Corki Build Guide by Im Nex

Pros and Cons

When to play Corki

Against
Vayne, Tristana, Graves, Ashe, Varus, Twitch, or Sivir

OR With
Leona, Taric, Blitzcrank, or Janna

Try to avoid playing Corki against

Caitlyn, Kog'Maw, Urgot, or Draven

I will later post how you should fight against each of these champions.

Summoner Spells

Flash Ignite are not the only summoners that you should be using!

You should always be using flash on Corki, By far the most viable summoner spell the game. Can be used to Escape, initiate, position, dive, and escape CC. Flash also combos very well with Valkyrie. Flash is much more useful the Ghost.

Great against healers like Soraka, Sona, Taric, and others, take ignight as your second summoner spell if you have sustain from a support. If you have a non healing support and nether dose your enemy then grab heal instead.

Take this if you have no sustain from a support. Example, Blitzcrank, Leona, or Janna.

Take this if your against some strong CC such as Ashe, Leona, Morgana, Amumu, and Pantheon. Very good summoner spell but takes some skill to use.

Better if your support takes this but still viable on Corki against ATK speed champions.

REMEMBER TO ALWAYS HAVE Flash ONLY REPLACE YOUR SECOND SUMMONER SPELL WITH ANY OTHER!

Runes

MARKS

Runes on almost every ADC are pretty basic and the same but here's how it works. Armour penetration runes become more valuable then ATK damage runes against any target with 100+ armor. In champion select look at the enemy team, now do you think that 3/5 champions on their team will end up with 100+ armor? if so throw some armor pen runes on. However if your not to sure about this I recommend sticking with ATK damage runes as your passive scales on ATK damage, this also helps with last hitting.

SEALS

Stick with flat armor seals as they provide protection from minion hits and harass damage from the enemy ADC.
Only exception is if your new to Corki and have mana issues, then take some mana regen seals.

GLYPHS

Flat magic resist runes really help you late game take these and stick with them, nothing else is as good.

QUINTESSENCE'S

Just like the marks decide if you think there will be more armor or health.

MY RUNE PAGE FOR WHEN I CORKI

Masterys

NOW lets take a look at this mastery tree.
- First off we have Summoner's Wrath for the upgrade on summoner spells, put 1 point in this if you are using ether Ignite or Exhaust if not then place the point in Butcher

- Next we have 3 points in Brute Force keep this the way it is.

- After that we move down a layer to Alacrity , place 4 points in this for extra ATK speed, really helps.

- Moving down we take 4 points in Deadliness and 1 point in Weapon Expertise this provides us with more AD and 10% armor pen witch is actually a very good boost.

- Then we take 1 point in Lethality for bonus critical strike damage and 3 points in Vampirism for life steal that helps us sustain in lane. If you don't feel you need the extra life steal then take the 3 points out of Vampirism and put them into Havoc . This provides less life steal early game but gives us more damage late game once we have some AD items.

- Next we take 3 points in Sunder for even more armor penetration.

- Finally for the attack tree we take our 21'st point in Executioner for more bonus damage.

NOW moving onto the defensive tree!

- First off if your using Cleanse or Heal then take a single point in Summoner's Resolve if not place this point in Resistance .

- Next we take 3 points in Hardiness for armor, this is very important and must not be changed.

- Next we take 4 points in Durability for more health.

- Lastly for our defensive tree we take a 9th point in Veteran's Scars

Skill Rundown

Phosphorus Bomb - Corki fires a flash bomb at a target location. This attack reveals non-stealthed units around the blast and champions for 6 seconds.
Deals 80/130/180/230/280 (+0.5) magic damage to enemies in a target area. In addition, the blast reveals the area and champions hit by the blast for 6 seconds (does not reveal stealth).

Use:
This ability is amazing during the lane phase, it provides a ton of early burst witch you can use to win damage trades or pick up last hits while farming. I take this at level 1 and max it by 9 for its early game advantage, if your lane phase is going well
- You can use this to check bush's or check over Baron/Dragon wall, Make sure not to hit Baron or Dragon with the ability though!
- When there are 2+ minions with low health and you can't get both of them with last hits use Phosphorus Bomb to get both of them at once.
- Provides decent AOE burst damage for team fights.
- Try not to use this too much as it has a high mana cost.

