Runes, Masteries, and Summoner Spells
Masteries:
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Standard 21/0/9
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I run these for every matchup. Some people run more points down the left side of the tree, sacrificing points in sorcery, devastating strikes, archmage or feast/butcher, but I've found this to be the most comfortable for me.
I used to not run Feast/Butcher, but I found that both the ease in last hitting, and the extra sustain are very helpful in lane. Of special note is the mana regen from feast. Because of how TF's w works, you can basically snowball to infinite mana using blue cards if you have at least 40, but if you're ever under 40 you're screwed.
While it's obviously ideal to just not q/gold/red card while at sub 100 mana, sometimes you don't have a choice (gank/fight/last hitting under tower,) and the mastery lets you get back to blue carding up to 5-6 seconds faster in some cases, especially when you don't start dorans.
Another less standard choice is buff duration over biscuits in the utility tree. I Pick this because I find I'm generally fine in lane without biscuits, and the mid and lategame power of blue buff is HUGE for TF. As you want to rush out sheen (or even more so when you rush zhonyas/abyssal) you NEED mana regen if you want to be able to shove out your lane to gank effectively.
The CDR is also pretty big on your ultimate, as getting your second ult 18 seconds earlier can often make the difference between a teammate getting dived/caught, or you turning the fight.
Later on, blue lets you poke with q's, and most importantly lets you siege towers with gold cards instead of blue, which is a much larger deal then people seem to think. In the average sieging scenario, the other team is waveclearing minions quickly enough that your adc is only getting
1-2 autos a wave on the tower, or even situations where an enemy bruiser/assassin can just sit by the tower and engage if you or your adc even try and auto. With blue cards, you can't risk getting into threat range of any of their team to throw your card at the tower, because your main teamfighting skill is now on cooldown. However, if you have blue buff, you can just lock in a gold card and run up. If anyone tries to zone you, just stun and q them, and they'll either take a bunch of damage and have to back/risk getting dived, so most of the time they'll fall back, and you'll get a free lichbane gold card on the tower, which can deal between 10-40% of the towers life depending on how late it is in the game.
Once you have some ap you can reliably take towers really safely in just 3-4 waves, without ever really risking getting engaged on.
Runes:
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I've tried lots of rune pages from many different sources, and everyone seems to have different ideas for what's best. These are the two i ended up settling on and am most comfortable with, but they are by no means objectively the best.
At the end of the day the most important thing is that you pick a set and stick with them, since the benefit of having 9 different pages is definitely offset by the fact you'll never truly learn your damage/cooldowns with any of them.
I settled on two rune pages, which i stole from Apdo a few months ago. One for AD lanes (zed/talon/yi etc) and one for AP (everything from LB to orianna) lanes.
vs AD laners
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Quints: 3x MS
Marks: 9x Hybrid Pen
Seals: 9x Armour/lvl
Glyphs: 3x CDR + 6x CDR/lvl
vs AP laners
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Quints: 3x MS
Marks: 9x Magic pen
Seals: 9x HP/lvl
Glyphs: 3x mr + 6x MR/lvl
If you don't have some of the runes, hybrid pen/mpen are pretty interchangeable, as are scaling and flat runes.
To explain the reasoning behind some of the choices.
MS quints:
These are core on tf, you can theoretically run ap, but if you don't have ms quints, save up for them. They make him a much better champion.
Hybrid pen vs spell pen:
The reason i run these different runes is simply that most ad laners are melee assassins, as such you can harass them really hard with autos for the first few levels, and after every trade they force, you can generally get 2-3 autos off on them as they back out again.
Against most AP matchups, you're going to get either outbursted or out sustain damaged. Champions like lb will just kill you if a trade goes beyond one rotation, while things like orianna just do more damage with auto attacks. In vs AP lanes I generally find myself just harassing with the occasional blue/red card or gold card into q, then backing off before I take too much damage from minions, so mpen is more worth.
Scaling runes:
Scaling HP runes are big because you generally build zhonyas,(and sometimes abyssal,) so the hp becomes pretty valuable. They're pretty much core on most mids these days anyway.
I like scaling armour runes because of how most vs AD matchups work. The average AD assassin will generally not be able to force kills on you pre 6 unless you REALLY mess up, as long as you position and harass properly, the pre 6 lane is generally in your favour. The danger comes the second they hit 6, as they can almost oneshot you at this point.
Scaling runes outvalue flat runes at level 6-7, so they equalise right at the point you really start to need them, and just gain value from then on. I find the armour from the scaling runes is normally enough to last me until i finish zhonyas, often getting a sheen (or even a lich bane if i'm snowballing)
before finishing my zhonyas.
