great way to enter wraith stance since the combined AAR will add up to an 80% reduction. To do that, you would need to use your SP1 immediately after landing your second light attack. At the end of the animation is when the stances will change, unless of course you’re already in that stance when you use it.
SP2- SP2 has some very good damage potential if used in the right circumstances. The final strike will inflict multiple bleeds on the opponent equal to the number of cruelties you had at the time. For example, if you have five stacks or cruelty, you’ll inflict five stacks of bleed. If you have deep wounds this attack can be particularly powerful when the opponent is on low health. The reason for that is that each new bleed you inflict when the opponent has less health than you will deal a quick burst of direct damage depending on your deep wounds level. At level five it’ll be 1% health, so seven cruelties could instantly strike down 7% of the opponent’s health without even taking into consideration the raw damage of the attack or the bleed damage that follows. With fury active (more on that later), Ronin can deal large amounts of damage from this attack at any point in the fight.
SP3- In longer fights this is where Ronin can really start to shine. The passive fury effect that he gains from using this attack can massively increase his damage output and very quickly start to knock off large amounts of health from his opponent. To maximise the strength of this fury you need to be at seven cruelty stacks, each one is consumed to add 473.8 attack for the duration of the fury. That’s an overall increase of 3,064.6 attack for thirty-five seconds. Combined with his incredibly high critical hit rate, bleed and cruelty passives, you’ll notice a very big difference in how much damage you’re able to inflict. You shouldn’t be far off another SP3 when the fury is close to expiring, so you’ll be able to cycle this pretty easily to keep the increased attack rating.
**Playstyles:**
The best way to use Ronin is to build up your cruelty passives as quickly as possible so that you can activate the precision passive. To do that, you need to keep switching stances as often as possible by ending combos after different light attacks. Ronin has a very high critical hit rate when precision is active so his damage gets a nice boost from those two abilities. If the fight is long enough it’s best to start off with a SP3 to gain the passive fury effect. As I mentioned earlier this fury gets stronger depending on how many cruelties you had when the SP3 was used. At this point you’ll be hitting much harder than before. Ideally, you want to rebuild the cruelty back up to seven stacks, activate the precision and fire off a SP2 before the fury expires. If you can do that in time the raw damage of the SP2 will be devastating, only to be followed up by seven stacks of bleed. The final hit alone can hit for 16k on a critical hit, I had that happen against Thing war bosses a few times even when protection was active (his ability accuracy reduction in wraith stance allows him to bypass the damage reduction and make it much easier to get the damage in). Ronin may not have the best damage output in the game but it’s certainly something to be respected. If the fight is particularly long, I would recommend keeping to SP3 and using the big SP2 to finish the opponent off when they’re close to being knocked out. That way you’ll be able to keep the fury up as often as possible.
Sometimes it’s better to stay in one stance or deliberately stay out of a particular stance depending on the matchup. For example, wraith stance is extremely useful against evade champs or Thing. I consider him to be one of the best Void counters as well, since you don’t need to worry about your combo count if you play it right. When you’re up against Void the best way to take him on is to make sure you stay out of guard stance until he places a debuff on you. After that happens, simply hit him with your first light and dash back. Ronin will shrug off the debuff and Void won’t hurt you anymore. You can of course still watch the combo meter to avoid taking damage from it, but it’s not really necessary. With the class advantage to work with as well Ronin is a very strong counter to Void. If you can prepare guard stance as Void is placing the debuff on you should be able to shrug it as soon as it’s applied. You can even wait a brief moment by blocking if you need to. Just remember to switch out of guard stance again after shrugging off one of his debuffs.
**Signature Ability:**
Whilst it’s nice to have Ronin is one of those champions that really doesn’t need to be awakened to be worth using. I personally have mine at 5/65 without his signature ability, but would like to awaken him when I can get a gem. It allows him to consume his cruelty stacks for a controlled auto evade, the higher his signature level, the longer that evade will last. If you attempt to use dexterity, parry or even regular blocks this evade won’t trigger. You would need to let go completely in order for it to work. Being able to choose when that happens would give you good opportunities against any special attacks that are tricky to avoid. Examples could include War machine, Punisher 2099, Tigra or anything else that you struggle with. After using the auto evade you will gain a passive fury effect ranging between an attack increase of 307.97 to 544.07. It’s not as powerful as his SP3 fury, but it’s something to offset the loss of cruelty passives since they are consumed when he evades.
**Synergies:**
The only synergy I would consider using for Ronin is the CMM one. It extends his bleed duration by 3% per cruelty which can be quite good with deep wounds as well. In return, CMM gains 150 critical rating when intercepting attacks. Another decent one that he has is with Moon Knight, where he will gain a 15% fury buff each time he switches stances, I personally would not want to lose a slot on my team for that though. The best part about the CMM synergy is that she is also a very useful champion to have and another one that I often use at 5/65. If you already use her Ronin would be able to fit into your team nicely.
**Strong Matchups:**
Ronin is useful for a wide variety of content but here are a few examples of where he can be a great asset to your team:
* Void
* Thing
* Evade champions in general
* Electro
* Any champion with non-contact basic attacks like IMIW or Ebony Maw
* Anything where ability accuracy reduction can be useful
* Stubborn global node in Alliance Wars (High PB chance)
* Poison and bleed nodes since he can shrug them off
* Suicide friendly, again he can shrug off the negative effects and has a nice SP3 cycle
* Iceman
* Do you bleed nodes
* Armour up related champions and nodes, critical hits can bypass that well and Ronin has a very high critical hit chance, this can be helpful against Doctor Doom since he is very resistant to critical hits.
But not over doom haha
Just not over Doom.