Off-Meta Bot Lane: How To Master Singed & Taric
Are you bored because there are too few ADCs in the Bot Lane? Are you looking for a combo to easily climb in Ranked? Don't worry, I'll show you the best off-meta bot lane – which is even one of the best general bot lanes – you can play right now.
Some of you may remember the Garen / Yuumi or Sona / Taric bot lanes that even performed well in professional play. In this article, I will show you a relatively new bot lane combo that allows you to easily climb your SoloQ.
I am talking about Singed in combination with Taric. This duo has a 65% win rate in Emerald+, which is probably the highest duo win rate overall.
At first glance, this pair might not seem to complement each other, but I will tell you everything about the synergy between them, your item builds, and your power spikes.
Having practiced this lane extensively in Diamond - Master, I can provide you with solid insights.
Off-Meta Bot: Singed & Taric: Synergies & How To Play
Singed and Taric are both known for being extremely hard scaling champions. Let's first look at the problems they would have in the bot lane individually:
Singed is a melee champion and is often harassed in the early levels. He also cannot reliably engage on the enemy but is instead easily kited to death.
Taric, while being effective against melee champions, struggles to hit enemies with his E, especially ADCs who often flash out of his crucial stun and can then immediately turn and go all-in.
So, Singed needs setup to close in with heals to keep him in lane, and Taric wants to be able to hit his stun and auto attack in melee range. Conveniently, these two champions perfectly complement each other in these aspects.
With Singed's Q and Taric's E at level 1 you'll be able to get a quick kill against your unsuspecting enemies. Land a stun with Taric's E, use Singed's Poison – as well as Flash and Ghost if necessary – and ignite the enemy to secure the kill. However, if this fails you'll want to let yourselves be pushed in calmly and get as much farm as possible without harassment.
If the enemies push the tower at level 2, you can secure an easy kill with a Taric Flash Stun into Singed's E against the tower.
From level 3 it gets really fun: Singed can ground and slow the enemy ADC with his W. Taric can bind his E with his W to Singed, meaning it should have a 100% hit rate. Singed can capitalize on this stun by flinging enemies behind him with his E to damage them together with Taric. Even if enemies try to flash out, they are still within Singed's melee range, who can outdamage any ADC thanks to his poison. There's virtually no counterplay for the opponents.
Once you hit level 6, you can look for easy tower dives. The movement speed, coupled with Singed's bonus stats, ensures that you can always stick to the opponent, while Taric's ult keeps you safe from any tower damage.
At this stage, even jungle ganks are no problem. Most of the time, you just kill all three.
With this combo, you can proxy farm to deny the enemy creeps and push and draw their attention. Just make sure not to play a 2v4 if you're not strong enough yet.
Off-Meta Bot: Singed & Taric: Item Builds & Runes
The Best Off Meta Picks Right Now
Singed
For Singed, you definitely want to play Conqueror with Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, and Last Stand. Suitable secondary runes are either Second Wind and Unflinching or Celerity and Nimbus Cloak.
Ideally, Singed should start with a Dark Seal and build Demonic Embrace as his first item. Boots of Swiftness are also a valuable option to stick to opponents more easily. For the second major item, you could build Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Riftmaker, or Radiant Virtue, according to personal preference.
Taric
You'll want to take Glacial Augment on Taric to reduce the damage from the enemy bot lane. The green secondary tree is also suitable for better dealing with harass or all-ins.
On your first back, you should definitely pick up a Tear to manage your mana better. After that, get Shurelya's Battlesong to give your Singed even more sticking power.
Off-Meta Bot: Singed & Taric: Spikes & Counters
With Singed and Taric, you are already strong in the early game but can't necessarily win 100% of the lanes. Sometimes it also helps to just wait. With this combination, you have an excellent setup for jungle ganks, as you both bring considerable CC.
Once Singed has his first item, you can easily win team fights. Just target whoever has the highest damage output on the enemy team and run them down with the combination. There is no counterplay to Singed's W into Taric's E. With both ultimate abilities, you can easily engage as you are invulnerable.
The true strength lies, of course, in the late game, as you are both scaling champions and Singed has incredible movement speed. The enemy is only safe in their fountain.
If you're looking for bans: Morgana is a strong counter to you, so you should always ban her. Also, some champions like Draven or Kog'Maw can outdamage you in the early game, so be cautious. If these champions get a lead, it becomes extremely difficult to do anything during the laning phase.