The Top 10 Solo Queue Titans

Some people think that in order to climb the ladder in league of legends it takes practice, hard work, dedication, and a lot of time.

That's all fine and dandy but is there another, easier way?

Although those are all partially true, there are some champions that you can abuse, so that you will get that gold, platinum, diamond, or challenger ranking you so desire, without too much skill or effort required, those champions kit allow them to excel in the solo queue environment for simple reasons that have to do with communication.

In this guide, I will describe what to pick, why to pick it, and how to play it, in order to have a high win ratio in any division. From bronze to diamond, these champions work not according to me, but according to common knowledge.

TL;DR:If it seems too long just read the first  paragraph of each champion,which pretty much sums up pros and cons, but I would really reccomend reading them all, because it will give you a nice idea on how to play and counter certain solo queue troublemakers.

Let's start introducing the God tier champions or, how I like to call them:

The Titans of Solo Queue

                                                                                                                                       
10. Warwick: The new jungle made a lot of junglers rise on popularity due to the feral flare, but the one that gained more out of it in solo Queue is of course the warwick, an almost completely Auto-Attack reliant champion that farms the jungle extremely fast with his attack speed and his passive, he took afk farming to a whole new level, this has it's counterparts though, the fact that you can ignore him and go straight to ganking and ruining lanes, without him able to react, is in fact, his bigger downside.

What makes him strong in solo Queue: The fact that he does not rely on ganking, you need almost no skills to farm your jungle, it sure is a nice boost if he can get a gank off, but the fact that he can get a feral flare with immense speed is what makes him such a strong pick, having one of the most versatile build path, he can itemise for every comp, and scale hard into the late game, with his only bane being the early game, which is not punished by most junglers in solo Queue, nobody wants to go into the enemy warwick jungle and duel him, there are too much risks, if it turns out badly he can chase you down with his team having vision of you, but if you can kill him you might be able to shut him down only for a while, it just is a tough match up in solo Queue and not worth trying to counter-jungle most of the times.

Build path: Get your flare and then itemise depending on how fed you are, versus an ad heavy team, go for the frozen heart or the sunfire if you are fed, against mages though, prefer the visage or veil(preferably veil, to get a longer ult duraton), or the wits end(a great warwick item)if you are fed enough, you can always buy boots depending on the enemy team's cc and damage, never forget that if they have a split pusher, warwick can probably duel him if you get a blade of the ruined king, this item is so broken on warwick that if you can manage to buy it and be able to get away with it, you have so much damage potential since he is so auto attack reliant he can almost duel ANYONE!

Tips/Tricks:

1. Don't let your team affect you: your team will probably whine because pre - 6 you will not be able to gank almost any lane with your poor kit, they will be right if you ask me, hey! You just picked warwick, you just straight away told the enemy team that they will have a gank free laning phase until level 6, unless they go completely apeshit and dive your team, so be patient and understand that in order to help you team you need to be able to have your flare and ult asap, no matter how selfish it might sound, if they get too annoying just mute them and communicate with pings, it works.

2. Balance your camps: As a jungle heavy champion you are one of those junglers that will clear almost every camp, where junglers like lee sin will clear only the camps near the lane they camp, so always keep in mind that you should have a path so you won't leave any easy camp behind and focus the hard ones, as the game goes on, the camps get stronger, if you kill all of them at an even rate, you will have an easier time in the jungle, if you farm 3 out of the 4, you will have a camp that is easy to grab, but you ignored it, if you let it you will take the others that got stronger and ignore the one that is a smaller level because you didn't clear it out before, so it stayed low level.

3. Finish your madreds fast, but your wriggles faster: Getting the razors will definetely help your clearing speed a lot, but if you can get wriggles faster, it will benefit your gold gain as well, it might seems that getting that one more camp before you buy your wriggles is worth it, but the more you delay it the more you miss out on his damage AND 40% extra gold gain from jungle camps.

4. Use your ult often: Low cooldown, no reason to not abuse it, it deals decent damage and let's your team focus on a target easily and fast, don't over do it though, when a baron fight breaks up,you want to have it up at any cost.

Do Not:

1. Go to a completely afk form: You need to farm, don't get me wrong, but if the enemy team is shoving bot lane all the time and your bot lane struggles, it's ok to go help a little by just tanking a bit of damage and letting your adc have a better road towards his lifesteal or whatever he needs to survive, what I mean is if you can avoid completely losing a lane, avoid it.

