The Prophet of the Void
Malzahar is played mid.
You’re walking top lane from mid in order to gank. This Malzahar has been pushing you in all game, and now that he’s finally disappeared somewhere, you have the chance to take initiative. As your teammate pings for help over and over again, you ward the river bush. You see Malzahar sitting inside. Oops. He flashes on you and ults, all while his minions tear at your legs. Within a few seconds, you’ve nearly died. As the ult wears off, you take the opportunity and flash away. Thankfully, you still have some health left. As you check your health bar, you notice it dropping rapidly. You look at your debuffs bar and there it is. Malzahar’s Space Aids. You die.
Malzahar is a short range mage with strong pushing power and a very powerful ultimate. He’s good at pushing and lane bullying.
Although he may seem impossible to deal with, he has key power spikes. In this guide, I’ll teach you to avoid those power spikes and deal with this Arabian Night (Cause he’s from the Void, geddit?).
Passive – Void Shift
If Malzahar hasn’t taken damage or crowd control recently, he gains a shield which makes him immune to crowd control abilities and makes him take 90% reduced damage.
Q – Call of the Void
Malzahar creates a line that damages enemies and silences them.
W – Void Swarm
Malzahar spawns a Voidling which attacks nearby enemies. If the Voidling attacks nearby enemies, they spawn new Voidlings.
E – Malefic Visions
Malzahar places a disease upon an enemy, dealing damage over the next 4 seconds. Dealing damage to the target using Call of the Void or Nether Grasp will refresh the duration of the disease. If the target dies, the disease spreads to one nearby enemy and refreshes Malzahar’s mana.
R – Nether Grasp
For the next 2.5 seconds, Malzahar suppresses an enemy and creates a Null Zone underneath them which deals damage to all targets over the Null Zone.
Malzahar’s passive has a very long cooldown at early levels, so proc it with an auto attack before your spell cooldowns come back, so you can cast them on him.
If Malzahar’s Malefic Visions are on a minion, stay away from it, or when it dies, you’ll get the debuff.
If you do get Malefic Visions on you, stay far away. If Malzahar manages to cast his Q on you, you’ll take a huge amount of damage.
Save your AOE spells when pushing the wave until Malzahar casts his W. If you kill the Voidlings with your spells, he’ll have great difficulty pushing back against you.
Malzahar’s ultimate can be removed with Quicksilver Sash but can’t be removed by Cleanse.
Malzahar has low mobility but has his passive. Remove his passive before a jungler ganks, or he’ll be impossible to stop.
The Voidlings attack whatever has Malefic Visions on.
Annie
You can burst him easily at early levels. Harass him with your auto attacks, then when he mispositions, burst him down.
Galio
Your w can actually negate almost all of Malzahar’s damage. His E will heal you, and you’ll take reduced damage from his ultimate and Voidlings if you can cast it before he ults. Always take away his shield before ulting, or you’ll waste it.
Vel'Koz
You outrange him and can meet his pushing power. At early levels, don’t waste too much mana trying to push. At level 6, poke him until you can ult him. He’s a very short range champion, so stay away and you’ll be able to harass him easily.
Ziggs
You can push just as quickly, roam, and have great turret pressure. If you roam and use your ult, he can’t catch up in time. If you stay mid, you can clear his Voidlings for extra gold. If he roams, you can take his turret. Save your E to clear his Voidlings.
Spirit Visage
Banshee's Veil
Quicksilver Sash
Malzahar does magic damage over time, and does %max health damage with his ultimate, so items like Spirit Visage work well against him. Banshee’s can block his ultimate, or block his E. Without both, he doesn’t do a lot of damage.
Quicksilver Sash also removes Malzahar’s suppression.
The Magus Ascendant
Xerath is played mid
I hate champions like Xerath, there wasn't enough effort put into their design for me to say something funny about them, and it makes this a little harder. He feels blue? I guess.
