Makoa Guide: The Hook That Decides Fights

+25% ultimate charge rate and +500 health. Ancient Rage now makes Makoa 50% larger, raises its speed bonus to 45% and resets the cooldowns of all three abilities — Shell Shield was added to the reset in the final 8.1 patch. The least-picked talent (18–19%) and the best-performing one in every archived snapshot, climbing from 51.3% to 54.0% through 2025.

The best Makoa loadout in the archive: 61.5%, 63.6% and 56.3% across the three 2025 snapshots (about 880 matches) and 59.3% on 627 matches in December 2024. Since patch 7.5, Harden triggers when you throw the anchor, hit or miss — a quarter off every hit you take for 4 seconds, every 11 seconds. Skip the in-game Leviathan preset: built on Rampage and Surf, it wins 47–50.5%.

• ▸Spend before you ult: throw the anchor and spin first, then press Ancient Rage — the reset hands all three abilities straight back.
• ▸Treat Ancient Rage as an 8-second window, not a heal. You drop back to the health you had when it ends, so open fights with it instead of saving it for the last 500 HP.
• ▸You are 50% bigger and, since 8.1, headshots land in full during the ult. Dive with 45% speed into a target your team can reach — not alone into their backline.
• ▸Charge is half the talent: Ancient Rage fills 25% faster, and Morale Boost stacks on top of it.

For 4 seconds after Dredge Anchor lands, your next cannonball against that enemy deals 75% more damage — about 1000 from a single shot, 1100 with the anchor itself. The default and most-picked talent (56–57%) at a steady 51–52% winrate: the hook-and-shoot combo every Makoa learns first.

An anchor build that won 55.5% (218 matches, March 2025) and 54.1% (403, December 2024). Salvage matters more than its single point suggests: the anchor reloads a cannonball, so the Pluck shot is always ready. In May 2025, the same core with Determination 5 and Surf 3 in place of Harden posted 61.1% on 234 matches.

• ▸Anchor, then shoot immediately: the target lands in front of you stunned, so the slow cannonball cannot miss. The bonus expires after 4 seconds or on the first shot.
• ▸Pick targets without an escape — Maeve after Pounce, Androxus after Nether Step, Tyra and Viktor, who have little to escape with.
• ▸Throw around shields, not into them: an enemy shield ends the throw and burns the full cooldown.
• ▸Fight near ledges: Shell Spin’s knockback and a well-timed anchor can end a duel without a single cannonball.

Shell Shield is placed on the ground instead of channeled around you, lasts 2 seconds longer and — since the final 8.1 patch — has 500 extra health: 5000 for 7 seconds on a 12-second cooldown. You can shoot while it stands, but you cannot cancel it. Picked about 24% of the time at 50.9–51.9%.

The game’s own Half Shell preset — and the most-played Makoa loadout in the archive, 900–1,100 matches per 2025 snapshot at 47.4–50.0%: a coin flip, not a trap. It turns the shield into a 5800-health wall for almost 9 seconds. Worth knowing: none of the builds that outperform it spend a single point on Shell Shield cards.

• ▸Place the shell for your team, not for yourself: it stays where you put it, so plant it on the point and fight beside it.
• ▸Shoot through the fight — unlike the default shield, Half Shell is not a channel, so your cannon never stops.
• ▸Commit when you place it: it cannot be cancelled, and the cooldown only starts once it breaks or expires.
• ▸Drop it before Ancient Rage — a shell already on the ground stays up while you swing.