There’s more than one way to play League of Legends. From One-Tricking your favorite Champion, to maining a certain role, rotating between highly competitive meta picks, or refining yourself down to a unique playstyle. Today, we’re going to talk about that playstyle and narrow it down towards Champions that have a really strong early game presence and talk about which picks we feel are the best of the best for early game focused play.

First, let’s unpack what an early game playstyle is though. Early game focused Champions often lend themselves to having higher base values on their autos, abilities, and spells throughout the first, roughly, 10-15 minutes of the game, or from levels 1 to around 6-8. Though, naturally, Champions always get better with items, these unique picks come with the tools and values to operate extremely well without needing multiple items in their pocket from the get-go. This sometimes means they have insufferable tools like blinds, unique ways to reset their auto-attacks, or very impactful ultimates that help them grasp the last few seconds of laning phase and really take it over.

Early-game focused Champions are all about the lane phase and what they can do to really pressure their opponents. Their kits are designed to get in, or bring opponents in, and keep them in disadvantaged situations. Forcing them to give over resources or risk their lives. It’s the antithesis to late-game focused playstyles which are all about playing towards what you can get and really striving to reach particular item or level spikes.

The Best Champions for Early Game

So, let’s dive into which Champions are the most dominant in the meta right now for early game playstyles. And before you think that this is going to be just a ranking list, we’ll be diving into mini-guides for each of these Champions, so be sure you pay attention!

Top Lane - Darius, the Hand of Noxus

Naturally, we couldn’t start this list without the menace of Top Lane himself, Darius. While considered more of a low-elo pub-stomp pick, Darius can be played to an extremely high level and carry you far. As a bonus, his honest and straightforward kit makes him extremely easy to execute, so if you were looking for something a little more on the ‘easy to execute difficult to master’ tier, then Darius will be right up your alley.

When you read through Darius’ abilities, you can catch the aggressive vibe he goes for. He wants to yank people in with his E, Apprehend. Then he slows them down with his W, Crippling Strike, which keeps them within his range. As they try to flee out of range of his autos, in fear of his passive’s 5 stack effect, he follows them with his Q, Decimate to heal up, stack up, and pound them with even more damage. And if all that is survived, he executes them with his ultimate. Additionally, his ultimate always keeps him relevant, even when behind, since the damage it provides is substantial and the reset effect can be a terror in a teamfight situation.

And that’s a very basic look at his pattern. But with knowledge and mastery of his kit, there are some unique things to be aware of. So, let’s break down some Champion Tips for Darius:

• The displacement effect on Darius’ E sets up a true combo with his Q when properly practiced. By landing your E, then pressing Q as you step away from your opponent, you’ll hit the sweet spot of Darius’ Q for maximum damage and healing.
  
• Darius’ W resets his auto-attacks, and you can hide its animation within a regular auto. So, this makes him great and cheesing at level one or camping brush angles that enemies approach.
  
• You can Flash during the windup animation for Darius’ Q, letting you quickly sustain off of and damage primary targets.
  
• You have a variety of Summoner Spell loadouts to choose from as Darius. You can run Flash-Ignite for the extra damage and Grievous Wounds effect. Or you can help mitigate Darius’ prime weakness, low mobility, by opting for Flash-Ghost. This gives you great tools to flee or chase down your opponents during the extended trades Darius prefers. And, if you’re a more team focused Top Laner, you can still even opt for Flash or Ghost with Teleport, though this combination doesn’t truly take advantage of what makes Darius’ early game kit so monstrous.

When it comes to weaknesses, keep in mind that Darius is a Juggernaut, meaning he is designed to lack mobility and you'll need to carefully pick your moments of aggression. We mentioned the Summoner Spell variations above within his tips, but our standard recommendation is Flash and Ghost. Practice your combos and take your time to learn his abilities, as missing an ultimate or Q can really hurt your overall damage output. And of course, keep in mind that Darius falls off in the late game, so make sure you establish your lead early on.

Jungle - Rek’Sai, the Void Burrower

Rek’Sai marks our spot for early game aggression from the Jungle as she is one of the most quintessential ‘all or nothing’ Champions in the game. Rek’Sai’s kit comes packaged with fast clearing abilities, tools to spot out her enemies, unique gap closing and ganking effects, and above all, DAMAGE, much like Darius.

So, fitting in with our theme of early-game and aggression, Rek’Sai’s kit is all about getting on top of her opponents and quickly killing whoever she’s on top of. Her tunnels help her find unique ways in, her ultimate is an excellent gap closing technique, her Q stacks her passive which she can then use for her E, and, while burrowed, she receives some regenerative bonuses and move-speed to keep her moving around the map with speed and quickness! But, let’s break her down a bit further with some in-depth tips:

• Rek’Sai’s passive enables her to stay healthy between her camp clears. So, be sure you’re burrowing along your route so that you can play aggressively after your clear.
  
