Hi fellow summoners,here is a guide that I wrote a few years ago and kept updating from time to time. It is not perfect and only basic (might be I forgot to add a champ or 2 to be honest but I tried to include every champ, also some stuff might be a bit outdated, I´ll try to fix it up if I find something):
Edit: Before you read any further and be like "Eh but this and that combination isn´t really good because this champ favors this and that blablabla...This guide is meant to show Concepts of how it is supposed to be in general.You always have to adapt depending the match up, player skill, etc.
Types of Botlanes
Everyone knows it: Botlane is a case of its own. With more than 40 different champions played on Botlane, there is a huge amount of possible match ups and types of lanes.
This article is meant to categorize the usual Marksmen played on Botlane to give you an easy to find weaknesses and strengths of each Marksman.Please be aware that a champion can fit into several classes at the same time.
For that we will divide the marksmen into 5 classes:
“Lane Bully”, “Spellcaster”, “Tank Shreds aka On-Hit User” “Hypercarry aka Crit User” and “Utility”

Lane Bullies
What is a “Lane Bully?”A “Lane Bully” is a marksman who has strong laning capabilities and can dominate a lane if he does his job correctly. Most common examples are: Caitlyn, Draven, Lucian, Miss Fortune (most common in Low Elo) Senna, and Varus (Lethality Build). Each of them has strong laning power due to their kit:Caitlyn has the biggest auto attack range of all Marksmen LvL 1, Dravens attack damage is higher than anyone´s else, Lucian can burst down people in a few seconds due his double shot passive, Miss Fortune can zone people with her Q and deal monstrous damage, Senna has good range and built in sustain + her Q applies Glacial Augment and Varus with a Lethality Build can kill people with 3 Q´s.
At the same time these Marksmen usually fall off in the late game (please be aware of Senna here due to her in build infinite scaling) due to their early power (to make them balanced) so they tend to lose more often if they can´t end the same fast.If you play a “Lane Bully”: Try to be aggressive early game and make use of your power to snowball the game into a fast win. If you play against them: Try to play safe and go for farm instead of risky plays.

Spellcasters
What is a “Spellcaster”?A “Spellcaster” is a marksman who relies mostly on his spells to deal damage/ effective.The most common examples are: Ezreal, Aphelios, Jhin, Lucian, Miss Fortune, Samira, Sivir, Varus (Lethality Build) and Xayah.“Spellcaster” put a lot of focus onto their mana management but on the same time they are able to put out a lot of damage/ control on the game if they have the mana they need for their spells. Not every “Spellcaster” is strong in the early game, but every “Spellcaster” can dominate a certain state of game with their kits (Aphelios is special here because he relies less on his mana and “spells” and more about his ammunition and what guns he has and how he uses them but it is still the same idea in my opinion).The downside of playing a “Spellcaster” is pretty similar to the downsides of a mage: If their spells are on cooldown or if they are out of mana, the damage they can deal is way lower than at their best.If you play a “Spellcaster”: Play around your cooldowns and mana. Use your spells to deal as much damage as possible, back off and then go back in when your cooldowns are back up.
If you play against a “Spellcaster”: Make use of cooldowns and the enemy being out of mana. If you see them waste their spells, go in and blow them up.

Tank Shreds
What is a “Tank Shred”?A “Tank Shred” is a marksman who´s main damage comes from effects which get applied with every auto attack. The most common examples are: Kai´Sa, Kalista, Kog Maw, Varus and Vayne.“Tank Shreds” usually have spells in their kit which allow them to deal bonus damage with every attack/ every specific attack numbers. For example: Vayne does bonus damage with her W every three hits, Kai´Sa applies bonus damage after stacking 5 hits of plasma.Almost every time “On-Hit User” go for the same to items: “Krakenslayer” and “Phantom Dancer”. The reason for that is that “Krakenslayer” deals bonus damage every third Auto Attack and “Phantom Dancer" buffs your attack speed by 30% after attacking 4 times.
Their Itembuilds rely mostly on attack speed and their effects per attack so the damage per attack is low compared to other marksmen. The longer a fight goes, the stronger a “Tank Shred” gets.
If you play a “Tank Shred”: Play around your stacks. Depending on how much stacks you need, try to fight as long as you need. As Vayne play around your three hits, as Kalista try to stack as many spears as possible and then execute the enemy with your E “Rend”.
If you play against a “Tank Shred”: Be careful of long trades. Since “On-Hit User” get stronger with longer trades, limit yourself to do short trades to deny their strength and reduce their hp before you all in them when they can´t make use of long trades anymore.

Hypercarry:
What is a “Hypercarry”? A “Hypercarry” is a marksman who builds items with “critical strike chance”, the exception here is Kog Maw. The most common examples are: Aphelios, Ashe, Caitlyn, Draven, Jinx, Jhin, Sivir, Tristana, Twitch and Xayah.
“Hypercarries” rely on their “critical chance strike” to deal high amounts of damage with every attack. Critical attacks deal 175% damage instead of the usual 100%. By building “Infinity Edge” the damage gets further increased to 210%. These Marksmen usually buy at least 3 items with “critical strike chance”, with “Infinity Edge” being the “Core” of the build.“Hypercarries” usually get to their strongest point quite late in a game. They need time to farm gold to get their items but when they got them, they outscale most other Marksmen classes.If you play a “Hypercarry”: Try to play safe early on (Only exceptions are Draven and Cailyn depending on match up) and try to farm as much gold as possible to get to your items fast and then crush the game by killing non tanks with 2 or 3 hits.If you play against a “Hypercarry”: Overpower them early on before they can stack up their critical strike chance since their high damage output is based on “luck”. The item parts for “infinity Edge” are quite expensive so try to punish that by forcing them into bad recalls.

Utiliity:
What is a “Utility” marksman? Utility marksmen are marksmen who´s kit revolves around their team for the biggest effect. The most common examples are: Ashe, Kalista, Sivir, Senna and Varus.
They all have an ultimate which needs the team to be useable/ for the best use. They got spells for “the greater good” than just using all of their spells for winning a 1v1. Ashe can catch out a target with her ultimate, Sivir boosts the whole team with movement speed which allows them to either gap close fast to get a good engage or disengage without getting caught that easily. Kalista even need her Oathsworn to activate her ultimate and the W passive (bonus damage if she and her sworn hit the same target in a short amount of time) so she depends even more on her team/ oathsworn to be nearby. To be fair, Varus Ultimate isn´t as “good” as Ashe ultimate due to its range, but on the other hand it provides a possible bind onto all 5 targets and can disrupt the enemy formation pretty well.
If you play a “Utility” marksman: Play around your team. Use the fact that your champion is best when having back up or when trying to make a play/ making the engage. Don´t hesitate to use your ultimate to get a catch on an enemy in the mid- to lategame since this can lead to a free baron, turret or maybe even nashor. Stick with our team and create openings to decide the game in your favor.
If you play against a “Utility” marksman: Be aware of the possible sudden engage by the enemy team using their marksman ultimate. As a tank try to stand in front of your team to “eat up” the ultimate if needed so your carries are still able to respond in a fight and don´t die in the first 2 seconds. Try to catch the marksman off guard and alone (the best would be a pincer attack), so he as to blow his ultimate to escape from one side just to die to the other side and create a 4v5 scenario for your team with the marksman being dead or back to base.

The Triangle of Support:
There are quite a few Supports in the game so there are a lot of different match ups and how a lane can play out depending on who you play against who, etc.
This is a rough outline to group supports in a class, what they are good at and what they struggle with if played correct and how it should play out in theory.
This “Triangle” shows the idea of who beats who
Poke -> All in -> Sustain/ Peel -> Poke ( -> = Beats)

All in
“All in” supports like Alistar, Thresh, Leona, Nautilus, Pyke, Rell etc. excel at going in till either one side is dead or has to back off. This kind of support beats “Sustain” supports since the “Sustain” supports don´t get the time/ chance to really make use of their shields and heals. Your heal won´t help your ADC if he´s going to die anyways.
While they do have an advantage over sustain, they lose out against “Poke Supports”, because they don´t get the chance to all in due to the damage the lane already took by the poke of the enemies. The only chance for you to score kills in such a lane is by going in after coming of a recall so they didn´t have the time to poke you down.
“All in” supports are usually picked with strong early game ADC to force kills and resources from the enemy and get your ADC as much gold advantage as you can early on in the game.

Sustain/ Peel
“Sustain/ Peel” Supports are champions who are able to negate damage due to their kits via shields and heals. Common examples are Janna, Lulu, Nami, Sona, Soraka.
Their strong point is to keep their ad carry alive so he stays able to fight and farm in lane despite taking damage.
They beat out the “Poke” supports because they can block the incoming poke via their shields (which can´t be dodged) and are able to deny the high aggression of the enemy botlane. In case of having a heal instead of a shield they can even restore health that got lost by poke if they were not in range or their spells on cooldown to deny the poke.
A “Sustain” support is usually picked with a strong scaling ADC to make sure he survives the lane and get him to his items as safe as possible.
For the "butthurt" people :D :
As a subclass of "Peel" Supports we got the, let´s call them, "Warden" Class:"Warden" Supports are champions who protect their ADC by "thowing themselves between their ADC and the enemy". They wait for the enemy to engage and then counter after the enemy blew their shots to get back at them when they try to retreat. Common examples are: Braum, Taric and Tahm Kench.
Their strong point is that they are able to take a punch while offering safety for their allies from enemy champions that try to "dive onto them".They beat the "All in" Supports at their own game because they abuse the fact that the enemy is trying to use their strength and then "swap" their strength into a weakness when they failed.
They usually play rather reactive than proactive since they rely on the enemy to step up first.At the same time they struggle against ranged match ups since they are easy to abuse for the enemy via poke. "Warden" don´t have a good way to deal with that kind of playstyle.

Poke
Poke supports are often times mages who went down from midlane to botlane, like Annie, Brand, Fiddlesticks (a jungler tho), Lux, Morgana, Senna, Seraphine, Vel´Koz, Xerath and Zyra.
Each of them offers quite a bit amount of damage and range with their spells what makes them able to harass the enemy botlane from far away without fearing taking damage in return. Their goal is to harass people do death or to force them back/ to the point where they can´t fight and have to “forfeit” the lane in their favor.Keep an eye on your mana pool and cooldowns since “Poke” supports rely heavily on their mana to deal damage just like “Spellcasters”. If you play Senna out of this bunch of supports, since she has a sustain spell, you can be more aggressive and trade harder since you can heal back up ( take notice on how you use your Q, try to heal up your ADC and yourself and hit the enemy champions for best usage).
For the same reason on one hand this kind of support beats “All in” supports since they deny the possibility of an all-in by the enemy because they are too low on hp to win the fight.
You have to be careful regardless after an “All in” support comes back to lane because that is the best point in time for him to turn onto you.On the other hand they have a hard time against “Sustain” supports due to getting their poke denied or healed back up by “Sustain” supports.
Try to bait out their shield or heal and then dump damage onto them so they can´t block the damage coming in and try to kill them before there cooldowns are coming back up.
“Poke” supports can be picked with early game strong and weak ADC to either enhance the killpressure and the possible lead or to cover the weakness of a weak ADC so they get some breathing room. But if things turn bad they tend to be worse than the other support classes due to them being less “supportive” due to their kit.

Synergies between ADC and Support classes
Overall there are 3 ways to “build” a bot lane. Each way differs in their strengths and purposes and I will just call them “Comfort picks”, “Synergy” and “Compensation” to make it easier to understand.
Comfort picks:
“Comfort picks” is literally what you think, you just play whatever you are best at. This has the chance building a mismatch on bot lane if people don´t communicate a lot with each other because every player plays to his own tune. I bet you all already saw something like a Thresh + Vayne lane where Thresh engaged and Vayne just stood in the back, chilling her life and continues to farm while Thresh fights for his life. What went wrong? The bot lane probably didn´t talk with each other, picked whatever they wanted and now are playing for two different goals. Thresh wants to play aggressive and score a lead in lane while Vayne just wants to sit back and scale up. If they don´t “group” up and play together they are likely to lose bot lane hard. On the same time, because they picked their mains, they are more likely to perform well compared to playing other champions to “fit” something because they know their champion (damage, tankyness, kit, spikes, etc.).
Synergy:
Synergy is when you pick a champion that fits the playstyle of the champion from your partner, e.g.: Thresh-Lucian, Kog´Maw-Lulu, Ashe-Zyra, Draven-Leona.
If you partner picks something that wants to get a lead early game you pick something that is strong early game to help him achieve his goal (winning lane), if he just wants to sit back, farm and scale up (on ADC side) you pick something that excels at peeling so your ADC survives the laning phase (Nami, Yuumi, Lulu, Braum, Tahm Kench, etc.) and can wreck the enemies later on. The downside of this “strategy” is when you can´t achieve your goal (either win lane or scale up) because then you are in a really bad spot.
If you need 5-10 more minutes to hit your item spike as jinx or Tristana, Kai´Sa, etc. the game might be over before you get there and if you lost early game as someone like Lucian, Miss Fortune, Lethality Varus, Caitlyn, etc., depending on match up you might get outscaled by the enemy and will “lose” to their advantage due to their kit later on. If you play against another early game champion, he might snowball the lead onto other lanes so your whole team starts losing, etc.
Compensation:
Compensation is pretty specific and usually works only in one direction and that is the Support compensating the ADC in the early game.
The Support should play a poke/mage support to do this since these champions are very strong in lane and that´s when they want to shine. The poke support has the “duty” to get/ create openings/ advantages for his scaling ADC so he might scale earlie has an easier laning phase. A scaling ADC who can´t get touched is a happy ADC, even more if he gets a few free kills.
The Support shall make the lane more “competitive” so you are able to put more pressure on the enemy team as a whole (if their ADC has to recall 24/7 he can´t do shit + it forces their Jungler do something). Problems will occur if the Support dies while trying to get advantages since he can´t really expect help from his [still] weak ADC.
This playstyle requires a lot of work/skill from the Support since he has to do the main work in lane while he can´t afford f*ck up. If he f*cks up, he lost bot lane single handily and maybe even the game.
To the question: “Can you compensate an early game ADC with a late game Support?”:Hardly. Most "late game” Supports would be “Sustain” Supports since they excel at keeping their team alive and allow their carries to dish out the damage they need to do.
Even if you peel a Lucian really well, chances are bad that he will carry a team fight compared to a Jinx if they are on even terms.
Edit: Feel free to argue or comment as much as you like, just by doing that I got what I wanted:People thinking about it

Basic Guide for Botlane Match Ups/ Champ Classes

Hi fellow summoners, here is a guide that I wrote a few years ago and kept updating from time to time. It is not perfect and only basic (might be I forgot to add a champ or 2 to be honest but I tried to include every champ, also some stuff might be a bit outdated, I´ll try to fix it up if I find something):
Edit: Before you read any further and be like "Eh but this and that combination isn´t really good because this champ favors this and that blablabla...This guide is meant to show Concepts of how it is supposed to be in general.You always have to adapt depending the match up, player skill, etc.
Types of Botlanes
Everyone knows it: Botlane is a case of its own. With more than 40 different champions played on Botlane, there is a huge amount of possible match ups and types of lanes.
This article is meant to categorize the usual Marksmen played on Botlane to give you an easy to find weaknesses and strengths of each Marksman.Please be aware that a champion can fit into several classes at the same time.
For that we will divide the marksmen into 5 classes:
“Lane Bully”, “Spellcaster”, “Tank Shreds aka On-Hit User” “Hypercarry aka Crit User” and “Utility”

Lane Bullies
What is a “Lane Bully?”A “Lane Bully” is a marksman who has strong laning capabilities and can dominate a lane if he does his job correctly. Most common examples are: Caitlyn, Draven, Lucian, Miss Fortune (most common in Low Elo) Senna, and Varus (Lethality Build). Each of them has strong laning power due to their kit: Caitlyn has the biggest auto attack range of all Marksmen LvL 1, Dravens attack damage is higher than anyone´s else, Lucian can burst down people in a few seconds due his double shot passive, Miss Fortune can zone people with her Q and deal monstrous damage, Senna has good range and built in sustain + her Q applies Glacial Augment and Varus with a Lethality Build can kill people with 3 Q´s.
At the same time these Marksmen usually fall off in the late game (please be aware of Senna here due to her in build infinite scaling) due to their early power (to make them balanced) so they tend to lose more often if they can´t end the same fast.If you play a “Lane Bully”: Try to be aggressive early game and make use of your power to snowball the game into a fast win.If you play against them: Try to play safe and go for farm instead of risky plays.

Spellcasters
What is a “Spellcaster”? A “Spellcaster” is a marksman who relies mostly on his spells to deal damage/ effective.The most common examples are: Ezreal, Aphelios, Jhin, Lucian, Miss Fortune, Samira, Sivir, Varus (Lethality Build) and Xayah.“Spellcaster” put a lot of focus onto their mana management but on the same time they are able to put out a lot of damage/ control on the game if they have the mana they need for their spells. Not every “Spellcaster” is strong in the early game, but every “Spellcaster” can dominate a certain state of game with their kits (Aphelios is special here because he relies less on his mana and “spells” and more about his ammunition and what guns he has and how he uses them but it is still the same idea in my opinion).The downside of playing a “Spellcaster” is pretty similar to the downsides of a mage: If their spells are on cooldown or if they are out of mana, the damage they can deal is way lower than at their best.If you play a “Spellcaster”: Play around your cooldowns and mana. Use your spells to deal as much damage as possible, back off and then go back in when your cooldowns are back up.
If you play against a “Spellcaster”: Make use of cooldowns and the enemy being out of mana. If you see them waste their spells, go in and blow them up.

Tank Shreds
What is a “Tank Shred”?A “Tank Shred” is a marksman who´s main damage comes from effects which get applied with every auto attack. The most common examples are: Kai´Sa, Kalista, Kog Maw, Varus and Vayne.“Tank Shreds” usually have spells in their kit which allow them to deal bonus damage with every attack/ every specific attack numbers. For example: Vayne does bonus damage with her W every three hits, Kai´Sa applies bonus damage after stacking 5 hits of plasma.Almost every time “On-Hit User” go for the same to items: “Krakenslayer” and “Phantom Dancer”. The reason for that is that “Krakenslayer” deals bonus damage every third Auto Attack and “Phantom Dancer” gives 30% bonus attack speed after stacking 4 stacks.
Their Itembuilds rely mostly on attack speed and their effects per attack so the damage per attack is low compared to other marksmen. The longer a fight goes, the stronger a “Tank Shred” gets.
If you play a “Tank Shred”: Play around your stacks. Depending on how much stacks you need, try to fight as long as you need. As Vayne play around your three hits, as Kalista try to stack as many spears as possible and then execute the enemy with your E “Rent”.
If you play against a “Tank Shred”: Be careful of long trades. Since “On-Hit User” get stronger with longer trades, limit yourself to do short trades to deny their strength and reduce their hp before you all in them when they can´t make use of long trades anymore.

Hypercarry:
What is a “Hypercarry”? A “Hypercarry” is a marksman who builds items with “critical strike chance”, the exception here is Kog Maw. The most common examples are: Aphelios, Ashe, Caitlyn, Draven, Jhin, Jinx, Sivir, Tristana, Twitch and Xayah.
“Hypercarries” rely on their “critical chance strike” to deal high amounts of damage with every attack. Critical attacks deal 175% damage instead of the usual 100%. By building “Infinity Edge” the damage gets further increased to 210%. These Marksmen usually buy at least 3 items with “critical strike chance”, with “Infinity Edge” being the “Core” of the build.“Hypercarries” usually get to their strongest point quite late in a game. They need time to farm gold to get their items but when they got them, they outscale most other Marksmen classes.If you play a “Hypercarry”: Try to play safe early on (Only exceptions are Draven and Cailyn depending on match up) and try to farm as much gold as possible to get to your items fast and then crush the game by killing non tanks with 2 or 3 hits. If you play against a “Hypercarry”: Overpower them early on before they can stack up their critical strike chance since their high damage output is based on “luck”. The item parts for “infinity Edge” are quite expensive so try to punish that by forcing them into bad recalls.

Utiliity:
What is a “Utility” marksman? Utility marksmen are marksmen who´s kit revolves around their team for the biggest effect. The most common examples are: Ashe, Kalista, Sivir, Senna and Varus.
They all have an ultimate which needs the team to be useable/ for the best use. They got spells for “the greater good” than just using all of their spells for winning a 1v1. Ashe can catch out a target with her ultimate, Sivir boosts the whole team with movement speed which allows them to either gap close fast to get a good engage or disengage without getting caught that easily. Kalista even need her Oathsworn to activate her ultimate and the W passive (bonus damage if she and her sworn hit the same target in a short amount of time) so she depends even more on her team/ oathsworn to be nearby. To be fair, Varus Ultimate isn´t as “good” as Ashe ultimate due to its range, but on the other hand it provides a possible bind onto all 5 targets and can disrupt the enemy formation pretty well.
If you play a “Utility” marksman: Play around your team. Use the fact that your champion is best when having back up or when trying to make a play/ making the engage. Don´t hesitate to use your ultimate to get a catch on an enemy in the mid- to lategame since this can lead to a free baron, turret or maybe even nashor. Stick with our team and create openings to decide the game in your favor.
If you play against a “Utility” marksman: Be aware of the possible sudden engage by the enemy team using their marksman ultimate. As a tank try to stand in front of your team to “eat up” the ultimate if needed so your carries are still able to respond in a fight and don´t die in the first 2 seconds. Try to catch the marksman off guard and alone (the best would be a pincer attack), so he as to blow his ultimate to escape from one side just to die to the other side and create a 4v5 scenario for your team with the marksman being dead or back to base.

The Triangle of Support:
There are quite a few Supports in the game so there are a lot of different match ups and how a lane can play out depending on who you play against who, etc.
This is a rough outline to group supports in a class, what they are good at and what they struggle with if played correct and how it should play out in theory.
This “Triangle” shows the idea of who beats who
Poke -> All in -> Sustain/ Peel -> Poke ( -> = Beats)

All in
“All in” supports like Alistar, Thresh, Leona, Nautilus, Pyke, Rell etc. excel at going in till either one side is dead or has to back off. This kind of support beats “Sustain” supports since the “Sustain” supports don´t get the time/ chance to really make use of their shields and heals. Your heal won´t help your ADC if he´s going to die anyways.
While they do have an advantage over sustain, they lose out against “Poke Supports”, because they don´t get the chance to all in due to the damage the lane already took by the poke of the enemies. The only chance for you to score kills in such a lane is by going in after coming of a recall so they didn´t have the time to poke you down.
“All in” supports are usually picked with strong early game ADC to force kills and resources from the enemy and get your ADC as much gold advantage as you can early on in the game.

Sustain/ Peel
“Sustain/ Peel” Supports are champions who are able to negate damage due to their kits via shields or heals. Common examples are Bard, Janna, Lulu, Nami, Sona, Soraka.
Their strong point is to keep their ad carry alive so he stays able to fight and farm in lane despite taking damage.
They beat out the “Poke” supports because they can block the incoming poke via their shields (which can´t be dodged) and are able to deny the high aggression of the enemy botlane. In case of having a heal instead of a shield they can even restore health that got lost by poke if they were not in range or their spells on cooldown to deny the poke.
A “Sustain” support is usually picked with a strong scaling ADC to make sure he survives the lane and get him to his items as safe as possible.
For the "butthurt" people :D :
As a subclass of "Peel" Supports we got the, let´s call them, "Warden" Class: "Warden" Supports are champions who protect their ADC by "thowing themselves between their ADC and the enemy". They wait for the enemy to engage and then counter after the enemy blew their shots to get back at them when they try to retreat. Common examples are: Braum, Taric and Tahm Kench.
Their strong point is that they are able to take a punch while offering safety for their allies from enemy champions that try to "dive onto them". They beat the "All in" Supports at their own game because they abuse the fact that the enemy is trying to use their strength and then "swap" their strength into a weakness when they failed.
They usually play rather reactive than proactive since they rely on the enemy to step up first. At the same time they struggle against ranged match ups since they are easy to abuse for the enemy via poke. "Warden" don´t have a good way to deal with that kind of playstyle.

Poke
Poke supports are often times mages who went down from midlane to botlane, like Annie, Brand, Fiddlesticks (a jungler tho), Lux, Morgana, Senna, Seraphine, Vel´Koz, Xerath and Zyra.
Each of them offers quite a bit amount of damage and range with their spells what makes them able to harass the enemy botlane from far away without fearing taking damage in return. Their goal is to harass people do death or to force them back/ to the point where they can´t fight and have to “forfeit” the lane in their favor.Keep an eye on your mana pool and cooldowns since “Poke” supports rely heavily on their mana to deal damage just like “Spellcasters”. If you play Senna out of this bunch of supports, since she has a sustain spell, you can be more aggressive and trade harder since you can heal back up ( take notice on how you use your Q, try to heal up your ADC and yourself and hit the enemy champions for best usage).
For the same reason on one hand this kind of support beats “All in” supports since they deny the possibility of an all-in by the enemy because they are too low on hp to win the fight.
You have to be careful regardless after an “All in” support comes back to lane because that is the best point in time for him to turn onto you.On the other hand they have a hard time against “Sustain” supports due to getting their poke denied or healed back up by “Sustain” supports.
Try to bait out their shield or heal and then dump damage onto them so they can´t block the damage coming in and try to kill them before there cooldowns are coming back up.
“Poke” supports can be picked with early game strong and weak ADC to either enhance the killpressure and the possible lead or to cover the weakness of a weak ADC so they get some breathing room. But if things turn bad they tend to be worse than the other support classes due to them being less “supportive” due to their kit.

Synergies between ADC and Support classes
Overall there are 3 ways to “build” a bot lane. Each way differs in their strengths and purposes and I will just call them “Comfort picks”, “Synergy” and “Compensation” to make it easier to understand.
Comfort picks:
“Comfort picks” is literally what you think, you just play whatever you are best at. This has the chance building a mismatch on bot lane if people don´t communicate a lot with each other because every player plays to his own tune. I bet you all already saw something like a Thresh + Vayne lane where Thresh engaged and Vayne just stood in the back, chilling her life and continues to farm while Thresh fights for his life. What went wrong? The bot lane probably didn´t talk with each other, picked whatever they wanted and now are playing for two different goals. Thresh wants to play aggressive and score a lead in lane while Vayne just wants to sit back and scale up. If they don´t “group” up and play together they are likely to lose bot lane hard. On the same time, because they picked their mains, they are more likely to perform well compared to playing other champions to “fit” something because they know their champion (damage, tankyness, kit, spikes, etc.).

Synergy:
Synergy is when you pick a champion that fits the playstyle of the champion from your partner, e.g.: Thresh-Lucian, Kog´Maw-Lulu, Ashe-Zyra, Draven-Leona.
If you partner picks something that wants to get a lead early game you pick something that is strong early game to help him achieve his goal (winning lane), if he just wants to sit back, farm and scale up (on ADC side) you pick something that excels at peeling so your ADC survives the laning phase (Nami, Yuumi, Lulu, Braum, Tahm Kench, etc.) and can wreck the enemies later on. The downside of this “strategy” is when you can´t achieve your goal (either win lane or scale up) because then you are in a really bad spot.
If you need 5-10 more minutes to hit your item spike as jinx or Tristana, Kai´Sa, etc. the game might be over before you get there and if you lost early game as someone like Lucian, Miss Fortune, Lethality Varus, Caitlyn, etc., depending on match up you might get outscaled by the enemy and will “lose” to their advantage due to their kit later on. If you play against another early game champion, he might snowball the lead onto other lanes so your whole team starts losing, etc.

Compensation:
Compensation is pretty specific and usually works only in one direction and that is the Support compensating the ADC in the early game.
The Support should play a poke/mage support to do this since these champions are very strong in lane and that´s when they want to shine. The poke support has the “duty” to get/ create openings/ advantages for his scaling ADC so he might scale earlie has an easier laning phase. A scaling ADC who can´t get touched is a happy ADC, even more if he gets a few free kills.
The Support shall make the lane more “competitive” so you are able to put more pressure on the enemy team as a whole (if their ADC has to recall 24/7 he can´t do shit + it forces their Jungler do something). Problems will occur if the Support dies while trying to get advantages since he can´t really expect help from his [still] weak ADC.
This playstyle requires a lot of work/skill from the Support since he has to do the main work in lane while he can´t afford f*ck up. If he f*cks up, he lost bot lane single handily and maybe even the game.
To the question: “Can you compensate an early game ADC with a late game Support?”:Hardly. Most "late game” Supports would be “Sustain” Supports since they excel at keeping their team alive and allow their carries to dish out the damage they need to do.
Even if you peel a Lucian really well, chances are bad that he will carry a team fight compared to a Jinx if they are on even terms.

