NickTesla's Hou Yi Boxing Burst Build

Hey guys. This is my first god guide, so I apologize if I don't exactly know what I am doing.

For a little background, I have mastered every hunter in smite. I have experimented with every hunter build I can find and made multiple god tailored builds. What I discovered, surprisingly, the most powerful end game hunter versus another hunter, warrior, guardian, or mage, is in fact Hou Yi. This was very surprising to me, as Hou Yi is typically known as being a "weaker" hunter. I believe that the reason he if thought of this way is a traditional hunter build does NOT work on him, just as this build will NOT work on most other hunters.

Hou Yi is intended to be the best boxing hunter in the game. This build focuses on that idea and allows you to burst most gods down before they even have a chance to fight back.

Remember, Hou Yi is a hard god to play, he may take a while to get used to. Be extremely careful early game (until executioner or rage depending on how the game is going), and as aggressive as possible late game. If you get ahead early, which will often happen given you posses spear, the game is yours.

Passive:
Hou Yi's passive is simple, an enemy can only crit on you once every 3 seconds. This means, late game, no enemy hunter can box you with this build and live.

Ability One: Ricochet
This ability is what Hou Yi is known for. It is a simple bouncing line attack that increases its damage the more times it bounces. By far the most skill and knowledge in playing Hou Yi comes from this skill. I could write an entire paper purely on this skill. To keep this short, I will generalize it too the three big thing you need to know.

1: How to Clear
This ability is Hou Yi's main clear. If you are not pressured into a tower, the best way to clear is to send it though the melee minions, off a wall, and into the archers. It won't Be long until this will instantly clear the archers. Finish the rest off with spear.

This ability is also great for clearing jungle camps. All jungle camps have a spot in which a triple shot is possible, almost clearing it instantly. Create a custom conquest game with a bot and LOOK FOR THEM. With a Hou Yi in Duo Lane, its not unusual for mid to get to lane FAR before the minions do. The attack speed camp is much more difficult to hit than the damage camp, however. On the side of order, you will want to pull the minions out towards the lane. Bouncing the shot off of the OUTSIDE wall of the camp will give you easiest triple shot. On the chaos side, you might have to bounce it off of the inner walls. Remember for jungle camps YOU want to be the one to start it. Spear will allow you to heal all the damage you will take.

2: Stun
This ability, in combination with Phoenix Mark, is the best stun on any hunter. Do NOT waste it. Do not o for complicated multi-shots unless you're willing to take the risk. This is your best kill method of securing a kill, use it wisely.

3: Multi-shots
Simple Multi-shots are far easier to hit than you might think. The best strategy is to get perpendicular to a wall with someone in between you. This will give you a double shot and an extended stun. If yorue in the middle of duo lane this can even be a triple shot. Your best option for a triple shot is in the entrances to the jungle. Open a custom game against a bot, check them out.

Ability 2: Mark of the Golden Crow (I call it Phoenix)
This ability is simple. It increases the damage you do, can be used to stun, gives you an insane amount of penetration late game, and slows in your ult. You put it on the first person you want to kill, and you kill them. I usually keep this on someone as long as I am poking them.

Ability 3: Divebomb
This is an awesome jump. Its as instant as Neith's, but you can aim it. It is great for avoiding damage, escaping, and finishing kills.

Ability Four: Sunbreaker
Some say that this is a terrible ult. It is not as bad as some would think, but it has to be used differently. The basic strategy is as follows. Use your mark on someone. Place your ult voe the lane on top of them, favoring the direction they would escape to. Then IMMEDIATELY, use your stun. This will cost them a HUGE about of health, but isn't always effective. The best use would include a support like Geb using his abilities at the same time to keep them in the range. In general

Other uses for this ult would include it being a powerful zoning ability. It is also rather good at taking objectives. Think about it, if you place it on the gold fury while the enemy team is fighting it either you get them off the gold fury, you get the gold fury, you get them, or (often) all of the above.

Don't hesitate to use this ability to finish off a kill or even clear the wave if you're behind. In general Hou Yi has a very weak early and if you're behind you may not be using it to get a kill. Id you do decided to use it to clear the wave, try and place it on the enemy hunter, it'll almost always send them back.

This build is tailored to help Hou Yi survive to late game and provide him an insane amount of BURST once he gets their. In end game, they should be dead before the stun ends.

