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A Primer to AD Carries






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Choose Champion Build:
Spells:
Heal
Flash
Ability Order
Frost Shot (PASSIVE)
Ashe Passive Ability
Introduction
- AD Carry, which is a ranged character that starts weak and grows incredibly strong with items as they approach lategame.
- AP Carry, which is a mage character who is strong during the early and middle game; these characters tend to scale well, but their damage scales poorly as compared to AD carries (to make this up, AP carries tend to have utility, such as crowd control, debuffs, and/or buffs available to them).
- Jungler, which tends to be a tank or off-tank character who's purpose is usually to peel enemies off their carry or to initiate teamfights; rather than being in a lane, they occupy the jungle between lanes and kill neutral minions while roaming for potential ganks.
- Solo Top, which tends to be a bruiser. These characters can be of both the AD or AP variety, but they tend to either have strong sustain or dueling capabilities.
- Support, which aids the AD carry during their weak early game. This character tends to buy items that supplement their income (GP/5 items), as there are only four avenues of income (top lane, middle lane, bot lane, and jungle minions) while there are five characters. These champions tend to heal, buff, debuff, and have some soft crowd control.
Of all these roles, perhaps the most misunderstood role is that of an AD carry. AD carries--sometimes referred to as "ranged carries", as they are always of a ranged variety--tend to gain most of their damage through the use of their autoattacks, rather than utilizing their abilities/spells. Because of this, these characters are often consider to be one of the easiest positions. However, ranged carries have a deceptive amount of depth when considering mechanical knowledge required to be a distinguished player.
That's where this guide comes in.
This guide will not be able to answer every question concerning AD carries, nor can it be entirely inclusive of all information needed to be a successful AD carry. Much of this knowledge requires experience; the best way to get better at playing bot lane is simply by playing it. However, this guide will discuss some of the more theory-based portions of being an AD carry. Therefore, regardless of how much you learn from reading this guide, it's important to implement what you learn from this guide into a real game and have some practice.
Carries, by their name sake, are the powerhouse of their team. They "carry" their team to victory by being the primary source of damage during teamfights. Other members of the team either attempt to aid the carry through buffing or heals, protect the carry through the use of crowd control, or initiate fights through the use of crowd control. Therefore, it would be a completely valid statement to suggest that team compositions are focused heavily on enabling their carries to maximize their damage.
As prior mentioned, the two types of carries that are commonly found on a team is an AD carry and an AP carry. AP carries tend to utilize their spells for damage, whereas AD carries focus on using their autoattacks. AP carries tend to be stronger than AD carries during the early portion of the game; AD carries tend to be much stronger than AP carries as they finish building items. But, why is this the case?
AP carries have high base values, as compared to AD carries. An example of this would be to compare



However, during lategame, Ashe will likely have obtained 300 AD, while Cassie might also have obtained 300 AP. Cassie's



Some comparisons can be made here between AD and AP carries:
AD Carries <=> AP Carries
Attack Speed <=> Cooldown Reduction
Attack Damage <=> Ability Power
1:1 autoattack "ability" <=> Lower ratio abilities + some utility (such as crowd control or buffs).
Life Steal <=> Spell Vamp
Critical Hits <=> Spell Crits do not exist!
Why do AD Carries go bottom lane?
In Summoner's Rift--the most commonly played map on League of Legends--there are three lanes: top, middle, and bottom. The question is, why do AD carries share a lane with support, and why do they go bottom lane?
AP carries get stronger as they gain levels; as they are focused on doing damage with their spells, they get significantly stronger as they gain levels. Therefore, AP carries cannot be considered to share a lane with another person (as doing so would "split" the EXP between those two members). Similarly enough, bruisers need levels in order to increase their base stats (i.e, higher HP, armor, and magic resist). So, they require a solo lane (or jungle) to maximize EXP.
Supports find that their abilities are not based off of damage. Instead, their skills are strong simply on the merit of their crowd control effects (such as


But, that still leaves the question: why bottom lane?
Simply answered: Dragon.
Top lane, the bruisers, tend to stay top. They're relatively isolated from the rest of the game. That's why they usually have good dueling abilities (such in the case of


Bot lane is closest to Dragon. Dragon is a critical objective for AD carries; AD carries need money to purchase items, purchasing items makes AD carries stronger, AD carries get money for killing dragon, so it's entirely logical for a primary goal to be to obtain dragon. Because of this reasoning, teams usually place their AD carry and support at bottom lane.

Flash is a summoner spell taken on almost EVERY AD Carry, with the exception of the hyperaggressive carries that elect to take ignite+heal. It's primarily taken to reposition yourself: carries are required to adjust their position throughout fights in order to maximize their damage without compromising their safety. Flash serves as a safety net; when you find yourself out of place, flashing over a wall can easily save your life. In addition, flash can be used to make plays: by flashing towards an opponent, you can gain a kill that you otherwise would miss.

