I joined Peter 'yellowpete' Wüppen for a talk and basically a review of all the AD carries of the moment in League of Legends. First of all I would like to thank him for the great availability and interest and would like to say sorry for the time it took me to convert the audio into text but I am glad it is here now.

The audio file was recorded about one month ago, days before CLG head to Korea. Also, I would like to ask sorry to all Varus' players since I sincerely forgot to mention him. Twitch was not referred as well since he was not considered an AD carry as he is now, witht he stealth rework.

There are some points that are discussed between the analysis of a certain champion for example you will find the discussion of Trinity Force on Corki on the Ezreal's section just because it was there that the topic appeared.

Please check his FAQ and make sure to follow his stream everyday. I hope you learn a lot from this article just like I did and I am very thankful. In the end of this text interview you can find the audio version if you prefer, although my english is not that good.

What should an AD carry do early, mid and late-game?

yellowpete: The special thing about the AD carries is that they are not cooldown reliant so by that time and with the farm they usually get, they have the highest damage sustain output which means that they are usually the best force to take down tanky targets.

Concerning the standard item build of an AD carry, when should you get a Bloodthirster or an Infinity Edge?

yellowpete: It depends on your champion. Some champions have a lot of abilities that stack with AD and are really important for their role, for example Graves who has pretty good AD scalings or Ezreal, and then others are mostly auto-attack reliant such as Vayne, Caitlyn, Kog’ Maw. Obviously all AD carries rely on their auto-attacks but some also rely in their abilities to a certain extend, so the ones that have abilities that scale with AD it is a little bit better to get a Bloodthirster then with the others however it is still not always the best choice.

The situation in which I prefer to get Bloodthirster is when you are relatively far ahead early – you have good farm, maybe a kill or two -, and just very early on lane so that you can build it up and have the 40 extra damage from the stack of Bloodthirster already for the mid game. And it is also an item that is relatively to win with because you can trade very well and then heal off the next minion wave and when you fully stacks Bloodthrister you can almost get 70% or 80% of your health on a single creep with just auto attacks so it is really strong.

Infinity Edge on the other hand has way more auto attack damage straight up it is also a more expensive item. If you rely on mid-game strength because that is not a strong point naturally, thinking about Tristana for example, I would not really consider getting a Bloodthirster in Tristana because I really feel she needs the early crit and the early damage to be useful in late game. It all comes down to situation really, most of the time Infinity Edge is a safer choice.

CORKI

What is the ability that you should learn the most?

yellowpete: Most people max Q, on lane you usually don’t have the time to continuously face the enemy for 4 seconds required to get the full damage of the E so the quick burst from Q is usually to be preferred however E does give more damage per level if you actually use for full duration if for some reason you can always go all in without ever having to kite, it is an option.

Who do you think gets countered by Corki directly on lane?

yellowpete: To an extend I think Corki is really good vs Vayne early game because she has relatively low-based stats so she has no way of trading against his auto-attack plus Q burst so it is a good thing and her range does not really matters much because she is not high-ranged either.

Which support do you think synergizes better with Corki?

yellowpete: He is a pretty burst-out champion, you can play defensively or poking support, such as Soraka that allows you to spam your abilities all the day and full yourself up or you can go for burst champions such as Leona or Taric, where I feel Leona is actually the best option out of the three for Corki.

It just depends on plays, the Soraka lane is pretty safe and you can usually try to farm everything and it also scales pretty well into teamfights because Soraka’s armor buff is just relatively strong, where as Leona, Alistar is looking to get early pressure and dominance. There is also Sona who has been falling somewhat , not lot of teams are playing it anymore, Sona and Corki is still a pretty good lane.

CAITLYN

Caitlyn is the ultimate AD carry for early game, right?

yellowpete: Caitlyn is definitely a champion that is strongest in the early game just because of how much range matters in the early levels for laning and just allows her to get so many more auto attacks and harass, however when coming into mid-game her abilities become really really not powerful. For example if you think of a Taric + Graves combo it is just so much instant burst and targets are probably instant bursted because they are not tanky yet so that is kind of where she falls of a little since she only has her Q for burst and it is a pretty long charge-up and gets reduced by creeps and it is not that easy to hit on a moving target either. So she is definitely best in the early-game.

ASHE

What are your advices on Ashe?

yellowpete: The thing that will screw Ashe the most is gap-closing burst champions so on lane as well on teamfights because she does not have a blink or some kind of escape move and anything that can jump to you and can ignore your slow is bad to you.

