Hi everyone, I'm nrj6490 and this is my guide to Twitch. Twitch is an ADC with a very unique playstyle, one that can be really successful if the player knows Twitch's limitations as well as his perks. Despite a relatively weak laning phase and early game, Twitch continuously ramps up through the mid game to become a long range, crit heavy late game monster. If given proper peel and smart positioning, he can literally kill an entire enemy team by himself in the late game. The trick is how you get there, which is what my guide is here to help you do! I'll cover his abilities, rune/mastery choices, itemization, how to play Twitch throughout the different phases of the game, and more.

Pros

+ Assassin playstyle makes him harder to play against + Amazing chunking of priority targets thanks to crit and Spray and Pray + Great escape/hard to predict engage in Ambush + Contaminate is a great tool for trading and executing in early/mid game + Great scaling into late game + Spray and Pray is amazing for both 1v1s and team fights (with proper positioning/stutter stepping)

Cons

+ Can't do a lot if focused in fights (unless you get a lot of peel) + Usually teamfights go south if you get chunked or killed early + Weak laning phase + Positioning is everything + Pretty immobile in lane and when fighting + Roaming/assassin capability limited if enemy team has good vision control

Heal

Standard spell for ADCs, and is still true for Twitch. Although he does have a good escape in Ambush, it takes awhile to actually work. If you're in a sticky situation (or your teammate is), Heal can get you out.


Flash

Please. So useful. Escapes, engages, tryhard plays that don't work, there's a reason everyone takes Flash.


Barrier
Ah, the old season 3/4 ADC summoner spell. With the (maybe temporary) strength of Ardent Censer supports, it has become custom for ADCs to take Barrier if their support takes Heal. This fits pretty well on Twitch, as it boosts his survivability later on, but Heal is the better option if your support doesn't take it.

Primary Tree: Precision


Press the Attack

Press the Attack is very versatile. It can help win extended lane trades (with the help of venom stacks, your W slow, and E damage), and chunking of priority targets later on.

Lethal Tempo

Your attack speed gets increased after attacking a champion, increasing depending on level. Can be useful in fights, but generally Press the Attack is better.


Overheal

This rune is essentially a mini Bloodthirster. I like Triumph more, as its ability cannot be replicated with an item and can really help out early.


Triumph

Triumph helps you live in fights. It restores 15% of missing HP upon a takedown, so it could mean the difference between carrying a fight and being focused down and bursted.


Legend: Alacrity

Alacrity reminds me of Varus passive. It gives attack speed upon a kill, which can help accelerate fights.


Legend: Bloodline

Gives you stacking lifesteal, depending on minion, champion or monster kills. Can be taken as an alternative to Alacrity, but in general may not be as useful in fights, unless you have very few ways to resist damage.


Coup de Grace

This increases your burst potential by allowing you to execute priority targets that much faster, hopefully before they can react.


Cut Down

This improves your tank shredding, as you deal 4% extra damage to champions with 150 more max health than you and 10% more damage to champions with 2000 more max health.


Last Stand

You do more damage depending on how low your health is. If there aren't many sources of peel or healing, or the enemy team has large burst potential, this can be a good option.




Secondary Option: Domination


Taste of Blood

This rune helps with lane and teamfight sustain, as you heal upon damaging an enemy champion every 20 seconds. Helps make up for Twitch's vulnerability to poke and harass in lane.


Cheap Shot

This can be a good aggressive rune to take. It lets you deal extra damage to targets with impaired movement. The only way for you to cause this is to use W, but you can also follow up to allied CC.


Sudden Impact

Gives you 10 lethality when coming out of camouflage for 5 seconds. Can help when coming out of stealth to open up a teamfight with Spray and Pray, or to simply punish an overpushed opponent.


Eyeball Collection

Grants .6 AD per stack, ward kills give one stack, and champion takedowns give two. This caps at 20 stacks (12 AD), and grants 6 more AD upon completion. This can be really helpful for scaling/snowballing, and especially the ward kills are a good way to get free AD.


Zombie Ward

Upon killing an enemy ward, a one-health Zombie Ward spawns in its place. This can be a good way to circumvent the ADC problem of ward slots, but gives up your scalability by forsaking Eyeball Collection, which I recommend you take.


