Ullr still stands strong in the meta despite various hunter nerfs in Season 2.

This updated god guide introduces Ullr as a character, goes over all aspects of Zapman’s new Fatalis build, and details how games progress with the God of Glory.

This article details Zapman’s particular way of building, leveling, and playing Ullr. You can watch his SMITE video content at zap55 and SZapman.

Introduction

Ullr, God of ELO and Burst Hunter at Heart

During Apollo’s firm grip on Season 1 Ullr had fallen off the radar. However, due to the massive changes introduced in Season 2, he is now back to the forefront of prime-pick hunters.

Ullr has a stance-switching kit that allows him to spam abilities in quick succession and to burst down his target. However, the high casting cost of his abilities require strict moderation, lest Ullr risks running out of mana in too quick a fashion.

While his boxing potential in lane at levels 9 through 13 is infamous, Ullr can hold his own during all phases of the game, whether in 1-on-1 or even 2-on-1 situations.

Ullr works well with any support. His versatile kit also allows him to be self-reliant in lane up to a point where he can even shine in the shoes of other roles if he so desires.

Build

Season 2 has the crit builds return as the top-performing damage dealers. Bluestone Pendant was nerfed so much that it has completely fallen out of favor as a viable starter item for hunters. We see a major change in the choice of actives as well.

Transcendence–Fatalis Build

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th

Transcendence

Asi

Warrior Tabi

Hastened

Fatalis

Rage

Deathbringer

The starter items are Charged Morningstar, 3 healing potions and 3 mana potions. The timing for completing Transcendence coincides with that of the standard Devourer’s build, which is convenient. The 6-pot start allows for more aggression and sustain in lane than the conventional start.

After rushing Transcendence to begin stacking Ullr builds Asi for the lifesteal, then continues with Warrior Tabi and Hastened Fatalis before branching off into crits with Rage and Deathbringer.

In the late game Ullr can look to replace Asi with Bloodforge (more effective lifesteal) and possibly Transcendence with Malice for the triple crits.

Until Asi is completed as second item, this build has no lifesteal, as opposed to the Devourer’s build which starts with lifesteal. Therefore Ullr benefits from carrying extra healing potions to heal up from poke taken in lane. Also, at level 5 it is beneficial to put a rank into Wield Axes (4) so that Ullr gains the option of lifestealing off minions and jungle creeps with his basic attacks (axe stance).



Hastened Fatalis Especially if ahead of the opposing hunter, Zapman favors building Hastened Fatalis over The Executioner. The passive of Fatalis allows Ullr to chase kills and increases a hunter’s survivability, since Greater Sprint no longer features that perk. Fatalis also allows for faster rotations, more efficient juking (+10% movement speed), and, most importantly, for a higher chance to hit auto-attacks. The drawback is not insignificant however, reducing the sustained damage output of the build by a rather significant 100–200 mitigated damage. Under the bottom line Fatalis has become the preferred item for hunters who pulled ahead in a match.

Actives

1st 2nd

Greater Purification (Beads)

Greater Aegis

With the beneficial passive gone on Greater Sprint (it no longer removes the in-hand movement speed penalty), Ullr is looking to invest into actives that increase his survivability instead. This is especially true with Hastened Fatalis as part of the build whose passive outclasses everything Ullr can build in terms of Sprint actives.

Beads is still the go-to must-have against crowd control for any hunter. Rather novel, however, is the use of Aegis for hunters to counter bursty Ults or for overcoming clutch situations in a showy but effective manner à la Zapman.

The buy order for actives relies heavily on the match at hand. For example, with an Artemis on the enemy team Ullr will see himself going for Beads first and relatively early due to the mere threat of her boar Ultimate.



Buying Actives Zapman prefers to get as far down the build chain as he can before investing into any actives. In his own words, “Getting actives too early is a huge money sink and delays your power spike which you want to achieve as early as possible.”

Abilities

Similar to Hel, Ullr has access to two separate ability kits, with three skills each, that he can switch to and fro at will. His axe kit is close range and provides much utility (stun, leap) while his bow kit is ranged and sports most of Ullr’s burst. In fact, Ullr’s full stun combo (axe stance > 1 > switch to bow stance > 3 > 1) is infamous for its tremendous burst damage, taking about 75% of the opponent’s health points if it fully connects. It is also a litmus test for every serious Ullr player.

