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Proper itemisation

Ramuhdo·7/8/2015, 9:21:13 PM·1 votes·621 views

tl;dr what to buy when behind

For a while now I've gone from 90+ LP (and promos a few times), to 5-game loss streaks losing nearly all of my LP. I don't think I'm a terrible player, but my op.gg MMR has tanked from 1300 to 1180 over the course of the last few days, so I'm probably at fault for all the defeats. I lose games even after I felt I was doing pretty well, but there's times when I make bad decisions because my team isn't doing as well and I fail to recognise when I should be helping them out rather than continue doing what I do. Sometimes I'm just the hopeless feeder, caught in a lane I cannot win and yet I struggle.

I upgrade my trinket (or upgraded, it's broken currently), and I tend to allow my team mates to engage when I'm playing a squishy champ. Whenever possible, I peel for my ADC, and I don't rush into 1v5s as often as I did at Bronze. (But sometimes I go full herp derp and barrel into I Regret My Decision Immediately-waters.)

I remain convinced I can depart from Silver III and climb towards Gold, even if my current results heavily disagree with me. However, the way I currently play I feel like I'm more of a detriment to my teams than an asset. Otherwise I wouldn't be having losing streaks so often. So I figure I'll turn to the boards for advice, since Google didn't help me.

What are items I should be buying when losing lane?

I tend to:

ADC: Ashe/Tristana Mid: Lux/Anivia Top: Hecarim/Ekko Jungle: Evelynn/Skarner/Hecarim Support: Leona/Soraka/Sona/Janna

I tend to do OK when I buy items because I'm going toe-to-toe or ahead, but my itemisation when losing is what I think could use improvement. Normally I continue stubbornly buying my items when I do get the gold, though as Trist/Ashe I tend to pick up a second Doran Blade. I do get health pots on every back until ~12 minutes.

1 Comments

rampaging poet7/9/2015, 12:33:24 AM1 votes

When I'm behind as ADC, I like to pick up an early Vamparic Sceptre. It helps you sustain in lane, and it's guaranteed to build into something useful later. If I'm way behind I'll finish Bloodthirster (or BotRK) before trying for an Infinity Edge, then into Statik Shiv or Phantom Dancer. In general you want to start picking up some critical hit % chance at around 140 AD regardless of how you get there because that's when crit chance becomes more gold efficient than more AD.

Another item to consider when behind as ADC is Yomuu's Ghostblade because it provides a reasonable power spike while having a much more forgiving build path than IE. With its active up it provides literally every stat you could want except lifesteal. It also builds out of Avarice Blade so if you don't have enough money for it right away you can sit on the Avarice Blade for a bit. I usually build The Brutalizer first though, especially if the enemy team has a tanky support.

Speaking of Avarice Blade, it's not a bad choice when you're only a little behind. If you can mostly keep the enemy off your turret while last-hitting but can't afford to push or fight them, the extra gold generation can help you get back in the game later. However, the critical hit chance it provides isn't gold-efficient and AD is a better purchase DPS-wise in the early game. If you're way behind you can't afford to spend money on something that won't help you right away because if you don't get stronger the enemy will walk all over you and end before your investment pays off. Given the choice between Avarice Blade and Vamparic Sceptre, I'd almost always choose the Vamparic Sceptre.