Climbing ranks in League of Legends can be hard, especially when you’re in Elo hell. However, one thing can make climbing substantially easier: duo-queuing with a friend. Duo-queuing with a friend exponentially boosts your chances of winning ranked games, because now instead of worrying about 4 other players, you only have to worry about 3! Now there are of course some roles that benefit more from duo-queuing than other roles would, these roles being ADC and Jungle. These two roles benefit more from duo-queue simply because when played in solo-queue they are roles that can be exploited very easily. Take for instance, Jungle. In solo-queue, you may have to solo fight for every objective, but in a duo-queue game, you will at least have one other person there with you.

ADCs were the other role that benefit so greatly from duo-queue especially in low Elo, because many Supports in lower Elos don’t know how to properly Peel, and so you became a sitting duck for any one smart enough to jump onto you at the beginning of a fight; however if you duo-queue as an ADC then you at least have one person on your team focused on helping you survive. There is one role that feels especially amazing to duo-queue with when playing ADC, and that’s Support. Now of course, you can duo-queue with other roles and still dominate the game, but with Laning phases becoming ever so impactful, duo-queueing with a Support who can help you stomp Lane and make the enemy ADC irrelevant is, and should be, your top priority. In this guide, I will provide you with 5 duo-queue Bot Lanes that you and your friend can climb with in ranked play!

Xayah & Rakan

The Lovers Duo! It should come to no surprise that this Bot Lane duo made the list of best duo Bot Lanes. Xayah and Rakan, while being mechanically challenging champions, are some of the best duo-fighters in the game, and this is because of how their kits are designed. Rakan on his own is an A-tier Support, but pair him with a Xayah and he instantly jumps to an S++-tier, and this is because of the buffs that Xayah gives to Rakan. For instance, Rakan gets a tremendous range extension to his E when using it on Xayah. He also gets an Auto-Attack speed buff when Xayah uses her W, meaning that you can now output damage as well.

All of these buffs to Rakan mean more outplay potential and more engage options during Lanning phase. To play this lane properly, Rakan should always be the one engaging unless Xayah can get a Q, Auto, E combo off rooting the enemies, and in that case well then Rakan should instantly engage. For the most part though Rakan should be the one engaging with a Flash Ult into a W knock-up. Doing this properly should allow Xayah enough time to get her root combo off, which is Q, W, Auto-Attack, E. Or if you want to maximize potential with this lane, then Rakan should be looking to engage of Xayah.

This means that Rakan should be using his E (Shield Dash) to connect to Xayah and then look to Flash Ult, W the enemies. By doing it this way, Rakan’s engage will be a surprise because he should be hidden away in a brush. Overall, this lane offers the duos who play it extreme damage and extreme outplay potential. Another plus to this lane is that it’s basically ungankable post-6, because of Xayah’s Ult and Rakan’s Ult and the distance of his E.

Aphelios & Thresh

Aphelios is one of the most overpowered champions in League of Legends right now; however, while he has an abundance of damage and tools to use, he lacks mobility, making him one of the easiest ADCs to jump onto. This is where Thresh comes in. Thresh’s kit allows for him to be both a great engager and a great peeler for Aphelios. This is because his kit can either be used aggressively or passively, meaning you can either hook into the enemy Bot Laner and flay them and use your Ult to slow them; or you could hook enemies off Aphelios, and use your flay to push enemies away from Aphelios and then use the Ult to slow their chase down.

In any case, this Bot Lane requires Thresh to make all the engages, unless Aphelios has his Gravitum (Purple Gun), which allows him to root enemies in place. For extreme success with this lane, you are going to need good vision and map awareness because that decides how Thresh is going to play and be positioned. If the enemy Jungler is able to be tracked and you and your partner know where he is, then Thresh can play aggressive and look for Hook engages; however if the Jungler is tracked and he is looking to Gank Bot Lane, then Thresh should play back and allow Aphelios to solo CS while he waits to throw Lantern. Overall, this lane is either hyper aggressive and designed to get picks or you can play it slow and wait till late game when Aphelios becomes an unstoppable machine.

