Hi, and thanks for reading Ziggyzing's guide to Twitch. This guide is designed for people new to Twitch or who are looking to improve with him. Twitch is an awesome ADC and has truly has the ability to carry a team to victory. Hopefully in this guide you will learn strategies on how to best utilize Twitch from the aspects of build, lane phase and team fights and take your team to victory.

Pros:
+ Twitch has very strong early game presence.
+ Scales well into late game.
+ Can successfully 1v1 any other ADC in the game.
+ Strong AoE effects when Ult is used properly.
+ Many players do not know how to defend against expunge properly.

Cons:
- His only escape ( Ambush) is slow to activate.
- Is very squishy late game.
- Vision Wards can shut down Ambush.
- Spray and Pray can be ineffective if not used properly.

These runes are rather standard for most ADCs:
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage for flat damage, these are effective throughout the game.
Greater Seal of Armor for flat resistance for early game sustain against other ADCs.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist will give stronger late-game magic resistance.
Greater Mark of Attack Damage Since season 3, armor pen has taken a bit of a nerf. Combined with an overall more aggressive meta with more damage and fewer tanks/armor, flat damage gives a bit more punch to your hits helps with early game carry.

I am sure you are all have preferences in your summoner's spells, so I will keep this brief:
Even with the nerfs in season 3, I find Flash worth taking as it can give much needed escape to Twitch. Often times I have escaped by the skin of my teeth by using Ambush to escape immediate combat and Flash over a wall to safety. Flash also has serious offensive abilities as a well timed Flash + Ignite + expunge will be enough to finish off an opponent.

Ignite is ubiquitous throughout the game, but I feel it is even more potent with Twitch than many other ADCs. This is due to the damage over time from Deadly Venom, and the potency of expunge. Many ADCs want to avoid returning to base early on in the game as this will cause them to loose much needed farm, and thus will stick around to "play safe" and last hit creeps while keeping their distance from you. As I stated above, this gives you the advantage of Flash + Ignite + expunge for the kill.

If you have played LoL for long enough you know the general rule about item builds: there are no hard and fast builds that you copy 100% of the time. Situations change from game to game and you must be able to adapt. Occasionally you fall behind, and as ADC you might want to stack Doran's Blades to catch up, you might need a Chain Vest if the opposing team is stacking AD or a Mercurial Scimitar if you are receiving a lot of cc. That being said, this is my template for Twitch, and the one I suggest you aim for each game.

Starting Items
x2

I strongly recommend starting with Long Sword and Health Potion x2! This is rather unique, as most people start the traditional Boots and Health Potion x3, however I feel now with season three this puts you at a disadvantage for two main reasons:
1. Vampiric Scepter is a very useful early game item as it now has as much damage as Doran's Blade plus lifesteal and the added bonus of building into Bloodthirster later in the game. Rushing this item ASAP is a great way to gain early lane sustain that has future uses and is a better use of Gold than constantly having to rebuy health pots.
2. The meta is shifting with Season 3. During previous seasons, the standard start of boots and health pots x3 was a safe way to stay in lane, harass a bit and have sustain to hopefully purchase larger items at first B. However, with season 3, the lane phase is more aggressive. With fewer ganks coming from jungle, you can afford to start with these items and apply more pressure early on and snowball before your lane opponents have a chance to catch up.

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Your first B

-or-


At your first B, if you have played aggressively you should have a decent farm and one to two kills. Your first item to build is Vampiric Scepter for the reasons mentioned above. Second item to get is Berserker's Greaves which are standard boots for ADCs, and the best option for this build.
-If you have had several kills, have 1550g and want to really put the pressure on your opponents, a B. F. Sword is a solid item that make your auto attacks significantly more potent than your opponent's and it will build into Infinity Edge, your first core item. Do not be too scared to build this aggressive; I have had many games where I have finished building IE before getting boots of any kind. This may go against what you are used to, but with the mobility of Ambush, it can be a very powerful way to snowball past your opponents.