As for laning, usually you don’t see Ashes playing very offensively, you can’t really force plays with her too much, sure you can poke down enemies in certain situations but it is not likely so if you are laning equally, farming equally, you are usually doing a good job because Ashe’s utility just scales the longer the game goes.

Which skill should you max first?

yellowpete: Most people max W, and so do I. If you don’t max W your damage will be really low. I do remember that one game Fnatic Lamia maxed E in a pretty passive lane but I don’t think it is a really good idea because she has pretty low damage in the first place and if you don’t level your damage spell it is kind of bad in my opinion.

GRAVES

What do you think of Graves?

yellowpete: He is a versatile pick, he can kite to an extend with his E and his W, he can also engage and burst. He has pretty strong laning and he is a pretty strong safe pick. He is also relatively tank and he has some damage steroids but I am not a huge fan of his late game and his short range kind of screws you over sometimes especially if you are plating against double AP, AoE ulties that pretty much zone you and they usually have Zhonya’s as well and you are pretty much standing outside the fight without doing much.

Is there any counter-pick for Graves in the lane or is it just the double AP that you find ideal for countering him?

yellowpete: In lane I would say Miss Fortune probably does the best job because she can’t get much bursted early on since she has high base stats in terms of HP and Armor and she also has really good trading tools against him then later on anything that has higher range than him, for example, early into mid game, I would consider him a good pick versus Tristana but late game she has so much range advantage, so does Kog’Maw.

MISS FORTUNE

What are your advices for Miss Fortune players?

yellowpete: The problem with her not being played that much probably is that her auto-attack range is relatively low, comparable to Graves, Corki, but unlike those champions she does not have a gap closer or an escape move rather the only escape thing she has is her passive but the second you take any kind of damage is over already so it is just really really hard to get away from anything

Even if you have a flash, assassins are just a huge threat to you in team fights that it is hard to be useful into auto-attack a lot since you will get zoned so much. She still has decent damage from her Q and she is a very very strong dominant laner for sure andher early game is really scary so if you are looking to snowball the game, possibly Leona or Taric on lane just to dominate the enemy and if you have some protection as well so your aggression can’t be countered that much then she is worth the pick.

Which skill should you max the first when playing her?

yellowpete: Q and W are pretty much equal, in terms of damage. If you hit an enemy over an extended period of time that damage is roughly equal however in short engagements obviously Q is a bit stronger and it is more of a sustain better than W.However what you also have to consider is that she is a relatively mana-hungry champion for an AD, so it is not really hard to get out of mana if you keep harassing on lane, that is another argument for W since it does damage without wasting any mana, just from auto-attacks and also has a pretty good damage to mana ratio if you active it.

EZREAL

What is the skill to level with Ezreal? It is known that some teams, especially in Asia, max W with Ezreal, what is your opinion on that?

yellowpete: It is situational I think. The difference is that you have more instant damage because the level up of the Q does not really provide you much damage so if you max Q the real strength you have there is the cooldown reduction and you have more sustain damage since your Q’s will be up more often and not forget it also reduces cooldowns of all your spells so you will be casting spells more frequently.

When maxxing you have more instant burst and it also quite utility, the attack speed reduction it gives is huge especially if you have attack speed dependant bruisers on yours and on the enemy team because they both get the buff and the de-buff, correspondently, so Irelia or Jax can get really influenced by that and on lane it is obviously easier to harass with W if you cannot force the enemy off the creep wavepretty much then it is almost impossible to harass effectively with Q as if it would be with W.

Trinity Force on Ezreal and on Corki, when to get and when not to get?

yellowpete: So the thing about Trinity Force is that it is a relatively expensive item and it does not give a lot of auto-attack damage if you just like continuously auto-attack a target, for that cause Infinity Edge is just way better however the benefit of Trinity Force is just has a really really good build-up, in my opinion it builds up way better than Infinity Edge and the components are really good early game and it also adds a lot of utility, you get movement speed, a slow, health points, everything in one item.

I would not consider the item on a champion that does not use all the stats though but if you look at Corki he uses all of the item stats really really well so that I think it is a very good item on him. Ezreal is a little bit different because Ezreal scales harder with AD then what Corki does so you get a tiny more benefit from just stacking AD on him, as well as the attack speed passive that you have on Ezreal kind of makes you want to go an AD item burst.

