All League of Legends Roles Explained

League of Legends has multiple roles and lanes. Today we're going to explain the different roles and what they do. 

Each lane of the main map has its own challenges and requirements for the champions, on which they fight. In this guide we will show you all the existing roles for said champions, as lanes and roles do not always overlap.

Every lane has a few roles that are played on it, due to the fact that the lane is best suited for bringing out the best of each role, giving them the best way to earn gold and experience, in the shortest time possible. So, which roles exist, and what do they do?

Which Roles Exist in League of Legends?

Top Lane Roles

Going from the top of the map, we have the, aptly named, Top Lane. The Top lane is often played with champions which are, mostly, easy to play and don’t require high-level mechanics. Their usefulness is not to be underestimated, as the top lane champions represent every team's front line.

Tank Top Lane Champions

Tak champions are the ones that are, on the surface, the easiest to play. Your role is to soak up the enemy damage with your high-resistance built by buying armor and magic resist items, so your team doesn't have to. Digging down deeper though, there is a depth to this role for those dedicated to learning it.

Firstly because of their role in team fights and secondly because of their split pushing potential on the side lanes, tank top laners are not to be underestimated in any case. After all, there is little an ADC can do when faced with an enormous Cho'Gath.

Bruiser Top Lane Champions

Where fighters can be found in the jungle as well, Bruisers are the specific subclass role of the FIghters. As their name implies, this is the role that can both take and give out bruises and is suited for those that like to give as much as they take.

If you ever ding yourself in a lane against these champions, know that the early game is not your friend, as they have a reasonable amount of tankiness, and a crazy amount of damage. For that reason, Bruisers are known as champions with the easiest carry potential, especially in lower levels of gameplay.

Jungle Roles

Jungle champions are those that, as their name states, reside in the jungle. Where they differ is in the fact that some do not leave the relative safety of their jungle, while others spend as much time in the other lanes creating an advantage as they do killing camps.

Scaling Junglers

When one thinks of the jungle role, the first champion that pops into their mind is Master Yi. Just as it happens, he is the epitome of a scaling jungler, one that farms camps like his life depends on it before appearing out of nowhere to delete the enemy team with no issues.

This is also the case for other jungle champions that share this playstyle. However, there are drawbacks, of course. Should your teammates not know how to play with a scaling and farming jungler, and lose their lanes due to enemy jungle ganks, you can expect to see the famed "jungle diff" in chat, and a loss that doesn't even allow these junglers to come into their own.

Ganking Junglers

On the other side of the spectrum, we have ganking junglers. These are the ones that don't farm camps, and instead, farm champions. Their strength does not lie in scaling, but in snowballing the game to an early end.

The way they accomplish this is by having an efficient jungle path, where they kill as many camps in the least amount of time, to maximize the time they have to gank lanes and gain an advantage that way. They are the bane of any team with a scaling jungler, that doesn't take that into account when moving around the map and playing without vision.

Mid Lane Roles

The mid lane is the lane where every role fulfills some fantasy of the, well, fantasy genre. Whether it's spell-slinging mages or shadow skulking rogues, it has them all.

Mages

One of the two broad categories mid laners fall into is the mage category. These are the champions that rely on their mana to duel their destructive spells, all the while staying as far away from the meat of the fighting, to keep their squishy selves safe.

Where they differ from the bor lane ADCs, which stand right beside them in a team formation, is that mages possess crowd control abilities, and their damage is more a burst type, trying to delete an enemy in a spell rotation, after which they have to take a break to recharge.

Assassins

The second category of the mid lane champions are the assassins. As their mage counterparts, they are also geared towards dealings much damage as possible in the least amount of time, but the way they go about it differs greatly.

Assassins are the ones to appear out of nowhere, deleting an enemy carry, only to disappear from sight back to safety. Playing against a good assassin turns League of Legends into a survival horror game.

Bot Lane Roles

On the bot lane, the AD carry plays together with the support. With the AD carry, the focus is on physical attack damage rather than abilities. While its burst isn't as powerful as that of the mid laners, you can deal continuous damage to your opponent, which is the main way to bring down a dedicated top lane tank.

Hypercarry AD Carries

These AD carry champions are the ones both your own and the enemy jungler will pay special attention to. Just as any carry champion, they are weak during the early game, and jungle attention is what makes or breaks them.

However, given time to get into their rhythm, with some gold in their pockets, items in their hands, and a good support at their side, they become a force of nature that cannot be contained even by the assassins tailor-made to kill them.

Lane Bully AD Carries

Where there are scaling champions in a lane, their counterparts also exist, and those would be the lane bullies whose early game is their main strength.

These are the AD carries that, comparatively, do not scale as well as is expected of their role. However, they also subvert expectations of the ADC role by being strong early, without having to gather their core three items. A fed lane bully ADC is a nightmare to make a comeback against.

Support Roles

In the bot lane itself, we find two champions at the same time. Aside from the, above-mentioned, ADC, you also have the support. As a support, you protect the AD carry on the bot lane in the early game as well as look for opportunities to get them a kill or two and strengthen your teammates as the team fight progresses.

Engage Supports

Speaking of finding opportunities we have the engage supports. These are the ones that always check to see if one of the opponents is in a disadvantageous position so that they can attack him. The carry's strength lies in one-shot kills, so keep an eye on the bot lane for an engage.

An engage support is also one that roams as well, making plays with their jungle, and giving an advantage to his other carries, such as those in the mid lane. However, the supports are not just capable of running in, but also defending their ADC by CCing enemy assassins that seek to kill them quickly.

Enchanter Supports

Arguably, enchanters are the "true supports" of the support role. This is due to their kit which is specialized in enhancing their team's carry champions.

The name of their game is, in essence, utility. These champions give their allies shields, healing, and an effective way of stopping the enemies that seek to charge into their allies and disrupt the team's formation.