Ten powerful Champion combos to climb the Ranked Ladder with! From Top-Jungle Duos, to Bot-Support Duos, this article has what you need to up your Duo game! These partners are excellent from Iron all the way to Diamond!
When you’re looking to climb, one of the surest ways to better your odds is to find a buddy to wade into the Ranked waters with you. Reducing your potential trolls by one is always a plus, and there’s also the benefit to increased synergy. You and a coordinating friend are more likely to pop off in comparison to you and a random who you have no established rapport with. So today, in an effort to up your Duo game, I’m going to be presenting you 10 of the best Champion partners and diving into why they play so well off each other in Ranked! Let’s get that LP!
Shen-Nocturne is a classic combo that centers their synergy around the usage of both of the Champion’s ultimates. Shen’s, Stand United, and Nocturne’s, Paranoia, go hand in hand with Shen being able to use his ult on Noc, who in turns ults a priority target. This beefs up Nocturne to survive any burst that an enemy team might have for him, while also putting Shen in a position to be on top of a carry to CC them down, or in a position to protect Noc or further disable the enemy team.
Additionally, with the strength of these two without each other in Solo-Queue in Season 11, there’s no reason not to play them if both you and your partner fancy either of these Champions. Picking either of the Champions blind is possible since both Champions can fulfill the other’s role respectably, and both provide solid gank assist in non-ult situations for the other to follow up on. But do note, that Shen Jungle is significantly weaker than Noc Jungle, and should only be opted for in situations where Shen faces one of his worst matchups.
Our second combo, again, focuses around ultimate synergy… which is going to be a big thing going forward, by the way. Galio-Jarvan is a dive focused synergy like Shen-Noc, but G&J lack the same amount of range to collapse onto their opponents since only one partner packs a semi-global. Thankfully though, these two make up for their lack of range with plenty of CC and early burst to more than cover for this shortage of flexibility.
With this combo, the frontman is primarily Jarvan who will be looking to flag and drag (E+Q) into a priority location while Galio follows up with his ultimate, Hero’s Entrance, before further CCing by running through his own combo. Jarvan can follow up with his ult, Cataclysm, for a little extra stick if the situation needs, which will keep Galio in range of the priority target, or lock the target in range of the outer edge of Galio’s ultimate.
That said, these two Champions typically have a higher degree of burst throughout the early game due to their higher base damages and nature towards Early to Mid dominance. If you and your duo buddy want to win early and then translate your leads quickly, this combo will serve you well.
A personal favorite, this lane is all about stick and pick. These two partners engage from multiple angles off the back of Jhin’s kit and Swain’s E, Nevermove. Jhin’s W, Deadly Flourish, roots off of any target hit by Jhin or his allies, so he can easily create a pick point for Swain’s passive pull effect to set up their engage. Once a target has been hit by Swain’s full rotation plus Electrocute, then you’re likely going to be looking at gold stacking either onto Jhin or Swain due to how massive their Early/Mid-Game damage is.
And even if they don’t get snowballing through the lane phase, Jhin brings all the extra oomph you need from a utility ADC come late-game, and Swain’s passive allows him to scale from an Early-Game Burst Mage to that of a Burn Mage or Drain Tank depending on his itemization. Overall, there’s a ton of flexibility with these two and they present a united front that plays well off each other throughout all phases of the game.
You weren’t going to go through this whole list without seeing Xayah and Rakan. This classic duo is made for each other, quite literally.
Xayah’s W and Rakan’s E play off each other with increased benefit when paired with their literal partner, with Xayah getting more feathers for her damage output and Rakan getting increased range on his E. Rakan serves as the primary go button with his W and ult which, when combined, more than easily sets up Xayah’s extra feathers into the burst of her E. Their impressive amount of damage when together gives the duo, perhaps, the best level one out of any Bot Combo in the game, and it’s very common for these two to camp a bush early levels rather than leash to gain a cheese advantage that further set them in up in lane.
You also have to factor in the fact that these two are encouraged to back at the same time and maintain lane presence with each other. Either Xayah or Rakan can begin a back separately while the other can join them at any point within the channel time to back in sync. This encourages their gameplay loop to stay within each other’s range which is really hard not to do with the power these two possess.
