For the first, and somewhat late guide of September, I'm Hoodstomp. The named position of marksman/AD Carry is the role I enjoy playing. Because I enjoy playing as a marksman/AD Carry very much, I've thus gained a lot of knowledge about the role of a marksman/AD Carry. My main account currently sits in Diamond 1, while I have a few smurfs, all in diamond elo and/or close to diamond 1. Vayne is a champion that is considered quite strong, and there are obvious reasons why she's so good. With decent mechanics, you'll be able to carry your team with ease. Don't underestimate the power of Vayne late-game. Be sure to follow me on Twitter if you want to know whenever I have a new guide out or on the rare occasion that I might be streaming! @Hoodstomplol

Pros

+ Amazing late-game scaling, and is one of the best duelists with Final Hour. + Short stealth with Final Hour and Tumble. + Can easily reposition with Tumble. + Great single target damage.

Vayne is a great AD Carry to pick because of how strong she is late-game. That's where Vayne really shines. This is mostly because of her ultimate, Final Hour. It gives her an instant extra 25/40/55 AD, which is very handy for dueling an enemy. It'll increase your damage output by a lot, and combined with Tumble, your auto-attacks will be hitting your enemies very hard. Along the same line, using Tumble while Final Hour is active will grant you a short one second stealth, allowing you to juke your enemies or reposition yourself while stealthed. Tumble is general is a great skill for dodging skillshots and juking. Finally, because of her kit, she has great single target damage that is sure to stick.

Cons

- Short range, with her 550 range auto-attack. - Easily harassed during laning phase by champions like Caitlyn. - No built in escape, like some AD Carries. - No reliable CC ( Condemn) if the enemy isn't near a wall.

While Vayne can do a lot of damage, she has her downsides. Vayne has a very short range of 550, making it easy for her to get shut down easily against AoE team compositions. It's not recommended to pick Vayne against AoE compositions. During laning, Vayne can be easily abused by champions like Caitlyn or Varus that can freely poke her. Like many other AD Carries, Vayne lack an innate escape, so if you're caught without your Flash against an AP burst champion, you're probably dead. Lastly, Vayne doesn't have a reliable CC because Condemn is dependent on if your enemy is near a wall or not. If you misjudge Condemn, you can be saving them instead of killing them.

// Fury increases your attack speed, and Butcher helps you last hit minions. >> Deadliness gives you a little bit extra AD that'll be useful in all aspects. // Havoc and Weapon Expertise both increase your damage by a bit. The armor penetration is more useful though. >> Lethality gives you some extra critical hit damage. Brute Force is more of a point filler. // Frenzy goes well with Lethality because of the extra attack speed after a critical hit. Sunder also gives you a bit of armor penetration. >> Executioner gives you extra finishing power on your opponents.

// Summoner's Resolve benefits your defensive summoner spell, whether it be Barrier or Cleanse. You never know if that extra little bit will save your life or not, so it's better to be safe rather than sorry.

>> Summoner's Insight reduces the cooldown on your Flash, which is very important. Meditation helps your mana regeneration, mostly in lane. // Mastermind is another helpful mastery, to have your summoner spells on the lowest cooldown possible!

>>Running AD marks is nothing new. These are useful because the extra AD helps you last hit, trade effectively, and allows you take deal more damage to towers, which is very useful if you're laning in a 2v1. AD marks are most effective during laning because laning builds up your momentum towards late game.


>>Armor seals are very nice to have on Vayne as well. The armor allows you trade with less damage taken from minions, champion auto-attacks, AD scaling abilities, and tower shots. These will also prove useful if you're facing an AD assassin. Again, it'll reduce the damage you take, obviously.


>>Magic resist glyphs are very usual. It helps to reduce the damage from heavy magic damage supports like Zyra and Sona. Come mid-game, it'll reduce a tiny bit of damage from AP Carries. The three mana regeneration runes will, obviously, help your mana regeneration a little bit.


>>These runes can be swapped a little bit. I run two lifesteal quints and one attack damage quints, but it can be three lifesteal quints, if that's what you like to run. These help you lifesteal up after a trade, or after you take a tower shot on accident. The sustain, combined with a Doran's Blade should give you some staying power.

