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PSA: Your build is important

For Carthage··26 votes·3,771 views

This isn't a thread attacking off builds, so let's just knock that out right now. No, this is a thread about learning how to build.

Every person has run into at least one player that does great - just excellent - in playing his champ. All the outplays in the world, all the calls, just a legitimately good player. And if you think you haven't, you might have been playing against him.

And wherever you're placed at, you probably looked at that guy and said, "Holy shit, why is he in this MMR with me?" And maybe he's just having a really good game.

Or maybe the reason is because you take a look at his build and he still hasn't even bothered to pick up a Last Whisper for 1300 while he's the ADC versing 4 tanks all building thornmail. He also hasn't built any MR whatsoever to counteract the collective magic damage.

This clearly isn't always the case, but you know that guy - the guy that doesn't have a clue what to build, when, where, and why. A lot of people don't realize that it's not just important to know how to play your champ but it's also important to know how to build them as well. And that doesn't mean going on mobafire and typing in "How 2 bild Yaso kek". While that'd be a very easy way to learn a build, those builds aren't end-all-be-all. And as much as I'd like to explain to people a formula or the formula or some by-the-books method to build, it can be a long, complicated, even convoluted explanation. So instead, I can tell you how to start learning how to build for yourself.

  1. You do need to learn your champ's general build. This doesn't necessarily mean a specific set of items so much as what your champ needs - for example, if you have very long cooldowns, then CDR is something you'll want to look into for your build. If mana's an issue, items that address that will work. What items address what? Well, that brings us to

  2. Learn what items do. It'll take a while for you to memorize the entire shop catalog, but you don't really need to remember each and every item - however, if you want to get back to lane faster, you will have to remember what items are important to your champ. For example, let's say you're a tank - there's a fair number of tank items to choose from. You really don't need to remember just what Death's Dance is and what it does or what Runaan's Hurricane does for you, but you should remember what Deadman's Plate, Randuin's, Thornmail, and Frozen Heart have to offer as well as Spirit Visage, Banshee's Veil, and Locket of the Iron Solari. Knowing the items and their approximate stats is important to make the right call at the right time (though currently Deadman's is pretty much all you really need to know for armor) and it saves you a lot of time browsing the shop in-game, which means you get back to lane faster and get more farm as a result. Also: read the damn item patch notes. Even more than champs is realizing when a change has occurred that could affect how you build and what your goal is. For example, if you're going blue build Ezreal, you probably don't want Essence Reaver anymore since the mana regen only procs on critical strikes. So unless you're building a lot more crit (and with blue build, highly unlikely until much later), this item is vastly outmatched by a myriad of other items that offer the same cooldown reduction since you only get more CDR if you build more crit items. So without other items, you're looking at a passive you're probably not using with decisively okay stats versus, say, even Youmuu's that offers 20 armor pen, increased MS, and the same cooldown reduction with the same AD increase. Staying informed means optimizing your build, folks.

  3. Learn your opponents; build to your opponents. What I mean by this is the first thing you should check every single game (after making sure you have your correct runes and masteries) is what the enemy team is. This can and should affect how you build during the game. This is the number one thing that people ignore. There is no one single build-path that works - sure, you could say for ADC's your final build is generally almost unchanged from game to game. However, the way that you get to that point should be noticeably different across a vast number of games. The reason for this is because you are more than likely facing different champs and different compositions - even as an ADC, the way you build is going to be different between if you're going against 2 assassins, a mage, a support and an ADC than if you were facing a team of 3 tanks, an ADC, and a mage. If you haven't invested the mere 1300 gold in the latter game to get Last Whisper rather early, you're probably going to be stomped in the face - meanwhile, if you tried getting that in the former game, then you're going to look like a doofus as the enemy Zed/Fizz/Akali/whoever mauls your face. This is the same for any role. Your opponents do dictate your build with their champs, and that's how it's supposed to be. Make sure you know what is required.

Once you've started doing these things, you should find yourself performing much better than usual (you know, unless you were already doing this). You have to remember that it's not just flashy-plays and high skill that LCS players focus on - it's also what the hell to do with your gold, and spending it wrong can put you further behind than anything else. Make sure you know what you're doing when you go into ranked, and good luck.

