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Bumba's Mask
Potion of Power
Hand Of The Gods (Old)
Death's Toll
Potion of Power
Hand Of The Gods (Old)
Warrior Tabi
Qin's Sais
Rage
The Executioner
Titan's Bane
Brawler's Beat Stick
Bloodforge
Devourer's Gauntlet
Hastened Fatalis
Greater Sprint
Witchblade
Magi's Cloak
Deathbringer
Malice
Greater Purification
Greater Aegis
Y
B
A
X
Introduction
Chang'e was introduced. I have written plenty of guides already, but only one of them for jungling. This time, we're taking a look at Kali, the Hindu Goddess of Destruction.|
ADVANTAGES
Insane Late Game
The Best Duelist Immense Sustain |
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DRAWBACKS
Terrible Early Game
Mediocre Clear Speed Auto Attack Reliant |
expansionSkills
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Marked For Destruction: The only thing in game which I can resemble this passive to is  I'm a Monster. It just allows you to completely rofl-stomp enemies and deny their efforts of shutting you down and killing you. As a pure single-target damage Assassin, this will teach you how to choose your target wisely and commit to it. This also allows you to tower dive your targets.
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Nimble Strike: The fastest leap in the game, animaiton wise. Use it to chase, initiate ganks & fights, escape and bait enemies into traps. Do not underestimate the heal. You can utilize it to either heal yourself while in the jungle by jumping on creeps with low health or healing yourself during skirmishes and fights. |
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Lash: Your main source for destroying jungle camps, clearing waves and bursting enemies. Do not underestimate the lifesteal, and while the damage on it doesn't really compare to that of  Death Scythe, those 3 blades do mean something. It's a bit tricky to aim, so it is highly recommended to use it in conjunction with your stun.
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Incense: When maxed, this ability is the longest duration active steroids in the game. Use the stun to set up Lash and other abilities with team mates, initiate, interrupt abilities like  Taolu Assault and stall to escape. You can also use the physical power buff for increasing your damage dealt to objectives.
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Destruction: Relentless destruction in its purest form. This allows you to tower dive 24/7, overcommit (especially to your marked target), bait enemies into dumping all of their abilities to kill you, survive. Bottom line, go insane with this. Never hesitate to use this ability defensively for escapism. |
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Lash is your most damaging ability, so it's the first you pick up and first you max. Incense or the safety of Nimble Strike. At level 3 get Lash again, and level 4 get whichever you didn't get at level 2. Lash and Nimble Strike and more physical power for a longer duration from Incense rather than 1 more second of invincibility. Kill faster instead of being invincible longer. Lash, it's time to get your steroids going on. Not only does the power itself increase, but the duration too. At max rank, you get 50 physical power for 8 seconds. I think it's better than having a little bit more damage on your leap.|
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expalanaion|
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explanation|
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explanationStats
qin's sais |
Power: As a carry, you must have power on your top priority so that you could hurt people and destroy them. |
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Attack Speed: Kali is an auto-attack centered god. Not only this, but because your swing chain is 1/.5/.5, attack speed is even more helpful. |
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Penetration: Even enemies without any physical protection items will still have around 50 physical protection at level 20. You must be able to shred through their armor. |
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Crit Chance: Again, Kali is a basic-attack based carry. Crit chance is pretty much self explanatory, as you want to have as much damage from your auto attacks as possible. |
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Lifesteal: Sometimes, your innate sustains won't be enough to keep up your health in boxing skirmishes and team fights. |
greater sprint |
Movement Speed: You are only dangerous when at melee range. Therefore, you must be quick and agile to get there as fast as possible. |
jotunn's wrath |
Cooldown Reduction: Screw utility! Your abilities aren't as important as your autos. Dealing more damage is better than having more ults! |
bulwark of hope |
Health: You are not a tank! If you want survivability, get lifesteal! |
Witchblade and magi's blessing, and both are also really, really rare. Explanations on it below in the items section.
Items
potion of physical might |
Potion of Physical Might: This comes in handy in the beginning as it boosts your early game damage & clear which allow you to have more time for ganks and better farm. |
hand of the gods |
Hand of the Gods: In order to keep up with the jungle clear, this active is a must for ever jungler, and Kali is no differnet. Late game you should opt it for  Fist of the Gods and have the twin stuns.
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bumba's mask |
Bumba's Mask: For beginner junglers, I'd recommend taking this. It grants you good sustain in the jungle removes your gold loss when a team mate leeches a camp. |
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Death's Toll: If you can control your mana usage and health, this pays out way more than Bumba's Mask. The early game damage allows you to clear much faster, and since you already have some innate sustain, you can do just fine. It also syngerizes well with your 1/.5/.5 swing chain.
