How to play Critplank Mid by BestCritplankNA Pt1: Runes and Masteries

Hi, for those of you who don't know me, my name is BestCritplankNA and I'm an advocate of Critplank mid. Last season I finished Gold 1 with a 4.65 KDA and 65% win ratio on Critplank mid. I'm currently working on a guide on how to play Critplank mid, but its 28 pages and I still need to do final edits, add images, and upload it to Mobafire. However, because 5.2 is the best patch to play Critplank mid ever ( http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/5peBpQf7-now-is-the-best-time-to-play-critplank-mid-ever ) and the guide isn't finished yet, I decided I would do a series of forum posts to encourage people to play him while he is strongest. Without further ado, here's the first installment.

Runes

Why crit runes are better in mid lane: I know I might get flak from top lane gp players that flat ad is better for you. Lets do some math. A standard top lane gp build has 30% crit (triforce+shiv). Those runes have 10.8 ad more than mine, so when multiplied by your standard 30% crit chance, you can reasonably conclude they are worth a total of 14.04 ad. My runes on the other hand have 10.23% Crit chance. Treating the Crit chance like a damage multiplier, they out scale ad runes at 138 critable damage. Do you know when Gangplank has 138 damage? At lvl 5 he has exactly 138 damage through rank 3 Parrrley and his base ad. When you get your spike at Statikk Shiv, the ad marks are almost worthless. As an experienced Critplank mid player, I can tell you that you will almost never be in melee range of a ranged mid laner unless you try to cheese (more on why you shouldn't do this in a later installment). Your only damage is your Parrrley, so the AD marks are far worse since you will not be able to use their auto attack damage 99% of the time.

Standard Page: This is the page I use most often. Most of the time the enemy team has a balanced mixture of damage. The Scaling MR helps with the lane match ups and the Armor seals help out in jungle ganks and trading with the enemy adc in the mid to late game.

• x9 Crit Chance Marks
• x9 Armor Seals
• x9 Scaling MR Glyphs
• x1 Crit Chance Quint
• x2 AD Quints

Vs AD Page: Should be self explanatory. If the mr glyphs are going to be useless, then replace them with cdr so you can poke more and heal more.

• x9 Crit Chance Marks
• x9 Armor Seals
• x9 CDR Glyphs
• x1 Crit Chance Quint
• x2 AD Quints

Vs AP Page: This page is also rounded out like the Standard page, although a bit more versatile. I take this in lanes where the enemy ap laner has high burst (LeBlanc, Syndra, etc). It also scales better for effective hp compared to armor seals, but I prefer the armor seals in most match ups because you will get auto attacked to death in the early game.

• x9 Crit Chance Marks
• x9 Armor Seals
• x9 Scaling MR Glyphs
• x1 Crit Chance Quint
• x2 AD Quints

Offensive Page: Full yolo. You only take this when you want to spam Parrrley on your enemy laner whenever its off cd.

• x9 Crit Chance Marks
• X9 Mana Regen Seals
• x9 CDR Glyphs
• x1 Crit Chance Quint
• x2 AD Quints

Masteries : I only have one page. The only thing I feel I have to note here is why I don't take Runic Blessing. In solo que, most junglers assume that you don't need blue since you are an ad mid. Not true. Blue buff is great on Critplank mid because you can spam oranges for the sustain, but it's not necessary. Since I only get blue buff in about 1/10 games, I don't Runic Blessing.

x1 Double edged sword: You are a melee champ, so you get the better version of this. x4 Sorcery: Helps to lower the cd of Parrrley so you can play safe in the early game. x3 Brute Force: More damages x1 Martial Mastery: Even more damages x3 Warlord: Such damages x3 Executioner: Much wow x1 Dangerous game: Probably the best mastery for Critplank. You should be getting at least 4 assists every 5v5 fight with your Cannon Barrage, Raise Morale, and Statikk Shiv proc. If you get all 5 kills/assists at 6 items, that 600 hp back in the late game. x3 Devastating strikes: Unfortunately your build doesn't leave room for penetration except for a 6th item, which I prefer to be a defensive item. This helps with that. x1 Frenzy: When you hit late game, you can hide in a brush and auto Parrrley auto a squishy for a 1 second kill. This makes it faster, along with quickly increasing your dps in 1 v 1s. x1 Havoc: Why can't I hold all these damages?

x2 Block: The points I would normally put into Runic Blessing go here to help mitigate early game auto attack harass.

x3 Fleet of Foot: All these tiny ms buffs stack up in the end. It helps make Parrrley poking safer from skill shots fired in return, along with helping you roam. x3 Meditation: Parrrley costs a lot early and its your primary method of csing against ranged laners. Early mana regen helps you stay in lane until you have about 1200-1300 gold for a first back (assuming you don't use Parrrley for poking early, which you shouldn't). x1 Alchemy: The amount of sustain you get from this in great. You get an initial 66 bonus health in your Flask+2 hp pot start. Every flask also gives another 36 health, allowing you to sustain through the harsh early game.

I'm hoping to make these either a daily or every other day since it only took me an hour to write this as compared to my guide which has been over the course of several months. Links will be up to the next parts whenever they finish. First time making something like this, so any feedback is appreciated and will be considered to make my guide better.