Free skin for helping me pick my off-season champion! (details in post)

Better Jungler·11/5/2018, 1:47:21 AM·15 votes·11,741 views

With the season coming to an end, and the upcoming position specific rank changes coming into play, its time for me to pick up a new champ. I hit platinum for the first time this season, and I have the goal of pushing diamond next season. (Aiming high, I know)

are my two main champs right now. I've come to enjoy the map pressure and out-play potential of both champs. The skill cap seems to be relatively high too, as I feel like I ALWAYS have room to improve with the champion.

For this off-season I want to get away from the jungle scene a little bit (not switch completely), and I need an off-lane other than support. I'd like to have some form of carry potential with the champion, so I've picked a few that come to mind.

Keep in mind im looking for champs with high skillcaps, carry potential if played well, and outplay potential. My usual champs are ad fighters, but I think picking up an AP champ would benefit my climb through platinum. Lastly, I'm trying to get out of jungle/support. I still expect jungle to be my main position, but I want mid/top to be my off role.

The poll below shows the champions that came to mind immediately.

Free Skin Opportunity

Since im having trouble making up my mind, I appreciate the help of anyone that sincerely has an input.

To show my appreciation, I am gifting a skin to whoever presents the best argument for a champion. Even if I don't pick that champ in the end, the effort in your post will be rewarded.

I'll announce the winner in 3 days, perhaps sooner if this post never takes off.

[sg-ahri-2]

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I'd like mid lane suggestions. Top lane isn't right for me because I don't like the champs that usually live there. Yorick, Nasus, Tryndamere, Aatrox, Urgot, Sion etc. so mid lane suggestions please :)

EDIT 2: THank you everyone for the votes and the suggestions. You all gave me plenty to think about, and I really appreciate it. I have notified the winner of the skin by sending a friend request in game. Unfortunately It had to be NA because my EUW account can't gift skins yet. ALso, if anyone is interested, I picked ekko. I've played a few games of him since he was suggested, and have really enjoyed the games.

121 Comments

Little Red Sheep11/5/2018, 4:52:42 PM10 votes

i was reading a few of the suggestions here and i'm surprised i haven't seen an Azir yet. meta changes all the time, u never know when it will be a champs time to shine, so taking a look at how strong a champ is atm is kinda pointless. therefore maybe u should consider Azir. there's just too much potential to it. u wanted high skill cap, knock urself out with Azir. to this date i haven't seen any good Azir in low elo which means one thing: not an easy champ. u wanted outplay potential, fear not. Azir can satisfy that too.

i wont go in depths about the champ since u can do that after u make ur pick but his skills can be used both defensively and offensively, offering u a variety of options and plays.

by many its considered a fun to play champ (how could it not. just shurima shuffle alone can make ur blood pump faster :P)

and in the end of the day if it wasn't the right one for u at least u were an emperor for a day :) and if that doesn't impress ur friends or girls u might interest in, at least i'm pretty sure u can brag the hell out of someones chickens :P

gl next season (:

DODGEORLOSE11/5/2018, 1:51:42 AM5 votes

Ekko is usually a safe pick since he has a get-out-of-jail-free card, plenty off cc and damage, and some mobility in there as well.

I Jungle to much11/5/2018, 1:50:57 AM5 votes

Katarina has insane outplay potential, and no one ever plays her.

shes also never banned.

Theres a really good subreddit for her OTPs too. so you'd always have a good source of information.

Camping Bot Lane11/5/2018, 1:54:52 AM3 votes

TALIYAH CAN JUNGLE.

You have the word jungler in your name OP. You can't leave the position completely. At least if you pick Taliyah you can play jungle or mid, and always perform pretty well. Her R also allows insane roaming potential. She plays ALOT like nocturne, and her clears in jungle are great. In lane theres a bit of learning curve, but she's never banned, so you can get all the practice you'd ever need. Her itemization is super cheap and strong at the moment, and its incredibly flexible, so you can build against the team. Her gank defense is also pretty safe, because her knockback can be placed under your feet, and her rocks make the enemy not want to dash to you.

I vote taliyah.

Silly Neeko11/5/2018, 2:26:38 AM3 votes

Well, for another champion for main role of jungle.... I would suggest trying out Udyr. He does not really have a high skill cap persay..... But he is a bit more tricky than some might think. Hes a strong AD fighter who is very objective oriented, while being able to get in and out of a lane after gank pretty quick and easy. Even if your team mates fail you, he can run around making the enemy chase him like in one of those scooby doo chase scenes. He is not often banned, and also can solo dragon level 3 or 4 without taking up too much time from farming. Good mix of defencive, offensive, with a little CC in there too. He also can top lane and be just as annoying to the enemies.

For an off role it depends. It looks like you are leaning more towards mid lane, Ekko would most likely feel more comfortable for you to transition from jungle to mid, because he plays more like Lee might... so you would likely pick him up the easiest out of those 4 choices. He has that slight bit of range that you are likely more used to as opposed Yasuo, but isnt really squishy like Katarina and Taliyah. Ekko can also transition into katarina or Yasuo easier if you choose to get into them as well.

Taliyah fits with more of your jungling vibe from mid lane, but is less likely to win lane themself (or atleast you dont have much kill potential) you would be roaming for ganks rather than dealing with your mid laner. She has a very high skill cap that literally always can be improved, either by choosing when to work up more land, where to work up the land so you can get the most full Qs as you can, when to roam... if you should use ulti to roam in or out, to cut off the enemies or to just get in.... will the ulti cut off allies or just enemies? So many things to consider. She has good mix of CC and poke damage. Along with wave clearing and wave management.

So in short, i suggest trying Udyr, but Taliyah would fit as a mid or top with a more jungling vibe, and Ekko i think would feel most comfortable for you to transition.

