Twisted Fate Build Guide by Guotefac

Introduction

FIRST OF ALL: I want to say that I'm not english and probably I'll make many language mistakes. I'll try my best, but please tell me any non-sense phrase that you would see here.

About the build: In this buid, the masteries, the runes and even the items purchase are not the important thing. Those things are what I play, but I'm not saying that everyone should play that or, if not, he will fail. So try that, and if you dont like the masteries or the runes, change it. But read this build, because the big thing is the "how to play" explanation. "Why maximize Q playing as AD?"

About the champ: Twisted Fate is a very complete champ. He can carry a team, and his ulti has an awesome utility on a team, giving a global-clarivoyance and "now I'm here, now I'm there" ganks. To compensate his utility, he has a terrible base range and base movement and base all, so in this guide I'll try to compensate those weakness.

Runes

Quintessences:

Greater Quintessence of Desolation of Desolation (Armor Penetration). We want to do as much damage as we can with our autoattacks.

Marks:

Greater mark of Desolation of Desolation (Armor Penetration). Just like with the Quintessences.

Seals:

of Resilience (Armor). Twisted Fate's base armor is way too low, and even some creeps can make you sweat.

Greater seal of Vitality of Vitality (Health per level). Another way to be a little less squishy.

· Why not
of Clarity (Mana reg per level)? Because Twisted Fate shouldn't have mana troubles. He has hisBlue Card.

Glyphs:

of Shielding (Magic Resist per level). Those runes are useful on every champion. What caster doesn't love to face an enemy with 30 MR?

of Celerity (Cooldown Reduction per level). I feel those useful, but less than the MR/lvl.

Masteries

The key of this masteries build are Archaic Knowledge and Havoc (you are not AP but you still have a lot of magical damage) on the offensive tree, and Awareness and improvement of your summoner spell (Haste or Spatial Accuracy). The other masteries aren't as relevant as those four and you can change them if you want, even though I dont believe any other fits him better.

Summoner Spells

There are 3 summoner spells that work really great with Twisted Fate:

Flash: That spell is just awesome on every champion. Can be used both in ofensive or defensive form.
Use Flash +Gold Card with to surprise your opponents. Use it across a wall to save yourself from being ganked. Use it on every almost every champion.


Ghost: Is a great spell that helps every squishies like Twisted Fate, but with him it has an additional benefit: As I said before, Twisted Fate's range is terrible, so he needs movement speed if he wants to do some autoattacks to an opponent. Ghost minimizes that handicap a lot.
Use it to run away from ganks, to chase someone, or in he middle of a team fight. Then run with freedom.


Teleport: : This seems lame, and it is! I love Teleport on Twisted Fate, specially on solo games (when boths teams don't use to defend like they should, you can abuse Teleport + Destiny to defend 2 lanes/push 2 lanes/backdoor twice/...). In adition, you can go buying almost without losing exp (and if you are building Trinity Force, which components are cheap, you are constantly getting stronger while you opponent doesn't have time to go back). I just feel like Teleport is a little less useful than Flash and Ghost on ranked or premade games.


· Other spells you can try: Exhaust.

Skill sequence

Why maximize Q first?

As I will explain a little below, Wild Cards is almost useless late game, so I find useless upgrading it late game. The opposite thing happens with Stacked Deck, that is useful at lvl 1 (harrass and so) but you can't really note the passive effect early game. It also maximizes your DPS when an enemy is stunned. In addition, withBlue Card I always have mana, so not using it would be a waste of chances.


Here we go with the skills:

Nothing to say. It helps your team a litte while farming. At the end of the game your team will probably have around +1000 gold that if you wasnt there, and I've learned from DreamHack that this is good. If there are a jungler with you, he'll be pleased.

Ignored on every single AD Twisted Fate's guide because it's almost useless late, late game. But with a range of ~1700 (like Kog'Maw's ulti lvl 2), it's the most ranged non-ulti skill. This, plus its nice base damage, give you a strong push and harrass even without an AP build, and preventing the enemy's harrassment too (if they are between you and the minions, making you lose exp, you can still lasthit with Wild Cards).
It's so hard hit an experienced enemy champion with Wild Cards if we just spam the skill over him, so practice hitting with one of the lateral cards instead of the central one.
Use it to active Sheen when you are pushing a turret. Use it if you are running alone to your tower, there are enemies attacking it, and you wont be able to gank or kill them. Use it BEFORE being in range to hit them. Most of people just go back when they see a signal of their enemies (unless that tower be very low hp, of course), and you can evade 2 o 3 hits to your tower.
Late game use it to pop enemy's Banshee's Veil and try to steal Dragon/Baron from behind the wall.


