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Ishtar All-In-One Hunter/Assassin

7 8 9,415
5.6
by ThirstForRain updated August 24, 2022

Smite God: Ishtar

Build Guide Discussion 12 More Guides
Choose a Build: One-Shot Assassin(solo/adc/jungle)
One-Shot Assassin(solo/adc/jungle) Hit-Scan Artillery ADC Attackspeed Hunter (Standard ADC) Slippery Bruiser Variant(solo/jungle)
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Build Summary

Solo

Notes One-Shot Assassin Solo

Death's Toll for HP/Mana sustain in lane. The upgrade is nice.
Gilded Arrow for crit and more consistent damage.
Manikin's if you're jungling, or if you want slightly more damage in the early game. Faster clear, especially on camps.

Quick info on this build:
Pros:
It's the trial-and-tested highest damage burst build on her. No matter what others say.
It's got cheap powerspikes that are VERY strong on every item.
It's always an effective build, and it's what I'd normally play in any role.
It doubles as an assassin-hunter.
It has lifesteal, 95% crit, 1.7 AS, and 55% pen on basic attacks.

Cons:
It's less effective if the enemy groups up on top of each other.
There're better alternatives for specific matchups and playstyles.
The build falls apart if you change any item other than the starter.

If you buy Death's Toll as your starter, you can delay your Soul Eater until after Deathbringer. This'll give you your biggest powerspike 2k gold earlier(Hydra, Fail, DB).

Notes

One-Shot Assassin Solo

Death's Toll for HP/Mana sustain in lane. The upgrade is nice.
Gilded Arrow for crit and more consistent damage.
Manikin's if you're jungling, or if you want slightly more damage in the early game. Faster clear, especially on camps.

Quick info on this build:
Pros:
It's the trial-and-tested highest damage burst build on her. No matter what others say.
It's got cheap powerspikes that are VERY strong on every item.
It's always an effective build, and it's what I'd normally play in any role.
It doubles as an assassin-hunter.
It has lifesteal, 95% crit, 1.7 AS, and 55% pen on basic attacks.

Cons:
It's less effective if the enemy groups up on top of each other.
There're better alternatives for specific matchups and playstyles.
The build falls apart if you change any item other than the starter.

If you buy Death's Toll as your starter, you can delay your Soul Eater until after Deathbringer. This'll give you your biggest powerspike 2k gold earlier(Hydra, Fail, DB).

Build Item Gilded Arrow Gilded Arrow
Build Item Soul Eater Soul Eater
Build Item Hydra's Lament Hydra's Lament
Build Item Fail-Not Fail-Not
Build Item Malicious Deathbringer Malicious Deathbringer
Build Item Dominance Dominance

Ishtar's Skill Order Notes You can choose to max your 1 before your 3, if you're playing in a bad matchup where you won't be able to utilise your 3 to harass and clear the wave.

As ADC(Hunter) you will almost always max your 1. It's much safer at any point. You will only max your 3 if you are abusing your opponent, and able to utilise the extra damage during your burst.

As jungle you will ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS max your 3. It's good to use when starting to clear a camp(charge through it then start shooting), or when leaving a camp. It's the most burst damage, and as jungle you're a burst assassin.

Notes

You can choose to max your 1 before your 3, if you're playing in a bad matchup where you won't be able to utilise your 3 to harass and clear the wave.

As ADC(Hunter) you will almost always max your 1. It's much safer at any point. You will only max your 3 if you are abusing your opponent, and able to utilise the extra damage during your burst.

As jungle you will ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS max your 3. It's good to use when starting to clear a camp(charge through it then start shooting), or when leaving a camp. It's the most burst damage, and as jungle you're a burst assassin.

Imbue Arrows

1 X Y
Imbue Arrows
1 8 10 11 12

Rolling Thunder

2 A B
Rolling Thunder
3 13 14 15 16

Jolt

3 B A
Jolt
2 4 6 7 9

Blades of Retribution

4 Y X
Blades of Retribution
5 17 18 19 20
Imbue Arrows
1 8 10 11 12

Imbue Arrows

1 X
Ishtar imbues her arrows with heavenly light, enhancing her Basic Attacks in one of three ways for 5s. The three varieties include Strike Shot, a lobbed explosive arrow, Spread Shot, a volley of five arrows, and Storm Shot, a fast-paced long range snipe. Ishtar cannot hit Structures during the duration.

Ability Type: Buff
Duration: 6s
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 10s
Rolling Thunder
3 13 14 15 16

Rolling Thunder

2 A
Ishtar calls down four strikes of lightning in a line, damaging Enemies within their area. Ishtar may aim which direction the strikes travel. If an Enemy is hit by more than one strike, they are mesmerized.

