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Hou Yi - Here it comes! (Season 4, Patch 4.17)

0 0 14,722
by xXDannTheMannXx updated September 23, 2017

Smite God: Hou Yi

Build Guide Discussion 6 More Guides
Choose a Build: ADC/Carry
ADC/Carry Mid (Unorthodox) Jungle
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Hou Yi Build

Starting Build

Build Item Death's Toll Death's Toll
Build Item Bumba's Mask Bumba's Mask
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
2
Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion
2

Build Path #1

Build Item Warrior Tabi Warrior Tabi
Build Item Devourer's Gauntlet Devourer's Gauntlet
Build Item The Executioner The Executioner
Build Item Qin's Sais Qin's Sais
Build Item Titan's Bane Titan's Bane
Build Item Odysseus' Bow Odysseus' Bow

Build Path #2

Build Item Ninja Tabi Ninja Tabi
Build Item Devourer's Gauntlet Devourer's Gauntlet
Build Item The Executioner The Executioner
Build Item Rage Rage
Build Item Titan's Bane Titan's Bane
Build Item Deathbringer Deathbringer

Build Path #3

Build Item Ninja Tabi Ninja Tabi
Build Item Devourer's Gauntlet Devourer's Gauntlet
Build Item The Executioner The Executioner
Build Item Poisoned Star Poisoned Star
Build Item Deathbringer Deathbringer
Build Item Demon Blade Demon Blade

Relics

Build Item Purification Beads Purification Beads
Build Item Aegis Amulet Aegis Amulet

Situational

Build Item Toxic Blade Toxic Blade

Hou Yi's Skill Order

Ricochet

1 X Y
Ricochet
1 3 6 7 9

Mark of the Golden Crow

2 A B
Mark of the Golden Crow
4 13 14 15 16

Divebomb

3 B A
Divebomb
2 8 10 11 12

Sunbreaker

4 Y X
Sunbreaker
5 17 18 19 20
Ricochet
1 3 6 7 9

Ricochet

1 X
Hou Yi fires a powerful shot that can ricochet off of walls. After firing, if this arrow bounces off of a wall it will travel 70 units from that point and gain +40% bonus damage to gods per bounce up to a maximum of 2 bounces. This arrow will stun if the target has Mark of the Golden Crow.

Ability Type: Line, Damage
Damage: 95 / 145 / 195 / 245 / 295 (+70% of your Physical Power)
Stun Duration: 1s
Range: 70
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 10 / 9.5 / 9 / 8.5 / 8s
Mark of the Golden Crow
4 13 14 15 16

Mark of the Golden Crow

2 A
Hou Yi marks an enemy with Mark of the Golden Crow. Marked enemies take extra damage for every 10% of their missing health from Hou Yi's abilities and basic attacks. Also, marked enemies, including stealthed gods, are visible to Hou Yi on the minimap. The mark lasts for 10s.

Ability: Target, Debuff
Damage Increase: 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6% for every 10% of missing health
Range: 55
Cost: 50
Cooldown: 14s
Divebomb
2 8 10 11 12

Divebomb

3 B
Hou Yi launches into the air, and for a short time may target some distance away to quickly dive towards the ground damaging any enemies in the immediate area. If the target has Mark of the Golden Crow they are knocked back.

Ability: Circle, Leap, Damage
Damage: 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+60% of your Physical Power)
Range/Radius: 55/20
Cost: 70
Cooldown: 15s
Sunbreaker
5 17 18 19 20

Sunbreaker

4 Y
Hou Yi shoots nine arrows into the sky, striking one sun with each arrow. The nine suns come crashing down one by one, slowing and dealing damage in a target area over time. A target with Mark of the Golden Crow will have their movement speed slowed by an additional 20%.

Ability: Circle, Slow, Damage
Damage: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 (+25% of your Physical Power) every 0.5s
Damage (Maximum): 720 / 810 / 900 / 990 / 1080 (+225% of your Physical Power)
Duration: 4.5s
Slow: 20%
Slow Duration: 0.5s per hit
Range/Radius: 55/30
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90s

God Introduction

Hou Yi is a hunter focused around boxing an enemy and controlling areas with his Ricochet and his ultimate, Sunbreaker. He is commonly played in the carry/ADC role but is known to also be a flexible pick for the mid lane, and can even be played as an unorthodox jungle.

