Skud: Guided Missile

Build and Guide Skud: Guided Missile

Cheat Sheet
Skill Build: Wild Beast Fury>Power Glove>Furious Charge

Talents: Punish, Roar, Daze

Items: Medallion of Troy, Mail of Pain, Hermes’ Select, Mantle of Ra, The Aegis, Amulet of Longevity

Arcana: Obliterate/Reave/Prowess or Bloodlust/Feast/Mythril

Introduction
As far as violent and destructive machines of war go, Skud is Mganga’s greatest success story. With the cursed blood of demons coursing through his veins, Skud is capable of legendary feats of carnage. When thrown into a rage, he is the stuff of your bloodiest nightmares.
In game, Skud is a mobile warrior, capable of getting to targets quickly, and locking them down long enough to dispatch them. He is great one on one, but makes a solid ganker and off tank when team fighting starts.

Skills and Talents
Anabolic Rage (Passive) - Every 10 seconds, Skud’s next normal attack does 20% bonus damage and heals both HP for a flat rate plus 4% of his max health, and Mana for a flat rate plus 3% of his missing mana. The cooldown on this ability gets 1 second lower every auto attack.
This makes him a pretty viable jungler, as he is his own burst damage and sustain. Be very mindful of when Anabolic Rage is ready, and do not dive on an enemy without it. Timing this passive correctly is the key to winning in dominant fashion with Skud.

Furious Charge - Skud darts in  a target direction, doing 210/240/270/300/330/360 physical damage to enemies in his path. He also gains 60/90/120/150/180/210 armor for 3 seconds. Skud will stop charging as soon as he makes contact with an enemy hero.
This is your mobility tool. It will get you into combat quickly, and that knock up will disorient the target long enough to make your play. Skud is not a brick house tank like Thane or Gildur, though, so be wary about diving directly into the enemy team. Instead, consider side approaches and rear ganks to the back line casters and carries while someone with better engage capabilities does their work from the front.

Power Glove - After a brief charge, Skud powers up his glove, boosting his attack speed by 20% and his movement speed by 10% for 5 seconds. His next normal attack does 120/180/240/300/360/420 bonus physical damage.
Power Glove is your main source of burst damage. The bonus damage on your basic attack, mixed with your passive, will put a real hurting on squishy characters. Darting in with Furious Charge and following up with Power Glove is the best way to get the most out of it. Something to remember though - you can preload Power Glove before the charge to minimize your exposure while starting the ability up. When you approach the lane for a gank, hit the ability a second or two early to get it ready.

Wild Beast Fury - After a brief start up period Skud spins, hitting all enemies around him for 370/470/570 physical damage plus 15% of each target’s current HP, stunning them for a second, and knocking them away from him. It also resets the cooldown of Furious Charge.
Wild Beast Fury is great for knocking the enemy into a bad position. Beast Fury enemies into walls, corners, and the loving arms of the rest of your team in order to capitalize fully on its capabilities.
It’s also great to use defensively, peeling pesky enemies away from your allies.

Talents for Skud will depend on the role you chose for him. If he’s jungling, consider Punish to clear jungle creeps quickly. Otherwise, Roar is a good fit for him, as increasing his attack speed allows his passive to load more often, and the bonus physical damage never hurts. Daze can be an option as well, adding yet another low duration stun to your arsenal.

Items
There are two schools of thought about the best approach to building Skud - try to offset his lack of tankiness with defenses, or embrace his offensive nature. Both these concepts still have some overlapping items worth thinking about.



Skud get’s great use out of Mail of Pain, since he is always throwing himself into situations where he will be taking damage. When he is dueling physical attackers, Riposte will reflect 15% of it back to the enemy, giving him even more of an edge. The health and armor are nothing to sneeze at, either.



Medallion of Troy’s Blessed passive grants him a shield against magic damage, helping him avoid getting nuked while diving on mages. The 10% additional cooldown speed is universally useful, and the magic defense and health are essential. Toss in a pair of Hermes’ Select, and these items should find a home in all Skud builds, no matter the variation.

