Roles and lanes in League of Legends, although universally similar in design, are wildly unique. Depending on your role, you may have unique responsibilities such as ganking, roaming, and invading. Though League of Legends is a team-oriented game, players favor independence more often than not. However, bot laners, ADC and support have no choice but to work together, as they share the lane and rely on each other to survive.
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The hallmarks of excellent synergy are the camouflage of champions’ flaws, complementary abilities, and an enhanced specific playstyle. Naturally, this implies that champions with flawless synergy have better odds of being successful. Since the synergy between Champions can be a deciding factor in League, picking bot lane champions that compliment each other should be the main priority.
Although many bot lane duos remain effective picks, the ever-shifting meta frequently shakes up both the lane and the most valuable picks, leaving many with more questions than answers. Recent patches, especially the durability patch, shook the bot lane meta to its core, favoring sustained DPS. This resulted in timeless duos like Caitlyn and Morgana being pushed out of the bottom lane, allowing new duos to take their place.
Senna and Tahm Kench
Historically, Senna has been a strong laner since her release due to her infinite scaling and utility. However, she has grown into powerful support and ADC pick since patch 12.2. which put power in her Piercing Darkness ability and further enabled her lane bully playstyle. With the rise of Senna, we’ve also witnessed the return of the River King, Tahm Kench, in the bottom lane. The reason why Senna, the queen of untraditional bot lane carries, and the River King work exceptionally well together lies in Senna’s playstyle.
In this scenario, Tahm Kench acts as a farming carry, allowing Senna to start with a support item and stack her passive. Since Senna’s scaling is guaranteed, Tahm Kench can safely farm and stack tank items in order to become a strong frontline tank and a peeling machine for Senna. However, the value of this unbelievably durable, power-scaling, and high-damage duo doesn’t stop there. It would seem that Senna and Tahm Kench have a weak early game, but in reality, a single slow early game can result in a kill. The only answer to this duo, besides picking a similar hyperscaling duo, is smart wave manipulation and early ganks that will shut them down.
Zeri and Yuumi
Zeri, the Spark of Zaun, has had an uphill battle with Riot’s balancing team since her launch. At the time of her release, Zeri terrorized Solo Queue with her intolerable movement speed, damage, and sustainability. This led to her being heavily nerfed, a state she was left in for several patches. However, Zeri recently received a minor rework that pushed her towards a crit build. With her crit build, Zeri has been seeing success when paired with Yuumi. Many supports struggle to keep up with her, but Yuumi simply attaches to Zeri, further energizing her spark and her incessant need to move.
Extremely strong in both early- and mid-game, this zooming duo, if played to its full potential, quickly becomes oppressive and challenging to catch. The best counterplay against Zeri and Yuumi would be a heavy CC duo, such as Ashe and Leona.
Vayne/Kog’Maw/Twitch and Lulu
Since the release of the durability patch, hypercarries have become particularly popular, as the need for consistent DPS has never been higher. Vayne, Kog’Maw, and Twitch excel at laning with Lulu because she mitigates the phase in which they can be punished. Lulu has more than enough tools in her kit, shields, polymorph, knock-up, and HP boost, to allow these hypercarries to scale safely and become a late-game menace.
In the later stages of the game, Lulu primarily focuses on her dedicated hypercarry, peeling whoever might try to assassinate them. Since both Lulu and these hypercarries scale exceedingly well into the late game, the best counter to these duos are early ganks that render them useless.
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Jhin and Xerath
Jhin has generally been a flexible marksman that can thrive in lane with various supports. However, one of his most notable supports to this day remains Xerath. This duo aims to poke down the enemy while emphasizing their poor positioning.
Jhin and Xerath can easily chain CC and punish their foes. However, if Jhin and Xerath fail to kill their enemy before level 6, they have a kill guaranteed as soon as they reach level 6, since they both have long-range skillshot ultimates. Since Jhin and Xerath are long-range immobile champions principally oriented around poking, they struggle when facing sustain champions like Soraka.
Draven and Blitzcrank
Draven and Blitzcrank have long been the definition of a kill lane since Draven has been one of the strongest early game marksmen. With Draven’s extremely strong early game and Blitzcrank’s core ability, Rocket Grab, Draven and Blitzcrank can easily stomp any lane.
In the mid- to late-game, Draven and Blitzcrank try to get as many picks as they can before a teamfight or an objective spawns to diminish enemy forces and pressure them to either commit to a fight or concede an objective. Since this duo is terribly volatile and bloodthirsty, the most common answer is not excessive ganking but rather a nullifying and controlled playstyle involving a champion like Morgana paired with a long-range marksman.
Sivir and Morgana
Like Draven and Blitzcrank, Sivir and Morgana have dominated Summoner’s Rift for quite some time. However, unlike Draven and Blitzcrank, this duo doesn’t exhibit an unrelenting predatory nature, but strives to win the lane on their terms. Sivir and Morgana spend their laning phase farming, baiting the enemy jungler and wasting their time, and preventing the enemy from farming.
Morgana, a universal counter pick against engage-oriented champions, skillfully takes care of helping Sivir farm as they both poke the enemy. Sivir has grown in priority with patch 12.13. since her minor rework shifted her power from a lethality build back to a hypercarry one. Since Morgana and Sivir are such a safe duo, the best picks to put against them would be an elusive carry such as Ezreal and a poke enchanter such as Karma.
Kalista and Renata Glasc
Kalista is an overpowering early game pick that typically revolves around winning the laning phase and snowballing that lead into the mid-game. Although Kalista normally does not pair well with enchanters and is more effective when laning with an aggressive engage support like Leona, Pantheon, or Nautilus, Renata Glasc is an exception.
Renata significantly empowers Kalista with her Bailout ability, since it gives her additional movement speed and attack speed. Renata also provides a lot of lane pressure and acts as a peeling enchanter in the later stages of the game. Although it may seem only Kalista only benefits from this duo, Kalista can save Renata from unfavorable situations with Fate’s Call. The best answer to Kalista and Renata would include similar ruthless duos such as Draven and Blitzcrank, since they can easily match their damage and CC.
