I unlocked League of Legends' newest champ last week, the haughty pirate wench/bounty hunter Miss Fortune. I had been working on my Twisted Fate, as a physical damage counterpart to my Malzahar, and I had been having mixed results. The sheer concentration to effectively use Pick-A-Card was draining, as was being so flippin' squish. (Destiny ganks are a lot of fun, though.)
I'm always looking for a new champ to grab my attention, and MF not only caught my eye, she has the
best abbreviation. Early on in a character's career in LoL, avid players approach building the character (in terms of Rune sets, Masteries, equipment, and skill development)in many different ways. I watched an early leaked video of Miss F. wherein she had been beset with one pair of Boots of Swiftness, and five Phantom Dancers. While the huge boosts to attack speed, critical, and dodge chance were awesome, in my experience there was a severe lack of attack damage.
I had bought Sword of the Divine with Twisted Fate to increase the overall damage per second I was dealing. (Sword of the Divine does an additional amount of magic damage on every fourth attack, which meshes well with TF's Stacked Deck passive ability which deals additional damage on every fourth attack.) MF's Impure Shots passive stacks increasing magic damage on every consecutive attack, and I originally focused on this ability so that my Fortune could deal the same sort of hybrid damage. Turns out Impure Shots passive is really not all that, and certainly not her most important ability.
Double Up (Q skill) is her most important ability. Double Up hits a target within range for a large amount of physical damage, and then another target behind the first for even more damage. This is a great skill in the laning phase, as it allows you to damage enemy champs through their back line of minions, while keeping MF relatively safe. To try and keep up with the mana cost of DU in relation to MF's small starting mana pool, I started building the newest item in LoL, Manamune. Manamune has the unique Tear of the Goddess effect of building max MP by using abilities but also slightly increases max MP by attacking, as well as having a passive increase to attack damage equal to 2% of max mana, and some base attack damage, mana and mana regen. This acts as a mini-snowball item, improving MF's attack damage and MP as the game progresses, though it caps relatively early. It does however help one to use Double Up more often. But, no, this isn't the essential item.
Big Sis Prinny had been trolling the Penny Arcade forums LoL thread to claim that Miss Fortune was a rip off of Keira Knightley, and stumbled upon the closely guarded Penny Arcade forum LoL thread secret: Wriggle's Lantern.
Wriggle's Lantern is another relatively recently added item recipe. Vampiric Scepter and Madred's Razors deliver a relatively cheap item that provides attack damage, armor, lifesteal, the Madred's effect (20% chance on hit to deal 500 damage to a minion), and a free sight ward every three minutes. After she relayed this information to Killa HQ, it took me some time to digest it. Why Wriggle's Lantern?!
I deduced fairly quickly the advantage of rushing the Lantern first thing in the build. Double Up triggers on hit effects, in this case the Madred's effect. Once the item is built, MF is notably stronger and can begin to really shine as an early game farmer. But if you recall the "shooting-through-the-back-row-minion" trick, you'll see the true power of the Lantern in Miss F's hands. If the Madred's effect triggers on a Double Up, then the minion is disintegrated by the 500 + Attack Damage hit, which restores a healthy amount of HP. But if you line this up to second hit the enemy champ behind, they will be dealt a remarkable 600+ damage, which restores another nice slice of HP pie to MF. Being able to deal so much damage to an enemy champ by level 5 is huge, and being able to do so from relative safety (and without losing the innate Strut movement speed bonus) makes her extremely potent.
My shopping list now starts with Vampiric Scepter, made as quickly as possible into Wriggle's Lantern. After that I pick up Boots, usually of Swiftness, but, depending on the team, Merc Treads or Ninja Tabi may be favorable. I then build Manamune, so I can get a lot more attempts at the DU big damage setup. If I've farmed up a lot of gold, I may buy BF Sword before Manamune, but I haven't been comfortable dropping the mana from the build yet. I build the BF Sword into Infinity Edge when the gold is available.
After |Wriggle's Lantern, Boots of Swiftness, Manamune, Infinity Edge| I look to Youmuu's Ghostblade and then for Frozen Mallet to effectively make a chaser character, who has a multitude of ways to accelerate oneself and slow the opponent, while doing huge damage whenever in range. And chasing multiple enemy champs is great, since you can Double Up one in the back while blasting through to the other.
Usually an opposing team cannot withstand the build(/my team) beyond the Ghostblade. I think depending on the situation, I would drop Ghostblade+Frozen Mallet for either Bloodrazors+Bloodthirster against a tank heavy team, or Banshee's Veil+Guardian Angel for survivability. As always, staying flexible and building to counter your opponents is paramount. In a gg last night I built Guardian Angel and then Frozen Mallet (mostly for the health) since we kept taking it on the chin in teamfights.
As a carry, however, Miss Fortune is very reliant on her ability to amass money. Her attack speed and AoE skill Make It Rain help a lot with last hitting. Overall, though, she is a glass cannon in the vein of Ashe or Tristana in that she can dish it out, but she cannot take it. I am no stranger to being squishy as my previous main champ Malzahar is quite so, but the use of his silence and stun give him many more escape options, and I am usually less inclined to use Ghost to chase down an enemy champ with Malz, so it is more often available as an escape option.
My Malz is infamous for running Mejai's Soulstealer, a snowball item that increases Ability Power as you accrue kills and assists, though the boosts are siginificantly lowered on death. While it's a great item for getting early kills and staying OP the rest of the game, Miss Fortune has to commit to combat, and I've decided to avoid items that would penalize her for dying.
Also to note: Her Impure Shots active has the Ignite effect on hit of halving healing and regeneration (that Gangplank and Katarina can also induce). Make sure you have it activated before engaging another lifestealer, particularly Warwick or Vladimir, or even a big tank that relies on regen, like Mundo or Sion.
If anyone finds any piece of information remotely as valuable as Wriggle's Lanten,
send it in or leave a comment.
