How to Solo Carry in League of Legends
League of Legends is a game where teamwork is essential for securing victory. The game has a competitive Ranked mode where players can test their individual and team skills. Players need to work together so they can win against the other team.
However, there are times when individual skill proves to be enough to carry teams to victory. There are games where a single player becomes strong enough to take over the game and single-handedly get the win. In this League How to Solo Carry guide, we will discuss the different factors that can help players take games into their own hands.
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Solo Carrying Games
In a game that is teamwork-heavy like League of Legends, being able to solo carry can be a tall task, especially in Ranked mode, where players are matched with other players of similar skill. Players that can solo carry are those that become incredibly focused in the game and able to make the best decisions to steer the course of the game in their favor.
One of the critical things to solo carry games is decision-making. Significant decisions will often end up to an advantage, and players who constantly make good game decisions will eventually gain enough advantage for their team to win. Here are some tips for players who want to solo carry their games.
Know When to Take a Fight
Fights and kills are essential because they give players a lot of advantages. When a team wins a fight, they gain gold and experience advantage and more space to do things across the map, such as taking or preparing for objectives or establishing vision control over an area.
Players should be able to assess whether or not they can take a fight. They should consider the information on their enemies’ position and power level. Do not fight with another player without knowing the position of other enemies because they could quickly respond, which would put you at a disadvantage. Players should also assess the strength of their enemies before they engage. Check their items and level. Having an item or level advantage will affect the outcome of the fight. Target isolated or weaker enemies for better chances of winning.
Teamfights are especially crucial towards the late game, where players will have most of their items, if not full-slotted yet. This means players can tear through Turrets and Inhibitors within seconds and swiftly take down the Nexus if there’s no player left to defend it. Respawn timers are also longer in the late game, so players have more time to move around the map and take objectives.
Play Around the Map
Good players use their enemies’ positions to their advantage. Being out of position on the map puts a champion’s life at risk. They could be quickly taken down by enemies waiting for an ambush. Always be careful when moving around the map when you’re trying to solo carry.
Playing around the map also means establishing control over an objective. Good vision control around an important objective like Baron means there is less risk when teams try to take the objective. They will be aware of enemy positions if ever the other team decides to fight for the objective.
When playing from behind, play in the area of the map where the enemies aren’t. Take time to farm minions or jungle on your side of the map to close the disadvantage gap. Don’t risk lives for objectives. Whenever the team is at a disadvantage when enemies are trying to take objectives like Dragon or Baron, it’s better to rally your team towards the opposite side of the map to take other objectives. Trading an objective for an objective is better than fighting for it and risking losing it.
Don’t engage in fights carelessly. Farming and not losing your life when you’re behind is best. Deaths mean players lose so much. In the time they take to respawn, they could have been farming or taking objectives. Deaths also give their enemies more gold and experience, which puts them further behind.
League is a Team Game
This might be a League How to Solo Carry guide, but don’t forget that you still have teammates. Players need to be able to communicate with their team to maximize their carrying potential. Solo carrying doesn’t mean abandoning your teammates. They still have their roles in the game. Work with teammates to get kills or take objectives. Simple pings can help relay information to your teammates, which can help save them from falling behind.
Always be aware of the map. Players should find and create opportunities on the map where they can help other lanes, which gives both them and their teammates resources. When players get a lead, they can use their advantage to give other players an advantage or pull suffering teammates out of trouble.
Individual Skill Makes a Difference.
Of course, succeeding in the game won’t be possible if a player doesn’t have enough mechanical skill and game knowledge. Getting the basics down is the road to becoming good at the game. From there, players just need to keep on improving their skills.
The most important skill to master is last-hitting or farming. Players need to remember that getting gold is the primary way of getting stronger in the game. Gold is used to buy the items that will improve their champion’s stats. A kill translates to close to 16 minion kills. Constantly getting those last hits on minions eventually builds up towards powerful items.
Manage minion waves well. Players with strong minion clearing abilities can shove waves fast and then look to make plays in other lanes. However, if there is a danger of an enemy jungler gank, it’s best to keep the waves close to the turret to discourage the gank.
