Overview
Some tips on how to play Kukulkan that should help you get through the begginning of your Smite Adventures.
Introduction
So i’ve been playing Smite since beta and I can say that Kukulkan is both one of the easiest and hardest gods for new players. On one hand his kit is very straight forward, on the other hand several skills he has can be a little tricky to land. I am making this guide to try to make Kukulkan easier to understand for new players.
General Information on Kukulkan
So what exactly does Kukulkan do?
Well his passive is somewhat straight forward, Basically it increases your magic power by 5% of your maximum mana. If you have 100 max mana (never gonna happen) then you’ll have 5 extra magic power. This is significant considering it allows Kukulkan to have more magic power than most other mages can have while building a few items that have lower magical power.
Zephyr: it’s a fast projectile that shoots in a straight line. If it hits then it’ll deal a decent amount of damage with a small (usually insignificant) aoe and slow everyone it has hit for 3 seconds. This slow is very significant considering at max rank it’ll slow them for 50% sort of. You see in smite there’s this thing called diminishing returns on a lot of stats, and this one ability has diminishing returns on it so you’ll actually not be slowing them for 50%.
Slipstream: You slither around… you are cc immune for 1 second… you move faster for 4 seconds… really not much to say about it besides it’s decent for doding projectiles and chasing down opponnents… but that doesn’t mean it’s a good escape. Basically just don’t over extend too much because this thing will not save you from a lot of attacks.
Whirlwind: Also known as the MIGHTY STORM!!! by those who remember Kukulkan from when he was Ao Kuang this is basically his signiture ability. You summon a tornado that lasts on the ground for 4 seconds. If an enemy is inside it then a tornado will be spawned on the enemy and the enemy will take damage for 2.5 seconds, but if they stay in the tornado then they’ll take damage for a longer period of time. In other words if you can get your target to stand in the whirlwind for 4 seconds you basically just hit them for ult damage.
Spirit of The Nine Winds: So this is one of the most damaging ultimates in the game and if you get hit by it then you will feel the damage as most of your health bar will disappear and you will be knocked aside. So what exactly does SoTNW do? Well Kukulkan summons a giant spirit which moves forward in a front line dealing a lot of damage to whoever gets hit by it. The biggest downside to the ultimate is that you can miss with it exceptionally easily. You cannot shoot it directly at an enemy who is paying attention and isn’t cc’d in place or you will miss. If you want to hit then fire it at a group of unsuspecting enemies and you’re more likely to hit people… or combo your ult with someone like Ares who can pull the entire enemy team to a single point.
Wave Clearing
So basically when you hear someone talk about his wave clear usually your gonna hear about his whirlwind. Mostly because it is some of the best wave clear in the game… after 3 or so levels. At early levels it cannot clear the entire wave or even kill a single minion by itself considering the base damage is somewhat low. However it is really powerful wave clear, but you probably should know how to use it.
Whirlwind Tip 1: Early game wait for the minions to meet in the middle of the lane and then Whirlwind the entire wave. Considering if you can get a target to stay in the whirlwind for 4 seconds they’ll take a large amount of damage for any single ability if you can make the enemies stay in the whirlwind for the entire 4 seconds then you’ll clear the wave a lot faster early game. If you put the whirlwind in front of the wave as they are leaving the enemy tower then they will take a lot less damage.
Whirlwind Tip 2: Mid-Late game just drop the whirlwind and do whatever you want. The Tornado is usually max rank and you will have a lot of magic power so it’ll mostly clear the wave without you having to even be nearby.
There is 1 big Drawback to whirlwind though… It consumes a lot of mana… and I mean a lot…. As in If you spam it you will run out of mana really fast. You can easily have enough mana to ult while not having enough mana to use whirlwind. So what should you do?
Spirit of The Nine Winds Tip 1: Don’t just ult the minion wave. It’s cooldown is fairly lengthy and you can easily use it for more productive uses.
So if you are probably not going to ult the wave and have only a little mana what should you do?
Zephyr Tip 1: Mid-Late game when you are a little low on mana and you need to clear a wave, Zephry can be used to a great degree. The small Aoe will hit either the entire front of the wave or back of the wave and usually outright kill the back wave Mid-Late game. If you have the ability then if you bait the front line to group to the back line of minion then you can zephyr the entire wave for… ok wave clear when your on a mana budget.
Items to build
Ok so general items to usually get on Kukulkan.
Shoes of the Magi: Has a lot of Magic power, has mana which gives him even more magic power, has 10 penetration which makes his abilities do a lot more damage, and the movement speed is just kinda necessary. This item is a lot better for Kukulkan than any other shoe. (Dont question how someone with no feet can use shoes!)
