Introduction
Today we will discuss on everything you need to know about 3 Off meta league of legends champions to carry games in a simple and easy to follow way.
Did you ever wonder how to surprise your opponents with an off meta pick and still carry the game like a boss?
My articles are comprehensive and very specific with information that lasts across versions of the game. My goal is to help you climb in League of Legends and win more games.
More specifically we will discuss:
- 3 of my favorite champion picks
- The power spikes each of them has and how to surprise your opponent
- Their weaknesses and when to be careful to avoid falling behind
I have been playing League of Legends Summoners rift since season 7.
During that time I have played all roles of the game with particular focus mid and top.
I have been able to easily reach high gold elo since the beginning of playing the game and have
peaked to Platinum in several seasons. I have played in NA, EUW and EUNE servers. My main account is in EUW.
The idea behind playing off meta champions is that your opponents usually do not know how to deal with them and can’t really counter you easily. Also your playstyle may seem foreign to them so a burst of damage or tankyness would go unexpected. So lets dive right into it.
How to carry with Amumu Support
First we will start by covering Amumu support. Amumu has made his way on the support role since there was a slight rework on him at Season 11. More specifically Riot reworked how his Q ability works. In the past his ability used to be a simple Q stun on the target, now you have the option to recast it after a few seconds if there’s a stack available. They added this to avoid spamming Q to your enemy. The main advantage of having a Q quickly available is to basically gap close to the enemies more often and generally do more CC to them.
Amumu in general is a champion with a lot of tankyness in his kit but also damage at the same time. Furthermore he has 2 forms of CC if you include his ultimate which is an AOE stun. This makes him a great team fight initiator and being able to be sticky to his targets with his Q ability. He’s in a way now very similar to a Leona and would rank him in the category of the aggressive supports. There’s a few things we need to take into consideration however when we are playing him.
- Avoid playing an ADC that has no self protecting abilities. So for example if you are an Ashe or Aphelios where you are fairly immobile and rely on your support to protect you, picking Amumu may be a bad idea as your ADC will be left out on their own.
- He’s great with mobile ADCs or ADCs that have gap closers in their kit to follow up in his initiations. So for example someone like Jhin, Ezreal, Lucian and Tristana which are all very mobile make a perfect fit for Amumu. The last thing as Amumu support is that you stun the enemy ADC to death and there’s no way for your ADC to follow up and attack them.
- Do not build him full AP if you are going support. This is basically like trolling your ADC and your team. As support one of your jobs is to tank as much damage as possible and disable the enemy carries while protecting your ADC. If you build him squishy and go full AP then your team may be left without a front line. An exception to this rule is that if your team is building other tanky/bruisers like Malphite/Urgot/Garen top or have a tanky midlaner with CC on his kit like Galio. You get the ideal only go full AP if you have others to front the damage for you.
You can find more information about Amumu and his abilities here.
How to carry with Taric Top Lane
This may sound strange to you but somehow I find playing Taric Top Lane very rewarding. He’s one of the most fun picks you can have for many reasons that I’m going to describe below. So going a bit off meta here may be annoying to your team mates but bare with me they may then worship and praise you. Taric in general is a very often overlooked champion that most people underestimate in the game. Having said that he’s one of the few champions that can carry games as his team fighting and supporting capabilities for ADC are great. His ultimate alone can turn a fight and he can tank a lot of damage. This is all great and nice if you are playing him support but lets go over on how to play him as a top laner which is our objective.
Taric’s main ability is basically CCing the enemies and being able to paralyze them while dealing damage to them. So playing him in the top lane everything is around your CC abilities. Below I’m going to list some bullet points on why I think he’s strong and how to play him in order to win lane and to win late game too.
How to deal with ganks with Taric in Top Lane
If you are getting ganked you don’t really have a lot of escapes, however you do have your cc. Your CC can stun more than one person so this is also your escape when you are laning and caught by surprise. If you happen to have just used this and you are out of it you can also use your ultimate to survive (if you are over level 6).
What summoner spells to pick for Taric Top Lane
Additionally when I play him top I take a combination of ghost and exhaust. The reason I take ghost is that Taric can get sticky to his target and deal the damage necessary while at the same time stunning. Also because TOP lane is a long lane you need to have the additional movement speed in order to escape the ganks. Now that we covered the summoner spells lets discuss a bit about his early build and late build paths.
How to Build Taric for early game in top lane
You will almost always want to start with boots and generally defensive boots. So if you are facing an AP or heavy CC champion you would want to get Mercury’s Threads and if you are facing an AD champion like Camille, Tryndamere, Riven etc you would want to start with Plated Steelcaps. The reasoning behind the early boots is that you are covering for the weakest part of Taric which is mobility.
How to Build Taric for mid/late game in top lane
Taric’s mid and late game is very dependent on what you want to accomplish in the game. There’s really two main avenues if you would like to play him as a support Top Laner or as a more aggressive damage dealing top laner.
