Why should you play Corki?

Corki is an AD caster who also happens to be a mid/late game beast. He is a very safe laner with incredibly big powerspikes that can catch the enemy by surprise. He has great poke damage that can easily transition to an all-in and I often find myself doing the most damage in the game even when I play average. Despite being an AD caster, Corki's passive, Hextech Munitions, along with his abilities mean the large majority of his damage output (70-90%) is magic.

Pros and Cons

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Pros

- Safe laner - Late game hypercarry - Decent roaming potential

Cons

- Expensive items - Lack of CC - Lackluster early game

If there's anything you should take from this guide, it's to BUILD THIS ITEM FIRST.

Manamune is an amazing item in general, but especially on Corki. This item makes his abilities pack a punch, particularly The Big One, the bigger, extra damage version of Missile Barrage that you get on every 3rd ult cast.

At just 2900, this item is insanely gold efficient, but only when you finish stacking Tear. The earlier you stack your tear, the earlier you reach that spike, which is uber important on a champion like Corki that scales very hard with each item bought. This is what makes Manamune first item such a good purchase.

You can also go tear -> shieldbow -> manamune, but I would only recommend this if for whatever reason you can't survive pre-20 without lifesteal/shieldbow passive.

Passive: Hextech Munitions

Corki's passive is split into two parts: his autos and the Package.

Corki is one of the few champions who does not do 100% physical damage with autos. Instead, Corki's auto damage is split into 80% magic and 20% physical. This is very important to know because as stated earlier, it means that Corki's output is mostly magic damage. This also comes in handy in build choices. Unlike typical ADCs who would build Lord Dominik's Regards against champs with a lot of resistances, Corki builds Void Staff instead. This is also the reason why Corki rarely strays from Sorcerer's Shoes as an item: the synergy with his passive means your damage output is greatly increased.

Part 2 of Corki's passive is The Package, and to me, it is the most interesting and most useful part of Corki's kit. The Package spawns 8 minutes into the game and it can be picked up just outside the summoner's platform. After picking it up, Corki gains 40% movement speed out of combat and allows him to cast Special Delivery once in the next 60 seconds.

How to use package

Package should mostly be picked up when an objective is about to spawn. This forces the enemy team to either fight against your package or respect it and give up a dragon/baron/rift for free. Ping and tell your team to start rotating to the objective when you're about to pick it up, this can lead to a huge spike if played correctly.

Package can be used to invade the enemy jungle and make a pick, although this is something that definitely needs to be communicated.

Package can also be used on top/bot lane for guaranteed kills, preferably with Teleport (but can also be used without Teleport if they are pushed up or if your laner has a stacked wave and is ready to dive). Tell your laners to ward deep and make sure to pan your camera to your other lanes occasionally. Pay attention to the way the wave is moving so you can plan these roams out way ahead of time. Using this on bot is a great way to accelerate yourself through the game really quickly.

Corki is known for being a safe laner, which also comes with being a fairly weak laner. For the most part, your goal is to die as little as possible and ensure that you're getting high CS and XP.

Corki's W, Valkyrie, is incredibly important to your early and mid laning phase. It's fairly high CD means you're rarely going to be using this ability offensively. Instead, use it as a defensive dash to evade ganks and CC.

Corki's ult, Missile Barrage, is great for last hitting post-6. It has a long range that allows you to sit much further back in lane than most champions while still grabbing CS and/or poking.


Don't be afraid to give up CS and XP when needed instead of dying. Your win condition is for you to get your items before the enemy team can end the game, which means you don't want to give up deaths if possible.

Late game Corki is an absolute monster, but with that power also comes targeting from the enemy team. If given enough time, you will shred through the enemy team but ensure that you are keeping track of enemy positions + important cooldowns to ensure that you don't get hit by a stray Blitz hook or Qiyana ult and throw the fight. Stay out of enemy range by using Missile Barrage to poke the enemy from afar before moving in closer once the time is right.

Valkyrie is key to playing late game effectively. You don't want to use it offensively unless you're trying to reach people who are running away and you're sure that you won't get punished for it. Instead, keep it so that you can reposition in case the enemy dives on you. Even staying alive for 5 more seconds will allow you to pump out much more damage in the teamfight.

Overview

The hybrid build consists of a Manamune - Ravenous Hydra - Luden's Tempest core. From there, you can go Void Staff, Horizon Focus or Shadowflame if you want more damage or defensive items like Death's Dance, Maw of Malmortius or Guardian Angel for more survivability. Ravenous can be swapped out for maw/DD if needed (eg. hexdrinker -> manamune -> maw vs syndra)

When to buy Shadowflame vs Horizon Focus?

• They bought no MR: Horizon Focus + (defensive item OR Rabadon's Deathcap OR Rylai's Crystal Scepter) (void and shadowflame is a waste since magic pen doesn't make their MR go below 0)
• They bought 1 MR item: Void Staff + Horizon Focus
• They bought more than 1 MR item: Void Staff + Shadowflame
• When in doubt: Void Staff + Horizon Focus

Runes

Hybrid Corki usually takes First Strike with domination secondary, although the Dark Harvest page could also work well with this build. Make sure to take Ultimate Hunter so you can spam your R as much as possible.

Playstyle

Your two item powerspike ( Manamune - Ravenous Hydra) is very strong, you can deal some ridiculous damage with just these two items. Make sure to keep that in mind to take enemies by surprise and get a couple of free kills.


Hybrid Corki focuses almost solely on your abilities. Your autos do a lot less damage than the standard builds but all of your abilities with the exception of E do more damage. Thus, your positioning will likely be farther back than usual since it's harder to fight your way out like you would with shieldbow. Stand at the back of the team and spam your R.

If someone manages to get in range to duel you, make sure to use all of your abilities as soon as you can instead of spacing them out like you would with regular builds (note that your W is still used as a defensive tool, please don't W on top of people lmao)

Currently a WIP

If you have any feedback then please message me, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks for reading :)