Bellona SMITE 2 Guide

Overview

Bellona's kit is unusual in that each ability swaps her weapon and grants a different bonus, which makes her a meaningfully different god depending on which ability she used last. Her identity is the extended fight: she does not burst anyone down, but she wins drawn-out brawls because her shield ability blocks incoming basic attacks while she deals her own. Her ultimate is a leap with an area stun that plants a buffing flag, making her one of the few solo laners who can both initiate a teamfight and improve it after initiating.

Power spike

Level 5 with her ultimate, and again at her second defensive item — the point she survives long enough for sustained damage to add up.

Skill ceiling

Moderate. The mechanics are simple, but the weapon-swap layer rewards players who sequence abilities around which passive bonus they want active.

Strengths and weaknesses

Every god guide here lists the weaknesses as prominently as the strengths, because the weaknesses are what tell you which games this pick will not rescue — and that is usually the more actionable half.

What Bellona is genuinely good at

• Her shield ability makes her extremely strong against basic-attack opponents, in lane and in teamfights alike.
• Weapon swapping gives her four distinct damage profiles from a single ability set.
• Her ultimate is a genuine initiator with an area stun, plus an ally buff zone on landing.
• Very forgiving to learn — her kit does not depend on precise skillshots.

Where Bellona falls short

• Almost no ranged pressure, so a ranged solo laner can poke her out of lane without ever fighting.
• Her damage is sustained rather than burst, which makes her poor at punishing a brief mistake.
• Her ultimate is her only gap-closer, so committing it to engage leaves her with no escape.
• Anti-heal blunts her lane sustain harder than it blunts most warriors.

Build and reasoning

Bellona wants to be in the fight for a long time, so her build is hybrid rather than committed: enough protection to survive the duration, enough power that the duration matters. Attack speed is unusually valuable because her shield and weapon swaps are basic-attack driven. Crowd-control reduction is close to mandatory, since every counterplay to Bellona involves keeping her away from where she wants to be.

Core build path

These are item roles rather than fixed product names, because specific items are rebalanced every patch and the reasoning behind a slot is not. Match each role to whatever currently fills it best.

1. 1 Warrior starter
2. 2 Sustain and power item
3. 3 Physical protection item
4. 4 Attack speed and slow item
5. 5 Crowd-control reduction
6. 6 Late-game penetration

Situational purchases

Anti-heal

You are laning against a sustain warrior — the single most common solo lane problem.

Magical protection

The enemy solo laner is a mage or their jungler scales magically.

Health and slow item

You need to stick to a mobile target rather than deal more damage to a stationary one.

For the reasoning behind these stats — why penetration outperforms power against a built target, why anti-heal has to be bought before it feels necessary — see the item and stat reference and build fundamentals.

Counters and synergies

What beats Bellona

Ranged solo laners

They deny her the extended fight she needs by refusing to be in range.

Burst damage

Her strength is duration, and burst removes duration from the equation.

Displacement gods

Moving Bellona out of a fight beats trying to out-damage her.

What Bellona works with

Follow-up area damage

Her ultimate's area stun sets up any teammate with a large area ability.

Dive junglers

Her engage creates the opening a jungler needs to reach the backline.

Practical tips

1. Open with the shield against any basic-attack solo laner. Blocking their damage while dealing your own wins the trade before it starts.
2. Your heaviest-hitting ability has a wind-up — use it when the target is stunned or committed, not as your opener.
3. The ultimate works as an escape as well as an engage. Leaping backward out of a collapse is often the better use.
4. Your weapon swap persists, so think one ability ahead: end your combo holding the weapon you want for the next few seconds.

Frequently asked questions