This guide focuses on a mid-to-late game trap & poke composition comprised of:

This guide does not cover detailed champion fundamentals. For general champion-specific mechanics, particularly in relation to laning and early jungle pathing, refer to dedicated guides for each champion.

Brief Overview

• This team composition emphasizes: zone control, vision denial, and disruption of enemy engage attempts through layered traps , strong anti-engage tools , and long-range poke +
  
• It features a balanced damage profile ( / ) and creates a significant vision advantage, forcing heavy Oracle Lens usage from the enemy team, while still leaving them unable to safely move through trapped areas.
  
• Rather than relying on chaotic, coin-flip teamfights, this composition plays a disciplined, non-committal style, controlling space and forcing enemies into disadvantageous positions.
  
• It excels in structured standoffs, objective control , and attritional gameplay—gradually wearing opponents down while denying safe engagement opportunities.

Early game (~0-15 min)

Primary objective: Reach mid game with minimal losses and stable scaling.

• General approach

  • Do not force risky plays
  • Avoid chaotic fights and skirmishes
  • Preserve uptime in lanes/jungle, ensuring access to XP & gold. Jungler should generally focus on repeatedly clearing camps.
  • Lanes are mostly played in a standard manner, with a bias towards safety.
  • Trap usage early on (especially for and ) is primarily for vision and gank prevention.
  • Converge on objectives as lanes permit. If possible, in the case of , try to get a trap or two ~20-30s prior to the upcoming objective.
  
  

• Optional plays:

  Note: These are opportunistic plays, not required or always advised
  • Depending on the enemy jungler's early-game strength and ability to establish vision on the enemy jungler's starting camp: Blue Sentinel or Red Brambleback prior to it spawning. can optionally decide to do a level 2 invade, using his very fast 3x on the Crimson Raptor camp to start and reach the enemy's starting camp at level 2, while they are still at level 1.
  • If vision is established on the enemy jungler's starting camp: or and the enemy jungler is confirmed not using on the camp, can at that point choose to lock in and attempt to last hit / , denying the enemy jungler XP and stealing the [Crest of Insight]/[Crest of Cinders] buff.

Mid game (15-30 min)

Primary objective: Establish map control and vision asymmetry

• Establish a larger trap network, by placing traps in:

  • River entrances
  • Jungle choke points
  • In and around objective areas (in larger quantities than just 1-2 per trap-capable champion prior to objective spawning)

• Contest vision & traps actively

  • Enemy will likely begin using & to try to remove traps. Counter these attempts to clear with Jayce's + combo and Jhin's . Situationally also Teemo's if conditions permit.
  • Use your own ( & ) to clear enemy vision.
  • Use with & to aim skillshots and add early warning of enemy presence.
    Alternatively use on leveraging fast attacks with to clear .

• Possibility of leveraging Maokai's relative brawling strength in the midgame

  • Should build both & in a reasonable amount of time. He might experience a strong two-item spike in brawling strength. This relative window of strength can be leveraged to take more traditional fights until tank durability starts to taper off, as often happens as ADCs get more , , and especially should they itemize .
  • This relative strength that tanks tend to enjoy in the midgame with a two-item spike is very much on borrowed time. Tanks including aren't going to be nearly as durable relative to enemy damage output in the lategame. Additionally will shift to more of an extremely high , Sapling Tossing and shredding playstyle and will no longer be suited for prolonged frontline tanking.

Late game (30+ min)

Primary objective:
Fully establish map control and enforce vision asymmetry

Win standoff fights from a position of extreme vision & trap advantage.
Secure: soul & buffs.
Finally move to end the game: leverage the buff, keep lane(s) and nearby jungle paths heavily trapped while sieging lanes.
The enemy can be forced to come to you and into your minefield, to deal with your baron-buffed Siege minion outranging towers.

