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Warlock's Staff
Shoes of the Magi
Spear of the Magus
Hide of the Urchin
Polynomicon
Gem of Isolation
Warlock's Staff
Shoes of the Magi
Spear of the Magus
Hide of the Urchin
Polynomicon
Rod of Tahuti
Gem of Isolation
Bancroft's Talon
Ethereal Staff
Divine Ruin
Telkhines Ring
Winged Blade
Magi's Cloak
Spectral Armor
Spirit Robe
Frenzy
Magic Shell
Cursed Ankh
Cloak of Meditation
Scout
Teleport Fragment
Spear of the Magus
Spear of Desolation
Obsidian Shard
Void Stone
Sorcerer's Staff
Vampiric Shroud
Soul Stone
Dynasty Plate Helm
Mana Potion
Healing Potion
Multi Potion
Ward
Y
B
A
X
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Zhong Kui - Pros & Cons |
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........ Pros ........
- Decent burst damage. - Decent harassment/poking with Expose Evil.- Good waveclear. - Can attack an entire team by just being near them. - Tanky with enough stacks of  Demon Bag.- Great sustain. - A small amount of CC is always nice. - Can heal from pets, such as Cat Call. - Stronger basics than most mages. - Awesome beard. |
....... Cons .......
- Burst damage requires getting in close. - Generally low range. - Building stacks can be difficult early game. - Vulnerable to ganks. - Book of Demons is his only escape.- Recall Demons leaves you vulnerable.- Virtually no mobility. - CC can't combo with main abilities. - Sustain relies on passive. - Needs to lay off the donuts. |
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0 (Passive) - Demon Bag
Fill it up. |
Demon Bag is the passive that gives you most of your survivability and is what sets 
Zhong Kui apart from the other mages. Each stack gives you two protections, both magical and physical, maximum 20 stacks, for a total of 40 protections once the bag is full. All of your stacks are lost after using Recall Demons and on death.|
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1 - Expose Evil
First you tag them. |
Expose Evil does damage over time, and buffs your other two abilities. It's also your highest-scaling ability. See the other abilities and combos section for information on how this works with the rest of your kit.|
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2 - Exorcism
Then you bag them. |
Exorcism is Zhong Kui's main burst damage, and fires in a short, but wide cone. In spite of being a cone attack you don't necessarily need to set it instant casting, because the targeter is helpful for making sure you will hit all the minions in a wave.|
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3 (Passive) - Book of Demons
A man and his Book. |
Book of Demons is off cooldown. The little scroll fights by your side, copying your basic attacks at half damage, shooting where you do, but a little off to the side. The extra projectile applies on hit effects, and is affected by items. This means that it will get the same benefit from 
Demonic Grip, Telkhines Ring, 
Hastened Fatalis and Polynomicon, et cetera that your regular basic attacks get. You can use this to your advantage when you end up with a team comp with no ADC or pusher, and desperately need to make yourself more effective against objectives. Even without items to make it stronger, having your book up gives your basics a little more power.|
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3 (Active) - Book of Demons
Shake it off! |
Book of Demons is your only form of Crowd Control, and by itself, it's somewhat weak, since the damage is only moderate and stun is short. Short as the stun may be, it's still a stun, which means you can use it to interrupt channeled abilities. A small detail to note is that the stun is not applied to the entire area of effect instantly. As you can see, when Zhong Kui rotates his brush, he spins it around clockwise. Enemies in front of you and a bit to the right are hit first, then enemies behind you, and enemies in front of you and to the left are not hit until after a small delay. So, if you are aiming to thwart 
Ares and keep him from 
Searing Flesh, it helps to have him on your right. Book of Demons is also the closest thing you have to an escape ability.|
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4 (Ultimate) - Recall Demons
Open the Ark of the Covenant! |
Destruction and 
Empty the Crypts, because it makes small bursts of damage in a constant area around you. At full stacks, you can gank a team fight and, on rare occasions, cause a deicide with the giant mobile AOE of death. The best thing of all, though, is that channeling the ability is independent of your actions once you've pressed 4. What that means is that you can still use your other three abilities and your relics, even Sanctuary, while ghosts go... all over the place. (Couldn't think of any alliteration.) Recall Demons is good for chasing down kills, sort of. The demons will target all enemy gods within the green ring, and if a demon has already targeted an enemy, it will still chase it if it leaves the ring. However, this ability can not wave clear. The demons completely ignore minions, so you can still be stopped dead in your tracks by their body blocking, and, if at very low health, even get killed by minion archers. Your ult also does nothing to jungle bosses, so unlike 
Kukulkan or 
Ra, you can't press 4 to steal the Fire Giant.
