AP Corki, a strong counter pick

Introduction

Welcome to that renewed AP Corki build!

The old guide used to talk about one way of playing AP Corki : as an assassin.
Then and Corki's got nerfed, making the build not really viable.
But season 3 comes with new changes too. Buying MR is now more expensive, taking that MR down is harder, AP items have change for most of them (at least in pure stats), and players are starting to change their way of starting and building chars.
We end up having an AP corki that can be really, really, really strong as a counter pick! Indeed, you cant really expect him to be just a really strong AP mid as is for exemple. But his kit of abilyties unable him to be a real lane dominator against some chars, stronger than most counters people know.

That's what i'm gonna try to give here in that new guide, so that you can make the best of AP Corki, by playing him at the right times.

Pros / Cons

SPACESPACE

Pros

Great escape mechanism
Very strong mid game
Great poke/range
Nice AOE damage
Easy last hit and farm in general
Very fun to play

SPACESPACE

Cons

Very squishy
A bit weak late game (but no
more than a lot of AP caster)
Has no CC
Hard to master
Item's reliant

Runes

is just a must have! Great help on your damage for the entire game, and there is not any other option for marks anyway. This is the mark i use for all AP champions.

really is needed on corki i find. Even though you might not be that kynd of players that waste their mana all the time, you'll realize that very few corki's spells put him very low mana very quickly. 3.69 mana every 5 seconds makes 44.28 per minute, that is a free or a free every two minutes. Do not underestimate this!!!! Theese free spells greatly improve your lane domination.

is always a strong choice mid, it helps trade damage better than . Then again, depending on who you're laning against, having more AP to destroy you're opponent harder is an option.

Here you need to be level 12 with to have more AP. Corki AP is strongest from he's level 6 up to end of midgame, that's when you want to be the most scary on map. So if you dont choose the flat AP quintessence, you loose a lot of damage early and mid game that would help you win your lane, do powerfull ganks, and get drake's control.

Masteries

Quite simple, just use ability power's tree. Cooldown reduction and magic pen are very important, bonus AP too.
Just one thing : depending on weather you use ignite or not (and i think you should), then put one in instead of , this will increase your AP by 5 instead of 1 when ignite is on CD, and your AD too to help you last hit. Don't waste your ignite for it, but just by using it when you need to, you should end up with more average AP during the game.
Then getting 9 points in defense could be usefull, magic resistance and life, not bad. But as i said, corki needs mana!!!! Especially early game. Get some couldown on your flash, more mana, more mana regeneration, and since you should get all blues of the game after first one. Once again, mana regeneration of 3 per 5 seconds will give you 36 mana per minute so nearly a free , so even more lane domination.

Summoner spells

The usual + is again, i think, the best choice for an AP mid as .

SPACESPACE

Will surely help you get kills.

SPACESPACE

Will be usefull to. Of course you have your
that is a kind of but with much lower CD.
But since you really are squichy, adding a flash is always a good idea

Other options :

Can be usefull for high CC ennemy team. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE IT! Depending on picks, it can be a must have for any carry, AP or AD.

Can be picked too. Corki AP is very strong if he get closed to ennemy, but he is often too squichy to be able to take the risk, and if you miss one it can means your death. Though if you get close and exhaust, you're pretty safe, meaning you get an offensive and defensive spell, you might pick up kills more easily that way, than with ignite. I guess it really depends on who you are laning against. Getting both and seems quite useless, one is more than enough to kill an AP caster.

Skill Sequence

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

is quite wasted by playing corki AP. Doing more damage makes this ability give you even more, since it's %. Though, it will still help you last hit, and sometime it makes the difference between a kill, and a "lucker"!

AOE damage, your highest burst! Higher based damage and AP ratio, easy to use on ennemy, and if it was not enough, gives you vision on champions for 6 seconds so you don't miss your to finish the kill. Max it first!

Great escape, it also gives a big amount of AOE damage, but over time. And using that damage to kill often puts you in great danger. I'll explain later the different ways to use it, but from what we know yet, it is logical to max it second.

