s11 Middle Varus build guides, counters, guide, pro builds
League of Legends Guide: How to play Lethality Varus
s11 Bottom Varus Runes - Champions - League of Legends
lethality varus mid runes
lethality varus mid runes - win
Each Special move used in the entire series so far (As of Prowling Anxiety) in order.
Crippling Depression (Varus) First Appearance: New Varus Build Use: Buffering the Ultimate while flashing to get more range on it Fun Fact: Varus' special move list is called The Arsenal of Abnormalities Psychotic Anxiety First Appearance: Understanding Botlane Use: Using flash to curve Pyke's e for style points or to gain more range to catch enemies just out of range Autism Zone First Appearance: Lethality Pyke Use: Allows Papa to increase his Chromosomes tenfold for a short amount of time but is useless unless Papa already has a large amount ready. Fun Fact: The name was later changed to Asberger Syndrome due to Copyright and Papa wanting to make a callback to the Nexus Blitz filler episode and was changed to only be allowed to access one at 80% or more autism level. Forgotten Dememtia First Appearance: Lethality Pyke Use: Papa dashes with his E and uses his R to curve the phantom so it hits his opponent. (Not a special move) Pink Pyke Cloak First Appearance: ppp Use: While wearing the Pink Pink Cloak Papa gains the power of gayness becoming so powerful that no words in the human vocabulary can describe him forcing the narrator to go silent while Papa wrecks his enemies Fun Fact: I will be including characters different forms on this List. (Not a special move) Blood Moon Pyke Skin First Appearance: Blood Moon Pyke Use: While in this form Papa's chromosome power is boosted however it requires a large amount of chromosomes to remain in this form. Fun Fact: In order to gain access to this power Papa had to join the Blood Moon Clan and perform the ritual of paying the 5$ lifetime membership fee. Crippling Depression (Pyke) First Appearance: Pyke is very weak and definitely needs the buffs. Thank you League of Legends! Use: Using flash to buffer the use on Pyke's q to get more range. Menacing Menpause First Appearance: Pyke is very weak and definitely needs the buffs. Thank you League of Legends! Use: A 3 hit combo of Q, E backwards, Tiamat (or just a regular AA depending on the season) to proc Electrocute to get his target low enough for an execute with his R. Fun Fact: This move probably changed the most during the series as its core component of Tiamat and sometimes even Electrocute were removed depending on how viable they were on Pyke. It is also the most usable of Pyke's Weapons of Disorder as it doesn't require flash or too many chromosomes. Epileptic Epitaph First Appearance: Clean Combos Use: Allows Papa to see 10 seconds into the future. Papa can spend more chromosomes to see farther. Papa must already be at high chromosome levels to use Epileptic Epitaph although the exact level vary based on different translations, manga, or anime. Fun Fact: Although it first appeared in Clean Combos Epileptic Epitaph was only scarsley used in episodes like The Duty of a Carry, Tenacity Stacking etc. and it didn't even get its name until Auto win at level 16. (It was just called precognative ability until then). Chromosome Stealing First Appearance: BAN SYLAS Use: Being only usable by a select few characters It allows them to steal the chromosomes of other characters and gain the power of them. Fun Fact: This ability was first used by Sylas and is the main reason he is my fav character. No other character (yes even Evil Morde and Evil Papa) made me feel so much dread when they appeared. The way he just ruthlessly stole WhyGuy's chromosomes still gives me chills each time i watch the episode. There are only 3 characters who have demonstrated having innatley having this ability (Sylas, Papa. Evil Papa). The Snap First Appearance: Tenacity Stacking Use: At the Cost of 50% of the League playerbase WhyGuy can skip his Promos. This only works if Papa has been in The Hardstuck Zone for atleast a month and if Papa recieves a comment asking for more cliffhangers. Shining Jaundice First Appearance: Well Designed Item Use: Using either the Stopwatch or Zhonya's Hourglass the user's skin becomes golden protecting them from any harm for 2.5. Fun Fact: Anyone can use this special move and it was used throughout the entire series but first got a name in the episode Well Designed Item. Lazy Editing First Appearance: Return to Masters Use: At the cost of 88% Autism level WhyGuy can erase the process of a game skipping it entirely. Fun Fact: Papa's most costly move which has only been used once in the entire series so far. Death Realm Warp First Appearance: Well Designed Rework Use: Usable only by the current Ruler of the Death realm (Currently Mordekaiser) it allowes them to warp themselves and 1 other person into the death realm for 1 on 1 combat within a confined space Fun fact: It's time for most peoples favorite villain: Evil Mordekaiser! While I personally like Sylas more, the sheer power Mordekaiser presents from here on out towards the entire series unquestionably makes him a very close second. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (or ADHD for short) First Appearance: Well Designed Rework Use: A move created by Papa specifically to counter Morde's Death Realm Warp which puts his body in constant motion becoming UNCONTAINABLE. Fun Fact: One of Papa's most worthless moves due to only being a counter to 1 specific thing makes this move very weak. But the fact that someone forced Papa to create an entirely new move speaks volumes for Morde himself. What a shame that this move is very easily countered. Tourettic Transition First Appearance: Pyka and Sona Bot Lane Use: At the cost of Autism Levels Papa can skip anywhere betweeen 10 seconds and 20 minutes of a game. Fun Fact: Like Epileptic Epitaph this ability appeared a long time before it actually got its name in Harvesting my adversaries with Dark Harvest Pyke. Crippling Anxiety First Appearance: Pyka and Sona Bot Lane Use: A combo move where Papa and Varus combine the moves Crippling Depression and Psychotic Anxiety to form a new even more powerful move. Fun Fact: This is the very first combo move used in the series and I must say that it's pretty cool. Dead Weight First Appearance: Mordekaiser's Revenge Use: This move enhances the users desire to strategically iINT without getting banned Fun Fact: This move is most often used in the series by villains and very rarely by allies of Whydra. Radiating Retardation First Appearance: Dominating with Domination Runes Use: The users chromosomes increase by 3 for every second that passes while in this state. Fun Fact: This move can be techincally used even at low Autism Levels but due to it's high cost when you leave this state it's very unsafe to use it while below 90% Autism Levels. (Not a special move) Project Pyke Suit First Appearance: PROJECT: Pyke Use: When wearing this cybernetic form Papa stays at a permanent 80% Autism level and has a permanent Epileptic Epitaph installed. The suit also has a built-in casette player and a navigation assistant. Fun Fact: Papa rarely uses this suit after its first appearance even after it was cleansed of the virus due to the fact that Papa prefers the risk of losing Autism levels for the reward of more than 80% than the safetey of a permanent 80%. Evil WhyGuy also wears a pink chroma on his suit to combine the powers of the PROJECT Suit and the ppc (Pink Pyke Cloak). Cybernetic Anxiety First Appearance: Mama vs Papa of Realm 51 Use: PROJECT Pyke's version of Psychotic Anxiety. Fun Fact: We don't know which of the 2 moves is stronger but my guess is it depends on the amount of chromosomes the current user has. Technostressing Depression First Appearance: Mama vs Papa of Realm 51 Use: PROJECT Pyke's version of Crippling Depression. Diminishing Discrimination First Appearnace: League of Legends makes me sad Use: After landing her Q Mama smashes her keyboard with utmost finesse dealing massive damage and enlightening teammates that Supports should not be underestimated. Fun Fact: Mama has decided that instead of focusing on various diffeerent moves for different situations she will just perfect 1 move that can be used in any situation. I am still sad that this means we will most likely never see the other moves in the Feminist Movement though (Whining Wamen, Bobcut buster, Entitled Endurance). Cultural Appropiration First Appearance: Swain OP! Must ban instead of Pyke Use: By becoming a bird himself Papa enducated uncultured 2 birds with his might showing them the power of Swain. Fun Fact: I only put this on the list due to a YouTube comment as I don't even really see this as a special move. Vision of Whydra First Appearance: YouTube comments made me a better Swain player Use: Thanks to the help of all Swain mains within Whydra Papa unlocked his 2nd move in The Communist Manifesto where he hits an enemy with his full power W changing the game according to his vision. Fun Fact: Welcome to Swain's own set of special moves: The Communist Manifesto. Cold War First Appearance: Game Changing Snipes Use: With the help of a german science device, Papa shoots out icicles while in his ultimate form running at them with Appreach Velocity. Death Defying Time Skip First Appearance: Deadliest Weight Use: With the help of an Ad Papa skips his own death Fun Fact: Once again I am hesitant to even include this as it is more of a flashy way of using Tourettic Transition. Blighting Vasectomy First Appearance: The Arrow of Retribution Returns Use: Hitting an enemy with a fully charged Q while his W is up to completely destroy a far away enemy Crippling Vasectomy First Appearance: Autofilled Varus Mid Use: Similar to Blighting Vasectomy but now with Flash added in for more range. Sniping Seizure First Appearance: Sentinels of Light vs Shadow Isles Use: Senna shoots a blast of combined Light and Darkness at a far away low hp enemy killing them with so much power that PaMa (Papa and Mama) undergoes a short seizure from the satisfaction. Reverse Your Kill First Appearance: Insane Healing with Fleet Footwork Use: Using Piercing darkness while imbued with the power of Fleet Footwork, taste of Blood and Adent Censer, Senna overcomes the weakness of being squishy with massive healing powers. Wildfire Windup First Appearance: AP Maokai with Ocean Rift is Free Win Use: A combo of TreeGuy's non-ultimate abilities starting with Twisted Advance, Brambly Smashing his target near his Sapling burning the target's body on a molecular level so fast like a Wildfire Fun Fact: Behold TreeGuy's special moves: The Armaments of Nature! Forest Grump First Appearance: AP Maokai with Ocean Rift is Free Win Use: TreeGuy's version of Crippling Depression where he flashes and then Twisted Advances for a suprise root. (Not a special move) Reforest Frustration First Appearance: AP Maokai with Ocean Rift is Free Win Use: A passive ability where WhyGuy's chomosomes sync with nature giving him more options to plant empowered saplings while frustrating his enemies. Rheumatic Roots First Appearance: AP Maokai with Ocean Rift is Free Win Use: Using Nate's Grasp out of vision to catch the enemy off guard and root 3 or more enemies. Fun Fact: This move is best used when contesting Objectives. (Not a special move) Amazon Bushfire First Appearance: Bites the Bush Use: Used by Evil Papa to burn the entire Rift reducing the amount of bushes and limiting TreeGuy's power. Bites the Bush First Appearance: Bites the Bush Use: Using Epileptic Epitaph Papa forsees someone entering a specific bush at low health and plants a Sapling in preparation to utterly annihilate them. Fun Fact: This easily lands in my top 5 moves just for the amazing effects the anime used to show it's power. Psychotic Assault First Appearance: Getting my Pyke back in shape Use: A variation of Psychotic Anxiety where he hits someone with his q before his e to do more damage. Forgotten Dementia: Ultima First Appearance: OMNISTONE Use: A variation on Forgotten Dementia which involves Pyke's Q Pedophiliac Predator First Appearance: OMNISTONE Use: WhyGuy's pedophiliac tendancies spread across the Rift warning any nearby enemies that enter his vicinity. Sedentary Stroke First Appearance: Easy Executes with Dark Harvest Use: By standing completely still Papa managed to perfectly blend into the background Crippling Counter First Appearance: Omnistone Sett Use: By filling Sett's testosterone gauge up to 75% papa blasts his enemies in a wide radius dealing true damage to those caught in the middle Fun Fact: Meet Sett a.k.a. Testosterone Furry Paraplegic Pursuit First Appearance: Hexflash Powerspike Use: A fully channeled Hexflash followed by a burst of movement speed from Nimbus Cloak, Celerity and Sett's Q Prowling Anxiety First Appearance: Prowling Anxiety Use: Extending the reach of Psychotic Anxiety with the use of Prowler's Claw
[theoricraft] analysis of Jinx new build and combo
Preliminary word.
It’s a lot of text so I choose to not add all the math, and I have to change a few things after the last hotfix that nerf Guinsoo. I don’t explain how to magically gain 200 LP. Jinx has been hit hard by the crit nerf. She lose nearly 20% damages in a full build. I will start this post by saying there’s a lot of fake “good idea” so I will try to explain them. I will start with explanation on the Ravenous Hydra + Runaan combo, then Guinsoo versus IE and after that I will detail some item (Mythic and Legendary).In the ends, I will suggest some build..
Part 1: analysis
Ravenous Hydra + Runaan Hurricane combo
Ravenous Hydra is a item with AD & Omnivamp that deal an splash damage around the main target. It’s now available to ranged and synergies well with Runaan like most on-hit effect. The AoE range is 350 units and the damage scale from 60% to 12% based on distance from the center. Runaan Hurricane get some base AD and is now scaling from 40% to 70% based on level. The combo is exactly like Jinx’s rocket combo but everythings is in the difference.
It work well with Fishbones: 110% main target and 170% to 122% splash damage. The AoE is bigger than the main damage.
It work well with PowPow: 100% main target + 60% to 12% splash damage.It benefit from Switcheroo! AS bonus (up to 130%).
Fishbone’s Rocket AoE is only 150 unites. Ravenous + Runaan combo is way more easier to do than Jinx combo. *sad*
Ravenous splash damage can’t crit but work well with Guinsoo.
In game, the combo work well in teamfight and for waveclear. But it’s much better on Guinsoo user like Varus more than Crit champion. Also the damage isn’t that big because the scaling drop quickly with range and the overlapping is near max range, limiting it’s power. Finally, the lack of Critical Strical make it an item too build when full build. TLDR:
Jinx’s rocket AoE range need a buff to at least 300 units.
Ravenous Hydra is good with Guinsoo but will be better on other champion.
Ravenous Hydra is a last item in a crit build.
Guinsoo Rageblade versus Infinity Edge
The big crit nerf change a few things. It take 5 items to get 100% crit and the base Critical Strike Damage is only 175. It’s slower and less effective to be effective with a crit build. Even more, Infinity Edge’s effect is now scaling from +50% to 8% every 20% crit, capping at +40% at 100% crit. It means that crit will only do at best 215% damages instead of 250%. In short, most soloQ will end before capping crit. Guinsoo Rageblade introduce an interesting change. It change Critical Strike Chance to be an on-hit effect instead of a damage scaling buff. With the last hotfix, it do 2 damage per 1% Critical Strike Chance. It still have the double on-hit every 3 auto-attacks.The down side is that it don’ have any AD.Guinsoo is also relatively cheap at 2800 golds (after hotfix) making it really effective early items to buy. But Jinx’s rockets on-hit effect (+10% AD and splash damage) don’t work with the Phantom Hit that double every 3 attacks. It’s not a bug but a balance choice. A 220% AoE that can crit can be difficult to balance when you can cast 1.5 rockets per second. Their is a theoric break point when IE began to be better than Guinsoo. And for Jinx, it’s a 3 items (Kraken+Runaan+IE/Guinsoo) with 437 damage versus 400 damage (against 0 armor). And thee choice of Kraken is in Guinsoo favor. For completion, I also test Guinsoo+Runaan+Hydra. The result give 319 damages per attacks but the lack of AD really show in Rockets form and with Zap. TLDR:
Infinity Edge is a little better than Guinsoo as 3rd item.
IE is best at 4 items and after, or with Gathering Storm.
Guinsoo 1st item is a false “good idea”. No enough AD.
Attack Speed cap
Jinx will hit the Attack Speed cap (2.5 att/s) earlier than in previous season.The cap can be reach at 2 items (Mythic item+Runaan) and boots, with any AS boost (ardent, etc), Lethal Tempo or Get Excited. And with Kraken Slayer, the 3 attack/s (with Lethal Tempo or Get Excited) can be reached with only 4 items. In that case, there’s a few do/don’t:
Take Lethal Tempo, it’s mandatory. You need to be able to overcap outside of Get Excited! proc.
Take Bloodline instead of Alacrity. With this much AS, Lifesteal is more interesting.
Berserker’s grave is still the way to go. But other choice can be interesting in late game, especially with Kraken.
Runes
There’s little change for Jinx’s rune, along what I said just above. I think Gathering Storm might be a little better over the free boots for 2 reasons. First, with Galeforce, boots will be optional past 3 items. Secondly, Jinx need to snowball or wait the late game. In this case, the free AD from Gathering Storm will help a lot.