It's your CC and your lasthitting skill. Since you press Pick A Card the first time, you have 12s to hit someone with the card you choose (always 12s. If you insta-lockRed Card, for example, you have 12s to throw it, but if you press W, wait 11s and then lock thatRed Card, you'll only have 1s to use it). Be wise about that: If you are just pushing, don't pickGold Card too early or your intentions will be obvious for your enemies, but be sure that you will have time enought to hit one of them after you lock the chosen card. The most importat thing that you have to learn of Twisted Fate is to pick the right card at the right moment. "ARG DAT FED TRYNDA IS RUNNING TO ME!!" Don't scream, and keep in calm. Press W and try to run away. Wait until you see theGold Card and then try to stun that beast. If you just push W twice and pray for theGold Card you are rolling a dice and wanting a 5 or a 6. You may be lucky, you probably don't.
Remember that, as it is an "onhit" effect, it affects towers, so use it with Sheen to destroy them very quickly.

The 3 options we have with this skill are:
-Blue Card: It restores mana. It restores more mana than it costs, so... Use it to last-hitting creeps while you are harrassing with Wild Cards. Note thatBlue Card have more base damage than the other cards, so it's the best one to harrass and hit towers. Take care lasthitting enemies, because there is a bug that sometimesBlue Card doesn't count as an autoattack (so, sometimes the hit won't be affected by Sheen or the 4th stack of Stacked Deck
-Red Card: AoE damage and slow. You should use it only for farm groups of creeps (that's the standard thought, not an obligatory rule). suallyGold Card and stun 1 enemy will be better thanRed Card and slow 2, but sometimes it don't (an example... Imagine that the whole enemy team is on the Katarina's ulti area, then you slow them all and they get more damaged).
-Gold Card: Stun. Just great. Use it to initiate your participation in every fight (unless your enemies have Banshee's Veil, in wich case start with Wild Cards or Destiny, or another very concrete situation)

Every 4 attacks you do adittional magical damage. That's great erly game to harrass and lasthitting creeps. Passively gives you Attack Speed and CDR. Is not a lot and early game you can sighly note those effects as they scales 3% each level, but it's the only thing you have that gives you some Atack speed so dont underestimate it. I cant say any trick about this skill as it's a passive, just that you should try to 4th hit with Pick A Card to maximize your harrass power.

Pres R once to have a global Clarivoyance and press it again and click somewhere on the map to a global teleport. The help and support that this ulti gives to your team is just awesome as you can turn every gank in a 2v1.
Use it to gank, to backdoor, to evade ganks, to find a low healt jungler... (if the enemy team have a jungler, you should go to base as soon as you raise lvl 6, buy fast and use your ultimate with theGold Card ready. With a little luck you'll find him low health, what probably means first blood for you)
Anyways, I think that Destiny is a hard to learn to use ultimate. There it goes some things that most of Twisted Fate players doesn't know or doesn't care about, but that will improve your game:

· Most of people do the following skill sequence: "Pick a Card ->Gold Card -> Destiny -> Gate -> Stun and attack", but you can save 1 or 2 seconds doing " Destiny -> Pick a Card -> Gate ->Gold Card (while you are teleporting. Try it once and you'll see that you have time enough) -> Stun and attack" instead.

· Every single Twisted Fate player has failed hard, at least twice, teleporting himself between more than an enemy and his escape route, thinking something like "BWAHAHA YOU ARE MINE *****I... WAT?? WHERE'S MY TEAM OMGGGGG IM BEING RAPED". This is an accurate trancription of that thoughts. So, dont be a fool. You can't Rambo-charge against many enemies unless you are really fed or your team is really, really close. Unless you are 120% sure that they will die and that you have chances to keep alive, don't do it.

· You can use your Destiny at the beggining of a team fight just to pop their Banshee's Veil, just before your Annie or Malphite uses their ultimates. After that you won't be able to pursuit DAT LUCKY TWITCH 2HP OMG, but if they have too many Banshee's Veil, this would be better for your team.

· Stuns, taunts, fears and those kind of CC can **** Gate while it's channeling, but "luckyly" most of people use it to start a fight. For example, Poppy uses to start with her charge. In this case or similar, if you see that Poppy comming from the river or something, don't cast Destiny yet, cause she'll pwn you. Wait the charge, wait the stun to end, and then use teleport to a safe place while you laugh.

