Okay, so we have to talk about this Samira player. Not only did they reach rank #1 on the Samira
leaderboards, but they also did it with a 94% win rate in Master tier on the Korean solo queue
ladder, which is considered the most competitive. 94% is just ridiculous, as they
are literally beating every single opponent despite being in smurf queue.
Naturally, I wanted to know how this player… according to Google, their name is pronounced
“Tthungtthunghadayug” managed to pull this off. And, of course, I will now tell you everything
about their playstyle, decision making, and strategy, so let’s get ready.
But before we deep dive into the gameplay analysis, I will first show
you the rank #1 player’s exact rune and item set ups, so you can copy those right away.
Ttung’s preferred Samira rune page is Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Boodline, and Last Stand, with
Eyeball Collection and Treasure Hunter secondary. Conqueror has really stood the test of time
for Samira, as the keystone keeps performing for her despite its numerous nerfs.
Sure, it used to be a lot stronger back in the day, but you still stack it
effortlessly alongside Samira’s passive, so you get maximum value from its damage
and healing once you cast your ultimate. And healing is truly one of the most important
aspects when it comes to playing Samira, because unlike more traditional marksmen,
Samira cannot play from max range. She has to go in and will take
lots of damage in the process, which is also why you want the rune Triumph,
and especially the rune Legend: Bloodline. Yes, Samira heavily relies on her spells for
damage, but remember that her most important abilities are coded to specifically work with
life steal just like an auto attack would. Samira also gets tons of value from Last Stand
for the same reason she needs healing effects. All the damage you take from opposing attacks
while you dash into melee range will in return grant you maximum value from this rune.
It beats the other two options in its row every single time, and you will see a
demonstration of its power later in the video. Now for the secondary runes, our rank #1 player
actually deviates from the standard page. While most Samiras do take Treasure Hunter for
better snowballing, many of them also take Taste of Blood and not Eyeball Collection.
It would be another healing rune, and I’ve just explained how important
healing effects are on Samira. So why does Ttung prefer Eyeball Collection?
Well, let me explain. First of all, Taste of Blood is only really
strong during the lane phase, as you can use it to mitigate enemy poke damage over time.
However, in most all-in situations, it won’t even trigger, as its cooldown is rather long.
Additionally, its scaling is quite poor, further limiting its use.
You heal for a flat value, and unlike life steal, its healing does
not increase with your DPS all that much. Therefore, forgoing that rune is not
at all a big deal, but the value we get from Eyeball Collection is absolutely enormous.
I’ve talked to the European rank #1 Samira player a while ago, and he emphasized that attack damage
would be the single most important stat on Samira. You have to keep in mind: the faster you
kill the opponent, the more likely you are to trigger Triumph, and the more value you
get from your life steal in the first place. Life steal does scales with your DPS after all.
Ttungttunghadayug follows the same logic here, and consequently picks Eyeball
Collection every single time. By the way, keep in mind that if you want
to have educational League content like this in your custom feed, all you need
to do is click the subscribe button. Okay, let’s continue with the rank
#1 Samira player‘s item build. Ttung’s core items are Shieldbow,
defensive boots, and Collector. Shieldbow will always be top tier on this
champion, since the item protects you from burst damage while you dash into melee range.
It also further boosts your life steal, whose importance I’ve already explained.
Collector second is chosen for its great build path and due to Samira’s synergy with lethality.
Lethality and attack damage are the two most important offensive stats for AD casters,
but because Samira’s spells also have the unique property of scaling with crit,
Collector is just perfect for her. However, the late game items might
look a little weird to some of you. Well, Infinity Edge is straightforward, but
why does Ttung postpone Lord Doms until last? Isn’t this the tank slaying item, and
aren’t we currently in a tank meta? Sure, this is true, but there are
two things to keep in mind here. First, Samira doesn’t play from range,
and second, these “tanks“ have ridiculous damage output for some reason.