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Core item #1


Infinity Edge This is a core item on almost every ADC out there, and for good reason. It has strong attack damage buffs and the crits are huge, which is excellent for the second core item:

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Core item #2


Sword of the Divine is your second core item and one you will want ASAP after building IE. This goes hand in hand with IE and will be the basis of your dismantling of your opponent's carries. You will want to wait until after getting IE because if you rush this item first, the crit's will be helpful, but you will be lacking the serious punch to kill the enemy.
-I will discuss more in detail in the team phase section, but the TLDNR version is: with IE + SotD (+- the rest of the build), poping Ambush to position yourself, hitting Spray and Pray and activating Sword of the Divine leads to insane burst damage that will 2-3 hit any non-tank enemy champion and will leave the opposing team crippled to start the team fight.
--I cannot stress the importance of this item in your final build!!--

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Core item #3


Bloodthirster is another standard weapon for many ADCs, and again for good reason. I suggest building this after SotD + IE combo for several reasons: 1) You already have an early game Vampiric Scepter, so you are already 1/4th of the way through the build; 2) The stacking of life steal is a huge bonus on Twitch, as with IE + SotD you will be hitting like a truck and 18% life steal will insure that you out duel their ADC. It also will be the primary way that you replenish health after a fight (a few hits on creeps and you will be back to full HP); 3) It is one of the highest attack damage to gold ratios in the game, and as ADC, attack damage is imperative to your role in the team.
-Note- as the perks of this item really shine when you are able to bring it to full stacks and survive, I recommend not buying this item if you are far behind and are dieing often. If that is the case, skip this item and purchase a more situational item such as Mercurial Scimitar to help keep you alive to catch up on gold.

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Core Item #4


Blade of the Ruined King is what I recommend building next. Often times, the game will be over before you have a chance to build this, but in the longer running games this will be a game changer. You have your full core build of damage items and this will help push it through any tanks or any carries who have built heavy life, as is the most common thing to do now. The new patch that has added in AS as well as life% makes this a great item to have.
-Note - at this point many people prefer to build Guardian Angel. I don't think this is particularly wrong, and I certainly will not fault you if you feel you perform better getting GA at this point. However, I prefer a glass cannon approach to Twitch as often times this build will leave the opposing team dead before they can shift focus to you.

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Final Item

Guardian Angel is a great final item. If the game has progressed this long, you have already built all of the damage and armor pen you need to carry your team, so extra attack damage will come with diminishing returns. Often the game comes down to one final team battle/baron to decide who will walk away with the W. I find GA's best use in this situation is less from the armor and magic reist (although that helps) but from the passive which can save you if you find yourself out of place and focused. Often times a second life can be the difference between a mistake costing your team the game and being able to recover and win the fight.

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The final build will place you as a glass-cannon ADC with huge amounts of burst damage from SotD + IE and the ability to still hit hard after SotD is on CD. As usual, don't forget to grab a couple of health pots if needed when you B as well as help out your team by buying sight wards when you can. (Map awareness is EVERYONE'S responsibility--you are NOT exempt from this because you are ADC!!)

Deadly Venom is Twitch's passive. Alone it is nothing too powerful, but combined with Ignite it can cause more DoT than many people expect and can lead to kills several seconds after an enemy flashes away. It's main use, however, is building up for one of Twitch's bread and butter spells: expunge.

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- Ambush is Twitch's premiere utility skill. It can be used defensively to escape a ganker or combat in general. But remember, it does have a delay that is increased to 3 seconds while you are in combat, so do not assume it can get you out of any situation. It is also pretty worthless if you opponents have Vision Wards or Oracle's Elixir, so use with caution. It can also be cast right before you recall so that you spend the later half of your recall charging invisible. Overall it has defensive utility and certainly has saved my life more times than I can count, but do not think it is a catch-all escape and do not let it be an excuse to be lax with you map awareness.
- Ambush also has offensive utility. It allows great positioning next to or behind carries and allows you and your support to position together wonderfully (more details in the lane phase section). It is a great way to move into/out of bushes during the lane phase to keep your opponents on their toes, and is helpful for face-checking bushes with relatively little risk. The added attack speed is more of a bonus than a use of Ambush. Due to a high cool down and mana cost, I do not recommend using Ambush purely for the attack speed bonus.
-I take Ambush 3rd, as its offensive benefits are much more exaggerated when you and your support have several skills at your disposal and the defensive benefits are not really needed until ganks start coming. I max it 2nd as the increased time spent invisible makes it very useful to level up.

