Climbing Elo: Twisted Fate

Now that I have covered my favorite champion in League of Legends history, I figured I would share my thoughts on one of my favorite mid laners, Twisted Fate. I’m going to be covering two builds: one that is very conventional, and the other, not so much.

Disclaimer

With this series, I will be telling you ways that I enjoy playing these champions. I am not implying that these methods are the best, nor am I saying that these champions are meant to be played the way I play them. Simply put, these are fun builds to use in ranked that are effective and don’t force you to be a meta slave to win.

My History With Twisted Fate

Much like Ezreal, I have been playing TF since early in season one, back when his E let him teleport anywhere on the map and his ult was a free 35% slow on all enemies, regardless of location… Yeah, he has changed a lot. What I love so much about TF, though, is that you can play him in MANY different styles and all of them have their own pros and cons.

I’ve experimented a lot with his unique build paths over the past few years, and I’ve landed on two solid builds that have worked in practice for me in the high gold/low plat elo. For all I know, my builds are insane and should never work, but I figured I would share them anyways.

Abilities

Twisted Fate is a utility/burst mage that excels in creating opportunities for the team to mount a comeback as well as securing picks around the map with his global pressure.

Passive: Loaded Dice – After last hitting anything with a health bar that gives gold, Twisted Fate roles a 6-sided die and whatever side it lands on, he gains that much extra gold. Being a trickster and master of deceit, he has a higher chance of gaining a larger sum of gold. This passive is VERY simple, yet it has the opportunity to let TF grow his lead substantially or even break even in gold despite being behind in lane. Despite there not being much to this ability, it plays a key role in how TF is played throughout longer games.

Q: Wild Cards – Twisted Fate throws three cards in front of him in a cone shape following a set pattern. The cards fly through any enemies they hit until they reach their destination. Although this ability travels quite slowly, it can be hard to dodge in high pressure situations, allowing you to deal massive damage in teamfights if you aim your Q properly. When Wild Cards is paired with his W, you can often get free damage off. Once again, this ability is very simple and doesn’t require very much mechanical skill to pull off effectively.

W: Pick A Card – This is where TF starts to get interesting. This ability is fairly difficult to explain, so bare with me. When you activate W, Twisted Fate starts shuffling through three cards in a consistent pattern (above his head). In order to pick a card, you reactivate W, and to use it, you auto attack. The three cards you can choose from are Blue, Red and Yellow. Blue card does the most damage of the three, but it’s only added bonus is that it restores mana on hit. Red card does the second-most damage, with its benefit being that it slows in an AoE around the target you hit. Lastly, yellow card does the least damage, but stuns the target you hit for up to two seconds depending on the level of the ability. Making great use of this ability can be hard, but once mastered, you will be a force to be reckoned with. Picking the right cards at the right time can be very tricky, so don’t expect to be great at it at the start.

E: Stacked Deck – No champion is complete without some sort of stacking mechanism/auto attack buff. Stacked Deck allows TF to unleash a powerful magic damage imbued auto attack every fourth auto, on top of the ability giving him up to 30% attack speed at level five. This is yet another incredibly simple ability, but you must master it in order to get the most burst damage out of your combos. You can combine the extra damage from this ability with your blue card on your W to do insane amounts of damage.

R: Destiny/Gate – Now for the best ability. Destiny, when activated, reveals every enemy on the map for up to 10 seconds and gives you the chance to use Gate. Gate allows TF to teleport to any spot within a large range around him (similar to a Ziggs’ ult range) after channeling for 1.5 seconds. What makes this ult so good is that you can start shuffling your W while casting Gate to ensure you have the card you want when you land. This tool is very effective at catching out weak opponents trying to farm a side lane by themselves or cutting off low health enemies retreating back to base.

Builds/Playstyles

AD Twisted Fate Jungle

• Berserker’s Greaves/Boots of Mobility/Boots of Swiftness
• Skirmisher’s Sabre: Bloodrazor Enchant
• Guinsoo’s Rageblade
• Runaan’s Hurricane
• Blade of the Ruined King
• Bloodthirster/Maw of Malmortius/Lord Dominik’s Regards

Skill Order

• E
• W
• Q

Champs to AVOID playing against

• Anyone with burst AND an on-click/AoE CC
• Spell shields
• Rammus. Dear lord Rammus.

