Do try this at home: fresh ways to play your favorite champions
Riot·3/28/2015, 7:24:16 PM·0 votes·13,895 views
Come closer! I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I'm weird. I love playing in the top lane more than anywhere else on the Rift, and even if a champion doesn't necessarily belong there, it's always a blast bringing someone new up to my island to confuse and get the best of my opponents! Luckily, a few NA LCS pros seem to do this too, and they were happy to let me in on a few unique ways to play the champions they love. Let the wackiness commence!
Since I'm a top laner I couldn't help but first grab a fellow islander like Counter Logic Gaming's Darshan "ZionSpartan" Upadhyaha to ask who he brings up north. "Heimerdinger," he says immediately with a rueful smirk. You can just tell he's caused some destruction in the top lane with the turret-toting terror who's usually found mid.
"Heimerdinger has the potential to 2 vs. 1 a top laner and a jungler, and be very self sufficient," explains Zion. He also praises Heimer for his ability to sit in side lanes all game, adding pressure. "Top lane is the perfect isolated lane to do that kind of thing," he says.
In order to prepare the Revered Inventor for the ultimate top lane destruction, Zion has a few item suggestions based on what you're playing against. "Rylai's is good if you need that tankiness, or you can go for Morello's if you're confident you're not going to die." Zion went on to recommend following up that defensive Rylai's with an Athene's for some bonus magic resistance. For the more adventurous yordles, grab a Deathcap after your Morellonomicon to bring tons of damage to the top side of the Rift.
Another fun thing I personally love to do with Heimerdinger in top lane is to rush a Zz'Rot Portal. It's a little bit of a cheesy move, but if you can hide your Zz'Rot Portal in a bush and guard it with your turrets, you'll be able to push down your lane incredibly fast!
Really though, with Heimer, it's more about positioning him and his creations than amazing item builds. "It's all about making sure you're safe to not get all-ined and then laying your turrets down and going crazy," says CLG's top laner.
That's all well and good Zion, but even though the maniacal yordle is a ton of chaotic fun, it's honestly not too much of a stretch to find him up top these days. I was really looking for something even more outside the box, and that's when Daerek "LemonNation" Hart came along with his outstandingly odd choice.
"I'm going to bring Lissandra into support," Lemon says with the same devious grin Zion gave me earlier. "I think she's definitely a champion that can be played there, just with her massive crowd control." Lissandra is generally played mid or top as an AP mage and she is basically like a crowd control bot, explains LemonNation. It's great to have crowd control as a support in order to peel enemies away from your allies (especially your squishy AD carry) and The Ice Witch brings plenty. "She has the most crowd control of basically any AP mage in the game. So the reason to bring it to support is to bring all the CC."
How do you capitalize on the Iceborn's effectiveness? "Basically what you want to do is put a few points in Ice Shard (Q) for laning phase because that's what's going to be strong," says Lemon. The idea is you can Q through the minions and harass your opponents in the lane, and the more time the enemy is focused on you, the less time they're going to spend harassing your ADC. "But after you have two or three points in that, Ring of Frost (W) is actually a better ability, as it provides more CC." The root duration increases as you level it up, giving your lane partner both more opportunity to get damage in while the enemy can't move, or run away if they're in danger.
As for items, even as a support Lemon coaches to go straight for a Zhonya's Hourglass. "Lissandra scales extremely well with Zhonya's because you can go in, Frozen Tomb (R) someone else, or Frozen Tomb yourself, and keep the Zhonya's up. It's just an amazing synergy with Lissandra, so just rush that." Build damage items on support? Okay, sounds good, Lemon!
His teammate Will "Meteos" Hartman also got in on the fun. Meteos loves jungling so much that rather than bringing new champions to the role, he finds unique ways to play those he enjoys to keep things from getting stale. I can appreciate that! "I still like playing Elise, even if she's not very strong right now," he says. "And my favorite thing to build on her is just full AP."
Most people will build the Spider Queen as a tank, and in the current meta that can definitely work. But it's not as awesome as maxing her Volatile Spiderling (W) second, building full AP, and doing crazy damage to unsuspecting victims! "Get a Void Staff, Lichbane, and you just go around sitting in bushes trying to cocoon and one-shot people with your combos," instructs Meteos. "It's a really good time, and your Spiderlings do like, a billion damage." A billion? That's a lot of dead Teemos!