• Her Q is her primary way to stack towards the true damage effect of her E. Additionally, her Q, when burrowed, can be used to mark her targets for her ultimate.
  
• Rek’Sai’s E, Tunnel, gives her creative methods to gank her opponents. So, don’t be shy about pathing into enemy territory to come at your opponent through unique angles they weren’t expecting to be ganked from.
  
• Her ultimate is an excellent turret aggro juggling tool. Starting off a dive as Rek’Sai and then pressing R makes you untargetable, forcing the turret to drop aggro. This will juggle it to your dive partner and you’ll reappear atop your target thanks to the positioning effect.
  
• Rek’Sai excels at picking off targets that are moving around the map alone. Try and plan your Mid Game pathing towards squishier opponents that are moving alone to maintain or even pick up your snowballing capability.

Now that we’ve got some tips under our belt, let’s not move on before we discuss some of the weaknesses that Rek’Sai brings. Firstly, being low-range and melee focused, again, means that Rek’Sai finds herself in the same kiting department as Darius. She requires careful planning to get into fights, or for another Champ to initiate for her so she can reach the targets she needs to kill. Additionally, Rek’Sai’s high-skill cap and all-damage focused build paths make her extremely punishing to play. She’s not a Champion that you can simply first time to success, needing close to 50+ games of familiarity to truly consider yourself proficient.

Mid - Talon, the Blade’s Shadow

Talon wall-hops in as our Mid Lane focused early game pick. He’s rocked a solid presence in Solo Queue for multiple patches now, and even with the resistance updates looming overhead, I doubt this edgy-knife-boy is going to slow down. Naturally, Talon finds his way here due to his infamous ability to all-in at level 2. But unlike Champions like Leblanc, who mirror Talon’s strengths, Talon matches well against some higher rated picks like Swain and Fizz while also holding even matchups against mobility counters like Taliyah and Vex.

Talon’s kit is all about getting on top of his opponents. He comes with tools to close the distance and slow his victims for his combos, and when push comes to shove, those same tools can be used to escape hairy situations if you’ve positioned yourself well. Let’s jump into some quick insights on Talon’s kit now.

• Talon has three unique Keystone sets to choose from. The first being Conqueror, which Talon stacks naturally with his melee focused kit. The second being Electrocute, promoting Talon’s deadly all-in, an excellent choice against squishy compositions. And the third being First Strike, which Talon can proc quite easily with his Rake.
  
• Especially on his Electrocute set, Talon’s level 2 all-in is amongst the deadliest in the game. His raw damage combined with the bleed of his passive and Ignite, can easily push out most Mid Laners, forcing a Flash or netting a kill.
  
• Talon’s Ultimate is an excellent escape and repositioning tool. Should you fail to start a fight from the flank, popping his R and moving towards you chosen target.
  
• What makes Talon extremely impactful through the early game is his E’s ability to provide map influence. Opting for an early sweeper and controlling vision around the Mid Lane is paramount to maintaining map wide influence. Simply dropping out of vision always applies the threat of a roam.

As we’ve done before, let’s talk quickly about the downsides of Talon. First, being an Assassin, his number one weakness is Crowd Control. Avoid playing Talon into multiple CC sources, especially point-and-click varieties. Second, his only true escape tool is his Ultimate, so be sure you pick your targets wisely before you dive in. Third, Talon needs to hit both procs of his Rake ability to get the most of his damage. If you whiff on this, or the second half is dodged out of, remain patient until your next opportunity. Finally, being an all Attack Damage no utility Champion, Talon falls off heavily just as Rek’Sai and Darius do, so get the most of your early damage while you can!

Bot Lane - Caitlyn, The Sheriff of Piltover

An authorial favorite here, Caitlyn is going to start a small trend break for us when it comes to Early Game picks. Whereas most of our choices above have been in the ‘strong early but falls off late’ vibe, Caitlyn takes the approach of ‘strong early, falls off mid, but is strong come late’. She’s a roller-coaster of power-scaling which I think makes her a unique choice for this list.

Overall, Caitlyn has a theme of zone/space control. But that’s not what makes her a strong early game selection. What defines Caitlyn is her auto-attack range, one of the longest in the ADC pool at level 1. This makes her effective at consistently poking and trading safely with her opponents. When you combine this poke with traps that influence movement and positioning, you can really lock-up your opponents’ options! Get it? Because she’s a cop? ...Anyway, let’s get into the tips.

• Typically, Caitlyn’s passive only procs at 6 stacks. But, if you’re autoing from a brush, the proc comes up at 5 stacks instead.
  
• Caitlyn’s Q is not only an excellent poke tool, but it’s great to cleave waves and get the lane shoving in your favor.
  
