EPTI suppose physical carry might not be the correct title, but I'll say that because this is a general guide for any champion that relies on auto attacking as their primary source of damage in the late game.
This is an extremely general guide. Item builds and playstyles may vary from champion to champion, and I just use one general build that works across the most generic of physical carry playstyle.
The champions that fall into this category:
Miss Fortune
Ashe
Tristana
Corki
Kog Maw
Twitch
Ezreal
Sivir
Twisted Fate
Teemo(normally AP setup but can be built AD)
Kennen(normally AP setup but can be built AD)
+ Show Spoiler [Rune Setup] +
9x Armor Pen Reds
9x mana regen/5@level 18
9x mana regen/5@level 18
3x Flat Health Quint
9x mana regen/5@level 18
9x mana regen/5@level 18
3x Flat Health Quint
+ Show Spoiler [Mastery Setup] +
21/0/9
+ Show Spoiler [Summoner Spells] +
Flash / Ghost
Flash / Cleanse
Flash / Cleanse
+ Show Spoiler [Typical Item Build] +
3x Dorans Blade
Mercury Treads / Berserker's Greaves
Infinity Edge
Last Whisper
These items are the key ones that you will be wanting to get. Anyone with a strong auto attack will melt just about any champion on the other team once you get these items.
Typically after this you would want to build some sort of survivability. Use your brain and see what the other team has and build accordingly. It never hurts to just get more damage.
Mercury Treads / Berserker's Greaves
Infinity Edge
Last Whisper
These items are the key ones that you will be wanting to get. Anyone with a strong auto attack will melt just about any champion on the other team once you get these items.
Typically after this you would want to build some sort of survivability. Use your brain and see what the other team has and build accordingly. It never hurts to just get more damage.
+ Show Spoiler [Early Game] +
Last hit as much as possible.
You are probably solo mid or top if you are attempting to carry. If you do not know your champion that well, I would suggest you try to keep the enemy creeps up into your own tower as far as you can, that means last hitting only, NO AUTO ATTACKING. At the very least, make sure you are doing less damage to the enemy creeps than your opponent. I might suggest a different strategy for more advanced players, but this is a very safe and effective way to lane.
If you can get some harass in, do it. If the creeps are constantly pushed up into your tower, or past the half way point anyway, you are setting your jungler up for a gank.
As soon as you go to the lane, I would suggest you test how much aggression you can get away with, and how the other man is going to react to it. If they are really bad they won't know how to respond to your aggression which let you keep them low enough to free farm or even kill them.
You are probably solo mid or top if you are attempting to carry. If you do not know your champion that well, I would suggest you try to keep the enemy creeps up into your own tower as far as you can, that means last hitting only, NO AUTO ATTACKING. At the very least, make sure you are doing less damage to the enemy creeps than your opponent. I might suggest a different strategy for more advanced players, but this is a very safe and effective way to lane.
If you can get some harass in, do it. If the creeps are constantly pushed up into your tower, or past the half way point anyway, you are setting your jungler up for a gank.
As soon as you go to the lane, I would suggest you test how much aggression you can get away with, and how the other man is going to react to it. If they are really bad they won't know how to respond to your aggression which let you keep them low enough to free farm or even kill them.
+ Show Spoiler [First shop] +
Assuming you don't have to shop because you had a fight, shop at around 1300-1400 gold. Pick up 2 more dorans blades, boots, and 2 wards(one ward for top lane). When you come back to mid, ward both bushes on each side of the lane. It doesn't matter too much if you are obvious about it or not. Being obvious might stop anyone from even trying to gank you at all.
If you really need the health potions because of heavy harassment, pick one or two up as well. The life leech from your dorans should have you feeling pretty comfortable at this point. With both sides of the lane warded, you can probably auto a little more and push the lane if you are feeling like it will be beneficial to you in some way (denying them farm by pushing creeps into the tower).
Ashe/Ezreal players feel free to use your ult to try to set up or score a kill. Don't feel like you have to hold it in forever. Also see note about skill usage below.
If you really need the health potions because of heavy harassment, pick one or two up as well. The life leech from your dorans should have you feeling pretty comfortable at this point. With both sides of the lane warded, you can probably auto a little more and push the lane if you are feeling like it will be beneficial to you in some way (denying them farm by pushing creeps into the tower).
Ashe/Ezreal players feel free to use your ult to try to set up or score a kill. Don't feel like you have to hold it in forever. Also see note about skill usage below.
+ Show Spoiler [Second Shop] +
BF Sword, More wards.
Hopefully you are doing well at this point. Don't be afraid to roam if you see an opportunity. If you have a mapwide ult, take a chance if you see one. People might laugh at you for missing horribly but who cares at least you are using your skills. You can pretty much farm anything you want comfortably from here on out. The life leech will keep you rolling. If there are jungle creeps up you can rotate between creep waves and kill some jungle as well.
Hopefully you are doing well at this point. Don't be afraid to roam if you see an opportunity. If you have a mapwide ult, take a chance if you see one. People might laugh at you for missing horribly but who cares at least you are using your skills. You can pretty much farm anything you want comfortably from here on out. The life leech will keep you rolling. If there are jungle creeps up you can rotate between creep waves and kill some jungle as well.
