Twisted Fate Build Guide by Halfhand

- Try to get +8 cs/min (Twisted Fate's passive gives you more gold from minions)

- Don't die in lane. There are very few matchups that Twisted Fate actually wins. Try to get as much cs as you can without dying and play the map with your ultimate. Don't be centered on killing your opponent in lane.

- Time your recall so you have items when you are using your first ultimate. The perfect first base items would be boots, dark seal, amplifying tome and a control ward.

- Improve your wave control so your opponent doesn't get the chance to freeze the lane on you. In bad matchups try to focus on last hitting and let the wave come to you. Pushing the wave in a bad matchup will put you in danger to get ganked.

- Twisted Fate is a champion that requires great macro understanding so don't dwell too much on mechanical missplays. Focus on your map movement/positioning.

- Don't permanently group with your team. Your ultimate allows you to split push in a sidelane. This allows you to get alot more XP and Gold while being able to use your ult to get back to your team incase a fight breaks out.

- Watch high elo Twisted Fate players play the game. I personally learned alot from watching dopa's stream. Try to look how he plays, when he bases, which items he buys, how he positions, when he ults, ...
Link to his stream; www.twitch.tv/dopa24 and youtube; www.youtube.com/Dopagod

Hello to all my Twisted Fate Collegues/enthousiasts!

Before you read through my guide I would like to introduce myself as a way to make my guide more credible. I'm Halfhand. In season 10 I reached Master tier in EUW playing Twisted Fate in 90% of my games. I also have over 500k mastery points on him. Currently in season 11 I am aiming for Grandmaster.

My Twisted Fate rankings
- Rank 2 in EUW
- Rank 1 in EUNE
- Rank 7 in the world

Playing Twisted Fate I've come up with my own customized runes/build shared with you in this guide.

Feel free to follow me on Twitch to watch me play or follow me on social media! During season 11 I will try to stream my games for you guys to watch.
Twitch: www.twitch.tv/Halfhand
Twitter: twitter.com/Halfhander
OP.GG MAIN: euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=Halfhander
OP.GG ALT: euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=Halvhand
Discord: discord.gg/aeuA3Jy (If you are interested in coaching or have some general questions, contact me here)
Achievements: https://imgur.com/a/48vOvGZ

Twisted Fate is a very unique champion in the sense that you don't have to be mechanically gifted to win games on him. Most Twisted Fate players have a really good sense of macro which allows them to win games. You can be very creative when playing this champion in terms of roaming, cheese invades, etc...

His global ultimate Destiny makes him a perfect soloq champion since he is able to abuse bad positioning from enemies very easily. For example; you can ult on the enemy adc when he is greeding to farm an extra wave on his own. Because of this alot of Korean pro players see Twisted Fate as the perfect soloq champion. He abuses the fact that there is no communication between teammates.

His passive Loaded Dice allows him to get alot of extra gold without having to get kills. You can essentially only farm minions and get a gold lead against your opponent. This means that you don't need to mechanically outplay your opponent in lane in order to get ahead in the game. Just safely farming up is often the best way to play Twisted Fate.

High elo junglers love playing with good Twisted Fate players because he is easy to setup ganks with and has very good wave pushing which allows him to move first for crab/dragon/herald. It also allows them to invade the enemy jungler when Twisted Fate has his r Destiny available. Try to always consider your jungler position when playing Twisted Fate.

Twisted Fate gives alot of pressure without even doing anything. When you push your waves and move out of vision the enemy team often tends to play scared because they don't know where Twisted Fate is moving. He could be in the river ready to ult on top of them. Try to abuse this when playing him.

This is also why opponents in high elo often refuse to push their waves because they know Twisted Fate will ult on them. This gives your team alot of 'free' pressure when you are out of vision.

Twisted Fate also fits in basically every team composition (in soloq). He is not AD so you don't have to worry about having a full AD comp. The way his kit works also synergises really well with other champions. Your teammates can for example follow up on your gold card cc and stun a target for multiple seconds.

