League of Legends - Twitch Guide

Twitch is a powerful ranged carry that can easily destroy an entire team with proper positioning and his long range ultimate that can penetrate his enemies. Twitch also brings solid utility to the team, with a large multiple target slow and the ability to scout the map with his invisibility.

This Twitch guide aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Twitch, it is recommended for people just starting to use Twitch.

Abilities

• 
  Deadly Venom (Passive) Provides Twitch with some extra damage through his auto-attacks, but its main utility is its synergy with Twitch's other abilities. Combining this passive with Expunge is the key to maximising Twitch's damage potential, while it can also be used to increase the slow applied by Debilitating Poison.
• 
  Ambush Twitch's signature ability that allows him to turn invisible. This skill also provides a strong attack speed boost to Twitch upon breaking stealth (either by attacking, casting a spell or duration ends), the key to maximising this skill is making sure you are invisible for long periods of time as the attack speed boost is bigger based on how long you were invisible.
• 
  Debilitating Poison A very powerful slow that hits all enemies within its range (stronger based on how many Deadly Venom stacks an enemy has). This skill is best used to stop fleeing enemies, protect your allies and slowing people before you use your ultimate. The slow is quite powerful alone and generally Deadly Venom stacks are best saved for Expunge.
• 
  Expunge This is Twitch's "kill button", it has a long range and adds some strong damage to Twitch's arsenal, this will allow you to kill those enemies that escape with their life and is also a great early game harassment tool. It is vital that you use this after getting a few shots of your ultimate off to maximise your damage.
• 
  Spray and Pray (Ultimate) Give's Twitch a nice attack damage boost as well as providing Twitch with a massive range increase and allowing his attacks to pass through enemies. This ability is most powerful during team fights, when you can hit multiple enemies, while staying out of range thanks to the increased range.

Ability Order

Generally the best way to level your abilities is:
Ult > Expunge > Ambush > Debilitating Poison

Maxing Expunge first gives you an amazing amount of burst damage and at max rank is over 500 damage (if the enemy has 6 Deadly Venom Stacks), this is very powerful at level 9. Taking two points in Ambush early are essential for the invisibility length increase, taking it at level 1 also allows you to scout as needed and get a jump on any unsuspecting enemy (potentially the enemy jungler). As mentioned previously Debilitating Poison base slow is very powerful with each rank only increasing its duration, so it is left till last. You can take an earlier point in it if your lanes lack crowd control which makes it hard to gank successfully.

1. Ambush
2. Expunge
3. Expunge
4. Ambush
5. Expunge
6. Spray and Pray
7. Expunge
8. Debilitating Poison
9. Expunge
10. Ambush
11. Spray and Pray
12. Ambush
13. Ambush
14. Debilitating Poison
15. Debilitating Poison
16. Spray and Pray
17. Debilitating Poison
18. Debilitating Poison

Twitch Runes

Red (Marks) - Armor Penetration
Yellow (Seals) - Armor
Blue (Glyphs) - Magic Resistance
Purple (Quintessences) - Armor Penetration

Taking Armor Penetration on Marks & Quintessences maximises your overall damage output and gives you great early game damage, alternatively you can take Health on Quintessences for a safer early game. Taking Armor and Magic Resistance on Seals & Glyphs gives you strong early-mid game survivability which is key for Twitch, your mana regeneration needs will be covered by your masteries.

Summoner Spells

 

Best Summoner Spells:
-Flash
-Ghost

Twitch needs to be able to position himself correctly in team fights and escape when he gets targeted. Running Flash and Ghost achieves both these goals and are the two best summoner spell possibilities for Twitch.

Other Good Summoner Spells:
-Ignite
-Exhaust

Alternatively you can take Ignite or Exhaust (but not both, you need at minimum one escape summoner spell), Ignite can secure you lots of early game kills and is a great source of true damage throughout the entire game. Exhaust assists in 1v1 battles as Twitch as it allows you to jump out of stealth and destroy practically any squishy without worry for retaliation.

Masteries

Because our rune setup focuses on defensive choices, we focus on the utility mastery for mana regeneration, neutral buff duration increase and summoner spell cooldown, as Twitch heavily relies on these. We take the spell penetration from Offense to increase your Expunge damage, but this can easily be placed elsewhere.

Offense (9)
Max out improved critical strike and place a point in increased ability power or improved Exhaust if you take it as a summoner spell. From here pick up some cooldown reduction and then the 15% spell penetration mastery.