Achilles' Spear: This item is one of the most important items of the build. It provides such an insane amount of utility it would be difficult to fully explain it. Remember, when you use it, you are vulnerable, be careful.
Sustain: Spear is incredibly useful at all points in the game for providing sustain. It provides more health than a health pot, every 30 seconds. Most games, I sell that one health pot before I end up using it. End game, a few seconds of spear will provide a full heal and allow you to tank targets such as the fire giant with ease.
Early game clear: The primary reason I added spear to this list is to increase the early game clear. Spear pops every 30 seconds, as rapidly as the wave comes, and increases your clear to the point where its equal or better than most other hunters.
Objective Pressure: Spear allows you to TEAR through objectives.
Mobility: Spear increases your movement to roughly 15% faster than a typical boots build. I will use spear as an escape more often than you will think. If you are running away ask yourself "if they catch me, am I dead?". If the answer is yes, use it, it'll increase your chances of getting away MASSIVELY and the extra 30% damage does nothing if they can't touch you.

Hastened Fatalis:
Hastened is extremely powerful on Hou Yi. Some used to believe that this did not belong on hunters, mainly because sprint added the same effect. In a recent patch this effect was removed from sprint, and hastened was buffed by DOUBLE. Not only does this item add an insane passive, the extra attack speed it adds makes it so the amount of damage you do is significantly higher than what you would have with boots. This item has allowed me to box hunters 2 levels ahead of me, and win. All you have to do is dodge a single shot, which is significantly easier than you would think, and you will have an advantage over any hunter with boots. Mid-late game you can stick to people like no bodies business.

Executioner:
It is executioner. The protection removal is good, plus the high attack speed works well with Hastened.

Rage:
Your damage will SPIKE once you get rage. With the attack speed you possess your damage will be huge. What I'm currently experimenting with is what order to buy rage and executioner in. If you opt to buy rage first, make sure you have enough for light blade, trust me.

Death Bringer:
FEAR ME. You will be able to outbox any hunter at this point. This is a huge damage spike.

Malice:
You buy this item last because its passive is essentially a weaker version of death bringer. Almost everyone will tell you NOT to buy a third crit item. I agree, on every other god. This item gives you more physical power than every other item, makes it extremely likely you will crit, and increases your crit damage even further. The reason you are buying malice is so you can kill them before they have a chance to use a single ability on you. If you want to buy a different item, go ahead, but try this on Hou Yi first, you'll see a difference.

I said in the beginning of this build that this build is designed to counter enemy gods in specific ways.

Mages:
Most Mages are so "squishy" that a single stun will hold them in place long enough to kill. Its unlikely they would live through very many shots. However, Hou Yi possesses one of the (surprisingly) most over powered abilities to counter mages. His jump. When Hou Yi is in the air he is completely immune to all damage (not cc) on the ground. This means Poseidon's Kraken, Vulcan's Missile, Anubis's Death Gaze, Ra's Laser Beam, Isis's healing Circle, and pretty much every single high power ability that a mage can throw at you can easily be dodged.
The most challenging thing a mage can throw at you is CC. In my experience, one of the best gods in the game for countering Hou Yi is Poseidon because Poseidon's whirlpool will not only prevent you from jumping but actually pull you out of your jump from mid air. This is DEADLY to Hou Yi, and is the reason I always buy beads as soon as possible when their is a Poseidon on the other team.

Hunters:
Late game, you are the biggest baddest hunter in the game. No hunter can even compare. This is true for 3 reasons.
1: Mobility. Hastened Fatalis allows you to easily stick to the enemy hunter and dodge their shots. You also possess arguably the best hunter jump in the game, letting you chase or get out if you have to. Finally, if you need the boost, you can use spear.
2. A great Stun. You possess a super easy to hit, high damage one second stun.
3. Phoenix. Phoenix increases the damage you do by 50% and provides 30% penetration. Even if they were able to crit at the same rate you do, you will kill them far sooner.
4. Your Passive. This is by far your biggest advantage at end game against other hunters. For hunters, the maximum amount of damage that can be reached can ONLY be reached through crits. Hou Yi's passive makes him immune to a build like this, giving you a huge advantage.

Tanks/Supports:
This category includes everyone building tank, typically being Warriors or Guardians. This build will TEAR through a tank. Given tanks typically don't expect you to tear through them as easily as you can. There are three reasons you have this advantage.
1. Phoenix. I would call Phoenix the tank killer if it weren't so good at killing everyone. It gives you a base 30% penetration, combined with executioner, lets you strip away a tanks protections. Phoenix also increases your damage by 50%, cutting through their protections.
2. Mobility. You are able to stick to a target FAR better than most other hunters. This is true of the same reason you can stick to hunters, but for tanks it is particularly important because you won't be able to one shot them. In general, the mobility of tanks is pretty lackluster, meaning they won't be able to get away.
3. Crits. You do an insane amount of BURST damage. You should be able to catch them off guard.