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Corki. I know him. I love him. I main as him. But how many other people do? How many other people can legitimately say they play a large portion of their matches as him? How many people have encountered a skilled Corki that either carried their team, or completely wrecked them? How many subpar Corki players have people encountered?

I can comfortably say that people encounter subpar Corkis more than skilled ones.

Why?

Corki is not Ashe, or Ryze, or Alistar. He’s not easy to pick up, practice with, and master. People tend to gravitate towards easy champions just because they’re easy to do okay with, as opposed to a champion like Corki, who is hard to do extremely well with. As a result, people who see others try Corki and fall short are quick to say that he’s a bad champion, and that anyone who plays him would be better off playing a simpler carry, like Ashe. Another issue is that Ezreal, another ranged carry with a playing style similar to Corki’s, outclasses him in nearly every aspect, particularly his difficulty.

Missile Barrage vs. Mystic Shot

Mystic Shot can out damage Missile Barrage, it scales with his attack damage, has a similar cooldown, and is a faster moving skillshot (easier to aim). In addition, Ezreal has access to this ability right from the start, while Corki has to wait until level 6 for his. The Missile Barrage has a very poor AP ratio, and is not viable to build off of. Even though every fourth missile is a Big One that deals double damage, it can be predicted by viewing Corki’s current buffs (it will say it’s ready to fire), and can be blocked completely by running behind minions. Mystic Shot wins.

Essence Flux vs. Gatling Gun

Essence Flux hits every target in a line, be it friend or foe. This means Ezreal can simultaneously buff his team’s attack speed and deal damage to enemies. A buffed team is much easier to push turrets with. However, Corki’s Gatling Gun provides both AoE damage and AoE armor reduction, thus allowing both himself and other physical DPS characters to be much more effective in team fights. Gatling Gun wins.

Arcane Shift vs. Valkyrie

Corki’s Valkyrie is extremely mana-hungry early on, and is on a long cooldown. Ezreal’s Arcane Shift is on a much shorter cooldown, can catch enemies off guard with an unexpected cast, and also shoots a homing shot at the nearest enemy. Arcane Shift, due to being a blink, is much easier to go through walls with, where a poorly-aimed Valkyrie can crash headfirst into a wall. Due to Arcane Shift’s effectiveness, Ezreal can level it up in lieu of his other abilities, where as a Corki that levels up Valkyrie past level 1 early on ends up gimping his effectiveness with Phosphorous Bomb and Gatling Gun. Arcane Shift wins.

Trueshot Barrage vs. Phosphorous Bomb

Ezreal’s ultimate can hit multiple targets at once, and can keep going to hit targets further behind the first set, at the expense of some damage. However, on a physical DPS build (one of the most common), Trueshot Barrage’s damage becomes lackluster quickly. Corki’s Phosphorous Bomb gives relatively cheap AoE nuke and blind, and is vital to early game harassing. Phosphorous Bomb wins.

Hextech Shrapnel Shells vs. Rising Spell Force

Rising Spell Force rewards Ezreal’s good aim with an stackable increase in his attack speed, up to 60%. This, combined with a team buffed by Essence Flux, can cripple turrets quickly. Alone, it gives Ezreal an boost in damage while his skillshots are on cooldown. Hextech Shrapnel Shells allow Corki’s basic attacks to deal an additional 10% true damage that can’t be resisted. This, combined with Gatling Gun and an armor penetration item such as Last Whisper, allows damage to add up even on tanked enemies. Despite this, Rising Spell Force wins due to a greater endgame effect on turrets.

Overall: Ezreal vs. Corki

Corki has the potential for extremely high burst damage, but this will fail if even one of his skillshots are missed. Ezreal ends up being more effective at sustaining his damage output, can be much more mobile with Arcane Shift than Valkyrie, and is far more effective at pushing turrets, and buffing his team to help push alongside him. Ezreal should win.

So why play Corki at all?

I picked up Corki before Ezreal was released, and I’ve never felt the desire to switch to Ezreal. If I play as Corki, do well as him, and enjoy myself as I play him, why should I bother switching to Ezreal just because he does Corki’s job better? People who pick up Ezreal see him as the only one that fills that particular niche, and are usually completely unfamiliar with Corki. If you wanted to pick him up now, be aware of the fact that an easier alternative exists, and it’ll take much less time to reach the same level of effectiveness as it would with Corki. It ends up being a matter of preference. I could start playing Ezreal, but in doing so, I would be moving to a champion that fulfills the same purpose, except he’s slightly easier to master, and my skills would probably end up atrophying for it. In a sense, I don’t play Ezreal because he’s easy. I play Corki because he’s hard. Also, it’s not beyond the bounds of reason to play a champion just because you enjoy him. Also note that Corki is by no means a subpar champion. If you’re in Draft Mode, and Ezreal ends up being banned or chosen by the enemy team, Corki can be a nice alternative.