Advanced AP Varus Guide (Rift Academy #6)

New Varus player

I ranked every champion based on how well their kits let them use Prototype: Omnistone.

Hello! So recently as a personal challenge, I decided to try and climb as far as possible using only Prototype: Omnistone, on any champion I pick, but before I started doing that, I wanted to rank a personal tier list of who can use Omnistone the best. This would help limit my choices to champions that could serviceably use the keystone.

Note: These aren't definitive, and arguments can be made on behalf of certain champion placements. This is just my personal opinion. These also do not consider individual champion matchups, just how well each champion's kit can utilize Omnistone. If you're gonna run into SoloQ with these champions and Omnistone, practice it in normals to get a feel for it. This is an ASTRONOMICALLY LARGE POST, I WILL NOT DETAIL EVERY S-TIER PICK HERE, ASK ME FOR SPECIFICS.

TL;DR: Look at the tierlist below, or use this link, I'll include some in-depth explanations for how I reached each conclusion, but if you want to know about any S, A, B, or C-tier placements, just ask and I'll tell you. If you want to know a specific champion's point distribution, ask me! If you want build suggestions as well, let me know!

S-Tier (Every Situation) (14-17 Points)	Aatrox, Bard, Draven, Gnar, Jarvan IV, Kennen, Kindred, Leona, Master Yi, Miss Fortune, Mordekaiser, Nasus, Nautilus, Neeko, Nocturne, Olaf, Pantheon, Quinn and Valor, Rek'sai, Renekton, Riven, Samira, Senna, Sett, Skarner, Sylas, Tahm Kench, Taric, Teemo, Trundle, Udyr, Vi, Viego, Volibear, Warwick, Yasuo, Yone,
A-Tier (Most Situations) (10-13.5 Points)	Akali, Annie, Amumu, Aphelios, Ashe, Aurelion Sol, Caitlyn, Camille, Cho'gath, Corki, Darius, Diana, Dr. Mundo, Ekko, Elise, Ezreal, Hecarim, Irelia, Jax, Jayce, Jinx, Kai'sa, Karma, Kayle, Rhaast, Kha'zix, Kled, Kog'Maw, Leblanc, Lee Sin, Lillia, Lucian, Lulu, Lux, Malphite, Maokai, Morgana, Nidalee, Nunu and Willump, Orianna, Poppy, Pyke, Qiyana, Rakan, Rengar, Sejuani, Justice for the Brackern, Shaco, Shen, Shyvana, Singed, Sivir, Swain, Talon, Thresh, Tristana, Tryndamere, Twisted Fate, Urgot, Varus, Vladimir, Wukong, Xayah, Xin Zhao, Yorick, Zac
B-Tier (Specific Situations) (6-9.5 Points)	Ahri, Anivia, Azir, Blitzcrank, Brand, Cassiopeia, Evelynn, Fiddlesticks, Fiora, Fizz, Galio, Gangplank, Garen, Gragas, Graves, Heimerdinger, Illaoi, Janna, Jhin, Kalista, Kassadin, Katarina, Lissandra, Malzahar, Nami, Ornn, Rammus, Rell, Rumble, Ryze, Sion, Sona, Soraka, Syndra, Taliyah, Twitch, Vayne, Veigar, Vel'koz, Viktor, Zed, Ziggs, Zilean, Zoe, Zyra
C-Tier (Troll Pick) (0-5.5 points)	Alistar, Braum, Ivern, Karthus, Shadow Assassin Kayn, Xerath
Bannable-offense tier	Yuumi

Rundown of the Tier List

S-tier champions have kits that can maximize the effectiveness of nearly every keystone, with only a few that are sub-optimal, and with no more than 1 or 2 useless keystones. Omnistone can be considered one of their best choices,
A-tier champions have kits that can either use every keystone moderately well, or can use most keystones well, with a few sub-optimal/useless keystone choices. Omnistone is a good choice most of the time, only bad in counter matchups.
B-tier champions are much more limited on keystone choices, either based on their kits limiting the effectiveness of auto attacks (Azir's soldiers), or due to have a weak rotation that scales poorly with multiple keystones (Brand, Blitzcrank). Omnistone is only a choice when the matchup and game state allow it.
C-tier champions generally can only use at max 2 or 3 keystones effectively from Omnistone (they tend to be primarily melee engage/peel supports). Their kits are either too hard locked on defensive aspects (Braum), or leave themselves with nothing after blowing an initial rotation (Alistar). These champions should avoid Omnistone.
Bannable-offense tier exists only for Yuumi. I'm serious, I'm tried it. You wanna get banned? Go Omnistone Yuumi. You'll be about as useful as a wooden support beam made of termite infested, rotten wood. You probably would be more useful hopping into discord with your AD duo, whispering sweet nothings about in their ear, while you convince them to play 4v5 because uwu they have a big bulgie wulgie you'd like to *glomps* on. Do not play Omnistone Yuumi.

Points distribution:

Points were assigned based on one of three factors:

Keystone is extremely easy to proc and the champion can get high effectiveness out of it:	1 point
Keystone is at least usable, but isn't the best in every situation, or in every build scenario.	0.5 points
Keystone is usable, but useless on the champion, or the keystone is unusable.	0 points

In addition, champions could receive anywhere from 0-3 points depending on how versatile their keystone options can be. If a champion can take a keystone in specific scenarios, and see good success with it, this boosts this score.
For example: Alistar can realistically only take Aftershock and Guardian, as he doesn't have a kit that supports the use of any other keystone. He earns 0 points in keystone versatility. Bard, conversely, could probably go into a game with no keystone, and still find large amounts of success, so he gets 3 points in keystone versatility.

Breakdowns for the some S-tier champions

Aatrox

12 points from keystones, and 2 points from keystone versatility, total of 14 points.

Press The Attack: 0.5 Points
Lethal Tempo: 0 Points
Fleet Footwork: 1 Point
Conqueror: 1 point
Electrocute: 1 point
Predator: 0.5 points
Dark Harvest: 1 point
Hail of Blades: 0.5 points
Summon Aery: 0.5 points
Arcane Comet: 1 point
Phase Rush: 1 point
Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
Aftershock: 1 point
Glacial Augment: 1 point

Aatrox, throughout the course of his rework, has utilized Fleet Footwork, Conqueror, Electrocute, Dark Harvest, Grasp of The Undying, Arcane Comet, and Phase Rush, either as meta or fringe Keystones that he can proc and utilize quite efficiently. Press the Attack is only usable if you know how to animation cancel on Aatrox, and Hail of Blades can be nice to bring your passive up quickly in the early game. Summon Aery does about as much damage as Scorch in the early game, and Glacial Augment does nothing, as you need to land sweetspots on Aatrox, and Lethal Tempo is too much AS for too long to be good on Aatrox. Solidly an S-tier pick with Omnistone. Any rune path secondary is good with Aatrox, as it depends solely on your build. Default to Sorcery/Domination if unsure. I have a whole Omnistone Aatrox guide in the works, so look forward to that if you're interested.

Bard;

11.5 points from keystones, 3 points for keystone reliance, 14.5 points total.

Glacial Augment: 1 point
Aftershock: 1 point
Grasp of The Undying: 0.5 points
Phase Rush: 1 point
Arcane Comet: 1 point
Summon Aery: 1 point
Hail of Blades: 1 point
Dark Harvest: 1 point
Predator: 0.5 points
Electrocute: 1 point
Conqueror: 0.5 points
Fleet Footwork: 1 point
Press The Attack: 0.5 points
Lethal Tempo: 0.5 points

Bard is insanely good at using keystones, and since players already use Prototype: Omnistone with him, it’s no surprise he’s an S-tier pick. His worst keystones are Grasp, Predator, Conqueror, Press The Attack, and Lethal Tempo, and even those have niche uses thanks to his passive and overall kit. Overall, he’s a strong choice to take Omnistone on, and if you aren’t, you might want to consider trying it. Solid S-tier pick. Take Sorcery, Domination, or Resolve secondary on Bard.

Draven;

11.5 points from keystones, 3 from keystone reliance, 14.5 points total.

Glacial Augment: 1 point
Aftershock: 0.5 points
Grasp of The Undying: 0.5 points
Phase Rush: 0.5 points
Arcane Comet: 1 point
Summon Aery: 0.5 points
Hail of Blades: 1 point
Dark Harvest: 1 point
Predator: 0.5 points
Electrocute: 1 point
Conqueror: 1 point
Fleet Footwork: 1 point
Press The Attack: 1 point
Lethal Tempo: 1 point

There realistically isn't any keystone that Draven can’t use. That being said, Aftershock, Grasp, and Phase Rush aren’t exactly stars of the show, as they don’t really offer much to Draven in the laning phase, and all Predator can do is help him close the gap on distant foes. Get hit with Glacial however, especially with an aggressive support, and Draven can easily run you down with axes, as there’s no escaping with a 55% slow on you. Precision, Domination, and Sorcery secondary are all good with Draven.

Gnar

12.5 points from keystones, 3 points from keystone versatility, 15.5 points total.

Glacial Augment: 1 point
Aftershock: 0.5 points
Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
Phase Rush: 1 point
Arcane Comet: 1 point
Summon Aery: 0.5 points
Hail of Blades: 1 point
Dark Harvest: 1 point
Predator: 0.5 points
Electrocute: 1 point
Conqueror: 1 point
Fleet Footwork: 1 point
Press The Attack: 1 point
Lethal Tempo: 0.5 points

Gnar’s kit opens him up so well to multiple keystone options, most of which are great on him. Runes like Lethal Tempo are best during Mini Gnar, while Predator and Aftershock are only usable during Mega Gnar. Asides from this, Gnar’s flexibility makes him a prime-time Omnistone user. S-tier Omnistone user, and it isn’t even close.

Jarvan IV

12.5 points with runes, 3 points from keystone versatility, 15.5 points total.

Glacial Augment: 0.5 points
Aftershock: 1 point
Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
Phase Rush: 1 point
Arcane Comet: 1 point
Summon Aery: 1 point
Hail of Blades: 1 point
Dark Harvest: 1 point
Predator: 1 point
Electrocute: 1 point
Conqueror: 1 point
Fleet Footwork: 1 point
Press The Attack: 0.5 points
Lethal Tempo: 0.5 points

J4 is flagging and dragging his way up to the S-tier. The Crown Prince of Demacia’s kit allows him to proc nearly every keystone with ease. Pulling Glacial Augment during a level 2 or 3 gank will always blow a flash, as the enemy cannot possibly get away otherwise. His E can proc Aery both on allies and enemies, allowing him to maximize its effectiveness, and his passive and E allow him to use every auto attack based keystone to some effectiveness. S-tier Omnistone user, give it a shot, full AD or full tank. Any secondary path is fine with Jarvan, because his builds are just as diverse as his kit.

Kindred:

12 points from keystones, 2 points for keystone versatility, 14 points total.

Glacial Augment: 1 point
Aftershock: 0 points
Grasp of The Undying: 0.5 point
Phase Rush: 1 point
Arcane Comet: 1 point
Summon Aery: 1 point
Hail of Blades: 1 point
Dark Harvest: 1 point
Predator: 0.5 points
Electrocute: 1 point
Conqueror: 1 point
Fleet Footwork: 1 point
Press The Attack: 1 point
Lethal Tempo: 1 point

Kindred are prowling their way into the S-tier. With their scaling range and nimble nature, it’s very easy for Kindred to close the gap and use even the most niche of keystones: Glacial Augment. Beyond that, her ultimate can trigger Summon Aery on allies, which while pointless, does have merit. All in all, the dynamic duo are strong S-tier Omnistone users. Take Sorcery, Precision, or Domination on Kindred, based on matchup.

Mordekaiser

12 points from keystones, 3 points from keystone versatility, 15 points total

Glacial Augment: 0.5 points
Aftershock: 1 point
Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
Phase Rush: 1 point
Arcane Comet: 1 point
Summon Aery: 0.5 points
Hail of Blades: 1 point
Dark Harvest: 1 point
Predator: 0.5 points
Electrocute: 1 point
Conqueror: 1 point
Fleet Footwork: 1 point
Press The Attack: 0.5 points
Lethal Tempo: 1 point

It’s funny, if you take someone into the Death Realm, you tend to not really struggle with keystone procs. That being said, outside of the Death Realm, Mordekaiser is dominantly an S-tier user of Omnistone. His kit is simplistic and offers everything he’d need to proc every keystone consistently and off CD. His passive’s bonus movement speed and on-hit damage make it so that he can easily proc keystones like Lethal Tempo and Hail of Blades, adding hefty chunks of damage to his profile. Take Resolve/Sorcery secondary with Mordekaiser.

Nautilus

13 points from keystones, 3 points from keystone versatility, 16 points total.

Glacial Augment: 1 point
Aftershock: 1 point
Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
Phase Rush: 1 point
Arcane Comet: 1 point
Summon Aery: 0.5 points
Hail of Blades: 1 point
Dark Harvest: 1 point
Predator: 1 point
Electrocute: 1 point
Conqueror: 0.5 points
Fleet Footwork: 1 point
Press The Attack: 1 point
Lethal Tempo: 1 point

Another member of the “I CC you and get to have my way with you” club, Nautilus can quite literally proc every keystone Omnistone has to offer, and he can do it without batting an eye. His W’s auto attack reset lets him make good use of all auto-attack based keystones, and his spell-weaving nature ensures that spell-based keystones all get popped easily as well. S-tier, S-tier, S tier, one of the best users of Omnistone in the game. Take Resolve/Domination secondary with Nautilus.

Neeko

13 points from keystones, 3 points from keystone versatility, 16 points total

Glacial Augment: 1 point
Aftershock: 1 point
Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
Phase Rush: 1 point
Arcane Comet: 1 point
Summon Aery: 0.5 points
Hail of Blades: 1 point
Dark Harvest: 1 point
Predator: 1 point
Electrocute: 1 point
Conqueror: 0.5 points
Fleet Footwork: 1 point
Press The Attack: 1 point
Lethal Tempo: 1 point

The only thing that keeps Neeko from reasonably taking Omnistone every game is the fact that the keystone still appears when she’s transformed, ruining the camouflage. Ignoring that, she’s the single best mage user of Omnistone in the game, and you should seriously consider it, ESPECIALLY with the new items. Take Sorcery secondary on Neeko.

