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Who You Gonna Call? GOD BUSTER Zhong Kui

18 2 105,058
9.4
by MooMuse updated December 5, 2014

Smite God: Zhong Kui

Build Guide Discussion 32 More Guides
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Zhong Kui Build

Full Build

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Warlock's Staff Warlock's Staff
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Hide of the Urchin Hide of the Urchin
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti

Starting Items

Build Item Vampiric Shroud Vampiric Shroud
Build Item Tiny Trinket Tiny Trinket
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion
2

Core Build

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Warlock's Staff Warlock's Staff
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Hide of the Urchin Hide of the Urchin

Situational (See section)

Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Weakening Curse Weakening Curse
Build Item Greater Purification Greater Purification
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Heavenly Agility Heavenly Agility

Last but certainly not least

Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti

Zhong Kui's Skill Order

Expose Evil

1 X Y
Expose Evil
2 8 11 12

Exorcism

2 A B
Exorcism
1 3 6 7 10

Book of Demons

3 B A
Book of Demons
4 14 15 16 18 19

Recall Demons

4 Y X
Recall Demons
5 9 13 17 20
Expose Evil
2 8 11 12

Expose Evil

1 X
Zhong Kui pastes a card on all enemies in front of him, marking them as a demon, Slowing and damaging them each second while they are marked. If the card is removed, 75% of the remaining damage is done instantly.

Ability Type: Line, Slow, Damage
Damage Per Tick: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+20% of your Magical Power)
Slow: 20%
Card Lifetime: 5s
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 12s
Exorcism
1 3 6 7 10

Exorcism

2 A
Zhong Kui drives out the demons of his enemies, dealing damage as they leave the body. Demons exorcised from Enemies marked by Expose Evil will be absorbed by Zhong Kui, healing him per demon (up to 3), and will remove the card.

Ability Type: Cone
Damage: 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Heal: 15 / 40 / 65 / 90 / 115
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 10s
Book of Demons
4 14 15 16 18 19

Book of Demons

3 B
When fired, the Book of Demons deals damage and Stuns enemies, stunning marked enemies for 2x the duration and removing the card. Once this ability has been ranked, the Book of Demons flies nearby Zhong Kui, firing for 50% of Zhong Kui's basic damage.

Ability Type: Circle, Stun, Damage
Damage: 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Stun: 1s (2x for marked targets)
Radius: 20
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 13s
Recall Demons
5 9 13 17 20

Recall Demons

4 Y
Upon activation, demons pulse out from his bag at nearby players every second for 5s. They chase and accelerate over time, doing damage to enemies as they enter the body. Zhong Kui is immune to Knockback and Slows for the duration.

Ability Type: Circle, Buff, Damage
Damage: 80 / 95 / 110 / 125 / 140 (+25% of your Magical Power)
Radius: 40
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90s

God Bustin'! (Intro)

Hey guys, this is MooMuse here. I'll be making quite a few guides here on Smite Fire from now on. I've been playing smite for 2 months now and have learned a lot. I started out as a mid laner/jungler and found my role is best fit into the jungle or the solo lane. Due to knowing where my weaknesses lie, I've been practicing every god for the roles that I am worst at and I found a favorite for the mid lane (also works solo too). Good ol' ghost bustin' Zhong Kui. He is probably one of the most fun gods in smite and not many casual players understand how he works or what his role seems to be in team fights, so... I am here to try my first effort at a legitimate guide. Welcome to God Bustin' 101!

THIS GUIDE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE! :D <3

Pros/Cons of Zhong Kui

Zhong Kui could possibly be be the only god in the game who can attack the ENTIRE enemy team, just by walking near them. He is built almost like a Magical Bruiser and wields great sustain in lane as well as faring well in team fights. If not shut down, he can easily establish his dominance throughout the match pretty early on.

Zhong Kui has trouble with some of the more mobile gods in Smite and will easily be shut down if you can make him fall behind in game. Making him a high priority target of burst damage is probably one of your best options if you wish to oppose him. Don't forget he has a large amount of protections. (Especially if he's had time to build stacks on his passive) DO NOT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ALLOW THIS GUY TO FREE FARM.

