Current Smite ADC builds

So last season we saw the rise of two primary ADC builds:

Devourer's:


Transcendence:

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As I've surmised from such sources as Merlie's post we have once again reached the same fate with these two builds, and a third suggested by Krett:

Critical Strike (14050):
wind demon

Unicorn (12180):
( / )

Critical Unicorn (13330/15200):
(sell Ichaival for Malice)

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So I thought I'd analyze, what changed? A few things:

• The Executioner was nerfed making it less viable, even on ADCs.
• Crit items and Qin's Sais were changed, making Unicorn viable again.
• Bluestone Pendant was nerfed making it along with the ability reliant Transcendence less viable.
• Protections items were nerfed, making penetration less essential since it's harder for squishy gods to pick up health and protections through one item (eg: old Mail of Renewal).

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After looking at this, I still can't help but wonder a few things. Even though Throwing Dagger is an expensive start, is it viable outside of the solo lane? The answer to this is likely going to be rather opinionated since it's hard to get tangible numbers to relate to its efficacy. Personally, I agree that in most situations the price outweighs the benefit. However, if you're playing in a lane that really lacks waveclear (eg: Artemis + Geb) I could see it being invaluable.

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Next, what happened to Transcendence? Even though Bluestone Pendant was nerfed, surely there are some gods that still do better with that much mana? Well, there's a problem to that theory. The way to go about making a Transcendence build would be to take the critical strike build and replace Devourer's Gauntlet and Ichaival with Transcendence and Asi (thus maintaining your power, attack speed and lifesteal). However, most gods that were exceptional with Transcendence prefer the Unicorn build. Ability based hunters (eg: Neith, Anhur, Chiron) lack any attack speed steroids, and the ability to really use the critical strike build to burst down enemies quickly. They do much better with the penetration and consistency of a Unicorn build late game. The only exception to this I can see is Ullr (and maybe Medusa), who tends to be incredibly mana hungry and has always been the most reliant on Transcendence out of all of Smite's hunters.

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Finally, what happened to penetration in the Critical builds? Even with nerfs to The Executioner and protections items, penetration has always mattered hugely in regards to DPS, are these builds really better off without The Executioner or Titan's Bane?
To test this, I took a relatively average hunter ( Neith) and tested her DPS against a squishy (no defense items) and a tank (guardian with Sovereignty and Breastplate of Valor, two very common items) using the Critical Strike build, once with wind demon and once with Titan's Bane to see the difference.

With wind demon, Neith's attacks did 337 (566 DPS) against squishies and 173 (291 DPS) to tanks.
With Titan's Bane, Neith's attacks did 323 (543 DPS) against squishies and 186 (312 DPS) to tanks.

(I tested DPS with The Executioner as well and it was significantly lower than Titan's Bane).

Comparatively, to prove my point from earlier, here are Neith's numbers with the Unicorn build:

With Unicorn, Neith's attacks did 315 (589 DPS) against squishies and 181 (338 DPS) to tanks.
(Note: Neith's DPS is higher despite her attacks doing less damage because this takes into account damage from abilities, hence why the higher penetration Unicorn build is better for ability focused ADCs).

So our conclusion? Since ability based gods are more likely to use the Unicorn build, basic attack focused gods are almost always better off with wind demon than Titan's Bane (at least against 3/5 of the enemy team most games). Unless the enemy team has 3 players buying physical defense items, crit seems to be the way to go. However, Titan's Bane is 550 gold cheaper, so if you're trying to win off of one last push, you're probably better off with Titan's Bane and a potion of physical might. Finally, Titan's Bane is better at taking out towers while wind demon shuts down lifesteal/healing, so that may be something to consider as well.

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Finally, how good is the Critical Unicorn build? Again with Neith, these are the results:

With Critical Unicorn, Neith's attacks did 375 (596 DPS) against squishies and 196 (312 DPS) to tanks.
(*Note, these numbers were taken after selling Ichaival for Malice, they were significantly worse before that point)

So, at full build, Critical Unicorn is by far the best against squishies, but still performs worse than Unicorn against tanks. Due to its poor power curve however, I could only recommend this if you're playing for the super late game win.

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Hope you all liked my analysis, I've been craving Hunter build analysis since Professor Proxy stopped posting so I took it upon myself to do it. Feel free to comment away :]

The build I like to use with ADCs (except Artemis)

Transcendence Asi/ Soul Eater Warrior Tabi Qin's Sais Hastened Fatalis/ Odysseus' Bow and Titan's Bane.

I'd call that the Trans Unicorn Build (with Hastened/Odysseus)

Neith with this build does 287 (537 DPS) to squishies and 182 (340 DPS) to tanks. Compared to the Unicorn build, this costs ~$1000 more and does significantly less DPS to squishies, and slightly more to tanks. It does have the less tangible value of more mana and Odysseus/Hastened's passives, but the power curve is worse, it's less good against objectives compared to the Unicorn build (one of its strong points) and you're forced to stack which can leave you behind the other ADC. It can be viable in casuals, but I wouldn't take it into Gold+ ranked.

weird I still see a lot of people stick to S2 builds (without exe mostly titans or they just go qins+crit).

or they take a unicorn build based of S2 trans build

(also I mostly see ninja tabi on adc)

People stick to what they know, even if it's less optimal. As for ninja tabi, if you use trans you need it, so maybe they're connected. Unicorn has enough attack speed on its own

I love my Medusa with:

Transcendence
Ninja Tabi
Jotunn's Wrath
Wind Demon
Qin's Sais
Deathbringer

She has great abilities, but this makes her basic attacks deadly as well.