Build Explanation

Death's Toll is the go-to starter item for most hunters, as the sustain granted from it is so valuable in mitigating poke and keeping your health topped off. Bluestone Pendant can be considered on Hou Yi though I would learn more towards Death's Toll because the sustain is stronger than extra damage in my opinion.

Bumba's Mask is practically mandatory, as the extra damage towards jungle monsters increases your camp clear, plus the sustain granted from killing them helps you to clear more jungle camps and to sustain yourself in lane too.

Warrior Tabi is a good choice of footwear as the extra physical power will increase your poke, burst, and DPS, early game. Late game however, I would consider selling it for Ninja Tabi, as the attack speed late into the game will do more of a difference DPS wise than 20 extra physical power.

Devourer's Gauntlets are built due to their good early power spike. The amount of power it provides for the price of 2000 gold is great, plus the lifesteal is nice too.

The Executioner is a great item for hunters at the moment, since it provides 3 important stats for hunters, physical power, attack speed, and penetration. It is also fairly cheap.

Qin Sais is an excellent item in a build focused around attack speed and penetration, as you will be able to apply its passive effect very frequently, and will be dealing near true damage, with all of the penetration you have.

Titan's Bane is a great item for still having good DPS versus structures and great DPS versus tanks.

Odysseus Bow is your last item and it will drastically improve your DPS with not only the sheer amount of attack speed it provides, but also with its damaging passive, which will add up over time. However if the enemy team has strong healing presence, swap it out for Toxic Blade.

Item Advice

Asi is fine to build though make sure that you are lacking power nor have too much attack speed.

Bloodforge isn't bad either for quick paced gamemodes such as Arena.

Atalanta's Bow is terrible. Please do not build it. It offers little for the cost.

Brawler's Beatstick isn't the worst thing in the world but I do value Toxic Blade much more than Brawler's Beatstick.

Even though it would seem that Hou Yi is an ability based hunter, he sort of isn't. His only source of reliable damage is his Ricochet which is only noticeable if you can manage to bounce it off of walls once or twice. Also Hou Yi's main source of damage is from his basic attacks not abilities. For this reason, Jotunn's Wrath is not a good option for Hou Yi, even in mid and in the jungle.

The Crusher is a decent item in general for hunters though other items overshadow it, in the mid lane and in the duo lane. I find it great if you are playing Hou Yi in the jungle.

Transcendence is not a bad option. The high physical power gained is nice, and Hou Yi does use up quite a bit of mana. I'd prefer it for mid lane Hou Yi than Hou Yi in the duo lane, since lifesteal is more valuable to him there as he will be boxing his opponent often, while in the mid lane, one on one boxing is rarer.

Shifter's Shield is a fine option for Hou Yi in the jungle and in the mid lane. It grants an immediate amount of power which is nice to have, but also grants you with protections whenever you're low, making you harder to kill whenever your health drops.

Critical strike chance items. These items are fine to build however due to Hou Yi's lack of an attack speed increase in his kit, he will not yield the same amount of DPS as a god such as Artemis or Rama would with a build focused on crit. And as such, you will need to fit in more attack speed into your build if you want effective results.

Toxic Blade. PLEAES BUILD IT. The loss in DPS is not huge and the benefit of nearly shutting down the enemy team's health sustain is much larger than losing a bit of damage.

Tips and Tricks

Note that in my carry and jungle sections, I prioritize Divebomb after fully leveling Ricochet. Why? The reason being is that you will get more burst from doing so, which is especially important in the jungle role, since you will not be directly boxing an enemy too often. I do this for Hou Yi carry since after marking, I will play aggressive by leaping onto my marked opponent, knocking them up, and then firing Ricochet. Doing this with a fully leveled Divebomb results in more burst than with a fully leveled Mark of the Golden Crow. Also early game, the damage increase from Mark of the Golden Crow isn't as significant as it will be late game, so you might as well save your skill points for it later.

Try to learn the areas that you can get a single or double bounce with Ricochet. This will vastly improve your jungle camp clear which is very important for Hou Yi in general.

Often times it is better to go for the straightforward shot with Ricochet rather than trying to be fancy with it, and looking for a bounce. Unless you are 100% confident or your opponent is out of reach, you shouldn't waste your time with bounces in team fights.

If you are outpressured past level 5, and really need to recall to base but a minion wave has pushed up, don't be afraid to use your ultimate on the minion wave. It will clear the minion wave very nicely.