66 Comments

1 800 MID LANE13 votes

Also, you can't refund shit when you have your turret up.

item 3070 Azir item 3070

But yes. What people don't seem to realize, especially in low ELO, is that the builds found on mobafire and the like are OPTIMAL builds. Meaning everything is going your way. You're not getting dicked on by that enemy Zed every time his ult is up. That Fizz isn't taking his turn bending you over and ramming his pole up your ass. You aren't catching space aids from Malzahar, and you most certainly aren't getting felt up by Blitzcrank. (lol sex puns)

Well, the last one is just bad positioning, but the point is the same. If you're dying a lot, adjusting your build will help.

KaisadiIIa2 votes

is that the builds found on mobafire and the like are OPTIMAL builds

Well written guides tend to have multiple options with explanations on when and why to build each item. I'm kinda good at building champions, but still I like to spend 5-10 minutes reading the item section of champion guides when I'm gonna play one I usually don't, and most of the times you can find very complete builds.

Mandang03 votes

I'd say there's 3 stages of increasing build mastery:

**1) Learn how your build should change game to game: ** I don't mean min-maxing, but just simple stuff like building some defense if you're losing in lane, or building QSS if you're getting suppressed.

**2) Understand what stats are important: **If after you buy tear, you never drop below half mana, you probably don't need another mana item. Alternatively, it doesn't matter how much damage your spells do if you can't cast them because you have no mana (or no health, or because your cooldowns aren't up yet, etc). Especially for mages, players tend to obsess too much over AP rather than everything else that helps you do your job.

**3) Do the math (and do it right): **For example, calculate bonus damage/gold if you want to find the most efficient damage build. Total damage/gold is wrong (health pot is the best item for that), total damage is irrelevant until max build, and gold efficiency isn't representative of how your champ uses the stats (doesn't matter how gold efficient muramana is, you're not building it on Riven).

what you deserve2 votes

To be fair, some Mobafire guides have quite a lot of versatility in them. I've seen some that give you all kinds of different circumstances, like vs ap, vs tanky, what to buy if behind, what if ahead, etc. I wish more of them were like that but oh well

Something else important isn't just "standard build that works" but figuring out what kinds of off-builds can make you REALLY strong. Everyone expects a Teemo to go fairly standard: Teemo item 3115 item 3151 item 3089 item 3020 item 3116 item 3285

But there are some crazy things you do if you take into account his real strengths: most of his damage comes from autos, he's stupidly fast, and he has burns. You can throw something like this on there: Teemo item 3115 item 3022 item 3153 item 3089 item 3742 item 1305 Nobody will even understand what you're doing. How do you combat someone who isn't building normal items but still dealing insane damage? The enemy then has to build around your own build, which people pretty much never do.

Another example is Lux. Nobody seems to realize just HOW MUCH damage her passive can actually do. A standard Lux build is something like: Lux item 3174 item 3285 item 3089 item 3020 item 3152 item 3041 Which is all well and good, but you can hit the 45% CDR cap (if you're running deathfire on Lux you're doing it wrong) super easily if you take into account her passive and build around it: Lux item 3041 item 3100 item 3115 item 3020 item 3089 item 3151

Disclaimer: Don't try to do that last one if you're against a team with a lot of range. If there's like 3 mostly melee champs then you can totally go for it and you'll probably win, but anyone who can disable you from inside a snare is going to wreck you.

Maszii2 votes

Lel @both Lux builds. Will of ancients instead of Void/Abyssal, really standard yes.

Second one with nashors XD? And i only see 35% CDR?

cuddlykitten41 votes

WotA is amazing. Give you the sustain you need to both farm early, and continue commiting to actions after a teamfight since you'll gain your health back. Not to mention that the enemy often doesn't consider the extra several hundred health you have due to spellvamp. He who lives will always be more powerful than he who kills. Besides, he has Mejai's on there. That will compensate for your precious pen by making you that much stronger (assuming you do well) and giving you that movement speed they won't expect. Builds that provide unseen factors tend to be better strategically because the enemy won't compensate for those factors as often as the should. Ever seen a Veigar with WotA? It'll teach you some respect for spellvamp real quick.

what you deserve1 votes

On Veigar there's pretty much no reason to not build both WotA and Hextech Gunblade.

what you deserve1 votes

Uh.. I don't really know what the standard build for Lux is because I never use it. WotA is the only item I can justify putting in that slot because Lux without max CDR is weak.

And you're right, I usually have Morello's instead of Liandry's. But it doesn't really matter because my runes have like 10% CDR on them anyway.

Maszii1 votes

So if you have 10% you just buy morello's + cdr boots and youre good to go to build some real damage.