Xerath is a long range mage with a lot of pressure and, like most mages, so little mobility that if they tried to run away from something, they may as well be moving backwards. Thanks to his long range, it's common that he take two defensive summoner spells to make up for having no mobility. He also has a semi-unique trait of being able to regain mana from auto attacking something periodically.
Passive – Mana Surge
Xerath's basic attacks periodically restore Mana.
Q – Arcanopulse
Fires a long-range beam of energy, dealing magic damage to all targets hit.
W – Eye of Destruction
Calls down a barrage of arcane energy, slowing and dealing magic damage to all enemies in an area. Targets in the middle receive additional damage and a stronger slow.
E – Shocking Orb
Deals magic damage to an enemy and stuns them.
R – Rite of the Arcane
Xerath immobilizes himself and gains numerous long-range barrages.
I feel like I'm going to start getting labled for being that guy who overuses the term "Immobile." Xerath is another one with no movement abilities. Unless he never aggresses at all, you can use that to punish him if he overextends. He's not escaping any ganks.
Xerath hates people that can blink to him. Especially if he's using his Q, since it slows him down. Jumping on him can utterly annhilate a Xerath players composure
Xerath's Q slows him down, meaning that if he uses it to try and kite out a bad situation, he's going to have a bad time. Be sure to sidestep the skillshot though.
Xerath's spells are expensive on the mana pool. Put your dancing shoes on if he wants to get aggressive, and if he comes in for an autoattack to try and replenish his mana. Seek your retribution.
Kassadin
At six Kassadin just never has to get touched by Xeraths spells, dodging out of the way and then getting in his face while his cooldowns leave him vulnerable and allowing Kassadin to punish him. Before six, along with sidestepping his abilities, Kassadin can also use his magic damage shield to prevent taking extreme amounts of damage, allowing him to survive until six.
Talon
Talon can simply jump on Xerath, this knowledge forces Xerath to play very defensively, as the moment he drops a cooldown in Talons blink range, he can find himself very dead as Talon unloads all of his abilities on him, and Xerath is unable to use at least one of his own.
Kalista
She can dodge all of his abilities while kiting away or chasing him down and pelting him with spears, as well as taking advantage of his immobility if she has her trusty support close enough to toss at him, any one on one situation with her is just a bad time for him.
Abyssal Scepter
Locket of the Iron Solari
Hexdrinker
Build Magic Resist. He does Magic Damage and not much else, even his CC is easily avoidable, so QSS is kind of overkill in this situation. Locket, Abyssal, Hexdrinker for tanks, mages and AD champions respectively.
The Machine Herald
Viktor is played mid
If you're anything like me, you hate semi-dependant technology and long villain monologues--Which means you probably hate Viktor. If there was anyone who fits the stereotype of saturday morning anime villain, it is this man. Talking about grand plans and evolution and the like, and to top it off he has the gall to be part robot. Well, that's alright, we'll just show him what for, and learn how to abuse his immobility and squishiness every time we see him.
Viktor is a zone control powerhouse of the midlane with circumstantial CC and a lot of burst damage that is only amplified as he buys his augment items, increasin his AP and granting his abilities additional effects. He is immobile and squishy making him vulnerable to ganks and gentle taps from semi-fed assassins.
Passive – Glorius Evolution
Viktor starts with the Prototype Hex Core that can be upgraded three times in the store to augment his abilities.
Q – Siphon Power
Viktor blasts an enemy unit dealing magic damage, gaining a shield and empowering his next basic attack.
Augment: Viktor gains bonus Movement Speed after casting.
W – Gravity Field
Viktor conjures a heavy gravitational field that slows enemies in its radius. Enemies who stay within the device for too long are stunned.
Augment: Enemies stunned by Gravity Field are dragged to the center.
E – Death Ray
Viktor uses his robotic arm to fire a chaos beam that cuts across the field in a line, dealing damage to all enemies in its path.
Augment: An explosion follows the Death Ray's wake, dealing magic damage.
R – Chaos Storm
Viktor conjures a singularity on the field which deals magic damage and interrupts enemy channels. The singularity then periodically does magic damage to all nearby enemies. Viktor can redirect the singularity.
