Skills:
Q: Ambush - Goes invisible and upon breaking increases attack speed. Time of buff on attack speed is dependant on how long you were invisible.
W: Debilitating Poison - 20% base slow + 10% for each poison on targets, Cast effects all targets in your vicinity, and the slow itself has a small AoE too
E: Expunge - Deals Damage based on how many applications of poisons exist, Cast effects all targets in your vicinity, REMOVES all poison stacks
R: Spray and Pray - Fires arrows faster and farther, and they pierce through the original target for 30% reduced damage, these shots are dodge-able
Passive: Deals damage over time (small amount) and stacks up to 6...mainly for expunge/debilitating poison
**Note about Spray and Pray: The logical application of this skill will be described in detail later on in the guide... but something important to note, Spray and Pray shoots linear piercing shots that DON'T HOME IN ON TARGETS! so basically every shot you take becomes a "skill shot" making it effectively useless against moving opponents...but when you do hit groups of targets, it is extremely important to remember that ONE arrow from spray and pray puts ONE poison stack on ANYTHING it touches, so you hit 5 heros with 6 shots, and then hit expunge, and you just performed a PHENOMONAL amount of spike damage right there :3 **
**Additional note: Spray and Pray works extremely well(and gets even better if you ambush and then shoot a creep) for damaging towers from outside their range when you are up against a tower that has people camping beside it, you can hit base towers from OUTSIDE the base... just beware of a current bug where your ultimate actually shoots from FARTHER than its effective hitting range, so you will be shooting at the tower but your shots won't actually deal any damage, if you notice this move up one step to remedy the issue **
Runes: HP, Dodge, Mana Regen, Armor Penetration
(Personal Setup: 20 armor penetration, 11% dodge, 15mp/5 @18)
Summoner Skills: Flash and Teleport (although i've considered trying cleanse, as this will get you out of a snare and possibly back into stealth, the reason i usually chose flash on twitch is not for its survivability, but as an ANTI-flash technique, everytime they can use it to escape, you can use it to catch them >=3 so many kills are lost due to flash, and having your own flash to counteract allows you to score as many as upwards of 4-5 kills in a single game, and as well possibly saving your life in trade for one of those kills...not bad IMHO)
Ideal Mastery Build: 21/9/0 or 21/0/9
ITEMS:
Starting:
Vampiric Scepter
840 or 1540 or 1890 gold:
2 Daggers or Malady or Malady/Boots 1
1050 gold:
Recurve Bow
1150 gold:
Wit's End (I love this item, based on its attackspeed damage and MR...i've put the raw value of its stats at about 3050 gold...and this only costs 2250!!)
XXXX + 410 (should equal to about 900-1100 pending on boots boughten) gold:
Advanced boots of your choice (personally, i use ninja tabi, i also highly suggest berserkers greaves as the alternative)
+ a Longsword
1850 gold:
B.F. Sword
1300 gold:
Black Cleaver
At this point of the game you have a few paths you can take:
Item #5
If casters and disables have been bothering you: Banshee's Veil (2715 gold)
If you are good at staying alive, and want more damage/survivability: Bloodthirster (3200 gold)
If phsyical damagers are a problem for you: Phantom Dancer (3395 gold) < You will be close to max shot speed without ambush if you get this
If tanks are your teams problem you are a perfect candidate for: Madred's Bloodrazor, as you can easily hit max shot speed, which will allow for maximized use of its beautiful 2% of max health in magic damage (anti sunfirecap stacking anyone?)
Item #6
If you bought Phantom Dancer: Infinity's Edge (i know everyone will think this is way too late, but it ups your damage nicely if the game goes this far)
If you got this far and casters are still a problem for you (by now you should have enough MR to take their hits though..) Force of Nature/Guardian Angel
If you bought bloodthirster and crave more damage still, Infinity's Edge is basically still the way to go...as with cleaver/thirster, there is no other top end damage item for you to buy
*****IMPORTANT NOTE***** If at any point AFTER the 4 core items, you notice someone stacking armor that you're team can't deal with pick up a Last Whisper or if its armor+hp consider the Madred's Bloodrazor, and then sell either malady or wit's end for item #6 if the game drags on that long (you would be looking at 50+ minutes at this point) and although it might take you awhile at this point to take him down, you will do it fairly steadily with last whisper+black cleaver + 20 armor pen from runes(that i have, that you may not, but i use it so it's there :P )
SKILL BUILD:
1: Q (Just in case you need it to escape from a gank or a situation gone bad)
2: W (Same reason, possibly saving a teammate with this pretty nice slow)
3: E (If you have spare mana and can get a couple shots off, blow expunge as harrass)
4: E
5: E (This is the point expunge is now a direct threat to the life of anyone with 6 poisons)
6: W (Yes, no ulti, i personally find it to be unreliable, so i get more important skills 1st)
7: E
8: W (At this point the slow already lasts 4-4.5 seconds, so ambush is a better choice)
9: E (maxed out here)
10: Q
11: Q
12: Q
13: Q (maxed out here)
14: R (At this point ulti is useful because you have the power to back it up usually)
15: R
16: R (maxed out here)
17: W
18: W (maxed out here)
**NOTE: Spray and Pray... CAN BE GOOD... if you have an amumu or nunu on your team, feel free to pick up spray and pray, as their ultimates combined with spray and pray can put a whole group of heroes 6 feet under in a short amount of time **
Early Game(1-5): Last hit as much as you can, as well as harassing where you can since you have poison and can if you can even one or two shots off to expunge at lvl 2-3-4 can do some decent damage, but never drop yourself below half mana as you will need mana badly enough soon =P
Mid Game(5-11): This is when twitch starts to make his presence felt IN A BIG WAY. Now is when you can start to gank your lane enemys, but not just that, take big advantage of moving to another lane to gank with your teammates on their lane, you will score a lot of kills in easy 2v1 or 3v2 situations... just try to be very careful about ganking heros with snares and long stuns at range (ie: if you are bad at dodging dark binding: morgana, ryze, warwick @ lvl 6... etc etc) ... keep in mind HIGH PRIORITY TARGETS, carries, supports, squishies that can't defend themselves well at this point of the game (this should be a given, on any stealth/assassin/carry hero you should prioritize targets)
Mid-Late Game(11-16): Continue playing as you were, just make sure you have your prioritizing of targets straight and keep hammering them.