• Full trap saturation of key areas & continuously contest traps & vision

  • Maintain a dense trap network in:
    Jungle intersections, river entrances, corners of lanes, flanking paths and in and around major objectives
  • Due to Teemo's long duration , there should almost always be an existing baseline of traps already established.
  • & further reinforce these areas with longer-duration scaling traps enabled by late game & scaling.
    Additionally, should build , he will get another ~80 increasing his trap contribution massively.
  • Use & to clear/deny enemy vision.
    As finishes he'll also begin to contribute a lot to denial of enemy vision.
  • Keep contesting vision & traps, deny enemy attempts to move through or clear traps with: & + . Enemies are forced to rely on windows to be able to move through the map, making their movement more predictable and punishable.
  
  

• Avoid overcommitting

  • Even when ahead, avoid diving into enemy territory, chasing beyond trap coverage or resorting to taking more traditional brawls/team fights.
    Death timers are very punishing at this stage of the game, and you already have a very safe win condition enabled by strong scaling traps & poke.
  • Only chase down enemies if the enemy is significantly weakened, caught in traps or crowd control and your team has clear positional or numerical advantage. However, always prefer to execute enemies at range using: / , or , before committing further.
    Otherwise, only take comparatively more risky fights out of absolute necessity. For example, if there is a need to contest: Elder , or if the enemy team is threatening to end the game by pushing inner towers/inhibitor(s)/nexus, even if trap coverage hasn't been sufficiently established.

Jayce

• Inflict physical poke damage from long range, utilizing the Q+E combo, whether opportunistically from vision or CC granted by , , or to punish any enemy attempt to sweep traps with
• Fast waveclear with regular abilities.
• Apply teamwide mobility enhancement, using to quickly move the team across the map.
• Reduce enemy / with empowered auto-attack.
• From mid game onwards, safely probe for enemy location with , or help aim your own Q+E combo and/or Jhin's if a wounded enemy has just gotten out of vision range.
• Later in the game, contribute further to vision domination, denying what little vision the enemy might have, with Umbral Glaive's passive effect.
• Situationally utilize to push enemy champions away who are attempting to close the gap (ideally redirect them into traps).
• Situationally run down enemies/engage in short bursts of melee combat, from a very advantageous position (numerical advantage, very low-health enemies, etc.)

Shaco

• Stay on top of jungle clears
• Contribute towards vision domination by denying what little vision the enemy might have with
• From mid game onwards, contribute to saturating the map with traps , enabled by extra which prolongs the duration of each
• Harass enemies with while staying safe with .
• Attempt to bait enemies into attacking and/or pre-fuse the clone to be close to detonating, then use into enemy team and outside of tether range, detonating the Hallucinate clone inside the enemy team.
• Place new boxes on top of enemies already CC'd, creating long CC chains.
• Situationally pursue low-health enemies if conditions permit, either to cut them off from their intended retreat path with and/or auto attack from stealth + finish with .
• Situationally, if the enemy is trying to siege/take towers: can be used to safely kill unescorted enemy minion waves. This prevents the enemy from dealing damage, or at least delays them for another ~30s, until the next wave arrives, giving your team more time to set up.

Teemo

• Contribute to saturating the map with traps . Teemo's traps have a baseline/static duration of 300s, ensuring there is always a threat of stepping on traps, even early to mid game. Whereas requires a decent amount of time/stats to ramp up the duration of their respective traps.
• Contribute to the team's vision advantage with & / .
• Shut down enemy auto-attack-reliant champions (ADCs/hypercarries etc.) by blinding them with , or simply disrupt attempts to clear wards or traps by blinding them, if no higher-priority target is present for
• Selectively engage enemies with auto attacks if conditions permit. For example, when the enemy has no credible way to engage, when they are already impaired by a trap, or traps/wards give vision across terrain that can be attacked over, or the enemy is auto-attack-reliant and already impaired by .