Item build.

Start item:

The first time that you go back, should be just when you reach lvl 6:
After that, maybe on 2 backs, you should have finished the core build:

· Why start Trinity Force building Sheen? I said it before: Wild Cards only hurts early/mid game, so if we are going to take AP (and we need it to build Trinity), it's better to take it soon. Anyways, if things are going bad for you, you may need some HP, so build Phage before Zeal

After you finally get Trinity Force you need some damage. With this you are a serious menace for most of champions:
Then you have some options. If you think that you need a litte more survivality buy a vamiric scepter. If you need much more survivality, buy a Negatron Cloak. If thing are going good for you, you should turn that B. F. Sword into something more powerful. If your enemies have low Armor turn it into a The Black Cleaver, wich also gives you all the speed that you need with your passive. Otherwise rush for an Infinity Edge.

· Why don't you have The Bloodthirster in your base build? Because I see it as a very situational item. You normally are going to backdoor and a backdoorer's life its short. I only build it if I am going so well that I dont need to backdoor, or if even when I backdoor I know that I will stay alive.

When you have 2 B. F. Sword upgrades completed, if the fights are well-balanced or bad for you, you should finish Banshee's Veil. Banshee's Veil is a great, great item for Twisted Fate as it allows him to teleport away from ganks without fear from being stunned. It also assures you to win most of 1vs1 fights (only a few champs can pop Banshee's Veil and stun after that as fast as Twisted Fate.

If the game turns so long, try a Zeke's Harbinger. The Black Cleaver + Zeke's Harbinger are TOO good together.

So, finally, I except some concrete enemy composition team, I try to build

· Some other great items on Twisted Fate:

Phantom Dancer: Attack speed? Great. Crit chance? Great. Movement speed? Awesome.
Sword of the Divine: Obvious combo with Stacked Deck, but I feel like if it hasn't as synergy as the other items I recommend.

How to play Twisted Fate

As Twisted Fate, you can go mid, duo lane or even solo lane. You are a strong pusher so you are going to have all the exp that you want. Because of that I prefer to go Mid or Solo, where I can take real level advantage over my opponents, but keep in mind that you are going to gank with Destiny, so if you are in Mid or Solo you are leaving this lane unprotected when you do that (unless you have a jungler or roamer in your team who can take the lane for you while you gank, or use Teleport to return to your lane quickly). In addition, I only recommend take Solo lane if you have Teleport. Otherwise you'll have troubles keeping yourself alive.
If you are going duo lane, goods partners are those who have s CC skill like stun, taunt or fear (who doesn't love double stun), or have high melee damage (so he can take advantage from your stun), or obvioulsy can heal and support you.

Early game (lanning phase):

You should just focus on lasthitting and evade possible enemy's attacks. I don't use to waste Wild Cards before I'm lvl 3 (and I have Wild Cardss at lvl 2) cause its damage is too low yet. You you raise this level, try to stun someone with Gold Card and quiclky use Wild Cards on him. If you are fast enough (it's so easy) you can hit an autoattack while the enemy is stunned, dealing an unexpected damage. Don't chase him more than that for the moment. Recover mana with 1 or 2Blue Card and do it again, and again, and again... oThis is Twisted Fate's base combo.
If all go as planned, you won't go base until lvl 6. Then, go shopping and use Destiny. If you was mid or solo, you'll probably find the enemy jugnler around lvl 4, and he maybe will be at low health, so it should be a free kill. If there are no jungler in the enmy team, or he is 100% health, or you cant gank any lane (let your allies know when you are close to lvl 6, so they should stop pushing for allow you to gank), just teleport to your tower, put the wards (I will post some images explaining where do I think that there are the best places to ward). Continue pushing and looking for gank chances for the rest of the phase.

Mid game:

When you destroy your enemy's turret you can be in more team fights. I mean, if you lose the tower you normally should continue pushing and trying to destroy the enemy's one, even though this is your choice.

If the enemy team is defending or attacking a concrete lane, you can choose go with your team and fight or continue pushing your lane. I normally continue pushing and join them with Destiny if I see that they have troubles. Anyways it depends of how much do you trust on your teammates. I mean, if they can push or defend without you, even if it's a little hard for them, you should push another lane, but if you think that they will die soon if you are not with them, then stay with your team would be a better idea. Of course, if you know that they are going to die even if you are with them or if you don't ("Ashe, Teemo, what are you doing alone? They are all MIA"), tell it to them, but don't go.