Zhong Kui's Place

I believe Zhong Kui belongs on a team with standard team comp of a Guardian (Magic Damage), Himself (Magic Damage), A Magic Damaging solo lane OR jungler. Your physical solo laner / jungler and Hunter ADCarry (Physical damage).

This magic standard team comp is Magic heavy and doing this can perhaps force your enemy team to focus on magic resistance just to have it shredded to pieces by this build's secret weapon. The Spear of the Magus. Along with Zhong Kui's ability to stay in the fight thanks to his sustain and off tank like Build this item allows you to TEAR away at your enemy team's magic resist.

(One of my dream team's for Zhong Kui would be Rama ADC, Athena Support, Zhong Kui Middle, Freya Jungle, and Vamana Solo.)

The Why? Behind My Build (Drawn out explanation)

NOTE: I personally believe his item choice variety is limited. Implying the build I show above is very likely the build you should almost always use. This of course is my opinion.

Nothing wrong with experimenting. But to stay alive, as well as do damage plus giving your team a huge advantage in team fights the above shown build is what you want.

I start off with a standard Mage start middle lane. Followed by Shoes of Magi, because he needs that extra penetration. No CDR needed on him. Besides, you should not be using his ultimate sparingly anyways. I rush Warlock's Sash because he is kinda tanky and farms VERY well but needs that extra "Oomph!" And how can you deny 110 magic damage 600 HP at full stacks?
Then I grab Spear of the Magus. NOT Obsidian shard. Zhong Kui is a team fighter. Getting Spear of the Magus adds so so much to his ultimate. Reducing ALL enemy god's (within range of your ultimate) Magic Resist by a flat 10, and an additional 10% per tick. (Max Reduction: -(20 flat + 20% of targets MR) is a HUGE benefit to you and your team.) After Spear of the Magus comes Hide of the Urchin. This item is what really puts the icing on the cake for Zhong Kui. It reinforces your already bruiser-like stats and kit. I don't get this before Spear of the Magus because I don't believe he has enough to offer during ganks and rotations to secure kills prior to the damage from Spear of the Magus (which he shouldn't be securing anyways he should be giving them to the jungler when possible). Also, by the time you have Hide of the Urchin completed, team fights tend to occur frequently so it makes sense to me.

Situational Items

When to use Divine Ruin instead of Banecroft's?

IF you are playing against Isis mid, Hercules solo, Ra solo/mid, even a Kali Jungle. If the enemy team has Aphrodite, Hel, or anyone who can heal/lifesteal during team fights *Cough* SYLVANUS. You need to very likely lose out on some damage and get Divine Ruin. I think Zhong Has enough damage in his kit anyways, and it'd be a shame to try to build him pure damage and see the enemy team heal the damage right up.

If you get Divine Ruin definitely go with Heavenly Agility or Enfeebling Curse.
I prefer Enfeebling Curse because I usually build Divine Ruin and try to keep them all in one small area (Best for Zhong's ult damage output) Rather than heavenly agility and have my team and I chase after 2-3 targets if we're lucky and have them scatter outside of his ult's range.

If you wish to keep Banecroft's for added sustain and damage(As he gets lower HP while running around with his ult up he'll do more damage which means more lifesteal) Be sure to get weakening curse.

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1
Technotoad64 (46) | April 14, 2016 7:29pm
Ok, I wrote my own guide from scratch. Let me know if it's any good. Here it is.
1
CakeSlapping (29) | April 6, 2016 11:05am
Techno toad have a read of nanoyam's GuideCrafting guide. It's amazing, and it will show you how to write your own guide from scratch.
1
Zilby (132) | April 6, 2016 10:26am
Technotoad64 wrote:

Would it be stealing if I added more images and BBCoding to this guide, then reuploaded it? I would like to make my own guide, but I'm really bad at writing.

