All the best champions of 2018.
Our League of Legends best champions 2018 guide contains a list of all the strongest champions in the game right now.
There are many, many champions to choose from in League of Legends. However, sometimes, you just want to know – quite simply – who is the best. And while this plaudit is forever changing and can be argued in multiple ways as the game develops over each passing day, there are absolutely some champions who can be declared better than all the rest.
In this guide, we make that difficult decision and pick out the one champion we feel is, currently, the very best of the best in each position. So, whether you’re looking to settle a debate once and for all or just want to know who the best champions in League of Legends are right now, read on below.
Irelia – Top
What makes Irelia so strong in the top lane right now is how her skill set offers the perfect counter to a lot of other popular top lane champions in the current meta. Her passive, Ionian Fervour, grants stacks with each spell you cast and these can be built up to the point where she deals extra damage to shields. This can nullify the advantages you get from playing champions such as Urgot, Sion and Viktor.
She’s an effective top laner outside of this single ability too, as she can comfortably clear minions using Bladesurge and defend herself from incoming poke damage using Defiant Dance. When your allied jungler decides to roam up looking for a gank, she even has set up potential using Flawless Duet to mark and stun the opponent.
A fed Irelia in lane can be devastating across the map. Her manoeuvrability with Bladesurge allows her to jump onto squishy targets in the backlines, while her tankiness means she’s capable of doing so without dying immediately. Her ultimate, Vanguard’s Edge, is especially strong in team fight situations, creating a zone that funnels opponents together or forces them to walk out taking damage and slows if they see no other option.
Overall, Irelia is a very versatile champion who can be effective across multiple stages of a game and has the potential to carry her team if she gets off to a particularly strong start. It’s close, but she just pips ahead of some of her close rivals.
Honourable mentions – Urgot, Viktor
Graves – Jungle
At first, Graves may sound like an unorthodox choice as a jungler, but he’s grown into being the best pick for the role in League of Legends right now. He excels within the tight and twisted treelines, clearing neutral monsters with blazing speed and comfortably contesting anyone he finds roaming into his territory.
In fact, Graves is such a strong duelist that invading the opposing jungle is one of his potential strengths. The ability Quickdraw grants him a significant armour boost when used to dash towards an enemy champion, allowing him to soak damage and stay alive much longer than many opponents would expect.
The rest of his abilities bring some huge area-of-effect damage to his jungle clear, meaning he can wipe out neutral camps quickly and take a lead in experience over the opposing jungler. That means you can look to gank much earlier and begin looking to work advantages in important lanes. With his full skill set unlocked, including End of the Line and his ultimate Collateral Damage, Graves can deliver some whopping burst damage that’ll wipe targets off the map when you choose to gank them.
Where Graves struggles a little as a jungler is his lack of crowd control effects outside of a middling slow on Smoke Screen, so he’s often best used in a team that already brings a lot of stuns, slows and disruption effects of their own. Nevertheless, his raw damage potential still makes his ganks surprisingly effective – and paired with his dominance in the jungle itself – make him the top pick for the task.
Honourable mentions – Evelynn, Jax, Kha’Zix
Zed – Mid
In the contest for who reigns supreme in the centre of Summoner’s Rift, tricksy ninja Zed emerges as the number one choice right now. Not only does the Master of Shadows bring the ability to farm safely in a dangerous lane, but he also offers some imposing harass on the lane opponent as well as the ability to turn up the aggression and go for a takedown in an instant.
As moving in for melee attacks to last hit minions can be risky in a lane where you’re usually up against ranged opponents, Zed can use Razor Shuriken to farm without too much fear of taking trade damage in return. You can use the ability for a bit of poke damage yourself, though it’s best to wait until you have both Living Shadow and Shadow Slash as these moves offer up a much more effective harass combo. You have the former to throw a clone towards your opponent or into the minion wave, then you can immediately follow up with the latter for damage and a slowing effect.
With enough of those you often put your lane opponent in a much weaker position that leaves them vulnerable to a kill. Zed can often make this play solo, especially with the help of his Death Mark ultimate at level six and Contempt for the Weak passive that increases his damage to targets below 50% health. When you make the decision to go all-in on a target with your abilities and summoner spells such as Ignite, there’s often very little they can do to survive.
With the laning phase over, Zed can take that huge kill potential into the late game where he can pick out key squishy targets and burst them down in team fights to give his allies a huge advantage. Ultimately, he’s a frightening champion to come up against – one who is even more terrifying when played well due to his elusiveness and his ability to completely dissect an opposing team as one of the best assassins in the game.
Honourable mentions – LeBlanc, Kassadin, Karthus
More League of Legends guides
- 1. Jungling – LOL – Jungling guide
- 2. Carrying – LOL – Carrying guide
- 3. Duos – LOL – Best duo combo
- 4. Beginners – LOL – Best beginner champions
Kai’Sa – ADC
The role of ADC is often hotly contested by a handful of heroes but the one to emerge at the top of the pile in League of Legends right now in Kai’Sa. An incredibly mobile champion, she can also drastically boost her attack speed to pump out extra damage and burst down a single target under the right circumstances.
Kai’Sa plays the laning game like most other bot champions: with a focus on minion farming and getting in the odd bit of poke damage when possible. Icathian Rain is a decent ability to help with your lane push, but it also becomes viable in skirmishes when you’re one-on-one against an enemy champion and can direct all the missiles to them for some solid burst damage.
Her key ability to time well for fights, though, is Supercharge. It grants you a very temporary boost to movement speed and attack damage, so you’ll want to activate it right when a engagement is about to kick off – too early and it’s wasted, too late and you miss out on the full effect. You can even improve it as the game goes on to provide invisibility too, which is especially handy if you’re finding yourself focused by a champion such as Zed, for example.
Kai’Sa’s ultimate improves her mobility even further, allowing her to dash into a team fight she’s last to by applying Plasma to a target using Void Seeker. You can also use it in a pinch to gain a small shield if you’ve been dove upon by a melee hero. It’s this sort of added versatility, along with a strong all round kit, that makes her the best pick at ADC.
Honourable mentions – Lucian, Jhin
Pyke – Support
If you’re after the perfect champion to pair with Kai’Sa in the bot lane then look no further than Pyke, who finds himself as the best support currently available in League of Legends. He’s certainly a choice for those who like to play the role more aggressively, but his potential for securing kills in lane and throughout all stages of a match are undeniable.
It all starts with his ability to catch out targets with Bone Skewer. This hook skill shot latches on to whatever target it hits and pulls them towards you. If you can grab a lane opponent or use it to isolate an key target during a team fight then the rest of your allies will be able to collapse upon them for a quick kill.
What’s more, Pyke has Ghostwater Dive to better set up these hook opportunities. He can move into a more advantageous position while in camouflage and surprise opponents with a Bone Skewer. For even more crowd control there’s Phantom Undertow, which can be used to briefly stun enemy champions to create an even bigger window for follow up damage.
The ability that makes him so useful as a support, though, is Death From Below. This big damaging ultimate allows Pyke to execute low health enemy champions while also sharing the full kill gold with any allies who assisted on the takedown. It goes a long way to nullify a problem you often run into with support champions accidentally taking kills and gold away from their item dependent allies. All of that combined makes Pyke an easy shout for one of the game’s best champions.
Honourable mentions – Thresh, Morgana
