Running head: EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES

Effective Strategies

Block: D

Gage Portelance

Mr. Koshman

2018, January 22nd

The season 8 META is still being decided, but there are clearly some strong strategies to use at

the moment. The highest win rate champions are as follows in this order: Sona – 54.15%,

Malzahar – 54.06%, Singed – 53.83%,Warwick– 53.35%, Shyvanna – 53.10%, Taric– 53.07%,

Janna – 52.96%, Yorick – 52.94%, Vayne– 52.71%, Kindred– 51.60% (LolKing (2018, January

19th). Charts & Statistics - League of Legends. www.lolking.net/charts).

Sona is strong because of the very powerful AOE (Area of affect) healing and shielding along

with her high damage of Hymn of Valor buffed by Power Chord. That damage is able to poke

out the enemy laners to win the lane and do massive damage late game. Sona’s W ability, Aria of

Perseverance, provides a strong heal and shield in an AOE around her to her teammates. This

combined with the Summon Aerie rune which is powerful right now due to its low cooldown and

high base damage allows Sona to be annoying to play and win against. Malzahar is a champion a

play occasionally, but may need to start playing more since he is a super strong pick right now.

The reason he is so powerful is all because of his E ability, Malefic Visions. This ability is a

DOT (Damage over time) affect with a strong scaling and high base damage so it is good all

game. Combined with Aerie’s cooldown reduction on spell hits, and his W ability Void Swarm

doing 300% damage to enemies affected by Malefic Visions and the sub rune Scorch adding

more DOT damage early, makes Malzahar implausible to beat in lane. To top off Malzahar’s

power, his ultimate, Nether Grasp, keeps the enemy targeted stuck in place for 2.5 seconds which

in an ADC (Attack damage carry) centered game right now, is amazing. Singed has over time

become stronger and stronger due to frequent buffs to his sustain in lane and overall tankyness.

With runes like Aerie or Aftershock, he can be very tough to kill in lane and most of the time he

will just be able to free farm with no trouble. His Q, Poison Trail, allows him to clear waves fast

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with the potent DOT damage and also provide him with a dangerous protection to ganks (Gang

Kills) and death in general. Late game is when he really shines with his absurd tankyness and

team disruption. His E, Fling, can get an enemy squishy killed instantly by the rest of his team,

especially if he flips them into his W, Mega Adhesive, which stuns them. On top of that, his

Ultimate gives him bonus mana regeneration, health regeneration, and movement speed. I

occasionally play Singed, although I am not the best at him and I also do not think he is fun, but

he is a good pick so he could be useful to me. Warwick has just recently surfaced as a good pick,

but he has always been a strong champion. His early to mid-game is solid due to his ganking

potential and his overall rounded kit. His W passively give Warwick a large movement speed

and attack speed buff while running towards an enemy who is below 50% health and these

bonuses triple while the enemy is below 20% health. This allows Warwick to get to any low

health target anywhere on the map very quickly, especially with the key rune Predator which

give Warwick another movement speed buff for even more mobility. Warwick’s Q ability, Jaws

of the Beast, is highly useful in the right hands. It is a single target ability that procs on-hit

effects and heals him. If held down will move Warwick behind the enemy target allowing him to

stick to the target, this also synergises with his E ability Primal Howl. His E is a channeled

ability that give Warwick 35% damage reduction while channeling and if either Warwick recasts

the ability or waits the entire duration of 2.5 seconds, then it fears (Makes enemies walk slowly

away from Warwick) all enemies around him in an AOE. Finally, his ultimate, Infinite Duress, is

probably one of the best ultimate in the game. It is a straight shot ability that launches Warwick

forward at a distance based on his movement speed and if an enemy champion is hit, it then

locks them down for 1.5 seconds while Warwick does damage to them, the first 3 hits proccing

on-hit effects. I have fun while playing Warwick so I might try to use his current power to my

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advantage. Shyvanna is strong Jungler that I do not play, but have trouble playing against and

will need to look for good counters to her so that I am able to beat her. She is an ad bruiser who

is very good at taking objectives and ganking while having high damage early and late game.

