‘Wave clear’ is an often bemoaned aspect of League of Legends since Champions that pack it aren’t necessarily those that the community views as ‘fast’ or fun to play. Instead, wave clear-focused Champions are often designed around simpler playstyles or more traditional models, like classic Mage gameplay, and often those Champions tend to be of older designs and are some of the oldest cast members of League of Legends.

But, wave clearing is extremely valuable, with high value wave-clearing Champions often finding themselves in professional team compositions and some of the best One-Tricks across the various servers specializing in these wave-manipulating masters. So, today we’re going to spend some time on these wave clearing specialists and find out which Champions lead the way in the tactic. Without further ado, here are your best Wave Clearing Champions in League of Legends!

The Cryophoenix, Anivia

Anivia is the quintessential wave clear specialist. She’s lauded as one of the ‘must master’ picks for any aspiring Mid Laner looking to go Pro, as she regularly finds herself weaving in and out of Meta contention in the Professional Scene thanks to her ability to stall sieges, dissuade dives, control space, and provide adequate burst and teamfight DPS.

But where does her wave clear potential come from? Well, it starts as early as level 6 for Anivia thanks to her Ultimate - Glacial Storm. When activated, Glacial Storm creates a slowly expanding circle in Anivia’s target area that Slows and damages enemies that pass through it. Combine this CC and DPS alongside her Q - Flash Frost, and Anivia can stall the largest waves wherever she sees fit while trimming them down to size. And that doesn’t even dive into the plethora of wave-manipulation techniques that one can master with her ever effective W - Crystalize, which produces a giant wall of ice that can alter the pathing of waves as they march towards the Nexus.

The Battle Mistress, Sivir

While it’s tempting to fill this list full of Mages, other classes and lanes can bring a lot of wave clear value to a team composition. Sivir, perhaps, being chief among those as the best wave-clearing Marksmen.

As seen throughout the entirety of Season 12 Professional play, Sivir was a contested pick to maintain a safe and easy control over Bottom Lane’s wave control. And she held a dominating presence in Solo-Queue for multiple patches for that reason and more. But where does it all come from?

Well, it starts first with her W - Ricochet. Ricochet causes Sivir’s auto-attacks to increase in attack speed while also allowing them to bounce between multiple nearby targets. Combine this with her iconic Q - Boomerang Blade, which slices through a target direction before returning to Sivir. With those two, you’ve got a recipe for completely neutralized wave states, or entirely pushed lanes that can occur at a moment’s notice, allowing for swift river rotations, back-punishes, retreats, or simply wave clears at turret.

The Mad Chemist, Singed

Singed is perhaps the most one-tricky Champion on our list since it’s been statistically proven that maining Singed makes you worse on other Champions due to his unique playstyle. But why is that? Is he really that different from every other Top Laner? Put simply, yes!

Singed’s strength is in his ability to manipulate waves, and he’s the best of the best at a method known as Proxy Farming. Proxy Farming is where you are farming behind or in between enemy turrets with the goal being to have your minions crash over and over again into the enemy turret and forcing a decision out from your opponents to either catch the wave or answer your farming. Singed is beefy, slippery, and has a ton of annoying abilities like his E - Fling and W - Mega Adhesive, to disrupt anyone that would come his way before he makes his way out to a safe position. And what’s worse is, as the game drags on he only gets tankier and slipperier at this technique as his ability to kill minions goes up and his margin for error improves.

It quite literally takes a hard camp to make sure Singed doesn’t get off to his proxy shenanigans, but even then, it’s almost required that the camp come with point and click. Because if you can’t insta-combo this mad chemist to death, then you’re likely going to be falling prey to League’s number one rule: Don’t Chase Singed.

The Hexplosive Expert, Ziggs

Ziggs blasts his way onto the list as being a flexible Bot and Mid Lane option. Ziggs is another quintessential Mid Lane Mage that packs a ton of wave-clear and poke, but what he brings to the table that someone like Anivia doesn’t is his ability to take turrets!