I never believe in a 1 champ fits all in situations like this xD

BurakkuRozu911/5/2018, 1:51:40 AM3 votes

Honestly, I'd say Fiora. She should be the strongest dueler in the game.

SeaChange11/5/2018, 4:43:58 AM2 votes

Darn, those are some CHAMPS. They're all fun, but Ekko is the choice with the least downsides. I'll just go through the other 3 to tell why NOT to main them.

Kat: She's fun as hell, and I've been picking her up lately, but she's not something I'd suggest spending too much time on, because, well, she's fuckin trash right now. I don't see any buffs in sight. There is hope though, with preseason comes reworked Dark Harvest, which is pretty good with her (Surrender at 20 has some good coverage of preseason updates, if you're not caught up). If they don't nerf her to shit in response, I'd say trying her out wouldn't be a terrible idea, like it is right now. Yasuo: Yasuo wouldn't be a bad idea if you already mained mid, but you don't. You'll be stuck playing someone else 50% of the time, just because Yasuo is banned so much. Pick up Yasuo after you master another midlane champion. Taliyah: I used to main Taliyah until the Jungle changes. Honestly? I totally get why Riot adjusted her, but her midlane is really unsatisfying right now. Before, if you were in low-ish elo like me, you could rely on her waveclear to make sure you could roam whenever and wherever you wanted (which was OP in high elo). Nowadays, even the best Tali mains have to rely on their teams much more to pull off any early game roaming, which is honestly the best part of the champion. Still, I realise that this is just me being salty, I just feel like maining a champion that was so volatile for so many seasons and now just "meh" isn't worth it. Also, Taliyah doesn't have the best carry potential. A lot of carrying with Tali is supporting your teammates, and that takes A LOT of coordination or luck.

Okay, so now on to why you should main Ekko. I'll make this shorter, since 1, I haven't played him much and 2, you'll read the same thing over and over again. -Ekko is great because he is a rarely banned mid-lane assassin with wave-clear, roaming potential and great scaling. That's rare (especially the "rarely banned part"). Unlike all of your other suggestions, the process of learning him isn't that painful. With Ekko, you first 20 games will be decent as opposed to... complete shit. Even with that QOL advantage, you'll still have far to go with him, since he takes a good amount of skill (and bonus game knowledge) to pull off good W's and ultis.

Suggestions for other champs to play: -Kassadin has a fighter-like playstyle. He's pretty easy though, but a good second choice right now. -My brain is screaming Irelia, since I play a lot of her, but... maining irelia is a no fun. She's constantly ridiculed, hard-ish to learn and going to get nerfed for the next few months. The same goes for Akali. I play a lot of her, and think you should too, but she's... gonna be changed at somepoint. Enough people are complaining that Riot will probably give them the nerfs they want soon enough. :( -Fizz, I guess? He can carry, but I find him boring.

Also, I'm reading through the other comments and... -Don't main Ryze lol. -I agree with you. Top lane sucks. (why did I buy that camille skin... arGH) -I'm really angry that I didn't come up with Leblanc. She's totally a good fit with your current roster. It's probably because of the trauma she's caused me. My brain just wants to forget she exists.

OOF I started writing this for the skin and I made it way too long because this game's giant pool of champions is so damn fun. Now time to sleep and hope I wake up to Color Mage leaks! [sg-zephyr]

mikemcparty11/5/2018, 5:41:00 PM2 votes

Diana

J0hnyMyB0y11/5/2018, 5:42:53 AM2 votes

Hey, good luck on your climb and congrats on plat. I'm a mid main and I main Zed, Heimer, Fizz, Ekko. In the past I have mained Galio, Kat, Akali, Elise, Rammus. I would recommend Zed as he is high skill cap, good outplay potential, and very fun to play, but the metas are not in his favor and LL Stylish complains a lot about all of his problems right now.

Assuming you want to play these champs to climb then I think Heimer is the best option. A very basic Heimer will still be annoying in most lane matchups pre6. If you want early lane dominance, Heimer is there for you. A very good Heimer will win lane past level 6 and can both outplay opponents and carry games.

Heimer has good early game pressure. His turrets also scale very hard into late game, so if you max w into q, your late game damage will be insane. A single ult e with your turrets placed can win a team fight. He can solo baron after getting enough items and even in mid game he can duo baron with the jungler. He has good turret damage with his ult q, and he can position very well in fights by zoning with turrets and ult q along with stuns.

I think Heimer is super fun to play because of his damage, his skill cap, his ability to teamfight and split, his tower taking ability, and especially his versatility.

Heimer can be played with several different rune pages. The most common are electrocute with healing subrunes or summon aery. His secondaries can also fluctuate well, but it's probably best to utilize the inspiration secondaries for stopwatch and sustain. I personally like electrocute, but the runes also change with the matchups and how you want to play them. Point is, Heimer can be played so many different ways in different matchups and runes that he is great to learn.

Heimer also does well with different builds. He can build ludens for spamming abilities, he can build rylais for kiting against melee matchups, he can build morell with sorcs for early game dmg, he can zhonyas for outplays and both carrying while surviving.

Heimer also can be played in bot lane, mid lane, and top lane.

He can also play into different strategic approaches. If you want to split and you're strong enough, you can push waves fast, you can take towers with your turrets, and you can even 1 v 3 at times if you position well and hit skillshots. He can play into the group up as 5 mid and fight method, because his turrets and ult q and ult e do so many damage and utility in fights. Even if your bot lane hard feeds (they always do somehow), you can replace the adc as the carry. Or let's say your team is trying to push a double threat. Like pushing bot and threatening baron. You can duo or solo that baby super fast. Same thing for drag and rift herald. If you play the split push method with ult q, rift herald, and demolish, you literally melt towers.

