In League of Legends, each champion has some way to contribute to their team as a whole. For champions like Soraka or Nami, it is to provide support (in this case through healing) to carries in order to get them more kills. Whereas champions like Kai’sa or Twitch are powerful solo carries, providing a wincon for their team through raw damage.

Each role is important and each champion has unique abilities, each with their own archetype that contributes at least something to the team. However, with what archetypes there are, be it damage, healing/shielding, or tank, is one more important than the rest? It may be hard to say for sure, but there is one that is at the highest end of the spectrum for sure. In this article, we will dive into what different ability themes contribute to a team and why, ultimately, crowd control (CC) is the king of abilities.

Damage

The first ability we will go into is the most prevalent, which is damage. A game cannot be won without some damage outlet. If a team chooses to play around one hypercarry then the games can get riskier, because if that champion isn’t fed then the team has no damage. Thankfully, every champion has some form of damage, be it strong or weak, so there is always something to contribute.

There are a few different ways to use the damage archetype, the biggest are damage over time (as in a prolonged fight) or burst damage (normally used by assassins). Champions that favor prolonged fights are usually bot lane ADCs, so champions like Twitch, Caitlyn, or Kai’Sa all aim to do this. So, instead of buying items like Duskblade of Draktharr or Edge of Night, these champions will build items like Infinity Edge or Blade of the Ruined King. The point of buying these items is to, obviously, kill the enemy as quickly as possible. So, how does this differ from an assassin type champion? Well, ADCs are more auto attack oriented, whereas assassins rely on one combo of abilities. Yes, ADCs do use abilities in fights, but that is usually for something like crowd control or movement. However, their damaging abilities are normally used for poke, increasing creep score (CS) in the laning phase, or even some crowd control.

Now moving onto burst damage champions, which can be an assassin or burst mage. Both of these champions, similar to an ADC, have a goal of trying to do as much damage as fast as possible. They, however, like we just talked about, rely more on one combination of abilities than auto attacks. Champions like Talon , Qiyana, or Zoe all rely on a few core abilities that allow them to burst an enemy as fast as they can. They still can use auto attacks, but they are nowhere near as impactful as their one-shot abilities. These champions will have a few abilities that also give them some versatility and uniqueness. It could be something like movement (Ekko, Talon, or Azir) or like crowd control (Qiyana, Ryze, or Cassiopeia). This versatility allows the champion to be viable in a variety of different scenarios, be it for roaming to locking down a mobile enemy champion.

Healing

The next ability archetype we will move onto is healing. Not every champion has healing built into their kit, so players can get the option to add it through summoner spells, items, or runes, but we will get into that later. Right now we will be talking about supports in particular and how their healing benefits them and their team.

Supports are an underrated role in League of Legends. Many players disregard the support unless they are Pyke or Senna, but supports can offer much more than just damage or a human shield. As we talked out earlier, ADCs rely mostly on damage and don’t always have a kit that can allow them to get through the laning phase without some form of help. This is where supports come in. By providing an ally with shields, healing, or movement speed during the laning phase, a champion like Twitch, who is normally very weak early on, gets to survive the laning phase and come out the other end a powerhouse. Champions like Karma, Nami, and Lulu all give ally champions something along these lines. By playing Lulu with Twitch, Lulu can give movement speed to avoid enemy abilities or shielding to absorb a potentially fatal attack. Because of this, support champions can easily be a win condition to a game by feeding an ally player and getting them ahead enough to win them a game.

Now, as I talked about earlier, other champions have healing as well, and if not it can be given through a means other than just the champion kit. Champions like Rengar, Aatrox, and Zac all have a form of self healing in their kit. This allows them to get out of a sticky situation or to help them survive the laning phase. But champions without that in-kit self heal can add runes or items. Be it something like Ravenous Hunter (from the Domination tree) or an item like Bloodthirster, a champion can avoid fatal damage and heal themselves during a fight in order for them to stay alive long enough to come out on top.

Tank/Survivability

Another key ability archetype that can contribute to a team is tankiness. Similar to supports, these champions are usually overlooked, as they are some form of support in many ways. The goal of a tank is to form a frontline in front of your team in order to protect your backline, which normally consists of squishier champions (like an ADC). These tanks normally have a lot of crowd control and self shielding in order to fulfill their role and absorb as much damage as possible.

Another role of tanks is to make engages, so champions like Nautilus, Shen, or Leona all want to use their abilities to move into the enemy backline and lock them down with crowd control so that they are useless in a fight (in a best-case scenario they are killed first, giving your team an edge in the fight.

Tanks can span a wide array of roles on the map. They could be a top laner (like Shen or Sion), a jungler (like Zac or Sejuani), or even a support (like Braum or Alistar). This is because it is such a critical role. Like I mentioned earlier, a team with too many tanks would result in a low damage output and can cost a game. Similarly, a team with all carries opens your team up to weak teamfights and poor engage due to being a team composed of low-health, low crowd control damage dealers.

Crowd Control

Now that we have discussed the three main ability themes in League of Legends, we will address one more (a bit of a subclass, if you will) that is extremely powerful and which most champions have some remnant of. What I am talking about, of course, if crowd control. Throughout this article I have been bringing up in each segment that each role has some sort of crowd control. Healing champions like Nami and Soraka have their bubble or area of effect (AOE) silence. ADC champions like Caitlyn and Twitch have a trap or an AOE slow. Tanky champions especially have lots of crowd control, like Nautilus or Leona. So, why is this ability so important to have in a champion?

Crowd control is a core part of any kit because it works as a form of evasion. For example, you are playing Twitch ADC against a Jhin (pretend both supports are in another lane). Jhin has little mobility, but it can get bursts of movement speed that allows him to chase down enemies. He also has his own form of crowd control. So let’s say Jhin, landed his Deadly Flourish (W) on you and he is advancing. Twitch can throw his Venom Cask (W) to slow Jhin to the point where he can no longer chase. This is a form of lighter CC, champions like Lulu, Rumble, and Akali all have a form of light CC. This means that they don’t have a root or a form of longer CC, but they can slow enemies to the point where they can no longer chase. On the other end of the spectrum are champions like Nautilus, Leona, or Senna, who all have forms of hard CC, meaning they can root an enemy in order for them to stop chasing you or for your team to pick up an easy kill. A champion without crowd control is significantly crippled because of this reason.

Without crowd control, a team will have a significantly harder time of winning a game. This is because it is so versatile in what it can do, as we just discussed. Without CC on your team, there is a lighter chance of getting kills or objectives, because without it there is no way to escape a bad fight or to engage into a fight.

Conclusion

Now, I have given you four ability archetypes in League of Legends, told you why each of them are important, and why crowd control (CC) is the most powerful of them all. So, the next time you are in champion select, remember to pick a champion that has enough crowd control to help yourself survive the lane and win the game.