Valkyrie - Corki surges to target location, dropping bombs that create a trail of destruction for opponents who remain in the fire.
Corki surges to target location, dealing 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.4) magic damage per second to enemies in the fire left along his path.

Use:
Use this ability to ether jump into a enemy and throw down you combo for amazing burst or to escape from almost any gank. I take 1 point in the at level 2 and then don't max in until level 18, this is because there is almost no reason to upgrade this past 1 point when you can upgrade Phosphorus Bomb or Gatling Gun for much more damage.
- Can be used when your support decides to attack, use Valkyrie into their range activate Gatling Gun while landing auto attacks and then go for more burst with Phosphorus Bomb and even more with Missile Barrage.
- Use Valkyrie to escape over walls our out of combat this can combo well with Flash.
- Warning Valkyrie has a very high cool down and a large mana cost so only use it when you actually need it.

Gatling Gun - Corki's gatling gun rapidly fires in a cone in front of him, dealing damage and reducing enemy armor.
Corki's gatling gun fires at all targets in front of him for 4 seconds, dealing 20/32/44/56/68 (+0.4) physical damage and reducing 2/4/6/8/10 armor per second. The armor reduction stacks and lasts 2 seconds.

Use:
This ability can be used to destroy armor and deal massive damage in a short period of time. I I take my first point in Gatling Gun at level 4 and then max it by level 13, this is because it is not the best skill during the farming phase but then become very important when team fights start happening at around level 10-15. If your team is forcing fights on you early game I recommend taking more points in this earlier instead of Phosphorus Bomb.
- Gatling Gun reduces armor in a AOE area by 40 when maxed, that's a lot!
- Stacking Gatling Guns passive with the black cleaver makes it easy to drop targets armor below 0.
- Use this in team fights always.
- Mastering the use of Gatling Gun will make you unstoppable.

Missile Barrage - Corki fires a missile toward his target location that explodes on impact, dealing damage to enemies in an area. Corki stores one missile every 10 seconds up to 7 missiles total. Every 4th missile will be a Big One, dealing extra damage.
Corki fires a missile toward his targeted location that will collide with the first enemy it hits. Each missile deals 120/190/260 (+0.2) (+0.3) area magic damage.
Corki stores one missile every 10.0 seconds up to 7 missiles at any given time.
Every 4th missile will be a Big One, dealing 50% extra damage.

Use:
Great poke damage and farming potential. Great low mana and short cool down ability. Just like almost any other ultimate in the game take a point in Missile Barrage at level 6, 11, and level 16.
- Can be used to pick off last hit minion kills from a far range.
- Helps when your forced to farm under turret.
- Great for pocking and zoning.
- Awesome burst for winning damage trades.
- AOE damage, anyone wanna team fight. ;)
- Can be used to take out champs who try and run away

Hextech Shrapnel Shells - Corki's basic attacks deal 10% additional true damage to minions, monsters, and champions.

Use:
One of the best passives in the game, you simply gain 10% true damage on every auto attack, the more damage you do it scales even higher.
- This scales with some item ability's like sheen.
- The amount of damage your passive deals is not reduced by armor as it is true damage.

Viable Items

Boots

Berserker's Greaves are great on almost any ADC as they are very cheap boots and provide ATK speed. More ATK speed means better DPS.

Mercury's Treads are a decent item on Corki, they provide magic resist and also Tenacity , I recommend buying these boots when you are against very high cc teams. Remember Tenacity dose not affect knock ups, or knock backs.

Ninja Tabi provides some protection against AD stacked teams, also may be a good choice if one of the enemy ADC's are fed.

AD Items for More Damage

Doran's Blade is viable on almost every AD in the game, it proves attack damage health and a small amount of life steal all in one 475g item. I recommend buying this item if your having trouble in lane, died once? Solution buy a Doran's Blade.

Trinity Force is probably one of the best items for Corki, buying a Trinity Force lets you be able to win damage trades at ease. Try rushing a [[Trinity Force as fast as possible starting with Phage.