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- Venom Cask is another utility tool that can be used offensively or defensively. After positing with Ambush, opening fire with autoattacks (aas) and casting Venom Cask in the path of the enemy will slow their escape and allow you to apply more aas, do more damage, and stack 2 counters of Deadly Venom for expunge.
-It is also helpful to use defensively in your wake as you are running from an enemy. This is helpful for saving yourself, but don't forget about teammates escaping too, especially if your support or tank ran in to stun the enemy to save you - a well timed Venom Cask can help insure their survival too.
-Overall, I level Venom Cask first because it is a great way to apply pressure in the early stages of the game by slowing enemies or escape an invade while stacking Deadly Venom, but max it last as it does not scale particularly well and adding points does not really increase the benefits you gain from it enough to warrant multiple points until necessary.

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expunge

- expunge is Twitch's biggest damage dealing spell. Keep in mind that the damage it does increases with the number of stacks of Deadly Venom the enemy has on them, and at 6 (max) charges, it can deal serious damage. It also has great range, so even if the enemy is out of range of your aas, you can hit them with expunge, so save it until they are out of aa range. This is a wonderful tool for insuring the last hit for a champion kill during hectic fights when your support and/or jungler are in the mix- simply save it until the enemy has low health and hit 'e' for the kill. Just keep in mind there is about a .5 second delay from when you hit 'e' and when the damage is done, so don't wait until the last instant, otherwise the kill might go to your support -_-
- expunge is also a good AoE spell to clear a minion wave after casing Venom Cask.
Important to note: using expunge does NOT take away any charges of Deadly Venom- this is mostly important when taking either Baron or the Dragon, when you can Venom Cask >>> 4 aas >>> expunge at the start of the fight and then expunge as needed throughout the duration of the fight without loosing any of your stacks.
-Overall, level expunge second and max it first as it is the main damage-dealing spell in your arsenal and it scales well.

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- Spray and Pray can be very useful if used correctly, or embarrassingly ineffective if used incorrectly. The biggest bonus to keep in mind of is that it drastically increases range of Twitch's auto attacks. This is big because it really allows you to stand behind your tanks, support and off-tanks during a team fight, or snipe enemies who are running away.
-The other major benefit gained from Spray and Pray is that your attacks pierce, so if you are in Ambush, you can line up such that both their ADC and APC are in a pathway from your arrows and then attack to kill them both before they have a chance to react. If you don't have enough time to do this, you can still use Spray and Pray during a team fight and insure that each auto attack hits 2-3 targets. By end game this will do enough damage on its own to wreck a team, but in early and mid game it is important to know that this applies stacks of Deadly Venom to all it hits. Between Venom Cask and a few aas from Spray and Pray, their whole team may have 5 stacks of Deadly Venom and your expunge can really do widespread damage.
-One negative to note about Spray and Pray is that your attacks are no longer seeking, so at long distances, your enemy will be able to dodge them if he/she is paying attention.
Overall, it is a great spell that should be leveled at any opportunity.

--Overall goals--

The early game will be defined by two aspects of play. This first is insuring as much farm as possible while denying the opponent theirs. This is accomplished through last hitting the creeps and zoning your opponent away from the minions with a mix of your poke and support movement/harass. The key to success as ADC is insuring as many minion kills as possible. If you are unfamiliar with terms like last-hitting or zoning, I strongly recommend checking out some of the beginners' guides on this website that will explain some of the concepts that will help you reach your maximum potential. Aside from that, the second goal is early kills, which can be insured with a simple combo between you as Twitch and your support. This typically works best with a more aggressive support with a stun such as Nami or Taric, but can also be done with good baiting from Sona or Soraka. Alistair and Blitzcrank are obviously excellent candidates all around as well as their CC (and Alistair's healing) are borderline OP at early points in the game.

--The combo--

But to insure the kill: make sure that one of the side bushes is not warded, then run into it; the more you have been doing this throughout the first few minuets of the game, the less likely that this will raise suspicion. While in the bush, use Ambush, WAIT 1.5 seconds to become invisible, then run out and position yourself caddy corner between the opposing ADC and their tower such that you are not immediately in their path, but they still have to arc around you to get to safety of tower. The more they are pushing the easier this is. As you are positioning, have your support character engage the adc. If possible, a stun is an excellent initiator. Then throw Venom Cask on them and begin the auto attack assault. Count your stacks of deadly venom (2 for venom cask, one for each autoattack). Keep in mind that they cap at 6.