XinZhao2WinNhao1 votes

{quoted}

To be fair, some Mobafire guides have quite a lot of versatility in them. I've seen some that give you all kinds of different circumstances, like vs ap, vs tanky, what to buy if behind, what if ahead, etc. I wish more of them were like that but oh well

Something else important isn't just "standard build that works" but figuring out what kinds of off-builds can make you REALLY strong. Everyone expects a Teemo to go fairly standard: Teemo item 3115 item 3151 item 3089 item 3020 item 3116 item 3285

But there are some crazy things you do if you take into account his real strengths: most of his damage comes from autos, he's stupidly fast, and he has burns. You can throw something like this on there: Teemo item 3115 item 3022 item 3153 item 3089 item 3742 item 1305 Nobody will even understand what you're doing. How do you combat someone who isn't building normal items but still dealing insane damage? The enemy then has to build around your own build, which people pretty much never do.

Another example is Lux. Nobody seems to realize just HOW MUCH damage her passive can actually do. A standard Lux build is something like: Lux item 3174 item 3285 item 3089 item 3020 item 3152 item 3041 Which is all well and good, but you can hit the 45% CDR cap (if you're running deathfire on Lux you're doing it wrong) super easily if you take into account her passive and build around it: Lux item 3041 item 3100 item 3115 item 3020 item 3089 item 3151

Disclaimer: Don't try to do that last one if you're against a team with a lot of range. If there's like 3 mostly melee champs then you can totally go for it and you'll probably win, but anyone who can disable you from inside a snare is going to wreck you.

That's why AD Kat works. People never know whether to build MR or Armor against a AD Kat.

WoonStruck2 votes

Vladimir item 3152 item 3157 item 3158 item 3135 item 3116 item 3065

Vladimir item 3152 item 3157 item 3158 item 3135 item 3001 and item 3116 ORitem 3089

Both sound good on paper. One massively outperforms the other.

(Hint: its not item 3065 )

For Carthage2 votes

SV is nice every once in a while if you're really hurting for bulk and peel, but you're right. The other one tends to yield better results generally.

forresto1 votes

wouldn't that depend whether you were building for top or mid though? I tend to build vlad beefier when I'm top, and more damaging when I'm mid.

WoonStruck2 votes

{quoted}

wouldn't that depend whether you were building for top or mid though? I tend to build vlad beefier when I'm top, and more damaging when I'm mid.

SV doesn't even help much top. It delays damage, which is really bad for Vlad's pressure. Abyssal gives you more trading power, as well as makes you a better pusher/teamfighter.

FooDang1 votes

Outperforms? You mean does more damage right? I think that's because one is a tank item and the other is a damage item with some MR. Build to the game not just one build.

WoonStruck1 votes

{quoted}

Outperforms? You mean does more damage right? I think that's because one is a tank item and the other is a damage item with some MR. Build to the game not just one build.

Vlad runs on damage. If you go SV, you have an extremely bad build-path.

When you do build SV? Early? No you need WotA? 2nd? No, without damage you don't scale into mid-game. 3rd or 4th item? You're getting to where you'll either need Rylai's or Void staff. Zhonya's not done? Need it now. Late game damage and MR reduction will do much more than 25 MR and 20% more sustain.

The CDR is irrelevant to anyone that doesn't have a terrible CDR page for Vlad.

item 3065 sounds good on paper for Vlad, but what you get out of it is much, much less than Abyssal.

I've played a lot of Vlad, and your damage feels way lower without Abyssal, while the tankiness/sustain you get from SV often cannot be noticed. Not to mention the terrible build-path for Vlad that doesn't even provide a power-spike, unlike Abyssal.

Two items. You buy them if you need MR on Vlad. One is the better choice, whether you like it or not.

FooDang1 votes

Lol it won't do anything if your dead. You don't need to do Maximum amount of damage to kill a squishy. You need to be Alive long enough to kill a squishy and in some games will warrant an SV. There are core Items and there are situational items and what you are debating on are situational items.

WoonStruck1 votes

{quoted}

Lol it won't do anything if your dead. You don't need to do Maximum amount of damage to kill a squishy. You need to be Alive long enough to kill a squishy and in some games will warrant an SV. There are core Items and there are situational items and what you are debating on are situational items.

If you were going to die with Abyssal, you would have died with SV as well. There's essentially no reason you will ever need SV over Abyssal.

The presense you have with SV is far, far lower than Abyssal too. People fear a Vlad that has Abyssal. They laugh at a Vlad with SV unless he has such a huge lead that wasting gold and item slots won't catch up to him.