Jhin

• Inflict physical poke damage from long range, utilizing or , whether opportunistically from vision or CC granted by , , with his W ability preferentially targeting recently damaged enemies to apply the 'rooted' condition, or to punish any enemy attempt to sweep traps with .
• Contribute to waveclear with abilities ( or ) if minions are still in a line and, situationally, even use to clear minions if under threat of siege. Likewise can also be used to quickly clear large clusters of minions.
• From mid game onwards, safely probe for enemy location with , or help aim his own W or R and/or Jayce's + combo if a wounded enemy has just gotten out of vision range. In particular Jhin's is suited to execute one or more wounded enemies, as it does significantly more damage to lower health targets and has the range to strike deep.
• Selectively engage enemies with auto attacks if conditions permit. For example, when the enemy has no credible way to engage, the enemy is already impaired by a trap, or traps/wards give vision across terrain that can be shot over etc., especially with empowered auto attack (extra ) to stay safe.
• Gradually contribute more to the team's number of traps on the field with as Jhin reaches levels 12-15 ( ability allocation 2-5), thereby drastically increasing the frequency with which he can place traps.

Maokai

• Utilize the support item to place and for vision
• Reveal and remove enemy with and/or
• In the early-mid game, act as a more traditional tank support, by forcing engagements. In particular once both & have been acquired, try to leverage relative tank durability in mid game for taking fights/brawling.
• Provide forward vision from the relative safety of Sapling Toss's 1100-unit cast range by throwing into brushes without vision, either to protect from ganks, or to enable the team to creep forwards safely.
• Towards the mid-to-late game (approximate timing as of building or components of it) transition towards an anti-engage (use to prevent engages) and more oriented playstyle, enabled by high bonus , making last a long time when placed in brushes.
  If takes some poke damage, quickly recover with
• During the standoff phase, body-block skillshots if they would otherwise hit teammates.

Motivation behind role allocation for quest role rewards:

, , , &
Role allocations are in part motivated by role quest rewards and the ability of each champion to perform well in their role.

Role quest rewards

• utilizes therole quest reward better than, say, , as has slightly better innate statistics scaling. Additionally, engages in melee combat (even if only in short bursts), and as such makes more use of the extra granted by levels 19-20. Furthermore builds , which makes better use of the extra granted by levels 19-20. Additionally, makes better use of the empowered , as only exerts pressure locally/has to be present to have impact, unlike, say, , who exerts a lot of pressure from .
  
• makes good use of thequest reward, adding sustain to & alike. would struggle with in particular in prolonged engagements otherwise.
• Additionally, is well suited for therole, with fast clears and ability to gank lanes from stealth and circumvent terrain with .
  
• benefits comparatively more from the upgrade to fromrole reward than, say, benefits from the upgrade to . gets an extra 8% and flat 6 , which is stronger than the 10 gets.
  Playing inalso puts him closer to objectives for ease of placing .
  
• & play a standardbot lane, in which the ADC is the only party to credibly be able to reach and benefit from the 7th item slot reward from the quest. benefits well from therole quest reward . as a platform has good durability to more safely place , preferably by using first to establish vision, then commit to placing a longer-duration

Duration and frequency scaling of traps

& have the duration of their respective traps & scale with / .

• In Shaco's case, the duration is equal to: 40 + 0.1* . At full build, tends to have some 600-700 depending on game duration ( Gathering Storm increases a lot). will typically end up with lasting ~100-120s.
  
• In Maokai's case, the duration is equal to: 30 + 0.015* (<-bonus ).
  with his two-item & mid-game spike, will have approximately (including runes & support item ) a total of ~1750 bonus , resulting in a duration of 61s when placed in brushes.
  Should also get , the total bonus HP reaches approximately 3200 , resulting in a duration of 83s.
  Should reach full build, bonus HP reaches approximately 3700 , or a duration of 90s.
  Furthermore Maokai's slow magnitude scales with bonus .
  The formula for Maokai's is: 45 + 0.01* + 0.01* (<-bonus )
  This results in a slow magnitude (using the same build-state references) of:
  62.5%, 77% and 82%.
  Towards the mid to late game, the slow from Maokai's becomes extremely crippling, almost behaving more like a root.
  