You have no AP ratio on that ability. Yet it is not useless, as it reduces opponent's armor. Little difference can make a win, and in team fight it helps your AD carry crushing them all. Max it last.

should always be up when possible, as for most ultimates. Do not underestimate this ability! As an AP corki, it's your main source of damage, and once you're level 6, ennemies will fear you like hell! (if you're not too bad at landing those missiles xD)

Items

Start items :

Why ?

Well, don't give as much speed as they used too.
With that new item, you can keep a really good sustain for you're early game, and even mid game a bit. It unables you to get a ward, to avoid giving first kill on a well timed gank, and more potions for more sustain. Getting those extra mana potions will make such a big difference on your lane domination!
It just makes your start really easy and smooth.

Core items :

obviously. You need boots, that goes without saying. Against very high CC team, you might wanna consider getting , or if you're laning against a or (being able to out half a second faster often make the difference between death and life). is a good choice too, if you're against an AD char.
But since AP Corki is made to dominate lane early, and map mid game, will always be a strong choice no matter what.

is clearly a core item on AP Corki, as is on AD Corki. This is because of the damage output you get from the combination of and . It gives Corki that really high damage that most chars could never get, it's just simple as that. It's not really fast single target burst damage like has , or heavy AOE damage like has , it's a bit of both. You get nice AOE damage from ultimate, nice single target damage from , a not too slow burst, but what's so strong about it is that you can do it up to 8 times in a row (7 stored, on produced whyle using them). So it burst, AOE, single target, long duration damage. And since you have 2 seconds to use and an auto-attack, it gives you time to move an make sure your position is safe.

is an amazing choice for AP Corki. You have only skill shots, not missing a single one requires training. This item really helps a lot in picking up kills when you lack of training, and still does if you got pro. Also, it gives a nice amount of HP, often just enough to out on time after being bursted down to low health. And chasing an ennemy with up to death just become really easy.
Though using it cause we're not good enough is not a good reason to me. So think more on how you can make good use of it with your team! Depending on team's compositions, games give very heavy teamfights, or very long poke times, or quick fights followed by chases, etc. will be good in the last two possibilities. Slowing an ennemy while pocking can help your getting a winning . Slowing three ennemies at a time followed by a from your can make a great engage too. It also gives a very strong chase power to all your team after a won teamfight, to make sure to score that ace!

is in core items for obvious reasons. I won't discuss why it's there, no need for that. Instead i'll discuss of when getting it.
First item (after ofc) will really make you scary as hell! The damage output on any ennemy, with just a and a few is amazing. That choice can really make you're team win them game by crushing them hard early. It's a good idea if you want to control blue and red buffs, with an earlygame jungler like , or (for exemple). It also helps your team a lot to get first drakes. And i should mention the fact that your farm will then be really easy, with level 5 of , you one shot range minions, so with a blue buff you can hardly miss anything and your CS should go up really fast for more early and mid game domination.
Second item after is still a very agressive way of building. Though your damage output early game maybe a little bit less good. But Lich Bane gives you a bit more burst in a 1v1 fight, so it's a choice to make depending on who you're laning against.
Third item after and is the safest path to make. With the extra HP and your you should not be able to die ever in that early/mid game, so keep farming, and harrass your lane opponent. Yes you're not choosing the really agressive path, but you're still a strong early/mid game AP caster, so you should still dominate. Getting your then should gives a strong AOE burst to your team in teamfights.

Other options :

if you're not to confident with your corki skills yet, build this early game is a very safe option. Don't add Rylai's if there is %Health damage in ennemy team (Kog'maw, Vayne, etc).
if you lack of mana a lot whyle playing Corki. I do not advice it, if you play well and dont spam spells for nothing, you should not need it (if you get blues ofc). Then again, an early Chalice Of Harmony is always nice to dominate midlane vs an AP caster.

only vs high AP damage team.
only vs high AD damage team.
Those last two are not very good on AP corki, since you should never put yourself in a position where the defense they give you is being used. But you cant avoid all the damages, so heavy AD or AP damage can lead to buy one of these two.

vs high MR.
vs high HP. But strong choice no matter what, if you're not sure what to take.

stays one of the best item of the game. Bonus armor and magic resist to avoid getting burst down in teamfight, if you happen to have a poor positioning. And a wonderfull revive ability that often makes the difference late game.

