It happens to all of us. We fall into a slump. We go from having the intelligence and mechanics of Faker himself to being, well, our actual ranks. Sometimes that means we need to take a break, other times, that means we simply need a mixup. Today, I’m here to provide that mixup for you with these simple yet powerful Champion pickups for you to take onto the Rift.

Let’s get started first with our Top Lane choice!

Malphite - Top Lane

Malphite starts us off as being, perhaps, the simplest Top Laner in the business. With his passive shield and steady Q poke, Malphite can bully down matchups against squishier foes like Jayce, Kayle, and Gnar, while outlasting the auto-focused assaults of Yone, Vayne, or Tryndamere. In many ways, he’s the auto-filled go-to pick for Top since you know that his easy to understand kit and high impact ultimate are always going to be relevant, even if you somehow int your lane away.

Let’s break Malphite down so you know what you’re getting into nonetheless though!

Malphites’ passive is Granite Shield which grants him increased size based off his bonus armor and that health bar shield based off his bonus health. These both cap at 8 and 9 percent respectively, but encourage Malphite to build and play towards his tanky nature.

Malphite’s Q is Seismic Shard. A point and click ability that scales off of 60% of Malphite AP and has an extremely high base value early. This ability slows the target and also grants Malphite a burst of movement speed. This means that he can poke and get in and on top of his target for a plethora of autos with ease, or he can poke and use the movement speed boost to scurry away.

Malphite’s W is Thunderclap, an auto-attack reset that applies a cleave effect to Malphite’s autos. It additionally grants triple bonus armor if Malphite’s passive is active. This ability is an excellent trading tool since it allows you to weave in that extra oomph of damage, and its empowerment scales off his bonus AP and Armor. Stats that Malphite will build naturally through the game. Additionally, activating this ability increases Malphite’s bonus attack range, so you can activate it to sneak in that ever valuable Grasp of the Undying proc if you’re simply looking to scale up.

Malphite’s E, Ground Slam, is a, well, a ground slam. This ability deals AP and Bonus Armor-based damage around Malphite in a circle, and Cripples enemies. Cripple is a debuff effect which reduces the enemies attack speed, so enemies have a more difficult time clapping back on you once you smack them to the ground.

Lastly, Unstoppable Force is Malphite’s Ultimate. This point and click to location ability is simple to understand and rewarding to hit. Clicking to a target location within range hurls Malphite at that location where, upon contact, he knocks up every enemy in the area and deals AP damage to them. This ability scales off of 90% of his AP, so this is why AP Malphite can find its viability as an insta-deleter of every on the Rift.

Jungle - Nunu & Willump

Nunu & Willump snowball their way onto the list as, perhaps, the easiest Junglers in League of Legends. Why’s that? Well, it all starts with their Q, which we’ll dive into later. Nunu and Willump are a flexible pick that can creatively gank lanes with his snowball, while also having the build flexibility to shift between Tank and AP depending on his game state. If the team lacks that oomph, AP Nunu, while off-meta, is capable of hard carrying games. Otherwise, they’re excellent at fulfilling both the peeling and disengage requirements of a Tank depending on what’s needed.

The duo’s passive is Call of the Freljord. This passive triggers on attack and grants bonus attack speed to the best friends and their ally with the highest attack speed near them. Additionally, Nunu and Willump gain bonus move speed and their autos cleave with bonus AD until the passive falls off.

Nunu and Willump’s Q, Consume, is essentially a second Smite. Willump takes a chomp out of his enemy and deals damage to them and heals himself. The lower he is, the more healing is done. The ability scales off of both their AP and bonus health percentages. On non-Champions, Willump deals true damage up to 1000. So, when stacked with Smite, Willump can insta-pop down objectives even against some of the game’s most threatening drive-by stealers like Zac and Lee-Sin.

Their W is Biggest Snowball Ever. And as the name implies, Willump starts rolling up a snowball on activation. This rollup can be turned and curved in the direction towards the mouse cursor and it will keep growing in size and hit-range as it builds up. At a certain point, the snowball will be let go, and will travel forward automatically if not released earlier by a second button press or through Champion contact. Regardless though, whenever the snowball collides with an enemy Champion, they are knocked up and slowed heavily with both the knock-up and slow basing itself on the charge/size of Nunu’s snowball.

Snowball Barrage, their E, is the follow-up ability for their W. This ability causes Nunu to throw tiny snowballs at the cursor within a radius around him. Enemies hit by these snowballs are slowed and marked. 3 seconds after Snowball Barrage is cast, marked enemies that are within the range of Snowball Barrage are rooted and take some more magic damage.

Their Ultimate is Absolute Zero. This ult causes Nunu to channel a wide circle around himself for 3 seconds. Enemies in the channel zone are slowed. Nunu can reactivate or move and cause this channel to end, causing the icy field to explode and deal magic damage to everyone within the circle. This ability scales heavily off of AP, and while channeled, Nunu and Willump gain a shield based off their bonus health.

