What Champions Should You Be Playing In League of Legends Right Now

Right now there are 140 champions to choose from in League of Legends, and while it’s pretty easy to get good with a few of them, it’s almost impossible to gain a complete mastery of every single champion in the game. So how do you know which ones you should be focusing your attention on? Let’s start by looking at some of the champions that have seen a lot of professional play that also won’t break your mind trying to learn.

Top Lane Is (not) An Island

Too often people seem to fall into the trap of treating the top lane as some isolated place where the game boils down to a 1v1 contest. Truth is, top lane has the power to influence the map in a myriad of ways. Let’s look at some of the champions that are commonly seen in the top lane, and why they might be good to learn.

Sion – Sion is a pretty popular champion in competitive play. Not only is he capable of becoming very hard to kill, but even when he goes down his passive allows him to continue to fight for just a little bit longer. With a shield, the ability to slow opponents, and a knock-up, Sion already has the makings of a very desirable top lane champion. So let’s talk about his ultimate. Unstoppable Onslaught is one of the best picks in the top lane due to its versatility. You can use the ability to initiate a fight, cross large distances of the map, even escape from enemies, making it, and Sion, a very strong pick right now.

Gnar – One of the more powerful duelling top laners, Gnar brings a lot to the table for both laning phase and beyond. His Mini-Gnar form is deadly in the 1v1 situation you’ll find yourself in early, with his Hyper ability passive more than capable of chunking down enemies quite quickly. When the team fights break out, his Mega-Gnar also provides a lot of much needed firepower, with the ability to slow multiple enemies with his Boulder Toss, stun multiple enemies with Wallop, and his ultimate, Gnar! With can toss enemies around and stun them if they hit terrain.

The Jungle Hides Many Secrets

Being a jungler means you have to be able to read the map well. You also kind of need a thick skin, because inevitably people are going to be looking at you when they start to do poorly, after all, if you’d just camped their lane, they could carry, right? Regardless of the reasons for why you’ve chosen to jungle, you want champions that have the ability to convert ganks into kills, so let’s take a look at a couple of champions that can do just that.

Sejuani – Sejuani is a fairly interesting champion to play. She has a fair amount of utility and crowd control, she can become pretty tanky, and she’s capable of making her way around the map very quickly. She has a pretty quick jungle clear, which is desirable these days, and she’s very good at catching enemies off guard when she attacks from the jungle, making her a very desirable pick these days.

Olaf – Olaf is an interesting choice, though certainly a popular one. For starters, he has the ability to clear the jungle very nicely, and he can help chase down his enemies, with his Undertow slowing enemies unlucky enough to get hit. Perhaps Olaf’s greatest strength is how hard he is to put down. His passive gives him more attack speed, he has an auto-attack steroid that provides more life steal and enhanced healing, and his ultimate gives him a nice stat increase while also removing all crowd control effects and stopping new ones from applying for a brief period of time. If there’s any champions you don’t want to try and 1v1, it’s Olaf.

The Mid Lane Is All About Control

Just because assassins like Zed and Talon aren’t seen very often anymore, doesn’t mean the champions of choice in the mid lane aren’t capable of rapidly putting enemy teams down into the ground. The mid lane has become synonymous with high skill cap, fragile champions that are capable of putting out a lot of damage with their abilities. Here’s a couple that have really made their mark in recent weeks.

Ryze – Ryze is one of the oldest champions in the game, yet he seems to evolve with enough frequency to make Kha’Zix jealous. Right now, Ryze is more than capable of pumping out damage when used correctly, but perhaps more importantly than that, Ryze is also a great enabler for other champions. With the ability to root enemies to a spot, Ryze helps out his jungler when they come to gank for him. Additionally his ultimate’s ability to transport potentially the entire team a very long distance away allows him to set up some pretty interesting plays around the map.

Azir – One of the more mechanically demanding champions, Azir promises much to those that master him. Much like Ryze, players are drawn to his ability to output ridiculous amounts of damage in a very short period of time, thanks to his summoned soldiers. At the same time, it’s his ultimate that truly allows Azir to shine, summoning a large line of soldiers that damage and knock back any enemy unfortunate enough to get hit. Once they’ve performed their initial attack however, the soldiers from Azirs ultimate will stand their ground, becoming impassable terrain for enemies, while allowing allies to glide right through.

Heading South To the Bot Lane

When you choose to play the role of AD Carry, you take on a lot of responsibility to your team. The role requires champions who are very squishy to not only not die, but also drop a lot of damage onto their enemies. While some AD Carries are better suited to surviving than others, at their core they are champions that need very good positioning in order to not suffer a grim fate.

Ezreal – The most mobile AD Carry around, Ezreal is a little bit different to most, with his primary damage coming more from his abilities than his basic attacks. That’s not to say that his auto-attacks are weak, it’s just that he much prefers to skirt the edges of the battlefield and whittle his enemies down with his longer ranged abilities. The biggest trick for Ezreal is knowing when to use his Arcane Shift ability to move around the battlefield. Using it too early leaves you open to crowd control, and using it too late means you might as well not use it at all.

Caitlyn – A fairly safe AD Carry to start learning the role with, Caitlyn boasts one of the longest ranges in the game. With her ability to hit targets just a bit further out than they can hit her, Caitlyn can dominate team fights simply because her enemies can’t quite get to her. Her Yordle Snap Traps also help her team by shaping the battlefield, after all, no-one wants to stand in what is basically a bear trap and just let their enemies beat them around the head for a few seconds.

Support, the Patient Parent of the Team

Most supports would describe the role as pretty thankless. After all, you’re mostly responsible for making sure your AD Carry doesn’t die, while also providing the majority of the vision around the key objectives. If that all sounds like too much busy work and not enough fun, fear not, because supports also get to be the ones making some very sick plays.

Braum – With his shield in hand, Braum is a very popular choice for supports looking for a little more protection for their AD Carries. You would think that a champion who wields only a shield would be pretty passive though, right? That is definitely not the case with Braum, who is also capable of getting right up into the faces of his enemies and putting his shield to good use. Braums passive allows him to apply stacks onto his enemies, and once they reach four stacks then BAM, they’re stunned on the spot. Also able to leap to an ally to get in the way of their enemies, Braums defining characteristic is his Unbreakable shield ability, intercepting and blocking non-turret enemy projectiles and reducing their damaging effects. Ever wanted to see a tidal wave get blocked by a big guy with a shield? Pick Braum and you’ll see that and more.

Tahm Kench – if Braum is happy to keep allies safe by standing in front of them, Tahm Kench is more than happy to keep allies safe by (temporarily) swallowing them and holding them in his stomach. Another champion with a stacking ability, Tahm Kench can slap his enemies a few times with his giant tongue, before swallowing them too! His Thick Skin ability allows him to survive for much longer than is reasonable in team fights, and his ultimate can shuttle both himself and an ally across the map, making for some excellent surprise attacks on enemy laners.

While this is not a full and exhaustive list of every champion in League of Legends, this will hopefully provide a pretty quick reference list of which champions you should give a crack in your next game. Just remember, the most important thing is to have fun, so mic things up, jump into an ARAM and try that hero you’ve never played before, or join a Normal Game with your friends and try out that Syndra / Zilean bot lane combo you’ve always wanted to see (trust me, it works), and make sure that everyone has a good time, because after all, isn’t that why we play the game?

For more League of Legends action, check out the NA LCS and EU LCS MVP’s from the Spring Split, here.