ChangeLog Top
1/14/15 I did the math on broken myth and it's a lot more efficient than most people think. Read below.
1/24/15 Got more experience with who can break Taka's stealth and re-adjusted threat accordingly
Introduction Top
Since Taka is very similar to Koshka (at least when crystal), and a round of all of koshka's spells will do 480(+30% crystal power) more damage than Taka's at max level, it makes sense to build Crystal Taka in a way that focuses on what he does better than Koshka, which I believe is bursting the enemy down. There are a lot of reasons for this:
1) Koshka gets crystal-power boosted attacks (up to 12), while Taka gets crits every few seconds.
2) Koshka escapes with her passive, which gives her movespeed and defense, while Taka escapes with his active Kaka which gives him basically the same amount of movespeed but stealth instead of defense, which is better than defense unless the enemy takes the time and money to use flares (and even then it's usually better because it takes precious time to activate flares).
3) Koshka recharges cooldown faster on every attack, while Taka already gets most of his Ki stacks the moment he uses his ult, so he doesn't need to attack a lot to keep his cooldowns charged quickly.
4) Koshka's ultimate leaves her vulnerable, but also leaves her target vulnerable.
5) Koshka's overdrives (bonuses for getting a skill to level 5) give her extra damage, while Taka's overdrives give easier sustain (no mana cost, health regen while stealthed)
6) X-Retsu has a 8. Second. Cooldown. (with items and ki stacks working)
Long story short, Taka's combo is very safe, and Taka doesn't have to be in very much danger in any fight to be effective. Therefore, it makes sense to build items like shatterglass on him, focusing purely on burst damage. That's what this build is focusing on: burst damage, as much damage in 2 seconds as possible.
Pros and cons Top
+Most damage over 2 seconds
+Kaku is usually the best escape skill in the game
+Doesn't need any more energy items than aftershock, so can focus on even more damage
+Extremely low cooldowns
+High burst damage means he can easily get the last hit on monsters enemy players are attacking
-Melee and no defense besides kaku and speed from his passive
-Only brings damage to the table
-Bad at destroying towers or kraken
-Ineffective while on cooldown (like all crystal builds)
-No way of healing himself
Basic Tips Top
-Go into the jungle and kill monsters rather than killing monsters in the lane
-Get kaiten first
-Max out kaiten before kaku
-Max out X-retsu as soon as possible
-If you're buying items that only give you crystal power, buy smaller items if possible because they give you more for your money than big items.
-You can't be invisible when near turrets, so be very careful
Early game situtational build choices Top
The first choice is whether you should get kaku or upgrade kaiten at level 2. More than half of the time you should get kaku, but if you think the enemy won't attack you anyhow upgrading kaiten could be worth it to kill monsters faster, and therefore get more gold.
The second choice is whether you buy aftershock as soon as possible, or buy a lot of crystal bits and therefore shatterglass first (small items are better, remember?). You want to be careful when buying aftershock, because in order to buy it you have to hold on to chronograph first. Chronograph not only gives you things you don't really need instead of damage, but it also gives you less for your money (when compared to hourglass) than any other item. So I think that unless you can already buy at least eclipse prism and chronograph at the first time you go to the shop after you buy one crystal bit, you should buy a lot of crystal bits. Buying aftershock hurts you until you get it (especially in the early game when you have few other items), so unless you're not going to be hurting for very long (because you have enough gold to buy most of it right now), you shouldn't go for it until after you have shatterglass.
The third choice is when you buy and upgrade boots. This depends on how much you are fighting with the other players (the more they are the sooner you want boots), but usually you should want to buy boots before your first big item (aftershock or shatterglass) and upgrade them straight after your first big item.
Advanced Tips Top
-When your kaiten is at maximum, you can use it without using up energy, so feel free to use it against non-players
-Don't worry about your passive "ki" unless you are attacking jungle monsters.
-Don't use kaku to engage or refresh your passive unless you are sure it will pay off, because it is your main means of escape and while it's ready you don't have to worry much about dying.
-If you always reach an enemy, and then automatically stop to attack them, but they end up getting away because you stopped to attack them, try this: Don't target them immediately, but instead move in their direction, tapping in front of them, until you think you will be able to finish the attack.
-If you leave a scout trap next to some monsters, you can jump across walls by using X-retsu on them, but it's difficult to use that effectively.
-If kaku and boots are on cooldown, you could always try attacking them for a burst of speed.
-You can usually use kaku to escape even if you are revealed because of the speed. Just keep running.
-Try to use spells before and after autoattacks, that way your attacks won't be slowed down because of the way these games work. For example, if you do autoattack->kaiten->autoattack, it will be faster than autoattack->autoattack->kaiten
-Kaiten makes you invincible while casting it, so it can be used to dodge tons of damage if something like Ringo's fireball is coming at you.
-If you are about to be stunned or silenced, cast kaku. You will still be stunned, but the enemy won't be able to see you, so they can't hurt you.
"But these could work too"- situational offensive items Top
Frostburn is only good if your enemies are constantly escaping your teammates because they have no way to slow them. Otherwise, it's not efficient for you.
Alternating current can change your role to deal more damage over 5 seconds rather than 2, but it's usually not a good idea to do that since you will be half as effective at each role. It can be as good as aftershock for burst damage on the first attack
if you have 2 shatterglasses
and you make sure your first attack against players activates the passive, which is difficult to do.
Eve of harvest gives you less damage, which means you won't be able to secure a kill, but later in the game it can also heal you a lot since you deal a lot of damage. However, this will only heal you the second time you use kaku and x-retsu in a fight, since the first time you will usually be at full health. So consider buying it if there are usually safe opportunities for you to use them a second time.
If you are going to buy this item, you should buy piercing shard (the un-upgraded version of this) right after your core; it should add more damage than other items, especially if they have any item that gives shields. The catch with this item though, is that in order for the fully upgraded version Broken Myth to work, you have to be at half health, and even then it's only better than shatterglass if either all of your enemies have an aegis or you have a 2nd shatterglass. With crystal Taka it's totally possible to deal all of your damage while you are at full health, so be sure that you actually get to half health when you use kaiten and x-retsu or this is a waste.
Tension Bow isn't that great for crystal taka because its passive damage does not crit, so it ends up doing a lot less damage than aftershock, but if the enemy is building 1-2 shield items each it's probably one of the better choices.
Crystal Infusions would be worth about 2000 gold if they lasted forever. Therefore, you should buy them if you have all your big items except one but don't think you're going to get enough gold for your last big item before the game ends. If you have tons of gold (around 2000) and already have all the items you want, you can sell your cheapest item, buy this, use it, and then buy that item back, and you will get a decent boost to your power at the end of the game. You can also use it some time sooner in the game, but that is very risky and usually not a good idea.
^
Also, add me as Bobit in-game. My rank is "pretty good" which reddit says is pretty good. (ok, it's not that good, but still)
If you want more information on exactly when one item gives you more damage than another, you could look up my posts on the wikibase for each item.
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