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Hi there, I'm SteveSmells, and this is my guide for Kali!
I've played Smite on and off for a while, but only started playing seriously in the last month. I decided that I wanted to get good with a fairly tough god and settled on the lovely Kali!
Now, like I said, Kali can be a pretty tough god to use until you get used to her, but once you do you will truly become the God Of Destruction!
The first thing that you'll discover when you start using Kali is that she is incredibly squishy. This is a major issue but, luckily, you've got a few tricks up your sleeve to deal with this weakness...
Kali is an incredibly powerful god, but she isn't without her problems:
Marked for Death
In my opinion this is the best passive skill in the game. It gives you a target, buffs you to help you kill them, and then heals most of your health when you deal the killing blow!
Nimble Strike
Nimble Strike has a multitude of uses; you can start fights, escape them, and chase with it! Not only this, but the healing ability shouldn't be overlooked as it is very effective at turning the tables when you're weak!
Lash
Lash is your only decent damaging ability, so you'll be investing a lot of points into it as fast as possible. You will be using this skill to help with clearing out camps, clearing waves of minions, and to help you destroy your enemies! The lifesteal is more helpful than you might think, and the bleed it applies can be the difference between killing a fleeing enemy and them escaping.
Incense
Incense is Kali's steroids, and it is an incredibly powerful skill. Whilst it stuns your enemies it buffs your physical power, allowing you to get off a few super strong hits. It is also useful in a pinch to aid your escape from a tough situation.
Destruction
Kali's ult is incredibly powerful and is part of why I love using her so much. It makes you invincible! With it you can afford to over-commit yourself if your enemy is close to death (or too close to their tower), and I cannot emphasise enough how useful a tool it is for escaping!
Everybody will have a different play style, and the items that you use will reflect that. The purchase order listed above is what I use most of the time, but you can chop and change with other optional items.
Devourer's Gauntlet is always the first item that I focus on. It's important to start building up that lifesteal as soon as possible to increase your sustain and make yourself more useful. You can swap this out for the more expensive Bloodforge which gives more physical power but less lifesteal.
Qin's Sais is the next most important item on your shopping list. Kali's base attack speed is quite slow, so it's important to speed that up in order to become the true embodiment of destruction! Obviously the increased physical power and additional damage are a big help too!
Warrior Tabi is next on the list. Another increase in your attack speed, power and penetration, plus that much-needed movement speed boost. Alternatively you could opt for Hastened Fatalis, which doesn't boost your movement speed as much, but make it so that successful attacks don't slow you, which is perfect for chasing a foe down!
Malice comes now. By this point you'll be doing pretty decent damage with your basic attacks so it's time to start getting those crits!
Deathbringer is your penultimate item, again to work on those crits!
Rage completes the set. Once you have this item you'll be doing a crit on virtually every hit, and will be able to wipe out most enemy gods in just a few hits!
Like I said, this is the set that I use myself, but we're all different so play around!
For the most part Kali should be considered to be a jungler. I'm not even going to attempt to tell you how to jungle because I'm no expert! Instead I would recommend that you check out Subzero008's jungling guide: The Jungler's Handbook. Remember to give it an upvote!
Junglers have a few jobs to carry out:
Presence in lanes - Early in the game you won't be spending too much time in the lanes because you're too squishy. However, you do need to show a presence there to deter your foes, and to help clearing waves and pushing up on towers.
Camps - You'll be spending a lot of time roaming around the jungle clearing camps. Generally you'll want to start by clearing your speed camp to buff yourself, then focus on clearing other camps and leaving the buffs for the rest of your team. Mid camps are your main target though as they give the most experience, and also because claiming them for yourself prevents your enemies from getting them!
Ganking - By the time you reach the late game you'll be incredibly good at leaping out of the jungle and taking out enemies, but remember that it's also important to help your team with ganks early on!
This is just a basic outline of what you'll be wanting to do during your matches, but anything can happen out there so just play around and have fun with it!
