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Twisted Fate Build Guide by Kihl

Middle Kihl's Guide to Twisted Fate [High Diamond]

Middle Kihl's Guide to Twisted Fate [High Diamond]

Updated on January 13, 2018
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Kihl Build Guide By Kihl 61 7 2,703,908 Views 14 Comments
61 7 2,703,908 Views 14 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Kihl Twisted Fate Build Guide By Kihl Updated on January 13, 2018
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Runes:

Sorcery
Arcane Comet
Manaflow Band
Celerity
Scorch

Inspiration
Perfect Timing
Minion Dematerializer

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Ignite

Ignite

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Who am I?

I am kihi, a high diamond Twisted Fate main. I climbed almost exclusively with TF into every match up, and only playing other champions when I don’t get my primary position. Peaking at D1, I am sitting at a 60% win rate over 128 games, I am very experienced in playing Twisted Fate at a high level. I started coaching recently to try to help those willing to learn. On my youtube channel I watch VODs of lower ranking players and point out mistakes for them to improve.

My youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRXVZxdA8T5mOIZrZxf8DNg

My Season 7 TF Montage:
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Why Twisted Fate?

Pros:
Twisted Fate is the god champion of solo q. Everything you need to be consistently successful at any elo. His snowball potential is nearly unmatched in mid lane, with few champions who can truly follow his roams. These powerful roams give you insane map presence that let you dictate solo queue games by yourself. As well as this, his diverse build paths and roaming play style make him hard to play against. This forces your opponents to do something to match your pressure, and will often lead to misplays and getting caught. Lastly, his Blue card and lich bane provide excellent tower power, and red card + wild card combos let you shove quickly at any point in the game.

Cons:
The downsides to Twisted Fate are his weak laning and low kill pressure. You should mainly look to farm out your laning phase. This also means until about 2 items you won't be doing a whole lot of damage. His low mobility and clear game plan makes it possible to play around or get shut down by good opponents.
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Runes

Against heavy wave clearThis page is good because Minion Demanterializer allows you to increase your wave clear for lanes with 0 kill pressure that will hinder your roams such as Xerath and Ziggs etc. The optimal use for Demanterializer is 2 melees and 4 casters. Use it as fast as possible all in a row when you can, usually can finish using them by like 4 mins. Just make sure the minion doesn't die during the animation, or you will get no bonus. Usually with this you can 1 shot casters with your Q by about 12-14 mins with your roa.

Manaflow can be swapped out for Nullifying orb if the enemy mid is an AP with very high kill pressure but its usually not necessary. Celerity, Scorch, and comet should be taken every game on TF because there is no better alternative. I prefer manaflow because it lets you spam Q more freely without having to worry about mana as much, which is good because TF can be pushed out of lane if he is forced to CS with Q primarily.


Against high poke/kill pressure lanesSwap out Mirror shell for Iron skin against AD matchups, take this page over the other into match ups you think you might die in and need the extra tankiness/sustian. Vs stuff like Talon Yasuo Azir this might help vs the all in pressure/ poke.
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Builds

Standard Build
+
This build gives you 40% CDR with your runes, gives you high damage and survivability, and provides you with many tools to snowball your team. This build works in about 80% of games and you rarely will have to build something else. Also I very often get a 2nd dorans with a refillable potion on my first back in order to have an easier laning with more sustain.

A substitute to Rod of Ages could be Hextech GLP-800. This item gives you a great tool to pick people, or add more CC after your gold card wears off. It doesn’t provide quiet as much stats as a full stacked Rod and is slightly cheaper but provides a very big laning spike since your ganks become much more potent.

Against Tough AP Matchups

Against super brutal matchups where Rod of Ages is too slow you can go abyssal first item then continue with a normal build path. If a leblanc gets an early advantage you can buy abyssal or at the very least a negatron. I build negatron first back versus champions like this most games.

