For over a decade, League of Legends has been a genre-defining and market-dominating Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA). Bringing what was traditionally a hardcore and difficult to penetrate genre to the masses seemed like an impossible task, with many standalone games rising and falling over the years.
The Ruling Game
League of Legends, however, managed to simplify the ideas found in the venerable DotA just enough to make the game relatively easy to pick up and learn the basics while still retaining an incredible amount of depth which has spurred on the worlds largest esports scene and has been credited with taking esports from a niche activity partaken only by the most hardcore of fighting game fans and turning it into a global phenomenon which has led many other games to try and follow suit in becoming a widely streamed sport and even taking a step in normalizing the idea of videogames as serious sports in the public eye. This incredible amount of competition has been bringing tens of thousands of new players into Riot Games’ ever-deepening game each month, and it’s easy to see why. From the accessible but enthralling mechanics to the huge roster of playable champions, to the charming art style which extends into each character’s unique taunts and even voice lines, giving us some fabulous jhin quotes that will never leave my mind. But even in such a deep and ever-changing game, there are always characters who are a cut above the rest, and today I will discuss a few of the champions who are currently considered top-tier.
Singed
Some of the older characters from League’s early days are still to this day incredibly powerful and versatile. Singed was amongst the first characters to ever be introduced to the game, and his unique kit and extreme survivability have kept him in the top ranks of the roster for almost the entire life of the game, and he has one of the highest win rates of all top lane focused characters. He is primarily played as a top-lane champion, where he gets the opportunity to disrupt the enemy’s brawler and quickly help out with other lanes. He has incredibly high innate defensive stats which allows him to hang around the opponent for extended periods of time, especially when you take high health regeneration items such as the Warmog’s Armor. This combined with his speed and regeneration boosting ultimate and the constant miasmic cloud of poison he farts out behind him while his Q ability is active makes him incredibly annoying to deal with, but puts up more than enough of a fight to tempt the enemy to try and get him out of the way early.
Annie
Another legacy character, Annie is an insanely powerful burst champion who is known for her flashy instant team wipes and consistent crowd control which can efficiently disrupt the opponent when played carefully. In the early game, her primary Q ability restores MP when it kills minions, allowing her to farm up a lot more reliably than many early game AP champions, making it extremely easy and fast to pick up a few early items. This is all a means to an end though, as her most dangerous gimmick is her passive ability, which allows her to stun enemies with every 4th ability cast. This can activate upon using any of her abilities but is best used with her cone-shaped W or her wide area-of-effect ultimate, that stuns every champion hit by the ability, and the latter even summons a handy furry friend to aid you in battle!
Her patented stun-burst combo combined with carefully chosen items can melt entire teams down to nothing in a split second as long as she gets the drop on them, making a careful and forward-thinking Annie player incredibly difficult to deal with and will often force enemy teams to change to safer tactics which slow their progress to your nexus.
These are both very easy to pick up champions with enough nuance involved to keep them interesting to play all the way to mastery, so they are perhaps the best choice for any new or returning player who wants an easy way into the meta and is rightly considered as god-tier choices for the modern meta.