Okay, let’s talk about Samira. When all the ADC items got reworked, Samira’s
most important item Shieldbow lost its Mythic status, so people thought Samira would suffer
as a consequence. But oh boy were we wrong. Samira evolved into something far more sinister. Samira can now 1v5 in team fights while being
literally invincible. Say hello to the new Duskblade Samira. Samira players on every server are quickly
starting to realize how incredible the new Duskblade truly is, and in this video, I will
tell you everything you need to know about the new Samira playstyle. Well, when I say “new playstyle”, you
need to keep in mind that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Samira is fundamentally the same champion,
but since you now have to play her in this new environment, there are of course some
things you need to know if you want to keep winning. Anyway, before we deep dive into the new item
build and all its implications, Samira’s gameplan during the lane phase naturally hasn’t
changed. You still ideally want to play with a tank
support who can set up plays for you with crowd control combos, and you still want to
be reactive rather than proactive. Putting emphasis on this point is important
to me, because I see far too many Samira players who just don’t have an off-switch. It really looks like they just watched a Samira
video on YouTube [cough], only to then think they could be going for highlight plays left
and right. I don’t want this to happen to you, so please
take me seriously when I say that Samira just sits back and farms for the most part. It might not be want you want to hear, but
patience is the number one most important thing you need when piloting this champion. Of course, the perma all-in style might pay
off in the occasional game in which your support also lands one hook after another, but if
this is your auto pilot, you won’t get far. Often enough, your solo queue support won’t
even pick an engage champion in the first place, and when you then try to perma all-in
your lane opponents, you will lose more than you will win. Well, I’m not saying that Samira rises and
falls with the type of champion your ally picks. Don’t make that mistake either. Even a poke or enchanter support player can
create openings for you. They will be less obvious to the untrained
eye, but this is what separates the good Samira players from the great ones. Senna’s slow in combination with the fact
that Xerath’s stun was on cooldown was all Samira needed for that play. But don’t start plays like this all by yourself. You have to wait for a favourable situation,
albeit even just a slightly favourable one. Also a quick reminder concerning Summoner
Spells. On Samira, you always take Flash and Cleanse. Some people might tell you that Cleanse would
only be viable against heavy CC lanes like Morgana Caitlyn for example. And while it is true that Cleanse is good
against such a combo on any marksman you might play, Samira needs Cleanse every single game. Not only because it makes your late game team
fighting more consistent, but also to counter your opponents’ Summoner Spells. Cleanse crucially removes Summoner Spell debuffs
from you, which is nice against Ignite but absolutely mandatory against Exhaust. Okay, giving you that nice and concise Samira
101 before I get you hyped up with a new build was important to me, because I want you to
actually find success when trying it out. But now we’ll move on and talk about the
new Duskblade on Samira, and as always, if you want to have educational League content
like this in your personal feed, all you need to do is click the subscribe button. So why is Duskblade strong on Samira all of
a sudden? Well, the first thing you should look at when
evaluating an item is its stat profile, and Duskblade actually has a lot going for it. You get a more than 100% gold efficient item
with this purchase, which is always nice, but let’s first address the ugly. With Duskblade, Samira sinks 500 gold into
ability haste, and this stat is unfortunately almost wasted on her. The mythic passive provides even more ability
haste and bonus movement speed, so this one is not really valuable as well. Your only spell that truly benefits from haste
is your W. Samira’s Q cooldown is low enough to the
point where you can always alternate between Qs and auto attacks anyway, her E spell has
an innate reset mechanic so it doesn’t need haste, too, and your ultimate effectively
bypasses the cooldown system altogether. The movement speed is a little better than
the haste, but still mediocre, since you have a resetting dash. However, everything else Duskblade provides
is absolutely amazing for Samira. Since she is an AD caster, Samira had always
been low-key viable with a full lethality build. The only reason she didn’t do it was that
her abilities also scale with crit, but innately, AD caster champions benefit from lethality
the most. And with its massive 60 attack damage and