Mixing flat and /lvl glyphs:
This is personal preference, I find this mix of mr can keep me safe against almost all matchups throughout most of the game, and the cdr runes are just what I've gotten used to.
At the end of the day the most important thing is that you pick a set and stick with them, since the benefit of having 9 different pages is definitely offset by the fact you'll never truly learn your damage/cooldowns with any of them.
I settled on two rune pages, which i stole from Apdo a few months ago. One for AD lanes (zed/talon/yi etc) and one for AP (everything from LB to orianna) lanes.
vs AD laners
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Quints: 3x MS
Marks: 9x Hybrid Pen
Seals: 9x Armour/lvl
Glyphs: 3x CDR + 6x CDR/lvl
vs AP laners
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Quints: 3x MS
Marks: 9x Magic pen
Seals: 9x HP/lvl
Glyphs: 3x mr + 6x MR/lvl
If you don't have some of the runes, hybrid pen/mpen are pretty interchangeable, as are scaling and flat runes.
To explain the reasoning behind some of the choices.
MS quints:
These are core on tf, you can theoretically run ap, but if you don't have ms quints, save up for them. They make him a much better champion.
Hybrid pen vs spell pen:
The reason i run these different runes is simply that most ad laners are melee assassins, as such you can harass them really hard with autos for the first few levels, and after every trade they force, you can generally get 2-3 autos off on them as they back out again.
Against most AP matchups, you're going to get either outbursted or out sustain damaged. Champions like lb will just kill you if a trade goes beyond one rotation, while things like orianna just do more damage with auto attacks. In vs AP lanes I generally find myself just harassing with the occasional blue/red card or gold card into q, then backing off before I take too much damage from minions, so mpen is more worth.
Scaling runes:
Scaling HP runes are big because you generally build zhonyas,(and sometimes abyssal,) so the hp becomes pretty valuable. They're pretty much core on most mids these days anyway.
I like scaling armour runes because of how most vs AD matchups work. The average AD assassin will generally not be able to force kills on you pre 6 unless you REALLY mess up, as long as you position and harass properly, the pre 6 lane is generally in your favour. The danger comes the second they hit 6, as they can almost oneshot you at this point.
Scaling runes outvalue flat runes at level 6-7, so they equalise right at the point you really start to need them, and just gain value from then on. I find the armour from the scaling runes is normally enough to last me until i finish zhonyas, often getting a sheen (or even a lich bane if i'm snowballing)
before finishing my zhonyas.
Mixing flat and /lvl glyphs:
This is personal preference, I find this mix of mr can keep me safe against almost all matchups throughout most of the game, and the cdr runes are just what I've gotten used to.
Summoner Spells:
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Flash is required, I shouldn't have to explain why it's strong both offensively and defensively.
This leaves a bunch of choices for a secondary summoner, and almost all are viable.
Ignite.
My prefered choice, I run this into almost every lane if i get the chance, it gives you kill pressure into almost every matchup and makes your ganks much scarier. Plus it works very well lategame when you'll be looking to flash goldcard q the enemy adc. The ignite damage and healing reduction often make the difference between a dead adc and an alive adc, which can very easily decide games at 30+ minutes.
Exhaust.
This is really strong against some ad assassins. I always run this into zed and yasuo, as it can completely shut down their all ins, removing their kill pressure during the vulnerable phase between lvl 3-4 and when you hit zhonyas, and allows you to basically negate zeds ult for the entire game if you're near whoever he ults. It's also great against them offensively in lane. If zed uses his shadow, or if yasuo goes aggro without a chain of minions to escape to, you can just drop exhaust on them and all in, and they can't really escape. Double points if your jungler is coming. Also occasionally taken vs champions who have longer all ins, like ahri, but is too slow a spell for matchups like talon/lb who'll just kill you before you can cast it.
Heal/barrier.
Used to run these a lot into various matchups (barrier if they run ignite, heal otherwise) but I prefer ignite these days. There aren't any lanes where you just straight up lose without them, and ignite gives so much more pressure.
Cleanse.
Situationally useful, I've only run it a few times, but it's great for situations like laning vs a lissandra, when their team also has more cc. I generally prefer to just buy a qss in the mid/lategame if neccesary though.
Teleport.