He can also outplay opponents hard. Heimer is a gank objective in every game. Every jungler sees an extended Heimer and nuts all over the map to get a kill. But if you set up your turrets in a triangle, or a straight line, or as zoning turrets and save your stun for a disengage, you can not only survive but also turnaround a 1 v 2. Of course, it takes time to master your use of the stun and ult stun, but his cap always grows.

In terms of high skill cap, you will always have something to get better at with this champ. His positioning, skillshots, and ult choice are all very big factors that influence the success of a donger. All of these decisions never cap out and you can call yourself Faker once you get your first 1v5 penta.

Listen, this champ is ideal for soloque and playing with friends just because of his versatility, his skill cap, his early and late game scaling, and his ability to carry games in whatever way you want to play him. I hope you pick up Heimer and see how fun he is!

I don't care that much about the skin (although dragon trainer Heimer would be nutty), I just want people to see how fun of a champ Heimer is. I don't play Zed as much as I used to in soloque because I don't find him as fun in his current state. But when I play Heimer I have fun even if I'm losing. I want people to stop stressing and play more for fun again and I think no matter what game or playstyle you have, you can play Heimer your own way for fun. Goodluck mate!

QueenAqua11/6/2018, 7:49:52 AM2 votes

I love ahri. She's fun and easy to pick up. Her q gives her good wave clear, her e gives her the cc she needs to survive against early ganks, and her passive helps speed her out of danger. Her w leaves a lot to be desired imo, but if you combine it with her r it does do a ton of dmg in combination. I think if your expanding yourself to other roles, it's best to start off with the easier to play champs like ahri and gradually move up to the harder mechanically to master like orianna Edit: tried keeping my answer short and sweet for you as opposed to a wall of text. Hope what I've said helps you pick someone for mid even if it's not ahri

ThatDamnedYordle11/5/2018, 5:44:25 PM2 votes

Oi there! So I see you are looking for a champion to dedicate time to mastering in a short time to carry through higher elos.

While I'm not much of a ranked player myself, I do pay attention to the scene and what tends to be consistent at climbing. And for you sir I have one suggestion to top all others.

Jax

Jax has consistently been a solid champion. He is relatively easy to pick up, but definitely extremely powerful once mastered with much outplay potential.

As a bonus he can do consistently well in both top and jungle and your current experience will carry over into his play style very well.

Another bonus? Multiple build paths, from attack speed, hand grenade burst, and damage dealing engage tank. His mobility and ability to dodge autos makes him very annoying to deal with for any opponent you may have.

So do yourself a favor and pickup that lamppost today!

[slayer-jinx-catface]

Bisaknosp11/5/2018, 11:26:54 AM2 votes

nocturne high skill cap? you dont even need hands to play this champ

Unvictus11/5/2018, 2:53:04 PM2 votes

Out of the ones you have off the top of your head I would suggest trying out . Obviously I’m slightly biased because I practically one trick her. Despite that, I think she’s a great champion to pick up. If you learn how to play her she can be very rewarding and has a lot of potential to outplay your opponents. She has a pretty low pick rate and is in a decent spot right now so the chance of her getting banned is quite slim. She is also pretty versatile when it comes to play style. Sometimes in depends on the matchup, but you can run a couple different rune setups on her and pretty be successful with them all if you know what you’re doing. Electrocute is a must of course, but when it comes to your secondary tree it is kinda up to you. You can run precision with Triumph and Coup de Grace, Sorcery with just about anything (I’ve seen some people go Absolute Focus and Gathering Storm), Resolve with Bone Plating and Chrysalis, or Inspiration with Biscuits and Timewarp Tonic (start with Dark Seal) or you can grab Free Boots or Stopwatch too. What drew me to playing Katarina when I first started playing 6 years ago was just how much fun playing out teamfights was. It’s hard to explain, but the feeling you get from getting reset after reset and jumping across the battlefield is like none other. Depending on your matchup as well, you can switch up your starting items as well. Doran’s shield is great for hard matchups where you know you’ll get poked a lot, long sword is good for early all in kills and getting to gunblade a little faster, or you can go dark seal which provides some offense in AP but also gives you the increase healing from potions so it’s kind of an in between choice (usually my go-to). You should go on YouTube and look up some combos if you’re thinking about trying her, or maybe you already know some. But the most important one for an all in is gonna be EWQRE. You can through in your gunblade active either before or after you use your Q and the E at the end of the combo should be used when they are about to exit the radius of your ultimate. You can do that same combo but also a little more drawn out. You can use EWQ then E to the Q dagger then press R and then E again after. The real difference between the two is when you press your R.

I think choosing Katarina is an excellent because of her high skill expression, low ban rate, and her risky yet fun kit with resets. One of the great things about Kat is she is one of the champs that is one tricked the most so you won’t have to go far to find great advice from people in challenger who play her a lot!

nm101011/5/2018, 9:53:19 PM1 votes

Depends, in my opinion you need to prioritize macro to make diamond. Champions from mid that prioritize macro and also have a decent skill cap include Talon and Taliyah off the top of my head. Both are fun champions that are very rewarding to put time into. Both have a place in just about every team comp and they can carry.

Edit: Totally forgot Leblanc , she is also in the same category as the above.