Her Q Twin Strike allows for high ad damage and her ultimate ability, Dragon’s Decent, allows

for great gank and team fighting potential. Her ultimate passively grows Fury which replaces her

mana. Her passive grows over time and auto attacking grows it faster. At 100 Fury Shyvanna can

use her ultimate which sends her forward, stunning all enemies hit and bringing them in the

direction she uses the ability in. Kha’zix is a good counter to her so if I ever come in contact with

a Shyvanna then he is who I’m going to play. She can also be countered by taking her red buff

early on since she does not have mana, therefore blue buff is not valuable for her. Taric is an all-

round good support. He has a shield, heal, stun, and a nice team fighting ultimate. All of his

abilities are casted twice, once on him and a second time on the last target he casted his E,

Bastion, on. His Q ability is his heal that affects all allies in an AOE around both him and his

linked Bastion target. His W is a skill shot stun that, after a short channel, stuns all enemies in

the indicated area. His ultimate is a giant AOE circle that after 2.5 seconds gives all allies

affected 2.5 seconds of complete damage invulnerability. This ultimate is very good at

complimenting ganks and tower dives and can also save a team fight late game. Aerie is also

affective due to all of his abilities being target casted, so the shield is applied to whoever Bastion

is targeted to. Janna has been extremely powerful for a long time due to the past season being

largely oriented around supports with heals or shields. Janna is probably the best shielding

champion due to her E ability, Eye of the Storm. This is a single target shield that when casted

on an ally, will give them attack damage allow with the shield. This is useful on the ADC in the

bottom lane which Janna is always near. On top of this powerful shield, Janna has an ultimate

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ability that can completely guarantee that her allies will not die. Monsoon pushes all enemies

back when initially casted and create a large healing circle around her that gives her team an

enormous amount of health back. The META (Most effective tactic available) does not favor her

as much but she is still powerful. So if I ever get stuck with the support role than she might be of

use to me. Yorick is a champion that nobody really recognizes as a strong champion until they

face him. He is able to push lanes and take towers extremely fast with His Q empowering his

auto attacks and his passive ghouls and ultimate, Maiden of the Mist, being able to kill and push

the lanes without Yorick even being there. His Q empowers his next auto attack, healing him and

if it kills a unit it will make the unit drop a grave. Graves are his passive and whenever his Q is

on cooldown he can cast it to summon Ghouls from all the graves around him. These ghouls

attack the target Yorick is attacking and can leap at an enemy if Yorick hits them with his AOE

skill shot, Mourning Mist. He can also lock down enemies so his ghouls can kill them by

trapping them with his W. This ability creates a ring wall around the targeted area that can trap

enemies inside for easy attacking. His ultimate summons a creature that spawns ghouls from

nearby killed units and empowers Yoricks auto attacks when he attacks the same target as it.

This can be placed in a lane and it will push the lane until it dies and Yorick does not have to

stay with it. Vayne is a pretty dynamic ADC that can easily kill some of the best champion in the

game due to her built in true damage. Her E, Silver Bolts, is a 3 stack passive that when procced,

will do a small burst of % max health true damage on the target. True damage ignores all

resistances and % max health does damage based on the enemies maximum health pool. This

allows her to destroy tanks which can completely deny the enemy team of a lot of their crowd

control and survivability. I will need to watch out when playing tanks against a Vayne, and rather

I should play assassins that I am comfortable with. Kindred is a champion that has been pretty

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under powered since release, but recently there has been some build that have surfaced, including

one that I made, that has brought power to them. I will definitely be able to play Kindred in an

effective way that will help me be victorious. Kindred’s main strengths come from her passive

and synergy between abilities. Her passive marks jungle monsters that when slain will give a

stack on their passive. Additionally, Kindred can mark enemy champions for stacks as well

allowing them to choose their targets. These marks empower the rest of Kindred’s abilities. Their

autos attacks gain more range, Q provides more attack speed, W deals more maximum health

damage, and E does more missing health damage. These champions are powerful and should

either be played to climb the latter easily or I should watch out for them in my games so that they

do not defeat me.

