Twitch Build Guide by Hamstertamer

Twitch is both one of the best early ganking junglers and one of the best carry junglers in the game.

He's pretty infamous for his level 2 ganks with red buff, and if the enemy team doesn't respect you a first blood is an easy thing to get, putting you on the road to an unstoppable snowball. And come late game Twitch's ability to hypercarry is second to none.

Twitch jungle is actually very high skill cap. While anyone can press Q and right click, the champion's main weakness is his weak early jungle clear, which requires perfect kiting and macro to not be bullied by early invades which is the rat's kryptonite. On top of that, if you fall behind with Twitch, it's very hard to come back since your clear is slow, and you can't 1v1 most junglers (you're only good at ganking lanes). That's why this guide will focus a lot on early game (pre 10 minutes).

Another thing I really like about Twitch is that he's able to sell his boots while relying on Relentless Hunter and Zeal items for movement speed, giving him 6 true item slots, which is massive come late game, a bit like Cassiopeia with her passive "boots".

Twitch's passive may look very underwhelming since it gives you no burst, but it always works in the background especially in long fights, helps you with the early jungle clear, and you can apply it to the entire ennemy team with Runaan's Hurricane.

Ambush is your ganking tool, as its name implies. It gets revealed by control wards, but if you walk straight in the lane there's no way you'll get seen by any. It's very important to remember that the camouflage only activates 1 second after you press Q, so you need to be out of vision when it activates. Another very important use of this skill is for kiting jungle creeps. Remember that you can autoattack a creep during the 1 second fade time and the effect won't break.

When ganking, start by autoattacking, do not initiate with Venom Cask. If the target has flash, wait for the flash before using this. Otherwise auto then W while your autoattack is reloading. This is also your only source of AOE damage for killing raptors and krugs. For clearing those move right next to the camp, use W while tanking the creeps, get a few autoattacks in, and then use Contaminate.

When clearing, use this on cooldown on any creep with full passive stacks. Except when doing the krug camp, wait until you kill the big krug, then use W + E to clear all the small krugs. When ganking, wait until your target moves out of autoattack range to use this as a finisher.

Your ultimate really shines in teamfights with a Runaan's Hurricane to apply crits and on-hit effects to the entire enemy team. It also makes Twitch a very strong ganker since his huge attack range with ult allows him to kill champions right under their tower.

Twitch's skill build is very straightforward. Contaminate at level 1 to last hit your first buff. Ambush at level 2 for ganking, also for kiting jungle creeps. Venom Cask at level 3 since it helps with ganking. Max E first for the burst, Q second for the duration/attack speed, and W last since it doesn't scale very well. Skill ultimate whenever you can.

Lethal Tempo and Press the Attack are both viable on jungle Twitch. Lethal tempo is better in teamfights, while PTA is better for ganking and fighting the enemy jungler 1v1. I choose lethal tempo because it gives an advantage in every situation, while PTA is only good against single targets. Also lethal tempo has an amazing synergy with Spray and Pray, especially if you wait 1.5 seconds for LT to activate before using your ultimate.

Overheal is one of the very few runes in the game that help you clear your jungle early game, since it works with the lifesteal from Hunter's Machete. It also works with Legend: Bloodline, so it literally gives you an effective +10% HP, invaluable in a fight since many targets will want to turn on you.

Legend: Bloodline is an amazing rune and gives overall the best stats on that line. It fills a big gap in Twitch's build since he doesn't get a lifesteal item until at least his 4th item. This stacks really fast when clearing the jungle. You can run Legend: Tenacity when facing a lot of CC, especially hard CC that prevents you from autoattacking. Never run Legend: Alacrity, bloodline is just far more valuable stats and you have a ton of attack speed in your build already.

Twitch's pathetic health pool and the fact that you never buy a single health item on him makes Cut Down the go-to rune on this line in most games. An absolute must when facing tanks and bruisers, but even against the average team it's often the best choice. If facing a squishy team, Coup de Grace is a great alternative since it has a nice synergy with using Contaminate as a finisher.