If you want to beef up Skud’s defenses so that he stays in a duel longer, there are a few good options. Mantle of Ra grants armor and attack damage, and the Burn passive mixes up the damage to your enemies, while also giving you some split pushing power. Hyoga’s Edge adds a bit of armor and magic defense on top of a good dose of health. The Biting Cold passive helps keep enemies from escaping, as well. Your kit helps you chase your enemies as is, but that extra slow + movespeed buff makes sure they never get away once you make contact. The Aegis can have a similar effect, as it’s Spirit Bond passive slows attackers down should they do damage to you, which is definitely what they’ll be doing in a duel.

Offensively, Omni Arms’ Pentapower is basically another version of Skud’s Power Glove. Used in tandem with his passive and, well… it’s ugly. Fenrir’s Tooth increases all damage dealt to a target when their health is below half, helping you seal the deal when you close in on someone. Spear of Longinus’ Shatter helps punch through target’s armor while granting you some of your own, on top of it’s cooldown bonus and attack damage.

Arcana
There are two good ways to go with Skud’s arcana load outs. You can keep it simple with Obliterate, Reave, and Prowess to load up on bulk rates or attack damage, life steal, and magic defense. You can also go with Bloodlust, Feast, and Mythril, which will spread your stats out across a fourth parameter: armor. What you’ll lose in attack damage and life steal, you’ll more than make up for in armor..

Early Game
Early game, Skud is at his most vulnerable. If you are jungling, take caution when moving in for early ganks. Avoid being caught out by the enemy jungler or otherwise disrupted and isolated from your team, as a 1 v 2 scenario will reliably put you way behind. Start are the Might Golem, and use that buff to help secure early kills. I’d wait until you put a point in Wild Beast Fury all in diving so that you can put your combo to work. If you’re in lane, then you're most likely playing a more support-oriented role. You will be engaging for you lane mate, so be sure to call your spots deftly.

Mid Game
As the game progresses, Skud can find himself wandering without a clear task. With towers falling and the laning phase ending, there will be less opportunities to gank stragglers. This could be where you consider Mantle of Ra and start split pushing. Otherwise, coordinate with the team to stay just on the edge of the team fights. Linger in the brush and be prepared to flank.

At this stage, the enemy damage dealers will be hitting pretty hard, and Skud is not solid enough to dive in first and hope to live through the encounter, so hopefully you have some solid primary initiation tool elsewhere in the party. Example: When Valhein stuns someone with Curse of Death, or Veera charms someone with Mezmerize, that’s your cue to dive.

Late Game
Timing and communication are key late game. Teamfighting will be main form of conflict when pushing objectives, so it will be pretty difficult for you to hunt from the edges of the pack. Coordination with assassins and other tanks for consistent and effective initiation is key if getting the most out of your ambushing abilities is to be achieved. If you got away with leading the charge around minute 15, you won’t around minute 20, as enemy builds start to complete and the high end of their damage begins to reveal itself. This is where Skud will have the most difficulty being effective if you aren’t at a significant advantage, so just stay patient and work with your team.

Tips
Wild Beast Fury and Furious Charge synergize super well together, since the former resets the latter. Furious Charging (with a loaded Power Glove) into the enemy stuns and slows them near instantly. Beast Fury will knock them around and stun again, giving you another Furious Charge to finish the job. This will be your bread and butter combo for most engagements.

Furious Charge is a great defensive move, as well. It can dash over walls, helping you get away clean from pesky pursuers.

Matchups
Skud moves around the map very quickly thanks to Furious Charge, meaning the more stationary or slow characters like Lumburr can serve as a great anvil for your hammering ganks. Hard CC from folks like Krixi and Veera will also help make Charging ganks that much easier.

You have a great advantage in 1v1 scenarios, and it’ll be pretty clear when you dive against carries like Yorn or Violet, who can do plenty of damage, but won’t be able to shake your relentless assault.

If your targets are being guarded by the like of Mina or Grakk, you may have a problem. After diving, they can pull you off of their ally and put you in a bad position, bringing your momentum to a halt. Carries that can stun your like Valhein and Slimz can kite you easily if given the time to stop your assault. Smart carries will counter your Furious Charge with a Flicker, then stun you and burn your health down quickly.