Twitch ARAM Build and Guide

Updated for patch 26.21. Ability details come from Riot’s official game data for this patch; ARAM balance numbers come from the League of Legends Wiki’s champion data.

A Twitch ARAM build is on-hit and attack speed on a marksman the mode actually helps: Twitch deals 100% damage and takes 95% damage on the Howling Abyss. Deadly Venom’s true damage, a camouflaged flank and a Spray and Pray that pierces five enemies in a corridor are all stronger here, so you build items that apply the poison more often and to more people.

Everything below is our own reading of the patch 26.21 item data. We don’t use win-rate tables.

How is Twitch changed in ARAM?

Twitch’s damage dealt stays at 100% in ARAM and his damage taken drops to 95%, which makes this a buff, and a quiet one (nobody writes patch notes about 5%). Nothing about his output changes. He simply survives 5% more of whatever reaches him, and on a champion with no dash, no shield and 550 range, that margin is a few more poison ticks before he has to leave. Why help a marksman whose ultimate pierces the whole enemy team? Because the rest of the kit is fragile on a map with no jungle to hide in. To be fair, 5% isn’t a rework. It’s a nudge toward playing him at all.

Why does Twitch fit the Howling Abyss?

Because every enemy stands in one line, and his ultimate is a line. From Riot’s data for patch 26.21:

• Deadly Venom (passive): basic attacks infect the target On-Hit, dealing true damage each second.
• Ambush (Q): Camouflage for a short duration plus Move Speed, then Attack Speed when the Camouflage ends. A champion dying with Deadly Venom on them resets the cooldown. Cooldown 16 seconds.
• Venom Cask (W): a cask that explodes in an area, slowing and applying Deadly Venom. Cooldown 13/12/11/10/9.
• Contaminate (E): a blast of disease against poisoned enemies. Cooldown 12/11/10/9/8.
• Spray and Pray (R): bolts over a great distance that pierce every enemy in their path. Cooldown 90.

Count what the Abyss gives him. One corridor, so Spray and Pray’s bolts pass through the front line and into the carries behind it. Five enemies standing close, so Venom Cask lands on three of them and Contaminate cashes in three poisons at once. Bushes on both sides, so Ambush still has somewhere to start from. And a kill on a poisoned champion resets Ambush, which in a mode where somebody dies every minute means the rat is Camouflaged more often than not. Where’s the problem? He has 550 range and no dash, and the enemy’s Mark snowball is aimed at him from the loading screen onward.

What should a Twitch ARAM build focus on?

On-Hit effects and Attack Speed, because Deadly Venom is applied On-Hit and the whole kit is about how many targets carry it. Critical strike comes later. Four items from the current patch.

Runaan’s Hurricane is the first item on the Abyss and it isn’t close. 40% Attack Speed, 25% Critical Strike Chance and 5% Move Speed, and Wind’s Fury fires bolts at 2 additional enemies near your target, each dealing physical damage and applying On-Hit effects. Deadly Venom is an On-Hit effect. One attack, three poisoned champions, and Contaminate suddenly has three targets. In practice this item does more for Twitch in ARAM than any amount of raw Attack Damage (the enemy is always standing close enough for the bolts).

Kraken Slayer comes next: 45 Attack Damage, 40% Attack Speed and 4% Move Speed, with Bring It Down making every third attack deal bonus physical damage On-Hit, increased by the target’s missing Health. Honestly, the Attack Speed is the reason. More attacks means more poison stacks, more Hurricane bolts and more third hits, and the missing-Health scaling finishes what the true damage started.

Blade of The Ruined King is the third buy: 40 Attack Damage, 25% Attack Speed and 10% Life Steal. Mist’s Edge deals a percentage of the enemy’s current Health as bonus physical damage On-Hit, which is the answer to the one tank who thinks Health beats poison (there’s always one), and Clawing Shadows slows a champion by 30% for 1 second after you attack them 3 times. A slowed target is a target still in 550 range. The Life Steal matters more than usual, since there’s no recall and the relics only do so much.

