
Fluffy Dragons - NA
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😔As of writing this guide, I have over a 75% win rate on Da Ji (mostly solo queue), and I'll show you my usual build + tips and tricks.
pls buff Da Ji thx
Feel free to say hi if you see me in-game! I am very lonely :(
https://smite.guru/match/1084653551
gaming
The important stuff is Highlighted
Changelog:
(only recent/significant changes)
March 3rd, 2021
Delayed Massive S8 Update
January 17th, 2021
Cleaning up grammar and formatting
November 7th, 2020
How to Level and Play Da Ji - Changed leveling order due to Da Ji buff
September 3rd, 2020
Additional Items - Removed Serrated Edge (lol)
How to Level and Play Da Ji - Updated How to Play section
Other minor changes

Bluestone Pendant
PASSIVE - Enemies hit by your damaging Abilities take an additional 25 Physical Damage over 2s. (Max 2 Stacks) Can be upgraded at level 20.

Mace

Purification Beads
Using this item removes Crowd Control Effects and makes you immune to new ones for 2s. Cooldown - 160s.

Multi Potion
This consumable heals 125 Health and 75 Mana over 25 seconds.
(Section Updated on March 3rd, 2020)
Buy a pot if you are in any game mode that is not arena, I usually just get 1 multi.

Bumba's Dagger
PASSIVE - Your Basic Attacks deal +20 True Damage and your Abilities deal +30% Damage versus Jungle Monsters. When a Jungle Monster is killed you are restored for 10% of the Monster's Health and 25 Mana. Can be upgraded at level 20.

Mace

Blink Rune
Using this item will allow you to teleport up to 45 units away instantly. This item can not be used if you have taken or dealt damage in the last 3s. Cooldown - 140s.

Multi Potion
This consumable heals 125 Health and 75 Mana over 25 seconds.

Multi Potion
This consumable heals 125 Health and 75 Mana over 25 seconds.

Hand of the Gods
This consumable deals 200 True damage to Jungle Monsters around you. This only affects Monsters on your side of the Jungle.

Warrior Tabi

Jotunn's Wrath

Hydra's Lament
PASSIVE - For 8s after using an ability, your next Basic Attack will deal an additional 40% damage. Abilities that function like basic attacks do not benefit from this. PASSIVE - This item grants 2.5 MP5 per 10% of your missing Mana.

Heartseeker
PASSIVE - Your abilities deal an additional 2% of the targets maximum Health as Physical Damage. If you have over 200 Physical Power, your ability bonus damage scales up. This effect reaches a maximum of 5% Maximum Health damage at 400 Physical Power. Subsequent hits on the same target do 75% bonus damage for the next 3s.

Dominance
PASSIVE - Your Basic Attacks benefit from an additional 10% Physical Penetration.

Bloodforge
PASSIVE - Killing an enemy god forges a shield from their blood with Health equal to 200 + 10 per Player Level for 20s. While the Blood Shield is active you gain +10% movement speed.
(Section Updated on March 3rd, 2021)
Finish boots before Jotunn's.
You can get Transcendence in Conquest and go with a Brawler's/Crusher instead of Jotunn's.
Jotunn's can be swapped out with Brawler's against teams with lots of healing. Bloodforge is not great in conquest, and you should not get it if your K/D is not very positive or if you're just not getting that many kills.
Relics are Beads and Blink usually and (upgraded) sundering spear is fine in Joust for some extra burst in place of blink.
Bumba's Hammer/Malice cooldown reduction does not work on Da Ji's 1 which kinda sucks, but it is still a decent pickup in conquest.
I do not recommend any of the bluestone finishers since they don't synergize very well with her kit.
Disclaimer: I have not purchased Aegis on any god in the last 6 years because it's cringe.

Transcendence
PASSIVE - You permanently gain 15 Mana per Stack, and receive 5 Stacks for a god kill, and 1 Stack for a minion kill (max. 50 stacks). 3% of your Mana is converted to Physical Power. At 50 stacks this item Evolves, gaining 10% Cooldown Reduction.