Utility (21)
Pick up Improved Ghost, as it greatly increases the effectiveness of your Ghost summoner spell. You also want to grab improved health and mana regeneration and then move down into improved experience. In Tier 3 you want to pick up mana regeneration and neutral buff duration to ensure you get the most out of the Red Lizard Buff. Moving down the utility tree you want to pick up improved movement speed, allowing you to get around the map that little bit faster, also grab improved Flash. To finish off the utility tree pick up some more cooldown reduction and the all important summoner spell cooldown.

Item Build

 
Final Item Build:
-Boots of Swiftness
-Banshee's Veil
-Phantom Dance
-Infinity Edge
-The Bloodthirster
-Frozen Mallet

Steps/Reasoning:
-Start with a Doran's Shield to enhance your defensive early game, giving you strong lane staying power with health, health regeneration and some armor.
-On your first trip back you should aim towards Boots of Swiftness allowing you to move around the map and gank as needed. If you are in a side lane consider Boots of Mobility instead as there is alot more ground to cover. Some games you may require Mercury's Treads if the enemy has lots of crowd control.
-Grabbing a Vampiric Scepter at this point can be great to keep you in lane and allow you to farm jungle minions effectively. From here you'll want to focus on building up some serious damage by picking up a B.F. Sword and turning it into an Infinity Edge.
-Next you want to get some attack speed and critical chance to back up your damage, Zeal is your perfect item for these stats and you can turn it into Phantom Dancer later in the game.
-At this stage of the game its very important to grab some defences as Twitch is a very squishy champion, you should look at building a Banshee's Veil and a Frozen Mallet, which provide you with a free spell block and a nice slow on your auto-attacks, making it very hard to escape Twitch when combined with Debilitating Poison.
-If the game continues or you need some more damage instead of two defensive items look at building The Bloodthirster for some powerful attack damage and life-steal.

Alternatives:
-Last Whisper (An important item if the enemy has lots of armor)
-Madred's Bloodrazor (Provides good attack speed as well as allowing you to take out high health targets)
-Cleaver (A solid attack damage boost, which some added attack speed, great if the enemy team has low armoured targets)

General Twitch Tips

• Be constantly checking enemy champions for Oracle's Elixir, Twitch is very squishy and getting caught out against an Oracle's Elixir will likely lead to death.
• Twitch's strength comes from his ability to stop and start ganks by tracking the enemy movements around the map.
• Twitch is all about the positioning and timing of his ultimate, this should be your focus for the entire game.
• Try to track how many stacks of Deadly Venom you have on your enemies and try to save your Expunge for when they have 6 stacks. However, if the run out of auto-attack range you should always hit Expunge.
• Do not attempt to kill someone 1v1, unless you know where the other enemies are, you could quickly find yourself in a 2v1 or 3v1 situation if your not careful.

Early Game - (Level 1-6)

• last hitting should be your main priority as you do not have alot of power early. Early game farm is very important for Twitch.
• Use Ambush sparingly as it is not needed unless you are planning to kill an enemy.
• If the enemy is putting lots of pressure on you, you can use Ambush to make them back off, this also allows you to stay in experience range if you are being completely denied.
• Hitting an enemy 2-3 times for Deadly Venom stacks and then using Expunge is great early game harassment.

Mid Game - (Level 7-12)

• Start roaming the map looking ganks on other lanes or the enemies jungler. Be careful about how much time you spend roaming though, you miss alot of experience and farm.
• Buying a lone Vampiric Scepter at this stage of the game can keep you in lanes longer and allow you to farm the neutral minions in the jungle.
• Consider warding important objectives for your team, you can do this at very minimal risk due to Ambush. This allows you to gank enemies within their jungle effectively without having to constantly sit in there looking for them.
• Be careful of wards and Oracle's Elixir, they will start appearing at this stage of the game.
• You can push lanes heavily for the farm and experience, only to use Ambush to get away when the enemy shows up. This can give you a strong level and gold advantage.

Late Game - (Level 13-18)

• Try to mentally keep track of where the enemies with Oracle's Elixir are located on the map and avoid those areas, it is likely to be instant death.
• Focus on scouting out the enemy (your ability to do this will depend on how many Oracle's Elixirs they have), you should also pick off their squishy champions if they wander off.
• Always be aware of your position, you should be ready to use your ultimate right after your tanks initiation to maximise its effectiveness.
• Continue push lanes hard and use Ambush to retreat before the enemy can catch you. 

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