Vi

13.5 points from keystones, 3 points for keystone versatility, 16.5 points total

Glacial Augment: 1 point
Aftershock: 1 point
Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
Phase Rush: 1 point
Arcane Comet: 1 point
Summon Aery: 0.5 points
Hail of Blades: 1 point
Dark Harvest: 1 point
Predator: 1 point
Electrocute: 1 point
Conqueror: 1 point
Fleet Footwork: 1 point
Press The Attack: 1 point
Lethal Tempo: 1 point

Alrighty everyone, let's welcome yet another member to the Empire of Nevermove, as Vi's CC and lockdown potential ensures that she can dispense of pretty much any keystone she feels like, and she can do it quite easily. Her E's auto attack reset allows her to trigger PTA and Hail of Blades extremely easily, and her hard CC procs Aftershock without much trouble. Lethal Tempo's attack speed synergizes extremely well with her W's armor shred and ramping AS passive. Overall, it's no shocker that she's S-tier, with only Aery being sub-optimal on her. Take any secondary path, Vi is extremely flexible with Omnistone. I recommend Stridebreaker into Cleaver, or Sunderer into Sanguine Blade/Blade of The Ruined King versus tankier comps.

In the interest of keeping this from being longer than Don Quixote, I'll stop listing S-tier Omnistone champs here. Please feel free to ask about breakdowns, item suggestions, or just generally list your thoughts! Have a great night!

My take on how to build Varus this season [Patch 10.25].

A Support Item Quick Guide

While it's only relevant for like, 30 more days, this has been popular with my coaching students recently, and so I figured I'd post it over. A generic quick-guide to support itemization so you can stop buying just based off of generic website builds:
(quick thanks to x3no_lol for the formatting help!)
Athene's is a fantastic skirminshing item, and is good if you expect to 2v2/3v3 a lot as someone who heals/shields. Extended laning phase and long fights make this item shine. If you're the type to never hit an enemy, this won't be an item you should grab. (Pacifist play-through isn't a good league strat in general tho!)
Ardent is a damage focused item that relies on your carry being in a position to be effective (I.e. Facing Zed + Akali + Yi would be a bad time for it since your adc doesn't do damage while dead. Pls grab them some defense). It shines with attack speed focused adc's like Jinx, Koggles, and Vayne, and is ineffective with slow big hitters like Jhin & MF.
Redemption shines in team fights where you can use the huge numbers and not be limited by the CD, which hurts it in other situations. It's heal effect scales at 3X strength with heal/shield power, so it's best with other enchanter items. Best as a second item usually due to the scaling and how ineffective it is before teamfights.
Mikhail's is massively op, but only in its niche. Shines when it can turn off enemy ults (Leona/Ashe/Varus/Sej) or long range catch abilities (Morg q). Useless against no cc comps, knockups, supresssions, and knockbacks.
Shureliyas is underrated imo, and shines whenever either team's fight win condition is "run at them then deal a lot of damage". Allows both engage & disengage, so it is good with and against champs like Sett, Voli, Illaoi, and Darius. Weak into most assassins, pick comps, and sudden engage like Malphite.
Locket of the Iron Solari is the fast response tanky version of redemption. It shines in teamfights where you can eat a fast burst of damage. It's good against champs like Kat, Yi (where it prevents that first reset), and Karthus (soak his ult).
Zekes brings your snowball into the midgame by providing a solid chunk of damage onto your all-in ult usage. It shines on champs who are using their ult on engage (Leona, Alistar, Rakan) while they're even or ahead, and can afford to prioritize damage over a defensive effect.
Knights Vow adds some scaling defensive power to a carry while simultaneously providing you more survivability. It excels in situations where you're protecting a squishy who puts out sustained damage, as they're both the ones who need to survive longer and will provide you the most healing. Effects are halved for ranged champions, which makes it rare for non-thresh /rakan ranged supps.
Righteous Glory is for those situations where you're having trouble engaging onto a specific target. It trades off Shureliyas team followup potential for the slow when you reach your opponent, giving you more time to hold them down. The additional tanky stats will help you survive this priority targets damage.
Gargoyle's Stoneplate is the "it's all about me!" buy; pick it up when you're the main tank on the team and need to soak damage. It shines when your carries are unable to step into range until major enemy CDs are down and you're the only one building tanky. Great bang for your buck, but only protects you so be proactive with it!
Randuins Omen is generally too expensive for supp budget builds, but when facing multiple crit users it can be an excellent damage soak item.
Twin Shadows usually sticks out as useful for people building glacial augment or mage supps building a bit more utility, but it can also provide good information on enemy location when going to ward on a dark map, as well as slowing down enemy engage/disengage. A niche pick if you're not one of the 2 listed groups, but situationally viable.
Umbral Glaive provides unparalleled vision control, making it a great buy on any AD support. It shines in any game where vision is important (hot tip, that's all of them on summoners rift!), and is weak when you don't need both the AD and the lethality.

Why ADC feels weak, and How to carry as ADC

Hello y'all I hope you have having a good day! I am a support/adc main, and a lot of people (often fed mid laners in my games), have said "why play adc", or "imagine playing adc in s10". As a support player this season, I would normally agree that I have more impact then my adc, and here's why:

NOTE: This is meant for Iron to Bronze players, and some of these points may not apply to higher levels of play

WHY ADC FEELS WEAK:
Like I said early, this season I am a support main, playing Senna, Thresh, Rakan, and Lux. I play quite often with a duo who mains ADC. He plays a more supportive style, often we play weak side, and at level 3 I tank the minions to guarantee his freeze, and I just leave him (more so when I play Thresh/Rakan). For me this feels great, I get to be everywhere, and I still can help my duo by getting mid prio with a gank, and getting them to roam bot (many pings required). This play style normally gets me near 100% KP. Or if I play Senna/Lux, I play for myself. I stay in lane to get xp and constant gold from the support item. This play style gets me medium KP, but generally highest damage in game.

You are probably wondering what this has to do with ADC. Generally when I play Senna support, I have highest damage because I am only focused on 3 things. My map, so I can R to save/kill someone, trading in lane, and not getting caught. I don't have to worry about CS, and because I am the support, the chances of the picking me to focus is really low (never been flash engaged on as a support Senna). Because my main focus is that trading, I get high damage and I impacted the game more if I was better by out trading, and because I got the support quest at 6 minutes into the game, I get to control vision (probably the strongest part of my game is my vision control).

Now let's say you were the adc in this case. You have to worry about CSing, not being caught, the wave, and worry about being targeted (the being targeted is not huge though). You can't constantly trade in lane, because you have to CS, and generally ADCs don't have high mana pools, so you can't just spam your abilities to trade. You also have to manipulate the wave. You have to freeze it/slow push/fast push, that all takes time and effort, the time and effort the support is using to deal damage, and carry.

This makes ADC weak, and why a good Caitlyn player can instantly win. Why can a good Cait player win? They can win because they can control the wave, CS, and trade effectively. This doesn't just apply to Caitlyn, but watch good Caitlyn players, (like xFSN_Saber) because they tend to do it more often/to a higher degree. This is why especially at lower levels, when you can't do this properly, it makes ADC feel useless as you can't fight and get gold until much later into the game.

Another reason ADC feels weak is the way their damage has to come out. Unlike a Darius, who will just run at someone and tank the damage, then just button mash into a Penta kill, as an ADC, you have to kite, and not take damage in return. To compensate for being so easy to kill, you get to deal more consistent damage then the other roles, IF you get to "stand and shoot". Not literally stand and shoot as you have to move/kite/orb walk but that is hard. Then most ADCs (that I play), take lethal tempo, so you get to break the AS cap. Now while you are attacking 5 times, a second, you still have to kite, and not get hit by anything. Another thing that is also important is Auto spacing, if you have longer range, (Caitlyn into Sivir), as the Caitlyn, you should never be auto-ed by the Sivir, especially in a late game team fight. But the problem is, at lower levels (where my ADC account currently is, as I make a new only ADC account to help me make this post), most ADCs that I see, don't kite, and in a fight they stand and shoot the closest person, and as the enemy front line moves closer, they don't move back. This is why, especially at lower levels, when you can't do this properly, it makes ADC feel useless, as you just get blown up, before you get to use your strengths.

The final reason ADC feels weak, is their inability to get gold. As an assassin in SoloQ, kills are a pretty stable source of gold. Supports have their support item, and mages generally get the mid wave. A tank might have to lose a few waves here and there to group and protect his team, and a bruiser can side lane then TP flank into a fight. As an ADC, your only consistent way of getting gold is farming. If you are playing with a Graves, chances of you getting the jungle camps is low (but if you have a J4, who have like 16 farm at 16 mins, you can get the jungle camps as more gold). So that leaves side lanes. As an ADC, you generally don't want to fight bruisers, as they tend to be mobile or take ghost, so they can run you down (Fiora, or Darius + ghost). This means, to get gold you have to freeze side lanes, which is A) hard, and B), doesn't give any pressure. So you have to have good Macro and be able to look at your map, to see when you see enemies, as if you see 5 enemies top, you are free to push bot (watch a TP onto your face though)

Overall, the main issue with ADC is it's high skill floor, as a good ADC player, can easily take over the game, but the time spent learning ADC, will get you further if you put that same time into a different role. (Hardest mechanical position, learning a different role will be easier and get you a high rank). Also, because you are tied to a side lane at the start of the game, you can't roam, or impact the map (you don't even get TP, and hitting a cross map Ashe R is unlikely to be a consistent way to impact other lanes).

HOW TO CARRY:
Now that I have listed the main issues of ADC, I will help you ways to win more games by avoiding the weakness of the role, and playing to its strengths.

The first weakness is a bad laning phase that is dominated by supports. The easiest way to get around this is by picking a high range ADC, that can use the "push and poke" strategy. The best ADC's for this right now are Caitlyn, Ashe, Senna and Jhin. Caitlyn and Ashe's high range, and CC allows them to have permanent wave control, and Senna and Jhin's trading patterns are really strong (Senna AA + Q, Jhin Q + 4th shot), and they have good utility. If you don't like these champions or don't want to play them, you can also do the "just scale" strategy. You generally need to outscale them, and your job is to CS, and freeze the wave. You can still poke back, as if the trade is dangerous, your tower is close, and if you are winning the trade you can chase them down the lane. Because you outscale, (let's say Twitch into Caitlyn), you can safely farm minions. Yes, you don't ever have prio, and you technically are losing yourself the lane, but by not allowing the other ADC and support to snowball, you get a chance to carry the team fights with your better scaling. Also, you force the enemy support to stay in lane, while your support can roam, because if the enemy support leaves, you just run down their ADC, but if your support leaves, you have your tower which is basically a champion that can't die.

The next weakness, is kiting and spacing. This is something you will get better at as you play more, but you should still try to actively improve this skill as it is the core of the ADC role. The way I learned was first pick a champion you feel comfortable on, and you feel like their autos are "smooth" (or one that just "clicks"). For me that was Varus, something about his autos felt good and smooth. Once you have your champion, only play that champion (generally it should be a high AS champion) in normal games (and ranked, if you like to learn in a higher stakes environment). After a few games on the champion, now you challenge your top lane or jungle buddy to a 1v1. Yes, you the ADC, challenge them, the top laner, to a 1v1. You pick your champion, and they pick a melee tank (they have to be melee and not burst focused). I would play Varus into Garen. You go to bot lane, and you play to 3 kills or first tower. As you this, think about your spacing, if he is melee and you are ranged, he should never get close enough to kill you. For me personally, I have the [a] key bound to 'attack move', (look up these settings, and set them up in a way that feels good to you and don't change them), and my mouse button bound to 'target champions only'. So to kite, (this is the cheating way), I start by making sure I can only hit champions, then I [a] (the auto goes off), then I right click behind me, then once the auto is ready, I [a] again. (Again, look up a full guide). As you do this more and more, it will become natural, and in a game, you should never be standing still unless you are bush cheesing or recalling. (When you are hitting baron, practice kiting around, and moving side to side)

The next thing to work on to get better and carry is your CSing at all points in the game. If you are maining/one-tricking a champion, go into practice tool as them, but use any abilities or buy any items. If you are not maining/one-tricking, pick a mage that does no damage with their autos (think Anivia), and again don't buy items or use abilities. Just practice last hitting for a bit. This will improve your lane CS. Once you feel good with that, 1v1 a ranged AI BOT, doing the same thing as before (no items, no abilities), but see how much CS you can get while killing them as fast as possible. This will teach you how to CS and trade. Also see how fast you can hit 100 farm.

Once you feel good with that, do the same thing you started with (1v0 in practice tool, no items, no abilities), but you can CS from multiple lanes. See how fast you can hit 100 farm, and 200 farm, and if you can break the 10 CS per minute goal, and the 11 CS per minute goal. Then do it again with 1 to 3 AI BOTS. This will teach you how to farm by rotating to waves. It isn't the best as you can just sit in a side lane without worrying about being collapsed on, but the idea is still there and it helps a little. To do this effectively, good wave management is required so you don't miss CS in a lane while getting it somewhere else. (Note: The goals might be very hard without items, as minions get stronger as the game goes on, so once you can fully buy your first item, you can buy it, and then continue)

I can't really help you with wave management, as it is by far the weakest point in my game, and if I had better wave management, I could be much higher ranked. I would advise you to watch streams to see what they do, and watch videos about this topic.

TLDR:

ADC weakness:
- No lane control
- Proper kiting and spacing required to deal max damage
- Hard to safely get farm and have your team play around you
To Carry
- Play lane bullies to learn how to influence the lane (and if you like that style, just main a lane bully)
  - Play hyper-carries and learn how to survive and to team fight (and if you like that style, just main a hyper-carry)
- Get good at spacing and kiting (1v1s, practice tool, watch more specific videos)
- Get good at farming (last hitting, mid game CSing, late game CSing vs Teamfights, watch more specific videos)
- Learn wave management (again watch more specific videos)
- This is the hardest role to start learning, so to climb you must put in more work than all the other roles.
General:
- Watch pro play
- Watch streamers (Challengers, and unranked to Challenger)
- Watch the specific videos

Thanks for reading this, I hope this at least helped 1 person. (Sorry for bad English, as I was a bit rushed while writing this; It also might be a bit hard to follow, I would love to hear feedback!)