If you really want to add bbcode to a guide, ask the guidemaker first to make sure he's on board with it, make a temporary guide that you don't publish (so only you can see it) which you can use to test the bbcode for each section of the guide, and then send the code in text to the guidemaker so that they can copy paste it into their guide. Hopefully you also get credited for the bbcode somewhere in the guide as well. That way the original guidemaker remains the owner of the guide but you still get to bbcode for them and get credit for that as well.
1
DucksRock (41) | April 6, 2016 10:08am
Technotoad64 wrote:

Would it be stealing if I added more images and BBCoding to this guide, then reuploaded it? I would like to make my own guide, but I'm really bad at writing.

Im not the author but i can already say that is not ok, nanoyam has a great guide on how to write guides.
1
Technotoad64 (46) | April 6, 2016 10:02am
Would it be stealing if I added more images and BBCoding to this guide, then reuploaded it? I would like to make my own guide, but I'm really bad at writing.
1
Kaifers | April 3, 2016 4:54am
I have a question about Recall Demons: Does the enemy have to stay in range or do the demons chase and do damage to the enemy even if they try and escape?

The green ring about Zhong during the spell duration is what is confusing me, is that the healing area?
1
jackiechan600 | January 14, 2016 7:14am
You put 6 points into his 3rd and only 4 points into his first.
1
TeddyBeavers | December 19, 2015 7:30am
Thanks for the information
1
Zues132 (1) | August 17, 2015 5:38pm
Thank you for this great guide it was very useful. Zhong Kui is such am awesome God and yet sooo under rated lol.You did great for a first build +1 from me man.
1
Geck0Icaza | April 7, 2015 12:57am
I would have to agree with Zilby on this one

Quoted:
Last thing, Expose Evil does initially do more damage than Exorcism, so you might want to invest the first skillpoint in that just for clearing the first mid camp and minion wave, and then continue to level up Exorcism because the damage scaling is the same and it provides healing.
But overall, great guide, +1


It also serves as good early game poke as the first tick only starts at the end of the first second giving you time to back out of most minion agro. Of course I only do this if I can do so while hitting the majority of the wave.

Some feedback though. I usually steer away from Hide of the Urchin cause I don't feel like it's worth it unless I start stacking it. I think in this case spirit robe would be another option. Its almost the same price and stats. It does lack mana and health but the Passive I think might be worth if the enemy team has a lot of CC.

Edited: Nah, you were right. Urchin is better :P
1
Zilby (132) | January 26, 2015 11:09am
Really like this build, have been trying out Zhong Kui recently and was trying to figure out how to build his protections right while still maintaining damage. I too agree with Spear of the Magus, as it is a really good item and helps his team. However, for conquest at least, I'd really recommend getting Rod of Tahuti as your fifth item, simply because so many games will end before you'll ever see it completed otherwise. Aside from that, I do prefer Gem of Isolation over Bancroft's Talon, but it really is more of a situational personal preference thing.
Last thing, Expose Evil does initially do more damage than Exorcism, so you might want to invest the first skillpoint in that just for clearing the first mid camp and minion wave, and then continue to level up Exorcism because the damage scaling is the same and it provides healing.
But overall, great guide, +1
1
festive1 (14) | December 17, 2014 9:04pm
You nay want to spice up your guide with a bit of BBCode, as Introversion said. Feel free to PM me if you want any help with BBCode, I have a bit of experience (learned it and used it elsewhere).

If you wanted to add a bit more gameplay / play style tips, they would be great for those who aren't experienced with Zhong.

On the build, I agree with you on Spear of the Magus over Obsidian Shard, as you pointed out, Shard is better for those with less ticks, and Zhong has all the ticks. Saying this I build slightly differently to you, Warlocks Sash(Rushed) -> Shoes of the Magi -> Ethereal Staff or Magi's Blessing -> Spear of the Magus -> E-Staff or Blessing (Whichever one not built) -> Rod of Tahuti

Saying that, I think that your build also is good, just I prefer to build more bruiser.

Overall, an okay guide, what really makes guides good is the involvement of Gameplay sections, so we can really learn to play the god.
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