Similar to Flash, Heal provides a safety net for AD carries. As AD carries typically do not need any supplement to their damage, providing a second safety net works well. Heal is particularly useful because it serves as an AoE safety net, rather than a personal safety net: You can heal teammates, whereas your flash can only save yourself. However, don't confuse that with you being the savior of the team: its not your job to jump into a fight just to heal people; you're probably helping your team more by sitting on the outskirts of a fight and safely doing what damage you can. AD carries, in addition, typically don't take the heal mastery under the defense tree (with the exceptions of a few AD carries, like Miss Fortune and Vayne), so your heal probably wouldn't mitigate much more than an autoattack.
Generally, Heal saves you from bad positioning during the laning phase.

Ignite is honestly a spell that AD carries probably shouldn't be taking. It puts AD carries in the range in which they're most vulnerable (relatively close to enemy champions), so it seems counter productive to put yourself in range just to apply a DOT which does the same damage as one or two autoattacks.
However, ignite sees play simply because of the laning phase. Champions like Ezreal and Tristana threaten enemy ADs with massive damage during early levels, and they have gap closers which adds even more early game burst (Ezreal's blink and Tristana's rocket jump, respectively). Therefore, taking ignite is meant for an aggressive laning phase rather than as additional damage during late game fights. Its purpose, late game, is fairly minimal (besides maybe igniting a Mundo or Vladimir that you're chasing). Therefore, consider ignite a bonus to your early game damage, rather than your late game damage.

Even though AD carries often buy

So, What Summoner Spells Do I Take?
In general, AD carries have three options:
-Flash/Heal
-Flash/Ignite
-Flash/Cleanse
This plays sort of a rock-paper-scissors form of counter picking:
-A carry with heal beats one with cleanse; a carry with cleanse simply cannot trade as well as a carry with heal (as they cannot heal the damage immediate, and has to rely on other means of healing).
-A carry with ignite beats one with heal; this is kind of obvious, as heal is debuffed by ignite.
-A carry with cleanse beats one with ignite; cleanse removes the damaging portion of ignite, so this is also a sort of obvious counterplay.
In general, more passive AD carries (Ashe, Kog'Maw, etc) want to take Heal so they can survive the laning phase and succeed in lategame. More aggressive carries (Ezreal, Tristana, etc) want to take ignite so they can capitalize on their early game advantage. Nearly every carry can elect to take cleanse, as removing CC is never a poor choice.
However, there are some unique summoner combos that you may see:
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Why Shouldn't I Use X?
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Ashe is prime example of a utility carry: rather than focusing heavily on damage (such as Kog'Maw), Ashe sacrifices some of her damage for slows on her autoattacks and the ability to initate teamfights with a stun. Ashe is relatively versatile on the team comps that she can be placed, so she's a strong AD carry to learn for the purposes of solo queue; this is particularly aided by the fact she can permaslow enemies, helping her kite attackers (because, in solo queue, it's difficult to rely on your team to peel off assassins).
That being said, there's a gamut of issues with Ashe. She's generally considered a late game champion, because she has no innate steriod to increase her attack damage (and thus relies on items to get her damage). However, when compared to other late game AD carries (such as Kog'Maw and Vayne), Ashe's damage is severely lacking.
When considering Ashe's lane partner, remember that she does prefer a relatively passive lane. Ashe is one of the weakest AD carries during the early laning phase because her ability to trade is relatively poor and she has no real means of initiation or escape until level 6. Because of this, Ashe wants someone to protect her early and be able to peel assassins off her during late game (Janna/Sona), have someone to buff her and her ability to kite (Janna/Sona/Nunu), or help her chain CC (Janna/Leona) for kills throughout the game.
In general, Ashe isn't very dependent on team comps, but she thrives in a team comp where her relatively weak damage can be supplemented by the damage of other members (i.e, a tanky dps top with more emphasis on dps, rather than tanky). She's also a very potent character in solo queue because she does not rely on another member to initiate teamfights and she has potent CC, but her laning phase is below average. Typical supports include Janna, Sona, Nunu, and Leona.

Ashe's passive, when compared to her AD Carry peers' passives, is one of the weakest. Essentially, this passive guarentees you a critical hit on your first auto attack everytime you recall. However, this passive does enable some early game synergy with Ashe's first engage (i.e, Sona and Ashe are an extremely potent level 1 pair in bottom lane because of Ashe's crit+volley and Sona's power chord+poke). In general, though, this passive is never really noticeable.

This is Ashe's primary purpose on a team comp: providing utility to your team's carry. The cost of this spell scales as you level up; the faster you attack, the more mana this drains. To mitigate this, the suggested runes have 3 scaling mana regen runes and mana regen masteries; this lessens the strain on your mana pool without crippling your offense.
This spell is primarily used to chase or kite. Because of this, we utilize 2 movement speed quints in order to aid in both of those tasks. It's highly suggested that when you use this skill--particularly to kite--to try and utilize microstepping. Microstepping, elaborated a bit more in the "Mechanics" chapter, is attacking your opponent, stepping away, and attacking again to reapply the frost debuff.
Get in the habit of toggling your Q on whenever you harass an opponent and turning it off whenever you're farming; you don't want to waste mana on farming minions when it's not necessary.
Frost shot is maxed second. This is because volley is stronger than frost shot during the laning phase, but frost shot is extremely strong during team fights.