Flash >> Flash is a very handy and essential summoner spell to have on Vayne, or any AD Carry, really. It helps your get out of a sticky situation relatively easily by allowing you to Flash over a wall or Flash juke someone. Flash can also be used to gap close. If you're chasing an enemy, your passive, Night Hunter, combined with Flash will let you easily catch up. Remember to not waste Flash if possible. If you know you're 100% dead, it's most likely not a good idea to Flash.

Barrier >> Barrier is the other recommended summoner for Vayne. Flash and Barrier are the standard summoner spells you run on AD Carries anyways. Barrier gives the defense for Vayne that she lacks. It provides you a nice shield that can block incoming damage for 2 seconds. This can save your life if you use it correctly. If you think you're going to take a lot of burst damage, make sure to pop Barrier. Don't underestimate the shield from Barrier either!

Ignite >> Ignite is another option for a summoner spell that you can take. It's not as recommended because you need the defense that Barrier gives you. Ignite may seem useful because you'll be in range for it, but you'll probably be finding that you don't need it. You have enough kill potential as Vayne regardless, so a defensive summoner would probably be a better choice.

Cleanse >> Cleanse is a more realistic option instead of Ignite on Vayne. Cleanse is very handy if you find yourself facing a team with a lot of CC, or if you know they'll be focusing you with all of their CC. This can save from you that pesky Zyra and her Grasping Roots or a Sona's Crescendo. If they have light CC, you're better off with Barrier.

Night Hunter (Passive) \\ Night Hunter isn't too bad of a passive. It gives you increased movement speed when you're facing a enemy champion within 2000 range. This is very helpful for getting in to auto-attack your enemy, or to chase them down with ease. However, while Final Hour is activated, you gain 90 movement speed when facing an enemy within 2000 range. You shouldn't have trouble finishing off an enemy.

Tumble (Q) \\ Tumble is your bread and butter ability. It scales off of your AD nicely and is also an auto-attack reset. You typically want to Tumble after a basic auto-attack so you get a free attack after the first auto-attack animation. It is also your escape and repositioning skill. You can use this to dodge all types of skillshots, like Sona's Crescendo or Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow.

Silver Bolts(W) \\ Silver Bolts is most of the reason why Vayne is so strong. Silver Bolts is a steroid that does percentage AND flat true damage. You will easily be able to chunk through tanks with this your Silver Bolts. When you are trading, make sure you always get that third attack in to proc Silver Bolts!

Condemn (E) \\ Condemn is a great ability that is used to set up kills. Vayne is one of only two AD Carries with a hard crowd control, Ashe being the other one. Whenever someone is near a wall, try and get a good Condemn on them to set something up. Condemn can also just be used defensively to get people off of you. Definitely don't waste Condemn, because it can make or break a kill.

Final Hour (R) \\ Final Hour is a wonderful ultimate for an AD Carry. It gives you a ton of stuff: bonus AD, increased movement speed from Night Hunter, as well as a one second stealth when you use your Tumble. You'll want to use Final Hour when the fight starts. It will increase your damage significantly. Remember that when Final Hour is activated, your Tumble makes you go invisible. Use this to your advantage to confuse or juke enemies.

The Doran's Blade is the most obvious and standard start for AD Carries now. It gives a nice blend of health, attack damage, and also gives life gain on hit. What AD Carry wouldn't want that? Doran's Blade makes it easy for you trade in lane, and you'll be able to lifesteal back up with the life gain and your lifesteal quintessences. Vayne is innately a little bit weak early game, but Vayne's ascendancy will come soon after laning.

• On your first back, it would be most beneficial for you to buy a B. F. Sword. It'll allow you to win every trade almost all the time. A B. F. Sword plus Tumble auto-attack will have your enemies hurting.
• Another option is to buy a Vampiric Scepter if you have to go back early. It'll let you sustain a little bit better in lane.
• If you really have to go back early, then just buy a Doran's Blade.