Varus & Kench

Varus is one of the most popular ADCs in League of Legends right now, and that’s due to his ability to output crazy high damage and control crowds with his Ult. However, much like Aphelios, Varus lacks mobility. Varus’s mobility isn’t an issue though when he’s paired with Tahm Kench, The River King. Tahm Kench’s Devour allows Varus to trade/play aggressively without having to worry if he will just get run down. To play this lane, you are going to generally want to wait until level 6 for all-ins, but that doesn’t mean you can’t trade and poke out the enemy laners with Varus Qs and Es and Tahm Kench Qs.

Waiting until level 6 does give you access to one of Varus’s best features though and that’s his Ult, which is a skillshot that roots enemies in place. Varus’s Ult is corrupting, which means that if you hit the ADC, and the enemy Support stands too close, then they will also get rooted. This lane should also win out on most 2v2s Bot Lane, because of the damage that both Varus and Kench can output, and because Kench can negate any big damage being directed towards Varus.

Play this lane much like how you would play the Aphelios and Thresh Lane. However, in this lane your goal as Varus is to out-trade the enemy ADC by using your Qs and Es and out-poke them because of your extended range. Kench’s goal in this Lane should be to play aggressive as well and help poke out enemy laners with Q, but be wary and ready to use W at a moment's notice to Devour Varus so that trades and teamfights will always go in your favor.

Kai’Sa & Nautilus

Another hyper aggressive lane where you can steam role the enemy ADC and Support into oblivion. Kai’Sa and Nautilus pair so well together because of combos and passives. One of the easier lanes on this list because Nautilus is hyper-busted and should be the only one engaging, unless of course Kai’Sa gets hyper-fed and can get an isolated W into Ult and 1v1 the enemy. The combo for this lane should either always begin with a Nautilus Ult or Auto-Attack post-6. Before level 6, Nautilus should look for Hooks onto enemy champions. Once Nautilus has successfully landed one ability on the enemy laners, then Kai’Sa should look to engage instantly as her passive will be half stacked, making it extremely easy to get a big burst damage combo off onto the enemy without having to expel a lot of Abilities.

One thing you can do in this Lane to maximize potential is to learn the maximum range of Kai’Sa’s Ult. Learning the range on her Ult will then allow the Nautilus the opportunity to bait enemies into fights they believe to be advantageous because Kai’Sa isn’t visible; however with one quick CC move from Nautilus by using either his Passive, his Hook, or his Ult, and Kai’Sa could be there in a second fighting, turning that fight from a 1v2 into a 2v2 . Overall, this lane is hyperaggressive and able to output extreme damage, and even more damage now that Hail of Blades Kai’Sa is storming the Rift.

Ezreal & Yuumi

This Lane differs from all the other lanes because it’s a hyper-scaling lane rather than hyper-aggressive. Now this doesn’t mean that you can’t play it aggressively, but what it does mean is that you benefit more by letting this lane scale. This lane is extremely annoying to play against, simply because it appears to require no skill. Of course, I say this knowing that to be good at either of these champions is extremely hard because of how mechanically challenging they are, but playing against it doesn’t feel like that. Where Kai’Sa and Nautilus are always looking to engage no matter the health on the enemy Laners, this Bot Lane duo is looking to be always poking and harassing the enemy Laners.

Ezreal should always be using his Q, W, and Auto-Attacks to harass and poke out the enemies, whereas Yuumi should be using her Q while attached to Ezreal and autos while disconnected from Ezreal to harass the enemies.

Overall, the name of this lane is poke/sustain until you can take an advantageous fight, in which Yuumi heals Ezreal for seven million health and Ezreal throws out combos hoping to one-shot the now low health enemies.

Now go and try any one of these combinations out and achieve greatness!