Silverbranch Bow AMC S8.11 Update

Mechanics

Ah Muzen Cab does one thing and one thing only, damage. He has no hard CC, no escape options and no fancy mechanics. His kit is about as old as dirt. However there is one thing that AMC has that no other hunter in the game has access to. The ability to boost attack speed and movement speed with virtually no cooldown. AMC can be built in many different ways; ability based, ADC and while I haven't tried it myself some people have said tanky bruiser builds work on him as well. For these builds we'll be going with the ADC route. There are more optimal builds for ADC and ability based, but Silverbranch Bow is a build for people who want to slap. Before I explain my extremely flawed logic behind this monstrosity let's go over the abilities real quick to see how we'll be utilizing the Silverbranch Bow on AMC.

Bees!

Rather simple mechanic that adds a tick damage to all of the damage abilities. Basic attacks do not apply the tick but if an enemy has the Bees! on them basic attacks will extend the duration of it. Bees! will also reveal enemies on the map.

Hive

This is the reason we're building Silverbranch on AMC. This is a buff/stim ability that places down a bee hive creating a 90 unit circle which will give AMC a boost to attack and movement speed as well as adding a heal per second as long as AMC is within range. At max it's a 50% attack speed boost and 30% movement speed boost! That's a big boost. The Hive also acts as a really weak ward that will spot enemies within 20 units of the hive itself, not the circle. It can be destroyed by basic attacks and the max you can have on the map is 6. Within the range of a Hive you will have an attack speed buff that can push AMC over the attack speed cap with no cooldowns. As long as your Hives aren't being placed in bad spots and being taken down you essentially have an infinite stack of Silverbranch.

Swarm

The main damaging ability and wave clear. This is a simple line ability that will go through multiple targets and apply Bees! to them doing a lot of damage at good range.

Honey

An AoE 20% slow that allows you cover an area with honey that will apply a damage tick which lasts for 4 seconds. You can sweep this ability around to cover a large area with the honey and can be useful in teamfights to slow many enemies at once. This ability also applies Bees! and is best used while inside the range of Hive.

Stinger

AMC's ultimate got a recent buff that has made playing AMC much easier. I wouldn't say this change drastically helps his conquest situation but it does provide some help when getting dived on. The ultimate is a rather unique ability. At first glance it's a simple ranged projectile ability with a tiny hitbox can be difficult to hit. However if you hit someone with the stinger it will fall off them after 3 seconds or if they die. Allowing you to pick it up and reduce the cooldown drastically. With the new update the stinger not only applies cripple, but now it applies a slow going from 20% to 30% at max rank. It also reduces physical protections by 30% for 3 seconds. This helps out massively when being dived on. The slow can help you get away or turn and burn the person diving you. Considering you can pick the stinger up again for a 14 second cooldown this has the potential to be one of the most devastating ultimates in any ADC arsenal. The problem is picking up the stinger without putting yourself into a dangerous position.

Play Style

AMC is a high risk high reward hunter much like Artemis who does massive amounts of damage with insanely high attack speed, however they're easy to dive on and kill due to the lack of escape. AMC does get a nice movement speed buff from Hive allowing you to move around quickly but, unlike Artemis, AMC does not have any CC immune abilities nor does he have any real hard CC. Meaning one CC combo on AMC can result in death. To play AMC requires proper ward placement, intensely watching the mini map, coordinating with your teammates and avoiding bad positioning. This is why AMC is considered rather difficult to play in ranked because coordination, good team comps and teamwork is hard to come by. AMC can thrive in ranked with the right team around him. If your team is struggling though AMC isn't really the type of god who can carry teams with ease like Ullr, Heimdallr or Danza. However should you get some teamwork going AMC will reward his teammates as he transitions into mid-late game phase and starts to hyper carry like crazy. Just so long as supports are constantly peeling for him.

AMC can be built for mid or ADC duo lane. Personally I believe AMC works best in mid and can be a solid choice as a counter pick against magical ADC's. He will do okay in duo so long as he has a good support by his side. In mid however AMC can be effective as a ganker using Hives placed around the routes leading to duo and solo lane to get there fast.

His strengths is his ability to poke and pressure lanes with ease due to his incredible wave clear and range. His weakness is he can be a community swimming pool and get dived in all day long. This is where you might notice a problem. AMC's lane clear and pressure is extremely good however that allows you to push forward pressuring the lane, but also making you a bigger target to get ganked for being too far from tower.

