Hey everyone, this is my first guide, so don't hard flame me. I'll update this as i go and revise.  I've read most of the guides here, and i'd like to give credit to all of you for allowing me to find this monster of a character.

I've been a IC player for a few months (2-3 months) but before played enough of DoTA , LoL , HoN etc etc to talk a bit about my ace in the hole Gaslight Batman. 


Before you read this guide answer any of the following questions:
1) do you prefer to run into the heat of battle ?
2) do you like being a team player?
3) do you like to jungle?
4) do you like FAST characters?

if you answered YES to any of these, go read another guide.. Gaslight Bat takes a bit of patience, alot of last hitting and knowing when-to-hold-them-and-when-to-fold-them.  YES you can prove me wrong by building a batman that can do any one (or all of these things) but if you want to start stomping, read on.

Who is your daddy and what does he do?

Skip this is you're familiar with the game, if you're new however read on.

Here are a few adjectives to describe batman to other players when he starts out (at level 1)
1) Squishy
2) Slow
3) Annoying (poke)
4) English
5) possible threat

Gaslight Batman is a marksman, which means (and i'll stress this later) you need to farm son.  Avoid the following

1) Lanes where your partner is last hitting better than you (less kills, mean less money, means you are underfed)
2) Lanes where your partner is feeding the other team (for obvious reasons)

Ideally on the otherside you want someone who is melee and doesn't have a disable.  If you don't have that get used to poking them, and whoever pokes better, wins! (or farms better). if you are outnumbered, there is NO SHAME in tower hugging as long as you farm and get your levels up. 

My best games i'm usually solo-ing a lane (preferred top or bot) and love the challenge to 2v1 .  My worse have been the opposite, where i can't farm enough and the other person has soloed AND is head in $$ and level. 

Anyway when you farmed enough this is what you look like to the other players

1) Squishy
2) Slippery (with Flight used correctly)
3) Hard Hitting
4) English
5) Public Enemy #1 (in ganks and team battles)

8/10 you will die if you forget that last point.  Remember to hang back, let all your allies do the heavy lifting and take the hits, even if you ditch them midway through the battle cause you THINK you might be targetted, do it, at least until you're used to your sustainability and damage potential.


Abilities
First up, i probably screwed up on the Ability order, but the Gist is 

Focus on R > Q > Passive > E > W 

Why?

R - SCREAMMMMM (Bat Scream), you'll find as you're higher in level you actually use it less when you're farmed up .  Why? cause your items with your passive give you enough attack speed and damaged that you'll be relying on basic attacks to clean up a team battle.  Otherwise this is a great especially in low level games for people that like to run in straight lines.  can't catch someone?  SCREAMMMMM!!.. But later on it's good for killing an advancing wave (or two) , i'll fire one off from base after respawning (on GD), to push away  or weaken that wave.  If i'm reviving and the tower is too far, i'll use it for a psychological factor to have that 2 or 3 or 4 on one tower to back off enough for me to jump back in.  Higher level games where people know better WILL attack anyway, or dodge it (cause they have cameras anyway).

Q - Sonic 'rangs (Sonic Batarangs) are your bread and butter (that is until you are farmed up).  Get used to playing bouncing them off minions, creatures or other champions to hit the intended target.  Preferrably at higher level play you'll want to also time your 'rangs, so that they are bouncing off enemy champions as they are running away or towards you.  otherwise, position yourself and fire away

Passive (ECHOES) - +1 of this means more dmg on skills.. in actual play i seem to do better upping this rather than E or W (although i find i'm having trouble or getting ganked alot i will prioritize "E" more)

E - Flight, your saving grace.  Have your finger handy on it cause more often than not it will save your butt.  I learned the hard way it doesn't do well around corners, if you do you'll most likely 'hit' the corner and stop your escape short.  Combined with Super Speed however, and you can bolt across any long stretch.  However not incredibly necessary to level up until later, the lower cooldown is great, but you have other skills to use.

W - "Boom balls" (Sonic Shell)... well not really.  It's a great skill don't get me wrong but i focus on the passive over this because in gameplay i don't experience the benefits especially early on.   Situations i use it on... on a tower i don't have vision, if an enemy champ is tower hugging it'll give you vision then you can blast them with a skill.  Or on a later game wave clear, you'll be suprised that later on, this plus your 'rangs will kick the crap out of those minon waves. But again, you're not a 'mana' heavy character, and my items don't suggest to get [[Abin Sur's Lantern]] or anything like that, so conserve your 'mana' until you either got a good group shot (to maximize your effectiveness) or you need to prod at the other team (getting vision).  



Stolen Powers
i've tried alot of variations, but after getting use to: 
1) Not running into team battles
2) not tower diving without seeing everyone else on the minimap
3) having cameras in gankable areas

I find that mobility is key for bats, why , cause his movespeed sucks.  So i've used

Teleport]- (preferably for cooldown[[Catwoman's Teleport]])
Super Speed - (preferably [[Flash's Super Speed]])

I find when you're starting out Invulnerability helps especially when you don't anticipate ganks. 


Items

My core is definitely Soultaker Katana (3) , [[Joe Chill's Revolver (4)]], and [[Deathstroke's Claymore (2)]].  (in that order, and then upgrade soul takers to 4).  