Apdo style TF is definitely strong if played well. You just run Flash Teleport, RUSH homeguard as your first item, and proceed to shit all over the entire map. You can use it to win lane by basing at level 3-4-5 for a second dorans/pots, giving you an advantage pre 6, or you can use it to gank other lanes pre 6. Once you hit 6 you basically have a second ultimate, which you can use to homeguard game, react to tower dives, and just generally be obnoxious. Despite having two spells that take advantage of distortion, you definitely want to go homeguard with this build. You're not using teleport as a split push tool, but as an agressive engage/countergank one, which makes homeguard invaluable. Also teleporting to someones tower while the lane is in the middle, and just racecarring down the lane like a rammus with a gold card locked is great fun.
Ghost.
A popular choice, going flash ghost and getting distortion makes you very mobile. It's also very good in lane vs immobile skillshot champions like xerath. I just personally don't like this style very much.
Abilities and Skill Order
Abilities:
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Passive: Twisted Fate rolls his dice every time he kills an enemy, randomly gaining 1 to 6 Gold. Naturally, he has a higher chance to receive a large bonus.
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A nice little bump in gold, You don't really notice it happening but it lets you get your core items a little faster. Also gives nice value when taking small monsters from a jungle camp.
Q:
Cost: 60/70/80/90/100
Cooldown: 6
Magic Damage: 60/110/160/210/260 + 0.65*AP
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Your standard Q damage skillshot. A decent damage poke spell that scales reasonably well with levels, (50 damage a level,) and is very good for waveclearing due to its long range. Finally, it is a little different from most skillshots in that it fires 3 seperate cards, one on either side of the main one. In lane I'll often hover the targeting frame to line up a q to get 2-3 different minions with different cards, and there's nothing more satisfying that picking up 2-3 kills on people running away by perfectly lining up a Q so each arrow takes someone out. While I generally smartcast everything, I find myself normal casting this every now and then just to make full use of side cards.
There are three main uses of Q which you'll find yourself repeating a lot.
1. Shoving a lane.
The damage does not reduce as you hit multiple targets, and it is long enough range that with a bit of ap and mana, you can essentially farm from under your own tower if you need to. Once you stack a bit of AP you'll be oneshotting waves with a red card + q, and if you farm well/snowball, q alone will be enough to wipe out entire waves. Also note the projectile is wide enough to catch two minions if you shoot between them, even if they're deceptively far apart.
2. Poke
Standard enough, during teamfights or sieges, or even just when laning, you'll often have chances to just throw out a q and try and hit someone. It's a pretty easy to dodge projectile unless you're very close to them, but you can often snipe people over walls or when they walk through narrow spaces,(like between mid t1 and the jungle wall,) for very decent chunk damage.
3. Gold card + Q
The reliable damage combo, In lane you'll be looking to gold card auto (hopefully e proc) Q, then back off, as your standard trading pattern against most mages. This does a LOT of damage, with almost no room for counterplay if you manage to land the gold card. The gold card basically guarantees the Q will hit, and as you get more points in W you can get more autos off during the stun for more damage. Later on in teamfights, a flash gold card q ignite on an adc is generally enough to oneshot them if you're doing well. Otherwise you can just throw them out on cooldown, in compact teamfights it's honestly quite hard to miss everything with a close range q, just because the splitting cards cover so much area.
Finally, remember Q gives a lich bane proc. lich bane procs are one of the cores of TF, so wherever possible, try and make sure to maximise procs by spacing your skills (Q W and even ult) so you never waste a proc.
W:
Cost: 40/55/70/85/100
Cooldown: 6
Three different effects:
Blue
Magic Damage: 40/60/80/100/120 + 1*AD + 0.5*AP
Mana restored:50/75/100/125/150
Red
AOE Magic Damage: 30/45/60/75/90 + 1*AD + 0.5*AP
Aoe Slow: 30/35/40/45/50%
Gold
Magic Damage: 15/22.5/30/37.5/45 + 1*AD + 0.5*AP
Stun Duration: 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2s
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Your core teamfighting/ganking/anything skill. Being able to recognise which card you should use, and locking it in without getting distracted, are required skills for playing tf. You want to try and internalise the card rotation as quickly as possible. While the first card to appear is random, the pattern ALWAYS repeats BLUE RED GOLD BLUE RED GOLD BLUE RED GOLD. With practice you should be able to check what colour the card is at any point in the rotation, then lock in any other card without checking again, just from knowing the timings. This is important because you really don't want to have to be constantly checking whether to lock in yet during ganks or teamfights, where your focus is needed elsewhere.
The first thing that stands out is the differences in damage. Gold card does less then red, and significantly less then blue. This means depending on the length of a trade, different cards can do much more or less damage overall. If you can only get one auto off, blue card is obviously best, but in extended trades red and gold can let you land guaranteed q's, and more autos, giving much more value.