My point of view on taric. (my journey/ improve/ taric/ ranked / skills/ future)

My love to taric beginned with pre season 8. I was a blindfolded plat hardstucktop main before. To me 300 cs min 25 as wukong with 3 x 500 gold lethality camp steal item was a good performance, carrying the inting bot players. I was venting about toplane impact, playing flash ignite on early dominance toplane champs like renekton, jayce, wukong, olaf. Strong laning, and build skills, 0 macro game and team skills. I loved to experiment with builds, and off roled with an insipid ap varus bot/mid. Then some items got nerfed but I didnt lose hope, and kept digging for op strategies, searching lol.wiki and testing interesting mechanics / interactions. With 100 % tunnel vision on inhib in 20 minutes.
1 game, I trolled a bit in soloq and pulled of a reworked taric. I used to play him a bit pre rework and wanted to check if I can pull off sth nice from him. The results where insanely good. Taric had 5000 physical damage sustain min 1- 6, and pantheon was the most oppressive laner at that moment with potential to poke for 2400 damage from spear at this stage. With that discovery, I realised that taric is the most broken toplane champ in s8-s9 meta, bcs he could lose lane and impact game unlike classic toplane champs that ned to win HARD to not get swallowed by other lanes. He also had a lot of decent matchups.
I started to spam him with double tear build. I reached diamond for first time this way( with 50sh attempts in the past per season), and finally got to play with good players. And I started to learn the game too! Once you got to play with and against good players, you improve really quickly! I found an ardent nidalee player (Nid2improve or sth like that), with climbing and improve urge. We spammed plenty rankeds and we reached d1 togather. He showed me the magic of League, mini maxing every little second of his gameplay. He was calculated af, and we spammed early red invade and facerolling enemies with nidalee 2Q + taric E 2AA ignite burst. We knew that ignite taric can dish out 400 damage lvl 1 (300 after reductions) and nidalee with 2 spells and 1 auto can easly execute fools. and we were sneaking from tribush with perfectly calculated 1:26 enemy red rush, catching enemies on cooldowns.
He was a totally diffrent player than me... but he was a very good player! Toxic, but super agile, with insane speed, rythm feeling, and jungle clear knowladge. I guess draven type of player. Skilled but 0 social skills. We separated after quarell 1 game bcs I didnt warn him from roaming quinn. He said that I am low apm player and he doesnt see my potential and deleted me from friend list.
I was a bit broken after this, and scared to play solo and demoted to p1. It was an early s8 or so. I thoght a bit about league and I realised that there are like 20 or 30 skills in league, while I mastered only 2 of them with an op strat. Most players are good, in their own areas, but we cannot see it bcs we can only see how bad they are in areas where we are good. But they also win 50 % games right? There is a korean draven main vincent that does speed runs with draven and he see lol as an action game ( like mario). There is a dopa that wins rankeds with a strategy + high tempo view on the game (like chess). There is pants are dragon that tries his best to understand the meta with strong social skills. There is finally tf blade that disrespects every rules in this game and mindblows enemies in mindgame. Holy fuck his spacing and limit testing is so good. And there is a funny cheesy tilterella that abuse cheese, abuse others tunnelling, focuses on realising what others think about, and how to faceroll them. And there is trash yassuo player that vents but is ardent to win.
All those players are different and use champions that supports their playstyle, and the kind of play they enjoy the game. And I realised that I am lucky and Taric can support really a lot of player's skills! Adc's, warriors mechanics for orbwalking. High APM. Low ad made wave menagement really challenging. I had to master recalls to not int games on serious levels. I started to shotcall for baron plays. I abused lvl 3 power for 3:15 scuttle bcs taric wins every 2v2 there. I had a feeling that every kind of skill I put my time and thoughts into will be rewarded. Even the way you talk to your teammates can impact your ranked performance right? They are good in 4-5 areas of 30 and you need to respect them for it. If you play with them you are generally on similar play level to them. Never try to blame them, they wont menage to improve during your game. If you want to win you just need to get better, so you can carry another players. There is no other solution.
-do you know jungle mechanics? -no? - how do u want to not get swallowed by enemy jungler -do you know how to put an agressive vision? -no? -do you still think that lazy ward protects you from enemy jungler ganks? install outplayed and check your deaths after every session. -do you realise that game begins pre draft stage? You need to chill, tell a joke to duo player, share memes, check ping, have a gaming mouse keyboard. Any% guys. Dont get tilted because of non game related stuff.
just dont vent about current state and find a solution. There is always a skill that once learnt can result in unleash of your potential and successful climb.
That thinking motivated me to get skilled, and I started to relearn the game from basics. I trashed my skills into a bin, watched skill capped challenger, spent tens of hours in practice tool on wave menagement , thought about how I can impact other lanes and improve my mechanics. I re calculated taric, and made a toplane guide, abusing kleptomancy, ignite pre nerfed cookies timewarp, and I was a first blood king, with catalyst raptors cloak mejai roa as most often purchased items. ( every single item in this build had like 200 % gold efficiency and I was able to remove all taric issues, speed, mana, tankiness in every game.
At some moment I made a simple excel math model. ( I suck with propability so I just listed all possible results of early laning. 1 win 0 equal -1 point on lose. (A team with more points post laning wins a game model). The results where interesting. If you never lose your lane the chances to have stronger team in group stage is 60 sh % if you always win your lane it increases to 66 or so. If you made your teammates to not to menage to lose their laning you have 75 % to have a stronger team in midgame,
And yes I was abusing ohmwrecker to end games in 15 minutes shotcalling my team before they even menage to int their lanes. I think my fastest win was 11 minutes this way ;' ) good times it was.
With that motivation even after strong meta changes that started to nerf my strat I got to 75 % sh wr rank 1 taric world march april s9 on shitty eune server master 100 lp. I was playing max 4 rankeds, checking ping every game, preparing mentally before every match. I was focusing on... focusing on all skills togather and make sure I dont fail in any area of skills ( vincent speedrun, egrills cheering teammates, dopas macrogame) Ofc I was not even close to unleash janna support power level of cheering.
Due to private problems I had to quit spamming rankeds, but I menaged to end the season as master eune and d3 euw with decent wr. I remember how tilted I was when admins repeatadly refused to award me with targons peak role on discord server ;'). I had really hard time to be satisfied.
In current season I am not even close to my early season 9 mindset. I hardstuck in d2 -d1 elo with at best average performance and I am scared to play rankeds. I totally lost powerfarming skill, and a lot from early agression. I dont have motivation to encourage and shotcall to cheesy plays. Taric's laning keeps falling off and is about to die, and I am not even close to min 15 speed runs on enemy nexus.
2 others fun facts if you run a cheesy strat in "high" elo your account is provital for trust of your teammates. high diamond is a limited player pool, and if they dont know you, they will just look at your stats and estimate you with them. Its easier to win on high wr account with an environment of people that know , respect and fear you than on much lower account where you boost friends. At some point s10 I had 65 % on trickster taric and 45 % on infernal taric, master and diamond 1 account in the past. Many d1 players still recognise me in my server and agree to follow my ideas, while on d4 every player picks carry champion because he doesnt trust in his teammates. While this approach seems to be good for a player, because he is is granted a chance to carry, well, the game doesnt have enough money to support 3 other players thinking like you per team . If enemy wins his earlygame your team will be crowded, and tilted because of resource share.
I have no clue if its an accident or it just works this way, but I think that a player with many accounts can be a gold on 1 account and diamond 4 if he doesnt play a lot of games on each. League is a marathon, a game with extremely tough environment to learn from. if you are placed with gold players you will be granted a chance to learn only gold level moves. Even if you do good 1 game, you might assume it as an error because it was 1 of the 11 lose streak game. Thats an issue of multi- player game. Think, adapt, overcome or you will be swallowed.
About sources to improve. I recommend to stop to subscribe most NA streamers (solo renekton, glaccier etc). most youtube channels are related to meta and making exciting content. While this is fun and chilling to watch, the level of play showed there is like... a level of knowladge that mens health newspaper shares. Good for begginerrs, maybe check it from time to time to stay updated to trends, but league isnt a stock market. Op.gg or league of graphs wont give you skills but a lot of information that is really really hard to interpretate.
My climbing adivce is try to abuse any %. Dont tunnel get skills in areas u ignored before. Learn whats your allies and enemy thinking. Think about what enables them. Shotcall cheer and interrupt. Pay attention to details.
Taric is the one that gave me this wisdom. The only champ in the game that supports so many skills, builds, has early game power, shotcalling potential. A perfect champion to learn the game the protector and enchanter... it was.
I am confindent that riot will fail to give us enough tools to show our skills. Because we are fucking skilled guys. Please trust in my point of view on taric, and my reason is how much I am dedicated to him. I really want to avoid him to be jg + funnel till d1 exlusive. His early laning on support role vs 2 ranged champions is way way too passive, unless you have duo laner with taric champion knowladge. Imo thats an issue already : the champion is granted to test his limits 3 times vs 2 ranged enemies per laning per game ( flash timers) . It is extremely difficult to learn taric on support, and a support role as taric. Why? because he the lowest threat range in entire game. If your adc doesnt have kinda draintank skillset, he will be shit scared and feel 1v2 on every last hit vs 2 ranged enemies. and those drain tank skills, limit testing, damage taking are essential skills for your adc.
and on top of that issues taric will lose up to 1000 mana in early laning. You had a potential to have around 2000 mana pool in ~8 minutes catalyst pom boots. thats s10. now it will be only 1000 if you rush 2 mana crystals. If you are lucky you will be drafted against ad and melee teamcomps and taric would do well vs them , as always. but imagine how fucking passive will be laning vs moonstone brand that will excell taric even in taric areas? Will you be ever granted a chance to limit test your champion? Because flash E also needs to meet some requirements, u need to survive to level 3, then most likely recall bcs adc didnt sacrifice minions for health, and then maybe a leap of faith on them. If your gold adc will trust you Will riot balance that. Yes but we will be forced to wait. And I dont expect more than 20-40 mana per level.
And yes even with they dont we will overcome. We will pick taric as an counterpick vs full ad melee comps, play with duos if we want to win etc. with a good win rate! But the balance is not about win rate. Taric is already a sharp dedicated tool. Too sharp for being the only melee paladin champion. I want to have a chance to climb with taric every game, win because of my skills, not my teammates, and even in bad games have a lot of things to do.
because we dont deserve to get a scared adc, that thinks that taric is a scaling enchanter that will grant him R. He wont be able to play around it anyways, and this is my gold ranked support expirience.
You can be nice, You can explain to him that he should give up a bit of early laning, save health for level 3. You can explain that ur level 1 sucks. But you are not guaranteed to be listened. Oh cmon he doesnt even speak english.
If we dont step up, taric wr will remain the same, pick rate will drop, and we will be treated like the marginal minority. So please, dont be scared that taric will lose some of his nature because of riots glance on him. HE IS ALREADY LOSING IT AND ITS HAPPENING.
Please support the adjustments idea. We generally have a similar point of view, we love high apm tank taric that can do thing sand I am confident that 90 % of players wont be satisfied to be limited to R powerplays. Because this is going to be his gameplay expirience
Thanks for attention guys!
PS.Sry if I am too narcisitic, impolite somewhere. I am not native english speaker and I might have a hard time to make some phrases sooth enough. And I dont feel a better person or player than others!
PS 2 prob the last chance to try taric top ;) https://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/infernal-taric-top-guide-10-13-536838

FAQ - Check this before posting!

Hey,
So we've got multiple questions asked time and time again so to not have many questions be scattered around, leaving information everywhere, we've gathered the most frequently asked questions that many players have regarding Aphelios in this one post to clear most of your doubts!

Important info:

Questions will be arranged in specific topics for easier reading:

- Beginner Information

How is Aphelios difficult?

Unlike Riot first said, Aphelios is not a mechanically difficult champion; his difficulty lies in the need to manage his weapons and use the best combos for every situation.

What is Aphelios' skill floor?

Aphelios' kit is quite simple, one only needs from 5 to 10 games with him to understand how his weapons and mechanics work.

What is Aphelios' skill ceiling?

Aphelios' kit allows him to combine up to 4 different weapons in combos which are difficult in planning and execution, plus adding perfect weapon management to the skills he needs to work at a high level makes him a very difficult champion to master.

What's the best weapon?

Best weapon for single target damage is Crescendum (White)
Best weapon for AoE damage is Infernum (Blue) specially because of its synergy with Runaan's Hurricane.

Should I drop my current weapons for better combos?

Yes! If the current weapons you're holding wont be useful for the upcoming fight, waste their ammo and get better ones.

Is it better to use weapons as needed or use a specific order?

Weapon rotations have been crafted to maximize Aphelios' combo potential and damage, so a specific order will almost always be a better option.

How does one change the order of Aphelios' weapons?

As Aphelios depletes his main-hand weapon, it will go to the back of the line and the next weapon in the queue will replace it; you can hold weapons without using ammo, and this will cause your order to change all throughout the game.

How should I max his passive?

Most Aphelios players maximize AD > AS > Lethality. Some professional and high elo players from all regions prefer adding 2 or 3 points into AD and then maxing AS > AD > Lethality. This will depend on the player's playstyle.

Does Aphelios have complex mechanics?

Yes, combining 3 or 4 weapons into one combo can be a pretty difficult to plan and execute without the prior practice to it.
For further beginner information, check this YouTube guide: Beginner's Guide to Aphelios

- Gameplay

What are Aphelios' power spikes?

Aphelios' level power spikes:
- Level 2: If you obtain it before the enemy laners, you will have 2 Q abilities to use.
- Level 6: You unlock your ultimate
- Level 13: Your abilities are at their highest scaling numbers.
Aphelios' item power spikes:
- First item - Infinity Edge
- Second item - Runaan's Hurricane

How should Aphelios be played in the early game?

Aphelios' early game is pretty weak, you should look to farm as best as possible and get to your item spikes the quickest. Try to follow up your support for kills or lane priority.

How should Aphelios be played in the mid game?

Aphelios' mid game is decent, you should keep your farm up to obtain more items since Aphelios scales great into the late game, and group up when your teammates need you to contest objectives.

How should Aphelios be played in the late game?

Aphelios' late game is good, you should try to avoid being alone in a lane away from your allies and always stay grouped up, his damage provides a lot to teamfights so it's important to stay in a safe position and not get caught.

What are Aphelios' strengths?

- Aphelios is a really good scaling ADC.
- His power increases the better the player is at him.
- His multiple weapons provide him flexibility no other ADC can match.
- He has great teamfighting potential.

