Achilles - Duelist Bruiser (S8)

Achilles, the Hero of Troy

Achilles' passive lets him chose between 2 types of buffs. An armor stance, that gives him extra protections and health, and a power stance, that gives him extra power and movement speed.

To switch between the stances, just press the basic attack buttom while in your fointain.

There are a few ways to use this passive.

One is focusing on early damage with the power stance and using the Warrior tabi power spike to switch to the armor stance for a safer lane phase. This is the safe option to play Achilles

The other one is playing with the power stance until your 3rd item (Void shield/Ancile) and then switching to armor stance. This is a little more risky but it can open the possibilities of an early kill in laning phase with the extra power of Boots + Power stance. This is the risky but rewarding approach, if you go with this plan play for kills.

The last one is the YOLO one. If you feel that the enemy solo laner is not very good and you consistenly hit every ability while avoiding theirs, just play with the power stance until your 5th item or before leaving lane. The power of your passive is pretty significant with Voidshield and Bluestone. Remember to switch to armor stance after leaving lane.

For the first levels (1 to 3-4) clear wave as fast as you can with the 1. Remember to activate your 2 anytime you go for the game for the healing and power increase. Try to poke the enemy solo laner with your 3. Move in and out of your and their wave using the dashes. If you miss your 3 DON'T ENGANGE. Wait for it to come back and only engange when you are sure you can dash an ability away.

Once you hit level 5, the duel begins. Activate your 2 and aim to hit the stun, even better if you interrupt the enemy sololaner clear. Hit all the basic attacks you can, if they are trying to get away hit your 3 fast and keep up. Keep hitting every basic attack possible. Your kill potencial is very big if you manage to hit the stun and a few basics. After the stun ends dash towards their tower to cut an escape route and keep hitting basic attacks. Press right click to cancel your 3 after hitting the first one and to keep hitting basics. If hes trying to escape press 3 again and hit him with the 2nd charge of your spear and dash into him to close the distance. At this point your 2 and 1 should be up again. Press 2 and then hit the stun. If you done everything correctly, the enemy solo laner should be stunned and in the execute threshold.

Remember to use your 3 to close distances. Try to dash to the sides so anything aimed to you doesn't hit your gave and viceversa. As long as you hit the stun in the 1 and boost your abilities and your basics with your 2 you should outtrade almost anyone.

The duelist playstyle revolves around going all-in after level 5. Using the mobility and cancelling your 2nd strike in your 3 to save it for re-engange in case of the enemy trying to escape. Your damage comes from your 2 boosting everything else, so play around than ability.

Ward the enemy jungle. Play around their back harpies and try to secure blue any time you can. Farm everything, once you hit level 8 you should 1shot the wave and the harpies. Maybe leaving the big minion 1 basic away.

Once you hit level 10-11 you should start rotating mid or pushing jungle objectives (stealing blue or speed, pyro, ganking the midlaner). Try to be proactive. You farm fast, take advantage of that.

Try to make tower fall in the 15 minute mark, to avoid the enemy solo laner to farm to safelly close to their tier 2 tower. Buy sentry wards and use them close to the big harpies that the jungler always takes. Destroy any ward close to the enemy speed. That opens the possibility for ganks to both the midlaner and the solo laner from the enemy jungle.

If you can make the jungle yours and keep up with the farm you are doing an amazing job, keep it up.

If you are playing from behind after a bad early, don't fret. Farm safe, let the enemy take your tower if you have to so you can farm under T2. Don't panic and remember that as long as you have your 2 you can outbox almost everything thats not too far away in levels. Don't be scared of using your ult to escape if you have to. Try to take any camp you can, even more if your jungler is focusing the duo lane. Don't take speed tho, thats not a cool move.

Time to go in. Try to play any teamfight from the sides of your team, even using the jungle if you want, to surprise the enemy backline.

Diving as Achilles is not easy, you need to be very wary of the enemy CC. Pay attention of any movement and usage of abilities. Try to hit your stun as fast as you can and DIVE WITH YOUR 2 ACTIVE. NEVER GO IN WHEN YOUR 2 IS ON CD.

Hit your stun, dash anything away with your 3 and hit as much basic attacks as you can. Try to save your 2nd charge of your 3 to repositioning yourself in case you get hit by some CC. If your 2 goes down and you are still fighting try to dash away with your 2nd charge of your 3. Remember that you can cancel your 2nd charge by pressing right click and activate it again by pressing 3 again. Your second charge lasts 3 more seconds before going on cooldown, so be mindful of that.

If you manage to hit your abilities and your team can follow up be prepared to ult. Don't be scared to ult even if someone is outside the execute threshold as they might get hit by something that puts them inside the execute range or maybe your ult damage hits hard enough to leave them at 1hp and you can finish them off with a 1 or a 3.

And this is it. A bruiser build focused around early fights and constant ability rotation.

I hope this is helpful for people looking for a good guide in Achilles. This is how I play him and I have alot of fun with it. Hope you do too.

Thanks for reaching the end of my first guide. Have a good day and most importantly have fun.