Another note is that blue cards don't actually give *that* much mana. You get 10xlvl of your w per card, and if you lock in a blue card and fail to throw it, you need to land another 3-4 just to make up the mana you just lost. Finally, when last hitting, w cards actually come out slightly faster then normal auto attacks. If there's a minion beside you that's at 10hp and is about to die, and your auto attack wouldn't go off in time, you can sometimes doubel tap w to quickly throw out the first card in the cycle, and get the cs.
This skill has a plethora of potential uses, and you generally don't have much time to think about which card you need.
1. Laning
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Blue cards:
In lane blue cards are what you should be locking in most of the time. They have the highest damage, making them effective for simple harass and for very easy last hitting, and the mana regen is key to keeping you topped up in the early levels, especially if you start a non dorans starting item.
Red cards:
These are used to gain/regain lane control if you ever start losing it. Your waveclear is one of your strongest tools for dominating lanes pre 6, and allowing yourself to roam after. A very typical play in a lot of matchups is just red carding the wave or caster minions 2-3 times level 1, to instantly gain an almost unstoppable shove advantage. This basically forces the enemy laner to blow all their spells/autos purely on the lane, just to avoid getting shoved in on, which opens up windows for blue card harass, or even gold card + Q for when you hit level 2 first (which you almost always will.) Later on, red card + Q is your basic shoving combo. Once you have sheen or blue buff you should have the mana pool to blow up a wave, and still have mana left to ult bot/top and gank.
You can also harass without gaining minion aggro by just red carding a minion beside the enemy laner for more waveclear and poke damage.
Gold cards:
These are for longer trades, allins, and escaping from ganks. Generally you only want to go for gold card + q trades if you have near full mana, as blue card mana regen really isn't that impresive early on. Having said that, just locking in a gold card and running at the opponent almost always forces them to back way off the wave, and you can basically force them to lose cs for 4-5 seconds. It also gives a safe-ish way of trading vs champions like leblanc. You can generally get a gold card + Q + E proc off on them, then back out again before they can retaliate, whereas a red or blue card just results in them unloading their entire burst directly on your face.
Gold card is also your only way of surviving things like fizz or zed all ins. You just have to take EXTREME care not to throw the gold card at them before they E or R respectively, as they can dodge it with those spells, and you're basically 100% dead after that. Just sit on the gold card as you run away, and throw it the second they become targetable.
2. Ganking/making picks
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Grouping these two because they're basically the same. Either you ult ontop of an adc/support who's overextended and try to oneshot/lock them down while teammates come, or you're ulting in behind a lane and want to burst/lock them down til your laner can join in.
Generally you just want to gold card, then auto and hope they die. If you can afford to waiting two autos before q'ing gives you an extra lich bane proc.
The only situations you want to use other cards are either if you're ganking 2-3 people who are pushing your tower, and they've used their escapes, in which case a red card can slow and damage all of them, which *can* let you get more kills then a gold card would have. The relatively common situation is a fight bot where eveyrone is low, but you're super low mana. Ulting bot at 6 with 200 mana leaves you with only 50 when you arrive, and one gold card normally isn't enough to kill everybody, so locking in a blue card to throw at someone who's very low to pick up a kill and get some mana back can help turn fights. You can then use your newfound wealth of mana to either q or save it for a gold or another blue card, depending on how the fight is going.
Downside of these plays is they can bait your teammates into hard engaging expecting a gold card, plus if they fail, you look like you just messed up and people yell at you
3. Lategame teamfighting
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You generally just want to spam gold cards in teamfights, either catching a squishy to burst them with q+e, or to peel for your adc. Red is occasionally useful for bruisers/if they're stacked, but the value of shutting down someone for 1.5-2 seconds is generally too big to waste. I only use blue cards if i'm super low mana, as if the fight is dragging on 3-4 blue cards and a q over 15s is more worth then one gold card then just autos, but both are shitty situations.
E:
Bonus AS: 10/15/20/25/30%
Bonus Magic Damage: 55/80/105/130/155 + 0.5*AP
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A very nice hidden dps boost, early on it gives great extra damage in trades if you time it, and it makes last hitting under tower incredibly easy, you really shouldn't miss anything under tower with this many tools to help. While in theory you want to be keeping track of it for ganks, you generally auto enough to proc it multiple times anyway so i rarely find myself conciously notiing my stack number. Only exception is when preparing to flash gold card someone, or last hitting under tower.
R:
Cooldown: 180/150/120
Duration: 6/8/10
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The iconic TF skill. This is your main midgame power tool, and what you'll use to try and snowball the game in your favour. Knowing when and where to ult is kind of hard to teach through words, for the most part you just need to experiment yourself by playing lots of games and learning what works. There aren't really any ironclad rules so I'll just give some pointers.
