Starter items

Core items

Offensive items

Situational Defensive items (Read The Guide)

Example Final Build

Big Balls, Big Success

Hey I'm DetonatoR, AD Carry (Marksman) for Team SicK , and this is my guide on Cyborg, the Human Arsenal. I've been playing MOBA's for a very long time now, starting with DotA 1 all the way through to Heroes of Newerth, DotA 2 for a little bit, League of Legends, and then to Infinite Crisis. I've been playing Infinite Crisis for a little over a year, starting in March last year and I'm now level 51.

This guide is primarily for bottom lane as a marksman and how I play Cyborg. There are a couple of different ways to play and build marksman, but I either haven't tested them out yet, or didn't like them. People are still experimenting with different marksman builds (some including shades cane). I won't be including those builds for now until I find something I like.

As one of my level 20 champions, Cyborg is one of my favorites, though since he doesn't technically have an escape he's also one of the more difficult ones to play as a marksman. However, he does have his (W) charged burst -- I'll tell you a trick on that later in the guide. Since he's also one of the marksmen that hit like a truck the more he autos a target with his passive (the other being Mecha Wonder Woman), if you follow the title of this guide you'll do pretty well.

Stream: DetonatoR - Twitter: detonatR
Cyborg Spotlight

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Pros / Cons
Pros

SPACE

1. Attack Speed / Movement Speed Steroid 2. Can out trade enemy marksman pretty well in lane with passive and steroid skills if you're man enough 3. AOE ultimate can melt teams in fights 4. His charged burst skill can knock enemies off him or allies which can be a life saver in messy situations 5. Strong damage at all points of the game and even stronger once he reaches his power spike with crit damage 6. Ultimate can be used to snipe fleeing enemies as an execute

Cons

SPACE

1. No real escape, can get ganked pretty easily in lane or dove on in team fights. His charged burst skill has a stupidly low range, basically only useful if enemies are in melee range of you. 2. Difficult to play. You have to constantly be worrying about positioning. If you misstep just once, you're dead 3. No poke in lane so he can get bullied hard. You have to dodge skills and then all in or really commit to skirmishes. So easy for him to get bullied in lane. 4. Can be difficult to know when to commit to situations or not 5. Squishy at all stages of the game, hyper carry with risk 6. Needs a good team to protect him in team fights. DEFINITELY needs a team to protect him. 7. Can be will heavy if you're spamming skills (you really don't need to be spamming skills in lane, manage your will!)

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Stolens

Not much to say about this. These are the standard type of stolens for a marksman. Double defensive with heal and barrier (invulnerability). I take both Arcane Green Lantern's Healing Wave and Doomsday's Invulnerability because both stolens are the most defensive you can get. The healing wave heals you and gives you and those around you more attack armor and power armor. This invulnerability shields you from the most damage while the other invulnerability stolens dick around by healing you while active or giving some more damage or attack/power reflect. You don't need those on a marksman.

You might be thinking of grabbing Supergirl's Invulnerability because it gives you more attack damage while active (a stupidly low amount), but ask yourself: When do you really use invulnerability? When you're in trouble. What helps you out the most when you're in trouble? A shield that blocks the most amount of damage. Same story with healing wave.

I've seen some people running Krypto's Healing Wave. I think it's decent in lane, but in a team fight when you have a million gap closers thrown your way, you don't have time to take advantage of the extra healing over time it gives when you're one skill away from death. With a poke team comp though, I can see this working (maybe better on the support?). HOWEVER all of that is if you're gonna be selfish and protect yourself. Krypto's is actually really good right now for the entire team because it gives everyone really good regen. Can be good for turnarounds and re-engagements.

