[14.10] Urason's Grandmaster In-Depth Guide to Samira - INDEPTH MATCHUP EXCEL SHEET!
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Recommended Items
Runes: Standard IE Build
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
Spells:
Cleanse
Flash
Items
Threats & Synergies
Pantheon
Pantheon completely destroys you. his early game presence means you can't do anything or he'll chunk half your hp. If you ever look to ult, he'll just W you. I tend to ban him.
Rell
This is literally Samira's best support. Rell can follow up on your engage, you can follow on hers, she slows and wraps the enemy for you with tons of CC. It's just great!
Rell
This is literally Samira's best support. Rell can follow up on your engage, you can follow on hers, she slows and wraps the enemy for you with tons of CC. It's just great!
Champion Build Guide
Samira, The Desert RoseAs a champion, Samira is great if you're looking for someone with a decently high skill ceiling. She works off of countless combos to let you weave in and out of fights with ease. At the end of the day, she's a strong early game champion that snowballs so she can wipe teams with her lead. If that sounds interesting, then the Desert Rose may be for you. |
Main Champions: Samira, Vayne, Kai'Sa
Speciality: Taking ANY and EVERY Fight
Introduction: Hey everyone! Welcome to my Samira Guide! My name is Urason and I'm an ADC main/small streamer who loves playing Samira! Before I do my even smaller intro, PLEASE READ THE NOTES ON STUFF, THATS WHERE A MAJORITY OF MY EXPLANATIONS ARE ;-;.
I started playing Samira back on the PBE and loved to practice her combos and mechanics. Regardless, I'm always trying to look at new things to improve her build! This tends to happen with open discussion on the Samira Main's discord as well as on my stream (for those who are interested). Nonetheless, let's get into the guide! Keep in mind that this guide still looks rough but I'm slowly learning to make it look nicer! For now, I want the information to be available <3 Here are my accounts for those interested! Enjoy the Guide and PLEASE give me any and all feedback. Thanks! <3
Looking for the Matchups Sheet!?!? Look no further, click this image below:
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As an ADC, Samira is an extremely aggressive pick. Her powerful early game makes her a strong champion that can gain a lead as soon as possible. Once she begins to snowball, she can start destroying teams with her ultimate, Inferno Trigger. While it may take some practice, she can use her quick combos to instantly burst down enemies before they get the chance to react. Plus, with her W, Blade Whirl, she can block vital skill shots for her allies. This makes her a wonderful counter to things like Seraphine's Encore or Ornn's Call of the Forge God. |
Unfortunately, with how powerful she can be early on, Samira can struggle without a lead. If she falls behind, it becomes incredibly hard to catch up and deal damage. You heavily rely on AD scalings and crit to deal damage so things like Flair and Inferno Trigger will do little to no damage without items. You're also extremely combo reliant and if the enemy has someone like Leona, Sett, Pantheon, or anyone else with short-cooldown CC, the game becomes REALLY hard to play. It's not impossible, but its definitely difficult. With the reset mechanic on her E, Wild Rush, you need to think fast at all times and watch the entire fight. Failure to do so will have you caught out before you act with your resets. |
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RANGE: 650=(650-950) Units
COST: 0 Mana
COOLDOWN: 0 Seconds
Flair (Q)
RANGE: 950 /400
COST: 30 Mana
COOLDOWN: 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 Seconds
ACTIVE: Samira fires a shot in the target direction that deals physical damage to the first enemy hit. If there is an enemy in front of Samira at the time of cast, she will instead slash her sword in a cone.
* This is Samira's bread and butter ability. It deals less damage than a basic attack but it works great for laning. Be sure to take advantage of its range so you can CS and trade from afar! A great trick is to use Q THEN auto rather than auto Q. It's faster.
If Flair is cast during Wild Rush, it'll unleash explosives in her wake that deal damage to enemies hit. This can be done during Blade Whirl as well as Inferno Trigger
* One of Samira's key components is using your Q
and E
together, ESPECIALLY during your ultimate. It'll significantly increase your DPS and let you easily pull of your resets.