Book of Thoth: So remember how his passive gives you 5% of your mana as power? Well this thing gives you 3% of your mana as power. Your gonna be building mana items anyway so this thing is basically a must considering it gives you a lot of magic power due to your passive and the amount of mana it gives you.
Spear of the Magus: Penetration is a very useful in general, and since his Whirlwind does tick damage Spear of the Magus is basically perfect for Kukulkan
Chronos’ Pendant: Does damage, gives sustain for your mana pool considering your abilities drink your mana away, and the CDR lets you use your abilities more. Generally fine.
Polynomicon: Usually this item doesn’t get built. Why? It’s damage is normally less than it’s other alternatives, but considering it has mana his passive counteracts the damage difference and when combined with Zephyr you can smack them with that Zephyr and then follow up with an auto attack which instantly zaps away your opponnents health.
Bancroft’s Talon/Pythagorem’s Piece: General lifesteal items. Gives a lot of damage and Pythagorem gives CDR and gives power to allies.
Rod of Tahuti: Basically a must for any mage that wants to do a lot of damage, and Kukulkan is no exception. the 25% extra magic power it gives when combined with Kukulkan’s naturally high magic power just makes his damage so large.
Soul Reaver: lot of damage in the base stats, gives a lot of mana which feeds Ao Kuang’s Passive, and the Proc basically allows him to easily 1 shot certain gods.
Gem of Isolation: Get it if you need training wheels for hitting abilities/auto attacks, or your team just needs more cc. When combined with your 1 your opponnents basically aren’t moving. When combined with your 3 your opponnents are slowed for about 4 seconds. Course it wont do as much damage as other items.
Breastplate of Valor: So if you need some physical protections BoV is one of the best items for you to get. The recent mana reduction makes it worse for Kukulkan, but it still gives him damage thanks to his passive, it has good CDR, and it gives you a lot of physical protection… This is a situational Item though… only buy it maybe if the enemy team has 4-5 physical gods and your always under attack.
Ability Combinations/Situations
So Kukulkan’s kit has some problems considering her 3 is hard to land, because it takes about a second for the ability to land after you cast it. So how do you make it easier to his an enemy?
Combo 1 Zephyr into Whirlwind: So Zephyr is a quick projectile that is relatively easy to land, and if you land it then your enemies will be slowed. Well while they are slowed whey not put a whirlwind on their feet when they can’t run as fast? This is basically a bread and butter combo for Kukulkan that you should probably learn.
he has another ability that is also hard to land known as his Ultimate Spirit of the Nine Winds. So what do you do to land it?
Situation 1 Point blank SotNW: It takes a little time to land after cast, but if you cast it point blank there isn’t a lot of time to react. it isn’t foolproof, but a point blank ult for Kukulkan is hard to dodge. Considering his 2 isn’t that great for escaping and a lot of enemies will be nipping at your back if you need to run away… Just ult. The enemies will either disperse and give you some room… or they’ll be hit with a ton of damage and be knocked back.
Combo 2 Point Blank SotNW into Zephyr: So if you are running away and you ult then make sure you pay attention to whether or not any large yellow/orange numbers appear. If they do then most likely they were hit by your ult and if you turn around they’ll have a very low health bar. If you hit a Zephyr then you may be able to kill them, if you got a poly proc then throw that in as well and your enemy will most likely die.
Situational combo 1 Zephyr into Polynomicon Auto Attack: So often times you will not always have your whirlwind available, but if you have Polynomicon then you got another combo for massive damage. You hit a Zephyr blow then you opponent is slowed and easily hit by an auto attack. With Polynomicon that auto attack will hit a lot of damage.
Some Misc Tips
Running Away: If you have some distance from your enemy then slipstream away, and you should be safe. If your enemy is somewhat close then smack them with a Zephyr to slow them and then Slipstream away. If you are really close then you will only either escape if you allies help you or if you can outdamage your enemy… and unless you have your ultaimate you can easily be killed
Objective fighting: Considering the way his whirlwind works he does a lot more damage to Objectives like Gold Fury and Fire Giant than a lot of other mages can. If you need to secure the Objective Spirit of the Nine Winds basically is one of the best ways to do some.
Tower/Phoenix killing: If you got a Polynomicon then use it to attack Towers/Phoenixes when you can. The proc will work on the towers and with your high magic power you will do a lot of damage to the tower/phoenix. If you need to burst a tower down quickly then consider using slipstream just to activate Polynomicon, although if you do this realize you are a lot more vulnerable.
Do not become reliant on Kukulkan: Kukulkan is a decent god for when you are starting out, but he is by far not a good mage in general play. Usually he is put in C-Tier in tier lists which is fairly low. I’d use him to help learn some of the mechanics of Smite and then transition to other mages like Janus or Isis… Or you can probably do decently with him in Casual matches.