Hey there. I'm gonna show you how to play Andro in an effective way, which will help you to carry games. This will be really long and detailed guide. Whether you are a newbie or experienced Andro player, you may learn something new. Why should you trust me? Well, I'm former competitive player, was Masters, my Andro is level 150+, he is my fav champion and I keep playing him everyday. If you wanna stay, get some tea and let's go.

Broken or not?

First of all, Andro is not op or broken (as some special people think), he is a perfect example of balanced champion. However, if you're good enough on him, he has big potential to carry your games. That happens because he does not have direct counters unlike such champions as Evie, Vora, Maeve, etc. There are some champions who doing very well into Andro, such as Lian, Cassie, Buck, Lex, etc, but they do not directly counter him.

Maps

Andro can be played on every map, except Ice Mines and Frog Isle. He is just not good there, but he greets any other maps, especially Brightmarsh and Serpent Beach - these two are best Andro maps. If you lucky to get them, you should try to abuse highground, it is the reason why Andro is so good on those maps.

Talents

Let's discuss Andro Talents from worst to best.

Defiant Fist

NEVER use this talent. It's useless. First of all, you always have to be close to the enemy in order to make this talent useful. Second, it just worths one additional shot. The playstyle for this talent is like "shot-shot-punch", but it doesn't work well, because like I said you should always be close enough to the enemy in order to punch them. And that's not possible.

Godslayer

This talent is not as bad as Defiant Fist, but it's not as good as Cursed Revolver. It may be used sometimes, on some specific maps and in some specific comps. I still do not recommend it, there are three reasons why.

1. Default gun is just terrible. Yes, it has MORE damage than with talent Cursed Revolver, but it has awful range and inaccuracy. In other words, the spread of the bullets is huge and half of your shots will not land where you want. You also won't be able to poke enemies, since falloff on default gun is very strong.

2. Reversal is bugged and most likely will never be fixed. Sometimes you can get shot through it, sometimes it does not deal damage. As this talent fully relies on your reversal, it is irrational to rely on a buggy ability.

3. Reversal is hard to land. It has weird projectile. Even if you are extremely pro Andro player, sometimes it might not be easy to land your reversal, not even speaking about less experienced Andro players. Godslayer requires you to land your reversal consistently and if you cannot do that, this talent is completely useless. And I don't think that I even need to mention shields - a couple of tanks with shields will straight-up counter your talent.

I will not give you full loadout for this talent since I never play with it, but if you still wanna try it, then remember that Seething Hatred on level 4 or 5 is a must.

Cursed revolver

So far best Andro talent. It gives your weapon consistency and range, allowing you to poke enemies and land your shots consistently, without spreading. I recommend to always play this talent.

Positioning and tips

Of course, your positioning depends on a map and team comps, but here are some common advices.

1. In high elo you barely can get close to the enemies as a flank. Most of the time as Andro you just poke, even after the damage falloff nerf, he still has a decent poke. But be careful, some long-range champions can burst you down while you're poking them. Therefore, you should poke-hide-poke-hide. Do it under cover or around the corner so you always had a way to hide or retreat in case if you're low.

2. Go aggressive when you see an opportunity to dive. Do not dive into a bunch of enemies. Andro can win almost every duel if you can land your shots. Search an opportunity to 1v1 your opponent, also remember it is good to wait until an enemy wastes their most important cooldown. After that you MUST dive them.

3. Be careful with high-burst champions. Yes, Andro can win any duel, but only if you land all your shots or even do headshots. If low or medium burst champions can forgive if you miss your shot or even two, high-burst champions will kill you instantly if you dare to miss at least one shot, especially in high ranks. If you're not sure about your aim, then you can first poke high-burst champion a bit, then dive him when he will have half of his health.

4. Avoid long-range duels. Yes, Andro can poke, but NEVER duel on the long range with high-burst champions, champions that have less falloff than you or do not have falloff at all. They will kill you instantly, while your shots will be like a fly bite to them. Andro's ideal area is close and medium range.

5. Use combo. When you are close enough to your enemy, you can use combo to burst them twice faster. The secret is that you should press your punch exactly after you pressed shot. There should be no delay, it should happen almost at the same second. You can do shot-shot-punch or shot-punch-shot. I would recommend to use that combo ALWAYS when you duel in close range.

6. Do flickshots. Yes, it requires a LOT OF practice, but it's the most unique technique in the game. If you will learn flickshots, you will be able to win unwinnable situations. The secret of technique:

You turn around at the same time you press your dash and then shoot your enemy. For a serie of flickshots you should do that 2 or 3 times in a row. I would recommend to watch some guides on youtube about how to do flicks and also watch pros gameplay. None high-elo Andro can be considered good if he can't do flicks.

7. Use your dash for escape. Most of the time you will use your dash for escape, so if you don't need to dive your enemy right there and right now, just walk to them and save your dash for escape. If you're sure you will survive, use dash for the dive.

8. Against blast champions or champions with damage-falloff use following tactic: dash up in the air, hold jump button to float and shoot them from there. It will allow you to make more distance between you and them, means they won't be able to do as much damage since they have falloff, or in case with blast champions - it will be extremely hard for them to hit you while you floating in the air.

9. Do not use your reversal when you're 1 hp, if you do not have healer next to you. Better try to dash away or to finish the enemy. When you use your reversal, you are slowed down a lot so you cannot escape immediately. Especially it's a rule against snipers. NEVER use reversal against a sniper if you have half of the hp. They will kill you immediately after that. If they shot you, better dash to the cover.

10. Use your reversal for reflecting some ults, such as Lian ult, Terminus ult, Seris ult, etc. However, you cannot reflect ults which go through shields, -such as Skye ult, Koga ult, Khan ult, etc.

Cards

Best cards: Power of the Abyss, Watchful, Quick Draw

Good cards: Elusive, Marksman, Sleight of Hand, Through the Warp

Not really good cards, but sometimes it is ok: Abyss Walker, Abyssal Touch, Buying Time, Disrupt, Seething Hatred

Cards you should NEVER use: Equivalent Exchange, Featherweight, Spiteful, Vengeance



Finally, we came to the loadouts.

I will show you several loadouts for different situations. Thank you so much for reading this guide till the end, I hope it was useful. If you have any questions regarding Andro, you can contact me in Steam (swee_lian) or send friend request in the game. Loadouts time!

Note: In next patch Andro ammo card (Quick Draw) will be removed and replaced with self-sustain card (15 heal per shot per level). In that case, instead of Quick Draw, max out the new self-sustain card and then add a couple of other cards for ammo, such as Sleight of Hand or Marksman at level 1-2. Do not forget to buy life rip 3 - combined with the new self-heal card it will give you decent sustain. The thing which Andro was lacking all this time. However, you will need to aim better since you will have only 6 ammo initially instead of 8,9 and etc. But two other ammo cards should help you to replace Quick Draw, in the end you can always buy deft hands.