Above everything else you just need to remember that teamwork is the key! You may be an indestructible queen of destruction, but if you leap head first into a big group of your enemies without backup then you will almost certainly not come out alive!
One final point - BE PATIENT! As I've said, Kali's early game is very weak so patience is a virtue. You'll start off slow, but later in the game you'll be ridiculously powerful!
I hope that you enjoyed my guide and that it was helpful for you! It's my first guide, so any constructive criticism is very welcome!
I will be playing around with Kali a lot more in the future and hope to expand this guide as I do so :D
Thanks for reading!
Jordenito - He wrote the guide that got me started using Kali, and I have adapted my style from that!
Subzero008 - For his awesome jungling guide!
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I like that you emphasise using Lash, many people forget about it.
Personally I am very unlucky so I don't like crit builds. Usually The Executioner, Hydra's Lament and Jotunn's Wrath work as good replacements for those crit items. When building a more sustainable Kali replacing Hydra's Lament with Frostbound Hammer worked well for me. Sometimes it's worth replacing Qin's Sais with Hastened Fatalis, for instance against gods like Chang'e.
Also I found that comboing the now buffed Fatalis with Frostbound can pretty much eliminate the need for boots altogether (for a Jungler that is, in lane you have to dodge enemy pokes, so boots are needed).
Try it, it may work for you as well. But this is a solid guide in it's own right.
I am finding a bit more now that lifesteal can be less of a necessity, but it all depends on your team. I queue solo 99% of the time, and we all know how difficult it can be to get some people to play like they should be ;p
When I've played around some more I'll add a build without lifesteal, and expand the guide in general :D
Nice aexplantion of the synergy between the different spells.
I like this guide.
In terms of items I find lifesteal from items not that necessary with Kali due to her built in healing and lifesteal, unless you're falling behind. So I usually just go boots first into qins. I find fatalis works wonders on her as well.
Also beads. Beads are required on Kali. When every other character has a stun and you can be stunned while ulting the gold is well worth it.
Just my two cents, and nice to see more kali guides on here.
The reason that I go for Devourer's Gauntlet before Warrior Tabi is that you need to start building up your stack on it as soon as possible. Movement speed is an important factor, but I find that Nimble Strike and Incense are good enough to help you escape early on.
With regards to buying Warrior Tabi before Qin's Sais, I actually tend to split my funds between the two. Lifesteal first, then attack speed and movement speed with pretty much equal urgency.
My reasoning behind using Devourer's Ganntlets over Bloodforge is that it costs much less. If I was buying it later in the game I would likely go for Bloodforge too, and in long matches swapping them out is always an option, but I do see what you mean. Also, Kali's attack speed is actually pretty slow until you have the items to speed it up.
Finally on the build, I did try out a physical penetration build and it just didn't work for me. I can definitely see its benefits but it wasn't my style. I';; keep trying though, and will add it as a second build if I can nail it down :D
The reason the item's section isn't fully complete (and teamwork missing completely) was just that I ran out of free time whilst writing it but wanted to get the guide out there before I lost interest in finishing it (I'm fickle like that...). Since the guide is up now though I have motivation to keep going with it :D
I'll keep working on it, and will likely do a big revamp once I'm more confident with the bbcoding.
Thanks again!
your build. since qin's has gotten more expensive I would switch it with the boots because of the small pen boots and the movement speed allowing you to escape better in mid game or chase better.
Also the crit combo is good but I would sooner take more pen (executioner) instead of rage
also I myself like Bloodforge more then dev gloves on junglers. especially on someone with a fast basic attack. (bloodforge gives more power and lifesteal at max stacks (65 power (5 power more) and 30% ls (5% more ls then dev)) as kali you can easily sustain this power.
bbcoding is good enough (basic but taht's the least what needs to be in)
your item section isn't complete (discuss al items not ony what you build but optionals too)
also I miss the teamwork section you got the gameplay section though