Bake Kujira - Build and Quick Thoughts (Y10, All Modes, Patch 10.13, "Yokai of Despair")

Hey everyone, as there are only 2 builds on the site so far and I personally don't agree with either of them, I thought I'd put up a quick build guide and thoughts. Note I have NOT played him yet outside of fiddling in jungle practice, but have watched some gameplay and am also just working off of theory-crafting concepts.

To clarify how some stats work with his kit:

• Attack Speed Items -> Haste: From his passive Curse of the Ghost Whale, Attack Speed Conversion = 1% reduced Movement Penalty per 1%.
  
  Per Wiki: Ranged basic attack penalty = 50%. Melee basic attack penalty = 35%.
  
  He gains an increasing amount of Haste (or alternatively, he slows down less when basic attacking) with higher AS. He does NOT gain increased AS though! As Bake is a melee god, you should only need 35% AS to maintain speed when basic attacking. However, this does not seem to be the case. I still notice slowdown when at 35% AS (e.g. Demonic Grip + Emerald Ring). It seems like it takes ~50% AS from items to prevent any slowdown. The description of his Rough Waters ability seems to indicate that as well, as it provides a 50% movement penalty reduction, matching the slowdown for ranged basic attackers.
  
  However, this doesn't mean he should target 50% AS. Nor having Rough Waters means you shouldn't get AS items at all. Rather, I think there's one item in particular that can make sense to pick up, depending on team comp. I'll note that later.
  
  
• Protection Items -> Basic Attack Damage: From his passive Curse of the Ghost Whale, Protections Conversion = 30%.
  
  This is a simple one. As he builds more protections, he deals more basic attack damage. Protections = good. However, if you build him normally, don't expect the basic attack damage to be your focus. It's helpful for wave clear, but you won't be building a lot of penetration, meaning your damage against enemy gods won't be incredibly high with lots of protection items.
  
  At level 20, his base basic attack damage (before mitigations) is 54. As an example against a level 20 Odin bot with 75 protections (roughly the amount for a squishy god at level 20 with no protection items), he's dealing 85 if I have 559 total phys + mag protections. Not that impressive to want to focus on basic attacks too much.

Note that building protections increases basic attack damage. While you can also increase basic attack damage with Magical Power items, the conversion is 20% (100 power provides base 20 extra damage). His scaling is very low (30% on his 2, 20/30% on his 3), so damage builds aren't really recommended and don't synergize with his kit. That doesn't mean you can't have fun with a damage build, but don't expect to do that well against reasonable competition.

Conquest: Solo, secondary option as Support
Non-Conquest: Standard Tank

CC Contributions:

• Passive ( Curse of the Ghost Whale): Curse applies affects on his other abilities.
• Ability 1 ( Rough Waters): None
• Ability 2 ( Sonic Wave): 15% Slow and 6-10% damage reduction. Already cursed enemies have doubled values.
• Ability 3 ( Twisting Dive): Stun, Push
• Ability 4 ( Yokai's Lament): Time Dilation, damage increase to enemies

Based on all of this, while he has some decent CC, he's best as a slight aggressor and to be in the center of teamfights, centered around his teamfight ult.

Assessment: While he can function as a main tank, it would be due to item choices moreso than his kit's capabilities. He'll probably contribute best by providing team auras and utilities. He doesn't have enough burst damage output to be a significant threat to the enemy backline unless he perhaps unloads his whole kit, which usually won't be optimal if he's away from teammates. He's best off when his team has another CC-heavy god to help disrupt the enemies, allowing him to use his abilities to control the field.


Stat Focus for Builds: He doesn't have a massive amount of CC, but these should all be fairly easily applied to enemies. His main stat focus points should generally be protections and cooldown reduction.

As DV-8 has pointed out, Bake lacks health sustain, and with lack of high damage abilities and as his basic attacks only receive 33% of the total lifesteal effectiveness, health and HP5 items will be important for him to participate in drawn-out fights or to recover without always having to back.

Attack speed items are unnecessary but if they provide other functions besides AS, then they can still be useful. Of these, Shogun's Kusari is perhaps the best fit, as its aura will help teammates in fights and for objective damage output.

• Primary stats to gain via items: Protections, CDR, Health / HP5
• Secondary stats to gain via items: Utility (see suggestions below)
• Minor / unnecessary stats: Power, Penetration, Attack Speed

As long as you have the most important stats generally covered, you'll next want to add utility where possible. In categories, here are some utility items to consider depending on mode and role:

• Items that directly affect his basic attack damage: Gilded Arrow, Diamond Arrow
• Anti-heal: Contagion, Pestilence, the Tainted starter and upgrades.
• CC reduction: e.g. Magi's Shelter for team support
• Team auras: Sovereignty, Heartward Amulet, Gauntlet of Thebes, Shogun's Kusari
• Movement Speed: Talisman of Energy, Relic Dagger (also great for relic CD and situationally anti-basic attack w/ the Witch glyph)
• Anti-Basic Attack/Crit: Midgardian Mail, Spectral Armor
• Items w/ extra damage potential: Ethereal Staff, Gladiator's Shield, Stone of Binding