Ability Type: Ground Target
Strike Damage: 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+40% of your Physical Power)
Mesmerize: 0.75s
Radius: 15
Cost: 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75
Cooldown: 115 / 14.5 / 14 / 13.5 / 13s
Jolt
2 4 6 7 9

Jolt

3 B
Ishtar draws her blades and charges forward, striking all Enemies in her path. If she hits an Enemy God, she stops and roots them for 1s as she backflips off of them. As Ishtar is in the air, she fires her bow, dealing damage in an area around the affected God. This shot may Crit and trigger Basic Attack item effects.

Ability Type: Dash/Leap
Charge Damage: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+60% of your Physical Power)
Arrow Damage: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+120% of your Physical Basic Attack Power)
Root: 1s
Range: 55/25
Cost: 60
Cooldown: 15 / 14.5 / 14 / 13.5 / 13s
Blades of Retribution
5 17 18 19 20

Blades of Retribution

4 Y
Ishtar becomes CC-immune and summons five swords of light, firing them out in a cone in front of her. Each sword damages and cripples enemies for 1.25s. When the swords reach their destination, Ishtar may recall them to her location within 3s. If an Enemy is hit by both the initial fire and the recall, they are stunned for 1s. Each sword hit after the first deals reduced damage, resetting before recalling.

Ability Type: Cone
Sword Damage: 80 / 105 / 130 / 155 / 180 (+50% of your Physical Power)
Damage Reduction: 40% per sword, up to a max of 80%
Cripple: 1.25s
Stun: 1s
Range: 80
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90s

Ishtar Threats

Tap each threat level to view Ishtar’s threats

Max
1
Major
2
Even
0
Minor
0
Tiny
0

Ishtar Synergies

Tap each synergy level to view Ishtar’s synergies

Ideal
2
Strong
1
OK
0
Low
0
None
0

Extended Build

Jungle

Notes One-Shot Assassin Jungle
Same info as on the "Solo" page. Only difference in roles is skill order(see notes on skill sequence) and item order(slightly).

You will almost always buy manikin's(feel free to buy eye), and you will usually delay your Soul Eater until 5th. This is because you want your one-shot powerspikes as soon as possible, and Soul Eater sets you back 2000 gold.

Also, don't upgrade Deathbringer until you have Soul Eater completed.

Notes

One-Shot Assassin Jungle
Same info as on the "Solo" page. Only difference in roles is skill order(see notes on skill sequence) and item order(slightly).

You will almost always buy manikin's(feel free to buy eye), and you will usually delay your Soul Eater until 5th. This is because you want your one-shot powerspikes as soon as possible, and Soul Eater sets you back 2000 gold.

Also, don't upgrade Deathbringer until you have Soul Eater completed.

Build Item Gilded Arrow Gilded Arrow
Build Item Hydra's Lament Hydra's Lament
Build Item Fail-Not Fail-Not
Build Item Malicious Deathbringer Malicious Deathbringer
Build Item Soul Eater Soul Eater
Build Item Dominance Dominance

Adc

Notes One-Shot Assassin Hunter
Same info as on the "Solo" page. Only difference in roles is skill order and item order(slightly).

Buy Gilded if you want to be an ADC, deal more damage early, and have more consistent damage lategame.

Buy Death's Toll if you need early sustain

Buy Soul Eater instead of Hydra's if you're playing a matchup that you can't possibly win early. Soul-Fail-DB-Hydra's.

As always, wait with DB Glyph until 5th item is completed.

Notes

One-Shot Assassin Hunter
Same info as on the "Solo" page. Only difference in roles is skill order and item order(slightly).

Buy Gilded if you want to be an ADC, deal more damage early, and have more consistent damage lategame.

Buy Death's Toll if you need early sustain

Buy Soul Eater instead of Hydra's if you're playing a matchup that you can't possibly win early. Soul-Fail-DB-Hydra's.

As always, wait with DB Glyph until 5th item is completed.

Build Item Gilded Arrow Gilded Arrow
Build Item Hydra's Lament Hydra's Lament
Build Item Fail-Not Fail-Not
Build Item Malicious Deathbringer Malicious Deathbringer
Build Item Soul Eater Soul Eater
Build Item Dominance Dominance

Introduction

Hello, I've no idea how to make these build guides but I'll attempt to make it as coherent as I can. Please only follow the One-Shot Assassin build if you're unwilling to skim through tons and tons of unnecessary text, for some bits of good information, as this guide is an absolute mess.


This is a build on the new Goddess, Ishtar, which I'm writing because I got upset over everyone building her and playing her incorrectly.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this very poorly made guide, that contains good builds at least. The rest of the introduction page are some notes explaining why the guide might appear very strange(I've no idea how it'll look when published). Most comes down to me not knowing how to use this site.