--Their response, and how you should deal with it--

At this point either they will flash away, run or fight. If you have initiated, they will not be able to out damage you. Just keep auto attacking and finish them off with expunge. If they run, they will not be able to escape in time. Cast Ignite and continue autoattacking and following until their health is low enough for expunge to finish them off. If they flash away, you have two options: the more agressive route is to flash after them and attempt to finish them off with another few autoattacks/ Ignite/ expunge. Be careful however, as if you chase into tower range, a tower hit + a skill shot from their support and a reengage by their ADC can end up with them taking the fight 1-0. A more defensive strategy would be to expunge after their flash and either return to your free farm while continuing mild pressure to keep them zoned (this will result in incremental gold advantage for you) or to see if they attempt to reengage, in which case you can wait for expunge to return from cool down and then aggressively Flash at them for a quick Venom Cask, Ignite, expunge kill. Bottom line is - use your early game advantage of high natural damage + early Long Sword to pressure as much as you can for the kill, but avoid overextending into their tower to give them a free kill. Note also, that if you are using Ambush to initiate, it will still be on cool down if they baited you into a gank and you will find yourself with no escape tools. Against most opponents, an early aggressive move at level 3 or 4 will most often result in a kill for you which can snowball very effectively.

Mid to late game will be dominated by your combo abilities and your assassinations of opposing team carries. Once you build Infinity Edge and Sword of the Divine, you are ready to reek havoc on the other team. To start a team fight, use Ambush to position yourself away from the opposing team off tanks and tanks with a good line of sight to the opposing ADC +/- APC. Then wait for your team to engage the opposing tanks/off tanks as this will cause a suitable distraction. At this point break your invis by casting Venom Cask, activating Sword of the Divine and Spray and Pray. The Venom Cask will slow them and allow you to quickly target them with your ulted attacks. You WILL kill the enemy carries in 2-3 shots with this combo, allowing you to Flash back to safety and then switch focus to the enemy tanks, build up several stacks of Deadly Venom and activate Ignite and expunge to insure the kill as they will be inevitably running at this point. If you time this right, the worst case scenario is that you will be insta-focused and killed quickly -- but not before 2-3 auto attacks that either kill or reduce their team to very low health, allowing your team to finish the fight in a 4-5 for 1-2.
-Keys to remember- Ambush is negated if they have Oracle's Elixir. You will look like an idiot walking into their team if you do not check for this. Also Spray and Pray does pierce through targets, so the optimal positioning will be one where your arrows line with as many of their team as possible, but your focus should be their ADC and their APC, as once you take their carries, you have taken the team fight.

While Twitch has the ability to carry via pure auto-attacks nearly as well as Varus or Vayne, he has much more potential if you save his skills to use Ambush for positioning and Spray and Pray plus Sword of the Divine for insane burst damage that is nearly uncounterable.

The most abbreviated summary I can make is this:
Twitch is a very powerful ADC who has the ability to assassinate opposing team carries before they have a chance to become involved in team battles. Building aggressive early can help snowball you to a glass-cannon build that centers around your combos of activated items + skills. The result is a champion that is incredibility fun to play and can completely take over a team.

Hopefully this guide has helped you with your build, understand Twitch's skills and how to best use them in the early and late phases of the game. If you have any questions or helpful comments, please +Rep me and leave me feedback in comments or email me at ziggyzing@gmail.com. Constructive feedback will help me build into a helpful member of the community- pointless flaming will insure I don't bother editing the guide or post again.

Further more, if absolutely nothing else is gained from this guide, let it be this:
LoL is a great game and very fun to play. Please let it be that. Realize it is a game and others might make mistakes. So will you. Just relax and have fun. If you are being trolled in game, just try to think of the actual person on the other comp: are they just some immature fool who doesn't know any better or maybe some child who hasn't had enough time on earth to mature? Either way, what is the point in arguing? Let kids be kids, and for the others- as Mark Twain once said: "Never bother fighting with stupid people, they will just drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience".

1/3/13 - Changed order of skill selection to reflect Venom Cask first. Fixed a couple of spelling errors.
3/3/13- Removed Last Whisper as fewer people are building Armor. Added BORK and optional start of Doran's