Today, we’re diving into one of the game’s most formidable champions - Mountain King. Known for his impressive HP and significant damage potential, Mountain King remains a staple in many team compositions, particularly in the arena and faction wars. If you’ve been searching for a comprehensive guide on how to build and utilize this old-school Force Affinity champion, you’re in the right place.
Overview
NAME: Mountain King
FACTION: Dwarves
RARITY: Legendary
ROLE: Attack
AFFINITY: Force
Introduction to Mountain King
Mountain King boasts the highest base HP in the game, standing at a staggering 31,000. This stat alone makes him a powerhouse, especially when coupled with his high base attack of 1432. His skills scale off both HP and attack, making him a versatile damage dealer. However, it’s important to note that Mountain King is the slowest legendary champion in the game, which significantly influences his build and utility.
Mountain King's skills
Thunder Cleave
Attacks 1 enemy.
Level 2: Damage +5%
Level 3: Damage +5%
Level 4: Damage +5%
Level 5: Damage +5%
Damage Multiplier: 0.27 HP + 1 ATK
Enchanted Axe (Cooldown: 5 turns)
Attacks 1 enemy. Ignores 50% of the target’s DEF.
Level 2: Damage +5%
Level 3: Damage +10%
Level 4: Damage +10%
Level 5: Cooldown -1
Damage Multiplier: 0.3 HP + 1.8 ATK
Regal Force (Cooldown: 5 turns)
Attacks 1 enemy. Ignores [Shield] and [Block Damage] buffs.
Level 2: Damage +5%
Level 3: Damage +5%
Level 4: Cooldown -1
Damage Multiplier: 0.3 HP + 1.8 ATK
Fabled Skill (Passive)
Increases this Champion’s ATK by 50% each time this Champion kills an enemy. Stacks up to 100%. Resets each round.
Best Builds for Mountain King
Savage and Immortal Build
Preferred Build: Savage and Immortal sets. This combination capitalizes on his ignore defense capabilities, allowing Mountain King to one-shot most enemies.
Stat Priorities
Chest: HP percentage
Gauntlets: Critical damage
Boots: Speed
Banners, Rings, and Amulets: Focus on HP with attack percentage substats
Reasoning: The Savage set provides a crucial 100% ignore defense, maximizing his damage output. The Immortal set offers additional HP and healing, enhancing his survivability.
Bolster and Shield Build
Alternative Build: Bolster and Shield sets. This setup offers significant utility by providing a hefty shield for your team.
Stat Priorities
Chest: HP percentage
Gauntlets: Critical damage
Boots: Speed
Banners, Rings, and Amulets: Focus on HP with attack percentage substats
Reasoning: This build focuses on maximizing his base HP to create strong shields for your team, making Mountain King an excellent support champion in wave content.
Alternative Build Considerations
For those looking to experiment with Mountain King's build, consider a high-resistance setup:
Resistance Build
Gear Sets: Bolster and Resistance sets, or Bolster and Stun Skin sets.
Stat Priorities: Focus on resistance for the banner and amulet, alongside high HP.
Reasoning: This setup makes Mountain King exceptionally tough to control, leveraging his natural resistance and high HP to create a resilient and hard-to-kill champion.
Mountain King Masteries
For masteries, focus on the defense and offense trees. This approach enhances his survivability and damage output, making him a formidable presence in battles.
Defense Tree
Tough Skin: Increases DEF.
Blastproof: Reduces damage received from AoE attacks.
Rejuvenation: Increases the amount of healing and the value of [Shield] buffs this Champion receives.
Improvised Parry: Mitigates critical hits.
Delay Death: Reduces damage received from subsequent hits.
Retribution: Provides a chance to counterattack when this Champion loses 25% HP or more from a single hit.
Deterrence: Provides extra turns when allies are hit with a [Stun], [Sleep], or [Freeze] debuff.
Offense Tree
Deadly Precision: Increases C.RATE.
Keen Strike: Increases C.DMG.
Heart of Glory: Increases damage inflicted by 5% when attacking with full HP.
Whirlwind of Death: Increases SPD by 6 for each enemy killed by this Champion in battle. Stacks across each round in a battle.
Single Out: Increases damage inflicted to targets with less than 40% HP by 8%.
Bring It Down: Increases damage inflicted by 6% when attacking targets with higher MAX HP.
Cycle of Violence: Has a 30% chance of decreasing the cooldown of a random skill by 1 turn if the damage inflicted by a skill exceeds 30% of the target’s MAX HP.
Kill Streak: Increases damage inflicted by 6% in the Arena and 3% in all other locations for each enemy killed by this Champion in battle. Stacks across each round in a battle, up to 12%.
Helmsmasher: Provides a chance to ignore a percentage of the target’s DEF.
Blessings for Mountain King
Blessings in RAID: Shadow Legends provide additional power and unique effects to champions, making them even more formidable. Typical blessings that align with Mountain King’s build and role based on his attributes and skills.
