Autoattack is a huge part in every single game. No matter how much magical damage you deal with your spells, everyone will have to use autoattack to last hit, harass, or increase their damage output in a combo. Here is a list of things that you can do to make sure you get the most out of autoattacks.

1. Resetting Autoattack Timer.

Many abilities in the game can reset your timer, allowing you to do another autoattack. Most of the time people will miss that and result in a huge decrease in dps.

Example: Jax, Nasus, Nidalee, Vayne

Jax: Most people make the mistake to use [Empower] as they are using [Leap Strike], and they are completely wrong.Level 6: (Assuming you are maxing empower)
Case 1. Leap strike with empower + autoattack: 20 + 130 + 70(estimated value) = 220
Case 2. Leap strike, autoattack, then empower: 20 + 70 + (70+130) = 290

The difference is quite huge, not to mention if you are able to get one more autoattack off the enemy, but not two, then...Case 1's damage will be 290Case 2's damage will be 430

So remember, stacking everything up isn't always a good idea

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2. AP Mid, Battle of Autoattack (PRE level 4-6)

Before level 3, most of the ap mid lacks the ability to kill the enemy, in other words, even if you make the mistake of taking one or two of the enemy spells, you won't instantly get burst down.

This is when autoattacks decide the fate of the next 5 minutes.

Most of the ap mid will have ~50+ AD when they start the game (with some exceptions such as Karthus, in those cases autoattacks still matter, but you will have to becareful of enemy auto as well)

Assuming you are at level 3, when your both of your spells does around ~ 200 damage combined. One autoattack means close to 25% increase in damage!

Not to mention that it will only take 3 autoattacks to force the enemy to use one hp potion. So remember, autoattack the enemy when they are trying to get last hit, so that even if they try to trade back they can only use spell damage, which either drains his mana, or usually push the lane into your favor with AoE abilities (and hey! You also have abilities too =P)

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3. Kiting

This is mainly for ranged AD, but it also works for all other champions.

Key: Move right after your autoattack animation ends.

The League's system often forces the champion to stay on the ground for a short duration, before the autoattack timer resets for the next autoattack. This often makse people fail at chasing the enemy, especially the ones who stand still with Caitlyn or Leblanc. (don't be surprised when I call her out, she needs those autoattacks to take down some AP mid if they have MR runes and masteries)

Move, press A and attack again. Make sure that you are not being delay by the system itself will allow you to do much more damage and catch the kills that you would have missed.

ADDITION: keep in mind that the person with the higher attack speed will have a shorter auto attack timer reset so they will be able to pull back faster then you and receive no return damage if your range is shorter even slightly; however, having higher movement speed allows u to still get a hit in.

pokemon

There's something else to consider here too. I'm not as familiar with the other champions that can reset the AA timer, but with Jax, there is the tendency to want to reset the auto-attack timer.

Your calculations already make it obvious as to why you'd want to Empower AFTER Leap Strike, rather than stacking, but think about Jax once he's completed Sheen or Trinity Force.

If you have either of these and you stack Empower+Leap Strike, you're only getting the bonus damage once. If you Leap Strike, autoattack, then Empower, you're getting bonus damage from Sheen twice. Every Sheen proc basically turns one auto-attack into two.

So Leap Strike, Auto-attack, Empower, Auto-attack is better than Empower, Leap Strike, Auto-attack. But with a Sheen build, it looks more like this, Leap Strike, double damage AA, Empower, double damage AA. And if you stunned them with Counter Strike, you may get a third auto-attack in with the bonus damage from your Ultimate's passive.

not every auto attack after an ability with sheen gives you the proc because it has a cooldown which is longer then it takes to complete this combo, the last auto attack wont have the proc.

Ya know. I bet someone could play a game with Annie, never auto attack, and still do decently. Same with Karthus.

But that aside, good guide.

Go ahead and play Annie without autoattack, Either you will lose half of the cs or you must push the lane with W like a boss.

On the other hand, Annie can easily sneak two autoattacks by the time she hits level 6 with her combo, that is 100 damage that you are losing for not autoattacking.

buymp

After reading some recent posts, I think this guide still deserve some attention.

Am I missing something? What does pressing A do? And if it does something, are there other keys beyond QWER(and the shop, P) that do anything useful?

Edit: I am aware of the number keys for item activations, also. Discovered that by accident I think.