Relentless Hunter

Takedowns grant bonus movespeed. Twitch makes good use of movespeed, but the runes in the other sections are more valuable.


Secondary Option: Sorcery


Nullifying Orb

This can be useful if they have bursty AP damage, because more often than not, Twitch will be the focus in fights. Think of it as a free toned down Hexdrinker.


Gathering Storm

This rune helps with your scaling. By giving you adaptive AD over the course of the game (4.8 AD every 10 minutes), it gives you a little more power as you build towards the late game. Recommended in most scenarios.


Absolute Focus

This rune lets you do more damage when above 70% health. This also helps burst, because you'll likely be full health or around there when coming out of Ambush and opening up with Spray and Pray. However, it is in general less reliable damage, but you can take it if you have a lot of security in fights.


Manaflow Band

IMO not that great on Twitch, since you are one of the less mana dependent ADCs.


Celerity

This gives bonus movespeed, as well as AD depending on how much bonus movespeed is gained. This can be very useful on Twitch, a more assassin oriented ADC that can also roam.

Passive: Deadly Venom
Your auto attacks poison the target and deal true damage every second for six seconds. This is nice for two reasons. One, it's good for chunking down enemies in trades. Two, it sets the stage for Contaminate and possibly a kill or a won trade. However, do not rely on just the poison tick to execute an enemy for you. Focus on getting a red buff as Twitch, which will help with this.

Q: Ambush
You become camouflaged after a brief channel for 10-14 seconds, depending on the level of the ability. After the duration is up, or is canceled by attacking, Twitch gains bonus attack speed for a short duration. This is THE most useful move in Twitch's arsenal. It can set up kills both in lane and when roaming to gank other lanes, can be used to quickly get BACK to lane or into a fight, can be used to get OUT of lane or out of a fight. You can get really tricky with this, pull a LeBlanc and double back after going invisible when being chased, and find a nook that's likely unwarded to recall in. However, keep in mind that either close proximity to enemy champions or control wards will reveal you. Max this second.

W: Venom Cask
You throw a cask, which lands as an AoE slow that also applies a stack of Deadly Venom every second. This is pretty useful, as it can set up a ton of opportunities. It's invaluable when chasing or being chased, both for its slow and stacks of Deadly Venom. It can be used to CS (plop a cask right onto the wave, auto each minion, and Contaminate for money), and also for good poke or a nice "back off" hint in lane when used against your opponents. Just chuck it into team fights, ult, and E after some autos for some extra damage.

E: Contaminate
Second biggest consistent source of damage after auto attacks. Does damage to all enemies who have stacks of Deadly Venom in its target area, and does extra damage per stack. Good for trading and executes. Make sure to get off as many stacks as you can against your target before using Contaminate, as it does disrupt your walk animation, making it unlikely that you'll get another auto in to seal the deal. Max first for greater effectiveness in lane.

R: Spray and Pray
A great ult for both 1v1s and fights, it buffs damage and range. Each auto attack pierces its target, so it can hit enemies behind it for slightly decreased damage, depending on how many enemies it passes through. These auto attacks are treated as projectiles, so they can be dodged. Due to this, it is best used when the enemy team is clumped up. Use it in fights, but make sure you know your priority targets (damage threats/healers usually).

Twitch's build relies heavily on critical strike, in order to be the most effective in teamfights. I've included both a crit build (starting with Hurricane) and the BORK build that up to recently has been standard on Twitch. The crit build is better right now (just check ProBuilds.com to see what pro players build), but BORK can be situationally good in the early game.


Starting Options:


Doran's Blade
The classic ADC start. This season we've seen the preferred start changed up a bit, from Long Sword to Doran's Shield and on, but Doran's Blade is still arguably the most solid starting item for most ADCs.

Doran's Shield
A good pick-up if up against a poke heavy or strong early lane. Examples can include champions like Kog'Maw (with a shielding support), Caitlyn, Tristana, or Kalista, basically the strongest ADCs in the meta currently. You obviously can get by with a Doran's Blade, but unless you and your support match up well against one of these abusive lanes, you may have a hard time.


