Hey. So I'm a SEA player and I have the role as jungler/laner for the team Scarlet Bladez. I started playing from the beginning of last season (which was Spring Season 2016) and I really enjoy this game. My sigrature heroes are mainly Taka and Alpha, and for lane I use Ringo. Anyways, that's enough about me. Let's get into the guide.

Btw, this is my first guide so it might sound a little all over the place.

Taka is a very strong but fragile hero. Remember that he is an assassin, not a front line warrior so stay hidden. Hide in bushes, hide in your box and wait for a chance to ambush your opponents. Especially if you're going CP, you should avoid 1v1 fights against anyone like Glaive, Rona, Krul or SAW who all have a very high damage output.

Anyways, let's get on with the guide....

Tension Bow

The Tension Bow is probably the most important item for Taka and I would encourage you to rush to Tension Bow as soon as possible for both WP and CP builds. The reason why I say that the Tension Bow is also important for CP builds is because you're going to have a hard time farming jungle and it'll just be much more convenient farming gold to crush enemy heroes later on.

Alternating Current

Specific to this build, I recommend you getting the Alternating Current right after you buy your Tension Bow. You're gonna want to build some attack speed before you finish building your Tension Bow which will eventually build into an Alternating Current; if that makes any sense to you. If you forget to get any attack speed while you're building to Tension Bow, you can go straight into building your Aftershock once you've got your Tension Bow.

Aftershock

There's nothing much to talk about Aftershock. Just one thing I want to mention, if you're going against heroes like Phinn or SAW who have high health, you might consider getting your Aftershock before you get your Alternating Current.

Defense

So if you're getting defense, consider getting a Light Armor or Light Shield right after you get your Tension Bow depending on how strong your enemy heroes are. This will slightly increase your chances of not dying too much in early game. Build the defense item into a tier 3 after you get your Aftershock and Alternating Current. Normally you should just build to a Fountain of Renewal unless your opponents build double weapon which in that case you should either build an Atlas Pauldron or Metal Jacket. If your opponents build double crystal, then consider getting an Aegis.

Additional Crystal Item Choices

After you get your defensive item, you can get one more crystal item such as Shatterglass, Broken Myth, Clockwork, Frostburn or Eve of Harvest. An easy way to decide which item to get is like this. If your opponents totally ignore your crystal power and builds no defense, Shatterglass it is. However, if your opponents gets an Aegis you should pick up a Broken Myth for that extra shield pierce. But if they build an Atlas Pauldron or a Metal Jacket, just go for the Shatterglass because the additional shield pierce you get from Broken Myth won't be as effective. When you should get your Frostburn is when your opponent heroes are retreating a lot. You know when your enemies are moving around a lot and can outrun you. However, I rarely pick up the Frostburn because I feel like it's kind of useless but you can definitely try. Also if you get Eve of Harvest, that's gonna give you extra energy recharge and you'll never run out of energy if paired up with Aftershock. The lifesteal on it is really good too. It will definitely help you keep up fights and it's just really helpful. Lastly, if you are winning the game by a lot, you can decide to get a Clockwork from the shop because it's really cheap and helps Taka use his abilities a lot more frequently.

Boots

Thanks to the new update, we can choose what kind of boots we want to get. We can get the standard Journey Boots or get more interesting boots like Halcyon Chargers with additional effects. You shouldn't forget about your boots. Don't forget to pick up your Sprint Boots at your first shop visit and upgrade them into Travel Boots when you have spare gold. You should pick up your Travel Boots after you get your first crystal item. Then, just upgrade them to Journey Boots or Halcyon Chargers last because there's not much speed difference with Travel Boots and Journey Boots.

Tension Bow

Like I said before, Tension Bow is just amazing. It's as if Taka was designed for Tension Bow. Anyways, you should rush to it as fast as possible and it'll be great if you can get it at around the 6 minute mark. Just wreck with it early game and enjoy dominating; it's not that op though.

Tornado Trigger

Tornado Trigger for Taka is really good because of the attack speed and a little bit of critical strike chance that you get from it. Once Taka gets his Tension Bow, he really needs attack speed which is why you should get this straight after you get your Tension Bow. Remember that even after you get your Tornado Trigger you should still stutter step with Taka.