• These much longer-lasting traps, combined with Teemo's & Jhin's static trap durations of 300s and 180s, enable extensive map saturation from the mid game onwards.
  This is further amplified by the high amounts of Ability Haste present in all the builds, ensuring both long duration and frequent deployment of new traps.
• Additionally, has a particularly strong synergy with Endless Hunger because, unlike other champions, has about twice as much bonus due to how his passive interacts with & , usually resulting in bonus values of 700-800 compared to ~300 bonus for most (full) champions.
  As such, if ever builds , he will get a massive surge of ~75-85 , increasing the frequency with which he can use and his remaining kit alike.
  Note: if build , it is advisable to give him the blue sentinel mana regeneration buff.

How trap abilities like fundamentally differ from regular abilities

Compared to regular abilities, traps can be placed up to their full duration in advance of a fight. Unlike, say, Xerath's Arcanopulse, which provides no future value when fired into empty space, traps can create value tens or hundreds of seconds after their initial deployment.
As a trap-capable champion, you can essentially use your trap ability on cooldown and create value in the future. This simply isn't applicable to regular champion abilities.
This lets the trap & poke composition use any lull in fighting to massively advantage themselves the next time a fight occurs, be it contesting , , or defending the Nexus, etc.

Poking from fog of war synergy

Whenever or uses a long-range ability ( + , or ) from the fog of war, the enemy does not receive an early warning from seeing the champion begin the cast. This makes landing poke much easier, as the composition often has a significant vision advantage and frequently attacks from the fog of war.

Example of Jayce poking with his combo, over terrain from far away. The enemy would not see the initial cast; they would only briefly see the projectile just before it hits. This leaves no meaningful time to react.

Jayce's double Shock Blast through one Acceleration Gate breakpoint

When reaches approximately 100 Ability Haste, he can fire two empowered Shock Blasts through a single Acceleration Gate.
This is achieved by:

• 1) Fire Shock Blast
• 2) Put down an Acceleration Gate at max range in the direction of the Shock Blast just fired.
• 3) Walk towards the Acceleration Gate
• 4) Fire another Shock Blast through the Acceleration Gate just before it expires.

Play Video

Jhin's Deadly Flourish rooting off of any damage or his own Captive Audience

can root any enemy already damaged by him or his allies, or any enemy who has triggered .
Since the map will likely be filled with traps, will have many opportunities to root enemies from long range with: . Alternatively can also root targets after lands his + combo. Play Video

Jhin predictive Deadly Flourish pinning of enemy inside Shaco's Jack In The Box

Should observe an enemy player who is about to enter the activation radius of a , he can decide to predictively fire his at the enemy, so that the hits the enemy immediately after they are struck by the .
Ensuring that goes off first qualifies the target for the root from his follow-up .
This extends the total time the enemy spends in the attack range of the , increasing total damage inflicted.
Normally once goes off, it will fear the enemy away from the . Play Video

Inter-minefield synergies:

• Shaco's Jack In The Box breaks up enemy melee champions' ability to clear traps during their Oracle Lens windows. Jack In The Box's activation radius is greater than all melee champions' attack range. By mixing among & , enemy champions will have to either accept taking damage/fear from or forego their attempt to clear traps whenever their path is blocked by
  (only if they don't have any nearby ranged champions to help them clear the ).
  

  Shaco & Teemo example trap setup: melee enemies coming from the top-right side would not be able to hit Teemo before triggering the Shaco (say by running into it or using ranged abilities, as their melee auto attacks will not have enough range).

  
  
  
• Maokai's Sapling Toss is a non-targetable entity, making for an awkward decision when faced with: and having to clear a path through them. To clear them at all, one must first enter their trigger/pursuit activation range. At that point, one must either:
  • A) Ignore the and keep pushing through. However, in doing so, they suffer some damage and, perhaps more importantly, suffer a strong, potentially crippling slow (depending on bonus Maokai has at the time).
  • B) Run in the opposite direction (effectively still being delayed/slowed) until the times out and explodes out of range.
  
  
  
  
  
• Maokai's Sapling Toss grants vision from very long range ( has a cast range of 1100 units).
  is also fairly durable due to his large amount of bonus , even if otherwise not building much in the way of / , and has fast recovery from Warmog's Armor's passive, making it difficult for the enemy to punish as he safely creeps forwards with .
  This enables the team to very safely gradually push the minefield forwards, even if the enemy is trying to contest said push.
  