Corki is extremely difficult to master, yes, but think about what you can do once you’ve mastered him. Those that know his true potential will oppose the naysayers, claiming that Corki, in the right hands, can dish out some of the highest damage in the game. This can be true, but it’s not as easy as pressing R to win. It actually takes commitment, time, and will probably initially result in horrible losses and the questioning of your intelligence, your sexual orientation, your mother’s sexual intelligence, and whether or not abbreviations count in Scrabble (they don’t).

Corki is unique in that he can assist the team beyond doing damage. His Phosphorous Bomb provides stealth detection, his Gatling Gun provides AoE armor reduction towards anything he’s aimed at, and his missiles can harass and keep an enemy at range while Corki’s teammates maneuver into a more advantageous position. Valkyrie lets him surge forward, suddenly adding an unexpected boost to a gank’s damage output, and it allows him to quickly flee from a fight gone bad, even allowing him to fly over walls, forcing enemies to go around. Thanks to a set of generic, yet effective abilities, Corki can find his spot in any team setup, with a preference to crowd-control heavy compositions.

I’ll be posting a guide to Corki soon (see: whenever I can bother to sit down and write it), but I figured I would throw this out now just so people can recognize him and understand that the bad Corkis they play against are not representative of the champion’s quality at all. Stay tuned!

An Hour of my life just went by and I didn’t even notice. Too busy blowing shit up, the Auto-bot way! Here’s a taste of it off the livestream. What made me get it was the promise to customize my very own Auto-bot or Decepticon. So far I have only been able to choose a character available and then modify them from there. It’s still really good so far. Gotta love the ability to transform at will and kick ass. Definitely demo it if you can. The Co-op and Multiplayer are also worth it but before you dive into that you’ll be recognizing the mechanics of the Unreal Engine in yet another game and you’ll either except it or not. Some games just aren’t worth it while others, just suck you in. I for one, am getting up to get food. When I get back, I’m mounting a cannon on my shoulder and I’m going to shoot another blog post at you about the newest Ashe changes in League of Legends. Until then, stay frosty.

Update:  I’ve since beat the game and found that all the promises of making your own transformer is entirely multiplayer. Since it is the Unreal engine it suddenly just feels like a mod for Unreal. Other than that It was a swell game!

Highest Basic Attack damage in the game plus the large attack range he has, can equal quite the abomination I must say. It doesn’t seem like it’s supposed to work but it does. Zilean can even reach Nunu outside his ultimate. Here is what happened the first time we tried running an attack speed Zilean. See what you think. Also, forgive the constant snickers because it was obviously hilarious.

If you play League of Legends, then you most likely hate Ashe and her ultimate. What most people don’t realize is the majority of the Ashe players out there fire her Enchanted Crystal Arrow (of broken justice) at point blank, meaning very short stun times. You can avoid this easily by strafing a lot, bringing Cleanse, or wearing a Banshee’s Veil. I have proven that an Ashe that utilizes distance gets the most kills. Since the length of the stun increases with the distance that the arrow travels, you get the most stun time from very far away. As far away as the spawn area.

Now most people avoid playing Ashe because she is considered an easy/newbie character. While others use her simply because she’s in rotation and she’s extremely powerful. I started League of Legends playing Corki, then Master Yi, then Tryndamere, then Katarina, then Alistar, then Malphite, then Cho’gath, then Veigar and then finally… ASHE. (because I was asked to by my friends) I wasn’t horrible at the other champions. I actually looked into builds to bring out the best in their abilities, chose appropriate summoner spells, masteries etc. Of course, it wasn’t till recently that we had runes and after that the games changed slightly. After learning Ashe, I continued trying other characters like Evelynn, Twitch, Rammus, Annie, Amumu, Fiddlesticks and Kassadin, in that order. Based on what character I want to play as, I will change my masteries before the match to suite one of these characters. I only have two rune builds right now which I juggle between characters. One is for AP per level and the other is ability cooldown. I choose the cooldown one for Ashe and with all Tier 3 runes I’ve brought her ultimate’s cooldown to almost under 50 seconds. That’s spam-happy for me. As I said before, too many Ashe players use their ultimate at point blank and although that can sometimes be good for a gank (I do it too at times), I prefer to fire mega-stun missiles across the level.

