Having the right team composition can make it significantly easier to win more games in competitive League of Legends. While you can choose to solo carry an entire game on your back, it’s often not possible to 1v5 fights no matter how fed you are when the opponents are doing a much better job at playing as a unit.
Picking your favorite champion all the time will not help you climb the ranked ladder consistently. You will need to consider what the rest of your team is going for and go for a pick whose kit synergizes with them.
Although this is quite difficult to pull off in solo queue, it’s not impossible once you widen your pool and understand how champion synergy works.
Once you have a firm grasp of the ins and outs of team compositions in the MOBA, you will have a much easier time winning games if you are playing solo, with a duo partner, or with a 5-man premade.
The importance of the right team composition in League of Legends
The right team composition will be your key to winning more games in League of Legends. Irrespective of the champions you pick, if the comp synergizes well with each other, then they will be able to adjust to the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses.
Team compositions depend a lot on the champion meta. With every patch, Riot Games loves to shift things around when it comes to power scaling, and you will have to adjust accordingly. It’s important to keep up with the changes and widen your champion pool in the roles that you prefer.
Fortunately, once you know the fundamentals of building a nice team comp and have a good pool of picks in your arsenal, you will be able to have a much easier time climbing the ranked ladder irrespective of the meta.
While team compositions will keep changing from patch to patch, the fundamentals of making a cohesive unit remain the same. Getting more familiar with champion kit synergies and how picks interact with each other will help you understand team compositions better.
A good comp helps players understand their roles. This lets them have an easier time communicating around objectives and when going for a team fight.
The basic champion roles in a League of Legends
Every team comp has three basic components or roles that you will need to be aware of. Understanding how each role interacts with each other will help you pick the right champion for your team.
1) Tanks
Tanks are your frontline who help peel for your team allowing your carries to have a much easier time kiting around fights. They absorb a lot of damage and help engage onto the enemy when they are caught out of position.
2) Damage Dealers
The damage-dealing champions are your carries whose sole purpose in a fight will be to deal as much DPS as possible. Carries usually come in Ability Power or Attack Damage with the former being mages and primarily used in the mid lane with the latter being mostly picked for the bot lane.
3) Supports
Supports, as the name itself suggests, are all about keeping your team alive in skirmishes. They play multiple roles in a match including setting up your team’s vision, CC-ing the enemy, engaging on them, as well as disrupting fights if you get caught.
Role-specific team compositions in League of Legends
The role-specific comps are the groundwork on which you build advanced strategies for your team in a game. There are 5 types of role-specific comps that you will need to consider:
1) Tank comp
This composition champions the use of multiple tanks in your team. This allows you to have a very strong frontline but will lack a good deal of burst and consistent DPS that later a game goes. This comp will usually have a tank in three roles preferably in top, support, and jungle.
A good tank comp will rely on peeling for the carry allowing them as much room as possible to deal damage. Here is an example of a tank comp:
- Top: Ornn
- Jungle: Sejuani
- Mid: Orianna
- Bot: Jinx
- Support: Leona
2) Mage comp
Mage comps rely on having multiple AP carries on the team. They come with a lot of burst damage but are relatively squishier as there isn’t much of a frontline that can peel for them. This is a pretty fun but very high-risk, high-reward comp.
Here is an example of a mage comp:
- Top: Rumble
- Jungle: Brand
- Mid: Viktor
- Bot: Ezreal
- Support: Janna
3) AD Carry comp
An AD carry comp is all about consistent DPS and scaling as much as possible into the late game. They have the same weaknesses as that of the mage comp, and while it can be fun to pilot, it does come with a fair amount of risk.
Here is an example of an AD carry comp:
- Top: Vayne
- Jungle: Wukong
- Mid: Tristana
- Bot: Ziggs
- Support: Lulu
4) Support comp
Support comps have a lot of CC and sustain built into their kit. They are very annoying to play against but they lack consistent DPS. They will start to fall off hard the later a game goes in League of Legends especially if the carry on the team is not able to reach their item spikes.
Here is an example of a support comp:
- Top: Karma
- Jungle: Ivern
- Mid: Lulu
- Bot: Jinx/ Sivir/ Trostana/ Kog’Maw (any hyper carry)
- Support: Braum/Taric
5) Balance comp
A balance comps is where you get a mix of everything including sustain, DPS, as well as CC. These are the most versatile team compositions in League of Legends that are capable of adapting to any situation. However, balance comps usually lack a specific strategy and it can be hard to focus on objectives and win conditions when you are playing solo queue.
Here is an example of a Balance comp:
- Top: Rumble
- Jungle: Sejuani
- Mid: Viktor
- Bot: Xayah
- Support: Rakan
Advanced team compositions in League of Legends
Now that you are familiar with the champion roles and the basic comps that you can make around them, it’s time to look into the more advanced strategies. These comps build on the role-specific model by adding more elements to them and exploiting champion synergies even further.
