May 5, 2022
Whether you are new to League of Legends or have been playing for years, climbing the ranks can be difficult. Many factors can control how quickly you climb, but one factor is the champions you play and how well you play them. I recommend picking one champion or a pool of a small number of champions to stick to learn them. Here are some of the best champions for climbing the ranks in season 12.
These champions were not chosen based on their place on a tier list, but rather based on the strengths of their kits. A high damage character is subjective to the patch and could easily be nerfed, but a champion with a good versatile kit will be strong no matter how the damage of their abilities is balanced. I also tried to avoid champions with very high pick or ban rates, as it is difficult to get the chance to play those characters. The best characters are those with strong kits that you can play in most games.
Top
Volibear
Volibear is really strong because he’s very versatile, having the ability to be built as either a bruiser/tank with decent AD damage output or a squishier AP and attack speed build that focuses on getting high damage output with his E and passive/. He is a very strong dueling champion, and is very good at diving with his ultimate. He is excellent in a team fight, especially when he’s ahead. Still, even if you get behind, he has a lot of split-pushing potential with his amazing waver clear, decent siege damage, as well as the ability to get out of trouble quickly.
Yorick
Yorick is one of the best split-pushing champions in the entire game. His siege damage is off the charts, and he has unbelievable dueling potential. Yorick can beat almost any champion by himself. As Yorick begins to split-push later in the game, his team either gets less pressured less as the enemy team has to send at least two champions to deal with him all the time, or he gets to just continue sieging until he has reached the enemy Nexus. He has good CC, excellent damage output, and is just a fantastic top-laner and great for carrying games.
Jungle
Rammus
Rammus is a very strong tank jungler. He is swift and has a lot of cross-map presence, which is very good for a jungler to have. The more a jungler can be anywhere, the more safe the enemy team has to play. His CC is also very good. He can taunt enemies, and he can stun them for a moment with his Q. He also has reasonably good damage output for a tank and the ability to redirect auto-attack damage back at attackers with his W, which is helped even further with a Bramble Vest. He is just all-around an excellent tank champion with good CC and damage.
Warwick
Though he isn’t commonly what one would consider an assassin, he serves a similar role. I considered putting Evelyn here, but Warwick has more cross map preference when it comes down to it. Warwick could be in the lane where enemies are low on health in a second, even if he’s on the other side of the map. That’s how much movement speed he gains just from knowing someone is in low health somewhere on the map. Warwick also has a lot of safety with the healing on his Q, and he’s very aggressive and a very good fighter. He can easily carry games as long as you know when to use his hyper-aggression and when to back out.
Kayn
I wanted to briefly mention Kayn here as he is the only jungler in the game who can efficiently serve both roles. Later in the game, he can transform into two forms, an assassin form and a tank form. Both of these forms can do exceptionally well in games, making Kayn one of the most versatile picks in the jungle. He also has cross-map presence like the other junglers on this list as he is able to move through walls very quickly and set up ganks in an instant, putting the enemy team in constant fear even when next to a wall.
Mid
Orianna
There are a lot of powerful mages I could have put here, like Veigar or Xerath, but in my opinion, Oriana is one of the best options for a mage in the middle lane. She has good CC and damage output, and her skills are fairly easy to hit. She has a slow for her enemies, making it easier for her to output more damage, and a shield for her allies so that she can keep them in a fight for longer. Her ultimate not only does great damage, but pulls enemies in so that they can easily be destroyed by her and the rest of her team.
Talon
Talon is a very mobile assassin. You can blow up squishy targets extremely quickly and then be out of there before anyone can do anything about it. He has a lot of escape potential and a lot of attack output. Furthermore, he’s one of the less commonly banned or played Assassins, so you will be able to play him more commonly than champions like Zed and Katarina. That also means that he’s not at the forefront and unlikely to be nerfed very soon, or at the very least not a substantial enough amount to make him any less of a fantastic pick in the middle lane.
Support
Thresh
Thresh is the embodiment of everything that I have talked about thus far. Thresh has a kit that simply cannot be nerfed without being redesigned because the power of his kit is in the kit itself, and not its damage output. His CC options are potent and, in the right hands, Thresh can carry a team by hand-feeding kills to them and keeping them safe. He has a fantastic hook, he can reposition his enemies with his flail, and he has his lantern. There is no single champion in the game that has any ability like the lantern. The ability to reposition his allies quickly and get them out of trouble or pull them into the fight is amazing. He even has an incredible slow on his ultimate. A good Thresh is near unstoppable support.
Sona
Sona is a character that has a rough early game and mostly seeks to protect her ADC while putting out a good amount of poke damage in the laning phase, but later on in the game as you stack up her passive, she becomes one of the best supports in the game. She can output so much healing and damage and even slows in teamfights in the late game that she becomes near unstoppable. With a good Sona, as long as a team can make it into the late game, they will win most teamfights.
Senna
Senna is the only support that is not a tank or enchanter support. Instead, she is an ADC support. Essentially, Senna plays like an ADC, except she has powerful CC and very good healing ability. She also has amazing scaling with her passive, which allows her to have the longest auto-attack range in the game. While she is an odd support considering her playstyle is unlike any others, she is a strong pick. Her damage output is incredible, and being paired with another ADC makes one of the most frustrating lanes for the enemy team. If you’d like to learn to play Senna better, you can check out our beginner-friendly Senna guide.
ADC
Kai’sa
Kai’sa has a phenomenal kit for an ADC that will always mark her as one of the best bottom laners, no matter the patch. She has isolation damage on her Q and a long-distance W that can secure kills and stacks her passive. Furthermore, she has a strong movement speed boost in her E, which comes with short-term invisibility. Her ultimate serves to get her into the fight quickly, reposition herself, and potentially save her life. Her passive even does true damage, which is rare for an ADC and makes her powerful against tanks. She also has the potential to be built as a primarily AD or AP scaling champion, though currently, she is most often built with AD. Kai’sa is a versatile and safe pick that can never be truly nerfed.
Sivir
Sivir is a powerful pick for ADC as well. Though she isn’t quite as flashy as champions like Jhin or Kai’sa, she can put out an unbelievable amount of AOE damage with her Q and W, giving her amazing waveclear and making her a monster in teamfights. She also has a great deal of safety with her E, and she can chase down and secure a kill or run away and make sure she isn’t the one being secured with her ultimate. This makes Sivir a very safe pick, which is required for a squishy role.
Conclusion
These champions, of course, are not the only champions that you can climb on, but they are some of the best based on their kits. Hopefully, these champions will take you far in your ranked journey!