Against Tough AD Matchups

Versus AD Matchups you usually need to get Zhonya’s first since champions like Talon, Yasuo, Zed, etc. Most AD champions have some spell you can dodge with zhonya's such as Zed's Death Mark, Yasuo's tornado, etc. You could also go

Final Items

If you are going the standard build I take most often if nothing is going wrong or I don’t need a specific item I will do a Rabadon’s Deathcap and a Void Staff. The order of these two items depend on whether they have MR when I am building the item or not. If no MR or very little, you don’t need void until later and can get a RoA. Otherwise I would get void first.

Situational Items
Situational Items have a very large number of options.
If you are behind and need survivability to be more useful to your team, there are a few options. Here are some items you can buy in some situations.

Banshee’s Veil
If you are losing to an AP heavy team and don’t want the damage, or if they have some engage such as ahri or elise.

Abyssal Scepter
If you are versus AP burst, or have a heavy AP team that could use the bonus magic damage to enemies around you.

Quicksilver Sash
Buy if you dying to engage or a huge cc spell is a risk, Malzahar, Warwick, Ahri, Elise, Cassio etc.

Morellonomicon
Buy versus things like Swain or Soraka if it is being a problem. If you buy this sell your Ionian boots for Sorcerer’s Boots. You will still be 10% over CDR but the anti-healing is too valuable.

Rapid Firecannon
Situational cheesey item. Good to stay at super long range to stun if getting close means death, ie Varus Lux Fizz Kat etc. You can sell boots for this item late game since your movespeed quints, Lich bane, and this item will add up to enough bonus move speed to make up for what a normal champ would have for move speed.
explain situational items
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Matchups

Ahri 5/10
Will mostly spend lane trying to shove you in and make it so you can’t roam. Pretty safe in lane with Q movespeed and R escape. Has solo kill potential if she lands her E on you level 6+ or if you take too much poke. She will often take ignite. I wouldn’t attempt to trade with her unless you know you won’t take damage, her all in potential is too strong. Play defensively early. She can follow roams well with R mobility so be careful about that.

Anivia 4/10
Mainly just wants to farm out laning phase. Post 6 you won’t be able to shove her in because of tear and RoA sustain. Often takes ignite in lane, can kill you with Q harass if you aren’t careful. Most likely will want an early negatron if they are playing aggro. She is super slow and can get ganked easily, and can’t follow roams effectively. Try to avoid playing for lane and focus on getting out of lane since you won’t be able to kill her most likely.

Annie 6/10
Usually a very aggressive laner who will have high kill pressure with full combo and ignite. Don’t be afraid to sacrifice CS if it will mean you will take a lot of damage for it. Early negatron is an option but you should be able to get away with just a RoA. Take the flat MR page for this matchup.

Aurelion Sol 5/10
Plays pretty close to Twisted Fate of shoving and roaming. Has very easy roam follows and will counter gank your ult if you don’t kill your opponent quickly. Be careful in lane about his W positioning, as the damage adds up quickly. If you stun him his W will go back to the inner region, use this to stop his damage output on you. He can roam earlier than you so make sure you pressure him by shoving if necessary.

Azir 3/10
Pretty weak right now, plays pretty aggro in lane with W Auto Q auto harass. Would recommend an early negatron to keep up with his harass. Past that it is pretty easy match up since how long it takes for him to get going and how squishy he often is. By the time he follows roams it will often be too late so look to snowball bot. Flat MR page is an option here since his laning is obnoxious.

Brand 5/10
Brand’s playstyle is often pretty telegraphed since he has only 1 combo, so with experience he won’t be able to hit you often. Will often take a combat summoner so your main goal in lane is to not die. Team fights you need to avoid clumping to dodge unnecessary burst. You also need to avoid 5v5 fights in areas like dragon and baron without having picks beforehand. Take flat MR page if you aren’t confident in your dodging.

Cassiopeia 7/10
Strong in lane but often has too much mana problems to punish you fully. Post 6 with tear she can kill you if she lands absolutely everything, but you mainly need to avoid her Qs, and if she hits them you back out of lane to not get E spammed. If you farm at max distance she won’t be able to do anything. Pretty immobile and will die to ganks easily with jungle follow up. Can take exhaust into this matchup if you want, but ghost is pretty valuable to dodge her spells.