I'm just making a note to highlight the bottom-most chapter. It contains information on the ins and outs of the character, things you need to know if you want to ever master her, so check it out


The names of the Purchase Orders are completely bugged, at least for me.
Don't get confused by the names at the top, instead read the notes for information on the items and builds, as well as what role you'd use the build order for.

I omitted a bunch of stuff but if I keep making guides they'll show up at one point or another, so I don't really care. It's mostly matchup specific itemization in general, and matchup/team comp archetypes that you'd itemize a certain way against, but for Ishtar, and generally speaking most hunters, it's not really the case.

Oh yeah, Smitefire is a bit totalitarian which resulted in my work being skewered several times, for different reasons. While attempting to figure it out and solve it I had to dismantle several parts, resulting in a lot of inconsistency in the guide's structure, and it'll remain until I can fix it. If I continue making guides I'll do it at some point once I understand the systems.

Starter Items

I'm writing this page on the off-chance that things don't appear the way I somewhat want them to. Ignore if you've already read this, in the different build notes.

Your starter items are matchup dependent in all cases except for the jungle role- where you will always play Manikin's.

Your builds are not going to change depending on your starter item choice- other than you replacing an item with a crit chance equivalent item, if you choose not to go Gilded Arrow for some of the builds(the standard ADC builds).

Buy Death's Toll if you require HP sustain in lane.

Buy Gilded Arrow if you want to deal more consistent damage, and earn a bit more gold.

Buy Manikin's in lane, if you want higher damage early game(clearspeed, mainly) but a weaker lategame. It's generally speaking better than Gilded Arrow only in the Jungle. Also better in some matchups in Solo.

I'm sorry for including a lot of stuff about your starter items in the notes as well. Feel free to skip it whenever it appears. I might fix it later.

Tips 'n Trickies

Mastering Ishtar


If you hit separate targets with your Spread Shot(1/2), Deathbringer Glyph will trigger off of each one. So starting when you buy the Glyph, you will be using your Spread Shot in all teamfights.

Spread Shot can "shotgun" meaning if you're in melee, all 5 projectiles can hit for a combined of 140% basic attack damage. Always use Spread Shot in melee.

Death's Toll's, and Manikin's, effects proc on all targets hit by your Lob(1/1)(Strike Shot), but not your Spread Shot.

As you throw out your swords you're able to fire a basic attack together with them, which is an unexpected free basic. Hold left click while channeling your ult for the basic to be shot as soon as possible.

When your 1 runs out, you can instantly shoot a basic- no matter if you just shot one. This also means you can shoot an empowered basic attack, then instantly right click to cancel the 1 Effect, and shoot another arrow in a split second.
It's a basic attack cancel/reset(you reset the animation delay on your basic).

The ideal burst combo is to basic attack -> ult+basic attack -> instantly 3 -> repress ult as soon as you hit your 3 -> basic attack when landed. You will ALWAYS use this with the One-Shot build if they have no way of avoiding your ult and dash, though you may omit the first basic attack.

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2
Branmuffin17 (400) | August 25, 2022 1:21pm
I think this is an interesting set of build concepts...in some ways I think it could work very well, but it's really late-game oriented, and her basic attack DPS likely suffers (quite) a bit due to a lack of AS items outside of a late-game Ornate Arrow. It's obviously focused on her ability use.

The standard ADC build is more in line with how I'd likely build her of your various options, at least for ADC role (not mid or jungle of course). Asi as a first item is funky but when you need early lifesteal, what other option do you have? Don't think you'd go into Fail-Not first, and if you want more AS in the build and you've committed to Fail-Not and Deathbringer, then you need to build it where you can. One alternative option that likely isn't popular would be to go for Soul Eater like you do in some of your other builds...though I know the issues w/ SE. Anyway, grab that first (and it's cheap!), then go into Fail, Silver, DB, and finish up with another AS item instead of Dominance...maybe even non-glyphed The Executioner if you're really wanting more pen. But I think 40% pen is perfect, between SE, FN, and Silver.

Another thing that's always awkward IMO is Fail-Not. Ornate is the answer to get your crits up, but the big problem with that is it just feels so late-game. An alternate option would be to not get Ornate...grab DT instead, SE, FN, Silver, DB, and finish with another crit item (Ata / Shadow) just to get your AS and crit higher. Other orders exist, of course, depending on if you want CDR earlier or later.

As for a more dedicated non-ADC build, I think you should have some other items listed as options. You can consider adding Heartseeker (which I think fits better than Dominance in your initial build), Titan's Bane, The Crusher, etc.