Dopa: 'I personally don’t think that the choice of runes matter that much. Runes are balanced, so using one rune over another is a matter of taste. The important thing is that you have to play according to the runes and spells that you have chosen.'


ELECTROCUTE PAGE (good for heavy trading and the best rune when you are in a melee matchup. (Talon, Katarina, ...)

Electrocute gives you extra damage when you hit a target with 3 unique attacks/abilities. For Twisted Fate this means it procs when we have a Stacked Deck and hit an opponent with Wild Cards & Pick A Card. This allows us to have some really good early trades with our opponent.

Taste of Blood heals you when you hit an enemy champion. This is really nice for skirmishes and makes laning a bit easier for Twisted Fate since we will be able to heal up some of the damage we take.

Eyeball Collection gives you extra ability power for every takedown. Try to roam alot and use your ult as much as you can to get the 10 stacks as fast as you can. We need this rune because it will allow us to clear minion waves faster.

Ravenous Hunter gives us 1.7% omnivamp for every stack. This allows us to heal alot of the damage we take and is really nice in skirmishes. Just like Eyeball Collection you should try to stack this up as fast as you can.

Minion Dematerializer allows you to clear minion waves faster, meaning we can roam more efficiently. Use all of these on backline casters for an increased amount of damage on them allowing you to waveclear easier. You will need Hextech Rocketbelt & Aether Wisp to oneshot them after level9.

Time Warp Tonic gives us alot of potential for trading in the laning phase. Together with Corrupting Potion it has really good synergy. Pop this every time you are doing a heavy trade of health with your opponent. Also keep in mind this gives you 5% extra movement speed when under the effects. So you can also use it to catch up to someone.

The extra attack speed is really nice to proc electrocute faster in lane aswell as stacking your Stacked Deck faster. It also helps you with last hitting minions with your basic attacks since your attack speed is a bit higher.

Generic extra ability power.

The last rune is defence. You can swap this between armor and magic resist depending on the matchup.

PHASE RUSH PAGE (a more niche setup but definitely viable if you like it.)

Phase Rush allows you to reposition for a followup gold card after your first one really nicely. Or you can use it to escape after walking in for a gold card engage. It is also really nice for escaping ganks. Q + W + an auto attacks procs it allowing you to run back to your tower.

Manaflow BandAfter the nerfs to nimbus cloak I feel like manaflow band is the best option here. Mana is always nice to have on Twisted Fate and with the removal of Rod of Ages you don't have alot of mana anymore early/mid game because now you rush Hextech Rocketbelt.

Absolute Focus in combination with Gathering Storm and Minion Dematerializer allows you to oneshot the backline caster minions with one Q at level 9. Which gives you alot of nice waveclear allowing you to roam faster.

Gathering Storm gives you an insane amount of Ability Power in the late game. I've had games where I was getting close to 1000ap just because this rune has such great scaling. At 40 minutes you will be able to oneshot the adc with stacked deck W + Q.

Minion Dematerializer Use all of these on backline casters for an increased amount of damage on them allowing you to waveclear easier.

Cosmic Insight Because the new mythic item Hextech Rocketbelt is an active and most games you also buy Zhonya's Hourglass (another active item). This rune is really nice to reduce the cooldown.

Because I go Absolute Focus, Gathering Storm and Minion Dematerializer I can go Attack speed in offense since we don't need to AP in order to one shot the backline casters at lvl 9.

Generic extra ability power.

The last rune is defence. You can swap this between armor and magic resist depending on the matchup.

I often get asked; 'When should I go phase rush over electrocute?' There are alot of things to consider here. I feel like if you are in a really bad matchup or when the enemy is ranged an its harder for you to proc Electrocute Phase Rush is a far better option.

