Ancient Rage



A bit more of an aggressive Makoa, while still able to shield your team and take the point.

Recommended item is Veteran I first then Chronos I, with the extra 1s of shield time you can usually enter Out of Combat and get ridiculous healing. You'll never need more tha n1 rank of Verteran, so it's a good investment. Your long shield cooldown will get progressively better with Chronos. Haven or Blast Shields is up to your judgement, I usually build it third. Your red item is also up to your judgement - I usually take Cauterize for an easier time killing fleeing healers.



Do general tank things and help your team, but also aim to hook backliners or weakened enemies and finish them off. Ideally you'll empty some cannonballs into someone first as Salvage II will mitigate needing to reload leading to a quick kill. One tip is that once the hook has connected, spin your camera around to face your team - the enemy will get hooked in front of you and have a harder time escaping and your team will hopefully notice the free kill you just gave them.



For a quick heal or in a duel with someone, Shell Spin through the enemy, or even better enemies, as you get healed 500HP for each enemy hit while spinning. This can also disorient them or lose interest in you. Alternatively, you could even drop Strongarm to I and upgrade Spring Tide to III for a bit more healing.





Ancient Calm

This build is a more defensive build, for when the enemy team is clearly going to be very aggressive and break your shield constantly (such as a team with Ruckus & Drogoz). The items are pretty similar to Ancient Rage, but instead of relying on Chronos to shorten your cooldowns, we have Barrier Reef instead. In place of Chronos is Morale Boost, allowing you to more often use your Ultimate to defend or capture objectives, as well as for the full heal it provides.



Leviathan II gives you a little bit more health (meaning your ultimate is a better heal too). Salvage serves the same purpose as in Ancient Rage. I tried Tidal Grace here but I felt the healing from it too weak unless it was maxed out, and even then it wasn't too hot. You could try investing more points in Spring Tide or even Sea Legs for a bit more healing if needed.



General Tips

- If you hook a Ruckus, although it brings him a bit too close for comfort, it will reset his minigun spin-up and buy you and your team some time. If there is an ally nearby, hooking Ruckus in will hopefully result in both of you attacking and defeating him.



- If you play against a Bomb King who is spamming Jolt IV Poppy Bombs and trying to knock you off the map a lot, don't be afraid to take Resilience as your blue item. Doesn't matter if you have Haven's 10% damage resistance if you're getting flung off the point all the time! Although you can Shell Spin to try and get back, you may as well get Resilience at rank 2-3 (it is quite cheap to upgrade) which will mean that not only will the knockback from Poppy Bomb be basically non-existant, but also Grumpy Bomb and King Bomb (BK ult) will stun you for almost no time at all, often leading to a hook on the BK and saving other stunned team mates! Bonus points if there are other CCers on the enemy team such as Pip's slow and ultimate and Mal'Damba's ultimate.



- On maps where the action goes near a kill zone (such as the drop from the side of Fish Markets), you can hook people while standing near the edge, turn to face the edge, then they will get dropped off the edge for a kill. Very handy for enemy Frontliners. Sometimes you can also Shell Spin people near the edge and the slight knockback will bump them off, but it is very easy to go off the edge yourself!

