Maokai Electric Shock
LoL is a game that snowballs at an incredibly fast pace; even a small difference can be crucial, so early ganks from jungle champions can significantly affect the match. With Maokai being very strong lately, some players have tried bringing this tree into the jungle and discovered that to make this champion effective in the jungle, additional damage from runes is necessary, leading to the emergence of the Electric Shock playstyle.
The purpose of this style is to increase Maokai’s damage when ganking, ensuring a successful attack. Of course, being a tank champion, Maokai still needs to build tanky items to maximize his strengths. If you want to add more ability power, then the Liandry’s Anguish or Zhonya’s Hourglass will suffice.
Pantheon Phase Rush
The Warlord has been an incredibly annoying champion in the mid lane due to his excellent laning ability. Moreover, this champion can coordinate with any jungler thanks to his unmissable stun and abundant damage. The only weakness of Pantheon when roaming or engaging in team fights is that he can be easily kited and hit by the opponent’s long-range crowd control after using his full skill set.
To counter this weakness, players sacrifice some damage from the runes to gain mobility with the Phase Rush rune. With superior movement speed, Pantheon can easily dodge enemy skill shots, thus enhancing his survival while waiting for the cooldown of his E – Comet Strike. In summary, instead of having healing ability from Conqueror, Pantheon Phase Rush will utilize movement speed to both attack and defend.
Volibear Support
Not exactly an unusual playstyle, but Volibear has been increasingly used in the jungle or top lane after his rework, and he is rarely seen in the support role. However, the truth is that in this position, Volibear’s ability to pressure skirmishes is maximized as this demi-god has many tools to initiate combat, such as a stun from Q – Thunderclap or simply slowing down with E – Call of the Storm.
Furthermore, Volibear’s ability to disable towers is most effective when used in the bot lane; currently, marksmen have very few ways to escape, and towers are their only “insurance.” Volibear disables this protection from opponents, making tower diving in the bot lane and snowballing the game more powerful than ever.
The Dance of Death for Everyone
With the recent buff, The Dance of Death has become the strongest defensive item currently, even stronger than pure armor, health, or magic resist items. With a slight increase in defensive stats and a significant amount of healing as long as you deal damage, The Dance of Death provides overwhelming survivability for bruisers, and even marksmen or assassins can make good use of this item.
Most recently, in the match between Suning Gaming and WE, SofM and his team used three Dance of Death items to stifle the opponent’s comeback potential. Even solo queue players have recognized the dominance of this item, which even makes assassins like Talon or Zed not so weak late game anymore, as surviving longer increases your damage.
