March of Giants – Dreadnought Kinetic Carry (Crit) Build

Dreadnought Kinetic Carry (Crit) Build Guide

This Dreadnought build focuses on Kinetic Power, Critical Strike, and sustained basic attack damage. It uses Dreadnought’s passive attack speed, critical-strike scaling, and wave-clearing potential to farm efficiently in the early game and deal high damage to enemy Giants and objectives in the late game.

The build is particularly suited to fighting tank-heavy compositions and divers, although it requires consistent basic attacks and careful kiting to reach its full potential.

Build Order

Follow this item progression to balance early-game farming, sustain, and late-game damage.

1. Splintering Strike: An early farming item that will be sold later.
2. Reinforced Strike: Improves wave clearing and provides additional damage that can critically strike. Keep it until the final stages of the game.
3. Boots: Improve mobility and help you return to lane faster.
4. Life Steal Strike: Provides sustain to remain in lane and farm for longer.
5. Basic Attack Boots: Further support the basic-attack-focused playstyle.
6. Critical Strike: Increases the damage of basic attacks, W’s bonus damage, and Reinforced Strike’s critical hits.
7. Blasting Luck: Adds area-of-effect damage and helps clear waves faster, allowing you to replace Splintering Strike.
8. Vampiric Strike: Improves sustain during extended fights.
9. Slowing Strike: Helps prevent enemies from escaping or running you down while you stop to perform basic attacks.
10. Execute: Provides penetration against tanky enemies.
11. Grievous Strike: Reduces enemy healing, particularly useful against Giants using Rally builds, including Vampiric Troops, and against Solace.

Choosing Your Final Item

Choose an additional item based on your team’s needs and the enemy composition.

• Vitae Harvest: Choose this when the enemy team has many divers and your team lacks a frontline.
• Feedback Loop: Choose this when you take too much poke or area-of-effect damage during fights. Building it too early can reduce your damage output because it provides no Kinetic Power. In the mid to late game, prioritize Execute for penetration or Grievous Strike to halve healing before considering this defensive option.
• Explosive Victim: Choose this when you are your team’s only damage dealer.

Selling Early Items

• Splintering Strike: Sell it later in the build, replacing it with Blasting Luck for faster wave clearing.
• Reinforced Strike: Sell it last among the early farming items, as its damage can critically strike and remain a meaningful part of your output. It can account for approximately 20% of your damage until the late game, around 15,000+ Merits.

Recommended Augments

Ability	Augment	Purpose
Q	Extra projectiles	Improves wave clearing and poke.
W	Duration	Increases the time available to deal damage and lets you attack from a safer distance.
W	Range	Allows you to hit targets from farther away.
E	Range	Provides greater reach when repositioning or escaping.

Why This Build Works

Kinetic Power and Critical Strike

Dreadnought’s passive grants up to 75 attack speed after landing three basic attacks on a single target. Hitting enemies with Q can fully stack the passive.

W adds approximately 20% more damage per basic attack in the early game. Its bonus damage can critically strike and scale with Critical Strike, making it valuable throughout the build’s progression.

Together, these mechanics reward sustained basic attacks and make Critical Strike an important source of late-game damage.

The bunker-related portion of Dreadnought’s passive does not scale with level or Kinetic Power and cannot critically strike, so it does not need to be a focus of this build.

Farming and Wave Clearing

Splintering Strike and Reinforced Strike help Dreadnought clear waves efficiently and accumulate Merits. Reinforced Strike remains useful because its damage can critically strike, allowing it to contribute significantly even as the game progresses.

Blasting Luck eventually replaces Splintering Strike as the primary area-of-effect item for clearing waves.

Mobility and Sustain

Boots help Dreadnought return to lane quickly, while Life Steal Strike provides the sustain needed to remain in lane and farm for longer.

Vampiric Strike and Slowing Strike become especially useful in fights. Because Dreadnought must stop moving to perform basic attacks, he is vulnerable to enemy area-of-effect abilities and can struggle to escape pursuing enemies. Sustain and slowing effects help him remain effective during extended engagements.