Advanced comps are where your team starts working as one cohesive unit. They have specific strategies and win conditions in place which you will need to execute to the T.
Here is a list of some of the most popular advanced team compositions in competitive League of Legends:
1) Poke/Siege comp
This comp is all about dealing damage with long-range abilities and skillshots. They keep poking down the enemy to chunk out their HP making it difficult for them to set up for an objective or a team fight. Their range also allows them to be great at sieging towers, making this comp incredibly difficult to play against if they are ahead.
However, if the game state is even, poke comps fall off in the late game. They do not have good team fighting tools and can struggle to stay relevant if the enemy has good peel and a decent backline threat.
To build a good poke comp, here is what you will need:
- A minimum of 2 champions who have good long-range projectiles and skillshots
- 1 good back-up carry
- 1 reliable side lane threat
- 1 champion with a lot of burst
- 1 champion with a lot of CC
Here is an example of a reliable Poke comp:
- Top: Jayce
- Jungle: Wukong/Nidalee
- Mid: Corki
- Bot: Ezreal/Ziggs/Caitlyn/Tristana/Varus (Lethality)
- Support: Leona
2) Front-to-back comp
A Front-to-back is a pure team-fighting comp in League of Legends. It goes for a more balanced combination of champions who excel at sustained DPS and prolonged skirmishes. The main goal is to protect the carries while the rest of the team peels for them and keeps the enemy team occupied by engaging on them.
Front-to-back comps are the most popular in pro-play and high-rank matchmaking. They have a very slow early game but ramp up incredibly well in the mid-to-late game mark.
They have clear win conditions that are easy to achieve and are one of the safest compositions to pilot in the MOBA. However, comp struggles against dive-heavy picks that love to snowball off of early advantages.
A Front-to-back camp will struggle if you are letting it scale into the late game.
Here is what you will need to make a good Front-to-back comp:
- 2 carries (preferably one AD and one AP) with amazing late-game scaling.
- 2 champions with hard CC.
- 1 champion with good engage and initiation tools.
- 1 champion that is capable of getting onto the backline
- 1 tank/bruiser to peel for the team.
Here is an example of a good Front-to-back comp:
- Top: Ornn
- Jungle: Maokai
- Mid: Viktor
- Bot: Jinx
- Support: Rakan
3) Full Dive comps
A Full Dive comp relies on forcing smaller skirmishes and taking down the most dangerous member of the enemy team as soon as possible. This comps features a lot of CC and burst, and has an incredibly strong early game.
Champions who love to get on the backline create a lot of chaos in team fights. This makes the comp ideal for those in lower ELO, as players at that level usually do not know how they can counter burst-heavy champions that have easy backline access.
However, Full Dive comps are very reliant on team coordination and early advantages. You and the rest of the team will need to be on the same page when diving onto a priority target, especially if they are under the tower.
It’s very easy to mess up your timings thereby giving away free kills to the enemy carry. Moreover, the comp also falls off in the late game, so if your team is going for this playstyle then you should ideally finish a game within 25 minutes.
Here is what you will need for a good Full Dive comp in League of Legends:
- Multiple champions with good gap-closing abilities (Blinks, dashes, and more).
- 2 champions with hard multi-target CC.
- 2 champions with a lot of early game burst damage.
- Champions with good disengage and sustain.
Here is an example of a good dive comp:
- Top: Renekton
- Jungle: Elise/Poppy
- Mid: Ahri
- Bot: Lucian
- Support: Tahm Kench/Rakan
4) Pick comps
Pick comps are very similar to Full Dive compositions in the sense that they have a lot of tools in their kit that can lock down and instantly burst a single target. However, they are much more methodical compared to Dive comps and don’t exactly thrive in chaotic situations.
Pick comps rely on establishing vision control in the enemy jungle. This allows them to catch out priority targets who are looking to reach the lane or set up vision around objectives.
Once they find a target, the team will burst them down and immediately look to secure the objectives around the map. This comp needs a lot of strategizing and patience to pull off while having a complete understanding of the game state.
Additionally, they fall off in the later stages of the game and are not at all reliable in full-on team fights as it’s hard to find isolated targets when all the champions are grouped together.
To build a good Pick comp here is what you will need:
- 2 champions with hard multi-target CC.
- 2 champions with a lot of early game burst damage.
- Champions with good disengage and sustain.
Here is an example of a good Pick comp:
- Top: Ornn
- Jungle: Lee Sin/Elise/Nidalee/ Nocturne
- Mid: Syndra/Lissandra/Malzahar/LeBanc
- Bot: Ashe
- Support: Thresh/Nautilus/Blitzcrank/Pyke/Bard
5) Splitpush/ Side lane pressure comps
Side Lane pressure comps are all about splitpushing and threatening tower damage on multiple structures across multiple lanes at the same time. These comps feature strong laners who excel at 1v1 situations and can solo most champions in the game.