Here’s some scenarios where you’d want to build Taric as a support top laner:
- There’s no tanks in the team apart from you
- Your team is lacking CC and a frontline
- Your carries are well ahead
Here’s some scenarios where you’d want to build Taric as an aggressive top laner:
- You got early kills on your opponent
- The carries are not doing great and you need to be the leader carrying
- You have an easy matchup and you think you will snowball
Hope the above gives you an idea of how to build Taric in the Top lane. Like I said before he’s a lot of fun to play so make sure you enjoy yourself if you do pick him!
You can find more about Taric’s abilities here.
How to carry with Malzahar Jungle
As you guys already know I’ve been a Malzahar main for the last 3 years and have played a lot of games with him. I peaked in the top 300 Malzahar’s in the world which I believe is a great accomplishment of it’s own. Since then I have played Malzahar in all the roles including Jungle. I can tell you right now that Malzahar Jungle is probably one of the most fun roles you can play him as. Keep in mind he’s not as effective as he is in Mid Lane but I would put Jungle as the next best role for him. At some point I believe in Season 9 he was meta to play him in Jungle. Also generally speaking Malzahar has always been a very strong pick and has a good support role in your team. Below I’m going to outline some things to keep in mind when you are playing Malzahar in the Jungle.
How to build Malzahar Jungle in early Game
The most and highly critical time for jungling with Malzahar is how you build him in the early game. This is one of your most vulnerable parts of the game and you need to be extremely careful until you reach your first power spike which is Level 6 and you have your ultimate. So one of the first items you would want to be buying is boots. Boots give you mobility and survivability which is mandatory if you are playing Malzahar. This may delay a bit your jungle clearing but it will make sure you survive for the most part.
Once you complete your boots then it’s time to get your first item. You will be building Malzahar the same way you are building him in lane but your focus should be in the AP items that give you movement speed. The reason for this is that you can roam around the jungle faster and reach closer to the objectives such as dragons and baron. So focus on items/Runes such as:
- Cosmic drive, gives you a decent amount of AP and movement speed
- Night harvester
- Nimbus cloak
- Celerity
- Waterwalking
As these items/runes may change I suggest you check the AP items here and for runes you can check this page here and go with the movement speed runes.
If you combine all of the above you will be have extreme mobility and be a constant threat around the map. Some things to take care about when doing this is:
- Your 1v1 potential will be reduced so try not to engage in jungle fights
- If you are contesting scuddle ping your mid or top laner for help
- Do not invade I repeat this do not invade until you are way ahead and feel confident
How to build Malzahar Jungle in mid/late Game
The mid to late Game of Malzahar is very strong. You will be basically like a second support with utility that also does damage. Your goal here is to be on top of objectives and using your movement speed make sure you provide some vision to your team too. It’s very important as a Jungle mage to know where the enemy team is because if you get caught out you are most likely dead.
Your build will continue with the items mentioned above do not skip on any bonus movement speed you can get as this is basically your saving grace in the jungle. Furthermore you want to start itemizing as a last item a bit of defense for this you can get a 
banshee veil or a 
zhonya hourglass these will give you the survivability you will start needing in team fights as you will likely get focused as a squishy mage. Some things you need to be careful about are the following:
- Try to position properly in team fights as you would always do
- Try to ultimate the enemy carry (unless they have
QSS) - Build some defense towards the end of the game to avoid getting one-shoted
QSS)How to gank with Malzahar Jungle
Malzahars bread and butter is his ultimate. In higher elos this is very easily countered with QSS but there’s a small detail here that makes all the difference as to why Malzahar Jungle is great. If you haven’t guessed yet, in lane you are facing 1 opponent so for them it’s a small investment to do. However if the entire team has to counter that they will not be building a QSS I can guarantee you with that.
So lets dive right in obviously when you are ganking you’d be traditionally waiting for a bait from your laner or an over-extension. Once this happens you can go ahead and immediately and I stress this out immediately ultimate the enemy laner. Sure you probably will not be getting the kill but it will most likely secure it. Keep your E/W combo to use immediately after. For your Q you may want to initiate with it to disable their escapes (when he gets sight of you) and then ultimate if it’s not possible don’t worry too much about it as the range of the ultimate is good enough to get to the enemy.
Worst comes to worst and you really want to get a shutdown and secure the lane then you can always flash/ultimate the enemy laner. When you are ulting with a flash, you leave very little reaction time for the enemy. Generally Malzahar’s ganking is great as you give ample opportunity for your ally to secure the kill.
Overall Malzahar is a very strong pick in the jungle but you have to follow certain guidelines and keep some precautions as discussed above.
Conclusion
If you found 3 Off meta league of legends champions to carry games useful and you think it may have helped you please drop me a cheer below I would appreciate it.
My personal favorite is Amumu support because he has a lot of tankyness and cc in his kit which can carry games just by sitting in the middle of a fight and not dying. Keep in mind that things could change in the future and these champions may be the new meta.
If you have any questions, comments please post them below I check periodically and try to answer them in the priority they come in.
Also if you have any corrections please do let me know and I’ll update the article with new updates or mistakes I did.
Which is your favorite off-meta champion in League of Legends?
I have written similar articles on other lanes which you can find below: