Corki the Carry
I see a lot of people playing Corki as a caster. I did for my first several games too. After more testing I have come to the conclusion that Corki is the most powerful when treated as a carry character. There are a few reasons why he excels going with the attack power route. The first reason is because he requires zero caster items minus some mana regen to abuse your lane early. The second is that Gatling gun is a monster... a MONSTER =)
Spells
Phosphorous Bomb
"Corki fires a bomb at a target location. In addition to dealing damage, the blast reduces an enemy's chance to hit by 50% and reveals nearby sheathed units for 4 seconds."
Spamable early game, and lets you creep like no other by level 6. It is also your main tool for living vs other carry characters.
Valkyrie
"Corki surges to target location, dropping bombs that create a trail of destruction for opponents who remain in the fire."
This move gives Corki all of his survivability and a good deal of gank power. Blink through trees or up terrain to get away or catch up to a fleeing opponent to finish them off.
Gatling Gun
"Corki's Gatling gun fires rapidly, dealing one third of his total damage twice a second in an area in front of him, and shredding the armor of enemies who are under continuous fire."
Late game bread and butter. Scales very well and also knocks down armor to boot. With enough attack, this move will drain enemy champions health like water down a drain.
Missile Barrage
"Corki fires a missile towards his target location that will collide with the first enemy it hits, dealing damage to units around the target. Corki stores one missile every 12 seconds up to 7 missiles total. Every 4th missile will be a Big One."
This one is a little bit over the edge. It hits fairly hard and has a longer range than towers. I cant tell you how many kills I’ve gotten on heroes camping their tower with low health. The big thing about it is its low mana cost. This with level 3 phosphorous bomb will kill the entire caster line in a creep wave.
Runes
For me I stack red with armor pen and everything else with crit damage.
Summoner Spell
I like Ghost and Teleport for just about all situations.
I don’t feel you need flash because its already built into your hero.
You can make a case of exhaust as a good gank tool, but I feel like its cool down is huge and teleport will get me back into the fray more quickly.
Skill Order
Phosphorous Bomb
Valkyrie
Phosphorous Bomb
Gatling Gun
Phosphorous Bomb
Missile Barrage
Phosphorous Bomb
Gatling Gun
Phosphorous Bomb
Gatling Gun
Missile Barrage
Gatling Gun
Gatling Gun
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Missile Barrage
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Item Build
Meki Pendant
2x Health Potion
Philosopher’s Stone
Berserkers Greaves
B. F. Sword
Infinity Edge
Bloodthirster / Frozen Mallet
Strat
Game Start
I get Phosphorous Bomb and buy a Meki Pendant ans 2x Health Potion. Try to get mid solo. Your goal early should be to harass the hell outa the person in your lane. Phosphorous Bomb has almost zero travel time and will keep melee away. If the enemy is smart they will treat you like the carry you could become and will try and kill you. Make sure you keep the 100 mana to use Valkyrie.
At rank two and 3 of Phosphorus Bomb, you should be hitting enemy heroes very hard. Also use it to go for last hits. Gatling gun will mess up melee heroes who run too far into your creep wave because of the armor debuff.
Mid game
For me, mid game starts at level 6. You get your missile barrage and it lets you do a few things. You can burst enemy heroes a lot harder and may be able to get a kill in your lane. You will also be able to 2shot the casters in the creep wave with phosphorus bomb + missile barrage.
If you think you can get a kill quick then go for the gank. If not, just sit in your lane and use your ult to last hit mobs as much as you can. By now you can go back to town and probably finish your Philosopher’s Stone and your Berserkers Greaves at the same time.
If your not going to get easy ganks farm for your life. I usually have way more creep kills than anyone else. The second you get your first B. F. Sword the game changes. When you do finally get your sword, you should have Gatling gun at rank 2 or 3. Now, your out for blood. Gatling gun is going to be hitting hard, and your auto attack is no slouch either.