When and why play corki AP?

Playing AP Corki is a very specific choice to make.
I really don't advice to first pick it, yes it can work, but it can fail hard too. You're just playing a random card here. Indeed the ennemy is likely to think you're playing AD carry, and wont try to counter pick you, but he might still do so randomely!
Trust me, you don't want to play against that or . (I have won games against theese chars, but you need your opponent to be bad to win this, i don't think it's reliable to see things that way)

So when and why play corki AP? I can see two viable reasons :
- You're team intend to play a poky style.
- You counter pick the ennemy mid's char.

Corki is not an easy char to play mid. A will destroy you, a will too. But Corki hard counter quite a few champions, like or , and he can do ok against a .
Thing is, Corki's basic attack range is not amazing, it's 550 like most AD carry, but many spells from AP casters outrange this. If you cannot poke your ennemy and stay safe, farm will be difficult. Once you have your level 6, you outrange most of AP casters, but it must not be too late! So you need to do ok before that, by playing only against champions that have abalities that are easy to dodge, and easy to poke as well.

If you choose wisely when to play AP Corki, then you should really disable ennemy's mid, giving a great advantage to your team!
Though it's not enough! If you are useless to your team, then both teams are equal again. So you need to understand what your team can do, and get the items that are going to work with it.
So if you have a poke team, with a , a , a , go for .
If you have an early game team, go for a lot of AP and finish it quick.
If you have a late game team without much CC then don't pick Corki.
If you're up against a very tanky team don't pick Corki either!

It's as simple as this!
Then again, you might want to try different options and judge by yourself, but remember that like others chars, AP Corki can be a very strong pick, as it can be a perfectly useless one, and to be good with him, you need to understand why to choose when!

Here is some of my thoughts on counterpicks to help you started :

(in alphabetic order)
Very easy / Easy / Medium / Hard / Very hard

Is tough lane. Trades should be about even before 6, so it depends mostly on skills. Once you both hit 6, she relies on her to kill you, you rely on your skills to poke her. You both have an ability that can ignore minions collision, so if you stay safe nobody should kill anyone. And that's a problem! As Corki, you want to win your lane! A draw is not good enough.
Do not ever try to fight without minions, it helps her more than you! Her mobility, if she's good, will give you a lot of trouble. Her burst too, and if you get hit by you can use[/color] Vlakyrie to escape once it's finished if you want, she will catch you up with .

This is a purely skilled match up. If you get her blue buffs, she will have trouble. Otherwise, she may push her lane faster, and you should not be able to do much about it. Don't ever get hit by her and you'll be fine too. I suggest you use your spells to farm and not to poke her, unless the player seems noob enough. Don't forget her egg though, many Anivia players seems noob untill they kill you and just loose their egg! (as i do for exemple, Anivia being my main^^)

Brain match up. Seems like an easy lane at first, but as you win trades, you will realise that your mana is going down faster than hers. She can burst you down easy once she hit 6, even if her stun does not look up, flash+sheild+Q+E+R = dead, sheild is here just so that Q stuns you, surprised! I suggest you get fast so that her burst does not kill you (you need to build those HP faster than she builds AP, so it's a farm match up early). You also need to know the CD of her (120 seconds) and time it in game, cause during those two minutes you need to be the king of your lane, to be able to make the difference overall.

Skill and/or farm match up. Before 6, it's quite even. Try to dodge as many , and farm as much as possible. Once you both hit 6, you should poke him hard with as long as you have blue buff, but never get hit by his combo stun or you're as dead as a dead undead that dies! Clearing waves faster and go gank or help counter jungle is often the best thing to do!