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Warrior Tabi and Qin's Sais. From there on, going for a penetration item is highly recommended, and lifesteal is a good choice as well. But, if you can't seem to really need either, you don't need to wait for late game to get your crits.
warrior tabi |
Warrior Tabi: This will allow you to gank and rotate faster as well as clear better and deal more damage, mainly thanks to the penetration. Get this item first, or else... |
qin's sais |
Qin's Sais: The perfect item for you. As soon as you get this, it's game on. It fits your swing chain so well that it nearly doubles your auto attack damage. It is the core of Kali, and so you must get it second, after your shoes! |
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Rage: Crits all day every day! It suits your swing chain really well and will allow you to auto attack for much more damage. |
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The Executioner: As mentioned before, Kali fares really well with on-hit items because of her fast swing chain. This means that you can stack this item's passive in an instant. |
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Titan's Bane: If you seek to deal immediate, instant burst to enemies and vaporize them in a second, than this is the item for you. If you take this in addition to The Executioner it'll lose its effectiveness.
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Brawler's Beat Stick: Works really well against sustain-based gods like  Hercules or  Hel, and the flat penetration is also quite useful.
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Devourer's Gauntlet: If you don't need the penetration after finishing your first two items, and think you need some survivability, this is both stats and cost efficient. |
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Bloodforge: If you are in late game and don't have the time to stack Devourer's Gauntlet, this does pretty much the same thing, but at a higher cost.
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greater sprint |
Greater Sprint: Get this if you are opting for a build that is centered around bursting enemies as fast as possible. |
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Hastened Fatalis: If you don't want to rely on an active to help you chase, or if you want to save your last active slot for a more defensive active item, this is your item of choice. |
witchblade |
Witchblade: Comes in handy against physical enemies that rely on basic attacks like  Mercury or  Bakasura.
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magi's blessing |
Magi's Blessing: If you went for Greater Sprint and still need some help against CC, this will truly make you an unstoppable force of Destruction.
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Deathbringer: It might seem that this should be a core item, but sometimes, you want the lifesteal for the survivability and sustain rather than the damage. Nevertheless, you know how effective and good this item is. |
malice |
Malice: Not exactly my cup of tea, but if you seek more damage and have nothing else to buy, coupled with Rage and Deathbringer, it'll make you crit almost every time.
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greater purification |
Greater Purification: You are still vulnerable to CC when ulting, and since you can't use your ult while under the effect of hard CC, you might end up dying with it available. |
greater aegis |
Greater Aegis: If you need more invincibility against heavy burst teams, this is a life saver, as well as a counter to CC from time to time. |
asi |
Asi: Doesn't grant any power and there are better lifesteal items, better penetration items and better attack speed items. You get more, better stats from getting items from each kind rather than a hybrid item of all stats. |
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Heartseeker: Since this item is only good early game, it delays you from getting Qin's Sais, which you want to get ASAP. If you wanna stack, get Devourer's Gauntlet.
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Jungling
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Lash: To clear the most effectively, start by auto attacking the middle creep in the camp, and then when all 3 creeps are stacked up as close as possible, use Lash. This way, all 3 blades will hit all 3 creeps. From there just keep auto attacking. When clearing waves, go right in front of the melee minions and throw the blades so they'll all hit the melee and converge at the archers. |
Lash. In fact, in the jungle, this ability should be the only one you should use to clear. While Kali isn't exactly mana hungry, if you constantly use both Lash and Nimble Strike to clear camps, you'll deplete your mana really quickly. Only if you need to clear/get somewhere quickly, you should use both abilities. Nimble Strike also comes in handy when you need a quick heal. When used a low-health middle creep in a buff camp, you can easily heal for 50% of your health.
ward |
Vision: You must know where the enemy team is, specifically the enemy jungler. This can be achieved by proper usage of team communication, wards and sentry wards to make sure you are not spotted out by enemy wards. Also if you see that the enemy jungler is on low health but went to the jungle to clear, feel free to pay him a surprise visit. |
hand of the gods |
Fast Clear: Kali doesn't really excel at this, but it isn't a major drawback for her either. You must be able to clear the camp as fast as possible before enemies will realize you are invading their jungle. This could be heavily assisted with the use of  Hand of the Gods. To utilize it to its best, use it only when you know it'll kill the camp. If you use it right off the bat and get caught, you'll need to retreat and eventually lose time, money and get a cooldown on your HoG.
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Escape Route: You must plan ahead an escape route so you could immediately retreat as soon as you say danger incoming. Granted, Kali is pretty good at the safety of counter jungling, as you have an incredibly fast leap, a stun and few seconds of invincibility, so you shouldn't really die if you have all of those available. Nonetheless, it's better that you instantly jump over the wall instead of waiting and having to blow off your ult to try and save yourself from a 3-men collapse on you. |
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Incense: This ability is nearly impossible to miss and locks down enemies with ease. It can easily set up a guaranteed  Searing Pain or  Release The Kraken! to help you execute the gank.