2. Don't underestimate your pre-6: Always put a point on your E, and you might end up being lucky, your early ganks suck, but if a dive or a fight happens and you happen to be near, don't miss the opportunity, warwick has only 2 skills, no reason to watch the camps getting killed, move your cursor towards the lanes near you often, if you see something fishy, don't hesitate to show up, it's unpredictable and could work out in your favor since warwick has great sustain and will be full hp all the time.

3. Ult into a quicksilver sash: Check your enemy items, if you see a sash, make sure it's popped or don't ult the target at all, go for the other carry if possible, wasting a key ability like that is devastating some times.

The reason he doesn't get to score any higher in the list is the fact that the meta currently revolves around aggresive junglers, so unless there is a master yi style of jungler in the enemy team, the possibilities of the enemy jungler ignoring you and getting too many ganks early with you being unable to react is high, a good enemy jungler will abuse the fact that he can force a 3v2 or a 2v1 in a lane almost all the time.



9. Udyr: A few months earlier, Trick2g introduced a new way of playing udyr, a way that was introduced before by many junglers (diamondprox and many solo Queue junglers) which included an all star kit jungler, with no problems, a super farmed jungler that went into every lane killed everything took the farm(Minion Tax™) then farmed his jungle with his godlike sustain, in other words he inspired the jungler ego system, although this system was perfected by trick (other junglers were not THAT selfish). It's a fun and interesting way but it promotes a bad and selfish way of playing the game.

What makes him strong: The fact that you farm everything and everyone, you control your game and every lane by simply running up and down, whether it's a good or a bad thing, it's up to each player, trick managed to literally destroy everyone like this in his way to challenger, can you? If you want to take matter into your own hands you might still lose to a fed adc if they peel for it and you can't tank for your team enough(since you have all the farm)then it's basically a lost game, so if you think you can pull this off and you are more of a loner, this champion is for you.

Build path: I really shouldn't say much about this, all you need to know is that you can just search for trick2g guides and videos, he will explain the way and the items way better, after all, almost all the other champions have a certain way of being played but the build remains the same, here we are talking about a completely different playstyle, a new way of playing the game, so no, I am no the right guy.

Tips/Tricks and things you should avoid is again things you can see from trick,not me,I rock at tiger udyr,but there is no place in the meta for him right now.

The reason he is number 9 has nothing to do with the fact that it promotes an unhealthy playstyle which I really hate, it has to do with the fact that in order to do something like this you need the correct mentality, the skills, the patience, to not give a damn about your team but yourself, so it really is hard to master it and even if you master it, the in game decisions that trick makes are sometimes so different from standard that I doubt a lot of other human beings have the capabilities to do so, if you think am wrong, you can put this higher on your list, but I feel that number 9 suits it perfectly fine.


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8. Akali: This assasin got nerfed a lot when he was at its peak and people were fast to count her out of the strong champion pool, BIG mistake, a good akali is still able to wreck faces, she might not have the snowballing power she used to have, but a farmed akali needs a zhonyas and a gunblade to turn a fight around.

What makes her strong: The fact that she has so much burst mobility, she has stealth and can almost out duel anyone in game with her lifesteal/spellvamp, she is a really fun champion to play with as well, plus she can turn the fight around by baiting let's say a syndra ult into a zhonyas, but she is very suspectible to stealth detection and early game ganks, so you need to ward a lot and farm in order to become a menace.

Build path: Core should be the gunblade into the zhonyas, and then choose wisely, get mercs if they have heavy cc and try to maximize your damage at every point of the game, don't go for late, if you feel like void stuff will do wonders for you early on, get it straight away, that's the main point of akali, to be relevant throughout the game.

Tips/Tricks:

1. Always for the carries: You are not a syndra or a ziggs, you do not to melt through the tanks to get to the back line, you need to jump in and cause trouble to the enemy team with your zhonyas

2. Ask for lane trade if possible/needed: If there is a pantheon top and your midlane can handle him better, then ask for a trade, there is no way you can handle a pantheon early(actually there is,but it is way too hard)on your own, but he is manageable.

3. You are not kill hungry early: People have the impression that akali needs to get fed in order to stay relevant, this is true some times,but only when the enemy carries are super fed, if you are having a normal game, farming is the way to go,people underestimate how much a farmed akali can do in solo Queue.

Do not:

1. Go for the target that is not reachable: People tend to go for the kog maw because ''he is the adc''but when he has a braum and an elise backing him up not a lot you can do. My point is if you can kill that midlane first until the fight breaks out go for it, later on the fight he will be left alone and you will see the opening, but diving into the enemy will just waste your zhonyas and shroud to absolutely nothing, you should always focus the squishies, but they can't protect them all, go for the open one.

