Verod Rath is a former member of the Keepers of the Blade (Empress Lenore's Royal Guard) He is a master swordsman and very efficient and deadly with his three energy blades.

Rath is a hero in Battleborn

Is part of The Jennerit Imperium Faction.

Bio [ edit ]

Brutal, efficient, and deeply devoted to the art of combat, Verod Rath once served as elite guard to the Jennerit Empress, Lenore. He utilizes three energy blades to devastate his foes in close-quarters engagements. Not a vampire, though he gets that a lot.

Characteristics [ edit ]

Agile

Assassin

Easy

Unlock [ edit ]

Rank Unlock: Command Rank 0

Challenge Unlock: None.

Abilities [ edit ]

Name Description Axiom and Order Rath's primary melee attack can be chained multiple times for a quick combo. Rath's secondary melee attack conjures a powerful lightning bolt. Crossblade Rath throws energy blades forward a limited distance, dealing 208-280 damage. Dreadwind Rath spins into a whirlwind attack for 4 seconds, causing 41-68 damage per hit to enemies around him. Bladekeeper's Vestment Rath's ceremonial Jennerit armor is sturdy enough to absorb plenty of damage, but light enough to preserve his speed and mobility. Catalytic Smash Rath unleashes a shockwave dealing 139-187 damage directly ahead. Genetic Syphon When Rath damages an enemy's health he steals health worth 10% of the damage from melee attacks and 10% of the damage from skill attacks.

Helix Tree [ edit ]

Option 1 Level Option 2 Mutation Phasing Blades - Crossblade can pass through multiple enemies and damage them. 1 Waveform Smash - Catalytic Smash's shockwave is shortened, but spreads out to the left and right. Concussive Smash - Catalytic Smash no longer produces a shockwave that knocks targets into the air, but stuns enemies on impact if they have recently been hit by Crossblade. Shield Syphon - When Crossblade damages an enemy's shield, Rath's shield recharges the amount of damage dealt. +100% Shield Steal 2 Parabolic Blade - When a Crossblade is destroyed, a new Crossblade will spawn, moving towards Rath. Eviscerating Blade - A portion of damage dealt by Crossblade bypasses enemy shields. +60% Shield Penetration Terror from Above - Allows Rath to double-jump. 3 Spin to Win - Rath's primary melee combo finishing spin fires twice at the end of the combo. Crimson Fastness - When Rath attacks with Catalytic Smash, he will leap forward, damaging enemies in his path. 4 Catalytic Flash - Catalytic Smash blinds enemies when hit. Skillful Syphoning - Genetic Syphon steals additional health when a skill deals damage to an enemy. 5 Not a Vampire - Genetic Syphon steals additional health when attacking enemies with melee strikes. Swordsman's Salve - Greatly increases Genetic Syphon life-stealing properties for Rath’s melee attacks, but removes the effect from his skills. Brutal Blades - Increases Crossblade's base damage. +15% Damage 6 Catastrophic Smash - Doubles the shockwave length of Catalytic Smash. Evasive Maneuvers - When Rath's shield is broken, movement speed is increased for a short time. +30% Movement Speed for 4 seconds 7 To the Point - Increases base damage of all melee strikes. +18% Damage Spin to Slow - Rath’s primary melee combo finishing spin slows enemies. +1 seconds slow duration Energetic Projection - Doubles the effective range of Crossblade. 8 Quick Cross - Reduces Crossblade's cooldown. -20% Cooldown Softened Target - Enemies hit by Catalytic Smash will take more damage from Crossblade for a short time. +35% Damage for 4 seconds 9 Zealous Smash - Killing an enemy with Catalytic Smash reduces Dreadwind's cooldown. Dreadheart - Grants a movement speed boost to Rath while Dreadwind is active. +30% Movement Speed 10 Desperate Assault - Damage dealt by Dreadwind is greatly increased while Rath's shield is broken. +15% Damage when unshielded Unstoppable Assault - Dreadwind generates an overshield upon activation. +225 overshield for 4 seconds