The first big item you'll want to buy on Vayne is Bloodthirster. It goes very well with your kit. Because of the huge AD bonus of 100 from Bloodthirster, you can have your Tumble powered auto-attack do a lot. With three auto-attacks with Silver Bolts, Vayne can do a lot of damage to anyone with not many items, if not more than Bloodthirster and Berserker's Greaves. If you pop Final Hour and Tumble, you can fight anyone with correct positioning and landing a good Condemn.

After Bloodthirster, a Phantom Dancer should be your next goal. The extra attack speed from Phantom Dancer is important, and is why you get a Phantom Dancer instead of a Statikk Shiv. Silver Bolts is very important to proc on Vayne, so the faster your get those three auto-attacks off, the more damage you'll be sticking onto them. A Phantom Dancer also gives you the unique passive of being able to ignore unit collision, which is a godsend.

Berserker's Greaves are the usual boots that you'll buy on any AD Carry, with one exception or so. It increases your attack speed and allows you to get those Silver Bolts procs off quicker. With just Berserker's Greaves and Bloodthirster, you'll already be doing a lot of damage mid-game. When you add your Phantom Dancer, your enemies will be struggling to survive during team fights.

Once you have your core items, if you find yourself doing enough damage already and somehow not being focused, definitely get an Infinity Edge. The Infinity Edge will make your damage spike through the roof, especially if you land a critical hit. It goes well with a Phantom Dancer because of the critical hit chance on both.

A Blade of the Ruined King is only good at a sixth item after the recent nerfs to it. If your enemies are stacking health/tanky enemies and a Last Whisper isn't doing it, then a Blade of the Ruined King might be good. It also gives you some extra room for kiting, so that's a bonus.

A Last Whisper is a great item to pick up if your enemies are starting to pick up some armor. If you're ahead of your team, then a Last Whisper should be obtainable rather quickly. Your normal auto-attacks already hurt, but your Silver Bolts proc auto-attack will be dealing a lot.

A Banshee's Veil is good if the enemy team is running a double AP composition, or if you feel like the spell shield is too useful to pass up. The health regeneration after taking damage is nice as well. Banshee's Veil can block many spells, such as a Sona Crescendo, or an Ahri Charm.

It would be a good idea to pick up a Guardian Angel if you feel like you're the biggest threat on the team. Most of the time, you will be the biggest threat. A Guardian Angel is most useful is you know your team can protect you. It can also stall for time while your teammates clean house.

The Mercurial Scimitar is good if you didn't take Cleanse, but your enemies are piling the CC onto you. This shouldn't be too often of a situation because of how slippery you are, but it can happen. The Cleanse aspect plus AD from Mercurial Scimitar is great.

Enchantment: Distortion is the most recommended enchantment to get on most, if not all, AD Carries now. The reduced cooldown on Flash can make or break a team fight for you. Flash is very vital to your survival, so be sure to pick Enchantment: Distortion up if possible.

Enchantment: Furor is an okay to good choice on AD Carries. The extra movespeed if good to have if you're having trouble kiting. This, again, shouldn't be happening often because of how much kiting potential you have with Tumble. It is possible if the enemy team has lots of gapclosers.

Enchantment: Homeguard should only be considered if you're losing and your base is being pushed in. Elsewise, pick another enchantment. They give you stats during a team fight, much more useful than Enchantment: Homeguard.

Ashe Difficulty: 3/5 Vayne can do okay against an Ashe in lane. However, you have to be very careful at early levels. Ashe has a huge amount of pressure in the first few levels, which is when Vayne is at her weakest point. Try to just farm passively in the beginning of the lane phase. Once you hit level 4, you can try to go for trades. Make sure you always get a third auto off in trades to proc your Silver Bolts, or else it probably won't be worth it. Careful of when Ashe hits level 6. She can easily all in you with an Enchanted Crystal Arrow followed up with a jungler gank.

Caitlyn Difficulty: 5/5 Caitlyn is the biggest lane bully in the entire game. She has a massive range advantage over you and she will definitely abuse it. As Vayne, you will want play very safe and avoid taking as much free damage as you can. Let her push towards you and try to CS perfectly off of the turret. Once you get level 6, you can start to fight her if you aren't at too much of a disadvantage. Caitlyn has a horrible all in, and your all in is tons better. If you can get a Condemn on her into a wall after level 6, you can usually manage pick up a kill on her.

