1. Strength
The strength stat determines how much damage you deal per attack; you can think of this as the physical damage you deal to your enemies. This stat is pretty straight-forward: if you want to deal more damage, you build more strength, which will make your attacks hit harder.
Strength is really important because you want to make sure you are dealing enough damage to ensure boss fights do not last too long. God of War Ragnarok is all about keeping up the momentum and taking out the boss before you are taken out; if you don’t deal enough damage, you may run into issues with managing your health.
Get this stat if:
- If you want to hit harder,
- Most armour sets in God of War have different distributions of stats, so building a particular stat is dependent on which armour sets you pick. Some armour sets are more heavily weighted toward a specific stat.
- If you want to have a build centred on realm shift, the Alfheim set increases damage on Kratos’ next attack, which scales with strength. This is especially useful in New Game+ when you have access to Kratos’s bear-skin armour, which gives additional damage to the first hit after a dodge.
2. Defense
The defence stat reduces the damage Kratos takes. This is especially useful against tough enemies when you are underpowered and don’t die as fast.
Defence is another really important stat because it increases your survivability. It’s straight-forward—the higher it is, the more damage you reduce—but it’s arguably one of the most important ones because some enemies hit really hard.
Get this stat if:
- You want more survivability.
- You want to deal increased stun damage by utilizing the Svartalfheim set, which increases stun damage dealt based on your defence stat.
- You want a defensive armour set that is more about taking less damage, so you want to reduce the damage taken to trigger specific effects. This is especially useful if you plan on using the defensive enhancement set (Niflheim set), which increases melee damage based on your defence stat when you are above 75% HP.
3. Runic
The Runic stat is a unique stat in God of War: Ragnarok. Not all attacks benefit from Runic; you can kind of think of it as the magic stat where only elemental attacks benefit. This stat increases the attack damage of runic attacks and allows you to deal more damage from status attacks (frost, heat).
This stat also determines how much damage you do with your runic abilities, so it works quite well with cooldown stats and perks, as you will be able to unleash skills much more frequently.
Get this stat if:
- You want to build status ailments.
- You want to deal more damage with your abilities.
- You have a build centred around cooldown; there is perfect synergy between cooldown and runic as it’s based on giving you the ability to frequently use Kratos’s strong runic attacks.
4. Vitality
Vitality is a straight-forward stat: it increases your max health and increases stagger resistance. The higher your vitality, the less likely it is for you to be stunned by the regular attacks.
This is especially useful if you are the kind of player who likes to shrug off damage. There’s definitely a build in God of War that is about trading blows, so a high defence, high vitality build would be viable.
Get this stat if:
- You want to combine this with a high-defence build.
- You want to use certain vitality-based perks and have a rage-based build.
- You want a high damage build based around having less than 50% HP using the Helheim enhancement set.
5. Luck
Luck is a unique stat, and as the stat may suggest, it makes you lucky. You have a higher chance of getting more hacksilver. You also have a higher chance of triggering armour abilities and procs, which is really what this stat is all about.
A lot of procs can give Kratos a huge boost, either in cooldown, attack damage, or more. It’s definitely noticeable; when you have a high luck stat, you can trigger abilities much more frequently; however, the exact effectiveness is not known.
Get this stat if:
- You want to have a build centred around the Vanaheim set effect, which increases the damage dealt against enemies that are status-afflicted (scales to luck).
- You have a build centred around triggering procs that boost your capabilities (such as cooldowns to abilities on successful hits on enemies).
- You have an interest in a ranged build and want to combo it with a cooldown build (there are perks based on cooldown and luck that benefit ranged builds).
6. Cooldown
Cooldown is straight-forward: the higher your cooldown, the faster the cooldown on relics and runic abilities. You won’t need to wait as long between your abilities and relics, both of which are game-changers in combat.
One of the greatest things about cooldown is the very specific use case of boosting damage to ranged attacks with the Midgard enhancement set. Combining Kratos with a ranged armour set, you can make Kratos into a ranged artillery machine.
Get this stat if:
- You want a build centred around abilities and relics.
- You want to have a ranged build that focuses on the Midgard enhancement set.
- When combo’d with high luck, there’s a good chance of triggering cooldown procs, which can significantly lower cooldowns as your base cooldown numbers are already low. This can allow you to trigger multiple relic and ability refreshes in the same fight.
