Knowing a champion’s identity is important for understanding what you should and should not do when playing as certain champions. This guide will help you to understand champion identity, and how it is used to formulate game plans in League of Legends.
Understanding what a champion does and how their abilities work is important for improving at the game. But knowing what a champion wants to do will help you to go into every game with a clear game plan. It will also help you to avoid situations where you do not know what to do during certain parts of the game, such as during the laning phase or skirmishes.
The goal of this guide will be to help players to understand how champion identity works, and how it provides clues to what a champion should be doing during games.
First, we need to be clear on the definition of what a champion’s identity means. Some people may think that a champion’s identity just means what archetype they fall under, such as Twisted Fate being a mage, or Zed being an assassin. However, a champion’s identity is specific and unique to every champion. Many different champions are classed as mages or assassins, but all of them have their own identities due to the differences in their abilities and kit.
Taking a look at Syndra as an example, she is an extremely immobile mage. She has no mobility in her kit, and Scatter the Weak is her only form of self-peel. Due to her immobility, Syndra requires very vigilant use of her cooldowns in order to avoid vulnerability and to stay threatening to the opponents. Syndra does not like to play against champions such as Camille or Lee Sin who are very mobile and have the ability to flank very well. She prefers to play against teams with linear forms of engage such as Alistar or Nautilus, due to her orb placements. Her orbs allow her to control choke points very well and zone opponents off certain parts of the map, such as areas in the jungle or nearby objectives. Syndra does not like to be in the side lanes because she is very immobile and needs to be at fights first in order to set up zone control with her orbs. She also loves to play into squishy team compositions because she can quickly burst and kill opponents that get caught out by her stun.
Twisted Fate is another mage, but his identity is completely different from Syndra’s identity. Twisted Fate is also an immobile mage, with his only form of self-peel coming from his Gold Card. Unlike Syndra, Twisted Fate loves being in the side lanes, this is due to his ability to create man advantage fights with his ultimate, Destiny. He can push in and pressure side lanes to force enemies to respond to him, once enemies have been pulled to the side lane, he can then use Destiny to join his team and start a fight with a man advantage. Unlike other mid lane champions such as Azir or Cassiopeia, Twisted Fate lacks sustained damage in his kit, which makes him more of a facilitator rather than a hard carry. He also requires a high degree of map awareness in order to make full use of his ultimate ability to make plays around the map.
After looking at these two champions, we can see that although they are both classified as mages, their playstyles and win conditions are very different from each other. The same can be said for basically every other champion in the game. There may be some champions that have similar identities and playstyles, but every champion is unique due to the difference in their kit and abilities.
Understanding a champion’s identity helps to improve a player’s skill level in several ways. First, it will help players to make better decisions in their games. Knowing what a champion wants to do and what conditions make a champion strong will help you to commit to plays that are likely to have favourable outcomes. For example, if a player locks in Kayle without knowing that she has a very weak early game, they might end up playing too aggressive in the first few levels and take bad trades that cause them to die. Knowing what conditions you need to bring about in a game helps you to formulate a game plan that is based around your champion’s strengths. When you go into a match with a clear understanding of your champion’s identity, you will always have a checklist of things that will guide you in every stage of the game.
Understanding the identity of your teammates and opponent’s champion is also extremely important for forming a game plan. For example, if you understand the identity of your opponent’s champion, you can use that to your advantage by forcing them into situations that are uncomfortable for their champion. If you are a jungler, knowing which champions are strong in the early game and which champions can snowball very well will help you to gank better. Ganking teammates who have a weak early game may not be beneficial at times, this is because the kill may not be enough to help them win the lane. Helping teammates that are strong in the early game can allow them to essentially bully their lane opponents out of the game, which gives them priority and allows you to invade the enemy jungle safely. If you are playing a strong early game jungler, and you know that the enemy jungler is very weak during the first few levels, you can look to invade their jungle early on and potentially score a kill or some camps. Likewise, if your champion is very weak during the early game, it is a good idea to place down wards near jungle entrances in case the enemy jungler tries to invade you. Understanding champion identity helps you to commit to plays that are likely to produce positive results and gold leads.
Knowing a champion’s identity also helps you to draft better and synergise more with your team. For example, if you are a support player and your entire team picks champions such as Kayn and Xayah, it would not be ideal if you picked a champion like Blitzcrank. Kayn and Xayah fit very well into a dive composition because they have abilities that allow them to self-peel very well. However, Blitzcrank fits better into a team composition that wants to catch and pick off enemy players rather than dive them. Instead, picking champions who have good engagement tools like Alistar will synergise better into dive compositions. Having a team filled with champions that have different identities and strengths could potentially cause confusion and disorganisation among the team. Teamfights and skirmishes become harder to win because everyone wants to do different things and the team as a whole does not excel in any area. Having a team filled with champions that want to do similar things, such as poking or diving, will give the team a clear win condition and help everyone to be on the same page.
Understanding champion identity will also help players to review their games better. Some players may not know what to look out for and miss mistakes when reviewing their replays. Knowing the win conditions and objectives of your champion will give you a guideline for what you should pay attention to. Sometimes you may not be able to understand why you lost a teamfight no matter how many times you review it. If you know what your champion wants to do in teamfights and skirmishes, you will always have a checklist to look at during reviews. Being comfortable and familiar with a champion’s identity can also lead to better and more consistent performances in high pressure situations. Knowing what conditions your champion needs to bring about will help you to stay focused and panic less.
Finding out a champion’s identity may sound very complicated and intimidating, but it is actually quite simple. Oftentimes, looking at a champion’s kit will roughly tell you what kind of identity they have. Taking Orianna as an example, her entire kit revolves around her Ball, which can be moved in a zone around her. With this information, you can easily guess that she is very good at zoning and controlling areas because of the threat of her Ball. This also means that Orianna prefers not to be in side lanes, and likes to arrive at objectives before fights happen because she needs to be in position to set up zone control for her team. Since all of her abilities, including moving her Ball, costs mana, you can also guess that she is very dependent on mana and likes to have blue buff. Her ultimate ability Command: Shockwave is an extremely powerful ability that can be a game changer if used properly. With such a powerful ability, it is also easy to see that Orianna is capable of setting the pace of the game and calling plays on or off. She is also an extremely immobile mage, which makes Flash very valuable for her. Orianna also wants to have front-to-back teamfights in order to abuse her range advantage, and she also wants to stand behind her frontline to protect herself due to her low mobility.
All of this information gives you a decent idea on how to play Orianna, and it all came just from analysing her kit. With more in-game experience and experimentation, you can fully understand a champion’s identity and play them to their maximum potential.
To conclude, champion identity is a concept that enables players to unlock the full potential of a champion. Simply knowing what abilities a champion has and what combos they can do is only scratching the surface. Understanding what win conditions and playstyle a champion has will not only allow you to become a better player, but it can also make the champion more enjoyable to play.
I hope this guide has been helpful and I wish you all the best in your climb!
