The Top 5 Builds to Try this Season in League of Legends
With all the changes, there are endless builds and strategies to try. Here are our top five!
League of Legends’ preseason reminds us that there are fun ways to experience the game that we wouldn’t always consider trying during the heat of the season and risk impeding our climb to new heights!
The preseason is a time for fun, and it’s no wonder it falls in line with the year-end holidays and celebratory times around the world. It’s a great time to play games and just have fun and not worry about the sweaty grind that is League of Legends solo queue!
So, here’s the top five builds we recommend trying out during the preseason. There is one for each role, and in order from top lane to support.
Top: Conqueror Singed
One of the oldest Champions in the game and yet, there are so few players that actually know how to play him. The extent of the player base’s knowledge is simply “Don’t chase Singed!”
While this is true, playing Singed is a burger-flip of fun and with this build, you can’t help but giggle when you’re running circles around Summoner’s Rift. There’s even a certain pleasantness when you use the Snow Day Singed skin that at this time of year just makes it all the more appropriate to be included on this list!
The fine line that Singed has to play in the early game between playing in lane and proxying without running it down makes for a great learning curve that makes his gameplay both fun and rewarding the more time you commit to it.
How Does it Work?
Of course, there are multiple rune and build options for Singed, but the build we recommend trying is the Conqueror runes and Jak’Sho Mythic item. Your rune page will have Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Bloodline, Last Stand, and Nimbus Cloak and Celerity. For Summoner Spells, try Flash and Ghost!
As for the build, you can start with Doran’s Ring, and rush your Boots of Swiftness and Demonic Embrace, then transition to Rylai’s Crystal Scepter and Jak’Sho, The Protean, and finish off with some combination of Dead Man’s Plate/Force of Nature/Zhonya’s Hourglass and Turbo Chemtank/Rabadon’s Deathcap. The situational items to choose depend on whether you’d prefer to be tankier against their team’s specific threats, have more damage, or just have more active items for even more shenanigans!
As Singed, you will find that you’re surprising your enemies every game with your sheer bulk, damage, and outright speed! The fun of Singed is simply being a nuisance! So, channel your inner younger sibling and be the biggest pain you can be to your enemies!
Jungle: Night Harvester Sylas
Yes, the Dark Harvest and Night Harvester Sylas setup in the jungle is an absolute blast of a build that you need to try this preseason! The jungle changes that were made this season make his lackluster clear a little bit more manageable and just enough to boost him into a viable option to snowball with some early kills and wreak havoc on the Rift!
A word of caution however, with the nerf to counter-jungling that has come from these preseason changes, while Sylas’s skirmishing potential is phenomenal, you’ll want to keep all of your interactions with the opponents to ganking because clearing the enemy camps take far too long for the little reward they can bring. Instead, you’ll want to have a three camp clear and head to your lanes and start influencing the map! Once you do, you’ll enjoy the benefits of his full AP playstyle and can stack up a Dark Seal with relative ease!
What’s the Build?
Your rune page will have Dark Harvest, Sudden Impact, Eyeball Collector, Treasure Hunter, and Magical Footwear and Cosmic Insight. Of course, for Summoner Spells you’ll be going Flash and Smite.
For the build, you can start with the Mosstomper Seedling and rush your Night Harvester with a Dark Seal at some point in case an epic snowball commences, and then build the rest of your core build of Sorcerer’s Shoes and Shadowflame. If the stacks are there, you can then build the Mejai’s Soulstealer. If not, you can instead get Zhonya’s Hourglass, and then round out your build with Rabadon’s Deathcap and any situational item needed for the particular game whether offensive or defensive (Banshee’s Veil, Void Staff, Cosmic Drive, etc.)!
For your abilities, you’ll need to start E at level 1, then take a point in Q, and then max your W first. This will give you the best tools for your first three camp clear and help you scale with your W’s damage and healing at the early stages where the skirmishes can dramatically impact the course of the match!
Remember, with Sylas’s E, you have a lot of mobility around the map which allows for quick rotations, and more options for ganking a lane! You’ll need to be quick and creative with your kit to ensure you consistently hit the ground running. But once you do, you’re off to the races and going to create a real mess for your opponents to try to deal with!
Mid: Zac
Mid lane Zac is dominating right now in solo queue but has an insanely low pick rate. Perhaps it’s to do with his viability in other roles and the added shock you might instill into your teammates when you lock it in.
Nevertheless, mid lane Zac is all the rage because it’s a fun and versatile pick that has a lot of damage and somehow also can’t die! The main appeal of Zac is how incredibly good his matchups are against melee Champions! With the inherent popularity of mid lane melee Champions as the top seven highest pick rate Champions in the mid lane are in fact melee, there’s a high probability that you’d find yourself up against a melee mid laner!
This is where Zac’s catchphrase comes in: “I was made for this… literally!”
Even if you need to first pick and find yourself against a ranged Champion, with his design intended to be a jungler, you’ll have your fair share of opportunities where you can leave the lane and gank, so the game obviously isn’t entirely about the laning phase!
What’s the Build?
While Zac was made in a lab, it’s only fitting to recommend the good-ol’ scientific method and experimenting with the different builds that exist. The more consistent option will of course be the tankier option which is with Grasp of the Undying runes and full tank and a Demonic Embrace built somewhere in there. Alternatively, you can opt for a slightly more damage oriented setup with Conqueror runes instead of Grasp, so it’s ultimately up to taste!
