In League of Legends, there are many champions that can utilize their skills to continuously “hit and run” – kiting opponents, causing targets to suffer damage while being unable to reach the attacker. Here are some mid lane mages that can fully exploit this:
Cassiopeia
As the only champion in League of Legends that cannot buy shoes, Cassiopeia can still kite opponents until they die due to her champion characteristics.
In the laning phase, if she last hits cleverly with Noxious Bite (E), Cassiopeia can farm minions without spending any energy, allowing her to utilize her energy to attack enemies. If the opponent gets hit by a Q+EEE combo, losing one-third to half of their health is a common occurrence.
Additionally, if the opponent is a short-range champion, the chance of being kited to death is quite high. Besides the speed boost for Cassiopeia, this Serpent Woman also has Miasma (W) that slows and applies a grounded effect, preventing opponents from using any skills to dash or jump out of Cassiopeia’s W, forcing them to walk instead. At this point, Cassiopeia can freely unleash massive damage with her Q+EEE combo continuously onto her foes. At level 6, this champion’s kiting ability reaches new heights; champions wanting to approach Cassiopeia must face her directly, and with a precise petrifying gaze using R, the prey will shatter into pieces immediately.
In team fights, W and R are the two things that make it difficult for opponents to approach Cassiopeia, allowing this Serpent Woman to “hit and run” continuously without pause.
Viktor
Thanks to his skill set that can be upgraded via Hex Core, Viktor can kite opponents extremely effectively.
During the laning phase, Viktor can upgrade Q first to poke the opponent’s health from level 1, as besides the two instances of damage that activate Electrocute faster, Viktor also receives a shield layer, making skill trades extremely favorable.
Once he upgrades his Hex Cores, not only does his damage increase but his kiting ability also reaches its maximum potential. At this point, Viktor’s E+Q combo will both boost his speed and slow down the opponent, making it extremely annoying. If the enemy comes close, Viktor will immediately place W in front of them, putting the opponent in a dilemma where advancing results in being stunned, while retreating leads to Viktor continuing to kite them.
In team fights, Viktor alone can pose a significant threat due to his massive area damage skills. Not to mention the ability to slow and stun in a wide area, cornering opponents, interrupting skills, and continuously harassing.
Kog’Maw
As one of the mages with the longest attack range in League of Legends, Kog’Maw can poke enemies from an extremely safe distance, taking advantage of continuous kiting to lower opponents’ health before engaging. With the significant damage increase of Bio-Arcane Barrage (Q) and Living Artillery (R) in patch 10.13, even now in patch 10.14, Kog’Maw remains very strong, though for some reason, he is not popular in the meta.
In the early stages, just one E+Q combo can blow away one-third of an opponent’s health and half of a minion wave. This keeps opponents under constant pressure to dodge skills, reducing their focus on map awareness or last hitting. Upon reaching level 6, Kog’Maw can wipe out a minion wave with one combo and freely roam with teammates very early. Since Kog’Maw is designed for poking, roaming is quite simple; just hitting the E+Q+R combo is enough to lower the enemy’s health, even if a kill is not secured, it still creates pressure for teammates to breathe easier.
Especially with his kiting ability, just the slow from E is already quite annoying. If Kog’Maw builds Rylai’s Crystal Scepter, opponents will be in even worse trouble, as getting hit by one R slow means they are likely to land the subsequent hits as well.
In team fights, Kog’Maw is strongest when he has 750 stacks of the Rod of Ages, at that point, just hitting R 1-2 times will give Kog’Maw and his teammates an advantage in the fight, ready to engage or take major objectives at will.
