Hou yi - Fire of the Sun

Hi everyone, I'm Sekiura. I love hou yi - he is my second favorite god and I have played him to mastery 10. I have done countless amounts of testing to find the best builds for him - and I think I have finally managed it. Hou yi doesn't get banned in ranked because he's not played much - so enjoy wrecking people!

The only thing my build lacks is penetration - but I still find myself shredding all of my opponents anyway.

Build one is my build I use for hou 90% of the time. It allows me to get many kills early - mid game because ricochet gets such a massive damage bonus from the executioner. Fatalis at the end can be swapped to frostbound if you need health, but in teamfights fatalis makes it too easy to pick people off late game. ESPECIALLY in the jungle. Generally, with this build early game you want 2 of each potion as your starter potions and a death's toll. Always have potions with you and PLAY SAFE early game. Because we are not using transcendance we wont stack much power over time. We are just waiting for the executioner before we begin the slaughter. It is pretty easy to get kills early game though if you use the ricochets bounces to your advantage. One conquest game I got 5 kills 3 minutes into the game because their jungler might of been feeding...

When I'm using this build, even if the other adc is getting more kills I still manage to always win my lane with a good support because hou yi has insane poke potential. You can get them in the tower if you aim well. Also - prediction is very important when you are trying to stack up kills. Learn your opponent before you start trying to stun and dive them!

If you are getting fed, or the other adc or support is bad then build transcendance. You'll be able to stack it up really fast for mid game. With this build you will be the DOMINATOR of mid game (after gods like bastet ofcourse) but I seem to find that this build kind of falls off in late game. Just use the same strategy as build one.

This build is for if you are behind. It is CRITICAL that you don't fall behind in gold/XP with hou yi as your basic attack speed really isn't high enough to just autoattack in your lane. This build focuses on getting the essentials at a CHEAP cost and NO stacking items. You want to be getting back into the action A.S.A.P. Your teamfight presence is massive as hou yi - don't let the enemies underestimate you.

Ill explain the items for build one - the main build

First, we start with death's toll so we can lifesteal meaning we won't be pushed out of lane quickly.

Then we rush devourer's gauntlet so we can start stacking as soon as possible - mid game you virtually never have to leave your lane to heal because each shot heals up at least 60 health.

We take warrior tabi over ninja tabi because it will drastically improve the damage of our ricochet (helpful for waveclear)

Then we take the executioner - sometimes i'll take qin's sais if I'm facing a particularly tanky team but generally I like taking the cheaper item so I can build my crits faster. When you get the executioner you will have a MASSIVE damage spike with your basic stun-autoattack spam-dive bomb combo.

Then we build crits - with build one each crit, by the time we get malice hits for 500-700 damage. We don't get deathbringer because with fatalis it's a better idea to have a higher crit chance.

After that we take our final item - fatalis. Some people might disagree with me on this and go with a defensive item, but even in competitive play I have no health problems or defence problems whatsoever. Fatalis gives us MUCH needed attack speed and good movement speed. You can go frostbound if you want to be tankier, but you always want to be applying some kind of debuff to your enemies if your changing fatalis.

PROS
High area damage
High single target damage
Ult is an awesome zoning tool early game
Stun, knockup and slow all in one kit
Easy jungle camp clearance due to ricochet
Teamfight presence
Op in the jungle


CONS
Relies on skillshots to get kills early game
Bad waveclear
Bad attack speed
Needs lifesteal
Requires a lot of skill to use build one effectively and get 20+ kills
You need to learn how fast the projectiles travel.

THE BEST SUPPORTS
Khepri is a great support because he really helps with waveclear
Xing tian is a great support because of waveclear and hook slam
Athena is a decent support because she can get right up in the enemy's face safely
Guan yu is an op support,I have no idea why.
Ymir is also really good because you just have too many stuns!

PASSIVE
This passive shuts down enemy adc's so hard. Late game you are a monster. Crit gods like ne zha and artemis don't stand a chance against you.

RICOCHET
This skill is just too good. It has endless uses. Easy jungle camp clearance in less than 4 seconds, op in jungle, massive range during the laning phase because of bounces, stackable damage, a stun. It's just everything.