Full Build Items:


Runaan's Hurricane
A very useful item on Twitch, it both applies stacks of Deadly Venom to multiple targets (due to the bolts), and, being a Zeal item, gives a healthy dose of attack speed, critical strike, and movement speed. The bolts deal almost half your AD and can crit, making it have great synergy with your ultimate.

Berserker's Greaves
The most common boot option on most ADCs. They give almost as much attack speed as Runaan's Hurricane, which feels great, especially in the early/mid game.

Ninja Tabi
Another boots option for Twitch. I'd say they are less common now, but can be situationally taken against a high AD team comp or a lane bully. Overall, I think Berserker's Greaves are the better buy most of the time.

Infinity Edge
This is where Twitch finally gets his kick. Since you usually rush Runaan's straight out of your starting item instead of first getting a B.F. sword, this means that the Runaan's + IE power spike is actually quite potent. You finally get a taste for more AD while getting that crit damage multiplier, making you more formidable in teamfights.

Statikk Shiv
This is my preferred choice for second Zeal item. This gets you to 80% crit, starting your transition into the late game and further boosting your teamfighting strength and Spray and Pray power. The reason I prefer Shiv over the two remaining Zeal items is due to the burst you get out of its passive, which synergizes very well with your ult when you open up out of stealth on a teamfight. It'll chunk enemies surprisingly fast.

Phantom Dancer
An alternative to Statikk Shiv. Phantom Dancer grants slightly more attack speed, but has two useful passives. The first, Spectral Waltz, allows you to avoid unit collision if you're close (auto attack range: 550 units) to a target. This is useful when teamfighting in lanes or in the jungle, or even if you decide to 1v1 someone. The second, Lament, gives you damage reduction against the last person you hit with an auto attack, which can boost your survivability if you're focusing a damage dealer (or even a tank).

Rapid Firecannon
I'd say this is the least useful of the Zeal items on Twitch. Unlike champions such as Caitlyn, Tristana or Jinx, you don't really like to harass people with long range auto attacks. With 550 auto attack range, you can't make use of the extra range that Rapid Firecannon provides as well as the aforementioned champions.

Lord Dominik's Regards
One of two Last Whisper items. Lord Dominik's Regards does extra damage depending on how much more max health the enemy you're attacking has over you. This'll usually be the case against tanks, so get this item if the enemy team is chock-ful of tanks. If you really need it, it can be built before your second Zeal item. And, of course, it gives armor penetration.

Mortal Reminder
The second Last Whisper item. Along with the standard armor pen, the Executioner's Calling component cuts enemy healing, making this a good item to build against the likes of Soraka, Darius, Vladimir, Dr. Mundo, et cetera. If against a really obnoxious healer like Soraka, the Executioner's Calling component can be taken early.

Mercurial Scimitar
Probably the most common lifesteal item I take on Twitch, simply due to the great utility given by the Quicksilver Sash. This component is a great one to take early, before completing an armor pen item for example, and helps you stay alive after the enemy inevitably tries to lock you down. Obviously not necessary if the enemy has no hard CC, but these days, that's usually the case.

The Bloodthirster
This one helps you stay alive in a different way, by literally just lifestealing like there's no tomorrow. To get the most out of this item, stutter stepping while using your ultimate or just auto attacking in fights is vital, as although this does give a lot of lifesteal, it's useless if you just get caught and chain CC'd by staying in one spot for too long.


This was the best first item on Twitch for quite a while, and can still be situationally taken first, but is also effective as a late game lifesteal item. The extra on-hit damage it provides also makes it a decent option for punching through tanks, and the active is a nice bit of self-peel.

This is taken less frequently now, since they replaced the Serrated Dirk in the recipe with CDR, but can still be the right item to buy situationally. Basically, if they have a mage that can just blow you up ( Syndra, Lux, Viktor, Orianna) that you also have a hard time avoiding. I'd say if your issue is getting caught by stuns or snares, Mercurial Scimitar is the better option.

Essence Reaver
Lately, this has been taken as a substitute for a third Zeal item when an ADC wants 100% crit and is the primary carry (I've seen it usually on Tristana). To clarify, it's taken last, but instead of a third Zeal item (which would overcap your crit chance anyway). The CDR and extra AD can be useful late game, but it comes at the cost of either lifesteal of armor pen (or movespeed/attack speed, if you sell your boots), so choose wisely.