  Showcase of Maokai's Sapling Toss's 1100-unit range. This enables Maokai to safely establish vision against the vast majority of champions, as they won't have the range to CC Maokai at this range from inside the brush.

  For reference, the deployment range of Stealth Wards is 600 units. Additionally only has a 900-unit vision range, leaving a 200-unit range gap between Maokai's range and the vision the enemy might have if the brush were warded.

  Note: champions have a vision range of 1350 units; as such would ultimately see as he is throwing a into a brush, albeit only within a 250-unit band before backing off (that is if the enemy champion actually has line of sight to from the brush)
  
  
  
• Shaco's Jack In The Box and Teemo's Noxious Trap can be deployed in a specific manner to go off almost simultaneously, leaving too little time to react due to human reaction time, if correctly placed relative to one another and relative to the enemy's expected approach direction.
  This is achieved by placing slightly ahead of (but still overlapping with) , with farther in the direction from which the enemy is expected to approach.
  What the enemy experiences, should they approach from that direction without active, is:
  At time t0: Teemo's Noxious Trap detonates
  At time t1: Shaco's Jack In The Box activates
  As long as the time between t0 and t1 is below human reaction time (~200ms), both traps will trigger before the enemy would even be able to act (such as changing direction/activating etc.)
  Assuming an enemy Movement Speed of approximately 400 and 50% slow (from ), this corresponds to: 400 *0.5*0.2s=40 units.
  40 units or less is how far apart the activation perimeters of and can be (for an optimal enemy response, that is; in practice, they can likely be slightly further apart).
  

  Initial Shaco Jack In The Box placement.

  Teemo lines up his Noxious Trap to have its trigger radius extend slightly beyond the Jack In The Box trigger radius (for an enemy north-western expected approach direction).

  Final Teemo Noxious Trap placement (a small barely visible green/yellow-ish outline radius of the trigger radius of Noxious Trap extends beyond the Jack In The Box blue trigger radius).

  Note: this is much easier to do if Teemo places after Shaco has already placed his . This is due to the fact that Teemo's ' gives an outline (without smart cast enabled) that matches the trigger radius of the trap. Unlike Shaco's outline, which doesn't give you any information about trigger radius, only cast range of relative to Shaco.
  
  Attempt this combo only sparingly and only if the enemy's approach direction can reliably be predicted.
  
  
  

Enemy trinket choices, traps and implications for vision asymmetry.

• A consequence of heavy trap usage is that the enemy will almost always run 4-5 Oracle Lens trinkets.
  In doing so, they forgo Stealth Ward availability; this leaves the enemy team with a lot less vision, increasing vision disparity between the teams.
  By comparison, the trap & poke composition uses:
  2x Farsight Alteration, 2x Oracle Lens, 1x Stealth Ward & 1x Solstice Sleigh.
  
• Additionally, the traps in the trap & poke composition directly contribute to vision. This too increases the vision disparity between the teams.
  
• Jayce building Umbral Glaive, combined with the enemy possibly having only regular Stealth Wards from their support's evolved World Atlas and maybe one other champion still running trinket, means that the passive from and the 2-3x will just about shut down what little in the way of Stealth Wards the enemy would otherwise have been left with.

Baiting enemy premature Oracle Lens usage

By placing a few dispersed forward-deployed traps ahead of the main minefield closer to the relevant objectives , the enemy may step on a trap and immediately activate their in response, only to find no nearby traps. This wastes the limited window of the .

Example main minefield to be protected. Enemies ideally have already exhausted one or more Oracle Lens uses prior to reaching this area. Disregard the exclusively minefield composition. In practice would be a mix of

Example Forward deployed low-density traps, ahead of the main minefield. Should enemies step on one and then instinctively activate their Oracle Lens, they won't immediately see any other traps, partially or fully wasting their window, depending on how they continue to path.