Therefore, the rank #1 player goes for Bloodthirster before Lord Doms.
It will take you much longer to actually kill those tanks, but with BT, they can never kill
you, despite Samira’s fighting at melee range. The extra shield and life steal make you much
more consistent as a champions, since you are now impossible to shut down.
Or in other words: you don’t deal damage when you’re dead.
Okay, let’s now jump into the actual gameplay analysis.
So, here is the most interesting fact about this Korean Samira.
More than 90% of Samira players start with a point in Q level one, but the rank #1 player always
spends the first skill point on Samira’s E spell. And level 1 invades are naturally
a good showcase of its power. The resettable dash in combination
with E’s attack speed steroid goes a long way in fights like this.
But should you assume that Ttung only levelled E because there was a level
1 team fight, then you are quite mistaken. When I say always E level
1, I mean always E level 1. If you instead go Q, you’ll miss out
on golden opportunities like this. With Q, nothing would’ve happened, but with E,
you just got Lux’s Flash and her health total. Samira knows that a Lux without Flash is a
really easy target, so she now continues by holding the minions just outside her tower.
This way, you make use of your lane priority by forcing the enemy to overextend, but
they cannot afford to do so without Flash. They are already in a lose-lose
situation, all snowballing from E level 1. And being far removed from their tower, it
is only a matter of time until the enemy gets punished for attempting to stay
in experience range of their minions. Without Flash, a champion like
Lux has absolutely no chance here. But of course, this aggressive playstyle
will attract the enemy jungler. Should that happen, the rank #1 player never backs
down but instead fully commits to the all-in. Even if you die, you still are
very likely to trade one for one, which would ultimately favour you. However, thanks to the crazy damage from Last
Stand and the clutch healing from Triumph, insane plays like this are very much possible.
But what do you do when things don’t work out for you?
Well, in this example, Ttung goes for the E level one all-in as usual.
And while it looks like a winning play at first, it can go awry very quickly
when the enemy jungler shows up. No kill for Samira, but two kills for
Sett and Xayah respectively. Disaster. To add insult to injury, Pyke
also abandons the bot lane, leaving the 0 and 1 Samira to her own devices.
The rank #1 player, though, is not worried at all. Ttung simply switches gears and starts farming
the wave patiently, pushing as slowly as possible. You cannot fight in that position, so
you need to sit there and scale safely. Samira does this as long as she needs to.
Take whatever farm you can, but avoid fights when you got no team.
Your playstyle must be reactive, not proactive. However, once your team mates return,
you immediately switch back to PvP mode. Even when you’re behind, Samira’s follow-up
potential in fights is still enormous. And once lane phase is over,
the same concept applies. The rank #1 player is still slightly
behind in this game, so patience is key. You safely catch waves crashing into you, so you
stay as strong as possible with gold and levels. But when your team is in position to fight, you always join. No matter
how far behind you might be. Pay close attention to Samira’s
positioning in this one. Did you see how Samira kept approaching despite low health? Yeah, you need
to be fearless of the enemy. With this champion, spacing
from range is just not viable. When you farm, you farm, and
when you fight, you fight. Always fully commit, because there is
no in between. It is most important. Sure, you will end up dying for this from
time to time, but it doesn’t really matter. Chances are, Samira will have dealt enough damage
for her allies to win the fight afterwards. You have Shieldbow and defensive
boots for a reason after all. In situations where other AD carries would get
one shot, Samira needs to keep pressing forward. This is arguably why playing this
champion is so counter intuitive at first. However, you can take a beating if
you have to. And you will have to if you want to deal good damage.
But don’t worry, this is exactly why you got all that life steal.
And most of the time, you will snowball off of the enemy’s mistakes
anyway and play the game on easy mode. You can only ever die when
you’re behind in the first place. Due to the nature of this video, all the
information here was quite Samira specific. But you can also improve your general AD carry macro knowledge by clicking the
link on your screen right there.
