League of Legends is a very fluid game where anything can happen. This means that you must prepare for everything. However, something I have noticed a lot throughout my time in Ranked League was that players don’t prepare for anything… they load onto the Rift with the same Runes, with the same build, and play the exact same game as the one they just finished, which is a horrible habit. The purpose of this article will then be to help you optimize your build path depending on the enemy team.

AD Champion Guide

Lord Dominik’s Regards/Mortal Reminder:

While being two different items, these two items share one common feature and that’s piercing through Armor. Beginning with Lord Dominik’s Regards, as it is the less common of the two, this item is designed to give AD and AD Penetration. Packing one unique passive titled “Last Whisper”, this item gives the holder 35% Total Armor Penetration (Armor Penetration affects the enemies direct Armor stats meaning that if an Enemy had 100 Armor, 35% Armor Penetration would cause the enemy to have 65 Armor now). The second item listed here is called Mortal Reminder and is definitely the more popular item of the two.

This popularity stems from one of Mortal Reminder's compontents: Executioner’s Calling. Executioner’s Calling grants the holder Grievous Wounds, which is debatably one of the better passives in League of Legends. Which leads me to the first Unique Passive that Mortal Reminder offers, which is titled Executioner. Executioner is the unique passive that gives users Grievous Wounds.

If you do not know what Grievous Wounds does, let me explain. Grievous Wounds gives the user the ability to reduce the amount of Healing that an enemy Champion receives by 40% for 3 seconds. Meaning that the Yuumi on the ADC will not heal for an infinite amount and will actually be killable. Executioner, the unique passive offered by Mortal Reminder, is then the exact same as traditional Grievous Wounds, except it lasts 5 seconds rather then 3. The second unique passive that Mortal Reminder offers is much like the only unique passive on Lord Dominik’s Regards, as it is also titled Last Whisper. However, since Mortal Reminder packs Grievous Wounds, having “Last Whisper” be the exact same as Lord Dominik’s Regards passive would make LDR a useless item, and so the Armor Penetration for Mortal Reminder is 25%, rather than 35%.

- Lord Dominik’s Regards Stats

Best Champs to Build on: Aphelios, Ashe, Caitlyn, Draven, Ezreal, Jhin, Jinx, Kai'Sa, Kindred, Kog'Maw, Lucian, Miss Fortune, Sivir, Tristana, Twitch, Varus, Vayne, Xayah, Yasuo, Aatrox, Camille, Corki, Kalista, Fiora, Gangplank, Graves, Irelia, Jax, Jayce, Kayle, Kayn, Lee Sin, Master Yi, Pantheon, Pyke, Qiyana, Quinn, Riven, Renekton, Senna, Tryndamere, Zed, Nocturne, Talon

When to Build: The enemy team has an abundance of Armor, or are Tanks – i.e. Ornn

Cost: 2,800 Gold
Item Placement: 4th Item
Stats: +45 Attack Damage, +35% Amor Penetration

- Mortal Reminder’s Stats

Best Champs to Build on: Aphelios, Ashe, Caitlyn, Draven, Ezreal, Jhin, Jinx, Kai’Sa, Kindred, Kog’Maw, Lucian, Miss Fortune, Sivir, Tristana, Twitch, Varus, Vayne, Xayah, Yasuo, Aatrox, Camille, Corki, Kalista, Fiora, Gangplank, Graves, Irelia, Jax, Jayce, Kayle, Kayn, Lee Sin, Master Yi, Pantheon, Pyke, Qiyana, Quinn, Riven, Renekton, Senna, Tryndamere, Zed

When to Build: When the enemy team has Life Steal and or Healing through their Kits – i.e. Yuumi heals

Cost: 2,800 Gold
Item placement: Last Item – Build Executioners 2nd Item, then finish Core Build, and then Finish Mortal Reminder
Stats: +45 Attack Damage, +25% Armor Penetration, +40% Healing Reduction

Phantom Dancer

A Critical Chance item with Attack Speed, Phantom Dancer is the perfect item for those who need some Survivability and Attack Speed. Phantom Dancer has some pretty great unique passives as well. The first passive that Phantom Dancer possesses is called “Spectral Waltz” and is a unique passive meaning it cannot be stacked (so don’t buy multiple Phantom Dancers). This unique passive grants the user unit passthrough and 7% Movement Speed, meaning you can now walk through Minions and run at the enemies faster. “Spectral Waltz” is triggered and lasts for 2 seconds after basic attacking an enemy Champion, so either be ready to chase them down or run away.