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Main Combo
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Exorcism hits an enemy that was tagged with Expose Evil, it removes the tag, and gives you another stack of Demon Bag. You are also healed based on the rank of Exorcism and your Magical Power for each enemy up to a maximum three. This does not mean it will save you from bad positioning. The heal has a slight delay, making it more of a sustain bonus for clearing waves. An important thing to remember is that Expose Evil is your highest-scaling ability, but it's a fairly slow damage over time, and if Exorcism or Book of Demons is used to remove the tag, only 40% of the remaining damage is applied to the target. It's usually better to let Expose Evil tick a few times, then use Exorcism at the last moment for another demon in the sack. The most efficient way to wave clear and build stacks is to go in front of the wave, cast Expose Evil to mark the minions, wait a second for the DOT, then go around to the side of the wave and cast Exorcism, making sure that all minions are hit. The reason for all this is that the cone is significantly wider than it is long.|
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Crowd Control Combo
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Book of Demons is Zhong Kui's only crowd control, and you are unable to use any other abilities while casting it, but it can be fairly strong if used correctly. At maximum rank, it stuns for 0.9 seconds; if the target is marked, the stun is doubled to 1.8 seconds, comparable to 
Ymir's 
Frost Breath. You can use this combo offensively, to set up your teammates, or you can use it defensively to interrupt a channeled ability like 
Nox's 
Shadow Lock or 
Bellona's 
Bludgeon. You can also use it to create more space between you and a foe.|
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Ultimate-Trapping Combo
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Book of Demons is not very good at setting up for your other abilities, because you are unable to do anything while casting, which takes as long as the stun itself unless the target is tagged and you have ranked the ability sufficiently. However, Recall Demons doesn't require you to be able to take action further than activating it, so you can activate the green ring of death, then stun anyone next to you--it helps to tag them with Expose Evil first--and the poltergeists persist pulsing out of their prison, getting your enemies more time in the ectoplasmic whirlwind.
| Warlock's Sash |
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Starter Items
Answer the call |
Vampiric Shroud is the safer start option, letting you stay in lane longer than Golden Sash or Soul Stone. Shroud's passive gives you extra health and mana from killing minions. Use this option in Joust if you expect the match to be a bit longer than usual, and in Conquest for sustain in solo lane. In Conquest mid lane, you can be outpushed if the enemy has bought Soul Stone.
Soul Stone is the most aggressive starter item, favoring burst damage instead of sustain, so you should get this in mid lane Conquest to help balance out your comparatively-low base magical power, and increase your chances of securing first blood and early lane dominance. Soul Stone's passive gives you a stack of four MP5 for landing a basic attack, up to a maximum of five stacks. At full stacks, your next ability consumes your stacks, and packs a surprise 60 additional magical power. Be careful when you use this start, because not having any extra health makes you vulnerable to the enemy jungler.|
Warlock's sash
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Core Items
Essential Gear |
Shoes of the Magi Gives you early magical penetration, and can be put before Warlock's Sash if you really need the movement speed. Which, mostly in mid-lane mode, may make merrily m***acring many enemies more manageable. In other words, you should buy a pair of shoes before buying a belt if you're too slow to juke the opposite mid lane mage's attacks.