Corki 10/10
Really awful match up since the pure damage and harass he can put out on you. Level 1 you can’t trade due to corruption potion along with his E resistance shred. Mainly have to sacrifice CS and try not to get too low to make plays. His package is very potent to gank other lanes and will be hard to follow up after his initial burst. Usually will take cleanse against you making him very hard to gank with W Cleanse and Flash. Hard to itemize against as well. Take the flat MR page in this matchup.

Diana 5/10
Usually will shove level 1-3 and walk away from lane to try to get XP without having to fight you for it. Level 6 all in is strong, have to back up if Q lands or play back in general. Once you have RoA it will be hard to get killed 100-0. Also, since her engage pattern is obvious she is easy to play against in team fights if you peel for your team. Try not to get caught rotating since that is her win condition.

Ekko 6/10
In my experience Ekko just all ins you over and over until you can’t lane. E Q will chunk you out slowly and if you can’t react or predict the harass. Could take a combat summoner, if he does you may need to back for your dorans and ruby crystal from your RoA earlier for a health cushion. Hard to punish with his ult unless you burst him super hard, just try to stun him when he E’s in so he is forced to back out and is unable to fight further.

Fizz 9/10
Annoying lane that is very punishing if played badly. Can snowball hard off a successful early all in. Will take ignite and will all in you constantly past 6. Get a full abyssal early and try to not die. He can also dodge your gold cards so don’t throw it when his E is up, fake him out with Q throw. Exhaust doesn’t work well vs fizz since you can’t use it when he is on his E so you will get the full RE damage, then the QW since the R stuns. Take barrier if you are super scared of fizz.

Gangplank 7/10
Laning can be bad if the gangplank is good. Will harass with Q spam and barrels out of your reach and chain them for harass, and orange when you retaliate. Early Armguard into RoA is good to counter his harass. Late game he will be hard to shut down with his orange. Look to stun him when he will get chained or after his orange is on cooldown. Often will take a exhaust in mid which increases his kill pressure.

Jayce 9/10
A good jayce will destroy you in lane since his all in is very strong with consistent damage on you. Rush armguard into RoA since the full zhonya’s won’t really help besides more armor. Need to play very carefully in lane because a mis step can mean death since he will often take ignite or exhaust. Lethality will mean his harass will do insane damage mid game, try to play far back until something happens. He can’t follow roams effectively so getting a lane snowballing is a good win condition. Take Exhaust as well.

Katarina 7/10
Her best way of harassing you is E’ing in, W and Q’ing at the same time so no matter where you run she will have a reset. Need exhaust in this matchup. Try to save stuns for her if possible, or catch her before she can get combos off.

LeBlanc 8/10
Huge lane bully with high kill pressure. Little easier to lane against compared to some of the other bad matchups but still annoying. Have to respect her damage and back if you are in kill range. Early negatron is a must as well as the flat MR page. Have to watch out for her pick potential and effective roams. Try to stay even in CS and roam to other lanes.

Lissandra 3/10
You can take cleanse vs her and just farm. You can push her in all game and she won’t be able to keep up due to her mana costs. Her only threat is getting a gank and killing you with her ult. She is too slow to follow roams and you will often be able to pick up kills without her being able to retaliate, just push in before you leave to force her to miss cs.

Lux 5/10
Her laning consists of E auto spamming to harass, and will probably try to all in you if you get low or have 6 and lands a Q. Just bait out her E by walking up then turning around and you should be fine. Zhonya’s stops her ER burst if she casts it. If she uses her spells try to trade after.

Orianna 7/10
Strong zoning and harass as well as team fight snowballing. A good orianna will make you fight for every CS but a majority of players can’t play orianna very well. If you can make picks before she gets there to ult she won’t be able to do anything. Watch out for dragon/baron fights.

