Throughout League of Legends’ history, there has been a push to increasingly emphasize team play. Individual hypercarry champions that can carry the game are rarer than they were in the game’s beginnings. However, there are still a few Champions that can do the job in Season 13 and give you control over your own destiny.
Kai’sa, Daughter of the Void
With tanks being at the forefront in the Season 13 meta, Kaisa's synergy with Kraken Slayer and her passive, Second Skin, makes her one of the best ADC picks, as she is able to shred tanks.
Besides her insane damage output and tank shredding, Kai’sa can self-peel due to the design of her kit. Her upgraded E, Supercharge, allows her to be invisible upon cast, allowing her to be aggressive while being able to re-position when things get too dangerous. On top of that, Kai’sa’s R, Killer Instinct, is a large-distance dash that also imbues her with a huge shield upon cast. Her R, paired with her long-ranged projectile W, Void Seeker, allows her to catch mispositioned enemies from a mile away.
Season 13 introduced a new build for Kai’sa. The core components include Lethal Tempo, Kraken Slayer, Navori Quickblades, and Phantom Dancer. With Navori Quickblades reducing the cooldown of abilities, Kai’sa, with enough attack speed, can nearly have 100% uptime on her E. Kai’sa’s insane E uptime allows her to be unkillable if positioned correctly. She will also have empowered auto attacks for most of the team fight. Paired with Kai’sa’s defensive abilities and her insane damage, which doesn’t need to be amplified by an enchanter, she is one of the strongest hypercarry Champions.
Ekko, the Boy Who Shattered Time
Ekko is a Champion that has it all. Insane damage, self-sustainability, mobility, and crowd control. First off, Ekko’s passive, Z-Drive Resonance, makes his auto attacks and abilities apply stacks. Upon hitting 3 stacks, he deals bonus magic damage and gains bonus movement speed based on his level. This movement speed bonus makes Ekko a hit-and-run Champion and an extremely sticky chaser.
Next, Ekko’s crowd control is no joke. When successfully set up, his W, Parallel Convergence, stuns enemies for 2.25 seconds, which is huge. However, this ability only stuns when Ekko is inside of the W when it activates. If Ekko is not inside his W, the enemies will be slowed for 40%, which is also nothing to scoff at. His Q, Timewinder, is a projectile that applies stacks of his passive to anything hit, and it starts to slow enemies at the end of its path when traveling outward away from Ekko. Paired with his passive’s movement speed, the slow from his Q will almost guarantee no Champions will be able to outrun Ekko. Not to mention Ekko’s E, Phase Dive, is a dash that empowers his next auto attack. When his auto attack is empowered, he can target-blink to any enemy. Essentially, Ekko can have up to five mobility abilities, including his E dash, E target-blink, Flash, Hextech Protobelt-01, and his R, Chronobreak.
Finally, Ekko’s most unique ability is his R. Basically, Ekko goes back in time to where he was four seconds ago. He also heals a substantial amount and creates an explosion that will nuke anyone in the radius. This ability allows Ekko to delete the squishy Champions in the backline of the enemy team while being able to get out with just a click of a button. This ability also allows some interesting tech with Recall and the summoner spell Teleport. Ekko can instantly get back to lane using R, within four seconds after recalling. In any instance where Ekko gets his job done with Teleport within four seconds, he can go back to where he was originally. Although very subtle in common games, Ekko’s map presence with these tricks is what makes him that much more powerful.
With his kill and sustain potential from his many dashes, healing, and crowd control, he is essentially a 5-in-1 Champion. Initially released as an AP Mage Mid Laner in mind, Ekko has found himself most played in the Jungle, where he can get around the map very fast, and be most impactful for his team, hidden in the shadows.
Udyr, the Spirit Walker
Udyr rigorously ran rampant on the Rift after his rework. Although his role in League of Legends has not changed severely, his new kit provides him with carry potential because of his insane damage and survivability. With his strong AOE clear in the Jungle and chase potential for ganking, Udyr is one of the most feared Champions in the Jungle.
Udyr, like before, can be played either AD or AP. However, with the recent nerfs to Prowler’s Claw, the AP Demonic Embrace build shows the best results. This means instead of prioritizing Udyr’s Q, Wilding Claw, he will be in his R, Wingborne Storm, most of the time. Because of his R’s large AOE effect with Demonic Embrace’s burn, enemies skirmishing with Udyr will have their HP bars melting while Udyr is continuously pouncing on them. With Udyr’s insane natural tankiness and healing, he will hardly ever die if he is ahead.
Although the Demonic Embrace build focuses heavily on Udyr’s R, his other abilities are still so powerful. He has access to his Q when he needs that extra attack speed for a life-or-death auto attack. He has his W, Iron Mantle, when he is in need of a shield and healing. And he has his E, Blazing Stampede, when is going for a gank and needs that extra movement speed and stun to gap close.
Udyr’s kit allows him to be able to skirmish multiple Champions at a time, while shredding their HP bars without ever losing his own.
Twitch, the Plague Rat
Twitch, arguably one of the strongest hypercarries in the game today, benefits so much from the rise of tanks. Because games and teamfights last much longer because of the tank meta, Twitch can play to his strengths, as he is most impactful in the late-game and stretched-out teamfights.
Twitch’s kit synergies exceptionally well with items Kraken Slayer and Blade of the Ruined King because of his long-range consecutive poison stacks. Twitch’s R, Spray and Pray, increases his attack range by 300, which is more than 50% of his base 550 attack range. Paired with Lethal Tempo, Twitch can shred enemies without ever being hit. Not only that, but Twitch’s Q, Ambush, makes him invisible for up to fourteen seconds at max level, giving him the ability to sneak into places that would be too dangerous for other ADCs.
However, if Twitch gets destroyed in the lane and is unable to hit his 3 item power-spike in a considerably fast fashion, he will end up getting pummeled by his opponents. Because Twitch is extremely squishy, this makes his laning phase even more challenging. A good team will call their Jungle and Mid-Lane to camp Twitch constantly. As a result, a good Twitch requires good positioning, maximization of gold, and sound judgment to be impactful. But again, with the tank meta stretching out the length of each game, Twitch will have plenty of time to hit his power spikes.
Kassadin, the Void Walker
With the return of Rod of Ages, Kassadin cements himself as one of the strongest Mid-Laners currently. Kassadin is essentially a ticking time bomb, waiting to delete HP bars the moment he hits level 16. In Season 13 especially, Kassadin can even have a mighty power spike at level 11 due to Rod of Ages giving him substantial amounts of Ability Power, Health, and Mana. Not only that, but upon reaching max stacks on Rod of Ages, Kassadin will gain a whole level while preserving his current EXP; this is huge because Kassadin can hit his power spikes faster and start dominating across the Rift earlier.
What makes Kassadin so powerful is he is nearly uncatchable with his R, Riftwalk. With his insane burst damage and tankiness from Rod of Ages, Kassadin is self-sustaining and can delete enemies, squishy or tanky. The hardest part about Kassadin is his early laning phase. Because he is designed as a ticking time bomb, he is considerably weaker than other Mid-Lane champions in the early stages. However, as long as Kassadin is able to get as much gold as he can without dying too much, he will wreak havoc once he reaches levels 11 and 16.
CLOSING OUT
There you have it! Some of the strongest solo carries in Season 13’s meta. Hopefully, this playstyle has piqued your interest, and I wish you the best of luck playing these fun Champions on the Rift. Just remember, even though these Champions are totally capable of destruction on their own, having a strong team makes the game that much more fun.
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