Climbing Elo: Corki

Moving on to another one of the original champions in League of Legends, Corki is next on the list of my favorite champions to climb with. Unlike Ezreal and Twisted Fate, I only really have one build for Corki, but you can take it into both mid and bot lane.

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 Corki

This daring bombardier has stolen my heart with his charm since the early days of the game. He comes packed with funny one-liners and an overall goofy look. What really makes him stick out to me is his very interesting playstyle and kit. Since his minor rework some time ago that changed a few of his abilities, he has been very fun to mess around with and figure out what works.

Having tried many different things, from full AP to attack speed jungle, I have an idea of what makes for the best build in my experience, so here I am to share it.

Abilities

Corki is a hybrid based carry with huge burst potential and decent poking options. 

Passive: Hextech Munitions/The Package – Hextech Munitions is a simple auto attack modifier that converts half of Corki’s attack damage into magic damage. What this means is if you were to hit for 100 damage normally, you would do 50 physical damage and 50 magical damage. This makes Corki very strong against tanks who stack one resist or the other. You can also scale each damage individually with armor pen or magic pen.

The Package is a physical drop that Corki can pick up at base that spawns at the eight minute mark and every five minutes after he picks one up. The Package last 60 seconds, giving him 40 percent increased movement speed and turning his W into Special Delivery, which I will cover under his W.

Q: Phosphorus Bomb – Corki launches a slow moving bomb that detonates in a small AoE when it lands, dealing magic damage to everything in the circle. The explosion also reveals all enemies hit for a short duration, as well as revealing the area of the explosion. This ability scales equally with AP and AD at 50 percent each, meaning despite you building 350+ AD, you deal a significant amount of magic damage with this ability as well. The timing on the bomb can be a bit tricky to get down at first, but with just a little practice, it can be simple to master. 

W: Valkyrie/Special Delivery – Valkyrie gives Corki the ability to dash a short distance in the direction of your mouse, leaving a trail of fire over the ground he covered. The fire only lasts two seconds and does minimal damage, but once you scale into late game, it can do a surprising amount of damage.

Special Delivery is only usable when Corki has obtained a Package. Very similar to Valkyrie, this ability propels Corki forward very quickly, this time a very long distance, and leaves a fiery trail over the distance he covered. The biggest difference between these two abilities is Special Delivery deals massive damage at 150 percent bonus AD in magic damage per second, it slows any enemy in the fire by 90 percent and it knocks back enemies. If used correctly, this ability can solo kill squishy targets with the only effort from your part being pressing one button. Not to mention, using Special Delivery instantly refreshes Valkyrie’s cooldown.  

E: Gatling Gun – This ability is objectively Corki’s weakest ability, yet it plays a key part in how much damage Corki can do. Once used, Corki will start shooting a stream of continuous bullets in a small cone in front of him. What makes this ability useful is that it shreds armor and magic resist, up to 20 each. Corki can also move freely while using this ability (similar to Rumble’s Q,) meaning you can control who you shoot in what direction.

R: Missile Barrage – Working on an ammo system that recharges periodically, Missile Barrage gives Corki missiles he can shoot in a long straight line that explode in a small AoE upon hitting something. Every third missile, however, is a Big One that deals 50 percent more damage than other missiles and doubles in explosion size. If paired with a well aimed Q and an auto attack, a Big One can spell a timely death for any squishy trying to overstep their boundaries.

Build/Playstyle

• Sorcerer’s Shoes
• Triforce
• Infinity Edge
• Essence Reaver
• Statikk Shiv
• Void Staff/Bloodthirster

Skill Order 

• Q
• E
• W

Champs to AVOID playing against

• Caitlyn due to her massive range and bully presence.
• Tricky mid lane assassins (Zed, LeBlanc, etc.)

Summoners and Keystone – Flash/Heal (ADC) Flash/Ignite (Mid) & Thunderlord’s Decree

With this build, Corki still has the potential to duel any other ADC on top of being a strong tank shredder. Combining his mixed damage, resistance shredding, magic pen, Thunderlord’s and Triforce, Corki is able to do surprising amounts of burst. It takes him sometime to ramp up into his late game, but he can still fend for himself in the early game.

Taking advantage of his abilities doing magic damage despite building AD, you will also want to build Sorcerer’s Shoes and Void Staff to increase your raw damage on top of boosting the lackluster damage of Valkyrie. It also helps to take the Natural Talent mastery to further increase the bonus.

The laning phase for Corki is fairly simple in both bot and mid lane. In bot lane, you will want to play passively and CS until you can get a Package. If you’re laning with a Leona or Alistar, feel free to engage if you feel you can get out with a kill. Once you have a Package, immediately start looking for opportunities around the map to make use of it. Remember, it only lasts 60 seconds so you don’t have long to goof around. If the game is moving very slow, don’t bother using your Package until things start picking up. It’s best to always have it available as opposed to wasting it.

In mid lane, you can out-trade most mid laners due to your raw auto attack damage. Abuse Thunderlord’s and make sure to weave in auto attacks onto your opponent in between CS. Once you have Sheen, you can likely all-in them unless they’re AD. The only mid laner that is AP that I have issues trading with, besides LeBlanc, is Ahri, since she is so mobile. If your opponent uses a key ability in their kit to CS, you should have no problem winning the fight.

Come late game, once you’re three or four items into your build, you can burst just about any squishy with ease. Unlike AP Ezreal, you don’t have to use Valkyrie for damage, so you always have it available to escape along with Flash. If you really have to, you can also use the Package to cover an escape for your team or even cut off someone for a free kill. Look for opportunities to Q>R>Auto>R on anyone caught out for insane damage. If you’re lucky enough, your auto will crit, meaning your Statikk Shiv wil crit, boosting your damage by a couple hundred points of damage.

Stick with the team and poke away at the front line in order to secure a higher chance of success. Oh, and don’t forget to have fun.

Conclusion

Corki is a strong mid lane burst champion or an aggressive roaming ADC with huge potential to solo carry a game. Good Packages and poke makes Corki live up to his name of the Daring Bombardier.