The more prominent rune page is Grasp of the Undying, Demolish, Second Wind, Revitalize, and Legend: Tenacity and Last Stand. This setup makes you a real pain to kill and gives you some decent damage when you’re in your prime zone of low health where you can take full advantage of your passive healing! This option combined with a W max against more consistent damage is really oppressive and will get you out of some sticky situations!
With this setup, try starting with Doran’s Shield and rushing your Ionian Boots of Lucidity and Sunfire Aegis, and then transition to your Radiant Virtue, and round out the build with Demonic Embrace, and your situational bulk items such as Thornmail/Randuin’s Omen and Spirit Visage/Gargoyle Stoneplate!
An alternative is to run Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Last Stand, and Second Wind and Revitalize. With this setup, you’ll instead want to rush your Radiant Virtue, then Sunfire Aegis, and Demonic Embrace and continue with the same build. The net result is quite similar, but it allows you to be more of a menace around the map with your Mythic passive!
Regardless of the build you choose, the very idea of mid lane Zac, I’m sure sounds appealing to you!
Bot: Kraken Slayer Ezreal
Bot Lane Ezreal doesn’t sound like anything special, but if there’s one thing we know about Ezreal it’s that everyone loves to play him! At this point Ezreal skins themselves can probably fund the next season of Arcane!
The beauty of this build, however, is that it’s taking what we all know and love and adding a nice little twist of spice in the form of Kraken Slayer! Instead of running the usual Tear of the Goddess stacking early game and coming online in the late game, instead we are going all in on the early game!
With this build, the goal is simple, deal tons of damage in a new and exciting way. On top of that, it has actually promoted Ezreal players to use their basic attacks more, which will prove to be beneficial for players who enjoy playing the Champion in the long run. Unfortunately, one of the main reasons for Ezreal’s low win rate historically is because players do not utilize his kit to its fullest potential. It normally results in players staying safe and using their abilities like some sort of artillery mage. However, when weaving in basic attacks, Ezreal can be a true menace on the Rift. This build shows you exactly that by moving more of Ezreal’s agency in damage onto his basic attacks.
What’s the Build?
This is probably the most ‘cookie-cutter’ build on this list as it won’t need to change much from game-to-game. For Runes, you’ll want to run Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Bloodline, Last Stand, and Biscuit Delivery and Cosmic Insight or Magical Footwear (this depends on personal preference, but the former is more common).
As for the items, you’ll start with a Long Sword out of base, and want to rush Essence Reaver and your Ionian Boots of Lucidity, and then transition into Kraken Slayer! From there, the core mid-game items are Navori Quickblades and Serylda’s Grudge. These will have you dealing massive damage, giving you low cooldown abilities and great tank shredding capabilities! Finally, you’ll want to round out the build with a situational item of choice such as Hexdrinker/Guardian Angel/Ravenous Hydra, but this is Ezreal, so really anything can work!
That’s it! With this, Ezreal will be running just as rampant as he could be but has a bit more reliability with his basic attacks instead of the skill-shot dependence he has with his more traditional build. This provides a much greater one-shot threat and tremendous damage to even the tankiest of enemies!
Support: Heimerdinger
I’m sorry to have to suggest this because I know everyone hates to play against Heimerdinger Support. But you can’t knock it until you try it, and that’s all I’m asking you to do!
Yes, it’s extremely tilting to play against this Champion in lane, but that’s kind of the fun in this! Just like most of these recommendations, the name of the game is to just be a bloody nuisance to your enemies!
You want to put down turrets and shove the enemy under the turret until they boil over in frustration and overextend! This Champion soaks a TON of pressure from the enemy team so as long as you’re paying attention and soaking up the pressure without risk, then you don’t even need to get any kills in lane! It’s a bit of a dance, but again, it’s the preseason! Just remember not to get too far ahead of yourself and spend all your mana.
What’s the Build?
For this, you’ll want to take Arcane Comet, Manaflow Band, Absolute Focus, Scorch, and Taste of Blood, and Treasure Hunter. Ideally, you’ll take Ignite for the added kill pressure in lane, but Exhaust is a suitable option too for the versatility on both offensive and defensive plays and can make lining up the stun much easier!
As for your items, you want to start with Spellthief’s Edge, and rush your Rylai’s Crystal Scepter. If possible, while building this item you’ll want to get your Boots and a Dark Seal in case you start popping off! After your Rylai’s is complete, finish your Sorcerer’s Shoes, and build your Mythic Item. Against a tanky team you’ll want to get Liandry’s Anguish, but you can certainly substitute it for Hextech Rocketbelt for some added one-shot potential on those carries! Then, you’ll want to get a Zhonya’s Hourglass and Morellonomicon in either order depending on necessity, and round out the build with your Watchful Wardstone (because, you are a ‘support’ after all)!
While Heimerdinger’s kit takes some getting used to especially with proper Ultimate usage, it’s an insanely fun one at that and after a few games you’ll quickly find yourself topping the damage charts and wondering if this is your new main for next season!
Conclusion
It’s challenging to make such a small list of builds to try this preseason, but these options are likely things you haven’t considered or can at least testify to how entertaining and viable these options are!
Get out there, take a load off and enjoy the rest of what the preseason has to offer and good luck on your climb this season!