What are Aphelios' weaknesses?

- Aphelios is very weak early game.
- Aphelios is almost completely immobile.
- Aphelios needs peel to not be bursted or CC.
- Aphelios requires knowledge to be played at a high level.

How does one do damage with Aphelios?

Unlike most ADC's, Aphelios has to combine abilities and auto attacks to maximize his damage output.

How should R be used?

It depends on the weapon:
- Calibrum (Green): Damage with range.
- Severum (Red): Self sustain.
- Gravitum (Purple): AoE root with Gravitum Q.
- Infernum (Blue): AoE damage. (this will only be powerful when hitting more than 3 enemy champions).
- Crescendum (White): Mini chakram stacks.

What are Aphelios' best combos?

Severum Q (Red) + Crescendum (White): Really good for 1 v 1's and dueling.
Crescendum Q (White) + Calibrum (Green): Really good for damage from range.

What is Aphelios' best weapon rotation?

Crescendum > Calibrum > Gravitum > Infernum > Severum
This rotation provides the best combo potential and damage output.

Is Aphelios a good champion to smurf with?

Only if you duo, Aphelios needs good peel to carry.

Is Aphelios good in low elo?

Not really, he performs best in environments where his teammates are more coordinated.

Can Aphelios 1 v 9?

No, he is vulnerable to being bursted, CC'd and Exhausted.

Can Aphelios be played in top or mid?

Depends on the matchup, Aphelios is immobile so he can be an easy target for most junglers, this will only work if you can dominate the matchup.
For further information on Aphelios' best weapon rotation, here's a video: Perfect Weapon Rotation

- Itemization and Runes

What is Aphelios' best performing rune?

Currently, Aphelios' best performing rune is Conqueror.

Can Aphelios use PTA?

Not always, PTA is a better option for single target burst damage but wont work well in extended fights or against multiple targets. Conqueror is preferable.

Can Aphelios use Lethal Tempo?

Not always, this rune is mostly powerful for the late game, so having a rune that wont be as helpful for the early game can make him weaker against powerful early laners. Conqueror is preferable.

Can Aphelios use a keystone from another rune path?

Not really, these rune setups would be more off-meta and don't perform as well as Conqueror does.

Can Aphelios build on-hit?

Not really. Aphelios' abilities require AD to scale and do better damage, on-hit builds focus on more auto attacks and Aphelios requires both auto attacks and abilities for damage.

Can Aphelios build lethality?

Not really. Some of Aphelios' weapons have special properties when using crit. A Lethality build won't increase the damage over the crit build.

Can Aphelios build Death's Dance?

Yes but after his core items if you really need it.

Can Aphelios build Manamune?

Manamune can be picked up early game as an alternative to rushing Infinity Edge. You will still require to build Runaan's Hurricane second and Infinity Edge third for it to work.

Can Aphelios build Blade of the Ruined King?

Not really, this weapon doesn't provide what Aphelios needs and ends up delaying his crit power spikes.

Can Aphelios build Essence Reaver?

Not anymore, Aphelios used to have higher numbers when this item was built first, he will need Infinity Edge to compete against other ADC's.

What is Aphelios' core build?

First item: Infinity Edge. This will boost all of his crit damage by a good amount.
Second item: Runaan's Hurricane. This has great synergy with his weapons.

Is Runaan's Hurricane really a must buy every game?

Preferably, it's to good to not buy it. It may only be delayed to third item when Phantom Dancer is required earlier.

Does Aphelios need to buy healing?

Depends on the enemy champions. If the enemy team has a lot of poke and damage over time abilities, buying healing items can help him mitigate most of this damage.

What situational items can Aphelios build?

Almost all of them. Aphelios has clear weaknesses that he will need to take care of with items against certain comps.
For further information about itemization and runes, check this YouTube video: Runes and Builds

- Matchups & Support Synergy

Who are Aphelios' best matchups?

Kai'Sa and Vayne. Aphelios does great against these two in the early game and his late game damage is better in terms of AoE.

Who are Aphelios' worst matchups?

MF, Caitlyn and Varus. It's difficult for Aphelios to win the DPS duels vs these champions and they are very powerful in the early game.

Can I blind pick Aphelios?

Only if you know which support you're gonna go with. Do not blind pick him without a sustain support or a tanky engage support.

Who should I ban?

Its preferable to ban his worst matchups, so MF, Caitlyn and Varus are all good bans.

Which supports do best with Aphelios?

Bard, Janna, Lulu, Nami and Zilean. All of these champions fix all of Aphelios' problems and boost his potential even further.

Which supports do worst with Aphelios?

Senna and Brand. These two don't fix Aphelios' problems and instead can worsen them.

When should I not pick Aphelios?

You shouldn't pick Aphelios against teams with a lot of CC or burst damage with mobility.
For further information about matchups, check this YouTube video: Matchups
Extra information on support synergy in this other video: Support Synergy

- Tips & Guides

What are some beginner player tips?

- Experience will help you a lot in learning the champion.
- Focus on only using two combos per game and waste the ammo of other weapons to learn how to do game.
- Practice last hitting with every weapon as their behavior is different.

What are some intermediate player tips?

- Try practicing some complex weapon combos.
- Limit your weapon options to a specific weapon rotation you enjoy.
- Look to use your R in more aggressive ways.

What are some advanced player tips?

- Perfect your complex combos.
- Be aggressive in the early game.
- Plan your weapon R uses and combine them with abilities to hide projectiles or animations.

What are some good guide recommendations?

- u/CatKowska (Kenjō) 's Mastering Aphelios Playlist - Series of in-depth guides.
- WIP

What are some good streamer recommendations?

- WIP

- In case your question is not in this post, ask the question below and we can answer it for you or if its too complex of a question feel free to post about it and we'll discuss it.
- If you wish to have your guides or streams featured in this post, please check my comment below!

Be careful when looking at builds on data sites as sometimes this information can be misleading for new players.

Season 10 Pyke Guide. Everything you will need to know about Pyke

Hello, my name is RickChum and this is a Pyke Guide. I am a Pyke main with over 1.1mil mastery (currently) and have peaked challenger in season 9 playing Pyke Support
For a TL;DR, read the Tips, Tricks, and How to: at the bottom of each section
This guide is targeted more for Pyke Support, but feel free to take away any Pyke related info!
Table of Content: Basics to Pyke, Pyke specific tips, matchups, items, runes, counters, playstyle, laning phase, late game, and a lot of other information!
Basics to Pyke
So, what is Pyke? Why should I play Pyke over other supports?
Pyke is an assassin support, with lots of damage, mobility, and the ability to give him and his team gold.
What order do I max my abilities?
Q>E>W. Q is main ability, W gets lower CD, and E just increases damage
What runes should I use (Here's what I recommend)?
I'd recommend: Aftershock, Font of Life/Demolish, Bone Plating/Second Wind, Unflinching, Presence of Mind, Legend: Tenacity.
There are a lot of good keystones and secondary options, take the ones that fit your playstyle!
Solo Lane Pyke still viable?
Yup, he’s quite strong right now (as of time of posting). Dong Huap recently made a video on it.
What items do I build?
Lethality is go-to. Umbral, Youmuu's, Duskblade, Edge of Night. Items like Triforce, Death's Dance, GA, Maw, are also good
Passive
Bonus HP will be converted to AD in a 14:1 ratio (only gains health through level up). When Pyke takes damage from an ENEMY CHAMPION, he'll store some of that damage as gray health. While out of sight, he'll recover that gray health over time.
Tips and Tricks

Scales extremely well with AD. The maximum stored health increases with AD
If you think you're out of sight, but you aren't healing. The area is either warded, a champion is there, or you're being spotted via sight gaining ability
Healing Power increases the speed at which you heal at (doesn't increase how much you heal), whereas Grievous Wounds causes you to heal slower
Sweepers, Pink Wards/Control Wards, Duskblade and Umbral help to control vision on the map. This allows you to stay healthy even during fights. TIP: Stay near bushes to lose vision quickly and recover health

Q
Hold Q (press and hold): Pyke charges a harpoon, gaining range as he charges. Pyke is slowed while charging. If the harpoon hits an enemy, the enemy flies towards Pyke a fixed distance (about 300 units) then are slowed briefly.
Tap Q (press once): Pyke stabs an in front of him, the closest unit is damaged and slowed. If an enemy champion is in front of him, the champion is hit instead (closest one).
Tips and Tricks

You can Tap Q + Flash as Pyke, if you do, the stab will follow the direction it was in. If you stab forward, then flash, it'll stab in front of you after you flash.
At the end of your hook, the hitbox extends perpendicular to how you threw it, so it can catch enemies behind creep waves and enemies trying to run sideways.
You can Flash during your Q channel
If you get silenced, knocked up, knocked back, stunned, you will stop channeling
it's possible for your Tap Q to get cancelled it you're CC'd right as you cast
If an enemy is close, you can hook them behind you or even over a wall
Move sideways while charging Q to avoid skillshots. This is better when you're not certain of the play
If you don't throw the hook, you get 50% mana refund back
The Q cooldown starts after you throw the hook
There is a 2-frame trick (like 1/30 of a second) to animation cancel your Q with E. If you do, you can Q and E at the same time.

TIP: One way to have an easier time landing hooks is running past a creep wave, then channel your hook, that way the creeps don't block your hook
Why stab over hook?
Although holding Q does do more in terms of CC, tap Q is easier to hit when close range, and the slow lets allies hit their CC. Tap Q also works in a creep wave, whereas Hold Q works better when catching an enemy. Both do the same damage, so find which one works best for the scenario.
W
Gain camouflage and decaying movement speed. Nearby enemies are signaled while camouflaged (around 1000 units). Enemies within a certain range can see you (around 400 units)
Tips and Tricks

Movement speed on W scales off of Lethality (more Lethality, more speed!)
Use W to get to traverse the map faster. Use W right out of fog of war to maximize stealth
W from fog of war to bushes to maintain hidden
You can use actives and summoner spells during W. Activate Youmuu's while invis to catch enemies off guard
The cooldown doesn't start until after the ability is finished
You can cancel your W with recall, starting it's CD faster and stopping the signalling
Pinks wards counter your W and your Passive, take them out!
With Duskblade, you can start your combo with W into an auto attack

TIP: W can be used during Ignite. You'll heal at a slower rate, but most of the times it'll mitigate the Ignite damage
E
Dash and leave a phantom behind (from where you casted it), after a delay, the phantom will stun everything in its path (Works similar to Ekko’s Q). If enemy champions are hit, they are also damaged.
Tips and Tricks

Use E to get to traverse the map faster
E can be used to dash ALMOST EVERY wall (You'd be surprised at which walls you can dash over)
The Stun duration scales off of Lethality (more Lethality, longer the stun)
You can E then Flash to: change the direction, increase the distance, or extend your dash
E can be paired with Ult. Ult can be substituted with Flash, but you won't have an ult (This is a difficult trick and it's risky)
Can combo Q with E for a CC combo. Beware, you'll have fewer tools to escape

TIP: E minions to stop creep aggro. Can be used to lessen the damage while fighting or freezing a minion wave
TIP #2: You don't need to always dash forward! You can dash sideways or at an angle
R
Mark an area with an X, if an enemy is below a certain health threshold, they are executed and you gain gold. The most recent ally that damages the target also gains gold (or the most recent supporter if no1 deals damage). If an enemy is hit, but not executed, they take reduced damage from the ability
Tips and Tricks

If you hit an enemy with your ult, you teleport to the CENTER of the X
More AD and Lethality, the bigger the threshold. Easier to execute enemies!
In a pinch, you can use Ult as an escape tool. Doesn't always need to be used to execute
Pair E or Flash with Ult to land long range executes
You can ult in a wall to hide the visual (hides the X)
Aim R using the points/legs of the ult. Overshoot your ult in the case your enemies try flashing/dashing away.

TIP: Ult an enemy right before they die, they usually won't move (as much), making it easier to land.
TIP: Wait for the target to be CC'd before ulting
How does the gold share work?
If you kill with the ultimate, you and the most recent damager or supporter; any ally that has shielded you, healed you or given you a buff, gains gold equal to the kill. If you ult, and they die before you land, you gain 2x the kill gold and the killer still gains kill gold essentially gaining 50% more gold!
Why do Pyke's keep taking my kills?
If they execute with ult, if you hear the ding sound, they actually generated more gold than if you just killed them without it. It's a key part of his kit and using it effectively makes him and his teammates richer! You can help Pyke by damaging enemies or even sacrificing your life so Pyke and execute. If they are actually and intentionally trying to steal your kills then... I can't help :/
END OF BASICS Those were the basics. Let's move more in-depth
Closer look at Pyke (Matchups)
Champion Specific Tips
Against Blitzcrank and Thresh, if you get hooked, wait until after they E before you dash. Their E can cancel your dash, and you'll probably be dead.
Against Morgana and Sivir, you can bait out spellshields by charging Q and going full dodge mode. Don't throw it. You get 50% Mana refund and maybe bait out their spells. Your Q cooldown is a lot shorter than their defensive abilities
Against Yuumi, if she is detached, dash in the direction of the ADC. If Yuumi tries to return to the ADC, the E can catch her mid-flight and put W on CD. Rushing Exe is nice
Against Soraka, W up close and short-channel a hook. It's harder for Soraka to react to. Rushing Exe is nice
Pantheon's E can block Pyke R if you're in front of him. Either wait out his E or go behind him.
Against Draven, aim your hooks where his axe will drop. This is very niche and elo dependent
Be very careful against Cho'Gath and Darius, their ults do true damage. You have little health and resists don't do a whole lot. Be wary
Against Sylas, if you time your E right as you get hit by Sylas chains (2nd part of E), you can almost guarantee a stun on him
Against Master Yi, if you time your E right while he's in alpha, you can guarantee a stun, it's quite hard to pull off
Against: Amumu, Yi, Sylas, Talon, Vi, Ekko, Lee Sin, if you time your E right, they are almost guaranteed to get stunned. If you E right as the dash starts.
Against: Warwick, Zed, Kayn, Rek'Sai you can pull them towards your team by E'ing towards your team while they are attached/following
Against Leona, E right as you get hit by Leona E to pull her into your tower. Not a great way to escape
Combos
W may or may not be used during the combo
(W) > Q (Hold) > E > AA - Used for engaging at a distance
Q > R - Since your Q (Hold) pulls a set distance, you can almost guarantee where the enemy will be after landing a hook. Knowing this, you can preemptively R as your Q is mid-flight to secure the kill as the enemy is being pulled.
(W) > E > Q (Stab) > AA - Used for all-in, better for engaging from close range
(W) > Q (Stab) > E > AA - The slow from Q into an E makes it very hard to dodge the stun
Q (Hold) > AA > E - If you hook a nearby enemy, you can weave an auto in between your standard combo.
(W) > E > Flash > AA > Q (Tap) > R - This is Pyke's kill combo OR all-in combo. Flash may or may not be needed.
Runes, in-depth
SHARDS - For Shards take 2 Adaptive Force Shards and Armour OR 1 Adaptive Shard and 1 Armour and 1 MR.
Health shard is a bait
Keystones:

