I define high elo by seeing the same names and having been on the featured games to spectate.

There have been people who only played one champion all the time. Well, I decided I was going to do that too and chose Vayne cause she is fun to play.

I've improved somewhat over the past 2 months, but sometimes when I lose I can't help but think that maybe the build I choose wasn't optimal for that match.

Sometimes I go with lots of lifesteal, other times I go for damage with less lifesteal, or maybe I go attack speed on hit. If needed, I go beefy with frozen mallet and resists. Rarely do I go crit build.

I've been wondering if I should go the crit build more often. Maybe I shouldn't be so quick to buy mid tier items. What do you think? At what point does build not matter as much as personal skill?

When you get to the point that if you can get 2 seconds of uninterrupted autoattacks against any person that person dies, so it's just a matter of getting in a position to lock someone down for those hits.

I have tried both the lifesteal/raw ad builds and the IE/crit builds. It really does come down to personal skill in regards to which one is better.

Obviously you scale harder with the crit strikes, but you don't heal as much and your early/mid game sort of suffers.

Lately I have been building the IE build alongside using ArmPen/AD/Attack speed runes and starting with zerks+dagger+pots. It's a little more squishy but it helps your early/mid out a ton and the defensive runes don't do a lot on a character like her (ie she gets hit she dies regardless of runes).

PD/Shiv -> Sanguine/IE -> Frozen Mallet works pretty well.

I've had some success lately building Shiv into PD into IE. The first 2 are mostly for attack and move speed, but the fact that they have crit makes IE a natural followup. Sanguine is good too.

All I can say is

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So I decided to go the crit route. I realize that lifesteal stacking doesnt work at I take a big damage hit as it goes late. The lifesteal I get from lantern/lightbringer is enough and is practically core as I need the armor and vision for stealths, traps, and not losing sight when people would cancel my autoattack by moving into the fog of war

On hit is pointless. Frozen mallet I had not needed yet. My new philosophy is that Death CC will always be better than Slow CC. Also considering I only get a few seconds to hit someone freely before their team moves in so I need as much damage as possible.

Lolking me n see my K/D has improved with crit build.

Playing a ranged ad (or anything other squishy for that matter) at 'high elo' is less about builds and individual skill than it is about team coordination and communication.

You probably should work crit into your build, especially if team lacks someone else who can.