Volley serves as Ashe's poke and (mediocre) autoattack reset. At early levels, Volley is extremely potent because of its slow, AoE CC, and it's decent base along with a 1:1 AD ratio. However, it quickly falls off at around level 3 (compared to other AD carries' abilities) and stays a poor reset until Ashe purchases an Infinity Edge and she's leveled up Volley to level 5. At this point, Ashe has enough AD, has a short enough CD on the skill, to make Volley a scary poke to throw out before or during teamfights.
Volley also, because of it's prior mentioned damage, is good at pushing lanes. This is both a blessing and a curse within its own right. During the laning phase, Ashe can find herself pushing the lane because she's using Volley to harass her enemy; pushing early with Ashe is dangerous because she's extremely vulnerable to ganks pre-6. Therefore, take care concerning if you want to hit minions with Volley during the laning phase.
Volley is taken as Ashe's first skill because it provides solid AoE damage while applying slow to every target hit; we elect to max Volley first because it reduces the CD of Volley while increasing its damage.

Active: Ashe sends her Hawk Spirit on a scouting mission to a target area in the map, revealing terrain as it travels in a straight line and granting vision of the target area for 5 seconds. The Hawk Spirit will reveal units in the brush but will not reveal stealthed units or objects.
Hawkshot is one of the man reasons that Ashe is considered a utility carry. She provides a free CV for her team every so often, and Hawkshot serves as a passive gold buff during the farming phase. For this reason, Hawkshot is taken at level 2.
It is worth noting, however, Hawkshot is not a replacement for CV. CV is a global summoner spell with a significantly shorter cooldown. Likewise, Hawkshot cannot replace the purpose of wards: wards provide constant for three minutes, whereas Hawkshot provides a glimpse of vision for 5 seconds. Consider Hawkshot to be a supplement to wards and CV, rather than a replacement.

Ashe's ultimate is the definition of a game changer. Even in the highest level of LoL gameplay, Ashe is considered a strong carry just for this ability. It provides her global map presence while being one of the only carries to initiate a fight safely.
However, there are a lot of fallacies concerning this skill.
First off, I acknowledge it gives you global map presence. But, don't shoot across-the-map ultimates; don't shoot straight down mid lane every time you go back to base. These are unnecessary risks that may end up with you losing your ultimate for 180 seconds. Instead, take easier shots:
-Use your ultimate to stun someone who's tower diving and change the momentum of the confrontation.
-Use your ultimate to chain CC with someone during a teamfight; a stunned target is easier to hit with your ultimate.
-Use your ultimate to stun a carry who's out of position in a teamfight, thus initiating a teamfight.
-Use your ultimate to stun someone in your lane when your jungler ganks.
In general, don't take silly shots; take shots that are easy and enable big plays.
Caitlyn is a dominant early-game AD carry. With her massive range, she provides a huge zone and can harass with ease during the laning phase. The long range on her Q also provides a way to harass targets from even further away, and it enables Caitlyn to push lanes with ease. Beyond this, she has a strong escape with her E. Her W, commonly referred to as her cupcakes, provides her hard CC that a skilled Caitlyn can incorporate in a CC chain. Her ultimate has a massive range, enabling her to pick off targets she otherwise would miss. On top of that, her passive is relatively potent: a guaranteed "mini-crit" with every 7th auto attack!
Unfortunately, Caitlyn does have her pitfalls. All of her spells have relatively long cast animations; this means using Caitlyn's abilities towards the end of the game is relatively pointless as her autoattacks do significantly more damage. Caitlyn also lacks a steroid outside of her passive; because of this, her damage falls off compared to other carries. In addition, her escape--her E--suffers from the same issue: the long cast animation makes it a relatively weaker escape, as other escapes have little to no casting animation. In general, though, Caitlyn tends to fall off late-game when compared to her fellow AD Carries.
Caitlyn's lane partner needs to be one that can capitalize on her early game strengths; this can either be in an aggressive or passive sense. Taric/Caitlyn is, without a doubt, the most common Caitlyn lane. Taric's stun combos well with Caitlyn's cupcake for a long CC chain, and they both are extremely strong in lane. However, both Taric and Caitlyn fall off when out of lane. Sona and Nunu both work well with Caitlyn, providing early game harass and a strong buff to Caitlyn's damage and utility. Soraka is a lane partner than many people don't consider for Caitlyn, but it's strong: Between Caitlyn's Q/autoattacks and Soraka's E harass, this is an extremely safe lane before we even consider Soraka's walking-fountain style of play. Therefore, Caitlyn/Soraka is a good lane for those who want to be safer with a Caitlyn lane.
Caitlyn's team need to be able to help her during the late game, where she's the weakest. When placing Caitlyn on a team, you usually are attempting to complete the game as quickly as possible (i.e, 20 minutes). Therefore, champions need to be chosen that can capitalize on Caitlyn's early game advantage. Another option when creating a team with Caitlyn is to use her to "patch" holes in your team: by selecting some characters that struggle early and have exceptional late games, Caitlyn can shine early whereas they shine late.
In general, Caitlyn is one of the best AD Carries when considering early game. However, as the game approaches late game, her power diminishes. It's best to pair her with someone who can capitalize on her early game advantage, such as Taric, Sona, Nunu, or Soraka.