Gregorovic0811/5/2018, 11:01:05 PM1 votes

I would suggest that you play Ekko Ekko . There are a few reasons for this. Ekko is surprisingly flexible build wise. He can get a little tanky with items like protobelt morellos and iceborn, he can go full ap with lich bane and rabbadons etc. Another reason is that he has a very high skill cap. This allows you to keep learning new things while you do main this champion. None of this is mentioning that he is generally good, he hasn't had a spot in league that I know of where he was horrible. The final argument that I have is that, to me, he feels a bit like Lee Sin LeeSin . The effect his abilities have reminds me of the feeling of Lee a bit. Anyway, I hope you have a nice season whichever champion you do pick, gl on the rift and may your promos be ever in your favor.

Datomix11/5/2018, 11:06:47 PM1 votes

Between those four, Taliyah seems to be the best candidate for your needs.

Katarina , while being able to pick off people in the mid game as her strength, will only do so well if the team is also pulling their weight. She depends on picking off lower health targets and will not perform well if there are multiple tanks or a lot of hard cc on the enemy team. Her Shunpo has a delayed cooldown in the early game, so the enemy can react to your combo and even punish you because they can expect where you want to blink to. (Extra Cons: Melee vs. mages, squishy, has to use QWE to wave clear, bad at discovering and killing a hidden Teemo)

Yasuo does have great carry and outplay potential. I believe you could get to Diamond if you wanted with him, as he can take on tanks and deflect any hard cc skillshots if necessary. Multiple builds are viable on him, and a skilled player will be able to choose whichever item is needed in order to counter the enemy team while enhancing their damage to the fullest. The only reason I didn't pick Yasuo is because using an AP champion will give about a greater understanding of AP itemization, so that wrongful deaths can be avoided from underestimating the enemy's damage. Unless there is also other knockup cc on your team, it's a little harder to pull off ganks. (Okay at discovering and killing a hidden Teemo)

Lastly, Ekko . He's fast, has the ability to get out of bad situations or make outplays with his ult, and can do bonus damage to enemies below 30% of their max health. He's able to dash over walls and be successfully played as a top, mid, or jungler. His W can be used to zone enemies because of you can slow and/or stun them if they walk into it, which can be useful when your team is trying to grab baron or dragon. If played as a jungler, he can use W on the objective area, dash over and smite the objective while the enemies are stunned, then use any means to escape for a free steal. His gank potential is alright, but it's hard to use your W to the fullest if there is already ward coverage. He can fall off a little bit late game however, since damage from the enemy team will get to Ekko before his passives get to proc fast enough. Also, he cannot ult under hard cc. (Decent at discovering and killing a hidden Teemo)

Now Taliyah is able to utilize your experience from jungling into its best use while continuing to train your eye on gank opportunities. A great ultimate from her can zone enemies, trap them, or split them up, making for easy escapes or kills. Unlike the other three, she has more range to stay safer from those enemy mages in lane. Her wave clear is superb. Unlike the other three, she has more range to stay safer from those enemy mages in lane. Or, she can go top lane to bully up there, or even jungle too if you're feeling it. While not quite like Ekko, if you time her wall correctly, you can smite steal an objective while riding off to safety. But what truly makes the pick is that she is a great team player who is able to dominate the whole map. Where it's not just you carrying, but also making it so that the other lanes win and then take those turrets faster for more gold. She can be squishy too, but it matters less when the goal is to clear fast and gank hard. She's really hard to master though (I suck completely) so if you aren't able to keep landing your combos like me, you can fall back to Yasuo or Ekko. (Great at discovering and killing a hidden Teemo)

Btw I'm REALLY not kidding with Teemo either, as I have a friend who has made it to Diamond and another to Master with him by stealthing and completely destroying unsuspecting enemies.

stone the blacks11/5/2018, 11:14:48 PM1 votes

Mordekaiser cant play him wrong if there is no playing him right and besides if you don't know what your doing how will the enemy?

Get Ogre Here11/5/2018, 11:35:36 PM1 votes

I'd vote Taliyah because she is viable jungle and mid lane so you can play her in your main and off role, and she provides a lot of carry potential in that her ultimate is a great ganking tool and can help carry fights when mastered.

Taliyah has a very high skill cap, will bring utility and AP to your roster, and is rarely a weak pick. Very well-rounded champ to choose :)

TheSingularity11/6/2018, 12:07:46 AM1 votes

Mid Anivia Sleeper OP and counter all of the meta mid laners. She does get a lil repetitive doe as her combos aren't overly exciting. Heimerdinger Obnoxious with a relatively high skillcap. Great to make enemies suicide to you out of sheer frustration. TwistedFate fulfills the roaming fantasy similar to taliyah but slightly stronger AurelionSol if you're feeling extremely adventurous. Also similar to above but blatantly stronger. Velkoz Very smooth fun combos. Very flexible kit and build options. useful in every team comp Kled Fun trade combo, has very good roam pressure post 6 and he's simply a hilarious champion to play. Strong against yasuo but you need to get fed otherwise you drop off very fast Rumble Something a little different. His passive, Q and R use mechanics not found in many other champs. Powerful lane bully that many underestimate.

Swiff Swish11/6/2018, 12:18:06 AM1 votes

Here are my picks for the some of the most fun and viable champions for top and mid lane:

For top lane, a great combination to learn is Nasus in combination with Kindred as a fallback. Why you may ask? Nasus is seriously underrated and has huge late game carry potential. Although it takes a while to master against his counter-picks, once you understand how to play with him against most champions and their strengths, you can dominate any game top lane. Another great thing about Nasus is even if you do happen to lose lane, if your team is strong, you can continue to farm hard and destroy late game. Although his tank build is quite amazing, I have found another very fun and very powerful build for carrying games. grab dark harvest (with cheap-shot, eyeball, and ultimate hunter) with precision secondary (Bloodline and over-heal). From here depending on who you are laning against, you can pick a item 1055 item 1054 or item 1083 . Make sure to rush item 3078 as always, but for your second item, grab a item 3095 . Stormrazor on his Q's with dark harvest amounts for some serious damage, and with bloodline, your sustain is immense as long as you are using your Q's and auto attacking. From there it depends on how well you are doing, you can grab a spirit visage for tank, heal and MR, or continue to hyper carry and grab a item 3087 or even a item 3094 works with his empowered Q's range (I think, haven't fully tested it yet). As for Kindred, Kindred top lane is only viable when Nasus gets banned somehow or when you are facing a really hard counter-pick. A great counter to Darius is Kindred top. Kindred has great ability to fight tanks along with mobility and an ultimate to counter sudden death moments, which can turn the tide of battle for you or your team. Rushing a item 3153 first will melt tanks.

