Kiwi - League of Legends

Introduction
This guide is just a generic description of the basics of playing AD bottom lane. I tried to make it as generic as possible. Let me know what you think and your constructive criticism in the comments below this post!

CHANGELOG

• 14 dec 2011: Guide released

The role of an AD
An AD is in charge of dealing lots of constant damage in teamfights, as opposite to mages, which usually burst a target, you are supposed to hit whatever you have close, while staying safe and with good positioning, damage whatever is close to you, and kill whenever you can.
To play AD you must be able to farm, an AD who can't farm is useless, you are highly dependant on items, and ADs usually end up with the most farm of the game, if you cannot hit 70~ cs by the first 10 minutes, you should consider practising your last-hitting, getting AD runes usually helps.
In lane, your role is to farm as much as possible, while harassing the enemy, whenever he tries to last hit, if you don't have any minion to last hit yourself, you should harass him, the priority is on farming, and beeing ready for when your support initiates, to burst the enemy, the support is in charge of the kills of the lanes, so be ready! Specially if it's an aggresive lane, like Alistar + Tristana, Taric + Vayne or something like that.
Positioning is very important for an AD, some ADs are easier to position than others, and some might fit your style better than others, for example, I love Ezreal because I can reposition whenever I want, I know when I'm safe, and I can engage and disengage as I want, with Ezreal is really hard to die in a teamfight.
Some other carries might be less forgiving, Miss Fortune, Ashe, and the ADs without much reposition need to be played more safely, but again, it depends on your personal positioning and style.

Counterpicking
This is pretty important, of course, you can't always counter pick, sometimes the enemy team counter picks you, in that case you have to build accordingly, but if you have the chance, you shold try to counterpick, for example, if they have Urgot, ask the support player to play Soraka, she pretty much nullifies the damage he does when he lands his acid, after his first Q she just heals you and gives you lots of armor, you barely take any more damage after that.
To be able to counterpick you should be able to play a few champions comfortably.
Your summoners are also important, if they have a lot of hard cc, like Taric + Vayne, and Maokai jungle, you can get Cleanse instead of Exhaust, and play a safe champion, like Ezreal or Tristana, something with escape, if you play Ashe against that lane, you will have a really hard time. Also ask the support player to play what you think is good against the matchup, Alistar is usually a very good choice against Vayne as as soon as you are in a bad position he can help you out by headbutting the enemy carry or support.


What to build
With your champion, you normally have a core you always build, then you deviate from that a bit, but you shouldn't always use the exact same build order, you need some versatiliy, depending on your lane, and how is your team doing.
Some options for starting items are:
Dorans Blade if you have a support with heal, like Sona, Soraka or Alistar, be careful, they can't heal much at lower levels, if you trade too much on level one, even if you win, if the enemy has potions he will heal faster than you, also, you will be vulnerable to level 2 ganks.
Boots + 3 pots if you don't have a healer, like Janna, Leona, or any other support without heal
Cloth armor + 5 pots If you are really scared of the enemy carry harass, for example, if you go against Caitlyn. You can add armor runes and masteries for this to have a very solid sustain early, normally you go Wriggles if you start with Cloth armor.

I normally don't write about specific champions but this post is to share my latest guide, I published it on CLGaming's new guide section! You can see it there. Feedback is appreciated!

Click image to download!

Will add video of the making soon!

Normally you might see people using the same build in all games, this is very common in low Elo, this is good, but if you look at players like Wickd or HotshotGG, you will notice they always change either some item, or the build order, there is a reason for this, dynamic builds allow you to optimize your champion against your enemy and ally champion composition, a static build works, but it has a wider margin or error.
Some champions might be more versatile than others when it comes to possible builds and builds orders, but it's important to build according to your game.

The champions that almost never vary are AD carries and AP carries, AD carries normally build IE/Bloodthirster + Phantom Dancer and AP build Dorans + Deathcap or RoA + Deathcap, it's a rather expensive core, but they normally don't change much from game to game, after that they normally go for more damage, but you can consider getting something like a Quicksilver Sash or Banshees if you face, for example, Malzahar.

Some more dynamic roles are Bruiser, Jungler and to some extent Support.

Let's use Irelia as an example, let's say your core is Boots + Wits End, very cheap core and very versatile, you face GP in lane, you should consider starting with Cloth Armor + 5 pots, as the harass will be Parrrley spam, which is physical damage, with cloth armor, pots and armor runes you will do fine against him, you might consider doing the same with Garen, for example, Dorans shield and HP regen / 5 Quints also work nicely against him.

Now, you are still laning against GP, you are even in cs and it's time for you to come back, you get to choose between Mercury Threads and Ninja Tabi, if they have heavy CC Mercury is a nice choice, if they have heavy attack damage team, Ninja Tabi will be nice, so let's say you get Ninja Tabi, and Wits End, wards, pots and go back to lane, you kill GP and outfarm him, your team is doing nice overall, it's a good time to go offensive, you can build a Phage or Sheen, and rush a Trinity Force before getting tanky items.
Let's now suppose you did bad against GP, he killed you, he has a lot of damage with his Q, you should consider getting armor, an Atmas Impaler is a really nice choice, Phage + Atmas is nice, together with Ninja Tabi and armor runes you will have a lot of armor, and also, nice damage.
If you were laning against an AP, you and you think you will need MR, Mercury Threads + Wits End gives you a nice ammout, if you still need more, you can consider a Hexdrinker.