Summoners and Keystone – Smite/Flash/Ghost & Fervor of Battle

This is my idea of a fun, yet viable, build. With this build, you take advantage of TF’s E to get free attack speed and bonus damage every few autos. With this build, you will be reaching max attack speed (2.5 attacks per second) with ease on top of doing insane percent health damage, based off your opponents max health and current health.

Your early clears with this build are going to be very sketchy. You will have to kite the camp around, throwing stun cards when you can in order to live. You should never put a point into your Q until you have to in order to maximize your clear and damage. Unfortunately, you don’t have much room for error in this build, so every mini optimization you make goes a long way.

On top of your autos hitting hard and fast, your W has a 100% AD ratio and a 50% AP ratio, meaning Rageblade and the Natural Talent mastery give you a fair bit of extra damage. Everything in this build works together to allow you to take out any squishy target you want with ease.

The itemization of your build will vary game to game, depending on what your biggest threat is. If you find yourself not able to outlast your opponent, Bloodthirster will likely solve the problem. Getting bursted down by AP mages? Maw gives you the buffer you need to live. That pesky bruiser with his 5k health running through your team? Dominik’s Regards will make quick work of him.

Come late game, throw stun cards at key targets and roam with the team. If someone you’re 100% sure you can kill tries to split off by themselves, ult on top of them and put them in the grave. Besides that, don’t play too aggressively early game to allow yourself to scale into the late game and become a monster. The build is simple to play with one goal: kill everything.

AP Twisted Fate Mid

• Sorcerer’s Shoes
• Luden’s Echo
• Lich Bane
• Rabadon’s Deathcap
• Rylai’s Crystal Scepter
• Void Staff/Morellonomicon

Skill Order

• Q
• W
• E

Champs to AVOID playing against

• Zed (my personal counter, but seriously, screw Zed)
• Champions with strong chase/lockdown

Summoners and Keystone – Flash/Ghost/Barrier & Thunderlord’s Decree

Now this is the way TF was meant to be played. Raw burst and very strong teamfight damage. Unlike my other TF build, you don’t have to worry about being irrelevant because your high base damages and good scaling mean that you do damage regardless. Not to mention, your passive will keep you close to your opponent in gold if you aren’t too far behind.

Laning phase with TF is really easy, with the only thing you have to worry about being if you get caught out with your W on cooldown. No stun card means no disengage if Ahri ults in on you or if a jungler decides to gank. However, that doesn’t mean never use your W in lane. Since you will likely be spamming Q to clear and push waves, you’ll need mana in order to keep pushing, which your W gives you. As long as you don’t use a blue card every time you lock W in lane, you should have an easy time.

Post level six, you should constantly be looking out for gank opportunities around the map. Your ult pressure alone can turn the tides of fights around the map, so don’t be afraid to use it liberally. Although the cooldown is long, just the first part of your ult is very important for gaining information. With the info you gain, you can decide what the plan of action is for your team and come out ahead.

Teamfights are trivial with TF. Stun card anyone overstepping their boundaries and constantly throw Q’s when the cooldown allows. With Luden’s Echo, your Q alone can chunk a quarter health off of squishies from the safety of the backline. Ult behind enemy lines to catch any stragglers and consider the fight won. Unfortunately, you will have to worry about champions with all in potential. With your only escape tools being Flash and Ghost, you don’t have many options to escape, let’s say, a Kennen or Amumu ult. Play smart and be aware of all possible engages and you should be sailing in kills.

Conclusion

Twisted Fate is a very safe mage pick in the mid lane with the possibility of being taken into the jungle and played as a strong assassin. Good gold generation and easy-to-hit CC make him a dominant force on the rift.

Did this guide help you? Is Twisted Fate one of your favorite champions? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments below or tweet us @GAMURScom.

Let me know what you thought of my guide, if you thought I missed anything or have general questions about Twisted Fate by tweeting me at @iEnglishBetter or email me at ienglishbetter@outlook.com.