Augment: The Chaos Storm moves faster.
"Immobile" is the word we use to describe Viktor. If at any point he choose to go aggressive, and you dodge his Death Ray, he's in a bad situation.
Viktor lives and dies on his Death Ray. If you make him choose between hitting you with it, or hitting the minions. If he chooses to hit you, dodging it means you can push him in, or go aggressive on him.
Picking up a hexdrinker on an AD champion can, at times, just win you the lane. His early cooldowns are too long and mana costs too high for him to fight you through the extra Mres reliably. If nothing else it'll force him to be more defensive.
If you have a tanky jungler, Viktor is easy to dive, especially if his Death Ray is down, just be careful about the Gravity Field.
Leblanc
Leblanc can take advantage of Viktors immobility. The moment he pops a cooldown, most commonly the Death Ray, to try and push the wave, she can punish him for it, if he's even a little too close, with any number of abilities.
Zed
Zed can put Viktor in a constant state of terror. If Zed ever finds himself in a position where he has pressure on Viktor, he'll just kill him post six the moment he blows a cooldown. Be careful of the eventual Zhonyas pickup, as it can leave you high and dry without getting any damage out of your ultimate.
Fizz
He has to flash the shark. He has no other way to survive it, which means you'll kill him with the second shark. He has no mobility to survive the shark with, and Siphon Powers shield doesn't have high enough value to help him survive the damage amplification of your ultimate. All of this isn't mentioning the fact that you can totally deny a portion of his burst, his Death Ray (Which maxes first) with your troll pole, further winning you any fights.
Abyssal Scepter
Locket of the Iron Solari
Hexdrinker
Magic Resistance is a must, since he only does magic damage, and no matter what he'll become a threat in the later parts of the game. A hexdrinker is a good pickup if you're an AD champion against him, and if you're the tank it's good to have a locket just in case someone on your team refuses to get resistances, and is good for the aura and active regardless.
The Hexplosives Expert
Ziggs is played mid
There's nothing more frustrating than eating damage because you were standing IN your minions. Every other champion in the game swears by having abilities that are made mostly worthless by you standing in your minions, but not this guy. He just had to be an individual, doing AOE damage to your minions and your face if you're unfortunate enough for muscle memory to send you clicking into your own minion wave. Luckily, Ziggs has some meaningful weaknesses to make up for his strong AOE zone control game, we'll talk about them here.
Passive – Short Fuse
Every 12 seconds, Ziggs' next basic attack deals bonus magic damage. This cooldown is reduced whenever Ziggs uses an ability.
Q – Bouncing Bomb
throws a bouncing bomb that deals magic damage.
W – Satchel Charge
Ziggs flings an explosive charge that detonates after 4 seconds, or when this ability is activated again. The explosion deals magic damage to enemies, knocking them away. Ziggs is also knocked away, but takes no damage. Ziggs can use the Satchel to hexplode vulnerable enemy turrets.
E – Hexplosive Minefield
Ziggs scatters proximity mines that detonate on enemy contact, dealing magic damage and slowing.
R – Mega Inferno Bomb
Ziggs deploys his ultimate creation, the Mega Inferno Bomb, hurling it an enormous distance. Enemies in the primary blast zone take more damage than those farther away.
Ziggs eats through mana like there's no tomorrow, side step a few bombs and let him know that you know that with some trades. It'll force him to be more cautious about mana management.
Ziggs escape, Satchel Charge, is both circumstantial and interruptable. If you have CC you can prevent him from using it to it's full potential.
Sidestep! One of Ziggs biggest nerfs was a decrease to the width of his bombs! If you side step away from your minion wave, you can completely avoid them, and that is most of his damage.
If you're low on health and he is level 6+ do not walk directly back, get out of damage range and try and walk into your jungle to avoid being finished off by his ultimate.
Leblanc
Leblanc has the ability to punish Ziggs for missed bombs or for having low mana and he has minimal ways to avoid her burst. She can completely pressure him in lane and make his life just an awful one for at least the first fifteen minutes of the game. Be careful not to get constantly pushed underneath your turret.
