RONA
Red Mist leaves Rona exposed from range, so now she can properly soak up some damage while using her ultimate. —Zekent
RED MIST
Fortified Health gained per second up from 40-60-80 to 40-70-100
A small little buff. I doesn't make a huge difference, but it helps nonetheless.
There aren't many other changes that affect Rona much, so she remains her position as a mid-tier jungler. She's definitely viable in soloQ, just not top notch in competitive play. One thing to note is that roam Adagio has made a return, and he is an exceptional ally for Rona, so there's that.
Rona is usually played as a jungle carry. The support takes damage for her and Rona dishes it out. Therefore, you should always stick with your support when jungling. Gain gold and experience as fast as possible so you can buy better items and upgrade your abilities. If you can get ahead of the enemy team early on, Rona will be nearly unstoppable in the late game.
With crystal items like Aftershock, Rona's playstyle becomes more that of an assassin than a tanky damage dealer. It's fun to experiment with different items and playstyles and find your own preferred build. Don't exactly follow this build, but try to find alternations that fit you best. Make your own playstle!
Ability Overview
Berserkers' Fury
Rona's perk grants her extra attack speed, at the cost of less damaging attacks. She also gains bloodrage from being in combat.
The biggest advantage of this perk is that Rona can proc items like Bonesaw and Alternating Current really quicly. Not having energy is great too, because you will never run out. However, it's important to keep your bloodrage up, otherwise you won't be able to use red mist.
Into the Fray
Into the Fray is Rona's A ability. She leaps at the selected location, dealing damage and rupturing the ground. it deals damage, slows enemies down and it reduces damage Rona takes.
Into the Fray is used as an initiator, or as an escape. Use Foesplitter to get close to an enemy, and then jump over them with Into the Fray. Be sure to not completely jump over the enemy, or the fortified health won't activate. The ground will rupture behind the enemy, cutting of his escape. This is especially effective in shallow 'corridors' in the map, because the enemy will have nowhere to go.
You can also use Into the Fray as an escape. The ruptured ground slow makes escaping really easy, and you can even use the slow to let your allies escape. You can jump over walls with ItF, which is useful for when you find yourself in a dire situation. It can also make for some flashy surprise attacks, but that only works if your team has proper vision.
Foesplitter
Foesplitter is Rona's B ability. She dashes to the targeted enemy and slashes it with her axe, dealing damage, granting extra bloodrage and giving a speed boost for a while. Foesplitter can be used again shortly after the first hit, dealing even more damage and applying a mortal wound to her enemy. After using the second hit from this ability, Rona will gain extra attack speed for a small amount of time. Using basic attacks decreases the cooldown of Foesplitter.
It's hard to describe what Foesplitter really does, because it is useful for a multitude of things. First of all, it really helps with early jungle clear. You can just spam Foesplitter when you are farming, you don't have to worry about running out of energy.
In combat, Foesplitter is usually used as Rona's first initiator. You can use the speed boost to run after the enemy and throw some basic attacks out to do damage and generate bloodrage. When the speed boost ends, you can jump over the enemy with Into the Fray to set up for Red Mist. The speed boost can also be used to evade dangerous skillshot abilities like Core Collapse or Rocket Leap.
The second activation of Foesplitter applies a heal-reducing mortal wound. It's great on characters with good lifesteal, like Krul or opposing Rona. The second activation does use up half of Rona's bloodrage, meaning that she cannot use her ultimate right after. You have to decide whether you want to use your bloodrage for applying a mortal wound and gaining an attack speed bonus, or to use your bloodrage for Red Mist.
Red Mist
Red Mist is Rona's ultimate. She begins spinning with her axes, dealing weapon damage to all enemies around her. She keeps spinning until she runs out of bloodrage, but she can cancel it at any time by reactivating it or using another ability. Using Red Mist grants Rona fortified health every second.
So this is basically Twirly Death on steroids. Rona gets so much lifesteal when she uses this in the middle of a teamfight, and it deals tons of damage. Use it after you get into the fight with Foesplitter. Throw some basic attacks out first to generate bloodrage and to apply Shiversteel. You can either start spinning right after applying Shiversteel, or you can use Into the Fray to set up for Red Mist.
Always cancel it whenever your target runs out of the whirlwind. Rona moves very slowly when using Red Mist, making you even easier to kite. Not canceling it also wastes precious bloodrage. Remember that you can also cancel it by using another ability. For example, you can spin for a moment, and when the enemy boots out, you can use Into the Fray to land right on top of them again.
How to string abilities together?
Rona's abilities can combo into each other quite well, which is what makes her so fun to play. Her most commonly used ability combination goes like this:
first activation of Foesplitter (with Shiversteel) -> AA until the speed boost runs out -> Into the Fray -> Red Mist/second activation of Foesplitter
Whether you want to use Red Mist or the second activation of Foesplitter depends on level. In the early game, you don't have your ult available, so you should use Foesplitter. Whenever you are in a 1vs1 or 2vs2 against an enemy with good lifesteal or another healing ability, you should use Foesplitter too for the mortal wound. Remember that Foesplitter is counted as a basic attack, thus being able to apply Shiversteel. If you have your ult available, it´s usually best to use Red Mist instead because it deals more damage.
You can also use Red Mist before using Into the Fray, like this:
first activation of Foesplitter (without Shiversteel) -> AA until speed boost runs out -> AA again, with Shiversteel -> Red Mist -> Into the Fray -> multiple AA's -> first activation of Foesplitter again -> AA until speed boost runs out -> second activation of Foesplitter.
You can mix it up a bit of course, and you'll likely not get to pull of such a string in a real game, because the enemy (or yourself) would probably be dead shortly after using Into the Fray, But's it's good to remember how you can string your abilities together for maximum damage output.
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