Corki Difficulty: 4/5 Corki has always been considered a "counter" to Vayne. His trades in lane are devastating. You want farm passively, just like in other hard matchups. You don't really gain an advantage at 6 though. Corki actually gets stronger than you at level 6. I guess if you come to this lane you should just bring a lot of lube.

Ezreal Difficulty: 2/5 Ezreal is a pretty easy lane for Vayne to go against. All of his damage is based solely off of laning skill shots, and Tumble is pretty much made to dodge them. Stand behind minions and aggressively trade against him. If you have a trade where he doesn't land a Mystic Shot on you, you will always win if the trade is auto-attack for auto-attack.

Graves Difficulty: 3/5 Graves is an okay laning opponent for Vayne. You do surprisingly well against Graves because he has short range as well. Most of the time, Graves will shove you into turret all game. Make sure you avoid his Buckshot so he can't hit you, as well as the minions with Buckshot. You have good trades against him because your true damage from Silver Bolts ignores his True Grit. At 6, you can easily duel Graves with Final Hour. You can use your Tumble to dodge his Collateral Damage and Buckshot.

Miss Fortune Difficulty: 4/5 Miss Fortune is very difficult to deal with as Vayne. She has great trading potential with Double Up, and you can't really ever try to hit her because of Strut. In this lane, you want to farm passively. If you are relatively close in farm, you are winning this lane. Miss Fortune gets out-scaled a lot by Vayne. At level 6 you can look to get a kill on her. The only thing you need to be wary of is to save your Condemn to interrupt her Bullet Time.

Tristana Difficulty: 3/5 Tristana is another even lane for Vayne to be in. Tristana is very strong levels 1-3 with Explosive Shot spam, and this is when Vayne is very weak. Look to avoid every trade at these levels and just farm. Once you get to level 4, you can start to trade with her a bit using your Tumble and Silver Bolts. Don't ever be antsy if you're being zoned by Tristana because she naturally will push the lane back to because of the Explosive Shot] passive.

Twitch Difficulty: 4/5 Twitch can be very hard to deal with as Vayne. You can always hit him because you are both ranged, but he comes out on top of trades. You never want to trade auto for auto with him because you will do the same damage, but then an expunge will be used and chunk you. Try to farm as much as you can. At 6, you hit a huge power spike over Twitch because his Spray and Pray doesn't give him much more dueling power. If you can get the jump on him and Condemn him into a wall, you might be able to pick up a kill.

Varus Difficulty: 5/5 Varus decimates Vayne in lane. He has longer range than you, wins the auto for auto trades, and has a massive amount of poke. You want to play extremely passive in this lane and hope your jungler saves you. Just try to get as much farm as you can off the turret and make sure you Tumble his Hail of Arrows if you can. You scale way harder than Varus, so if you are getting good farm then you are essentially winning the lane.

Blitzcrank Spoiler: Click to view Blitzcrank basically has medium synergy with every AD Carry. He's good for catching people out of position with Rocket Grab and Power Fist. Vayne can somewhat capitalize with Condemning someone into a wall. This is easy to do by Tumbleing into position. At level 6, you can kill someone if Blitzcrank lands a hook.

Janna Spoiler: Click to view Janna is not very good with Vayne, simply because she provides no form of initiation for Vayne. This lane is okay pre-6 because Janna can babysit Vayne, but after 6, you lack a way to start a fight. Janna can peel for Vayne during fights, and Eye of the Storm isn't bad to have either.

Fiddlesticks Spoiler: Click to view Fiddlesticks is another support that isn't that great with Vayne. They both need to get into close range to be effective. Fiddlesticks' does has a nice initiate if you can catch your enemies with a Crowstorm and Terrify. Overall, you'd be better off with another support.

Leona Spoiler: Click to view Leona is good to get an early lead, but Vayne needs to farm up before becoming strong. Leona also can initiate from a far range, but Vayne needs to catch up first before being able to fight. Leona's initiating skills are quite nice though, so that's the one thing this lane has going for it.