That being said it can still be ok to rush Trinity Force on Ezreal especially if you are ahead. If you can get that thing early you can just engage on the enemy, you will probably get a slow after like three hits, you have really really good burst against an underleveled enemy and your sustain damage won’t really matter that much, the fact that you can slow them and that you can chase them down indefinably is very valuable at that point.

When in time should you purchase Trinity Force?

yellowpete: It always comes down to situation but my usual build would be to go Trinity Force as first time after a doran’s blade and a vampiric scepter and just regular boots, on Corki, and on Ezreal I would usually build it after having my Bloodthirster and Berseker’s Greaves. After having the level 1 boots on Corki you can choose, depending on how the game goes and what the enemy has, to upgrade them to something for mid and late-game oriented such as Mercury Treads instead of Berseker’s Greaves.

KOG'MAW

What do you think of Kog’Maw? He does not have an escape spell like Miss Fortune so how should you play him?

yellowpete: He does not have an escape spell but he is still way safer than Miss Fortune just because he has so much range with his W and so much kitability with his E, if a bruiser rushes you and he lands on your trail perfectly you will be able to kite indefinably unless he chooses to Flash you, so that is a really, really strong tool. Also Kog’Maw has very high base damage within his abilities because W makes a huge difference if you activate it. The down-fall of his W is that you are auto-reliant of it because you will not have it activated during all the team fight, usually if you activate it at the right time you’ll be able to make the difference between the active goes off to cooldown again.

URGOT

Do you consider Urgot OP comparing him to the other AD carries?

yellowpete: Urgot is a bit special, does not really qualify as a typical AD carry in the way that he does not really build tons of AD and then carries the game, he carries in other ways. The thing is he has really high-based damage on his abilities so you can afford just going for pretty tanky builds just stack armor and you are simply able to do a lot of damage by being very hard to kill and that is kind of what you want to do on Urgot. And the reason why he is banned so much is because he creates a pressure potentially on the bot lane or on any lane that he is on because it is impossible for you to get away once you get hit with E, it is very hard to defend of that.

He also has a strong laning presence without even being ganked, with his poke is really strong early to mid game, he is just a pain to deal with.

What supports are the best for Urgot?

yellowpete: It really comes down to the approach you want to take in the lane. Actually I won’t say that Soraka is the best support for him, she is a good choice but others also have their benefit. For example Taric, synergizes really really well with him, they both have an armor reduction and also the swap into stun combo will give champions very little room for counter measures, you build tanky anyways with Urgot and then you have the armor buff of Taric.

TRISTANA

What spells should you run with Tristana? Is Ignite+Heal a viable option?

yellowpete: Ignite and Heal is kind of a gimmicky setup I would say, it can help if you want to win those engages that Tristana is really good at doing early game however looking at mid and late game, in team fights you usually want to have Flash, even on Tristana where you have long range and an escape move, just because it is not instant, the jump of Tristana is not instant and it can even be cancelled and if that happens and if you have an opponent that can cancel it, you want to have the flash.

If you face for example Alistar and he is catching up to you with Shurelya’s Reverie and his entire team is chasing you and if you do not have Flash you are screwed at that point because you cannot jump away, the second you jump away you stop for a split second and then you get into range for him to combo you and if he combos you right after the jump starts then you will be cancelled and you will be dying instantly. In that situation you are very needed of Flash. It all comes down to the enemy line-up.

If you are on bottom lane you usually face Exhaust+Ignite lanes so even having a Cleanse, for example, Ignite+Cleanse can really help, but overall I would say Flash is needed but then the rest depends on whatever I want to have for lane.

Which ability should you max first as Tristana?

yellowpete: That is kind of interesting because it is not always the same. She has the early burst potential with her W and R, and with some supports, such as Leona or Blitzcrank, you are really looking to one shot a single target, in that case you can max W.

On other lanes, if you play with Janna for example, against Graves and Taric, you really don’t want to jump to them, it is not really the place that you should have in that lane, so you should just add 1 point to W for the escape spell and max the other options instead. If it is a kiting lane I add one point to W and max Q afterwards rightaway and get E whenever it is necessary.

Which defensive item should you get? Should you get it by the end of your build?

yellowpete: You should get one before the end of your build, it all depends on what is a threat to you on the other team, if you are for example getting zoned by Warwick’s or Urgot’s ultimates then it might be necessary to get a relatively early Quicksilver Sash after Infinity Edge and Zeal for example.