2. Forget farming or trading: Your match up may seem difficult,but you better stay even in cs than try to fight him, when you go even in farm, you are ok with almost anyone, but don't let him go away, if he tries to attack you,you have the upper hand in terms of fighting cause he is gonna be in your side of lane, you can shroud and have the upper hand in that trade.

3. Forget to punish weaker laners: There are laners that are even weaker than akali early on, those laners should get punished because if anyone is able to duel akali, he will single handedly ruin her day in the top lane, none should be able to 1v1 you straight up ahead and if he does, you messed up somewhere.

Finally, I would like to show the reasons of the 8th place, although she is a scary assasin in solo Queue. If she can't help her team by killing the carries then she is useless and because she is in the top island, she can't really help out bot lane until 6 level or a dragon fight so, if your team feeds you have no power, you have not a miracle comeback ultimate or you can't gank early to prevent a snowball, so you are dependent on your team to play an ok game in order for you to carry.

Another thing to mention, if you want to see the power of akali, just watch westrice, even if it's pre nerf akali, this guy just has the correct mindset, just write westrice akali on youtube and check him out.

7. Fiddlesticks: Whenever I think of a champion,that can win a fight,without any help from his team, without anything but one ultimate, without requiring even the least effort from his team, it has to be fiddlesticks, a fed fiddlesticks can turn a losing a game upside down by one good ultimate in 3-4 members with a zhonyas to back him up if he gets focused.

What makes him strong: The flash into flash ultimate potential is immense, he and warwick have the greatest sustain in jungle(I just go amp tome + pot,and I don't even need to use the pot,it's mainly for dueling), whick makes him a terror for jungles without stuns, but are there any junglers without stun pre 6? There are not a lot, but they exist, even with a stun, a well played fiddlesticks should be able to at least force away from his jungle any opponent, with some proper help from his team, he also excels in soloing dragons with nothing more than a pink ward and a spirit stone(he can do  it with less,but spirit stone just benefits him so much) and he can do the same with baron later on the game, but with a higher risk-higher reward.

Build path: Okay, you want the jungle item for the gold, do not argue, do not whine about skipping it for a zhonyas or anything, because if you want to have a steady income and mana sustain(in case you don't get your own blue) you need to have the spectral wraith, the cooldown works with your ultimate plus it scales well into late game with 80 ability power, then you get your zhonyas, a good choice that surprisingly I don't see a lot is the abyssal+passive combo that diminishes 30 mr of any enemy instantly, it gives you some nice magic resist as well and will help to boost your ap carries damage a whole lot as well as yours, for a DoT ult this item is super cost efficient, fed options after your core(zhonyas)should be mejais or rabadons, while more tanky options should be rylais-liandrys combo, he is very versatile when it comes to itemisation so be creative, nobody can succeed with any champion by following a single item path.

Tips/Tricks:

1. Use your flash wisely: All you need is a perfect engage,your flash is a tool for that and should not be used otherwise unless it's completely necessary.

2. Fiddlesticks biggest enemy is vision: If they see you ulting, you are either gonna be disabled, or they will simply run away, either way, it's a disaster, make sure to get pinks and a red trinket to make sure that you scan the bush you ult from, especially in high elos, fiddlesticks biggest enemy is vision wars, if you fail in vision war and get spotted, you are probably gonna lose the game straight away by gifting a 4v5 in the enemy team, fiddle is seperated from the team most of the time and should not get caught at any point.

3. Time your zhonyas: As long as you see them pointing at you get in the middle of them and press the hotkey, you should let them commit to you because if you zhonyas without them hitting you or with them near the edge of the circle,they will just run to your other teammates,it takes practice to know when to properly use zhonyas,but you can definetely see the difference between a good and a bad zhonyas user.

4. Max fear and buy mobilities if you are a heavy ganker: If you are gonna gank a lot, don't care about the lack of damage because the maxed fear makes up for it big time, you get so much free time to just damage him with your ally/ies that will get you the kill most of the times, it will slow down your jungle a lot though, so buy mobility boots and max fear only if you are a heavy ganker.

Do Not:

1. Forget the zhonyas is NOT only for your ultimate: The hourglass can serve you in many other ways,whether it is for nami to come closer and heal you to win that trade off or to deny the death mark of zed, you should know that you are a mage, and mages use zhonyas in a LOT of ways, you should still try to keep it for fights, but with such a low cd, the chances that you won't have it for a teamfight are low.

