Twisted Fate Build Guide by NeutrallyOcean

Introduction

Twisted Fate. One of the most unique champions in the game, with fun skill sets, a myriad of items to build on him, and dozens of different ways to play him. AD TF is a blast, he has amazing burst along with sustained damage, and great utility. However, he lacks range, and his ultimate doesn't give him any killing power, unlike champions such as Graves or Ashe. This guide concerns AP TF, the elegant cardmaster, whose usage is rewarding, and is difficult but fun to master. It'll take a lot of practice, but when done right, nothing is more rewarding than carrying your team as ability power Twisted Fate.

The Single Most Important Thing In the Whole Universe!!!1 (for Twisted Fate

POSITIONING

You need good positioning in lane, in teamfights, and in everything. It takes practice to get the positioning down. It seems like a vague concept, but after a couple of games, you'll understand what this means.

Items

Let's get right into it, for people who don't like reading.



Boots of Speed - Start the game with a pair of these and three Health Potions. With the HP/level runes, the single flat HP quint, and the Durability mastery, you start the game with over 5 bars of health, so there is no reason to buy a Doran's Ring.

Doran's Ring - If you start with less than 500 health, grab this instead.

Sight Ward

Your first goal item wise is to buy three Doran's Ring's, they give you the health, AP, and mana regen that you need for mid game domination.

Sight Ward

Sheen - The classic item of AP TF, it lets you trade a lot better, and sustains your abilities with extra mana.
Sorcerer's Shoes - Don't forget your handy sorc boots. Every AP caster needs this. You could get away with Ioninan's Boots of Lucidity, but you'll do noticeably less damage.

Sight Ward

Blasting Wand - You want to get this after your three dorans, so you can obliterate an entire wave with one cast of Wild Cards and maybe an added red card. You build this along with a sheen into a Lich.

Sight Ward

Lich Bane - This allows you to push towers, burst down enemies, and gives you sweet movement speed and magic resist. Do not buy Rabadon's Deathcap before this item.

Sight Ward

Needlessly Large Rod - Your Lich should give you enough AP to push down an entire wave with one cast of Wild Cards, so you can farm this up pretty quickly. This builds into your

Sight Ward

Rabadon's Deathcap, the big damage item that graces the head of every AP champion.

Sight Ward

Force of Nature - After your Rabadon's, grab this for more magic resist, and most importantly, another increase in your movement speed. It's really noticeable, and helps out TF a lot, since he relies on his positioning, yet is a innately slow champion.



You can get whatever you want after this point, probably a Void Staff or a Randuin's Omen for armor.

Skills and Skill Usage

Wild Cards - Sends three cards flying, but you'll usually only use the one that flies straight. It does tons of damage, and you'll use this to mow down creep waves from mid game forwards.

Pick A Card- If you've never played TF before, you might be confused on how this skill works. It's simple. When you press W, a card appears by your head, and it cycles from Gold to Blue to Red and back again. It can start with any card. To choose your card, you press W again as the right color flashes by your head. Each card is unique and has a specific usage.

Gold Card- Stuns an enemy champion. It does the least damage out of all your cards, but it comes with the most CC. You won't use this during the laning phase, but you'll use it almost exclusively late game.

Stuns a single champion
Does the least damage
Most useful card late game

Blue Card- This card does the most damage out of all your cards. It's your bread and butter during the laning phase. You can use blue card to deal damage on turrets, it gives you mana back too! Using blue card with Sheen on turrets lets you push extremely fast for an AP champion.

Restores mana based on damage dealt
Does the most damage
Works on towers, (but not inhibitors). Try to use blue card whenever you're attacking a tower.

Red Card- This card doesn't see much action. The cool thing about it is that it deals full damage to enemies hit by the AoE as well. You can throw this on a caster minion in the back to harass the enemy. Usually, you'll use this along with your Q to kill entire waves of minions.

AoE slow
Does equal damage to the target hit by the card, as well as everything around it.
Useful for pushing down minion waves.

Stacked Deck - Free stats! It gives you attack speed and more importantly, cooldown reduction. The burst every four cards applies to Pick a Card, so you can use it to harass pretty effectively. It helps you last hit every now and then. It's a good passive, it will still be maxed last.

Destiny - This is why TF needs to go mid lane. Don't bother walking down the lane, just teleport behind them. It also reveals enemy champions, preventing them from using bushes to escape your ganks. If you're new to TF, it might be confusing to use, but it's really simple. The first cast of Destiny reveals all the enemies on the map. You have to Press R again and click on a spot on the ground to teleport there.

Early Game Laning Phase

You might notice that I took no mana regeneration related runes or masteries. This is because Twisted Fate can lane perfectly fine by last hitting with the Blue card of Pick A Card. It restores a lot of mana, and since it will be Twisted Fate's primary method of last hitting, he'll never run out of mana in the laning phase.

Hint: That means you last hit with your blue card!

Don't try to last hit or harass with your Q, ever, during the laning phase. The only harassment you'll deal pre-level 6 is with your Red card on a minion that is standing near the enemy champion. Since we rely on Pick A Card so heavily during the laning phase, we take two quick points in it by level 3, but max it second after Wild Cards

Mid Game Playstyle

Once you hit 6, you shouldn't look to use your ult right away. Chances are, you're low on mana (your ult costs 150! that's a lot), or low on health, so just recall and pick up a few of those Doran's Rings. Walk back to lane, and coordinate a double gank on bottom lane with your jungler, or just ping and gank top with the help of your friendly solo top.

Gank frequently with your ultimate, but make sure they know you're about to gank!

Make sure to walk about a third of the way to the top or bottom lane before pressing R, since his ultimate has a limited range :(. Don't be afraid to gank when the enemy is not low on health. You'll almost always force a flash if you don't get a kill. Pick A Card has a four second cooldown, with a one second stun on Gold Card. Every gank, you'll be able to stun them twice. Twisted Fate spoon feeds his teammates gold and experience like no other AP champ can.

Learn to pull gold cards! It takes a lot of practice, but learning to hit those Blue cards and Gold cards defines a good TF.

Late Game Domination

Late game TF is really simple.

Use Wild Cards to kill an entire minion wave when they'll walking at you in a straight line, and if you need to, use a Red Card to finish off the melee minions.

Use Pick A Card to stun the AD carry in teamfights, or to deal heavy AoE damage and slow the entire enemy team. Don't use blue card on enemy champions.

Use Destiny to reveal enemy champions, but don't use it to engage. You can push top or bottom lane with your Q and W while you have your ultimate ready, and simply ult back to your team when a fight starts. You can take free towers, and still be in every teamfight.

Summoner Spells

Flash "In a game that heavily relies on your positioning, being able to instantly reposition yourself is as strong as it gets." Flash in to stun, Flash out of a stick situation, Flash over walls, Flash the enemy mid, Flash live TV. Flash is a must.

Ghost Since Twisted Fate is a slow champion, and doesn't have a built in escape mechanism, Ghost is really useful to have. If you're new to Twisted Fate, Ghost will help you out on your positioning a lot. Once you get better, you can scrap the Ghost for Ignite to help you pick up kills.