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Incense and save Nimble Strike on enemies with high mobility like 
Apollo or 
Tyr.|
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Showing Presence: What it is basically is going to a certain lane and not gank it necessarily but just show your presence to the enemy laner. This will cause them to think twice before pushing and overextending the lane and put some pressure on them. It's good to do so if a lane is being outpushed but you can't quite gank the lane. It's a small thing but can really help your team mates. |
Game Phases
Hand of the Gods on it, take it, and then go over to the blue buff. Your solo laner should take it. From there on go to the solo lane for a few waves, then return to the jungle, clear some back harpies and perhaps the red buff until the mid camps respawn.
Hand of the Gods on it and take it. Meanwhile your solo laner and mid should do the mid camps. From there move to the blue buff with your solo laner and let your him have it. From there it's the same as above.
eat minions |
Farm: Your main focus here should be on farm. Your early game is bad, so your goal is try to pass it as fast as possible. Clear as many camps as you can as fast as possible and try not to die. This doesn't mean you are restricted from ganking, but you must pick your actions very carefully. |
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Technical Edge: Because of your low ability damage and reliance on auto attacks, you cannot withstand straight up fights. You must have a technical advantage that in theory grants you an edge over your opponent. What this means, basically, is that you should fight only when the odds are in your favor. |
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Ability Centered Gods: If you are fighting an enemy Thanatos, you know that his abilities are his greatest source of damage. Dodge his Death Scythe and  Soul Reap and you can easily outbox him, as your steroids and lifesteal provide greater auto attack damage and potential.
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Auto Attack Based Gods: This is more of a skill game and match up between the gods. Positioning is key, as well as correct evaluation of the enemies' build as opposed to yours. I'd also advise to try and bait the enemy into using their steroids, then disengage when they do, and turn on them and fight when they're steroids are down. Also, being the first to successfully attack gives you a great advantage. |
Qin's Sais already, which means, that by this point, your damage is just ridiculous.|
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Split Pushing: Split pushing with Kali is a bit tricky. On one hand, your auto attack damage is insane, so you can melt towers in an instant. On the other hand, your wave clear is poor, so you'll waste a lot of time doing so instead of smacking towers. My advice? Only if it's really needed and possible to do, than do it. Otherwise, you're better off fighting with your team. |
The Roles of Destruction
aimed strike |
Dealing Damage: Your most efficient way of dealing damage is to initiate with Incense, follow up with a quick point-blank Lash and just auto attack until the end of times. If you can't kill the target before it runs away, sprint comes in handy, as well as Nimble Strike or Hastened Fatalis - you name it. Just be careful not going into a 5-men ambush by doing so.
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Mercury or 
Artemis. Now, because Kali is an auto-attack based god, her only real form of damage is single-target. Therefore, you mustn't spread your damage, otherwise you'll lose effectiveness and eventually get yourself killed. You must have:|
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Commitment: You have the unique ability to go invincible and completely heal and grant yourself a second chance by slaying your kill target. Use those abilities wisely. You must choose your target and try to attack it and only it. Of course, if you have started attacking  Geb, there is no reason to continue doing so if  Freya is right near him, but you must set your mind to attack one target and commit to it all the way. Most of the times, it'll be your kill target.
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behind you! |
Killing The Back Line: You cannot be killed while under the effect of Destruction, and you can fully heal yourself by slaying your kill target. This allows Kali to jump behind the mighty Ymir and Odin to slay the slither Ao Kuang standing behind them and blowing wind at your team. The best way of doing so is with your All-in Combo.
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banish |
Disruption & Avoidance: Your stun and leap provide great tools for avoiding enemy attacks, dodging and interrupting them and their abilities, as well as locking down and chasing. Any channeling abilities like Taolu Assault could be counteracted by either of the above, and it's best to save your Incense for those kind of situations, while you can dodge certain abilities like  Hovering Death or  Circle Of Protection with Nimble Strike.
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Mummify and turn on to him. Incense, it's best to first attack them as long as you are within range, and when they start running away and thus getting out of your range, stun them, so you could catch up.|
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Boxing: First, you must evaluate your enemy and their capabilities. This is done by knowing the god and looking at their build. Even when you don't have any lifesteal items, the bleed from Lash is enough to keep up your health when fighting. Additionally, the timing on Destruction is key. Don't use it right away, otherwise you'll lose precious time of invincibility. Wait for the right moment when the enemy dumps their burst, and just before you die activate it.
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Sustain: You can easily heal up any damage taken in fights. There are 2 main ways of sustaining yourself throughout fights. The first is with your passive. You can heal 80% of your total health by getting the killing blow on your kill target, which ultimately grants you a second chance. The second is via lifesteal, which is achieved with the bleed from Lash and lifesteal items.
