Lanes, roles and playstyles

There’s nothing wrong with learning different roles, but for starters you should focus on one main role and one secondary role to make it easier for you to learn playstyles and matchups on that role.

You like to play most of the game alone, take damage but also deal it out
and helping your team in critical situations? Then come to the toplane.
Because the top lane is the furthest away from the bot lane and the dragon, you will often be left alone by both junglers and both midlaners. Therefore, it is important to take a champion who can survive or even win the 1v1.

• Task: Take as much damage as possible, protect your teammates and stop opponents with CC (crowd control, stuns, knock-ups etc.).
• Champions: Dr. Mundo, Malphite, Maokai, Ornn, Sion
• Against:
  • Tanks: Mostly a very dull lane, both tanks manage to kill each other hard, in this lane it is important that you last hit better than the enemy tank to generate more gold to get items to then help your team faster and better.
  • Duelists: Play very passively, try to get XP and don’t give any kills to the opponent. You will most likely be below your opponent in the farm, but that’s okay, because your job is to help the team later and win the game.
  • Lanebullies: Again, you play very passively and only try to get XP and some gold. In this lane, however, you can ask your jungler to help you, as lanebullies are usually less resilient than duelists and are therefore easier to kill.

• Task: Duelists specialize in winning 1v1 to build up their advantage and force the opposing jungler to top lane to help the opposing top laner.
• Champions: Aatrox, Camille, Fiora, Irelia, Jax etc.
• Against
  • Tank: Stop the opponent from farming, even get him out of XP range if possible. This way you can build up your advantage to get items faster and win 2 vs. 1.
  • Duelists: Here it depends very much on how well you know your champion and how well you know your opponent’s champion, because it’s hard to regain your footing if you die in a 1v1. It’s best to ask your jungler for one or two early ganks so that you can definitely win the other 1v1 fights.
  • Lanebully: Play this very passively, you may need to buy small tank items to get into XP range. You need to get your jungler to help you on top lane as lanebullies need to play aggressively to be useful, so they are also very susceptible to ganks.

• Task: Play as aggressively as possible so that the opponent doesn’t get a farm. Ideally, you should also zone the opponent out of XP range. You have to pay close attention to where the opponent’s jungler is so that you don’t become vulnerable to ganks.
• Champions: Gnar, Jayce, Kennen, Teemo
• Against
  • Tank: You will take all the fun out of the game for tanks, attack once every chance you get or throw in an ability and walk away, tanks will never get to you.
  • Duelists: Same as tanks, but try to get your jungler up early, the sooner you get stronger the more you can keep duelists down
  • Lanebully: As is often the case in LoL, it depends very much on how good you are with your champion and how good your opponent is. Kills in a 1v1 often decide this lane.

Junglers can move all over the map, have the biggest champion selection and are a very strong role in solo Q. However, it is also the hardest role because you have to play smart to know what order you want to farm your jungle in, which lane you want to help, and pay attention to the opposing jungler to know what they are doing. Overall, the jungler role requires the most knowledge about the game in general, especially in the early game, as you have the role that can move most freely on the map at the beginning.

• Task: Try to help your team early so that they are strong at the beginning and you can continue to make your jungle in peace. Then farm up to level 6 and buy the first items in between so that you can start helping your team again.
• Champions: Sejuani, Amumu, Jarvan IV, Fiddlestick, Zac
• Against
  • Engage Jungler: You have to be clear on which lane you want to gank and whether you can win the 2 vs 2 or maybe even 3 vs 3. If you’re unsure if you can win it, just keep jungling and tell your laners that you can’t help.
  • Carry Jungler: Carry junglers will usually gank the lane they can get a kill in, so always try to start a countergank in lane
  • Farm Jungler: As the name suggests, they just want to farm. Gank your lanes early and often and try to win the game with your team

• Task: Look very often for ganks but also do the jungle which is easy and fast so that you don’t lose any time. You always want to try to get as much gold as possible so that you can get items quickly, but don’t forget to leave something for your laners.
• Champions: Kha’zix, Lee sin, Elise, Rengar
• Against
  • Engage Jungler: Try to find the 1v1 fights in the jungle against them to build up an advantage
  • Carry Jungler: If you are stronger in 1 vs 1 then do it just like Engage Jungler, if you are weaker go gank your lanes and try to become relevant that way
  • Farm Jungler: Go ganking very often and in most cases you can also go into the enemy jungle and fight there 1 vs. 1

• Task: You want to farm as much as possible to get your items and levels as quickly as possible. Only give thanks if you are 100% sure that you will get the kill or farm. Then start helping your team from the midgame onwards.
• Champions: Karthus, Master Yi, Shyvana
• Against:
  • Engage Jungler: You will rarely manage to fight Engage Jungler, so go for their jungle even if they are ganking.
  • Carry Jungler: Always try to jungle so that the opponent’s jungle is as far away from you as possible so that you can be sure to farm without problems.
  • Farm Jungler: Both of you will just farm, maybe look for a gank every now and then, the important thing here is that you have to be very efficient.

Together with the junglers you have the biggest choice of champions and the most diverse playstyles, and you can help each of your teammates the most. Do you want to focus on killing the enemy, do you just want to get the gold and XP in the mid lane or do you just want to help your teammates by roaming a lot? Then become the center of the map and choose the midlane.

