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Jhin Build Guide by Vapora Dark

ADC Art Requires a Certain Cruelty - In Depth Jhin Guide

ADC Art Requires a Certain Cruelty - In Depth Jhin Guide

Updated on May 26, 2022
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Vapora Dark Build Guide By Vapora Dark 1924 94 16,823,996 Views 324 Comments
1924 94 16,823,996 Views 324 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Vapora Dark Jhin Build Guide By Vapora Dark Updated on May 26, 2022
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Runes:

Domination
Dark Harvest
Taste of Blood
Eyeball Collection
Treasure Hunter

Precision
Presence of Mind
Legend: Bloodline
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Heal

Heal

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction



Welcome, audience, to Vicious Skittle's guide on Jhin, the Virtuoso.

I am Vapora Dark, an EUW ADC player who's been Master tier every season since season 5. Vicious Skittle is a friend of mine who's been too busy to keep up with MOBAFire in recent times, and so I've taken on the task of keeping his guides updated. I hope I can do him justice and that you will benefit from this guide just as much as if he were still maintaining it.

Vicious Skittle is a Diamond tier player on EUW who has peaked at Diamond 2. He's been playing Jhin from the moment he was released on the PBE. This guide covers the best builds and matchups for Jhin.




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Pros / Cons



...........
Pros


+ Strong Lane Presence
+ Satisfying Animations
+ Game changing ultimate
+ Excellent Scaling
+ Incredible range and objective control
+ Obscenely high AD
.......
.............
Cons


- Has no mobility at all
- Weak self peel, W just can't cut it
- High skill ceiling, more skill shots in 1 skill than most champ kits
- Sluggish from low attack speed
- Ult takes getting used to
- Unique laning phase


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So overall Jhin is a late game casterlike carry that has some lane presence thanks to Whisper and a solid mid-game thanks to his range and CC. He excels when he forces opponents to play his game. Incredible damage with Whisper and semi-reliable crits gives him similar DPS to other ADC's even without AS. However, he's one of the most immobile champions in the game and has no way to protect himself outside of well laid traps. A champion that can be picked up and played by most players, with a skill ceiling so high it's hard to see.

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Abilities



> > >


Maxing R > Q > W > E is the best all around ability build for Jhin. The Q has an increased AD ratio per level and it's his best harass/wave-clear tool. W is great to max after Q due to its immesnse CC potential that can catch out a foe who's taken even a smidge of poke, landing it into an ultimate can secure many-a kill. Last is the Traps, the damage is too unreliable to be maxed any sooner and are more of a free vision tool than a damage dealer unless they chain in teamfights. Ultimate is ultimate and should be levelled whenever possible.




Ability Description
Whisper Death In 4 Acts: Jhin's basic attacks utilize ammunition and his attack speed cannot be improved except through leveling up. Jhin can attack 4 times before having to reload for 2.5 seconds, and automatically does so after 10 seconds of not attacking.

The final shot is a guaranteed critical strike that also deals 15 / 20 / 25% of target's missing health as bonus physical damage.

Every Moment Matters: Jhin's critical strikes deal 25% reduced damage, but grant 10% (+ 4% per 10% bonus attack speed) movement speed for 2 seconds.

Additionally, his attack damage is increased by 4% - 44% (based on level) (+ 4% per 10% critical strike chance) (+ 2.5% per 10% bonus attack speed).


My thoughts

This passive seems a lot more complicated than it actually is. Jhin can only auto attack 4 times before needing to reload, the 4th shot has 100% crit chance and also deals a % of the targets missing health as bonus damage. Also, Jhin can't gain attack speed through any means except leveling up. Instead, attack speed gives him a movement speed buff whenever you Crit. Crit chance works as normal, except every crit does 25% reduced damage. (With an Infinity Edge or Crit damage runes, you can increase the damage your crits do) So overall: you attack slow and hit hard, especially your 4th shot but you have to reload after firing said powerful shot.

The AD being increased by crit chance and attack speed, well thats a different story. Click HERE to go to the next section of the guide that covers how the multiplier works and the best way to utilize it.




Ability Description
Dancing Grenade Jhin launches a canister at the targeted enemy unit, dealing (45 / 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 (+ 40 / 47.5 / 55 / 62.5 / 70% AD) (+ 60% AP) physical damage. Dancing Grenade can bounce up to three additional units.