2. Farm a lot: Fiddlesticks enjoys jungle farming a lot because he is capable of doing so, that does not mean that he should gank only with his ultimate, red buff with a fear and a silence can work wonders even against a pushing renekton. Fiddlesticks has a ganking and farming kit, so you should find a way of farming.

3. Ult in front of your opponent: I have seen this, I really did, if you are about to ult do it in a bush, there is no reason for you to be ulting in sight of the enemy, they are not stupid.

Fiddlesticks gets to number 7 because if he gets behind he can become really useless, but this comes to balance his immense power when fed, for solo Queue a high risk champion does work sometimes but there are champions with more convincing results(less risks) and more answers to counter jungling and falling behind in general, all in all a great pick for a skilled player, but tough to pull it out, also he is a champion that can't be ignored so that granted him some extra points over warwick.

6. Rammus: OK(pun intended), this guy is like pre nerf top gankplank, only a few knew about him, but if you knew how to use him, you could abuse the hell out of him, rammus has maybe one of the scariest engages-ganks in game, making him unpredictable often, or too often I should say.

What makes him strong: He is one of the few full tanks, but has some decent damage on his kit as well, but aside all that, the fact that you can enter a lane with more than enough speed to catch the enemy off guard and at the very least get a flash out of him is so frustrating to play against, people just get caught all the time, he has not the strengths of an amumu in a full team fight, but if utilised well, his early ganking forces so many flashes and kills that your team should win early trades anyways, what makes him strong is that other junglers are required to use ultimates or have very situational ganks in order to succeed, whereas rammus has easy ganks every once in a while with the cost being mere jungle farming.

Build Path: To be honest the new ancient golem seems promising for rammus(I tried it lately, a meh item), You can get some nice early damage with sunfire cape being your best option, or even thornmail could work against ad heavy compositions, you should choose veil over visage for your magic resist option because remember, you are an initiator, you need to get to the enemy lines, so it's easier to do it with a shield to protect you from a single spell, so you are more likely to land that taunt.

Fun video: Watch the God of Gods showing you the perfect way to engage as rammus, MUST WATCH if you haven't already

(Credit to jayce amumu for the highlights upload)

Tips/Tricks:

1. Tank what you can: you might be the tank but you shouldn't try to dive just because you got some armor or because you feel like it, do it if you are way ahead or you are sure that you will pull it off, that means that you know that the enemy jungler is top or mid and he was seen the last 5 seconds.

2. Maximize your style: If you are ganking non stop, max your E to ensure that you will get kills, if you want to jungle and gank both max your powerball, and if you want to farm a lot max your defensive ball curl.

3. Mobility boots: If you want to have twice the succesful ganks, buy this after your first jungle item you will benefit so much out of it, it's scary for the enemy team.

Do not:

1. Fall into a pattern: Be creative, the only way to not succeed your jungle ganks is if you keep on ganking the same lanes after you kill the same camps every time, try to mix up your jungle path as much as possible, the unpredictability of rammus is what makes him what he is, the fact that he can gank almost any lane with great success should not make him a sitting duck, it should make him a roaming menace.

2. Forget the lenses: People tend to forget, but if there is one guy that needs to clear wards it is rammus, you sure are one of the best ward bypassers but it's the difference between forcing a flash or a kill, you get so much value out of every single gank, that you should maximize it's potential all the time.

3. Forget your farming: Ganking is great but that doesn't mean you should ditch your jungle, you should gank a lot but before you go to another lane, farm a jungle near that lane, this way you secure the camp and after the gank you can go back there, it's a win-win, so unless the lane is struggling really hard, a good way to do it is by farming 1-2 camps after every gank.

He gets number 6 cause the next five are forces to be reckoned with, the next five can lose the game 10-20 kills, and still comeback from a single catch, he is an insanely fun champion and should not be overlooked, but the other five have so much going for them that they are just better in a fight than rammus, rammus lacks teamfighting? Well no, but the other five wreck faces when it comes to teamfighting.

5. Rumble: The thing with rumble is that he gets nerfed all the time, or he would easily land in the top 3 of solo queue, he used to have a crazy ultimate, that could burst any team(it still can,but not in the same way,in a DoT way)in seconds, but the constant nerfs(reasonable nerfs if you ask me)made him an OK pick, just imagine that they nerfed him so much, and he still is an ok pick.