After several games of practice (and I DO NOT mean practice matches because it is far too easy to hit the computer) you should be able to narrow hot spots to get brilliant stuns. For some video footage of what I do, check my Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/rockmanneo12

Looking at Ashe’s abilities:

Frost Shot: you use when an enemy is fleeing to slow their escape. Contrary to popular belief this effect is like a weak poison and can get a last hit seconds after they escape. Get this up second.

Volley: Used for farming minions, slowing enemies, and pissing everyone off, especially in the early game. Get this up first.

Plentiful Bounty: USELESS, get this last when there is nothing else to level.

Enchanted Crystal Arrow: Whenever given the opportunity to level this, DO SO. Can be used to kill enemies with low health, whether they be hiding on a tower, recalling in a bush or anywhere on the fucking map. Time your shot, help ganks, and then grief the QQers.

Ashe is cheap to unlock in both Riot points and Influence points. She is effective in any situation against even her worst pairings. She also has a nifty skin.

Build:

Here’s a link to my complete build. Including Runes. Just click the image. At the bottom I will explain how to get the most out of it, and why I choose what I do.

#1 Philosopher's Stone

• +22.5 Health Regen per 5 sec +10 Mana Regen per 5 sec Passive: Gain an additional 5 Gold every 10 seconds.
• Build this first, then sell for Banshee’s Veil Later. This item is only a good choice because of health Regen early game + gold!

#2 Boots of Swiftness

• UNIQUE Passive: Enhanced Movement 3

#3 Sword of the Occult

• +10 Attack Damage UNIQUE Passive: Your champion gains 2 damage and +2% critical damage per stack, receiving 2 stacks for a kill or 1 stack for an assist. This effect can stack 20 times; you lose a third of your stacks if you die. At 20 stacks, your champion’s movement speed is increased 15%.
• Note: This only comes in handy if you are actually getting kills/assisting in kills + NOT DIEING

#3 Alt: Phantom Dancer

• +45% Attack Speed +30% Critical Strike +20% Dodge Chance +12% Movement Speed
• Get Zeal first, then move on to Last Whisper, then finish Phantom Dancer. If you choose this instead you will almost never get enough money for Infinity Edge afterwards so you might just want to get Black Cleaver.

#4 Banshee's Veil

#5 Last Whisper

• +20 Attack Damage +40% Attack Speed UNIQUE Passive: Attacks penetrate 40% of the defender’s armor.

#6 Infinity Edge

• +80 Attack Damage +20% Critical Strike UNIQUE Passive: Critical hits now deal 250% damage instead of 200%.

#7 Black Cleaver

• +75 Attack Damage Passive: Physical attacks reduce your target’s Armor by 12 for 5 seconds, (maximum 5 stacks).
• This is your endgame item that you won’t always have time or money to build.

UPDATE: I noticed myself that sometimes you just can’t get kills due to too many tanks or healers and I discovered that swapping the sword of the occult for the Phantom Dancer is wonderful. Hell with that much movement speed you’ll be all over the place and could get the sword of the occult later on. If you like that idea better than put phantom dancer in for #3 and if you can live without it, forget the Banshee’s Veil till later and go straight for the Infinity Edge.

Summoner Spells:

• Teleport: After 4 seconds, teleports your champion to target friendly minion or turret.
• Exhaust: Blinds the Target (100% miss chance) and slows its movement speed by 40% for 3 seconds.
  

Runes: (Assuming you are lvl30)

• Greater Mark of Desolation x9
  
• Greater Seal of Focus x9
• Greater Glyph of Celerity x9
• Greater Quintessence of Celerity x3

Totals: 17.46 Armor penetration & 17.73% Cooldown Reduction at lvl18

Masteries: (21/0/9)

Offense:

• Deadliness (3): Increase your Champions Critical Strike Chance by 2.00%.
• Cripple (1): Improves your Exhaust spell to also reduce the target’s armor and magic resistance by 25 for the duration, and increases its duration by .5 seconds.
• Sorcery (4): Reduces the cooldown of your champion’s abilities by 3.00%.
• Alacrity (4): Increases your champion’s attack rate by 4%.
• Archaic Knowledge (1): Your magical spells penetrate 15% of target’s magic resistance.
• Sunder (3): Your physical attacks pierce 6 of the target’s armor.
• Brute Force (1): Increases your champions attack damage by 1.
• Lethality (3): Increase your champion’s critical strike damage by 10.00%.
• Havoc (1): Increase your physical damage and magic damage by 5%.