Reducing enemy Umbral Glaive effectiveness

By forward-deploying Stealth Wards relative to the main minefield of traps, or even a few dispersed traps, any enemy using an Umbral Glaive will then have the item go off the moment they are spotted by a trap/ward. At that moment, the enemy may only see a single trap or ward and not encounter any other traps/wards for a while, wasting the detection window granted by .
Note: Traps have a very short vision range; as such, they will often trigger even if the enemy spots them with . Therefore it is quite important to keep traps and wards separated by a considerable distance, to avoid having situations in which a ward is revealed by and the blackout passive now being active/revealing traps and wards alike. Had a ward not been so close to traps, the enemy wouldn't get this kind of early warning unnecessarily.
This only applies if the enemy team has one or more Umbral Glaives, otherwise mixing traps and wards in close proximity isn't a problem.

Example forward-deployed Stealth Ward. Should an enemy with a primed Umbral Glaive enter vision range, their blackout passive will go off, revealing the . However, as there are no other nearby wards or traps, the value to the enemy is quite limited, effectively disrupting their ability to clear traps.

Second example of a forward deployed Stealth Ward. Open lanes like in this case, preferably close to the enemy nexus, are likewise well suited to prematurely trigger Umbral Glaive's blackout passive, far away from any traps.

Example bad Stealth Ward placement right next to a trap. When an enemy with Umbral Glaive approaches, their blackout passive will trigger on the vision granted by the . This will happen before they would otherwise likely have stepped on the trap.

Just to reiterate: spacing traps and apart is only applicable if the enemy has one or more Umbral Glaives.
Otherwise, it can be preferable to keep them in close proximity.
This way when an enemy with Oracle Lens reveals a bunch of traps and Stealth Wards, the enemy will likely attack and traps alike (potentially saving one or more traps from being destroyed during an Oracle Lens window, as wards were targeted among the traps).

Damage profile

• The trap & poke composition comprised of: features a very balanced damage profile, with & doing damage (as well as to a lesser extent) and & doing damage.
  
• While having a balanced damage profile might not seem abnormal at all, for a trap or poke (or, in this case, both) it is a bit more unusual. Poke compositions often tend to lean very heavy or entirely .
  The two key enablers of a balanced / damage profile are Jhin & Jayce, as they are uniquely long-ranged for being (in addition to also contributing to traps with: ).
• Other candidates for doing long-range poke damage could be Caitlyn or Varus. However, these champions aren't quite as synergistic as only has proper long range with her R: Ace in the Hole, as well as visible and deployment-limited to five Yordle Snap Traps. Her Piltover Peacemaker also has good range but, unlike Jhin's Deadly Flourish, it falls short by 1200 and there is no root combo.
  As for , he only has proper long range with his: Q Piercing Arrow and it also suffers from being partially damage oriented with: Blighted Quiver making enemy itemization possibly a bit too effective.

Threat of both high armor penetration & magic penetration

The trap & poke composition has a champion ( Jayce) with high armor penetration and another ( Teemo) with high magic penetration.
This complicates enemy itemization, as a squishy assassin, ADC, or mage with typical level-18 base stats and no additional armor or magic resistance will take close to, if not entirely unmitigated damage from these two champions.
For reference:

• Jayce eventually builds a total of 35% armor penetration and 50/62/65 lethality (depending on Voltaic Cyclosword energized and melee/ range stance) with the items:
  , which does unmitigated damage to targets at or below:
  (1/(1-0.35))*50=77 .
  (1/(1-0.35))*62=95 .
  (1/(1-0.35))*65=100 .
  
• Teemo eventually builds a total of equivalent 35,6% magic penetration, 35 flat magic penetration and 10 flat icon= mr size=20 reduction with the items: , which does unmitigated damage to targets at or below: 10+(1/(1-0.356))*35=64 .
  
• For reference most ADCs at level 18 have base and ranging from:
  95-110 (for example Kai'Sa at 96 and Kalista at 112).
  50-52 (for example Tristana at 50 and Ashe at 52).
  