Spear of the Magus Gives a stack of flat protections shredding after each tick of ability-based damage you do to an enemy, up to three stacks. Since its nerf, Spear has gotten a lot of flak (people said that it's useless now). I partially disagree. What I believe is that Spear is a niche item for use until you need a different kind of penetration. You will not keep Spear of the Magus the entire game. I have Spear of the Magus listed here as a core item because, in Conquest and long gamemodes, you should start with Spear a while before buying whatever penetration you'll be using later. Why? Short answer: Spear is flat shredding, which is most useful when the
Hide of the Urchin is a stacking item, but is best purchased around mid game, because you don't obtain stacks by getting kills on gods and minions, but instead on god kill or assist, which you will be getting much more often in team fights, which is what mostly happens late game, than while farming lane, which is done early game. Also because stacks are gained on god kill/assist and not minions, Hide of the Urchin can be bought in Assault. Fun fact: it's the only item here that isn't glowing. Maybe it has a Uranium deficiency.|
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Penetration Items
Making a Breakthrough |
Spear of the Magus Gives a stack of flat protections shredding after each tick of ability-based damage you do to an enemy, up to three stacks. Spear of the Magus can reduce a mage's inherent protections to null. Like I said earlier, Spear is a niche item for use until you need a different kind of penetration. However, sometimes the other team goofs up and none of them buy defensive items. This is most likely to happen in Joust. In such case, you can keep Spear of the Magus, as it is the most efficent penetration against targets with low amounts of protections. Remember to let three ticks of Expose Evil hit the enemy you target before your next ability for maximum efficiency. Three hits from Recall Demons also works.
Spear of Desolation's passive gives you the ability to completely wreck a teamfight if you manage to get a kill without taking too much damage. It's a an item best bought if your team is ahead in gold, because of its extremely high price. It can help Zhong Kui be more effective late game.
Obsidian Shard is normally best when late game rolls around, and you want to attack a few tanks. By this time, they will have a large amount of protections, and the flat shredding from your Spear of the Magus won't do much good. The solution is to add Obsidian Shard, for percentage-based penetration that will make sure you can take on the tanks and still be efficient. In solo lane, you should skip Spear and either go straight into Shard, or you should start with Dynasty Plate Helm and then Shard.
Void Stone reduces the protections of all enemies within 55 units by 20. The best thing about this item is that you can help the rest of your team without doing a thing. You don't have to basic attack, wait for stacks of DoT, or even fork over a ton of gold. All you have to do is stand near the other team, and your mages and guardians get more penetration! Great, right? But there is a downside to this. It's only 20 reduction, and you don't get any actual penetration, so it's useless against towers. What's more, 20 reduction isn't that much. You get more from Spear of the Magus. The best time to use Void Stone is when you're going for full support, so you can take advantage of the 50 added magical protections. Also useful in gamemodes where you're in teamfights a lot, like Arena and Assault. Remember: auras don't stack, so don't buy this item if someone else on your team already has it.
Dynasty Plate Helm is a cheap item with an odd set of stats. 45 Magical Power, 15 Magical Penetration, and 30 Physical Protection. |
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Fifth/Sixth Items
The finishing touches |
Polynomicon has its fans and critics. Some people prefer a different lifesteal option, and don't like the change to gameplay necessary to fully utilize it. Zhong Kui's Book of Demons adores it. They're both magic books that glow green. More importantly, Polynomicon adds 75% of your magical power to your next basic attack after using an ability, which is more scaling than Exorcism. And, what's more, I might have mentioned earlier that your Book of Demons pet is affected by items, including Polynomicon. That means that you'll be churning out ~112% of your magical power after each ability through basic attacks if your aim and timing is good enough.
Rod of Tahuti is a fairly straightforward item. You get a truckload of magical power. Yes, I know this is a short description, but if you want the exact numbers on this, check the Math section.
