Is This Legit?

FNC Nemesis played this in almost every game of the 2019 LEC summer split, T1 Faker spammed this in solo queue for months, Dopa played this build a bit, Jebsu hit Rank 1 Challenger with this in season 9, 2pi hit 1021 LP Challenger (and Rank 1 TF in the world) with this in season 12, and twitch streamer Funkefetti hit Grandmaster with his version of this build in seasons 10-12.

Who invented this build?

This build was first played by twitch streamer Voyboy in the top lane back in season 5, but it was popularized by Jebsu in season 9, a EUW high challenger Twisted Fate main who wasn't satisfied with sitting in low challenger and wanted to climb higher. So he decided to take the Kleptomancy rune to accelerate his gold accumulation, and instead build Trinity Force which allows Twisted Fate to contribute more with sustained damage. I spoke with Topi on Discord and he said the best way to play this currently is E-max, Trinity Force Rapid Firecannon and Wit's End and if you can skip Rapid Firecannon then do it.

This build was incredibly strong in the hands of any competent Twisted Fate player, and quickly many pros around the world were spamming it in solo queue, and in some regions, it saw some action in pro play The biggest example being the LEC 2019 Summer Split, where Fnatic Nemesis played this pick every single game Twisted Fate wasn't banned. At some point, he was hovering around a 12-15% pick rate with a 52% win rate.

Recently the build has regained popularity in season 13 after TF was buffed several times, and triforce was buffed to have good stats again. Jebsu is playing the same build once again, you can find his op.gg here: https://www.op.gg/summoners/euw/big%20bad%20bee

Why Did Jebsu Chose Kleptomancy?

Jebsu didn't take this rune for the purpose of the extra gold. He took it so Twisted Fate could have access to the entire inspiration tree (at the time, his standard keystones were Arcane Comet, Summon Aery, and Fleet Footwork, people didn't take Unsealed Spellbook). This allowed Twisted fate to get Magical Footwear, Minion Dematerializer, and Time Warp Tonic to enable his trading with Corrupting Potion.

Since Twisted Fate can now use the entire inspiration tree, he can use his secondary tree to make his lane phase safer. For this reason, Jebsu takes resolve runes to make Twisted Fate more tanky. Bone Plating allows you to go-even when trading with champs like Talon or Fizz, and Second Wind gave you more sustain vs heavy poke lanes. But conditioning is by far the best option for mid-late game durability.

However in season 12 and Riot made a new rune called First Strike. It's basically if you made kleptomancy more interactive, and removed all the random items you could get from it to sell. It's slightly harder to proc than kleptomancy, but hey, gold is gold.

Though the concept of taking klepto WASN'T for the keystone, it was for access to taking inspiration primary this is why Jebsu continued to run Prototype: Omnistone after klepto was removed, therefore, Glacial Augment is another strong choice.

How can this build still be relevant?

The reason this build fell out of the meta was because Riot reworked the entire item system. In the process, Riot made massive changes to most of the items in this build. However, despite not giving as many stats as before, each item in the build still serves the same purpose as before. Trinity Force gives Twisted Fate a lot of movement speed to kite, a bunch of HP to be tanky, some ability haste to cast spells more, and a fair amount of DPS to stay relevant in early skirmishes.

One thing that hasn't changed however, is the two item power-spike. Twisted Fate didn't start carrying until he completed his on-hit item of choice ( Wit's End or Nashor's Tooth), and got exponentially stronger at his third item Rapid Firecannon. This build is the reason Rapid Firecannon is still being built on Twisted Fate to this day.

Strengths

• More early DPS
• Better sustained damage
• More movement speed
• Better mid/late game dueling in side lanes
• Better team-fighting

Weaknesses

• Weaker wave-clear (before Runaan's Hurricane)
• Less burst
• Requires more micro (like kiting and dodging)
• Has mana issues with the Q-max method.

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  Trinity Force

  
  This is the main item that makes this build work so well. It gives Twisted Fate almost every stat he could ever want. HP, movement speed, ability haste, attack speed, attack damage, and a passive that increases his movement speed, attack damage, and attack speed.
  
  
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  Kraken Slayer or Wits End

  
  These three are great options for DPS. Wits End is great vs mages, Kraken slayer is good when you don't need MR from Wits.
  
  
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  Rapid Firecannon

  
  This supplements Trinity Force by giving you even more movement speed, attack speed, increased range and increased damage on Pick A Card with the energized passive.
  
  
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  Other on-hit Items

  
  Terminus and Blade of the Ruined King both give you attack speed and on-hit damage, however Terminus gives you armor, magic resistance, armor pen, and magic pen. While Blade of the Ruined King gives you life-steal and more damage against tankier comps. Take Blade of the Ruined King into bulky comps or if the enemy team is heavy AD. Runaan's Hurricane gives even more wave-clear and magic damage on-hit to multiple enemies.
  
  
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  Tank Items

  
  Buying tank item's ensures that you'll stay relevant in the late-game when everyone else will be finishing their builds and dealing more damage. You'll actually be dealing more damage than if you were to buy damage items because you'll be staying in fights longer.

How you play the early game hasn't changed at all since season 9. Even though you have a gold generating rune, your top priority is to farm as well as you possibly could. You never want to miss minions to harass with First Strike because minions will ALWAYS give more gold.

On your first recall, you used to buy a Phage which gave HP, AD, and MS, but Riot split it into two items, Hearthbound Axe for the AD and MS, and Kindlegem for the HP and haste. You want to buy a Ruby Crystal so you have enough HP to trade safely, and a Long Sword so your adaptive damage becomes AD. This will allow you to play more aggressively and manipulate the wave better. Taking Teleport will allow you to take an early recall to get these items as fast as possible.

Once you've completed your Trinity Force, you'll have plenty of MS to kite your opponents and stay in range for your Gold Card. You can even 1v1 any ADC or Mage that's out of position (given you have the mechanics to properly dodge skill-shots).

Although you're capable of dealing respectsable damage, you DO NOT want to perma-group with your team. You want to side-lane and get as much solo XP and gold as you possibly can, and use your agency to split-push. When the enemy tries to match you, you could then use your ultimate to force a 5v4 with your team, and win the fight. If you group with your team all the time, you'll be missing out on maintaining your lead over your opponent, and allow them to catch up. At this point you want to get as many objectives as possible and try to end the game quickly.

This build falls off a little bit in the late game but you'll always be useful as long as you can keep throwing long-range gold cards, and using your ultimate for vision. Focus on making controlling vision in the river or enemy jungle to make picks when the enemy team is rotating, because you excel at taking out isolated targets. If you can consistently get a numbers advantage, your odds of winning skyrocket.

Play Video

Topi was the mid laner for RATE Gaming, a Danish pro team that participates in the NLC. He hit Rank 1 Twisted Fate in the world, and peaked at 1021 LP Challenger. He also streams on twitch sometimes.

Topi's op.gg

He's pulling this off with grace in Challenger games, so this build is still viable in season 12.

Funkefetti is a Grand Masters Twisted Fate streamer, but he puts a twist on Jebsu's build. Instead of building on-hit items for DPS, he builds tank items like Dead Man's Plate and Force of Nature and uses is extreme tankiness to be a huge nuisance to the enemy team. Imagine how much chaos a tank TF with Rapid Firecannon gold cards can cause!

Here's his op.gg

Playlist of Pros and High-Elo TF Players building Triforce