Reduced effectiveness of on-hit, lifesteal and champion-specific healing mechanics

• On-hit effects from the likes of Silver Bolts, Blade of the Ruined King or Bio-Arcane Barrage are completely wasted when attacking traps/wards, lifesteal is also wasted, as it does not work when attacking traps/wards.
  Due to the heavy use of traps , the enemy will typically spend a much larger share of all their auto attacks on things that do not qualify for on-hit/ lifesteal effects. Should the enemy build on-hit/ lifesteal, the value of their itemization is considerably reduced, only really leaving the Attack Speed component typically present on those items, as being useful for faster clearing of traps, as well as still being relevant when attacking minions and jungle monsters.
• Additionally, abilities that heal champions that rely on interacting with hostile champions are impaired by traps. For example, Darius's Decimate and Zac's Cell Division simply won't work if they are preoccupied interacting with traps and not enemy champions, reducing available healing/sustain to them considerably. A number of champions ultimately rely on some kind of brawl/fight to act as a source of sustain.

Possibility of enemy itemizing %current/max health damage

Maokai's heavy HP itemization might bait the enemy into itemizing %max/current damage, only for them to find that no longer proactively engages past the mid game, instead transitioning to a poking/zoning/anti-engage playstyle, at most engaging as a last resort, or if the enemy is at a large disadvantage, leaving items like Liandry's Torment & Blade of the Ruined King rather wasteful.

Bans

The champion that to the most extreme extent bypasses this team's playstyle and ability to get away with having 4 squishy champions, staying safe using traps and Maokai's ability to screen for the team, is Karthus.
Karthus's Requiem completely bypasses traps/positioning and imposes a need for all but to build at least an /spell-shield item, reducing the damage and/or frequency of traps/poke by itemizing defensively.

Additionally, Malphite with his passive Granite Shield is well suited to withstand and recover his against non-committal poke. , if built full , will most certainly pose a threat to engage and kill one or more champions in a combo all on his own. If played more of a tank or AP bruiser style, he will instead be difficult to poke down and still often pose a threat of inflicting significant damage or outright killing someone all on his own.

Other structurally problematic champion archetypes & playstyles against this composition include: high innate scaling champions or split-pushing champions.
High is problematic to deal with, as has no ability to scale auto attack frequency off of the stat. Additionally is limited by his four-shot mechanic, making for a very poor user of: . could technically make use of , not being attack speed limited and even having an attack speed burst with . However to actually make good use of , prolonged engagements are required within auto attack range. This massively increases the risk to / , not fitting the playstyle of the trap & poke composition. & does at least build , which does provide some %max damage for the team.

Examples of high innate scaling include Sion & Cho'Gath, with their / uncapped and quite fast scaling.
Although there are also a number of champions that tend to get a lot of extra using Heartsteel, those champions would likely struggle to get a meaningful amount of stacks due to the non-committal/long-range poke & trap nature of this composition.

Split pushers like Yorick and Tryndamere (including Sion who also happens to stack) likewise bypass this team's playstyle, disregarding objectives and focusing on tower destruction. If they are able to successfully force multiple champions to deal with them, the trap & poke comp will be weakened a lot against the remainder of the enemy team.

Additionally, Zyra & Neeko have basic abilities: + + / , that can be used to clear traps. However, due to their low pick rates and players generally being unaware of this interaction, they might not be worth banning. Should their popularity change, they might be worth considering.

Alternatively, bans could also focus on particularly bad early-game matchups.
In any case, it is advisable to ban and likely also +

Example Bans:

• Karthus
• Malphite
• Sion
• Cho'Gath
• Dr. Mundo

Pick order of champions during draft

The pick order matters both for securing the required champions and for encouraging the enemy to misinterpret role allocations, possibly leading to suboptimal counterpicks and rune choices.

