Why play a poke composition

Poke compositions in League of Legends are straightforward. The goal of the composition is to take control of the enemy’s base or neutral objectives using poke to push the enemy back and slowly take away their structures. A poke composition can also be called a siege composition, but poke compositions focus around getting the enemy low from afar to gain control whereas siege compositions are trying to take down enemy structures as a group. Poke compositions do not like to teamfight until they have whittled the opponent’s health down and they are easy to pick off. Other than that, you are actively not looking to teamfight and try to stay a safe distance away from the enemy.

Key components of a poke composition

Since the goal of a poke composition is to use ranged abilities to gain control of areas, we want to use champions with high damage long range abilities that can also disengage teamfights. Since we are not looking to teamfight until we whittle down the health of the enemy team, we need to have disengage tools in case the enemy tries to engage us. A champion that has long range poking abilities is Nidalee with her Q - Javelin Toss and can control areas with her W - Bushwack. A champion that has strong disengage tools is Janna with her Q - Howling Gale and R - Monsoon. It can also be nice to have a standard tank in poke compositions to soak up damage in case the enemy team does land a successful engage. This can be any generic tank such as Ornn or Sejuani.

Next, we will be looking at an example of a poke composition and discussing the roles of each champion in the composition.

Top

Jayce, the Defender of Tomorrow

Jayce’s main poking ability is from his Mercury Cannon’s Q - Shock Blast and combining it with his Mercury Cannon’s E - Acceleration Gate. Jayce also brings some small disengage tools such as his Acceleration Gate to speed up his teammates and Mercury Hammer’s E - Thundering Blow which knocks one enemy back. Jayce can also quickly burst down enemies that he or his teammate have gotten low from poke using his Cannon’s W and Hammer’s E. Be careful when jumping in, since Jayce is squishy. Jayce likes to build armor penetration to enhance his Shock Blast’s damage. This can be done through items such as Serylda’s Grudge or Eclipse.

Jungle

Gragas, the Rabble Rouser

Gragas is very flexible in a poke composition since he has his Q - Barrel Roll to poke down enemies or he can play as a tank disengage using his Q, E - Body Slam, and R - Explosive Cask to peel enemies off his team. Even if you are doing a more damage-oriented build, you can still be a disengager, though you’ll need to be more careful if you try to use your E to peel since you can be quickly burst down by the enemy unless you have items such as Zhonya’s Hourglass or Everfrost to keep yourself alive. Gragas can also engage fights after your team has poked the enemy down enough through his R or he can use his R to nuke entire teams and force them off an objective.

Mid

Zoe, the Aspect of Twilight

Zoe is primarily bringing damage through her Q - Paddle Star and E - Sleepy Trouble Bubble. Zoe can nearly one-shot enemies with her E into Q combo, but she can also set her allies up with her E. The damage enhancement on Zoe’s E is based on the spell that pops the sleep, so make sure your strongest member is popping the sleep first then follow up with the other poke abilities. Zoe can also poke from a safer range due to her R - Portal Jump allowing her to position herself in spots that are more difficult to engage on. However, since Zoe’s return spot is telegraphed, you need to be careful of leaving your return portal in engage distance of the enemy. Zoe also does not bring any disengage tools unless she picks up a random item such as Shurelya’s Battlesong from her W - Spell Thief, so play her with caution when moving up to poke.

Bot

Varus, the Arrow of Retribution

Varus has seen lots of play recently with his poke build focusing on his Q - Piercing Arrow and E - Hail of Arrows being able to snipe enemies from far distances. Something that some players overlook is that Varus’ W - Blighted Quiver has an active that increases the damage of his Q based on the target’s missing health. Another part of Varus’ W that is overlooked is the cooldowns of Varus’ basic abilities are reduced by 12% per Blight stack whenever Varus procs the Blight stacks. This passive of his W allows Varus to constantly spam his spells and chunk enemies out. However, even though Varus’ spells are long range, Varus has a sometimes-awkward attack range at 575. This range can outrange champions such as Kalista and Kai’sa but is shorter range than Ashe and Caitlyn. This is important to note since while it is good to apply Blight to increase your damage output, you do not want to put yourself at risk of being chunked out yourself or being engaged on. Varus can easily apply Blight stacks through his R - Chain of Corruption which instantly applies three stacks of Blight to the target and can spread the chains to nearby enemies. Varus R can be used to secure a kill on someone who is already chunked out when combined with his Q and W, or it can be used to apply Blight to multiple enemies and allow Varus to fire multiple spells during a fight. Varus E and R have crowd control that can stop the enemy from engaging, but Varus also has no mobility making him prone to being engaged on.

