League of Legends: Best gankers
The best gankers in the game.
Ganking is a strategy in League of Legends where you (and usually at least one ally) catch an enemy champion unawares on the map to secure an easy takedown. It’s a strategy that’s most effective during the early laning phase of the game, where the jungler or champions from other lanes can roam across the map looking for opportunities to surprise opponents and gain advantages across the map.
Naturally, there are some champions in the game who are more accomplished at this task. Below, we’ve gathered together five of the best gankers in League of Legends right now, detailed what exactly makes them so great at ganking and sprinkled in a few tips on how to be most effective with the tools they offer. You’ll be cleaning up with kills in no time.
Rammus
Bringing simplicity to the art of ganking, Rammus offers one of the most effective and easy to execute ganks in the game that makes him perfect for beginners looking to get to grips with the role. What makes Rammus so good as a ganker is the combination of two of his basic abilities.
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The first is Powerball and is what can get Rammus into a lane and onto a target with super speed. He curls into a ball and zooms right into them, stunning and slowing whoever he collides with for a short time. You can already have this ability wound up before you enter a lane so your arrival from the brush or river is even more of a surprise. The second of his vital ganking abilities is Frenzying Taunt. You can use this immediately after Powerball ends to hold your target in place even longer for allies to follow up with additional damage.
It’s important you have some backup for your ganks as Rammus doesn’t have great kill potential by himself, but he does have more than enough easy to use and hard to avoid crowd control. You can add even more once you acquire his ultimate at level six, which creates waves of tremors around Rammus, dealing damage and slowing all nearby enemies.
If there are any other potential setbacks to Rammus’ ganks it’s that they are very predictable and lack opportunities to pull off some surprising playmaking ability. That said, when an Armordillo is rolling towards you at a million miles per hour, there’s not much your target can do about it anyway. Simple but effective indeed.
Evelynn
Some of the best gankers in League of Legends use stealth to surprise their targets from the shadows. And while a great many of them could fight for a spot on this list, there are a couple who are a cut above the rest. One such champion is Evelynn, who brings strong burst damage and some reliable sticking power to her ganks.
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To be most effective, you’ll want to wait until you hit level six with Evelynn when her Demon Shade passive acquires its additional camouflage property – this enables her to enter stealth when out of combat for a brief period. From there, you can happily roam between the jungle and lanes looking for targets who are alone or have over-extended for easy takedowns.
If you catch your chosen opponent with the first hit of Hate Spike you can recast it up to three times for some powerful burst damage, especially when paired with her ultimate, Last Caress. Whiplash can also help you reach and stick to enemies with the pull and bonus move speed it grants.
Lastly, Allure can be used to offer some form of crowd control, though you’ll mostly want to use it for the slow rather than the full charm as it’s very easily to escape from the latter. It’s very helpful if the lane you aim to gank has another allied champion with some significant lockdown in it, as Evelynn is more than capable of bringing the damage to make up for a lack of stuns, roots and so on. That potential to catch targets off-guard and burst them down is where her strengths lie.
Kha’Zix
Another ganker who takes advantage of stealth abilities to get the drop on opponents is Kha’Zix. Like Evelynn, his true potential doesn’t become fully available until he unlocks his ultimate at level six, but he can thrive in the jungle until that point and then look for ganks in lanes.
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Void Assault is what enables the majority of Kha’Zix’s ganking potential. This ability allows him to go invisible for a little over a second and automatically apply his Unseen Threat passive so his next basic attack deals more damage. You can reactivate Void Assault a second time (and eventually a third time if you evolve the ability) in a ten-second window to immediately gain all its advantages again.
Another huge advantage for Kha’Zix is that he gains bonuses when he attacks isolated targets – these are enemy champions who do not have any allies nearby. Two of his abilities – Taste Their Fear and Void Spike – deal increased damage or slow for more, respectively, against opponents who have no backup with them.
With this combination, you can dish out some strong burst damage within a very short amount of time that also slows the target you’ve hit. It’s especially effective if you find a suitable opponent isolated in the top lane as you get the bonus effects from abilities and their avenues for escape are greatly reduced. However, Kha’Zix has the potential to gank mid or bot with just as much potential too, making him an all-around excellent choice if this is your prefered playstyle.
Jarvan IV
Though he has fallen off the map a little in the current League of Legends meta, there’s no denying that Jarvan IV has a skillset that can make him one of the best gankers in the game. He can be devastating from very early, but also brings additional ganking tools once he unlocks his ultimate at level six too, so you’ll want to put pressure on as fast as possible to find his value.
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Even from level two Jarvan IV’s ganks can be insane thanks to a combo of two abilities: Demacian Standard and Dragon Strike. The former allows you to plant a flag in the ground in a short radius around Jarvan that deals damage and also grants an attack speed bonus to nearby allies. Where it becomes extremely useful for ganks, though, is how it interacts with the latter ability. If you target Dragon Strike towards the Demacian Standard, it’ll put Jarvan towards the flag, knocking up enemies in its path and lowering their armour.
At such an early stage of the match, this combination can hold a target in place for long enough that your allies can help finish them off very quickly, or it’ll force an opponent to burn their Flash spell to flee. With that cooldown spent, you can then look to return to the lane shortly where they’ll be unable to find a way to avoid it.
The combo gets even better with one final piece at level six, Jarvan IV’s ultimate, Cataclysm. Once you’ve led with the initial two skills, you can follow them up with Cataclysm to create an impassable crater around your chosen target. There are ways some champions can dash out of it, but for the most part, they’ll be helpless to escape.
More League of Legends guides
- 1. Jungling - LOL - Jungling guide
- 2. Carrying - LOL - Carrying guide
- 3. Duos - LOL - Best duo combo
- 4. Beginners - LOL - Best beginner champions
Lee Sin
Lee Sin excels as a jungler with his aptitude at picking out single targets and sticking to them while also offering the potential to disrupt the entire team with a strong ultimate. Advanced Lee Sin players can even bring some ludicrous playmaking potential that’ll have you dashing around opponents to make them dizzy and picking up multiple takedowns.
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The one piece of advice you’ll want to keep in mind when ganking as Lee Sin is don’t lead with your Q ability. From far away it’s very easy to miss with the opening Sonic Wave part, leaving you unable to follow up with the second Resonating Strike element. Instead, use his W, Safeguard, to dash to an allied champion or minion close to your intended target. From there, you can follow up with the second effect on his E, Cripple, to slow them and make hitting the skill shot from Sonic Wave even easier. What’s more, if they use an escape after your initial attack, Resonating Strike will allow you to chase them down!
You can also make some wicked plays using Lee Sin’s Dragon's Rage ultimate. Swinging in with a poweful roundhouse kick, this can send your chosen target flying back into the rest of your team where they’ll be able to collapse on them, or zone out a potentially difficult opponent while also knocking up enemies they collide into. Line something up perfectly and you can obliterate the enemy team.
With even more practice you’ll be able to pull off some hi-jinks over walls or use wards as a way to bounce around targets with Safeguard too. This impressive set of abilities and a towering skill ceiling assures Lee Sin as one of the game’s best gankers.