Is the Kraken actually strong, or is it just a meme pick?

Community consensus is that the Kraken is genuinely good. A hook-based kit always scales with player skill, and this one adds a ranged orb and a fear mechanic on top of the pull. As long as you land hooks, the character performs.

What should I max first in the march of giants kraken build?

Max your ritual orb first for wave clear and poke, then the hook, then ritual placement. Orb damage makes the laning phase far more forgiving.

Do I need move speed items on the Kraken?

Yes. Testers repeatedly highlighted that playing this Giant without move speed feels terrible. You have no dash, so boots or equivalent mobility stats are effectively mandatory.

How do I stop my rituals from being destroyed?

Never place them in open lanes. Minions will auto-attack rituals, so keep them behind your Soldier line or tucked inside a Bunker cluster where enemies can't reach them safely.

March of Giants Kraken Build Guide: Best Items, Rituals, and Hook Combos

Why Kraken Is the Hook Giant to Learn First

The Kraken is the Giant that turns a single skill shot into a death sentence. One clean hook, and your opponent is standing in the middle of your soldiers with nowhere to run. If you want to climb early in playtests, the right march of giants kraken build leans into ritual stacking, cooldown reduction, and Battlework placement rather than raw burst damage.

This guide pulls together everything community testers have learned about the march of giants kraken build so far — ability priorities, item slots that actually matter, and the combo patterns that make the hook stick. Keep in mind that March of Giants is still in pre-release playtesting, so numbers may shift before launch.

Why the Kraken Stands Out

March of Giants is a free-to-play 4v4 MOBA where you command an army, not just a hero. Giants lead Soldiers, and Battleworks reshape lanes into shifting front lines. In that environment, a Giant who can physically drag an enemy out of position is worth more than one who simply deals damage. Player experience from early streams suggests the Kraken fits that role better than almost anyone.

The community verdict has been blunt: a hook hero is only as good as the person aiming it — and the Kraken rewards that skill with a kit that scales hard once rituals are on the field.

Kraken Abilities and the Ritual System Explained

Understanding the ritual economy is the single most important part of this march of giants kraken build. Rituals are placed temples that buff you while you stand near them, and they also power up your other abilities. Here’s how the kit breaks down based on community reports.

Ability	What It Does	Build Priority
Ritual Orb (Q)	Launches a projectile dealing roughly 150 damage; explodes while piercing enemies	Max first
Hook (W)	Pulls the first enemy hit toward you; around an 8-second cooldown	Max second
Ritual Placement	Drops a temple granting about 10% power and 15% CDR, and fears nearby enemies	Max last
Ritual Sacrifice (Ultimate)	Consumes all rituals for AoE fear, roughly 60 power, 30% range, 20% CDR, soldier shake-off, and charge immunity	Take on curve

How Rituals Change Your Damage

The orb’s behavior scales directly with how many rituals you have active:

One ritual — the orb explodes when piercing enemies, up to three times.
Two rituals — you fire an additional orb for more total damage.
Empowered state — your orb output becomes a multi-projectile spread that behaves more like a shotgun blast than a single poke tool.

That escalation is why positioning matters more than raw item stats. Community testers noted that the Kraken “spits out a lot more globes” once rituals are stacked, which turns a modest poke ability into genuine wave clear.

The Ultimate Turns You Into an Auto-Attacker

Sacrificing every ritual is a real decision, not a fire-and-forget button. You trade your stationary buff zone for a burst window: AoE fear around you, a large power spike, extra range, heavy cooldown reduction, immunity to charges, and the ability to shake off enemy soldiers. If you’re being dived by a melee Giant with a screen of minions on you, this is your reset button.

Core March of Giants Kraken Build: Items and Stat Priorities

Because the hook has a long cooldown and the Kraken has no built-in mobility, your item choices should solve those two problems before anything else. Testers consistently complained that playing this Giant without move speed “is so annoying” — so treat mobility as mandatory, not luxury.