Part 2: items explanation
Mythic items
First, a word on Eclypse. It’s an items that give you 55AD, 10% Omnivamps, 18 Lethality and a scaling of 4% Armor penetration per Legendary item (16% with 4 items). The effect give you a shield, on-hit damage that scale on enemy’s max HP and 15% MS.It’s actually the best offensive Mythic Items by far, even after today hotfix.I don’t take it into account here because it don’t have crit and it shouldn’t be an ADC item. But Riot 200 years of collective knowledge have say better. I will give a build for it at the end. Kraken Slayer is the mythic item to choose by default. Good stat, best scaling (10% AS per Legendary) and true damage to be pass tank armor. Immortal Shield-Bow is the defensive choice with Life Steal. The shield will save you from an assassin (not from being too greedy) and it give 5 AD and 50 HP per Legendary. The AD is good but the HP have a down side because of Dominik’s passive. Galeforce look interesting on paper but is lacking in-game. The dash might save you and the proc damage is good. But I think using it offensively is just suicide. The scaling MS is the worst.Everyone seem to forget that there’s 2 caps on movement speed (at 415 MS and 490 MS). It can help in team fight but compared to 20% AS or 10 AD/100HP, I’m not sure it’s worth. TLDR:
Kraken Slayer - best choice
Immortal Shield-Bow - defensive choice.
Galeforce - situational choice.
Legendary items
Runaan Hurricane: it’s our 2nd items. It now give AD and the bolt now scale up to 70% at level 18. But the prize is now 3400 gold. Stormrazor: don’t change but is way cheaper at 2700 gold. It’s a good option to get some poke with Energize. But it don’t give any movement speed. With crit on everythings, there’s a lot of new option. RFC and Phantom Dancer, like Guinsoo, don’t give AD. So it change them from good items choice to situational choice.
RFC is for poke on-hit champion.
Phantom Dancer is back to the item for AD melee that like to run in the middle of creeps with a big sword. The AS proc is really huge.
Here’s a few option for 3rd items Infinity Edge: it’s the core 3rd items but it can be delayed for other item if needed. It’s less mandatory than before. Lord Dominik’s Regards: The Giant Slayer effect is back. I think it’s nearly mandatory as soon as there’s 2 ennemis with more than 3500 HP and at least one armor item. Bloodthirster : IT now give crit and that change everythings. The life steal and the shield stack with Immortal Shield-Bow. The Collector: this new item is the greed choice. It give AD, crit and lethality. Contrary to Dominik’s who is good against tank, The Collector is better against squishy. It gave an execute effect that kill champion under 5% HP. The synergies is obvious with Mega Death Rocket but it work with every things (Zap, Chompers, Red buff, …). The 25 golds on kill make it the perfect 3rd item for snowballing. Defensive items do have interesting change too. Mercurial Scimitar: it now give Crit instead of Life Steal so QSS tax is really limited. Mortal Reminder: It don’t give Armor Penetration but AS, Crit and 7% MS. So it can be build along Dominik’s. In some match-up, it might be the best 3rd items. Guardian Angel: it gain 5 AD. Death’s Dance : big change, it won’t heal alone. Buy a BT first. Last items are options for very late when the game can be win or lose over 1 teams fight. Ravenous Hydra: The combo with Runaan is huge. BOTRK: I put it here because it don’t have crit and it’s not the best items on Jinx. But the 10% current HP on-hit is huge, even more with all those tanking item with ton of HP.
Part 3: builds
2 items Core builds
The 2 items core build is a Mythic + Runaan + Berserker boots. It’s not cheap but Jinx isn’t really an Early-Mid champion.
Kraken Slayer + Runaan: best choice in most case
Immortal Shield-Bow + Runaan: mandatory against Assassin.
3rd or 4th Items
The keyword here is adaptation.
Infinity Edge: you will need it as 3rd or 4rth items.
Lord Dominik’s Regard: if 2 ennemis with 3500HP+.
Bloodthirster: against poke.
The Collector: against squishy for snowball.
Mercurial Scimitar: for QSS
Mortal Reminder: against too much healing
Full builds
The most damaging 5-items build:
Kraken Slayer
Runaan Hurricane
Infinity Edge
Lord Dominik’s Regard
Bloodthirster or The Collector
Berserker’s Graves
If you want to sell boots:
BT or The Collector: lot of AD
Ravenous Hydra: combo teamfight
Stormrazor: AD and AS, along some poke.
Part4: Eclipse build
Thanks Riot for broken OP item. Until it’s fixed, everything's explained is wrong if you use Eclypse. Armor Penetration is multiplicative but the mythic scaling is additive. So with 4 legendary item and Dominik’s, the Armor Penetration is : 1-(1-0.25)*(1-0.16) = 1-0.63 = 37% So here’s a build for Eclipse:
Eclypse
Runaan
Guinsoo
Dominik’s / Ravenous Hydra
Dominik’s / Ravenous Hydra
Berserker Graves
edit: Eclipse isn't that broken because the effect cooldown is 12s on ranged.edit #2 : crit is still better at 4 items and later.
Part5: Conclusion
Please Riot, buff Fishbone’s rocket slash damage range to 300 or 400 units. There’s other things can be done, balanced, etc but 1 item is putting the signture combo of a champion to shame. edit for Wit's End, Sterrak and Black Cleaver:
There's better option than Sterrak because it have 60% efficiency on ranged champion and Jinx don't have a lot of max HP. Just use BT.
Black Cleaver is sadly a bad idea. Yes it work well on Jinx. But you want it in a crit build so it have to wait for 4 items. And It give 300 HP that reduce the power of Dominik's.
Wit's End is interesting, in a Guinsoo build. Good magic damage and so much speed. If it's for the magic resist, there's 2 better options : Maw of Malmortius and Mercurial Scimitar.
Maw of Malmortius is the best defensive item against AP user. I prefer taking Nullifying Orb rune and only buy Malmo in very bad case.
Hey Guys, // I'm a low Diamond Varus main that frequents this subreddit. Lately I haven't been playing much of our boy because of the pitiful state he was in. After the buffs, however, I think it's time I come back to him. Since the buffs dropped on Wednesday's patch, I've been screwing around with some new build paths that utilize the new CDR available and I think I've found something... well pretty special. // For those of you who haven't read the patch notes, Varus' blight now returns 12% of your Q+W's cooldown per stack, for a max of 36% CDR upon the proc. What this means is that his 3 aa + spell trade pattern is much more readily available. However, there is still enough downtime between spells --3 or 4 seconds-- that you are often forced to retreat and wait for cooldowns in the middle of fights. I also was running out of mana in like 90% of my games and going tear really messed up my lane. Wouldn't it be nice if there was an item that gave you mana, CDR, and AD: Essence Reaver. But sadly, you are functionally locked out of essence reaver, as you can't get enough sheen procs to justify it. This really sucks because ER has literally all the stats Varus could want right now, between CDR, lots of AD, and Crit. So I explored other CDR options for ADCs, hoping I could find another build path that would work. I explored Tear paths, but they just didn't seem to have enough CDR and I kept dying instantly, plus it felt so awkward to build Tear any other item combo. Eclipse tear was ok, but tear gimped the lethality's early game. Shieldbow tear took way too much time to ramp, gives almost no damage until 3 items, and has a pretty unsatisfying spike So I tried something new. I don't know how many of you have built Navori Quickblade yet, but I really think you should try it. You may be thinking, sure quickblade gives lots of CDR, but how does that fix your mana problems? Well, it actually gives you SO much CDR that you CAN build Essence Reaver. The spell cooldowns get so short that you literally have JUST enough time to auto three times before your next spell comes up. Additionally, your range gets SO long you can play more like a Jhin or a Senna type. // Here's what I've been building and why. // First: Shield bow. Varus needs this item, I haven't found anyways around it, you just die otherwise and lethality builds are just not that great against tanks, which hurts a lot in this meta. It also gives you attack speed and crit, which will become very important later. // Second: Quickblade. How this item works is Crits reset the cooldowns of non-ultimate spells by 1 second. It also happens to give the most AD of any ADC crit item, other than IE. On top of that, gives you 30 ability haste, which is roughly 20% CDR upon completion. It has a sold build path that includes caulfield's, allowing for a smooth power curve to completion. This makes the price tag a lot more bearable. This item is the core of the entire build. With the new changes, it allows you to completely reset the cooldowns of your abilities the moment you get three blight stacks on a champion, give you crit once or twice. I do not recommend building this first, because you will miss out on the defensive stats of shieldbow, plus this item doesn't come online till you have a bit of crit stacked up anyway. // Third: Essence ReaveRunaans. Ok so I know I hyped up essence reaver a bunch, but I did want to just include runaans in here so yall could look at it and try it out for yourself. Essence Reaver is going to give you a ton of CDR, AD, and Mana sustain. Plus the sheen proc actually does a pretty nutty amount of damage, considering how much AD you are stacking in this build. BUT. There is an alternative. I call it the URF Build. This is because it plays like URF. Seriously. Go test it. If two enemy champions group up under your E, and you manage to get the full stacks off on them --meaning 3 stacks + 1 from the buffered auto-- it will fully reset all of your basic cooldowns. This is because all procs reset cooldowns by 12%. So if you get two targets with 4 procs each, that's literally 96% CDR. 96 percent. Go test it if you don't believe me. Even with 2 autos, it puts the CD on your e and q at about 1.5 seconds. Its insane. You print dps and the best part is that it combines all my favorite pieces of lethality varus with all my favorite pieces of attack speed Varus. With that being said, with runaans you may have no CDs but you run out of mana after like 5 seconds of a team fight, and you don't get CDR on your ult from Essence reaver. I've been really liking the ult cdr and mana sustain, so I've been building ER, but I think both are very very strong and runaans DPS is actually unreal. Essence reaver allows for this very fun engage combo where you go R>Q>Q. This is because the extra CDR from essence reaver allows you to nearly fully reset your Q on targets by virtue of just landing your q. This is why you can play like a jhin or a senna. When you land an ult, you can just stand at 1200 range and charge q, fire it off, and charge up another, this time with the W active. If they're a squishy, that's probably gonna mean death or close to it. With runaans, you need to auto to make up for the lack of cdr, so you need to play a little more close range. Test both out and lmk what you think. // Fourth: Just build whatever you didn't build third. If you need a defensive item instead, you can do that. // Final thoughts: I think there may be a way to work tear into this build. I still find myself pretty mana starved in the mid and late game, but that might just take some getting used to. I may also start taking manaflow band + PoM to lock down the mana needs even more. I also have been bouncing between lucidity boots and bezerkers. Unsure of which I like better at this point. As for runes, I think lethal tempo is still the move, as it gives you attack speed, which this build needs but is lacking from itemization. I suppose you could try phase rush, comet, dark harvest, and hail of blades a try --maybe even glacial?--, but I am really liking the way lethal tempo feels for now. Some items that intrigue me are seryldas, black cleaver, botrk, and rageblade. For now, I feel they don't add as much to the build as the other items mentioned. Rageblade perhaps late, but I hardly ever find myself reaching to 6 items. Let me know what you've tried, and let me know your results on this build! Edit: Don’t build rage-blade, as the comments pointed out. It doesn’t work with QB.
Hi, well I have had a lot of fun playing Varus, I started playing mid with him, then ADC and support but all of them with lethality or attack speed. I wanted to learn more about how Varus ap works for example, or which items / runes are most effective. My op.gg
The only buff Kaisa needs is not fucking ranged.....
It's revert her god damn Passive. Period, that's it. That in conjunction with the guinsoos nerfs is why she's been put into such a weird spot where she doesnt seem to outscale anybody or feel really strong at any point in the game Before she was a versatile ADC who still offered great skill expression through her risky playstyle which is a direct result of her short range, it's part of her identity, buffing her range is simply stupid. Her 3 main styles are:
Heavy Poke/Pick with her AP builds (W doing mass damage which can then be used for picks late game with her R)
Can play front to back due to her passive/guinsoos making her a tank shredder
Can play like an assassin waiting for the right moment in team fights to dive backlines and take out squishiy carries
2 out of 3 of those styles have been completely removed due to her passive/guinsoos being nerfed. Now with a full 6 stack guinsoos, you can't dive backline and just assume you're gonna pop off before and you also can't shred tanks half as well as you used to. Which leaves only the AP build as the viable one which does what exactly? Make her a shittier ezreal? She simply does not feel stronger than any other ADC at any stage of the game. Why would you pick her now when Vayne for example has a stronger mid game and far stronger late game? Why pick her over Ezreal who seemingly beats her at all stages as well, even late game due to how insanely tanky he gets. There's simply no reason to pick her. Right now, with the insane amount of tankiness/sustain in the game with items like Deaths Dance for example being used on everybody, there's no reason to not revert her passive or even guinsoos. No reason at all. I get why they nerfed it before, but that was before this disgusting sustain creep that has been slowly coming into the game with runes like Conqueror, with items like Deaths Dance and with cancer champs like Yuumi. Shit, reverting guinsoos would even fix champs like Varus/Kog'Maw who have been forced off the more traditional on-hit builds and pushed into super cancer off screen poke builds like lethality Varus and AP Kog'Maw. It just makes too much sense and that's why Riot won't do it. Instead, they'll nerf more ADCs (because ADCs being strong is the problem /s) and keep slowly buffing Kai'sas numbers until she becomes the only strong ADC who is now overtuned which will result in her getting gutted again.
TL;DR REVERT HER PASSIVE AND MAYBE REVERT GUINSOOS ALSO. THE NERFS MADE SENSE WHEN THEY HAPPENED BUT THE GAME HAS CHANGED DRAMATICALLY WITH THE AMOUNT OF TANKINESS/SUSTAIN YOU GET WITH RUNES/ITEMS/CHAMPIONS LIKE DEATHS DANCE/CONQUEROR AND YUUMI.
It took me 841 games to reach Gold as ADC main (story, what I learned, what you need to do)
Introduction
I started playing League of Legends in Season 10 on EUW because of the lockdown as friends started playing again and invited me. It took me 841 games (660 solo queue ranked games) to go from complete newbie to Gold 4 as ADC main.
Background
I played another MOBA 10 years ago called Heroes of Newerth (HoN) for 6 years, where I reached 1800 MMR (top 0.1%). So I started LoL knowing the basics of MOBAs (importance of income, experience, kills, deaths, vison and how different roles should play in a teamfight), but HoN is more similar to DotA and DotA2 in the sense that you lose gold on death, you can pull neutral camps to manage your lane, you can deny creeps and it has different mechanics in general. Therefore, League of Legends was very new to me as I didn't know any heroes, wave management or jungle clearing strategies. By the way I'm 27 years old, so maybe I'm not as sharp as when I was 20.
How I started in ranked games
Getting to level 30 was enough to have a feeling of how most common heroes behaved. I didn't know much about runes and items, so I followed what was recommended. I already knew the basics like last hitting as much as possible, not dying, placing wards whenever possible, be present in teamfights. In lane I wasn't trading heavily nor was I completely passive, but I didn't have a sense of the difference between short trades, extended trades and all in. I didn't know either which heroes were strong at all-in or which were strong at poking, so I could often lose by not reacting properly. I didn't know powerspikes either so I had very bad recall timings. Finally, I didn't realize the importance of drakes and herald, so I would give it enough attention and presence. If I remember correctly, this was enough for me to be placed around Bronze 3. With a bit more practice (learning more about the heroes, items, runes, the importance or drakes) I reached Silver 4 probably around 150 to 200 games. And then, I was hardstuck between Silver 4 and Silver 2.
What you need to get out of Bronze as ADC
Know a bit about every hero : which has CC, get a feeling of how to dodge their skillshots, a feeling of their DPS at low level and when they're farmed etc (this is learned by playing a lot). So that you know when laning if you should all in your opponent, poke or play safe.
Have good vision : pay attention to the minimap to avoid ganks, use wards to protect yourself when laning, to protect your side of the map when the enemy has a tower advantage, to secure drakes, or to be more aggressive in their side when you have the advantage
Get good at last hitting : pay attention to not miss too many last hits (especially on canon minions), try to have good recall timing (after a fight and when you can buy a strong item), have decent macro mid game (after recall or respawn, go to a lane where the minions are on your side to farm and where no one is heading). If at 10min you're 0/1/0 with 70cs and the enemy is 1/0/0 with 40 cs, you won your lane (1 kill is worth about 15cs).
Be with your team when needed : drakes spawning ? Be around 20s before it spawn so you can place vision around it and kill it with your team at spawn (especially after 15min). Your team is 4 vs 5 mid lane ? A fight will probably happen soon. In fact they should stay under tower and let you farm / splitpush but what will happen most of the time is they will lose the 4v5 and say "GG ADC never with us".
Stop the bleeding : If you're 0/2/0 before 10min with even or lower cs, you're far behind your opponent. You have almost no way of killing them except if they make a mistake (bad placement, they stay with low HP, they dive you, they get ganked). So don't even try trading anymore and play super careful under the tower (try to freeze if you know how to, or just last hit the minions while they keep auto attacking so the wave push to your turret). No one who's stuck wins his lane everytime. Though what happens most of the time in Bronze is that the winning side of the lane stomps his opponent : at 13min mid will be 4/0, top will be 0/4 and if you're 0/2 instead of 0/5 you can still get yourself carried by a teammate, or get farmed later on if you manage to win some teamfights. WHEREAS if you're 0/7 at 15min, you probably just lost the game by yourself.
Don't dive : learn to dive later, in this ELO most of the time you'll die.
