Hou Yi - Here it comes! (Season 4, Patch 4.17)

Hou Yi is a hunter focused around boxing an enemy and controlling areas with his Ricochet and his ultimate, Sunbreaker. He is commonly played in the carry/ADC role but is known to also be a flexible pick for the mid lane, and can even be played as an unorthodox jungle.

Death's Toll is the go-to starter item for most hunters, as the sustain granted from it is so valuable in mitigating poke and keeping your health topped off. Bluestone Pendant can be considered on Hou Yi though I would learn more towards Death's Toll because the sustain is stronger than extra damage in my opinion.

Bumba's Mask is practically mandatory, as the extra damage towards jungle monsters increases your camp clear, plus the sustain granted from killing them helps you to clear more jungle camps and to sustain yourself in lane too.

Warrior Tabi is a good choice of footwear as the extra physical power will increase your poke, burst, and DPS, early game. Late game however, I would consider selling it for Ninja Tabi, as the attack speed late into the game will do more of a difference DPS wise than 20 extra physical power.

Devourer's Gauntlets are built due to their good early power spike. The amount of power it provides for the price of 2000 gold is great, plus the lifesteal is nice too.

The Executioner is a great item for hunters at the moment, since it provides 3 important stats for hunters, physical power, attack speed, and penetration. It is also fairly cheap.

Qin Sais is an excellent item in a build focused around attack speed and penetration, as you will be able to apply its passive effect very frequently, and will be dealing near true damage, with all of the penetration you have.

Titan's Bane is a great item for still having good DPS versus structures and great DPS versus tanks.

Odysseus Bow is your last item and it will drastically improve your DPS with not only the sheer amount of attack speed it provides, but also with its damaging passive, which will add up over time. However if the enemy team has strong healing presence, swap it out for Toxic Blade.

Asi is fine to build though make sure that you are lacking power nor have too much attack speed.

Bloodforge isn't bad either for quick paced gamemodes such as Arena.

Atalanta's Bow is terrible. Please do not build it. It offers little for the cost.

Brawler's Beatstick isn't the worst thing in the world but I do value Toxic Blade much more than Brawler's Beatstick.

Even though it would seem that Hou Yi is an ability based hunter, he sort of isn't. His only source of reliable damage is his Ricochet which is only noticeable if you can manage to bounce it off of walls once or twice. Also Hou Yi's main source of damage is from his basic attacks not abilities. For this reason, Jotunn's Wrath is not a good option for Hou Yi, even in mid and in the jungle.

The Crusher is a decent item in general for hunters though other items overshadow it, in the mid lane and in the duo lane. I find it great if you are playing Hou Yi in the jungle.

Transcendence is not a bad option. The high physical power gained is nice, and Hou Yi does use up quite a bit of mana. I'd prefer it for mid lane Hou Yi than Hou Yi in the duo lane, since lifesteal is more valuable to him there as he will be boxing his opponent often, while in the mid lane, one on one boxing is rarer.

Shifter's Shield is a fine option for Hou Yi in the jungle and in the mid lane. It grants an immediate amount of power which is nice to have, but also grants you with protections whenever you're low, making you harder to kill whenever your health drops.

Critical strike chance items. These items are fine to build however due to Hou Yi's lack of an attack speed increase in his kit, he will not yield the same amount of DPS as a god such as Artemis or Rama would with a build focused on crit. And as such, you will need to fit in more attack speed into your build if you want effective results.

Toxic Blade. PLEAES BUILD IT. The loss in DPS is not huge and the benefit of nearly shutting down the enemy team's health sustain is much larger than losing a bit of damage.

Note that in my carry and jungle sections, I prioritize Divebomb after fully leveling Ricochet. Why? The reason being is that you will get more burst from doing so, which is especially important in the jungle role, since you will not be directly boxing an enemy too often. I do this for Hou Yi carry since after marking, I will play aggressive by leaping onto my marked opponent, knocking them up, and then firing Ricochet. Doing this with a fully leveled Divebomb results in more burst than with a fully leveled Mark of the Golden Crow. Also early game, the damage increase from Mark of the Golden Crow isn't as significant as it will be late game, so you might as well save your skill points for it later.

Try to learn the areas that you can get a single or double bounce with Ricochet. This will vastly improve your jungle camp clear which is very important for Hou Yi in general.

Often times it is better to go for the straightforward shot with Ricochet rather than trying to be fancy with it, and looking for a bounce. Unless you are 100% confident or your opponent is out of reach, you shouldn't waste your time with bounces in team fights.

If you are outpressured past level 5, and really need to recall to base but a minion wave has pushed up, don't be afraid to use your ultimate on the minion wave. It will clear the minion wave very nicely.