★First Strike

Generated by /wr-extract rune-guide mode from 7.1e rune guide. Re-running OVERWRITES this section.

• "So, champions like Aurora and AI are great users of electrocute, right? While other burst champions that don't care too much about the early game might go first strike, something like a Cassadin, Grasp of the Undying is something you should take on tanks that are trading a lot. So, very commonly taken on bruisers, while something like ice is ice overlord might be taken more on junglers that are not constantly trading and are looking for a scrimmage fight, right?" (04:03)
• "So that will also happen. Even though you'd think, oh, Ekko likes burst trades, why not electrocute or first strike? Well, he goes to footwork because of of this specific interaction, Uh then there's champion." (06:31)
• "Uh comet, you can actually proc very easy with her third ability, so it's one of the top choices, right? your first and third ability and proc from a huge range. First strike can make sense because her ulti opens up right away, but it's not great, especially non-range Dark Harvest makes a lot of sense, Um because you're getting the extra damage, which she loves. So, there are champions that don't really have a great rune that fits their identity." (07:09)
• "So, electrocute is a very clear burst rune that you're going to take on burst champions. So, you might think of assassins for the most part, and it's currently competing against dark harvest, which is another rune you go on assassins, conqueror, which you go on like assassins that like longer fights, and first strike, which is also a burst rune that amplifies your burst damage, right? Who likes So, when you're think of electrocute, you're not thinking of it in a vacuum, right? Casten likes electrocute but but first strike meets the criteria of electrocute and then does more for you, right? Uh so who wants to go electrocute? What is electrocute better at than first strike? So electrocute has a way stronger early game, right? Because first strike only amplifies your abilities by um right now it's 7% but they keep buffing and nerfing it all the time, but right now it's 7%. So let's say you're playing Ahri for example, right? And your otak second ability otak combo level one will do by itself let's say 150 damage, right? Getting 7% more damage on the 150 damage is like 10 extra damage, right? by electrocute will give you 40 extra damage level one plus 20% of your amplifying tome which is 25. uh you're actually getting 45 bonus damage level one on Ari. So electrocute will give you way more damage in the early game than first strike. So for a champion that wants to trade early heavily like Aurora and like RA which are the most common examples of electrocute, electrocute makes more sense than first strike. My goal with this is to kind of like help you understand the rune choices of certain champions so you can get comfortable building yourself, right? So why why does someone like Synra prefer first strike or comet or why does someone like Ken prefer first strike? Well, number one, Kasan has a hard time procing First Strike in the laning phase, right? Cyn has an easy time procking First Strike in the laning phase, but they prefer it over Electrocute because those champions scale better than Ari and Aurora, and they're more worried about getting to their late game and amplifying their late game burst damage, where Electrocute and First Strike will do similar damage, but keep in mind that First Strike also gives you all that gold, right? So, First Strike is more of a scaling rune that will help you meet your power spikes as well because it gives you gold throughout the game, while Electrocute is more focused on stronger early game trades. And obviously, it'll depend how good Electrocute is versus First Strike because First Strike used to be 9% damage, right? So, even some champions that usually would prefer Electrocute would go for strike. If they nerf or buff electrocute in the future, then maybe more champions will start going uh electrocute. The champions are kind of in between like they're thinking about it. They're like, "Oh, I like first strike now, but if something change, I'm happy to go to electrocute as well." So, that's something you need to consider. Next up, let's look at Dark Harvest." (14:48)
• "Why don't they want electrocute instead? For example, actually electric isn't too bad in jungle, but when they open up in the scrimmage, you in the scrimmage, you usually want dark harvest or even first strike as a jungler because you're usually the one ganking. You're the one attacking first. So, you can proc first strike um very consistently. And with dark harvest, you kind of scale your damage. Now, there's some other champions that go for strike or that go dark harvest like Katarina is a great example of a great Dark Harvest user. She can go electrocute in certain matchups if she wants to have like an stronger early game. what you're not telling us what comp electric is good versus tanks or squishies. That's actually a good point, too. Electric is going to have more value against squishier champions because com is a base damage while first strike amplifies the damage you're already doing. Uh, for the most part, it doesn't matter too much." (18:41)
