Hou Yi conquest and arena builds (Multiple)(Updated for S3)

Hi I'm ShatoSummoner (GodlyShato in game), and this is my Hou Yi guide. I'm not some top rank player or anything, just a player who really enjoys playing Hou Yi.

Pro's:

Insane Duelling (Possibly the best in the game)
Extremely strong at objective control and Jungle Skirmishes with 1 and 4
Deceptively Tanky with Passive
Extremely adaptable build paths

Very weak early game, especially wave clear
Extremely High Skill floor and cieling
Passive can be rendered useless by intelligent counter building (Ex. Not building crit)

One of my favorite parts about playing Hou Yi is his ability to change his build to adapt to a given situation. That being said, here's a quick run down of when to build what items on Hou Yi:

Classic Critical ADC: Your classic adc build with the usual items; Devourer's Gauntlet, executioner, and Rage. Since the Deathbringer nerf, I no longer consider it a 100% requirement when building crit on an adc, instead you should weight the benefits that it gives you against other items. Golden Bow gives you excellent wave clear, and even more aoe damage along with your ult against stacked enemies. Malice is excellent when you are ahead but enemies keep escaping thanks to mobility. The Deathbringer is good when you have enemies consistently trying to engage you in 1v1 scenarios, and especially against enemies with low protections.

Unicorn Hou Yi: One of the newer builds to come around thanks to Krett is what I prefer to build over critical. Hou Yi mostly removes the enemies crit from the equation in trades, and when you yourself don't have to rely on your own RNG to deal adequate damage as well, it really helps your duelling potential. This build is especially potent when the enemy team is vulnerable to split pushing due to its high tower damage.

Transcendence: Only start Transcendence when you know you have an easy early game ahead of you. If the enemy team has extremely low wave clear, this is the choice build due to it having the hardest scaling of any other adc build. The excecutioner is the only other mandatory item in this build, giving you the option to further build into critical chance, unicorn, or attack speed.

Tanky Solo: Got an Athena Jungle and a Ymir Support? This build is fairly good to keep your teams physical damage relevant in the late game. Transcendence and max cdr will give you the wave clear and teamfight damage to be relevant, while also allowing you to build tanky if you wish. This build should only be used after you have significant experience with Hou Yi, since you can easily get demolished early on by bruisers.

Arena Explained: This is my arena build. It may look odd at first glance, but just let me explain. Arena is about two things: Wave clear, and teamfighting. By building Odysseus' Bow and Transcendence, you can have a strong amount of both. The proc from the bow helps both in wave clearing and dealing massive aoe damage in teamfights, and transcendence helps build damage onto both your auto's and your abilities. You can then either grab quin's sais for more damage against single targets, or Golden Bow to increase your aoe damage.

As you can see, regardless of the situation the most efficient maxing order is 4-1-2-3. No matter where you are, having the extra damage and wave clear from Ricochet is extremely important, since under turrets only last hits will give you gold. Mark of the Golden Crow scales extremely well, giving more utility with each rank. Hou Yi's Divebomb has recently gotten a buff doubling its physical scaling, but generally speaking with the current way physical items work, it is still a rather weak spell, and mostly used as an escape or cc tool in a 1v1 duel. Drop a point in your ultimate, Sunbreaker whenever you can, because it is an excellent team fighting ability and also fairly strong in duels.

How To Use: Ricochet
Contrary to popular belief, doing those hardcore 360 noscopes ricochet shots is not actually worthwhile in many situations. If you can Ricochet through melee minions of a wall and into archer minions, only do so if you won't be insanely out of position. In lane, only use ricochet off walls for poke if you have an obvious and strong advantage. Most of the time, you only want to use ricochet for the stun combined with Mark, and wave clear in lane. The only time you should actually bother thinking about ricochet's is in the jungle, where it is possible to hit several gods with multiple hits with fair ease.

How To Use: Mark of the Golden Crow
With no CDR, your mark has a down time of 3 seconds. The primary use of this ability depends on the game. If the enemy team has a troublesome stealth god (loki) you should always have them marked after your Mark reaches rank 3 or higher. This is because at rank 3, you gain vision on enemy champions even when they are stealthed. A stealthed loki who doesn't realize that you've marked them is a fairly easy kill for you or your teammates once you land the stun. When there isn't a stealth champion like that, it comes down to two situations. In lane, if the enemy support is someone with strong crowd control, I recommend putting your mark on them to passively to zone them. Continue next chaper.

How To Use: Mark of the Golden Crow Part 2
Continuing on, if said support goes in to try and stun you, nail them with a ricochet and either walk away or dive bomb. If the enemy support does not have a lot of cc, and especially if the enemy adc has no escape (Artemis, AMC), feel free to mark them and encourage your support to focus them. Chances are, you should be able to shove them out if you can nail the stun and get good follow up. Late game, you want to mark anyone with the tendency and ability to dive you (Damage heavy warriors like Belona, Assassins), or in extended skirmishes with mark at rank 5, the front liners. At rank 5, you gain +25% penetration against your mark, making it excellent for killing tanks. Don't be afraid to leave your w off cool down if you can't mark a priority target, because without the stun from it you have little self peel.

How To Use: Divebomb
Even after the buffs, this ability does not do a lot of damage. Unless they have almost no health and there is nobody else nearby, don't use this for damage. In a 1v1 duel, feel free to use it as a knockup if there is nobody else nearby, because you can easily land 1-3 auto's on them with it. However, this is primarily your escape and to avoid high damage abilities or heavy crowd controls (You are untargetable once you get in the air. You still take damage from DoT abilities, however). In a build with no CDR, the cool down on this ability is fairly long, so using it offensively is not a good idea. Save it for an escape

How To Use: Sunbreaker
This ultimate is considered by many to be lackluster due to its low burst damage, but that's because the intention of the ability is not necessarily to deal damage. In a teamfight, it does indeed do massive amounts of damage, especially when combined with a cc guardian like Ares, or when used in cramped areas such as objectives (fire giant, gold fury) or jungle paths. However, it also applies a slow to your marked target, making it easier to land a stun or just more auto attacks. This same slow can be used to escape the same situations that you can use your stun for as well. Really, your ultimate is a zoning tool above all else, and those who only look at it for damage are misinterpreting its point.

2/27/2016: Edited Items Section to include season 3 items!
5/26/2016: Made it prettier