Cooldown: 7s/6.5s/6s/5.5s/5s
Mana Cost: 40/45/50/55/60

Each unit killed causes the subsequent bounce to deal 35% increased damage to deal up to 110.72 / 172.23 / 233.74 / 295.25 / 356.75 (+ 98.42 / 116.87 / 135.32 / 153.77 / 172.23% AD) (+ 147.62% AP) physical damage if it kills on the first 3 bounces.


My thoughts

The most simple ability in Jhin's kit, it's sort of like Bouncing Blades. However it deals more damage if you kill a target with it, so if you kill a minion with it you'll deal 35% more damage to the next bounce, and if that kills a minion that will deal 35% more of the increased damage from the last bounce. Capping out at a staggering amount of damage on the last bounce if you kill 3 things with this ability.

This is your waveclear and trading ability, prep the enemy backline by auto attacking the caster minions so they'll die to the first hit, allowing it to then do more damage to the other creeps and most likely one shotting them. The perfect scenario for this ability is to kill 3 ranged creeps with it, then for it to bounce to an enemy champion. It also has a pretty gnarly AP ratio allowing for some AP Jhin cheese, but to be honest with how much AD Jhin gets, it's pointless.

You should max this ability FIRST for its waveclear, reliable poke and the fact the AD ratio increases based on its level, unlike the other abilities.




Ability Description
Deadly Flourish Passive: Enemy champions that have been struck by Jhin's basic attacks or any allied damage, or are inside a Captive Audience Trap, are Deadly Flourish marked for 4 seconds.

Active: After a delay, Jhin fires a laser in the target direction, dealing 50 / 85 / 120 / 155 / 190 (+ 50% AD) physical damage to the first champion that it hits, and 75% of that damage to non-champions along the way.

Cooldown: 14s
Mana Cost: 50/60/70/80/90

Champions that are marked by the passive of Deadly Flourishare rooted for 0.75s / 1s / 1.25s / 1.5s / 1.75s and Jhin gains Whispers Every Moment Matter's movement speed.


My thoughts

This ability has the longest range of any basic ability in the game. At a whopping 2,500 range (TF's Destiny is 5,500 range for comparison). It's used to create picks and lock people into your third ability, Captive Audience. What makes Deadly Flourish so nice to use, is the fact that ally champions can also mark a target for you to root, allowing you to snare a target from very far away and deal a decent chunk of damage to them at the same time.

This ability is best used in conjunction with a well placed Captive Audience allowing you to get of its massive burst damage from very far away. It's also a great all in tool allowing you to snare a target bot lane so your support can either get a free trade off or a free engage.

I max this ability SECOND. Having a 2,500 range root is so good for making mid game picks, and even with a CC heavy comp you'll just be adding more CC to it. Nothing feels quite as nice as watching a Blitzcrank hook someone and you root them just before they hit the ground after his Power Fist.




Ability Description
Captive Audience Passive - Beauty in Death: Whenever Jhin scores a takedown on an enemy champion, he summons a blooming Lotus Trap around their corpse.

Active: Jhin places a Lotus Trap on the target location that arms and stealths after a brief delay, and lasts for 2 minutes. The Lotus Trap reveals all units in an area for 4 seconds and blooms if an enemy unit walks over it.

Captive Audience uses stock and Jhin can store up to 2 charges at once. Beauty in Death does not consume charges.

Cooldown: 2s + Ammo recharge: 28s/27s/26s/25s/24s
Mana cost: 30/35/40/45/50 + 1 Charge

Blooming Lotus Traps slow all enemy units inside for 2 seconds by 35% and mark them with Deadly Flourish, after which they explode, dealing 20 / 80 / 140 / 200 / 260 (+ 120% AD) (+ 100% AP) magic damage to nearby enemy units. Non-champions and champions recently damaged by one take only 13 / 52 / 91 / 130 / 169 (+ 78% AD) (+ 65% AP) damage.


My thoughts

This ability is what lets Jhin lock down an location and give him some incredible burst. You can place down as many traps as you want, but they only last 2 minutes. Feel free to throw around traps in the bushes in your lane whenever its off cooldown as the mana cost is fairly low, and it gives a lot of zone control because if they stand on a trap and you land your Deadly Flourish along side your support, you can usually outright kill someone because of the sheer amount of damage this ability does. They can also chain reaction in teamfights as getting a kill or assist puts one on the corpse of an enemy and immedietly starts to bloom, this means if the enemy team bundle up for more than 2 seconds ( Yasuo, Malphite, Orianna wombos) you can put out some incredible AoE burst.

