Hunters have got a lot of love and a lot of hate over the past few seasons. It keeps going in waves, with the builds changing all the time in the Hunter meta. This season sees a nerf to a lot of the pen items for a Hunter - but with this crit items make a return into the meta. With these changes, builds have favoured crit items and see Hunters adapting to the game - these items will also benefit in-hand Assassins who will see the benefit of this meta. Here is why you should trade out your old pen items for more crit and how it can benefit you.

With both Titan's Bane and Qin's Sais getting changed in Season 5 to scale depending on the enemy god's protections and the fact towers and phoenixes are weaker, these items have fallen out of favor with Hunters. They aren't must buys items anymore. They are situational, but good if you come up against a tanky team (think carefully though, don’t buy both). With these nerfs, crit items have become a must have in the meta now. Deathbringer is a now a must buy for Hunters (and some Assassins) and despite it getting nerfed in Patch 5.2, it won't change it that much and it will still be a must buy for Hunters.

Both Titan's Bane and Qin's Sais we're key items in Season 4

Hidden Dagger Tree

Since Deathbringer is so important for Hunters currently, I would recommend building this third. Get a stacking item (either Transcendence or Devourer's Gauntlet, depending whether your early game is more ability or basic dependent), then boots before going straight into Deathbringer. Despite the nerf to Deathbringer that decreased its crit chance from 35% to 25% and gave it 10 less physical power (as of Patch 5.2), it is the passive that makes it still such a strong item. It provides your crits with an additional 30% damage, which is insane and in the early to mid game can help you dominate lane (so long as you get those lucky crits in). On the same tree you have Rage and Malice. Rage provides 30 power (10 less than Deathbringer after 5.2) and 20% crit chance, but with an additional 10% after you've evolved the item. Rage is a good pick up and if you go Rage and Deathbringer you can see yourself critting on most of your basic attacks. It's a very good pick up but I feel like it isn't the go to if you're going double crit as I feel Poisoned Star does a better job.

Finishing on the Hidden Dagger tree first is Malice. For Hunters, Malice isn't a great pick up. It works better on some Assassins (mostly Mercury, who can crit with abilities) but it does now provide 50 power, more than both Rage and Deathbringer, with its passive providing an additional 75% of your basic attack damage into physical power over the next three seconds. So it's basically like the old Bluestone Pendant (RIP). It isn't really that great of a pick-up compared to other crit items. Yes, it has the highest physical damage out of them all but it still gets left behind by the other items available to a Hunter. No point in spending 3000 gold (same price as Deathbringer) on an item that gets left behind by the other options especially as Malice's DOT damage is lower than other DOT items in the game.

Rage is also cheaper then both items on the tree but with the need to stack, which is why it falls behind Deathbringer

Shuriken Tree

In the Shuriken tree, you see the item that would probably best suit people going double crit, Poisoned Star. If you build Deathbringer and Poisoned Star, you're going to be near impossible to stop if you build right. While the 20 power, 15% attack speed, and 20% crit doesn't seem that good compared to the likes of Rage, it's the passive that really helps its case. If you crit an enemy god while you have Poisoned Star you apply a poison to them, slowing them by 20% and decreasing their damage output by 20% as well. This passive is so good for Hunters and it really helps when boxing other Hunters or helping your team in teamfights. If you build this with Deathbringer, that’s 55% crit chance so you can crit every other basic attack while applying the slow on top of that. So you can see why it's great for Hunters to pair these two together. That's why I think it's more valued than Rage. The reducing the enemy gods' damage and applying a slow to them can really help swing a team fight. You can also build this on assassins as well, with the slow helping you stick onto fleeing gods and allowing you to secure kills a lot easier (especially if you've build Hastened Katana).

The last crit item is Wind Demon. It provides 10 more power than Poisoned Star but 5% less attack speed (I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but you can feel the difference) and has nearly the opposite passive to Poisoned Star. It increases your attack speed and movement speed by 20%. This sounds like it could be a bigger benefit than getting Poisoned Star but Wind Demon is more of a situational buy for gods such as Anhur who suffers from low attack speed and Jing Wei with her mobility.

For cost efficiency, Poisoned Star is cheaper then Wind Demon which adds to the benefits of the item

Crit in the Jungle?

With Assassins, it all depends on which god you are as to whether you should build crit. The likes of Thor and Fenrir shouldn't have crit on them as it doesn't complement their ability-focused kit. Howeever, if you're Serqet, Mercury, and Kali, you can see the benefit of these items. Serqet and Mercury are two examples of gods that can use Malice and get away with it, as if you go in to a fight and get a crit then follow up with your abilities you can see yourself doing a load of damage to that enemy god. With those gods, it would still be a good idea to get Deathbringer, but with the slight nerf to it you can look at Malice as a solid pick up. If you're ahead, pick up both as even though they're both pricy you can just snowball with these items.

Gods like Kali and Bakasura can use Deathbringer and another crit item and see themselves soloing most targets (if you've got a good amount of penetration). With these gods, you can use the Deathbringer and Poisoned Star combo as well as a Hastened Katana and just stick to gods while you chunk away their health bars.

Hopefully this guide can help you use crit to your advantage and use them in your builds from now on.

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