Caitlyn's passive is one of the strongest passives for an AD carry. With every attack, she gains a stack; at a certain amount of stacks--this value is reduce every 6 levels--she gets a guaranteed mini-crit which (in itself) stacks with crit. This stacks gain at twice the rate when Caitlyn is autoattacking from bushes.
This is a great way to supplement Caitlyn's harass. A common way to incorporate this is during early game farming: while farming minions, keep an eye on your stacks; once you've charged a headshot, hit your opponent once for a large chunk of their health.
This passive also makes Caitlyn one of the strongest AD carries in jungle fights. By positioning yourself in a bush during teamfights, Caitlyn's damage exponentially increases. This, along with Caitlyn's long range, makes the positioning factor of Caitlyn unique.

Caitlyn's Q serves as a strong poke in lane. However, with its long casting time, it serves little purpose outside of mid-game. From early to midgame, though, this is an extremely potent poke because of it's 1.3 AD ratio.
When using it to harass in a lane, try to harass with your autoattacks until they're out of range. As they're running away, clip them with your Q; it's important to avoid minions while attempting to harass with your Q, as it will decrease the damage of this poke.
Caitlyn's Q, throughout the game, serves to be a strong farming tool. When minions are approaching your tower, they come in a straight line. If you want to push the lane, just shoot a peacemaker straight down this minion line.
One of the key portions of being a good Caitlyn player is gauging the strength of your Q in relationship with your autoattacks. Realize when you're better off using autoattacks (this is usually when you purchase an IE or a BF+Zeal) rather than using your Q. For the reason of Q being stronger than autoattacks during the earlygame, we max Q first with Caitlyn.

Caitlyn's cupcakes--as this skill is more affectionately referred to--has a surprising amount of utility that the majority of Caitlyn players do not utilize. This skill alone has some learning curve to it, but learning the ways it can be implemented will aid most players over the majority of that learning curve.
Probably the most common--and effective--use of Caitlyn's traps is to chain crowd control. One of the most common implementations of this is in lane: Taric will land a stun on the opponent, and Caitlyn will immediately throw a cupcake beneath their feet. Once the stun expires, the cupcake will snare them for an additional 1.5 seconds. However, this also works outside of lane. Usually, a Caitlyn player will have most success adding to an ally's longer-length stuns/snares/suppresses; playing a cupcake beneath an opponent that Warwick is ulting is much easier than trying to cupcake beneath someone that Anivia stuns for a brief second. Note that this is MUCH easier to do with communication and preparation: if a Warwick says he'll be ulting someone, it'll be much easier to react with a cupcake than it would if an Amumu grabs someone without any warning.
Probably the most common function that Caitlyn players use cupcakes for is to check bushes. When Caitlyn places a cupcake in a bush, it illuminates an area around the cupcake briefly. This is an exceptional way to prevent yourself from facechecking bushes; there's no reason to risk a gank when you can simply place a cupcake into a bush beforehand.
Cupcakes can also be used to zone an opponent. To show this, try putting your cupcakes in a lane that spans from one edge of the lane to another. By making a horizontal line that crosses the lane, opponents will not want to step across the line (as they fear you either getting a free Q, or setting a SECOND cupcake beneath them to extend the stun). This is the easiest example of zoning that Caitlyn can perform. However, this also is commonly used in jungle fights: when both teams are poking eachother and preparing for a fight in the jungle, Caitlyn can place cupcakes at chokepoints. This will force the opposing team to either force someone to be immobilized (which aids skillshot champions and thus could make them easy prey) or have to disengage entirely. For the reason of jungle fights, Caitlyn maxes cupcakes second.
Caitlyn's cupcakes are also extremely strong as an early "ward". Although this can be done throughout the game (usually at the tips of bushes), this is most commonly employed before minions spawn. Rather than sitting at bot lane and twiddling your thumbs (particularly blue side, when they're not getting golems!), Caitlyn can place cupcakes at ramps and the tri-bushes that lead to red buff and/or blue buff. This will alert you to any potential invasion attempts that an opponent might attempt, and may possibly even force them to abandon their efforts once they step into a cupcake. For this reason alone--along with the prior mentioned utility--Caitlyn takes her cupcakes first.