There are champions that I regularly play that may have counters or other champions that they

counter that I can use to my advantage. Kha’zix’s main counters are Rengar, Shaco, and Lee Sin

(League of Legends Counter (2018, January 19th). Kha`zix.

www.lolcounter.com/champions/khazix). Rengar counters him mainly because of his passive.

When Rengar is in a bush he can leap out at a target with an auto attack, which leads him into the

rest of his very high damage combo. Kha’zix relies on bushes to get around the map with his

evolved ultimate which allows him to go invisible when entering a bush. To fight back against a

Rengar I will need to make sure I have lots of vision in as many bushes as I can to make sure I

am safe to enter them. Shaco counters Kha’zix in sort of the same way as Rengar. Shaco can

place boxes down in bushes that can fear and deal loads of damage to the target. If Shaco knows

where a Kha’zix is, he can set up a trap in a bush waiting for him to enter it, which is an easy kill

for the Shaco. Again, to fight Shaco there just needs to be vision of many bushes. Lee Sin is

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different in the sense that he can beat Kha’zix at one of Kha’zix’s main strengths, early game

dueling. If the Lee Sin lands his skill shot Q, Sonic Wave, he then can cast Resonating Strike to

dash to the enemy and use the rest of his abilities. This combo does massive damage early due to

Lee Sin’s high base damages. If playing Kha’zix I will need to figure out where the Lee Sin is so

that I can avoid any duels that I will not be able to win. Another champion I play a lot is Camille.

She mainly gets countered by Fiora, Jax, and Poppy (League of Legends Counter (2018, January

19th). Camille. www.lolcounter.com/champions/camille). Fiora is able to use her W, Riposte,

allows Fiora to completely stop Camille’s E ability. Camille’s E, Hookshot, allows Camille to

latch to a wall and leap from it, stunning the first enemy hit. Fiora can cast Riposte while Camille

is lunging at her to stun Camille instead of the reverse. To get around this a Camille needs to bait

out Riposte before using their E. Camille’s main source of damage is her Q combined with her

auto attacks. Her Q, Precision Protocol, empowers her next auto attack then after that auto attack

and 1.5 seconds, empowers the next auto attack for massive damage. Jax’s Counter Strike ability

allows him to become completely invulnerable to auto attacks for 2.5 seconds and then stunning

all enemies around him. He can negate almost all of Camille’s damage with this so to get around

this I will need to either wait for Counter Strike to be used before going in, or canceling it with

Hookshot so that I can get my damage off. Poppy has an ability that stuns all enemies that try to

use a dash or leap ability in its area of affect. That is its only use so she will always use it when a

Camille tries to use Hookshot. The most effective way to get around this would to probably just

not fight her until she uses this ability for someone else. Kindred is the third and final champion

that I play very frequently, also another jungler. As Stated previously, they are oriented around

their marks and being able to successfully acquire them. Kindred is weak against Lee Sin, Jax,

and Xin Zhao (League of Legends Counter (2018, January 19th). Kindred.

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www.lolcounter.com/champions/kindred) all for the same reason. All of them have a very strong

early game presence and are hard to duel as Kindred due to them being reliant on getting the

mark to be able to do damage. All three of the champions also have a quick jungle clear time

making it difficult for Kindred to get her jungle monster marks. My best bet is to just not pick

Kindred into these champions and if I do get stuck playing against them then I will need to play

safe and just try not to die.

The tactics and power of champions and certain matchups may change in the future, but as of

now these counters and champions are what should be followed for maximum success. More

importantly, the META that is forming seems to be favoring me and my playstyle so climbing

the latter should not be too much of a challenge.

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Bibliography

League of Legends Counter (2018, January 19th). Kindred. Retrieved from

www.lolcounter.com/champions/kindred

League of Legends Counter (2018, January 19th). Kha`zix. Retrieved from

www.lolcounter.com/champions/khazix

League of Legends Counter (2018, January 19th). Camille. Retrieved from

www.lolcounter.com/champions/camille

LolKing (2018, January 19th). Charts & Statistics - League of Legends. Retrieved from

www.lolking.net/charts