Position correctly in teamfights : As ADC, you're basically one shot by everyone. You're lvl 13 and 6/0 ? Well you're most likely gonna lose the 1v1 against a Darius lvl 12 and 1/5. Your teammates will always say "dont focus the tanks", in fact you can't focus their backlines without getting killed by their frontlines, so you most of the time you have to kill their frontline first. Basic rule of ADC is "focus the closest one to you" and don't go in as long as the assassins (Zed etc) haven't put their spells on cooldown.
How I got out of Silver as ADC
Learn wave management : you just killed your opponent ? Shove the wave and reset. They're winning the lane ? Freeze the lane and your jungler can gank. You're winning the lane ? Freeze the lane anyway so you can kill them easier and you don't get ganked. Drake spawned ? Get lane priority so you can help your jungler before your enemy (or they lose farm if they come). Scuttle crab spawning bot side ? Same. You want to setup a dive ? Slow push. You want to recall but you can't kill them ? Shove / slow push. Sometimes when you're losing the lane and they're hard pushing you still got to recall at the expense of losing a wave (because you're low on HP or can buy an important item), then try to recall on a cannon wave (because you're missing less cs as the cannon takes more time to get killed by tower)
Be around objectives : But even more than in Bronze. Drake is down but Herald is up or spawning soon ? Swap with top lane or mid lane. You took the first tower bot ? Swap with top lane or mid lane to push another tower.
Transfer early advantage into victory : your team is 16-6 at 15min ? You better get all drakes, all heralds, force fight around Nashor or kill Nashor to push easier. How many times did I won early game but lost lategame just because we pushed instead of taking Nashor... Even if you have the lead, they can win a fight you misshandled or because they have the turret with them.
Play strong early game heroes : I used to play Kog'Maw a lot because I saw it had among the highest winrate and damage in Silver. Well indeed when I was farmed, I could almost 1v5 in teamfights. The thing is I often couldn't become this farmed because I would lose early game to most other champs or didn't play early game safely enough. When I started playing Lethality Varus, I climbed from Silver 3 to Silver 1 with 75% winrate because I would be much more impactful in the laning phase and I would win most time. Since in Silver some people still don't stop the bleeding, a 6/0/0 Varus at 10min can transfer his lead to his team and solo carry as well.
Know about the bot lane match ups : Poke should beat all-in, all-in should beat sustain and sustain should beat poke. So when I see the enemy team picking Yuumi, I ask for my support to pick Nautilus / Leona / Thresh / Blitzcrank and I may pick Tristana myself. Therefore I know that we should handle the lane by not getting poked, wait for them to be mispositioned and me or my support engaging and going all in. If I went instead for short trades, they would heal it.
Get better at trading : try to abuse your range advantage if you have one, try to hit the enemy when he's about to last hit, be positioned correctly with your support, follow your support when he's trading or going all in (if he's going all in when he shouldn't, try to DPS a bit while staying safe)
Map awareness : Enemy bot lane arrives late at lane ? The enemy jungler started botside (same concept top side), so the jungler will either gank bot soon or after he cleaned the whole jungle. You see enemy jungler top side ? You're safe for now bot side. Avoid fights with a man disadvantage (don't 2v3, 3v4 or 4v5 most of the time). You're farming top and see everyone bot ? You can splitpush. Your team is losing and the enemy is going for drake ? Try to get herald or a tower in the meantime since you can't contest it.
Communication : flaming only decreases your odds of winning (people get tilted and play worse, they may want to lose on purpose, you waste time arguing). Mute all or mute as soon as you get flamed. Say "wp" when teammates do good. Defuse arguments and flaming. Use pings a lot (enemy missing, ward here, I'm going there, I need help etc). You can lead your team to the right objectives.
Good knowledge of every hero and synergies : Enemy jungler is Xin Zhao ? Expect ganks early. Enemy jungler is Fiddlesticks ? He'll probably gank only once level 6. You have Yasuo mid on your team ? Would be nice if top or jung went Malphite for a nice combo. For bot lane, since Ezreal can escape hooks, it's very strong with Yuumi against poke. Kalista ultimate goes well with Thresh or Nautilus. Varus goes well with hard poke like Brand, VelKoz and Xerath. KogMaw goes well lategame with Lulu.
Start adapting your itemsand runes : Go for Maw of Malmortius if they have a lot of magic damage, go for lethality if they don't have tanks, go for Chronometer / Guardian Angel if they have assassin (maybe even some armor), get Executioner's Calling early if they have heal, etc. Did you know that very lategame you could sell your boots for Phantom Dancer or Trinity Force ? Also don't forget to take that Elixir of Wrath if a teamfight is starting soon and you don't have gold for an item. If they have a lot of tank, take Cut Down instead of Coup de Grace. If they have a lot of poke, it's good to have Biscuit Delivery.
Know a bit about your power spikes : You're playing Jinx and you've just finished your Infinity Edge and Runaan's ? It's your time to shine. You got your first 1300g then go get your BF Sword and dominate lane.
Know a bit about your win condition : If you have Nasus and Kassadin in the enemy team and you have mostly early game champions like Xin Zhao in your team, you better win the game by 25min.
Better macro : Try to always hit 7cs/min, meaning go to the lane where you can farm, have good wave management, push lane to the other side of the map and move elsewhere, be with your team when fights are gonna break and around objectives.
Decent micro : Try to kite effectively by using the attack move key, use the attack key to see your range in lane and avoid missclicks, try to improve on not interrupting auto attacks, try to improve on animation cancel.
What I still lack as a low Gold player
I still miss knowledge of most heroes : I don't really know how low pick rate heroes work (Kindred, Rek'Sai, Ivern, Jayce, Skarner, Taliyah), I'm surprised by the DPS of some heroes (Kassadin lategame, Shyvana long range AoE 50% HP burst), I don't know the range of most abilities, I don't know every effect of each ability (debuff, displacement etc).
I should trade better : better positioning, better trading stance, better coordination with my support (try reading their moves). I need to do more limit testing.
Better map awareness : I don't check the minimap as often as needed (might use a timer), I often have tunnel vision (going all in to get this kill while I don't see jungler ganking)
Better CSing : "I should have not miss that CS...", yet I did. I often attack the creep too early. Mid game I often try to clean some waves fast and miss a lot of CS doing so. Sometimes I'm so focused in poking that I miss CS. Other times I'm so focused on getting ready for a teamfight that I'm here too early and splitting farm. This is why if you check my last games I'm often below 7cs/min.
Stop the bleeding advanced : I should have back instead of getting dived under turret. 2v3 at turret are risky. 2v2 with two third of HP at turret can be risky.
Better macro : I can probably improve, but now I don't know what I lack (might need coaching or playing more). Also in order to get >9cs/min I think I need my team to not initiate 4v5 which they still do at this ELO, so I need to be there so they don't lose the fight.
Better micro : Omg I'm still missing some Varus ultimates because I try to use it at the edge of the range... That's illegal.
Better teamfight : Deviate from the "hit the closest enemy" if you can quickly kill an important backlane enemy while you're flanking.
Probably a lot more stuff I don't even have knowledge of.
General tips
Dodge : Dodging is important because even if you lose LP, you don't lose MMR (so on your next game instead of winning 17 LP or losing 20LP, you'll win 20 LP or lose 17 LP). Everytime I have a troll at picking phase, if I have a team of 5 or 4 ranged heroes (hello Teemo top), if I have 4 tanks : I dodge. I dodged more when I became focused on reaching Gold.
Check your teammates stats at picking phase : I used porofessor.gg and op.gg to check my teammates stats at picking phase (you can paste the lobby chat). If we need a specific role and someone is good at it, I kindly ask them to play it (especially for my support). If someone is on a 4 games lose streak with bad stats : dodge. If you're above Silver 2 and someone is Unranked or Bronze with bad stats : Dodge. Because somehow new players can have a very high MMR and you'll have a team with 4 Silver 2, 1 Bronze 4 vs 3 Silver 2 and 2 Gold 4. Watch out though because someone Unranked or Bronze with good stats can be a strong smurf.
Check opponents stats during loading : With the same websites, once the game start you can see the runes of your opponents and if they're strong or new to their hero. You can therefore adapt your playstyle accordingly : exploit newbies, be extra careful about invades, play carefully around strong opponents.
Check heroes information during loading : if I don't know much about a hero, I check blitz.gg for a small description of the hero and its powerspikes as well as watching the video of their abilities. For a more detailed description of heroes (and items outside of games) I use leagueoflegends.fandom.com (especially to check for range of attack and abilities)
Watch coaching videos addressed to players of your rank : If I could do the Caitlyn machine gun combo that would be nice, but I think there are more important things to do that I should address first. That's why it's better when you're Silver to watch coaching of a silver player than a platinum player.
Limit yourself to a small pool of heroes : As ADC, I think it's good if you know 1 strong all in hero (Tristana, Draven but it's hard), 1 hardcarry hero (Kogmaw, Jinx, Vayne, Twitch, Kai'Sa, Aphelios but it's hard), 1 poke hero (Varus, Lucian, Caitlyn, Ezreal). For Silver players I would definitely recommend Varus and Ezreal because I think they're not too hard to begin with while being able to get you far and they're strong early game. I definitely owe my Gold rank to Varus. Watch videos of micros for your hero.
Get a sense of every role : play a bit of jungle, top, mid and support so you can understand how to play your role better. For instance, I realized while playing jungle that it was very hard to gank if the lane was pushed. I realized when playing support that I need you need to be on the same page as the ADC. If a passive support played ADC he would realize that he can't just stand there doing nothing as support or you'll immediately lose lane.
Keep a good mental : You'll still lose games because of teammates inting, of AFK, bad team decision etc. On average it will happen as much to you as to the enemy team. What you must do is to never be the losing factor. I didn't take a break when I was tilted of losing a game, but I probably should have. Muting players (and sometimes even their pings) is very important.
ADC seems to not be the best role for climbing : to win as ADC you rely too much on your support, and in smaller sense on your jungler and mid. Also, you can't transfer your lead as much as other roles. It seems to me the best role for climbing might be Jungler (then mid) because if a lane is behind you can gank it so this teammate is back in the game.
Conclusion
It was a big objective for me to get Gold and I played way too much to get it (18 days and 7 hours in-game time over 4 months). I think League of Legends can be very addictive and I know I have an addictive personality. I sometimes prioritized playing LoL over social life and spending time with my girlfriend. I've decided to stop here (obviously I can't make a career of this game), maybe I'll play again but only with IRL friends with voice chat (because it's way funnier) or limit myself to a maximum of 2 games in a day to take a break. This game was very fun but also very frustrating. When I used to play HoN (DotA2 equivalent) I thought LoL was less skill intensive because there is no creep denying. In fact it's just a different game with different mechanics, even if there are many similarities. In the end, now that I'm Gold nothing has changed much. I told my friends I hit Gold and was congratulated. I'm still less experienced than some other players so I still get flamed (and I suppose even Diamond players get flamed by Master players). The game is a bit different because you play with more experienced players. There are still trolls, inting teammates and AFK. It's just harder to win. Thank you for reading this far ! My IGN is Goursorama on EUW, here are my stats. If you're high Gold or above, I would be really nice of you to correct me in the comments or give advice on how to get higher than Gold. English is not my primary language so sorry for the many mistakes there must be.
Just reached 3376 mmr today and this is my aram only smurf https://euw.whatismymmr.com/magiclemann, My main was D2 in SR but I enjoy playing aram much more. I'd like to share a few less known tips for those who try hard or simply enjoy winning. I'm not gonna list the basic tips so if you don't understand how to engage vs a poke comp or why you should not stay alive at 30% hp mid-late game this thread is not the right one for you. I mostly play adcs in aram so I'll start here:
I always take cleanse as adc because it does so much more thank heal or barrier mid-to-late game. Removing a CC is critical for adc. I only take exhaust if there are 2 or more other adcs so I can peel for them.
Always take legend bloodline. Lifesteal is what makes adc the king of late game in aram. If I don't built tear first or don't plan to build life steal first item, I always start with the hammer. Hammer means I don't need to worry about lifesteal the entire game.
Death Dance is still op in aram. I build death dance first/second item on almost any adc now because it counters both poke and assassins. The lifesteal paired with hammer and legend bloodline would be 37% , meaning anytime you can top off easily from the minions. A Lucian with Essen Reaver + Death Dance or a Quinn with Death Dance + Phantom Dancer can solo carry the game
Take conqueror on Lucian, corki and ezreal.
If the enemy comp is full of beefy tanks,build on-hit and not crit. On-hit (bork, rageblade, runaans, sometimes tear too) deals way more damage to tanks.
Take the scaling cdr and Transcendence rune on any adc that benefits from cdr. This means 30% cdr once you build death dance. If you plan to build essence reaver (Sivir, mf, lucian), then you just need one of those runes.
Adcs are weak early in high mmr aram games because people know how to engage. So if the enemy team is full of bruisers and assassins, play safe or the game could end very quickly.
Build somewhat defensively if enemy comp is full ap/ad or has a lot of assassins (Yes deathdance again). Some adcs (vayne, kogmaw) have the luxury to build full tank after their core 2 items because they deal so much damage already.
Always take presence of mind unless you absolutely don't need the mana. Take ultimate hunter on mf.
Build executioners early if enemy has a decent amount of healing. mages need to spend 3k+, you only need 800.
Take lethal tempo over comet on Varus. Even if you end up going lethality because enemy team are all squishies, the poke damage of comet you miss is minimal. However, going on-hit without lethal sucks.
Don't go troll build like ap lucian or ap mf even if your team is full ad. Those are useless mid-late game. Get a black cleaver for your team in this case. Also don't go lethality ashe or jinx, they fall off hard.
You can build tear first items on a lot of adcs, (jinx, corki, ashe, varus), but don't go lethality. Get muramana into deathdance into crit so that your late game is also strong.
As for ranking, Sivir is the best adc in aram in most situations. If you don't have a support, mf, lucian and quinn are all very strong individual carries. With one or more enchanters, kogmaw, vayne and jinx and on-hit varus are the strongest. Cait is, contrary to common belief, not always good because when enemies constantly engage on you she doesn't have a lot of damage mid game. Ashe is pretty good because of the utility she offers to the team. Corki and Ezreal are also strong individual carrys but their power spike comes later at 3 items because tear mostly stacks up when they have 3 items (muramana, trinity force, death dance), and most high mmr aram games end around 3 items. Senna is super strong too but you'd want to have another dps on your team, and aphelios is still 200 years in aram :) And here are some general tips. Again, these tips are aimed at people who already have a decent understanding of aram.
Feed wisely. This means that if the enemy has assassins that can just solo carry the game (Khazix, kata, akali) or a kogmaw with a lulu support, don't feed them at all cost. Instead die intentionally to the mages or the supports when you're at low hp. Especailly crucial when you have a shutdown.
Buy oracles. Not only against teemo. Against Shaco and Akali, oracles is the deal breaker too. If you're a support, you should also buy oracle against qiyana and khazix and stay next to your carry.
In mid-late game if enemies are at low hp with no life-steal/heal/warmog. let them live and win the next teamfight. This is why mages with no sustain are generally not very strong in aram. Poke becomes weak once adcs have enough lifesteal, tanks have warmogs and assassins/bruisers can just engage on you with snowball any time they want.
Take legend tenacity rune on every melee champion. Aftershock for any melees that have a non-ult hard cc. Otherwise almost always take conquer. Build death dance on every bruiser and sometimes assassins too.
Take ultimate hunter if your champion relies heavily on ultimate cdr (vlad, amumu). Always take the scaling cdr rune and rush 40% cdr on most melee champions.
Unless you're an assassin or an engager, peeling for your carry in mid-late game should be your priority. Stay next to your carry and give any assassins that dive the back line a full combo of garen/mundo. You'd be suprised how much damage you'd do when the assassin ignores you.
Bruisers and assassins are extremely strong early-mid game because of the aram modifiers (irelia, kata, khazix, akali, wukong),assuming that you know how to play them. Try to end the game before enemy adcs come online.
Generally, the strongest comp is "protect the adc", with frontline to engage, 2 supports and 1/2 adc. Full melee comp means that you have to end the game quickly, same applies to poke comp. But poke comp is extremely vulnerable if the enemy has a lot of engages. Poke only works best against short-range mages, who can't sustain back, ignore poke or engage on you.
Ap kaisa against squishies is almost certainly a free win. Take glacial augment on most control mages, the slow is very valueable for your team. Take comet on poke mages.
A team comp with 3 or more adcs and 1/2 frontlines can work surprisingly well.
Current state of Lucian - Worse than ever? (10.11 Getting even worse?)
