In every update, the League of Legends community around the world always finds some bizarre playstyles to use when climbing ranks, partly to “change things up” and partly to make it difficult for opponents to read their strategies. This time is no different; the 10.12 update has generated a lot of unique and powerful playstyles that opponents will struggle to counter when facing them in ranked matches:
Kindred Mid
In fact, Kindred’s skill set allows this champion to have a fairly stable laning phase. First, the Dance of Arrows (Q) enables Kindred to deal damage while dodging spells, and it quickly activates various attack-oriented runes. In 1v1 duels or when ganked by the enemy jungle, Kindred can retaliate with significant damage while standing in the territory of the Lamb’s Frenzy (W). The slowing ability from Mounting Dread (E) allows Kindred to hold enemies in place for their jungle teammates to gank, or roaming becomes quite frightening as well.
In the later stages of the game, Kindred’s role resembles that of other mid-lane marksmen like Lucian or Ezreal, which is to poke and retreat when necessary, dealing damage to eliminate enemies when possible. Additionally, with the ultimate ability, Lamb’s Respite, Kindred becomes very hard to focus down early in fights, making them a resilient marksman in any skirmish.
The biggest challenge for Kindred in the mid lane is the speed of stacking their passive through jungle monsters, so they need to strive to take down opponents to increase their passive stacks.
Lucian Manamune
In reality, Lucian as a marksman is not a new concept in the bot lane; however, the new item build involving Manamune changes everything. With just a small adjustment to this item, Lucian can comfortably spam skills in the early game without worrying about energy limits, whether for farming minions or poking is very viable.
In the later phases, the power of the Muramana (after reaching 750 stacks) will be fully utilized by Lucian. Each time they use a skill, the passive ability of Lightslinger will trigger two attacks, which means double the damage from Muramana, combined with their inherent base damage, Lucian will become a tremendously dangerous marksman against any member of the enemy team. Adding items like Soul Reaver, Infinity Edge, Rapid Firecannon, and Galeforce, even the tankiest opponents will be shredded by Lucian.
Elise Support
Elise has always been a powerful jungler throughout every meta due to her quality skill set. Now, utilizing that skill set allows Elise to take on the role of an excellent support. In the early game, Elise’s abilities are incredibly annoying, as she can poke with Q+W in human form and deal damage with Q+W in spider form if hitting Spiderling, especially if the opponent tries to retaliate, she can easily buy time with Rappel (E). Furthermore, as powerful champions in the meta tend to have crowd control, like Blitzcrank, Thresh, Pyke, Nautilus, etc., Elise’s spiderlings will do a great job of soaking damage for their “mother”.
By mid-game, Elise can deal decent damage and provide utility with items like Liandry’s Anguish or Morellonomicon while also providing good vision control with her Spiderling (W). Finally, in team fights, Elise can initiate while also protecting the carry with her Cocoon – making her a versatile champion in the support role.