Try placing these all over and around the objective you plan on trying to get, when getting towers you should place them around the sides and slightly behind you allowing you fall back over them then turn a fight. Or when fighting for Drag/Baron/Rift you should place them wherever the enemy frontline plan to come from. Landing your Deadly Flourish increases the odds that an enemy stays on the blooming trap long enough for them to pop.

I max this ability LAST. Whilst the damage increase is very apparent, the utility Deadly Flourish provides is to good too pass up.



Ability Description
Curtain Call First Cast: Jhin channels for 10 seconds and fully assembles his weapon before taking aim in the target direction, revealing all Deadly Flourish marked units in a huge area and gaining the ability to reactivate Curtain Call up to four times.

Second Cast: Jhin fires a round in the target direction that stops on the first enemy champion hit, dealing 50 / 115 / 180 (+ 20% AD) to 174 / 402.5 / 630 (+70% AD) physical damage to all units hit and slowing them by 80% for 0.5 seconds.

Cooldown: 120s/105s/90s. Mana cost: 100

Curtain Call's damage is increased by 2.5% for every 1% of the target's missing health, and the final shot critically strikes for 200% damage, this is unaffected by the reduction of Whisper, and can be affected by Infinity Edge.


My thoughts

Jhin's ultimate is so incredibly fun and powerful its unreal. It gives Jhin a true sniper feeling, so move over Caitlyn, your Ace in the Hole is nothing compared to this. Ok, so there are 2 ways to use this ability effectively. Either by using it before a fight starts, slowing targets allowing your team to engage and chipping the enemy team healthbars to create an unfair fight. Or by using the increased damage when enemy targets are low to execute people as they try to run.

If a target is marked by your Deadly Flourish passive, they're revealed for 4s when inside the radius of Curtain Call which allows you to get easy shots off. When you hit a target, they're revealed only breifly unless they're hit by Deadly Flourish. You have to wait about 1s between each shot, so you cant just fire all 4 in super fast succession.

I max this ability 6/11/16 (whenever I can) like 95% of other ultimates in the game.


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Whisper



Jhin's passive, Whisper, has a lot of maths to figure out his total AD. This section covers the AD you get from the best item build paths for Jhin, for everything else on Whisper read the abilities section above as that covers the auto attacks. You shouldn't always go for the 'most AD' because it lacks effiency in other areas, but it's something to keep in mind for super late game so you know what to buy to get the most out of Whisper.

The way Whisper works, as far as Jhin getting AD at least, is attack speed and Crit chance gives an AD multiplier. Jhin also CANNOT gain attack speed outside of leveling up, instead attack speed makes his critical stikes give him a short burst of movement speed and increases his total AD. Crit works the same as on other champions, just at a 25% reduced damage (his ult, Curtain Call is not effected by this 25% damage reduction).

The multipliers are:
4% per 10% Crit chance
2.5% per 10% BONUS attack speed
A BASE multiplier per level



With how Whisper works in multiplying every item with themselves it's pretty hard to show the exact value of each item and how it works with the other ones you buy.


So what does this mean to you? At full build Jhin will have around somewhere between 720 - 800 total AD. This will depend on if you need Armour Pen, or if you want more Crit chance etc etc. Getting an infernal Dragon is even more valuable on Jhin as this will apply to your end AD.

Whisper is a complicated passive, but the TLDR of it is: You AD gets multiplied based on how much Crit chance and Attack speed you buy, and your basic attacks DO NOT get sped up with your attack speed purchases.

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Runes


Domination & Sorcery



Dark Harvest
With the change to Hail of Blades and the rework to Dark Harvest you now can either choose between this and Fleet Footwork. I personally prefer Dark Harvest as fleet feels pretty weak and the minor runes are inferior to domination. Dark Harvest is really strong with Jhin as it can now proc off of abilities, which makes it feel similar to the type of damage you would have gained with the old Deathfire Touch keystone.

Taste of Blood
Taste of Blood gives you some solid sustain from hitting champions with either basic attacks or an ability. There isn't any choice in this tier because you can't use Sudden Impact without Flash and Cheap Shot doesn't synergize with Jhin.

Eyeball Collection
Again, not much choice in this tier. Zombie Ward is awful after the nerf it got and Ghost Poro is only situationally useful as it basically serves the same purpose as your Captive Audience. Eyeball Collection gives you extra AD permanently on takedown that also increases with ward kills. Once finishing it you get even more AD making it the most consistent option.

Ravenous Hunter
Ravenous Hunter is the best in this tier but you do have some choice. The healing Ravenous offers works in full effect for both your Deadly Flourish and Curtain Call making it the most consistent especially because we no longer have Legend: Bloodline for lifesteal. Relentless Hunter has niche use if you need to be everywhere all the time and Ultimate Hunter scales inversely with CDR and as we no longer buy any it can be useful if Curtain Call is the only important thing you need to do in a match.


Sorcery


Celerity


Gathering Storm
Absolute Focus: With the change to Celerity you now only have 1 consistent option. Absolute Focus gives you some good early pressure as Jhin can be quite powerful in lane and not to mention more AD = more stuff to multiply with Whisper. You can situationally go Nullifying Orb instead if the enemy team has a large amount of magic damage.

Gathering Storm: More AD = good. After 20 minutes you'll be sitting on a free longsword and a half. As time goes on you'll be picking up so much free AD you'll be unstoppable. Great late game insurance.


Offence: Attack Damage +6
Flex: Attack Damage +6
Defense: Armour +5

As Jhin you want as much attack damage as possible, and as a bottom lane carry you don't get levels quick enough to make sure of per level runes usually. This makes the only viable choice to be double attack damage and some bonus armour. You can also go bonus magic resistance against heavy magic damage comps.
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Summoner Spells



You'll pretty much always be taking Flash and Heal. Flash should be self explanitory, giving an infinite amount of offensive/defensive uses and should be taken on nearly every champion every game. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but Jhin is not.

Heal is the best defensive summoner spell for bot lane, as it directly affects your lane partner as well as yourself which gives it a huge amount of utility in the form of baiting, saving yourself or saving an ally.

The reason you want a defensive summoner on ADC is that you have a lot of DPS, so the longer you can survive, the more damage you'll put out, usually out-damaging what you'd get from Ignite. And if it can go as far as to save your life, then that's even better, as ADC's are very important to have alive for both providing DPS and taking down towers. On Jhin this is even more pronounced as you can deal a lot of damage outside of the range of Ignite making it even less useful in comparison to the swiss army knife of Heal.


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Items



This chapter is currently under reconstruction following the Season 11 items rework, apologies for the inconvenience.


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Supports






Jhin is played in one of 2 ways bot. Either hardcore aggression abusing your Whisper and letting your lane partner cover your weak dueling. Or playing very defensively with a full on peel support and farming up. There isn't much of an inbetween for Jhin as his weaknesses and strengths are both VERY apparant.

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Thresh, The Chain Warden
Spoiler: Click to view


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Janna, The Storm's Fury
Spoiler: Click to view


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Alistar, The Minotaur
Spoiler: Click to view


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Blitzcrank, The Great Steam Golem
Spoiler: Click to view


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Leona, The Radiant Dawn
Spoiler: Click to view



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Soraka, The Starchild
Spoiler: Click to view


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Braum, The Heart of the Freljord
Spoiler: Click to view


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Brand, The Burning Vengeance
Spoiler: Click to view


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Morgana, Fallen Angel
Spoiler: Click to view


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Tahm Kench, The River King
Spoiler: Click to view


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Bard, The Wandering Caretaker
Spoiler: Click to view


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Nami, The Tidecaller
Spoiler: Click to view


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Nautilus, The Titan of the Depths
Spoiler: Click to view


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Sona, Maven of the Strings
Spoiler: Click to view


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Zyra, Rise of the Thorns
Spoiler: Click to view


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Karma, The Enlightened One
Spoiler: Click to view


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Taric, The Shield of Valoran
Spoiler: Click to view


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Lulu, The Fae Sorceress
Spoiler: Click to view


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Laning Phase


This part of the game mainly is dictated by your support, as depending on who you have is how you should play. If you have a Thresh for example look to pick fights with your 4th Whisper shot or set up Deadly Flourish with a Captive Audience/ Death Sentence. If you have a passive support like a Janna then you should only look to trade if you land a bounced up Dancing Grenade and you have your 4th shot prepped and you'll be backing out before your opponenet can land an attack or two.




Most of the time, you'll want to focus on farming up, then holding onto your 4th Whisper shot until a creep is about to die and you can't waste mana on it or until you can auto attack an enemy. Properly CSing is hard on Jhin because of the fact he needs to reload every 4 shots, but thats where Dancing Grenade comes in.

After a few levels you can 'prep' the backline to ready your Dancing Grenade some bounces. As it deals more damage after each target it kills, you can attack the ranged creeps so that the grenade will kill its first and second target guaranteed, then it'll either bounce to more creeps killing them thanks to its bonus damage, or bounce to a champion and chunking them.