Guardian Angel
If you're either really fed and wanna get that perfect KDA, or it's really late in the game and if you die, your team loses, get this item. If it's on cooldown and you have enough gold, replace it until it comes up again.

This is based purely on the kit of the support and its synergy with Twitch. Look below for a list of the best supports in the current meta to go with Twitch.

Great The ideal support for Twitch. She can hold lane and tower while you roam mid or dragon, AND her Howling Gale, Zephyr, and Monsoon give both a ton of peel and disengage for Twitch to either chase or kite. She'll strengthen your relatively weak laning phase considerably.

Great While she specializes more in engage, her Shield of Daybreak, Zenith Blade, and Solar Flare provide stuns galore for you to get in range and whale away. Better yet, she only has to burn one of these stuns to get you close, and she can keep peeling while you attack.

Great Although there are many infamously bad Alistars, he still compliments your kit well. Not only can he peel for you with his Pulverize, but he can Headbutt them TO you, which doesn't require a peel long enough for you to get in range. He can also use Unbreakable Will to take ALL the damage while you can stand far, far away and fire in with Spray and Pray. One of the most useful teamfight supports.

Good Thresh is pretty good with most ADCs. Although his Death Sentence doesn't exactly fit perfectly with [{Twitch]]s kit due to the enemy escape opportunities, he can always reactivate and go in while you fire away. He can also use The Box followed by a Death Sentence if the enemy is out of position to give a nifty kill opportunity.

Good SO MUCH PEEL. If they're out of position, she can use Aqua Prison to wreck them. If they're harassing you, she can heal with Ebb and Flow. If they run and you're chasing, she can Tidal Wave and then use Tidecaller's Blessing on you to chunk them super fast. Great lane. Hard to play, though.

Good Her Glitterlance slow is useful for poke and chase, as is her Whimsy (both offense and defense). Her best asset though, is Help, Pix!, which gives you btoh a shield and empowers your auto attacks. She can Wild Growth either you (if you get caught out) or herself if you want to dive, but usually playing lane more trade-focused and racking up a CS lead is safer.

Good Dredge Line is a great ability, especially in the mid game where Twitch starts to destroy locked down enemies. Riptide is super useful in chasing, giving you time to catch up, as well is Depth Charge. He gets some solid sustain from Titan's Wrath, as well.

Good God, that root is so long. Dark Binding is an amazing ability. You could probably finish off an enemy ADC just in it's duration if they're at about half health. Black Shield is good to get Twitch either in or out of tight places, and Soul Shackles can be devastating if landed on multiple enemies in fights.

Good Magical Journey gives Twitch the mobility that he lacks without a dash type ability, and Caretaker's Shrine gives more sustain. Cosmic Binding and Tempered Fate offer both engage and disengage options, if used properly. However, he can be a bit of a non-factor if the enemy lane just all-ins you.

Good He has pretty easy to land CC in Dazzle, but is overall pretty defensive other than that, having a heal (Q), shield/aura (W) and even an invul (R). He's good for surviving the laning phase as well as ganks, so that you can scale up. If you are winning lane though, his support allows you to play aggressively.

Good His grab and knock-up are useful, I grant you, as is the damage from his ult and his overall mobility, but he can't do much to save you if you get caught out. He can be a useful human (robot?) shield, though.

Good His Winter's Bite in chases or engages helps a ton, as does Glacial Fissure, and he can help keep you alive with Stand Behind Me and Unbreakable. He can take a considerable number of hits for Twitch, especially if he builds Knight's Vow, but doesn't necessarily have abilities that buff or help sustain you, so be careful in tough lane matchups.

Good Heal, heal, heal. That's pretty much most of what Soraka does. I know, surprising (sarcasm if you didn't detect it), but it can come in handy. Equinox can also be useful, especially against a more ability oriented champion like Lucian or Corki. However, again, you need more CC.

Good Her only real CC without an item is from Crescendo, which is useful, but not useful enough to replace a more consistent source of CC. Her heal and movespeed buff are useful, though, but whether her heal+shield will be as abusive with the nerf of Ardent Censer is yet to be seen. My guess is that they won't get hit that hard, making her a viable heal/harass support.

