Since the introduction of the Pre-Season items in League of Legends, the community has continuously experimented with and brought into the game some extremely impressive playstyles. Among them, regardless of whether they are weak or strong, there are many extremely annoying styles that frustrate opponents greatly. Here are some “thorns in the side” of gamers in the current meta:
Twitch Mage
In patch 10.23, Riot Games buffed Twitch’s damage from his passive, the magic damage of his E, and the slow from his W. Thus, the once traditional ADC Twitch has returned to the meta with the role of… a new mage in League of Legends.
Specifically, at first, Twitch plays the role of a poke champion with the familiar combo of Q + W + A + E to “soften up” opponents. However, since he has no skills to save himself or his teammates when engaged, he needs to be particularly careful while laning.
Once he has 1-2 items, Twitch’s role becomes… the main magic damage dealer in the team. This is because his AP damage primarily comes from fully stacking his E. Therefore, the necessary combo for this is the Sorcery rune with Rain of Arrows + Nashor’s Tooth. Next, you can build the Everfrost (to root enemies in the W zone). Finally, finish with pure damage items like Rabadon’s Deathcap, Mejai’s Soulstealer (depending on the situation), Void Staff,…
Malphite Full Tank
Somehow, Malphite has become the champion that adapts fastest to the meta 10.23, dominating most opponents in the top lane. At the start of the game, Malphite is almost… “invincible” as he brings strong runes like Conqueror, Aery, and Comet,… while his secondary rune should include Biscuit Delivery and Time Warp Tonic for better lane sustainability.
With the ability to “just roll Q and win the lane”, Malphite can easily solo 1v1 against opponents or call teammates for easy kills. In the later stages, once fully tanky, Malphite becomes an “easy to play, easy to win” pick, only needing to ram into 1-2 key members of the enemy team to secure victory.
Because of this overly simple yet highly effective playstyle (the top 2 win rate in the top lane), Malphite is currently disliked by many and “banned” in ranked mode.
“Master Yi and Friends”
As one of the playstyles that once dominated globally, the Master Yi + Taric combo is making a comeback and is currently ruling the Pre-Season meta.
In this return, Master Yi jungles while being supported by Taric in the mid lane. And since there is one (sometimes two or three) support champions, Master Yi builds straight into attack-based items like Duskblade of Draktharr and Navori Quickblades to optimize his “people farming” ability.
In the early stages, Master Yi’s task is quite simple: clear the jungle and then push the mid lane with Taric. If ganking, the simultaneous 2Q combo from Master Yi and Taric becomes an extremely hard-to-avoid combo for opponents, making the gank success rate very high. In the later stages, Master Yi will be the primary carry with 2-3 strong buffs like Taric’s invulnerability and a support champion like Lulu, Morgana, Nami, Janna,… before diving straight into the enemy team to unleash damage.