[14.11] s14 Twisted Fate guide - Grandmaster, Halfhand

Hello to all my Twisted Fate Collegues/enthousiasts!

Before you read through my guide I would like to introduce myself as a way to make my guide more credible. My name is Halfhand. In season 12 I reached Grandmaster playing exclusively Twisted Fate with a 66% winrate and became the rank 1 Twisted Fate in the world. Playing Twisted Fate since season 5 I have also accumulated over a million mastery points on him.

Currently in season 14 I'm sitting at around 400lp masters with a 65% winrate.

Throughout the past few seasons I've come up with my own customized runes/build shared with you in this guide. My setup is mostly inspired by other great Twisted Fate players like Dopa & WuhuShen.

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• Try to get +7 cs/min; Twisted Fate's passive (Loaded Dice) gives you extra gold from minions. Farming is a very important skill for any LoL player but especially on Twisted Fate as it will be something you can rely on every game.

• Don't die in lane. There are very few matchups that Twisted Fate actually wins. Try to get as much cs as you can without dying and play the map with your ultimate. Don't be centered on killing your opponent in lane. Twisted Fate's kit isn't designed to 1v1 stomp your enemy like a Fizz, Akshan or Sylas would do. Getting a 1v1 kill is only possible if your opponent really misplays.

• Time your recall so you have items when you are using your first ultimate. The perfect first base would be at level 5. Get back to lane with all the items you purchased and then when you hit level 6 you will be ready to for your first ultimate.

• Improve your wave control so your opponent doesn't get the chance to freeze the lane on you. In bad matchups try to focus on last hitting and let the wave come to you. Pushing the wave in a bad matchup will put you in danger to get ganked. ONLY PUSH WHEN YOU: want to roam, ult or get priority for an objective.

• Twisted Fate is a champion that requires great macro understanding so don't dwell too much on mechanical misplays. Focus on your map movement/positioning. Rewatch your own gameplay (mainly your ults) and question your decision making.

• Don't permanently group with your team. Your ultimate allows you to split push in a sidelane. This allows you to get a lot more XP and Gold while being able to use your ult to get back to your team in case a fight breaks out.

• Try to play towards 1 win-condition. Its often better to ult botlane 4 times than to ult bot 2 times and top 2 times. Play for 1 carry and safe your ultimate to help them out. Don't feel like you have to help everyone out. There are a lot of games where I don't even go top once, just because I feel like bot has more influence over winning the game.

• Watch high elo Twisted Fate players play the game. I personally learned a lot from watching dopa's stream. Try to look how he plays, when he bases, which items he buys, how he positions, when he ults, ... Link to his stream; www.twitch.tv/dopa24 and YouTube; www.youtube.com/Dopagod Since Dopa is on military service feel free to check out my own content; www.twitch.tv/Halfhand - www.youtube.com/Halfhand

At minute 5 the voidgrubs will spawn. Always try to play for your jungler when the first voidgrubs are about to spawn. Make sure you have your wave pushed in so you can move first. Twisted Fate is really scary in early skirmishes because of his gold card.

If you can't move first because you managed your wave badly or the enemy outplayed you, ping your jungler back, he then has to decide whether he wants to give the voidgrubs or contest it.

The important thing to remember here is that you have to play for your jungler. If he doesn't care about the voidgrubs then you can just stay in lane no problem.

Synergy with your jungler is really important when playing Twisted Fate. Try to coordinate ganks together. If you want to ult bot at level 6, let your jungler know. That way he can alter his pathing to be botside when you are about to hit 6. If you are 4 man bot you can often easily secure dragon after ganking.

Wave management is a very important skill to have as a Twisted Fate player or as a midlaner in general. It is very complicated and can't be explained in a compact guide. I will try to go over some of the more important things but if you are really getting to higher elo I would recommend looking more into this yourself or booking a coaching session with me.

The first minion waves Into melee champions like Kassadin, Katarina, Zed you mostly look to harass them in the first few levels. Make sure you don't sacrifice too many minions though. Always make sure your wave is either pushing in fully, stable in the middle of the lane or coming towards you. Every time you cross the middle part of the lane to push in the minions under the enemy tower you should beware of the enemy jungler position since you are susceptible for ganks.

Into ranged champions like Syndra, Viktor, Annie you mostly want to keep the wave in the middle or just out of your tower range. This way you can safely farm and are not really gankable.

Once you have your R Destiny unlocked you can look to push in the wave fully in order to ult to the sidelane without losing too many minions. At level 9 Twisted Fate will be able to oneshot the casters. Try to abuse this to get a fast push in order to roam.

