Quinn Build Guide by ImperialLuxBot

Introduction

How's it goin everyone.
I'm Imperial Lux Bot, and I'm a Silver V player in the NA server. (I KNOW RIGHT, SILVER SO IMPRESSIVE)

This is my first guide on Mobafire, so bear with me.
Ironic how my first guide is on Quinn and Valor, and not Lux... but I digress.

I've played Quinn ever since she was released on the PBE; I love her image as a hunter-assassin, especially with the Bird motif. The Phoenix skin really drove it home though. I just really like the color red :D

ANYWAYS, this guide is about Quinn and Valor as a Midlane champion. Her damage in the early game is very underestimated, and she is capable of forcing opponents out of lane as quickly as Level 2 if the enemy is not careful.

In the midgame, Quinn's high mobility through her ultimate allows her to gank the top lane and bottom lane swiftly. Her ultimate also allows her to disengage and re-engage in fights to pick off the weak enemies. She's like a vulture: find the weakened target and pick up a kill!

She can also be used as a splitpusher: her high mobility with her ultimate, Skystrike, lets her escape from the enemies easily, and this splitpushing potential can be made even better through the use of Teleport.

Without further ado, let's get right into the guide.

Pros and Cons

PROS:
- Huge early game burst damage with Harrier
- High mobility with Valor
- Great chaser due to Heightened Senses + Blade of the Ruined King + Boots of Swiftness
- Has multiple interesting escape mechanics, such as Vaulting over walls
- Not dependant on Golem buff (but it helps :D)
- Smexy red outfit


CONS:
- SQUISHEHHHH
- Has difficulty disengaging fights/ escaping as Quinn
- Need to know when to go into fights or else you will be focused and killed
- Tag Team is on a pretty long cooldown

Runes

For my reds, I like to take Greater Mark of Armor Penetration x9. Some midlaners will take Armor seals, and this will help you deal more damage by ignoring their armor. At the same time, if the enemy midlaner takes different Seals, for example Mana Regeneration, then you can eat through what little base armor they have to deal tons of early damage.
You could also take Greater Mark of Attack Damage. The use of Armor Pen is my personal preference.

For yellows, I take Greater Seal of Armor x9. The armor will help me throughout the game to minimize physical damage I take, whether it's from the enemy midlaner's autoattacks, or their physical damage spells (ex. Zed's shurikens).

For blues, I take Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x9. Most midlaners are AP mages and deal Magic Damage, so these let me take less magic damage while my Marks allow me to penetrate the enemy's armor with my physical damage.
If the enemy team is running an AD Mid, but they have magic damage elsewhere (ex. toplane Vladimir or Elise) then you could switch these out for Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist.
If the enemy team is running a full-AD team (AD top, jungler, and mid) then you could replace with Greater Glyph of Armor. It's not the greatest use of IP (or a Rune Page slot, for that matter), but if the Magic Resist would be of no use, then might as well go for it.

Finally, for the big ones, I use Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage x3. The flat AD helps out me in the early game to deal lots of damage and snowball my lane. It also helps me to last-hit :P
Other options include Greater Quintessence of Life Steal for the sustain, as well as Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed for the increased mobility.

Masteries

Now, let's take a look at those masteries.

Skills

QV's passive, Harrier, will periodically mark a nearby enemy as "Vulnerable". Attacking that marked target will deal extra damage that scales to QV's AD. This is what makes Quinn such a great laner at levels 1 and 2. If Valor marks the enemy champion, they will either get completely zoned off their creeps because they don't want to get chunked, or they will get chunked.


The Q skill, Blinding Assault, is a skillshot ability. Quinn launchers Valor in a straight line, and once Valor hits an enemy, he will deal physical damage to that enemy and all enemies around him, as well as blinding those enemies. This skill is great for harass in lane, especially against a champion that is reliant on auto-attacks for damage output, such as Kayle. As such, I max this ability first.
When in Tag Team as Valor, this ability deals the same damage and still blinds any enemies hit, but instead of being a skillshot, the ability hits enemies around your own champion.
This skill originally didn't have any AP scaling. The 50% AP scaling on this ability was likely added to promote using Trinity Force on Quinn, since previously she had no AP scalings in her kit at all.


