Overview

Poke/siege compositions work around the team moving around the map and destroying objectives with their siege abilities. Usually these champions have superior range to its enemy and aims to make enemy go back to base and get their team a number advantage. By creating that advantage, they can get on top of objectives quickly and give them map pressure and gold advantage. With this extra gold the champions gain item advantages which scale into the team winning a lot of the scenarios where they face the opposing team in a confrontation.

The team is working to objectively play the game. Controlling and obtaining all the objectives they can so they can gain a lead that way. While they don't do particularly bad in a team fight scenario, due to its normally weak back line and lack of mobility, they can lose fights in an instant if caught in a bad spot. The poke and siege composition can actually work in 2 ways. Firstly, there's the standard grouping and sieging at turrets and quickly getting on top of them. Forcing the enemy back through long ranged/consistent damage and getting the turret/dragon/baron. The second way you can play the composition is by using the damage to consistently wave clear the mid lane while you have a member or 2 pushing the side lanes. This develops a scenario for the enemy where they will need to make a quick decision or they could lose a lot of map presence really quickly.

Playing It Out

When playing the siege composition, there's a few pointers that define its success. Following these when you find yourself in one of these compositions can help you get that victory screen;

-Waveclear: Quickly reducing the amount of minions in a wave is important to efficiently get on top of turrets. Champions who have large AOE or long ranged skillshots do this really well etc. Xerath, Caitlyn.

-Not Dying: Sounds stupid I know. Your obviously not looking to die in any composition but as a poke/siege composition, you want to prevent it as much as possible, especially in the early game. Giving the enemy gold means they can get on top of you easily and lose the carries on your team.

-Collapsing in the Mid Game: After the laning phase, you want to use your composition to group up and use normally single item power spikes to the fullest. Infinity Edge, Unholy Grail, morellonomicon, Trinity Force or all examples of these. Obliterating all minion waves and blowing up all the turrets that get in your way.

-Disengage/Tank Line: With the weak back line normally present in the composition, having champions which can hold strong for the team is important. Getting the enemy off your allies and wasting their cooldowns can steer a fight in your favour. Janna, Maokai with that peel potential are good picks for this.

-Neutral-Defensive Warding: Due to the "stay back" attitude you're going to want to take with this composition, aggressively warding won't be that effective. Placing wards which help protect the team against flanks and understanding the movement of all the enemies to siege efficiently.

-Landing Skillshots: Most of the time, the champions that complete these comps have skillshots. Example in Xerath, all of his abilities are skillshots. Landing his long ranged damage is vital for the champion to work.

-The whole game plays out rather defensively and in some ways can be quite boring to play if you're in the game for a fast, loads of kills game. The composition excels in grabbing all the objectives around the map and using the gold and dragon/baron buffs to hold an edge in all confrontations. Using the map pressure gained, you aim to objectively get yourself to the enemy nexus and win the game.

Champion Choices

(champions from patch 5.5 to 5.6)

Top Lane:

Mao'Kai

-A snare, slow and knock back which can peel enemies off allies. They can also be used to keep an enemy in place. Enemies can have a hard time getting through the wall that is Mao'Kai granting his team a really strong peeling frontline in the champion

-Builds into a tank so becomes really hard to kill in confrontations. By building items like Frozen Heart, Spirit Visage and Thornmail, he can reduce the combat effectiveness of his enemy.

-"Sapling Toss" can scout out unwarded areas meaning you never really need to blindly face check bushes. This is really effective at controlling those neutral objectives on the map such as dragon and baron. By using the ability on the entrances into the pits, he can control the area his team fights in

-His base 20% damage reduction on "Vengeful Maelstrom" provides quite strong protection against all forms of damage hitting them. This can help contain all her important allies protected and peeled in a fight

Lulu

-Can wave clear effectively throughout the game with her long ranged "Glitterlance". When used with "Help!Pix", the length of the skillshot can be lengthened to get through all the wave. She can also use the minion to tag an enemy champion from an unexpected range

-With AP scaling utility, she provides strong shields, slows and speed ups throughout the whole game which can help keep her allies alive while maximising their damage potential. This is especially true in ADC driven compositions, as she can keep them protected really well (etc. Juggermaw)

-"Whimsy" while it can speed allies also works as a a unique form of crowd control, "Polymorph". Polymorph makes an enemy both blinded and silenced, making them unable to interact with your team which could potentially save an ally if used art the right time

-"Wild Growth" provides a mass heal, knock up and AOE slow. Against champions who deal a lot of single targeted burst, Lulu's ultimate can prevent that very quickly by casting this on that champion. She also makes that champion into more of tank than they used to be with the size growth it brings.