What makes him strong: The fact that he has a game changing ultimate, if you notice, every champion in my list from 5 to 1 have a crazy solo Queue ultimate and this is not random, like the rest, rumble has his own way of melting through the enemy life bars in his own way, but right now, he needs to land all his skills in a perfect way(which is often not that hard in solo queue) in order to get the right results, teams tend to group up, and when you got an aoe Dot ult, you know it's your time to shine.

Build Path: Many people like or used to like spell vamp, spell vamp comes with no cost as you can spam your abilities, but right now, with the cooldown reduction on will of the ancients, which makes rumble more susceptible to his overheat, it's not a reccomended choice in my opinion, I would reccomend the haunting guise sorcs early, just to get your DoT damage up, then, you can head for your rylais and finish your liandrys, or if you feel like more tanky, go the amumu semi-tank way(SC&Abyssal&Rylais) there is no limitation, if you want to go nuke, go for it! You should be sure that you will land your ult and abilities in a good way to maximize your survivability and damage ratios, late game I would reccomend to get your deathcap at some point, your late game ults can decide a fight, and a deathcap would make it this much easier, without putting you necesserily into trouble.

Also I did not test that enough to have an opinion, but rylais-liandrys seem like a good opener, deserves a try if you are a commited rumble player.

Tips/Trick:

1. Take your time: Unlike all other AoE ultimates in this list you do not have to take a personal risk to use your ultimate, so until you throw it stay back, take your time and when you see an opening(them groupped or coming towards you from the same direction) just fire it in a way that A) Gets most of them B) blocks their path towards and your team, I know it sounds hard, but with enough practice, you could land a zoning damaging and with multiple enemies in ultimate.

2.Bully your lane: You are made to bully, but not to all in, you can't kill an early magic resist shyvana in a straight up ahead battle, but you can wear her down and then go in for the kill, no reason to trade hits, a good trick is Q towards her and when they try to answer, W away, if they over extend, give them another Q mixed with your slows to ensure that they can't just walk up to you, but be careful, there are certain counters, so be aware that you can't bully in every match up.

3. Build accordingly to the enemy: if they hane an ad squad, sunfire and zhonyas could help you(after your penetrations) to ensure that you will a) get another round for your abilities,which could be crucial. b)Tank for your carry a bit more.

Do Not:

1. You are not John Rambo: Although it seems like a very...sexy idea to just ult and Q into them and just melt them, you cannot engage fights with less member than them, because no matter what you will still be able to damage them, I agree, but if there is no one to finish them off, they will either heal up or kite your team to death with their advantage in numbers.

2. Be afraid of the glass cannon rumble: If the enemy team is squishy,if they refuse to get an aegis,then don't be afraid to go full glass cannon against them, against squishy targets, rumble MELTS EVERYTHING, he can literally pentakill if the enemy team does not build magic resist, so if you see them go full damage, do not go tanky,go full damage and answer back, you will be the first dealing damage with your ultimate from range, so you will have the chance to finish them off first with the rest of your kit.

3. Over-Think: Rumble players have a lot of time to throw their ultimate, but if you start thinking over and over again for where to throw it, it might be too late eventually, so when you see an ok opener, throw it, maybe it's not the 3-4 man ult you were wishing for, but if it still hits the carries or they key targets, then you are good to go.

Rumble could place higher if it wasn't for the huge nerfs, but 5 overall seems like a pretty decent place for having a gamechanging ult and a mediocre kit with bullying potential.

4. Wukong: Wukong has a weak early game against certain champions, but synergizes and has so many power in his ultimate and his mobility that a good wukong player, can turn around a solo Queue fight single handedly, he can get shut down early,but in the right hands,he can get his cleaver, a sunfire or a randuins,and pull a miracle ult on 2-3 people,completely shutting down the fight.

What makes him good: He has a crazy ult that can be used both for cc and damage, he can basically shred down a lot of easy targets with his stealth into Jump initiation and even as a tanky champion, a cleaver is enough to make your adc's life a lot easier, plus, the fact that in solo Queue, teams tend to group up a lot in a huge meatball(no adc being behind or leblanc hiding in bush to assasinate,everyone is just a meatball) you can get some really crazy cyclones and end the game right away, if you are behind playing top, you can still rely on your split pushing pulling a lot of people top, while you make your escape with your stealth tricks, and you still can be a menace that way, until you get some items.