Golden crow
This HAS to be one of smites best debuffs. It is a debuff which lets you have 3 other debuffs. Use this to your advantage and ALWAYS apply it to your enemies - even if you wont attack straight away. It costs virtually no mana.

Dive bomb
This attack is another great ability - an escape, a chase, a knock up, a finisher. Early game just use this for escapes and chases as well as knockups.

Ultimate ability
This attack is a MASSIVELY DAMAGEING CC at level 5. At max rank this just hits so far and makes you have a MASSIVE teamfight presence if you use i at the right times. Generally, use it in the jungle, or if the enemies are getting really close up just pop it. It's so good for zoning. Also - early game if you are being pushed into your tower just pop this and make them retreat. If you and your support keep putting pressure and poke on them you can make an extreme comeback. Generally, only use that tactic if you are getting absolutely demolished before level 5.

Starting skill order for level 3 is this, 1-3-2.
Then you want to spam level your ricochet to level 5 by level 9. However, if ganks are frequently happening get your ult upgraded asap. You want your ult at level 5. So, first upgrade your 1, then your ult and two whenever you can. Do your 3 last because its mainly just a utility ability.

TAKE THEM OUT
This is effectively a free kill if you can get it out quick enough (against a squishy)

Golden crow - ricochet shot - ultimate

Use this against mages, in team fights and whenever you feel like ruining the enemy mage/adc's day.

THE ANTI ASSASSIN
Assassins can be a bit of a problem. Use this to take them out.

Golden crow - ricochet - basic attacks - dive bomb - basic attacks.

When using dive bomb make sure you get it on top of them. They will go into the air allowing you to fill them with even more arrows. This combo will generally really harm an assassin/jungler in early - mid game and obliterate them (sometimes I don't even need divebomb) in the endgame.

FULL COMBO
If you want to severely damage a team in the end game team fights, just use this. You will always get at least 1 kill.

Golden crow - ricochet - ultimate - divebomb

Choose one guy to golden crow that is in the central part of the enemy team. Golden crow him, fire a ricochet and bounce it if you can (you want to execute this combo as quickly as possible so they can't get out of your ult) and then pop your ult, slowing the marked target. Then, if they are grouped dive bomb them. If they aren't WAIT until they start retreating then dive bomb. 90% of the time the enemies will keep retreating and you can just pick the off.

Early game you just need to poke, stun and knock up. Generally this overwhelms the enemy adc and causes them to stay in there tower. During matches you just want to be constantly applying combos which apply his debuffs. I've been wrecking other Hou yi players in mirror matches using this tactic.

Good matchups and bad matchups include.

GOOD
Cupid - he's just so easy to fight. I don't know why.
Xbalanque - you can really shut this guy down with your knockups and stun.
Apollo - I don't know if anyone else finds this guy so easy to completely destroy - but I do.
Chiron - He loves galloping away whenever I fight him. I win my lane EVERY single time I face his guy.
Neith - She's way too easy to push. Neith players love to use their backflip to get out - use that to your advantage. You might not be killing her a lot early game, but she will almost always be in her tower losing gold - giving you the advantage.

BAD
Ares - I just don't know how to fight a support Ares. Every single time i'm up against him his chains not only cancel my escape and knock up but they also do as much damage as a adc's ultimate. For me, this is my worst matchup.
Artemis - early game you'll have some trouble, but late game she gets completely shut down due to your passive.
Sol - It's kind of a win or lose thing with sol. It depends on how much you push her up to her tower.
Ullr - I really, really hate fighting this guy. He has so much in one kit. He leaps away from me, he stuns me, and fills me with arrows. I still win my lane against him but I generally die to him more than ANY other character IN THIS GAME.

In a mirror match things just boil down to skill. All I can say, is I've found it to be helpful if you get your support to be ultra aggressive. I don't know why - but this generally helps me win mirror matchups with hou yi.

Your purpose as hou yi is to be an extremely strong god in teamfights, and the laning -phase, as well as a supportive character during split pushing. YOu are overpowered during jungle fights because of stacked power due to your ricochet and your ult is an incredible zoning tool. Your kit is very versatile and can be used to achieve many advantages over the enemy adc.

I hope you enjoyed my guide.