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Invincibility: Kali is one of only 3 gods in the game who have an innate ability to become invulnerable. You can completely negate any attempt of the enemy to burst you down and kill you. This means that you can bait out enemy ultimates: "Enemy  He Bo uses  Crushing Wave on you? Counteract with Destruction and proceed to murder him while being unable to die."
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Mobility: This is Kali's weakest aspect out of the 3, but she doesn't lack in it either. You have a jump and high base movement speed. And if you have opted for Greater Sprint or any movement speed increasing items, you are very fast. This means that you can dodge incoming enemy attacks and abilities, as well as lure them far away from an objective like the Fire Giant while your team is taking it.
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God Match Ups
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hun batz |
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| freya |
freya |
freya |
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loki |
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Summary
Credits
Subzero008 - One of the best guide crafters out there. A lot of my design and work are vastly inspired by his guides. And, he wrote The Jungler's Handbook.
Piederman - The author of the amazing guide of Ao Kuang - You'll Never Break My Wind. Lots of my designs are inspired by him.
TormentedTurnip - Dr. Paco is also a great guidecrafter and an arena specialist. Some of my designs are also inspired by him, specifically the Stats section.
Sanguis - Thanks for the skill-sequence BB code.
BestMinionEver - Marki wrote some great jungling guides and a counter-jungling guide. Check out his works!
jhoijohi - Without her "making a guide" guide, I wouldn't have been able to write this guide.
Change Log
June 17th, Tuesday, 2014
Malice.
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Somersault
Overhand Smash
Sacred Monkey
Fear No Evil
Purification Beads
Banish
Pulse
Irradiate
Vanish
I rarely use lifesteal items, since kali as innate lifesteal with
Was this a smurf game / game with low level players, or are you just that good/lucky?
Skills: Very well explained. Skill sequences were nice, along with the overall explanations. No problems where.
Items: I'd advise against
Gameplay: 1. You really need to not overestimate Kali's dueling prowess in the early game. You kinda make it sound like she's invincible, when she kind of...isn't.
2. "Never stop farming." Please remove this sentence and throw it in a fire. Farming is important, but...not really that important.
3. An expanded dueling section would be appreciated, since it's emphasized a lot.
4. Okay, before I read this guide, I'd had played Kali only once. After I read it, I played two matches with her, using this guide as a baseline.
Honestly, the thing that helped me most was the build. Aside from that, I was honestly kinda clueless on what to do. I know that Kali is a late game melee ADC, but I couldn't just keep farming all game. I wish I could get some advice on making the most of Kali when she is weakest.
Overall: The guide seems to have a good amount of info...but I wish I knew what to do. But it did help, so I'm giving it an upvote.
Yeah, was saying in general..
If you're talking about a real-match up, Loki isn't that slow, especially with
Kali might be able to survive Loki's burst which is immensely high, but with his relatively low cooldowns and usually maxing CDR, he can just go right back and ult to finish the job. Kali doesn't do that great against high burst gods, actually. With the 1 second stun and aimed strike before I ult, I could probably finish you off before you could use
I'm just saying, Loki is my most played god, and Kali probably being #2 or #3. Kali does have immense power in 1v1's (due to her passive), but Loki is made for 1v1s and always has been good in 1v1s. Wanna play you in a 1v1 Loki vs Kali one day xD
That is sad,
@MeKali - Glad I could help. Your name kinda says it all about XD
Yes it is xD
If you're talking about a real-match up, Loki isn't that slow, especially with
Kali might be able to survive Loki's burst which is immensely high, but with his relatively low cooldowns and usually maxing CDR, he can just go right back and ult to finish the job. Kali doesn't do that great against high burst gods, actually. With the 1 second stun and aimed strike before I ult, I could probably finish you off before you could use
I'm just saying, Loki is my most played god, and Kali probably being #2 or #3. Kali does have immense power in 1v1's (due to her passive), but Loki is made for 1v1s and always has been good in 1v1s. Wanna play you in a 1v1 Loki vs Kali one day xD
I don't think it's a viable argument for a match up. It's like saying Thanatos has a good match up against all junglers because he can pretty much shut down any god early. Match ups are about comparison between kits and play styles of gods, not by game phases.
And even then, before level 5, Kali can just escape a Loki any time she wants to. Stun him when he comes close when she hears Aimed Strike or just jump to escape. After level 5, if she can survive Assassinate, and she can at a 1v1, she can just counter ult him.
@Greenevers - Did you mean "good looks" or "looks good"? :D
Kinda slang for looks good :3
Btw, I disagree with Loki being Kali's easiest counter :P. I've owned many Kali's in my 1v1 days. Main thing to do with Kali is shut her down early game and end the game quick. If you don't, well you're screwed xD