DETHGUNN

Alright...I rescind my opinion. The way you've been talking and how you wrote things up (along with DB first), it seemed pretty troll.

But this response sounds like you actually care and are putting effort into it, and for that, I'll unarchive, though I do suggest you changing build order to something more efficient.

I'll provide a bit more feedback on how I view things, that will hopefully help further.

• Deathbringer as first item is basically always considered pretty troll. Main reasons:
  
  1. The item is very expensive, especially in the early game when farming is slower and your clear isn't as quick, and you're less likely to get kills to supplement your farming. Your jungle opponent will have better clear before you complete this, and will have completed their first main item before you. So you're putting yourself at a disadvantage, when the whole purpose of Merc right now is to clear super quick and get ahead.
  
  2. When building into crit, DB is typically built as a 2nd crit item, due to these efficiencies...25% crit just isn't enough to be reliable, so depending on the god, they'll usually opt for a lower-priced item like Poisoned Star (for dueling purposes) or Rage (due to need to stack, but also having the highest base crit chance).
  
  3. With the delay in completing due to cost, with the next item providing only 10% MS, you're going to be much less mobile, and relying only on your speed buff for the MS. If it gets stolen, you're going to be sooooo slow.
  
  
• Hastened Katana is a luxury offensive item, allowing you to stick to enemies. It's very fun to get. But getting it as 2nd item is not efficient for your actual damage potential. You don't have any pen at this point, and basic attacks aren't the full focus of his kit. Merc is deadly due to his ability to take an individual enemy out of the play, and beat them up with good ability combos with basics in-between. He's not a pure basic attacker like Bakasura, for example. It also doesn't do anything for your clear...which is why Golden Blade is picked up first right now...it's super strong for him, and there's 0 reason to delay getting that item. If you do want Hastened, it's probably best as a late-game item, once you've got your core MS/pen/crit online.
  
  
• If you want to avoid getting boots ( Talaria Boots seem to be the popular choice right now), then the next item after Golden Blade should probably be Stone Cutting Sword...that's where you get the pen function, and it's very powerful against squishy gods.

Anyway...when talking about builds and build quality, although people can make almost any build "work" for them, the best builds are looking for optimal efficiency for the god's kit. It involves consideration of all of the following:

• Power curve (how quickly is your next item built (due to cost), and how it affects your damage output): e.g. getting 2 items in a row with 0 power, such as Asi followed by Odysseus' Bow is really bad for damage. Super expensive items early slow down your build...only get them if they're extremely beneficial once you've completed the item.
  
  
• Proper items for the kit: e.g. don't get crit on Kali, don't get basic attack items on an ability user.
  
  
• Covering core stats: mobility is very important, especially early. People don't buy Tabi/Shoes last. Mobility is less important in LoL, but very important in SMITE. Proper pen for the god is important for damage output if you're a damaging role.

Hope this gives you better understanding of what we're looking for when we consider "good" and "bad" builds. Thanks for being cool about this.

*edit* Also...not saying you can't make your build "work"...but against competition where the other players understand builds, and their mechanical skill is up to par, then you're likely to lose with this build. Against lower competition, you might be able to succeed just fine.

That's the thing about SMITE, or any MOBA. There are countless variables, so it makes it difficult to evaluate individual things. If you keep one variable as a constant (e.g. build), you might face 2 matches where competition sucks and you kick ***...then you might think "oh my build is rad." Or you might try an alternative build to what has worked for you, and you get steamrolled, and thus think the build sucks. So it's being able to evaluate individual matches, size up your teammates and the competition, their god choices, etc., that will help you evaluate things properly.

Me never troll, try build and tell me what you go