Here are Five League of Legends: Wild Rift Characters Who Will Help You Climb the Ranked Ladder

League of Legends is an IP that everyone and their grandmother knows. Ten champions battling on Summoners Rift in 5v5 battles to take down the enemy Nexus. While the game still has its fair share of issues from throwers and toxic players, none of that has taken from my full enjoyment of this game and my journey trying to get out of the Emerald rank in League of Legends: Wild Rift.

I, fortunately, had a bit of a head start compared to some other players. Playing League of Legends on PC for years has given me a general understanding of various matchups and how certain champions should be played. I worked my way up quickly through the ranks playing almost every role: top, mid, ADC, support, and jungle.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve wanted to throw my phone against the wall out of frustration due to Master Yi’s running it down mid 1v5 thinking they can get a pentakill even though they’ve died seven times previously. But surprisingly, a majority of my games have always had great teammates who all worked together to win. So while I’m considered a hard stuck Emerald, I think I have enough say to show you some of my favorite picks to help you climb the ladder (at least to Emerald).

Senna 

Senna is one of the more dynamic supports I’ve played that can do more than just lay down crowd control and heal. She has slightly higher damage numbers than a typical Support, making her a great teammate for any ADC and a significant threat to opposing bot lanes – specifically against short-range ADCs and tank supports. When playing Senna in the early game, make sure to establish a reasonable level of dominance by laying out Last Embrace as much as possible to land roots against opponents and denying farm.

You’d be surprised how scared enemies get even just by walking up and auto-attacking them because of her insanely long range. By the time you hit level 5, your ultimate Dawning Shadow can become a considerable win condition for your team if used correctly. As a global ultimate, it’s up to you to keep your eye on the map and check out other engagements going on. If you see your top laner losing a fight on the opposite side of the map, Dawning Shadow can provide a shield over a wide area in the direction you shoot and damage opponents caught in the center.

While providing shields to your team is essential, look for opportunities to line opponents up in the center to help turn a fight around. The great thing about Senna is you can build a mixture of tanky and damaged items. The rune Grasp of the Undying can also provide extra sustainability since it allows for a percentage of self-healing based on your current HP. Just be careful not to overstep and walk into two tanks on the enemy team since Senna is still fairly squishy.

Sett 

League of Legends has a bad habit of releasing over-tuned champions on launch, and the same goes for Wild Rift. However, Sett is a top-lane brawler who deals insane damage and has some pretty great sustain. In addition, he has an interesting mechanic called Pit Grit. Every time you take damage, you store Pit Grit which can be transferred to your Haymaker ability.

Activating it when your Pit Grit is stocked up will launch a wide punch and gives Sett a pretty massive shield while dealing true damage caught in the middle of the ability. Couple that with his Facebreaker ability, which allows for decently ranged crowd control, and opponents won’t be able to escape this high damage champion. Early on, Sett gets demolished by ranged top laners like Vayne, Lucian, and Kayle. So don’t be a hero and try to engage early.

You’re better off farming until you’re level 5 and get your ultimate The Show Stopper which has Sett pull off a jumping WWE body slam that can also damage nearby enemies at the point of impact. From there, you can pretty much go all in if the opportunity presents itself. Don’t be afraid to take the ignite summoner spell, either. You want to position yourself to win 1v1s early, which is Sett’s specialty.

However, if you’re a bit afraid of a massive AD team that might have a Zed mid and Tryndamere jungle, it wouldn’t hurt to take exhaust to help increase your chance of survivability. During team fights, don’t be afraid to jump in and wreck someone with Show Stopper and grab some enemies with Facebreaker. Hopefully, your team will be able to follow up on your engagements. That said, don’t be that guy who tries to 1v3 even with all of Sett’s tools. Try to get some games in on Sett before they ultimately nerf him into the ground, or they start releasing some of Sett’s direct counters in the game.