When running towards somewhere you want to ult, hover your mouse over the skill to have it display your port range (both on screen and on the minimap.) This is super important for checking exactly where your range is.
Your first 2-3 ults often decide how the entire midgame will play out, so making them go well is really important. Keep track of flash cooldowns, and try and know whether you're going top or bottom before you start shoving the wave. Bottom is generally preferable, since you can get twice as many kills there and you don't risk dragon, but often it's too dangerous (a heavy cc lane which is winning) or they'll just escape (thresh trist or thresh kalista.) If a lane is winning and pushing tower, you can often just ult right beside their tower, gold card q then run away, tanking tower for your laner to get the kill.
Always remember to glance at the minimap right after casting before you port in. There's nothing more frustrating then double tapping r, only to notice the enemy jungler is right beside the lane you just ported to. It gives vision of the entire enemy team, use it!
If you really don't see anywhere you can go, and every lane is losing, just sit mid and shove every wave to keep the potential pressure of a gank up, and wait for the enemy team to try a risky invade or dive which you can ult into to turn.
Later on you just want to be looking for an isolated 1v1, or a splitpushing adc or underfed squishy, who you can just airdrop on top of. The ult also gives true site of the entire enemy team for quite a long time, and so can serve as an alternative to sweeper/pink wards for dealing with stealthed champions like vayne/talon/wukong etc.
If a teamfight starts in the jungle, or we can't see the entire enemy team I just blow ult as it starts for the vision, as it prevents a flank from catching anyone, makes stealthed champions basically useless (rip vayne) and at lvl 11-16 lasts long enough that the teamfight will often be decided before it runs out, and i can use it to chase to secure kills or to port to a lane thats shoving to take towers instantly.
A side note, although people never seem to build it anymore, this spell actually interacts with banshees veil. It blocks the vision portion when you cast, which can be annoying, but it's also great for catching out an unsuspecting adc or squishy who thinks they're safe from a flash gold card just because veil is up. Just instantly ult flash w.
Skill Order:
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First of all, the standard cookie cutter order.
W-Q-Q-E-Q-R, then R>Q>W>E
This is your go to skill order. W first, as it gives the most safety, utility and damage level one. Then two fast points in Q, as it gains 50 damage per level, scaling very well with points, grab a point in e for extra DPS and help last hitting under tower, (e empowered auto + tower shot kills a caster minion,) then max W second for increased damage and utility. This will suffice for basically 100% of games, and you don't neccesarily need to know anything more.
Having said that there are a few small optimisations I've seen good players make for specific matchups, which can be interesting in theory.
Auto heavy lanes: W-E-Q-Q-Q-R. R>Q>W>E
Against some lanes where you can get a lot of autos off (vs lanes like fizz), and are being shoved under tower lvl 2, I've seen a few people use this. Extra attack speed and e procs make auto harass a lot more effective level 2, and also make getting every minion in the second and third wave a lot easier if you're shoved under tower from the start, since level 1 q is very unreliable for last hitting due to it's tiny damage.
Farm under tower lanes: W-E-W-Q-Q-R. R>Q>W>E
If you're not going to be going at all agressive, you can sometimes skip the early points in q in favour of more mana regen. The extra regen from W lets you throw out a few more stun cards, (with higher durations,) and control the wave with more red cards, if you're being pushed really hard and are afraid of being dived. Can be useful vs fizz if you lose wave control, or champions with very strong lvl 2-3 waveclear. Also useful if you feel like their jungler is going for a very early mid dive.
Both these are pretty nitty gritty though, and I rarely use them. Just including them for completedness' sake.
Side point.
E-W-E-W-E-R. R>E>W>Q is CORE on Jungle TF, but I know nothing about this style/build so I won't even try and comment.
Items and Playstyle
Item Build:
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Standard core:
Ionian boots -> Lichbane -> Zhonyas/Rabas -> Rabas/Zhonyas -> Void -> situational item. Occasionally skipping zhonyas and/or adding an abyssal, and grabbing homeguard enchantment at some point.
TF builds from most regions have converged recently into one standard-ish style, which is pretty straight forward. Following the current trend of getting ionian boots as your only cdr item, and then just building as much damage as you can afford to without becoming overly vulnerable. While some people still get a morellos/athenes early, or build sorc boots, I don't think it's at all good anymore.
Starting Items:
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There are two main choices for starting items. Dorans + pots, and boots + pots.
There are no real rules for when to pick one or the other, Dorans makes you a bit tankier, gives better waveclear (damage and mana sustain) and slightly more burst. Boots can help land more autos, escape ganks from some junglers and gives way more sustain. I normally end up picking based off the lane opponent and junglers.
