League of Legends (LoL) Question: Builds

It's very hard to answer this question quickly, as it's pretty broad but I'll give it a go. For as general as I can be we have these scenarios.

If the enemy team relies heavily on auto attacks and you want to put a damper on that damage early game, you can build Ninja Tabi. This option applies to every single champion in the game, as any champion can benefit from buying these boots. If you find yourself being put under CC a lot (i.e. stunned, snared, rooted, slowed), you can buy Mercury's Treads because this item reduces the effectiveness of Crowd Control. Important thing to note is you can only buy one boot item. So if they have a lot of auto attack focus and a lot of crowd control, you'll have to pick the boot which you feel is best for the situation.

Now for the not-so general situations. Some of these next situations will require you to know about enemy champion abilities and what many other items do in the game. If you are ever curious about what items an enemy has, you can press the "O" key or hold "Tab" and mouse over their items. That will show you what the items do to help you think about counter building.

If you're playing a fighter or tank character such as Garen and the enemy carry is building a lot of Critical Strike Chance, you can build a Randuin's Omen to counter some of the damage boost from critical strikes.

On the same note if the enemy team has a high focus on auto attacks and lifesteal when you're playing Garen, you can build Thornmail to help against that, as it applies grievous wounds which reduces healing, and Thornmail also reflects some damage back at anyone who auto attacks you. Thornmail gets better with the more armor you build, so having at least one other armor item with it is recommended.

If the enemt team has a lot of magic damage when you're Garen, you're going to want, at a minimum, Spirit Visage. Its passive synergizes well with Garen's passive and it gives a lot of health and magic resist. If it's repeated poke magic damage like Teemo's Blinding Dart or Toxic Shot, then building Adaptive Helm is also a good choice as it lowers damage from repeating sources. So his abilities will hurt less.

In general, as Garen, if you build these items you should be okay in most games if you're playing well:


> > > > >


But if you need to counter build, you can switch Sterak's Gage for any of the items I mentioned above. For Runes, you'll want something like this:

> > > > >


Now, as an assassin like Nocturne, you'll have different options. As Nocturne if they have a lot of magic damage, you can build Maw of Malmortius. If they have a lot of Crowd Control, you can build Mercurial Scimitar and/or Edge of Night. If they're healing a lot, you can build Mortal Reminder. If they're team is very tanky, you can build Lord Dominik's Regards. If you need any further information about Nocturne, you can go to PsiGuard's Nocturne Guide as he's extremely knowledgeable on the champion and plays him at a pretty high rank.


Now with Annie, counter building is a little different. You don't want to sacrifice a lot of damage when you're playing her because her job is to deal a lot of damage. Since you're kind of new to the game, if you're against a Zed you should build Zhonya's Hourglass as fast as possible. If the enemy team is building a lot of magic resist items, get a Void Staff. If the enemy laner has a lot of hard crowd control and you want to avoid some of it, you can get a Banshee's Veil. IF you need more information about playing Annie, go to This Annie Guide and more specifics will be addressed.


Ashe is similar to Annie in the terms of "you don't want to sacrifice a lot of damage because your job is to do a lot of damage". Most of the things I said for Nocturne can be built by Ashe perfectly fine. If you want more information about building Ashe and specific match ups, you should look at Vapora Dark's Ashe Guide as he mains ADC and and plays in Diamond/Master/Challenger tier, depending on the server he's playing.

I hope that helps. Good luck on the rift.