• Caitlyn’s Q can be canceled into her E, meaning that if you quickly tap E-Q in a target direction, you’ll fire both her Net and Peacemaker simultaneously. This is Caitlyn’s bread and butter kite-back combo, delivering full damage of her Q while applying a Headshot stack against her target.
  
• Caitlyn’s W is an excellent tool to follow up CC with. Setting up a trap under a CC’d target will prevent their escape and offer a headshot proc with ease.
  
• Caitlyn’s traps are also excellent zoning devices. By placing them in entry ways around neutral objectives, you can create a zone where your opponents risk death when approaching.
  
• Cait’s traps also work well in locking up Teleporting targets. If someone is TPing to your location, dropping a trap atop the ward or behind the turret can prevent them from getting into the mix by a few seconds.
  
• Caitlyn’s traps are also a decent measure of self-peel. When fighting/kiting back, placing traps on top of yourself will give you the space and damage you need to separate from your opponent if your E is down.

Beyond the above, Caitlyn also has three effective Keystone options. The first of these being Fleet Footwork, granting Cait a little extra oomph to her autos while also providing Movespeed and a slight heal for sustain. Then there’s Lethal Tempo which further increases Caitlyn’s DPS output, linking directly in time with her passive, Headshot. Finally, there’s Dark Harvest. Dark Harvest is more of a niche selection in comparison, but against compositions lacking frontline, Caitlyn can use her oppressive poke and lane phase to stack Dark Harvest while building Duskblade + Lethality items to become a one-shot machine.

Before we move on to our final Champion on the list, let’s cover Caitlyn’s weaknesses quickly. First, Caitlyn’s strengths stem largely from her synergy with her Support. While a decent blind without her favorite picks, proper Supports like Lux or Morgana really elevate her game impact.

Second, Caitlyn’s range and utility comes at the cost of her flat DPS which is quite lower than other ADCs with the Early/Mid Game. Third, Caitlyn struggles against burst compositions. Naturally, as an ADC, she’s already frail. But, against Champions like Leona or Ashe who can quickly get atop her, she’ll have consistent issues. Finally, Caitlyn’s primary weakness is the drop off in her Mid Game. She doesn’t inherently synergize to extreme effectiveness with one or two items, whereas other ADC options possess innate synergy effects from their Mythic choices to take advantage of.

Support - Blitzcrank, the Great Steam Golem

Rounding us out now is Support. Blitzcrank is your quintessential Early-Game Support because he brings the most boomin’ hook on the Rift. Blitzcrank often finds himself tied into ADCs like Draven, Samira, or Kalista due to their early and aggressive patterns which naturally is promoted by the high level crowd-control that Blitz brings.

Blitz’ kit comes off quite simply on paper and really drives forward his entry point as League’s first of many hook-focused Champions. Blitz is all about snagging who he can instantly with his Q, knocking them up right after with his E, and then bursting the shields of whoever he grabs with his Ultimate. Then, add in a little bit of built in tankiness from decent stat scalings with tankier Support items, and Blitz can play the off-tank role quite well. With all that said, let’s hook into some tips for Blitzcrank!

• First, Blitz’ W is not only an excellent engage/reposition tool, but the bonus attack speed acquired can really help Blitz and his lane partner take down early plates quickly.
  
• Second, the threat of the hook is often more dangerous than the hook itself. Having access to it makes any Bot Laner squeamish so don’t be afraid to simply use the threat of its pressure to reposition or bait abilities.
  
• In the same vein, an effective way to secure the hook is by leading with your E. Instead of fishing for the hook from range, simply run at or Flash onto your target, knock them up, and then use the hook as your secondary CC to keep your opponent in place for a total of 2 seconds.
  
• And, of course, use your hook towards high value targets like ADCs and Mid Laners. Do not hook the engage pieces, divers, or counter engage into your team.

Naturally, to have the most impactful hook in the game, you have to come with some big drawbacks. Let’s talk about those quickly. As mentioned, Blitz’ hook makes or breaks his kit. If you can’t hit a hook, don’t play the Champion. It being a skillshot, it does require an anticipatory eye. Additionally, Blitz’ hook becomes less effective against tankier compositions, moreso as the game drags on and stats increase, making targets harder to burst down.

Next, the mana costs of his hook makes whiffing extremely taxing. Be sure you’re constantly aware of your mana since all of Blitz’ other effects also heavily drain his mana. Also, his W’s secondary effect makes Blitzcrank vulnerable if his repositioning isn’t rewarded. So, be sure you quickly dance out of danger if you feel your hook or position didn’t line up. Getting poked out without sustain is a sure fire way to be extremely ineffective on such a high-impact Champion.

Closing Out

So, there you have it! Some of the best early game picks on the market right now! Be sure you keep an eye out for our next piece that covers the inverse of this list, the Late-Game Champions. I hope this list helps you in your climb this season. Remember to take plenty of breaks and drink plenty of water during your grind sessions, and good luck on the remainder of your season, Summoners!