Hello y'all, welcome to my Twitch guide. I've been playing Twitch regularly since the pre-rework days, and he's become my go-to AD carry ever since his rework. Even now he's still a tad underplayed, and many people don't realize how hard he can burst with his new kit.

First of all, I'd like to point out that I'm not writing this guide because I think I'm better than you, I'm not writing it because I want to be e-famous, I'm writing it because I think this build/playstyle is a lot of fun, and I want to share it with the world.




This item fits Twitch like a dream. Appearing from Ambush with three guaranteed crits at +100% attack speed plus a final burst with expunge is almost a guaranteed kill against most enemies.
In addition, The biggest catch here is that when a Spray and Pray bolt crits, every enemy it hits feels a full 250% crit (via Infinity Edge), so with proper positioning you can abolutely melt the enemy team by popping Spray and Pray with Sword of the Divine.

This is a fairly in-depth guide, so pull up a chair and grab some coffee.

Pros: + Good escape via Ambush + Bursts extremely hard early game + Strong teamfight presence for an AD carry + Can ballroom dance

Cons: - Glass cannon - Can be seriously hindered by Oracle's and Vision wards - Very reliant on positioning - Stealth duration was nerfed into the dirt by his rework

Twitch is a little bit different than most AD carries with a cookie cutter kit of a poke, slow, damage steriod, etc. In my opinion, this makes Twitch a lot of fun to play, as he's an excellent roamer and ganker, which really challenges the AD carry stereotype.

These are pretty standard AD carry runes.

• Flat Armor Pen reds: for harder bursts and better late-game scaling than damage runes
• Flat Armor yellows: to help deal with early game right clicks, since you'll generally laning against another AD carry
• Scaling Magic Resist blues: for some natural magic resist, scaling since you shouldn't be dealing with too much magic damage in the laning phase
• Armor Pen quints: for harder bursts and better late-game scaling than damage runes
  

• We take the obvious choices under Offense; picking up attack speed, crits, armor pen, and damage, to take Executioner with 21 points.
  
• I like to put the other 9 into defense for Twitch, as he isn't terribly mana hungry so we don't need to tap into the Utility tree for that. Armor is always welcome since you'll generally be laning against another AD carry, and Veteran's Scars helps make up for that HP you could say you're missing out on by not opening with a Doran's Blade.

I've rarely found any reason to not use the standard Flash + Ignite for Twitch.




Twitch absolutely needs a solid escape/mobility spell, and Flash is the best choice. I don't find Ghost to be necessary as Ambush gives plenty of movement speed for chasing/fleeing and Flash is more versatile as an escape spell (flashing through walls, etc.), which is our main reason for choosing a mobility spell.

I highly recommend Ignite, as it is crucial to Twitch's burst and ganking combos. Making your prey run away with another DoT on them in addition to Deadly Venom is a great way to secure kills.

-Deadly Venom (Passive)-

---

-Ambush-

---

-Venom Cask-

---

expunge -Expunge-

---

-Spray and Pray-

---

Starting Items

---

For most AD carries in Season 3, I recommend starting with Long Sword and two Health Potions. Now that boots don't have as much of an impact as they did in Season 2, a long sword lets your starting item take a chunk out of your future build like we used to do with boots, as opposed to grabbing a Doran's Blade that won't build into anything.


This is true, but think of the two health potions as giving you an effective +300 hp in the laning phase. That's a lot of HP, and you can utilize it faster than the +5 HP per attack the Doran's Blade will grant you. As a DotA player, I'm a big fan of having lots of regen in the laning phase.
Being able to afford potions plus having an item that you can build into something else later makes Long Sword + pots the ideal starting items in my opinion. If you end up needing the extra Doran's stats, you can always pick a few up on your first back.



Laning Phase / Early Game Items

---

Early in the game, you should be deciding on either picking up one or two Doran's Blades to beef up a bit and focus on farming, or rushing a B. F. Sword and work on getting lots of early kills.

If you're winning exchanges with your opponents and your rival carry is starting to lose farm, then I find it generally best to grab that B. F. Sword as soon as possible so you can tip the lane even further in your favor and maybe even get some cheap kills.