Utility:

• Spatial Accuracy (1): Reduces the Delay on your teleport spell by 0.5 seconds, and reduces it’s cooldown by 5 seconds.
• Perseverance (3): Increases your total health and mana regeneration by 4%.
• Awareness (4): Increases the amount of experience your champion gains by 5.0%.
• Expanded Mind (1): Increases your champion’s mana by 1.25% of your maximum mana.

Summary:

I focus on Cooldown reduction because I aim to make use of Ashe’s ultimate. Whoops.. made an Ashe joke. With all the cooldown reduction, your Crystal arrow cools down around 60 seconds. I’ve seen mine lower than that but this is just an estimate after doing the math. The armor penetration runes and masteries add to your effective damage throughout the game.  Regardless if you’re in a lane with Ashe or soloing mid, you can be an effective killer. Be aggressive early game, keep them off your minions by firing at them when they are in range. You want to learn Volley first to annoy the shit out of them + effectively killing all their minions. Don’t let anyone sneak up on you, pay attention to the minmap. Learn Frost shot second to slow their escape and make it easier to get the first kill. I’ve gotten the first blood many times with this, or at least the second blood. Max Volley first, then Frost Arrow, then Crystal Arrow BEFORE ever putting a single point in Plentiful Bounty. It’s honestly a worthless skill to me.

When attacking, try to save volley for last hit. I don’t use my Crystal Arrow to steal last hits like so many do. I will sometimes use it to kill someone recalling in the woods or on a tower. most of the time I use it from across the map for MAXIMUM stun time. As soon as i fire it, I teleport to the nearest friendly in that area. So just as my arrow hits them, I am there to *CRIPPLE*, then *FROST ARROW*, then *VOOLLEEEEHHH!!!*. = KILL +1

Sword of the Occult only helps you IF you get kills or assist in them. Which is why I get it early game. I almost always get a few early assists. By mid game I will have enough stacks to get the movement speed bonus and I’ll be all over the place. Usually this combination helps me escape a lot easier as well as gank. If you are quick enough with your Crystal Arrow, Teleport, Cripple (exhaust), and 1,2 Frost Arrow, then Volley; THEN you should be able to easily execute a Ryze with full health, same level as you, on a tower. Just an example.

Banshee’s Veil will help you more than you know, especially endgame. Needless to say I’ve laughed at so many dumb Blitzcranks that would try to grab me when it’s up or other Ashe’s who fire their Crystal arrow at point blank range. It works on just about anything.

End Game LoL’s

Occasionally I have found myself at endgame with tons of money but not enough for Infinity Edge but not enough time to continue saving for it. If this happens you should have your boots, Last Whisper, and Phantom Dancer at least because you do not always need Banshee’s Veil but if you have it, that’s fine. So you could either go ahead with Black Cleaver for yet even MORE Armor penetration or go for some other funny options. I put this info down here instead of up in the build area because it is purely out of choice in your game strategy OR out of humor.

Example 1:

Stark's Fervor

• +20% Attack Speed UNIQUE Aura: Gives nearby allied Champions 20% Lifesteal, 25% Attack Speed, and 30 Health per 5 seconds regenerated. Reduces the Armor of nearby enemy champions by 25.
• Reason: I know Bloodthirster can benefit yourself but by endgame you are with your other team mates and having this is funny because everyone around you will be lifestealing. It’s even funnier if you have a Shaco on your team with the build that includes this item because the effect will stack from both of you.

Example 2:

Wit's End

• +40% Attack Speed +30 Magic Resistance UNIQUE Passive: Physical Attacks remove up to 42 mana from the target and deal additional damage equal to the amount of mana removed.
• Reason: Wonderful when the enemy team is fully of mana batteries like Ryze and Twisted Fate.

Example 3:

Sword of the Divine

• +55% Attack Speed UNIQUE Passive: Every fourth attack deals 100 extra Magic Damage. UNIQUE Active: Your attacks cannot be dodged and you gain 30 Armor Penetration for 5 sec.
• Reason: To better destroy armor tanks and anyone who gives you trouble. Probably the best choice actually.

Stay smart, stay cautious, and ultimately, STAY FROSTY!

(And don’t forget to yell “VOOLLEEHHH!!“, every time you do)

The latest addition to this guide is posted here.