*SKIP READING THIS IF YOU'RE NOT INTERESTED*

We are Aidan (Yiddus) and Bram (Facerolladin) from the EU servers.
For a long time now, we've played several games together, actually got to know each other throug a private server of World of Warcraft. After that we've basically been playing every game we bought together. They include shooters, RPG, racers, stupid web-browser games and many more.

About a year back, when LoL had just been released, we decided to have a go at it and are still hooked today.

Now we're sure we're not the only friends who play a lot together so that's why we wanted to try and investigate which champions synergize the best with each other in a lane. We've played in the same lane together a lot and never done too bad (excluding some of "those" games, which -face it- everyone has had)

What research have we done?

Generally we start with theorizing which champions could synergize well together. To do this we take into account if a champion is AP, if a champion is AD, Ranged, Mage, Tank, Support and squishyness (Survivability). (For example: We, in theory, know that Veigar and Annie are not a viable laning combination, they are both squishy and they are both AP so easily countered by the opposing team.)

After theorizing and have chosen two champions, we continue to investigate a laning combination by first of all trying the pair in a co-op vs AI and then persuing a normal 5v5. Obviously if we can already tell i nthe Co-op vs AI that the combo doesn't synergize then we will not continue to investigate further.

How will we layout this guide?

• Theory
  Here we will explain how champions can technically work together and why we choose them.
• Practical
  How they work well with evidence backing it up.
• Tips
  Tips or tricks to improve your playstyle in this specific lane combo.
• Weaknesses
• Screenshots/Media/Documentation

We have also included a list of combo's that we have tried but do not like and for what reason. These combo's are recommended to be avoided as they are less viable and can have a negative effect on your game. (We aren't saying that they can't work, but they are just less viable)

• 13/06/2011
  • Added the Change Log! (What is this, I don't even...)
  • Removed Xin Zhao and Amumu as a laning duo.
  • Added a section on duo's we tried that didn't work.
• 14/06/2011
  • Finished Blitzcrank/Alistar.

Theory
After thinkign for a while, we were trying to think of the best possible match for Soraka, we know there are many viable partners however we don't know who is the most effective.

Soraka is a great support. She has MR reduction , she can heal , replenish mana and silence . It needs to be a champion who can look after Soraka and make the enemy scared to go near her, push forward or consider diving. Someone with high damage, good harass (long range) and a little cc/map control. Caitlyn fits this role perfectly.

Soraka is fairly squishy, despite the low CD on her heals so she needs someone who can save her in a tricky situation. The partner also needed to have sustained damage, so Caitlyn having a big nuke as well as hard hitting auto-attacks should deffinatly be a good choice.

The idea of this combo is lane staying power and pushing power.

Practical

Early game they have great harassment and a huge advantage over pretty much any other combo. Thanks to Soraka's Caitlin can continuosly harrass and keep her traps up. Once you you push them to their tower, you can box them in with traps and harassment, cutting off their xp and enabling you to farm minions freely while doing damage to their turret.

Tips

ALWAYS have a ward near the Dragon or Baron (Depending if you're top or bottom). You are generally far up the lane and need a lot of time to react to someone coming for the gank. DO NOT rely on teammates to call SS. USE YOUR MAP. If you are holding the enemies at their tower then THEY WILL ask for help.

Box them in using at their tower, by placing them across the lane. (See screenshots below). This keeps the enemies back so that you do not have to worry about them going for Soraka - You are zoning them and increasing their risk if they try to gank.

Weaknesses

• Vulnerable to ganks.
  
• Need a good team and setup... It's useless when you do well at bot and can't help failing teammates as you have little time to roam. (We experienced this a lot.)

Screenshots/Media/Documentation

Theory

The idea behind this combo is to achieve good lane pushing and harassment making it easy to get a tower down fast, within 12 minutes, so around level 8-9 in time for mid game. Janna's knock up can be used to synergize with Corki to harass and to farm creeps/push at the tower. Corki is squishy, Janna can shield him to keep him alive and if necassary use her ulti to knock back enemies and heal. Corki is good at fighting melee, and increasing the combo's survivability with his AoE hit rate reduction. Corki can harass very easily with his ulti and If Corki gets too far away from Janna, he can jump back to her with and she can proceed to use her ulti. They can chase efficiently too, with Janna's slow and

Practical

Instantly we noticed that Yiddus was not the best Corki player and perhaps the combo can be worked better than what we achieved. However we still found this combo to be extremely viable due to the diversity and ability to keep enemies at their tower and even harass them underneath it early game. Later in the game both champions are strong in teamfights, Janna more than Corki.