I go boots most games, the movement speed and sustain lets you go really agressive against lots of matchups where you normally can't, pushing and trading heavily relying on your increased number of potions to outsustain the enemy. Boots + ms quints also makes you really fast early on, so dodgeing skillshots is much easier, and you can just juke/walk out of a lot of ganks you normally couldn't. This also helps if you need to early base, as you can just straight up rush lucidity boots on very little gold.
Dorans is good for more passive lanes, but I find i often just get bullied out of lane by a lot of opponents who I can normally out sustain with a boots start. Also some matchups (lb, kassadin, fizz etc) will just start flask, take very inneficient trades level 2-3-4 then you'l have to recall really early because you're out of pots and they're not, whereas with boots you can auto harass them more effectively, and have the potential to out sustain them.
Flask can occasionally be good against some lanes like kassadin, where you'll just get outsustained by his undodgeable damage otherwise, although you can also generally make boots work in these.
Some people start cloth 5 vs ad assassins, but I personally find this way too passive.
First bases:
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For your first few bases there are a few options for items to rush. The most common options are:
Sheen (if you want to roam)
Ionian boots (always good)
Armguard (if you're even/behind vs a zed/talon/yi/whatever)
Negatron (if you're behind vs a leblanc)
dorans rings
Sheen is a great item for lanes you're winning/going even or farm lanes. The damage is great and the increased mana pool is amazingly useful since at level 6 you'll only have around 480 mana. With your ult taking 150 at lvl 6, red card + q to clear the wave then ulting bot will have you arriving with 150ish mana and a gold card locked, which is barely enough for a second combo. And if you've had to use any mana at all in lane, you basically can't gank. The mana from sheen gives you a huge buffer allowing you to reactively ult when needed, without worrying about mana issues.
Ionian boots are core, and you want these ASAP. A lot of people just upgrade boots + wards + pots if they have to base with ~800 gold early on.
Armguard, if you're having trouble vs an ad assassin, you can rush the armguard first, otherwise I tend to prefer getting sheen or at least ionian + cloth armour, then rushing zhonyas after that.
Negatron, if you're dying to a leblanc, get a negatron cloak. Abyssal is a decent item early on, and you can either rush it or just sit on the cloak and get lichbane. Sure it doesn't give damage and isn't ideal, but without it leblanc will just freefarm you.
If you started boots and based with an awkward amoutn of gold, a dorans ring can give some extra combat stats and mana regen to help in lane, but i generally just grab an amp tome if i have 450 spare.
Ordering Core items:
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In 80% of cases you want sheen/ionian boots -> lichbane as your first two items. The only real exception to this is if you're struggling vs an assassin.
After that you have your core of zhonyas, rabas and void staff.
Rabas is a huge item, if you don't *need* zhonyas after lich, get rabas then zhonyas. The damage spike is huge.
Zhonyas is an amazing defensive item, it has tons of uses both agressively and defensively, and makes teamfighting MUCH easier. If I'm against an ad laner, or the enemy jungler/top is snowballing, or i'm against someone with delayed damage or low cc (like fizz) i get this after lich bane.
void staff, this item is just neccesary at this point. If I can get away with it I go rabas -> void -> zhonyas, but it's really rare that the enemy team has that little damage. I don't really see delaying void past 4th item as a viable option outside of very specific cirucmstances.
The three main exceptions to this order
1. vs zed (and other ad assassins), get zhonyas before lich bane, the outplay potential is huge and this is neccesary.
2. vs leblanc (or when getting rekt by ap), get abyssal as first or second item alongside lichbane, this is kind of needed to just not feed. Generally you just skip zhonyas and carry on with rabas and void.
3. If you need abyssal and zhonyas (fed ap mid, and fed ad top), this kind of sucks, I'll often end up getting void staff after i have lich/abyssal/zhonyas, then grabbing rabas last just because you really need fast stats if you're in this situation.
Options for 6th item:
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If you reach a core of ionian/lich/zhonyas/rabas/void then the last item basically comes down to staying alive.
If i got an abyssal early on, and i didn't get zhonyas, i grab it now. It's active is just so strong.
Against some comps (fuck malzahar) a qss is very useful
Sometimes a GA can be good, although I don't really like it since I tend not to die unless the fight is lost anyway. But against reset champs or if you really need to dive it can be useful.
If i'm running vs ap runes (no cdr) I also occasionally buy a cdr item now, especially if there's a vlad or swain on the other team, as 40% cdr can be nice.
