Probably my final League related post. After playing League for almost 3 years now, I've FINALLY (yes, finally) settled upon a list of champions that I play regularly. F**k the rest of the champions, these are MY champions that I like to play, and whenever I have to do a role, I usually do with these few champions, and it'll probably be that way unless a new OP champion appears.
Top
I don't really like top lane when compared to the likes of the Mid lane and Jungle. I do love me my solo lanes and if I manage to get one I would like to dominate my opponents, but top usually devolves into nothing but a huge farm fest most of the time...
1. Darius
(+) Pros: - Incredible snowballing nature, - Superb lane bully, - Very strong at all in once he hits 3, and later on at 6, - Pushes lanes decently, - Great at assisting ganks with pull, - Will decimate carries if he gets to them, - Dunks and kills EVERYONE, true damage is broken.
(-) Cons: - No escapes, gets ganked easily, - No built in sustain and is fairly close ranged, gets screwed over by ranged, heavy poke opponents, - Gets kited easily in team fights.
2. Garen
(+) Pros: - Resource-less, - Built in lane sustain with passive, - Great lane bully, - Decent at escaping ganks with a well timed Q, - Pushes lanes like a mad man, functions as an amazing split pusher, - Very high kill potential post level 6, - Will melt carries if he ever gets into range.
(-) Cons: - Characters with strong all in potential will destroy him in lane, - Constant harass will wear him down, - Quite bad at assisting ganks, - Gets kited easily in team fights.
3. Malphite
(+) Pros: - Hard counters many AD tops, - Disc harass is great versus many champs, - E destroys any chance of auto trading with your opponents, - Great at assisting ganks with slow and ult, - Escapes ganks well with Q and ult, - Great tower diver, - Initiator in team fights, - Shits on ADCs during team fights.
(-) Cons: - Cannot push champions with sustain out of lane, - Cannot efficiently stop NASUS from farming, - Gets destroyed by AP champions in lane, - CANNOT carry a game if fed, he is a tank.
4. Pantheon
(+) Pros: - Heavy harass in lane, can easily zone and push many champions out of lane, - Passive is good for mitigating harass and tower diving, - Great at assisting ganks with unavoidable stun, - Great at ganking with ultimate, - Very snowball heavy, - Good at taking out squishies in team fights.
(-) Cons: - Scales horribly into late game, - Cannot escape ganks pre-6, - Very bad at pushing lanes until he maxes his E, - Get's countered HARD by champions with spammable shields and INSANE built in sustain (f**king Shen).
5. Renekton
(+) Pros: - Pushes lanes hard with Q, - Great lane bully, - Is resourceless, runs on fury, - Built in sustain with Q, - Escapes ganks well with E, - Assist ganks well with stun, - Ultimate gives him a free warmogs, - A great front line tank during team fights.
(-) Cons: - Gets screwed over by constant ranged pokers in lane.
6. Shen
(+) Pros: - Constant harass and sustain with Q, - Runs on energy, will never f**king get bullied out of lane, - Shield mitigates harass, - Fairly strong at all in pre 6, - Assist ganks and escapes ganks well with E, - Global presence with ultimate, - Can split push forever when ult is up, - Taunt is game breaking in team fights if used well.
(-) Cons: - Pushes lanes horribly slowly until he gets sunfire cape.
Jungle
Probably my most played role, and I regard this to be my "best" role. I'd like to jungle most of the time if possible, as I feel like the jungler has the biggest impact to change the game out of every role.
1. Aatrox
(+) Pros: - Infinite sustain in jungle, - Decent ganks with short ranged knock-up, long range slow, and moderate damage, - Passive allows for some very early level dives, - Strong dueling with Doran's blade start, - Can power farm and scale very well into the late game, - Can eat most characters alive if left unattended in team fights.
(-) Cons: - Auto attack based champion, - Gets eaten alive by CC in team fights, - Not the fastest clearer early on, - Not as powerful without his passive.
2. Darius
(+) Pros: - Good ganks with slow, high damage and a pull, - Very fast clearer with a few points into Q, - One of the best ambush ganker in the game, - Has one of the best dueling of all junglers in a straight out slug fest, - Decent invader, - Almost everything great about lane Darius applies here too.
(-) Cons: - Does not get as much gold for core items as lane Darius, - Horrible mobility, needs proper set ups to get good ganks, - Almost everything flawed about lane Darius applies here.
