With the upcoming changes announced in Patch 11.15, we still have more than a week to increase our chances of winning with the right champions, builds, and strategies. Today we bring you the best champions for every role that rely very little on a team-coordinated play without impacting their performance. Without further ado, let’s jump right into it!
Toplane: Irelia
With the changes shipped in patch 11.14, Irelia quickly became an absolute monster on the rift. While getting her skill curve down, she’s still very rewarding when mastered and will bring net you a lot of wins and fun in the long run. Just don’t jump into ranked right away if you’re not familiar with the champions’ kit.
Runes & Optimal Build-Path
These runes are optimized for the best split pushing potential, with priority on lifesteal acceleration (from your items) and low-hp clutch scenarios. Irelia no longer relies on her weird defensive playstyle with her E and can more easily take control of the lane at the beginning. Some of her raw power has been cut down though, so she’s less of a stat check champion than before, keep that in mind. You can also swap Legend: Alacrity for tenacity or Last Stand to Cut Down, depending on the matchup or team composition.
The best build right now is the Blade of the Ruined King followed by boots of choice and Immortal Shieldbow. The third item choice is pretty simple: go Guinsoo’s for more damage or Wit’s End for Ap-heavy teams. After that look for defensive items to survive tight scenarios, like Guardian Angel, Death’s Dance, or Steraks.
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Even with the recent nerf, Xin Zhao is a staple in the current meta, focused around early skirmishes and objective control. High damage, long-range engage if paired with his W, CC, and survivability thanks to his ultimate made him a total powerhouse. Your priority as a Xin Zhao will be getting lanes ahead with early ganks (3 or 4 camps clear to be done before 3 minutes), contesting scuttle crabs, and pushing for an early Rift Herald to gain a gold advantage over the opponent. Xin Zhao also has insane dueling potential thanks to his knock-up and attack speed buff, so if you feel comfortable, you can easily invade your opponent and fight him for his camps.
Runes & Optimal Build-Path
The runes are pretty much the same, with the only change is that we are going for inspiration secondary due to his mythic item, the Goredrinker, that benefits greatly from item haste. Free boots are also welcome since you will be doing a lot of early skirmishes and lowering the time it takes you to receive them.
The current optimal build patch is Goredrinker into Steraks (Or Essence River if you’re really ahead and want to close the match very early). The rest of the items are situational similar to Irelia.
Midlane: Katarina
Katarina is a great choice for Midlanders that like to have fast-paced games with a lot of fighting. She’s great into uncoordinated teams and flourishes amidst team-fighting chaos. A lot of Katarina players are running Ignite and Teleport due to her E allowing her to jump across the Summoner’s Rift. Your main objective will be to stay safe during the early game, while also aggressively looking for roams and potential kills. You can even trade kills and don’t care, your main goal is to accelerate the game to the point of 2 items where you begin to pose a serious threat.
Runes & Optimal Build-Path
This page is great for Kata, because it gives her everything she needs: the bonus damage and pen to quickly 100-0 the enemy ADC, triumph proc for more team-fighting capabilities, and Relentless Hunter for responding to enemy ganks and roams.
The standard build path right now is Hextech Rocketbelt first into Nashor’s Tooth second. Depending on the enemy team, the third item can be Zhonya’s, Deathcap, or Morello.
Bottomlane: Ezreal
While some other botlaners perform better than Ezreal (Ziggs *cough*), he remains the safest pick if you’re playing solo. His great build path diversity and safe damage output make him the best at playing AD carry if you don’t have dedicated support main that you’re comfortable with.
Runes & Optimal Build-Path
This is by far the best page for Ezreal right now, giving him much-needed mana sustain, lifesteal and damage amplification. The Presence of Mind alone is insane because it increases mana regeneration when you poke enemy opponents.
For the build patch you standard two items: Divine Sunderer and Manamune. Followed by Ionian Boots of Lucidity, the third item is where things open up a lot. Depending on the enemy team you can go Chempunk Chainsword, Frozen Heart, Serylda’s Grudge, or Ravenous Hydra for extra damage and sustain.
Support: Lulu
Lulu remains a staple in the current meta, with her peel, shields, and crowd control. She’s really powerful right now and goes well with almost any team composition. She’s also able to play Mid and Top, allowing her to be a flex pick, which is very useful for your team.
Runes & Optimal Build-Path
Very good and standard rune page for Lulu focused on her kit’s strengths.
The build path is Shurelya’s first into Ardent Censer’s second, followed by a Chemtech Putrifier.
We hope you enjoyed this article and found the champion you’re going to terrorize the soloq with.
Also worth noting that Irelia is scheduled to a nerf in the upcoming 11.15 Patch.