You'll want to try and force down the enemy tower in conjunction with getting your first item, so that when you start to go mid/top/objectives you'll have some power behind your attacks.

AVOID EXTENDED TRADES. This is because Jhin is more of a hit and run type champion in lane as he needs to reload and has low AS. Also, Warlord's Bloodlust being very common right now means that you need to either all in them and kill them in one go (great with a mage support like Zyra) or just farm it out because they out-sustain you.

Put your Captive Audience all around the lane entrances, bushes and just in generally annoying places. The mana isn't negligible in conjunction with your other abilities, so make sure to not just throw them out randomly unless you plan on going B soon or have a lot of mana to spare. Placing them in the river will slow down/reveal potential ganks. I would also put one on the exploding plant if you get enough time to throw one over the dragon pit of the wall below blue buff. It'll allow you to either pop the plant meaning they can't use it to get a sneaky gank off, or it'll be safe for 2 minutes as it'll nearly always proc when they use allowing you to run.

Look for a free Deadly Flourish if your support CCs an enemy, even more so if they step on your Captive Audience. You can win trades very hard if you manage your Whisper ammo properly and land your CC on targets about to be hit by a trap.

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Mid Game


Mid game usually starts after most people are finishing their first/second item and towers have started to drop. This is where Jhin starts to pick up because in lane you cant set up your beautiful show as easily. With Jhin you'll want to be grouping instead of split pushing as he's very vulnerable to assassins and duelist/fighters. So with this in mind you'll want to stick around the big objectives looking to start skirmishes with 5-6 people.




Killing towers isn't easy on Jhin as he can't push them down very fast because of his limited attack speed. That being said he's great at actually sieging because of his staggering range and potential for fallback traps allowing you to escape if something goes wrong. Set up Captive Audience around routes to flank you and give the places you can't trap a wide berth so you can run easily. Harass your opponents with Deadly Flourish and cleanup anyone on low HP with a Curtain Call. If you simply cant even get close to a fight because they have a fed Zed or something, then sit in the fog of war (ask the person on your team who has a sweeper to check for you) with a huge Curtain Call angle.

You can do the same around Dragon or the Rift Herald but aside from stopping your opponents getting them, or getting the herlad yourself they're not that valuable in comparison to towers or general area denial. Taking control of both jungles and side lane routes is a sure fire way to choke hold the opposing team, and Jhin is fantastic at that.


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Late game


Late game starts to roll around when ADCs can 3 shot people, tanks never seem to die and supports become CC bots. Or more accurately, around 4-5 full items on champs. Here is where teamfights start to break out all the time.




Jhin will want to do the same as he did in mid game, but will instead of wounding champions he can outright kill them with his W into ult combo. Also Whisper will really ramp up in the later levels, giving you some absurd AD allowing you to 1-2 shot enemy squishies with relative ease.

Prep traps where your team wants to fight and set up an easy Curtain Call. You can either stay around the team-fight landing Deadly Flourish's to keep people CC'd as you clean them up and then using your Curtain Call to execute, or open with the Curtain Call to mass slow a target allowing your tanks or brusiers get into range to murder their backline. Just make sure to be safe when you wind it up, an assassin can kill you faster than you can cancel the ultimate so don't do it without vision or without a nearby ally to peel.

Do your best to avoid any 1v1s, because whilst you can deal 50% of peoples hp per auto, you can't auto very often. People like Vayne or Lucian can and will still wreck you if you overstep your bounds.


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Summary



In closing, Jhin is a unqiue carry thanks to how much raw AD he can get from Whisper but his locked AS makes his DPS lower in extended fights and the fact his 4th auto is an execute. Both his strengths and weaknesses are very pronounced making him very all or nothing, which is a play style I love.

Proper early game management is what seperates a FOTM Jhin from a good one. Snowballing and built adaptation will truly make you shine and allow you to scale into something monstrous. However if all else fails, getting 800 AD is a great insurance for late game.


Thanks for reading my guide on Jhin, the Virtuoso.
Now if you don't mind, take a bow... It's your Curtain Call.


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Special Thanks




BBCode help: Janitsu. Just made everything a little cleaner.

Content help: Vapora Dark. A few sections of this guide are similar versions to his Tristana Guide because of how well written and how it's 100% applicable to this guide and any ADC guide in general.

Headers and Titles: Hopper. Incredible artwork that I couldn't even pretend to emulate



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