3. Jarvan IV
(+) Pros: - Great ganks, gap closer is a knock-up, has built in slow with his W, - Provides good, short term burst with his ganking, - Very good at escaping sticky situations with his EQ, also applies to chasing as well, - Provides good CC and initiation in team fights, - Can function well as a tanky aura carrier, or build damage when ahead to slaughter carries.
(-) Cons: - His ult may not fit every team composition, and may not do well against some enemy compositions.
4. Maokai
(+) Pros: - Insanely easy point and click gank, enough CC to lock down target for a good amount of time, - Well sustained in the jungle with passive, - Saplings can be very useful to scout for enemies and objectives, - Ult is useful when activated in the right time during team fights, - Good front line tank and initiator.
(-) Cons: - If team mates do not provide damage in ganks, he is pretty much useless, - Lackluster initiation and peel compared to other tanks late into the game.
5. Nautilus
(+) Pros: - Some of the strongest CC heavy ganks in the games which escalates even further post 6,- Has a hook to catch targets and escape from sticky situations, - Clears well with a few points into W, - Provides great initiation, CC and peel in team fights.
(-) Cons: - Pitiful damage during ganks if shield is popped, damage comes from team mates, not him, - Very weak in the early levels, vulnerable to invasions.
6. Sejuani
(+) Pros: - Powerful, CC heavy ganks that pack decent damage, even more so post 6, - Q serves as a gap closer, knock up and escape, - Does well as an initiator and a peeler during the team fight phase.
(-) Cons: - Early clearing is rather slow, vulnerable to invasions.
7. Volibear
(+) Pros: - Simple, effective ganks with slow and a fling, - One of the stronger jungle duelists and can do respectable damage with W, high damage also scores well for his ganking, - Passive allows for tower dives and also helps out his dueling, - Ult gives him even more damage, which scales his dueling even further, - Can build health to artificially pad himself (W scales on HP)
(-) Cons: - Gets kited like hell during team fights, - Doesn't scale well late into the game, - Auto attack based champion.
8. Xin Zhao
(+) Pros: - Point and click ganks, has a spammable slow, knock-up and very solid early game damage, - Very sustained in the jungle, - Strong dueling in retrospect to his early game damage, - Can initiate fights with a well timed ult, - Can build tanky for pure peel and initiation, or damage when ahead to slaughter carries like no other.
(-) Cons: - Falls off hard if he builds damage, - Will die really quickly even if he builds tank items, a good ultimate is a MUST for him to stay alive in team fights, - Auto attack based champion.
Mid
Probably my favorite role outside of the Jungle. Mid laners can put massive pressure on the map, and a lot of the map is opened up once you take mid tower...so the choice of your Mid champion is going to be crucial as hell. Mid laners can roam or push hard, or both, to make themselves the omnipresent beings they are.
1. Karthus
(+) Pros: - Can AFK farm at tower with a few levels into Q and E, - Scales tremendously into the late game, - Is a relatively safe laner, - Not as mana hungry as he needs to be, - Ultimate has huge burst, can pick off anybody in the map, can be used as assistance elsewhere, and is just a threat at all times during the game, - Provides high, sustained damage during team fights, - Passive allows him to contribute to the fight more even when dead.
(-) Cons: - Pitiful early laning, anybody can kill him for lunch money.
2. Kha Zix
(+) Pros: - High burst and kill potential in lane as early as level 2, - Scales well into the late game as a high burst assasin, - Very easy to outplay opponents with ult and jump, - Different gameplay variety in ways to evolve ultimate, - Very snowball heavy, - High roam potential from mid, - Eats carries in team fights, - If he gets the resets its pretty much over.
(-) Cons: - High skill cap, the timing when Kha Zix can enter a team fight is VERY strict and limited, - A cleanup champion, if goes in at the wrong time without cleanups and resets, he's f**ked, - Early laning can be pitiful against certain laners.
3. Lissandra
(+) Pros: - Mid ranged poke in lane with Q, - Very mana sustained with passive, - Great at assisting ganks with E, W and ultimate, also works the same way when ganking other lanes, - E and W can be used to escape ganks, - Ult can be used on herself to mitigate all damage on her, combine with zhonya's for a stupidly long invulnerability period, - Can lock down carries or enemy VIPs with ult in team fights.
(-) Cons: - Burst is somewhat lacking compared to other mid champions (gets better with DFG).
4. Pantheon
(+) Pros: - Heavy point and click harass works even better on mid lane squishies, - Can max E for stupidly strong all in potential, - Ult ganks from mid are more efficient from the ones at top, - Gets all the benefits that top Pantheon can get.
