Boom. Headshot: Marksman 101

Learning Marksman

In this guide we will take a look at the basics of playing a marksman. We will be taking a look at laning phase, teamfights, and champion picks. I will not go super in-depth, but i will give some basic information.

 

Laning phase:

Not only in laning phase, but all throughout the game the most important thing for a marksman is farming. Of course kills can be nice if your support is good at setting them up for you, but farming will give you more gold in the long term. When no minions are available for you to farm or your support gets the enemy marksman CC'ed, you should poke them and maybe even go all in, depending on the situation. I was a support main once and I can tell you, the most annoying thing as a support is when the marksman doesn't use the opputunities you've given him to poke. You should of course also remeber to ward in either the lane bushes, or the ones up towards the river. A lot of people say that it's only the support's job to ward. No, if you want vision then ward, it's as simple as that.

I am not going to write a whole section about what happens between laning phase and teamfighting, because it's simple. You should just keep farming the lanes and even the jungle if your jungler is okay with it (don't take his buffs)

 

Teamfights:

It is true what people say. Marksmen are not in the best spot right now because a lot of tanks are really good and super popular. Marksmen are not useless at all however. If you did your job and farmed, and maybe even got a couple of kills, you should have a few items now and be ready to deal tons of damage. A marksman is the team's main source of consistent damage, since mages and assassins are mostly burst. This makes you valuable to the team, and it's the reason that you should have someone to peel for you when the enemy inevitably charges at you.

You should try to stay in the backline, as far away from the enemy as possible so they won't get to you. So who should you attack in a teamfight? Some people, especially in lower ELO will complain that your aren't hitting their carries. While it would of course be good to put some damage onto the carries, in reality you just can't when you have an Olaf or a Maokai charging at you. So who should you hit? Whoever you have the opportunity to hit.

 

Champion picks:

These are my picks for my favorite marksmen right now. As with my support guide, i will try to pick different types of marksmen so you can try all the different playstyles.

1. Jinx

Jinx is an incredibly fun marksman. She can stay far away from the team and shoot AOE rockets into a teamfight, absolutely destroying everything. She also has a global ultimate which can be used in a variety of fun ways such as sniping a low health enemy, or just shooting it into the entire enemy team and watch their health bars decrease. She is also easily one of the best tower pushers in the game. However you should be careful when playing Jinx, as she lacks an escape. If an enemy tank or bruiser gets to you, you will almost guaranteed need to use your summoner spells.

2. Sivir

Sivir can be incredibly good in the right team composition. If you have some good engage tanks, her ultimate will make your team look very scary as you charge in to decimate the enemy. In lane she can usually be very safe because of her spellshield. If used right, the enemy lane will almost never be able to engage on you, leaving you to farm safely and become a beast late-game. Sivir also has incredibly good wave clear with both her Q and her W, putting you in a position to either clear waves in side lanes fast so you can get to a fight, or leave the enemy without minions if they try to siege.

3. Kalista

I have played a ton of Kalista, and it is not uncommon for the enemy to get annoyed at just how good she can be. If you get used the the jump mechanic, the enemy won't be able to catch you with any kind of skillshot. If the enemy doesn't pay attention to you in teamfights, you will be able to deal an incredible amount of damage, especially if you have Runaan's Hurricane. You are also able to gain vision for your team even without buying wards. She is the optimal choice if your goal is to get objectives such as baron or dragon, as her E is basicly a stronger version of smite.

If your enemy doesn't have point and click CC she is also one of the best marksmen to kite with. Before you play Kalista be warned, she is kind of hard to get used to because she is played very differently than other marksmen because of ther passive. But once you got that down, have fun.

4. Tristana

No one can deny that Tristana is a late-game beast. Sure her early and mid game might not be the best available, but if you farm and get a good amount of items she will kill the enemy faster than they can notice. Her only downsites are the early stages of the game, because late game she can use her W and R to stay safe, use her Q and E to destroy towers super fast, and use her auto attacks to simply crit people to death with about 3-5 shots. She is not even that hard to learn compared to what she can do. She is a very safe champion and that is mostly for the best in this role.

5. Vayne

High risk, high reward. Vayne is the champion who has the potential to make the sickest plays and simultaneously the champion with the potential to be of no use to the team at all. If you want to play Vayne please practice her in some normal games before taking her into ranked as she is one of the hardest champions to master in this game. That being said, if you can play Vayne, you will be the most feared enemy on the map. She has tons of damage, it can be impossible to catch her, and with the right mechanical skill, she can outplay multiple enemies at once.

 

I hope you enjoyed this guide. I would recommend watching some videos to learn more, as it is always nice actually seeing what you want to learn.

-Krisis

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