Lulu Spoiler: Click to view Lulu and Vayne are nice laning partners. Lulu can poke, keeping Vayne less pressured while farming up early. Glitterlance also slows the enemy by 80%, allowing Vayne to catch up with ease. Wild Growth and Whimsy can also be your escape tool if you find yourself in a sticky situation.

Nami Spoiler: Click to view Nami is another good support for Vayne. A Tidecaller's Blessing and Tumble empowered auto-attack will chunk the enemy for a good amount, and especially so if you proc Silver Bolts with that. Tidecaller's Blessing and Silver Bolts go nicely together too. Aqua Prison can make for an easy Condemn too.

Sona Spoiler: Click to view Sona is strong with any AD Carry, and Vayne is no exception. Hymn of Valor poke plus Power Chord can chunk both the enemy carry and support after level 6. Sona is very strong, and is able to relieve a lot of pressure from you while you farm. At level 6, you two have great kill potential with Final Hour and Crescendo.

Thresh Spoiler: Click to view Vayne and Thresh work well together as well. Death Sentence and Flay can allow Vayne to get into position for a nice Condemn. Dark Passage can pull off some nice escapes or ganks, so maybe your Thresh will be amazing. At level 6, The Box will make your enemies stay put, so you have ample time to kill them.

Zyra Spoiler: Click to view Zyra is okay with Vayne. Her plants do a lot of damage, and Grasping Roots will let you follow up with a Tumble auto-attack. She can also zone your enemies by herself. You two have good dueling because of her plants, so be mindful of that. At level 6, Stranglethorns can allow you to set up a good Condemn.

• Vayne is traditionally known as a weaker laner. She requires quite a bit of farm and time to ramp up into that late-game powerhouse.
• Vayne does possess a lot of outplay potential with your Tumble and Condemn abilities that can be used to your advantage.
• During the first few levels of laning, you generally don't want to do much on Vayne. This is when you are weakest because you'll want all 3 of your skills to trade effectively. Attempt to farm passively at levels 1-3 while not trading, unless it's absolutely free.
• Once you get a few levels into Tumble and have Silver Bolts, you can start to be more aggressive! Your trading combo should be something like auto-attack > Tumble > auto-atack. That gives you a lot of damage in the trade. Keep in mind that Tumble is an auto-attack reset, which makes it very easy to proc your Silver Bolts.
• If you see an enemy out of position in lane and close to a wall, you can Tumble forward, land a good Condemn, and a lot of damage off. This, paired with a follow up CC like Nami's Aqua Prison, can mean the end of an enemy's life if you execute it properly.
• At level 6, things start to get a lot better for you in lane. You gain a massive power spike and become an amazing duelist. Even if you were getting wrecked in lane, you can often fight enemies with Final Hour activated. Make sure you abuse your invisibility aspect of the skill. It also gives you a huge movement speed increase making it easy for you to maneuver around for clutch Condemns.
• You generally want to prolong laning phase as Vayne so you can farm up as much as you can. When you feel like you are strong enough after level 6, you can generally solo farm and split push a lane because you are that strong of a duelist.

Vayne is an exceptional team fight champion. She has so much to help her to re-position with Tumble and Final Hour. Your role in the team fight is to sit in the back, destroy tanks with your percentage true damage from Silver Bolts, and be very elusive.

When a team fight starts, you generally want to take a moment and look at the positioning of the enemy team. If there's an assassin like Zed who will likely be diving for you, then you don't want to pop your ultimate immediately. Save it for when he goes in. Activate Final Hour, Tumble, and stealth. This will keep you save for a bit. Always, always, always kite backwards on Vayne. Kiting is made very easy by your Tumble. If the assassin does manage to get to you, use your Condemn as a disengage. It actually pushes them quite far away. Condemn doesn't always have to stun a target to be useful. You will likely destroy their tank line a lot faster than the other AD Carry will be killing your team.

After the chaos is when Vayne really goes crazy. You have a great kit for chasing down and killing enemies after the fight because of your Night Hunter passive and Tumble to chase. You can also make some pretty fancy plays. If you see an enemy priority target out of position, you can Flash forward and get a Condemn on them into a wall. This will likely result in their instantaneous death. Before that, make sure you're in a safe position to do this!