Jungle:

Nidalee

-With her "Javelin Toss", she can help her allies poke and siege her enemies out of a fight. The further the spear goes, the more damage it will deal to an enemy hit. The follow up from the spear in her cougar form makes her a really dangerous threat after the spear

-"Primal Surge" both heals and grants an attack speed buff to the ally its cast on. When used with an ADC for example, this provides both protection and a faster way of destroying objectives which amplifies the team's siege

-Bushwhack can keep bushes warded from oncoming enemies. By doing that, they can keep track of enemies prying to kill her team. The bushwhack also initiates the damage amplification from "Hunt" while in cougar form, making it a dangerous vision tool

-In Cougar form, Nidalee can also follow up on any poke landed as her passive grants her increased mobility and damage on targets she inflicts "Hunt" on to. The execute damage that can be used after her siege tools makes her poke really threatening after it's landed

Nunu

-One of the best junglers to work with when wanting to fast push lanes down. "Blood Boil" grants both a movement speed and attack speed steroid which does a lot for his allied ADC when getting on top of the turrets.

-With "Consume", Nunu has an built smite built into his kit. When combined with smite, Nunu can do of damage to a neutral monster on the map. Especially when considering baron and dragon, having 2 smites can make it an easy objective

- Nunu can defend against sieges as he provides 2 attack speed de-buffs to the enemies hit by his "Ice Blast or when they're in his ultimate "Absolute Zero". By using it near the turret, he reduces their damage output of the enemy on the turrets

-"Absolute Zero" is also useful against engages made by the enemy. His large AOE slow can effectively disengage the enemies through the large zoning it creates in a fight. The enemy's movement is so impaired it can create a reluctance to fight

Mid:

Xerath

-One of the strongest long ranged mages in the game right now. With different forms of consistent poke damage, Xerath can easily push enemies out of a fight with his damage, even when they're underneath the turret

-With a stun on his "Shocking Orb (E)" and a slow on "Eye of Destruction (W)", he can keep enemies in place for a reasonable amount of time when used correctly.

-Xerath unlike most other long ranged mages, has a consistent way of getting mana. By hitting an enemy or neutral monster, he gains a percentage of mana back meaning he can continue sieges effectively

-"Rite of the Arcane" deals 3 bolts of damage from a potentially a considerable range. His enemies can't consider themselves safe when on low health and near their turret. With good aim, a Xerath can still crash damage onto them from a distance

Ezreal

-With a low CD ability and low mana cost in "Mystic Shot", he can annoy enemies with consistent damage. By also applying on hits, with certain items such as Muramana and Trinity Force, he can become quite the threat

-Has in built self survivability. "Arcane Shift" is an built flash in Ezreal's kit. With the offensive and defensive options on the ability, he can kite his enemy throughout games

-"Essence Flux" while doesnt really provide much damage, it does help a little in sieging objectives. It gives a small attack speed buff when the ability has hit an ally

-His global ultimate "Trueshot Barrage" has 2 efficient methods of use in a siege composition. Firstly, it can poke and sometimes kill enemies from a long range. Secondly, it can reduce the amount of minions in a wave in a different lane. Protecting his objectives from oncoming enemies.

ADC:

Corki

-Corki can deal a lot of damage with Trinity Force and the user weaves his auto attacks in between his abilities. With the extra damage sheen gives him, when on a tower he can destroy it quickly within his abilities

-With the mid game sieges, Corki gains a massive power spike with Trinity Force. Other ADCs have a hard time out-damaging him at this point meaning fights go in his teams favour more often

-He's a rather self-sufficient ADC with an escape mechanism in his kit. "Valkyrie" can get Corki out of a lot of potentially fatal situations or use it aggressively to get into the fight and kill the enemy team quickly

-"Missile Barrage", Corki's R ability, is a mana-efficient spell that can deal damage from a high range. Especially when enhanced to "The Big One", he can help create a number advantage in confrontation with the enemy

Jinx

-Jinx's power comes from her quick turret destruction and late game scaling. With the in-built attack speed she gets from her "Mini-Gun" form, she can evaporate turrets with effective rotations from the early to late game

-Combined with the both the increased attack range from "Fishbones" form and the long ranged spell that is "Zap!", she can deal AOE damage consistently from a far distance. She doesn't need to get to close to participate in the fights

-Any crowd control that lands on an enemy, she has the ability to follow up with "Flame Chompers!" that increases the cc duration. It can also protect Jinx in some scenarios from oncoming enemies with the small line zone it creates

-Jinx's ultimate, "Super Mega Death Rocket" is great way to execute a reasonably low enemy. With unlimited range and more damage the lower their health is, it can be a great way to finish off the kill

Support:

Janna

-In siege scenarios when aiming for turrets, Janna's "Eye of the Shield" grants an attack damage boost. This can help put more damage on to the turret, getting it down quickly. The health shield it provides also helps against any damage the enemy team deals

-The AOE movement speed granted by Janna can quickly help her allies escape confrontations. This is just one tool that defines her success as a disengage support

-Both "Howling Gale" and "Zephyr" provide a lot of peel in scenarios whe facing the enemy. "Howling Gale" can knock up multiple enemies and Zephyr can slow down an opponent in the chase. These can be used effectively in both offensive and defensive actions

-"Monsoon" is the AOE knock back and heal which sees her used in these compositions. The properties it grats can reset a fight in her teams favour when used correctly. Wasting the cooldowns on her enemy so her team can use their cooldowns effectively

