Why This Champion Stands Out
Miss Fortune deals very strong single-target damage, can apply a healing reduction debuff, and can drop great damage on an entire team with her ultimate.
My Thoughts
Miss Fortune is a very simple champion. She isn't the best and she can get focused down later in the game without much effort. That said, she has extremely high early game damage thanks to her Impure Shots and Double Up, which can allow you to dominate lanes. She has a healing reduction that allows you to win lanes that have a healer like Soraka. She is also a very fast champion (provided she hasn't taken damage).
Impure shots makes early game farming easier since the bonus magic damage can help immensely in last hitting. Her early game farming and champion killing potential can help get her to a point where she has a clear advantage in the late game.
Sivir
Why This Champion Stands Out
Sivir has extremely strong multi-target damage in teamfights and can push lanes and towers very quickly.
My Thoughts
I have more consistently won games with Sivir than any other ranged marksman. Her early game isn't the best, she has a short normal attack range, and she doesn't become an amazing farmer until a little later in the game.
Why is she great? Let's start with her on-demand spell shield. Many champions telegraph when they're about to cast a spell, and getting really good with Sivir's spell shield will save you time and time again from all sorts of things. It also returns mana, which either regenerates your mana or strongly
discourages your opponents from harassing you with spells.
With an opponent crowd controlled near her, she can easily land both strikes from Boomerang Blade. Along with a normal attack and a normal attack reset with her Ricochet, she has incredible burst potential in the early game.
Later in the game, combining this damage with an AOE crowd control such as Leona's Solar Flare or Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy, especially in a tight area such as the jungle, combined with her ultimate bonus on your team, Sivir can easily be damage needed to turn the fight totally in your teams favor. Team fights in the jungle are where I've picked up the most multi-kills with her.
Her ultimate is also great when you’re not able to easily communicate with your team. Since it's a highly visible teamwide aura, it is often enough to tell your teammates to either engage an enemy team or to run away. It's pretty easy to understand.
Ezreal
Why This Champion Stands Out
Sivir has extremely strong multi-target damage in teamfights and can push lanes and towers very quickly.
My Thoughts
A little before Pulsefire Ezreal released, I started to really take the time to learn Ezreal. He's a really fun champion both as Ability Power or as a Ranged Attack Damage carry. His primary weakness is a very short normal attack range, making him vulnerable when he moves in close to deal with opponents. He's all skillshots. You simply can't play him effectively unless you're willing to accept this and learn to play. You'll also want to enable quickcasting to really get the most out of his combos.
He is one of only a few highly mobile marksmen (along with Corki and Tristana). His Arcane Shift blink allows him to quickly get in or out of a fight.
Urgot
Why This Champion Stands Out
One of the more interesting champions, he is a marksman that plays very similar to mages and often builds similar to fighters. Though he has a very short normal attack range, he can land targeted damage at an extremely long range.
My Thoughts
Urgot is an odd champion and one that doesn’t often get much play (though he did have a solid streak of popularity in Season 2 and early Season 3). He belongs to a small class of physical damage dealers that rely on their abilities, meaning most of his damage and utility comes from his spells rather than normal attacks. Even though he is a ranged champion, he has a very short attack range by comparison to other ranged champions, making him unfit to be played as a marksman.
All that said, most of the fun in Urgot comes from successfully landing his acid canister on an opponent who tries to move near him. If he does this, his acid hunter (Q) shots will all guide themselves directly to the target, ignoring minions or other objects in the way. The cool thing? These missiles can be fired across an extremely long range, and can even follow targets in bushes if you correctly guess where they are. Landing a canister on an enemy carry during a team fight can allow you to devastate them from a range.
Add in a strong slow, a decent shield, and an extremely strong utility ultimate that allows him to initiate for his team and you have the great champion known as Urgot.
If you're playing Urgot, consider cooldown reduction items such as Brutalizer and Frozen Heart. Why? With enough cooldown reduction, you can fire one additional missile while the canister debuff is still on the target. I remember dozens of kills I've gotten due to getting that one extra shot in.
Mage
These are the mages, wizards, or sorcerer archetypes from other gaming and fiction. Mages are
champions who generally rely on spells to deal damage, and will become stronger throughout the game through a combination of Ability Power and levels. Mages are the most diverse group of champions, encompassing a wide variety of playstyles. Good examples of mages are Veigar, Brand, Cassiopeia, and Ahri.
Mages often have ability combinations that significantly improve their performance and chances of success. For example, Ahri's Foxfire and Orb of Deception are both strong damage abilities, but they can be avoided by smart opponents. However, a successful Charm after dashing towards an opponent with her Spirit Rush ultimate, guarantees she can easily land her Foxfire and Orb of Deception, thus
maximizing her damage output.