When going in for a gank, I usually roll in and activate Gatling Gun on my way in. A lot of people freak out and start to run. Valk past them and use phosphorus bomb for bonus damage. Melee heroes may try to go toe to toe with you, remember that Phosphorus Bomb will keep them from hitting you, this also lets you spam missile barrage. If you are chasing someone down, don’t use missile barrage unless sure of the kill because you stop for a second to use it and the enemy can get away.
Late game
By now you should have an absolute ton of gold from creeping and hero kills. If they are focusing on you hard or have someone who is slippery, get the frozen mallet. If not, get the Bloodthirster for sick Gatling Damage. Either way, the game should be closing down by now.
This is my preferred way to play Corki. Give it a try and enjoy the mass carnage
-------
Bonus Mini Jungle Corki Guide!
Looks like you can jungle with Corki also. This is how I do it atm.
Runes
Red: armor pen (looking to late game)
yellow: armor
blue: armor
Quint: hp/5
Item
2 ways so far using this rune set up:
Cloth armor -> madrid's razor
health pot x5
or
Regrowth Pendant (prefer this because it turns into Philosopher's Stone that I will probably have all game and it leads into my normal item build.)
Summoner
Heal and smite
Mastery
Utility down to reduced summoner spell cooldown
The more I do this, the less and less I think this is necessary, but the quick smite does help a lot early. Ill try some other mastery builds later.
abilities
I took phosphorous first because of the 50% chance for them to miss. At level 2 with golem buff its got like a 5.3 cool down and the debuff lasts 4 seconds so you have almost full uptime. You can get lucky and take very little damage on the buff creeps. The best way to take neutral creeps down is to Phosphorous on top of them and valk over them. Then you use Gatling and make sure to recast Phosphorous every time it comes up.
phosphorous
valk
phosphorous
gat
etc.. at 6 you can just phosphorous + missile barrage combo to kill the easy creeps and it gets super easy from here.
Kill golem first for mana regen. After a bit of practice I can stay out until I can finish my boots and Philosopher's stone which is about level 6. You can go and gank from here or dive back into the jungle. Because my mastery page and summoner spells are dedicated to jungling I try to at least keep both buffs up as often as possible.
I see a lot of people playing Corki as a caster. I did for my first several games too. After more testing I have come to the conclusion that Corki is the most powerful when treated as a carry character. There are a few reasons why he excels going with the attack power route. The first reason is because he requires zero caster items minus some mana regen to abuse your lane early. The second is that Gatling gun is a monster... a MONSTER =)
Spells
Phosphorous Bomb
"Corki fires a bomb at a target location. In addition to dealing damage, the blast reduces an enemy's chance to hit by 50% and reveals nearby sheathed units for 4 seconds."
Spamable early game, and lets you creep like no other by level 6. It is also your main tool for living vs other carry characters.
Valkyrie
"Corki surges to target location, dropping bombs that create a trail of destruction for opponents who remain in the fire."
This move gives Corki all of his survivability and a good deal of gank power. Blink through trees or up terrain to get away or catch up to a fleeing opponent to finish them off.
Gatling Gun
"Corki's Gatling gun fires rapidly, dealing one third of his total damage twice a second in an area in front of him, and shredding the armor of enemies who are under continuous fire."
Late game bread and butter. Scales very well and also knocks down armor to boot. With enough attack, this move will drain enemy champions health like water down a drain.
Missile Barrage
"Corki fires a missile towards his target location that will collide with the first enemy it hits, dealing damage to units around the target. Corki stores one missile every 12 seconds up to 7 missiles total. Every 4th missile will be a Big One."
This one is a little bit over the edge. It hits fairly hard and has a longer range than towers. I cant tell you how many kills I’ve gotten on heroes camping their tower with low health. The big thing about it is its low mana cost. This with level 3 phosphorous bomb will kill the entire caster line in a creep wave.
Runes
For me I stack red with armor pen and everything else with crit damage.
Summoner Spell
I like Ghost and Teleport for just about all situations.
I don’t feel you need flash because its already built into your hero.
You can make a case of exhaust as a good gank tool, but I feel like its cool down is huge and teleport will get me back into the fray more quickly.
