The Executioner (4.18)

In Patch 4.15, The Executioner saw a power increase due to Ichaival and Silverbranch Bow being nerfed. Ever since then, I have felt that The Executioner has been incredibly strong.

In the standard Hunter build, it normally starts out with Warrior Tabi followed by Devourer's Gauntlet. After this point, The Executioner just makes the most sense here compared to other items, especially for the cost. You can find other items that can compete with it in Power and Attack Speed, such as Atalanta's Bow, but they lack the penetration. The Crusher could be viable in this slot for boxing in lane, but the penetration falls off in the late game compared to The Executioner as well.

In general, I believe it is just such a strong item right now, and I would personally recommend building it almost always until they adjust either the price or stats.

I'm interested in hearing others' opinions on this.

Unless you want extra damage against towers/objectives, Executioner all the way indeed.

I'm guessing you know my opinion, and you see this being employed exactly as you state for my Medusa Devo's build, but yeah, Exe is basically core for basic-attacking hunters. Personally I feel it's better if the steroid is not as powerful, like Medusa or Hachiman, where you REALLY want the attack speed...I'd consider going Titan's Bane occasionally for Artemis if I want her to be a tower killer, since her steroid is so nice.

The Crusher IS an interesting 3rd option though...as a basic attacker, if you had some abilities that you relied on more than others (again, like Medusa), I could see this functioning in some cases pretty well.

So we agree that The Executioner is an important item. I have a hypothetical question for you, then.

Let's say you are playing ADC with Boots and Devo's built. Let's also say that you are forced to back early, and you have around 1700 gold in hand. Do you elect to build an Ichaival / Silverbranch Bow, or do you go for a Balanced Blade in preparation to get The Executioner online faster?

Personally, I lean more towards getting The Executioner built, which is interesting considering the relationship between these items. As HiRez stated, the buff to The Executioner was due to the nerfing of Ichaival and Silverbranch Bow. Now though, I don't see either of the latter two items built hardly ever in comparison to The Executioner.

(I forgot you had a Medusa guide. I'm going to have to check that out.)

In almost all cases, I have the build in mind from the start (after I've seen both teams' comps), and will deviate very little from it. In this case, I'll almost never go Ichaival / Silverbranch Bow these days, even in your specific example. I might get a bit of a boost from it for a short time if my lane enemy is going for Exe or another item, but I am also planning for the long term, and I'm pretty sure that after even 1 more item, Exe is just the superior item.

Keep in mind also that if you barely have enough for Ich, then you might also not have enough for a Sentry Ward or whatever... Balanced Blade is cheaper and will give you more gold in your pocketses =)

The Crusher is great for Cernunnos because his Bramble Blast is still a pretty strong wave clear tool and can take out low-health gods pretty easily. I've gotten quite a few kills tossing it as gods who either should have ran away earlier or weren't running fast enough. ;)

Since we're talking about The Executioner versus Titan's Bane, which is better on whom? Should an ability based hunter, like Skadi take the later instead of the former seeing as how her base attack speed is so slow?

I think both Exe and TB work, depending on how the rest of the build goes. I know people will stand behind Exe for basically all hunters strictly for the basic attack DPS, and I can see the reasoning.

That said, how do you build Skadi? What other items do you build on her? Assume most build with Transcendence, and if we're talking end build, if you go full power/pen, you can take a squishy out in like...2 seconds, right? Is that a conservative number? She seems to just destroy people (me) sometimes.

So at that point, exactly how much attack speed do you need? With her puppy taking aggro, getting Titan's Bane can help her just demolish objectives in a split push. And now it's super freaking cheap.

I say TB can work quite well, especially if you have only one other phys god on your team, and you have either a magical jungler or solo...at least a portion of Exe's potential is reduced if you have less physical teammates. You can make up for the loss of attack speed with any of Asi, Odysseus' Bow, The Crusher, etc.

Ninja Tabi (late replacement for Warrior Tabi), Transcendence, Titan's Bane, Qin's Sais, The Crusher, Odysseus' Bow. That's plenty of attack speed (2.0), power (217), and pen (33% + 15), at a reasonable price (13,450 gold). Or if you want the lifesteal, just get Asi earlier and don't get O-Bow.

Honestly don't know if that's a decent build for her or not, but the numbers seem pretty good.

I like your name, Branmuffin17. I play Smite on Xbox; I'm called brian muffin.

Hahaha Inferno...VEW for muffins!

@bran:

I'm still working on a build for her, but I go power and pen mostly:

Transcendence, Warrior Tabi, Asi (outside of arena), Brawler's Beat Stick or Jotunn's Wrath depending on whether or not the other team has a healer, and The Executioner as well I believe. I don't play much conquest anymore, so I'm more curious about modes like clash and assault. Thanks.