Trapped inside? Here’s the best champions to learn in each role

With League of Legends’ tenth competitive season now entering full-swing – almost arriving at the eagerly anticipated Mid-Season Invitational, coronavirus concerns pending – now is as good a time as ever to start playing the game. Granted, some of you may have played Riot Games’ seminal, genre-defining, “most popular PC game of multiple years running” title for a while now, but if you’re anything like me you haven’t ventured too far out of your one or two role comfort zone.

As such, today we’ll be looking at three champions for each role that are relatively simple, useful, and – most importantly – fun to pick up as you seek to change environments (and ranks) and invite a new honeymoon period into your ranked climbing life.

Consider this the spark to revitalizing your marriage to League of Legends?

TOP

Maokai

A couple of tank quality changes here and there have brought the easiest to execute toplane tank (besides maybe Malphite) back into vogue. Use your Q to trade, clear waves, and disengage all at once, and be sure to throw out a Flash W in a teamfight in order to lock down the enemy carries. Fight near bushes so that your Saplings – Maokai’s only source of % Maximum HP damage now – deal more damage.

Renekton

Pretty easy to play through but rather difficult to punish, Renekton rewards you massively for playing aggressively with him early on with a dominant lane phase. Mediocre teamfighting is slightly remedied by a newly buffed Blade of the Ruined King, but feel free to sit in a sidelane and 100-0 any melee champion that dares stand in your way.

Rumble

Not an easy champion by any means, but my very favorite. Remember to place your R correctly and you can’t go too wrong with Rumble. A steep learning curve largely revolving around resource management – Heat is fun but weird initially – Rumble can be very rewarding over time.

JUNGLE

Amumu

The epitome of a “press R and you’re done” champion, there’s a reason why Amumu has always been a terror in low ranks. Considered a poor man’s Sejuani (you actually have to be inside the enemy team to crowd control them, rather than two screens away), Amumu will teach you both how to engage teamfights and how to avoid the enemy jungler like no tomorrow for the first 15 minutes of the game.

Elise

One of the aforementioned junglers that Amumu absolutely has to avoid. Big damage, big dive potential, and an easy enough skillshot to land if you have a good feel for the projectile’s speed.

Lee Sin

Maybe a little hard initially, sink 100 games into the Blind Monk and your jungle game will never be the same. Dominant early game and a strong ultimate make him a very promising prospect.

MID

Anivia

For those that don’t like to skirmish and prefer to control areas (and farm), Anivia is pretty easy. Throw Q, press E, ???, profit.

Syndra

Like a simpler LeBlanc and a less clumsy Zoe, Syndra is both easy to execute and a safe laner all in one package. Comfortably 100-0 enemies left and right with even the slightest lead while farming from range.

Zilean

It’s literally just pressing Q with some modicum of aiming capability and timing your R correctly. Some LCS players struggle with this to this day, so don’t worry too much if you stumble along the way.

BOT

Ashe

I mean, even if you feed, you still have an arrow, right? Good for setting up engages, and perhaps more importantly getting the hell out of a sticky situation, Ashe slots into most compositions rather well.

Ezreal

Play back, siege, and get a good feel for when to commit your defensive spell aggressively. Ezreal will also teach you how to fight around item spikes, because when not in the swing of one (or when mildly inconvenienced by a minion wave), he is largely useless.

Varus

A lack of mobility is compensated for with insane damage thanks to Varus’ build path flexibility. Able to build straight Lethality and oneshot people with arrows, or opt for an on-hit build to whittle away at even the tankiest tank’s health bar, Varus will teach you good positioning and good damage output.

SUPPORT

Blitzcrank

Hook city. Learn to skillshot.

Leona

An engage champion with no disengage options short of killing the opponent? Sign me the hell up, and sign yourself up for a masterclass in how to pick the right time to engage or die trying.

Nautilus

More engage! More hooks! You can learn Nautilus to half-learn Blitzcrank and Leona, or turn to him in your hour of need if those two are still banned in Gold elo. He’s also infinitely more reliable thanks to more forgiving hitboxes (seriously what is this?) and a targeted R.

All things considered, this selection of champions offers diversity alongside some degree of similarity. Learning one should have your understanding of the other increase in turn, and all serve as great examples for building core foundations within their respective roles. No enchanter supports because nobody should need to take the requisite time to learn those unless Ardent Censer becomes broken again.

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