Yu Huang - How to Tame A Dragon

I have been playing Smite since its inception in 2012 and have been playing Yu Huang for 50 games prior to writing this guide. As of this patch, the items I list are the strongest options for building Yu Huang effectively and transitioning from a rather weak early game to a very strong mid and end game.

What is good about Yu Huang?
- strong poking combo
- great clear
- bursty combos
- sets up team fights easily

What is bad about Yu Huang?
- weak against gods with great mobility
- ultimate is tricky to pull off
- squishy

Yu Huang's passive ability is called Master of the Dao.

Dao is a resource that you generate over time, by dealing damage to an enemy after not having taken damage for a while and by firing a charged Dao Cultivation. Your other abilities gain extra effects from consuming Dao and while you have at least 6, your basic attacks will chain to an extra target.

Flames of the Phoenix will consume 6 Dao to reduce enemy protections by up to 12. This provides some nice extra shred against any target and should be in your rotation for maximum damage potential.

Celestial Flight will consume 6 Dao to knock back enemies upon landing. This has little practical use as you should primarily use this skill to get away from bad situations. It has a hefty cooldown of 20 seconds base, so think ahead when you ponder if you should stomp on an enemy with it.

Dueling Dragons, your ultimate ability, will gain 50% extra width when consuming 6 Dao. This makes it so much easier to land and deal full damage, so try and have Dao ready for when you want to use it.

General Playstyle

Your standard combo is Dao Cultivation into Flames of the Phoenix. Dao Cultivation is a line ability that hits twice and the root only happens on the second part, so think about where your enemy will be, not where he is currently. If you hit the full combo on a squishy enemy, you will take a big chunk of their life total.

Dao Cultivation is also a great setup for your team's CC. Try to combo it with other Gods that have roots or stuns and you will see great success.

Try to keep a fair distance from enemies as you are squishy and try to charge your Dao Cultivation before approaching enemy gods to generate Dao as you go.

Once you get Staff of Myrddin things get a little crazy. When you use your ultimate, you now have 8 seconds of 70% uncapped CDR. Your first ability will be down to 2.7 seconds, your second ability will be down to 3.9 seconds and your third ability will be down to 6 seconds. This gives you a window of great burst potential that you should use effectively.

Start the fight with Dueling Dragons, follow up with Dao Cultivation into Flames of the Phoenix. Soon after you will be able to use the 2 - 1 combo again, finishing what you started. During this time frame you can also use Celestial Flight offensively to close the distance as it will be off cooldown way faster as well, so be aggressive.

Using Dueling Dragons isn't easy and it makes the difference between an average Yu Huang and an exceptional one. If you hit both parts of the ultimate you will deal ~700 magical damage + almost 100% of your magical power which is some insane scaling considering the CC.

But how do we do that? The first input chooses the location for the first dragon. Then you choose the angle at which the dragons will fly. They meet in the middle, pushing enemies caught in their path, then explode in a blast of fire. The width of their path is increased by 50% through Dao, so keep that in mind.

The easiest to set up is in areas with walls like the jungle since it limits the options for enemies to escape the dragons. The best case is a straight path which allows you fire it quickly and without thinking. Firing at an angle bears the chance to miss and might throw off allies who are also looking to hit their abilities.

There are three scenarios in which you want to use his ultimate:

- As an opener to a team fight; make sure that the targeting line ends a decent chunk behind the enemy so that they cannot avoid it by simply walking backwards
- To disengage from assassins or warriors who get a little too close for comfort
- As a finisher for a target that would otherwise get away

Yu Huang is a god that many underestimate at the moment. If you learn how to play him, they'll soon learn what it means to stand in the path of an almighty dragon. I think people will start picking him up more as time goes on and they figure out how to play him properly, so be ahead of the curve and play him today. ;-)