There are now over 140 unique champions in League of Legends. It can be hard to decide who to main or which champion to pick for a specific match. If you count the ten bans in ranked, you still have 130+ champions to choose from. If you want to win ranked games, you’re gonna have to learn to carry. That’s why I’ve made a list of the ten best champions to win ranked games with.
Now, in no particular order, let’s welcome the best champions for climbing the ladder.
Taliyah
This champion has been doing well at a professional level since her release. She has done a great job of surviving patches, and was a mid-lane mainstay at professional levels for a long time. That same power extends to solo queue as well. Taliyah’s Threaded Volley boosts her outplay potential while dealing some good consistent damage. The Unraveled Earth/Seismic Shove damage is of course the bursty part of her kit with a knockback that makes it a must flash in teamfights. Finally, her Weaver’s Wall lets her block off objectives, making a baron secure or tower push much safer. All in all, Taliyah is an awesome champ for winning in rank, with great damage and battlefield control. And, with the most recent update, Taliyah now has the ability to own the jungle, falling out of mid lane priority to become a ganking queen.
Camille
Camille is quite possibly the best soloqueue champion in the game right now. She is one of the most impactful top laners in the game, and has consistently high winrates around the world. She is one of the most popular champions in the game right now. There’s so much to like about her as a soloqueue player. Great survivability on her passive, massive mobility in her Hookshot, CC included, and good single target burst on her Precision Protocol ability. Finally, her Hextech Ultimatum nearly guarantees your opponent can’t escape your onslaught. This can be used to guarantee ganks and duels, or to assassinate your opponents carries late game. Her dueling combined with assassination potential makes her one of the best bruisers and splitpushers in top lane. Also, did I mention she can jungle nearly as well?
Ezreal
Ezreal is probably the strongest ADC in the meta right now. He has the best escape available to an ADC. He also has the longest poke available to ADC’s, and right now has some incredible build paths. However, he is high skill. He has one of the weakest basic attacks amongst ADC’s, and 3 of his 4 abilities are skill shots. That, combined with incredible popularity drives his win rate below 50%. However, if you can go godlike on Ezreal, he can be played well even with a mediocre support, and can 1v1 just about any champion in the game.
Udyr
I still can’t understand why people don’t play more Udyr. In soloqueue, a jungler is often the last line of defense against weak teammates. They can save lost lanes, or focus on getting their strongest teammate ahead. Udyr is the perfect ganker for this sort of jungling. He has fantastic clear times, great invades, and incredible ganking power. Although his ability list can seem a little boring as it completely lacks skillshots, there is an art to playing Udyr well. If you can master it you can easily reach platinum just by spamming Udyr.
Aurelion Sol
Part of winning soloqueue is helping your teammates. Some champions can win despite teammates, others excel at helping them., Aurelion is the best champion for the latter. Taliyah and Twisted Fate are the only two champions that can rotate faster, and Aurelion’s powerful Stars deal loads of damage, with his Voice of Light being a great finisher (or pushback). Aurelion is a great champion for soloqueue because he can lift up his teammates. We all know that can be hard to do, but Aurelion gives you your best chance of doing it.
Xin Zhao
Xin Zhao is a bit of a feast or famine champion. If you want to win soloqueue games in under 30 minutes, he’s probably the best champion for it. He clears the first couple camps fairly quickly, but then gets to what he’s meant for. Ganking. Xin Zhao is not worth playing if you aren’t going to consistently gank. However, if you are he is a fantastic champion for it, with great ganking potential even before level 6. At level 6, his ability to isolate targets with his Crescent Guard ultimate makes counterganking incredibly difficult. If he can get a lead, he is an incredible skirmisher who can win head on fights against multiple opponents. He has weaknesses though, and if you use his Audacious Charge ability at the wrong time, you’re going to get kited, and you’re going to start losing.
Irelia
Best played in the midlane, Irelia is a fantastic soloqueue champion. Of course, there is the difficulty of playing a melee midlaner, but if you can overcome that, you can start to carry games. Her ultimate is incredible, letting you destroy just about any opponent in a 1v1. All of her other abilities bring a lot to the table too, with great mobility, damage and some pretty decent defense on her three basic abilities. Her ultimate makes her a great ganker, in addition to its obvious 1v1 potential. Although she isn’t a natural roamer, she is great at it. Her all around strengths make her a great carry champion for soloqueue.
Kai’Sa
Kai’Sa has shown up in a lot of pro play recently, and is obviously climbing ladders as well. She’s got great damage. It’s not really right to describe it as burst, but that’s what it feels like. When Kai’Sa goes in, the fight ends. It’s quick and it’s brutal as she showers her enemies with massive damage from unexpected angles with her quick moves and her ultimate. She can easily overexpose herself however, opening up some risk when playing her. But so long as you can avoid massively overdiving with her, she can dominate teamfights and turn them around in seconds, easily pulling apart uncoordinated enemy teams. She makes for a strong soloqueue ADC because as long as you can survive the laning phase she can end up carrying the late game all by herself.
Miss Fortune
Miss Fortune is a classic win lane win game ADC who has been getting really strong in the last couple of patches. She has so much AOE harass in lane that you can just pin your opponent under tower and watch them fall way behind on CS and/or be forced to surrender their tower. Spam her Make it Rain ability in lane to control a lot of space, and bounce the bullets on her Double Up for some extra surprise harass. If you opponents think it’s safe to hide under their tower blast them with Bullet Time. If your opponents aren’t dead or recalling you’re doing something wrong. Either way, you should always win lane with MF, and if you can transition that, you can climb quite well with her.
Blitzcrank
Ok, he may not actually be in the top ten soloqueue carries, but supports need a little love too. And if you are trying to climb on support (especially in soloqueue) you’re going to need a support that can start and win fights. Blitzcrank can be another feast or famine champion, as he is worthless when Rocket Grab is on cooldown. However, if you can weave your grab through to a support or ADC, whether sieging, being sieged, setting up for an objective, or just laning, you’re going to be giving your team a chance to win. If you want a support that can carry a game, it’s got to be Blitzcrank.
Who’s your go to soloqueue champ? What champion did you spam when climbing the ladder? Is there some unpopular champion that you swear by? Let us know how you got to where you are and your plans for getting higher.
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