Mid - Malzahar

While falling a bit out of favor in recent years, Malzahar remains an impactful and obnoxious Champion for many matchup in Mid Lane. The safety provided to him by his passive and wave clear make him hard to overcome, and then when you do overcome it, you have to literally pay your way out of his point and click ultimate or suffer playing around it. Malz is one of those “I don’t want to interact with you” picks that will remain evergreen in Mid Lane’s roster due to these facts alone.

Malzahar’s passive is Void Shift. Periodically, Malz gains a shield that soaks a crowd-control effect that hits him. Void Shift’s cooldown is reduced whenever he takes non-minion damage or is affected by crowd-control in some form, and it resets on respawn

Malz’s Q is Call of the Void. Malz opens two portals on opposite sides of each other that slice inward. This ability grants vision over the area, deals magic damage, and silences any opponents hit.

Malz’s W is Void Swarm. Void Swarm summons Voidlings which spawn from Malzahar and rush forward. Malz gains stacks of Void Swarm whenever he casts an ability, up to two times. This means he can spawn up to three little voidlings when at max stacks who will attack targets and deal AP damage to them. Targets affected by Malz’ E, Malefic Visions, are prioritized by the Voidlings.

Malz’ E, Malefic Vision, is a point and click DOT effect that deals AP damage for 4 seconds. This DOT refreshes if the target is hit by Malz’s Q or Ultimate, and it executes Minions below a certain threshold. If a target dies while affected by Malefic Visions, the DOT bounces to a nearby target and restores 2% of Malzahar’s mana.

Malz’s Ultimate is Nether Grasp. Nether Grasp is a point and click suppression ability that tethers Malz to the target and knocks them down. For 2.5 seconds he channels this tether and suppresses the target in place, revealing them and dealing magic damage to them. During this channel, a portal opens up beneath the target that lasts for 5 seconds, this portal deals magic damage to the target.

Bot Lane - Miss Fortune

Miss Fortune rocks her way onto the list as our easiest ADC. While Sivir and Ashe could also argue for their spot here, I give the edge to Miss Fortune for being an ADC that focuses on high damage output alongside ease of execution. Couple this with her speediness and great Support pairings, and she’s a real one to pick up and master.

MF’s passive is Love Tap. MF’s first basic attack against a target is empowered to deal bonus AD to the target on her first hit. This target is then marked until MF hits another target. This passive rewards MF for being able to alternate her autos between multiple targets over the course of a fight.

MF’s Q is Double Up. A point and click shot is fired from MF’s guns that deal physical damage. If there’s a target behind MF’s primary, Double Up will bounce to the target behind the first hit dealing damage to them as well. Double Up’s bounce is guaranteed to crit if MF kills the first target hit with her Q. Additionally, targets do not have to be visible to be factored into MF’s bounce range.

MF’s W is Strut. Passively, when MF does not take persistent damage, after 5 seconds she gains 25% bonus movement speed. When activated, MF gains bonus attack speed for 4 seconds. Marking a new target with Love Tap reduces Strut’s activation by two seconds.

MF’s E is Make it Rain. On activation, MF casts down a storm of bullets at a target location that deals magic damage and slow enemies within the radius. The slow starts at 40% but increases based on Miss Fortune’s AP ratio.

MF’s Ultimate is Bullet Time. On activation, MF sprays a wide cone of bullets towards a target direction. This cone comes out in waves for 3 seconds and each wave is a spread of 6 projectiles that deal AD or AP damage (whichever is higher). Each wave of MF’s ultimate can critically hit as well.

Support - Soraka

Soraka is League of Legends’ EMT and her quickness in healing up her allies and disrupting her enemies is what makes her an extremely strong candidate for powerful yet simple. She’s known well for the healing effect of her W and Ultimate, but let’s break down this moon-goat for all that she’s got!

Soraka’s Passive is Salvation. Salvation grants Soraka bonus movement speed towards her low health allies. This allows her to get in range to heal up her allies or disrupt foes that would be on their tail.

Soraka’s Q is Starcall. Soraka sends down a star at a target location. The star deals AP damage in the area that it strikes. If it hits an enemy Champion, Soraka slows them, and heals herself. If a target has been affected by her W during the strike, the heal will also passively affect them as well! This spell also grants Soraka a burst of movement speed on hit.

Soraka’s W is Astral Infusion. This is her point and click, bread and butter, heal spell. This spell’s resource is Soraka’s health and cannot be cast once she’s below 5% health.

Soraka’s E is Equinox. Soraka lays down a starfield at a target location that deals magic damage to and silences opponents that touch it. Opponents that stay within Equinox’s starfield are rooted if the starfield expires while they are within its range.

Soraka’s Ultimate is Wish. This spell heals every ally on Soraka’s team, regardless of range, as well as herself. Allies below 40% of their maximum health receive bonus healing.

Closing Out

So, Malphite, Nunu, Malzahar, Miss Fortune, and Soraka! Those are our recommendations for simple yet powerful Champions for you to master! These picks are great introductions for beginners, while being equally great in the hands of experienced pilots. We hope these picks bring you great success in your end of season ranked push!