Any rune on this line gives you AD, so they're all a decent choice. Eyeball Collection is the fastest one to stack and rewards you for playing aggressive early game (what Twitch wants), so I settle for that one.

The most important rune on Twitch in the game. Relentless Hunter gives you tons of mobility to move around the map and catch your targets while invisible. Also it allows you to have a free item slot late game by selling your boots, making it an even better late game rune than Gathering Storm.

Stat shards

Attack speed + adaptive force : accelerate your early clear, you need all the early game help you can get

MR : since literally every mage in the game goes for early game magic penetration, this is the best remedy against getting oneshot.

Pretty straightforward, you want to clear the single target camps and gank early game, besides you couldn't clear camps like raptors even if you started Hunter's Talisman. You can clear krugs early even with machete however.

Pretty straightforward also, you could go 3* Health Potion which is better early game, but you lose the sell price of refillable and you need sustain after your first back as well so imo refillable is better.

Talisman is always the first thing you want to buy when you recall. Huge help when clearing, especially camps that need AOE like raptors, krugs and wolves. Finishing Skirmisher's Sabre doesn't do much at that point however, while stacking one or two Daggers significantly speeds up your clear.

You don't want to upgrade your boots on Twitch. Never buy Berserker's Greaves, you're already rushing two attack speed items and Zeal gives movement speed anyways. Mercury's Treads VERY situational when facing tons of CC and magic damage.

Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor is unquestionably the best jungle item on Twitch. Gives a ton of single target DPS, far more than warrior, which accelerates your early jungle clear by a lot. Only slight downside is the lack of AOE damage but your W+E combo can fill in on that until runaan. Red smite in every game because of the damage reduction, when ganking a lot of your targets will want to turn on you so reducing their damage prevents that. Even in the late game the red smite can be a complete gamebreaker.

Always Runaan's Hurricane second item. It has a huge synergy with your ultimate in teamfights, but also getting this early game helps you clear your jungle and lanes much faster. It's a big farming boost on a champion that needs a ton of farm.

Completes your crit build, tons of AD, CDR for your ultimate, mana restore, etc.

Blade of the Ruined King is the best answer to tanks and bruisers that build Ninja Tabi and Randuin's Omen to counter crits, by giving you an alternative form of damage that doesn't get reduced by these passives. Last Whisper items against teams that stack armor and/or have lots of healing.

You want one of these two items in every game, but you can't get both because the passives don't stack. PD against AD heavy or balanced teams, but always get a Maw against AP heavy teams.

Twitch is not the best GA carrier since once you revive your ultimate will be over, so a big part of your impact in a fight will be gone. Only get this against AD assassins, which is what it's made for.

Don't forget to grab an early Quicksilver Sash against champion like Malz, Skarner or Warwick. Get this item if facing any kind of long duration CC.

Great late game item, solid mix of survivability and damage. Also boosts your 1v1 ability by a lot.

Yep, that's a zhonyas. Nope, it's not trolling. AP does almost nothing on Twitch, but armor and CDR are fine stats against an AD team. Why? Because sometimes the entire game plan of the enemy team becomes "focus the twitch". Zhonya punishes them for doing that. The item also hard counters many assassins. You have 6 item slots since you don't need boots, so you have the space for one.

Twitch has no sustain in the jungle and no kiting mechanics either. Just compare this to a champion like Kindred that has both, and you'll see how easy it is to mess up and take a lot of damage from jungle creeps as Twitch. So you need flawless play to compensate.



To kill red/blue buff : Walk to attack range of the buff (do not Q to it unless you are fed). Autoattack, take a step back, autoattack and so on. Kite back until you arrive at the leash range. You shouldn't take a single hit for now. When at the leash range, press Q, *get a last autoattack in* (very important, prevents resetting), and move through the buff while invisible. You can take about one hit while doing that. Go back to around its spawn point, and keep autoattacking and kiting back, again without getting hit. When you arrive at the other side of the leash range, the buff should be dead. For the blue buff, beware of the bush since it makes the golem invisible and that can be a pain, bait him to go around the bush instead.