Blade Whirl (W) RANGE: 325 COST: 60 Mana COOLDOWN: 30 / 28 / 26 / 24 / 22 Seconds
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Impractical All-In Combo 1
AA -> Q -> W -> E -> W2 -> AA -> R
This combo is great when you can pull it off because you get S pretty fast. It also takes advantage of your long cooldowns early on since you don't have to cast Q twice to get to S ranking. While I would say its a good combo to know, I'd also say its not the biggest necessity.
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Impractical All-In Combo 2
AA -> W + E + Q -> AA -> W2 -> R
This combo can deal a great amount of burst within a small frame since the last few parts of it all happen at once. Sometimes you may even get the bug where you get to auto during your W which means an even faster instant S. Similar to our previous combo, its impractical just because it requires proper spacing thanks to using your E and both parts of your W.
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Common Teamfight Combo 1
AA -> Q -> AA -> Q -> AA -> E -> R
This combo is great for teamfights since you'll be kiting around the fight waiting for an opportunity to engage. Once you see your window, you can dive in with E and R! Don't forget you can buffer your ultimate during your E so it'll cast as soon as the animation is done!
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Common Teamfight Combo 2
AA -> Q -> AA -> W + E + Q -> R
This combo is a burstier version of our previous one. If you need to deal a lot of damage to one target, this'll destroy them! It's great for teamfights since it can often give you your free reset so you can run rampant in the fight!
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PRECISION Conqueror is Samira's best rune due to how it synergizes with her kit. There's not much to say about this besides the fact that you'll stack it throughout the course of a fight and if you play around it properly, you can hit max stacks with your ultimate. While there are other runes you can take, this just tends to be the best across most games which is why it's here. Don't be afraid to experiment on your own as this is a general guide!
Triumph is finally a good choice on Samira! Thanks to the buff on her R, she no longer needs PoM to function mid to late game. The bonus sustain and gold you get from Triumph is is nice and can help during teamfights! That being said, Presence of Mind is a nice comfort rune of mine. I may not take it anymore, but I do miss it.
Legend: Alacrity is going to be your best Legend after the item & Bloodline changes if you're feeling a bit clunky due to the lack of AS from your items. This will give you the AS you need early on due to how quickly it stacks! You could argue that Legend: Tenacity is a good second choice versus heavy CC but I rarely take it. You can still go for Legend: Bloodline if you want! It's not a bad option either just not as great as it once was.
If you're going for Galeforce and The Collector then you should be taking Coup de Grace! Honestly, this option means you're looking to delete champs like Soraka, Lux,and other squishy champs! Mostly nice with Duskblade and occasionally Galeforce. I recommend taking Cut Down if you're versus a team with a few tanks and/or Bruisers. It synergizes EXTREMELY well with Lord Dominik's Regards due to the % HP damage boost you get! If you're playing PURE tank shred Samira. It's a must! Last Stand is what you tend to take in most games. Last stand is best paired with any and all healing! It will empower your healing and allow you to survive and dish out consistent DPS. You'll live on the edge like Samira always wanted! |
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Domination
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-> Sudden Impact works well for helping you snowball. Due to your passive & E giving the pen, you can theoretically deal more damage early on. I personally dislike it but others love the free pen it offers. -> Taste of Blood is great for laning since it'll give you bonus healing. Pair this with PoM for nearly unlimited sustain. However, it's not that great if you're permentantly outranged. Look to trade when its up! Overall, its pretty meh now but has its moments. -> Ingenious Hunter works to lower any and all item cooldowns including wards, QSS, and even Guardian Angel. It'll also cut seconds off of your Galeforce, Immortal Shieldbow, and Mercurial Scimitar (great if you're facing constant CC). I recommend it vs CC heavy teams or if your allies are going to skirmish a lot. -> Eyeball Collection replaced Treasure Hunter due to nerfs. Think of it this way, you get an extra 6 ADs worth of gold if you kill the ADC, Support, and JG one time. You get 3.6 AD if you do the same with Eyeball. The difference is that Eyeball doesn't need UNIQUE takedowns! 10KP and you get a free 18AD! If you're really greedy, you can take Eyeball AND Treasure for some free stats from kills you'll get anyways! | |||||||