Recommended Blessings
Phantom Touch
Effect: Grants a chance to deal bonus damage whenever the Champion hits an enemy. This bonus damage scales with the Champion’s Attack and HP.
Reasoning: Given Mountain King’s high HP and Attack, Phantom Touch synergizes well by providing additional damage output, making his already powerful attacks even more lethal.
Soul Reap
Effect: Provides a chance to deal bonus damage based on the enemy's MAX HP whenever the Champion's attack decreases the target’s HP below a certain threshold.
Reasoning: Soul Reap is effective in taking down tanky enemies quickly, especially in the arena where Mountain King excels at finishing off opponents with his powerful single-target attacks.
Lightning Cage
Effect: Protects the Champion with a shield that absorbs a percentage of damage and deals damage back to the attacker.
Reasoning: Lightning Cage enhances Mountain King’s survivability by providing a shield that can absorb damage, and the counter-damage effect adds an extra layer of offense.
Integrating Blessings with Builds
When selecting blessings for Mountain King, consider how they will integrate with his gear and mastery setup:
Savage and Immortal Build: Phantom Touch and Soul Reap are particularly beneficial, as they enhance his damage output and ensure he can finish off enemies effectively.
Bolster and Shield Build: Lightning Cage pairs well with this build, adding extra protection and counter-damage, complementing the defensive nature of the setup.
Arena Performance
In the arena, Mountain King shines with his ability to ignore defense, making him a top-tier pick for taking down high-defense enemies. Despite his slow speed, proper team composition and strategic play can mitigate this weakness, allowing him to unleash devastating attacks.
Mountain King Lore
The Dwarves of Teleria are divided into two realms: Gloomdeep Hold, and the Skyiron Dominion. Both call themselves kingdoms, for both are ruled by kings. But that is where most of their similarities end. In Gloomdeep Hold, the Mountain King has absolute power over his territory, both above ground and below it. He bears the weight of ultimate authority in his kingdom, and if disaster strikes his lands he will be held responsible for any harm his people suffer. It is not a weight one carries lightly, and the pressure can sometimes push the Mountain Kings of Gloomdeep to foolish action — it has already nearly cost the kingdom its royal line. In recent times, King Duran the Avaricious pressured his only son, Prince Gnut, to embark on a foolish adventure in the hopes that the boy would recover artifacts that could prove the glory of Gloomdeep Hold. It was a journey that would nearly cost the prince his life, all for the sake of competing with the Skyiron Dominion.
The Skyiron Dominion is ten times the size of Gloomdeep Hold, and is not one kingdom, but many. The Dominion is divided into cantons, which stretch both above and below the vales of the Cloudspire Mountains, and each has its own Skyiron Mountain King. A Mountain King’s authority within their canton is strong, but far from absolute – they compete with guilds, nobles, militia captains, and others. Some groups have legal rights that the king cannot abridge, while others hold tremendous soft power and can compel the king to action or inaction. Then there is the political titan that is the Skyiron Navy. This and a few other institutions hold seats on the Grand Council of the Dominion, where matters affecting all Dwarves in the Cloudspire Mountains are discussed. If the Navy demand a tax of iron or soldiers, it is all but impossible for the kings to deny them. Some might see this as weakness, rulers bowing to the wishes of their officers. Those who say such things have likely never faced the wrath of a Skyiron warship. It is because of the Navy’s strength that the Mountain Kings do not resent their shared strength, and they bear their titles with pride.
However different the Skyiron Dominion and Gloomdeep Hold might be, they both trace their origins to the under-empire, a unified Dwarven realm that once stretched beneath the whole of Teleria. As a result, the armor and weapons of the Mountain Kings across the world are much the same. They speak the same oaths on their coronation, they carry similarly styled enchanted axes, and they wear identical crowns over their brows. In its heyday, the under-empire united every Dwarven holdfast in a vast network, some of which even wound beneath the seas. Most of the under-empire was lost long ago, but there are some who whisper that one of the lines of Mountain Kings reaches all the way back to the Dwarven Emperors of old. If this is true, it means that one king has the blood-right of absolute authority over all Dwarvenkind.
For now, these ideas remain only rumors. The kinship between the Dwarven realms has been so strong for so long, none have felt any need to unite them under a single banner. But relations between the cantons of the Skyiron Dominion and the cold fastness of Gloomdeep have strained in recent years, as the two are pulled apart by different alliances, different neighbors, and different beliefs. If the two Dwarven realms should someday turn on one another, those rumors of a potential Dwarven Emperor existing may rise up from the ashes of history to become a rallying cry. It may only be a matter of time before a power-hungry Mountain King seeks to reunite his people — not in brotherhood, but by the axe.
Final Thoughts
Mountain King remains a powerful and versatile champion, capable of significant damage while providing substantial support with his high HP. Whether you prefer a high-damage Savage and Immortal build or a supportive Bolster and Shield setup, Mountain King can be tailored to fit various roles in your team. Adding the right blessings further enhances his capabilities, making him a force to be reckoned with.