There isn't too much to say about this skill, but it's still good. This is Caitlyn's escape ability, and an escape ability immediately makes any AD carry worthwhile. Unfortunately, Caitlyn's escape has a casting animation. Because of this, it is not as strong as some of her peers (such as Corki or Ezreal).
Caitlyn's net does provide a slight slow (2 seconds, 50%). In a 1v1 situation, it can be plausible to escape from your opponent to shoot your opponent while pushing yourself away. However, it's almost always better to manipulate the fact that Caitlyn's recoil can push her over walls.
Although it's used mainly for an escape, Caitlyn's net can work for a gapcloser. This can be particularly useful with your cupcake hits a low HP target that's just out of range: you can use the recoil of your net to push you closer, and then be in range to ulti.
We max net last on Caitlyn because its utility is strong at level 1, but that utility doesn't increase through levels.

This is usually used to pick off low-health targets, to force someone to leave lane, or to poke someone before a teamfight. Since it requires a channel and can be blocked (i.e, an unintended enemy can intercept your bullet), its usage is rather limited as compared to her peers' ultimates. Its usage doesn't extend much beyond the prior three mentioned purposes, but there is one key factor with Caitlyn's ultimate:
Its damage doubles between rank 1 and rank 2.
This is an extreme increase in terms of damage. Most players are unfamiliar with this fact, and they will be surprised at the sheer increase in burst that results from a Caitlyn hitting level 11. For this reason, it's completely viable to force a fight in lane around this level, simply because your new burst may surprise your opponent and score an easy kill.
Corki is easily one of the strongest AD carries at this current meta. Corki has strong damage throughout the entire game (early game, he has a strong nuke in his Q; mid game, his armor shred and true damage wrecks targets, not to mention he works really well with trinity force procs; end game, he's an AD carry so he already is incredible). He also has incredibly strong poke with his ultimate, and an extremely potent escape with his Valkyrie. Because of his passive, skills, and item choice, Corki deals three types of damage: physical, magical, and true damage. This damage is further enhanced by Corki's Gatling Gun, which turns tanks into squishes and makes squishes have NEGATIVE armor.
Corki, however, does have some minor flaws. His biggest flaw is his attack range: 550 range is relatively close, when compared to carries like Caitlyn, Kog'Maw, and Tristana. Because of this, having strong positioning skills is relatively emphasized on Corki. Newer Corki players tend to have mana issues with Corki, particularly when they hit level 6; this is solved with experience and learning how to conserve mana. Unlike other AD carries, Corki has no form of hard crowd control, so he relies on his teammates to be able to lock down enemies and peel off assassins from him. Corki also has the lowest base speed in the game: 300 movement speed. However, this is remedied through item choice (Trinity Force and Phantom Dancer). Therefore, the only weakness that we cannot cover with items is Corki's relatively short autoattack range.
Corki, because of his versatility, does not require a very specific team composition for him to succeed. He works well in poke compositions because of his ulti, AoE compositions because of his nuke and gatling gun, and split-push compositions because of his q/w/r. Corki also works extremely well with both passive and aggressive lanes. Sona allows Corki to be passive aggressive while enabling them to pick up kills for very little risk, whereas Soraka can remedy a newer Corki's mana issues. In terms of aggressive lanes, Leona's passive can be consistently procced by Corki's Gatling Gun, and Alistar's headbutt+pulv can be followed up from any position with Corki's Valkyrie.
Corki is an AD carry that I recommend EVERYONE to learn, regardless of skill level. When considering learning the AD carry role, I highly suggest beginners to select Corki because of his strong kit that emphasizes learning fundamentals (such as positioning and mana control). Corki also teaches skills that shift easily from one character to another (i.e, autoattack canceling, build selection). Finally, because of Corki's bloated kit, he's able to run two core builds: Trinity+IE+PD or IE+PD+LW, depending on the situation.

A flat 10% damage steroid? That does true damage? And is a passive?
MOMMY SANTA KNEW WHAT I WANTED FOR CHRISTMAS.
This is easily one of the strongest, if not THE strongest, passives for an AD carry. Beyond making last hitting a breeze, this gives Corki mixed damage starting from level one. Between this steroid, Corki's armor shred, and a Last Whisper, Corki will be able to ignore the defenses of nearly any champion. It is worth noting, however, that you should not overestimate this passive for farming. At level 1, it only adds about 7 damage; just last hit as you would with any other champion.

Cokri Nbobo's Q is a potent nuke. Because of the fact that it operates like a nuke, it scales extremely well from early game until mid game, so we max it first. Utilizing in lane is relatively simple: auto attack an enemy, hit them with a Q, then either continue the trade or walk away.
Because this reveals an area, this is extremely good to use before walking into a bush. By tossing it into a bush, you can see if anyone is lurking in wait (rather than facechecking). However, because it reveals an area, it prevents juking: an enemy can't try to mislead you from walking through a bush, because they'll be visible the entire time.
Once late game approaches, your autoattacks will do significantly more damage than this skill. Therefore, you eventually use this skill only for its utility. However, throughout the game, it's very effective for clearing lanes, farming, or pushing.