Otherwise I generally default to grabbing a ludens for extra MS and burst damage.
One fun thing to do super lategame, if you don't have a ludens yet, is to swap out your boots for a ludens echo.
You're a fair bit more vulnerable, but with 6 ap items you just do absurd damage and are basically guaranteed to just oneshot the enemy adc.
Homeguard vs other enchants
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I almost always get the homeguard upgrade for my boots, because it synergises so well with your ultimate. You can base, homeguard to the edge of the base and ult to get to basically anywhere on the map within a few seconds of spawning/recalling.
This is great from laning phase (you can be in bot lane 5s after spawning/basing,) and later on (base then rejoin fights, or for split pushing, or for spawning and contesting baron.)
I generally get this whenever i have spare change. Very rarely I'll get alacrity, and i almost never get distortion.
Why no ludens?
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Ludens is still a recomended item on tf, but it hasn't really been good early since the ap item refactor. With the massive buffs that gave to rabadons, you now basically need rabas in your first 3 items, and since you also need zhonyas and lich early, that would push ludens to fourth, and void is just a better value damage item as 4th compared to ludens.
It's still very situationally good, against a team with no gap closers, no mr and no sustain, it can be a good poke item for sieging, but that's such a ridiculous limit that i never really see it in practice. I still often get it as a 6th item but outside of that not really.
Laning
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Pre 6 you can generally control the wave. Either pushing or freezing, while trying to harass with w and e empowered auto attacks. Depending on the matchup it'll be anything from kill potential on both sides, to farm lane. You'll generally be looking for 1300ish gold for your first base, for a sheen ward and pot, but basing earlier isn't much of an issue as you can just grab ionian boots. You don't want to sit and farm for too long though, because once you hit 6 and get blue you want to be looking for roam opportunities constantly, and ulting somewhere with only boots or a dorans ring is one of the easiest ways to throw your early game.
After 6, mathup depending, you'll want to be looking for pressure whenever your ult is up. When it's down just waveclear middle and maybe farm jungle, but don't be too afraid to just run to help your jungler/gank or bot, since you should have at least t1 boots.
Choosing where to ult just takes experience, but generally you want to prioritise bot if possible (more targets and dragon,) go for where the flashes are down, and once you have sheen/lich, take towers even if you fail to get a kill.
You should be looking to farm mainly with autos and blue cards, using red cards to shove when neccesary. Your waveclear and strong gank assist means you shouldn't generally be shoved under tower, but if you are you can last hit very easily with w + e and occasionally q. When you have sheen you don't even need to prep caster minions, you can activate w once to get a sheen proc to lasthit the first ranged minion, then activate it again to bluecard a second, and get the third with your e.
Midgame
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Once lanes start breaking down and grouping, you can really take advantage of uncoordinated teams. Try and get good vision control, then you have plenty of options.
Flash gold card is an amazing targeted cc spell, this is great pick and don't be afraid to just grab someone if they misstep slightly when your team is grouped.
You can group with your adc to completely destroy towers, and have good dive potential if short ranged mages come to waveclear.
You can split push, and rejoin your team with your ult if needed.
If your top laner or jungler is splitting, try and stay in ult range so you can assist them if they get 2 man ganked, or pick/dive whoever is sent to stop them solo.
If anyone underfed is pushing alone, just ult and solo kill them.
If your team is behind you can just chill out and farm wherever safe cs is, and wait for the other team do do something dumb, then ult in and capitalise.
It all just comes down to map awareness. you're naturally a very squishy champion, so if you facecheck almost anyone you'll likely die, but as long as you stay aware of who's where, you'll almost always get a chance to make a pick.
Lategame/teamfighting
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Once both teams are grouped your options are basically
1. split push and use ult to rejoin fight.
2. sit with team and use ult during fight for vision/after for cleanup.
I find split pushing is actually really risky, while you can ult away from most ganks if you play it properly, then yuo've just wasted your ult for nothing, plus your top laner is probably a better split pusher then you, plus in soloq split pushing is risky anyway. Not to mention you lose most opportunities to make picks with your team.
When both teams are facing off around baron or dragon or towers, your high ms and targeted w stuns are really good for chunking the enemy frontline from relative safety, and q poke can be good too.
Once the fight starts, there are several ways to play it.
If you're getting dived by a tank/bruiser or assassin, you generally want to stick near to peelers. Zhonyas makes it hard for most assassins to solo kill you unless you're caught out, and if you have void you can often just kite out out the bruiser with gold cards, q's and autos as well. Alternatively, if a garen or sion is on you, you're often better off just stunning them then running back to join the fight.