18 lethality, you can definitely justify buying Duskblade despite also spending gold on ability
haste. However, Duskblade’s first passive effect
is 100% designed to synergize with AD caster champions such as Samira. Most of your DPS in fights comes from your
spells, and Duskblade equipps your spells with a mini execute mechanic, similar to that
of Veigar’s ultimate. It’s very difficult to evaluate such an
effect in terms of gold value, but you can be sure that this more than makes up for any
gold you needed to spend on ability haste. And it is not even the best part. The true selling point is the second part
of Duskblade’s passive. After your first takedown, you enter an invincible
state, but you can still move. And Samira’s ultimate will keep firing during
that invincibility. This is obviously completely broken on this
champion, as her only weakness is that she needs to be in the middle of the team fight
to deal damage, which normally would make you an easy target yourself. But now, all you need to do is get your first
takedown during your R, and the enemy can’t do nothing anymore. There are some caveats here, and this combo
will only work if done correctly, so you… uhm, could you please finally kill that Zoe? Thank you. Anyway, as I was about to say – before I
got rudely interrupted – you have to do this combo corretly, and here’s how. An important clause in Duskblade’s passive
is that your invincibility will end early as soon as you auto attack or cast a spell. So if you get that first takedown before you
cast R, you won’t be able to deal damage while invincible, and Duskblade’s protection
will not be all that valuable. Timing is everything, and you have to fill
your combo meter quickly, so you can ult before the first enemy dies. Another crucial point is your movement during
your ultimate. Samira is able to use her E to reposition
while ulting, but this will of course count as a spell cast and, therefore, immediately
breaks your invincibility from Duskblade. It is always a trade-off here. You either get to chase the enemy with your
E dash or you get to keep your invincibility for its maximum duration. But this simply means one thing: If you want
the best of both worlds, you have to set up the situation correctly. And, therefore, the optimal sequencing is
to dash into the middle of the enemy team when the first opponent is low, so you can
then press R when you are already in the perfect position. Of course, you will sometimes still die afterwards,
but the mere fact that a lethality Samira got 1.5 extra seconds of her ult damage off
for free will most likely allow your team mates to finish the job. But when is it actually the correct time to
buy Duskblade? Should you rush it or are other items still
more important? Well, I got an answer for you, so let’s
now talk about your optimal rune and item set ups. The rune page is exactly the same as it always
was, but in case you are new to the champion, this is it. You go for Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Bloodline,
and Last Stand, with Eyeball Collection and Treasure Hunter secondary. As I’ve said, Samira’s only weakness is
that she has to be in the middle of the enemy team to reach her full damage potential, and
this rune page is designed with this in mind. You will usually take a lot of damage yourself
as you approach, so you need all the healing from the Precision path to stay healthy enough
to keep fighting. And due to Samira’s explosive burst potential,
she is an inherently snowbally champion, which explains the runes you take on the Domination
path. But the item build. Well, you still start with Shieldbow. Actually. Yes, the item got tuned down and demoted from
Mythic status to Legendary, but the main thing it really lost was its attack speed, and Samira
didn’t care much about this anyway. The extra life steal in combination with the
shield passive is just the perfect mix to support your all-ins. Look at this example. Without Shieldbow, Samira would never have
survived long enough to make that 1 for 3 trade happen. And in fact, you might even argue that the
new Shieldbow is better on Samira. It is 400 gold cheaper, making for an earlier
power spike, and of course, you can now spend your Mythic slot on Duskblade, which you buy
second. Shieldbow plus Duskblade is a nasty combo,
as Shieldbow buys you enough time to set up your invincible ult, and then your ult still
applies the life steal during invincibility. Your third item is the buffed Collector, leaning
into the lethality theme while still providing crit for maximum value. Your last items are Bloodthirster and a crit
Last Whisper item in any order you seem fit. Usually Bloodthirster first, since this way,
no one can outduel you, but if you are snowballing, you can also get Lord Doms before that. But as I’ve said in the beginning, all of
these nice combos mean nothing if you just feed during the early game, so for the best
laning strategies, click the link on your screen right there.