Gallery [ edit ]

Strategy Guide/Tips [ edit ]

Rath Pro Tips/builds from the creator of Rath (taken from a post by Gearbox Software dev u/gbx_fletch on reddit):

Build 1: Ganker Pick up slow on Crossblade, Echo Crossblade, cross blade damage, and cooldown reduction, double jump, leap on smash, extra lifesteal on skills, speed on shield break, and speed on whirlwind Primary loop here should be maintain mobility at all cost. Jump in, or smash leap in, unleash crossblade point blank, follow off with some melee, and jump out. Don't try to sustain fights. Hit and circle back, always maintaining your health. Pick off tiny minions left alone to steal some life back. Always be building and maintaining Accelerators to aid your escapes. Don't be afraid to use your ult as an escape at the end. Remember, the goal is big bursty damage and staying alive. It helps stop opposing team momentum by forcing them to retreat, and it prevents you from being off the battlefield late game. Build gear focusing on skill damage, cooldown reduction, footspeed, or shard trickle.

Build 2: Area Denial This is heavy on smash and melee tanking. Get the wide smash, silence on smash, smash range, melee double finisher, melee damage, melee lifesteal, crossblade shield steal or penetration and range, smash+crossblades combo aug, and increased damage. Primary loop should be to always initiate with smash. Prime it and sprint (it's one of the few skills you can sprint during). You're going to cover a huge range for this by late game, so think about your angles and opportunities. Wait for a pile up on minions/thralls/players in the choke points, and hit all of them at the same time. Then learn to execute the timing so that you hit the biggest line of them with crossblade as they land for bonus damage plus shield steal. During the chaos, and while players are silenced, either clean up with melee (getting max life steal from all the targets), or drop your ult if you feel like nobody has a hard counter. As long as your still have valid targets, keep your melee going to tank life steal as long as possible. Build gear towards attack damage, damage mitigation, health max or regen, or shield capacity.

Build 3: Single Target Assassin This is a very focused build about taking down the best player on the other team. The goal should be to frustrate them and stop them from executing their loop. Get the first mutation for the cossblade+smash combo, and the later smash+crossblade combo, plus everything that helps skill damage or cooldown. Smash leap works better against ground targets, smash silence works better against aerial targets or people with big counters. Get smash range to make the combo easier to hit late game. Double jump is recommended, as is foot speed on shield break. Everything else is up to personal style and the target you are trying to kill. Early game don't even worry about the PVP game. Go for pure shards, start building buildables for XP, and maybe gank some minions for more XP. Get your gear built as quickly as possible and stay alive. Pay attention to who is doing well on the opposing team. Once you're at level 3, start engaging that person. Flank em, cross blade them, smash them to stun them, try to knock them out, then detach similar to the first build. If you can't kill them, back off. Let your teammates finish them off and be going back to shard running for more XP/gear. Remember that all those buildables can also net you XP for assists, so keep them up once you've activated all your gear. You're hyper mobile and can be assembling bots to harass the lanes as well. Loop back around, flank your opponent, and keep using that combo stun to lock them down. If you get your cooldowns fast enough you can either smash+crossblade+smassh, or crossblade+smash+crossblade late game. The entire goal here is that you will probably have less kills than your teammates, but a ton of assists because you are setting up vulnerable targets for Marquis/Oscar/Galilea/etc. Build heavily for skill cooldown and damage, foot speed, and health max or regen.

General Tips: you can crit with your melees, so aim up a little and try to be hitting their face. alt fire (lightning bolt toss) has a longer range than primary fire, so use it to chase down people just out of reach when they try to run. it also deals bonus damage against shields and overshields, so use it to initatiate minion waves when they are overshielded. Also great for double jumping around other melee characters to stay out of their range while slapping them with it. knockback melee deals the most damage of any swing, but is slow. Works great if your opponent is near death and you just need one powerful blow. smash can be used midair when point blank. doubble jump + smash to take Benedict or Caldarius out of the air





