Since we've looked over the different lanes in our favorite MOBA, I think it's about time that we also take a look at the different roles in LoL. So, what class do you like to play on the rift?
League of Legends is like soccer or any other team sport. There are positions and roles which certain players hold. Is someone a striker, they’ll play up front, ready to score goals, while someone else might be the goalie, trying to keep the ball from entering their net.
The same can be said for League of Legends. Each specific lane in League of Legends also has a role which has to be played. What those roles are and what exactly they do will be looked at right now. Hopefully, you learn a little something because you might think that there are five roles in League, but spoiler alert! There are actually way more roles in League of Legends!
LoL Roles: Which Ones Exist?
Top Laners
We’re going to take this list from the top down and start off with the top lane. This is a role wherein a player has to be very self-sufficient. The top lane is often considered to be an ‘island’ since the junglers and mid laners tend to roam to the bot lane for control over the dragon.
That’s why the champions playing in the top lane often have high survivability or decent engages to start off skirmishes for lane control. There are various different types of top lane classes which we will take a look at right now.
Tank Top Laners
Tanks are probably the first thing you think of when it comes to top laners, right? These are the big, beefy champions that can withstand damage left and right. They’re boring to play, but their survivability is outstanding. For some reason, the enemy team will just always focus you — probably because you’re so big — giving your carries time to deal damage.
You’ll be building magic resist and armor items as tank champions. Damage? Never heard of her. Most tanks are also melee champions, since having a ranged tank would just be way too OP… but Riot Games has created some pretty OP champions before, so we wouldn’t put it past them to add a ranged tank champion that is unkillable and has four dashes and, of course, a three-hit passive.
Fighter Top Laners
Fighters are another class in League of Legends, but this class isn’t exclusive to the top lane. There are quite a few jungle champions which also fall under the fighter role, like Hecarim or Xin Zhao. What makes Fighters so special, though?
These champions have great engage and love to skirmish. They aren’t as tanky as tanks — duh, it’s in the name — but they’ll have insane damage output in their kit. Irelia is a fighter who is able to sustain through fights thanks to her Q while ripping apart anyone who comes in her way. In LoL Patch 12.3, Riot Games made changes to items for this class, meaning they earn less HP and healing, making them squishier in the later stages of the game, without taking away their damage output.
Junglers
Junglers are the champions which move between the different lanes. They start off farming in the jungle before moving into the lanes and ganking them. A gank refers to a champion moving into another lane to engage in a small skirmish and fight, which is what junglers excel in.
The jungle is an unforgiving place and not paying attention can cost you your life, your blue buff or even your teams life. You control the flow of the game and make decisions with the information you gather by warding, counter jungling and ganking, all while keeping an eye out for the opposing jungler. In this role, there are various classes to look at as well in League of Legends.
Farming Junglers
These are junglers which will be farming their jungle constantly to earn as much gold as possible. These champions will only gank once they’re one hundred percent sure that a gank will actually be successful. No reason to 50/50 a fight that could go completely awry.
These are champions that will carry once you hit the mid-game. So be sure to play safe until then. You gain information and let your team know where the enemy is, but you do not invade, nor do you counter-jungle before you’ve got a few items.
Carry Junglers
You want to see action from the moment you set foot onto Summoner’s Rift? Thankfully, Riot Games has the class of carry jungelrs just for you! These are champions that love to look for ganks early. You’ll want to gain as much gold as possible to become the carry for your team and how do you gain gold quickly? Through kills.
Champions like Kha’Zix come to mind when thinking of carry junglers. You won’t care whether the enemy tries to invade to take your red buff, because you’ll pounce on them and rip them to shreds. You look for fights left and right, and you dominate the meta.
Mid Laners
The mid lane is often regarded as the most important role in League of Legends. It is the heart of the team and the fastest way to the enemy base. The mid lane controls the pace of the game and depending on which champion you choose to play, the flow of the game will either be quick or slow.
There are many different mid lane champions, just like in any other role, so of course, we have to go over some champion classes here as well that differentiate the mid laners from one another.
Mages
Mages are a unique role which can once again be split into two roles. Control mages and roam mages. Control mages are for those of you who enjoy having control and play it safe. Champions like Malzahar are an example of control mages who need to farm up a lot and play safe before they can really get going. You will likely stay in lane for most of the early game and not leave to roam.
Roaming mages on the other hand, like Twisted Fate, will push their lane and then make their way to the top lane or the bot lane to help out their team. They help out the rest of their team and gain advantages all around the map thanks to their quick mobility.