If your adc is being dived, it's often worthwhile to just throw stun cards, q's and autos at whoever they're being dived by. Between you you should shred most divers very quickly, and can then wreck whoever's left of the enemy team with your damage and cc. This is also the easiest way to be effective when you're behind.
Final option is to go dive into the fight yourself. If you're ahead in the midgame, or even in the lategame, you can generally oneshot the enemy adc or mid laner with a flash goldcard q ignite. This is one of the easiest ways to win a teamfight, flash or run in, instapop a squishy, then back out or zhonyas. If possible you normally want to be doing this, but against some team comps it's just not possible (things like lulu morg sivir janna soraka can ruin your day very effectively)
Whatever you pick, just try and get as many lichbane procs off as possible, keep auto attacking to proc your e as much as possible, and remember to use your ult to counter stealthed champions/avoid getting flanked if you don't have perfect vision.
Solo/Lane/Jungle Options
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Jungle tf is potentially viable, but i have no experience with that so I won't touch it. As for adc/supp/top, knock yourself out if you want to have fun.
Common matchups
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TF actually has decent potential in almost every matchup, i reguarly have games where i solokill supposed "lane counters" several times. While some lanes are harder then others, all of these can be overcome with practice, so i highly recommend just spaming 1v1's to try and learn the damage potential from both sides. Being able to know how much damage you'll do if you flash w q that leblanc, or whether fizz can oneshot you with a q, is way more useful then anything i can write here.
A few words on some of the common "counterpicks" people tend to go
Leblanc
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I like to run ignite into this matchup, but if you aren't familiar with it and confident you can juke chains, you should probably run barrier/heal.
I always start boots into this, because a dorans start just gets outsustained by flask+pots, and you're basically screwed.
Try to mainly trade with gold cards, but you should be able to at least get an auto or two off every time she w's you. Never let her get a free q + w on you or you'll need to base/burn all your pots.
As long as you don't fall too far behind there shoudln't be any issues, but if she gets a lead it can snowball really really fast. I often grab a fast negatron cloak just to shutdown any potential of her snowballing, or as a defensive measure if she got a kill or two. That will be enough to murder her damage for at least the rest of the laning phase, and abyssal is a good cheap item that helps oneshot squishies (like the adc, and lb!) for much of the mid game.
Never stay under tower while low, it's not worth it.
also a side note, your ult gives vision of her when her and her clone split, so if she's about to pop her passive and you think you can kill her, you can ult just before the split to make sure you get her (it also gives a lich bane proc).
Zed
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Run exhaust
Get zhonyas first item, with maybe only a sheen before it. It's basically required to shut down his ultimate.
You can harass him quite well in the early levels, but always be careful of just getting all inned. Don't be afraid to use exhaust early if you think you need to, and don't be afraid to lose a wave to tower while basing because he chunked you, it's much better then him getting a kill.
Later on just use your exhaust on him whenever he ults anyone, easy way to shut him down in teamfights.
Kassadin
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Can be very annoying sustain wise. I generally start boots and just farm unless he's being super aggro. alternatively you can run tp, go really aggro level 1-2-3, then base and tp back to lane. He'll generally have tp too, but if you can force him to base before he gets his core scaling items it helps slow him down. He's not very scary until he has a bunch of items, so just try and snowball the early game.
Lane itself isn't very hard as long as you have enough sustain, but he can scale very well.
Later on always be ready to gold card him if he ever goes in to agressively in teamfights/skirmishes, kassadin players often get very cocky and you can sit just out of vision near your adc and blow him up when he overextends.
Yasuo
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I normally run exhaust
His level 2-3 can be very annoying, and if he runs crit he can get lucky and wreck you even level 1. Try and proc his shield whenever possible, and if he started dorans + pot, poke him down with gold card + q's or blue cards while shoving the lane. Don't be afraid of just letting it shove if he gets lane control and cs'ing under tower. Windwall is annoying, but if he overextends or you have a gank coming, you can just exhaust him and chase through the windwall before throwing your stun card.
I find an armguard is enough to last me through the early game til i have lich bane and boots, and sometimes even rabas, before finishing the zhonyas.
Fiora/sivir/morg/etc
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These are other laners who can be a pain to gank because they have ways of avoiding your gold card. If ganking one of them, your best bet is to try and feint out their shield by runing up to them, locking in a yellow and not throwing it, or having your cards rotate and throwing out a card while on yellow without locking in. Also just flashing ontop of them with a yellow card locked will almost always make a fiora w, even if you dno't auto. You can then throw the stun card afterwards.
For shields if you can't bait them out you can just throw a q right before the w, and that will hopefully break the shield.
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Guide posted yo