Syndra
Syndra is the better zone control mage. Better damage, easier landed CC, and if he decides he wants to fight her, he's one stun away from getting erased from the rift, dodge bombs and play aggressive.
Xerath
He can't hit you, but because of your long range spells you have the option of hitting him. You can regenerate your mana, giving you the potential to sustain in lane better than him, if you play it right, and if worst really came to worst, and you couldn't land skillshots on him, you can sit back and turn the lane into a farm lane.
Abyssal Scepter
Locket of the Iron Solari
Hexdrinker
Just like every other mage, magic resistance counters Ziggs. Abyssal, Locket, Hexdrinker are all worth the pickup, depending on what role you have in your team composition.
The Fae Sorceress
Lulu is played as a support.
You’re Zed. You like blades and killing ADCs. Unfortunately, you’re having a bit of a hard time this game. You manage to catch out the enemy ADC quite often, but you never manage to finish her off. You see her again, split pushing bot, seemingly alone. You zip over to where she is, ready to get your kill. As soon as she sees you, she flashes away. You laugh as you dash next to her.
Unfortunately, she’s gone under turret. With your ult, you dodge turret aggro and prepare your mark on her, nearly killing her. Suddenly, a Lulu pops into the battle. She shields her ADC, barely saving her from your ultimate. Enraged, you go back in, only to be turned into a cute critter. You die. She laughs.
Lulu is a support with a great number of tools to buff her allies or block her enemies. She’s a great protector of terrible adcs and is capable of turning an average marksman into a team-destroying monster.
However, she does have a number of clear weaknesses that you can exploit. In this guide, I’ll be teaching you how to send this loony back to the fae world.
Passive – Pix, Faerie Companion
Lulu’s autoattacks are enhanced by her friend Pix, dealing extra extra on each basic attack.
Q – Glitterlance
Lulu and Pix both fire a magic bolt towards a target location, dealing magic damage and slowing all enemies they hit.
W – Whimsy
On Ally Cast: The target ally champion gains bonus attack speed and movement speed for the next few seconds.
On Enemy Cast: The enemy is turned into a critter, unable to cast any spells or attack. They are also slowed.
E – Help, Pix!
On Ally Cast: The target ally champion gains the help of Pix, shielding them and gaining Lulu’s passive on their autoattacks. While Pix is helping the ally champion, Lulu loses the use of her passive.
On Enemy Cast: Pix deals magic damage and gains true site of an enemy.
R – Giant Growth
Lulu enlarges the target allied champion, knocking up units around them and giving them bonus health. They also slow nearby units.
Lulu can harass easily early game, but her damage falls off quickly throughout the rest of the game.
Lulu can cast Help, Pix! on enemy minions.
Be wary that one of the lances from Glitterlance always arrive from Pix, so if Lulu casts Help, Pix! on anyone, the second lance could come from them.
Lulu has plenty of tools to buff her ally, but those lose effectiveness when cast on herself. Focus her during trades.
Lulu’s passive can be blocked by units in front of you. Stand behind your minions or a friendly tank to avoid that damage.
Lulu has the choice to deal damage or help allies with her spells, so if she chooses to use damage, her ally will be weaker for a few seconds until her cooldowns come back.
At later levels, Lulu can polymorph you for 2.25 seconds and give 840 bonus health for a few seconds. Don’t dive that.
Lulu’s ultimate knocks up all nearby enemies, so if she casts Whimsy on an ally initiator, run away or they’ll be able to run to you quickly, knock you up, and destroy you.
Lulu has short ranges and long cooldowns on most of her spells, so her strength is mainly in the mid-late game. Trade often.
Zyra
While Lulu is great at buffing her carries, a big part of her utility comes at level 6, when she gains her ult. Zyra is great at harassing during the early levels, and your cooldowns are much shorter than Lulu’s.