• "And uh I think now we should probably talk about let's skip all the other ones. Talk about first strike because it's very very similar to those other two runes and you kind of already talked quite a bit quite um about first strike. So let's talk a little more about it. So, initiating combat with an enemy champion or dealing damage to them within 0.25 seconds of engaging them in combat grants 10 gold and first strike for 3 seconds, allowing you to deal 7% bonus true damage to them. After the effect ends, gain bonus gold based on the bonus damage dealt for its duration. If you do not deal damage to the enemy champion within 0.25 25 seconds of engaging them in combat. First strike will go on a 10second cool down which means that if you get hit first strike go and you don't do anything like you don't like if they hit you first it goes on a 10-second cool down. Uh if you attack them first it goes on a 20 to 13 second cool down. You get a big of bit of gold that becomes a huge amount of gold for a lot of champions in the mid game. So, one one tip that I do with Casadin all the time is in the mid game, I will literally just go on a champion I know I can kill, like a tank, like let's say it's a Mal fight or an Norn, I will jump on them, use all my abilities, get like 120 gold from First Strike, and then just ult away, right? And I get a huge amount of gold surplus. So, First Strike in the early game, you want to be procking it consistently because that base 10 gold is kind of what you're looking for. Like that first like like from one trade, you need like 25 30 gold. like you're not super worried about dealing a lot of damage during it because at the beginning of the game you barely do any damage. Your main goal is to proc it as many times as possible, So, first strike, you kind of have to think of it versus electrocute. This rune will be better late game or it will be at least the same late game, but it will also give me a lot of gold to help me reach my power spikes. So, it's a very, very strong burst snowball rune. It used to be taken on pretty much every assassin jungler, every jungler in general because it used to be 9% damage and you get a lot more gold. So champs like Zed, champs like Lein was a big user of First Strike, now he likes to go conqueror, but they did nerf it. So now that it's a little more balanced, right? so first strike is the rune that will give you gold. So you reach your power spikes and you will snowball while still giving you That's kind of how you need to think about this rune." (20:48)
• "And then you have champions that will get it pretty much only for their healing. A very common example is Cassadin uh who does prefer first strike but in the past flew has been viable and it still continues to be a viable rune right it pretty much allows you to have an easier time in your laning phase. Uh some ADCs will also build the fleet footwork." (32:24)
• "Synra can build this sometimes. Oriana can build this sometimes. uh pretty much any champion that can do damage from usually afar and tend to really proc runes like electrocute and doesn't really benefit like usually champions that go arcane comet will either go first strike or arcane comet right that's kind of their decision but most of them they're ranged and they don't get the full benefit of first strike for the gold u so it kind of becomes this question of can you do all of your burst right away like Syndra can, then first strike might make more sense, right? She uses her Q, we al all within first strike, so she gets full value. But someone like Ziggs is conly constantly spamming his Q and maybe he'll do Q ultimate, right?" (50:35)
• "That's where Arcane Comet shines the But room do you think Nora prefers? Uh I'm pretty sure it's uh Comet like it can change and can become First Strike, but right now I think Comet is better. And again, as rooms change, buffs nerfs happen." (51:47)
• "The main reason more champions don't take it is no slow, resist, and burst. So, for example, if I'm playing Oriana or Synra and the enemy team uh has like a squishy champion or has even a bruiser, my goal is just oneot them, right? [ __ ] one shot them with a first strike or or something else. Fa Phas doesn't bring any value, especially because he has no um soul resist. Yeah, Vladimir, I guess, is another another uh another shout. So, the champions that go phase rush are champions that deeply need the mobility and don't really have another good rune. So, Rise and Vladimir can't really go first strike because they are short range, right? So, they never really get first strike. Can go common, but again, because they're short range, they don't really poke and there." (55:53)
• "Then other champions I go with are Lilia which again doesn't necessarily have a better rune. And even with Lilia, you will see a lot of first strike Lilyas, right? Uh and with Hecarim because obviously the um the movement speed becomes damage for him." (57:07)
• "That's kind of the idea. But even on um like jungle Gragas, you usually go like first strike or you don't really go phase rush. You usually go first strike, but you can go first strike too or you can go phase rush as Um, then is Zenzho kind of does it to kind of keep chasing you forever and because Zenza wants to get his abilities back up, right? He wants to do his combo again on you, but even with Zenza, it's a little iffy to be honest." (59:15)
• "Allows you to love things that you wouldn't be able to do. Bonus now gives you more gold than first strike. By the way, I think it kind of depends on the champion. A lot of champions love uh love first strike, but bonus I feel like has a lot of hidden potential. Uh, and I think it's kind of underrated, especially for champions that just want to scale and chill, right?" (01:43:48)