Late Game(16+): Same story, just push with your team, and play with your team, don't be a rogue, be a team player as this is a team game, and you won't win 1v5, so you need your team as much as they should be needing you :P
Lanemates/Partners:
People you want: Snarers are good because the more shots you can get off the more you can expunge for, Stuns work for those too, or anything that can put enemys in range of you.
Such as: Allistar (Very good and can heal you) Singed, Morgana, Ryze, Anivia, Nunu is good too (slow+attackspeed/runspeed buff) Ashe etc.
People you don't want: Twitch is pretty universally useful and can lane with basically anyone, there really is no "bad" matches...simply just "less useful" matches...and because of this, this spot will stay empty for now. Also because you swap lanes so much while ganking no one really directly impacts you in a bad way as long as they can set up a gank when you come strolling in to town
How To Approach Battles:
First of all, i HIGHLY suggest randomly checking every hero you see on the map as often as possible to make sure no one is packing an oracle's elixir...this will be key to not taking pointless deaths that could have been EASILY prevented.
Gank Style Combat:
When you are ganking, there is something so stupidly simple that nobody ever does.... SCOUT AROUND A BIT FIRST, you are invisible, make sure there is no one waiting in the forest for a counter gank or retribution, before you move into a gank situation you should always scout a bit ahead as well to make sure you have enough time to kill your target and make a clean getaway. When you go to attack them, your teammate should be in front of them, if there is room for you to get behind them or to their sides at least at 300-500 range (NOT MAX RANGE, as they could use this oppurtunity to run the opposite direction possibly) Now is when you initiate the fight, get as many shots off, ONCE THEY NOTICE AND START REACTING TO YOUR ATTACK pop debilitating poison (EVEN IF ITS NOT AT 6 STACKS) as this will offer you usually anywhere from 40-60% slow based on enemys reaction speed, which is more than enough slow, to get your poison up to 6 stacks, and time for your teammate to move in, and then just blow expunge with 6 stacks on and watch them drop dead.
*Note: Obviously scouting can be deterred by teemo's mushrooms, in which case you can get an oracle's elixir and just AVOID them, don't shoot them as you will give yourself away, by avoiding the shrooms, they actually think they are a bit more gank proof, when really they are in more danger than they know* Also Twisted Fate's ultimate is really bad for your health, be wary of it when you have a Twisted Fate in your game. *I'm going to test a theory i have with TF's ultimate later tonight and will edit this to reflect accordingly*
Team Style Combat:
Fighting in team battles is actually a lot like your gank scenarios except now, you are bringing target priority back into the game, and positioning becomes a lot more important than gank style combat. In team fights, if you have aoe slows and stuns consider using spray and pray to pump out some good aoe damage, otherwise if you dont have them, stick to regular attacks. (Knowing when and when not to use Spray and Pray is extremely important, i can't stress this enough because of how many twitches i've fought that will jump me and pop Spray and Pray and i literally just walk back and forth dodging them or by using hit and run's (as a ranged hero) on him without any retialiation because of spray and prays shots) Usually as far as positioning goes you want to try and stay towards the outer edges of the combat (sort of like a flanking position but more towards your team, dont ever isolate yourself from your team.
For a visual idea on how to position yourself effectively (sorry it's like this, but it's better than nothing at all)
Assume: X= Enemy's O = Ally's and I = where you should be
Assume: The 2 X's in front are Tanks or Initiators, the 3 X's in the back are carry/support hero or a melee hero waiting to move in
Assume: The same thing for O's, the 2 in front are tank/initiators and the 2 in the back are carry/support or melee waiting to move in
......................................
..................I...................
............................O........
.......................O.............
...........X....X........O....O...
.............X.......X...............
..................X...........I......
......................................
this is sort of modeled after a middle lane fight because thats the most commonly occuring lane for pushes and team fights, thats why the X and O's are angled such as they are, to emulate the fact that middle is a direct slant from 1 base to the other.
Being in these positions sets you up for 1 of three things:
A) To go after the back row once the battle has been initiated
B) To start widdling down any melee hero trying to move up and popping slow on him and possibly splashing it onto the back row or front rows
C) To fall back into your support line and defend anyone that needs it on your team
Obviously this is an ideal situation, but a good number of team battles will have this general layout if you look for it :3
Final Notes: Twitch is an insanely useful asset to any team when played properly, not only as a carry, but as a support defender, slower (80% aoe slow for 5-6 seconds....NICE) ganker, intimidator (never knowing when he might jump you) and all around can instill fear mapwide just by imposing his existance on the enemy team.
***************I'm going to be testing a new twitch build, everything about this guide will still apply ONLY THE ITEMS will be different***********
*************** BY FLUKE, i just found out that with spray and pray active, if the shot fired is a crit, IT CRITS EVERY TARGET IT HITS!!!****** < THIS HAS MASSIVE POTENTIAL FOR NEW BUILD IDEA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~END OF TWITCH, THE PLAGUE FROM DOWN BELOW~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you liked this guide, please feel free to leave a comment, ask a question or check out my other guides found on my directory thread located here:
