Da Ji S4, Allow me to bleed you to death

Hey Corvus,

Welcome to the site. I'm not the guide creator, but thought I'd respond, since it may be unlikely for you to get a response from the creator...guide was created in June, and they haven't logged on since September.

To answer your question, I honestly don't feel that crit items should be built on Da Ji at all. I also don't like the build's listing of Odysseus' Bow. She is mostly a pure ability user, despite what her passive would make you think. I think she's been shown to have much better effect when concentrating on ability use, which mainly means power, penetration, and CDR. Standard items would include Warrior Tabi, Jotunn's Wrath, Titan's Bane, and Hydra's Lament, with 2 slots for situational/utility, such as Brawler's Beat Stick, The Crusher, or protection items.

That said, could a basic attack build work? Sure, probably not in ranked, but in a casual game, it's a possibility. You could try to build her as a really annoying single-target destroyer. You would center the build / gameplay idea around her ability to keep enemies close, but you'd probably have to be very discretionary about which target you choose, and when.

In a basic attack case, one question would be, do I need Hastened Katana to keep enemies close? My answer to that is, probably not. Horrible Burns applies a 3 second slow, which is a substantial amount of time. One Thousand Cuts gives her immunity to slows (and knockups), increases her speed by 40%, and she can move freely while it channels. Trickster Spirit will teleport her (without error, since it won't activate unless you have a target selected) directly back to the enemy. And if all else fails, Paolao gives her an opportunity to bring fleeing enemies right back in front of you. Is it 100% awful to get? No, but it's a very luxury item that you'd probably only get if you're already steamrolling the enemy.

What other items would you choose for a basic attack focus? Again, probably not crit. It's not bad, but it's not optimal. Even if you focus on the effectiveness of basics, she'll still deal a substantial amount of her total damage via abilities, and taking up 2 slots for crit items (because 2 slots really are needed to make a crit build effective) means she'll have less flexibility in the rest of her kit to focus on total damage effectiveness. Also, she has nothing in her kit to boost the effectiveness of crits (e.g. attack speed steroid or actual crit boost in her kit).

So, key items in a basic attack build? I'd center it around Qin's Sais and the pen item of your choice (either The Executioner for enhanced basic DPS, or Titan's Bane for universal pen function). I'd also likely choose Ninja Tabi, at least as a late replacement for Warrior Tabi if not just getting it outright as your movespeed item. In this case, The Crusher is a very nice hybrid item, as the passive is helpful for abilities (more abilities means more ways to keep enemies close) and any attack speed is great in combination with Qin's. Round out the build with situational items of your choice...even in a basic attack build, I might still consider Jotunn's Wrath (or other CDR options such as Spirit Robe or Mantle of Discord).

If I might give a build example or two, see below...

For ability use: Bluestone Pendant (optional starter), Warrior Tabi, Heartseeker (optional for Conquest rotations), Jotunn's Wrath, Hydra's Lament, Titan's Bane, situational item(s).

For basic attacks: Ninja Tabi, Qin's Sais, The Crusher, Titan's Bane, Spirit Robe or other protection, Asi or Bloodforge. This is just something I made up right now, so don't take too much stock in it.

Hope this helps.

What I meant is her basic kit excluded her ultimate.

Well true but Paolao is very hard to hit and can be easily canceled by beads.

Okurrrr