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League of Legends is all about playing and mastering champions, but there’s a big difference between getting Mastery level seven and truly becoming a master. There are lots of awesome champions in League that are really only worthwhile once you’re a god. There are dozens and dozens of one-tricks out there who will mess you up, should encounter them.
So, it’s time to ask the big question to the Rift Herald family: if you could truly master a champion — becoming the one-trick god you’ve always dreamed of — who would it be? We’re talking mastery of that champion right now. You don’t have to practice or anything. You just become the best at the champion right at this very instant.
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Ryan: I’ve gone back on forth with this question for about 24 hours now. My first answer was Lee Sin, since jungle has been my primary role for my entire five years with League of Legends. But somewhere in the fever dream that is my apartment-with-a-broken-air-conditioner-in-summer life, I’ve come across a better answer: Azir.
Azir is one of the best champions in League of Legends, and nobody will ever be able to convince me otherwise. His look is stellar, sure, but his gameplay is unique in a way I truly, truly love. I’m by no means an Azir expert — and I probably haven’t played a single game with him in over a year — but there was a time when he was my go-to dude in the mid lane.
Azir rewards mastery more than any other champion, which is the primary reason why he’s so hard to balance. When I first got into Azir, it took me weeks of losing games to even get a grip on the bird. But once I understood him, I could outplay my opponents so easily — at least at my lower elo.
No champion has ever been as satisfying for me as Azir. From picking him up to winning games with him felt like a real journey. If I’m able to to dunk on fools and enjoy playing Azir this much at my lower level and slight understanding of him, I can only imagine how good it would feel to be a true master.
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Julia: I pick Vayne. I want to be the next Gosu.
To expand a bit here, when I first started playing League of Legends, my Diamond cousin, Richie, was teaching me how to play. He put me on Teemo for a bit, but I just wasn’t picking it up as fast as he hoped, I think. He then threw me into the deep end and told me to play Vayne. If you learn how to play one of the harder champions in the game, it’ll be very easy to learn how to play others, right?
Well, he was half right. I picked up positioning a bit better, but I never got the hang of her. I have Mastery level five on her, but that doesn’t really mean anything. Her kit, her skins and the satisfying sound of her Silver Bolts are all the best.
Maybe Vayne has a special place in my heart because she was the first and only champion I’ve ever gotten a pentakill on, but being a god-like Vayne that carries a team has been a goal of mine for a long time. I want my friends to cheer when I lock in Vayne, not groan in agony. :(
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Austen: Oh, my answer is easy: Zoe.
Zoe’s got an incredibly high skill cap and you can make incredible plays with her. Her kit even has an infinite number of weird interactions and clever tricks you can pull off. Thanks to her W, every game will always be different and you always have to think on your feet. The most important thing if you’re going to master a champion is that the champion can pull off incredible plays and use their kit in a new way and Zoe certainly does that.
But that’s not the only reason she would be the perfect champion to be a master of; she’s also one of the most tilting champions in the game to play against. Honestly, just reading the word Zoe probably made some of you mad. And at the end of the day isn’t the that point?
Sure, there are champions like Lee Sin who can end a game in 15 minutes, or Riven who can pull off combos like a Street Fighter character. But have you ever seen someone who got slept by a Zoe bubble or one-shot by a Paddle-Star type in chat? Cause I have. If I’m the master of a champion, I want to hear the enemy team react to my plays and since compliments from the enemy are awfully hard to come by in League, I will be just as happy with their complaints.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Would you rather be a Ahri or Varus master? Let us know what you’re thinking.