Graves

Graves is an interesting champion who’s primarily played in the jungle but can be played top and mid as well. While the roles obviously differ from what Graves should be doing, you want to make sure you’re positioning yourself as a mid-range damage dealer. I typically play Graves by focusing on how I use his dash ability, Quickdraw. Graves has only two shots in his shotgun that he has to reload, but Quickdraw automatically reloads one shell.

On top of that, Quickdraw gives Graves a bit of armor for a short time each time it’s used. So, assuming you’re at a decent level and have good items, you can take on fights with my combo, which is: auto-attack, Quickdraw, auto-attack, Smoke Screen (which blocks opponent sight for a short time), End of the Line (a bouncing round that damages in a T shape and comes back to Graves location dealing damage on its return) and finish it with his ult Collateral Damage dealing massive damage in a straight line.

You have to mind Graves’s positioning by utilizing his Quickdraw to engage or disengage fights. And pay attention to how many shells you have. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen Graves right in the middle of the fight, still reloading only to die immediately.

Lux

I feel like Lux received a massive buff that I wish her PC counterpart had. Her ultimate, Final Spark, launches a global beam dealing significant damage to any enemies caught in the blast. Her PC ultimate only reaches a much shorter set distance. You primarily want to take Lux mid, but she can also be played support. Just don’t be one of those supporting Lux players who take farm from their ADC. Instead, we’ll focus on her mid-lane play. Because of her range, thanks to Light Binding and Lucent Singularity, Lux has plenty of tools to keep her at arm’s reach from enemies while dealing a decent amount of damage.

When you’re level 5, you’ve pretty much unlocked Lux’s one-shot capabilities, especially against squishy targets. Land a root with Light Binding, throw a Lucent Singularity, and activate it a second time to slow and explode where your enemy is rooted, and blast them with Final Spark. Don’t forget, since Final Spark is a global ability, look to other lanes to snipe low health opponents across the map. Mid laners ideally should be roaming to help other lanes once you’ve reached the mid-game. But Final Spark alleviates some of that by immediately participating in fights for which you should have otherwise been there for. So definitely look to roam where you can regardless. Lux has relatively slow movement speed for my liking as a mid laner, so make sure you’re assisting with warding various locations on the map to always help watch your back against ganks.

Vayne

League of Legends: Wild Rift has made a lot of champions that are traditionally hard on PC much easier to handle. Having controls at the palm of your hand takes away some of the more mechanically intense champions like Vayne, but that’s not to say she’s super easy to play.

She’s mostly played as an ADC, but you can take her top lane too. As Vayne, you’re practically at an immediate disadvantage early game due to her short range. Your positioning in fights is crucial as Vayne. She can easily 1v5 if played correctly in the late game. Your bread and butter ability will be your Tumble. As the name suggests, you do a tumble roll toward a set location and do bonus damage on your next auto-attack.

Knowing when to roll in or out is essential, almost like Graves’s Quickdraw dash. Early game, you’re just going to want to navigate enemy attacks and likely farm minions under tower until your level 5. Once you’ve unlocked her Final Hour ultimate, which makes her invisible for a few seconds after every Tumble and gives increased damage from Tumble, you can start taking fights into your own hands. From what I’ve gathered, Vayne’s don’t do well without engaging teammates with heavy crowd control like Pantheon or Leona. But if you’ve mastered Vayne’s mobility and positioning, that honestly won’t matter.

Make sure to deal damage with your Tumble during team fights while staying a fair distance from crowd control champions. Of course, if you have your own engage support that goes all in, you have to follow up and position accordingly. You truly can 1v5 if you have a decent amount of items and deal damage while staying away from enemy abilities, but that takes a lot of practice. Ideally, you’ll do fine if you stick with your teammates that provide protection, and you won’t have to do anything fancy other than shoot enemies.

Again, these are my personal picks that helped me get to Emerald. Every player is different. I’m no Challenger by any means, but I know there’s a lot of you out there still stuck in Gold. Hopefully, these picks can help you out.