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League of Legends: Best Solo Queue Champions

All the best champions to help you dominate solo queue.

It's not easy jumping into solo queue in League of Legends. It's often an absolute car crash or personalities and playstyles, which often results in some seriously questionable decisions. What's always important to focus on, though, is yourself and your own performance. There's no point blaming everyone else, as you won't improve. Once you start taking ownership of the match result, you'll soon start climbing the ranks.

But which champions will give you the best chance of ranking up? Well, we've put together ten of the best solo queue champions in League of Legends for a variety of skill levels, across a variety of roles. We hope this will give you a decent selection to choose from when it's your turn to lock in a champion.

Again, we'd like to reiterate - by no means is this a definitive list. It consists of a variety of champions for all sorts of playstyles and abilities. League of Legends is home to hundreds of champions, so if your favourite champion isn't included, or a meta-breaking hero isn't on this list, please don't count them out!

Irelia - Top

If you’re looking for a top lane champion then there aren’t many better picks that Irelia. An excellent duelist, she can outplay many other champions in one-on-one fights while also becoming a serious pain to deal with in the later stages of a game.

Her passive, Ionian Fervor, gives her some big advantages over many of her top lane opponents who rely on shields as part of their kit. She can tear through shields easily and then also look at reflecting damage back at them using Defiant Dance.

Meanwhile, Bladesurge makes it easy for her to dash towards minions to ensure she gathers gold efficiently, or it can be used more aggressively on opposing champions to look for kills and keep her elusive. Her ultimate has some huge playmaking potential as well, as it can entrap key targets for you and your allies to follow up on.

Cover image for YouTube video5 Quick Tips To Climb Ranked: Irelia

Video by Mobalytics

Darius - Top

Combining significant tankiness with the damage potential to match, Darius is a champion who can take control of the top lane and then share that advantage with the rest of his team in other lanes to lead them to victory.

Darius has the power to disrupt his lane opponent with a constant damage over time bleed effect that makes winning trades easier, while forcing them to back more frequently to heal. You don’t need to put yourself in a dangerous position to apply Hemorrhage either if you mix in his long-range abilities with auto attacks.

By the time you reach level six and unlock Noxian Guillotine, Darius’ kill potential skyrockets and if you take that power into the latter stages of a match you can become a totally unstoppable force.

Ekko - Jungle

An immensely strong pick in the Jungle right now, playing Ekko has basically no downsides. He delivers strong ganks thanks to his great mobility, he's got great jungle clear, and he can burst enemy champions in seconds with a devastating combo. Oh, and he's a slippery champion too. With his rewind ability, he can slip in and out of fights with ease.

Ekko doesn't mess around if he's going for a gank. Timewinder starts things off, with a nice bit of damage and the potential to slow. This goes well with Parallel Convergence, as well as Phase Dive which will simultaneously zone the enemy, deal damage, and close the gap. Then it's a case of Chronobreaking to execute, or to escape if things go pear shaped.

When looking for ganks, it’s useful if you have other champions in lane that can assist with additional lockdown skills, as the slow from Timewinder is fine but usually not enough to guarantee kills. Nevertheless, Ekko’s strengths as a Jungler are currently unrivalled.

Cover image for YouTube videoEkko Jungle: Ultimate Carry Guide (How To Win More & Climb)

Video by Virkayu

Kha’Zix - Jungle

If hunting for kills is your type of playstyle, then Kha’Zix should definitely be on your radar for the solo queue. Undoubtedly a strong jungler, his true power lies in the ability to roam around the map assassinating champions who are out of position or casually sitting alone in lane.

Once you reach level six and acquire Void Assault, you can turn invisible to better sneak up on opponents when looking for ganks. Just make sure your allies don’t overplay their hand and make it look obvious that you’re waiting in the wings to pounce. You have some strong crowd control skills to slow opponents with the Voidreaver’s Unseen Threat passive, plus the long-range Void Spike attack. You also have Leap to jump to targets if they try to flee from you.

A play maker with incredible map presence, Kha’Zix is an ideal pick for the solo queue.

Related guides:

Zed - Mid

Another champion who thrives on assassinating his way through the enemy team is Zed – and he currently sits as one of the best picks for mid lane too. His laning phase is decent, but what you’re really picking him for is the potential to obliterate soft targets on the opposing team.

He can actually farm minions quite safely using Razor Shuriken and Shadow Slash, especially if you use Living Shadow to better position his ethereal clones within minion waves to keep Zed safe from retaliation damage.