Aftershock, Font/Demolish, Second Wind/Bone Plating, Unflinching
Glacial Augment, Perfect Timing, Biscuit Delivery, Approach Velocity
Hail of Blades, Cheap Shot, Eyeball Collection, Relentless HunteUltimate Hunter
Electrocute, Sudden Impact, Eyeball Collection, Relentless HunteUltimate Hunter

(Spellbook, Fleet, Dark Harvest, Predator are all decent keystones with nicher uses)
Good secondary runes are (In no order)
Precision: Triumph, Presence of Mind, Legend: Tenacity
Resolve: Font of Life, Demolish, Bone Plating, Second Wind, Unflinching
Domination: Cheap Shot, Eyeball Collection, Zombie Ward, Relentless Hunter, Ultimate Hunter
Inspiration: Perfect Timing, Future's Market, Biscuit Delivery, Cosmic Insight, Approach Velocity
Sorcery: Nullifying Orb, Celerity, Absolute Focus, Waterwalking, Transcendence, Nimbus Cloak
Take ones that fit your playstyle. Sorcery and Domination are good for roaming and traversing the map. While Resolve and Precision increase your survivability. Inspiration being a mix of utility and works pretty much in every game
Items, in-depth
Shoulderguard is the best starting item, no contest. Mobies should be rushed, then Umbral, then Duskblade OR Duskblade then Umbral. Starting Sweepers helps you get early bush advantage; it has amazing synergy with Zombie Ward.
Get 2-4 Lethality items then go for GA/Death's Dance/Maw for survivability
Note that items should be built accordingly from game to game. Build what is needed for YOUR game specifically.
Early Situational Items

Stopwatch is great for keeping large bounties (Can be built into GA)
Executioner's Calling is good into healers like Yuumi, Soraka, Sona
Hexdrinker is solid into heavy AP comps
QSS is great into hard CC's (example Morg Q)

Damage Items

Duskblade gives you early kill pressure and knowledge of wards
Youmuu's gives you mobility
Edge of Night is great for when they have one CC ability (Vayne, Varus, Jinx, etc)
Umbral gives you insane vision control
Sanguine lets you split push, but isn’t great for support Pyke
Triforce is like second Duskblade, great burst, and AS helps to take towers and CS. Expensive purchase

Defensive Items

Death's Dance, is great for stats and survivability
GA helps to keep large bounties from being lost as easily
Maw is good against AP or magic damage
QSS is a great item for avoid hard CC's

Tank Items

Frozen Heart is good into heavy AD and provides lots of CDR
Zeke's Convergence, makes you slow targets after you ult, provides resistances
Knight's Vow, great armour item
Deadman's Plate, basically tanky Duskblade mobility, armour, damage, well-rounded item

Why not Black Cleaver?
The stats are great for the champion, but the item is not great. You want the Lethality stat on Pyke, since your abilities scale off of it. Pyke doesn't hit enough to make Black Cleaver's armour reduction worth it.
Synergies and Counters
With Pyke you want aggressive laners, champions with CC or damage. Scaling ADC's don't pair too well with Pyke.
Champions that have spellshields, high mobility, or quick CC usually make for strong counters.
Synergies

Draven - Aggro lane, your ult procs his passive
Xayah - CC chain
Trist - Aggro Lane
Lucian - Aggro Lane, can play off of CD's
Syndra - Great burst damage and CC
Veigar - Cage can help set-up kills
You don't want Ezreal and Kog'Maw, trust me. You're better off dodging than playing with these ADC's

Counters

Draven - Too good at fighting
Sivir - Spellshield
Veigar - The cage prevents your dash and can burst you
Soraka - So much HEALSSSSS
Morgana - Anti-CC Shield, can counter your all-ins
Alistar - Fast CC, strong at fighting
Thresh - Fast CC, strong at fighting
Yasuo - Very hard to play against this champ. Windwall and mobility
Zilean - Revives, can stop call-ins

How to Counter Pyke

Pyke plays around vision denial and isolated targets. Items such as Stopwatch, Zhonyas, Gargoyles, PD and armour items in general are good counters to Pyke.
You will want to save dashes (if possible) to avoid his ult. By avoiding his ult Pyke and his allies will have a harder time snowballing.
Flash, Heal, and Ghost all help to either avoid or deny his ult from executing. Pyke's ult bypasses shields, so use them before you get low.
Control wards will reveal Pyke in his W. Put them down in chokes, bushes, or in the lane to catch him out.
Pyke without his E is a fish on land. He will pop like a balloon.
Move behind your creeps when he is engaging.

How do you want to play Pyke? (Early to Mid-Game)
You want to play aggressive off CDs. If they use a key ability trying to push waves or baited using your hook, try to fight off those timers. During laning phase you want to engage after the creeps have crashed, a moving creep wave will make it difficult to land hooks. Engage with W, then channel hook. If the enemy is isolated or low, then engage with E plus W. Usually you want to only engage with W so you have an escape.
You can look to roam after getting mobies. Look to ward the river or enemy jungle to secure vision. Though sometimes staying in lane and getting 6 is better than roaming.
TIPS:

Use W and E to move around the map faster, but be wary that W can give off your position. Early Sweepers is great to take control of lane brushes. Pink wards/control wards also help a lot. Look to make picks and secure objectives or take a gold lead.
Buy Stopwatch/GA if you have a large bounty. Pyke wants to go for big ults, usually requiring you to dive in and risk your life

How to play Pyke in teamfights?
Pyke has a different playstyle when it comes to supports.
You can look to peel for carries, then look to execute low health targets, usually starting with frontline. Weave in and out of vision to recover health. You usually want to be around your carries peeling until you can execute.
OR
You can look to assassinate from the start. Stay in bushes with Control wards/Duskblade/Umbral and sneak up to carries, it's better with ally assassins, and look to execute. This is more risky, but could pay off. Most likely going to trade 1 for 1, unless you're really fed.
Random Useful Tips

High mobility champs are super hard to hit. Charge Q to pressure and mostly just wait for them to blow their abilities before trying to fight them. Stabbing is also effective against high mobility targets
Watch the scoreboard for players with Stopwatch. Try to bait it out then ult, or ult from the start
Watch the map for any players that are low, jump in and get free gold
When running from lane to lane, dash through walls, it's much more efficient.
Easter Egg! Pyke gains +1 move speed in the river
A rule I sometimes follow is, when engaging, try to keep either W or E up. Use one for engaging and the other for disengage. This rule applies more towards when you have little vision and not chasing enemies for ult kills.
Timing Flashes is not only a good skill, but it'll let you roam and land your ults easier on those targets

My OP.GG
https://na.op.gg/summoneuserName=rickchum
https://na.op.gg/summoneuserName=duckchum
If there's anything you're not sure of, go ahead and ask. Hope this guide helped!

A List of Every Keystone in the Game, and What They Specialize In

EDIT:

Not gonna bother updating this anymore, because Coach Curtis just came out with one of the best guides for EVERY rune, not just Keystones. The only problem is that he describes these from a mid lane perspective. But Coach Curtis is a multi-season challenger and coach.

Check these out.
This isn't a guide on what runes you should take, this is why people take them. If you're looking for runes to take, go on U.GG. It's almost never strictly wrong, and is a good guideline of what runes you should take on a champion if you don't want to do more research. Also, this list is still being updated by me right now, so make a comment if you think I should change something.

Fleet Footwork

This is either for champions who really need sustain (e.g. Kassadin) or ADCS who don't use the other two keystones(Caitlyn and Corki right now)
You used to see this a lot on champions like Vayne, who need the lane sustain. However, it's been changed so melee champions get a lot more sustain from this keystone than ranged champions, so that's why you don't see it on Vayne as often anymore.
Users:

Kassadin (like sustain early since he scales well, FF is never a bad pickup on him)
Caitlyn (Doesn't use PtA or LT well)
Akali (goes Electrocute in easy matchups and Fleet in harder ones, she scales pretty well like Kassadin)
Yasuo (Sustain, especially for midlane although viable in top lane too. Conquerer is solid on Yasuo too though)
Rengar (weird build that's popping up, but junglers sometimes like Fleet because of the sustain it gives. Also, you occasionally see Sejuani pick up Fleet/Hail of Blades against Trundle because Trundle steals Aftershock resistances)

Conquerer

Almost only for melees because of the duration being lower on ranged champions. Urgot and Draven do pick it up sometimes though.
Good for bruisers, probably the best 1v1(dueling) keystone in the game.
Anyone who can stack it fast also likes it.
Users:

Riven (loves AD, loves dueling, and stacks it disgustingly fast)
Irelia (same deal as Riven, doesn't stack it as fast but still not terrible)
Aatrox (He stacks it very, VERY slowly. However, he loves the true damage, and he especially loves the healing when he has his ultimate up)
Singed (Some people go this. Just like Aatrox, it's super fucking slow to stack. However, he just loves the raw AP you get, and he loves extended fights. Also, Conquerer is the one of the only versions of Spellvamp in the game that heals you for AOE abilities. If singed hits 5 people, he basically heals for 40% of the damage his poison would do to one person.
Urgot (Kind of the opposite of the previous two, he gets this because he just stacks it so fast with his W)
Draven (He likes PtA or Conqueror. He loves healing and the raw AD from Conqueror is great because of his high AD ratios on his Q)

PtA

This is on ADCs who want to bully lane. It makes your all-ins super strong. This is because of the base damage of the explosion after 3 hits (it has higher base damage than Electrocute level 1). The % increase in damage is a strong add-on, but unlike Lethal Tempo, PtA is still fairly strong even in short trades, which many early game trades are.
You also sometimes see this on champions like Kled, Camille, and Renekton, who can proc it super easily and like short trades. It gives better short-trade power than Conquerer, but in extended trades Conquerer will be better. (Conquerer has 5 stacks, PtA has 3. Sustain is better in extended trades. Also, the burst damage from PtA matters less as the fight gets longer and longer)
Users:

Draven (Loves all-ins, loves early game)
Lucian (loves all-ins, loves early game, can proc it super easily because his passive gets 2 procs)
Tristana (loves all-ins, great with bomb)
Renekton (stacks it super fast because his W can instantly proc it, loves early game, and has a super strong short trade)
Kled (procs it super easily with W)

Lethal Tempo

This is for high attack speed late game carries. It's weak early game for a few reasons.

First of all, it just gives you bonus damage on your autoattacks. Early game, a good chunk of your damage actually does come from your abilities. It doesn't matter that Lethal Tempo gives higher attack speed if your autos just tickle people.
Second, it's very rare fights last long enough for you to get the full usage of lethal tempo. However, if you even hit someone once, it gets proc'd and then goes on cooldown, so it's super easy to waste the cooldown early game.

Users:

Jinx (loves attack speed)
Twitch (loves attack speed, but he can go PtA too)
Nocturne (weird case. He gets it because it gives him disgusting early game dueling. His E/Q procs it early, so the 1.5 seconds of no attack speed doesn't really matter since he's not in range yet)

Electrocute

This is great for anyone who can proc it easily. However, lots of champions can't proc it easily. e.g. Ziggs, who's main damage pattern is just throwing Q and E, which won't proc Electrocute, would rather pick up a rune like Comet.
It's just great for bursting, but Conquerer is better for extended battles.
Users:

Zed (can proc it from range with W -> E -> Q)
Leblanc (procs it super easy with Q + W + AA)
Fizz (procs it easy with Q -> AA -> W)

Dark Harvest

The base damage on this is low. The good part about it is the resets makes it great for teamfighting, which is why you sometimes see Brand and Katarina pick it up.
Users:

Karthus (Loves using his ult when people are low to finish them off, which is perfect for Dark Harvest. He's also a jungler, so he doesn't mind the super long cooldown. Aery gives more pressure in lane and you'll sometimes see mid lane Karthus go Aery)
AP Shyvanna (Doesn't really have another keystone to go except Comet. And again, junglers love this keystone)
Kayn (Only with Shadow Assassin. Kayn can actually assassinate multiple people at a time, so the reset mechanic is really nice.)

Hail of .Blades

It's a weird mix of keystones. It's a burst keystones, but it's AA based which is usually DPS. It's not a bad keystone per se, it's just that there aren't many champions that use autos but burst people.
Users:

Xin Zhao (Really wants the knockup as fast as possible)
Vi (Has mutliple autoresets and wants the armor shred as soon as possible. She can go Electrocute, Aftershock, or Conquerer too though)
Kalista (She loves attack speed because she gets faster dashes with more attack speed. Lethal Tempo is hard to pull off on Kalista. First of all, she's an early game champion, so she would much rather have the early power of HoB. Second, Kalista has a short range of 525. This means that she can't always get autoattacks in a teamfight, so having a short burst of attack speed is actually very useful compared to a long stretch of attack speed that she won't be able to abuse that much)

Predator

The huge burst of movement speed makes engages from Predator makes engages a breeze. It's just like how people used to rush Righteous Glory on Maokai, you turn a soft engage (Maokai W) into a hard engage (Righteous Glory from half a screen away -> W).
Anyone who loves Righteous Glory/Shurelya's typically likes this item.
Small note: no laners consistently get Predator in the current meta.
Predator makes really potent ganks, but aren't really that useful in lane. Also, you just don't have a keystone until first back, and on your first back you need to buy boots, which isn't always the most optimal choice. Even when Predator was bugged on Darius and gave you a stack of his passive, he still didn't pick it up.
Now, that's not to say Predator isn't useless on laners. Malzahar and Vladimir at one point used to go Predator in lane, they just have better options now. (Notably, Unsealed Spellbook seems pretty good as you can get ghost with it too, while also having a ton of other benefits)
Users:

Skarner (Runs people down to ult)
Gragas (Gives amazing gank setup, also sets up his engages super well. What are people going to do against a mach-20 Gragas?)