Irelia is a very nice example of a dynamic build, there are many possible builds for her, and building her right gives you a nice advantage.

Another thing you can do is change your build order, don't be afraid to get some extra HP or Armor.

Some common tips for building dynamically are:

• Try to have a cheap core
• If you and/or your team is doing well, build offensive
• If not, build safe
• See how professionals handle their build, seeing how Wickd itemizes Irelia is really nice (although sometimes he trolls)

Let me start this entry by stating that I'm no pro, but this is just a set of basic tips and errors I've seen so far, mostly for not paying attention and going into automatic mode while playing.

Farming
The main reason for jungling is having one extra solo, which is extremely useful, but jungling means more than do a first rotation and then just gank like crazy, or struggle to keep up with bot lane in levels.
The jungler needs farm too, farming is really important, in every role (except maybe support), you can't just skip wraiths and golems to gank top, or else you will get behind (of course there are times you have to, but let experience decide that), you have to farm, gank according to your jungle path, if you wanna start with a gank bot, you can start at blue and gank at 2, or if you want to gank bot at lvl 4 you can start at golems, do wraiths, wolves and blue and then gank, if you want top at 2, you should start at golems, the point is, gank when you are passing by, that way you will be able to farm nicely, the jungler is important too!
Keep your jungle clean all the time.

Do not push
Covering solo lanes normally gives more experience and gold than jungling, do this when you can, but remember you normally do not want to push the lane, it's a very common mistake in low Elo to just cover the lane and push it completely, or just after ganking, the jungler pushes the lane for some reason, sometimes this is good, if you ganked bot and killed them both you want to push the tower, but if you ganked top, and just made him flash, dont push!

Ganking
Ganking is really important, is what most people think jungling is all about, this is true to some extent, but it's also very risky, a jungler who has a lot of failed ganks will mostly get behind in mid game, be underleveled and underfarmed, you can't help every lane, you will get blamed if you dont gank, or if you gank too much, just ignore and farm, gank when your jungle path allows it, and if there is a chance to kill him, or at least make him burn his summoners.
People normally ask for ganks when they are losing the lane, this is tricky, because if your partner is at 30% health and the enemy is pushing, you might have a chance to kill him, but there is a chance he kills your teammate too, and that's not good, and if the lane is 2v2 and they are losing pretty badly, there isn't really much you can do, you want to really gank when your teammate is winning, or when it's pretty even, in that situation you will have a way higher chance of killing your enemy. Of course there are exceptions, sometimes they overextend way too much, or you are fed, or whatever, but playing safe is always nice.
Another thing is don't sit in the bush for five minutes waiting for them to overextend, if you notice they were pretty aggresive and then they b when you get close, they saw you, just keep jungling, if you failed your gank, you can try again but don't stay there too much, is not good for you nor the lane.
Finally, some people wont even see you coming, you should always type "Im ganking top in a sec" or something like that, so they know not to die, push, nor do anything stupid, and they know you will go, also, ping when you are ready, and if it's a dual lane, ping who to focus.

Do not use the river
Avoid using the river, the river is always warded, they will see you, and you will fail, using the river is only good at lvl 3-4 when it's not warded yet, but after that it's even better to just walk by the lane and gank, be a bit creative with that, there are some places you can use, like, if your bot or top lane are pushing, you can sneak in the bush without beeing noticed, you just need your teammate to initiate to do a nice gank, if they are getting pushed, it's the same, just walk in the jungle close to the tower, and let them initiate, if you can initiate, you should do it though, champs like Warwick and Nocturne are good at that (Nocturne is specially nice for ganking, he can be practically undetected by wards).

Counter Jungling
Counter jungling is basically when you take the enemy jungle, or they take yours, if they take yours at lower levels (their whole team stole your wraiths and golems), there isn't much you can really do, luckly this doesn't really hurt much (you should have a backup jungle route), but if they keep taking your jungle, you should take some actions, the normal thing would be take their jungle, you can also ward and try to gank them when they are there, this isn't that common after level one, and it's really risky, but there are some champions really good at this, like Shaco, you can counter jungle really safely, even try to take their fist red and things like that, but have in mind it's risky and you can get behind if you CJ too much.

Know where their jungler starts
If you know where they start you can CJ safely, for example, you jungle against a jungler you know they start at blue, you can then do your blue, then go to their jungle and take their wraiths or their golems, as after blue they will probably do wolves, also, you can get the timers, for a standard blue start route blue will respawn at 7:10, red depends a bit on the champ, Udyr for example clears the first rotation super fast, warwick takes a bit more.

