Smitefire logo

Join the leading SMITE community.
Create and share God Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

x
This build has been archived and is for historical display only

This build has been archived by the author. They are no longer supporting nor updating this build and it may have become outdated. As such, voting and commenting have been disabled and it no longer appears in regular search results. We recommend you check out our other Zhong Kui Builds

x

Vote received! Would you like to let the author know their guide helped you and leave them a message?

Banner for Zhong Kui guides

Zhongkuini Tortellini - Mid Conquest (6.9)

17 2 84,600
9.3
by Kriega1 updated August 26, 2019

Smite God: Zhong Kui

Build Guide Discussion 6 More Guides
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Zhong Kui Build

Start 1

Build Item Talon Trinket Talon Trinket
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion

Example Build 1 (Tanky-ish)

Notes Sell Shoes of the Magi lategame for Elixir of Speed and Ethereal Staff or alternative.

Notes

Sell Shoes of the Magi lategame for Elixir of Speed and Ethereal Staff or alternative.

Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Jade Emperor's Crown Jade Emperor's Crown
Build Item Void Stone Void Stone
Build Item Mantle of Discord Mantle of Discord

Example Build 2

Notes Sell Shoes of the Magi lategame for Elixir of Speed and Obsidian Shard or alternative.

Notes

Sell Shoes of the Magi lategame for Elixir of Speed and Obsidian Shard or alternative.

Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Soul Reaver Soul Reaver
Build Item Ethereal Staff Ethereal Staff

Example Build 3

Notes Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Soul Reaver, Mantle of Discord, or alternative.

Notes

Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Soul Reaver, Mantle of Discord, or alternative.

Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Ethereal Staff Ethereal Staff
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard

Start 2

Build Item Mage's Blessing Mage's Blessing
Build Item Tiny Trinket Tiny Trinket
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
2
Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion
2

Example Build 4

Notes Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Ethereal Staff or alternative.

Notes

Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Ethereal Staff or alternative.

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Pythagorem's Piece Pythagorem's Piece
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Hide of the Urchin Hide of the Urchin
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Mantle of Discord Mantle of Discord

Example Build 5 (Pridwen)

Notes Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Mantle of Discord or alternative.

Notes

Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Mantle of Discord or alternative.

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Pythagorem's Piece Pythagorem's Piece
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Hide of the Urchin Hide of the Urchin
Build Item Pridwen Pridwen
Build Item Ethereal Staff Ethereal Staff

Example Build 6 (Against low mobility/no escape gods)

Notes Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Soul Reaver, Obsidian Shard or alternative.

Notes

Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Soul Reaver, Obsidian Shard or alternative.

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Pythagorem's Piece Pythagorem's Piece
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Ethereal Staff Ethereal Staff
Build Item Mantle of Discord Mantle of Discord

Start 3

Build Item Mage's Blessing Mage's Blessing
Build Item Magic Focus Magic Focus
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion
2

Example Build 7

Notes Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Mantle of Discord or alternative.

Notes

Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Mantle of Discord or alternative.

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Ethereal Staff Ethereal Staff
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Soul Reaver Soul Reaver

Example Build 8

Notes Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Pythagorem's Piece or alternative.

Notes

Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Pythagorem's Piece or alternative.

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Ethereal Staff Ethereal Staff
Build Item Soul Reaver Soul Reaver
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Mantle of Discord Mantle of Discord

Example Build 9 (Relic Build)

Notes E.g. say against you're Ao Kuang or Ares/ Da Ji etc...

Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Ethereal Staff, Mantle of Discord, or alternative.

Notes

E.g. say against you're Ao Kuang or Ares/ Da Ji etc...

Sell Shoes of Focus lategame for Elixir of Speed and Ethereal Staff, Mantle of Discord, or alternative.

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Hide of the Urchin Hide of the Urchin
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Relic Dagger Relic Dagger

Main Relics

Build Item Purification Beads Purification Beads
Build Item Aegis Amulet Aegis Amulet
Build Item Blink Rune Blink Rune

Relic if you're building tanky ONLY

Build Item Shield of Thorns Shield of Thorns

Alternative Items

Build Item Book of Thoth Book of Thoth
Build Item Book of the Dead Book of the Dead
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Celestial Legion Helm Celestial Legion Helm
Build Item Dynasty Plate Helm Dynasty Plate Helm
Build Item Winged Blade Winged Blade
Build Item Warlock's Staff Warlock's Staff
Build Item Stone of Fal Stone of Fal
Build Item Stone of Binding Stone of Binding
Build Item Spirit Robe Spirit Robe
Build Item Magi's Cloak Magi's Cloak
Build Item Genji's Guard Genji's Guard
Build Item Bulwark of Hope Bulwark of Hope
Build Item Midgardian Mail Midgardian Mail
Build Item Soul Gem Soul Gem
Build Item Pestilence Pestilence
Build Item Contagion Contagion

Example Build 10

Notes Sell Shoes of the Magi lategame for Elixir of Speed and Ethereal Staff, Obsidian Shard, or alternative.

Notes

Sell Shoes of the Magi lategame for Elixir of Speed and Ethereal Staff, Obsidian Shard, or alternative.

Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Spear of the Magus Spear of the Magus
Build Item Divine Ruin Divine Ruin
Build Item Shaman's Ring Shaman's Ring
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Mantle of Discord Mantle of Discord

What you need if you wish to sell boots late

Build Item Elixir of Speed Elixir of Speed

Zhong Kui's Skill Order

Expose Evil

1 X Y
Expose Evil
1 8 11 12 14

Exorcism

2 A B
Exorcism
2 4 6 7 9

Book of Demons

3 B A
Book of Demons
3 15 16 18 19

Recall Demons

4 Y X
Recall Demons
5 10 13 17 20
Expose Evil
1 8 11 12 14

Expose Evil

1 X
Zhong Kui pastes a card on all enemies in front of him, marking them as a demon, Slowing and damaging them each second while they are marked. If the card is removed, 75% of the remaining damage is done instantly.

Ability Type: Line, Slow, Damage
Damage Per Tick: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+20% of your Magical Power)
Slow: 20%
Card Lifetime: 5s
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 12s
Exorcism
2 4 6 7 9

Exorcism

2 A
Zhong Kui drives out the demons of his enemies, dealing damage as they leave the body. Demons exorcised from Enemies marked by Expose Evil will be absorbed by Zhong Kui, healing him per demon (up to 3), and will remove the card.

Ability Type: Cone
Damage: 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Heal: 15 / 40 / 65 / 90 / 115
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 10s
Book of Demons
3 15 16 18 19

Book of Demons

3 B
When fired, the Book of Demons deals damage and Stuns enemies, stunning marked enemies for 2x the duration and removing the card. Once this ability has been ranked, the Book of Demons flies nearby Zhong Kui, firing for 50% of Zhong Kui's basic damage.

Ability Type: Circle, Stun, Damage
Damage: 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Stun: 1s (2x for marked targets)
Radius: 20
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 13s
Recall Demons
5 10 13 17 20

Recall Demons

4 Y
Upon activation, demons pulse out from his bag at nearby players every second for 5s. They chase and accelerate over time, doing damage to enemies as they enter the body. Zhong Kui is immune to Knockback and Slows for the duration.

Ability Type: Circle, Buff, Damage
Damage: 80 / 95 / 110 / 125 / 140 (+25% of your Magical Power)
Radius: 40
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90s

Chapter Title

Zhong Kui Mid lane.

Leave a Comment

You need to log in before commenting.

Collapse All Comments

1
duperscooper92 | December 9, 2021 12:45pm
i like that you give so many example builds so i can find one that works for me
1
Kriega1 (143) | December 9, 2021 1:52pm
This build is really outdated, you shouldn't be using it. You can see on the page when it was last updated, also I leave the relevant patch number in the title.
1
DV-8 (35) | December 9, 2021 2:54pm
I don't think he can use the builds anyway... they have boots...
1
Mastemine | August 30, 2019 10:18am
When would you use a certain build over another? I mainly play Joust, and have been playing Zhong quite a bit, but just curious as to when are certain builds better to use than others in this list?
1
Kriega1 (143) | August 30, 2019 12:52pm
Well some are focused on pure damage, some are focused on sustain/tankiness, some focused on early game damage/sustain... it's mainly you need to look at the item choices.

For example, the bancrofts builds. Bancrofts makes Zhong Kui harder to kill early game not just because of how much lifesteal it can grant with it's passive but the potential power spike as well which can let him turn fights very easily.

But then lets look at say... rushing Spear of the Magus after boots. This is when you are not focused on sustain or tankiness, but rather putting out as much damage possible (via application of Zhong's 1 or his ult which are tick damage and so hence work well with magus) early without having to rely on something like Bancroft's passive.

And then lets compare it to an early Pythags. With pythags you're looking at lower kill potential than rushing bancrofts or magus, but you're gaining CDR, higher BASE lifesteal (than Bancrofts - not including bancroft's passive) for sustain, a good team aura (Aura is especially great on physical gods), a little health and all at a cheap price.

Reasonings for particular item choices:

Divine Ruin - Making sure healer characters or characters with very high sustain in their kit (e.g Kali ult), can't just steamroll your team. Situational pickup. Pay attention to enemy team comps and builds, but also your team's comp and builds, because if your team doesen't have a lot of anti-heal when it's needed then its going to become a priority pickup for you).

Hide of the Urchin - Some extra tankiness to pair with Zhong Kui's passive so he won't immediately die when he ults the backline characters in a teamfight, and the extra health can pair well with health/lifesteal so he's harder to kill unless focused down and has anti-heal applied to him.

Pridwen - Further comitting to a tanky build, when you decide that damage isn't as much of a priority than survivability, and you want the area capability that Pridwen will allow when paired with Hide of the Urchin.

Mantle of Discord - Helps counter heavy burst if he's being focused as a lone target, with the passive allowing him to escape and/or teammates to use the disruption as an initiation oppurtunity.
It also works well with the ult since it allows him to keep dealing damage simply by being there with his ult active while enemies are stunned.

