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Please comment, and I will improve this guide in line with your thoughts.
(It is kind of turning into a God Guide).
build 3 (Cool Burst) is my main build, just so that you know. It balances on several things;
Cool Hit Build
I like this because:
Max cooldown early.
I use Hyra's. Assasinate, basic swing, use aimed strike, basic swing. They dead. This then leaves Vanish to escape. but lately Hydra's hasn't had the punch that I expected it to.
Standard Build.
I Largely copied this from a guy that demolished me as Loki one time. (he didn't win because of his build. he won because he was a better player). I made a tweak according to how I play. Most people buy Deathbringer. I feel it's too expensive for what it adds, and I like the lifesteal late game.
Lots of people build this, I don't' because I die too much and waste my Heartseeker buff.
Cool Burst build. (My Current Build)
Cooldown, Hit + Penetration + attackspeed.
I could swap out my last item for Fatalis, to gain the movement speed and attack debuff so I can chase enemies, But I like to hope they are dead before I need to chase them.
Highest Theoretical Burst
The idea of this build is a 1 hit kill. I have yet to test it.
This is an interesting build, you may notice there are no boots. so Loki is a bit slower. The only speed buff comes from Heartseeker at 10% so you can be chased down by anyone with any boots at all. Yes, Warrior Tabi would be nice, But I am after the highest theoretical burst, so this is the build for it.
Notice this has a major weakness, it presumes full stacks for Heartseeker. if you cant do it, because you die as much as I do, use Jothann's wrath instead.
Reasoning:
devourer's gloves 60 burst (buy early to start stacking minions)
Heartseeker fully stacked: 70 burst (buy early to start stacking minions)
Titan's Bane 30 burst ( Bloodforge is not higher because) + 33% Penetration
Hydra's Lament 50 burst + a passive dealing an extra 175% damage (that's )
focused voidblade dealing 50 burst and 25% penetration
Deathbringer bringing another 50 burst, + potential critical hit damage, too (not included in this calculation, just a bonus if it hits - I don't understand Criticals yet)
OR
eye of retaliation as it's bonus gets higher as your health gets lower, giving up to another 48 bonus damage
Loki's base damage: 38 burst
That's:
348 burst damage
33%+25%= 50% penetration (it's capped)
Hydra's Demise Passive adds 348 x 50% = 174 burst for one hit.
348 + 174 = 522 Burst damage
522 + 50% penetration = 783 burst
+ Loki's backstab adds 20% for 934 burst damage, in one hit.
So at level 20, Loki does
Assassinate for 400 + 417 = 817
and his basic then does 934.
add Aimed Strike on the next swing, it reactivates Hydra's Demise and you get
220+348 = 568
Hydra's Demise = 174
giving 742, add in backstab for 890
include penetration for 1335 burst damage.
Thats:
817+934+1335= 3086 in 3 swings.
Then if you did this with Girdle of Inner Power add 20% for 3703
we haven't added in Vanish bleed, and another round for Hydra's Demise - don't care to, as that would go near 5000 if you could connect with all of that.
Hydra's Demise has a weakness, if you miss that swing, you lose the passive effect. So don't miss.
I gotta go try this out. Pity I have to get some work done first.
I'm also thinking that I may swap Titan's Bane out with Warrior Tabi for the extra speed, etc. you still end up with 40% penetration.
Note:
I know that I have miscalculated how the penetration works. It is dependant on the God and it's physical protection. It is so varied that I prefer a flat method of calculation so I can determine the highest damage overall, rather than trying to calculate exactly for each God/item build.
My builds, Like most Loki build all damage and no protection.
Loki Players like to gank. Come in, smash, disappear.
Pro's
This build looks at the things that can make Loki great. Attack damage + penetration.
Ninja Tabi. Speed+damage+Pen. No brainer. I can swap this out for ninja's sometimes, specifically To get the cooldown passive.
Jotunn's Wrath. Damage and cooldown.
Titan's Bane. Damage and Penetration. at this point, I start securing kills.
Focused Voidblade. Same deal. Please notice I use the Focused
Qin's Sais. Pronounced "Cheen's Sighs" A bit of damage, Attack speed, life steal. And does Loki need life steal.
Attack speed, basically, makes Loki stronger, as more hits in less time = more damage. I like the passive on this as Assassinate + aimed strike mean they lose a lot of health in the first 2 swings. The extra damage based on health helps to clean them up.
Hydra's Lament/ Bloodforge/ The Executioner as my final.