Another set of Combos you weren’t about to escape without reading about. I almost put, “Any Champ with a knock-up'' in the first half of our slot here, but I think Malphite and Graggy particularly separate themselves when considering their association with Yasuo.
Naturally, Yasuo’s has clear level-6 synergy with Malphite, and it’s not uncommon for the rock to wander down from Top or even go into the Jungle to push himself into position to capitalize off Yasuo’s power. Knock-up, all-in, slow, attack speed debuff, Malphite’s got it all to support our favorite Weeb-Wind-Warrior.
Despite the fact that Yasuo’s presence can be felt more in Mid rather than Bot, when he drops down to dash all over ADCs and deny their Cannon Minions with his Wind Wall, he’s usually accompanied by the Rift’s favorite brewmaster, Gragas. Gragas, like Malphite, possesses clear synergies with Yasuo with his ability to knock-up targets with his E or ultimate, allowing Yasuo the easy ult angle. Additionally, these two operate much like a kill lane with Gragas’ damage just compacting Yasuo’s giving their go-hard an impressive amount of threat. But if you’re hesitant to run this duo where they first established their love for booze together, you can easily opt for these guys to be a Mid-Jungler combo for all the same reasons.
This is a duo list, so naturally there’s going to be an abundance of Bot Lane combos here. Lucian-Braum is another classic piece to Bot’s dynamic. Pairing this hyper aggressive ADC with a defensive powerhouse seems a bit on at first glance, but with Braum’s passive and his ability to support Lucian’s aggression through damage blocking and stat boots, allows this combo to run over any Bot Lane that isn’t matching their synergy.
Another classic Bot Lane, Ashe-Zyra like Jhin-Swain is all about how the duo plays off of each other. Ashe can slow her opponents to set up Zyra’s vines, Zyra’s vines and slowing plants can allow Ashe to get into position for auto-damage, it’s all just a matter of who hits what first. But, if anyone needs to hit anything for these two to get off the ground it’s Ashe. Come level 6, Ashe-Zyra has one of the deadliest all in combos in the League with Ashe’s Crystal Arrow and Zyra’s Stranglethorn able to 100-0 most opponents without much thought.
Though not as popular as some of the above combos, Liss-Vi is a solid addition to synergistic Mid-Jungle Duos since both Champions just play off of each other so well. And again, these two possess very in tune ultimates that play off each other nicely serving as setup for each other depending on who’s in range first.
Lissandra’s flexibility in rune selection options her up to play matchups differently based on what Champion she’s facing, just like her ultimate allows her to flex into an offensive cooldown or defensive one as needed. This flexibility supports Vi’s consistent desire to all-in since she’s looking to get off the ground and going fast to help take over the Mid game.
“Wait, how do these two have any synergy at all?!” you might be asking, well, there’s a fun little interaction between these two that makes their union all the more worth it. Ya see, when Cassiopeia’s Twin Fang fang doesn’t check to see if the poison applied to the target is specifically her poison, it just checks for the debuff on its own. So, when Twitch stealths in and drops any damage or a Toxic Cast on top of a target, Cassio can immediately cast Twin Fangs on that target to maximum benefit without having to weave her other abilities in to apply her poison.
With Twitch’s increased flexibility in being able to ADC, Jungle, and now Support to an ‘off-meta’ status, he can partner with Cassio for extremely toxic shenanigans across the Rift.
Noc-noc. Who’s there? Another combo. Another combo who? Another Nocturne + Semi Global ultimate combo… Okay, I tried. But really, this combo is just as effective, if not a little more flexible than our previous Nocturne combo with Shen.
Noc-TF may not have the lane flex that they can rely on when matched into bad matchups, but what they do have is the ability to play off of each other’s ultimates extremely well. Nocturne’s Paranoia can cover TF’s approach and Destiny in as it shortens the visual range of opponents, preventing them from seeing where TF is coming in at. Additionally, TF’s Destiny reveals targets for Nocturne to ult, allowing him to get in and on top of his targets with complete ease.
So there you have it guys. These 10 Champion combos will bring an extra layer of technique to your Duo Queue experience and you’ll most assuredly gain LP with these partners should you queue up with a true ride-or-die. I hope these picks serve you well, and good luck in Duo-Queue!