Since is very popular (often ~20% pick rate), it is usually preferable to pick him early, even though he will almost always be correctly assumed to be:.
Otherwise the following are often played in more than just one role:

• is most commonly playedfollowed by
• is most commonly playedfollowed by
• is most commonly playedfollowed by either or

This ambiguity can be leveraged to a modest extent, for instance by picking in the following order:

• Stage 1, player 1 picks:
  enemy team likely now correctly thinks:
• Stage 2, player 2 picks:
• Stage 2 continued, player 3 picks:
  enemy team might now have a number of possible interpretations like:
  ,or
  or
• Stage 3, player 4 picks:
  enemy team likely thinks: or
• Stage 4, player 5 picks:
  Once all champions are locked in, the enemy team will attempt to resolve roles; they will likely conclude something like:
  , , , &
  or perhaps:
  , , , &
  They, however, likely won't infer (especially with being abnormal in) the following allocation:
  , , , &

Final role allocations

Depending on probable matchups, the trap & poke team can decide to move some role allocations around.
For example, by sending:
->and ->
->, ->and ->

Champion skins

TODO
Champion skins can be used to achieve a number of goals, such as:

• Draw attention away from high-priority traps & projectiles:
  Teemo's Noxious Trap
  Shaco's Jack In The Box
  Maokai's Sapling Toss & Nature's Grasp's animation
  Jhin/ Jayce projectiles ( Deadly Flourish/ Curtain Call/ Shock Blast)
• Draw attention towards:
  Jhin's Captive Audience (low-priority trap, requires follow-up to do anything, good candidate to draw enemies towards clearing first).
• Reduce visual resemblance (especially to the standard champion skin).
  For most, if not all champions, the skin players are most accustomed to facing is the standard skin. As such, choosing another skin (especially a visually distinct one) is likely to be marginally less familiar for the opposing players.
• Achieve/retain a good 'feel' for playing the champion (some skins are considered more clunky/unresponsive to play with)

Ideally, all of these goals are achieved with the skin selected; however, this isn't always possible for a given champion's lineup of skins.


Community notes:


IMAGES Champion skins in-game:

IMAGES champion skins relevant abilities in-game:

Ward skins

Stealth Ward skins should be used to cause visual confusion and divert enemy attention away from traps: during windows, and instead towards . After all, traps can do damage and crowd control, wards cannot. Additionally, some skins can even have silhouettes resembling smaller champions such as and/or Maokai's , either baiting enemy skillshot usage against or making the enemy incorrectly back off from a in the belief that it is a champion, etc.

To best achieve this, select ward skins with a larger apparent size, more visual flair, stronger colors, or animated effects. This way, at a glance a will be more likely to get the attention of the enemy and slightly increase the probability of them attacking wards before traps.

Note that the silhouette of a swept matches the ward skin and not the baseline appearance. The silhouette of a swept ward is, however, outlined using a different color (blue/teal) compared to champions (red).

Example good ward skins to cause confusion:

According to community discussion concerning pay-to-win wards, champion resemblance, and favorite ward skins: pay-to-win, resemble champions, favorite wards.
The following wards are amongst the most useful.

• SKT T1 kkOma
• Demacia Vice
• Forge God

Additionally, it is worth noting that a team that uses multiple different skins can give away who placed a given , as explained here: a problem with ward skins

One way to avoid this issue is to use the same ward skin across the entire team.
Alternatively, mitigate this issue by using only, say, two different ward skins. This way there will still be ambiguity as to who actually placed a given .

Ultimately, tracking champions based on unique ward skins is fairly uncommon and may not justify sacrificing ward variety.
Having more unique might still be preferable if the extra silhouette variety the enemy has to keep track of (which silhouettes correspond to wards, traps, or champions) is more significant than the information it gives away with respect to who placed a given ward.

Example 1: , , , ,

Example 2 (using two unique ward skins): , , , ,

Example 3 (chaotic approach, many unique ward skins): , , , ,

Note: these are just examples of ward skin allocations; exact ward skin allocations to champions can be altered. Other ward skins can also be used if some ward skins aren't owned (other good candidates exist for causing confusion).

Placeholder images:
https://imgur.com/a/lol-trap-poke-comp-images-AKx8ZmJ

https://wiki.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/Category:Ward_skins