Braum

-A stacking stun which could potentially go on all enemies. From both Braum's auto attacks and "Winter's Bite" Braum can cc one or multiple enemies down. This can be great follow up for when an enemy is caught and good in the defensive retreats

-On ally cast "Stand Behind Me", he protect a singular ally with stat defenses. Against singular target damage, the improved resistances can block some of the damage output

-Braum can be one of the best supports in defending an ally and his team with his E "Unbreakable". Unbreakable blocks the damage out from a directional skillshot. When taking into account important skillshots such as "Super Mega Death Rocket" or Nami's "Tidal Wave", this ability can make or break fights

-"Glacial Fissure" is a long ranged directional skillshot which knocks up enemies around him while slowing the rest. Combined with "Stand Behind Me", he can quickly knock up any enemies that jump on to his allies and slow any enemies wanting to get close

Facing it!

Compositions that work on effectively rotating the map and controlling all the objectives generally have a weak back line which when dived upon, can have a hard time escaping unless they have a defensive summoner spell such as flash. By wasting their defensive abilities that disengage, use the champions that can focus on a single target and decimate them before they have time to react. Good champions from this are; LeBlanc, Zed, Vi, Fizz etc. Getting rid of their poke and siege in a confrontation is so important in winning team fights. If not dealt with, they will consistently beat you out of lane and get the turret in front of them.

Here I start discussing the trio of compositions and how one beats another while being defeated by the other. A siege composition generally sees its strength when facing a team fighting comp when played correctly. It can put them in a scenario where they can't team fight well due to their low health bars. Pick compositions are really effective when trying to deal with a siege composition. Champions that have high mobility with high single target damage can get round the healthy front line and get rid of the siege threats in front of them. By getting the number advantage in a fight and eliminating the poke champions, the siege composition crumbles in to itself and has a lack of effective use. That's the vulnerable part of the composition and needs to be considered when going into the pick and ban phase.

Strong Champions that work in defeating a siege composition

Conclusion

While playing the Poke and Siege Composition you want to play the game from a rather boring perspective, objectively. You need to use your long ranged and consistent damage to pile the neutral objectives down like turrets, dragons and barons. Poke the enemy out lane, create fight where it's going to be hard for them to win due to their lack of health. Try to say either even or ahead of the opposing composition as when behind, your team's vulnerabilities are easy to abuse and it will crumble quickly. This leads you playing defensively in the early game and farming up to their mid game power spike your champions normally have. With that you group and siege efficiently, making the most of the power your team has over them. While it's a rather boring way to play the game, if played correctly you can create a focussed advantage which derives from turrets and monsters, not champions kills.

There are a lot of compositions in League of Legends and its one of the many reasons for the games diversity and one of the reason we come back to the game every day. I've only gone into 3 very broad compositions here and there are a lot more intricate ones that exist. Juggermaw is a prime example of a more intricate composition which relies on specific champions to exist in the composition (etc. Kog'maw, Lulu). A lot of the times when you're in soloQ, you won't have time or the ability to communicate with your team and aim for archetype composition. You'll get champions people are comfortable with, champions that counter their lane opponent and champions that are troll for the meta (eventhough there is argument right now that in the current patch meta, there isn't a champion who can't be played).

Your aim in champion select and before the game properly begins is to see what properties your composition has. How can you utilise each champions strengths and get that end game win. Also focussing on the enemy composition and what strengths their champions have and how must you work around it. A few aspects to look at;

- Power Points: When is your champion, allied champions and enemy champions strong. Is it an item? Is it a champion's level? Orientate around that champions if its an ally and abuse that point of strength and try and avoid fighting when you know another champion has hit their spike in power

- Vital Champions: Which champions make your and theirs work. In mostly every game, every champion is strong but due to the meta and the composition your team has fell into, there is going to be one or two champions that determine the success of your team

- The Map: Where do you and your team want to fight on the map and where you don't want to. Fighting a team fight composition is incredibly scary in a 5 v 5 situation in the jungle. The small corridors make it easy for them to lock you up. While a Siege compositon is looking to fight in the lane so they can rush the turrets down and use their advantage

- Win Conditions: As a team, what's the focus of your team to win. How do you do it and how quickly do you need to do it. Whats the enemy comp's winning conditions. How do you work around it and counter it.

There are more pointers out there but these are only a few as there are thousands of compositions in League of Legends. Due to the amount of champions in the game that can be combined, a game can be completely different to the next. While I looked into 3 rather broad archetypes ad focussed on them, it doesn't mean that you can't use the same skills to identify other compositions. What are your strengths and weaknesses and focus on that. To conclude, I hope this rather long article gives you a look into 3 used compositions in League of Legends right now. My aim was for you to understand how they worked,how you dealt with them and what kind of champions fit into them. If you got to this point in the article, it means you read a reasonable amount. I hope you found the article interesting and helped you play your games. Please leave me feedback as I'm always looking to improve as how else am I going to :)

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