How to counter the meta
Now, a lot of people want to "counter the meta," or as I like calling it, picking strong champions without picking FotM. Whether because they don't like the stigma from those champions or they just don't like champs that are likely to be banned, whatever. Here's how you pick to play against the meta.
Table of Contents:
- Assassins
- Tanks
- Mages
- Bruisers
- ADCs
- tl;dr
1 - Assassin meta
I picked this one first because literally nobody likes assassin metas except assassins. When dealing with assassins, you have to understand two things.
- They deal just as much damage to a tank/bruiser as a carry, the tanks/bruisers are simply better at absorbing the blows.
- Assassins rarely have sustained damage. Cut their burst short and you'll find they're often out of options.
This makes the best champions for assassin meta bruisers, as bruisers will often have the mobility, point-and-click CC, and damage to not only duel assassins, but zone them away with the threat of instant death if they don't blow their kit to escape. Bruisers counter assassins at nearly all stages of the game. When bruisers are weak, or when tanks aren't rampant, assassins flourish.
Supports with exhaust and/or Locket also do a great job protecting carries. If you can't do either of the above at least help the carry be able to take a few hits.
2 - Tank meta
Second least liked. Here's the idea on tanks.
- Tanks don't deal a lot of damage (unless they're green, or poorly designed, or you decided to be an overachiever and do both by picking Zac).
- Tanks don't often have high mobility.
- Come with lots of spammable CC.
While you can laugh and tell Riot to fuck off every time it's a tank meta because 99% of the time it's due to the tanks having too much damage, the second is (again, unless you're Zac or Gragas) your abuse case. Pick some ranged champions, get a defensive item and sustain (or double down on the range by picking Ziggs), and whittle them down. Even tanks can't survive under fire by multiple carries, but if you're a carry and you get caught up in the CC there's nothing that can be done to break their wall. True damage and % shredders also work but first and foremost kite kite kite.
3 - Mage meta
Mages are among the most diverse champions, so here's how we're going to break it down. There are three main mage attributes.
- Range. Is the character long or short ranged?
- Skillshots. Are the opponent's bread and butter skills easy to dodge or are you against baby's first spellcaster?
- Burst. Does the opponent nuke you or whittle you down?
The general rule is the longer ranged, the more skillshot oriented you are. This means both can usually be dealt with via mobility, so long as you dodge a crucial (usually hard CC) spell that puts you in their target zone. So as long as you have some form of mobility and CC you can often catch them out, and they will usually get outdueled due to lack of sustain, even by your tanks.
For close ranged, targeted/easy-aim-spells, you generally want to zone, soak, and CC-chain them. It's a lot of work but as long as you have an MR item or two that counter the AP's most prominent trait mages are incredibly vulnerable to whatever you throw at them. A particularly good pick is Olaf because he can use his ultimate (cancelling that one crucial spell) and hold a Hexdrinker (hurting their burst) and permaslow them for a very vulnerable, duelable target.
Depending on the champion, you can also zone them and ignore them as their damage to anything but squishies is very low (Lux and Ahri especially, who do pitiful damage late-game unless they get picks on vulnerable targets).
The only exception to these rules is Cassiopeia. Fuck Cassiopeia. Just dodge or something. I wouldn't blame you.
4 - Bruiser meta
Bruisers are hated. I don't blame people, they're obnoxious.
- Bruisers are able to soak damage, although less than a tank
- Bruisers are able to burst, but less than an assassin
- Bruisers dps, but less than an adc
- Will usually CC soak better than tanks
So where does that usually put them? Diving, where their subpar damage is offset by the ungodly focus needed to get rid of them and protect your adc. The simplest methods for dealing with bruisers is identifying where they're strong and ideally negating it. That's why Locket and Redemption are top tier right now. We have a lot of bruisers in the jungle that will drop an unholy load on your backline with their superb dueling prowess. The best way to get rid of Vi, Lee, and Hecarim is to hold on to your damage-mitigation and hope nobody besides the bruiser focuses your carry because they're going to die. And your team will laugh and report him. In the usual meta, however, bruisers often shift more to the tanky side and have enough damage to just barely kill your adc. Approach it like an assassin/tank hybrid and just zone him and if that doesn't work kite. They also don't do much to tanks because that super important burst is best used to disorient the adc so that he's in a bad spot (what I'm trying to say is don't Vi ult the Poppy in a teamfight or I'm going to be very disappointed in you).
5 - ADC meta
ADC meta is the inverse of the tank meta. ADCs have
- High damage output but no defenses
- A fair bit of mobility/ability to juke
- High ranges
and when it's ADC meta it's because defense items are too good at defending carries (and possibly bruisers). Since they fall apart very easily, they need to stay out of CC/burst range. This means that while tanks can have lucky shots at them if they get caught out or flash, the best option is to use someone who can destroy them from a range they can't react. This is often mages. Same thing applies to bruisers if, again, ADCs aren't playing well.
- Support meta? Yeah supports aren't really seen a lot as meta. Before the tl;dr, I'll just say if tanks or mages are good the same will likely be said of supports in the same categories. Same basic rules apply.
TL;DR
GENERALLY
Mages and assassins counter adcs. Assassins and bruisers counter mages. Supports and bruisers counter assassins. Supports and tanks counter bruisers. Tanks are countered by (most) adcs and mages. Fuck Cassiopeia.
Any questions?