Trading is also an excellent skill to master. Knowing how to trade well will often result in a lane advantage, and winning a lane can let players snowball into the late game. Trading means engaging your enemy laner to take a chunk out of their HP. This sets that player’s lane up for ganks. It can also force the enemy laner to play safe or recall back to base.
Mastering champions is also a great way to solo carry games. Learning advanced skills like animation cancels or auto-attack resets available to certain champions can help win games. The skill to play a champion at a high level is a crucial factor in solo carrying games, especially for champions with high solo carry potential.
Solo Carry Champions
League of Legends has a vast pool of champions that players can choose from. Each champion fits a particular role, while some can be versatile. Some champions are great for solo carrying games. But for this League How to Solo Carry guide, we will explore champions for each role in the game: Top, Jungler, Mid, Bot Laner, and Support. These champions are equipped with a kit that can get them early advantages or those that snowball late into the game.
Top Lane Solo Carry Champions
Darius
Darius is one of the strongest champions for dealing with multiple enemies. His Q – Decimate swings his axe in a circle around him, dealing damage to enemies hit and applying his passive bleed effect. Darius will heal himself for each enemy hit by the blade of the axe, which makes him durable against more enemies.
His ultimate ability, Noxian Guillotine, deals true damage, which means resistances don’t work against it. The damage increases based on the number of bleed stacks on his target. It will also have its cooldown refreshed when it kills the target, meaning Darius can use it to take down enemies.
Darius is a great solo carry champion because of his strength against 2v1 fights in the top lane. Ganking a Darius in the top lane is risky because he can kill both of his attackers if the fight goes his way. Darius is strong in the early to mid-game, and constantly getting kills can enable him to carry a game early.
His weakness is his lack of mobility, which can be supplemented by items that give him movespeed and by taking the Ghost summoner spell. By building more movespeed, Darius can just run at enemies and axe them down.
Fiora
Fiora is a mobile champion with a lot of sustain. She is tricky to play because her damage mainly comes from her passive, Duelist’s Dance which reveals the Vitals of her enemies. Striking the Vital will deal bonus true damage, heal Fiora for a certain amount, and give her bonus movespeed. This ability makes her one of the best duelists in the game.
Her Q – Lunge enables Fiora to dash a short distance and strike the nearest enemy. This is Fiora’s best tool for striking at her target’s Vitals. The cooldown is reduced by 60% if it hits an enemy, so Fiora can repeatedly dash around her target. The mobility this ability provides, along with her W – Riposte, helps Fiora dodge damage from enemy abilities.
Her ultimate, Grand Challenge, makes Fiora dangerous in teamfights and 1v1 situations. Using her ultimate on a target reveals 4 Vitals instantly. Attacking all of it or killing the target will create an area beneath the target that heals Fiora and all allies in its radius.
Fiora is the best duelist in the game with a decent pushing potential. She can push a lane and take down Turrets, diverting enemies’ attention toward her. Fiora can then take on enemies that will try and defend the objective while her teammates take objectives in other parts of the map. Her fighting potential makes her an excellent solo carry champion.
Solo Carry Junglers
Viego
Viego is a jungler with high sustain and strong gank potential. His passive is unique because he can possess the bodies of his victims, healing Viego for a certain amount and granting him access to his victims’ abilities. In teamfights, this is a potent ability because of its sustain and the extra damage he can pump out using the abilities of the champions he kills.
His Q – Blade of the Ruined King has a passive effect that gives Viego’s attacks bonus damage based on the current HP of his target while also healing him. This ability is effective against tanks that tend to stack HP. The sustain he gets from his basic attacks also allows him to outlive his enemies in fights.
Viego also has good gank potential with his W – Spectral Maw, which gives Viego a short dash that stuns enemies, and his E – Harrowed Path that spreads an area where Viego is undetectable to enemies that are not in range and also gives bonus movespeed and attack speed.
His ultimate is a gap closer that is useful in fights and ganks. It deals damage in an area and can also be used whenever he possesses another champion, regardless of its cooldown. Like Darius, Viego pumps out more damage in teamfights where Viego can get a kill. His teamfighting and ganking ability make Viego a strong solo carry that can create opportunities for his team.
