While at first glance she seems to come from the long line of SMITE‘s hyper-assassin femme fatales, Da Ji is going to take a little recalibration of your killer instincts if you want to succeed with the torture queen in Season 4.
While she’s certainly mobile, most of her skillset is dedicated to getting her in and bringing the pain. But getting out tends to be much harder than we’re used to. While there’s certainly a passing resemblance to SMITE‘s resident animal-tailed vamp-in-vogue Serqet, this villainous vixen actually plays closer to Mercury.
In this guide, we’ll go over how you should build Da Ji and what strategies will help you maximize her fatal kit on the Battleground.
Why Da Ji is Dangerous in SMITE Season 4
In our Ganesha guide, we established that the three most powerful components in SMITE right now are mobility, crowd control, and CDR. And while the Nine-Tailed Nightmare may lack sorely in two, her Mobility is high enough to leave her a constant threat to the enemy backline.
Her damage, both burst (Horrible Burns > Trickster Spirit > basic attack) and sustained (Torture Blades) is incredibly high — and Paolao is a potentially powerful (if easily negated) set-up Ultimate. But Da Ji’s real strength comes from just how difficult it is to actually peel her off of her target.
While other assassins may be CC’d off their mark, or simply caught and killed from behind, Da Ji’s unique ability to warp onto targets with Trickster Spirit and follow them is very dangerous — especially with added bonus speed, slow immunity, and damage mitigation from behind from One Thousand Cuts.
This leaves her vulnerable to trading often (though escaping to the top of your Paolao can buy valuable time for your team to save you). But for when one target absolutely must die, there’s very few picks as deadly as Da Ji.
How to Play Da Ji in SMITE Season 4
Unlike more flexible classes like Warrior, or even hybrid Assassin types such as Thanatos, Da Ji only really has one role, one mode, and one style of play — find the God or Goddess that has to bleed, and make sure they do.
The Rotation
While being firmly locked into “only one combo always” is never truly advised, your engagements do have a very static “combo” feel (similar to Loki) before you devolve into slamming your basic attacks onto anything near you (more like Mercury).
First, activate your Horrible Burns. Don’t worry about running out the duration, because there isn’t one. Those burning claws will stay lit until you (successfully) land a basic attack onto an enemy target. Next, identify your target and wait for an opening (usually after your primary engage has made a really noisy, flashy appearance in the middle of the enemy team).
Once you’ve picked your mark, move in for the kill — feel free to walk if they’re looking away, but more often than not you’ll be closing the gap with Trickster Spirit. Land a basic attack to make them feel the burn and get a little extra damage with Torture Blades before triggering One Thousand Cuts to finish the job.
As a bonus, if the team fight still rages (or you need a quick escape), hop up on top of your Paolao, land as many of your three shots as you can, and move your cursor to a safe spot to jump as your team cleans up behind you. While the description of this ability sounds much like Ares’ No Escape, its actual use is closer to Rama’s Astral Barrage or Freya’s Valkyrie’s Discretion.
How to Build Da Ji in SMITE Season 4
When looking at items for Da Ji, we recommend using the Assassin Crit Build:
- Warrior Tabi
- Heartseeker
- Jotunn’s Wrath
- Titan’s Bane
- Deathbringer
- Malice
If you’re feeling more like a wolverine than a fox — or the engagements are going long enough to force you into your relatively strong basic attack mode — feel free to opt into Ninja Tabi and pick up a Rage over Titan’s Bane.
When to Pick Da Ji For Your Team
Best Ally Gods
Da Ji can get the job done in most cases (the job here being “excruciatingly painful murder”). But oftentime, she struggles to escape to safety once the killing’s over.
Try to pair her with defensive Guardians that offer a get out of jail free card, like Geb and Khepri — or disruptive frontliners that can wreak havoc on enemy formations like Tyr and Cabrakan.
Of course, you could always double down on the all-in annihilation of a target and join forces with Nox, who can hitch a ride on the Trickster Spirit.
Best Matchups/Counter-Picks
Traditional Mages are the bread-and-butter targets for the Nine-Tailed Fox. Death from afar but vulnerable up close, Poseidon, Zeus, Isis, Zhong Kui, and Vulcan are all fantastic marks — and notably have no CC immune Ultimates to escape the chains of the Paolao.
Worst Matchups
Nix the Nine-Tailed lady whenever tankier, high-sustain targets are on the offensive line. Xing Tian and Hercules specifically tend to shrug off Da Ji’s damage, and also have peel that will penetrate the defenses of One-Thousand Cuts.
Similarly, Gods and Goddesses that can dodge Da Ji’s damage without having to truly “escape”, like Sol and Chronos, tend to match up well against her. For those games, we recommend grabbing a different OP SMITE Season 4 Assassin instead.
Victory!
It’s a rough game out there, and the enemy’s grown confident. They think their victory is assured. But with Da Ji by your side…well. We’ll see what the Fox says about that.
Now go forth and conquer! But when your opponent’s cries of anguish have fallen silent, be sure to come give us all the gory details of your kills with Da Ji, the Nine-Tailed Fox.
