Team Comp Tactics in League of Legends That Will Boost Your 5-man Team Fight

You may have heard that all AD or AP team comps are bad and will lose you the game, but champion select has many more nuances than the type of damage your champions deal. Picking the perfect team comp is an art that many get wrong. Sometimes you get a stubborn last pick Teemo top-lane after everyone already picked AP, it happens. In those instances where you do have the power to make or break your team and everyone is calling for someone to play a tank, you should know which champion fits the bill. Here you’ll learn what to look out for when last picking a champion, coordinating wombo-combo strategies, or just theory crafting for casuals with your 5-man squad.

Securing Solid CC

The prerequisite to every competent team comp requires some hard crowd-control. Hard CC, simply put, is a stun, root, suppress, sleep, etc., Without it, hyper-carries like Master Yi can sweep through your team unchecked. Hard CC is a gold suppressant, which means no matter how fed someone is, when they come under the effect of CC, they’re unable to offensively make use of their gold. When considering a team as a whole, area-of-effect CC is the best. The best wombo-combos start off with an Orianna, Malphite, or Amumu ultimate and a Yasuo or Miss Fortune follow up.

Picking Tanks for the Team

Choosing to play a tank when your team doesn’t have one is God’s work. A team with a tank and a team without a tank is like comparing a snail to a slug; there’s no protection at all. Have you ever tried engaging on an enemy team with two tanks without a single tank? It’s a stifling feeling that I wouldn’t wish upon the most toxic player. 

That said, there are different types of tanks and if you are picking last or second to last, there are some things to tank into account. First, do you need an armor synergizing tank or a magic resist tank? An anti-AD tank would be something Malphite or Rammus and an anti-AP tank would be Mundo, Leona, or Galio. These are champions that have kit synergies with magic resist or armor that enhances their strengths while countering the enemy team. 

DPS Champion to Dish out Consistent Damage

When you think DPS, you generally think an ADC, and you are right. ADCs are the most consistent damage dealers generally. This doesn’t mean you’ll always have an ADC, because people like to troll or try something different. Just because bot lane doesn’t do DPS, doesn’t mean your team should go without. Similarly, if you find an anti-AD tank that needs dealing with, choosing something that does DPS while steering clear of the strong mitigation of armor stacking tanks like Rammus and Malphite, champions like Cassiopeia, Kayle, or Karthus are all viable options for consistent magic damage to counter armor stacking. 

Melee options aren’t off the table either. Master Yi is always welcome in lower ELO or into an enemy team that doesn’t follow the first rule of securing hard-CC. Sett, Xin Zhao, Jax, and Irelia are all viable options for DPS. Of course, don’t choose these options instead of a tank if you’re missing one, but if you don’t need to assume the role of a tank and your team is lacking consistent damage, and your other team members are ranged, you can get a melee damage DPS dealer.

A Champion with Wave Clear

Something very important and often overlooked when choosing in champion select is wave clear. Teams winning the game have had their match halted to a standstill because of the lack of wave clear. Remember, the objective of League of Legends is to destroy towers and kill the Nexus. If you’re unable to clear the minion wave faster than the enemy and get to their towers, you’ll never win the game. This can lead to a comeback from the enemy team due to this grievous weakness.

Champions with exceptional wave clear include Anivia, Syndra, AP Twisted Fate, Aurelion Sol, and Sivir. When considering what counts as a good wave clear champ, three things are important to take into account. 

First, how close they have to be to the wave to clear it? A champion that has to stand in a wave to clear it like Fiddlesticks is not going to stop an enemy push onto a tower like Anivia.

Second, how fast can the back wave be cleared? A Twist Fate at level 9 with a Q max and about 60 AP you can clear back wave with one Q. The faster you can clear a wave, the easier you can deny your enemies from damaging your tower.

Finally, what does it costs to clear a wave? Clearing a wave at the cost of your Ultimate can be worth it sometimes, but it’s not sustainable. Similarly, if it cost too much mana to clear a wave, you can’t keep it up. A balance needs to be brought in order to clear a wave and still have mana to fight afterward. Naturally, you can’t consider this in the limited time it takes to choose a champion, but go into a match with a gameplan and deviate as necessary. 

Team Comp Synergies

If you see a Kog’maw, pick Lulu. If you see a COMPETENT Yasuo locked in, pick Malphite. If you see a Malphite, pick Orianna, etc., If you see a Jinx, pick Braum. If there is a champion that turns into a team fight god when coupled with another champion, take your team to the next level. It is important to first communicate this with the player.

Relying on your team too much in Solo Queue is looking for disappointment. As the Chinese proverb says, “One doesn’t fear a godly opponent, but they dread a pig teammate.” So locking in synergies isn’t a must, but if your team has all the conditions for a competent team comp, then choosing a synergy has a hundred benefits and no harm.