As always, positioning is critical, and it is dependent on the particular toolkit your champion has. For example, champions such as Xerath and Lux benefit from being further away in a fight, but champions such as Morgana, Karthus, and Fiddlesticks must stay in the middle of a fight to be most effective with their abilities. If you're at the rear, keep an eye on your flanks in case an enemy champion attempts to approach you from this direction.
Mages tend to benefit more from levels than from gold, though gold is certainly very important in reaching their potential. Some mages such as Morgana, Mordekaiser, and Vladimir are able to easily clear waves of minions and collect the gold from them, but good players on any mage champion should know how to best approach farming gold from minions.
Lux
Why This Champion Stands Out
Lux has extremely strong long-range abilities that allow her to zone and pressure opponents from a safe distance. Her ultimate allows her to snipe opponents from a long range for very satisfying kills.
My Thoughts
Lux plays well as a support, but I find she really shines when played as a Mage. She’s an extraordinarily safe champion due to her long range and she brings a lot of utility to her team. But nothing is quite as satisfying as her ability to dish out extreme-range damage with her laser ultimate, giving her the opportunity to attempt steals on Baron and Dragon from a long range and snipe out low health players. The trait I’ve found so appealing about Lux is her consistent snares and her slowing field. In teamfights, and especially in chases (or escapes), she can control entire zones extremely effectively. If her team is being sieged at their towers, she can easily wave clear full waves with her ultimate, and both slow and clear the alternating waves with her slowing field and snare. And if her opponents try to dive, a well- placed binding can turn the fight entirely around.
Very few champions directly counter her at all stages of the game, so she’s generally a safe early pick for a mage.
Ahri
Why This Champion Stands Out
Ahri rides the line between assassin and mage with the mobility to quickly close on targets and the sustained damage to stay near teamfights.
My Thoughts
Even after several rounds of nerfs, Ahri is a truly enjoyable champion for me. Here's what makes her good:
Her ultimate allows her to teleport to a nearby location three times in rapid succession. This is very strong for escaping and for getting in range of an opponent, but even better for landing her other abilities.
Because of her strong damage output and mobility, Ahri can not only avoid incoming skillshots with ease, she can also bring down many opponents with a full ability combo. All of her abilities are skillshots, so you have to be comfortable with this, and I recommend turning on quickcasting to play her
effectively.
In tournament play, Ahri with Teleport and Flash has been popular and effective, in large part due to her ability to effectively split push (as she can clear waves quickly and can dash away with her ultimate when caught).
Cassiopeia
Why This Champion Stands Out
Though she lacks mobility and long range, Cassiopeia’s short range power is devastating.
My Thoughts
Cassiopeia was my second highest played champion in Season 3, and here’s why:
Where Kassadin forces you to learn to be aggressive, Cassiopeia forces you to learn to stand your ground and not run away from fights. With mana and well-placed poisons, she has among the highest sustained damage outputs in the game – she can go toe-to-toe with virtually anyway who stays within range.
But when I say that she teaches you not to run away from fights, I don’t mean you shouldn’t be moving. If she lands her poisons she will move dramatically faster and her opponents will be slowed significantly (especially with a Rylai’s Crystal Scepter purchase), allowing her to kite away from opponents while maintaining damage on them, as well as chase even very fast champions.
Cassiopeia has only a single targeted ability, Twin Fangs, but one cast of this isn’t very strong. However, if her opponents are poisoned, this ability has an incredibly short cooldown, allowing her to act like a machine gun towards her opponents. Because both of her poisons are skillshots, and because timing is critical, this means that she is also great for learning to land skillshots and getting used to quickcasting mechanics.
Her weakness is her lack of mobility and her somewhat short range, particularly on her Twin Fangs and her ultimate. Like a snake, though, getting close to her can result in a devastatingly quick death. Cassiopeia is normally played at mid lane, but I’ve played her very successfully at top lane and bot lane
Assassin
Assassins strike quickly, often from darkness, killing their opponents. Often best when waiting in the flanks, they excel at ambushes and hit-and-run tactics. They are likely to build items similar to either mages or marksmen though they tend to excel at close-range combat. Good examples of assassins are Akali, Fizz, Kassadin, Kha’zix, Rengar, Talon and Zed.
Assassins are designed to quickly kill engage and kill enemies that lack survivability. In other words, targets with low health and low armor or magic resist may be ideal targets. All assassins have dash, blink, or gap-closing mechanics that allow them to quickly get in range, and may also have a crowd control to keep their opponent from immediately reacting.
Nearly all assassins have tools that allow them to reliably escape. For example, Talon’s ability combo often ends with his ultimate, which grants him temporary stealth and allows him to run away from a fight. As of Season 4, the only champion listed as a primary assassin without a strong escape tool was Nocturne, who also happens to be the only assassin that easily builds to safely stay in the front line rather.