• Note: With most carries I'd still recommend playing the defensive farming route, but Twitch's bursty nature makes an early B. F. Sword more viable than other carries, especially in pub games.

On the other hand, if you don't feel like you're picking up an advantage or you're against a proper skilled support/carry lane, don't be afraid to grab a pair of Doran's Blades and focus a little more on just outfarming the other carry.

And as always, you'll want to squeeze your Berserker's Greaves and Vampiric Scepter in here somewhere. The vampiric specter is a little less important than getting the boots early, I like to just finish the scepter from the starting Long Sword as soon as I find myself sitting on 400g at the fountian and I'm not itching for my next item.



Core Items

---

This is where things get fun and you'll start falling into that assassin role. The following three items are core on Twitch and you should be getting them first for any version of the build:

• Infinity Edge comes first, as it'll give you more of a passive benefit alone than Sword of the Divine would. Taking this first also means that you'll already be geared to pump out three guaranteed 250% crits as soon as you pick up Sword of the Divine. Take the BF Sword component first if possible.
  
  
• Next comes my personal favorite, the elusive Sword of the Divine. Once you've got this in your inventory you can start roaming and picking people off, but more of that under the Gameplay section. Try and get the Recurve Bow component first.
  
  
• The next choice is a Bloodthirster, because it'll be relatively cheap since you've already got that Vampiric Scepter and it'll give you some solid damage and survivability for your assassinations.

Late Game / Luxury Items

---

At this point in your build, you can focus on situationally rounding out your build by filling those two final slots. Here are a few of my recommended choices and why:

• Guardian Angel: I highly recommend taking this if the match makes it to very late-game and teamfights start getting more even and crucial. Guardian Angel is a good choice on nearly any carry, as it gives a nice mix of resistances and having plenty of lifesteal from Bloodthirster makes it easy to pull off a powerful second wind upon reviving.
  
  
• Last Whisper: This is my generally standard choice for matches where the assassin role is working well. The solid armor pen will make your ganking combo even more lethal, as well as help you pick off tankier enemies if you find them alone. In addition, a Last Whisper will make your teamfight burst with Spray and Pray+ Sword of the Divine even more deadly.
  
  
• Phantom Dancer: This is a good all-around item for Twitch. a little more consistent DPS outside of your assassination combos when Sword of the Divine is on cooldown and isn't granting attack speed goes a long way. Often times I don't find this to be necessary because chaining Sword of the Divine bursts gives me all the crit I need, but if you find yourself often blowing your combo without a kill to shorten Sword of the Divine's cooldown, Phantom Dancer is an excellent choice.
  
  
  
  

Other Popular Items

---

Here I'll list off some other items I commonly see on Twitch and why I don't recommend them.

• Runaan's Hurricane: I see this built on Twitch a lot, presumably under the idea that you'll be applying Deadly Venom to more enemies in a fight. It sounds good on paper, but your Spray and Pray already has that covered. Especially in this build that focuses on bursting with fewer attacks, you're much better off with Phantom Dancer for the crit chance in addition to just attack speed.
  
  
• Black Cleaver: The debate on this item is whether it or Last Whisper is a better pick for your armor pen needs. Black Cleaver is nice in the sense that your whole team can take advantage of the armor reduction once you've piled enough stacks of it on the target, but since this build revolves around those first three crits from Sword of the Divine, in this situation it's really best to have the full armor pen for those ever important first three hits.
  
  

Farming

---

As with any AD carry, your job in the laning phase is to last hit, last hit, and last hit some more. Twitch is no exception.



Harassing / Killing

---

Before you can really drop your stealth poke on an enemy, you'll want to tap him down to about 2/3rds or less HP first. Do this by tapping the enemies with a few autoattacks, and using expunge if you can get at least three or four Deadly Venom stacks on someone. Once you've weakened them a bit, then you can use your heavier harassing/killing combo.

Once an enemy is in your sights, try and stay in the bushes until an opportunity presents itself. You should be looking for an enemy with low health who's far ahead of his laning partner, without too many enemy minions surrounding him. when you're ready to strike:

• Cast Ambush from within the bushes or outside fog range
• Walk next to or behind your target - try to avoid picking up too much minion aggro
• Break from stealth with Venom Cask
• Autoattack until the enemy is out of range or hits 6 stacks, then immediately hit expunge

And there you go, this is Twitch's main early-game combo. if you're going for the kill, be sure to add Spray and Pray (if you've hit 6 yet) and Ignite to further secure it.

