Hello, I'm lithargoel and I will keep this brief. I am not a pro-player at all, this is my first guide on Mobafire, and if you read and use this guide, you do so at your own risk. I picked up Quinn and Valor and like most others who did so, I was immediately frustrated by how hard it is to play her as an AD carry. Her short range and her skill set in my opinion makes her a dificult pick for the AD carry role. I'm not saying you can't play her as ADC, but against most longer range ADC's you'll be at a disadvantage and having problems trading damage, so I recommend trying her in the top lane, where she can easily hold a 2on1 lane if she has to.

Pros + Unique skillset + High burst potential + Great vision with her W + High mobility in Valor form + High damage output in Valor form

Cons - Naturally squishy - Limited escape ability - Enemy can see your marked targets - Passive does not scale well into late-game - Short range auto-attacks

While this guide focuses on a more "bruiser" style Quinn build for solo top, don't forget that she is still a pretty squishy champion. She can do well enough in top against most bruiser melee champions and ranged champions with short range such as Jayce or Nidalee. I would not recommend playing Quinn against melee enemies with strong gap closers, such as Akali, Talon, Diana, etc.

You should also consider how much tank you already have on the team. If you have a squishy jungler like Shaco and a squishy support like Janna then you really need a more tanky solo top champion and then Quinn becomes a poor pick. If on the other hand you have Volibear in the jungle and Alistar on support, then Quinn is a good pick for her damage and utility.

I choose AD marks and quits simply because they help me farm. As an added bonus Blinding Assault and Vault both scale with AD, so you're beefing your abilities a little for the early game. If you are a boss at last hitting minions you can swap the marks for armor penetration and the quints for movement speed, and gain more late-game power.

I picked MR and Armor for blue and yellow, because after level 6 you will want to turn into a melee champion every now and then, and when you do you need to have some defense.

So, come on? Why aren't you building Quinn as an ADC? Are you sure you don't want to strap her out with an infinity's edge and a couple of phantom dancers?

The short answer is: "NO!". The long answer is that Quinn really doesn't do well without some defense. Her short range means you have to get close to the enemy to trade or even to farm, and if you build her squishy, you will spend most of your time and gold on healing potions and trips to the fountain. Then when you reach level 6 and you want to use your ulti to do some damage, you find that you lost what little range you had and you're not getting any defensive bonuses such as for instance nidalee does when she changes to a melee hero. In short, you need to be beefy if you are going to get in close to do your damage.

I max out Heightened Senses first, because this skill will be our bread and butter. Notice that Vault and Blinding Assault only scale with 20% of your bonus AD, so we will pick one point in each early on for the utility of the blind and the slow, and then let the bonus attack speed that comes from Heightened Senses do the damage.

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This passive is both a pro and a con to playing Quinn. Every few seconds you will see a target get marked with cross hairs, and you will want to shoot it because it gives you bonus attack damage on the marked target and bonus attack speed after from your Heightened Senses. You must always be aware that your enemy will also see the mark. If you go to shoot a minion that's marked, it's a perfect opportunity for him to harass you, so be aware of his position when you attempt to activate your passive. On the other hand you can use the passive to simply scare the enemy back from the lane. Once he gets marked, he will mostly pull back to avoid getting hit. Instead of chasing him and exposing your back to ganks, get yourself some free farm whenever this happens. Finally, remember that whenever you use Vault you will automatically mark the target with Harrier as well, so for some great burst, wait until an enemy champion is marked, shoot him to proc the mark, then use your Vault to mark him again and finish him off with a final hit.

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This skill is mostly useful for the AOE blind of the enemy. The damage is not all that high, and it only scales with 20% of your bonus AD, so take one point in it early for the utility of the blind and then after we max Heightened Senses we skill it further to reduce the cooldown. Always remember to use this skill in your combos, to reduce incoming damage, and remember it will not help you against champion abilities, only against their auto-attacks. Teemo players will know this well. It can also be useful if you are trying to clear clear jungle camps, as the AOE blind will reduce much of the incoming damage while you are clearing.

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This skill will be your bread and butter. Proc your passive and get a great increase in attack speed to help you farm or to really trade with your laning opponent. After level 6, when you turn into valor, the passive attack speed increase is permanent and does not require any procs, and the steroid is very potent. Find yourself a squishy target and pile on the damage!

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Vault is a unique skill in LoL. It can be used as a gap closer to get near your target, damage them, slow them and tack them with Harrier, great for chasing down fleeing enemies or initiating. Again, remember that this will apply your passive, so if it's possible always proc Harrier first before using this skill. Vault can also be used as an escape. It is somewhat limited in this regard, as it will only work as an escape if you are standing right next to the opponent that you want to run away from. This is another reason that Quinn is better suited for top lane than as an ADC, as she will have an escape from melee champions, but not from ranged ones. When you use Vault as an escape you have to make a judgement call, as you have now applied harrier, and you may want to turn around and attempt the kill instead of running.