House Kamuha Slot: Heroic Perk Taka gains Mortal Strike every 2s. Mortal Strike: Taka's next basic attack deals 30-85 (level 1-12) (+40% weapon power) bonus damage and briefly gains bonus movement speed. When Taka uses an ability or lands a Mortal Strike, he gains a stack of Ki. Ki: Taka gains Mortal Strike faster and his ability cooldowns are reduced by 5% per stack. 5 stacks max.

So this is his heroic perk as you can tell from its description. So basically you have stacks that are called 'Ki'. You can stack 'Ki' by using abilities as well as continuously attacking something. Ability A and B will stack 1 'Ki' and your Ultimate will stack 3. The maximum amount of stacks are 5. The stacks from 1 to 5 represent how frequently you can land a guaranteed critical strike. At max 'Ki' you will land critical strike every attack. However the stacks fall off quite rapidly if Taka stops attacking. You safely poke the gold mine or the kraken to keep those stacks up.

Kaiten Slot: A Taka flips over his target, cutting it with his switchblade. Taka is invulnerable to damage and negative effects while in mid-air.

This is just what the description says. Kaiten is probably the most powerful abilities if used right because it can dodge bursts of damage that would otherwise devastate you such as Adagio's Ultimate. Just target Adagio and use your Kaiten at the right time. Be careful to not do this too early while he's still channeling his ultimate. Of course, you can dodge damage from any other heroes but some are harder to dodge than others. Dodging jungle minion's attacks are really, REALLY important. If you're solo jungleing, in your first rotation, you have to dodge the first heal minion's attack or you'll end up taking more damage than you absolutely need to.

Kaku Slot: B Taka throws a smoke bomb at his feet and becomes invisible while gaining increased movement speed. Invisibility ends early if he strikes a target or takes direct damage. Turrets, Scout Traps and Flare Guns can still see Taka while he is invisible.

Yes, this is the best thing about Taka; or worst if your opponent uses Taka. So this lets you vanish and surprise enemies by coming out of no where and ambushing them. The reason why it's so annoying is because he can vanish to escape from you. A common technique with Taka is to hide in a bush to X-Retsu and Kaiten a hero and leave the crime scene using Kaku just as if you weren't there. If you're escaping and you have Kaku ready to be used, use it and start running toward and past the enemies in the other direction. They'll be confused as to where the heck you went. Also this heals you when you're in your box so you can use that to your advantage if you are low on health and you don't have any potions.

X-Retsu Slot: C Taka bursts through his target for massive damage and gains Ki Stacks. The target suffers a mortal wound (reduced healing) and takes damage per second for the next 3s. The wound's duration is refreshed whenever Taka Mortal Strikes this target.

Taka's ultimate is really fun to use. This is probably the only reason why people use crystal Taka as it does a burst of damage on a hero you select and leaves them bleeding which makes it good for finishing off your opponent. For WP builds, you should consider opening fights using X-Retsu as it stacks 3 'Ki' unlike your other abilities.

Alright, stutter stepping is super important. Like I mean SUPER. So take your time to watch this video and you'll be better at using Taka. Oh yeah, this goes for all heroes except for heroes like Lyra or Joule.

Play Video

- Do a lot of ganks on the laner after you learn your X-Retsu. That way, your can pick up a few more kills especially if the opponent laner is Ringo or Celeste. An easy way to do this is to do your X-Retsu on the laner immediately followed up by a Kaiten and escaping using your Kaku.

- Taka is a very strong hero in early game because of the dodge from his Kaiten and disappearing effect from Kaku. Therefore, if you can communicate with your roamer/second jungler you should do an early jungle invade especially if your opponents go counter jungle. Do your first jungle rotation, buy your item whether it's Sprint Boots or just another Weapon Blade, have your roamer check the enemy bush right near the shop and if the opponent heroes are not there as well as the furthest minions of their side, you should step into their jungle and kill them. Usually you should target the roamer on their team because he/she will be low on health and his/her level will be lower than the jungler. However, if both the jungler and the roamer are level one, target the jungler.

- DO NOT GO COUNTER JUNGLE! The reason why I'm saying that you shouldn't go counter jungle is because the enemy might use the previous tip on you. They can invade your jungle and fight you. You'll be at a disadvantage because they'll have items and you won't. In case you don't know what counter jungling is, it's when you take your furthest minions that are nearest to your shop first and continuing your way to the nearest minion at the top.

So I hope this guide helped you and gave you a better understanding about how to use Taka. I hope you guys use this build and win more with this hero.

Thanks for reading~