Comet

Anyone who pokes with an ability that has CC.
Ziggs has his E for example. It's his main poking tool and just so happens to have a slow.
The CC lets you hit the comet super easily.
It's overall a very good poke rune even if you don't have that much CC (Lethality Varus used to go it)
Users:

Lux (Procs on E easily. Lux can go Electrocute, Comet, or Aftershock right now)
Xerath (Procs on W + E super easy)
Ziggs (Procs on E)

Aery

Anyone who can

proc the damage SUPER often (INCLUDING DoTs)

is a shield/heal support

just has no other good keystone

likes this one.
Users:
Heal bots:

Sona
Nami
Soraka

Damage champions:

Zoe (Her Q and E don't keep them in place for Comet since her E slow is kinda low. She can also go Electrocute)
Viktor (Just like Zoe, doesn't have a reliable way of keeping his targets in a comet range. He can go Klepto into melee champions, and has went Fleet before too)
Teemo (Not only does he consistently poke down melees with autoattacks, his shrooms + poison can usually proc Aery twice with just one hit)
Malzahar (his DoT on his E makes it really easy to proc)

This rune used to be absurdly good, but it's been nerfed a few tiems. Previously, champions like Kennen and Pantheon who could consistently poke people down used to get this rune, but they've switched to other runes now.

Phase Rush

This rune has two uses:
Kiting people out and chasing people down.
One example of kiting people out is Ryze. Whenever he has his cooldowns up, he wants to be in your face, but whenever they're down, he wants to run away to wait for them. This is why the movement speed from Phase Rush is great on him.
An example of a champion who wants to chase people down is Vladimir. His Protobelt -> Ult -> Q combo makes your E impossible to run away from since you proc Phase Rush. Yes, you don't have a keystone basically when your ult is down, but it just sets up your combo so perfectly.
Users:

Vladimir (Along with what I mentioned before, his Q + mini E + W combo lets him escape ganks untargetable at mach 20)
Aurelion Sol (Needs to kite people out. He's a low range DPS mage, he needs movement speed)
Ryze (Same as Aurelion Sol)

Aftershock

It gives an absurd amount of resistances up front after CC'ing someone.
This makes it super good on engagers who have CC. Sejuani for example uses her ult to engage, proc Aftershock, and then is super tanky while her team follows up.
Typically great on junglers and supports who like to engage. Top laner tanks usually get Grasp of the Undying.
(It's also viable on engage mages like Lissandra)
Also, you will see it on Lux support. This is just because Lux gets hardcountered by engage, and the rune is just fucking busted. It's kinda a special case.
Users:

Sejuani (Procs on Q and ult, makes your engages super potent)
Rammus (Same as Sejuani, once you Q someone you're invincible)
Lissandra (You can ult someone or W, and you proc it. Lissandra loves being in the middle of everyone)
Lux (Loves protecting herself? But she can also go Comet too, as we saw Biofrost do against Flyquest)

Grasp of the Undying

Top lane tanks. This is the tank trading rune. The sustain + damage it gives is just great in lane, and you can also get free HP which is a nice addon.
Also, bruisers who don't benefit that much from Conquerer (e.g. Garen or Fiora) sometimes get it. Grasp makes your short trades incredibly potent. A lot of Fiora players go Grasp specifically in hard matchups since it just gives you so much trading power. It scales a lot weaker than Conquerer (on Fiora) though.
Sometimes, against ranged champions, you won't get Grasp of the Undying though. For example, at one point, Ornn used to get Grasp against melees and Unsealed Spellbook against ranged champions. However, this won't always be the case. On some champions, Grasp is just the best keystone all the time.
Users:

Maokai
Garen (can't go Conquerer since he stacks it super slowly. His E only gives 1 stack)
Cho'gath
Fiora (rare, but her passive already deals true damage so she loses some value from going Conquerer)
Gangplank (can proc it super easily on Q right now, and it just gives him so much sustain and kill pressure. Klepto is viable but you'll see a lot of Grasp. He's a weird case because he's the only melee champion who can proc it from range)
Gnar (the only ranged champion on this list, Aery just kinda sucks on him. He loves tanky runes too. This just gives him that extra poke and dueling power)

Guardian

This is a really general support keystone.
Tank supports who can't proc Aftershock easily/don't really engage are one category. Think Braum and Tahm Kench, they don't really need to be that tanky since they should be just sitting on top of their carry and peeling.
Rakan too also gets it. He doesn't really need that much tankiness since he's so slippery, although Aftershock actually is viable on him and has a decent playrate.
Also, heal supports get it sometimes too. This serves as a more defensive option than Aery. Basically, if the Sona/Soraka dies on your team, you lose out on a shit ton of free HP that they give, so Guardian is potentially strong to keep them alive. You do lose out on damage so this is more common in really hard lanes.
Users:

Braum (He's a peeler, not an engager. He doesn't really need defensive stats. HE would much rather shield his ADC. Also, it's not as consistent to proc Aftershock, you need to get 4 autos for your passive)
Tahm Kench (Same as Braum)
Sona (potentially)
Nami (potentially)
Soraka (potentially)

Kleptomancy

Basically, Kleptomancy sacrifices a keystone for gold.
Kleptomancy has a weird powercurve. Pre-first back, it's practically useless since you can't use the free gold you got, so you basically don't have a keystone. However, as you continue getting gold you start hitting your item powerspikes faster, which for some champions is much stronger than having a keystone. Finally, late game, most keystones start doing a lot of damage, whereas the gold advantages you get from Kleptomancy start becoming more and more irrelevant.
As a result, one major factor in whether or not you should get Kleptomancy is if your champion's curve also follows this curve. For example, at one point, Kleptomancy was amazing on Nasus, but weak on Yorick despite the fact that they could both proc it easily on Q. In fact, Yorick could proc it even easier because his Q actually deals a shit ton of damage. However, Yorick is a lane bully. As a result, he doesn't want to sacrifice the early pressure he gets from a keystone for gold from Kleptomancy. Nasus doesn't have a strong early game, so he just wants to get gold for his midgame, which is why he gets Kleptomancy.
Another factor
Finally, one factor is how well you use other keystones. For example, right now, AP Kennen doesn't have that many good keystones. He used to get Aery to poke people out, but it's been nerfed pretty hard. Since he has no other good keystones, and he can at least proc Kleptomancy okay, he just gets it.
Users:

Ezreal (Procs it on Q super easily, has a similar powercurve to Kleptomancy since he spikes at two items)
Kennen (Procs it on autos against melees ezpz)

Glacial Augment

It's rarely gotten on anyone besides mages.
It's a weird build where you go GLP -> Twin Shadows.
There are two scenarios where you would go this route:

You do true damage (so you don't rely as much on getting Morellnomicon second)

The magic penetration on Morellnomicon is meta-warping. Nearly every mage in the game wants it. Champions with true damage, such Ahri or Vel'Koz, are balanced around the fact that they can't use this absurdly broken item as well (however, it's still so good that they used to go Luden's -> Morellnomicon like other mages). The Glacial Augment build forces you to delay Morellnomicon to third item or sometimes even skip it altogether. This would suck on a lot of mages that rely on it, but since AP champions with true damage have been surviving without being able to abuse it, they can use the GLP -> Twin Shadows build quite well.

You need the slows to set up your combo. For example, Ahri E is super important to hit.

Users:

Ahri likes the slow so she can charm -> let her team one-shot them. This makes her an absolute pick making machine. As long as she has one person near her, any squishy she charms is usually dead, and it's super easy to charm people with the Glacial build. Her Q also does true damage.
Vel'Koz really likes kiting people out with the GLP + Twin Shadows, and the slows keep them in range for his ult. (Also lets him hit his full combo easier)
Neeko needs it to get in range for her ultimate and for her E.
Cho'gath does true damage on his ultimate and it helps him land his Q.
Tahm Kench, the only one here who doesn't go GLP -> Twin Shadows. He just gets it because he gets kited out super hard. He already deals so much damage and is already so tanky that he doesn't need other keystones (although you will still see him get mostly Guardian support).

Unsealed Spellbook

Anyone else who doesn't really have that many great keystone options.
For example, right now we're seeing some Varus players go Unsealed Spellbook because since his main poke tool, his Q, doesn't have a slow, Comet is kind of meh.
Summoner spells just give a ton of utility, from ghost to heal to exhaust.
Users:

Orianna uses it because Aery just sucks ass right now. Dopa has been spamming this build.
Anivia has seen some users.
Vladimir has also some players who go Unsealed Spellbook (e.g. Impact has been going it a few times in solo queue last I checked)

varus guide lethality video

Charges a shot for up to 4 seconds, increasing this ability's range and damage over the next 2 seconds, during which he is slowed. On recasting this ability, Varus fires a piercing arrow in the target direction, dealing physical damage to all enemies struck. This is a guide on how to play Lethality Varus, one of the most popular and successful ADCs in League of Legends Season 10 so far. Previously dismissed as a troll build or picked solely in the mid lane, Lethality Varus has suddenly risen in popularity and is now the preferred set-up when playing the Arrow of Retribution. This is a guide on how to play Lethality Varus, one of the most popular and successful ADCs in League of Legends Season 10 so far. Previously dismissed as a troll build or picked solely in the mid lane, Lethality Varus has suddenly risen in popularity and is now the preferred set-up when playing the Arrow of Retribution. Limited to 1 type of Healing Potion. UNIQUE Active: Consumes a charge to restore 125 Health and 75 Mana over 12 seconds and grants Touch of Corruption during that time. Holds up to 3 charges that refills upon visiting the shop. Touch of Corruption: Damaging spells and attacks burn enemy champions for 15 magic damage over 3 seconds. (50% Damage for Area of Effect or Damage over Time spells. Lethality ignores a fixed value of the enemy champions armor, and it cannot exceed zero. This works as penetration and depends on the champion inflicting it. Riot balances Lethality in LoL by making it available little at a time, reaching the maximum Lethality at level 18. I just really enjoy lethality Varus and was hoping someone could direct me to a build or guide, I keep finding very old ones or guides that show BORK into Rage Blade. Thanks!! 7 comments. share. save. hide. report. 75% Upvoted. This thread is archived. Varus has a strong early lane, auto attack the minions permanently and use Hail of Arrows and auto attacks on the enemy whenever you can. The Arcane Comet and Scorch will make trades very good for you in addition to the 575 attack range, high attack damage and life steal the slowed enemy will have a hard item if you use it to your advantage. When you bought Tear of the Goddess you can try to Varus est un champion de League of Legends et se joue sur la Botlane.Afin de maîtriser ce personnage, nous vous proposons un guide sur les runes à utiliser, les objets à acheter, les sorts d'invocateur à choisir et enfin les sorts à maxer en priorité.. Les runes de Varus Bot sur LoL. Sorts d'invocateur de Varus Bot Testing Lethality Varus vs Full Attack Speed Varus. Varus's Top Items. Varus's Top Runes. MORE Varus Runes. Varus More Guides. Top Varus Guides [11.3] THE ULTIMATE S11 GRANDMASTER Varus Guide! By DoublefeedOP. Varus: The Hybrid King (Patch 10.24) (Preseason WIP) By ifound1dollar. Varus Season 11 Gold> Guide. By FraleBot [11.3] R + W + Q AND Limited to 1 type of Healing Potion. UNIQUE Active: Consumes a charge to restore 125 Health and 75 Mana over 12 seconds and grants Touch of Corruption during that time. Holds up to 3 charges that refills upon visiting the shop. Touch of Corruption: Damaging spells and attacks burn enemy champions for 15 magic damage over 3 seconds. (50% Damage for Area of Effect or Damage over Time spells.

varus guide lethality top

Is Lethality Varus the most OP ADC in Season 10? - League ...

Open to all feedback and critique! Comment down below your off meta support picks. #varus #season11 #support Varus support is actually really good so I made a S10 Lethality Varus build, guide/gameplay video. I hope you enjoy this video and learn something and if ur not here to learn hope you enjoy the ... Dark Harvest Full AD Varus Mid Gameplay Guide 0:00 Build 0:06 Runes Season 10 Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/EternalHeroLoL Enjoyed? - Like 👍, Comment & Su... You can't stop lethality Varus In League of Legends. Don't forget to like/subscribe and turn on notifications! 🔔 ️ Click here to Subscribe: http://bit.ly/1... Lethality Varus is really strong atm when you take comet and build some early Attack Damage. in this video i will talk about how you guys can pull this pick ... Today I teach you how to play Lethality Caitlyn, the master of self defense.Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/darkkmaneDiscord: https://discord.gg/Gv3Z7hPMerch: ... If you enjoy the video, subscribeKorean Lethality Varus - Challenger Varus ADC Full Gameplay - Patch 9.13 S9 Season 9 2019 - League of Legends (LoL)OPGG: htt... Gameplay from DIAMOND 1 EUW - Playing the easiest and most OP ADC in Season 10 League of Legends - Varus with a Lethality build. Feel free to use this Varus ...

League of Legends Guide: How to play Lethality Varus

varus guide lethality

varus guide lethality - win

Vaarus Mains - WE GOT THE MEMO

Lethality varus build guide

Basic Guide for Botlane Match Ups/ Champ Classes

Basic Guide for Botlane Match Ups/ Champ Classes

Advanced AP Varus Guide (Rift Academy #6)

New Varus player

I ranked every champion based on how well their kits let them use Prototype: Omnistone.

My take on how to build Varus this season [Patch 10.25].

A Support Item Quick Guide

Why ADC feels weak, and How to carry as ADC

My point of view on taric. (my journey/ improve/ taric/ ranked / skills/ future)

FAQ - Check this before posting!

- Beginner Information

- Gameplay

- Itemization and Runes

- Matchups & Support Synergy

- Tips & Guides

Be careful when looking at builds on data sites as sometimes this information can be misleading for new players.

Season 10 Pyke Guide. Everything you will need to know about Pyke

A List of Every Keystone in the Game, and What They Specialize In

EDIT:

Fleet Footwork

Conquerer

PtA

Lethal Tempo

Electrocute

Dark Harvest

Hail of .Blades

Predator

Comet

Aery

Phase Rush

Aftershock

Grasp of the Undying

Guardian

Kleptomancy

Glacial Augment

Unsealed Spellbook

varus guide lethality video

varus guide lethality top

Is Lethality Varus the most OP ADC in Season 10? - League ...