+ Show Spoiler [shop 2.5] +
If you do have to go back to shop again soon, and you only have enough for the crit cloak, and not pickaxe(component for infinity edge) go ahead and get that. The math is extremely close on average damage between pickaxe and cloak. Don't worry about saving up for the pickaxe if you can get the cloak right there. Get it.
+ Show Spoiler [Infinity Edge] +
As soon as you get this item, you will notice a gigantic damage boost. If you can get +300 gold beyond your infnity edge before you shop, I would very very highly recommend getting an agility potion and holding it in your inv. Agility Potion + Inf Edge from neither of those items is a sick damage boost. You will be happy when you shoot people.
If it's around 20-25 minutes and you have these items, you should be saying to your team "i'm ready to kill people now" because you will be quite ahead. You should roam around and try to pick of kills if people are still laning.
If it's around 20-25 minutes and you have these items, you should be saying to your team "i'm ready to kill people now" because you will be quite ahead. You should roam around and try to pick of kills if people are still laning.
+ Show Spoiler [25 minutes+] +
In any reasonable game, teams will be for the most part grouping up around 25-35 minutes in if the game isn't over already. If you can slip away and gobble up a nice creep wave, definitely go for it. A lot of times teams will dance around in a lane doing nothing, so I would suggest at this time try to push a lane up and then slip off when they react to you. You might be able to get a tower if they decide to fight 4v5 (in solo queue you really have no control over this, sometimes teams will just fight without you, so in general, i'd say it's best to just kill the tower if you really won't be able to make it at all).
+ Show Spoiler [Roaming With The Team] +
If your team is roaming around, try to stay a reasonable distance behind them at all times, enough so that you don't get caught in whatever ult: Amumu, Galio, Tibbers etc. that they might have.
If your team initiates on them well, just go in and be as aggressive as you can. You're going to have to make a judgement call here.
If the initiation is medium, wait a little bit for the other team to blow some of their nice skills, then go in.
If the initiation is bad, or the other team catches you off guard, stay back and try to find a good timing to slip and and pick one or two kills.
If your team initiates on them well, just go in and be as aggressive as you can. You're going to have to make a judgement call here.
If the initiation is medium, wait a little bit for the other team to blow some of their nice skills, then go in.
If the initiation is bad, or the other team catches you off guard, stay back and try to find a good timing to slip and and pick one or two kills.
Misc Info:
Side note about skill usage in the lane:
Some players will see that you have used your global ultimate, and if the fight is close in mid they will know once you have used it that they can push you out of the lane because you won't be able to fight them. You can use this to your advantage as well for example in ashe vs tristana. If you are tristana and the opposing ashe player shoots her ult off, you will definitely be able to kill her in mid if she tries to fight you assuming HP/Items are relatively even.
Pay attention to the cooldowns of your opposing laner and try to get some free harass in while their skills are down. You have the upper hand for a short time because you can use an ability on them. (ie: you see ashe volley some creeps-- on tristana, you immediately rocket jump on her and hit her with your E skill and start auto attacking her). You are guaranteed to be doing more damage than her at that point.
Watch what your team is doing.
A lot of times, tanks will bee line for the other team's carry, if so, you pretty much have 0% chance to make it to that man, so no reason to shoot him. If you have last whisper, shooting tanks isn't a horrible idea, a lot of times you have no choice if 1/2 tanks are stuck on you. Go for support / squishies if you aren't being boxed out by enemy tanks.
If your tanks go on their tanks, then they will probably be near you to help you out. This is where you have to go for priority targets no matter what. Shoot the other team's AP / AD carry and kill him.
Dealing With Assassins:
There are a lot of characters that will fly onto your face and try to burst you down or just plain stick on you (warwick, akali). If nobody is assisting you with these characters your best option might be to run. If akali / shaco are giving you trouble a vision ward or oracles isn't out of the question, although it sort of sucks to spend your gold on items like this.
If the other team is focusing you HARD:
Here are some options for different situations:
Cleanse, then flash backwards and keep shooting them. This is the ultimate twitch strategy that every good twitch player does. You can normally kill whoever was on you by the time they close the flash distance.
Flash over a wall and run back into the fight: Once you are over a wall, the chances of someone chasing you is extremely low. Find a good position to run back into the fight and hopefully catch someone off guard and kill them
Run away. Sometimes you have to run or you will die. You can only really learn this over time.
Very Low HP: Once people stop chasing you, assuming you are extremely low HP, you might be able to hang out around the edge of a fight and throw some skills in (ashe volley, ezreal Q, etc.). Be prepared to run again the moment you see anyone even look at you.
Positioning:
Positioning is extremely important. I mentioned above that you should almost always stay out of range of your initiators so that you don't get caught off guard. You have to remember, if you are playing well, the other team will want to kill you very badly, much earlier than anyone else, so preserving your life is by far the most important thing you can do. Don't get caught out of position. Play smart and try to stay alive as long as you can.
Keys to winning:
Early Infinity Edge + Green Pot
Great positioning in team fights
Decision making skills over a variety of situations
Use your brain
Wrap Up
I'm not really sure what else there is besides all of the things that are absolutely 100% situational. If I figure out an easy way of helping to be more aware, I will let you know. Other ways of learning I would say is jsut trying to predict where the other team might be at all times. Eventually you will see a pattern appear. If you know the general timings of when the buffs are up and you see someone disappear, you can expect them to be there. It's just a matter of learning the timings. Let me know if you have any questions or if I forgot anything or even if this just completely sucks.