If you want to man up in lane or at any stage of the game, you need to depend on your stolens. If you're laning and you're trading back and forth with the enemy marksman and you're at an advantage, if he used his stolens first then don't get scared and back away. You still have yours so you're still at the advantage, he just blew his stolens first. Stay in the fight, or kite him until his invulnerability wears off, and use yours when you need to and you win that trade. Even if you're fighting to damage him through his shield don't get scared, because you still have yours in the back of your pocket. Also keep in mind healing wave heals you so the damage you take is still going to hit your health, while invulnerability shields you on top of whatever health you already have, which is usually better for soaking up damage.

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Amplifiers


Falcon - Danger - Mantle - Phax
There are a couple of different ways to build your marksman augments, but this is where I deviate from the norm. For my augments, I basically go all of the Attack Speed (G) augments. Other options are crit damage, attack damage, attack penetration augments, or a mix of each. Life steal just sucks in this game. The important thing to remember is to aim for G rated augments, they're the best rated ones and give the most for that particular stat. The other thing to remember is that amplifiers in general are aimed at helping your early game.

At the end of the day these are the augments that I'm comfortable with. Remember, amplifiers are for early game stats. In the early game the damage difference isn't that much vs someone who took attack damage or attack pen augments (crit damage doesn't even become a factor until you get crit items which is usually 10+ minutes). For the most part you want to be dodging the skills that scale on attack damage/pen anyway.

Attack speed helps me push lane harder, get a couple extra attacks on turrets, allows me to go in and out to poke enemy marksman quicker, allows me to get more auto attacks in for the Nil Weapon passive heal, and later on allows me to get more autos in for crits. You also don't really need the extra attack damage to last hit because every champion has recycle mod now.


Enhanced - Empowered - Enhanced
Again, amplifiers are for early game and power spikes so these shouldn't be too much of a surprise. For mods you usually take the first three items you'll be building so you have a stronger early game to combat the enemy marksman's. So, I get Enhanced Coda Blade (+10 Damage) , Empowered Joe Chill's (75% Critical Damage), and Enhanced Velocity 9 Implants (+10% Critical Chance). The discount mods aren't really that great because while yes you get that item faster (not by much), once the other marksman gets his item he will out scale you. I take critical chance on my V9's just because I like the combo of crit chance and attack speed augs.

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Abilities


Q - E - Q - W - Q - R - Q - E - E - R - E - P - P - R - P - W - W - R - W
Basically what you want to do is max your (Q) Tracer Shot first followed by your (E) Cascade. Depending on whether you feel comfortable or not you can take your (W) Charged Burst level 3 or 4. Highly dependent on whether you're against a strong jungler like Doomsday who's ganks mean you're dead without escapes or positioning. You only want one level into it because it's more of a utility skill than anything else. Take levels in your (R) Plasma Cannon whenever you get the chance and then max your passive Cybernetic Targeting. Max your charged burst last since again it is only your utility skill.

I've tried a couple of different ways to level his skills like maxing his cascade 1st or maxing passive 2nd in place of cascade. Leveling passive early on didn't really make much sense since the bonus damage is percentage of health, which at the early stages of the game is going to be low. Flat for early game, percentage for late (same with armor pen). For maxing cascade over tracer shot, I just like tracer shot better to lead into for the quick engaging and disengaging to put out a good chunk of damage.

Cybernetic Targeting (Passive)

Every 4th Basic Attack deals 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% of the target's Max Health as bonus Attack Damage.

This is one third of how you can out trade opponents in lane and where a lot of your surprise damage will come from late game. Early in the game, while this passive depends on max health which is low at this stage, it still provides a little extra amount of damage that people don't usually expect. If you're in a little skirmish you can stick to your target without being afraid of getting out traded because you can get auto attacks and then the passive proc before disengaging. If you played it right you'll have done a good amount of damage vs their damage. You can also attack minions to get this passive up and then poke with one auto attack. But, I usually like to use tracer shot -> cascade to stick on someone and then let my passive proc.

