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Shoes
Vampiric Shroud
Healing Potion
Mana Potion
Blink Rune
Ethereal Staff
Shoes of the Magi
Book of Thoth
Warlock's Staff
Hide of the Urchin
Rod of Tahuti
Obsidian Shard
Gem of Isolation
Chronos' Pendant
Doom Orb
Hand Of The Gods (Old)
Teleport to Towers
Aegis Amulet (Old)
Heavenly Wings
Y
B
A
X
Hello,
I am Shaveaux, and thank you for reading my 
Zhong Kui guide. I feel a little strange calling it a 'guide' as I am still technically new to the game. Still, I decided it might be cool to post how I play him. It's been working very well and most games my KDA is very positive, and team fights tend to go very well.
The goal of this particular build is a high defense and high damage Zhong Kui. The build order is somewhat flexible depending on whether you need defense of damage first. I believe this also makes Zhong Kui viable in any lane.
PROS+ Lots of defense. + Super high sustain. + Versatile as far as roles. |
CONS- Short range spells. - Size seems to attract damage. |
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Demon Bag is Zhong Kui's passive, and it's awesome. After using Expose Evil followed by an Exorcism, the removed demons fly from your enemy into Zhong Kui's bag. This not only heals Zhong Kui, but it stacks his passive which adds +2 protections per captured demon. Since the stacks max at 20, that's a total of +40 magic and physical protection! Zhong Kui's first skill is Expose Evil. It has a damage over time effect and is very helpful early game. Take this first, and max it first because its damage also effects Zhong Kui's Exorcism. Exorcism. I take this second and max it second. While it does decent damage on its own, casting Expose Evil on a target immediately before casting Exorcism can do some head spinning damage, since the damage from Expose Evil will apply instantly, rather than over 5 seconds. Of course, it is also extremely crucial to stacking Demon Bag, and helping you sustain in lane through its heals. Book of Demons is Zhong Kui's third skill. On top of his tanky passive, and on top of his big damage, Zhong Kui gets an AOE stun. If you've got a card on an enemy this will remove the card, finishing out the DOT. However, no demons are recieved. Regardless, this skill is crucial in team fighting, dueling, and escaping alike. Pair this skill with BLINK and Zhong Kui has a beastly engage. Zhong Kui's ultimate, Recall Demons, is just wonderful. AOE damage that follows your enemies is absolutely invaluable in teamfights. If you're casting your normal skills accurately while the demons fly out of your bag, there's a good chance you'll pick up a double or more. It can also help finish of enemies with low health since the demons will follow them once they decide to fly towards them until they do their damage. Unfortunately this resets Demon Bag, but not before doubling the protections until the ult is over. Re-stacking Demon Bag is pretty quick and easy - and totally worth it.
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SHOESBLINK
HEALING POTION
This item is simply amazing on mages early game. And to be honest, I like to pretend it was made just for Zhong Kui since it provides defense and mana regen. The sustain you get from this item while farming minions is invaluable. Shoes, in my opinion, are a given here. You can afford it in the beginning, and when you consider the importance of Vampiric Shroud, it's hard to justify not grabbing these with your active, and pots. You're also that much closer to another damage item later, i.e, Shoes of the Magi. And hey, movement speed early game? Sure.
Hand of the Gods first, but when I realized the potential for early kills that Zhong Kui has once he hits level 3, this can mean the difference between killing a level 2 
Agni and letting him get away with 14 HP.
HEALING POTION When you have purchased your first three items, you are left with 100 gold. Sustain!
Hide of the Urchin before Book of Thoth. We will discuss that later.
Ethereal Staff is a great item. Huge health advantage, great for mana sustain, and its passive, by the time you would be able to finish the item, will likely provide you with another 40 Magic Power or so. Your first back should get you a GOLDEN SASH and you'll be well on your way.
Midas Boots (M). The extra magic pen from Shoes of the Magi is awesome, but if you really want some CDR, which I don't think Zhong Kui necessarily needs, you can totally use 
Shoes of Focus instead.