Infinity Edge is a amazing item for any champion that has 50% + Chance of hitting a critical strike. Buy a Infinity Edge as soon as you can after your Trinity Force.

The Bloodthirster is almost like the Infinity Edge great on almost any AD champion providing the most AD in the game at max stacks and also giving decent life steal.

The Black Cleaver is a great item on Corki. Now some people prefer to buy Last Whisper over The Black Cleaver, for me I prefer The Black Cleaver when I play Corki as it stacks well with Gatling Gun. Gatling Gun reduces armor by 40 while The Black Cleaver drops it a extra 45. That means even without all armor penetration from runes or mastery's you can drop anyone with 85 armor all the way to 0.

Last Whisper is a good item on Corki but like I said before its your choice but I prefer The Black Cleaver.

Phantom Dancer's are a decent item on Corki but not the best, as The Black Cleaver should provide enough ATK speed by its self. Only buy this item if you decide not to buy a The Black Cleaver.

Defensive Items

Guardian Angel really really helps Corki in late game stages, Guardian Angel helps a lot in team fights making it much harder for the other team to focus you down.

Banshee's Veil is a decent item if you are lacking magic resist or find that you need a spell shield badly. Banshee's Veil may be a good item to consider if are fighting champions such as Ryze, Kennen Le Blanc or Karthus

CORE

Your core items are items that you should make sure your buying every single game.

CORE


OR

OR

How I play Corki

I normally play Corki when I end up having to pick before the other ADC, this is because Corki has about the least amount of counters across ADC's. Also most those champions that do counter him are quite underplayed.

THE LANE PHASE

Look at the picture above, I have divided the bottom lane into 3 zones, high, medium, and low danger zones.

LOW DANGER ZONE

This area is almost always a safe zone early game. In this zone you are safe from most ganks and you have easy access to you're turret incase something happens. Try and keep the minion at the edge of this zone for easy safe last hitting.

MEDIUM DANGER ZONE

I would only advise spending brief periods of time in this zone only to poke/farm if you end up pushing into this area passively then make sure your support places a ward to watch for ganks. If you have lane dominance you can zone in this area as well. But REMEMBER when you push to much your jungle won't be able to gank effectively.

HIGH RISK ZONE

Never enter this area during early game, minions will tend to pound down your health pool in this area and early game they amount to a lot of harass damage that you don't want to be taking. You are a easy target for ganks CC and high burst damage when you are in this area. Only enter this area when you know you can kill a target and get out safe. This means you MUST be aware to where team mates and enemys are, don't rely on mia/ss but check the map yourself, have wards, however sometimes its okay to enter this area when your teams jungler ganks.

LAST HITTING

Last hitting minions is the most important objective of the lane phase, this is where you only deal the last hit of damage to each minion so that you don't push by accident. Don't get to distracted by poking the enemy that you start missing CS. REMEMBER 15-17 CS is equivalent to a 300G kill.

TIPS FOR LAST HITTING ON CORKI
- Look to see how much AD you have, then click on the lowest hp minion that you think will die next watch its health, as soon as it drops lower then your AD attack it. This may take some practice.

- Use Phosphorus Bomb when there are 2 minions at very low health together to pick up both kills at once when you may have missed one by auto attacks. This may also be used if your to far away to pick up a kill as it has longer range then you autos.
WARNING Phosphorus Bomb takes a lot of your mana, only use this once about every 3 minion waves or you will drain your mana fast!

- When you are being zoned use Missile Barrage to last hit with its very very far range and shot CD.
Video

This video explains a lot about the lane phase and how to play it out.

Change Log

August 24-2012
First Posted cheat Sheet, Pros Cons, Runes, Mastery's, When to Play, and most of How I play Corki.

August 25-2012
Changed item build, added skill run down, fixed some typos, removed Mentalthorn.

August 27-2012
Added Viable items section, and removed Mentalthorn.

Yet to be added that will be added.
- Skill Sequence and why I have choose them.
- How to Team fight with Corki.

UPDATING SOON
Currently out of date in items, will update if I get the time!