Guinsoo’s Rageblade closes it. 30 Attack Damage, 30 Ability Power and 25% Attack Speed, Wrath adds 30 bonus magic damage On-Hit, and Seething Strike stacks 8% Attack Speed per attack up to 4 times; while fully stacked, every third attack applies On-Hit effects twice. Twice. That’s two Deadly Venom applications, two Mist’s Edge procs and two Wrath hits on one swing, and Runaan’s bolts carry the same On-Hit effects to the neighbours. If the game goes long, Infinity Edge turns the 25% crit from Hurricane into something that hurts. Boots are Berserker’s Greaves, 30% Attack Speed and 45 Move Speed, for obvious reasons.

How do you play Twitch on the Howling Abyss?

• Ambush from the side bush, not from the fountain. The Attack Speed arrives when Camouflage ends, so be in range when it does.
• Cask first, then Contaminate. Venom Cask applies Deadly Venom to everyone in its area, and Contaminate only hurts enemies who are already poisoned.
• Spray and Pray from the back, through your own tank. The bolts pierce every enemy in their path, so the front line is not a wall, it’s the first target.
• Watch for the Ambush reset. A champion dying with Deadly Venom on them resets the cooldown, so after a kill you can vanish and re-flank in the same fight.
• Max Contaminate or Venom Cask, not Ambush. Ambush’s cooldown is fixed at 16 seconds at every rank, while Venom Cask falls from 13 to 9 and Contaminate from 12 to 8.

How do shopping and Mark change the game on the Howling Abyss?

Shopping on the Abyss happens at the fountain and only there, at the start and after each death, because there is no recall. Relics along the lane restore Health between those visits; nothing else does. For Twitch the buy order is strict: Attack Speed first, every time. A Recurve Bow or a Dagger makes the next flank apply more poison, while a sword makes it hurt a bit more. Buy the component that adds attacks. The catch is that Runaan’s Hurricane costs 2,650 gold, and dying on the way there costs you the flank that would have paid for it.

Mark is the mode’s snowball: throw it, hit a champion, and you can dash to them. Your spell choice is final once loading starts. On Twitch it cuts both ways, which is the honest version. His own snowball gives him the gap closer the kit lacks, useful for finishing a poisoned target who walked out of 550 range (and a kill with venom on it resets Ambush). The enemy’s snowball is the thing that ends him, since a rat who leaves Camouflage within snowball range is a rat with a bruiser on him. Funny enough, the best Twitch games are the ones where you never see their snowball land, because you were never where it was aimed.

Is Twitch good in ARAM?

Yes, and the modifiers say so: 100% damage dealt and 95% damage taken is a mode telling you to play him. The kit lines up with the map almost embarrassingly well, a piercing ultimate in a corridor, an area poison on a crowd, a reset on the one spell that makes him hard to catch. What keeps him from being free is that he dies to anything that touches him, and in ARAM something is always trying to.

On Summoner’s Rift the answer is to kill him early, and the Twitch counters guide goes through who does that best. The guide to LoL roles explains what a marksman owes the team. The item database has the numbers and patch history for everything above, and the Twitch skins page has his cosmetics.

Long story short: Hurricane first, Cask on the clump, Contaminate the poison, and ult through your tank from a spot nobody has a dash to. That’s the Twitch ARAM build when it works. Then you respawn, buy a Dagger, and go find a bush.

FAQ

Is Twitch buffed in ARAM?

Slightly. The League of Legends Wiki’s champion data for patch 26.21 gives him 100% damage dealt and 95% damage taken on the Howling Abyss, so he takes a little less damage than on Summoner’s Rift.

What items does the Twitch ARAM build use?

Runaan’s Hurricane, Kraken Slayer, Blade of The Ruined King and Guinsoo’s Rageblade, then Infinity Edge if the game runs long, with Berserker’s Greaves for boots.

Does Runaan’s Hurricane spread Twitch’s poison?

Yes. Wind’s Fury fires bolts at 2 additional enemies near the target and each bolt applies On-Hit effects, and Deadly Venom is applied On-Hit.

Does Ambush reset in ARAM?

Yes, the same way as elsewhere: when an enemy champion with Deadly Venom on them dies, Ambush’s cooldown resets. Its base cooldown is 16 seconds.

Is this build based on win rates?

No. It’s an editorial pick from Twitch’s patch 26.21 abilities and the item data. We don’t use win-rate numbers.