Gem of Isolation's passive gives you extra control in a teamfight, as it will proc on each hit of Recall Demons, allowing you to slow entire teams at once. It's also a great item because of its power, health and mana, all of which help Zhong Kui be more effective late game. Buying a relic like Curse on top of this can be kind of overkill, resulting in the other team counterbuilding items like Winged Blade.
Bancroft's Talon is a good pick in solo lane or assault as part of a moderately tanky build, because the passive gives you extra power based on missing health, and if you're solo lane or assault, you might spend a lot of time at half health or less. Keep in mind that it's generally not a good idea to run around the map at low health with a full damage build, as you are extremely enticing to execute for the enemy jungler, unless you have sufficiently substantial skills. In other game modes, Bancroft's Talon can turn the tides in a frantic one-on-one. You might also want Bancroft's Talon if you want a bit more lifesteal than Polynomicon and 25 more magical power than Polynomicon. Or if you really hate green glowing books, and would rather have a purple fingernail from some unknown bird-animal.
Ethereal Staff gives you more health and magical power, and more magical power again depending on your max health, providing roughly the same stats as Warlock's Sash without stacking. I had math here, but I moved it. The gist of it is that Ethereal Staff gives you ~100 more magical power once the recommended build is complete. Therefore, the best use for the magic stick is basically as a second Warlock's Sash, or in Assault, a replacement Warlock's Sash.|
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Situational Items
For the Unexpected |
Divine Ruin is usually a good buy when laning against with enemies like 
Aphrodite, 
Hel, or Ra, in mid lane, or 
Chaac, 
Guan Yu, or Bellona in solo lane so that you can better out-sustain them by reducing their healing. Also note that this item also gives you more lifesteal than either Polynomicon or Bancroft's Talon at a significantly lower price.
Telkhines Ring adds a set amount of extra magical damage to your basic attacks. This is to be used only in dire circumstances, such as when your team comp is so bad that all of you are guardian or mage, and nobody can do a thing to objectives because towers and phoenixes only take damage from basic attacks. Remember, this also helps your plucky papyrus pal properly pillage pylons.
Winged Blade Gives you immunity to slows every once in awhile. This item is generally not recommended as a core item, because you can noramlly get by with the slow immunity from your ultimate instead. But if the entire other team has either Gem of Isolation or 
Frostbound Hammer, and you are always at a snail's pace, you may not have a choice. Ymir with a deep love for deep freezing. Or an Ares/
Zeus/
Hades combo, the
Spirit Robe is similar to Hide of the Urchin without stacking and should be used to replace Hide of the Urchin when you find yourself in a match that is 50% staring contest, and you are having problems getting god kills and assists. It's also helpful when your team is behind in gold, and need something cheaper. Also unlike Hide of The Urchin, Spirit Robe has had its daily dose of Neon, and is not missing the healthy sparkle.| Meditationcurse |
Relic Items
The Secret Weapon |
Recall Demons, since becoming a mobile AOE of doom is likely to get you focused.
Frenzy gives you and your team within a radius 20 magical and physical power, and 10 extra damage towards objectives. On top of that, you all get 20% more attack speed. You can use this to gank a team fight with more than just your ult, or you can use it to help push objectives. Best used in Siege or Assault, since these two games put the most emphasis on lane-pushing.
Scout can be useful in Conquest because it frees up a consumable slot for something other than wards, and the extra 25 gold for revealing enemy wards is also nice. However, it takes up a Relic slot and is not useful late game. Because of this, many consider Scout to be a crutch, like Meditation. Important note: because it allows you to place unlimited 
Sentry Wards, Scout is banned in Siege. Scout, if you periodically place a ward, then teleport to it. If you decide to go full tank, this can help you be further support-oriented. You can try saving a tower with it, but don't go it alone, because your ult and kit are designed for prolonged team fights, not for instant damage. Buying Teleport is common in solo lane. Important note: Teleporting takes a few seconds.
