League of Legends (LoL) has proved itself as one of the most popular and biggest games in the esports industry to the point that there are several major and minor leagues held around the world. Also known as League, it is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games.
One of the reasons why the League became so popular is its fine level of play. The game is played by teams with five players on each side. Each player also controls a character called ‘champion’ who has unique abilities and styles of play.
All of the champions can become powerful by collecting experience points (EXP), purchasing items, and earning gold. When playing the game’s main mode, Summoner’s Rift, the players must find a way to infiltrate the enemy’s base and destroy Nexus, the main structure at the heart of the base.
Note: Gold is earned after destroying structures and killing enemies.
Even though League of Legends is one of the most popular video games in the industry, you will need a lot of time and skill to master the game.
As one of the largest video games in the esports industry, there are more than 150 champions available. You can unlock them through playing or simply buying them using in-game currency. The champions are also classified by classes and subclasses.
Controllers
The controllers are tasked to assist their allies with potent utility and keeping the enemies at bay. They are capable of amplifying their teammates’ power to become the strongest class in team fights. Controllers usually start by assisting the marksman. Over time, controllers can lend aid to their entire team. The subclasses of controllers are catchers and enchanters.
The catchers are popularly known for locking down opponents and creating intense zones of threat. However, they are not as reliant as enchanters. On the other hand, the enchanters focus more on amplifying their allies’ effectiveness by defending them from incoming threats. The only downside is that they are often fragile and can only cause low damage.
Fighters
Also known as bruisers, they excel in close combat and can deal with huge damages. Among their key strengths is that they can easily secure kills within their range. However, they struggle to achieve their goal once disabled by a huge crowd of enemies. The subclasses of fighters are the juggernauts and divers.
The juggernauts are melee titans who focus more on small bursts of tanking hits and movement speed. They are also the only subclass that can deal and take a huge amount of damage. While divers prioritize damage over survivability. Most of the time, they attempt to overcome their main weakness of being a fighter by having increased mobility.
Mages
The mages possess great reach and ability-based area of effect damage and crowd control. They specialize in magic damage and tend to focus on killing prime targets in combat. Mages can deal well with marksmen but are easily shut down by assassins who can bypass their spells. The subclasses of mage are battlemage, artillery mages, and burst mages.
Commonly known as Warlocks, Battlemages can get into the middle of the fray, seeking to wreak havoc, and burn down opponents. They also have significant defensive capabilities that range from sustaining life to defying death.
What makes burst mages different from other classes is that it focuses on singling out vulnerable targets by locking enemies down and following up with devastating damaging attacks. When at their strongest, they can unleash maximum damaging effect.
Artillery mages are known as the masters of range and can attack from great distances. However, they are also severely punished when the enemies succeed in trapping them down because of their limited mobility and extreme fragility.
Marksmen
The marksmen are often referred to as ranged champions whose powers are mostly coming from their basic attacks. With their reach, they can land massive continuous damage even from a distance. The marksmen can also take down even the toughest opponents and even secure map objectives. The only downside is that they are extremely vulnerable to burst damage. Since this class is effective and straightforward, there are no subclasses.
Slayers
The slayers are highly mobile champions who focus on single target burst damage. They kill priority targets and retreat in a short period. However, they lack resilience and struggle in defeating tanks and fighters. Slayers are particularly effective against softer targets, marksmen, and mages. Its subclasses are the assassin and skirmisher.
The assassins are known for infiltrating enemy lines by quickly dispatching high-priority targets. Since their skills are more on melee attacks, they put themselves in dangerous situations to unleash defensive tricks.
Skirmishers, also known as duelists, only target nearby enemies because they lack high-end burst damage. What’s great is that they are always armed and can survive in the fray.
Tanks
Tanks are known for being tough melee champions who can sacrifice damage for much powerful crowd control. Their purpose is not to actually kill opponents but disrupt and divert their focus allowing the team to lock down specific targets.
What makes tanks among the most loved class of champions is that they can handle burst damage well and have the ability to defeat mages and assassins. The only downside is that they can become vulnerable to continuous damage. The subclasses of the tank are wardens and vanguards.
The vanguards are offensive tanks that specialize in bringing the action. They also target enemies who are out of position allowing their allies to unleash devastating damage. While the wardens are defensive tanks who hold the line by persistently locking down enemies. Most of the time, they keep their allies out of danger.
Specialist
The specialists are champions that do not fit into other classes. It is made up of diverse types of champions that are either dominant or have secondary attributes. A huge number of zone controllers are in this class.
The zone controllers are champions who can telegraph zones and are dependent on cooldown knowledge.
Knowing the different champion classes can help you a lot in strategizing your moves. This is also one of the reasons why most League of Legends players use different classes or champions depending on the tournament they are playing or how their group is made up of.