If its too much of a jump to get to SoulTakers feel free to grab a Coda Blade (4) to bridge the gap, however maybe get it up to level 2 or 3 and then rush soultakers. 

By getting the core this will give you life steal, dmg, crit and attack speed.  After that it depends how much more of a beast you can be.  If you're ahead of the other team, go for Velocity 9 Implants (4) or Atomic Axe (2).  (axe if you have to deal with those beefy guys, Supes, Atomic Ivy, Shazam etc etc).   

Defensive items are great, but situational.  but if you're owning in the end game, doesn't hurt to have a Ra's anyway.

Other than that , always watch anyone else's items, especially if you see Suit of Sorrows on an enemy, get working on that attack penetration (hehe).

Modifiers i've went to Crit-chance increases, with Damage and Attack speed.  For Augments I go for Accellerated Katana (for early and quick sustain/dmg boost), Empowered Nil and Discounted/Empowered Joe Chills.  


Phases

Early -  Your goals should be

1) FARM UP!... last hit, last hit, last hit, last hit.  - an under coined marksman is useless later on

2) Poke the crap out of the people in you lane .  Remember your good buddy "Q"? use him, abuse him .  Especially if there is only the champions left, (or a drone and a champion) get used to bouncing "Q" off of them , especially if they like to mid-game hug (stick close together).  Otherwise  your basic plus a "Q" or just basic attack is plenty.. you'll have to go through the school of hard knocks for kiting, but its well worth it.  3/5 times if you hit a champion 3 times without having the minions swarming you or them hitting you, they'll go into defense mode.

3) When you've gotten good at 1 & 2, i mean good enough to make the waves push out at the towers and have enemy champs tower hugging, then get ready to be ganked.  Good chance the Jungler (or someone) will know you're spanking  their friends (who is probably a 12 year old calling them noobs), and come and make a pass at you.  

Signs you're about to get ganked
a) Your tower hugging friends are coming out of their hole a little more.. why? cause they know big brother is coming to stomp on you.  
b) there are missing people from other lanes, if Flash was up top and suddenly he's not.. good chance he's super speeding his way down the middle to F=MA you.  

This means, back off, go get some items, tele back to base, whatever.. don't get too cocky.  

4) Oh in the midst of all this stomping avoid people with disables/slows/and assassins.  Disables like (stupid) shazam you have to watch out for.  There is no such thing is running away too early from beefcakes like him, cause if you're mid-way through an "E" he'll cut it short and then SPANK YOU.. keep it simple, and back off. 

5) if you can't use your ulti well.... (like me)
a) At least shoot it in a straight line down the map to hopefully hit as many things as possible
b) mis-fire.. alot.. it'll take a while to get used to b,ut having vision of the map is key, when you've played enough you'll see people running into the same paths, fire into that path an probably 1/5 chance you'll hit them.  if not so what
c) use them in teamfights.  Not all the time useful, i usually save it up for either the mid way (nobody has died but people are starting to), or one team if running away.  If They are running away, PRAY PRAY PRAY that you hit somone, good chance is you wont.. But if YOU are running away, it'll make them probalby avoid running directly AT you, so it'll give you and the team that 0.1 second to run.  


Mid and Late game

So by now you should have the bulk of your items,  I suggest by the time you have your Soultakers at level 3 and maxed out at coins that you start to grab the EMPS for your buddies.  Preferrably give the EMPS to one of your more tankier heros as you are TOFU until later.  

Once you have your trinity, Soultakers, Joe Chills and Deathstroke's poking stick, you can pretty much start blasting away at everyone.. until they get attack armor that is.  If they don't go ahead and get more aggressive items like Velocity 9 to help your slow butt from moving around and give you greater crit chance. And atomic axe for those beefcakes (remember shazam?)

Remember you're still TOFU.. in teamfights, stay in the back and poke around to whoever is closest to you.. want to chase? well you have your ulti, or "E" .  

If you haven't already start taking out those towers.. never move too far in to be ganked, but because of your range, quick attack speed and crit chance, you're a mobile sentry gun.  (if you're having a good game you might be able to by the time you have soultakers 3 )


So what are you waiting for .. go play some IC.. and spank them till they SCREAMMMM ... (or get spanked).. with Gaslight Batman

Updates

APRIL PATCH UPDATES - in summary Gaslight Batman was saved any changes, however Soultakers was increased in value on startup, so you'll have to tough it out.  Also Joe Chills has a new mod, so you may want to consider it for the +75% crit chance.  Deathstroke's (2) has the Terminate removed, but if you didn't use it before, not a big deal (for right now).. but you can get Terminate back IF you use the new mod for it.  

After the april update i'm finding that inorder to close the gap more, i need to get Promethium mace.  If i'm farming well i won't necessarily need it, however to close the gap it seems to work

Try not to trade with Blue Beetle, like Cyborg , unless you're already ahead of them in items, you will lose many draws.

JUNE PATCH UPDATES  - They have removed the refundables, so either bite the bullet until you can afford Soultakers or close the gap with Coda Blade.  which to start will act as attack penetration, and later on you can sub it with Atomic Axe.