• Task: At the beginning you should farm a lot so that you can buy your first items and have some level. Your teamfight kit and your ultimate ability make you particularly strong.
• Champions: Anivia, Orianna, Lux, Malzahar
• Against:
  • Control Mages: Nothing should happen in most 1v1s, so try to help your jungler if he wants to gank. But if you feel good on your champion, then you can also play the midlane aggressively so that the opponent gets little farm
  • Assassins: Play very defensively, take the summoner ability Exhaust with you and buy an item early on that makes you tankier. Just try to farm and get XP in this lane.
  • Roam Mages: Always try to push quickly so that the enemy midlaner loses farm and maybe even his tower. You should not follow roams as you will be slower

• Task: Play very aggressively to get 1 or 2 kills at the beginning to build up a lead. If you can’t get any kills mid lane, you can also look at the top lane or bot lane to see if a kill is possible via a roam.
• Champions: Zed, Fizz, Talon
• Against:
  • Control Mages: try to pay attention to when the opponent is low on mana or deflection times on their abilities to go in then.
  • Assassins: Pure skill is key in this lane and knowing who is strong when. It’s best to just try to get bot lane kills because if you die in 1v1, it’s hard to recover.
  • Roam Mages: You can usually intercept your opponent when they try to roam. You will lose farm, but you will most likely kill your opponent and stop them from doing their job.

• Task: Always push the midlane in order to help your other teammates and thus build up an advantage for you and your teammates.
• Champions: Taliyah, Aurelion Sol, Twisted Fate
• Against:
  • Control Mages: Little potential to kill the opponent, but if you take good care of your mana, you can push better than the opponent and then go roaming like this
  • Assassins: Play very passively, even if it’s your job to push the lane you should always make sure that the opponent doesn’t kill you, it’s best not to look for roams here, but rather farm and keep the opponent in the midlane
  • Roam Mages: Again, always try to keep an eye on how much mana your opponent has left to assess whether they can still roam or not. Always ping your opponent as soon as you can no longer see him.

Do you want to deal most of your team’s damage? Most of the botlaners are designed to deal the most damage later in the game because you deal damage with normal attacks. That’s why it’s important for botlaners to be able to last-hit very well so that they can buy items more quickly. Positioning is especially important for botlaners, because as a botlaner you are particularly fragile and almost everything oneshots most ADCs. So remember never to walk around alone unless it is certain that nobody can kill you.

• Task: The most important thing for you is farming and last hitting, for this you also need a support who knows how to defend you. You are not really strong until you have 2 or 3 items, but then you get stronger and stronger.
• Champions: Kog’maw, Vayne, Jinx, Kaisa
• Best with Enchanter Support

• Task: Try to play the lane aggressively and stop the opponent from last hitting so that you get a big advantage on the bot lane.
• Champions: Jhin, Lucian, Caitlyn
• Best with Engage Support

• Task: Support ADC are actually also played like normal botlaners, but their ultimate ability or other skills also help your team a lot. That’s why you try to have another carry in your team with these botlaners.
• Champions: Ashe, Varus, Senna
• Best with carry supporters

  There are no “against” matchups for bot lane, as the lane is usually led by the support. It is also often said that “the support wins the lane”.

Do you want to help your carry on the botlane, not have to hitch a ride and be the strategist in your team? Then support is your role. But you’re not just your carry’s support. Many supporters are also good at helping their youngsters or going into the mid lane to gank. As a supporter you have many opportunities to help your team.

• Task: You always want to check whether one of your opponents is in an unfavorable position so that you can then engage him. Your strength lies mainly in the one shot together with your carry, so always try to look at the bot lane for an engage.
• Champions: Alistar, Leona, Nautilus
• Against:
  • Engage Support: Try to get to level 2 and level 3 before your opponent and look for engages at these moments. If the opponent goes for your carry, try to go for the opponent’s carry so that they can’t go for your carry.
  • Enchanter Support: In the beginning you won’t be able to do much, but try to stop the opponent from farming, since Enchanter Supports don’t do much damage, this should work easily.
  • Carry Support: You will have to give up a lot until you are level 6, then you can engage the enemy. Carry Supporters are also highly susceptible to ganks.

• Task: Your task is to ensure that your carry can farm without dying. You help your carry to get away or keep the opponents away from it.
• Champions: Janna, Lulu, Soraka, Sona
• Against:
  • Engage Support: Just try to stop every Engage and make it easier for your Botlaner to last-hit.
  • Enchanter Support: Very boring, few options for meaningful fights and you’re just playing for mid and late game.
  • Carry Support: Be careful that you and your carry don’t take too much damage if you want to last hitten. Carry Supporters are also highly susceptible to ganks.

• Task: You try to attack your opponents at every opportunity to stop them from farming. You must also be aware that you can’t really help your carry, but are only there for damage and CC.
• Champions: Brand, Zyra, Velkoz,
• Against:
  • Engage Support: Utilizes Levell 1 a lot to deal as much damage as possible and keep your LvL 2 and LvL 3 Engage low.
  • Enchanter Support: You can go very heavy on dealing damage to the enemies over and over again, just pay attention to where the jungler is.
  • Carry Support: Here it depends very much on your and the opponent’s carry. Try to get your own jungler on the bot lane for a gank. If you can build up a lead together with your carry at the beginning, your chances of victory increase enormously.