For Mid lane, I am a huge Yasuo fan and I highly encourage you to play him. A lot of people who commented about Yasuo did a good job so I will just leave it at that. For a pocket pick or secondary choice, something like Orianna or Viktor with huge clearing and sustain would be very good to learn. Both Viktor and Orianna used to be highly played in pro-play and in worlds. Both of them have such great combinations to work with other champions. In the end in my perspective, team-fighting is where the game is decided, and so it is necessary to have a strong team comp which can coordinate and collaborate with each other, producing strong combinations. Something like JarvanIV with an Orianna, the double ult would be cataclysmic. Galio would also work well in combination and i think by now you get the picture.

Full Brain11/6/2018, 12:24:23 AM1 votes

Sejuani

MidBlade11/6/2018, 12:42:04 AM1 votes

LEBLANC - Dashing around like lee sin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GodlyBane11/6/2018, 12:46:35 AM1 votes

Yasuo is by far the hardest to climb with since hes very counterable, he is probably gonna give you the most challenge to climb with. Have fun :P

Sometimes Fizz11/6/2018, 2:41:59 AM1 votes

If you like outplay potential and generally just like playing fun champs, try out Fizz . Even when you are losing he is just a fun champ to play and has a ton of out play potential with his E and item 3157 . He is does have some really hard matchups, but he is just so much fun to play.

Word of warning, folk hate playing against him and will judge you lol (but its about fun champs with carry potential and Fizz fits that.)

Riupaw11/6/2018, 4:35:39 AM1 votes

Well, I'd like to suggest one of my own favorites: Viktor.

Viktor is a champion that may seem relatively easy at first sight, but in reality, it can be hard to master, and once you do master him, he can become insanely strong, specially in the midlane. Viktor, due to his kit, can make insane outplays and is a really good team fight mage in general. He also feels extremely satisfying to play. I honestly think that Viktor is perhaps the strongest mid-late game mage in the entire game in the hands of a good experienced player, and the best part is; his burst always seems to surprise players, as he can be a bit slow on the ramp up to full potential, but like I said, once he gets there, the guy becomes nuts. Also, his voice is cool :p

Ahri Body Pillow11/6/2018, 5:51:21 AM1 votes

Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko Ekko As someone with about 500 games on Ekko this season, I have to say I'm extremely biased, but Ekko.

Firstly, Ekko can function from behind. A lot of those champions you listed besides Taliyah are pretty feast or famine. Ekko was designed SPECIFICALLY so that if he falls behind he can still be of use to his team by using his W stun and Q slow. Even if you're behind, a 3-4 man W will win you the teamfight; You can still impact the game. Utility assassin FTW.

Secondly, Ekko's skill cap is pretty high. There's no real limit to what you can pull off on him. He has some of the most satisfying combos in the game, such as Double Timewinder hit w/ Chronobreak for instant burst and absolutely batshit insane unexpected lategame Chronobreak damage. There are also some slick animation cancels you can pull off with his, like E>Q and E>W. Ekko is the undisputed master of catching his opponents off guard.

Another thing I want to point out is his insane objective potential. Shit team doesn't know how to teamfight? Are you the only fed person on your team? Send those dummies bot and and split push top. Your E alone does about 1K per proc. You eat towers for breakfast. Another one of Ekko's strengths is stealing objectives. Say the enemy team's on Baron. You're down 2 players. This baron is going to make or break this game. But...you can't exactly contest it can you? No problem. Send a Q in there for double rings and then E in. Let me break down this damage for you. Let's say you have 500 AP (I generally end games with about 850ish AP with my build and rune setup).

Phase Dive (E)- You're gonna have a base damage of 140 with a scaling of 40 percent of your AP, so at 500 AP you're gonna be dealing 340 damage with this ability.

Z-Drive Resonance(Passive)- Assuming you're level, let's say, 16, you're gonna deal about 128 base damage with 80 percent AP scaling, resulting in 528 damage. However, this is doubled against monsters up to a cap of 600, so 600.

Lich Bane- Your phase dive is gonna proc lich bane, which has 50 percent ap scaling. Slap another 250 damage on there.

Parallel Convergence- A little known fact about Ekko is that his W has a passive that makes his autos do bonus health do low damage targets based off of their missing health. Capped at 150 for monsters, slap on another 150.

Added all up, that's 1350 magic damage with about 100 extra from base ad and lich bane AD scaling, so 1450 damage in a SINGLE auto attack, more than a level 18 smite. If this somehow STILL ISNT ENOUGH, throw in Protobelt active for about 200 extra damage.

So now that you have Baron, now what? Most chumps would sit in the pit and die. Nope, not Ekko. Ekko likes to have his cake and eat it too. Press R and GTFO. Easy baron, easy life.

Speaking of his ultimate, one of the best abilities in the game. Get out of jail free card that does 450 Magic Damage +150 percent of your AP AND heals you for an insane amount, upwards of 1k late game! I don't even have to do any math for you to know that that's fucking insane. Not to mention so, so satisfying to land on multiple targets. If you get a good ult off in a teamfight, it's essentially won.