Armor Penetration and Healing Reduction

Execute is primarily intended to provide penetration against tanks. Grievous Strike is important against enemies with substantial healing, particularly Giants using Rally builds, including Vampiric Troops, and Solace, whose healing can make fights more difficult.

Feedback Loop is another defensive option when incoming poke or area-of-effect damage becomes a problem. However, because it provides no Kinetic Power, building it too early can compromise Dreadnought’s damage output. In the mid to late game, penetration and healing reduction may be more important.

How to Play Dreadnought

Early Game: Up to Approximately 6,000 Merits

Your primary objective is to farm efficiently and establish an economic advantage.

• Prioritize wave clearing. Focus on farming rather than forcing unnecessary fights.
• Control the wave position. Keep waves near the middle of the lane or push them back toward the enemy. This creates opportunities to collect supplies and Merits or buy items.
• Poke with Q every wave. Use it to damage enemy units and reduce the number of enemy Soldiers.
• Use W when enemies threaten an engagement. If an enemy approaches to engage or poke, use W to hit units or enemy Giants. Splintering Strike can bounce between targets, helping clear the wave while dealing additional damage to nearby Giants.

The combination of efficient farming and ranged pressure helps you accumulate Merits while limiting the enemy’s ability to advance comfortably.

Positioning and Escaping Threats

Dreadnought’s damage depends on maintaining consistent basic attacks, which makes positioning critical.

When you need to move forward during a fight and know that enemies still have their ultimates or crowd-control abilities available, place E toward a safe position. This gives you a way to teleport back to safety if the engagement becomes dangerous.

Avoid committing too far forward without an escape route. Dreadnought can deal substantial sustained damage, but his stationary basic attacks make him vulnerable when enemies can reliably reach him.

Using Your Ultimate

Dreadnought’s ultimate is useful for wave clearing and poking Giants or bunkers during the early and mid game.

In the late game, basic attacks deal more damage, so the ultimate should generally be reserved for specific situations:

• Clearing waves when enemies are sieging your buildings.
• Dealing with a Giant accompanied by a large number of Soldiers.

Outside these situations, prioritize basic attacks to maximize sustained damage.

Matchups and Team Composition

Dreadnought is not necessarily the strongest Giant in every situation. His main advantage is a distinct playstyle built around sustained basic attacks, attack speed, and critical-strike scaling.

• Against divers: His sustained damage can be effective, provided he positions carefully and keeps an escape route available.
• Against tank-heavy teams: His high damage output and access to penetration make him a useful option against durable Giants.
• Against Elaris: Elaris may be easier to play, while Dreadnought can offer higher late-game DPS. Dreadnought’s effectiveness depends on maintaining consistent attacks and kiting correctly.
• Against Stratus: Stratus can be dangerous against diving or tank-heavy compositions because her area-of-effect damage and crowd control can punish enemies who engage together.
• Against Ossuary: Dreadnought can potentially win a late-game engagement against Ossuary when his ultimate is unavailable, particularly if Dreadnought can clear many of Ossuary’s Soldiers with area-of-effect damage. However, surviving Ossuary’s ultimate charge is critical. Without E ready to blink out of the charge, Dreadnought is at a major disadvantage.

Dreadnought’s objective damage is also a late-game strength. Although Ossuary may be faster at objectives during the early and mid game, Dreadnought may destroy objectives faster in the late game.

Key Takeaways

• Build around Kinetic Power, Critical Strike, and sustained basic attacks.
• Use Dreadnought’s passive and Q to maintain attack speed and improve farming.
• Keep Splintering Strike and Reinforced Strike during the early farming phase, then transition toward stronger late-game items.
• Use W to deal bonus damage while maintaining a safer position.
• Prioritize Execute against tanks and Grievous Strike against heavy healing.
• Keep E available as an escape when enemies still have dangerous ultimates or crowd control.
• Use the ultimate more selectively in the late game, when basic attacks become your primary source of damage.
• Dreadnought performs best when you can maintain consistent attacks without being forced out of position.