Skill Order
Phosphorous Bomb
Valkyrie
Phosphorous Bomb
Gatling Gun
Phosphorous Bomb
Missile Barrage
Phosphorous Bomb
Gatling Gun
Phosphorous Bomb
Gatling Gun
Missile Barrage
Gatling Gun
Gatling Gun
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Missile Barrage
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Item Build
Meki Pendant
2x Health Potion
Philosopher’s Stone
Berserkers Greaves
B. F. Sword
Infinity Edge
Bloodthirster / Frozen Mallet
Strat
Game Start
I get Phosphorous Bomb and buy a Meki Pendant ans 2x Health Potion. Try to get mid solo. Your goal early should be to harass the hell outa the person in your lane. Phosphorous Bomb has almost zero travel time and will keep melee away. If the enemy is smart they will treat you like the carry you could become and will try and kill you. Make sure you keep the 100 mana to use Valkyrie.
At rank two and 3 of Phosphorus Bomb, you should be hitting enemy heroes very hard. Also use it to go for last hits. Gatling gun will mess up melee heroes who run too far into your creep wave because of the armor debuff.
Mid game
For me, mid game starts at level 6. You get your missile barrage and it lets you do a few things. You can burst enemy heroes a lot harder and may be able to get a kill in your lane. You will also be able to 2shot the casters in the creep wave with phosphorus bomb + missile barrage.
If you think you can get a kill quick then go for the gank. If not, just sit in your lane and use your ult to last hit mobs as much as you can. By now you can go back to town and probably finish your Philosopher’s Stone and your Berserkers Greaves at the same time.
If your not going to get easy ganks farm for your life. I usually have way more creep kills than anyone else. The second you get your first B. F. Sword the game changes. When you do finally get your sword, you should have Gatling gun at rank 2 or 3. Now, your out for blood. Gatling gun is going to be hitting hard, and your auto attack is no slouch either.
When going in for a gank, I usually roll in and activate Gatling Gun on my way in. A lot of people freak out and start to run. Valk past them and use phosphorus bomb for bonus damage. Melee heroes may try to go toe to toe with you, remember that Phosphorus Bomb will keep them from hitting you, this also lets you spam missile barrage. If you are chasing someone down, don’t use missile barrage unless sure of the kill because you stop for a second to use it and the enemy can get away.
Late game
By now you should have an absolute ton of gold from creeping and hero kills. If they are focusing on you hard or have someone who is slippery, get the frozen mallet. If not, get the Bloodthirster for sick Gatling Damage. Either way, the game should be closing down by now.
This is my preferred way to play Corki. Give it a try and enjoy the mass carnage
-------
Bonus Mini Jungle Corki Guide!
Looks like you can jungle with Corki also. This is how I do it atm.
Runes
Red: armor pen (looking to late game)
yellow: armor
blue: armor
Quint: hp/5
Item
2 ways so far using this rune set up:
Cloth armor -> madrid's razor
health pot x5
or
Regrowth Pendant (prefer this because it turns into Philosopher's Stone that I will probably have all game and it leads into my normal item build.)
Summoner
Heal and smite
Mastery
Utility down to reduced summoner spell cooldown
The more I do this, the less and less I think this is necessary, but the quick smite does help a lot early. Ill try some other mastery builds later.
abilities
I took phosphorous first because of the 50% chance for them to miss. At level 2 with golem buff its got like a 5.3 cool down and the debuff lasts 4 seconds so you have almost full uptime. You can get lucky and take very little damage on the buff creeps. The best way to take neutral creeps down is to Phosphorous on top of them and valk over them. Then you use Gatling and make sure to recast Phosphorous every time it comes up.
phosphorous
valk
phosphorous
gat
etc.. at 6 you can just phosphorous + missile barrage combo to kill the easy creeps and it gets super easy from here.
Kill golem first for mana regen. After a bit of practice I can stay out until I can finish my boots and Philosopher's stone which is about level 6. You can go and gank from here or dive back into the jungle. Because my mastery page and summoner spells are dedicated to jungling I try to at least keep both buffs up as often as possible.
