Hou Yi: Good or Bad? (Discussion)

Hey fellahs, kind of curious as to what you all thought of the new god in Smite: Hou Yi.

I'm going to do a step by step dissection of his kit, and then we can discuss what we all think.

Based off his kit, I find him extremely strong, not "not amazingly good". He's the only hunter with an easy, on demand stun, besides Ullr. Anhur requires precise aiming that isn't reliable for his combo, Cupid needs to both charge up his stun, and wait for the detonation, and Artemis's is also unreliable, and on her ultimate. The rest have either no hard cc (both stopping action and movement), or it breaks on damage (namely only Apollo.) This CC can make Hou Yi extremely over the top.

In my mind, Hou Yi is a hunter killer. He has a knockback, a stun, and a semi-immunity to crits, which almost every single hunter will base themselves around. He will force the unicorn build to become popular if he becomes extremely meta. He has a built in Qin's Sais steroid (the removed, qin's blades version), which makes him increasingly strong the more the fight goes on, effectively removing Asi's power. And again, a stun on an enemy just makes him nearly unbeatable in a boxing match. Marking someone into his divebomb guarantees his stun to land, and his ultimate can finish the deal while he walks away.

Other notable statements:
his divebomb is one of the most unique and safe escapes of any adc, with how long it lasts. He's extremely safe with a stun AND his divebomb, and if necessary, his ult to slow attackers.
He's an extremely good teamfighter, possibly stronger than Artemis. Only cupid is really stronger in a strict teamfight environment, and even then if they can escape the Fields Of Love he's weaker. Meanwhile Hou Yi provides both a basic-attack CC AND an AoE ultimate that's guaranteed to at least land a few ticks of damage across a team.

Overall, I find him strong. He doesn't have a natural steroid, but he has an applied one on a target that lets him absolutely rot a target. His basic ability stun and his divebomb leave him extremely useful in both safety and utility, and his passive makes outdueling other hunters and assassins a probability instead of a possibility. His sole downfall is his lack of sustain, which I think is made up for with his relative ease of harass and all in potential at any point, since no set up is required other than marking an opponent. I expect him to be top tier unless I find his actual damage ratios/base damages are that obscenely weak that my opinions kit-wise are offset.

I haven't played him enough to join the discussion yet, but I'm pretty sure you CAN move while up in the air

Thanks, I'll correct that.

I feel compared to most hunters he is a bit weak in some points.

his passive is pure for duelling as it is an in built celestial legion helmet passive. making a crit build immune (he will kill you if you both have a crit build)

his 1 is really weak unless you can manage to bounce it of the wall twice and ineffective for wave clearing (but this is going to chance as blue buff on duo will be as buff, but in joust he will still have a weak clear while Rama, Apollo amc and other hunters with a good clear will get his stacks up a lot faster)

his 2 is his strongest point with the bonus pen, damage and minimap vision and effects for 15 sec (that's why it got a long CD)

his 3 is a strong escape as you can dodge a lot of ult's with it ( Rama, Scylla, etc)

his 4 is also weak as you can easily get out of it especially if you got an escape. the damage is good though (and this would be terrible with a Odin ult (it's a bit like Zeus ult)

I find him extremely weak.

His 1 is terrible.

His 2 is good but his poor auto-attack speed doesn't help. Back away whilst it's on you and your good.

His 3 is good but so is Neith's backflip, Apollo's the moves, Anhur's disperse etc etc

His 4 is useless for anything other than zoning really ... even when combo'd with ults like Odin's etc a good Aegis or Blink reduces the damage a lot.

The changes he had in the PST were poor as well. He takes damage whilst in the air with that change, removing probably his best feature and the projectile speed won't stop his 1 from being ridiculously low damage unless hit off multiple walls.

#1 is decent I think. Yes, it is weak on Live client, but on PTS (where top pick hunters have their clear nerfed) it is strong.
#2 : Somebody said extra penetration?! I think it is a great ability, and due to the nerf of warrior tabi it will be pretty useful. Plus built-in mini Qins.
#3 : I have a mixed feeling about it. Before nerf it was very strong because you could just jump out of enemy abilities and ults. But now it does not do that and sometimes I feel that the speed with which he flies is lower then movement speed :D
#4 : Good damage but easily avoidable.

Passive is kinda good for boxing another hunters because sometimes this one crit matters a lot.

Am I the only one not having problems clearing a wave with this guy in early game? I actually have friends that can testify I have no problem outfarming and harassing better adcs with a higher mastery level than me. Also, about his ultimate. I prefer to use it when 1 or 2 suns are enough to kill the enemy. The problem is that you guys probably use it when the enemy can still take 5 or 6 suns.

You can't clear the wave regularly to be efficient. The best way to clear a wave is to bounce it off the wall to hit the archers. Then auto attack the melee minions to death. It always doesn't happen but if you can get a hit on the melee minions before you bounce it, your clear will be faster.

Anyways, no hunter will have good clear anymore except Neith and AMC so it's not really a problem with the new map.

Please tell me that Hi-Rez isn't weakening the one mechanic that allows adcs to be on par with their more potent mage friends.