This is easily one of the best escape skills when considering AD carries. It has minimal casting animation, Corki moves extremely fast (as compared to other AD carries' escapes). It also carries Corki a great distance.
One of the biggest mistakes I see newer players committing to--particularly those learning Corki or Tristana--is that Corki and Tristana (9/10 times) should NOT be using their dashes towards someone. It's going to be tempting, particularly for a Corki, to jump in the middle of a teamfight to hit as many targets as he can with his Gatling Gun. This is a scrub mistake, and will kill you more often than not. Instead, take the safest damage possible and use your jump to retreat (from a teamfight) or to chase (someone who's escaping a teamfight or is a straggler).
Corki maxes Valkyrie last because this is a pure utility skill; it is extremely effective at level 1, and doesn't need any more levels put into it.

Before anything else, let me first note that Gatling Gun's animation is slightly odd. Gatling Gun essentially extends to the end of Corki's autoattack range, whereas the animation looks like it cuts off slightly closer. So, if you can hit them with your autoattack, you can hit them with Gatling Gun.
Corki's E is amazing. Throughout its duration, is does damage AND reduces the armor of anyone caught in the cone. This is the skill that makes tanks into squishies, and makes squishies have negative armor. This not only increases Corki's damage on a target, but increases EVERYONE'S damage on the targets caught in the Gatling gun.
One of the hardest parts about learning Corki is being able to maximize the amount of targets that gets hit by Corki's E while remaining safe. There are a few little tricks that may help you:
-If you can't hit the same target throughout about half the duration of your Gatling Gun, it's probably a waste of mana to use Gatling Gun.
-If you turn on Gatling Gun in the bush, you will still do damage even though you will not be revealed and the Gatling Gun animation will not be visible to your opponent.
-You can STILL AUTOATTACK when using Gatling Gun. ALWAYS AUTOATTACK WHEN USING GATLING GUN.

Corki stores one missile every 10 seconds up to 7 missiles at any given time. Every 4th missile will be a Big One, dealing 50% more damage than normal missiles and the explosion has a broader radius. After dying, Corki will respawn with 4 missiles.
This is an EXTREMELY long range poke that is spammable because of its low cost. This is also the reason why Corki has been nerfed a plethora of times in the past: regardless of how well you zone him, at level 6 Corki can still farm with his R. Speaking of farming, once you hit level 7 (5 ranks in Q and a rank in R), you can Q+R the backrow of minions to instantly farm them.
Corki's ulti works well for any purpose that a skillshot can perform. Checking bushes is one example, whereas safely harassing in lane is another. It's worth nothing that Corki's ulti is REALLY slim; you can last hit a minion and shoot an ulti through the gap between two minions to get some sneaky harass on the opposing carry or support.
One of the most important things with Corki's ulti is to learn to autoattack cancel. If you buy a Trinity Force on Corki, which you often will, using a rocket to reset your autoattacks will speed up your autoattacks and provide a sheen proc to each autoattack.
Be sure to practice accuracy when using these. A good Corki will hit around 75-85% of his ultis.
Ezreal is unique in the fact that most of his damage--particularly early--comes from skills (rather than autoattacks). This unique playstyle--along with 3 out of 4 of his abilities being skillshots--lends Ezreal to being referred to as one of the most technical AD carries to play. In order to play a high level Ezreal, a player must master positioning, last-hitting, autoattack resets, and a plethora of other skills while implementing them all in the same moment. However, if an individual can master and implement all of this skills, Ezreal can be an extremely potent threat.
Ezreal is an AD carry that peaks extremely early. Ezreal, in early levels, can win nearly any exchange through an AA+Q+AA combo, and he can initiate a trade at any point with his blink. Because of Ezreal's Q, his cooldowns are diminished whenever he initiates a trade (and thus can trade more often). Ezreal also finds that, if he needs to, he can avoid trades entirely through the use of his E and Flash. Similar to Ashe, Ezreal has a map-threatening ulti; his, however, can hit multiple targets (which, in itself, is both a pro and a con) and can have its cooldown diminished through the successful use of Ezreal's Q.

Ezreal's passive is relatively strong amongst ADs--who wouldn't want a free 50% attack speed? The issue with his passive, however, is that it encourages you to do one of two things:
-Poke pre-fight with your ultimate on as many targets as you can
-Constantly reset your autoattacks with Q (and sometimes W, if needed)
Neither of these are bad within themselves. However, the second one is an issue I want to discuss for a minute.
One of the best ways to optimize an AD carry's damage--particularly Ezreal's, because of his strong AA resets--to autoattack, reset the animation with an ability, then autoattack again (rinse and repeat as needed). This sort of fits a rhythm the more and more you play. Ezreal's passive, however, does not maintain a rhythm because his attack speed is changing every time you reset your autoattack. This is one of the many minute reasons that Ezreal is so technical.
In teamfights, you want to keep this passive on maximum stacks. Ulting into the teamfight at the beginning is a good way to keep your stacks up to 5 starting at the beginning (and thus allowing you to maintain a rhythm), and you probably will get it off cooldown because of Q's cooldown reduction effect. However, if you do drop your stacks, it takes a while to get back up to 50% AS.
This passive is one of the reasons that, as Ezreal, we can have Sheen and Bloodthirster as our core and disregarding attack speed (outside of a single zeal). It lets us maintain respectable attack speed while outputting the most damage we can.