With over 120 champions to choose from in League of Legends, there are all sorts of wacky ways to play that may not make sense, but sure are enjoyable. Let me know about some of the unique ways you keep things interesting on the Rift in the comments!
Put A Wrench in their plans
Since I'm a top laner I couldn't help but first grab a fellow islander like Counter Logic Gaming's Darshan "ZionSpartan" Upadhyaha to ask who he brings up north. "Heimerdinger," he says immediately with a rueful smirk. You can just tell he's caused some destruction in the top lane with the turret-toting terror who's usually found mid.
"Heimerdinger has the potential to 2 vs. 1 a top laner and a jungler, and be very self sufficient," explains Zion. He also praises Heimer for his ability to sit in side lanes all game, adding pressure. "Top lane is the perfect isolated lane to do that kind of thing," he says.
In order to prepare the Revered Inventor for the ultimate top lane destruction, Zion has a few item suggestions based on what you're playing against. "Rylai's is good if you need that tankiness, or you can go for Morello's if you're confident you're not going to die." Zion went on to recommend following up that defensive Rylai's with an Athene's for some bonus magic resistance. For the more adventurous yordles, grab a Deathcap after your Morellonomicon to bring tons of damage to the top side of the Rift.
Another fun thing I personally love to do with Heimerdinger in top lane is to rush a Zz'Rot Portal. It's a little bit of a cheesy move, but if you can hide your Zz'Rot Portal in a bush and guard it with your turrets, you'll be able to push down your lane incredibly fast!
Really though, with Heimer, it's more about positioning him and his creations than amazing item builds. "It's all about making sure you're safe to not get all-ined and then laying your turrets down and going crazy," says CLG's top laner.
That's all well and good Zion, but even though the maniacal yordle is a ton of chaotic fun, it's honestly not too much of a stretch to find him up top these days. I was really looking for something even more outside the box, and that's when Daerek "LemonNation" Hart came along with his outstandingly odd choice.
Embrace the Cold
"I'm going to bring Lissandra into support," Lemon says with the same devious grin Zion gave me earlier. "I think she's definitely a champion that can be played there, just with her massive crowd control." Lissandra is generally played mid or top as an AP mage and she is basically like a crowd control bot, explains LemonNation. It's great to have crowd control as a support in order to peel enemies away from your allies (especially your squishy AD carry) and The Ice Witch brings plenty. "She has the most crowd control of basically any AP mage in the game. So the reason to bring it to support is to bring all the CC."
How do you capitalize on the Iceborn's effectiveness? "Basically what you want to do is put a few points in Ice Shard (Q) for laning phase because that's what's going to be strong," says Lemon. The idea is you can Q through the minions and harass your opponents in the lane, and the more time the enemy is focused on you, the less time they're going to spend harassing your ADC. "But after you have two or three points in that, Ring of Frost (W) is actually a better ability, as it provides more CC." The root duration increases as you level it up, giving your lane partner both more opportunity to get damage in while the enemy can't move, or run away if they're in danger.
As for items, even as a support Lemon coaches to go straight for a Zhonya's Hourglass. "Lissandra scales extremely well with Zhonya's because you can go in, Frozen Tomb (R) someone else, or Frozen Tomb yourself, and keep the Zhonya's up. It's just an amazing synergy with Lissandra, so just rush that." Build damage items on support? Okay, sounds good, Lemon!
Along Came A Spiderling
His teammate Will "Meteos" Hartman also got in on the fun. Meteos loves jungling so much that rather than bringing new champions to the role, he finds unique ways to play those he enjoys to keep things from getting stale. I can appreciate that! "I still like playing Elise, even if she's not very strong right now," he says. "And my favorite thing to build on her is just full AP."
Most people will build the Spider Queen as a tank, and in the current meta that can definitely work. But it's not as awesome as maxing her Volatile Spiderling (W) second, building full AP, and doing crazy damage to unsuspecting victims! "Get a Void Staff, Lichbane, and you just go around sitting in bushes trying to cocoon and one-shot people with your combos," instructs Meteos. "It's a really good time, and your Spiderlings do like, a billion damage." A billion? That's a lot of dead Teemos!
With over 120 champions to choose from in League of Legends, there are all sorts of wacky ways to play that may not make sense, but sure are enjoyable. Let me know about some of the unique ways you keep things interesting on the Rift in the comments!
