If you fancy playing as the sun god, the best SMITE 2 Ra builds are exactly what you need. All of Ra’s abilities are appropriately focused on light, but with light comes heat, and you can expect to burn plenty of your rivals if you play Ra well; in good hands he's one of the most effective gods in the game. We asked our community of top SMITE 2 players to teach us exactly how to play Ra, and this guide is the culmination of their efforts, with his abilities explained, the best builds detailed, and plenty of SMITE 2 tips and tricks. Let's go.

Ra abilities explained

As mentioned above, Ra is all about light and the sun, but more in their ‘burn everything’ aspect as opposed to their ‘nurturing’ aspect. Every single one of Ra’s active abilities deals damage; there's only a little support gameplay to be found here. Here's what they all do, courtesy of NiteDark:

• Speed of Light (passive): Grants Ra bonus movement speed after using an ability, enhancing his mobility for quick repositioning.

• Celestial Beam (first): Ra summons a beam of light, dealing high magical damage along a straight path.

• Divine Light (second): Ra emits light, slowing enemies in range and building up stacks on foes that culminate in a damaging explosion. Enemies looking at Ra during this gain additional slow and a blind effect.

• Solar Blessing (third): Summons a healing pillar that restores health to allies while dealing damage over time to enemies in the area.

• Searing Pain (ultimate): Fires a powerful, long-range beam that deals immense damage to enemies, with extra damage scaling against gods’ maximum health.

NiteDark recommends maxing Celestial Beam first, followed by Divine Light, then Solar Blessing: 1>2>3, which is easy to remember. However, he also suggests you should "upgrade Searing Pain whenever possible".

NotAValveGame has provided an excellent overview of Ra's abilities in video form, along with a mini Ra montage mid-way through:

As for Ra's best role, he's played mostly in mid. yan57436 describes him as an "excellent mid, he does everything: area damage, healing, and crowd control, everything you need to have an impact on the game." As an alternative, Cloggedbean actually prefers Ra in the solo lane. He explains why in this video:

Best Ra builds

Assuming that you’re going to play Ra in mid - which most folks generally suggest - both NiteDark and JHenckes have the same recommended build for that role:

• Relic: Blink Rune

  • Active: You are teleported to a targeted location up to 5.6m away. This effect can be used during combat or while firing another ability. Cooldown: 240s.

• Starter: Pendulum of the Ages

  • Passive: This item grants 4 Mana per second per 10% of your missing Mana. This item grants 7 Intelligence per 10% of your available Mana.

• Item 1: Book of Thoth

  • Passive: You permanently gain 10 Mana per stack, and receive 1 Stack per 900 damage dealt to minions and Jungle Monsters, with damage to Gods counting double. You gain Intelligence equal to 4% of your Mana from items. At 50 stacks this item evolves, gaining 10 Penetration and increasing the Intelligence gained from Mana to 6%.

• Item 2: Soul Gem

  • Passive: On a successful hit of an ability you gain 1 stack. At 3 stacks your next ability that damages an enemy God will deal bonus damage equal to 30% of your Intelligence to each God hit, and will heal yourself and allies within 3.2m for 15 + 5 per level and will consume the 3 stacks.

• Item 3: Staff of Myrddin

  • Active: Your next non-ultimate ability used will have no cooldown. Cooldown: 150s.

• Item 4: The Cosmic Horror

  • Passive: If you have more than 275 Item Intelligence you gain 10 Cooldown Rate.

• Item 5: Obsidian Shard

  • Passive: You gain the Shattering effect, granting you 20% Penetration. This effect does not stack with itself.

• Item 6: Rod of Tahuti

  • Passive: Gain additional Intelligence equal to 20% of your Intelligence from items.

NiteDark explains that these items, especially Staff of Myrddin and Rod of Tahuti, are here because they "enhance Ra's burst and poke", which helps "maximise your impact in team fights". Meanwhile, JHenckes likes this build because it "has good damage distribution and reduced cooldown, as well as guaranteeing a certain amount of resistance."

Empen also favours a mid-lane build for Ra, but he's opted for a slightly different set-up, explained in the final minute or so of his video:

Dydo has also suggested a mid-lane build, but this one is entirely unique, so is an alternative for anyone who fancies a different playstyle in mid:

However, since Ra can also dabble in the solo lane when needed, JHenckes has suggested the following build:

• Relic: Bluestone Brooch

  • Passive: Enemies hit by your damaging abilities take an additional 120 Physical Damage over 2s. Gods take additional damage equal to 7.5% of their current health. Subsequent hits on the same target do half the bonus damage for the next 3s.

• Starter: Sundering Arc

  • Active: Instantly deals 175 + 25 per level true damage to Jungle Monsters and Jungle Bosses. Deals 500 damage at level 13 and above. Hits Gods, dealing 25 + 4 per level True Damage 3 times over 2s. Cooldown: 120s.

• Item 1: Gladiator's Shield

  • Passive: Enemies hit by your abilities take 15 + 25% of your Item Protections as bonus Physical Damage. This effect only triggers once per ability per god.

• Item 2: Pharaoh's Curse

  • Active: Enemies within 5.6m are affected by a 20% Slow and have 20% reduced Attack Speed for 6s. Cooldown: 60s.

• Item 3: Berserker's Shield

  • Passive: While below 60% Health you become Berserk for 8s. While Berserk, you gain 30 Protections and 15% Attack Speed. This effect can only occur once every 8 seconds.

• Item 4: Talisman of Purification

  • Active: You and allied gods within 6.4m are Cleansed of all CC and gain CC Immunity for 1s. Cooldown: 180s.

• Item 5: Shogun's Ofuda

  • Passive: You and allies with 8.8m gain 20% Attack Speed.

• Item 6: Gem of Isolation

  • Passive: Enemy gods hit by your abilities are affected by a 15% Slow for 2s.

This build works because it focuses almost entirely on enhancing Ra's resistances, while still enabling him to deal considerable damage.

Ra tips

Outside of Ra's abilities, roles, and builds, there are also a few tips and tricks you should keep up your sleeve. The first three of these all come from NiteDark:

• "Engage Safely: Start fights with Divine Light to slow enemies before hitting them with Celestial Beam.

• Ultimate Timing: Searing Pain is ideal for picking off low-health enemies or softening entire teams from afar.

• Zone Control: Use Solar Blessing as a safe zone for your team or to disrupt enemies contesting objectives."

Meanwhile, mypets suggests that you should "take advantage of the map view to predict your opponents' movements and hit the ultimate." They also explain that Solar Blessing can - and should - be used defensively along with focusing on its offensive capabilities to help your team.

How's your experience been with Ra after he was nerfed? Do you have any other builds to suggest? Let us know in the comments below.

Some text has been edited for brevity, clarity, or spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You can find the original wording here. Image credit: Titan Forge Games.