Tracer Shot (Q)

Cyborg fires a burst of energy. It deals 5, 15, 25, 35 + 10% Bonus Attack Damage and marks every enemy hit for 5 seconds. Cyborg's basic attacks deal an additional 50, 70, 90, 110 + 50% Bonus Attack Damage when attacking enemies marked with Tracer Shot.

If I said his passive is where your surprise damage comes from, this is where your up front damage comes from. Another part of how you can out trade opponents, this skill just rocks. If you have your tracer shot on someone, you're gonna be out trading them hit per hit no question about it. Later in the game this bad boy combined with your maxed cascade will melt enemies. if you lead with tracer shot, though, enemies know to back away and wait for the passive to get off them. So, what I like to do is lead in with an auto attack to get myself in position to follow up with a quick tracer shot and then one or two more auto attacks. From there you can either stay in the fight or get out. What some people don't know about this skill is that you can throw it out in between auto attacks, so you don't delay your second auto attack. Just auto -> tracer in between -> follow up auto.

Charged Burst (W)

Nearby enemies are knocked back. Targets marked by Tracer Shot are also dealt 45, 90, 135, 180 + 70% Bonus Attack Damage and the Tracer Shot mark is refreshed.

This is your utility skill / only real escape if you play against enemies with gap closers. The range on this skill is really low, think of it as basically melee range. If they're on top of you, they'll get knocked back. The trick with this is if you time this right it can save you tremendously against champions like Doomsday, or Supergirl. If you time this right, as long as the skill that enemies are using to gap close don't make them invulnerable (Shazam ult, Supergirl ult, etc.) then you can interrupt the skill before it actually touches you and you don't get screwed. You can cancel things like Doomsday's tackle or Supergirl's dash mid air before they connect to you. Hard to time right, but easy once you get the hang of it. Just wait until they are coming into melee range and press your w.

Cascade (E)

Cyborg gains 20% Move Speed and 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% Attack Speed for 2 seconds. While this skill is active, Basic Attacks against marked targets increase the duration of Cascade by 1s, up to a maximum of 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s.

This is the last part of where your damage is going to come from. Combo this with your charged burst for the quick getaway or with your tracer shot for your damage. I like to open up with my tracer shot and then immediately use this skill AFTER the shot hits. Gives you a small bit more of a duration in case you can't get an auto off to increase it with this skill's passive. Late game this skill, your tracer shot, and your ultimate equal insane damage. Even if you don't hit tracer shot, don't be afraid to go in with this skill on because your auto attacks will still do good damage with this and your passive.

Plasma Cannon (R)

Cyborg fires a massive blast, dealing 125, 200, 275, 350 + 80% Bonus Attack Damage to all enemies in the area, and pushing Cyborg back a short distance. For 10s after the blast, Cyborg's Basic Attacks pierce through targets, fire their full range and damaging all enemies in the line.

With this skill, you become a monster in team fights. Position properly and you'll be attacking / critical hitting multiple members of the enemy team. In small skirmishes you need to figure out the best time to use this, as using this skill could either be a waste or what turns the fight in your favor. Combine this with your tracer shot and your cascade and pew pew pew. You also need to get used to aiming this skill because it's literally just an auto attack and the line goes past the champion you're attacking. So you need to pay attention to the angle and where you're attacking so the full ultimate can hit multiple champions. The range is insanely long on this too (if you're in the center of the camera, this skill reaches the edge of the screen), so if an enemy is low and running away, don't be afraid to use this to execute them to grab the kill.

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Items
Starting

Pretty standard start for marksman. You go Nil Weapon and Modular Health Vial (3). I've seen some people start straight into their Coda Blade (1), but I like the nil weapon start because it gives you some damage, some health, and some sustain (piss poor amount but still helps). If you're doing the coda start I can just poke you out of lane and out sustain you with nil and health pots. You could definitely do the coda start if you want to go all in for an early kill though.