Wave pushing at level 5 At level 5 you will need 2 q's to kill the caster minions, this strategy can be used to get a good recall/base timer. You can shove in the wave fast, recall and by the time you are back in lane you won't miss any minions. Example of me doing it here: https://youtu.be/j_jvdevdvGE?t=308

Minion waves in the later stages of the game A lot of lower elo players have the mindset of a 'Call of Duty' player. They are only focused on getting kills. Keep in mind the most effective way of getting gold is through minions and not through killing enemies. When you see a big wave Top, Mid or bot and none is getting it make sure you get it. Minions are worth a lot of XP and Gold.

Before starting objectives like rift Herald , Dragon or even Baron you should always make sure your lanes are pushing. This way the enemy will lose a lot of XP and Gold. Its also important because if let's say the dragon fight goes bad, the enemy team won't have any waves to use in order to get your towers. They will have to go back to the base to push in the waves again and you won't lose anything from the bad fight other than a few deaths.

If you have taken inhibitor and you have super minions running down one lane try to stall the objective like dragon and Baron long enough so the enemy starts losing towers without you even doing anything. They will then have to send someone back to the base to defend. And you will be able to fight 4v5 and secure the dragon or baron .

Your ultimate Destiny is the single most important spell Twisted Fate uses to influence the game. This tool if mastered can win you unwinnable games, turn a 2v3 in a 3v3, backdoor the enemy nexus or camp one opponent so hard he decides to go afk. I have had it all and I can say Twisted Fate's ultimate is the reason I like him so much.

Your first ultimate method 1 This is the most basic method and is also used by Dopa in most of his games. For your first ult you should try to base at lvl 5 to buy your first items. In most games you want these items on your first base; Boots+ Dark Seal+ Amplifying Tome+1 Control Ward

Run to lane after you recalled, get level 6 and start looking for ganks. If there are no opportunities don't feel pressured to use your R Destiny. You can always hold on to it and wait for a better window.

Your first ultimate method 2 Method 2 is very abusable in lower elos. You can greed and stay in lane to get level 6, then base and look for an ultimate from the base. After your ult you can walk back to midlane and you will most likely not lose a lot of minions.

The reason this only works in lower elos is because in Higher elos I often get poked out before that. Lower elo players will rarely punish you, meaning you can stay in lane longer and greed your base timings.

Sidelane control Always try to heavily control one side of the map. For example you play fully for botside in order to secure dragon soul. Or you play fully for topside in order to get multiple heralds and play the map. Ulting bot, then top, then bot again is often a bad idea since its better to play for one winning side instead of cutting losses on both sides.

Ult usage after that Your ults after that are really dependent on the game state. I myself often try to ult after I base. I do this because I will have spend all my gold and therefore I will have more damage. If you ult somewhere with 2k in the bank you are missing out on a lot of damage. So, run from fountain to bot/top, ult in and after that you can run mid to catch your minions.

Since Twisted Fate his ultimate is a global ability, splitpushing is another really important skill/concept to understand.

DO NOT 5 MAN ARAM MID After the laning phase ends try to go into a solo lane. This will give you a lot more xp and gold compared to sitting mid with your entire team and sharing all the xp/gold between 5 players. Whenever you have your Destiny up you can also splitpush and join the fight with your R Destiny if needed.

This is probably one of the most common mistakes lower elo players make. The amount of gold and xp that is wasted in lower mmr because everyone is always trying to 5 man aram in a lane is insane. You can get really big level and item leads by just focusing on catching sidelanes on your own.

Splitpushing Disclaimer ❗ Twisted Fate is not a splitpusher like Tryndamere, Camille, Jax, Fiora & Nasus. These champions have the goal to 1v1 the opponent and get towers in the sidelane. Twisted Fate is far weaker in an isolated 1v1 compared to these champions. So you have to be a bit more careful when pushing sidelane on your own. When I refer to splitpushing I mean sitting in a sidelane and catching solo xp and gold. Only pressure the enemy with your sidelane push if you are a lot stronger or if you have someone shadowing you (jungler or support are backing you up).

Lane swaps Once your bot ganks with Destiny start paying off and you manage to get bot tower swap lanes with your botlane. Let them both go mid and you will farm up bot and pressure from there. You do this because a botlaner & support give off a lot more pressure than you on your own without R. Since you already took bot tower you want to move your pressure point from the botlane to midlane.