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3
Z0rr0ark (3) | October 11, 2017 10:43am
I find your builds for the "Duo Lane" are lacking in flat penetration. Possibly for alternate to triple crit, you can go Asi in place of Wind Demon. However I can see the appeal of running triple crit, without some flat pen it kind of hinders itself.

Also, I like the core concepts of the builds Devo's/Ninja/Exe - this is a potent choice of items but I find Trans/Ninja/Asi works better for the core items allows for that extra power over potential boxing ADCs, as Hou Yi already gains damage increase per 10% missing hp when under Mark of the Golden Crow.

Lastly, I think your focus on Penetration based builds is slightly off in this meta, sure it works but Att Speed / Crit is dominant in this meta. I've found that this build of trans/ninja/asi/exe/poisonedstar/deathbringer beats almost all of my opponents, it's only downside is that Transendence is an expensive early game choice.

Note: I don't mean to sound like I'm de-moralising your builds or discrediting your choices, this is meant as constructive criticism.
1
DV-8 (35) | October 11, 2017 11:25am
You bring up some good points here.

I will have to try your suggested build out. It seems interesting in theory, but I have a few questions about it.

As you mentioned, Transcendence takes longer to build and to stack. If your lane opponent has built Devourer's Gauntlet, they would most likely have boxing potential over you due to their item being online sooner and having the early lifesteal, correct? In that case, it seems like you would have to play passive until you get your Asi, which could take several minutes.

So let's say that you play the early game passive until you get your Asi built, then you go into The Executioner as your 4th item. Meanwhile, your lane opponent probably has the typical Boots/ Devo's/ Executioner starting 3 items, and go into a Critical Strike item like Poisoned Star for their 4th item. So they also get their Critical Strike online before you as well. They had a higher DPS in the early game, and now have higher DPS in the middle game as well.

This build does come online in the late game though, and does give higher DPS compared to the Devo's build once all items are built. So you have a solid late game build, but it almost seems as if you are playing catch up with the Devo's build the entire game.

Thoughts?
1
Z0rr0ark (3) | October 11, 2017 4:15pm
Hmmm, your counter points are very good, however I created that build personal to me and it complements my play-style of being passive yet poking and wreaking havoc in lategame.

Let's suppose that it's Hou Yi vs. another ADC with Devo's and I have Transcendence. There are no minions for blocking and it's a pure 1v1. While Devo's takes longer to stack and provides less power than Trans, plus with few items the lifesteal from Devourer's is quite small due to low amounts of Physical Power giving weaker autos.

I also find that juking and having knowledge of your enemy is vital when building Transcendence as Devourer's Gauntlet is a safe alternative due to the lifesteal gained.
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1
Branmuffin17 (400) | October 11, 2017 11:35am
I know the question isn't directed at me, but you know I'll comment anyway =)

I think it's important to note that most gods are going to have higher DPS than Hou Yi, since he doesn't have an AS steroid. The strength of his game comes from his abilities, so he's got 2 routes to try to get the upper hand on an enemy:
  • Build for DPS, via Devo's + either Qin's or Crit. Again, he's likely to lose out on a straight basic attack boxing match, so he'll look to gain the upper hand via his ability use & potential stun, along with baiting out the enemy's escape/initiation ability, so he can more easily keep them in Sunbreaker.

  • Build with a focus on ability damage via Trans & pen. Yes, he's going to lose even harder on basic attack DPS (at least in the early game), but his clear will be fine as soon as he gets Trans online...if he can then outclear, he can get in some extra hits, or if not, he'll just look to get some help from the Jungler / Support to secure kills at that stage.
1
Branmuffin17 (400) | October 11, 2017 11:15am
This is a great comment, with good explanations for your opinions and reasoning. I see the benefit of both Dann's standard build (Mid specifically...build #2) and your suggestion.

Honestly, I always feel the need to get lifesteal (I'm not good enough to not take a lot of damage while fighting, and I don't want to be forced to back after each fight), so Asi in combination with Transcendence and Warrior Tabi (replace late with Ninja) would the way I'd build him as core.

I think my standard build, in either ADC or Mid roles would be Warrior Tabi, Transcendence, Asi, Titan's Bane, Qin's Sais, (situational) Odysseus' Bow (or possibly The Crusher).
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League of Legends Build Guide Author xXDannTheMannXx
Hou Yi - Here it comes! (Season 4, Patch 4.17)
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