Pantheon 10/10
Hard counter pick that experienced players will know about. Almost no way to trade with him due to his passive, and will poke you out from level 1 with his Q. Build zhonya’s early and try not to die. His ult follows your ult very quickly, so you can’t snowball other lanes very well either. Have to try to make picks on his team so he can’t assassinate people.

Ryze 7/10
Ryze mainly looks to farm out laning and get to late game since of how strong he is then, but still has kill pressure if you misplay. Level 1 he will try to shove 3-4 waves and back for tear, so trading won’t matter that much since he will want to back anyway. Best option to shut down ryze is camp him, so buy pinks for one side of the river to help your jungler. His ult can kind of follow your roams and can make plays around the map, so be ready for his engages. His shoving is faster than yours so you may have to lose CS to roam. Avoid hard trading since his burst is so high.

Syndra 5/10
Lane harass is easily dodgable with MS quints, you can also buy boots to start in this matchup. Post 6 she can probably kill you if she lands everything so a negatron or abyssal rush is possible. Her main strength is making picks with her ult so make sure you don’t mis position mid game. You will likely be able to shove her in. As long as you don’t eat too much harass doing it you will be safe.

Taliyah 7/10
Has a pretty strong laning phase post 3 with her all-in combo. Follows your roam very quickly and can pin you off with her wall and kill you. She will most likely try to shove you in and initiate a roam so be ready to ult and possibly lose CS for it. She isn’t very mobile so it’s possible to catch her out late game but she will be playing at max Q range.

Talon 6/10
Talon has the strongest level 2 all-in in the game with his W Q auto combo with his passive. Don’t let him hit you with both halves of his W, and rush zhonyas. He has no mobility besides flash so he is weak to ganks. If you position yourself in your minions he will be forced to push when he W harasses.

Veigar 3/10
Basically just afk farms mid and tries to get big. All you have to do is play back enough that he won’t be able to E since his engage is pretty telegraphed. As long as you don’t die to his all in and snowball other lanes he will be pretty weak. Late game he will most likely be able to QR kill you so banshees is a good buy.

Viktor 5/10
Not as strong as he used to be. Will most likely try to shove you out of lane with E harass. Once he uses E you can try to harass with your stun Q combo. If he is being super aggressive then get a negatron early, otherwise you should be okay. He will burst late game so you may need some MR.

Vel'koz 4/10
All his spells are dodgable and his main threat is his R when he lands his spells and gets his passive off on you. Boots start are an option but good vel’koz will just hard shove with W from level 1 and try to farm until late. Immobile but can E your R so be ready to flash it if you engage on him.

Xerath 4/10
All spells are dodgeable, shouldn’t be able to have enough damage to kill you. Get a negatron if you fall behind but you should be able to red card Q shove and force him to run out of mana. He will make pushing hard so try to split up your team to get towers and dragons.

Yasuo 9/10
Take Exhaust vs yasuo. He is too mobile with too many tools to make up for bad play so you can’t punish him. E spam + shield + Tornado zoning for 10s. Get zhonyas to counter his tornado if you get caught. You won’t be able to catch him out since his windwall, but most yasuos will wind wall if you Q with a gold card out since they don’t know the animation.

Zed 7/10
Take Exhaust in this matchup, will lessen his ult power. Not really played often but is okay with lethality buffs. Can dodge your W with his R so try to fake him out with Q. You will most likely be able to shove him in as long as you keep wards up, since his energy takes a long time to get back up. If he uses his W try to harass him since it’s a 20s CD.

Ziggs 6/10
Obnoxious laning who will mainly try to poke you down with Q’s when you are in the minion wave. Will pretty much just shove you in and try to take your tower with his W early. Try to not let him push you in too much but it will be hard. If your jungler ganks you can flash gold card so he cant get his satchel off to escape. If you ult roam you will most likely lose your tower but try to make your roams worth it.
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Laning Techniques

Level 1 Red Card Push
Against champions who use a lot of mana to push or are weak in lane you can triple red card the casters to start. As soon as minions get to lane have a red card out to hit the middle caster. Auto the melees and red card whenever your W is up. Champions like Lux Leblanc Fizz will have trouble csing under tower and will often miss it. If you push fast enough the lane will reset for the 2nd so you can choose not to push.