Build Path: Wukong is one of the champions that have an amazing kit for both trading and teamfighting, but unlike others, he can itemize for both and still be able to perform whereas champions like jax can only itemise for split pushing early on or teamfighting, with wukong jungle you want to get your elder, as the true damage procs so well with your abilities and later on you can go brutalizer depending on how fed you are you might finish the cleaver early as well, if you want you can go straight to full tank mode and provide CC for your team, wukong is very versatile and will work both ways, but in solo Queue, having a little bit of damage yourself works most of the times.
For top lane you want to get a ravenous hydra (more AoE and lane survivability) or if you feel confident, skip it to rush a cleaver into last whisper and then proceed to whatever you want, tank or more damage.

Tips/Tricks:

1. You are your ultimate: Remember, wukong relies on his ultimate to hit a lot of people, or the important ones(carries). If you can't land your ultimate you are nothing more than a bruiser like pantheon. Wukongs potential comes out of getting the perfect ultimate, shredding and cc the enemy so your team has an easy time cleaning up.

2. If you want to split push, do it right: If you want to split push, you should consider triforce, wukong has crazy mobility, and a triforce adds more to it, whether it is chasing or trading,nor even running from your enemy, wukong can do all that better with a triforce, he gets so much out of it for personal duels or mere utility, that the only reason is not a main item for him is the fact that his ultimate only synergizes with the low attack damage and the movement speed, and since most people play wukong for his ultimate, there is no reason to build triforce.

3. Jungle wukong requires your jump to be leveled up: You get attack speed for the camps plus AoE damage, a lower cooldown so you might get it off twice in a gank, plus the fact that you will gank with your red means that with higher attack speed, if you can move and auto attack properly you can utilize this to your advantage for a far more succesful gank, where in comparison with your Q where you get some armor shredding and burst, it is good, but will only work against extremely squishy targets!

Do Not:
1. Afk farm top: If you choose to split push it's ok, but remember, your strengths are so much better in a teamfight that if you decide to take top tower instead of contesting dragon with your team, you will probably get a 40%-60% trade in terms of an overall trade, whether you just can go in, ult and clean that fight in favor of your team, you can still split push later on when you will get more out of it.

2. Hesitate: If you are about to go all in, don't think twice, wukong is suspectible to displacements and needs to engage first to stop those displacements from occuring or at least delay them,if you don't have a better engage waiting will just result in someone getting caught and from where you could ult for a 5v5 fight, you will now be one man down and the perfect timing will be long gone, you will have to pull a miracle ultimate to save your team, so avoid yourself the trouble, go for it when possible, don't allow your team to get caught, catch the opponent!

3. Forget your kit: Many wukongs just flash in engage or straight up ult, you have a skill that can basically make you a stealth bomber,use it!, when you are about to engage, hide into the bush, stealth up, go near the enemy carries and BOOM! It is so overpowered consider the fact that red upgraded trinkets are so overlooked and even when purchased, they won't see you coming so, it takes massive pink warding to shut you down.

He gets number 4 for a crazy ultimate and mobility, but he can't score any higher because his ultimate can be situational and cannot have a big effect if you are not fed or your team can't follow, it requires skill to land a good ultimate and you can't afford to miss it, that's what makes him a risky pick nevertheless.

3. Talon: Talon's power comes out of the current meta,where we see ziggs, orianna, syndra(although this is not completely true,talon counters a large amount of picks) and all the athenes champions in the mid lane, he is a definetely a counter to all those mages, with his silence jump he can win any trade, with the con being that pre 6 he is suspectible to ganks since after the jump he has literally no escape, and is exposed, but with some decent map awareness, a talon can completely shut down his lane, gank every lane and carry the game on his own.

What makes him strong: His kit allows him to outplay almost any lane opponent, in solo Queue when you win your lane hard(something that only a few can succeed like talon), the enemy team feels so demoralised watching a talon wrecking faces that they will try to play around you, but if you don't focus that talon down, you already lost, and it's so hard without stealth detection and he is still so slippery with his movement speed that he can jump in kill a carry and because solo Queue has no
communication in fights he will slip away and have a second go, this is huge, talon needs team effort to be countered, but he is manageable by a good team, the thing is that in solo Queue is much more likely to get fed, and a fed talon can get to your carries and do mean things to them, and get away with it.

Build path: Start with one or two dorans,depending on how your lane goes, brutalizer as soon as possible, last whisper is your friend, and a bloodthirster never hurt anyone,even if it's nerfed, it still is a strong item for assasins, finishing your cleaver is nice since he has a lot of ways to proc it's passive, mobility boots always, you need to gank and make it back fast, no item is better at this than the mobility shoes.