The power level and versatility of Ullr’s ability kit is impressive not only for a hunter. Ullr has strong push as well as poke, two steroid abilities (one of them being a permanent passive), as well as a leap and a stun to round off the package. The only thing that Ullr lacks is an Ultimate — here hunters with impactful Ults — such as Apollo, Medusa, Rama, and especially Xbalanque — have definitely an edge over him.

Overall Ullr is one of the most difficult characters to play well in SMITE. He is a do-it-yourself god; his performance very much depends on the player’s individual skill level with this god. Ullr’s skill shots are very difficult to hit — beginners should start out by learning how to twitch-shoot his third ability, Hail of Arrows — and the overall high casting cost of his spells punishes the inexperienced harshly.

Leveling



1

Bladed Arrow

3

Hail of Arrows

4

Wield Axes

2

Expose Weakness

Bladed Arrow (1) and Hail of Arrows (3) are fully interchangeable. Ullr levels the former for more push and the latter for stronger poke. Since Ullr’s fourth ability is a permanent attack-speed passive, it gets the nod over Expose Weakness (2) when leveling.

First 5 Levels

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

3

Hail of Arrows

1

Bladed Arrow

1

Bladed Arrow

3

Hail of Arrows

4

Wield Axes

The leveling priority in the first five levels generally lies on Ullr’s Bladed Arrow (1) for the push as it massages the whole minion wave. Nonetheless Hail of Arrows (3) is leveled first for it does more damage at rank 1 which, in turn, helps with clearing jungle creeps at the start of the match.

At level 5 Zapman prefers to put one rank into Ullr’s stance-switching ability (4) for clutch situations. This allows Ullr to lifesteal off minions and jungle creeps in axe stance, when the lifesteal of Asi is not up and running yet.

Play Style

Ullr works well with any support and is strong in all phases of the game. Most noteworthy, however, is his tremendous boxing potential at levels 9–13 where he begins to tap into his full clear and burst much to the dismay of the opposing hunter.



Starting Positions There are various ways for Ullr to start out the match and clear the jungle camps in the beginning. For the different starting positions in Season 2, see Season 2 Starting Positions for Each Role as well as The New Combo Breaker Openings.

Early Game

The early game is all about first blood in lane and denying the opponent farm.

With his strong push and poke, Ullr can be looking to aggress early to get first blood. Even this early in the game his full stun combo is capable of draining a single target’s lifebar by circa 75%. A wise Ullr also keeps tabs on the enemy jungler at all times, for the jungler now has the spare time to check up on the duo lane for a gank before the Mid Harpies fight at 4-odd minutes.

Whenever the kill potential is in Ullr’s favor, he should be looking to freeze the lane in order to deny his opponent a tremendous amount of farm and to get vastly ahead in levels. Aggressive support carries with good clear (Sylvanus, Ymir) bring more pressure and kill potential to the lane, which in turn helps immensely with zoning the opponent out of assist range during lane freezes.



Zapman Footage You can watch recorded footage of Zapman playing Ullr with the Fatalis build (incl. commentary on his own play) in his video Masters Ranked: Ullr Episode 1 – Fatalis build.

Mid Game

The mid game is all about items, rotations, and Gold Fury.

Ullr is in mid game form once his third item, Warrior Tabi, is completed and work on Hastened Fatalis has begun. Ullr should look to farm as much as possible until he reaches that point. This allows Ullr to get his build online without delay, making him a valuable asset in team fights. During the mid game Ullr should be looking for rotation opportunities more so than he would in the early game.

Ullr’s prime objective in the mid game remains securing Gold Fury and towers off the backfoot of rotations and team fights.

Late Game

The late game is all about team fights, split-pushing, and Fire Giant.

Ullr is in late-game form once Rage is almost completed. Since at this stage in the game Ullr will be a beast in team fights, capable of shredding any target, the enemy team will start to single him out almost exclusively. Proper positioning as a hunter is more than ever essential in this phase of the game and squishy targets should be at the top of Ullr’s priority list.