Level 2 Set Up
If you have the 2nd wave there and both waves from the first are dead, you can auto down a single minion to get level 2 before your opponent, then run up and gold as you hit 2 and try to trade with thunder lords. Risky vs some champions like Jayce Leblanc Corki who can out trade you with 1 spell.

Trading with Stacked Deck
Try to set up your trades so you can hit them with a W+E into a Q when you have stacked deck up and it will do a very large amount of damage. Additionally, a normal auto with E up will give 2 stacks of thunderlords.

Punishing Bad Trades
Twisted Fate doesn’t necessarily have great trading in lane, but he punishes bad trades very well. If your opponent misses spells and you can stun them and get out without them retaliating it is very good. This is your main goal in lane. If a leblanc misses her W E you can trade without her being able to do much. It depends on each champ matchup and requires experience.

Positioning
You usually want to be fluttering on the edge of your max range and moving up to CS with autos blue card or Q, or harass your opponent with a red card on minions nearby and try to snipe them with Q once they are slowed. You shouldn’t be positioning too aggressively unless you can get autos off for free while they CS.

Predictable Movement
You have to know both yours and enemies’ movements and can’t play too telegraphed. If you are way out of auto range and walk up when a minion gets low it’s obvious what you are doing and you will be punished if your opponent is good. If your opponent is playing passively all game and randomly goes aggro, odds are you are getting ganked and should just back up. Also people often harass in standard patterns, ie walking up and using the same spell rotation, so if you see them walk up try to play in a way you can dodge the spell or hit back.
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Effective Side Lane Roams

Countering Roam Follows
Enemies who know how to play vs TF will ward the wall between wraiths and river and the similar spot on the other side to counter your roam. You can drop a pink there if they do, or drop a pink outside red/blue in the bush towards bot side. This doesn’t let them see where you are or know what you are doing. This sets you up so the enemy mid either has to try to follow your roam without knowing where you are or will be 20s behind. Additionally, if possible you should try to shove into tower before roaming so the enemy mid will lose cs if they follow. The champions with ways off following like Taliyah Pantheon etc you will need to ping your team in order to focus down one enemy and get out, or be ready to fight when you get counter ganked. If you linger in a gank too long you can get cleaned up

Stacked Deck Prepping
Before you roam to a side lane you should attempt to get your stacked deck up before you leave. The best way to do this is using your red card and Q to clear the wave so your last auto leaves you at a stacked deck. If nothings around you can auto wraiths and run away, or auto scuttle to get the final stacks. The extra 0.5 AP scale gives you significant bonus burst.

Prepping by Shoving
A simple red card + Q down the minion wave should put all the minions pretty low for you to kill with autos and you can finish off with a Q to leave your E up. By shoving before roaming your enemy will have to follow and lose CS, or not follow and let a gank succeed for free. If they follow and you don’t end up roaming then you can just walk back and they will have missed CS/XP.

Fake Roam
If you are against someone who is following your roams well, you can fake them out by shoving and walking out of lane near wraiths or the same spot but on top side. This way they will lose out on lane while you simply stand there. Alternatively, you can go farm wraiths or wolves in the meantime.

Effective Farming of Wraiths and Wolves Early/Mid Game
With low items a red card Q will leave wraiths and mini wolves super low. In order to farm wraiths effectively, Red card the middle little wraith, auto a different one, then q them all when they clump on you. Then finish the little ones with autos and blue/gold the big wraith down to finish depending on if you need mana back or want to take less damage. With wolves red card the big wolf and then q all 3. Auto the little wolves down using stacked deck effectively and then finish the big wolf. Best to farm these camps after you shove into their tower. Even if they hard shove instantly you should only miss 1 or 2 cs so you come out ahead.
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Mid Game

Mid game your main goal is to get kills to snowball while keeping your farm up. Farming on TF is more effective than other champions since his loaded dice providing free gold. If you can stay even in CS with your lane opponent, you are winning your lane. Optimally you want to pressure your lane opponent to make plays by shoving mid and roaming with R and picking up kills. From there you want to get tower if it’s a possibility or do dragon if your jungler is there.