Most of the times though you can get away with building three items and then something defensive, for example, Infinity Edge, Phantom Dancer and Last Whisper and then going maybe into Guardian Angel and Banshee’s Vail or Quicksilver Sash. The item that you choose just really depends on what you face. Guardian Angel you should really want to get against burst champions with high cool down that can’t kill you twice, for example, if they have an entirely AD-based line-up so the armor will be really really useful but they have Leblanc and she may burst you but she cannot kill you twice that quickly.

If you have a team that does not really rely on you as the single carry then Guardian Angel also is a really good item because by the time you die with it your team will do some work in between not just be focused on you. Banshee’s Vail for example is really good against Morgana, Malphite, stuff that can hard engage on you but has no away of poking the bubble of the item’s passive.

SIVIR

What ability do you usually max with Sivir?

yellowpete: I usually max Q on Sivir just because if you hit the double damage, I think it is the highest based damage spell if I am not mistaken in the entire game so it hurts a lot if there are no minions around and you hit it twice. W’s effect is Ok but the strength of the spell is mostly from auto-attacks so that I usually max Q and put one point into E and then max W.

Why do you think she does not get as played as the other champions in competitive play?

yellowpete: She has a lot of movement speed and her passive allows her to kite very well compared to Miss Fortune she is very quick with her ultimate and passive she can move around really quick and also her spell shield. However I don’t think she has a really good laning phase, she has trouble against anything that harasses her with auto-attacks in lane because her auto-attacks’ range is just so low so that is kind of bad because early lane her mana costs are pretty high as well and you can’t really afford range farming with Q, you have to get close-up to farm.

She is super strong for team fights though, if you get the right combo that can make use of the movement speed and attack speed buff in your team, it makes her ultimate such a strong ultimate.

VAYNE

Which ability to max first with Vayne?

yellowpete: When she came out people would level E first with her but I think they nerfed that spell actually so right now what I am doing is leveling Q first because you get a lot of cooldown reduction from it and then second I usually max W because at that point you usually have a significant amount of attack speed and people are starting to stack health so you are not really looking to burst people that much anymore on lane and you just want to get the sustain damage for team fights.

What do you think of building Trinity Force with Vayne to get more damage from her Q?

yellowpete: Actually I have never tried but what I think about is that she makes good use of the procs and her chasing ability gets boosted by a lot, it is a nice choice because you get damage, movement speed and attack speed in one item where you usually have to kind of choose whether you want to go for a Phantom Dancer or Bloodthirster and Infinity Edge’s damage, however she does not use any AP at all and actually she does not need the mana either so some stats are a little bit wasted so I am not too sure of how I like Trinity Force on her, but I think I prefer her in a role of a pure damage dealer with Infinty Edge+Phantom Dancer or Bloodthirster+Phantom Dancer.

DRAVEN

What do you think of Draven?

yellowpete: I played him 3 or 4 games and my impression is that he is really really strong on lane, he has a lot of early damage and he is hard to counter trade his harass however on lane you can usually pick up all your axes and it does not really matter but if you think more of team fights you usually cannot just run around where you want and you will get caught by skill shots just trying to pick up every axe and without his axes his damage per second is not anything special, with his axes though his damage is kind of insane. I doubt he is going to be a common champion for me to play.

What are your expectations regarding Korea?

yellowpete: I hope we get a lot of practice no matter what, it is going to be a good experience to live with the team for an extended period of time, hope that works out for us, we will be staying there no matter if we stay in the tournament, even if we drop out in the group stages, which I don’t really expect to happen, we will still stay there for the full duration and practice pretty much.

I am really excited for the practice and it is going to be our first contact with the south-east Asian teams which is most likely going to be interesting, since you don’t see much from them because they don’t stream quite as much as we do.

Do you think Brutalizer is a good item for an AD carry?

yellowpete: Brutalizer is a pretty early game oriented item, it is flat armor penetration, the longer the game goes your role will be to kill whatever it is in front line as quickly as you can and Brutalizer does not really offer that much.

However if you are ahead already, say if you get a kill as Graves or Ezreal or Urgot and you build Brutalizer, it can help you a lot because the second you get it it gives you so much damage but it just does not scale that well so I would not really recommend it on AD carries. Most likely your damage on high armor targets will be more significant than on low armor targets.

Any shoutouts or anyone you would like to thank?

yellowpete: Shoutout to all my viewers and my fans and also all CLG’s fans for making everything possible for me and us. Also shoutout to all our sponsors which is Razer, own3d tv, ELOBUFF and XMG for providing the help and making sure we can do what we do.

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