A big thing for me is how a champion's gameplay connects to their lore, and in that respect Ekko is Riot's goddamn magnum opus. Every second counts. Miscalculating by a single second can and probably will get you killed. You lead your enemies on wild goose chases through their own jungle, breaking ankles with phase dive and chronobreaking when things get a bit hairy. When you make a play, you don't just feel skilled, you feel smart. You read your opponent like a book, predicting their movements and orchestrating the fight to make that perfect moment. You can be successful by using your abilities well, but Riot designed each of his abilities to be exceptionally powerful when used perfectly.

My last selling point Ekko...he's just plain cool. In his lore, he's a genius kid from the hood that makes a time machine from garbage that he salvaged. He's one of the only real heroes in the game from Zaun. He's got tons of lore, a Cinematic all his own, a comic, a basic lore entry, and a short story. He's even got a statue in the store! Also, all of his skins are pretty badass, with the exception of Academy...we don't talk about Academy, though....

Another random plus is that I personally very rarely see him picked and banned even less. If you want to play him, you probably can. Hell, you could even jungle with him if you wanted to, he's pretty flexible.

After 500 games of Ekko, every time I pick him is somehow more fun than the last. It's insane. One of my favorite characters in any video game.Please consider picking up Ekko, for your own sake.

"Time to start some trouble." - Ekko

Mandalorian 11711/6/2018, 2:41:47 PM1 votes

Azir sounds like a great champion for you. He’s got a high skill sealing, can be an awesome hyper carry if played well, and 500 iq plays is pretty much what he does on a daily basis, and it feels amazing when you pull it off. Whatever you do, glhf on the next season!

the weeaboo11/7/2018, 6:21:37 PM1 votes

Dammit I missed the deadline. I know you already sent the skin out but I'd really like to make an argument for maining one of my favorite champs in League: ASol.

Why should you main AurelionSol ? Well, he's everything that you want in a champion!

I've come to enjoy the map pressure and out-play potential of both champs. The skill cap seems to be relatively high too, as I feel like I ALWAYS have room to improve with the champion.

Aurelion Sol has THE HIGHEST map pressure of literally any champion. He basically has a TF ultimate on a 40 second cooldown, and tons of movement speed to roam to other lanes without it. In fact, you're not even really supposed to be IN your lane for most of the game. A good ASol is one that doesn't even have to be mid. You can just fly into bot like a goddamn legend, stun both the ADC and support at the same time, and slap em with your balls over and over til suddenly your team is up 10 kills by 10 minutes.

There's always new trick to learn on ASol, since there's a near infinite number of ways he can manipulate his stars to produce the results you want. Comboing stun times, stun sizes, ult ranges, star positions... it's all a little mini game that constantly changes with every champ you're facing. Plus every so often over at r/Aurelion_Sol_Mains somebody will come up with a new cool build or mechanic that improves you gameplay SO much.

Keep in mind im looking for champs with high skillcaps, carry potential if played well, and outplay potential. My usual champs are ad fighters, but I think picking up an AP champ would benefit my climb

ASol's skillcap is very high, maybe not Riven or Lee Sin level but he is without a doubt one of those champs you can tell the difference immediately between a good one and a bad one. I'm sure you can tell from the 2 or 3 you've played against haha.

Carry potential? Well, there's a reason theres many, many Challenger ASol mains. His solo impact on a game is nearly unmatched, and he's good into basically everything. When I mained Ekko for a while I kept running into a wall anytime a tank got even slightly ahead. But on ASol you can deal with everything through itemization an outplay.

ASol's outplays arent necessarily the flashiest or coolest; nobody really says wow that was a sick ASol play but you are constantly outplaying enemies by weaving in your Qs, ults, and positioning. IF you get good at ASol, winning teamfights through outplays is like breathing.

And last of all he is an AP champ, which you're looking for.

P.S. He's never banned or picked so you should be able to get him consistently every single game.

Need Gold 4 Tent11/5/2018, 2:35:46 AM1 votes

If you were a jungle main, the best (in my opinion) role to off role is top lane. For one, top lane is typically the most 1v1 lane in the game (mid isn't because they're expected to roam, and junglers also typically interact with laners when ganking), so it will develop your skills in dealing with tough situations when you don't get help - something that is also helped by your jungle knowledge of pathing and general jungle macro so you can know when to expect your jungler to be actually available to to help you, and when the enemy jungler might be on their way to gank you.

As for champs, outplay champs (for me) are typically champs that can pull shit off at low HP to make the enemy go "WTF". I don't exactly main him, but I think Renekton is one such champ. He falls off late game but with games being generally short, he is a "midgame monster" as RTO says. Fury management to pick which skills to empower is what separates the good and bad Renektons. The mechanics involved are not the most difficult, but do involve weaving autos in between abilities which is not exactly braindead button mashing. Being a strong laner, it also means you don't rely on getting ganks to survive lane, so that frees up your jungler to do other things.

JIDF Operative11/5/2018, 4:01:22 AM1 votes

If you want a strong champion that can carry and has a lot of skill expression, you should go with Poppy .

She is a great top laner currently, and does well against a lot of popular champions like Irelia Jax Riven Akali Her kit is pretty easy to get a hang of and has a lot of depth and outplay potential. For example her buckler passive can be used to last hit a minion in a fight to get a shield and live burst if you cannot easily reach before dying. You can also use the buckler to bait people to walk near walls when they try to step on it to deny your shield, in which case you can stun them into the wall with your E and still gain the shield. Her W is great in this meta for preventing ganks from popular junglers like LeeSin Kayn XinZhao with its dash block. The dash blocking also can be used to peel assassins with dashes from your team. Her ultimate can also change games. Using it correctly can result in removing a carry/frontline champion from a teamfight and making it essentially a 5v4 or 5v3 for a few seconds, but it can also save people so knowing when and where to use it takes a while to master.