If you play your cards well here, you should have no trouble being a complete bully in the lane and outfarming/outleveling your opponents.

Once towers begin to fall and the laning phase is coming to a close, you should be nearing your golden pair of Infinity Edge and Sword of the Divine. This is where the fun begins, it's time to start roaming for easy ganking targets to finish that last core item - Bloodthirster and hopefully start snowballing out of control. If you can't find a target, go back to farming and keep your eyes on the minimap for some fresh meat to present itself. Despite his ganking potential, Twitch is still a carry and you're still going to need a lot of farm.
When you do find a proper target, your procedure is very similar to what was explained for the laning phase. cast Ambush from a bush or outside of fog range, position yourself between the enemy and his easiest escape route (this will generally be the nearest path into the jungle), and:


And there you go, enjoy your free kill.

I can't stress enough how important it is to position yourself between your target and his best escape route before popping from Ambush. Make him either have to run through you, or choose an inferior escape path that will likely get him killed (by you).

As the game progresses, it will get progressively harder to pick people off and you'll be needed in more teamfights. Fortunately, Twich has fantastic teamfight presence!

The first thing to keep in mind is that you'll want to enter every teamfight from Ambush. If you think a fight is about to break out, go into stealth. Being able to enter a teamfight from anywhere you choose is a huge advantage.

• As soon as you feel a fight is about to break out, enter Ambush. Even if the fight has already begun, always pop Ambush to positition yourself as you pick your first focus and to take advantage of its attack speed buff.
• Remember the nature of Spray and Pray. It fires penetrating bolts in a line between you and your target. This makes the target of your autoattack right click a "pivot point" of sorts. This means you'll want to pick someone at the back end of the fight to open your first few attacks on, so he has to move further to angle your bolts away from his team. If you start right clicking on someone in the front, all he has to do is take a few steps to swing the angle of your bolts way off in another direction.
  
  
  
  See how much further the guy in the back has to move to redirect your bolts than the guy in the front? Take advantage of this!
  
  
• As always, break from stealth with Venom Cask. Try and hit as many enemies as you can with it, but make sure hitting the focus targets takes priority over that. Quality over quantity.
• Pop Spray and Pray followed by Sword of the Divine, you know the drill.
• This part is crucial - As illustrated above, you do not simply want to right click on your focus target, especially if he is in front of other champions. The actual "target" of your autoattack right click should be whoever will line up your Spray and Pray bolts through the most targets. This means you may technically be autoattacking the tank in the back of the fight, but your Spray and Pray bolts will be hitting the rest of the team first, thus dealing more damage to them and less to whoever you right clicked. This little tidbit will feel strange at first, but it's crucial to landing Spray and Pray on the maximum amount of targets.
• As soon as the team scatters out of your Spray and Pray bolts and you can't really strike multiple enemies with them, now it's time to switch to the actual focus target.
• Finding the right time to pop expunge is important. You'll generally want to wait until you've switched to the focus target and get some extra stacks on him, but if the rest of the team begins to scatter you should use it before they're out of range, as to not waste the Deadly Venom stacks you applied with your well-aimed Spray and Pray.

Of course, not every teamfight will present itself as a good opportunity to stab through lots of enemies. For smaller or less concentrated fights, remember to just focus the proper focus target (this will generall be the AD or AP carry, but more generalized guides are out there to teach you focus). If you can only hit one enemy but many are present, you should generally save Spray and Pray for later in the fight where the rest of the team will inevitably cluster up.

Ahh, Oracle's Elixir and Vision Ward, Twitch's worst enemies. These can definitely set you back, but there are always ways around them.

Well, that about wraps things up. Please let me know what you think in the comments, I'd love to hear how this build works for you. Nothing would make me feel as warm and fuzzy as you telling me how you went 20/0 with this build! :3

But please, make sure you give it several shots before voting. We all have good games and we all have bad games.

Also, if you decide to downvote, please let me know why! If I made a mistake or you think something could be better, I'd love to hear it so I can continue making this a better guide.