Why is Phase Rush sometimes better over Electrocute:

1) Twisted Fate is very movement reliant to land gold cards. Phase rush helps with repositioning for a second rotation of Pick A Card + Wild Cards. If you play Twisted Fate very supportive and less burst/dmg oriented Phase Rush helps you with stunning high priority targets so your team can kill them.

2) Phase Rush allows you to escape ganks very easily. And since Twisted Fate has really weak laning and is often camped this is really nice.

3) Phase Rush in my opnion is far more superior than Electrocute in teamfights. With electrocute you could do more damage on 1 target but with phase rush you could go Usain Bolt style and CC lock multiple targets. You can go for a high priority target in the backline and get out of the enemy range with Phase Rush.

4) A month after I started using Phase Rush on AP TF, Dopa came out with his League of Legends concepts/secrets. In this Dopa stated quote: ' I personally don’t think that the choice of runes matter that much. Runes are balanced, so using one rune over another is a matter of taste. The important thing is that you have to play according to the runes and spells that you have chosen.'

5) Now that Rod of Ages is gone and you rush Hextech Rocketbelt you have no mana at all. Taking Phase Rush in sorcery tree allows me to go Manaflow Band for extra mana which is huge.

6) The combination of Gathering Storm + Absolute Focus + Minion Dematerializer allows you to clear waves insanely fast and gives you insane scaling.

In terms of abilities you max Q Wild Cards first, then W Pick A Card, then E Stacked Deck.
Ofcourse you unlock your R Destiny whenever you can, at level 6, 11 and 16.

Most TF players go W-Q-E first 3 levels.
I go W-E-Q because I really like the stacked deck level 2 for farming and pressuring the opponent. The only time I go W-Q-E is when I am zoned away from my farm lvl 2. (Which rarely happens).

Passive: Loaded Dice Upon killing a unit, Twisted Fate rolls his 'lucky' dice receiving 1 to 6 bonus gold.

Q: Wild Cards Twisted Fate throws three cards, dealing damage to each enemy unit they pass through.

W: Pick A Card Twisted Fate chooses a magic card from his deck, and uses that for his next attack, causing bonus effects..

E: Stacked Deck Every 4 attacks, Twisted Fate deals bonus damage. In addition, his Attack Speed is increased.

R: Destiny Twisted Fate predicts the fortunes of his foes, revealing all enemy champions and enabling the use of Gate, which teleports Twisted Fate to any target location in 1.5 seconds.

CORE ITEMS:

Hextech Rocketbelt

Lich bane

Zhonya's Hourglass

Hextech Rocketbelt should almost always be your first item. This is your mythic item. For now this seems to be the best mythic item for Twisted Fate if you are building him AP. The active is really insane to position yourself for a good gold card on high priority targets. Dopa (The best AP Twisted Fate player in the world) also rushes this item. Lich Bane synergises really well with Twisted Fate because of the movement speed it gives and the passive. Zhonya's Hourglass allows you to ult into 3 opponents, stun the high priority target, do your damage rotation. Activate Zhonya and wait for your team to arrive. The item gets you out of alot of sticky situation were you would otherwise die. Whenever you are playing against assassins like Zed, Talon or Yone its smart to buy Seeker's Armguard on your first base. Then complete Hextech Rocketbelt and after that finish your Zhonya's Hourglass.

SITUATIONAL ITEMS:

Rapid Firecannon

Banshee's Veil

Mejai's Soulstealer

Rapid Firecannon is good if you feel like you don't need zhonya (No AD/assassins in enemy team) then you can buy RFC as third item. This item extends your gold card range by alot and will catch alot of people offguard. If ahead you can legit zone off an entire team when holding your card. This item in combination with Hextech Rocketbelt is really insane. You can dash in with rocketbelt and stun the adc from really far away. Banshee's Veil is really good against heavy AP comps or champions that start fights with one cc spell like (Blitzcrank, Sejuani, Thresh, Malphite, Nautilus, Ashe, ...) With its recent buffs and Verdant Barrier now stacking like Seeker's Armguard I would say this is a really underlooked item against AP comps. I also think people should maybe consider buying this instead of Zhonya's Hourglass vs Fizz. Mejai's Soulstealer is a perfect option if you have a 10 stack Dark Seal from an early buy. If I have less than 6 I never upgrade my Dark Seal. Another thing to keep in mind is that this item requires you to stay alive in order to keep the stacks so I always make sure I have Zhonya's Hourglass or Banshee's Veil before I upgrade Dark Seal so I can make sure I don't die and lose all my stacks. This item is extremely underlook and broken in season 11. Make sure to buy a Dark Seal whenever you have the chance.