I've also seen some people buy Modular Tektite Vial (3) instead, which gives you both health and will regen. However, the amount they give is reduced because you're getting regen on both instead of just one stat. You really don't need will regen because you shouldn't be having any mana problems in lane. If you're having problems then that means you're unnecessarily using your skills and not thinking about what situations you actually should be using them in. Regular health vials give you more sustain, which is good.

A trick on the health vials is it doesn't cancel your recall, so if you're recalling you can use it to heal up and get back into lane faster from fountain. On the reverse, if you're in fountain you can treat it like a bottle from DotA and use it to leave fountain quicker. It won't use any charges when in fountain but will still give you the regen + the fountain regen to get back into lane a little quicker.

Core

This is my core for this build. As with any time you ever buy coda early game, you leave it at tier 3 because that's the most optimal when it comes to gold efficiency. From there, you save up for Joe Chill's Revolver (3). Keep in mind after your Coda Blade (3) you'll have a good amount of time before you can buy this item, so keep an eye out for what everyone else is building. You don't want to fight someone that has more items than you because they're going for an early game build. Joe chills is basically when you power spike as a marksman just because of how good crit is in this game right now. You get Velocity 9 Implants (4) next to give you more crit and attack speed to enhance your main damage item (the joe chills).

If I'm behind or I want to get a quick Atomic Axe (1) for the armor pen then I'll leave velocity 9 on tier 3 since that's 1000 gold for tier 4 and if you're going for gold efficiency, probably not the best. However, I love max velocity 9s so I'm good with that investment. The passive on it's tier 4 is also really nice because it helps you kite and chase better. At this pont, you go for the Atomic Axe (2) over anything else because the enemy team's front line should have a good amount of armor.

Offensive Items

These are pretty much the only post core offensive items I look at. After your core items, you want to be looking at what items you absolutely need. Are you safe and need more damage? Take offensive items. Are you not so safe and someone on the enemy team is giving you problems in fights? Take your defensive item.

At this point in the game, the enemy front lines are not only tanky in armor but tanky in health. Keep in mind, pretty much every tank item in this game gives both health and armor, so enemy tanks are gonna give you problems in both the armor and health departments. A Huntress' Crossbow (3) will take care of that. If you don't really need that but want to get an offensive item then go for Soultaker Katana (4) for the life steal and the damage after you finish the stacks. I don't really like this item too much, if it was slightly better I'd definitely buy it more. Nowadays, I'm leaning towards this more and more as my last offensive item because of the nature of CC team fights. Life steal, no matter how good or bad it is in this game right now, still allows you to stay in a fight a lot longer than without it. As a marksman, you want to stay in the fight as much as possible doing as much damage as you can.

Defensive Items

I put a crap ton of defensive items in the top half of the guide. Some are obviously better than others, but my whole point is to be flexible when it comes to everything, including your itemization. Some items are better in some situations over other items. This is your defensive item, so figure out what you're having problems defending against and itemize for that problem. Shazam's ultimate completely destroying you? Get Entropy Aegis (3). Are you getting completely locked down with thousands of disables being thrown your way? Get a Mobius Core (2). Mobius Core (1) by itself is also a very viable pick up earlier in your build.

If the game is going very late like 40+ minutes I'll aim to get a Ra's al Ghul's Robe (2). While it's not as good as it was before, I've found that on Coast City compared to Gotham Divided it's still very good. On Gotham Divided, you'd be at a total disadvantage while you're waiting to get resurrected because people can just pop your shield very easily, but on Coast City since everything is so very narrow, once you go down people have to switch focus to other champions giving you the chance to respawn. I've started to like this item a lot since it gives you an extra life. Still, if me dying isn't a problem I'll look to see what else I'm having a problem with and itemize appropriately for it (for example just getting an entropy aegis instead). Once its passive goes down and you still have an extra 4k+ since it's late game, you can replace this item for something else until the cooldown is gone and then purchase it again.

Now, just imagine playing with Speed Force Battery (1). Holy fun batman, break some ankles with those jukes.