Ok Shen's new W, Spirit's Refuge, is great for protecting against an auto-attack heavy counter (like Kalista), but you can't really benefit from Shen's all-in unless the enemy is already at around half health due to your weak early game.

Ok Miss Fortune is best with safe poke or harass lanes, both of which Twitch lacks. My bet is that if you aren't in a good matchup, she won't be doing that much, as your lane doesn't have disengage or gank prevention. You two can wreck in teamfights, though, if you make it out of lane.

Ok Her poke is pretty good, but she is sooooooo squishy. She could easily be targeted by the enemy lane as a first target, and while she repeatedly tries to save you, just ends up killing herself. Her stun and ult are useful, granted, but ultimately, Twitch doesn't have enough lane pressure to allow for an Annie support to be that impactful.

Ok Zilean isn't really played support that much anymore. As with Annie, Twitch doesn't have lane pressure enough to use Zilean's kit to its full potential. The new passive is great if you fall behind, though, and Zilean's ultimate, Chronoshift, is useful as ever in fights.

Twitch has a pretty bad early game. In lane, he can trade pretty well, but his all in, kill potential, and total damage is pretty lame unless you get into exteneded trades. He can CS pretty safely, though. If you see a kill opportunity, here's the combo. Ambush so you can get in range, then auto to break it. Instantly use Venom Cask to get more stacks, and keep autoing, ulting if you can. When they run, use Contaminate to get as much damage off as possible and hopefully force a summoner or even get a kill. Note: auto as much as you can before Contaminate to get as many stacks off as possible. If a trade DOESN'T go your way, the key to surviving is recognizing that you're in a bad trade as early as possible. Keep the cooldowns of the enemy ADC and support's abilities in mind, and if you foresee a hard engage or a burst of damage, the best thing to do is back off. If you make the first move, you can usually get off a fair bit of damage if your support helps zone the enemy bot lane away from you. If you get ahead in lane, don't be afraid to roam mid. Thanks to Ambush, a gank can be quite potent. However, in general you should play pretty risk-averse, so as not to derail your scaling. Remember to ward tribrush (if on blue side) or river brush (if on red side, unless you're getting pushed in, in which case try to ward the lane brush for a possible lane gank or the tribrush near gromp). Twitch is very immobile, so escaping ganks will be mostly on how early you fall back or on your support.

This is where Twitch starts to hit his stride. You should have your core completed by about 25 minutes in usually, which gives a pretty sweet power spike. Your team fight usefulness is good thanks to Runaan's Hurricane and Spray and Pray. When positioning for fights, stay on one of the corners of the fight, so that your ult will reach the enemy carries (or whoever your team is focusing). This is where stutter-stepping (constantly repositioning between autos) becomes a very valuable thing to do. If you get in the habit, enemy engage on you becomes that much more difficult, and your damage output becomes greater, since you're constantly finding the best angle of attack. You can split-push effectively due to Runaan's Hurricane and due to Ambush, but it's better left to your top laner and mid laner (especially if mid took teleport of has a global like Twisted Fate). Split pushing will also help keep your gold up, to help you keep scaling into the late game. Make sure to bring your support or have your jungler nearby, though, and don't overextend without jungle vision. Just like in lane, there's little Twitch can do to escape a gank alone. Cool note: if you activate Q right before you recall, you will remain camouflaged for the duration. However, this isn't foolproof, as now enemies will be able to see through your camouflage if they get too close.

Twitch is a late game monster. The 80% crit combined with your ulti can decide a teamfight if you position well. Catch an easy to kill enemy pushing a lane all by their lonesome? Just Ambush in, crit them to death (keep a level head though, no point in attacking a 12/0 Fiora splitpushing alone). This is where keeping track of enemy summoners becomes a big deal. Teamfight about to happen? Stand on the border, start your Q, wait for the engage, ult and aim for the jugular (their carries). Remember to kite and stutter step in fights, it not might seem necessary at first, but constantly changing your position to a more favorable one between autos makes you a lot harder to pin down. Another great thing about Twitch's late game is that, if the two sides seem stalemated and you have backup, you could just Q into a lane and initiate the fight yourself with your ult. While this strategy is largely dependent on the enemy team comp ( Nautilus/ Cassiopeia/ Ashe ults can mess with you if you aren't behind your front line), it's still a pretty good way to get things moving and to get the enemy team on the back foot. It can catch them by surprise, but you'd better have backup if they decide to turn on you. Make sure not to get caught out, since your team should rely on you for a lot of damage, but your Q gives you a nice escape tool. Note that Twitch actually has a pretty mediocre standard range (550), so sieging towers won't be as easy as with someone like Tristana or Caitlyn.