Don't do it, just don't! If you've agreed on the fact that AP Corki is a counterpick char, then you should never get to play against her.

Easy. Your is not dodgable, her is. You can poke her hard even with auto-attacks. If you do so, once 6 she won't have any farm, and you'll be able to poke her hard with to force her to stay away and let you farm even more. Care her burst at level 6, she can twice so might not save you.

Easy, just poke, harass, farm... She should still be able to farm a litle, and have nice damage at level 6, but if you keep playing the poky style it's a won lane. If she stays low life behind minions, do not hesitate to in, and kill her. I advice an against her, makes it pretty much impossible for her to win a fight.

Don't do it, just don't!

You can't win. You just won't do enough damage to kill him. Then again, if you dodge his skill shots, you can still farm your lane and try to help elsewhere. I do not advice this match up.

Skill match up. Pre-6 is easy really, you need to dodge his though, but if he tries to last hit, poke him, a , a few auto-attacks, every time. Don't forget to farm, you need to make a difference before level 6.
Once you both hit 6, you really need to poke him down at least to mid life with before getting any closer. His combo really hurts.
I advice to just avoid fighting with him, go , clear waves fast, do wraith, go help other lanes, etc. If ever you wanna fight with him, go .

You are a hard counter! Stay behing Three minions to avoid his , avoid his stun, shoot his turrets with auto-attacks every time you can, poke him with . If you're good at last hit, this is a very easy lane! In the other hand, if you're not, you will probably loose hard!
Once 6, you can poke him hard, the only thing heimer hates is to be forced out of his towers, you are probably one of the strongest AP caster of the game to do that. But once again, the mechanism of play style you need against him must not make you miss any farm!
And remember those two rules :
-> Never fight into Heimy's turrets
-> Best counter to Heimy is junglers that can throw him away from his turrets ( / ), if your jungler cant do that, remember to ask NOT TO BE GANKED AT ALL or your jungler will likely feed that heimy!

Easy ! You are a hard counter. He can out damage you early, but only if you keep staying into his . Otherwise, you should be really fin. Poke him hard with , he will be so much stronger than you late game, you have to make is early game feels like hell to him! Keep him low HP all the time, don't use mana on minions, last it them. You need to dominate hard!
If he uses just use , since you push lane, you'll get ganked, use again. Once 6, poke him even harder, he must farm even less than before! You really have to shut him down hard, really hard, so that he cant even make any kills with his since it won't do any damage at all.
I advice against him, if he tries to kill you, use it, kill him, out, easy win.
Remember : if you fail in your mission to really shut him down early game, and go up to late game, you failed pick, it's unlickely your team win this. (depending on AD carry too, bruisers, teamfight skill, ofc, but the difference between the two AP caster will be huge)

Quite easy. He is scary to many people, and though i win a lot of games with him, i can tell you that once you've understand how to counter him, things get really hard. It's very simple, you have to auto-attack him!!!!
Kassadin uses the pressure of his[/color] to dominate lane and farm, he does damage, silences, and he can spam it thanks to the passive of .
You can't use ability when silenced? So what? Just auto-attack him, once he used it, he wont do anything else to you, backing is the last thing you wanna do!!!! Poke him down, and when silence finishes, uses , he will end up lower than you! Then farm, and don't let him farm by keeping your auto-attacks going, that way he wont get so much mana back too. Once 6, he should not be able to kill you because of his lack of farm, and even if he is a bit scary (depending on early game) you can farm from a nice distance with .
You should not have any problem on this lane, seriously. You push much faster too, so difficult for him to go gank elsewhere.

Don't do it! Too much mobility, too much spam. She should have a hard time killing you, but she will outfarm you, then it's pointless to play this match up.

Skill match up i guess, but he should end up ahead most time. Mobility is anoying for AP Corki, he has the damage, the farm, the harrass, to lane against you. And he does not use mana.