Before you open the spoiler, let me tell you that you should not read this section if you don't have a high tolerance for bright colors and jumbles of numbers and punctuation. Also, this is where I'm putting all my math so that it longer interrupts parts of the Items Explanation above, or the Matchups below, because math is boring and almost nobody wants to look at it. However, if you're the kind to look at "√-1 2^3 Σ Π" and laugh, click the spoilers.
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Warlock's sash
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Magical Power from Ethereal Staff
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Click for math|
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MP with Obsidian Shard and Rod of Tahuti
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Click for math|
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Obsidian Shard vs Spear of the Magus
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Click for algebra
This section still needs work. Any advice on correcting false information would be appreciated.
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Warlock's Sash
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Mid Lane Matchups
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Kukulkan DIFFICULTY MEDIUM |
Ghostly Gusts|
Poseidon DIFFICULTY EASY |
Haunted Ship Wreck|
Nox DIFFICULTY MEDIUM |
Are you afraid of the dark?|
Zhong Kui DIFFICULTY MEDIUM |
Ghost in the mirror|
He Bo DIFFICULTY HARD |
don't drown|
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Solo Lane Matchups
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Obsidian Shard and Divine Ruin.|
Hades DIFFICULTY MEDIUM |
East versus West|
Bellona DIFFICULTY EASY!? |
What do you mean EASY!?
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04/14/16
04/15/16 04/18/16 04/20/16 04/27/16 04/28/16 04/29/16 05/01/16 05/02/16 05/13/16 05/16/16 05/21/16 05/25/16 06/01/16 06/03/16 06/09/16 07/31/16 08/19/16 09/30/16 10/24/16 10/26/16 10/31/16 11/01/16 12/28/16 01/13/17 01/17/17 |
Published guide.
Addition of Soul Stone, and separation of Skills and Combos.Began work on Relics subsection, and began work on Math Section. Finished Math Section, for now. Finished Relic section. Slight reformatting, began work on Matchups section. Change of main color from #50ff50 to #50dd50. Reformatting, and specification on use of meditation. Shamelessly advertising someone else's guide. Revision of Combos Section. Added Nox to Matchups.Added Void Stone to situational items. Changed Changelog to zebra.Added various potholes, especially where unnecessary. Added  He Bo to Matchups section.Went on Vacation. Added links to other parts of guide for easier navigation. Revision of Items Explanation, including more in depth on penetration. Finally got back home and updated for 3.12 and 3.13. Added Arena builds (WIP), began minor visual changes. Minor updates Began Work on second guide, minor updates for cross-consistency. Cleaning up guide. Tying up loose ends, formatting errors, new Pros/Cons section. Very Scary Halloween update! Taking some stuff out of spoilers. Tons of highlights. Christmas/New Year update! Cleanup and improved navigation. Removed annoying pastebin chapter. Guide updates on hiatus until Season 4. |
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xenofonex |
DuoVisen |
Shoobler |
MooMuse
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Zilby Guide Template |
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| |Start| | |Pros/Cons| | |Skills| | |Combos| | |Items| | |Math| | |Matchups| | |Changelog| | |End| |
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Release The Kraken!
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Scourge
I came to give you my review of your guide :)
Pros & Cons:
Nice detailed list of pros & cons.
Something I picked up, since tankyness depends on Demon bag stacks, you may want to add that as a con “Sustain relies on passive” or “Very ability depended sustain”.
About that beard, we can discuss that later.
Skills:
Passive: Since
Combos
You have great explanations here. And like I mentioned above, I would consider filling your skills section with some of these information. Like you could explain the basic in skills section, and more advanced tactics and tips in combos.
Items
Nice information. Just some things to consider. Is
Relics
Seems like you recommend taking Meditation and Curse since their placed as icons above the divider. If I’m wrong, sorry, but if this is the case maybe you should explain these two first.