Blitzcrank
Lulu’s relatively short range, so if you pull her ADC, she has to walk near, which takes a few seconds. She also can’t get in range to Whimsy your ADC, assuming they’ll be behind you. Just pull her or her ADC, and pull often.
Twitch
Simply does the most damage right now.
Miss Fortune
You do plenty of damage at early levels, where Lulu is weakest. Your ult can also shred her team from a range at which she can’t Whimsy you.
Quicksilver Sash
Lulu’s polymorph and Glitterlance are both strong CC tools, so a QSS works well against her.
The Lady of Luminosity
Lux is played mid.
You’re walking to the teamfight near dragon in order to help out your team. You notice a straggler with low health, so you start to chase them into the bush. Suddenly, something catches at your feet. You look down to see a ring of light around you. As Lux charges her laser, you curse. The laser goes off, you die, and she laughs. She laughs. She laughs. “Ha-ha-ha-ee!”
Lux is a long range mage who deals a good amount of damage from range. She has a decent amount of utility, but she’s primarily a nuker.
It may seem unfair to be nuked from a bush where you had no vision, but it’s fairly easily to stop Lux from reaching this power level. In this guide, I’ll be teaching you to send this girl back to school.
Passive – Iceborn
Lux’s offensive abilities will mark enemies. Her basic attacks and Final Spark consume the mark, dealing extra magic damage
Q – Ice Shard
Lux releases a sphere of light in a line that deals magic damage to the first two enemies hit and roots them.
W – Ring of Frost
Lux shields herself and throws out her wand in a line, shielding ally champions in its path. It then boomerangs back, adding another shield to all ally champions hit.
E – Glacial Path
Lux sends a ball of light to a target location, slowing enemies around the ball. Upon reactivating this ability or after a few seconds, the ball explodes and deals magic damage to all enemies nearby.
R – Frozen Tomb
After channeling for 1 second, Lux fires a laser which deals magic damage to all enemies hit.
Lux is pretty bad at farming early, because her Lucent Singularity can’t clear waves. Keep her pushed in.
Lux has very long ranges on her spells, but a good amount of her damage requires her to auto attack.
Lux players will often build Mejai’s, as they’ll be too far back to be killed in fights. Removing the Mejai’s stacks should be a priority.
Lux’s E and ult both take a second or so to charge. Save your dash for when she casts them, or be very careful to not be hit by her Q.
Lux is pretty good at roaming, because she can affect fights with her ultimate from far away. If she ever tries to push up, it may mean she’s going to roam. Keep her pushed in.
Lux has very low mobility, and no way to avoid ganks except for her Q. If she’s cast it, immediately engage.
Aurelion Sol
Push in every single wave. If you fall low on health, go back to base and use your E to come back to lane quickly. Be sure to roam often. It’s also very difficult for Lux to avoid a fully charged Q, so try doing that if your jungler is in the area.
Jayce
You have equal amounts of poke, but far more burst at early levels. Be sure to keep her away from minions at early levels, and do plenty of trading.
Xerath
You can clear waves far easier than her, and she can’t easily dodge your spells. You also outrange her with your ult. If she roams, countergank her with your ult.
Ziggs
Exactly the same as Xerath.
Locket of the Iron Solari
Lux deals a large amount of magic damage, so shielding items like Iron Solari are strong against her. Otherwise, just build magic resistance.
The Ice Witch
Lissandra is played top or mid.
You’ve tried everything. You tried harassing her in lane, but she just farmed from a distance. In early skirmishes, she outdamages you and has higher utility. In late game, you finally manage to make her feed. Unfortunately, she just ults your adc and wins the teamfight for her team.
Lissandra is a tanky mage who’s quite reliable. She has fairly good waveclear, good damage, great utility, good mobility, and cannot be easily assassinated. With all these strengths, it may seem impossible to deal with her.
However, she does have a number of clear weaknesses that you can exploit. In this guide, I’ll be teaching you how to make this powerful ice queen just a regular woman.
Passive – Iceborn
Lissandra’s next basic attack has no mana cost. This refreshes every 18 seconds. Using CC on enemies with her abilities reduces the cooldown by 1 second.
