Patch 3.12 was a huge patch that changed a lot about Smite. Several items were removed, adjusted, or added. One of the new items is Ritual Dagger. This article will be an analysis of Ritual Dagger and its uses. Ritual Dagger is a unique item that adds new interactions to the game.

Stats

Ritual Dagger is a part of the Ancient Blade tree and builds off of Adventurer's Blade opposite of Winged Blade. The dagger costs 2000 gold to buy in full and 850 to upgrade from the tier 2. The tree provides health, attack speed and movement speed and Ritual Dagger does not disappoint. It provides 200 health, 20% attack speed and 10% movement speed. Ritual Dagger also gives its buyer 20% cooldown reduction. The item’s passive is “Whenever you use a relic, the duration of that relic's effects are increased by 50%.” Ritual Dagger provides a wide range of valuable stats and gives players a unique passive.

Ritual Dagger icon, courtesy of Smite.Gamepedia

Interactions

The passive of Ritual Dagger extends the duration of Relics by 50%. Not every Relic is effected by this passive because not every relic has a duration. Below I list how Ritual Dagger changes each Relic. Blink is not changed. The duration of Curse is extended to 7.5 seconds. Frenzy will last 15 seconds. Meditation remains the same. Phantom lasts 7.5 seconds. Purification’s duration becomes 3 seconds. Sanctuary provides 3 seconds of immunity. Scout does not change. Shell will last 7.5 seconds. Sprint becomes 7.5 seconds. Sunder’s debuff lasts for 6 seconds. Teleport does not change. Thorns lasts 7.5 seconds. The new stun attached to Wrath lasts for 1.5 seconds.

Jigz Build

Early in Season 3, pro player Jigz created a unique support build that left boots at rank 1 and used an early Winged Blade for mobility. He updated this build in 3.12 making use of Ritual Dagger.

Upon loading into the battlefield, the standard Watcher’s Gift and shoes are bought. You then back to buy Adventurer’s Blade at 1150 gold for a power spike. Next, Hide of the Urchin is purchased for heavy defensive stats and to allow for early stacking of its passive. This is followed up by the finishing of Ritual Dagger off of the Adventurer’s Blade bought previously. The build goes on to include the defensive aura items of Sovereignty and Heartward Amulet. The build is finished by selling the starting item and Shoes for Spirit’s Robe and Winged Blade, respectively.

As a disclaimer, this build won’t fit every situation and all builds can be altered to fit the current game state. The build path detailed above makes use of Ritual Dagger and provides a powerful mix of defensive stats and mobility so it can be used in many situations.

The core of the Jigz build is the double daggers. Both Ritual Dagger and Winged Blade are cheap and efficient items that allow you to finish your build faster while not lacking in combat stats. They provide a large health base to compliment the defensive items in the build and when you build both, have slightly more movement speed than what boots provide. The CDR from Ritual Dagger and the CCR from Winged Blade allow you to survive more in fights and provide more to your team. Both items have amazing passives that compliment a support.

Chef's Special Khepri, a new skin released in 3.12 with Ritual Dagger

General Use

Ritual Dagger can also be used to augment other builds or provide great situational utility. The stats provided by Ritual Dagger are powerful in many roles and in many situations. It is likely that we will see Ritual Dagger in builds from every role except for Hunter, where DPS is the goal.

The next unlikely role Ritual Dagger will be seen is the mid lane. Mid gods are often built for full damage, but sometimes defensive or utility items are purchased. In addition to protection items, Winged Blade is sometimes picked up, especially on Chronos. I think that Ritual Dagger could be used in that slot because it gives Chronos more attack speed, cooldown reduction and a useful passive at the cost of only 100 hp, crowd control reduction, and the Winged passive. A worthwhile trade in many situations.

The support, jungle, and solo roles have much more fluid build paths and we are very likely to see Ritual Dagger utilized in these roles. These positions are more about counter building or crafting a build around your team than building straight damage. The spread of stats on Ritual Dagger works for the characters played in the support, jungle, and solo roles. Health is great on every character, attack speed is useful on many gods, albeit less so on supports, movement speed is likely the best stat in all of Smite, and cooldown reduction is often prized in these three roles. The tanky support and solo laners are the mostly likely characters to pick up team fight relics, which provide the greatest value out of Ritual Dagger’s passive.

The choice of buying Ritual Dagger may also come down to your Relic choices. A solo laner with Teleport and Meditation will not have any benefit from the Dagger’s passive. The bonus duration works for defensive relics, ones with single target debuffs, and team fight actives.

Conclusion

Patch 3.12 added several new items to Smite, including one named Ritual Dagger. Ritual Dagger is in the same tree as Winged Blade and has mostly the same stats, trading crowd control reduction for cooldown reduction. The passive of Ritual Dagger extends the duration of relics, provided something unique to the game. Ritual Dagger is a strong item and I am excited to see it used in competitive play.

Get your own AKRacing Chair here and support our players, all profit goes towards the teams!