Poppy is a champion that can snowball in lane and easily set up kills when roaming mid or tping bot to get other lanes ahead. She is very good at protecting your jungler if he gets invaded due to her E being easy to set up in the jungle.

Another plus of poppy is being able to be played mid as a counter to assassins. Poppy can't always kill them in lane, but she is very hard to snowball off of. This is usually helpful when your midlaner is a squishy mage. You can often trade with them and prevent assassins from snowballing and occasionally get both you and your mid laner out of bad match ups at the same time. For example mid: Talon Zed Irelia with top: Swain Kennen Vladimir

The big downside to poppy is she depends on the mid or adc to be good in order to consistently win games. A poppy with 2,000 gold lead is very strong mid game, but she can't close the game off by herself due to poor objective taking. She can definitely keep enemies off objectives with her W and ult, but if your team cant secure them, then she will struggle to get you ahead.

General Matty11/5/2018, 6:17:14 PM1 votes

I would try Kayn in jungle AND (unpopular but fun) mid. he actually can do pretty well in mid if your good enough.

Nigari011/5/2018, 6:41:22 PM1 votes

If you wanna carry from top lane, your best bets are either split pushers like Fiora Irelia Tryndamere Jax or if you trust your team and wanna carry team fights, then you can either go for engagers like Camille Gnar Kled or if your team has engage potential and you trust them, then these will destroy team fights: Darius Illaoi Rumble Urgot .

for mid lane, i believe the most important aspect is roaming, work with your jungler to gank with them and secure objectives, so mid roamers like Fizz Ahri Akali Kassadin TwistedFate Diana Galio Ekko basically any champion that has good wave clear and engage potential.

in low elos, splitpushers have a much higher chance of carrying due to the fact that your enemies don't know how to work around it, but you also gotta keep your teammates in check as well, but higher elos have more teamwork, that's why your picks depend on the team a lot, if you believe in them, pick around them, if you don't, splitpushers.

IOffMeta GtOvrIt11/5/2018, 6:53:42 PM1 votes

For me, I believe Taliyah would be your best bet. Not only can she do well mid, but she can also be a nice jungle addition in case you decide to return to your old stomping grounds with some familiarity in your other lane. Her poke is nice, her ganks in other lanes are fantastic. Excellent roaming her mobility on her passive is very solid and cs'ing with worked ground only costs 1 mana if auto last hitting is an issue for you (it is for me sometimes).

CorruptedScythe11/5/2018, 7:31:00 PM1 votes

I don't have too much time to explain, but I'm not skin fishing. Camille is a great pick though. Extremely good engage, and she can be a flexible pick. Top, jg, or (maybe?) mid.

Profirix11/5/2018, 7:34:22 PM1 votes

Based on the champions you listed, I get the feeling that you are really interested in mid lane and you like to roam a lot and do heavy burst damage with high mobility. Any of the 4 champions you picked have very high mobility in terms of dashes and roaming potential.

But I want to pitch you something you might not expect:

AurelionSol

Hear me out:

Aurelion Sol has amazing wave clear. You can push the crud out of mid lane and immediately roam. He has a very good high speed with his E passive and can even back and return to lane so quickly that the enemy can't push you to your tower: this is a major bonus for maintaining wave control. You keep the enemy mid laner there to clear waves, or they simply lose their mid tower.
Aurelion Sol can set up some truly interesting ganks because he can glide over walls. This works best when ganking a lane that has some form of hard CC but you yourself have that CC as well.
Aurelion Sol has an extremely high skill ceiling. Some of the best players of Aurelion have over 60% win rates because they understand the essence of his kit and know how to deploy it effectively. Pushing waves, otherwise ignoring your lane opponent and causing chaos in other lanes.
Despite being weak to hard-engage assassins, he still can handle them enough to survive and function. His ultimate is a great disengage tool. Once you force your enemies into the outer radius of your stars, they start taking massive amounts of damage.
Aurelion is actually a very strong zone control mage (like Taliyah) and most of his spells are on very short cooldowns (unlike Taliyah).

One caveat though: he takes a lot of practice to even remotely master. There are a lot of simpler champions to play, but I think few of them could be as interesting.

CombiCool11/5/2018, 8:13:53 PM1 votes

Chose Ekko!! PROs

He is fun to play. Nothing feels more satisfying than taking out ther adc with that ult.
He requires some skill to play to full extend, but actually quite easy to pick up.
He can both be offtank and glass cannon.
great ganks when you master stun placement
Can be played both jungle and mid.

CONs

Probably not the best jungler outthere. Although i main him in the jungle... But that is in gold where no one wards properly.