If you're available to get on Discord, I can go over the god builder with you and help get some of this stuff cleaned up. Should be pretty easy. Let me know.
1
ThirstForRain | August 25, 2022 5:26pm
Hi! I was going to write a rather long reply, responding to the various points you mentioned and why I agree with most- while also discussing the ones I don't, but as I was writing it it turned out to be much too long. Also quite messy.

Instead, I'll discuss the only thing worth mentioning which is the value of TB and Heartseeker(Crusher would be great if I could fit it into the early game).

From my testing I found that while TB+Trans replacing Domi and Soul Eater resulted in slightly higher damage output during her burst, it was only around 300 damage post mitigations on a lvl 20 Odin bot(5.1k versus 4.8~). Adding crusher to it was not worth it, as the two crit items(DB+Fail) and Hydra's are simply invaluable during her burst window. At that point the damage became lower.

As for Heartseeker- while it looks great on paper, during my testing on this item specifically, both recently and at earlier occasions- it's never as good as I expect it to be. It's very expensive, has nice(but not necessarily amazing) stats, and it's passive I genuinely believe is bugged, as it always underperforms. It tends to not deal nearly as much damage as I feel it should, which during my recent testing resulted in Dominance out-damaging it by a lot(mainly because her 3 is her highest-damage dealing ability, using crit and hydra's).

I only tested Fail-not/DB builds, as I believe crit to be superior on her due to how Malicious DB functions with her split arrow- and how her 3 benefits from crit. Of course, in an ability focused build not utilizing Malicious Deathbringer, TB + Heartseeker combined with Transcendence, and probably Crusher included, will absolutely out-damage this version. I only looked at the burst damage in, primarily, single-target(small radius AoE). You could probably build and play her similarly to a mage with those items.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, now to respond to the main point- I'd love to get on Discord with you sometime in the future and have you go over the features you've got on here. I'd like to make some actual guides later, and this one was just way too messy. I think my best information is spread out across the many, long notes that I've put everywhere, so I can't really expect anyone to read it.

My discords Clap#3220, got a picture of a flower.

I'll be unavailable for the next couple of days as university's starting up again, but if you send me a friend request and let me know it's you, we can discuss it when we've got some time. I'm trying not to be on the PC too much as I'm recovering from a wrist injury, but I keep failing as my ADHD's stopping me from keeping things short, so I've really got to rest up over the weekend.
2
Branmuffin17 (400) | August 26, 2022 8:42am
Friend request sent, when we talk on Disc I can go on your guide and make the adjustments and show you how it all works so you don't have to strain your wrist.

Honestly, I default on offensive ability to HS, but funny enough, I have the same feelings about it. Despite the high power, the pen, and the passive, I don't feel it has the effect I expect. Still, it's hard to argue with the base stats as a late-game item. I mentioned TB and Crusher since some pros have been using them.

If going ADC, the argument against crit right now for Ish, if you're also looking to have high AS, is that her only AS steroid is in Storm Shot, which isn't nearly as popular as the other 2 forms, and Strike Shot has reduced crit damage. Building up her AS in that respect to as high as you can get it in a Qin's / O-Bow type build isn't a bad thing.

That said, as of right now and with your point about Spread Shot's side hits triggering Malicious Deathbringer's passive, crit would also be my default.
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3
ThirstForRain | August 25, 2022 5:35am
The first featured build is only for players who understand how to play her as an assassin.

For other players, who prefer playing her like a traditional ADC the hitscan build and Standard ADC build should work great.

Please don't rate it without trying it, I'd like to believe there's hope for smite players yet. Feel free to ask questions regarding the builds though and I'll explain the itemization choices in detail.
0
DoktorEnchev | August 25, 2022 1:42am
WHY SOUL EATER?
2
ThirstForRain | August 25, 2022 3:55am
You buy Soul Eater because it's the only way to fit %Pen and Lifesteal into one item, which you need to be able to utilise Dominance for 55%Pen.

You love the stats of Soul Eater, and depending on how her 3's Arrow functions with it, you might love the effect just as much.

It doesn't hurt that it's one of the most cost-effective items, and you want to hit your next item powerspikes as often as possible on her.
-1
DoktorEnchev | August 25, 2022 4:45am
Bro is not about loving the item is about dominating and countering the enemy!Sorry but you got it wrong.
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1
MonolithPreacher (1) | August 25, 2022 3:40am
Looking at ishtar her kit is half ability half AA kinda like ullr so i assume thats why but the build order is horrible tbh
1
ThirstForRain | August 25, 2022 3:51am
That's not it, and the build order is tested and proven. Use the foolproof standard adc build if you're unable to play her like an assassin.
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League of Legends Build Guide Author ThirstForRain
Ishtar All-In-One Hunter/Assassin
Table of Contents

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