I haven't decided which I want here. Each has it's merits. Bloodforge helps me to stay in the fight longer (life steal). The Executioner helps to focus 1 God down faster (attack speed). Hydra's Lament cooldown + that 175% extra damage helps burst down and get them to where Qin's Sais are useful.
Hydra's Demise is never better for Loki. I've done the math. I think it need a tweak to about 80% buff to be on par with Hydra's Lament
Basically, I only build the first 2, maybe 3 in decoy, as by level 10, It will kill creeps.
I get 1 point in each of the others to unlock them, I use my Vanish as an escape, early game and build my aimed strike to do the damage alongside Assassinate.
decoy is your farming/creeps ability. They see it, they chase it. It's great against towers, too. I have solo'd a tower by dropping decoy until my minions got there, and then again just before it finished my minions off. that gives you an extra 6 seconds of quality time with a tower, or about 15s in total.
Decoy can be used to block an enemy's escape, as they have to go around the decoy. you go through him. also, sometimes I can put decoy in the doorway and slow them enough that they end up getting killed by it going off.
Vanish has a neat little feature that you may not be aware of - when you Vanish you actually become smoke and can run through enemies and their minions, which is handy during escapes.
Vanish and sprint stack - so popping both gives you a +35% (135%) +30% (175%) speed boost.
Stratagy.
I play almost exclusively in Arena.
My current thoughts with Loki are that I make it a goal to not get caught. I only focus gods with 2/3 or less health, as I seem to get in trouble with anything that has full health.
My in/out's don't seem to go so well I tend to try to dive in the middle of a fight, initiating, and then dying. Mostly because nobody wants to tank, and if they do tank, they play like a mage and won't initiate. It's a pleasure then, when I find a tank that goes VRRR (Ultimate is ready!) VVW (Wait!) VAA (Attack!). But one of my best tricks is to get around to the enemy base just before a team fight. as they start to run to heal, I Vanish, hit the 1st one, use Aimed Strike to hit the second, sprint active and Assassinate onto the 3rd, often my aimed strike is back by the time I have caught up to him. Sometimes I feel that I need Vanish and aimed strike on the first guy. That's OK, I'd rather secure a kill than let him get away.
I have an issue with Loki's stun. It never seems to last long enough. I only seem to be able to get 1 swing in before they are un-stunned, and then I am dead. My counter for this is Fist of the Gods. Assassinate them, 1st swing, fist'em. This re-stuns them, and any gods that have tried to focus me while I am busy, hopefully just long enough to finish the job and escape. I used to escape with Combat Blink, but with a 3 minute cooldown, it's beeen nerfed and feels almost useless in Arena. Now I use my Vanish + sprint active, and hope I can get away before they find me.
You will likely notice in my builds, I like having cooldown. It can come at a cost of burning through mana, but there isnt much like Vanishing for 5s then doing it again 3s later, or an Assassinate every 57sec
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thanks for your constructive feedback, I will look into it when I have a bit of time. I didn't call this a God Guide, that's why it originally said please don't downvote. I only ever wrote this to keep track of some of my personal builds. I just kind of added to it and it's getting there. But I will look into some of the things that you say.
Build
Alright, I suppose. Not much to say here, but they are lacking inflexibility, although Loki isn't a very flexible god anyway.
Items
Terrible explaantions. You give poor reason to use them, and none are specific to Loki. Instead of saying that Jotunn's Wrath gives cooldown and pen, say it will help deal more burst damage and that CDR is especially important on Loki, who needs to burn an escape to attack.
Skills
Terrible. They are all incoherent, disorganized, and lack any decent explanations.
A good skill explanation is supposed to explain how to use the skill to it's fullest potential. I want to see more stuff like "Decoy distracts towers," and less of "Vanish gives a speed boost."
Gameplay
Terrible. You said it yourself, you aren't a good Loki player. Learn to play him before making a guide, and for the love of God, don't play assassins in Arena. Play some damn Conquest.
Also, I'm guessing after you instagib someone you get focused and die in approximately 0.001 seconds. That's because you are being stupid enough to attack someone next to their team. Assassins are supposed pick off weakened and separated targets.
Details
Bad BBC coding, disorganized info. Pros and Cons and Build info are terrible, but at least they're there.
Summary
Earlier, you called this a god guide. It isn't one, and is nowhere near being one. You need to expand on everything, literally, and you also need to learn to play Loki. Downvote.
If you aren't like the hundreds of other bad guide writers, and you are actually willing to improve, then improve your guide, and when ready, send me a PM. I'll be happy to give another review, and if the changes are good enough, I'll gladly change my vote.