Stat or Item Type	Why It Matters	Priority
Cooldown Reduction	Shorter hook cooldown means more pick attempts per minute	Must-have
Move Speed	The Kraken has no dash; you need to reposition between hooks	Must-have
Ability Range	Extends both hook and orb threat range	High
Kill-Stacking Damage	Bonus damage or CDR on takedowns rewards aggressive play	High
Shield / Damage Converter	Early durability so you survive your own engages	Medium
Energy or Mana on Giant Hit	Rarely needed — testers skipped this repeatedly	Low
Pure Soldier / Rally Stats	Strong on other Giants, but not the Kraken’s win condition	Situational

Early Game Item Order

First back: grab a survivability or shield-oriented component so you can trade without dying during your hook cooldown.
Second back: prioritize cooldown reduction — an 8-second hook becomes dramatically more threatening at 6 seconds.
Mid game: pick up move speed and range. Range on the hook is one of the strongest single upgrades because it lets you threaten from behind your own Soldiers.
Late game: layer a kill-stacking item. Every takedown adds permanent value, and the Kraken should be finishing kills consistently.

Damage vs. Soldier Builds

According to community reports, most players are building damage on their own Giant rather than investing in Soldiers. Testers argued that Soldier-heavy builds are secretly strong, but the Kraken is a poor fit for them — your job is to isolate and delete a target, not to flood a lane. Build for pick potential, and let your teammates handle the army scaling.

Ritual Placement and Hook Combos That Win Lanes

The Kraken is a territorial Giant. Because rituals don’t move and have long cooldowns, you want to plant yourself in one lane and make it miserable to play against. Community players described this as “AFK bot lane” mentality — and honestly, it works.

Ritual Location	Verdict	Reason
Behind your own Soldiers	Excellent	Safe from minion auto-attacks, still buffs you
Inside a Bunker cluster	Excellent	Enemies hooked in get shredded
Directly on top of an enemy	Situational	Applies fear, but you lose your buff zone
In the open mid-lane	Poor	Minions auto-attack rituals and destroy them
Deep in enemy territory	Very poor	Long cooldown wasted on a contested position

Three Combos You Should Drill

Combo	Order	What It Achieves
Bunker Bail	Place rituals near a Bunker → hook enemy in → fear	Turns a defensive structure into a kill zone
Fear Chain	Hook → place ritual on target → ultimate sacrifice	Multiple fear applications in a row
Wall Hook	Hook through a building or wall → orb follow-up	Catches enemies who think terrain protects them

The wall hook is a genuine knowledge check. The Kraken’s hook travels through structures, and players who don’t respect that will die for it. On the flip side, the hook gets clipped by walls in some map geometry, and a blocked hook means your target escapes — that quirk is part of what keeps the character balanced.

Matchup Notes

Into melee Giants: you are generally favored early. Punish their approach with orb poke and save the hook for when they commit.
Into ranged hyper-carries: respect their damage. Player experience suggests ranged heroes like the Baroness can simply one-shot squishy targets once they get gold, so deny them farm early.
Into dive compositions: hold your ultimate as an escape tool, not an engage tool.

Battleworks and Soldier Synergy

Battleworks are deployable structures — trenches, Giant slayer bunkers, cavalry, and soldier drops — and they are the Kraken’s best friend. The most effective pattern testers found was stacking Bunkers and then hooking enemies into them. You get damage, a choke point, and cover all from one placement.

Battlework	Kraken Synergy	Notes
Giant Slayer Bunker	Very high	Bunkers damage hooked targets and cover your retreat
Trenches	High	Force enemies into predictable hook angles
Soldier Drops	Medium	Extra bodies to body-block skill shots aimed at you
Cavalry	Medium	Chase down targets that survive your combo

One caveat from playtesting: Bunkers placed aggressively need protection, because losing them hurts your lane control significantly. Place Battleworks where your Soldiers can defend them, and use the official March of Giants Steam page to track playtest windows so you can practice these setups yourself.

For a wider view, our March of Giants items guide, Kragg build guide, map control guide round out the picture from different angles.