Tips and Tricks

Corki is squishy - Build health early game.
use to your advantage (better if Janna takes it obviously) Even when it is about to run out Corki can use his to reveal enemies and keep track of them.
When in trouble try to synergize with . Communication is vital, from experience we have cast the two at the same time resulting in Corki jumping away from the heal.

Weaknesses

• This combo is weak agaisnt heavy crowd control.

Screenshots/Media/Documentation

Theory

CC+Nuke. Period.

No but in all honesty. Evelynns stealth will disorientate the enemy, Ryze can go in with a snare followed by the stun of Evelynn, in that time almost any enemy should be dead. It's a full nuke combo.

Practical

Simply put. We melted faces. In practice, in early game (Level 2+) you can dish out tons of damage with a Snare and a Stun making it impossible to escape. The only problem is that it's generally a one trick pony. The enemy can quickly catch on to your strategy and play very defensively. Early ganks focusing one target are easy through the early laning phase. Eve and Ryze become great ganking/roaming partners in the later game.

Tips

Counter Vision Wards with your own vision wards and try to catch out players with Oracles on their own, gank them.

After getting a few kills as Eve, try to gank mid aswell, don't stick just to the bot lane. Ryze is capable of handling himself at his tower, especially if the other team gets cocky and try to tower dive.

Do the Rune Prison before the stun from Eve . (approximately the same time that eve goes into stealth so they have no time to react)


Weaknesses

• Anti CC
• Olaf
• Solo Laners
• Duo Tank Lane (Alistar/Blitz, Malphite/Blitz, etc)
  

Screenshots/Media/Documentation

Theory

Simply put, CC and Zoning. Blitz can start with a pull , proceed with his knock-up . Alistar then knocks up and knocks back with . The both are not at all squishy and should have plenty of staying power with Alistars heal . They should be able to survive gank attempts easily with their CC and tanky-ness.

Practical

Facerolladin hadn't played Blitz in a while so it took some getting used to - After a short while he was landing his grabs. The CC combo mentioned in the Theory worked liek a charm. It was sometimes more efficient for Alistar to initiate with and Blitz using his last as they try to run away.

At low level we generally let the other team push us at our tower and get firstblood there, by pulling/knocking one of the enemies into the tower while they had little or no minions.

We found that we were not susceptible to ganks. We both have a lot of health. Blitz has is passive shield and the knock-up gave us plenty of space to manouver.

This combo, however, doesn't really focus on getting towers down fast. You will get them down but it just takes time, you don't usually get a double kill and Alistar should save his ulti for when he gets into trouble, not ganking at the tower or breaking a tower.

We also found that if the team isn't doing so well then Alistar should roam a little bit to help after succeeding in his own lane. Blitz can easily hold the lane solo.

Tips

Alistar can start with Mana Manipulator to give lane staying power, meaning Blitz won't need to take Clarity either.

---> ---> --->

OR

---> ---> ---> (Use this rotation if Blitz cannot easily start off with a rocket grab. Only use rocket grab when the enemy is fleeing.)

Weaknesses

• Morgana's
• Sivir's
• 

Though these weaknesses aren't that bad... You will still most likely be able to get kills, they are just minor inconveniences.

Screenshots/Media/Documentation

We enjoyed playing this combo so much that we decided to write our own

In-Depth guide to playing Alistar/Blitzcrank.

(Coming soon...)

• Xin Zhao/Amumu
  • In theory this seemed a good idea, with both champions being able to jump into the fight and CC however it just didn't seem to work the way we wanted it to - Perhaps we were doing something wrong or perhaps it just isn't a good duo. When we started picking someone out and having a successful and we couldn't dish out enough damage to keep someone from escaping (Most of the time people escaped on low health, Ignite could have been a good idea.) One of us would be focused by the other team and take damage equal to what we could do so it was never really worth it and very risky. Both being Melee they had a hard time pushing towers.
• Swain/Soraka
  • This seemed a good combo. Purely based on lane staying power with Soraka being able to heal and give back mana while Swain can be pretty beefy but when it came ot getting ganked or the other duo pushing for a kill we had little in the means of escape once Swains Snare and Soraka's heals were exhausted.

We would greatly appreciate any contructive comments and/or thoughts on the guide. Please let us know if you have done any research yourself and think we are wrong. Also if you want us to research or add a specific combo, let us know. Don't forget to vote!

Feel free to send us screenshots from games you've played with one of these laning duo's!

We will try to keep the guide as updated as possible with fix's complying with game patches.

Many thanks for investing your time in reading this guide we hope it has been useful.
Yiddus and Facerolladin

*This is a work in progress!* (Don't vote based on incomplete content.)