Q – Ice Shard
Lissandra throws a spear of ice, dealing damage and slowing the first enemy hit, at which point it expands into a wider cone and hits the enemies behind the original target.
W – Ring of Frost
Lissandra freezes all enemies nearby, dealing magic damage and rooting them.
E – Glacial Path
Lissandra casts a claw of ice that moves in a target direction, dealing magic damage to all enemies it passes through. Reactivating this ability will blink Lissandra to the location of the claw.
R – Frozen Tomb
Lissandra freezes the target enemy champion, stunning them. If she selfcasts this ability, she turns immune to all damage and heals herself, but also do any actions until the ability is done. Black ice spreads from the target, dealing magic damage and slowing all enemies nearby.
In the early game, Lissandra has mana problems and low AD. Try pushing her under turret for the first wave of minions or two.
If Lissandra uses her Glacial Path, she won’t be able to use it for quite a long time. This is your time to engage on her.
If Lissandra casts her ult on herself, she’s immune, basically like if she used Zhonyas. However, if she casts it on you, you’re merely stunned, meaning her team can still deal damage to you.
Lissandra’s ultimate can be removed with QSS or Cleanse.
Lissandra does well against assassins, but does poorly against mages with longer range than her.
Lissandra has to use all of her spells in order to clear waves. Keeping her constantly pushed under turret will make her use mana quickly.
Never ever dive a Lissandra.
Viktor
You can clear waves far faster than her, and you can easily keep her in your Gravity Field by just placing it where the claw from her Glacial Path lands. You’re basically her but stronger in every aspect except utility. Just be wary of ganks, because she can easily set one up with all her CC.
Syndra
You can waveclear way better and you can harass her constantly with your balls. Be very wary about ulting until she’s cast her ult or she can negate all your damage.
Lux
You out range her. Just push the wave in constantly and go gank bot.
Kennen
This is an equal lane. Just farm until you hit level 6, then roam bot. Your ultimate has more utility than hers.
Abyssal Scepter
Quicksilver Sash
Lissandra is a mage, so building magic resistance is good against her. Items like Abyssal Scepter are good if you want to counter her as a mage. QSS is also good for ADCs wanting to avoid all her CC.
The Burning Vengeance
Brand is played in the midlane and support at times
Brand is a hot tempered guy with a lot of damage. He's an immobile mage with a lot of teamfight presence in the fact that he can win them all on his own, if he's even or ahead. Ho boasts AOE damage and a DoT passive that makes him a real pain to deal with if you can't kill him fast. He has power spikes in items like Rylai's and obviously Rabadons, but he also has pretty high early game damage as well, making him a useable support.
Passive – Serpentine Grace
Brand's abilities set his targets ablaze upon damaging them, dealing 2% their maximum health as magic damage over 4 seconds, stacking up to 3 times, and empowering his abilities against them. The damage against monsters is capped at 320.
At 3 stacks, an area about the target is marked, which explodes after 2 seconds. All enemies struck are dealt magic damage. The explosion will still trigger if the target dies to the third ability or during the delay.
Brand cannot stack Blaze on enemies who have exploded in the past 4 seconds.
Q – Miasma
Brand launches a fireball in the target direction that deals magic damage to the first enemy it hits.
BLAZE: The target is also stunned for 1.5 seconds.
W – Miasma
After a 0.625 seconds delay, Brand makes the target area erupt in flames, dealing magic damage to enemies within.
BLAZE: Pillar of Flame deals 25% additional damage.
E – Twin Fang
Brand sets the target enemy aflame, dealing magic damage.
Conflagration also spreads to enemies around the target.
R – Petrifying Gaze
Brand launches a fireball at the target enemy that bounces between nearby enemies up to four times, dealing magic damage each time.
If Pyroclasm's current target becomes invalid, it selects a new enemy at no cost to its remaining bounces. If its initial target becomes invalid and there are no other valid targets, Pyroclasm refunds 100 mana and resets its cooldown.