Arondight
PASSIVE - When your Ultimate ability has finished casting, reveal all enemy gods within 120 units for 8s. While moving towards revealed enemies gain 30% Movement Speed. When first striking a revealed target they take an additional 40 + 30% of your Physical Power. This can only occur once every 45 seconds.

Titan's Bane
PASSIVE - Your first ability cast gains 20% Physical Penetration. This can only occur once every 10 seconds.

The Sledge
PASSIVE - For each enemy god within 55 units of you, you gain a stacking buff that provides 8 Protections. Stacks up to 3 times.

Brawler's Beat Stick
PASSIVE - Enemies hit by your Abilities have 40% reduced healing for 6 seconds.

The Crusher
PASSIVE - Enemies hit by your damaging Abilities take an additional 20 Physical Damage + 15% of your Physical Power over 2s.

Void Shield
AURA - Enemy gods within 55 units have their Physical Protection reduced by 15%.

Ancile
PASSIVE - Whenever you take Magical Damage from an enemy ability you unleash a shockwave that Silences all enemies within a range of 30 units for 1s. This effect cannot trigger more than once every 30s.

Mantle of Discord
PASSIVE - If you take damage below 30% health you unleash a shockwave that stuns all enemies within a range of 20 units for 1s and become immune to Crowd Control for 1s. This effect cannot trigger more than once every 90s.

Bumba's Hammer
PASSIVE - After casting an ability your next Basic Attack deals an additional 80 True Damage. After hitting a Basic Attack empowered by Bumba’s Hammer, your active cooldowns are reduced by 1s and you are healed for 5% of your Maximum Health.
(Section Updated on March 3rd, 2021)
Use your own judgment here. These items can be built anywhere in the build; however, I strongly recommend building Boots, Jotunn's/Brawlers, and Hydra's Lament before anything else.
If the game isn't going that well, get Sledge after boots + (Jotunn's/Brawler's).
Typically, I will sell boots at the end for Titan's bane, although, Arondight is also an option.
Arondight is more of a win-more item, and I'll get it if I'm going for multi-kills, and Titan's is pretty good against protection-heavy teams.
Don't forget that Arondight will put you over the cooldown cap with Jotunn's (20%) + Hydra's (10%) + Arondight (10%) + Power Potion (10%) = 50%.
So if the game gets super late game, then you can sell Jotunn's for one of the 10% CDR items like Mantle or Arondight.
You can also just look at my match history for my build since I mostly just play Da Ji anyway, lol.

Leather Cowl
PASSIVE - While you are within 66 units of an allied god you gain 10% Attack Speed. If you are alone you instead gain 5% Movement Speed. Can be upgraded at level 20.

Warrior Tabi

Hydra's Lament
PASSIVE - For 8s after using an ability, your next Basic Attack will deal an additional 40% damage. Abilities that function like basic attacks do not benefit from this. PASSIVE - This item grants 2.5 MP5 per 10% of your missing Mana.

Dominance
PASSIVE - Your Basic Attacks benefit from an additional 10% Physical Penetration.

Rage
PASSIVE - Killing or getting an assist on an enemy god gives you 1 stack. Each stack provides 3% Critical Strike Chance. Stacks are permanent and stack up to 5 times.

Deathbringer
PASSIVE - Critical Strike bonus damage dealt is increased by 30%.

Wind Demon
PASSIVE - Your Critical Hits provide you with 10% Physical Penetration and increase your Attack Speed and Movement Speed by 20% for 5s.

Poisoned Star
PASSIVE - Critical hits on enemy gods afflict them with poison for 2s. This poison slows them by 10% and reduces their damage output by 15%.
(Section Updated on April 18th, 2021)
This build is the most optimal one for Da Ji in pretty much every game.
Once you have 90 or 100% crit she is much more viable late-game compared to a regular Da Ji build.
The items are in order, just sell Bluestone Pendant for Wind Demon and Warrior Tabi for Poisoned Star.
Shadowsteel Shuriken can also be substituted in place of Poisoned Star (get Shadowsteel and then Wind Demon).
I don't get malice as it doesn't synergize well with the combo of 3 auto 1 auto as you will only shorten the cooldown on the 3. The biggest problem, however, is even if you preemptively use the 1 or just walk up to them with the 1 activated, malice passive does not shorten the cooldown on the 1 as the damage applies (and the cooldown starts) after the crit.
When you're using this build, don't bother using the two for damage late-game, only use it for the movement speed and then cancel it instantly or use it for the mitigations.
I like leather cowl because it gives me additional movement speed to catch up to fleeing enemies early game