QV's W skill, Heightened Senses, is simultaneously a scouting ability, a chasing aid, and an attack speed buff, all at the same time. This ability can be used to check nearby bushes without facechecking them. It can be used to see if the opponent's buff is there, so you can steal it. Or you can use it to find the enemy trying to steal your own buffs. If you are chasing an enemy and they run into a bush, use W to light up the brush and then jump on their face with your E, Vault.
This skill also passively grants Movement Speed and Attack Speed whenever you trigger the mark from Harrier, which increases your DPS in teamfights.
When in Tag Team, the Active portion can still be used, and the passive Attack Speed buff is no longer triggered when you pop a Harrier mark; instead it is always active, which is even better.


Her E ability, Vault, causes Quinn/Valor to dash to a target enemy unit and deal damage, as well as interrupt the target. As Quinn, after vaulting she will leap backwards off the target and leave a Harrier mark. As Valor, vault is a gap closer. Valor leaps onto the target enemy but does not leap back off.
This ability is essential to your early game burst damage, and I take the skill at level 1. By combo-ing Harrier-Autoattack-Vault-Autoattack you can easily deal half of your opponent's health bar. At level 2, by adding in Blinding Assault and Ignite you can go for kills on your lane opponent.
Vault can be used to make interesting escapes if executed correctly. At certain angles, Vault can cause Quinn to go over a wall and stay on the other side. If you use your W to reveal a jungle camp, you can E to jump to the camp on the other side of the wall. If you are being chased by an enemy champion, and you are between the wall and the enemy champion, it is possible to E on the enemy champion and be launched backwards over the wall.
Since this skill is mainly used for placing Harrier Marks on the enemy as opposed to using it for damage, I max this skill 2nd.

Tag Team
And finally, the R, the ultimate, Tag Team. This skill causes Quinn to leave the battlefield for 20 seconds, instead being replaced by Valor. While in Valor form, you are melee and enjoy increased movement speed, as well as the bonus attack speed passive from your W, Heightened Senses. You can hit R again to activate Skystrike, which is an AoE execute skill which will also cause Valor to be replaced by Quinn. If you do not activate Skystrike in the 20 second duration, then it will automatically be used at the end of the duration. Skystrike deals increased damage the lower the enemy's health is.
Keep in mind that you do not need to use Skystrike immediately as soon as an enemy champion gets low on health, especially in a teamfight. If you can afford to, do not use Skystrike unless absolutely necessary. You may need to keep the increased mobility to disengage and re-engage on the fight, and then use Skystrike as an execute on a more important threat.

Summoner Spells

Ignite and Flash are our main spells here. Ignite increases your kill potential by adding True damage as well as giving you +5 AD and AP from the Summoner's Wrath mastery. Flash is an all-around good spell that can be used offensively to secure kills or defensively to escape death. There's a good reason that Flash is used more than 80% of the time.

Teleport is another good option if you are looking to be a teleganking monster. Teleport combined with early Homeguard-enchanted boots and Tag Team will result in an extremely fast assassin threat and your opponent will have little-to-no time to respond to you coming in.

Item Choices

I choose these items to give Quinn and high amount of mobility and chasing potential. Statikk Shiv and Boots of Swiftness both give Quinn bonus movement speed while simultaneously making it hard to slow her down due to the Swiftness passive. Blade of the Ruined King's active slow can be used to either disengage from the enemy or to chase an enemy.

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If you are having trouble against an AP midlaner, a great item to go for is the Hexdrinker. This item is very gold-efficient, giving you 25 AD (worth ~1000g) and 25 Magic Resist (worth ~500g) as well as a passive Spell Shield that could be the difference between living and dying. Sometimes I will pick this up even if I am winning lane, if the enemy team has multiple AP damage dealers on their team; for example they have an AP midlaner, and a Zac or Elise jungle/top.

Glacial Shroud is an odd choice but I like it a lot. If you're struggling against AD champions then picking this up can help you to stay alive. It gives a pretty nice amount of Armor, as well as Mana and Cooldown Reduction. Later in the game this can be upgraded into an Iceborn Gauntlet which will further bolster your chasing potential and burst damage while keeping you safer from physical damage at the same time.