BLAZE: Pyroclasm briefly Slow icon slows enemies hit.
Brand has a lot of damage, but people that can 100 - 0 him are a problem for him. Look for opportunites to assassinate him, when one of his abilities is on cooldown, this will cause him to have lower damage until it comes back up.
Brand is reliant on his skillshots to do the majority of his damage and apply his Blaze. Even if he uses his E to try and apply the Blaze he doesn't do enough damage without landing his skillshots. Prioritize moving laterally against him, and when his skills are down, punish him.
If Brand opts to use spells to farm, practice your wave control against him and hold the wave closer to your tower. He has no escapes in his kit and dies relatively quickly to ganks.
Leblanc
Her post 6 burst is amazing. If Brand uses a skill after level 6, she's going to punish him really hard, and might even kill him for doing so. She forces Brand to respect her with the damage she brings the moment she hits 6.
Xerath
He'll just never walk up to Brand to trade with him. He'll smack him with Q's from across the lane and laugh while he autos the minion wave to regain mana and Brand backs to regain health.
Leona
The sun is hotter than any earthly fire. Leona will CC a squishy like Brand to death, and watch him die as her team jumps onto him. His lack of escapes being his downfall here.
Blitzcrank
Blitzcrank CC's brand, and by the time Brand is not CC'd he's taken a lot of damage from the enemy AD Carry (Lane) or is dead (Grouping) Brand has no real way to get out of it, , so he just dies.
Quicksilver Sash
Guardian Angel
Banshee's Veil
MR. All of the MR. If he buys Void Staff, buy more MR. He doesn't do anything except magic damage, so get MR and sit on it. Then get a GA, so that if he does kill you, you can come back while he has cooldowns. Banshees is also a useful item, since it lowers the chance of him getting Blaze on you, thus lowering his damage output.
The Serpents Embrace
Cassiopeia is played in the midlane
Cassiopeia is a zone control control mage with extreme hypercarry capabilities. She has lane presence with her twin fangs and playing around her poison. She also has amazing teamfight presence with the AOE applications of her poison, and her ultimate that can completely turn a teamfight in her teams favor.
Passive – Serpentine Grace
Cassiopeia cannot purchase boots, but instead bonus movement speed,
Q – Miasma
After a 0.4-second delay, Cassiopeia blasts the target area with Noxious Poison, dealing magic damage every second for 3 seconds to all enemies it hits.
Cassiopeia gains bonus movement speed that decays over 3 seconds if Noxious Blast hits an enemy champion.
W – Miasma
Cassiopeia spits forth eight bolts of venom in an arc, leaving toxic clouds of Debilitating Poison where they hit the ground for 5 seconds. Miasma has a minimum cast range.
Debilitating Poison deals magic damage to enemies standing upon it every second, also grounding them and applying a Slow icon slow that decays over the area's duration.
E – Twin Fang
Cassiopeia launches her fangs at the target enemy, dealing magic damage. If Twin Fang kills its target, it refunds its mana cost.
If the target is poisoned, Twin Fang deals bonus magic damage and heals Cassiopeia.
R – Petrifying Gaze
After a brief delay, Cassiopeia blasts enemies in a cone in the target direction, dealing magic damage to all enemies hit.
Enemies facing Cassiopeia are stunned for 2 seconds upon being hit by Petrifying Gaze, and all other affected enemies are instead slowed by 40% for the same duration.
Cassiopeia has strong one on one potential, but a lot of it is dependant on her ability to poison you. If she misses her posion you can punish her for it. An Assassin might even be able to turn it into a kill, in the 3 seconds it takes her Q to come back up
Cassiopeia has a hard time dealing with junglers in solo que. She has no escapes and must rely on a clutch stun to turn a gank around, which you can outplay by simply turning around when she has no choice but to use it. Even if she gets away by using her ult, she's still down an ultimate and thus presence in lane
Picking a champion that outranges Cassiopeia is a good idea, this can keep you out of range of her poison and hand you an easy laning phase against her.