FooDang1 votes

I'm pretty sure SV has health. i've seen you have been disregarding that fact.

WoonStruck1 votes

{quoted}

I'm pretty sure SV has health. i've seen you have been disregarding that fact.

You also get enough health already for building AP. If you need raw HP that badly, you're doing something wrong as Vlad.

And again, you do very little in fights with SV compared to Abyssal. What's the use of living longer if you do nothing with that time? The tankiness you get from SV is not worth what you give up, especially when the tankiness isn't very noticeable. 400 more HP, 25 more MR. In exchange, you do no damage. Good job.

FooDang1 votes

Lol ok this guy doesn't understand the word situational. I'm done...laterz.

PS. do no damage? lol yea like every other item I get isn't going to be an AP item. That's another reason I'm done replying to you...do no damage? lolz yea I'm healing the enemy when I cast my spells haha

WoonStruck1 votes

{quoted}

Lol ok this guy doesn't understand the word situational. I'm done...laterz.

PS. do no damage? lol yea like every other item I get isn't going to be an AP item. That's another reason I'm done replying to you...do no damage? lolz yea I'm healing the enemy when I cast my spells haha

Because you don't understand the situations. In what case would a SV benefit you more than Abyssal? At what time would you build SV to not completely set yourself back?

That's what you don't get. That 20 MR reduction does a LOT for your damage, especially once you grab Void. SV sets your damage back, no matter when you build it unless its your 6th item, and if you've gotten to that point without SV, you must not need MR THAT badly, and Abyssal is the better option late-game anyway.

How often do you need MR that badly? Really. Even if you go top and the enemy midlaner gets fed, you can usually kill whoever it is anyway...as long as you didn't buy SV early and set your damage back, cause next is likely to be Zhonya's, so yeah...tell me how your damage is still going to be good with WotA, Zhonya's, and SV at the 20 minute mark. You won't be able to do anything to their jungler or top laner, and won't have the threat to push past them. Anything you do, from poke to all-in will be weaker with SV. Any time you'd die with Abyssal, you would have died with SV as well, cause the only time you're dying to magic damage like that is if you put yourself in a bad position, and SV can't save you from that.

So yeah, tell me a specific situation where you'd buy Spirit Visage. I'd love to hear exactly how much SV benefits you. I can almost guarantee you could have built Abyssal, done the same thing, and much more.

cuddlykitten41 votes

Lol, puts Rylai's, but not the Liandry's combo

WoonStruck2 votes

{quoted}

Lol, puts Rylai's, but not the Liandry's combo

Rylai's is for kiting and chasing, both of which Vlad is normally terrible at. Liandry's is actually a bad buy on Vlad. When do you need it? Like, what good does it do for you as Vlad? What do you give up? These are the things you need to think about, and exactly what the OP is talking about.

Nothing you have to give up to buy Liandry's is worth giving up, especially FOR Liandry's.

Spoofghoul2 votes

Rengar Zed Talon

Jinx eh what do i do?? [slayer-jinx-unamused] item 3157

For Carthage6 votes

item 3812 item 3742 If you want a legitimate option, since Death's Dance will reduce 15% of their damage into a bleed effect and the armor will keep you alive long enough for your team to help you.

But yeah, item 3157 can actually be built on an ADC just for the armor and passive. I've actually built it on MF before with fairly good results...

Now if your team has absolutely no peel or tank, then that's an entirely different issue called "your team composition sucks".

Nyxceris2 votes

Mf benefits from item 3157 with the ap also

Maszii1 votes

QSS for the Zed, GA for Talon/Rengo

DeynaTaggerung1 votes

item 3812 is definitely your best bet. It'll give you a few seconds to return some damage and possibly allow you to lifesteal enough to stay alive. Remember, a rengar who can't 100-0 you right away is going to have a rough game.

cuddlykitten41 votes

item 2043 counter accomplished

LankPants1 votes

Man I've found pinkwarding Zed to be really effective recently. Thanks for the advice.

WalkingInACircle2 votes

Don't forget lane counter building. I make a custom item set for all of my champions with a core build and an optional inventory.

Vistha Kai2 votes

Talon item 1036 item 1036 item 1036 item 1036 item 1036 item 1036 Looooong swoooordzzzzzzz

Maximum Morde1 votes

Build isn't as important as not feeding 15 kills by the ten minute mark though.