These builds are focused around Silverbranch stacks with the Hive ability. Meaning the entire game should be spent within the range of Hives. Silverbranch builds are mainly focused on late game but AMC can make the best use of Silverbranch because his Swarm will carry him early-mid game phases making the risky build of Silverbranch much easier. Placing them in good locations away from enemies but allowing you to still benefit from the range is important to keeping the stacks up. Enemies might see your build and know what you're up to. They'll dive your Hive completely ignoring you before attacking. I'd recommend waiting to get Silverbranch Bow after getting a few standard ADC items as you level up Hive. It's possible to level up Hive over Swarm and get the Silverbranch earlier but I personally like the wave clear, range and poke Swarm provides.

Make sure you're using hives in correct places to allow you to get your attack speed buff but also to spot flanking enemies.

Power Cap

Yes power cap, as in... possibly the most power I've seen ADCs get. After a few autos Ichaival will provide more Silverbranch stacks and killing or assisted kills will trigger Atalanta's Bow increasing the stack even more. With full build and full stacks this power reaches 355 out of 400. This means Swarm will have 521 damage and the ultimate will have 954 damage. On an ADC. That is insane damage for not going hybrid ability damage. That's not including the extra damage item passives will provide like Qin's or Crusher. This is stupid damage. But wait there's more. With supports, item auras and buffs from teammates I've seen the power hit full cap after games. Imagine doing as much damage as a crit but just having that damage be your base damage... all the time. And no Spectral Armor to counter you. The only counter to this is attack speed reduction builds. If you see Witchblade, Midgardian Mail on a Chaac you might want to avoid him completely. Ichy on enemy ADC can also hurt the damage output but if your support gets Shogun's armor that should negate that problem.
Let's go over some the of item break down.

Silverbranch

Why Silverbranch Bow? Well Silverbranch gives you 2 Physical Power for every 0.02 attack speed you have over the cap. With the maxed out items with the best attack speeds you'll only get 12 stacks of Silverbranch which is why this item is only good with hunters who have an attack speed buff get the full power out of their Silverbranch builds. However where they have a short period of time to use it and a cooldown, AMC does not have a cooldown on his attack speed buff. So long as you're placing your Hive in hard to reach spots so your enemy can't take them down you'll have a consistent stack of Silverbranch near your Hive. These builds are entirely centered around Hives and keeping stacks of Sliverbranch up. Without Hives these builds are rather useless and having them taken down will really hurt your damage. Protect Hives at almost all costs.

Ichy

With Atalanta's Bow getting such a harsh nerf I feel like Ichaival has become a solid ADC item now. It works great against squishy targets and while it lacks in pen; Silverbranch, Ata Bow and Qin's will help provide pen for tanks.

Death's Temper

Once you reach level 20 Death's Temper is what really puts this build over the top. The damage and attack speed it provides makes Silverbranch hit like a mack truck with every auto. No item provides as much attack speed and power as this item.

What to buy

Toxic Blade provides very high attack speed and is perfect for Silverbranch builds but that's if you're dealing with healing so any of these builds can have it slipped in to help against healing. The lack of power will not hurt as badly with Silverbranch stacks.

Odysseus' Bow is a perfectly fine item that's popular in the meta, while I tend to only buy it late game for the extra damage in teamfights I usually prefer single target damage. But the lack of power is less noticeable with Silverbranch thanks to the giant attack speed it provides.

Diamond Arrow can potentially provide even higher physical power than Death's Tempter but only after you kill an enemy. This could be extremely powerful in teamfights letting you chain together multi kills after securing your first one. However it only provides a lot Silverbranch stacks after getting a kill so you damage will suffer if you're not getting the kills. It doesn't even count on an assist.


Mantle of Discord and Magi's Cloak might be almost required for AMC as he will get dived on pretty often. Personally I like going with Mantle of Discord most of the time but if I'm running AMC in mid Magi's Cloak can help fight off ganks a little better since it doesn't have to activate when you're almost dead and you might not have teammates to help you escape.


Movement speed build was sadly destroyed by this new patch. No more attack speed Witchblade and no more super speed boots. So Toxic blade is really the go to item for extra movement speed for ADCs.