(Section Updated March 3rd, 2021)
Leveling the ultimate is pretty decent if you have lots of cooldown reduction with Jotunn's + Hydra's. Otherwise, stick with the other abilities.
After the Da Ji buff in 7.11, the second ability no longer massively sucks at level 1. Therefore, I have split the build into Standard and Alternate leveling orders. Standard is usually applicable for quick burst damage, and Alternate will do more damage overall, assuming the enemy has no escape abilities.
The most crucial ability on Da Ji is her 1. Even though the 2 does more damage, using her 1 allows you to auto-attack instantly afterward, also known as an auto-attack cancel. For example, a typical gank goes 3, auto-attack, 1, and then auto-attack again immediately, 2, auto-attack again. You can cancel the 2 after hitting four times to auto-attack instantly instead of waiting for the animation to end, which you should do if you are confident in performing the move, do not do this if you are not super confident in your ability to pull it off.
The idea is that items like Hydra's, Heartseeker, and Crusher will apply their effects many times in quick succession. This is insane single-target damage, making her one of the best gods for killing mages and hunters. Da Ji's weakness is tanky characters like warriors and guardians; you will need heartseeker/dominance or titan's bane to do much to them. The 3, auto, 1, auto, 2 combo should happen in about a second, and if you're somewhat far ahead, it can kill any unlucky mage in your sight almost instantly.
Another trick that nobody knows is that when you are using your ultimate, the split second you are still on the ground before the animation of going up on your tower is another auto-attack cancel opportunity. So, if you ult right on top of an enemy god, you can actually get an extra auto-attack off on them before you get up into the air.
A handy trick that people who have mastered auto-attack canceling can try is spinning the camera. Pretty clear what it is; just rotate your camera after you have selected your target with the 3 and during the teleport animation. You will hopefully land somewhere to the side or behind the target god. Make sure you can auto-attack immediately after teleporting as usual with precise WASD commands. This trick is somewhat tricky; however, it is perfect for body-blocking.
I use normal cast for her 3 and instant cast for her 1,2 and the 4.
(Section Updated January 17th, 2021)
Do not engage on these gods; only go on them or gods near them after the fight has started, and their cc abilities are down. The gods listed multiple times are just for emphasis.
Generally, Da Ji is not the optimal team fight starter; her primary role is to go on targets that have already used their escape abilities and/or cc abilities and finish them off. If you have your ultimate, you can start a team fight, which I typically do on a target that I am sure about, but it's still better to join the battle after it's started.
Ganesha/Nox silences are a death sentence for Da Ji as your ultimate is your panic button. The Paolao lets you wait for your team to come over, buy time for your abilities to go back up, or act as a jump if you instantly chain any nearby enemy god and/or jump off. If you're silenced, you can't really do any of that unless you want to pop purification beads and then ult.
A lot of other gods should be on here, but I'm too lazy to add them. However, using your big brain, you should be able to figure out when and where to engage. Ex. Don't go on Nu Wa if she hasn't used her minions/invisibility circle, don't go on Isis if she still has her stun/silence, etc.
(Section Updated January 17th, 2021)
Again, use your brain. A lot of these gods require setup. Discordia is only easy if her invisibility is down (watch out for the apple). Neith is easy if her backflip is down for any reason. Otherwise, you should blink next to Neith, auto-attack, 1, auto-attack, then teleport to her after she backflips with your 3. This applies to most of the gods who have jumps/dashes.
Zeus can kill you pretty quickly with his ultimate, Kukulkan can purge the slow on your 1 and get away, teleporting on Artemis with her ult up is pretty silly, etc.