Math
Good to have some data or math to support your theory. Did I read this section with care and great interest. No, but simply cause I’m here to avoid all school related stuff and this section scared me out ;P
Matchups
You have explained everything well and with fast glancing I did not see any errors in there. But since this part is yet unfinished, I thought it’s not time to criticize those missing matchups.
¶§«ØƴǂȜȣɮϡ
Whatever this next chapter is, I did open it and my only thought was that, maybe you should great a test guide to add your secret info there?
Overall
So overall your guide looked really good and I did not found any major flaws why this guide wouldn't deserve an upvote. So +1 it is!
Some tips to improve your guide with (coding):
Cheers,
Nano.
Something I picked up, since tankyness depends on Demon bag stacks, you may want to add that as a con “Sustain relies on passive” or “Very ability depended sustain”.
About that beard, we can discuss that later.
Will do.
Passive: Since
Oh, right. The only reason I had those numbers there in the first place was because I started from a template when I first made this. Will remove.
On my first draft of this guide, I had one chapter for both skills and combos. I think it was Bran that suggested I separate them. So when I did, I just pulled apart what I had somewhat lazily. I never really thought much of the slow itself, in terms of setting up for other abilities.
Not sure what you mean. Should I move that sentence to the wave-clear combo section Delete it?
Good idea.
The damage is the same regardless of how many stacks of passive you have. Kill securing, slow and knockback immunity, and damage are the same.
You have great explanations here. And like I mentioned above, I would consider filling your skills section with some of these information. Like you could explain the basic in skills section, and more advanced tactics and tips in combos.
Is that what people do? Makes sense, will change.
switching
I will reconsider it. In fact, this seems like the kind of thing that will likely change with Season 4. In the meantime, I still think starting with spear then changing to a different pen is not too expensive.
Rod of Tahuti is not listed as a situational pick. It's just not a core item. Some people want rod, some don't. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. What I consider to be situational would be, for example, Telkhine's Ring. The way I use it, situational means that you will most likely not buy the item in a match, but sometimes need to because of unusual circumstances.
Seems like you recommend taking Meditation and Curse since their placed as icons above the divider. If I’m wrong, sorry, but if this is the case maybe you should explain these two first.
I'm not recommending Meditation or Curse above any other relics. They're just two icons that look good next to eachother as a decoration.
Good to have some data or math to support your theory. Did I read this section with care and great interest. No, but simply cause I’m here to avoid all school related stuff and this section scared me out ;P
That's why it's in a spoiler.
You have explained everything well and with fast glancing I did not see any errors in there. But since this part is yet unfinished, I thought it’s not time to criticize those missing matchups.
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Whatever this next chapter is, I did open it and my only thought was that, maybe you should great a test guide to add your secret info there?
I've been meaning to do exactly that for months.
I've been meaning to add that as well.
Thank you for the code. Columns are a pain, but at least not as much as tables.
Not sure but theres no reason for it.
Edit: I realize now that boots actually give you less magical power than warlocks sash, but regardless the question still remains. Because you'll end up in lane quicker you'll be able to push minions more often and get to harpies quicker. But with sash you may end up in lane longer and end up with more farm regardless.
Zhong Kui doesn't have Mana saving built in like
Your suitability for either role depends on the build you choose, and whether you want solo or mid is a question of personal preference.
Regarding your combos...well, really, you can add one.
As for use of the ult, you might find it to be better to use
Well, I think that's all better than anything I have. I'll change the Combos as soon as I can. I've been a bit busy helping someone else, sorry I couldn't reply sooner.
As for the math section, that's why I was saying I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly...the way I calculated, only considering at max stacks, I'm getting a value of anything around 135 or below...you state 90.
I was only counting full stacks of the shredding, not the pen. The point of getting protections reduction instead of penetration is that it benefits other people, so for my calculations, I only counted the shredding from the passive, not the raw stats.