Hey guys, Adc/Lucian-Main here: After a comeback to rankeds and several trys with Lucian I just feel like my/ our Main really is in the worst spot he ever was. Even though I enjoy playing Lucian, I currently feel like I´m not or just can´t enjoy playing League with him. I mean - he´s created to be a Spellcaster-Adc, a mobile Adc and a lanebully. Guess at least the last one is definitely not true anymore. Wo is he actually supposed to bully? Every current meta Adc/Supp is going outrange - hell, even outdamage - him and the lack of Sustain (old Relic/Runes etc.) is hitting him so hard. Forced to build Botrk even though I would say other Items would synergize better with him cause he can´t get max out of his passive (missing Ad/ Cdr - I would really like a item with lifesteal, ad and 20 cdr). I tried Bloodline+ER recently, but guess it just can´t compensate the huge disadvantages you are facing in lane. Even though I like the AD-spike from EIE. Senna, Ashe, Caitlyn, Vayne, Lethality-Varus. Mf. Jhin. It´s just unsatisfying unless your enemy offers you some mistakes. I just feel like he´s at his worst he ever was and there´s like no way he will come back soon. Looking at patch 10.11/12: Nearly every adc - except Lucian - is going to receive additional 30 HP(+ 2/lvl). Seriously? A lane bully, being at the bottom, now has to face even early stronger enemy adcs? Why not remove him completely? Is there even a way to get him back where he should be without going the way of a rework? Guess else he will be abused in Mid/Top over and over again, so Riot just decideds to hold him down as far as possible, because his kit has the potential to go crazy too fast? Actually I just can´t believe it´s the same champion I tried and learned to love again after release. Riot just liteally shut down every single ability from him and since months I didn´t even hear a single sentence that they are looking forward to bring him back into a position which will allows him to face current botlaners on an equal level again. I just wish they could bring a single one of his nature abilites, but seems like the offrole-usage of Lucian somehow finally killed him. Look at his abilites now and years ago: Q - This ability back in the days had 50 more Castrange and 200 (!) total range. Compared with the early, slow animation his kit actually has no way to even trade safely anymore. W - Why they removed the AD-Scaling and changed to AP? Isn´t he meant to be a caster? In combination with the mana-cost this spell is only used to maximize damage in an all-in scenario. I wouldn´t care if they`d removre the movespeed of sec instead. E - This skill was once upon a time his signature move. A skill which made him the most mobile adc in the game and even could remove slows. Maybe some won´t even know that it also had no manacosts. Mabye this was a bit too op. But now it´s just so hard to punish when he uses his E and without 40 CDR, which only will come with some trade-off, there is no live where he even nearly is the unique mobile adc Riot promised. R - When comparing early days and now this ability actually feels like it got veven hit the most. Which is a statement compared to the other changes. But they literally shut down this ability to nearly one of the weakest ultimates ingame. Nerfing range. Nerfing attackspeed scaling. And damn - even nerfing the damage of his damage vs. minions? U could just randomly disappear behind one or two melee minions and guarantue you are safe. This whole spell could also be removed. No damage. No utility. No range. No Dps. Nothing. Only usage is a situation where you are running out of mana and can´t hold ur spell rotation. Attack range - Hell yeah. And guess what really hit him was also the nerf to his attack range. 550 down to 500? Come on - is he going to be a melee champ in future? He literally has no range to be any threat from distance. He hasn´t by far the mobility to get in and out fast as he actually should be. And he has no damage to be a real threat to several other adcs at many stages of the game. Isn´t he supposed to be a duelist? What is his actual role in this game right now? How are you guys able to enjoy Lucian and League at the same time right now? And do you think he will ever find a place at the top tier list again? How you think Riot could achieve this? Or maybe someone even knows if Riot is looking deeper at him right now? Cause personally it feels really sad to play your main champion who lost everything which made him unique and ofc also strong back in the days and I really hope he will find a meaningful way back into meta soon.
Hey, So we've got multiple questions asked time and time again so to not have many questions be scattered around, leaving information everywhere, we've gathered the most frequently asked questions that many players have regarding Aphelios in this one post to clear most of your doubts! Important info:
Questions will be arranged in specific topics for easier reading:
- Beginner Information
How is Aphelios difficult?
Unlike Riot first said, Aphelios is not a mechanically difficult champion; his difficulty lies in the need to manage his weapons and use the best combos for every situation.
What is Aphelios' skill floor?
Aphelios' kit is quite simple, one only needs from 5 to 10 games with him to understand how his weapons and mechanics work.
What is Aphelios' skill ceiling?
Aphelios' kit allows him to combine up to 4 different weapons in combos which are difficult in planning and execution, plus adding perfect weapon management to the skills he needs to work at a high level makes him a very difficult champion to master.
What's the best weapon?
Best weapon for single target damage is Crescendum (White) Best weapon for AoE damage is Infernum (Blue) specially because of its synergy with Runaan's Hurricane.
Should I drop my current weapons for better combos?
Yes! If the current weapons you're holding wont be useful for the upcoming fight, waste their ammo and get better ones.
Is it better to use weapons as needed or use a specific order?
Weapon rotations have been crafted to maximize Aphelios' combo potential and damage, so a specific order will almost always be a better option.
How does one change the order of Aphelios' weapons?
As Aphelios depletes his main-hand weapon, it will go to the back of the line and the next weapon in the queue will replace it; you can hold weapons without using ammo, and this will cause your order to change all throughout the game.
How should I max his passive?
Most Aphelios players maximize AD > AS > Lethality. Some professional and high elo players from all regions prefer adding 2 or 3 points into AD and then maxing AS > AD > Lethality. This will depend on the player's playstyle.
Does Aphelios have complex mechanics?
Yes, combining 3 or 4 weapons into one combo can be a pretty difficult to plan and execute without the prior practice to it. For further beginner information, check this YouTube guide:Beginner's Guide to Aphelios
- Gameplay
What are Aphelios' power spikes?
Aphelios' level power spikes: - Level 2: If you obtain it before the enemy laners, you will have 2 Q abilities to use. - Level 6: You unlock your ultimate - Level 13: Your abilities are at their highest scaling numbers. Aphelios' item power spikes: - First item - Infinity Edge - Second item - Runaan's Hurricane
How should Aphelios be played in the early game?
Aphelios' early game is pretty weak, you should look to farm as best as possible and get to your item spikes the quickest. Try to follow up your support for kills or lane priority.
How should Aphelios be played in the mid game?
Aphelios' mid game is decent, you should keep your farm up to obtain more items since Aphelios scales great into the late game, and group up when your teammates need you to contest objectives.
How should Aphelios be played in the late game?
Aphelios' late game is good, you should try to avoid being alone in a lane away from your allies and always stay grouped up, his damage provides a lot to teamfights so it's important to stay in a safe position and not get caught.
What are Aphelios' strengths?
- Aphelios is a really good scaling ADC. - His power increases the better the player is at him. - His multiple weapons provide him flexibility no other ADC can match. - He has great teamfighting potential.
What are Aphelios' weaknesses?
- Aphelios is very weak early game. - Aphelios is almost completely immobile. - Aphelios needs peel to not be bursted or CC. - Aphelios requires knowledge to be played at a high level.
How does one do damage with Aphelios?
Unlike most ADC's, Aphelios has to combine abilities and auto attacks to maximize his damage output.
How should R be used?
It depends on the weapon: - Calibrum (Green): Damage with range. - Severum (Red): Self sustain. - Gravitum (Purple): AoE root with Gravitum Q. - Infernum (Blue): AoE damage. (this will only be powerful when hitting more than 3 enemy champions). - Crescendum (White): Mini chakram stacks.
What are Aphelios' best combos?
Severum Q (Red) + Crescendum (White): Really good for 1 v 1's and dueling. Crescendum Q (White) + Calibrum (Green): Really good for damage from range.
What is Aphelios' best weapon rotation?
Crescendum > Calibrum > Gravitum > Infernum > Severum This rotation provides the best combo potential and damage output.
Is Aphelios a good champion to smurf with?
Only if you duo, Aphelios needs good peel to carry.
Is Aphelios good in low elo?
Not really, he performs best in environments where his teammates are more coordinated.
Can Aphelios 1 v 9?
No, he is vulnerable to being bursted, CC'd and Exhausted.
Can Aphelios be played in top or mid?
Depends on the matchup, Aphelios is immobile so he can be an easy target for most junglers, this will only work if you can dominate the matchup. For further information on Aphelios' best weapon rotation, here's a video:Perfect Weapon Rotation
- Itemization and Runes
What is Aphelios' best performing rune?
Currently, Aphelios' best performing rune is Conqueror.
Can Aphelios use PTA?
Not always, PTA is a better option for single target burst damage but wont work well in extended fights or against multiple targets. Conqueror is preferable.
Can Aphelios use Lethal Tempo?
Not always, this rune is mostly powerful for the late game, so having a rune that wont be as helpful for the early game can make him weaker against powerful early laners. Conqueror is preferable.
Can Aphelios use a keystone from another rune path?
Not really, these rune setups would be more off-meta and don't perform as well as Conqueror does.
Can Aphelios build on-hit?
Not really. Aphelios' abilities require AD to scale and do better damage, on-hit builds focus on more auto attacks and Aphelios requires both auto attacks and abilities for damage.
Can Aphelios build lethality?
Not really. Some of Aphelios' weapons have special properties when using crit. A Lethality build won't increase the damage over the crit build.
Can Aphelios build Death's Dance?
Yes but after his core items if you really need it.
Can Aphelios build Manamune?
Manamune can be picked up early game as an alternative to rushing Infinity Edge. You will still require to build Runaan's Hurricane second and Infinity Edge third for it to work.
Can Aphelios build Blade of the Ruined King?
Not really, this weapon doesn't provide what Aphelios needs and ends up delaying his crit power spikes.
Can Aphelios build Essence Reaver?
Not anymore, Aphelios used to have higher numbers when this item was built first, he will need Infinity Edge to compete against other ADC's.
What is Aphelios' core build?
First item: Infinity Edge. This will boost all of his crit damage by a good amount. Second item: Runaan's Hurricane. This has great synergy with his weapons.
Is Runaan's Hurricane really a must buy every game?
Preferably, it's to good to not buy it. It may only be delayed to third item when Phantom Dancer is required earlier.
Does Aphelios need to buy healing?
Depends on the enemy champions. If the enemy team has a lot of poke and damage over time abilities, buying healing items can help him mitigate most of this damage.
What situational items can Aphelios build?
Almost all of them. Aphelios has clear weaknesses that he will need to take care of with items against certain comps. For further information about itemization and runes, check this YouTube video:Runes and Builds
- Matchups & Support Synergy
Who are Aphelios' best matchups?
Kai'Sa and Vayne. Aphelios does great against these two in the early game and his late game damage is better in terms of AoE.
Who are Aphelios' worst matchups?
MF, Caitlyn and Varus. It's difficult for Aphelios to win the DPS duels vs these champions and they are very powerful in the early game.
Can I blind pick Aphelios?
Only if you know which support you're gonna go with. Do not blind pick him without a sustain support or a tanky engage support.
Who should I ban?
Its preferable to ban his worst matchups, so MF, Caitlyn and Varus are all good bans.
Which supports do best with Aphelios?
Bard, Janna, Lulu, Nami and Zilean. All of these champions fix all of Aphelios' problems and boost his potential even further.
Which supports do worst with Aphelios?
Senna and Brand. These two don't fix Aphelios' problems and instead can worsen them.
When should I not pick Aphelios?
You shouldn't pick Aphelios against teams with a lot of CC or burst damage with mobility. For further information about matchups, check this YouTube video:Matchups Extra information on support synergy in this other video:Support Synergy
- Tips & Guides
What are some beginner player tips?
- Experience will help you a lot in learning the champion. - Focus on only using two combos per game and waste the ammo of other weapons to learn how to do game. - Practice last hitting with every weapon as their behavior is different.
What are some intermediate player tips?
- Try practicing some complex weapon combos. - Limit your weapon options to a specific weapon rotation you enjoy. - Look to use your R in more aggressive ways.
What are some advanced player tips?
- Perfect your complex combos. - Be aggressive in the early game. - Plan your weapon R uses and combine them with abilities to hide projectiles or animations.
- WIP - In case your question is not in this post, ask the question below and we can answer it for you or if its too complex of a question feel free to post about it and we'll discuss it. - If you wish to have your guides or streams featured in this post, please check my comment below!
I'm mastery 7 on Varus after playing him mid a lot, finding I really don't like ADC, even if I'm decent at it. I'm Silver 4, fairly new to the game(3 months). A massive point of contention however, is my choice of items. My runes, I run Dark Harvest, Taste of Blood, Eyeball Ultimate Hunter, Manaflow Band, Gathering Storm, +10% Attack Speed, +9 Adaptive Force, then ArmoMR based on who I lane into. My first item I go Sanguine Blade. For those who need reference, it gives 55 AD, 10 Lethality, and 15% Lifesteal. It's passive however, gives an additional 8 Lethality, and 20-80% Attack Speed, if no more than one enemy champion is within a certain range of you. People have told me countless times that this is foolish and is a waste of an item. I disagree; for another item like ghostblade gives the same amount of damage and a passive that's just a few seconds of decaying movement, and 8 more lethality w/o the need of basically dueling someone. My argument is that the lifesteal early helps with sustain, and in a solo-lane I can use its passive more, and even without the passive its still a valuable item. For any further needed reference(s), my full build is: Berserker's Greaves, Sanguine Blade, Duskblade, BoRK, Bloodthirster, EoN. At about the BoRK portion, fourth item including boots, is when I find the combo of lethality+attack speed to become ridiculous, and even people who build armor usually get melted down real quick. Additionally, the last 5 games I did this, my KDA went: 22/7/11(Victory), 12/7/10(Loss), 9/2/3(Victory), 8/5/18(Victory), 7/2/4(Victory). In understanding everyone has their own style of play, and I've found this works out extremely well for me, people still will look at scores like that and tell me I'm doing something wrong. In most games with that, I am top of the damage charts. I personally believe this build is a disgustingly good combination taking full advantage of lethality(41 Lethality, jumps to 49 w/ Sanguine Passive), Lifesteel(47%), Attack Speed(70%, jumps to 150% w/ Sanguine Passive), and AD(400-ish at full build max level), also dealing bonus max health HP from BoRK. Using a fully charged Q+W Deals 915 Damage with lethality plus 21% Missing HP plus 5% Max HP/Blight Stack. I've taken a fair amount of pride with doing away with most build sights or suggested builds in favor of this, and I wish to know what you all think would be a decent enough counter to it,or ways to improve it. Autoattacks are insanely strong, but people like teemo or jax who can negate it still get absolutely melted via the Q, and ult generally reaches a 29ish second CD. If someone builds tank, even with grievous, I find that I still can outheal the damage. CC Lock in teamfight can absolutely wreck it though, but that applies to any champ on any build just the same. Edit While Writing: Just been informed a slight nerf to Varus Q and E is coming. I max E last and take it mostly out of the equation but to spike blight stacks after ult. Max Varus Q is only a change from 150% AD Ratio to 145%, so I don't think it makes a massive difference with lethality and all.
Kai'sa has been in an extremely weird spot since Worlds 2019 really and no matter what minor buffs Riot sends her, her win rate remains unchanged. That's because nerfing her passive in conjunction with the Guinsoos nerfs just completely removed 2 out of her 3 previous playstyles. Before she was:
Heavy Poke/Pick with her AP builds (W doing mass damage which can then be used for picks late game with her R)
Can play front to back due to her passive/guinsoos making her a tank shredder
Can play like an assassin waiting for the right moment in team fights to dive backlines and take out squishiy carries
2 out of 3 of those styles have been completely removed due to her passive/guinsoos being nerfed. Now with a full 6 stack guinsoos, you can't dive backline and just assume you're gonna pop off before and you also can't shred tanks half as well as you used to. Which leaves only the AP build as the viable one which does what exactly? Make her a shittier ezreal? She simply does not feel stronger than any other ADC at any stage of the game. Why would you pick her now when Vayne for example has a stronger mid game and far stronger late game? Why pick her over Ezreal who seemingly beats her at all stages as well, even late game due to how insanely tanky he gets. There's simply no reason to pick her. Right now, with the insane amount of tankiness/sustain in the game with items like Deaths Dance for example being used on everybody, there's no reason to not revert her passive or even guinsoos. No reason at all. I get why they nerfed it before, but that was before this disgusting sustain creep that has been slowly coming into the game with runes like Conqueror, with items like Deaths Dance and with cancer champs like Yuumi. Shit, reverting guinsoos would even fix champs like Varus/Kog'Maw who have been forced off the more traditional on-hit builds and pushed into super cancer off screen poke builds like lethality Varus and AP Kog'Maw. It just makes too much sense and that's why Riot won't do it. Instead, they'll nerf more ADCs (because ADCs being strong is the problem /s) and keep slowly buffing Kai'sas numbers until she becomes the only strong ADC who is now overtuned which will result in her getting gutted again.
TL;DR REVERT HER PASSIVE AND MAYBE REVERT GUINSOOS ALSO. THE NERFS MADE SENSE WHEN THEY HAPPENED BUT THE GAME HAS CHANGED DRAMATICALLY WITH THE AMOUNT OF TANKINESS/SUSTAIN YOU GET WITH RUNES/ITEMS/CHAMPIONS LIKE DEATHS DANCE/CONQUEROR AND YUUMI.