Resolve
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-> Second Wind isn't great for Samira but its decent if you need to survive lane poke. I wouldn't get into the habit of using it but its worth noting. -> Conditioning offers a ton of free stats, plus, if you grab something like Randuin's Omen, Spirit Visage, or even Death's Dance, it increases in value. Bonus stats for just building something you'd build anyway. Worth. -> Revitalize is good if you're going to be grabbing Bloodthirster or if you're playing with an enchanter like Lulu or Soraka. Otherwise, pick something else. -> Overgrowth is one of my favorite combos with Conditioning since it helps you get tanky for free. You get bonus help for farming, what's there not to like!? -> Unflinching deserves an honorable mention but its not my favorite. You get some free tenacity which is okay. I personally prefer to run merc treads instead. | |||||||
Inspiration
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-> Biscuit Delivery isn't great but it can help you get through difficult laning phases. Sometimes its better to bite the bullet and take this to survive till midgame rather than hard lose lane. Your goal is to live till you get Vamp scepter! -> Magical Footwear can be paired with biscuit delivery to save as much gold as possible. That being said, You don't get Boots till later and that can be REALLY BAD in some cases. -> Future's Market is one of my favorite runes of all time. It lets you hit item spikes faster than ever without needing to snowball. I wouldn't recommend it for everyone but its definitely my fav. With new ADC items, you may need this to get your B. F. Sword or Pickaxe on a good recall since Infinity Edge has a bad build path. Just note that bad buys -> bad debt -> lose game. Use your head! -> Cosmic Insight is used in high challenger games for the summoner advantage in lane. They use the extra seconds of advantage to force a play. Its also useful when you NEED Flash to fight as Samira OR if you're vs someone like Ashe/Varus and need the additional Cleanse CD! |
Starter Items Starting items are exactly what they sound like. You'll be picking up these different choices depending on what you need! |
1 HEALTH POTION + DORAN'S BLADE This is a fairly standard start. You're going to want to do this when facing all-in champions because of the extra HP you get from D-Blade. This is pretty much going to be your starting item when facing someone like Draven, Tristana, or Kai'sa. Plus, the bonus omnivamp is pretty nice. |
3 HEALTH POTIONS + LONG SWORD This is a super powerful start at the moment. While you do miss out on the omnivamp and HP from D-blade, you gain a ton of useful lane presence. With 3 health potions, you can out-sustain most early game harass and you can also take trades with people that took D-blade so you can get an early HP advantage. On top of this, you will be able to grab an early Vamp Scepter and Refillable if you're having to deal with a heavy poke lane! It may seem weird but try it out! |
Core Offensive Item Options These items are a key part of the game as they grant great stats! The ADC item changes have made Samira's build options a bit more versatile when needed. |
INFINITY EDGE While it has a REALLY bad build path, its a high damage item that we can consistently grab second or third now in most games. It's mostly a stat stick that gives you some insane damage scaling.. |
OPPORTUNITY This item provides Samira with the extra early game damage, lethality, and build path that she needs to keep up with champions like Jinx or Jhin. The main goal of this item for Samira is to look for kills, snowball, and end thanks to her being as strong as possible on the map at all times! Overall, I love this new item. You're always strong on map, have a great build path to get components from, and its cheap price means you can get it before the enemy finishes their first item! 12/10! |
GHOSTBLADE This item provides great mobility when facing champions like Caitlyn or anyone else with long range. While it can't replace our beloved Galeforce, it can still give you the additional mobility you need in order to win the game. |
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First Back/Recall Your first recall can be really important to the game. It lets you adapt to your lane and deal with it how you see fit. This can mean you play safe, grab sustain, grab damage, grab mobility, or even a mix of all 3! |
REFILLABLE POTION It unfortunately got nerfed but overall, Refillable is there to give you bonus sustain and trade potential. If you feel like you're kind of struggling in lane or that you really like take trades, buy this. Don't fall for the trap of buying 15 Health Potions every game! |
VAMPIRIC SCEPTER With Immortal Shieldbow being a Legendary item now, you can sit on this in bad lanes and either commit to the item first or go straight into your other first item options like Collector. Regardless, its a great item at providing early sustain especially if you have a Refillable Potion as well! |
