Understanding Team Compositions: The Siege Composition

The siege composition is perhaps one of the more difficult team compositions to pull off. Using long-range wave clear, the siege composition slowly chips down objectives while having some disengage handy for the inevitable enemy engage. A well-played siege composition is extremely oppressive.

Core Picks
Picking up from the intro, we can identify two key components that make the siege composition successful: long-range wave clear and disengage. Here we'll have a look at three core picks that have one or both of these components in their kit, as well as looking at some classic champion synergies.

Anivia
Anivia is an obvious first choice for any siege composition; her kit was built for it. Her ultimate provides impressive wave clear and zone control while her wall, Crystallize, and stun on her Flash Frost provide adequate disengage. Should the enemy be successful in taking down Anivia, her passive, Rebirth, can bait enemies into overextending for a kill.

Champion Synergy: Nautilus
Anivia has huge burst damage when she can land her Flash Frost and follow up with Frostbite, however the skillshot is slow and can be tricky to land. While she has some tools to facilitate this combo, pairing her with a high CC tank can make laying down the damage trivial.

Typical Combo
Anivia: Crystallize
↓
Nautilus: Dredge Line
↓
Nautilus: Staggering Blow
↓
Anivia: Flash Frost
↓
Anivia: Frostbite

Blocking off the enemies escape route with Crystallize, Anivia makes it easy for Nautilus to follow up with Dredge Line. While the enemy is locked up it's easy for Anivia to land the rest of her combo, putting out some serious damage. Worst case scenario: the enemy burns Flash.

Caitlyn
Similar to Anivia, Caitlyn is a common pick in a siege composition. Her oppressive early game thanks to her high range means she can quickly secure first tower blood and rotate to midlane to siege. While the midgame is often when Caitlyn is at her weakest, the siege composition fully compensates for that by early grouping and forcing objectives while the enemy is behind. Her Yordle Snap Traps provide excellent zone control and force the enemy to play where the siege composition wants them.

Champion Synergy: Zyra
Zyra can easily match Caitlyn's early game and make the laning phase a true struggle for the enemy bot lane. Packing some impressive early damage, Zyra and Caitlyn can quickly dominate the lane and secure the tower. While neither champions have groundbreaking peel, between them they have enough damage to negate that. Death is the best CC.

Typical Combo
Zyra: Grasping Roots
↓
Caitlyn: Yordle Snap Trap
↓
Caitlyn: Headshot
↓
Zyra: Deadly Spines
↓
Caitlyn: Piltover Peacemaker

With proper communication, Grasping Roots gives Caitlyn just enough time to lay a trap down on her own, setting herself up for a big headshot. This lockdown also provides enough time for Zyra's plants to (hopefully) dish out some damage of their own, while the duo follows up with the rest of their kit, either securing a kill or forcing the enemy to base.

Gragas
At first glance, Gragas might seem out of place compared to the other two picks. Looking closer, however, reveals Gragas is an excellent addition to the siege composition thanks to the large amount of disengage present in his kit. Both Barrel Roll and Body Slam provide solid peel for the team, and Explosive Cask is an excellent disengage tool if things start turning south.

Champion Synergy: Anivia
Anivia is already on this list, but the champion synergy is enough to be noted here. The pair complements each other to disengage a fight and turn it around, picking up easy kills and forcing the enemy to retreat.

Typical Combo
Gragas: Explosive Casket
↓
Anivia: Crystallize
↓
Gragas: Body Slam
↓
Anivia: Flash Frost
↓
Anivia: Frostbite

While appearing similar to the earlier combo with Nautilus, here Gragas and Anivia are looking to turn around an enemy engage. Explosive Casket is used to isolate a single enemy, knocking the rest of their team away while Crystallize blocks off their escape. From then on, it's business as usual. Gragas provides the CC while Anivia lands the rest of her combo.

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Supporting Picks
Here we look at some picks to round out the composition. While not as versatile as the pick composition, the criteria for slotting a champion into a siege composition is still quite inclusive. We're looking for champions that can provide some crowd control or disengage, or accelerate the early game when the siege composition is weakest.

Lee Sin
Lee is an excellent pick for any team composition, but the siege composition uses him to compensate for its lacking early game. Lee's swift clears and high mobility outpace the enemy jungler and get the ball rolling for his team. His ultimate, Dragon's Rage, provides excellent single target peel if someone gets the jump on his team.

Karma
Karma can bring the pain early game with her Mantra empowered Q. Once the team starts grouping she can empower her E, Inspire, to provide her team with some protection and a burst of mobility to disengage a fight or rotate around the map.

Gnar
Gnar's utility to the siege composition is twofold. His excellent splitpush potential means he can force the enemy team to think twice before engaging on the four-man mid push. Secondly, teleporting into the action with his rage bar full, Gnar can use is ultimate - aptly named Gnar! - to swing a fight in his team's favour, buying them time to fight or flee.

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Final Thoughts
The siege composition is where we start getting into harder territory. A good amount of macro knowledge and communication is needed to effectively pull it off. A slight mistake can cost the team a huge amount as the enemy forces team fights the composition can't win. However, when played effectively the siege composition is extremely oppressive, forcing the enemy to hug their towers as they're slowly whittled down.

Sources

[1] League of Legends Wiki (2017) Anivia | League of Legends Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Anivia ↩
[2] League of Legends Wiki (2017) Caitlyn | League of Legends Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Caitlyn ↩
[3] League of Legends Wiki (2017) Gragas | League of Legends Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Gragas ↩
[4] League of Legends Wiki (2016) Lee Sin | League of Legends Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Lee_Sin ↩
[5] League of Legends Wiki (2016) Karma | League of Legends Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Karma ↩
[6] League of Legends Wiki (2017) Gnar | League of Legends Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Gnar ↩

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