Season 10 Pyke Guide. Everything you will need to know about Pyke
Hello, my name is RickChum and this is a Pyke Guide. I am a Pyke main with over 1.1mil mastery (currently) and have peaked challenger in season 9 playing Pyke Support For a TL;DR, read the Tips, Tricks, and How to: at the bottom of each section This guide is targeted more for Pyke Support, but feel free to take away any Pyke related info! Table of Content: Basics to Pyke, Pyke specific tips, matchups, items, runes, counters, playstyle, laning phase, late game, and a lot of other information! Basics to Pyke So, what is Pyke? Why should I play Pyke over other supports? Pyke is an assassin support, with lots of damage, mobility, and the ability to give him and his team gold. What order do I max my abilities? Q>E>W. Q is main ability, W gets lower CD, and E just increases damage What runes should I use (Here's what I recommend)? I'd recommend: Aftershock, Font of Life/Demolish, Bone Plating/Second Wind, Unflinching, Presence of Mind, Legend: Tenacity. There are a lot of good keystones and secondary options, take the ones that fit your playstyle! Solo Lane Pyke still viable? Yup, he’s quite strong right now (as of time of posting). Dong Huap recently made a video on it. What items do I build? Lethality is go-to. Umbral, Youmuu's, Duskblade, Edge of Night. Items like Triforce, Death's Dance, GA, Maw, are also good Passive Bonus HP will be converted to AD in a 14:1 ratio (only gains health through level up). When Pyke takes damage from an ENEMY CHAMPION, he'll store some of that damage as gray health. While out of sight, he'll recover that gray health over time. Tips and Tricks
Scales extremely well with AD. The maximum stored health increases with AD
If you think you're out of sight, but you aren't healing. The area is either warded, a champion is there, or you're being spotted via sight gaining ability
Healing Power increases the speed at which you heal at (doesn't increase how much you heal), whereas Grievous Wounds causes you to heal slower
Sweepers, Pink Wards/Control Wards, Duskblade and Umbral help to control vision on the map. This allows you to stay healthy even during fights. TIP: Stay near bushes to lose vision quickly and recover health
Q Hold Q (press and hold): Pyke charges a harpoon, gaining range as he charges. Pyke is slowed while charging. If the harpoon hits an enemy, the enemy flies towards Pyke a fixed distance (about 300 units) then are slowed briefly. Tap Q (press once): Pyke stabs an in front of him, the closest unit is damaged and slowed. If an enemy champion is in front of him, the champion is hit instead (closest one). Tips and Tricks
You can Tap Q + Flash as Pyke, if you do, the stab will follow the direction it was in. If you stab forward, then flash, it'll stab in front of you after you flash.
At the end of your hook, the hitbox extends perpendicular to how you threw it, so it can catch enemies behind creep waves and enemies trying to run sideways.
You can Flash during your Q channel
If you get silenced, knocked up, knocked back, stunned, you will stop channeling
it's possible for your Tap Q to get cancelled it you're CC'd right as you cast
If an enemy is close, you can hook them behind you or even over a wall
Move sideways while charging Q to avoid skillshots. This is better when you're not certain of the play
If you don't throw the hook, you get 50% mana refund back
The Q cooldown starts after you throw the hook
There is a 2-frame trick (like 1/30 of a second) to animation cancel your Q with E. If you do, you can Q and E at the same time.
TIP: One way to have an easier time landing hooks is running past a creep wave, then channel your hook, that way the creeps don't block your hook Why stab over hook? Although holding Q does do more in terms of CC, tap Q is easier to hit when close range, and the slow lets allies hit their CC. Tap Q also works in a creep wave, whereas Hold Q works better when catching an enemy. Both do the same damage, so find which one works best for the scenario. W Gain camouflage and decaying movement speed. Nearby enemies are signaled while camouflaged (around 1000 units). Enemies within a certain range can see you (around 400 units) Tips and Tricks
Movement speed on W scales off of Lethality (more Lethality, more speed!)
Use W to get to traverse the map faster. Use W right out of fog of war to maximize stealth
W from fog of war to bushes to maintain hidden
You can use actives and summoner spells during W. Activate Youmuu's while invis to catch enemies off guard
The cooldown doesn't start until after the ability is finished
You can cancel your W with recall, starting it's CD faster and stopping the signalling
Pinks wards counter your W and your Passive, take them out!
With Duskblade, you can start your combo with W into an auto attack
TIP: W can be used during Ignite. You'll heal at a slower rate, but most of the times it'll mitigate the Ignite damage E Dash and leave a phantom behind (from where you casted it), after a delay, the phantom will stun everything in its path (Works similar to Ekko’s Q). If enemy champions are hit, they are also damaged. Tips and Tricks
Use E to get to traverse the map faster
E can be used to dash ALMOST EVERY wall (You'd be surprised at which walls you can dash over)
The Stun duration scales off of Lethality (more Lethality, longer the stun)
You can E then Flash to: change the direction, increase the distance, or extend your dash
E can be paired with Ult. Ult can be substituted with Flash, but you won't have an ult (This is a difficult trick and it's risky)
Can combo Q with E for a CC combo. Beware, you'll have fewer tools to escape
TIP: E minions to stop creep aggro. Can be used to lessen the damage while fighting or freezing a minion wave TIP #2: You don't need to always dash forward! You can dash sideways or at an angle R Mark an area with an X, if an enemy is below a certain health threshold, they are executed and you gain gold. The most recent ally that damages the target also gains gold (or the most recent supporter if no1 deals damage). If an enemy is hit, but not executed, they take reduced damage from the ability Tips and Tricks
If you hit an enemy with your ult, you teleport to the CENTER of the X
More AD and Lethality, the bigger the threshold. Easier to execute enemies!
In a pinch, you can use Ult as an escape tool. Doesn't always need to be used to execute
Pair E or Flash with Ult to land long range executes
You can ult in a wall to hide the visual (hides the X)
Aim R using the points/legs of the ult. Overshoot your ult in the case your enemies try flashing/dashing away.
TIP: Ult an enemy right before they die, they usually won't move (as much), making it easier to land. TIP: Wait for the target to be CC'd before ulting How does the gold share work? If you kill with the ultimate, you and the most recent damager or supporter; any ally that has shielded you, healed you or given you a buff, gains gold equal to the kill. If you ult, and they die before you land, you gain 2x the kill gold and the killer still gains kill gold essentially gaining 50% more gold! Why do Pyke's keep taking my kills? If they execute with ult, if you hear the ding sound, they actually generated more gold than if you just killed them without it. It's a key part of his kit and using it effectively makes him and his teammates richer! You can help Pyke by damaging enemies or even sacrificing your life so Pyke and execute. If they are actually and intentionally trying to steal your kills then... I can't help :/ END OF BASICS Those were the basics. Let's move more in-depth Closer look at Pyke (Matchups) Champion Specific Tips Against Blitzcrank and Thresh, if you get hooked, wait until after they E before you dash. Their E can cancel your dash, and you'll probably be dead. Against Morgana and Sivir, you can bait out spellshields by charging Q and going full dodge mode. Don't throw it. You get 50% Mana refund and maybe bait out their spells. Your Q cooldown is a lot shorter than their defensive abilities Against Yuumi, if she is detached, dash in the direction of the ADC. If Yuumi tries to return to the ADC, the E can catch her mid-flight and put W on CD. Rushing Exe is nice Against Soraka, W up close and short-channel a hook. It's harder for Soraka to react to. Rushing Exe is nice Pantheon's E can block Pyke R if you're in front of him. Either wait out his E or go behind him. Against Draven, aim your hooks where his axe will drop. This is very niche and elo dependent Be very careful against Cho'Gath and Darius, their ults do true damage. You have little health and resists don't do a whole lot. Be wary Against Sylas, if you time your E right as you get hit by Sylas chains (2nd part of E), you can almost guarantee a stun on him Against Master Yi, if you time your E right while he's in alpha, you can guarantee a stun, it's quite hard to pull off Against: Amumu, Yi, Sylas, Talon, Vi, Ekko, Lee Sin, if you time your E right, they are almost guaranteed to get stunned. If you E right as the dash starts. Against: Warwick, Zed, Kayn, Rek'Sai you can pull them towards your team by E'ing towards your team while they are attached/following Against Leona, E right as you get hit by Leona E to pull her into your tower. Not a great way to escape Combos W may or may not be used during the combo (W) > Q (Hold) > E > AA - Used for engaging at a distance Q > R - Since your Q (Hold) pulls a set distance, you can almost guarantee where the enemy will be after landing a hook. Knowing this, you can preemptively R as your Q is mid-flight to secure the kill as the enemy is being pulled. (W) > E > Q (Stab) > AA - Used for all-in, better for engaging from close range (W) > Q (Stab) > E > AA - The slow from Q into an E makes it very hard to dodge the stun Q (Hold) > AA > E - If you hook a nearby enemy, you can weave an auto in between your standard combo. (W) > E > Flash > AA > Q (Tap) > R - This is Pyke's kill combo OR all-in combo. Flash may or may not be needed. Runes, in-depth SHARDS - For Shards take 2 Adaptive Force Shards and Armour OR 1 Adaptive Shard and 1 Armour and 1 MR. Health shard is a bait Keystones:
Aftershock, Font/Demolish, Second Wind/Bone Plating, Unflinching
(Spellbook, Fleet, Dark Harvest, Predator are all decent keystones with nicher uses) Good secondary runes are (In no order) Precision: Triumph, Presence of Mind, Legend: Tenacity Resolve: Font of Life, Demolish, Bone Plating, Second Wind, Unflinching Domination: Cheap Shot, Eyeball Collection, Zombie Ward, Relentless Hunter, Ultimate Hunter Inspiration: Perfect Timing, Future's Market, Biscuit Delivery, Cosmic Insight, Approach Velocity Sorcery: Nullifying Orb, Celerity, Absolute Focus, Waterwalking, Transcendence, Nimbus Cloak Take ones that fit your playstyle. Sorcery and Domination are good for roaming and traversing the map. While Resolve and Precision increase your survivability. Inspiration being a mix of utility and works pretty much in every game Items, in-depth Shoulderguard is the best starting item, no contest. Mobies should be rushed, then Umbral, then Duskblade OR Duskblade then Umbral. Starting Sweepers helps you get early bush advantage; it has amazing synergy with Zombie Ward. Get 2-4 Lethality items then go for GA/Death's Dance/Maw for survivability Note that items should be built accordingly from game to game. Build what is needed for YOUR game specifically. Early Situational Items
Stopwatch is great for keeping large bounties (Can be built into GA)
Executioner's Calling is good into healers like Yuumi, Soraka, Sona
Hexdrinker is solid into heavy AP comps
QSS is great into hard CC's (example Morg Q)
Damage Items
Duskblade gives you early kill pressure and knowledge of wards
Youmuu's gives you mobility
Edge of Night is great for when they have one CC ability (Vayne, Varus, Jinx, etc)
Umbral gives you insane vision control
Sanguine lets you split push, but isn’t great for support Pyke
Triforce is like second Duskblade, great burst, and AS helps to take towers and CS. Expensive purchase
Defensive Items
Death's Dance, is great for stats and survivability
GA helps to keep large bounties from being lost as easily
Maw is good against AP or magic damage
QSS is a great item for avoid hard CC's
Tank Items
Frozen Heart is good into heavy AD and provides lots of CDR
Zeke's Convergence, makes you slow targets after you ult, provides resistances
Why not Black Cleaver? The stats are great for the champion, but the item is not great. You want the Lethality stat on Pyke, since your abilities scale off of it. Pyke doesn't hit enough to make Black Cleaver's armour reduction worth it. Synergies and Counters With Pyke you want aggressive laners, champions with CC or damage. Scaling ADC's don't pair too well with Pyke. Champions that have spellshields, high mobility, or quick CC usually make for strong counters. Synergies
Draven - Aggro lane, your ult procs his passive
Xayah - CC chain
Trist - Aggro Lane
Lucian - Aggro Lane, can play off of CD's
Syndra - Great burst damage and CC
Veigar - Cage can help set-up kills
You don't want Ezreal and Kog'Maw, trust me. You're better off dodging than playing with these ADC's
Counters
Draven - Too good at fighting
Sivir - Spellshield
Veigar - The cage prevents your dash and can burst you
Soraka - So much HEALSSSSS
Morgana - Anti-CC Shield, can counter your all-ins
Alistar - Fast CC, strong at fighting
Thresh - Fast CC, strong at fighting
Yasuo - Very hard to play against this champ. Windwall and mobility
Zilean - Revives, can stop call-ins
How to Counter Pyke
Pyke plays around vision denial and isolated targets. Items such as Stopwatch, Zhonyas, Gargoyles, PD and armour items in general are good counters to Pyke.
You will want to save dashes (if possible) to avoid his ult. By avoiding his ult Pyke and his allies will have a harder time snowballing.
Flash, Heal, and Ghost all help to either avoid or deny his ult from executing. Pyke's ult bypasses shields, so use them before you get low.
Control wards will reveal Pyke in his W. Put them down in chokes, bushes, or in the lane to catch him out.
Pyke without his E is a fish on land. He will pop like a balloon.
Move behind your creeps when he is engaging.
How do you want to play Pyke? (Early to Mid-Game) You want to play aggressive off CDs. If they use a key ability trying to push waves or baited using your hook, try to fight off those timers. During laning phase you want to engage after the creeps have crashed, a moving creep wave will make it difficult to land hooks. Engage with W, then channel hook. If the enemy is isolated or low, then engage with E plus W. Usually you want to only engage with W so you have an escape. You can look to roam after getting mobies. Look to ward the river or enemy jungle to secure vision. Though sometimes staying in lane and getting 6 is better than roaming. TIPS:
Use W and E to move around the map faster, but be wary that W can give off your position. Early Sweepers is great to take control of lane brushes. Pink wards/control wards also help a lot. Look to make picks and secure objectives or take a gold lead.
Buy Stopwatch/GA if you have a large bounty. Pyke wants to go for big ults, usually requiring you to dive in and risk your life
How to play Pyke in teamfights? Pyke has a different playstyle when it comes to supports. You can look to peel for carries, then look to execute low health targets, usually starting with frontline. Weave in and out of vision to recover health. You usually want to be around your carries peeling until you can execute. OR You can look to assassinate from the start. Stay in bushes with Control wards/Duskblade/Umbral and sneak up to carries, it's better with ally assassins, and look to execute. This is more risky, but could pay off. Most likely going to trade 1 for 1, unless you're really fed. Random Useful Tips
High mobility champs are super hard to hit. Charge Q to pressure and mostly just wait for them to blow their abilities before trying to fight them. Stabbing is also effective against high mobility targets
Watch the scoreboard for players with Stopwatch. Try to bait it out then ult, or ult from the start
Watch the map for any players that are low, jump in and get free gold
When running from lane to lane, dash through walls, it's much more efficient.
Easter Egg! Pyke gains +1 move speed in the river
A rule I sometimes follow is, when engaging, try to keep either W or E up. Use one for engaging and the other for disengage. This rule applies more towards when you have little vision and not chasing enemies for ult kills.
Timing Flashes is not only a good skill, but it'll let you roam and land your ults easier on those targets
A List of Every Keystone in the Game, and What They Specialize In
EDIT:
Not gonna bother updating this anymore, because Coach Curtis just came out with one of the best guides for EVERY rune, not just Keystones. The only problem is that he describes these from a mid lane perspective. But Coach Curtis is a multi-season challenger and coach.
Check these out. This isn't a guide on what runes you should take, this is why people take them. If you're looking for runes to take, go on U.GG. It's almost never strictly wrong, and is a good guideline of what runes you should take on a champion if you don't want to do more research. Also, this list is still being updated by me right now, so make a comment if you think I should change something.
Fleet Footwork
This is either for champions who really need sustain (e.g. Kassadin) or ADCS who don't use the other two keystones(Caitlyn and Corki right now) You used to see this a lot on champions like Vayne, who need the lane sustain. However, it's been changed so melee champions get a lot more sustain from this keystone than ranged champions, so that's why you don't see it on Vayne as often anymore. Users:
Kassadin (like sustain early since he scales well, FF is never a bad pickup on him)
Caitlyn (Doesn't use PtA or LT well)
Akali (goes Electrocute in easy matchups and Fleet in harder ones, she scales pretty well like Kassadin)
Yasuo (Sustain, especially for midlane although viable in top lane too. Conquerer is solid on Yasuo too though)
Rengar (weird build that's popping up, but junglers sometimes like Fleet because of the sustain it gives. Also, you occasionally see Sejuani pick up Fleet/Hail of Blades against Trundle because Trundle steals Aftershock resistances)
Conquerer
Almost only for melees because of the duration being lower on ranged champions. Urgot and Draven do pick it up sometimes though. Good for bruisers, probably the best 1v1(dueling) keystone in the game. Anyone who can stack it fast also likes it. Users:
Riven (loves AD, loves dueling, and stacks it disgustingly fast)
Irelia (same deal as Riven, doesn't stack it as fast but still not terrible)
Aatrox (He stacks it very, VERY slowly. However, he loves the true damage, and he especially loves the healing when he has his ultimate up)
Singed (Some people go this. Just like Aatrox, it's super fucking slow to stack. However, he just loves the raw AP you get, and he loves extended fights. Also, Conquerer is the one of the only versions of Spellvamp in the game that heals you for AOE abilities. If singed hits 5 people, he basically heals for 40% of the damage his poison would do to one person.