SERRATED DIRK This item is Samira's standard and a great first buy in order to win lane. The Collector is ideal as a first OR second item and its build path means you can be as strong as possible EVERY TIME you get on the map. Go Collector first if you're going traditional IE build otherwise do Opportunity then Collector. |
Boot Options While I wouldn't say boots make or break games, they are definitely important. Most of the time you'll be running armor boots but lets go through all the options and their situations incase! |
PLATED STEELCAPS Again, here's your armor option. This is really good vs auto attack reliant champs! Champions like Lucian, Rengar, Caitlyn, and even Vayne are dominated by this item until later on. It's a really good choice for some defensive stats early on! More than likely, you'll build this in about 90% of your games. |
MERCURY'S TREADS This is your MR and CC solution, it's not too great for laning phase unless you're vs mages, but it'll help a good bit if the enemy has AP mid and jg that can kill you! Plus, who doesn't love the bonus tenacity!? I'll tell you who! The enemy Leona. |
TRAILBLAZER This is your go-to item once you reach late game and need to sell your boots. It'll give you decent movement speed, defensive stats, and some damage. Plus, its pretty cheap! |
BOOTS OF SWIFTNESS These are rarely ever used. They're nice vs comps that you have to reallyyyy kite with but otherwise, it's a meme or just sometimes fun to go. You pretty much have a free version of these build into your passive soooooo. (That hasn't stopped me from building them sometimes vs champs like Nasus who can slow me for 99%). If possible, its also a great option vs champs that outrange you like Caitlyn or Jinx! Just be sure to pair it with Galeforce most of the time for these champs or have your Flash ready! |
IONIAN BOOTS OF LUCIDITY These boots are popping around in a few places but again, they tend to be in super high elo games. The purpose is to gain additional CDR on your summoner spells as well as giving your some extra Q spam-ability. It's nice if you can't dive into the enemy team comp AND don't need armor which will rarely happen. The real value is the seconds cut off your Flash and Cleanse especially when combined with cosmic insight. |
OTHER OFFENSIVE ITEMS These are items that you can take to deal more damage. While most of them make you squishier, they also make you significantly stronger. I recommend only going a few of these. If not, you become a glass cannon and any damage late game will kill you! |
THE COLLECTOR The Collector is still a good item that gets a lot of hate. After its buffs and the removal of Shieldbow as a Mythic, you should rush this first if you want to play like old Samira. If you're going one of the lethality builds, then you'll be going this 2nd most likely but some people like it first regardless. |
LORD DOMINIK'S REGARDS Lord Dominik's Regards functions as an AMAZING item for when you have to be primaryu tank shred! Take this to deal with tanks (like Ornn). Keep in mind that most games, its best to ignore the tanks and kill everyone else. IF thats not possible, go LDR and shred them first! |
MORTAL REMINDER Mortal Reminder got a small boost after the item changes. It's a great option if you need anti-heal to deal with Vladimir while also having enough armor pen to deal with Sion. You won't need this most games but it can fit 4th slot generally and 3rd slot rarely. |
SHIELDBOW A lot of Samira players love Bloodthirster but with the changes to Immortal Shieldbow, its better to pick it up instead. Its upgraded Passive is amazing for us since its a bigger shield plus, it has some nice Lifesteal! It'll be a great option for aggressively healing and sustaining. Be sure to pair this with Revitalize and/or Last Stand. You'll likely slot this in as your 3rd or 4th item! |
DEFENSIVE ITEMS Once you get your key items, its time to start building defensively! The longer you can survive, the more DPS you can do! This is probably one of my favorite parts of itemization because its hilarious when you get REALLY tanky. |
GARGOYLE STONEPLATE This is probably one of my favorite items in the game and I love building it on Samira. While Randuin's Omen may be a better item most of the time, Gargoyle Stoneplate is AMAZING in the right situation. If you're diving into a ton of people and need instant protection, you use the active and BOOM you're tanky. This item isn't for everyone and a lot of people will disagree with me so I def recommend Randuin's instead. |
RANDUIN'S OMEN A lot of people forget about this item and are afraid to build it on ADCs. On someone like Samira it's active is super strong since you're near a few people when you use it. Not only is this a good armor option for when the enemy has a lot of AD, but you'll take reduced damage from crits and get a nice chunk of health as well! If you're tired of dealing with the enemy team's Zed + Caitlyn + Irelia, this is for you. Otherwise, steer clear. |
THORNMAIL After its price changes and armor adjustment, Thornmail became a good armor item (but not really a good anti-heal one). This is honestly one of my favorite armor items if the other options don't fit. For the most part, Samira has an armor item for EVERY situation so add this to your list! |
GUARDIAN ANGEL GA is a great item if you feel like you only need a small bit of defense and want some additional damage. I personally enjoy buying the stopwatch before a big fight so that I can use it if needed. It's also good if your team has good peel + extended fights! Overall though, I'm not a big fan of Guardian Angel and prefer to pick up a real tank item or Death's Dance. |
DEATH'S DANCE DD is really just a better Guardian Angel to me imo. It offers great stats with both armor and AD. It gives you a TON of healing once you kill an enemy. It gives you longer time to live because of its bleed effect. AND it also reduces incoming damage, again, because of its bleed effect. Overall, it's not an item I build often but I definitely think its a good one. Take it if you need to survive but can guarantee kills! |
SPIRIT VISAGE Here's the MR counterpart of Randuin's Omen. I rarely build it but when I do, it's amazing. Assuming this is near the end of the game, champions like Evelynn and Ryze will instantly delete you. This is your option to stop that from happening + it empowers your healing from Immortal Shieldbow, Legend: Bloodline and Bloodthirster! It's also great if you have a Shen, Soraka, or Lulu on your team! |
ANATHEMA'S CHAINS A lot of people may come for me for this but Anathemas Chains is an extremely overpowered item on a lot of ADCs. That being said, it's made for niche situations but when it's a good buy, it's a GOOD BUY! This item is extremely cheap, gives you a nice bit of bonus health, AND IT GIVES WHAT MAY AS WELL BE A PERMANENT Exhaust. Chains is really good when you're looking to deal with a single target that's destroying you. More often than not, this is my answer to Kassadin or Karthus since they're usually the sole AP of the team. Ideal situations are that the person you are chaining is the main carry and the only important type of that damage. If the entire enemy is doing lots of magic damage, you're better off getting Spirit Visage or Force of Nature. Oh yeah, did I mention it'll lower the enemy tenacity as well? |
SITUATIONAL ITEMS These are items that are great in certain situations. While you may not build them every game, they can always be added to deal with something. |
MERCURIAL SCIMITAR I mean.... We all know what it does. Be sure to pick up Quicksilver Sash early on if the enemy has hard CC that can stop you in your tracks. You can finish the item later since it's not really worth it. Things like Skarner ult or Malzahar ult are nightmares to deal with without this, especially because you're short ranged! Don't ego it! Buy at least QSS! |
SERPENT'S FANG I honestly rarely go Serpent's Fang and kinda dislike it but, it's really good vs shield reliant teams. When used in the right circumstance, it can deny entire teams thousands of shielding. Champions that go items like Immortal Shieldbow or Sterak's Gage will be hurt pretty badly. Champs like Seraphine, Ivern, Karma etc. will give you the full value of this item thanks to how important shielding is to them. If the enemy doesn't have excessive shielding, don't bother. |
ESSENCE REAVER Essence Reaver used to be a decent item vs teams that you simply can't engage into. Since you can't engage into the enemy, you'll be an auto + Q robot till an opportunity opens! But, again, because of how heavily it was nerfed, it's just not worth it anymore. It's presence here is simply in loving memory of its past. |
MAW OF MALMORTIUS With the death of Immortal Shieldbow, we can finally build Maw consistently! Maw of Malmortius got a slight cost reduction and thanks to not being forced into Shieldbow, we can build it! THE MAGES WILL FEAR US! |
BLACK CLEAVER While this is a VERY situational item, Black Cleaver has its places to shine! It works as a great survivability tool while also providing tank shred. I personally only ever build it if I have to fight multiple bruisers/tanks. Otherwise, its an okay item to grab. You'll likely build it 5th or 6th item if ever. |
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Special thanks to all of my friends who have listened to me talk about this champion nonstop. Another thanks to the Samira Mains discord who has a great community that also theory crafts with me on their free time! Finally, thank you to these guides for making this entire coding process far easier.
Hope to see you on the rift, summoners! <3 - Urason
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