When playing a game of League of Legends, the first thing you need to focus on to win is your team composition. There are many different team compositions that you can play: teamfight focused compositions, split push comps, and many more. That being said one of the most exciting team compositions that has been seeing more attention is the protect the carry comp. With the protect the carry comp, one thing is always the same: a hypercarry composition that focuses around a late game carry ADC. There are 3 main things to focus on when running a protect the carry composition and if done properly, can wipe the enemy team away within seconds.

The Hyper Carry ADC

You can’t have a protect the carry composition without a hypercarry on your team. Most of the marksman in League scale very well late game but there are a few that scale better than the others. Some of the more standard protect the carry compositions run the following champions: Twitch, Kog’maw, Varus, Jinx, and Caitlyn. Caitlyn used to be the go-to late game carry but since her recent nerf no longer gives her extra Headshot stacks with Runaan’s Hurricane, she has fallen in priority to the other champions. When playing these hypercarries, your job is to do as much damage as you can while also playing as safe as possible. Traditionally, protect the carry compositions focus on one thing, protecting the ADC which means there is not much damage that comes from the rest of the team. That being said, if the ADC dies early in a fight, you have essentially no damage to continue the fight and will lose.

Shielding Composition

The main thing that will be able to help any teammate is shields. The more you shield and help your ADC, the better off he will be in teamfights. The best supports to play with a late game hyper carry are Lulu, Karma, and Tahm Kench. Lulu has many tools in her kit that can help protect and save teammates. Her W (Whimsy) grants allies attack speed and movement speed which are great bonuses for an ADC. Whimsy is also great for peeling an enemy if they are diving your carry as it turns them into a critter that can’t attack or use spells. Lulu also has a shield and knock-up ultimate that adds multiple protection for the carry. Karma is very similar to Lulu as her kit contains a slow, root, and a shield/speed-up. Tahm Kench is a bit of a different style of a support. He has no shields or speedups but his ability Devour is perfect for saving any ADCs caught out of position, and being a tank, he does not have to worry as much about dying before being able to protect his hypercarry.

Looking at mid champions is very similar. You need shields to be able to protect your carry and there are only a few in this current meta that fill that role. Lulu and Karma can both be flexed into the mid position but you typically would see champions such as Orianna and Galio. Orianna is great because she can shield and speed up her teammates with her ball, and being a great scaling control mage can help in team fights late game by outputting lots of AP damage. Galio is also a great choice in the mid lane at the moment for many different reasons. For a protect the carry composition, his biggest tool is his ult. If your ADC is getting jumped on in a fight or caught out of position, Galio can ult the carry giving him damage reduction for a short amount of time saving them. Galio’s kit also has a taunt and knock-up making him great for peeling for his carry in teamfights as well.

For top lane there are very limited champions that can be used specifically for a protect the carry composition. There are not many top laners in the current meta that grant shields or great peel for a carry but the ones that do are great. Shen is the first thing that people think of with shielding top laners as his global ultimate is great at saving ADC’s that are being focused. Galio can also be flexed into the top lane along with Shen allowing for there to be multiple options for near global shielding ultimates.

Here we see a Shen ultimate protecting an ADC by teleporting on to him, giving him an additional shield:

Items

The last and one of the most important things that will help round off a protect the carry composition is the items built on the champions surrounding your ADC. Typically, supports will always need a Sightstone and gold income item in their item slots, but after that builds can be very different from others. The two most built items on supports at the moment are Redemption and Locket of the Iron Solari. These items are perfect for protect the carry comps as Redemption will be able to heal not only your carry when activated but also the rest of your team at the same time. It is also great for more squishy champions like Karma and Lulu because it can still be activated if you die early in a teamfight. Locket is also very good for protecting your team as it gives you enough resistance from its Magic Resist and Armor stats to activate its unique active mid-fight to give your team a large decaying shield which can save your teammates from any massive burst from the enemy.

After the pretty standard Redemption and Locket build, there are a few other situational items that you can build. Mikael’s Crucible is great against teams with a lot of crowd control as it allows you to remove any CC on an allied champion, allowing your carry to both stay safe in teamfights and also allows him to not build Quicksilver Sash and be able to build another item they may need. Ardent Censer is also another situational item that is good on champions like Karma and Lulu. It grants the user AP as well as enhancing their heals and shields on allied champions. For tank champions such as Galio, Shen, and Tahm Kench, Knight's Vow is a great item for them. It allows the user to bind to a partner and heal for the amount of damage they deal, and redirect damage they take to you as true damage. This is perfect for helping keep your carry alive. Face of the Mountain is also a great item for tank supports like Tahm Kench as it will grant a shield to both you and a teammate.

For the carry, there are two items that are great for carrying a team fight while staying safe at the same time. Guinsoo’s Rageblade has started to become standard on champions such as Varus and Kag’maw, as when its stacks are built up, they deal a huge amount of damage to enemy champions. Guardian Angel is also a very good item on hypercarries for the late game as it gives them some protection in teamfights. With the same passive as before but the AD addition in a recent patch, it is now more standard for ADCs than ever.

In this picture, Redemption is used to save two low health teammates:

Here is what a typical protect the carry team composition would consist of:

Top: Shen, Galio
Jungle: (if no damage besides carry) Lee Sin, Kha'Zix, Elise. (if damage in top or mid) Gragas, Ivern,
Mid: Karma, Lulu, Orianna, Galio
ADC: Twitch, Caitlyn, Kog’Maw, Varus, Jinx
Support: Karma, Lulu, Tahm Kench

Overall a protect the carry composition is pretty straightforward. Protect your ADC. Now this is a lot easier said than done, but if you build a team comp around your carry and itemize effectively, your ADC should be able to carry late game teamfights and win the game. The most important thing to remember is that if your carry dies early, you probably will not win the fight so the best thing to do is peel back and reset for the next fight instead of getting aced and losing more than you should.

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