Boots of Swiftness are not your only boots option; if you feel the need, pick up some Mercury's Treads against high AP/ high CC teams, or Ninja Tabi against AD-heavy teams.

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Other Interesting Choices

If the enemy midlaner starts to have problems, they may build into an item with Armor such as a Seeker's Armguard. To address this, an early The Brutalizer can help you pierce that armor and keep doing damage. The build path when taking the Brutalizer into account ends up similar to the build path of a midlane Zed: going Bilgewater Cutlass first and then building into The Brutalizer before finishing your Blade of the Ruined King.

Later on in the game the The Brutalizer can be upgraded into another item; my upgrade of choice is Youmuu's Ghostblade. Youmuu's active ability increases your burst damage as well as your movement speed, which lets you jump onto your targets and kill them even more quickly. The cooldown reduction on this item also lets you use your skills more frequently, most importantly your Tag Team.

Another item for getting Armor Penetration is Last Whisper. If the enemy team builds high amounts of Armor, consider picking up this item so that you can ignore a percentage of their armor.

Zephyr is another item that gives Quinn a lot of needed stats: Attack Speed, Cooldown Reduction, and Movement Speed; not to mention Tenacity to top it all off. Consider this item if you are snowballing and wish to roam and assassinate lone targets who each have their own CCs.

Trinity Force and Iceborn Gauntlet are both great options in my opinion. They both take advantage of Sheen's bonus damage, which is a great combination with your Harrier Mark combo ( Harrier -> Autoattack -> Vault -> Autoattack) to further increase your burst damage.
Trinity Force is the more offensive option of the two; recommended if you are doing well in the game. Iceborn Gauntlet can be built out of Glacial Shroud if you think you will be needing the Armor.

The last item that I consider is Infinity Edge to greatly increase your overall damage output. This item synergizes well with the other Critical Strike items in your loadout, such as Youmuu's Ghostblade, Statikk Shiv, or Trinity Force. If you feel like you're falling off in the late-game, consider picking up this item and see how much damage you can dish out.

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Defensive Item Choices

Remember that Hexdrinker or Glacial Shroud you build a while ago? If you still have those items and haven't upgraded them yet (maybe you already have a Trinity Force and don't want to upgrade your Shroud to an Iceborn Gauntlet too) then you can upgrade those items into Maw of Malmortius and Frozen Heart.

Maw will give you plenty of extra AD as you get lower on health, which can help a ton in 1v1 dueling or chasing a kill at the end of the teamfight.
Heart is highly recommended against teams that scale heavily off of Attack Speed. Teams that have champions such as Jax or Aatrox you should definitely consider this item (or Randuin's Omen) to counter them.

The defensive item I find myself going for more than any other is the good ol' Guardian Angel. This guy gives you a revive after your HP is reduced to zero. Hopefully you won't even need the revive, but you can never be too careful.

Mercurial Scimitar and Banshee's Veil are two similar items that serve similar purposes. Both of them have some way to negate your enemy's CC or initiating abilities and will allow you to escape with your life.
I like to go for a Mercurial Scimitar when I am winning, but the enemy team still has a high amount of CC and I still need to be careful.
I go for Banshee's if the enemy has a champion like Lux or Morgana where one good snare can end my life.

The last item that I consider is Randuin's Omen. Just like its cousin Frozen Heart, I recommend this item against champions such as Jax who relies on Attack Speed.
The active component on this item can be used offensively with your ultimate: when in Tag Team use Vault on the enemy champion and follow up with Randuin's Omen's active to slow them so they cannot get away. If you combine this slow with the one from Blade of the Ruined King, no one will be able to escape you.

End of the Guide... for now.

What you see so far of this guide was done in two sittings; I plan to add more later on.
For now though, please tell me what you guys think, I'd be happy to hear any criticisms you guys have that can make this guide better.

Also if you have any questions be sure to leave those as well and I will try to answer as many as I can.

Thanks for reading! :)

Installment 1 (October 3 2013): Runes, Masteries, Skill Order, Summoner Spells
Installment 2 (October 4 2013): Item Build
Installment 3 (WIP): Items I Don't Recommend on QV