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tag team

Quinn's ultimate is a strange mix between awesome and utter rubbish. On one hand it's great to get a ton of attack speed and movement speed, on the other you lose your already limited range and will have to jump right into the center of a fight to do damage. Remember that your passive becomes inactive while you are in Valor form, so in a fight, first you blind, then proc harrier, then vault in and proc harrier again, and THEN you use your tag team to chase and lay on the pain, followed up with a sky-strike if you have to. tag team starts out at an abysmal 140 second cooldown timer, so you really want to use it when it counts, but if you are about to die it can be used as an escape with the speed boost. Just remember if you recently took damage the speed boost is much less. Another really good use for tag team is to use the speed buff to get to the fight. If you're pushing top lane, you can easily join a fight in mid or by dragon with this active, and still be able to land the sky-strike once you get there. It's not a Shen ult, or a Twisted Fate ult, but it gives some presence on the map just the same.

For summoner spells, I like to go with Ignite and Flash. Other options include Barrier, Teleport and Ghost. I would never play Quinn without flash, simply because her escape power is so limited, and while you are learning how to play her, going with Ghost and Flash is entirely viable to keep you alive long enough to build a decent champion.

Depending on who you are facing and whether you are in a 1on1 or 2on1 lane, your options vary, but here are some general points that can help in most games.

• Be particularly careful in the early phase of the game. Don't take bait, and don't push your lane. Ideally you want to freeze it somewhere just outside your turret range. Remember, you are playing an ADC champion as solo top and until you get some tanky items you will be too squishy to risk serious trades. If your jungler is tanky you can go ahead and do ganks, but if you have a squishy jungler it is pretty risky to try and gank before you get at least some HP.
• When Harrier is about to be off "cooldown" try and poke your laning opponent with an auto-attack. This will make them the next target to be marked by Harrier and you can either chose to follow up with some damage or you let them back off and get a bit of free farm. This will require some getting used to, because your passive will activate at different intervals, but once you've played Quinn for a while you start to get a sense of when it's about to be ready.
• We are maxing Heightened Senses first, so use it liberally to watch for ganks. Always use it to check a bush before you go to place a ward there. If you ward right and use Heightened Senses whenever something appears fishy, you can make it pretty hard for the enemy to successfully gank you.
• Remember that Vault is your primary escape, so if you use it to initiate or trade damage you should first make sure that it is safe to do so. You don't want to jump in there, only to see the enemy jungler come out of the bush and gank you, with no escape to get back out.
• tag team gives you an 80% movement speed boost as long as you're not in combat, so if you're doing OK up in top lane, try pushing it and then activate tag team and go for a gank in mid. Most mids don't expect you to be down there so fast, so if they are even a little over extended, landing a vault on them for the slow, follow up with you super fast auto-attacks and finish off with Skystrike will often land you a kill.
• If you are winning your lane and want to take down the enemy turret, use your Harrier and Heightened Senses attack speed bonus to the max effect, by proc'ing on a marked minion and then attacking the turret.

Position is key when taking Quinn and Valor to a team fight. You're not as beefy as Olaf or Shen, so you can't just run in through their front line. I find that this approach can work well:

• When the fight breaks out, stay with the ADC and APC in the back line, just a little in front of them (your attack range will make that pretty much necessary anyway), and deal as much damage as you can. Often their tank will be the closest target to you and he may be marked with your Harrier. Instead of wasting the mark, proc on the tank if he has it and then continue to shoot at whatever else you can. Remember if you do not proc it, it will take much longer before you get a new mark to proc.
• Once the enemy team have used some spells and are on cooldown with the most dangerous abilities in their arsenal, you will want to activate tag team and dive straight for their back line. The 80% speed boost can really surprise the enemy team and you can follow up with Vault to land on their ADC. When you do this focus will almost immediately be shifted on to you, so use your Blinding Assault to give you 1.5 seconds of immunity from their ADC.
• If you are about to die, don't hesitate to use Skystrike. It's a waste not to, and AOE damage will help your team close out the fight. You're not the ADC and it's not the end of the world if you die, but the extra damage may be just what is needed to break the enemy.

So in short, Quinn may not difficult to play as an ADC in her current form, but if you take her to the top lane and build her right, she can go all the way to the late-game and still be fun to play. This guide is not complete yet, so check back later for more on individual champion match-ups, etc.

Thank you for reading my first guide and good luck in the League of Legends!

/Lithargoel