Assuming everything is going according to plan and you aren't getting completely decimated in fights, this should be your next item. It's passive will already proc off your first two items, and you'll never have any more mana issues. Oh, and 100 MAGIC POWER plus its passive?? Yes please. And stacking is no problem because you have to stack your passive anyway. Get ready to kill people. Demon Bag is no problem, as you can clear waves with your 1>2 combo.
Demon Bag is an ongoing activity, and you are definitely killing entire waves every time you do that. Demon Bag you are insanely hard to kill. Therefore, you can absolutely grab this after you've picked up an Ethereal Staff and Shoes of the Magi if needed. Basically, get this whenever you think you need to. It will benefit you at any point, and it will even give you Magic Power because of Ethereal Staff and Book of Thoth. And as long as you are getting assists or kills, once you hit ten stacks on this item, you have +20 more protections. Demon Bag: +40 to BOTH protections. Hide of the Urchin: +45 to BOTH protections. Hide of the Urchin: +20 more to BOTH protections.
For a final damage item, I think Rod of Tahuti is great. This will bump you above 600 Magic Power, no problem. And you will already have over 3000 HP alongside the aforementioned protection bonuses. There are, however, other options to consider depending on the situation, which I will discuss next.
Basically, if you are up against a lot of tanks who are building against Magic Power, this can replace Rod of Tahuti really well. You still get a lot of raw Magic Power, but you might be able to cut through defenses better.
If you keep dying, or need to be THE TANK, this item will help. It synergizes perfectly well with Ethereal Staff and Book of Thoth, and the passive, while great offensively, will help you escape from situations with Book of Demons.
I honestly don't think I'd ever build it with this build's theory in mind, but if you want CDR instead of extra damage, go for it. Mostly a play-style thing I suppose.
Another stacking item that can simply work here, but really has no reason to be here. It will help your mana sustain, but the original build should already handle that. If you stack it, you get +100 Magic Power though.
Vampiric Shroud provides great sustain, and once you are level 2, just farm Demon Bag. At levels 3/4, you can try to make plays if the opportunity presents itself. Especially if you are on voice chat with a lane partner. Remember, BLINK is a great engage active. Farm Demon Bag. Book of Demons on unsuspecting opponents and help feed your team, or yourself. Farm Demon Bag. Book of Demons and drop Recall Demons. After that, try to gain your bearings (because you are probably running around like a crazy person with demons flying out of your bag) and aim your Expose Evil and Exorcism. Any time your team outnumbers the other team on the map, just jump in try to kill them, assuming your team will follow. Recall Demons and stun them. Between you, your team, and the titan, they will have a tougher time winning. Demon Bag. Zhong Kui is meant to be doing. Zhong Kui's moves are all pretty much close to mid-range, so it's important to be able to land them without stressing about your health. Gem of Isolation, or even try another defense item in its place. But I think a true tank Zhong Kui may require a different build.
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Thanks. I mostly play
Thanks for giving the build a try. Like I mention in the guide, I'm fairly new to the game, but I've had the most success so far with
Thanks again for your input.
Oh, and as Minscinno said, really consider buying beads in most games. Aegis can kind of cover that depending on your playstyle, but like all mages getting cc'd usually means getting killed.
BEADS, 99,9% you bead, beads are life!! Do you even beads bro!!?
Jokes a part that's so true, now, I've remembered what more you could do for this, matchup sections, they are so sweet and helpful, matchups plea :c
Leveling
I would not really suggest Blink on
Also,
Oh, and as Minscinno said, really consider buying beads in most games. Aegis can kind of cover that depending on your playstyle, but like all mages getting cc'd usually means getting killed.
You have some flexibility in your build and some good explanations concerning items and skills.
You have gameplay section and etc.
Now, i suggest:
Combos sections; Some gameplay videos; Consider buying more tanky items when needed and definitely, DEFINITELY consider buying beads in, dunno, almost every game? seriously, too much cc is too much and will probably get you killed since
About bb coding, take out those "SPACE", they are visible... a lot visible. Pressing enter works, i guess. (though the code to do that in html is
, but i think it don't work here, pressing enter will do the work perfectly or actually using letter in full black, which the code i am not sure about).
Keep improving aaand, i guess thats a +1
Ps.: I was unsure about many things concerning my grammar while writing this since i am not a native English speaker, just ignore any kind of mistake, please.