If there was any single ability that could define a champion, this is Ezreal's defining skill. One of the most important things to mention is that this skill applies on-hit effects. Most importantly, this means that Ezreal's Q can apply his Sheen procs. It also means that it can apply the effects of buffs (such as red buff's DOT and Slow, Lulu's Fairybolts, etc).
Ezreal's Q, as I've ranted about several times throughout this guide, reduces the cooldowns of his other abilities. Along with the fact that Mystic Shot, in itself, has a short cooldown, this can reduce the cooldown of your blink and ultimate far more than another champion with a similar cooldown that builds CDR.
Mystic Shot also is a relatively skinny skillshot. So it's very effective at shooting between minions. Once you lasthit a minion, reset your autoattack and harass an opposing carry when they least expect it.
If you're struggling harassing, remember that AD carries are most vunerable during their autoattack animation. When a character is autoattacking, they're stuck in that position (and animation; if they reset the animation, they're just adding to the time they're standing still). Therefore, it's easiest to harass someone when they begin to last hit. This also adds another threat: when someone realizes you're harassing them when they last hit, this makes this wary to last hit (and thus psuedo-zones them).



Graves, despite all his recent nerfs, is still one of the most competitive picks for the AD carry role. He provides a strong burst with his dash+buckshot, and he has some innate tankiness with passive. His crowd control skill, Smokescreen, has a surprising amount of control in the fashion that it completely eliminates a zone for the opponents (and removing vision is an EXTREMELY strong form of CC). Even before items, he's a force to be reckoned with: He has one of the highest HP values at level 18 (only behind MF) and one of the highest AD values at level 18 (only behind Vayne)--to top things off, he has the highest missile speed in the game (3000 units! Use Ezreal's Mystic Shot--2000 units--to compare speed). This, on top of an attack speed steroid that moves Graves forward (and sometimes over walls, if needed!), add the fact that his dash has its cooldown reduced by autoattacks and this--along with this other skills--provides Graves with an extremely strong kit.
Graves biggest issue, as one could guess, is his short range. This makes him struggle against characters like Caitlyn who can safely harass him in lane. Graves also is a very burst oriented AD carry: most of his damage comes from a dash, autoattack, buckshot, autoattack. Because his damage is very frontloaded, this makes him good in short trades but weak in sustained fights. Since many teamfights are sustained fights, rather than burst instances, Graves tends to have less damage than some of his more teamfight-oriented peers. His attack speed is also relatively slow, so trades that do not utilize his Quickdraw may not result in his favor. Finally, for newer players, Graves can prove to be very mana hungry if played as an AD caster (rather than an AD carry). Even for experienced AD carry players, Graves often proves to run out of mana during extended teamfights. Therefore, players learning Graves need to be aware of his resources and manage them wisely.
Graves, having such a bloated kit and high stats, isn't too picky when considering a lane partner. Graves/Soraka is one of the most popular lanes in the current metagame: Soraka's passive provides MR, Soraka's heal provides armor, and Graves's passive provides MR and Armor. Given the large amount of stat bonuses on top of Graves's high base stats, and the strong heal+burst harrass, Graves is hard to force out of lane and he can trade as hard and often as he pleases. As with basically any AD carry, Sona gives Graves a good source of stats, healing, and can harass relatively strong in her own right; Sona and Graves also can synergize their ultis quite well. Because of Graves's front-loaded damage, he also does well with aggressive supports like Leona or Blitzcrank.
Similar to determining a support, Graves works well with nearly any teamcomp. His buckshot and ultimate work well with any team that has good AoE damage or has strong CC. Graves also appreciates teams that either have strong initial burst (a single hard CC can enable him or his team to instagib tanks and squishies alike) or can help finish off targets when his sustained damage starts to fall off (such as Karthus or DPS casters like Ryze/Cassiopeia).
In short, Graves is one of the strongest AD carries because of the massive amount of utility his kit provides and his relatively high base stats. Because of these two properties, Graves can be fit on nearly any team composition and have success. Graves is strong throughout the game, but he reaches his peak somewhere towards the end of midgame. For any player new to the AD carry role, Graves would be an exceptional character to start with.

Graves already has ridiculously high base stats for an AD carry; this simply supplements his strength. At lower levels, having 10 stacks is equivalent to having an extra 9 armor runes AND 9 MR runes; having 10 stacks at endgame is roughly like having a free Chain Vest and Negatron Cloak. This gives Graves the needed tankiness to survive with his short attack range and helps him in winning trades during the laning phase.
A tip for this skill is to utilize the stacks in order to capitalize on trades. Before you decide to trade, spend some time last hitting minions (AS YOU SHOULD) to maximize your stacks. Once you're at 10 stacks, wait for your opposing AD carry to commit to last hitting one of your caster minions. When they begin their autoattack animation, dash towards them to secure some strong harass. Them being stuck in the autoattack animation will let you hit an easy, close-range buckshot and maximize the amount of harass you do while utilizing the 10 stacks on your passive to minimize any retaliation.