The second unique passive that Phantom Dancer has is its more appealing unique passive and is called “Lifeline”. Lifeline grants the user a shield that absorbs 240-600 Damage and is triggered once the User takes damage that puts them below 30% Health. Lifeline has a cooldown of 90 seconds and is a scaling passive that begins to scale at Level 9 all the way up to Level 18. This means that Lifeline won’t become useless as the enemy team scales and gains more damage. Overall, purchase this item if you need that extra survivability in teamfights and if you use Attack Speed. However, you cannot stack Phantom Dancer's passive with Maw of Malmortius', so don't buy both.

Best Champs to build on: Yasuo, Xayah, Aphelios, Vayne, Tryndamere, Lucian, Sivir, Tristana, Varus, Ashe, Jinx, Corki, Gangplank, Garen, Jhin, Kalista, Kayle, Kennen, Kog’Maw, Twitch

When to Build: When you need to survive longer in teamfights and your Champion utilizes Attack Speed well or the game is close and you need to be able to survive the initial attacks of the enemy so that you can sway the fight in your favor or, finally, an enemy on the other team is hyper-fed and you need to survive their burst damage.

Cost: 2600 Gold
Item placement: 1st or 2nd item depending on Champion and enemy team
Stats: +30% Attack Speed, +25% Critical Chance, +5% Movement Speed

Maw of Malmortius

Are you constantly getting exploded by AP Champions and don’t know what to do about it? Do you think Attack Speed and Critical Chance are useless on your Champion? Well then Maw of Malmortius is a perfect item for you. Maw of Malmortius is the more specific version of Phantom Dancer, as Maw is designed to protect you solely against AP Champions. Packing two Unique Passives that are very strong, Maw is no laughing matter. The first unique passive that Maw possess is called “Lifeline”. Lifeline is a unique passive that grants the user a shield that absorbs 350 Magic Damage (or AP Damage) from the enemy Champion. This shield lasts for 5 seconds and is triggered once the user’s Health would be reduced below 30%.

The second unique passive is actually connected to “Lifeline” in that it only becomes available once “Lifeline” triggers. This second Unique Passive is titled “Lifegrip” and grants the User 20 AD, 10% Spell Vamp (converts damage from either Champion abilities or item actives into Health) and 10% Life Steal (heals user for a portion of damage dealt through auto-attacks or through on-hit Effects), and these stat boosts last until the user is out of combat. Overall Maw is a great item for AD based Champions who are primarily facing off against an AP team. Once again, you don't want to stack Maw with Phantom Dancer or Sterak's Gage, as they each have the Lifeline passive and they don't stack.

Best Champs to Build on: Yasuo, Jinx, Ashe, Gangplank, Lucian, Draven, Ezreal, Graves, Lee Sin, Pantheon, Pyke, Riven

When to Build: The enemy team is stacked with AP and you aren’t a Tank/Bruiser. Or the Main-Damage Source on the enemy team is AP, i.e. enemy Zoe is Hyper-fed, while the other AD enemies are weak

Cost: 3250 Gold
Item placement: 4th item
Stats: +50 Attack Damage, +10% Cooldown Reduction, +50 Magic Resistance

Thornmail

Much like Executioner's, this item is designed to reduce the healing on the enemy team and give you an extra damage source. Thornmail is an item that grants the user the ability to do damage to those who attack them, whether those attacks actually hit or not. For instance, Thornmail can still be activated and do damage to enemies even if the enemies are Blinded or the person with Thornmail is protected by a shield or Invulnerable (i.e. Taric Ult). Now the damage that Thornmail inflicts is due to its 2 Unique Passives. The first unique passive of Thornmail is the most appealing to many of its users and is called “Thorns”. Thorns inflicts Magic Damage equal to 10% of the holder's Bonus Armor plus 25. This damage also inflicts Grievous Wounds for 3 seconds onto enemies who attack the wearer.

The second unique passive given by Thornmail is called “Cold Steel” and makes it so that anyone attacking the wearer of Thornmail has their Attack Speed lowered by 15% for 1 second. Overall, this is a must-have item if an opponent on the enemy team has high Attack-Speed and or Healing/Lifesteal.