Lux
They're both immobile but Lux's range dominates Cassiopeia. She can farm safely, harass safely and most of all can deny her that one on one duel that Cassi wants to find to relieve pressure.
Xerath
He's a floating blue apparition of pain. It's hard for Cassiopeia to get in range to do any damage, and if she tries to go out of her way to do so, he'll stun her and do some damage before floating away, and probably auto attacking her as she retreats back to her tower.
Syndra
Not very much beats Syndra right now, and she outranges, outdamages and out CC's Cassi. The laning phase is just a bad time for the snake, and the best she can really do is call for ganks and pray that she'll scale up to the point where she reaches hypercarry status, but even then, Syndra can still explode her in a one on one with a good stun.
Quicksilver Sash
Banshee's Veil
You'll want a lot of Magic Resist to deal with Cassiopeia. You can get value out of QSS to deal with her stun/slow, which can very well turn a team fight. Banshee's Veil is a good buy, since it stops her from poisoning you and allows you time to reposition, while ensuring that you don't get chased down.
The Deceiver
Leblanc is played mid
We all want to be like the pro players. Dodging skillshots, hitting skillshots, outplaying enemies and consistently carrying. Unfortunately, there’s a reason why they’re professionals and we’re not. They know how to play Leblanc.Leblanc is one of the trickiest champions in the game. With a whole number of ways to outplay enemies, she’s been the focus of many a spotlight in the past. Now that she’s been reworked, she’s even trickier, and even more able to outplay you. She’s an assassin-mage, who has to wait a little time for her burst to arrive, but who destroys you through trickery.
In this guide, I’ll help you figure out her tricks so that when you next face her, she’ll be nothing but a bunny in a hat.
Passive – Sigil of Malice
Whenever Leblanc casts a spell on an enemy, they’re marked with a Sigil of Malice. After 1.5 seconds, the Sigil is procced and she can cast another spell to break the Sigil and deal extra damage.
Q – Shatter Orb
Leblanc deals damage to a target enemy. If this ability triggers Sigil of Malice, this ability will bounce to other enemies with Sigil of Malice.
W – Distortion
Leblanc dashes to a location, dealing damage to all enemies she hits on arrival. After 0.25 seconds, she can recast the ability to return to her original location.
E – Ethereal Chains
Leblanc throws a chain. If the chain hits an enemy, it deals damage and tethers Leblanc to the enemy. If the enemy doesn’t break the tether, they’re rooted.
R – Mimic
Leblanc primes her next spell. The next spell she casts will have additional effects, and a clone of her will spawn casting the same spell. She can also recast R to cast Shadow of the Rose.
Shadow of the Rose: Leblanc summons a Mimic anywhere on the map, which casts a non-damaging version of Leblanc’s last cast spell.
Leblanc has 0.25 seconds before she can dash back to her original location. This is your opportunity to hurt her while she’s in range.
Try to break the tether from her E, or else it leaves you open to being hurt by her Sigil of Malice.
If you have Sigil of Malice cast on you but you think you’re safe behind your minions, Leblanc can cast Distortion onto the minions then bounce her Shatter Orb on you.
If you see Leblanc flanking from an odd angle, be wary. It could be a Shadow of the Rose, which is harmless.
Hurt Leblanc clones in order to have them disappear. WARNING: Single target damage only. AOE damage will not reveal them.
Annie
Prepare your stun for her Distortion. If you cast Tibbers on her while she’s dashing towards you, it gives Tibbers a few basic attacks more on her and allows you to save your Q for when she’s trying to return to her Distortion point.
Kassadin
At level 6, you hit a much stronger power spike than Leblanc. Engage. Pre-6, try to farm carefully, and avoid allowing her to proc her Sigil of Malice on you.
Malzahar
Leblanc’s main strength is mobility and deception. You just have to press R on her and all that mobility and deception fades away.
Locket of the Iron Solari
Abyssal Scepter
Leblanc does magic damage, so magic resist items like Locket and Abyssal Scepter work well against her.