It’s a very annoying team comp to play against as at least one or two members will be pushing a lane into the opponent towers threatening to take down the structure while the rest of the team will position around neutral objectives or threaten to start a team fight.
The strategy makes the most of the Teleport summoner spell, however, it’s a very hard comp to pull off. The team needs to be comfortable with 3v5 or 4v5 situations and adopt a hit-and-run policy where they are constantly baiting the enemy to engage on them and waste their cooldowns.
The goal is to waste the enemy team’s time while the splitpusher gets free time on their tower. A good splitpush comp can win games even without having to invest in a single teamfight.
To build a good splitpush comp here is what you will need:
- 2 champions with good wave clear and 1v1 potential.
- 2 champion with good engage and disengage tools.
- 1 carry with good range and mobility.
- 1 good tank/bruiser to peel for the team.
Here is an example of a good splitpush comp:
- Top: Fiora/Yorick/Jax/Tryndamere
- Jungle: Trundle/Wukong/Maokai
- Mid: Ryze/Azir/Irelia
- Bot: Sivir
- Support: Rakan/Braum/Taric
6) Late Game comp
A Late Game comp only champions picks who keep scaling the longer a game goes. They do not exactly follow a particular strategy apart from mid and jungle roaming the map to help facilitate the side lanes while securing objectives.
This comp is very weak in the early game, but once they start reaching 3-to-4 item powerspikes, they completely take over a match. Front-to-back playstyles usually use Late Game comps, but not to their very extremes.
So if you are looking to have a comp filled with champions that come online after the 25-minute mark, then here is what you will need:
- 2 or 3 champions who scale incredibly well into the late game (preferably has infinite scaling).
- Tanks that require low resource investment to be effective but have a lot of peel and engage.
- Aggressive junglers who are good with a roaming mid lane.
- On enchanter support.
Here is an example of a good Late Game only comp:
- Top: Nasus/Shen/Malphite/Kayle
- Jungle: Viego/Lee Sin/Trundle/Graves
- Mid: Ryze/Azir/Corki/Veigar/Kassadin
- Bot: Senna/Sivir/Kog’Maw/Jinx/Tristana
- Support: Lulu/Karma/Janna/Taric/Braum/Yuumi
How to make a good team composition in League of Legends
Now that you have a fair understanding of the basics behind champions synergies and some of the most popular team compositions in League of Legends, here are a few key points to keep in mind when customizing a team comp that fits you:
1) Keep an eye on the champion meta
Champion meta will always play an important role in how challenging your games are. Riot keeps adding balance updates every patch which affects both proplay and standard matchmaking.
Meta champions are those who are versatile and do well in most team compositions. They are flexible in their role and often enjoy a very high pick-and-ban in LoL Esports.
So make sure you understand the meta of the patch that you are currently on and pick champions that high up the tier list.
Moreover, keep an eye out for changing trends if a new champion has been added to the Rift. Champion releases often have a drastic impact on the meta and the strategies that teams are employing.
2) Go for a comp that champions multiple roles
A balanced comp is always going to be the most reliable at helping you win more games. So try to go for a composition that will have champions that fulfill the roles of tank, damage, support, engage, and peel. This will give you more room to adapt to situations as you look to secure your win conditions.
3) Have a good understanding of Pick Order and Counter-Picking
In ranked matchmaking Pick Order plays a key role in how your comp shapes up. A lot of mind games go into this and in many cases, we can see professional teams lose matches just because messed up in Champion Select.
Understanding pick order will allow your team to initially pick champions that are very reliable and are not usually hard countered, and then, later on, go for picks to counter some of the champions that the enemy has locked in.
Pick-and-bans determine the strategy that you ultimately employ so try getting more familiar with every champion and their kit and the match-ups they prefer or struggle in.
4) Team synergy is key
In the draft pick champions that synergize well with each other, however, don’t go for picks that have really cool combos with each other. While you can focus on a wombo-combo comp, it can be hard to pull off especially when the CC timings are tight. Missing out on ability execution will give the enemy the advantage that they need to secure their win conditions.
Stick to your fundamentals, and go for champions that generally work well together. Pair crowd control with damage dealers, along with some sustain and peel and you will have yourself a winning formula.
An Amumu ultimate followed by a Leona Solar Flare into a Miss Fortune Bullet Time sounds good on paper but can be hard to execute especially if the enemy carries have Cleanse or a QSS.
5) Be aware of your win conditions
Your win conditions will be determined by the team comp you have picked, which will in turn be determined by what the enemy has gone for. In picks-and-bans, if you see that your opponent has a team fight-heavy comp then you can counter that by going for a Splitpush comp or have champions who can easily dive the enemy backline.
In case you opt for a Splitpush comp, you will need to play around Teleport timers and constantly bait the enemy team around objectives. If you are doing it right, you will successfully waste their time and cooldowns allowing your splitpusher to have easy access to enemy towers.
So make sure you are aware of your win conditions while during and after champion select.