Best Champs to Build on: Rammus, Maokai, Vi, Dr. Mundo, Hecarim, Illaoi, Jarvan IV, Malphite, Mordekasier, Nasus, Ornn, Nunu & Willump, Poppy, Sejuani, Sett, Taric, Sion, Skarner, Trundle, Udyr, Volibear, Zac, Amumu, Cho’Gath, Alistar, Shen

When to Build: An opponent on the enemy team has high Attack-Speed and or Life-steal/Healing – i.e. Vayne or Darius, and or if the enemy team has healers i.e. Yuumi/Soraka

Cost: 2900 Gold
Item placement: 3rd Item – however you should Bramble Vest early if enemy team’s healing is affecting you that bad, and then finish full item later once core items are finished.
Stats: +250 Health, +80 Armor

Mercurial Scimitar

Yet another item that no one seems to build in low elo. One of the best items in the game, especially if you are an ADC, Mercurial Scimitar is insanely powerful. Mercurial Scimitar does something that nothing else in League of Legends can do... and that is remove all crowd control effects, meaning unlike Cleanse (the Summoner Spell), when you have a Mercurial Scimitar, you can remove Suppression and Knock-Ups. Now the item itself does not magically remove the CC on your Champion, as League leaves that up to you, meaning that this ability given by Mercurial Scimitar is not a unique passive, but it is a unique active. Once activated, you remove all Crowd Control debuffs and gain 50% Movement Speed, along with unit passthrough for 1 second. Now, Mercurial Scimitar is a very expensive item, meaning it will take a while for you to obtain this item.

However, you do not need the full Item in order to utilize its powerful unique active, as this ability comes from one component of the full item titled “Quicksilver Sash”. I advise this then: If the Enemy team has a wide range of CC or a Malzahar, purchase only the “Quicksilver Sash” component of Mercurial Scimitar and then continue the rest of your typical Build. By only completing the “Quicksilver Sash” (or QSS), and then continuing your build, you save 2,100 gold and get the unique active. Then later on in the game, once you have finished your core build, you can finish Mercurial Scimitar.

Best Champs to build on: Aphelios, Ashe, Caitlyn, Draven, Ezreal, Jhin, Jinx, Kai’Sa, Kindred, Kog’Maw, Lucian, Miss Fortune, Sivir, Senna, Tristana, Twitch, Varus, Vayne, Xayah, Yasuo, Corki, Jayce, Kalista, Lee Sin, Pantheon, Qiyana, Quinn, Thresh, Nautilus, Rakan, Gnar, Graves, Darius, Hecarim, Jax, Master Yi, Renekton. – *SIDE NOTE* QSS is good on everyone, but since QSS builds into an AD Item and this and AD guide, only AD Champions are listed here

When to Build: When the opponent has Suppression or an abundance of CC – i.e. Skarner.. or if you cannot dodge CC Skill Shots – i.e. Morgana Q

Cost: 3,400 Gold (QSS – 1,300 Gold)
Item placement: 5th Item – However as mentioned earlier QSS could be built 2nd or 3rd depending on the state of the game and the enemy Champions
Stats: +50 Attack Damage, +10% Life Steal, +35 Magic Resistance

Black Cleaver

Black Cleaver is an item that does not get as much recognition as it should from AD champions that aren’t in the Top Lane. Top Laners appear to build this item every single game and good for them; but other lanes (i.e. Bot Lane/Mid Lane/Jungle) don’t seem to know that this item is in the game. Packing two great unique passives, Black Cleaver is a great item for when the enemy team has an abundance of Armor. The first unique passive that Black Cleaver offers goes unnamed but not unnoticed. This unique passive allows the user of this item to deal Physical Damage to an enemy champion, this Physical Damage then shreds the targeted enemy and reduces their Armor by 4% for 6 seconds. The great thing about this unique passive is that it can be stacked up to 6 times, meaning that you can effectively reduce your opponents Amor by 24% simply by auto-attacking them 6 times, which is no laughing matter.

The second unique passive that Black Cleaver offers is titled “Rage”, which grants 20 Movement Speed for 2 seconds upon dealing Physical Damage to an opponent. Along with this, Rage grants the user 60 Movement Speed for 2 seconds upon either killing an enemy, or upon assisting a kill. Rage's stats are halved for ranged Champions, meaning they will only receive 10 Movement Speed for dealing Physical Damage and 30 Movement Speed for either kills or assists. No laughing matter, Black Cleaver is a great item for when the enemy team is stacked with Amor, pair this with either Lord Dominik’s Regards or Mortal Reminder and shred through enemy Tanks.

Best Champs to build on: Aatrox, Lucian, Gnar, Jarvan IV, Kayn, Kled, Lee Sin, Olaf, Renekton, Riven, Sett – short list, but Black Cleaver can be useful on other AD champs, this Item while over built in the Top Lane is under built in other Lanes. Look at what the enemy Team is building and if you are an AD champion consider this Item

When to Build: You are an AD champion and the enemy team is Stacked up Amor, causing your Physical Damage to be useless

Cost: 3,000 Gold
Item placement: 1st or last item – Top (either this or Tri-Force first) and then other AD Champions should prioritize Lord Dominik’s Regards and Mortal Reminder then their typical Build and then this item
Stats: +40 Attack Damage, +20% Cooldown Reduction, +400 Health