Like carries, assassins can come from different primary roles, particularly mages and fighters. Unless assassins have an extraordinary gold lead (either from champion or minion kills), they may transition to another role or be very careful about how, where, and when they enter skirmishes and team fights (usually to burst down a carry in the rear).
Assassins are uniquely vulnerable to being targeted and burst down by enemy teams. Because they tend to perform best by focusing heavily on damage items, and because their damage requires them to move close to their targets, they walk a fine line between wrecking their opponents and being wrecked themselves.
I’ll illustrate this with a personal anecdote. Early in Season 3 I was enjoying Kha’zix and decided to play him heavily in ranked. Though I did objectively well in most of my matches, I went on a losing streak that dropped me from the top of Gold 3 back down to Gold 5. When I studied exactly what was causing me to lose games, I found that I was often misjudging a single late-game fight or ambush, either by going in too early or not backing off when I should have. Because our opponents knew the highest damage player was down, they either won the game or made critical objective plays such as Baron while I was down.
Because of this, I believe that the key factor in winning games as assassins is learning when to stay out of a fight and for how long.
Kassadin
Why This Champion Stands Out
Kassadin can move rapidly across the map with his riftwalk, able to close in and kill nearly any vulnerable target.
My Thoughts
Almost completely opposite of Lux is Kassadin, a heavy mage who relies on getting in close and bursting opponents down before getting back out. I don’t have as much play time with Kassadin as any of the other champions on this list but I’ve really enjoyed playing him due to his extreme mobility and ability to easily push most mages out of mid lane. Kassadin is extraordinarily safe against all but a handful of champions who can lock him down (such as Pantheon).
If you want to force yourself to be aggressive, Kassadin is your pick. If you want to learn the roam around the map to pick up kills, Kassadin is also a great way to start. If you want to be able to see teamfights from a whole different perspective – one where you can dance around the perimeter, get burst damage out on the ideal target, and often back out and wait to do it again – Kassadin is also awesome for this.
Kassadin’s primary weakness is physical damage assassins, as well as marksmen who can survive his burst and can lifesteal between his volleys. If you’re a marksman going against Kassadin, consider continuing normal attacks on him when he engages rather than running away (which allows him to wait out his cooldowns and burst you again). While you won’t necessarily win if you’re not doing well on items, you’ll almost certainly lose if you attempt to flee but can’t get to safety quickly.
Fizz
Why This Champion Stands Out
Fizz is the definition of slippery. He is able to stay near teamfights and frequently engage in them, using his abilities to get out of even some of the worst situations.
My Thoughts
Fizz is one of the most mobile champions in League, and he packs an enormous amount of damage. On top of this, he can jump onto his trident to avoid nearly every ability in the game, he can run directly through minions without needing to path around them, and he has a longer-than-normal attack range for a melee champion.
In the early game, Fizz can struggle to farm minions if he’s harassed by his opponents. But with a little bit of ability power, he can engage softer opponents the moment he hits level 3, bullying them out of the lane or even killing them.
Later in the game, building a Lich Bane and some ability power allows him to assassinate soft targets with ease, and his mobility allows him to get back out of a teamfight once he’s done. From here, he can wait in the perimeter to engage once his cooldowns are available.
Fizz is among the highest damage champions in League, but he does have a higher skill and game knowledge requirement than many other champions (such as knowing when to use his pole jump to dodge abilities).
Nocturne
Why This Champion Stands Out
Nocturne can travel across a large area of the map to hit a vulnerable target with his ultimate. Unlike most assassins, he can be comfortably built and played to stay in the front line and initiate for his team.
My Thoughts
Nocturne is one of my recommended junglers. His passive and Q give him great jungling speed, allowing him to quickly clear and move on to ganking. He is generally very survivable, and if he’s ambushed, he has a chance to escape thanks to his spell shield.
But the main thing is his ganking potential. Because his ultimate allows him to travel to a target from a significant distance away from them, he can move into a fight from locations that are less likely to be warded. Even if the location is warded and his opponents see him, he can often still cast his ultimate and engage them anyway. He's great for picking off low health players, and he's generally strong for ganks -- on top of everything else -- because of his targeted fear.
Fighter
These are stronger and often more defensive champions. They tend to be melee-range or short-range champions who deal most of their damage when they are standing next to a target. Good examples of fighter champions are Irelia, Garen, Riven, and Darius.
Like mages, fighters encompass a wide variety of champions in League of Legends. Some deal primarily single-target damage, such as Warwick, while others deal more multi-target damage. Some bring very strong crowd controls, such as Riven, Nasus, and Tryndamere, while others bring no crowd control at all, such as Master Yi and Fiora. Not all of them are purely melee-range, as is the case of Urgot, who plays similar to other fighters such as Yorick, but is technically a ranged champion.
In the current environment, the majority of fighters build significant survivability at the expense of damage. Melee fighters are often in the most dangerous position in skirmishes and team fights. If an