Highest hunter build?

Great Analysis. Covers all the bases that I would have covered.

Ultimately YES this is a high DPS hunter build. But from a practical standpoint and a calculated standpoint the build falls short.

This will do high SUSTAIN damage. Which is great-ish if you can afk in the backline and plink away.

With a more optimized build. You're going to do similar if not better dps while also having a better setup for tanks or squishes with a high pen or crit build.

I didnt actually do the calculations but even if this is the highest dps build into squish standing still.

In the real world this has less kill potential than a traditional hunter build as people arent going to be standing still and will or won't be building protections.

As an FYI, Estidien (Salad), Trevor, Gulf, and I have been chatting about this on SF Discord.

I give tons of props to ImpishCoconut. I read his r/SMITE post, and he goes into tons of depth.

Some of these things might be my preference, and while overall I really like the build concept, it's not what I would choose to build in most cases.

• Silverbranch Bow as first item after Hunter's Blessing is just not preferable IMO. You're already getting an AS boost out of Hunter's, and Silver, while it has very good stats overall for what is a very reasonable price, isn't optimal at that point of the build, at least from a pure DPS standpoint.
  
  I covered the concept of power vs. attack speed in hunter builds in this theory-crafting post.
  
  
  
  Especially when you get an AS boost out of the blessing, your optimal DPS first item is going to be a power item, not an AS one, in part because most of the following items will be providing AS. Historically, people do this via either Transcendence (ability hunters) or Devourer's Gauntlet (basic-attack hunters), both of which provide very good power once stacks are built. Both of these items also offer important early-game sustain...mana via Trans, and lifesteal/health via Devo's.
  
  Yes, Silver has decent power, great AS, and even some flat pen, which is all appreciated. But if Devo's is a functional first item for the hunter in question, I will ALWAYS prefer that sustain.
  
  In addition, you will get absolutely 0 function out of the passive until late-game. I don't like that. That's inefficient itemization IMO.
  
  
• Then, your next 3 items introduce EVEN MORE AS. Ninja Tabi, then The Executioner, then Qin's Sais. These items are all great as a general concept, and choosing Ninja with advance consideration for getting Qin's is fine overall, due to wanting to get as many procs of Qin's as possible.
  
  But this is pushing you further and further from that optimal DPS range. It then needs to serve a very specific purpose, which as a main point is again maxing the Qin's potential. (I will also throw in here that the blessing does serve as a sort of mini Qin's passive, due to the bonus damage per hit...so that's where this build gets some functional benefit) It serves another obvious purpose, which is anti-tank (in the sense of high-health targets in particular). Against squishy gods, I'd argue it's less functional than traditional hunter builds.
  
  *edit* AND...itemizing into Silverbranch and O-Bow prevents you from true anti-tank potential, as you won't be able to (in those specific cases where you want it) double up with The Executioner and Titan's Bane, at least until late-late game when you might replace Tabi with Elixir of Speed.
  
  
• Here's a quick spreadsheet layout of the stats, and I used Artemis (high end AS potential) and Hou Yi (no steroid) as counterpoints.
  
  
  
  What we can see from this is that Artemis can get a pretty good boost from Silver's passive, once she's at level 20, has a full build, and activates her steroid. Even without steroid, she's getting a 27 power boost, while her steroid activation provides a total of 40.
  
  Thing is, she can easily make up the difference for the 40 power by just itemizing differently. Instead of O-Bow (and probably Qin's), she will choose Devo's and crit damage. That direction will make her IMMENSELY more damaging against squishies, and likely even more damaging against tanks.
  
  One other thing to consider here is that basic attack counters, such as Witchblade, Midgardian Mail, and skills such as Rain Dance, will directly affect Silver's passive, potentially rendering it from providing some power, to providing none. Yes, attack speed slows are going to have a detrimental affect to ALL basic attacking in general, but it's of extra note if you're partially valuing Silver due to the passive's potential.
  
  Hou Yi, on the other hand, is going to get less out of the build as a whole. DukeSloth DOES say in the middle of the video that he knows some gods may get more out of this than others (as he's showing Hou Yi gameplay). As you can see (if my calculations are correct), he never even gets to see any use out of the Silver passive, unless he gets some outside influence (e.g. Shogun's Kusari).

In conclusion, I think it's an okay build, with some benefits depending on comp. Do I think it's THE build to use in S6 at this point? No way. No early sustain, too much early AS pushing you away from optimal DPS, no early function out of the Silver passive and questionable late function from it depending on god. And still, gods with significant AS steroids are still probably better with crit in the majority of cases.

We had a pretty lively discussion on it over on the discord server. Basically it's good for objective killing, but isn't very good in a 1v1 fight.