Soul Reaver - Damage-Proc effect item to help deal with high-health targets, especially into the lategame (typically against enemy Solo/Support though this can also include other enemies depending on their build). Is not reliant on other power on your build to be utilised effectively, but does rely on penetration or protection reductions to get the most out of it.

Ethereal Staff - Health/Mana stealing/Damage-Proc effect item to help deal with high-health targets, though useful as well for making even your typical squishy characters have an even lower health pool, while making yourself tankier in the process. Was recently buffed as well and comes at a good price. Is not reliant on other power on your build to be utilised effectively, and not reliant on penetration to be useful either. Good Bruiser item that be considered often.


Gem of Isolation - Bruiser option to make it harder for enemies (especially backline characters) to get away from your damage/ult as Zhong Kui, and easier for your frontline to harass them. Is especially good against gods with no escape/low immunity, and/or don't have slow immunity in their kit. Was nerfed recently to pretty much be only useful on characters (like Zhong Kui) that have DoT abilities that can proc the item passive over several seconds.

Relic Dagger - Good utility item (especially since recent buff) that can be used either for self-peel (e.g. letting you have your Purification Beads up more often against team comps that specifically try to force beads actives for easy kills), or can be used in combination with an offensive relic like Blink Rune to help initiate easier more often. However this item is mainly seen on Supports currently. It's sometimes seen a bit on some junglers and is less common on other classes, as it would be a more situational pickup for them.

In general protection items are are very strong compared to damage items until (typically) lategame when the enemy carries tend to have percentage penetration/reduction like Obsidian Shard and items that scale in damage depending on health like Qin's Sais. Item's like Spear of the Magus are great at reducing base protections to near 0, to allow your abilities to deal near True damage, though the item falls off lategame against high protection targets compared to percentage penetration/reduction which scales based on the protections themselves, not only due to the amount of protections that are reduced by Magus compared to Demonic Grip/Obsidian Shard, but also dependent upon how easy/quickly you can apply the Magus passive to assist damage from other abilities. Unless enemy squishies are building protections though, Magus does NOT fall off lategame against them, though if you can't stack Magus quickly against them then other burst items or flat penetration can considered instead. In the very lategame, a DoT mage like Baron Samedi won't need Magus for Squishy damage if if he's building high power (and/or damage proc items), so it would be more ideal to focus on items that hit tanks hard. It's why often at a high level, like in the SPL you may see pros pickup both Spear of Magus AND Obsidian Shard on DoT mages in their build.

Team comp can also sometimes effect item choices. Some games I get comps where only 1 character on my team can effectively frontline, so sometimes I might pick Zhong Kui Mid and go a more tanky bruiser build so teamfights can go better.

Now im not going to explain every since item choice since this isn't a guide, it's just meant to show you what the typical builds could look like in certain games, and that you could generally use.

If you want to know when to build certain items, and why, then you could do these things:

1. Keep up to date with Patch notes changes, items get buffed and nerfed, increasing or decreasing their relevance.

2. Look at how experienced/high level players build, why they choose certain items and when, and on specific characters. You could do this on Twitch when say... pro players are streaming and ask them in their chat, you could ask them on their Youtube videos in the comments, you could watch SPL games and look at the items they build in those matches (You can use Smiteprobuilds for this, but it's better to see the actual match itself to help understand the item choices better).

3. Understand how the game's stat mechanics work. Which is where the Word of Thoth mechanics guide comes in: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ow_ls0iB2wi2jbgU1FZv7RWWbqRDBGpt/view (Word of Thoth - Game mechanics guide)

4. Understand the character's kit does and what item's benefit them. E.g. Characters with high power scaling on their abilities can benefit a lot from high power, that's just one example. Another example could be starters and starter items, for instance mages like Thoth and Baron Samedi, they have bad early clear so you typically don't want (Tier 2) starts that rush into stacking items, because you may want something like Mage's Blessing and suitable tier 1 item to help with clear and mana sustain in the early game, if it's a cheaper start that lets you get more potions then that can be useful for sustain into high pressure, since you may take poke often.

Read their kit, whether thats in-game, or on the Smite Wiki. Look at what base stats they have, how the stats scale per level etc...


5. Look at the item's guide here on Smitefire: https://www.smitefire.com/smite/guide/an-in-depth-discussion-on-item-choices-s6-patch-6-8-quot-mid-season-quot-14522

Needs minor updates in few places but overall explains certain item choices. Now it may not help you specifically teach you how to build every character in every situation, but it helps explain why and when certain items can be bought.

6. Ask on Smite reddit. You may or may not get good answers, but it depends on how experienced/knowledged the person is that answers them.

7. Though not strictly related, watch this video and it might explain some of the things I mentioned, alongside things I haven't:
1
Branmuffin17 (394) | November 28, 2018 12:15pm
"His magnificent bulgeness in mid lane"

Yet further proof Kriega (possibly) has a sense of humor!

Of course +1 vote for the builds.
Loading Comments...
Load More Comments
League of Legends Build Guide Author Kriega1
Zhongkuini Tortellini - Mid Conquest (6.9)
Table of Contents

SMITEFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new god, or fine tune your favorite SMITE gods’s build and strategy.

Copyright © 2019 SMITEFire | All Rights Reserved