LATEGAME ITEMS:

Rabadon's Deathcap

Void Staff

Elixir of Sorcery

Rabadon's Deathcap You should only buy deathcap when you already have around 3 AP items. This is because it increases your AP by 35%. So buying it second item means the passive goes to waste. Void Staff. If your opponents are stacking magic resist I prefer to buy void staff before I get deathcap. Elixir of Sorcery This item can win you late game teamfights. If after 20 minutes you have 500 gold to spare and you know a fight is coming up make sure you buy this item since it synergises really well with Twisted Fate. Lich Bane + Elixir of Sorcery allows you to shred down turrets like its nothing.

Sorcerer's Shoes is the most basic option for Twisted Fate. I myself tend to run these boots most of the time since the magic penetration stacks really well with the Hextech Rocketbelt passive. These boots will be good in most games.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity seem to be the best in the game atm. I would really recommend these boots if you are running the Phase Rush page. Because of cosmic insight in that setup it makes it even better. Flash is lowered to 3:50 instead of 5:00. Ignite is lowered to 2:19 instead of 3:00.

Mercury's Treads are really good when you play against heavy cc/ AP dmg (for example; Lissandra, Leona, Sejuani, Ahri, ...). When I play against an AP jungler and mid with stuns like; Fiddlesticks and Syndra I will base at 1100 gold and buy them first.

Plated Steelcaps are really good if you play against a full AD comp. Meaning that the enemy team has mostly AD damage. For example; Zed, Kha'Zix, Vayne, Pyke, Renekton, ...) If this is the case, buy Seeker's Armguard first, purchase your Plated Steelcaps after that and lastly get Hextech Rocketbelt. This will basically make you a tank.

Boots of Swiftness give you alot of extra movement speed and are really good into champions that have alot of slows. For example; Ashe, Singed, Olaf, Zilean. These boots are not that common but there are players like 'The Crossman' who always buy them because of the extra movement speed it gives.

In this section I will go over some concepts that are really important when playing Twisted Fate. Some of them more complicated than others but try to take in as much as you can. Maybe work on one concept every day in order to improve them all over time.



River control is one of the most important concepts when playing Twisted Fate. This is because when you look to ult into sidelanes you will have to walk partly in the river. When the entire river is warded and under the enemy control it will be harder for you to surprise them with your R Destiny.

Warding the river
Warding the river is the single most important thing to establish river control. It will allow you to use Destiny alot more effective. Try to always have atleast 1 Control Ward on the map. Preferably you want to place this in 1 of the river bushes.
I could write a 10 page guide on warding alone so to make it more easy for you guys to take in I highly recommend you to watch Curtis his video about 'Midlane Fundamentals - warding' shown below.


First crab spawn
Always try to play for your jungler when the first Scuttle crab is about to spawn. Make sure you have your wave pushed in so you can move first. Twisted Fate is really scary in early skirmishes because of his gold card.

If you can't move first because you managed your wave badly or the enemy outplayed you, ping your jungler back. Then he has to decide whether he wants to give the crab or contest it. If he doesn't want to contest try to coördinate with your team to get the other crab. Getting double crabbed as a jungler is often a deathsentence to the game. (Or atleast thats what alot of junglers think).

The important thing to remember here is that you have to play for your jungler. If he doesn't care about the crab then you can just stay in lane no problem. But most junglers will want to get atleast one crab at 3:15.