Trundle
Trundle excels in 1v1 situations and has a high pushing potential, making him very dangerous when left alone in a lane. His Q – Chomp is an auto-attack reset that steals some of his target’s AD. Long fights with Trundle can be risky because he constantly steals damage from his target, which boosts his damage. His Q also affects towers.
His W – Frozen Domain creates an area around him that boosts his attack speed, movespeed, and healing. Fighting against a Trundle in his W is a bad idea because of the increase in DPS that the ability gives him. This is also the reason why Trundle has strong pushing power. He can use Frozen Domain under a Turret and Chomp it to death.
His E – Pillar of Ice is helpful for ganking from the jungle. It creates a pillar in an area that blocks enemy movement. Enemies near the pillar are also slowed, which enables Trundle to catch up to them. Trundle can also use his ultimate, Subjugate, to steal some of his target’s HP and resistances. This makes enemies easier to take down during ganks or 1v1s.
Trundle can solo carry because of his ability to take down Turrets and give gold to his team. He is also strong in taking down isolated enemies by chasing them down with his W and E. The damage he gets from Chomp, along with the resistance reduction from his ultimate, is more than enough to kill an enemy.
Solo Carry Midlaners
Veigar
Veigar is a strong scaling champion. He can continuously throw abilities that hit like a truck. A Veigar in the late game is something to be feared. Champions without a lot of HP and resistances can die with just one of Veigar’s abilities if he gets enough stacks of his passive, which grants him Ability Power on champion kills or abilities hit.
His Q – Baleful Strike is an ability that contributes to his passive. Any kills from his Q grant one stack of his passive, and it hits two enemies. Meanwhile, W – Dark Matter is one of his most potent abilities. It has a cooldown that gets lower as his passive stacks get higher, and the Ability Power scaling on the ability is high, which makes it deal more damage as Veigar gets more passive stacks.
His E – Event Horizon is a strong control ability during teamfights. It creates a circular area that stuns enemies that pass through the edges. Veigar can throw spells at enemies caught at the edges or stuck in the area’s middle. His ultimate, Primordial Burst, is an ability with significant damage like his W, and the damage goes higher as his target’s HP goes lower. The amount of damage that Veigar can deal is enough to make him a strong solo carry champion.
Sylas
Sylas has high sustain and the unique ability to copy his target’s ultimate.
Sylas’ main draw is his ultimate that copies ultimate abilities. Good use of an enemy’s ultimate is essential to Sylas’ success. He’s especially great against champions that have game-changing ultimates like Malphite.
He also has excellent sustain with his W – Kingslayer, which allows Sylas to dash to his target while healing him for a certain amount if he hits an enemy champion. This is strong for 1v1s and teamfights because, in the late game, it will have a low cooldown to the point where Syslas can constantly spam the ability.
Bot Lane Solo Carry Champions
Vayne
Vayne is a hyper-carry ADC with excellent mobility and true damage. Vayne is one of the more difficult champions to master. Her Q – Tumble is a short dash with a low cooldown, which helps Vayne dodge skillshot abilities. It also provides her bonus attack damage for her next attack.
Her W – Silver Bolts is strong in the late game because it deals true damage based on the target’s maximum HP. Even tanks aren’t safe from her.
She is a great solo carry champion because her W deals so much damage while her Q makes her very hard to catch. She can constantly pump out damage while being out of harm’s way.
Twitch
Twitch is the strongest ADC for a teamfight. He is also good at taking down isolated targets because of his Q – Ambush, which Camouflages him, making him undetectable by enemies not in range. Coming out of Ambush also gives Twitch a lot of attack speed, which boosts his DPS.
Twitch is strong in teamfights because of his ultimate ability, Spray and Pray, which gives him bonus attack damage and range, and makes his attacks pass through enemies, dealing damage to all enemies it hits. Twitch can decimate teams clumped together by using Spray and Pray along with the effects of Ambush. This makes him a strong solo carry champion because he can take out an entire team on his own by surprising them with Ambush and dealing insane amounts of damage with Spray and Pray.