Urgot (Kind of the opposite of the previous two, he gets this because he just stacks it so fast with his W)
Draven (He likes PtA or Conqueror. He loves healing and the raw AD from Conqueror is great because of his high AD ratios on his Q)
PtA
This is on ADCs who want to bully lane. It makes your all-ins super strong. This is because of the base damage of the explosion after 3 hits (it has higher base damage than Electrocute level 1). The % increase in damage is a strong add-on, but unlike Lethal Tempo, PtA is still fairly strong even in short trades, which many early game trades are. You also sometimes see this on champions like Kled, Camille, and Renekton, who can proc it super easily and like short trades. It gives better short-trade power than Conquerer, but in extended trades Conquerer will be better. (Conquerer has 5 stacks, PtA has 3. Sustain is better in extended trades. Also, the burst damage from PtA matters less as the fight gets longer and longer) Users:
Draven (Loves all-ins, loves early game)
Lucian (loves all-ins, loves early game, can proc it super easily because his passive gets 2 procs)
Tristana (loves all-ins, great with bomb)
Renekton (stacks it super fast because his W can instantly proc it, loves early game, and has a super strong short trade)
Kled (procs it super easily with W)
Lethal Tempo
This is for high attack speed late game carries. It's weak early game for a few reasons.
First of all, it just gives you bonus damage on your autoattacks. Early game, a good chunk of your damage actually does come from your abilities. It doesn't matter that Lethal Tempo gives higher attack speed if your autos just tickle people.
Second, it's very rare fights last long enough for you to get the full usage of lethal tempo. However, if you even hit someone once, it gets proc'd and then goes on cooldown, so it's super easy to waste the cooldown early game.
Users:
Jinx (loves attack speed)
Twitch (loves attack speed, but he can go PtA too)
Nocturne (weird case. He gets it because it gives him disgusting early game dueling. His E/Q procs it early, so the 1.5 seconds of no attack speed doesn't really matter since he's not in range yet)
Electrocute
This is great for anyone who can proc it easily. However, lots of champions can't proc it easily. e.g. Ziggs, who's main damage pattern is just throwing Q and E, which won't proc Electrocute, would rather pick up a rune like Comet. It's just great for bursting, but Conquerer is better for extended battles. Users:
Zed (can proc it from range with W -> E -> Q)
Leblanc (procs it super easy with Q + W + AA)
Fizz (procs it easy with Q -> AA -> W)
Dark Harvest
The base damage on this is low. The good part about it is the resets makes it great for teamfighting, which is why you sometimes see Brand and Katarina pick it up. Users:
Karthus (Loves using his ult when people are low to finish them off, which is perfect for Dark Harvest. He's also a jungler, so he doesn't mind the super long cooldown. Aery gives more pressure in lane and you'll sometimes see mid lane Karthus go Aery)
AP Shyvanna (Doesn't really have another keystone to go except Comet. And again, junglers love this keystone)
Kayn (Only with Shadow Assassin. Kayn can actually assassinate multiple people at a time, so the reset mechanic is really nice.)
Hail of .Blades
It's a weird mix of keystones. It's a burst keystones, but it's AA based which is usually DPS. It's not a bad keystone per se, it's just that there aren't many champions that use autos but burst people. Users:
Xin Zhao (Really wants the knockup as fast as possible)
Vi (Has mutliple autoresets and wants the armor shred as soon as possible. She can go Electrocute, Aftershock, or Conquerer too though)
Kalista (She loves attack speed because she gets faster dashes with more attack speed. Lethal Tempo is hard to pull off on Kalista. First of all, she's an early game champion, so she would much rather have the early power of HoB. Second, Kalista has a short range of 525. This means that she can't always get autoattacks in a teamfight, so having a short burst of attack speed is actually very useful compared to a long stretch of attack speed that she won't be able to abuse that much)
Predator
The huge burst of movement speed makes engages from Predator makes engages a breeze. It's just like how people used to rush Righteous Glory on Maokai, you turn a soft engage (Maokai W) into a hard engage (Righteous Glory from half a screen away -> W). Anyone who loves Righteous Glory/Shurelya's typically likes this item. Small note: no laners consistently get Predator in the current meta. Predator makes really potent ganks, but aren't really that useful in lane. Also, you just don't have a keystone until first back, and on your first back you need to buy boots, which isn't always the most optimal choice. Even when Predator was bugged on Darius and gave you a stack of his passive, he still didn't pick it up. Now, that's not to say Predator isn't useless on laners. Malzahar and Vladimir at one point used to go Predator in lane, they just have better options now. (Notably, Unsealed Spellbook seems pretty good as you can get ghost with it too, while also having a ton of other benefits) Users:
Skarner (Runs people down to ult)
Gragas (Gives amazing gank setup, also sets up his engages super well. What are people going to do against a mach-20 Gragas?)
Comet
Anyone who pokes with an ability that has CC. Ziggs has his E for example. It's his main poking tool and just so happens to have a slow. The CC lets you hit the comet super easily. It's overall a very good poke rune even if you don't have that much CC (Lethality Varus used to go it) Users:
Lux (Procs on E easily. Lux can go Electrocute, Comet, or Aftershock right now)
Xerath (Procs on W + E super easy)
Ziggs (Procs on E)
Aery
Anyone who can
proc the damage SUPER often (INCLUDING DoTs)
or
is a shield/heal support
or
just has no other good keystone
likes this one. Users: Heal bots:
Sona
Nami
Soraka
Damage champions:
Zoe (Her Q and E don't keep them in place for Comet since her E slow is kinda low. She can also go Electrocute)
Viktor (Just like Zoe, doesn't have a reliable way of keeping his targets in a comet range. He can go Klepto into melee champions, and has went Fleet before too)
Teemo (Not only does he consistently poke down melees with autoattacks, his shrooms + poison can usually proc Aery twice with just one hit)
Malzahar (his DoT on his E makes it really easy to proc)
This rune used to be absurdly good, but it's been nerfed a few tiems. Previously, champions like Kennen and Pantheon who could consistently poke people down used to get this rune, but they've switched to other runes now.
Phase Rush
This rune has two uses: Kiting people out and chasing people down. One example of kiting people out is Ryze. Whenever he has his cooldowns up, he wants to be in your face, but whenever they're down, he wants to run away to wait for them. This is why the movement speed from Phase Rush is great on him. An example of a champion who wants to chase people down is Vladimir. His Protobelt -> Ult -> Q combo makes your E impossible to run away from since you proc Phase Rush. Yes, you don't have a keystone basically when your ult is down, but it just sets up your combo so perfectly. Users:
Vladimir (Along with what I mentioned before, his Q + mini E + W combo lets him escape ganks untargetable at mach 20)
Aurelion Sol (Needs to kite people out. He's a low range DPS mage, he needs movement speed)
Ryze (Same as Aurelion Sol)
Aftershock
It gives an absurd amount of resistances up front after CC'ing someone. This makes it super good on engagers who have CC. Sejuani for example uses her ult to engage, proc Aftershock, and then is super tanky while her team follows up. Typically great on junglers and supports who like to engage. Top laner tanks usually get Grasp of the Undying. (It's also viable on engage mages like Lissandra) Also, you will see it on Lux support. This is just because Lux gets hardcountered by engage, and the rune is just fucking busted. It's kinda a special case. Users:
Sejuani (Procs on Q and ult, makes your engages super potent)
Rammus (Same as Sejuani, once you Q someone you're invincible)
Lissandra (You can ult someone or W, and you proc it. Lissandra loves being in the middle of everyone)
Lux (Loves protecting herself? But she can also go Comet too, as we saw Biofrost do against Flyquest)
Grasp of the Undying
Top lane tanks. This is the tank trading rune. The sustain + damage it gives is just great in lane, and you can also get free HP which is a nice addon. Also, bruisers who don't benefit that much from Conquerer (e.g. Garen or Fiora) sometimes get it. Grasp makes your short trades incredibly potent. A lot of Fiora players go Grasp specifically in hard matchups since it just gives you so much trading power. It scales a lot weaker than Conquerer (on Fiora) though. Sometimes, against ranged champions, you won't get Grasp of the Undying though. For example, at one point, Ornn used to get Grasp against melees and Unsealed Spellbook against ranged champions. However, this won't always be the case. On some champions, Grasp is just the best keystone all the time. Users:
Maokai
Garen (can't go Conquerer since he stacks it super slowly. His E only gives 1 stack)
Cho'gath
Fiora (rare, but her passive already deals true damage so she loses some value from going Conquerer)
Gangplank (can proc it super easily on Q right now, and it just gives him so much sustain and kill pressure. Klepto is viable but you'll see a lot of Grasp. He's a weird case because he's the only melee champion who can proc it from range)
Gnar (the only ranged champion on this list, Aery just kinda sucks on him. He loves tanky runes too. This just gives him that extra poke and dueling power)
Guardian
This is a really general support keystone. Tank supports who can't proc Aftershock easily/don't really engage are one category. Think Braum and Tahm Kench, they don't really need to be that tanky since they should be just sitting on top of their carry and peeling. Rakan too also gets it. He doesn't really need that much tankiness since he's so slippery, although Aftershock actually is viable on him and has a decent playrate. Also, heal supports get it sometimes too. This serves as a more defensive option than Aery. Basically, if the Sona/Soraka dies on your team, you lose out on a shit ton of free HP that they give, so Guardian is potentially strong to keep them alive. You do lose out on damage so this is more common in really hard lanes. Users:
Braum (He's a peeler, not an engager. He doesn't really need defensive stats. HE would much rather shield his ADC. Also, it's not as consistent to proc Aftershock, you need to get 4 autos for your passive)
Tahm Kench (Same as Braum)
Sona (potentially)
Nami (potentially)
Soraka (potentially)
Kleptomancy
Basically, Kleptomancy sacrifices a keystone for gold. Kleptomancy has a weird powercurve. Pre-first back, it's practically useless since you can't use the free gold you got, so you basically don't have a keystone. However, as you continue getting gold you start hitting your item powerspikes faster, which for some champions is much stronger than having a keystone. Finally, late game, most keystones start doing a lot of damage, whereas the gold advantages you get from Kleptomancy start becoming more and more irrelevant. As a result, one major factor in whether or not you should get Kleptomancy is if your champion's curve also follows this curve. For example, at one point, Kleptomancy was amazing on Nasus, but weak on Yorick despite the fact that they could both proc it easily on Q. In fact, Yorick could proc it even easier because his Q actually deals a shit ton of damage. However, Yorick is a lane bully. As a result, he doesn't want to sacrifice the early pressure he gets from a keystone for gold from Kleptomancy. Nasus doesn't have a strong early game, so he just wants to get gold for his midgame, which is why he gets Kleptomancy. Another factor Finally, one factor is how well you use other keystones. For example, right now, AP Kennen doesn't have that many good keystones. He used to get Aery to poke people out, but it's been nerfed pretty hard. Since he has no other good keystones, and he can at least proc Kleptomancy okay, he just gets it. Users:
Ezreal (Procs it on Q super easily, has a similar powercurve to Kleptomancy since he spikes at two items)
Kennen (Procs it on autos against melees ezpz)
Glacial Augment
It's rarely gotten on anyone besides mages. It's a weird build where you go GLP -> Twin Shadows. There are two scenarios where you would go this route:
You do true damage (so you don't rely as much on getting Morellnomicon second)
The magic penetration on Morellnomicon is meta-warping. Nearly every mage in the game wants it. Champions with true damage, such Ahri or Vel'Koz, are balanced around the fact that they can't use this absurdly broken item as well (however, it's still so good that they used to go Luden's -> Morellnomicon like other mages). The Glacial Augment build forces you to delay Morellnomicon to third item or sometimes even skip it altogether. This would suck on a lot of mages that rely on it, but since AP champions with true damage have been surviving without being able to abuse it, they can use the GLP -> Twin Shadows build quite well.
You need the slows to set up your combo. For example, Ahri E is super important to hit.
Users:
Ahri likes the slow so she can charm -> let her team one-shot them. This makes her an absolute pick making machine. As long as she has one person near her, any squishy she charms is usually dead, and it's super easy to charm people with the Glacial build. Her Q also does true damage.
Vel'Koz really likes kiting people out with the GLP + Twin Shadows, and the slows keep them in range for his ult. (Also lets him hit his full combo easier)
Neeko needs it to get in range for her ultimate and for her E.
Cho'gath does true damage on his ultimate and it helps him land his Q.
Tahm Kench, the only one here who doesn't go GLP -> Twin Shadows. He just gets it because he gets kited out super hard. He already deals so much damage and is already so tanky that he doesn't need other keystones (although you will still see him get mostly Guardian support).
Unsealed Spellbook
Anyone else who doesn't really have that many great keystone options. For example, right now we're seeing some Varus players go Unsealed Spellbook because since his main poke tool, his Q, doesn't have a slow, Comet is kind of meh. Summoner spells just give a ton of utility, from ghost to heal to exhaust. Users:
Orianna uses it because Aery just sucks ass right now. Dopa has been spamming this build.
Anivia has seen some users.
Vladimir has also some players who go Unsealed Spellbook (e.g. Impact has been going it a few times in solo queue last I checked)
This is The First Season I've Thought of Quitting Multiple Times
ADC mains ask yourselves did you enjoy ADC in Season 9, 8, 8 pre 8.11,7,6,5,4,3,2,1? I can say I've played since season 5 and I've never thought my role was completely irrelevant until this season, well maybe right after 8.11 which was a complete disaster and the balance team EVENTUALLY realized as much. But it's like they don't learn from their past mistakes and here we are again. This leads us to the change these past 2 seasons of how to handle things that are clearly broken, in the past they'd be either hard nerfed example Fiddlesticks base damage or removed example Wukongs double knockup the community hates it and wants it gone. But instead of doing the right thing as would have been done in the past, instead we have additional broken things added to compete. Which means we end up with damage, mobility and CC creep and so many broken champs you can never hope to ban them all. All of which lead to excessive snowballing and more stomps instead of fun close games. How many of you like realizing the game is already pretty much decided before the 10 minute mark? The state of the game is so bad that if my mid and top laner feed I probably won't even get to play even a single proper mid/late game team fight, this really isn't fair to marksman players who spend all their time scaling up for late game that seems to come much less often than previous seasons. I don't truly enjoy playing farm simulator, but I try and do it better than the enemy ADC so that I'll have a advantage when we finally get to join the teamfights later. If those team fights never come then what was the point of all my efforts to farm and scale. How to fix it first off mages either need to be much weaker early or not scale well AT ALL. For example Ludens costs less than Infinity Edge despite Ludens being a much bigger powerspike. My proposal raise the cost of Ludens to 3600 even with deaths dance since I consider the power levels roughly equal and lower the cost of IE to 3200 lower ER to 3000 etc you get the idea make mage items cost more and ADC items cost less. Protobelt is another item that clearly doesn't cost enough for what it gives. This needs to happen this season not wait until next season and whatever item nonsense they plan to do, something needs to be done before then. How is this balanced you might ask it's simple it's very easy to build armor while it's very difficult to build MR depsite the fact that AP items have higher values than AD items to begin with. If mages are going to scale just as well or in some cases better than ADCs Kassadin for example then they need to hit their power spike at the same time or even later when compared to marksman. I finally found a new champ I love playing with Aphelios and with DD and Conqueror he could actually carry games, but the second a marksman starts using an item or rune to carry games it gets nerfed very quickly. Where's the Mejais death cap Cassio and all the badly needed mage nerfs. It's like the few marksman who CAN still carry get nerf after nerf. It happened to both Kaisa, Xayah and now Aphelios, ADCs I'd argue these marksman have tons of room for skill expression. But simple champs like Miss Fortune and unhealthy builds like lethality Varus are deemed OK. Either nerf Varus or nerf lethality items it's really not that hard. I'm more OK with Ezreal due to the mentioned skill expression. Instead of being a projection of power on the map whereever you go like in previous seasons, ADC is now at best just a passenger along for the ride of whether or not your mid and top has a good early game. I've heard that games like DOTA and Smite actually value marksman players. That said I love league and would like to stay with the champions and lore that I love. IF the 200 years team can actually do something to make ADC fun to play again. If not you'll lose more and more marksman players who will move to other games and at least some percentage of them won't come back. TLDR ADC ISN'T FUN TO PLAY IN 2020 THIS IS THE 1ST SEASON I'VE THOUGHT ABOUT QUITTING LEAGUE MULTIPLE TIMES. I WILL BE SAYING GOOD BYE SINCE NERFS TO MID THAT WERE PROMISED FOR 10.13 NEVER SHIPPED IT WAS MY LAST HOPE THAT SOLO Q COULD BE SAVED. I WILL RETURN FOR CLASH EVENTS SINCE I STILL ACTUALLY ENJOY THAT. MAYBE ADDING FULL TEAM COMMS TO THE GAME WOULD MAKE MORE PEOPLE ENJOY IT. ps I've decided to stop buying skins even if it's the best looking skin for my favorite champ at least until solo Q is actually fun again. I suggest all of you ADC mains who are unhappy but maybe not unhappy enough to stop playing at least take this route and vote with your wallet.
A complete guide to Jhin, updated for season 8 by Master Tier Jhin "I Keep It Taco". Now including every single match-up, skin specific music playlists, etc.
Introduction
UPDATED AS OF August 11th. The outdated content in terms of ITEMS/RUNES/SUMMONER SPELLS CAN BE FOUND UPDATED IN THIS THREAD>>>> UPDATE ITEM/RUNE/SUMMONER SPELLS <<<<. The match-ups and so on from this guide is still relevant. I'm "I Keep it Taco", a Master Tier Jhin player and streamer. Some others might know me by "Jordanian Sniper", "Flash 4th shot", "UnFourJhinate", or "RareBoi". Jhin is in a good spot again and I got masters back recently with a 70% win rate over 60 games in the last 2 weeks. So, I decided it's about time to make an updated guide four people who want to pick him up again now that he's stable and viable again! Disclaimer Everything I have written down is the knowledge I've acquired through experience and experimenting. I encourage discussions, debates, etc. and If I notice I fourgot to add something to the guide I'll edit it in. Also, small disclaimer cause of a past incident. If anyone wishes to base anything off this guide feel free to contact me about it. Four people who are only interested in the skin-specific music playlist. I've designed these playlists to match the theme of each skin.
*Skin Tier list starts from top to down. Making the playlist was really fun so I wanted to share it in the front. :)
Jhin ADC Guide
Table of Contents
Pregame Essentials: Starting items, runes, summoner spells, boot choices, and skill order
Setting Your Mind in Motion: Choosing an item build that fits your situation and playstyle
Our Perfourmance Begins: Understanding match-ups and how to play the laning phase accordingly
I Have Elaborate Plans Four You: Transitioning from laning phase into mid and late game
Mini Jhin Mid Update: Four people who still want to play him there
How to use traps: As ADC Jhin
Appendix: Links, item set exports, trap placement map, subreddit, and stream.
1. Pregame Essentials
Starting items Jhin's has great diversity in starting items
Doran's Blade + Potion (x1): The extra 80 health and 8 AD is helpful if both you and the enemy botlane have early all-in potential. Thanks to Jhin's AD scaling, the 3% lifesteal is pretty efficient.
Long Sword + Potion (x3):: This is a great choice against poke match-ups who have no all-in potential because you have access to start with three potions to deal with poke. It'll also provide a decent chunk of AD 10 but, provides no additional HP (they don't have all-in so, we're fine). It also builds into Essence Reaver, Ghostblade, Last Whisper, Bloodthirster, etc.
Boots + Potion (x4): The downside to boots rush is that you'll have no combat stats compared to the other starting items. However, rushing boots is a good choice against a botlane whose laning phase relies on skillshots and getting close, if you think you can safely bully them by auto-weaving. Reliably dodging skillshots in certain match-ups allows you to negate most of their kill potential. Rush boots to...
Move out of range of Thresh's Flay or dodge hook.
Dodge Morgana's Q.
Out-trade Ezreal by playing inside your creep wave. When he tries to farm, the extra movement speed will allow you to weave 3rd and 4th shots onto him while avoiding his Q.
Capitalize on Jinx's laning immobility. Whenever she tries to farm, you can safely trade, and she will be unable to run out of your auto range.
Doran's Ring + Potion (x2): Take Doran's Ring against shove and poke match-ups (like Caitlyn and Sivir) or in lane where you have no kill pressure, as it will allow you to safely rely on spamming Q to farm, harass, and shove lane. Bouncing Grenade has fairly low mana cost (40/45/50/55/60) and a 60% AP Ratio, so it works well with the stats from Doran's Ring. Doran's ring restores FOUR mana upon killing a unit and gives 50% base mana regen. The 15 AP will also trigger an adaptive rune AP bonus befoure your first back.The two potions will also help sustain against the push/shove/poke match-ups. I take Doran's ring a lot if my support is extremely passive.
Doran's Shield + Potion (x1): If the enemy does not have hard push/shove power and all you want to do is stay safe with sustain, increased HP, and farming. Then this is your item. It'll help you from dying in engages and keep the HP bar full.
Rune choices
The Scaler (Fleet Footwork + Sorcery): I would recommend this rune page if you're playing Solo Q. Fleet Footwork has different uses in this page. Its first use comes in the laning phase. While the healing has been nerfed, the movement speed part has gone unchanged as it is still 30% movement speed four 1 second. If you use the movement speed from the proc properly in lane, you can use this to your advantage to land a couple 4th shots on your enemy laner. If you reach 100 stacks and have two bullets left; use your 3rd bullet to proc it. Then use the move speed to land your 4th shot and run back after the trade with the Whisper’s movement buff. The movement speed also helps in lane in random scenarios where you're chasing, kiting, or running away. Onwards to the rest. Fleet Footwork's healing also gives you good heals in the mid-late game when you start using it on champions. The Overheal + Bloodline combination gives you a mini version of Bloodthirster. So when you start stacking a lot of AD, you'll appreciate the synergy. Alacrity is an option if you want to increase your AD. Most champions have greater than 150 HP over you out of lane so Cutdown's minimum 4% damage increase is very reliable. You can take coup de grace four extra finishing potential and if you like the temporary AD it gives after a kill. Next is absolute focus and celerity. If you feel the extra movement speed will go a long way in mobility or auto weaving in lane, then take celerity. If not, take absolute focus four the AD. This will be amplified by your passive and crits. Gathering storm gives you AD per 10 minutes and it scales well with your passive.
The Laner (Comet + Precision): I would recommend this rune page if you're playing Clash, Tournaments, or ** are really confident in your Solo Q team. **Why you ask? Because this rune page focuses on the laning phase and early game. If you as a team cannot secure leads and end the game early; this page will fall off in usefulness to you in the mid-late game. When you combine Arcane Comet, Mana flow band, and Scorch; you're bringing a good amount of extra poke and damage to the lane. You will be using this to strengthen your laning further. The win condition of this rune page is to perfourm well in the laning phase. Whether that's going even in lane or winning the lane itself. I do not like this rune page in Solo Q because it relies heavily on your support and your team to use properly in lane and the early game. However, you have a few choices to make in rune selection if you do wish to go this route. If you want to amplify your auto weaving capabilities and add mobility, you go celerity; otherwise you can go absolute focus four the extra AD. Four the other set of choices: you can choose scorch to have more poke; or gathering storm four its nice AD gains after laning phase is over. When you're going into the secondary precision tree, you have quite a few choices to make. You have FOUR runes to pick from and it's up to you to choose which combo: triumph to give you some healing in aggressive laning/early game skirmishes; coup de grace to help in early killing potential and fights; or bloodline/alacrity if you want to have a small safety net to have scaling in the late game..
Summoner spell & Boot compliments Flash and Heal will always be the summoners you run as ADC.UnlesstheadcbarrierardenthealsupportbotlanecomesbackPLSGODNO Flash is important because of the mobility and play-making potential. You're laning with a support in the botlane, so being able to heal yourself and a teammate -normally your support or jungler- in skirmishes is very valuable.
Berserker's Greaves - 1100g: It gives +35% attack speed. Because of how Jhin's passive works, he is able to convert that +35% attack speed into AD and additional movement speed on Crits. Essentially, you would buy Berserker's when you want AD.
Boots of Swiftness - 900g: It gives +10 movement speed over the other choices and reduces the effectiveness of slows by 25%. This is good if you want to save gold and gain early mobility.
Ninja Tabi - 1100g: It provides 20 armor and reduces auto attacks by 12%. Even with the nerfs, it’s still a decent buy against AD assassins, full AD comps, or just to reduce the amount of damage you take from autos in lane. This is a must buy vs Draven. Just not as effective as it used to be, but nonetheless, still a solid choice.
Mercury's Treads - 1100g: Gives +25 magic resistance and reduces the duration of all CC effects by 30%. All except Suppression, Stasis, and Displacements. It's a good buy if the enemy has 4-5 magic damage comps. So four example, you would build merc treads into a Maokai, Viktor, Elise, Lulu and Varus. It's a rare case, but nonetheless, a solid option.
Skill Order From level 1-6, it should be Q>W>Q>E>Q>R. Afterwards, you prioritize R>Q>W>E. Do not skip traps. Take them at levelFOURnot level 3. The traps will act as extra wards. You'll want to place them in bushes, in the entrance of dragon pit, or in chokepoints in the jungle. You don't have infinite trinkets in the laning phase, and supports get sightstone at a later point, so vision is much more valuable than ever befour. Take advantage of the vision radius and waveclear potential your traps have. There are many other uses four them as well: slowing people down when they're chasing you; using it to extend your reload timer; placing them in lines to zone the enemy from an objective just to name a few.**
2. Setting Your Mind in Motion
Choosing an item build that fits your playstyle. Types of builds Like the previous guide, I'll be using the import system on all of the builds. If you'd like all of these in your client, you can download this item set file from google drive. Go to "League Client" > "Collection" > "Items" > "Import Item Sets".** These are all choices and in no specific order. You'll choose the item build that best fits your playstyle. Some old Jhin item sets will not be making a return because the state of the items or meta has changed and therefoure made them unviable or ineffective These are the four most optimal builds on Jhin ADC. The Rageblade order in these builds are subject to change.
Infinity Edge > Rapid Fire Cannon > Essence Reaver > Situational items: By starting off with Infinity Edge instead of Essence Reaver, you give yourself an extra damage boost that you wouldn't have had otherwise. With IE, your critical strike bonus damage is increased by 38.5%.. This includes your 4th shot, regular crits, and 4th shot from your ultimate. Essentially, it is just pure raw damage opposed to CDR. Next, you'll be building Rapid Fire Cannon because of how well it compliments Infinity Edge with the added 30% Crit chance, utility, and attack speed. This brings Crit chance to 50%. Next, we'll be getting Essence Reaver because it gives +80 AD and +20% crit chance, much like IE. That gives us a sizable chunk of damage due to the way AD and Crit chance gets converted into bonus AD due to Jhin's passive: Whisper. This is the Solo Q damage-focused build. You're prioritizing damage first and damage only over everything else. By going this build, you'll have space four 2 situational items. You'll be delaying that until the very end of the build.
Essence Reaver > Rapid Fire Cannon > Infinity Edge> Situational items: This is almost identical to the first one. I won't explain the synergy again since it's already been explained in the previous build. However, the important thing to take from this order is that you are rushing Essence Reaver first. This means you are prioritizing CDR (team utility) over Crit damage increase (solo damage).It also provides mana regen through Crits so you always have mana available to use your abilities. However, Jhin is not mana intensive so this goes unnoticed a lot. Essence Reaver is the most rushed item on Jhin in competitive and challenger because of it's team-related uses. However, in Solo Q your team won't always utilize the Essence Reaver rush and might not try to make constant picks with Jhin's lower cooldown abilities. I recommend rushing Essence Reaver first if you're playing in Clash, Tournaments, or have trust in your teammates.Usually better off carrying Solo Q games with raw damage
Infinity Edge/Essence Reaver > Rapid Fire Cannon > Rageblade > Situational items: Since the reasoning to rush Infinity Edge or Essence Reaver was explained, I'll be grouping the two into one choice in this build. After you rush Infinity Edge or Essence Reaver, you'll be getting Rapid Fire Cannon cause of its nice synergy through the range increase, crit chance, attack speed, and movespeed. Now here is where the reasoning behind getting it early comes. Since you're getting it as a third item, this means whatever item you get after Rageblade will add to your AD through the item’s stacks and your passive. So we're getting Rageblade early and not getting a 3rd Crit item in the build. Your build will have only Infinity Edge or Essence Reaver four crit chance but not both. While this route leads to less damage throughout the game, this allows you to buy more situational items and gives you an extra slot dedicated to them. So a good example of this is if you had to deal with tanks and needed lifesteal. You now have space to purchase a last whisper and a bloodthirster. If you had gone the other build, you would only have space four 1 situational item and you would’ve had to delay it till the end. Or you would have to delay rageblade till the end and rush your situational item. **This build is aimed towards a mix of raw damage and situational items.** THIS BUILD IS RETIRED
Ghostblade > Infinity Edge > RFC> Situational items: This is one of Jhin's classic builds that's still here and viable. If you want the most impact in the laning phase and early game then you can still get lethality through ghostblade. With this you can use the armor pen to give yourself the highest snowball potential in the laning phase and early game. After Ghostblade you'll get Infinity Edge and Rapid Fire Cannon so you can Crit when you transition into the mid-late game. After you build these two Crit items you'll want to look at Situational items. Sometimes you can get Essence Reaver after Rapid Fire Cannon if you're not in need of Last Whisper or other situational items early. However, you must get Infinity Edge after Ghostblade because of the damage and snowball potential synergy.
Situational Items
Rageblade: Get this as a 5th/6th/7th item. 7th item means you'll get this after you're full build and replace boots with it. Only take Rageblade if you're in the late game and can affourd to buy raw damage over anything else.
Mortal Reminder: When you need armor penetration and a reduction of healing on enemies. Notable champions: Soraka, Vladimir, Fiora.
Lord Dominik's Regards: When you need armor penetration and they focus on health. Notable champions: Any tank ever.
A special note about the Last Whisper items: Try to time the purchase of them when the enemy gets tanky enough (150~ Armor) to warrant it. Not too early and not too late.
Death's Dance: When you feel you need lifesteal and want to increase your survivability. It'll delay burst damage so it allows you to stay alive longer and fight longer. So you should be able to lifesteal enough to counter-act the burst damage and live. It pairs well with Ninja Tabi and Phantom Dancer.
Mercurial Scimitar: When you need lifesteal, magic resist, and a way to get yourself out of CC. Also, it gives a nice 50% movement speed buff four 1 second.
Bloodthirster: Gives 20% lifesteal which is quite a big deal when Jhin's AD reaches absurdly high levels ranging from 800-1.5k AD. In addition to this, it grants a shield if you overheal. So when you combine bloodthirster with bloodline and overheal in your runes, then you get a ton of sustain and constant shielding of yourself.
Phantom Dancer: Gives very nice kiting as well as reducing damage taken from your target by 12%. Gives the highest amount of AD out of all attack speed items because of its +45% attack speed. Replace boots with phantom dancer in the late game.
Statikk Shiv: Nice extra burst of magic damage if you combine it with RFC and a full Crit build. That way Shiv always Crits when charged. Recommended as a 4th Crit item after Rageblade + IE/RFC/ER if you don't need situational items. The waveclear got nerfed hard in patch 8.6.
Runaan's Hurricane: This item is a pretty good replacement four Statikk/PD if you are trying to defend your base against a massive wave of mega minions. Or even if you are playing against a grouped team of tanks and want to maximize your DPS with the multi-target 40% AD bolts.
Guardian Angel: It gives armor and AD. Recommended to buy against low-counter play Assassin champions where building defense stats is the best way to counter-play them. Looking at you Kha'zix and Rengar.
HexdrinkeMaw of Malmortius: These are your go-to items when dealing with magic based burst damage champions. It gives good magic resist and damage while its passive blocks a certain amount of magic damage.
3. Our perfourmance begins
Understanding the different match-ups you'll go against and how to play the laning phase accordingly. Going to need to explain a few things first befour we delve into match-ups: The way you play botlane is not just determined by which ADC the enemy picked, but which ADC+Support combo you are facing in addition to your own support. So I'm going to pair individual ADCs with support groups when I explain the match-ups. Grouping will be based on how they play the lane and what they do. I need to group some ADCs with very identical laning phase styles otherwise I'll run out of character space. Ex:Lucian + The Hookers (Thresh, Blitzcrank, and Nautilus) /OR/ Weak Lane Strong Late ADC (Twitch/Tristana/Vayne/etc) + The E-girls (Janna, Soraka, Sona, Lulu, Nami) I'll begin the grouping.
The Hookers: Thresh, Blitzcrank, and Nautilus. ------------------------------ If your support is a Hooker, look towards all-in and aggression.
The E-girls: Janna, Soraka, Sona, Lulu, and Nami. ------------------------- If your support is an E-girl, look toward playing safe, poking, passive play.