Jungler synergy
Synergy with your jungler is really important when playing Twisted Fate. Try to coordinate ganks together. If you want to ult bot at level 6, let your jungler know. That way he can alter his pathing to be botside when you are about to hit 6. If you are 4 man bot you can often easily secure dragon after ganking.



Wave managment is a very important skill to have as a Twisted Fate player or as a midlaner in general. It is very complicated and can't be explained in a compact guide. I will try to go over some of the more important things but if you are really getting to higher elo I would recommend looking more into this yourself or booking a coaching session with me.

The first minion waves
Into melee champions like Kassadin, Katarina, Zed you mostly look to harass them in the first few levels. But make sure you don't sacrifice too many minions. Always make sure your wave is either pushing in fully or stable in the middle of the lane. Every time you cross the middle part of the lane to push in the minions under the enemy tower you should beware of the enemy jungler position since you are susceptible for ganks.

Into ranged champions like Syndra, Viktor, Annie you mostly want to keep the wave in the middle or just out of your tower range. This way you can safely farm and are not really gankable.

Once you start hitting level 6 and you have your Destiny unlocked you can look to push the wave more in order to ult to the sidelane without losing too many minions. At level 9 Twisted Fate will be able to oneshot the casters. Try to abuse this to get a fast push in order to roam.

This is a very complicated topic and just like warding I could write a 10 page guide on it. So if you are more interested in how to get better at this I recommend Curtis his video about 'Midlane Fundamentals - wave management' shown below.


Minion waves in the later stages of the game
Alot of lower elo players have the mindset of a 'Call of Duty' player. They are only focused on getting kills. Keep in mind the most effective way of getting gold is through minions and not through killing enemies. When you see a big wave Top, Mid or bot and none is getting it make sure you get it. Minions are worth alot of XP and Gold.

Before starting objectives like rift Herald , Dragon or even Baron you should always make sure your lanes are pushing. This way the enemy will lose alot of XP and Gold. Its also important because if let's say the dragon fight goes bad, the enemy team won't have any waves to use in order to get your towers. They will have to go back to the base to push in the waves again and you won't lose anything from the bad fight other than a few deaths.

If you have taken inhibitor and you have super minions running down one lane try to stall the objective like dragon and Baron long enough so the enemy starts losing towers without you even doing anything. They will then have to send someone back to the base to defend. And you will be able to fight 4v5 and secure the dragon or baron .



Your ultimate Destiny is the single most important spell Twisted Fate uses to influence the game. This tool if mastered can win you unwinnable games, turn a 2v3 in a 3v3, backdoor the enemy nexus or camp one opponent so hard he decides to go afk. I have had it all and I can say Twisted Fate's ultimate is the reason I like him so much.

Your first ultimate method 1
This is the most basic method and is also used by Dopa in most of his games.
For your first ult you should try to base at lvl 5 to buy your first items. In most games you want these items on your first base; Boots+ Dark Seal+ Amplifying Tome+1 Control Ward

Run to lane after you recalled, get level 6 and start looking for ganks. If there are no opportunities don't feel pressured to use your R Destiny. You can always hold on to it and wait for a better window.

Your first ultimate method 2
Method 2 is very abusable in lower elos. You can greed and stay in lane to get level 6, then base and look for an ultimate from the base. After your ult you can walk back to midlane and you will most likely not lose alot of minions.

The reason this only works in lower elos is because in Higher elos I often get poked out before that. Lower elo players will rarely punish you, meaning you can stay in lane longer and greed your base timings.

Sidelane control
Always try to heavily control one side of the map. For example you play fully for botside in order to secure dragon soul. Or you play fully for topside in order to get multiple heralds and play the map. Ulting bot, then top, then bot again is often a bad idea since its better to play for one winning side instead of cutting losses on both sides.

