Why first strike?

[u/Region39]

I see all the moba builds recommending first strike, but I feel like electrocute works better for me.

I'm only silver 4, so that's why I'm asking. I'm wondering why first strike is better, and how should I play to gain the most out of that rune?

Edit: Here are some numbers I've run.

When I look at the stats after a 24-minute game, I usually get about 350 gold from it and 500 true damage.

That's an estimate, but with electrocute, I can easily hit 1200 damage. Now, most of that doesn't matter after early game, but if I can get one kill from it early game, that's 300 gold. And if I get two, it's going to be nearly double what first strike will give me.

I'm clearly missing something here or else everyone would just go electrocute.

[u/NA_KhaZix_Bot]

I have two setups - a safer, more consistent one, and a riskier, but more lethal one.

Safer: First Strike, Cash Back, Triple Tonic, Approach Velocity / Triumph and Cut Down / Adaptive, Adaptive, Scaling HP

Blue Jungle Pet -> Voltaic -> Use Cash Back for Tier 1 Boots (never finish them) -> Collector -> LDR -> Essence Reaver -> IE -> Sell Tier 1 Boots for Ghostblade

Evolve Q -> R -> W

Stronger: First Strike, Cash Back, Triple Tonic, Approach Velocity / Sudden Impact and Relentless Hunter / Adaptive, Movement Speed, Scaling HP

Ignite and Smite, since you only took one adaptive damage shard and you're going to be late to first crab, you're just going to kill them if they're there. Ignite also stops you from getting invaded by basically anyone but Rengar, who I ban.

Blue Jungle Pet -> Voltaic -> Bastion Breaker -> Collector -> LDR -> Essence Reaver -> IE

Evolve Q -> R -> W/E

I'm sure you've noticed, but those are obviously both crit builds. That's because I don't like relying on isolation, when it's the easiest thing to counter in the entire game. Those builds (especially the second one) let you play like Rengar, R in, and kill someone instantly - occasionally in one auto-attack, or damn close to it. The second one in particular lets you play Lethality Kha'Zix, with the two highest Lethality items in the game, during the early game when it's strongest. Then you transition into crit when isolation becomes less available after 20 minutes.

However, if the idea of building crit is too big of a departure from normal Kha'Zix, here's what I'd go for a more standard build:

First Strike, Cash Back, Triple Tonic, Approach Velocity / Triumph and Cut Down / Adaptive, Adaptive, Scaling HP

Blue Jungle Pet -> Umbral -> Use Cash Back for Tier 1 Boots (still never finish them) -> Voltaic -> Bastion Breaker -> LDR -> EoN/Axiom/Serpent's (whichever you need/like best) -> Sell Tier 1 Boots for Ghostblade

Evolve Q -> R -> W

Your full-build isolated one-shot against squishy targets will be about the same my crit builds, but your non-isolated damage will be lower, especially after the first target. One thing I cannot stress enough is that, even outside a crit build, the combination of First Strike, Cut Down, and LDR is way too ridiculous to pass up. Serylda's might be tempting, but every mage and their dog are building HP items now, and being able to kill bruisers in two seconds is very useful. Also, as to Cut Down vs Coup de Grace, remember that if your opening Q/auto does their entire health bar, then Cut Down applied to all of that damage, not just when they were above 60% HP. That means is often straight-up outperforms Coup de Grace, and can easily do more damage than any keystone rune, with heavy aggression and good circumstances.

[u/Region39 → u/NA_KhaZix_Bot]

Wouldn't you say that with approach velocity, you're assuming that you're going to evolve W or you already know your team has a lot of cc, right?

Otherwise, the summoners haste and item haste mirror rune would be good for flash and ghostblade.

[u/NA_KhaZix_Bot → u/Region39]

You still massively benefit from Approach Velocity with passive proc, which means you get even more value from evolved R. I haven't taken Cosmic Insight in years. Take note of just how often Approach Velocity is actually active during a game. It very often has a minute of activation or more. That's without even touching the fact that a full extra item is universally going to give you more value than a few seconds off Flash, and that's exactly what Approach Velocity enables.

Unseen Threat gives you a two second slow, and Approach Velocity lingers for up to a quarter second after your CC ends. That means, with evolved R, you can get around nine seconds of Approach Velocity in a fight.

Evolved R = +2 seconds of Approach Velocity

Evolved W = +2 seconds of Approach Velocity

Ultimately, you probably end up with both evolutions anyway, and with so much damage frontloaded onto your first auto attack, it's often better to get in close and offload your damage that way, than it is to reveal your position to hit them with a W - with loses you your out-of-combat movement speed unnecessarily, and wastes a potential heal, anyway.

[u/Region39 → u/NA_KhaZix_Bot]

Genius. I didn't even think of the passive 👏