If your team is ganking you can choose again: Push or join them. I usually keep pushing, because just as i said before, I know that I can join them with Destiny. ALWAYS keep an eye on the minimap. The minimap is your friend, your girlfriend and your mother. It tells you when you are in danger, it gives you all the love you need, it keeps you alive.

If your team is being ganked a lot, continue pushing wouldn't be a good idea anymore, at least usually. Just defend. If they all are miss and you think that they can be waiting in a bush, use Destiny, just as if it was Clairvoyance. It can save your life, so dont think it's a useless waste of ulti. Also remember that Destiny can turn a gank into a 2vs1.

On team fights, don't go the first but be close to your tank/initiator. If there are some Banshee's Veil throw Wild Cards first to pop it. Stun someone (preferably the carry, but if there are enemies like Nunu, Katarina, Warwick or Malzahar, save the stun to cancel their ulti) and focus him. Try to coordinate your team's CC to have control on as many champions as you can. If there are too many minions or too many people to move freely, use Ghost and try to keep yourself on a safe position but close enough to attack. At the end of the team fight you can pursuit with Destiny those enemies who always escape at low, low health.

Late game:

Don't forget about farm. You can go with your team the whole time, or be wise knowing when do you can push and do it. Push if there isn't any MIA, or if the MIA ones are people who can't kill you very quickly. In other words, push if you are sure that you can run away with Destiny.
Late game teamights are similar to mid game ones, so this explanation is basically the same than before, but with one or two new options. For example, it can be that the enemy team have too many Banshee's Veil, so you may want to use Destiny as first skill of the team fight to pop it all. Those team fights are normally longer than they are mid game, so if you are at low health and you think that you can't do anything without dying, go back. But if you have Destiny use it quickly and maybe you can do something yet (and both your allies and your opponents will surely be at low health).

Backdoor:

One of the most impressive roles that Twisted Fate can play is the backdoor. Backdooring can literally win games itself (I will post a video where a fail team ends winning because of backdoors), so learn how to do it is a good idea.

Backdoor means "push while the enemy team is pushing, so noone is defending their towers". Keep in mind that you are in danger as you are between the enemies and their base, so backdooring means, a lot of times, your death. Be wise knowing when your death is less valuable than the push that you can do. There are some factors that helps the backdoor:

- Speed to get close to a enemy tower/run away from it: Speed is the key. Each second that the enemy team is pushing is gold for you, so if you dont waste it walking would be better. Also some escapism skills are valuable. As Twisted Fate, you have advantage on this, thanks to Destiny (and Teleport if you have it). The bad thing is that they will know your intentions as soon as they see your ulti.

- Speed to broke towers down: This is the most valuable factor on a backdoorer. Knowing that Attack Damage is better thaan Attack Speed on buildings, this guide also works great if you have to backdoor. Obviously, if you can tank some tower hits it would be better than if you insta-die.

- Team who can defend while you are backdooring: If you see that someone is backdooring you, have 2 options: Continue pushing if you think that the balance will be positive for you (for example, if he destroys an Interior Tower but you can get an Inhibitor, destroy that Inhibitor) or go back and kill him. So, as backdoorer, you need a team who can both defend if they continue pushing (even this would be hard 4v5) and push if they try to go back. Otherwise you'll have troubles to go back alive.

Commonly, you only can backdoor towers if there are minions around (you are still squishy and you cannot tank a tower for so long) unless that tower is at low health, but inhibitors are free. If they are pushing and his inhibitor is unprotected, Destiny and destroy it. If you have Trinity Force and a B. F. Sword you should have time enough to do it before the enemies catch you.

When to backdoor should be a long explanation, because there are so many possibilities. I'll say, better than that, that you should backdoor when you think that going is better than don't do it. Quite obvious, isn't? I mean, if you are going to fight near to Baron, your team will probably need you with them to win. Or if you are playing a terrible game and you give 15 gold when you die, then you maybe should backdoor constantly. Ask to your team if you aren't sure about backdooring.

If you are facing Twisted Fate

· Keep an eye on him and look when he uses Wild Cards. It's so easy to dodge and so powerful if you dont.
· If he is pushing a tower, when you gank he'll probably use Destiny to escape, so keep your CC skill to cancel his cast.
· As you would do against a Karthus, be fast going to base if you are at low health. Don't chase someone too much time.
· Wild Cards DON'T gives sight if it hits you and you are in the bushes.