Ult usage after that
Your ults after that are really dependent on the game state. I myself often try to ult after I base. I do this because I will have spend all my gold and therefore I will have more damage. If you ult somewhere with 2k in the bank you are missing out on alot of damage. So, run from fountain to bot/top, ult in and after that you can run mid to catch your minions.



Since Twisted Fate his ultimate is a global ability, splitpushing is another really important skill/concept to understand.

DO NOT 5 MAN ARAM MID
After the laning phase ends try to go into a solo lane. This will give you alot more xp and gold compared to sitting mid with your entire team and sharing all the xp/gold between 5 players. Whenever you have your Destiny up you can also splitpush and join the fight with your R Destiny if needed.

This is probably one of the most common mistakes lower elo players make. The amount of gold and xp that is wasted in lower mmr because everyone is always trying to 5 man aram in a lane is insane. You can get really big level and item leads by just focusing on catching sidelanes on your own.

Lane swaps
Once your bot ganks with Destiny start paying off and you manage to get bot tower swap lanes with your botlane. Let them both go mid and you will farm up bot and pressure from there. You do this because a botlaner & support give off alot more pressure than you on your own without R. Since you already took bot tower you want to move your pressure point from the botlane to midlane.

Basic rule set of catching waves
After about 15 - 20 minutes the laning phase will most of the time be ending.

In most games the XP / Gold is shared like this;

- The ADC & Support will take the midlane experience.
- You and the toplaner will catch the sidewaves. This can change from bot to top depending on the game state.
- The jungler will catch waves if really needed and farm the jungle camps.



Matchups
Twisted Fate doesn't really have winning matchups. He isn't designed to stomp lane and spread his lead that way. The way you play him is to go even in lane (not die), punish the enemy when you can and try to farm as many mions as you can. Use your global ultimate to get other lanes ahead and splitpush in the mid game.

Map Awareness
Map awareness is another really important skill for every Twisted Fate player. Looking at the map will make you able to determine when and where to use your ultimate Destiny. When you are laning you should look at the mini map every few seconds. Once your ultimate is up, you should look at the minimap a bit more because now you will have to look for an actually opportunity to ult in.

If you want to learn how to improve your map awareness I recommend you take a look at Curtis his video about map awareness shown below.


Your mythic item
Once you have your Hextech Rocketbelt you have alot of kill pressure. Remember after you jump forward with Rocketbelt you have 30% bonus movement speed towards the enemy target. Meaning you can keep running towards them if you are not immediately in range for your stun. This means a guaranteed hit alot of the time.

Stacked Deck
Whenever you are looking for ults always make sure you have a Stacked Deck. This gives you alot of extra damage when ganking. Example; When my ultimate Destiny is up I use my q on the wave instead of auto attacking to clear it. This way I save my stacked deck for when I ult. It will make it so I deal more damage when I initially land.

Congratulations you've made it to the end of my guide! I would like to thank you for reading through. I hope you learned something and wish you the best of luck with your games.

I would like to end my guide with some info about my League of Legends coaching.

As of season 11 I offer coaching to any players who would like to learn from me.

- Do you struggle with one of the concepts in the guide?
- Would you like to get results faster than other players?
- Do you want to reach a certain rank by the end of the season?
- Do you just want to have a chat with me about Twisted Fate?
- Maybe you have alot of questions that didn't get answered in the guide?

Then I would definitely recommend you book a coaching session with me.

Keep in mind! I do not only coach Twisted Fate players! So if you play another role or another champion you are also free to contact me.

I charge €20 for 1 session 60 - 90 min.

In this session:

- We go over your op.gg (possible rune/build/champion pool issues)
- We go over a pov gameplay you recorded and uploaded to youtube. (NO REPLAY!)
- We have a look at your mental aspect in the game (toxicity, giving up, ...)
- We go over your schedule (when are you playing games? Are you playing too many?)

* All the above are examples and can change depending on your personal requests!

If you are interested you can message me on my discord so we can talk about the details. Discord: https://discord.gg/aeuA3Jy