(-) Cons: - Gets all the flaws that top Pantheon can get, - Some negative lane matchups against opponents with very long range.
5. Sion
(+) Pros: - Incredibly powerful early game burst, - Shield mitigates a lot of harass and can push lanes very well, - Shield explosion burst can serve as decent harass, - E to last hit minions and gain HP, - Easy to roam and gank with him, - Has pretty much infinite sustain in lane once he hits 6, - Insta burst squishies during team fights.
(-) Cons: - Gets kited hard during team fights, - Only 2 skills scale on AP, - Falls off hard late game.
6. Zed
(+) Pros: - Great harass and all in against most AP mids, - Resourceless, - Pushes lanes very hard, - Great ganks and roams post 6, - Scales well into the late game, - Can 100% to 0 anybody during late game team fights.
(-) Cons: - Gets countered hard by barriers, zhonyas, cleanse and mercurial scepter.
ADC
Probably my worst role in the game. The laning phase is okay since it's mostly about last hitting and letting my support babysit me, but I have terrible positioning during team fights and always gets insta killed by their AP mid/top laner...then I go on to whine about how ADCs have no impact in team fights. This is why I like to play ADCs that are relatively safe and have escape tools...
1. Caitlyn
(+) Pros: - Is a whore in lane with dat 650 range, - Lanes rather safely, can last hit and harass from afar, - Her Q is good wave clear and harass, - W helps scout important bushes and can come in handy during a pinch, - Her E is an escape tool and a slow at the same time, useful when assasins are always trying to jump your ass, - Ult lets her get free poke on opponents or finish off low health enemies, - Her range allows her to attack from a safe distance in team fights.
(-) Cons: - Early all in potential is rather weak, needs more items than most other ADCs to ramp up.
2. Corki
(+) Pros: - Relatively strong all in with Q and E, - Decent poke pre 6 with Q, strong poke post 6 with ult, - Passive is really useful during late game team fights (true damage OP), - W can help escape ganks and attempts to jump on you during team fights, - Trading and all-in post tri force is godly, - E armor shred is massive during late game.
(-) Cons: - Terrible trading early game, - Is an all in ADC, but still loses out to the likes of Draven and Graves until he gets Tri force, - Can be hard to position during team fights.
3. Ezreal
(+) Pros: - Q spam in lane is very effective harass (provided you can hit them), - Relatively safe laning phase with a long ranged spammable Q to farm and harass, as well as E to escape ganks or to all in on opponents, - High damage early, - Trading and all-in post tri force is pretty strong (not as strong as Corki's), - Ult can provide damage across the map or pick of targets, - Slippery during team fights.
(-) Cons: - High skill cap, - Is an AD caster based carry, does not provide hyper carry status damage late game.
4. Jinx
(+) Pros: - Very easy to play (I can testify to that), - Very efficient auto trading with rocket Q, and strong all in with her gattling gun mode, - W serves as a poke, zoning tool, and a chasing tool, - E is great for ganks and escaping, - Ult execute does A LOT of damage, especially effective if it hits a group, - Passive allows her to snowball in team fights, - Rocket AOE is insane DPS when the enemies are all clustered up.
(-) Cons: - No built in escapes, - Is considered a low mobility ADC without her passive.
Support
I am okay with taking the role of the care taker once in awhile. Support is a very easy going role, you don't have to last hit, you don't have to gank, all you need to do is look out for your ADC. If he says to go in, you go in, if he's low, you protect him when needed. Of course, this all depends on the kind of support you play...though I only play 2 champions in this role.
1. Alistar
(+) Pros: - Packs a ton of CC and can go in as early as level 2, - Great at assisting ganks and a great roamer when the need arises, - Can peel for ADCs during fights or act as an initiator with his AOE knockup + stun, - Acts as a counter to most aggressive supports, - Can sustain himself and ADC with E, - Tower dives like a champ with his ult.
(-) Cons: - If he initiates, he can't peel for his ADC, - Against far ranged, poke and CC heavy supports, he can't do jack squat (f** you Zyra).
2. Sona
(+) Pros: - VERY strong and annoying in lane with her constant, high damage pokes with her Q and power chord, - Sustains herself and ADC well with W, - Speed buffs are useful for chases and escapes, very strong when stacked with talisman of ascension, - Game changing ult that is used mostly for initiation, sometimes for peel.
(-) Cons: - Very squishy in lane, if she gets caught by an aggressive support she's gone, - Useless after her ult in team fights.