As soon as you hit level six, though, the opportunity to look for kills kicks into gear. Death Mark is a powerful tool to use to engage onto a weak opponent, allowing you to set up some ruinous burst damage – some of which will trigger again when the mark expires. His passive, Contempt for the Weak, makes it even easier to finish off weakened targets.

Cover image for YouTube videoZED GUIDE [FULLY DETAILED] SEASON 9 - Combos, Tips & Tricks, Best Outplays - League Of Legends

Video by Blawcky

Kassadin - Mid

Kassadin is a strong pick for mid lane as he brings with him a lot of anti-mage power that can give him an advantage over the other magic damage dealers who he’ll come up against.

Some of that power resides in his passive, which quite simply reduces all magic damage he takes by 15%. Another is in Null Sphere, which can interrupt channels and provide him with a magic damage shield. The rest is focused into his Force Pulse ability, which is charged up by any and all spell casts within his vicinity. When it reaches the maximum number of charges, he can unleash a wave of damage in a cone in front of him.

It's Kassadin's mobility which turns him into a real threat as the game progresses and there's more movement between the lanes. This is down to his Ultimate, Riftwalk, which allows him to teleport a short distance a total of three times. It's phenomenal for closing the gap when ganking a lane, closing the gap when finishing off a target or escaping from a sticky situation.

Kai’Sa - Bot

Leading the way in bot lane is Kai’Sa: a versatile and adaptable champion whose varied kit grants her a lot of power as a damage dealer. She’s a safe pick in many team compositions too, ensuring she will fit in with many different choices your teammates could make.

Kai’Sa has the ability to throw out some serious damage with skills such as Icathian Rain. It’s sporadic targeting means you'll have to be smart with its usage, and ensure that you're not missing enemies or minions too often.

Upgrading Supercharge also gives you some elusiveness in team fights if you find your opponents are regularly looking to take you out first. The brief invisibility isn’t incredibly powerful, but it can go some way to give you room to reposition into a better spot for engagements.

All in all, Kai'Sa is a brilliant all-rounder who does a lot of things very well. Her kit is versatile enough to adapt to the needs of her team, so that's why she gets a spot on this list.

Lucian - Bot

An all-rounder Marksman who can excel in the laning phase and become a serious threat in the later stages of a match, Lucian is a solid pick for solo queue. He also doesn’t suffer from many particularly strong hard counters, so, again, you should feel comfortable picking him into many opposing team compositions.

Though Marksmen champions are generally weaker at the start of a match, you can take advantage of his early game poke potential through Lightslinger to gain small edges over your opponents. Combine one of his abilities with this free double auto-attack and you’ll quickly find yourself ahead in trades against your lane opponents. Lucian can also turn on the jets and go looking for kills with Relentless Pursuit.

As the game lengthens and you build into more items his damage potential escalates dramatically. The Culling then becomes a destructive ultimate when positioned correctly to chew through the enemy team.

Cover image for YouTube videoKai'Sa Guide: Mechanics, Skills, and Tricks

Video by Mobalytics

Pyke - Bot

Carrying as a support is tough, they say. And while it’s true that some champions do have a harder time than others giving their team the edge they need to secure a win, someone like Pyke directly contests that idea.

His ability to catch enemy champions with Bone Skewer and Ghostwater Dive means you’re in a prime position to direct the engagements for your team. Pull an important or squishy champion on the opposing team towards you and your allies will see that as a clear indication to follow-up to remove them from the fight.

If you’re worried your team are not going to get the job done, Pyke’s ultimate Death From Below can be used to execute low health champions, while ensuring everyone involved in the kill receives the full gold reward. You can even re-cast the ability immediately in this example too, potentially wiping out the entire team with your own menacing hands.

Thresh - Bot

Similar to Pyke, Thresh is another support champion who can proactively encourage your allies to make plays if you successfully catch out opponents. He’s definitely not as durable as some of the game’s strongest tanks but can hold his own amongst foes while the rest of the team a free to go on a rampage.

Death Sentence is the ability you’ll want to master, as this will latch onto any target you hit with it and allow you to zip towards them. Follow it up with Flay and you can hold an opponent in place long enough for your team to take them down.

There’s some huge play potential in two of Thresh’s other abilities: Dark Passage and The Box. The former can pull allies into team fights from difficult positions or save someone trying to flee and engagement. The latter, meanwhile, can completely disrupt an enemy team if they are caught within its walls. Being able to orchestrate these moments by yourself makes Thresh an excellent solo queue pick.

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James Pickard

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