I got a request for this section, and now realize that it's really an essential one. In my experience, there are two major types of teamfights: moving or not. By moving fights, I mean fights that mostly take place in a lane, and can (don't have to) originate from a chase. Non-moving fights usually take place around an objective (like Baron, Dragon, or a tower), and usually provide a wide range of strategies.

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Moving Fights

First, I'll discuss moving fights. There are essentially 2 types: chasing or being chased, and can take place in lane or the jungle. Due to the extreme range of Spray and Pray, Twitch can excel at all types. In the jungle, it matters less whether you're chasing or being chased, as you can use Ambush to get into a good position to either continue the chase or group with your team and ult. Since Twitch is a priority target and a squishy little fella, I recommend trying to stay behind a wall when ulting, as your range can easily reach beyond the wall, and it will be significantly harder to knock you down. If this isn't available to you, try to stay near an exit to the "home" side of your lane (I.E. if you're on the red side and being chased down the bot river and your team decides to fight, maybe stay in the junction between the bot side blue buff and the river, so you have an available escape up to the tier 2 bot tower). Keep track of Ambush's cooldown, and if you see any carries starting to dive you, get outta there. DON'T just stand right behind your front line, as someone like LeBlanc or Quinn can easily maneuver around them to assassinate you. In lane when chasing, keep in mind that using Spray and Pray does cut down your mobility quite a bit, so be sure that you have a target in mind. If that target's particularly close, slow with Venom Cask and wail away. When being chased, refrain from kiting with Spray and Pray due to the decreased mobility, as it'll take more than a few shots of that to take down a tank. DO do that if you're being chased from a fair distance (I.E. further than auto range) and you have the AS and crit to chunk them down before they reach you. In all versions of moving fights, try your best not to get hit, as you want Ambush to be available to use on a dime.

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Non-Moving Fights

However, far more frequently, you will be in NON-MOVING teamfights, teamfights concentrated around a specific area, being based in one of the rivers more often than not. If attempting Baron or Dragon, again more often than not will winning the teamfight be more important than continuing to attack the objective, as your team will be missing a considerable source of damage. Leave the objective to your jungler. As for positioning, it depends on your situation. If you're attempting Baron or Dragon and then are rudely interrupted, try to stay inside the pit when ulting. You'll get off a ton of damage due to your reach if you prioritize the carries, and you'll stay relatively safe since your front line should be trying to protect you and your mid laner (hopefully blocking the pit off). If the fight goes the wrong way, Ambush is your friend! Just sneak out of the pit and get into brush as soon as possible. Flashing over the wall is of course a viable option. If collapsing on a Baron or Dragon attempt, again, try to stay near an exit. The enemy team can easily go from defensive to aggressive, and you want to be able to both get damage off and maneuver around so that you can get those priority targets. So, try to stay near a wall (opposite the pit) so that you can Ambush into the jungle.

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Towers

If sieging a tower, the enemy team has a lot less options mobility wise (unless they have Rengar or Kha'Zix). Stay behind the front line and wail away with Spray and Pray. It's that simple. Still leave your self an escape, and don't use Ambush just for the AS buff when taking down tower unless you're doing so virtually unopposed. When being sieged, if you're one of the only people on your team there, run. If not, don't immediately ult, but rather poke them with your autos. When they run, toss a cask, ult, and Contaminate to execute.

Well, that's pretty much it. Hope this helped you find a solid build, because the new items have really messed with Twitch's old itemization. I really do believe in this build, though, and I hope it helps you get superfed!

Happy cheesing!

(Cheese: something unorthodox that will take the enemy by surprise but is very high risk)

ALSO:
I couldn't have made this guide without jhoijhoi's "Making a Guide". If you want awesome tips on making a guide, please go check his guide out!