Support

Karma, the Enlightened One

While Karma does have some poke through her Q - Inner Flame, she is mainly here to play the role of the disengager through her E - Inspire and Mantra E - Defiance. Even though the E is mainly used for disengage, you can also use her normal E to get allies in and out of poke range quickly. Since Karma is more of a disengager in this composition, she wants to build peeling items such as Shurelya’s Battlesong, Mikael’s Blessing, and Redemption.

What beats a poke composition?

Now that we know how a poke composition works, we need to understand the counters of a poke composition. It was already noted that poke compositions dislike teamfights and big engages, since they want to wear the enemy down and take control, but they also want to avoid champions with abilities that can easily pick them off since a lot of poke champions are squishy. Poke compositions can also have a hard time against split pushers and duelists since the poke composition prefers to stay as a unit and the split pusher can divide the team.

This next section will be looking at a team composition composed of champions that are strong into poke composition, so you will know what to avoid when playing a team composition.

Top

Camille, the Steel Shadow

Camille has very strong flanking capabilities from her E - Hookshot/Wall Dive and R - The Hextech Ultimatum. These spells combined allow Camille to single targets out and her R can push the enemy team away from the ulted target which forces them to make the decision of staying to try and save them or leaving them behind and surrendering the objective. Camille is also a fantastic split pusher with strong dueling capabilities, so she can also force enemies to either match her push and risk being taken down or risk having their whole base destroyed.

Jungle

Fiddlesticks, the Ancient Fear

Fiddlesticks has tremendous flanking potential from his R - Crowstorm which can be terrifying for a poke composition that likes to stay together. Sometimes Fiddlesticks will not even need to engage with his R; being able to silence the casters on the poke composition can make them vulnerable since poke champions are typically immobile squishy champions that rely on their spells. Another niche trick that Fiddlesticks has is from his Passive - A Harmless Scarecrow which can block the spells of the poke composition if positioned correctly when the poke composition is trying to gain control.

Mid

Ziggs, the Hexplosive Expert

Ziggs has been seeing more play in bot lane recently, but he can still work as a fine pick in mid lane. Ziggs can deal poke back to the poke composition through all his long-range abilities, but the main reason he is here is due to his wave clear. If a poke composition does not have a wave to hit the structures, then the siege becomes very dragged out and it can be easier over time for someone on the your team to find an engage angle. Wave clear buys a lot of time against poke compositions, so if you ever think you are going up against one try to grab some wave clear to neutralize their siege attempts.

Bot

Ashe, the Frost Archer

Ashe brings poke to fire back at the enemy from her W - Volley and can pick enemies off with her R - Enchanted Crystal Arrow. Ashe has okay wave clear with her W and after she buys a Runnan’s Hurricane, but the ability to pick someone off from any range and immobilize them for a very long time is incredibly threatening to a group of immobile squishy champions. The main counterplay that people have against Ashe’s R is positioning around it, having a Cleanse of some sort, or using mobility or a spell shield to dodge it. The issue is that with only one tank, it can be difficult for the tank to be in position to block the arrow for their entire team. Also, late game, the base cooldown of Ashe’s R goes down to one minute, which is shorter than Cleanse and the Quicksilver Sash items. Spell shields also do not do much into Ashe since she can easily pop them with her W. This can make Ashe a very threatening pick into poke composition, so be careful when playing against her.

Support

Blitzcrank, the Great Steam Golem

While Ashe may have seemed like a great threat to poke compositions, Blitzcrank could be an even greater one due to how quickly he can pick enemies off. His Q - Rocket Grab can make sieges difficult to position and just create chaos in a team’s gameplan. Blitzcrank Q only has a 16 second base cooldown at max rank which is much lower than Ashe’s R. This means whenever someone walks forward to poke, they can instantly be at risk of being pulled in and being burst down.

Recap

A poke composition can take lots of practice and patience to play correctly due it being a very vulnerable team composition. However, they can be great for controlling the pace of a game and making the enemy fall into your hands. Now that you are prepared and stoked to play a poke composition, go out there and have some fun!