TDubH3 votes

a good build makes all the difference in not feeding 15 kills by the ten minute mark though. As a top lane main, i can see a rumble i have the option of saying, oh i'm going to build a guinsoos first, of course if the rumble is worth half their salt, im going to die, alot. or i could build a maw, and not die, live long enough to build a second item and then start winning.

HayRoss1 votes

Chogath item 3742 item 3748 item 3111 item 3053 item 3065 item 3110

Always make sure your builds are well thought out

what you deserve1 votes

Varus item 3153 item 3508 item 3006 item 3146 item 3124 item 3812

HayRoss1 votes

That one is at least 10x better than mine

what you deserve1 votes

Oh and don't forget the best one Illaoi item 3053 item 3078 item 3053item 3053item 3053item 3053

La Barbotte1 votes

item 3070 item 3070 item 3070 item 3070 item 3070 item 3070 item 3070 just build this every single game to counter all this salt

cuddlykitten41 votes

item 3117 item 3009 item 3006 item 3902 item 3158 item 1004 If this isn't your build, then L2playnoobs

what you deserve1 votes

Can you even buy multiple boots?

stabby himiko1 votes

item 3902 item 2050 item 3461 item 3599 item 3345 item 3362 item 3198 If you can't get this build you will be stuck in bronze with me

MunchCrunchLunch1 votes

am just gonna dislike every post that starts with PSA from now on

Deadly Mittens1 votes

Support Velkoz gets flat m. pen

Enemy ADC no mr "How did the support one shot me?"

item 3155 item 3137 might help

DREADN0UGHT1 votes

Are you saying building item 3078 over item 3071 asGnar when going up vs an all squishy team is a fine thing?

For Carthage1 votes

I wouldn't know that one. I don't play Gnar generally and when I do it's versing tanks for the most part. If item 3078 is the wiser decision and outperforms item 3071 in this case, then certainly.

DREADN0UGHT1 votes

Well if I play vs a Gangplank for instance, and we all know how useless tank gp is, and if their jg is squishy, I always go for item 3078 because it offers extra burst since Gnar 's "W - Hyper" passive chunks 6% max HP + an AP scaling but Rito took the AP out of the item. I still think the combat stats are optimal since you don't benefit from item 3071 's Armor shred as much since squishies don't stack armor... But then again, i get called out for it, cuz its not what pros do, right? My 150k mastery points on Gnar are irrelevant since I'm just Gold... Or silver since season 6 lol.

[zombie-brand-clap]

For Carthage1 votes

Well the primary reasons item 3071 was built over item 3078 originally is because:

  1. He has a lot of AoE abilities that can apply the armor shred to numerous enemies very quickly, and

  2. item 3071 was packing CDR that item 3078 lacked.

The added AP was honestly chump change compared to that CDR boost, but now item 3078 comes with an extra 10% CDR of its own, so it's not a complete waste comparatively. However, realize that enemies also gain armor as they level, meaning that even seemingly squishy champions can scale up to 80 armor, and with runes and masteries that can reach into 90. So the armor shred later will still amplify your damage more overall more likely. item 3071 also gives more specialized stat boosts for Gnar - your health, AD, and CDR are all higher than you'd get with item 3078, which are all the primary stats you'd want to look for in a first build item. That would most likely be the reasoning behind why item 3078 is hailed as inferior on Gnar.

However.

There are such things as "early lead" and "snowball" builds, and as it stands, this would be where item 3078 would more than likely fall. Before champs start really scaling into higher amounts of armor, your spammable Q and empowered autos can bully out your opponent much easier with item 3078 than with item 3071 (given the opponent isn't building a lot of armor), and kills will be much quicker and easier to secure given the added burst, not to mention the random crits can catch enemies off-guard and even quickly turn a seemingly benign situation into something to panic about. This would further an early game lead and potentially spiral a game out of control for your enemy before scaling ever becomes an issue.

But there is a lot to think about when choosing a build path, and what I say here shouldn't necessarily be considered the end-all-be-all facts. I am only truly concerned with getting people to start understanding the items they have at their disposal and for them to start considering when and where to build things - that is, of course, for them to ultimately decide, but theory-crafting like this helps to get people to better realize what they should take into account. And at first it will look like a lot, but after a little bit you start to be able to just make these judgments at a glance.

And don't feel discouraged if others nag at you for building differently. People fail to realize that only about half of the game at most is surface value - your big plays, flashy moves, stats, etc. The other majority of the game is largely just calculation and strategy, both heavily influenced by how you build.

DREADN0UGHT1 votes

You make very good points. Thx bae <3

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