Get the timers
It's 5 minutes for buffs, 6 for dragon and 7 for baron. Time your own buffs and you enemy's, control your jungle, be there a few seconds before blue spawns, so they can't steal it, same with red, and of course, control dragon. Jungling is rather easy, you have enough time to see the map, think, see where to gank, when to do dragon, etc, control your jungle!
Typing in chat the timers help, if not for blue and red, do it for dragon and baron.

Have several possible routes
Many new junglers have no idea how to jungle when they get blue stolen, or wraiths and golems, to be a solid jungler you need several paths, this isn't really hard, and sometimes includes some CJ, this is just something to have in mind.

Pay attention
Jungling is not like laning, you just right click and maybe use some abilities, but you have time to see the map, if you are doing blue and see the enemy going mia, they might be comming to you, you should stop doing your blue and go away, maybe stay around and try to steal it, but pay attention to those things.
Also, it's not really necessary to smite the creep to kill it, if you are sure where everyone is, and there is no danger of getting it stolen, personally I dont really care much about that, but everytime I do blue o red I do it in the bush so I'm sure there's nobody there, it's a nice practice to do.

Get blamed
You will get blamed by everyone who lost his lane or got ganked, just ignore them, dont die and keep farming.

Normally when you play LoL you don't really think on what to do, everything is pretty much automatic, last hit, harass, kill enemies, get towers, gank, control dragon, baron, teamfight and win, it's so automatic that getting out of that is what makes good players good.
HotshotGG said once something like "Every second you are not getting gold and/or experience you are wasting time", that really helped me be more useful to my team, get out of the automatic mode, and think what's better to do.

If you are a carry (not jungler or support) you must be always looking to farm, spend the most time possible farming, this doesn't mean to not b for a long time and get killed for that, but, everytime you b, check where you can go to farm, and when your lane partner is mia, of course you should say it but consider farm the time he spends away, this can give you some gold and level advantage, which will be really hard for your partner to fight against.
Say you are solo top, your enemy is mia, you suspect he will be ganking mid, you ping and warn your mid partner and keep farming, he fails his gank, and comes back top, by the time he comes back, you are already 15 cs ahead of him, that's like 300 gold, it's as if you killed him! He also lost experience. Sometimes though you have to follow him, it depends on the situation, but the point is, do something productive, if you gank and fail, you wasted time, gold, and experience.

Another important thing is knowing when to push, say you are solo top, and there are 4 bottom, the tower is at 1/4 hp and probably going down, it's surprising how many people try to go help in an already lost tower, what you should do is keep pushing, and try to get the tower, so it's one for one, or sometimes even better! Split pushing is really useful, but you have to know when to do it! When there are two missing it's normally a very nice time, if there are more only do it if you know you can escape, if you are someone like Shaco you are probably gonna be ok, or if you have teleport. Again, the point here is do something with your time.

Anyways, it's not always farming, once you have an advantage, you have to know how to use it, there comes a time when you teamfight, and you can't always leave your team 4v5, that's where experience is useful, you will know when to fight and when to push.

Another very common mistake is not knowing what to do when the enemy has baron, when they have baron you don't want to fight, your best shot is split push, push all the lanes the best you can and just defend, and don't get caught, getting caught cost games, specially if you are a carry, like Annie.

The idea overall is rather easy, just think "I don't have to waste any time, I have to always be doing something".

Again, this doesn't mean to farm top for 40 minutes, there are times when it's a good idea to gank, and you'll want to help your team with dragon sometimes, but this is experience, experience to know what to do and not waste time, if your enemy wastes too much time and you dont, you'll end up two levels ahead of him.

What you have to avoid, is beeing on auto-pilot mode, just not thinking, just farming and doing nothing else, see the map, see pushing oportunities, communicate with your team, suggest someone to push, this will really help you get some more Elo.

These are some basic rules which help lots to general gameplay.

1. Learn to farm, farming is really important, is the most secure and sustainable way of gettin gold, 80 cs by 10 minutes is ok.
2. One for one is not worth it, unless it's first blood. Normally you see many people diving to kill an enemy just to die after, this is bad.
3. Learn to harass. Poke the enemy when they are about to last hit, if you are ranged, works nicely.
4. Don't overextend if you don't have wards.
5. Try to control Dragon, get the timer, and ward it. If you are a jungler, getting a pink ward for Dragon is usually a good idea.
6. Tower kills are more important than champion kills.
7. Communicate, be a leader, say what you think your team should do, warn them if they overextend
8. If you want to win don't insult your team, you can rage all you want, just dont type until you are 100% sure you are gonna lose
9. Ward, get wards!
10. If you want to win, pick what your team needs, not what you feel like playing. Also be able to play all roles.
11. Know your champion, it can take several games to feel comfortable and use it nicely. If you can play two or three champions per role, and play them nicely, you'll be a great element for your team.
12. Don't get cocky, take every advantage you have, even when it's an easy game, take baron, dragons, steal their buffs, do everything, don't let anything to chance.
13. Normally when the enemy team get aced and your team pushes until they are all up, and all your team has to b, they will baron, don't let them baron.
14. When you find someone overextending in lategame, and you go to kill him, b afterwards immediatly, you will have all their team on you if you keep pushing.