Graves's Buckshot is not a poke, and it should not be used like one. With its most recent nerfs, Buckshot does significantly less damage if only a single bullet hits the enemy (thus removing the poking aspect of it). However, it deals significantly more damage when multiple bullets hit the same target. For this reason, Buckshot is a skill that should be used when you're committing to harass or fight a target.
Even with Graves's dash, it can be difficult landing a point-blank Buckshot. This is mainly contributes by the fact that your target moving slightly to the side affects your aim far more than if you see a target from far away moving (because Buckshot is a cone-shaped skillshot). It may help if you synergize with you teammates to land buckshots: supports with strong crowd control (such as Taric, Leona, and Alistar) can make it significantly easier to land a full damage buckshot.
Buckshot is maxed first on Graves. It's his main damage skills, and its useful throughout the entire game.

Vision is easily one of the most important things in this game, that's why professional players tend to emphasize the purchasing or wards and map awareness to newer players. Because of this fact, Smoke Screen is a deceptively strong form of crowd control. Add to this fact that it has a slowing element, and Graves has one of the strongest soft CC spells in the game.
Effectively, Smoke Screen removes an entire area of the map for the opposing team. This can be particularly effective in a zoning situation: during a teamfight--particularly in the jungle!--throwing a smoke screen at a chokepoint of the fight (such as a ramp or a small passageway) can turn the fight in your favor with ease.
During ganks from your jungler, it's advisable to throw a smoke screen on the target you want to gank. If timed well, the target will be unable to see the fact a gank is occurring and will be slowed from the smokescreen. Even if you can't land a smokescreen on the target, put it in their path: most of the time, people flee through the bushes, so throw a smokescreen towards the end of the bush to force them to either be slowed or to take a longer path in order to avoid the smokescreen.
In terms of counterplay, smokescreen is RIDICULOUSLY strong against Twisted Fate and Pantheon. When they ulti, just throw your smokescreen at the center of their ulti and laugh as they stand cluelessly on their teleport.
Smokescreen's slow is incredibly potent. 35% slow is equivalent to the slow provided by

Smokescreen can also be used in a farming instance. A rank 5 buckshot+rank 2 smokescreen clears out minion waves efficiently. Therefore, it is valid to take a second rank of smokescreen early if you want to employ this style of farming. However, I find it to be a waste of mana, so I elect not to take early ranks for that purpose.
Graves takes a point of Smokescreen at level 4 for its massive utility, but maxes it last because you get little benefit from leveling it up.

Graves's steroid, in itself, has massive utility.
Because Graves has a naturally low attack speed (as compared to other AD carries), an attack speed steroid is exactly what he needs. Add to the fact that it is a dash (which puts him closer to maximize buckshot damage) that reduces its cooldown through autoattacks and it's clear that Graves has one of the best steroids in the game.
Graves can go over ledges and thinner walls using Quickdraw. Between it and his smokescreen, Graves has strong juking potential. However, do not confuse this with initiation potential. Graves does not have hard CC to start teamfights with (unlike Ashe with her ultimate), so Quickdraw should be used to JOIN fights rather than START them.
We max E on Graves because the attack speed steroid gives Graves a massive damage increase.

This is a solid ultimate, but there's not much to say about it. It's an AoE ultimate with a ratio above 1:1, so it's almost like an instant MF ulti. It combos well with your dash+buckshot for massive burst, too.
Hit things, they die. Miss things, the cone probably still will hit them and they'll die. There's really not much to say about this ultimate.



Active: Surges electricity through all nearby targets afflicted by Mark of the Storm, dealing 65 / 95 / 125 / 155 / 185 (+55% of ability power) magic damage and adding another mark.

Kennen is refunded 40 energy if he passes through an enemy while using this spell, but can only gain this effect once per cast.



Active: Kog'Maw launches a corrosive projectile which deals 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 (+70% of ability power) magic damage and reduces the target's armor and magic resist by 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 for 4 seconds.


Additionally, it leaves a trail which slows enemies by 20 / 28 / 36 / 44 / 52 % for 4 seconds.


Boots op. High heels are double op.

* Bounce hit range: 500

Active: Miss Fortune's attack speed is increased by 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 % for 6 seconds and causes her attacks to lower healing received and health regeneration by the target by 50% for 3 seconds.











Active: Explosive Shot rends the target enemy, reducing healing and health regeneration by 50% and dealing 110 / 140 / 170 / 200 / 230 (+100% of ability power) magic damage over 5 seconds.





Acid Hunter is able to missile-lock onto targets affected by Noxian Corrosive Charge.
Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverse Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverse: Urgot charges up his Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser, gaining 80 / 105 / 130 armor and magic resistance for 5 seconds. The target is stunned for 1 second before swapping positions with Urgot. After the swap, the target is slowed by 40% for 3 seconds.





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