Basic rule set of catching waves After about 15 - 20 minutes the laning phase will most of the time be ending. In most games the XP / Gold is then shared like this;

• The ADC & Support will take the midlane experience.
• You and the toplaner will catch the sidewaves. This can change from bot to top depending on the game state.
• The jungler will catch waves if really needed and farm the jungle camps.

Matchups Twisted Fate doesn't really have winning matchups. He isn't designed to stomp lane and spread his lead that way. The way you play him is to go even in lane (not die), punish the enemy when you can and try to farm as many minions as you can. Use your global ultimate to get other lanes ahead and splitpush in the mid game.

Map Awareness Map awareness is another really important skill for every Twisted Fate player. Looking at the map will make you able to determine when and where to use your ultimate Destiny. When you are laning you should look at the mini map every few seconds. Once your ultimate is up, you should look at the minimap a bit more because now you will have to look for an actually opportunity to ult in.

Stacked Deck Whenever you are looking for ults always make sure you have a Stacked Deck. This gives you a lot of extra damage when ganking. Example; When my ultimate Destiny is up I use my q on the wave instead of auto attacking to clear it. This way I save my stacked deck for when I ult. It will make it so I deal more damage when I initially land.

Using Dematerializer properly Running my rune setup you will have 3 Minion Dematerializer's at the start of every game. Use one demat on every type of minion to get more damage on those minions throughout the game. For every Minion Dematerializer used you will deal 6% extra damage to that type of minion. You can also use your Minion Dematerializer to get a good base. Example of me doing it here: https://youtu.be/bDILDuIr8Eo?t=266

Identifying your win condition Twisted Fate is far from a solo carry champion. His identity is more that of a supportive midlane roamer comparable to Karma, Galio & Ryze. Therefore he will always in a way be reliant on his team to close out the game with him. Because of his identity it is really important to be able to identify who you should be playing towards during the game. The 2 strongest carry roles in the current meta are ADC and jungle. So most of the time you want to be playing towards either one of them.

Playing for botlane When to play for your botlane ✔️

1. Your botlane has a lead over their opponent. (More cs, more turret plates, more items, ...) This indicates they are probably better players, hence why it might be a good idea to get them further ahead.
2. Your support has a strong follow up on your ultimate Destiny + gold card combo. (Examples; Nautilus, Thresh, Leona, Pyke, Blitzcrank, Bard, ...) This makes it really easy to CC chain the enemy and kill them.
3. Your adc is a hardcarry marksman. (Examples; Jinx, Aphelios, Vayne, Twitch, Tristana)

When not to play for your botlane ❌

1. Your botlane is really far behind
2. Your support has a no decent follow up on your ultimate Destiny + gold card combo. (Examples; Lulu, Senna, Karma, Renata Glasc, Soraka, Janna, ...)
3. Your adc is a supportive marksman. (Examples; Jhin, Ezreal, Sivir, Ashe)

Playing for toplane When to play for your toplaner ✔️

1. Your toplaner is stomping his opponent.
2. Your toplaner has good followup on your ultimate Destiny + gold card combo. (Examples; Camille, Jax, Urgot, Renekton)
3. The toplane matchup is volatile. Meaning; The first champion to get ahead will most likely roll over the other one. (Examples; Fiora vs Irelia, Riven vs Darius, Jayce vs Tryndamere)

When not to play for your toplaner ❌

1. Your toplaner is really far behind. (Don't help your toplaner when he is 0/5. Even when he is spam pinging for help. It makes more sense to play for a winning lane rather then trying to get a losing lane back in the game.)
2. Your toplaner has no followup on your ultimate Destiny + gold card combo. (Examples; Vladimir, Gangplank, Teemo, Kayle)
3. The toplane matchup is tank versus tank or scaling vs scaling. (Examples; Dr. Mundo vs Malphite, Vladimir vs Kayle)

Playing for jungle When to play for your jungler ✔️ Your jungler is stomping his counterpart. (more cs, higher level, more items, ...) This idicates he is probably a better player, hence why it might be a good idea to get him further ahead. Your jungler is a carry champion. (Examples; Rengar, Evelynn, Lee Sin, Hecarim, Kha'Zix, Kayn, ...)

When not to play for your jungler ❌ Your jungler is really far behind compared to his counterpart Your jungler is a tank. (Examples; Amumu, Sejuani, Zac, Rammus)

Congratulations you've made it to the end of my guide! I would like to thank you for reading through. I hope you learned something and wish you the best of luck with your games.

If you're interested in getting coaching from me; make sure to check out my website down below.

https://www.patreon.com/halfhand/shop