More damage, more harrasse, for less mana. Unless she's really bad, you can't win early pre-6. Then it gets better, but it's lickely too late. Stay behind minions, take , stay on sides, take and die. No matter what you try, if she can play, you won't win.

Don't do it. You can not loose this lane, but you can't win it, so pointless really. If ever you're playing it, get a for the MR that will be needed, and to spam spells to farm since you'll get pushed quite hard. Trying to poke him should result in quick death (yours, not his). Once you're 6 though, you can poke him quite nicely, if he does not take enough potions, you may have a chance to get back ahead on lane, but you should still not be able to kill him.

Really hard pre-6, really easy post-6, technically. The question is, how behing will you be when you'll hit 6? And if you waste all your stock off on his it won't help you at all. Don't play this.

Farm match up, as often when morgana is on lane. You can't really kill her, she can't really kill you, you both can't be ganked, just farm and be ready for when you're team needs you somewhere. Don't get hit by of course, and if you do, do as much damage as you can to her whyle that spell is on, then make up your mind, out or kill, but with her and it's often a better decision to avoid her full combo. Best is to out when her is in action, then turn around and finish her with if possible.

Don't! She's poky too, but has heal. A good nidalee will win mid lane vs an AP corki.

Way to difficult. Your best counter with mobility is range. Ok it's a skill match up, but she really needs to be bad to let you win. For equal trades she will spend much less mana, she can keep range, stay behind minions to avoid your [Missile Barrage]] and still farm. Don't play that match up.

Too much burst, too much sustain, too easy to play. You're full skill shot, he does not have any, and still without this he should win, so what could you expect?.

Can't be won. He has nice controls for he safe early game, and once he hit 6 he can heal all your poke. You can keep range and farm, therefore not loose the lane, but you should not win it either, pointless to play this matchup unless you really think AP Corki will be good for your team.

It's prety much like Orianna. She has range, too much range for your early poke to be effective. She spends less mana than you too. You can win this lane, but it's not lickely, and there is far better char to play against her, pick Corki does not make sense.

Doable. Pre-6, use on him, he has two choices : use and deal damage, he will win trade, but use much more mana. Take potion, repeat, you should end up ahead, and he won't have enough mana to grow up his AP with on minions. Or he can ignore you, and farm, you will end up ahead on lane even faster, but he will be stronger over time.
You need to get before he hit 6! Then stop harrasse with , it's a free kill for him. Start poke with and farm with if you have a blue buff and/or the mana for it. Don't get closed, even if he is low life, a combo may kill you, so just poke him, so he can't farm, and if he end up dying under your poke (unlickely), well good for you.

Don't! Too much sustain, can't be gank, great farm, there is no way you can win this lane!

Skill match up. His can be dodge, your can't. But he can just farm pre-6 without you being able to do much about it. Then once you are 6, he can bust you down hard from a greater range. You need to poke hard, but he will stay far behind, so it's really not easy. I'd prefer be Xerath in this match up, but Corki can win this.

More harrass, more range on ulti, this one is hard. It's purely skill match up though, but most times Ziggs should end up ahead. I do not advice it.

Range + control + damage. I'm glad she's finally been nerfed in the first patch of season 3. Yet, she still will win against a Corki any time. Don't play that match up.

Conclusion

Here it is : my first mobafire build!

Do not hesitate to vote, leave comments on the build but also on the guide, i know it's far from perfect yet, no image, video, bad shape, but i need to train on this, and will be happy to get some advice!

TiEP

AP Corki, a strong counter pick

AP Corki, a strong counter pick

Recommended Items

Spells:

Ignite

Flash

Items

Ability Order

Hextech Munitions (PASSIVE)

Phosphorus Bomb (Q)

Valkyrie (W)

Gatling Gun (E)

Missile Barrage (R)

Introduction

Pros / Cons

Runes

Masteries

Summoner spells

Other options :

Skill Sequence

Items

When and why play corki AP?

Here is some of my thoughts on counterpicks to help you started :

Conclusion

League of Legends Champions: