Introduction
Corki is a champion rarely seen in lower elo game play, however he is one of the most used champions when it comes to high elo tournaments. Most of this is due to Corki’s hidden passive known as crazy flying man, this is effectively a global taunt. In every single team fight you will be targeted and being a squishy you will go down pretty fast. Corki has no crowd control and is highly team dependent. However, if you can overcome these obstacles with a decent team and someone to tank for you, you will wreck faces and have people crying “QQ C0RKI OP N3RF PL0X”.
Corki plays the role of the AD ranged Carry. He offers a lot of raw damage of both physical and magic damage due to Phosphorous Bomb & Missile Barrage and ability to shred armor with Gatling Gun, as well as additional true damage due to his amazing passive. Do note that Corki is not like your average ranged DPS carry. You do not sit there auto-attacking people. You have bombs. You have guns. You have missiles. You have an airplane. YOU ARE CORKI.
Recent Patch Thoughts
Corki gotten some recent buffs in order to compensate his par with other strong ad carries such as Graves and Tristana. His Gatling Gun now has a set damage with scaling AD, makes his early game & mid game significantly better, his end game slightly weaker, due to less armor shred. His phosphorus bomb is a bit better and can now chase through brushes easier too lol. The new masteries I believe made Corki incredibly powerful, and one the strongest ad champs out there.
PHOSPHORUS BOMB WHY YOU NO BLIND???
So basically Corki lost his early game dominance, due to the nerf of all his skill damage. However it wasn't too heavy of a nerf and he is still strong of a pick. He still has his armor shredding abilities & his missiles still hit hard mid game. Although phosphorus bomb no longer blinds )=, it is still a decent early game damaging ability and still be used to proc trinity force.
Masteries
I run a 24-6-0 masteries. Being an AD Carry who can only deal raw damage, you might as well deal even more damage. A lot of the offense tree helps Corki's damage output. Your missiles are already on a low cool-down and you don't really need the extra cool-down from the utility tree. You don't need the movement speed either, if you can't get away with a
Valkyrie, a
Flash, then I'm pretty sure the movement speed isn't going to save you. Although the mana regen and the buff increase are nice, the offensive tree offers much better things to Corki.
I use the extra 6 points and put them in defense rather than utility as the defense masteries will help greatly during the laning phase so you wont die as easily as your team rages at you to stop feeding. This gives Corki the extra resistances in order to lane and make Corki a bit more beefy.
Skills
- Hextech Shrapnel Shells: An incredible passive on a AD carry. This passive allows you to farm with minimum difficulty. It also allows you to DPS as much as possible during fights. This passive defines Corki, as it makes him one of the best AD carries.
- Phosphorus Bomb: Your early game nuke. Use this to harass your enemies as well as last hitting efficiently. Pre-nerf, you can use this skill to trade hits as they have a chance to miss their auto-attacks on you; now, it can be still used to cause not as heavy, but still strong damage to your opponents.
- Valkyrie: Oh how I love this skill. This skill babysits Corki. Getting ganked? Valkyrie away! You won't believe how many times this skill will save your butt. Using Valkyrie for damage is not recommended; it should be used to chase down low HP enemies, escape, or positioning. Note that this skill can be used to jump over ledges.
- Gatling Gun: This skill allows Corki to DPS even more. How lovely. This ability allows Corki to shred armor to overall increase the amount of AD damage on the team. Keep this on during the midst of a team fight, and your team's DPS will sky-rocket incredibly. This skill is highly underestimated during the laning phase. It costs slightly less than a phosphorus bomb, but should allow you to farm well and separate you & your enemy. Nobody in the right mind, will sit in a gatling gun while taking damage.
- Missile Barrage: Corki can not live without this skill. Seriously. It allows him wreck faces. With missiles, it's impossible to deny Corki from being farmed. With a phosphorus bomb and a missile, it is possible to clear minion waves with ease. The low cooldown of Missle Barrage allows Corki to proc
Sheen or
Trinity Force every two seconds resulting in overall double damage for him.
It is recommended to smart cast Missile Barrage. Doing this, your accuracy will increase and allow you wreck faces. It will also speed up the missile timing which will help. To set smart casts: Go to options during a game, open key bindings, scroll down to smart cast skill 4, and set it to any hotkey. Or you can use Shift + R.
Items
Starting Items:
This is what you should get if you have no sustainability in your lane. This is when you are laning with aggressive supports with no heals such as Blitzcrank & Leona. The three pots compared to the doran's blade will
or
Doran's blade is quite a cheap item to collect & utilize. It can be said that almost all AD carries grab 2 to 3 Doran's blade for extra sustainability in lane as well as early game damage source. Due to Corki's lane nerf, I believe it is vital to grab 1-3 doran's blade for your laning strength.
Core:
What you want to do is rush Trinity Force as fast as possible. As soon as you have Trinity, you should see your DPS shoot way up. Combining missles and proc-ed auto attacks allow you to DPS as much as possible. Trinity force I believe is god tier on Corki. With it's double damage proc and reliable slow, as well as some survivability, it's worth rushing. Berserker's Greaves are the best shoes in order to heighten your DPS.
Situational Items:
- Due to the game might switching to a new meta, the jungler, the AD carry, and the top lane bruiser grabs a wriggle's for a quick dragon. This item can also sustain you in lane as well.
- If you are facing difficulty with CC & magic damage, you can prioritize mercury's threads over berserker's greaves.
- Typically, you would grab black cleaver if they are stacking no defense. This allows you shred armor like a beast. Having incredible synergy with
Gatling Gun, black cleaver is recommended.
- Infinity Edge. I tested this item on Corki and I realized it wasn't that bad. It provides great damage overall as a carry & synergies with your passive.
- If you need extra survivability, the bloodthirster is an excellent choice as it offers up to 25% life steal.
- If many of the opposing team's champions are stacking HP, Madred's Bloodrazor can be a hard counter and is optimal.
- Last Whisper should be bought if the opposing team is stacking defense. A must for your late game build.
- An often overlooked item on Corki, a brutalizer is a great mid-game item for Corki to optimize his damage potential.
- Great item. I mean, we all been through ashe's frost arrow lock, and yeah... it's pretty annoying. Quicksilver sash is a great item to negate cc on the enemy team as well as a great source of magic resistance.
- Can be used if having trouble with DPS champions, can turn Corki into a more sustainable champion. Can be built to Randuin's Omen for extra durability.
- Recommended defense item, gives MR, health, and a bubble shield, often used in Corki builds.
- A generally good pick for a defensive item.
About Manamune
Unlike other guides I have read, I do not rush Manamune. Despite the fact that it supplies you with an incredible amount of mana with an affordable price and let's you farm extraordinary, I believe that your money should be spent on buying attack items. The clarity runes will suffice in terms of mana problems. However, this is the way I build him, and you aren't limited to try Manamune. It's all about personal preference. If you believe that you are constantly mana starved grab a manamune, if you don't, then simply jump to his straight up damage build. Let's say that there are 2 Corki's, one on each team. By the time the opponent is done getting manamune and a sheen for damage, you would already have a trinity force.
However, if you are solo laning, manamune is a very good item, it allows you to farm faster with your skills. Just remember to get expanded mind in the utility tree in order to take full advantage of Manamune's unique's active.
Early Game
I believe that Corki should now take bot lane with a support whenever possible because it gives him the greatest amount of farm. Try to avoid laning with someone who also needs alot of farm such as Nasus or another Carry. Due note that Corki isn't the strongest laner and you will have some trouble with AP Nuke champs as Corki is extremely squishy and you'll crash your plane in a matter of seconds.
During early game, Corki should be farming as much as possible. This means last hitting whenever you can. A
Boots of Speed & 3
Health Potion or a support should sustain you lane, so you can last hit minions. Whenever you get harassed in lane simply throw back a
Phosphorus Bomb and an auto attack. If that doesn't work, retreat to your turret, and last hit under the turret. The melee minion takes 2 turret hits and one auto-attack. Caster minions takes 1 auto-attack, 1 turret hit, and 1 more auto-attack. Being farmed allows you to become a pubstomping carry later in the game.
Mid Game
By the time you farmed up a
Sheen, you can push out your lane and gank top or bot. However, you should keep farming at all times. Grab the jungle creeps, farm everything! At level 7, you can destroy the wraith camp with one
Phosphorus Bomb &
Missile Barrage. When ganking other lanes, pop
Gatling Gun, attack, and keep shooting your missiles. The constant
Sheen proc damage will amaze you. Use
Valkyrie to chase & keep
Gatling Gun on them, or just escape. A well fed Corki will wreck faces.
By this time, you have to be incredibly map aware. Don't rely heavily on MIA calls as you have to watch the minimap before you decide to push a lane or farm. By this time your jungler should be okay with you taking red buff. You should stick with your team and not isolate yourself. If you decide to even push a lane by yourself, you have to realize that 2 people can gank you with a form of cc. Sticking with your team is recommended by midgame as you are secure if well positioned.
End Game
By this time, you are a force to be reckoned with. Although your
Missile Barrage seem like they do subpar damage, it's great for poking before a team fight. During a team fight in late game, you have to be aware of your positioning. Whenever you're targeted, you have to flash or
Valkyrie away. You can't just be sitting in the middle of the team fight, you have to be AWARE. Basically, you should grab red whenever possible, and wreck faces with your DPS. Throw down your
Phosphorus Bomb, pop
Gatling Gun, and continuously fire your
Missile Barrage while you auto attack them off. You want to consistently do damage to the other team. Think in a position where if you die, you will lose the team fight. Keep your distance, do damage, win.
Final Remarks
This is the first guide I written, and I hope it helped you out with your Corki gameplay. Constructive criticism & suggestions are encouraged. Thank you for reading!
Shoutouts to my cousin Kevin for helping me with the building of this guide.
Lemme Ashe you a question...
Did you wreck faces?