To kill gromp : There's no counterplay, you have to tank the damage.


To kill raptors : Don't do them before you have talisman. Move next to them, W the whole camp, tank them while getting 2-3 autoattacks in, and press E to apply talisman burn to the whole camp (W does not).


To kill krugs : You can do them even with only machete. Only focus and kite the big krug, it's the only one that hurts, the medium krug will bodyblock him which helps you. Use Q if you arrive at leash range here like before. Once the big krug is dead use your W+E on the medium/small krugs while tanking them for some big AOE damage.


To kill wolves : Pretty obnoxious camp as they're very fast. Best is to W the whole camp and get 2 autoattacks on each small wolf, finish the small wolves at the same time with E, and then kite the big wolf. Same thing, use Q when reaching leash range.


You can solo drakes with bloodrazor as only item. To be safe, use your Q to walk into the pit and drop a control ward once inside, this way you can't be seen with wards.

When the game starts you need to think about which lane you'll want to gank in priority. Does the enemy laner have no escape? Does your laner have CC or mobility to engage on them? Can they reliably engage without being dependent on coinflip skillshots? Then you want to camp that lane.

Your objectives in the early game are to :
1) Cover your starting buff for invades
2) Secure both your red and blue buffs ASAP
3) Get first blood

Possible jungle routes :


- Red buff -> gank

Bot lane gank only when playing blue side. This is viable but greedy for two reasons. First your laners will only be level 1 when you come to gank, so only do this if your allies have level 1 CC or hard engage. Second, it will be obvious where you are so the enemy jungler who started red can invade your blue buff with impunity. Typical followup is to invade the enemy blue buff in response.


- Red buff -> krugs -> gank

Like above except you wait for your bot lane (or top lane when playing red side) to reach level 2 by making good money off krugs while losing minimal HP. Good kill potential but you'll likely lose your blue buff. Ward your blue (or ask a teammate to do it) if you want to play like this, so you know whether to go for your blue or the enemy blue afterwards.


- Red buff -> blue buff -> gank

You're almost sure to get both buffs (if your blue gets invaded you're in good place to contest or cheese it with invis + smite). The best route to gank top (when playing red side) or bot (when playing blue side). Then move to gromp and crab, then wolves and back.


- Blue buff -> gromp -> red buff -> gank

Efficient clear and early gank. Your red can be invaded so warding it recommended (if it gets taken go for enemy red). After gank go for crab.


- Blue buff -> gromp -> red buff -> krugs -> crab

Twitch's version of a full clear, in the rare case where there is nothing to gank. You only do camps you can kill without losing much HP so you can still go for the crab and even contest it / smite out of invis if needed.

Some people might be misled by his assassin playstyle, but you shouldn't forget that Twitch is backline ADC with no escape. While you can solo kill certain champions in a 1v1 when ahead, you should NEVER initiate skirmishes or teamfights as Twitch, you'll just get focused and feed. Don't try to do crazy flanks, just wait patiently for fights to start while invisible, and only join the fight from a safe back rank postion when you know where the champions that can jump you are.

A lot of Twitch's playstyle is about sitting behind his teammates, waiting for enemies to engage on them, and counter-engaging at the right moment. Especially when playing against a diver/assassin heavy team. Also hugging your support is a good idea since you can protect them and they can protect you.

So always keep this in mind, you need proper positionning, and that means having a big meat shield in front of you when you engage, ideally when the enemy team is starting to focus that guy. In fact in a lot of ways Twitch plays more like a peel support than like an assassin.

You are a rat, so fight like one. Don't mindlessly charge in, use your teammates as bait to get kills :)