Assassins
If you’re out here to play aggressive, but don’t want to play carry junglers, then mid lane assassins are the role you should pick in League of Legends. These are champions that can pick up a few kills early and then snowball that lead into the late game.
These are champions that will also excel when roaming, similar to roaming mages. They might show up in the bot lane out of nowhere, or hide in a brush, waiting for the opposing mid laner to put down their guard.
Bot Laners
The bot lane is one of the most popular roles in League of Legends. Only more people tend to play in the mid lane. As a bot laner, you have the choice of playing an APC — Ability Power Carry — or an ADC — Attack Damage Carry.
Most of the champions in the bot lane will start off rather weak, their lack of mobility and armor making them susceptible to ganks, but in the later stages of the game, they are often seen as the main carry in any fight. So, if you want to be the hero of your team — and you know how to last hit minions — then this is the position for you.
Hyper Carry
The hyper carry is the champion that starts off extremely weak. You have one goal in mind in the early stages of the game and that is to farm. Ever heard of farming simulator? Well, that’s you in the early game.
Once you manage to hit a few items, you’ll be the main source of damage for your team, though. Geting a few kills early is also great, because it enables you to buy those much- needed damage items sooner, letting you spike before your opposing bot laner.
Lane Bully
The Lane Bully is a strong early game bot laner. This champion lets you push in the lane constantly. You have to be careful not to get ganked though, being so close to the enemy turret, so it’s important to keep vision in the river to make sure the opposing jungler isn’t on his way down to you.
You deny your opposing bot laner farm though, especially in lower elos where players won’t know how to famr under tower properly, and gain money and huge advantages that way. You’ll want to play lane bullies alongside engage supports as well, since you will be the ones to make the first step in any skirmishes early on.
Supporter
The support role is the one most consider the easiest. The main point of the support is to enable the team through their healing, debuffing or shielding capabilities. The support role also has one of the biggest champion pools in League of Legends.
The support plays in the bot lane alongside the ADC or APC. They help their partner get ahead in lane and depending on which type of support you play, you can go roam the map to help the rest of your team or stay beside your bot lane partner.
Engage supports
As an engage support, you need to have a keen eye on the enemies positioning. One step too far ahead and you’ll be the one to pounce on them, letting your lane partner know it’s time to go in. Because of this aggressive nature during the laning phase, we do suggest pairing engage supports with lane bully champions. Leona and Jhin come to mind as a strong duo.
Engage supports are tankier and have some form of a hook, pull or slow in their kit which will enable any skirmish to start. So, if you think you’ve got the knowledge and don’t mind playing a tanky melee champion, then this is the role for you.
Enchanter Support
Enchanters are squishy healing and shielding champions. They are far less aggressive than their engage counterparts and will stay back and make sure their team is staying alive through elongated fights.
The main focus here is not to deal damage or start off fights, but rather you’ll want to keep your bot lane partner alive so they can farm in peace and not die to any ganks. Though, you’ll also have to be wary since you’re quite squishy and immobile yourself!
What is the Most Popular Role in League of Legends?
The most popular role in League of Legends is probably the mid lane. When looking at data from auto-filled positions players will likely not get auto-filled into either the mid lane or the bot lane positions, meaning that they’re the two most popular roles in the game.
On the other hand, junglers seem to be the least popular within the game. Whether it’s because of the different style of play since you’re technically not in a lane, or the constant barrage of insults they receive is not proven, but we do think it’s a bit of both. Guys remember, always be nice to your jungler even if a gank goes awry!
What is the Hardest Role in League of Legends?
Many players believe that the hardest role in League of Legends is the jungle. Once again, it could be due to the fact that the role plays completely different from any other role in League of Legends or that players aren’t used to dying to jungle monsters at level 1 and 2.
Though, some players do have varying opinions on the difficulty of roles in League of Legends. Tyler1, one of the most prominent League of Legends streamers, stated that jungle is one of the easiest roles to play, while the top lane was extremely difficult to manage.
One thing most players do agree on though, when it comes to the difficulty of roles in LoL, it’s that the support role is considered the easiest. Is this true, though? Is the support role really that easy? Overall, it probably just depends on the player to figure out which role works for them.
My editor excels in the mid lane and the bot lane, while I am more suited to play support or top lane. Different people, different preferences. So, before choosing a role merely by looking at what is ‘easy’ think of what kind of person you are and what you want to get out of the game before choosing a main role in League of Legends.