The Mages/Poke: Vel'Koz, Zyra, Brand, Karma, and Xerath. ----------- If your support is a Mage/Poke, focus on aggressive trading, poking, and all-in.
The Tanks: Alistar, Leona, Taric, Tahm, Braum, and Shen. ------------- If your support is a Tank, trade occasionally and focus on following-up the CC.
The Playmakers: Bard, Thresh, Rakan, and Alistar. ---------------- If your support is a Playmaker, try to enable each other to stack and follow-up CC.
The Unfun: Morgana. - If you have the Unfun on your team. Hope she uses E to counter engages and make sure to follow bindings if she lands any. Top 4 Supports Four Jhin: Alistar, Thresh, Vel'Koz, Tahm.
There are other supports that aren't mentioned but those are either too underplayed or too cheesy. Example: Sion, Trundle, Veigar, Poppy, Miss Fourtune, etc. You will want to compare the ADC + Support combination from below with your support from above and play the lane according to that. The match-up infourmation below will help a lot. Some match-ups will have more depth than others because those ADCs aren't as linear as the others.
Example: Draven + The Hooker vs Jhin + your support is an E-girl = Avoid all-ins, passive play, poke, and farm.
Draven - The Glorious Executioner Trading tip: Best type of auto trading is 3rd+4th shot vs Draven. Do not use full clips aka 1st-4th on a single trade. Do quick and meaningful trades. Good Starting item choices: Doran's blade, Doran's ring, and Doran's shield. +The Hookers: This is a hyper aggressive lane. As a Jhin I'd dodge this match-up in champion select because in Solo Q your support will get hooked and get the Draven extremely fed. However, if you decide to go through with the game then you need to play it carefully. Rush Tier 2 Ninja Tabi to have the armored protection and very early movement speed to weave autos, create distance better, and dodge/run from the Hooker. You should try to freeze the lane in front of your tower or let them constantly push you in. Make sure to place traps in your jungle incase they ever plan to dive. Primarily focus on trades through your Q poke and try to avoid direct auto attack trades. Don’t fourget that if you get in range to auto a Draven, he can use E to slow you and the Hooker will catch up to you. +The E-girls: Very boring lane. Draven will try to fource trades with his E-girl shield/heal whenever possible. Avoid trading or trying to poke if you don't have sustain in your lane. Play the farm game and set up ganks with control wards because in these sort of lanes, the Draven will shove a lot four his stacks. Because of the use of his Q four more stacks, he will push the lane 24/7. +The Mages/Poke: Avoid getting caught by abilities and avoid the poke skillshots. If you are able to poke them down with Jhin Q's and occasional auto attacks, then you can all-in them after you get one low. They have no sustain or shields. Take advantage of this. +The Playmakers+Tanks: These match-ups are dangerous after level 6 because of the hard-engage but they're fine pre-6. Don't get too close or you will get hit by CC. Weave in auto attacks whenever the Draven is a little far from his support. This will allow you to get in a quick trade without getting CC'd. Once they get to level 6, try to freeze lane or let them push. Set up vision around your inner jungle in case of dives. +The Unfun: Trade only when your positioning doesn't open you up to Morgana bindings.I do not recommend shoving or pushing into this lane, because if you are at their tower and the jungler is around, you could get ganked and die. Or even if they decide to 2v2 since you would have a higher distance from the safety of your turret. You will not have a minion wave to use as a shield and Morgana will most likely hit one of you with her binding. No sustain in this lane so trade whenever it is safe. I'd recommend slow poke while not shoving the wave. Outscale.
Win Condition: Don't feed. Go even and outscale. If you have all-in, poke him down first or wait four the jungler.
Weak and Immobile in lane
Ashe - The Fourest Archer
Jinx - The Loose Cannon
Kog'Maw - The Mouth of The Abyss
Trading tip: Try to walk up to them often to auto + w combo. They're immobile so there's always a high chance of hitting the W. Once you hit the W, you will gain bonus movement speed and can proceed to trade more. All the while snaring them so your support can follow up. Good Starting item choices: Doran's blade, Boots, Long Sword. +The Hookers: Play around your minion wave and try to bully the enemy ADC constantly. These ADCs don't do much damage in the early levels and they're immobile so they're vulnerable to your W and support combo. Be brave and walk up. Make sure to use the minion wave and distance from the hooker. The kill pressure isn't high, but getting hooked will still be very disadvantageous because of the health you'll lose from a hook combo + ADC follow up. +The E-girls: Their pre-6 all-in potential is non-existent. Try to engage and fource all-ins often. Do not try to trade too often because they'll have heals/shields to mitigate a good chunk of that. But on the other hand, they can't do much against constant all-ins but burn summoners or get killed. +The Mages/Poke: As long as you dodge their abilities then you'll be able to bully them both. The Mages can't do much when their abilities are on cooldown if they miss, and since the ADC is weak this early, try to all-in either one when a strong ability is on cooldown. +The Playmakers+Tanks: These guys rely a lot on landing their abilities in this lane to win fights or trades. Do your best to dodge them or keep distance and continue poking/trading. If their CC misses or is on cooldown then look to fight or take an extended trade. +The Unfun: Play around the minion wave to avoid Morgana bindings and try to trade often with autos and Q's. If Morgana cannot land her binding then they do not have kill pressure. Everytime Morgana gets close, and you have a minion wave or your support to block any potential bindings, start trading with her. If Morgana's Q is on cooldown, likely from missing it, then use this as an opportunity to bully and trade hard.
Win Condition: Play aggressive. Trade often and try to all-in or take extended trades. Make sure to be cautious about CC if they have any.
The Hard Shovers
Caitlyn - The Sheriff Of Piltover
Sivir - The Battle Mistress
Trading tip: Don't trade Caitlyn with Auto attacks. Poke with Q's and shove back. Trade with Sivir because with her short range you can still bully her. Ideal Starting item: Doran's ring Alright, I'm going to take a different approach to these two. Their laning phases aren't very interactive. You know the drill. Push. Shove. Farm. Push. Shove. Farm. Poke. Push. Farm. Shove. Poke. It's really fun when all they do is farm, shove, and try to poke you while they're doing this. Regardless of the support they have, you'll want to get Doran's ring here. That way you can give them a taste of their own medicine. Push. Shove. Farm. Right back at them. Since Jhin will be able to spam a lot more than the other two if he gets Doran's ring, then your poke power is greater overtime in comparison. If you have a kill or all-in support and would really value early AD, then you do not need to go Doran's ring. However, Doran ring is the safest and most reliable choice into these match-ups. If you're against Sivir then apply the same things as above except play more aggressively and try to trade more often to take advantage of her short range.
Win Condition: Don't allow them to have infinite shove power. Shove back and don't fall behind in CS. Stay healthy and try to poke them back in order to get kill pressure.
The Meta
Xayah - The Rebel
Kai 'Sa - Daughter Of The Void
Varus - The Arrow Of Retribution
Trading tip: Take short trades with 3rd + 4th shot and back off using the 4th shot movement speed. Do not take extended fights or trades where they can use their stacking systems and abilities. Good starting items: Doran's blade, Boots, Doran's shield +The Hookers: These ADCs have great base damages in the early game so if you get hooked it'll be extremely punishing. These ADCs aren't very mobile in lane, but they aren't weak either. I would recommend getting boots to better dodge and keep distance from the Hookers. The movement speed advantage will help you to weave autos into the trades you sneak in against these ADCs. They prefer extended trades with their stacking systems. The damage types and stacking mechanics between these three vary: Varus has his W, which does max health magic damage when activated by an ability; Xayah with her passive and E interaction that snares and deals damage upon impact with 3 feathers; and Kai ‘Sa’s passive that deals missing health magic damage. Take short trades and fource them using your movement speed advantage. Also, try to land the auto + w combo every so often to try to get your support to follow up in a nice trade or all-in. +The E-girls: If these ADCs are paired up with E-girls it'll just end up being a boring farm-fest unless you have an aggressive all-in support on your side. Focus on farming and staying healthy in the HP department. Set up ganks four your jungler using pink wards and lane control to freeze it close to your tower. +The Mages/Poke: Any of these three combined with a mage or poke support won't have that much all-in potential pre-6 as they will after. So try to poke and trade often with them pre-6 to get them low. Doing this will lead to potential leads through early recalls or kill potential. Once they get to level 6 you must be careful because now they have a lot of access to all-in potential. Start playing safe from level 6 and onwards. Avoid fights if they have their abilities up. +The Playmakers+Tanks: Your priority in this match-up is to avoid being CC'd at all cost. If you get caught the follow-up potential from any of these three will lead to death or summoner spell usage. Stick close to your support so you don't give the enemy easy openings to engage onto you. +The Unfun: If you get hit with a bind at level 6 you're dead m8.I recommend getting tier 2 boots early in these specific match ups because it'll allow you to be mobile in and around the wave as well as to dodge/sidestep different abilities. Trade whenever her binding is on cooldown because that’s her entire kit as a support outside of her spellshield.
Win Condition: Take trades when opportunities show up. Don't overextend and get caught in doing so. If you get CC'd the follow-up damage from them will hurt, more so if they are level 6 and higher. These champions are quite easy to catch in lane with ganks or roams with the exception of Xayah post 6. Try to set up roams or ganks with team + Jhin's abilities.
Weak Lane Strong Late ADC
Twitch - The Plague Rat
Vayne - The Night Hunter
Tristana - The Yordle Gunner
Trading tip: Take short trades with 3rd + Q + 4th shot and back off using the 4th shot movement speed. Do not take extended fights or trades where they can use their stack systems. Good starting items: Doran's blade, Long Sword, Boots. We won't be going over each support group match-up with these ADCs as they're very linear. You're going to want to play the same way vs all of these 3. They all rely on right-clicking extended trades to get damage off their stacks. Their specific stack damage abilities being E four Twitch, E four Tristana, and W four Vayne. They don't have skillshots or abilities that are unrelated to their auto attacking. Their damage is directly connected to their autos. Avoid extended trades and aim four quick ones. Keep in mind your reload system when trading or fighting as they will use that to their advantage. Poke them down and bully them. Do not attempt to 1v1 any of these out of lane unless you're ahead with a solid lead. You do not win the auto attack war out of lane. Becareful of invisible Twitch or Vayne flanks.
Win Condition: Bully them in lane and take quick trades only. Apply pressure onto them since they're very late game focused. Keep mind of your reload system. Do not attempt to 1v1 them after the laning phase is over.
The Neglected
Lucian - The Purifier
Kalista - The Spear of Vegeance
Trading tip: These two have some of the lowest ranges as ADCs: Lucian with 500 and Kalista with 525. Abuse their low range when trading. Use the 3rd + Q + 4th bullet trade combo when they're close to you trying to farm with their short range. Ideal starting item: Doran's blade In their current state regardless of the supports they will have you play the lane the same way. You bully them through the range difference and short trades. Do not try to all-in them until they are low and do not get super close to them otherwise they'll try to all-in you on the spot. Lucian's dash then combo as well as Kalista's infinite E stacking still hurt if they are able to pull it off on you. If you make sure to avoid those then the lane is yours to win.
Win Condition: Use range difference to your advantage. Get lots of short trades in and keep your distance from their all-in. They lose their usefulness out of lane and their laning is not the best to begin with. You can choose to bully and get leads in lane or play safe and let them fall-off in mediocrity out of lane. I'd recommend the latter.
That Q hurts!
Ezreal - The Prodigal Explorer
Miss Fourtune - The Bounty Hunter
*Trading tip: Pay attention to the minion wave! Use it to block Ezreal Q's. And constantly change position in the minion wave to avoid Miss Fuortune Q's! * Good starting items: Doran's blade, Long Sword, Boots These two are probably the most straight fourward match-ups out of the bunch.When you are against Ezreal, use the wave to block his Q's and try to trade with auto attacks by utilizing the wave to negate most of his damage. If you're against Miss Fourtune watch your positioning as to not stand behind minions the Miss Fourtune can potentially Q to harass you. Both of them have really good all-in with their ultimates once they hit level 6, so make sure to be cautious of that when trading or fighting at that point. Try to play aggressive in the laning phase while avoiding their Q's.
Win Condition: Use the minion wave to play around their Q's. Trade and bully befour level 6. Be cautious post 6 of their all-in power. Jhin outscales them. However, it’s preferred that you play aggressive pre-6 because you're the better bully.
4! I have elaborate plans four you
Transitioning from the laning phase into the mid and late game. Mid-late game focuses: Keep your CS up to scale and pay attention to potential picks with your team. Use the minimap to find where you can catch minion waves and make sure you're farming close to at least one teammate. Jhin is a very easy champion to pick off so if you're caught farming alone you're extremely vulnerable. Your Mid-late game and further is strong right now with how Rageblade interacts with Jhin, so do not pressure yourself to do any fancy outplays or getting solo kills. The most common way a Jhin dies at this stage of the game is through flanks from various blind spots. Proceed with caution and look towards using your traps to gain vision around the fog of war and your backsides.
5. Mini-Mid Jhin update
Four people who still want to play him there. I'll only be explaining the new item build and runes since everything else from the Jhin mid guide still applies this season. Runes Item build: ER>RFC>IE>Rage>Situationals You'll need Essence Reaver to push, shove, and protect your mid lane. Jhin lost a lot of solo kill potential mid since midlane is all about being safe and farming. So you're going to do just that. Buy survivability items like hexdrinker or ninja tabi if required in match-ups. Rest of details are relevant from the Jhin mid guide.
This is a guide on how to play Lethality Varus, one of the most popular and successful ADCs in League of Legends Season 10 so far. Previously dismissed as a troll build or picked solely in the mid lane, Lethality Varus has suddenly risen in popularity and is now the preferred set-up when playing the Arrow of Retribution. With no tanks on the enemy team and zero bonus armor to worry about, the marksman’s long-range Piercing Arrows can be deadly. This is a guide on how to maximize Lethality(somewhat) Varus Mid. Varus. I'm mastery 7 on Varus after playing him mid a lot, finding I really don't like ADC, even if I'm decent at it. I'm Silver 4, fairly new to the game(3 months). A massive point of contention however, is my choice of items. My runes, I run Dark Harvest, Taste of Blood, Eyeball Ultimate Hunter, Manaflow Band, Gathering Storm, +10% Attack Speed, +9 Adaptive Varus build guides - op.gg provides builds, counters, guides, masteries, runes, skill orders, combos, pro builds and statistics by top, jungle, mid, adc, support in Varus has gotten a large buff for his W Blighted Quiver that will make AP Varus much stronger. It doesn't make him a meta pick right now, but it gives you a lot of unexpected burst and makes him a lot of fun to play. He has a lot of combos and can burst down tanks because of blight's percent health damage. Varus build guides - op.gg provides builds, counters, guides, masteries, runes, skill orders, combos, pro builds and statistics by top, jungle, mid, adc, support in Hey there, you curious Varus lover! I am Jochnes aka. Lissandragon, playing League of Legends over 6 years now! I loved to play Mid Lane Varus back in season 5 and 6, he got a lot of buffs lately and I think he is playable again! This is also helpful for Adc Varus players that chose to go for a poke build! View builds, guides, stats, skill orders, runes and masteries from Pros playing Varus İntikam Oku. Check Varus's stats: Games Played, Pick Rate, Win Rate, and more. Varus build with the highest winrate runes and items in every role. U.GG analyzes millions of LoL matches to give you the best LoL champion build. Patch 11.3 We track the millions of LoL games played every day to gather champion stats, matchups, builds & summoner rankings, as well as champion stats, popularity, winrate, teams rankings, best items and spells. METAsrc LoL 11.3 Varus AR URF Build Guide, best items, mythic items, runes, build order, starting items, summoner spells, boots, trinkets, counters
KOREAN LETHALITY VARUS BUILD IS INCREDIBLE! CHALLENGER ...
#Varus Mid played by Ñexu, #NAGrandmaster 261 LP.Highlights: https://youtu.be/Xgm7BkMKCM0More information:- Runes: 00:18- Damage dealt: 26:26- Ability (skill... Kindred Mid Gameplay Guide Full AD Burst 0:00 Build 0:06 Runes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/EternalHeroLoL Enjoyed? - Like 👍, Comment & Subscribe with 🔔 ... Patch 10.1 lowered Varus' Q cooldown by 2 seconds. Full lethality Varus is back. Poke out your opponent and gain freelo. This strat will easy get you into Gold. Poke Varus is back in the top 3 ADC win rates. Let's try him out... Level 5 Q has a 10 second base cooldown. 40% CDR knocks it down to 6. Consuming an enemy'... Lethality Varus VS Attack Speed Varus, League of Legends 1vs1, Varus Montage, Varus Best Builds Welcome to my Channel SoloCarry! Subscribe for weekly Leagu... If you enjoy the video, subscribeKorean Lethality Varus - Challenger Varus ADC Full Gameplay - Patch 9.13 S9 Season 9 2019 - League of Legends (LoL)OPGG: htt...