oortoomeebreesuu11/5/2018, 8:17:04 PM1 votes

Do you cross the line, like the boy who shatters time? Ekko

Do you hail from Zaun, is that where you belong? Ekko

If you don't know which, pick one then chronoshift Ekko

With a wave one shot, you can roam bot Ekko

A dash with a blink is stronger than you think Ekko

Breaks tanks and squish, the bane of lich Ekko

Scratch your itch for bait and switch Ekko

I beg your pardon, I just want a Gnar skin

dontspinbutwin11/5/2018, 9:13:52 PM1 votes

So, hi! I'm a toplane main, but I can essentially do all lanes decently. For your sake, I'll talk about every single lane, and what champ works well, and why. First, I want to talk about toplane. I actually understand why you wouldn't like to play toplane: those champs you listed can be quite cancerous to fight against, and the pressure of your team blaming you for a fed toplaner is horrible. However, if you want a high skillcap champ for toplane who can do fairly well against all those matchups, I highly recommend Darius. Darius has immense snowball potential, and heavy lane presence. As an incredible duelist, Darius can win most fights, and sustain through many trades in toplane, while having heavy burst. "But Darius is broken and braindead!" Surprisingly not as much as youd expect. Darius has 3 main weaknesses: Low attackspeed, extremely low mobility, and execution commitment. Sitting at around .7 attack speed, darius struggles against certain sticky, lategame champions with high attackspeed, such as yasuo or yi. This problem is mildly solved with AA resets with his w and titanic hydra (if you choose to build it, which has its pros and cons), but he still struggles against high att speed. He has horrendous mobility, which is fair. He has high burst and high sustain, so it should be difficult for him to get in fights, or difficult for darius to run. Much of mastering Darius is working around his lack of mobility. Darius has immense dunk damage, yes. However, if Darius struggles in smaller scuffles, like weak bullies. Since his ult damage is increased per passive stack, an enemy doing hit and run to chip away at Darius will inevitably lead to darius losing a 1v1 ( or a 2v1, if he gets ganked). Mastering Darius gets the player to work around this.

Next, the jungle. for carry potential and high skillcaps, I recommend Evelynn and Yi. Both are considered braindead, but they can get mechanically intense.

For Eve, She has high cheese/burst potential. With her new kit, she has so much opportunities. Sure, you could prep your charm on a target, but that lets the champion know you're near. Sure, you could ult, but do you use it to kill them or to run? Should You fight this 2v2, or let that person die 2v1? Eve is meant to play unfair (as she is squishy and mostly single target oriented), but if she gets behind, she becomes virtually useless. A great evelynn will cause entire map presence, and even have the potential to solo kill late game. A good eve will work around her weaknesses, and crush the enemy's will to play the game.

For yi, he's bursty. However, yi is extremely susceptible to CC, which is why Yi dominates lower elos, yet struggles higher elos. Since yi's main gapcloser is his Q (and his ult, if that counts), yi has to think quite a bit. Does he build tank and have the sustain to live through cc, or does he build damage and depend on his team for peel? This, and many team combos, cause Yi to be smart on his engages and priorities, while working around the enemy's counters.

The midlane. I'd think leblanc, yasuo, ekko, syndra, and zed have high skillcaps and carry potential here. Katerina's damage/mobility gets outclassed by so many other champions that she plays as a midlane support.

Leblanc may have high burst and mobility, but if she gets locked down, she can easily get bursted down. Same as yi, dominates low elo, but high elo, leblanc has to be more picky on her assassinations. Unlike yi, however, since she doesn't use auto attacks, nor is she dps, she has to build AP... meaning she has to adapt to squishiness. A proper leblanc will be able to properly pop a squishy and get out clean, even in a teamfight.

Yasuo. The braindead. Jokes aside, he loses most trades early game, as he's squishy and....squishy. Lord he's super squishy. Most people look at pros playing yasuo and try to copy that, which is why yasuo has a toxic fanbase. The key point in yasuo is that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it. Sure you could e and poke with q, but would they outpoke you? Sure you could ult off that 4 man knockup, but would you survive the aftermath? Would your team survive? Its proper decision making that yasuo has to work with if he wants to get great.

For zed, its his shadows. Do you use his shadows to poke, or to escape? Lets say you use them to poke, would you survive if you got ganked? Is the enemy likely to counter engage? Same for ekko. Do you dash? Should you use your q to farm, or to poke? Should you ult to do damage, or to run, or to heal? Be passive, or aggressive? Zed and ekko is all about reading your opponents, and predicting their next move(s). Do so and you dominate. Fail, and feed.

Syndra is like darius. High burst, but 0 mobility. Learn to predict opponents, and you'll be rewarded with a kill. Use your cc too carelessly/early, and suffer punishment.

For ADC, twitch, xayah, kaisa, lucian, vayne, and jhin are incredible.

Twitch can make or break a teamfight. 1 solid ult/ ambush from twitch and your team could win a 2v5. However, twitch is extremely squishy (as most adcs) and has a weak laning phase, as he doesn't have much to poke with. He's a very "commit or dont" type of champion that rewards players for learning his damage output.

Kaisa, lucian, and vayne are all about the same. High mobility and dps/burst. Go in at the wrong time and die. Not much to be said here.

Jhin has 0 escapes, but makes up for that with high damage. With his 4 bullet limit, his long range skills, and his kite potential, Jhin plays different than most ADCs. Learn to weave skills around his autos, and learn to play super safe and you'll carry hard.

For Support, Thresh, janna, and pyke are nice.

Thresh: not much to say. Hit hooks, engage, peel, disengage, catching potential, so on.

Janna: Super squishy, but can peel/ disengage with god-tier potential. learn to ult/tornado properly and you'll be the sole reason your adc wins lane.

Pyke: For when your adc isn't a carry. Since his healthpool is limited, you have to be cautious in his playstyle. Hard to play behind, but has carry potential.

Thats just my list for every lane. The main reason darius' reasonings is long is because you didn't want toplane champs, so i figured a super indepth champ guide for top might persuade you. If not, thats fine. Hope this helped!

aNewMoonIsRising11/5/2018, 9:17:29 PM1 votes

Id go with Kat or even Akali. The outplay potential those two champs have are incredible. Especially if you play around Kat's resets or Akali's shroud. I wish Diana had more things like that. :c

ZackTheWaffleMan11/5/2018, 9:23:15 PM1 votes

Outplay potential? Ryze Vladimir

Map pressure? Ryze

High skillcap? Ryze Vladimir ish

Can go top? Ryze Vladimir