Tips/Tricks
1. Map awareness: You need to look out for potential skirmishes early on, your kit is so strong that you can win a lot of fights by straight all-in an enemy with your jungle or another ally nearby

2. Mobilities are your friend: I can't stretch enough how good this is if you can get it early on, this is pure terror for the opponent.

3. Last whisper can ruin any tanks day: If your team is AD based, an early whisper can break through the armor heavy composition of the enemy.

4. Ward and trade efficiently: Go in deal damage and get out, it's easy to do this with talon versus most matchups, this is your goal, if you can go for the kill do it, just make sure to have a way out in the back of your mind just in case something turns out badly, your ult is your greatest tool in that matter

Do not:

1. Go aggresive against early game champions: pantheon has insane early damage, but if you play smart, gank a lot and just farm your wave, you can go even in lane and be way more useful later on, this goes with any champion that has early power, talon's power is way better than just early game to consider trading.

2. Be passive against easy match-ups: Talon can farm and fight at dragons early on, but if you can abuse that match-up, do it! There is no reason letting that ziggs free farm when you can pull your combo off and make his life harder in lane, with a small cost, after all, he is gonna smash your face if you let him!

Talon has the tools to get ahead in solo Queue and even a not so fed talon can focus a carry down in a fight, due to the lack of communication in solo Queue, so the fact that it takes not a lot of things in order to be succesful, parks him at number 3.

2. Amumu: This cute and sad mummy currently sits at the top of the win rate charts on solo Queue(Source)and whatever I say about him is little, his solo Queue potential seems limitless being an almost uncounterable opponent for teamfights post 6, his ultimate makes him the absolute terror of solo Queue, even from behind, all you need is to press R with 2 or more enemies inside and let your team do the rest while you deal damage and peel for your carries later on the fight.

What makes him strong: The fact that in solo Queue teams tend to group up for small skirmishes all the time, dragon fights, baron fights, even for buff fights, amumu's ult is the perfect tool for a successful engagement, if you are a team with communication you will mention splitting at the fight, but in a solo Queue game, splitting most of the times ends up in 3 for 0 or 2 for 0, since there is no communication on when to go in, so amumu shines.

Another fact that should be taken into consideration is that the possibilities that the enemy team has a jungler capable of shutting down an amumu(like a skilled nunu or lee sin)are low.

Build Path: There are 3 ways to build amumu, the nuke, the off-tank and the Full tank, in Solo Queue I reccomend people to always go for the semi tank, since the nerfs to amumu's damage made him to scale only a bit, I am of course referring to the Mercs into spectral wraith, sunfire, abyssal, rylais build, the build that deals damage and provides all around enough stats to survive a fight long enough for you to dish that damage. Sometimes mostly in lower elos you can get away with the nuke build(spectral wraith into whatever ap, I really hate this build so I'm not gonna go in depth), but if they focus you down(since you get caught easily and have no resistances) you are just paper, the tank builds speaks for itself, you get your mercs, your ancient golem, your randuins, your veil and be a happy tank, you will still apply cc and some damage,but tank amumu mostly works if you are not fed, because if you have a good fed midlane or bot lane, a 3-4 man snare should be enough for them to finish them off, the tank mostly works around the fact that amumu's cc alone is enough to make him noticable.

Fun Video: Surprisingly, this video comes before even seasons existed, but nevertheless, it shows what a perfect bandage ult does, this is probably one of the craziest bandage into ults you will ever see and it comes from the now commentator but former clg member, Kobe.

                                                                                                

 Tips/Tricks:

1. Almost always go for the semi tank build: It's easy to utilize, it deals decent damage and gives enough resistances to help your team clean up easier and faster.

2. Look for that bandage: If you see the opportunity for a great ult do it, just make sure to ping and see that your team follows, amumu is not a champion you should be passive with, he is an aggresive jungler for 2 out of the 3 parts of the game, the only time you should stay passive is early game, or until you pull off a gank or two.

3. Bot lane is a gift from the gods: Always try to gank botlane post 6 at least once, if you manage to get a 2 man ult and feed your adc, that's a great ult to start your mid game.

Do not:

1. Go all in by yourself: Unless you are a fully fed nuke amumu that can burst through anything, there is absolutely no reason to bandage into ult alone the enemy team, either it is out of frustration or out of fun, avoid it, amumu is a good pick as long as you maximize his strengths in game, if you throw or get impatient, the game will most likely be a defeat.