TF’s map presence is huge. By pushing in lanes and getting ult kills consistently, your team will be in a very good position to win. Simply warding where you roam allows you to set up future picks. People will often just walk into a bad spot and die to a gold card if you can time it with your team right. If you have strong follow up like lee maokai jhin thresh and so on you can easily snow ball off picks. By you running between lanes causing pressure, eventually someone will take the wrong step at the wrong time and run into you and die.

Also, since you have what is basically a half map TP summoner spell you can split push 1 lane away from your team and draw enemies. As long as you don’t die, there are 3 possibilities of what could happen. The first is nothing happens anywhere and you get free CS and potentially towers while your team gets farm elsewhere, while their team gets only 1 lane of farm. The second possibility is someone coming to match your push, and you can try to ult in and get a pick. Lastly, you get multi man ganked and your team can push for free. You have to ward up to prevent dying in your third situation. Pink wards are valuable at every point in the game.
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Late Game

Playing the late game is often a more extreme version of mid game. Fights end faster and picks are more important. One death will often mean losing a good amount of resources or ground, swinging the warding and ability to push. Split pushing becomes a bit riskier since they can 5 man, but warding with your team is important. I often will farm out of vision or quickly clear waves and be ready to ult to my team if needed. Farming outside of range of your team with R is very risky and can cost you games. TF can either engage or peel, so play accordingly.

If your team is more fed than you are you can just peel for them since you have such a strong way to stop people in their tracks. If you are the most fed or they have some huge threat, try to pick them off or engage on them. Your main goal is to try to set up your team for a win win. Forcing tower so they either give tower or risk losing a fight. Your baron control is also strong since you can ult and pick anyone who is split up when they try to engage on baron.
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Tips and Tricks

Wave Clearing
There are three situations where you are wave clearing with different approaches for each.
The first is if you have complete control of the lane and you are there when the minions walk up. Here, you should red card the middle melee minion and Q down the line. Your Q should instakill the casters if you have a few items, then auto down the melees. If it doesn’t instakill the casters auto down the casters and red card the melees again when they get low.The second situation is if your lane opponent is there and you want to shove. There are 2 ways to do it. The more telegraphed way is to red card melees and Q as many minions as you can, often the most you can do is 4/5 because of minion spread. You will have to auto some which may lose you some cs if they read what you are doing. The sudden push is to Q down the lane to feign last hitting from a distance, then you red card Q to clear the wave near instantly, then you can leave lane. This is the one I use most often since people won’t see it coming, since they think the Q is for last hitting.
Lastly if you are pushing when your lane opponent isn’t there, but the minions aren’t walking down the lane, you have to Q from the side so the middle of your Q hits all 3 melees, and the outer arc of your Q hits all 3 casters. Then red card the melees and the wave should be dead if you have 2+ items.

Knowing Potential Burst Before Ulting
When ulting in bot lane or in general you should know what spells or burst are going to come your way when you go. Champions with traps will drop one at your feet, ie cait has huge burst on you if you are 1v1. Mages with timed stuns can stun you as soon as you come if they are prepared or you don’t flash it, ie zilean thresh blitz janna. Also, know how your team will follow up and be prepared for it. General game knowledge is very useful on Twisted Fate in general.

Knowing Both Team's Strengths
It is also important to analyze each teams strengths and know what you have to do. If you have draven Leona bot you should get them snowballing then peel for draven in fights. If you have armor pen varus then you should play to make picks and get objectives. If they have one fed player try to group up on them and stun him out of the fights.
Be ready to guard your jungle/ invade with your team level 1. You have one of the best level 1 invades in the game with a spammable reliable stun that often forces flashes.
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