Starting first with his clearing tools, Ziggs’ wave clear abilities reside in his Q - Bouncing Bomb and E - Hexplosive Minefield. These two tools combine to make Ziggs one of the harder Champions to siege against in the game since, thanks to some natural AP Scalings, he can one- or two-shot most waves that are approaching his side of the map. And that’s not mentioning his ultimate - Mega Inferno Bomb, which can clear waves from a far distance while also acting as a great poke/objective stealing tool!

But again, Zigg’s value really shines in his ability to take turrets. His Passive offers him an empowered auto-attack that chunks turrets every so often. Then you throw in his W - Satchel Charge and its ability to execute Turrets at a certain percentage. Wave Clear + Turret taking ability can make Ziggs one of the most uninteractive Champions when mastered!

The Magus Ascendant, Xerath

Xerath follows right with Ziggs in that he’s one of the best Champions to play the siege and poke playstyle with. Unlike Ziggs however, Xerath is more about Champion damage than he is turret taking. Sure, his poke provides pressure when sieging but he can’t literally execute a low health turret. But since this is about wave clear, let’s talk about that.

Xerath comes packaged with charging Q - Arcanopulse that can poke through units damaging them and any target caught in the shot. A great tool to both harass and set up waves with. Next is his W - Eye of Destruction which is a circular skill-shot that blasts a target area with AP damage and slows anyone caught in the blast. These two abilities alone are enough to give Xerath all the wave clear he needs, and his W equally so sets up his Q for poke should you land it on your priority target.

Xerath, like Ziggs, has a passive that enhances his auto-attacks every so often. The difference being though is that Xerath’s auto’s grant him a refill on Mana, allowing him to poke and clear even more. The downside is that Xerath has to enter into his shortest range to catch this refill of mana, but if you can weave it in safely you can really keep up the pressure on your opponents by keeping them shoved up and poked down.

The Prophet of the Void, Malzahar

Malzahar closely emulates what Anivia brings to the table by providing damage over time and wave-clear into a single package. It all starts with his E - Malefic Visions, which is a DOT ability that spreads to the next nearby enemy target whenever it is active when a target dies. Meaning that it doesn’t necessarily have to kill the target it just has to be damaging the target as it dies.

This ability gives Malzahar a ton of early and often unmatched shove potential in lane, allowing him to move around/away from Mid to assist his Jungler with his disruptive Q - Call of the Void, which silences enemies that are caught in it. But Malefic Visions isn’t the only piece of Malzhar’s pushing package. Malzahar’s W - Void Swarm, conjures forth small voidlings that pursue the target affected by Malzahar’s E. They chomp away at the target for a significant amount of damage over time ramping up Malz’s ability to DPS through Champions and waves with ease.

But, despite our focus being on his wave clear ability, Malz’s most defining feature is his ultimate - Nether Grasp. Nether Grasp is one of those “pay the tax” abilities that requires priority targets to invest in cleansing abilities due to the fact that if you can’t get out somehow, you’re locked in place for 5 seconds, which in a damage-heavy game like League typically means you die if you’re anyone but the Tankiest of Tanks. Once he hits six and can really start shoving those waves into turret, Malz is an excellent combo punch with his Jungler to be obnoxious around the Mid Lane thanks to this ability, and when you combo your Q-E-W-R all in motion, you are shredding opponent’s health bars down since you’ve got three layers of ticking damage chipping away.

Closing Out

So, there are some of your world class wave-clear options in League of Legends. Some of the Champions come packed with a ton of difficulty with skillshots being their primary clearing and damaging sources. Others are far simpler but provide impactful fight-changing CC while still carrying out wave clearing duties. Give each of these picks a try and see which one best fits your hands!

And it’s Preseason time! So, good luck on mastering the Meta and setting yourself up for success in Season 13!