2. Patience: As I already mentioned, being impatient is harmful, what I mean is, sometimes the enemy team won't over extend or you might have a bad day with your bandage tosses or maybe even your flash ults fail for some strange reason. Keep it together, no good will come out of a bad engage, if it takes 5 minutes for a good bandage to connect then take 5 minutes, mute your team if they flame and focus on getting that one golden engage that will win the game! It's all about that one fight.

3. Try to pull the impossible: Having amumu in solo Queue is already an unfair advantage, there is no reason to pull a miraculous 3vs5, when you can just wait, even though you have high confidence because you are fed or whatever the reason, you should always go for the 5v5's, this is where amumu shines!

To summarise, amumu is a good pick with the only con being that he might be countered by some extremely specific team comps or a skilled jungler.

1. Katarina:This girl is wild! She is number 1 because she fits in every team comp and requires basic knowledge of the game to have a decent success with her. We all know that katarina is one of those champions that single handedly can change the tides of any game, her passive allows her to be a threat even when you are far behind, if let's say that fed lee sin gets someone low with his Q-R-Q combo you can throw your bouncing blades into everybody, then jump to the low hp, get your resets and start to wreck faces.

What makes her strong: Solo queue is a bunch of random people playing together for the first time, katarina is not picked into lcs for the simple reason being: It takes teamwork to shut down katarina,an lcs or challenger team won't struggle to stun her once or twice and kill her. This example can be best shown in Coast's early Season 3 games, when they were still in the LCS, they tried to pull out katarina twice but they failed.

But in solo queue you can't rely on that nami to land the bubble or that thresh to land the hook or the flay because if they miss, it soon becomes a disaster, remember, no matter how badly the game is going, you can always ace the enemy team as long as you keep farming decently, they can stop you once, maybe twice, but eventually, all you need is that one fight where you will find your way to slip into the enemy carries and end the fight straight away.

Build path: Depending on your skill, your confidence and your match-up start either boots+ pot or amp +pot. You should almost always opt for double penetrations(that means haunting guise and sorc shoes) you get early damage that scales decently into late, but another good strategy against the now nerfed athenes, is the deathfire grasp rush, since all you need is one kill, this allows you to focus down one target and then proceed to wreck everyone.

Tips/Tricks:

1. Mejais: If you are getting fed early will end the game in 10 minutes.

2. Remember,you are the last hit not the initiator: If you have something like an amumu,no need for you to engage unless you are completely sure you are gonna get your resets.

3. Teleport is your best friend: Get that tp on bottom or top that will help you destroy the lane completely, keep an eye for mainly botlane because if you can get two kills early, is everything that katarina needs to win the game.

4. Stay calm: If there is one champion that can turn around everything in a matter of seconds it is katarina.

5. Warding: I can't stretch how important is carrying 2 wards at least almost all of the time, vision, jumping, safety, everything, wards are your tool for a succesful laning phase.

Do Not:

1. Rush mejais first except if you are 100% sure you will get those kills: People tend to rush mejais since they think it's potential is limitless. It is, but it's not an item to start with, too risky and no reason, if you are fed, getting it later into the game won't affect your snowballing too much.

2. Run up and down all the time: there is no need to panic and search for kills all the time, one might gank 5 times and get 1 kill and another might get 3 kills out of 2 ganks, everything is on the timing, when you see that lucian flash is down, or the enemy botlane pushing, this is your time, you can still dive them, but in solo Queue this is so random that most of the times they have to be low health to pull this off, if you keep running up and down without any success just calm down, start csing and have a look on the map, be there ONLY when they need you, some times when they have an early game team it's good to roam to avoid them snowballing, but always stay calm, see the creep score, if you can be ahead or even you are great, if you are 10 to 20 behind you are fine, more than that though is bad.

3. Gank alone: Let's say you ping that the enemy bot lane is pushing but your team does not seem to react, you stand in the bush and wait for the leona to engage but they don't, you start to go in and they still don't react, this is the time for you to back off, if they see you and don't react they probably don't want to, so you just pack up and leave, come another time, maybe they need some items or maybe they are too low, if you go in alone you are probably gonna die.

All in all, the best mid laner champion for solo Queue, will secure a lot of wins by simply farming and ganking, no need to outplay or outfarm your opponent, no need to pull a 5 man shockwave or hit a bunch of bombs and zone your opponents, all you need to do is be there the right moment with your blades ready to cut through anyone.


This champions have the power to abuse solo Queue more than any other in my humble opinion, if anyone thinks that there are better champions or build paths, I would really like a healthy conversation around the matter, but this champions are definetely the easisest way to climb up if you are a lazy guy, like me :)