League of Legends

Out of all the lanes in League of Legends, the bottom lane is usually the only one with two champions. In this feature, we will examine the types of duo-lanes you can set up for maximum effectiveness. Since bottom lane is usually the most gankable by junglers and the closest to the Dragon, setting up a synergistic bottom lane is important.

To start with, let's reiterate why the duo-lane is on bottom. Having two people on bottom allows for increased dragon control, assuming there is a jungler. If there is no jungler, then both top and bottom are generally duo-lanes. There are a few cases where it is preferred to have a duo-top (if the enemy jungler is weak, top lane needs to be denied hard, and you have a champion that can hold bottom lane 1v2). In other cases, such as with a roamer or dedicated counter-jungler, there may not be a duo lane. In most cases, though, the bottom lane is a duo-lane.

The following lane combinations work because in each case, both champions have the same goal. In a lane pairing that is not synergistic, the goals are different, which leads to different playstyles, which leads to divided playstyles.

Carry and Support

First popularized by the European players at WCG, this is currently the most common setup for bottom lanes at high levels of play. The support's job is to ward, harass when the opportunity presents itself, and protect the carry (almost always a ranged carry). The carry, in the mean time, will be farming as much as humanly possible (via last-hitting) and harassing opponents when the opportunity presents itself.

In this type of lane, the support/carry wins by getting the carry their big items as fast as possible. A 15-minute Bloodthirster or Infinity Edge on a ranged carry can make a big difference in a teamfight as long as the support can keep them alive. Ward control over river and bushes is very important since both the carry and support are susceptible to early game ganks.

The support should generally not last-hit or even attack minions. If the support is last-hitting the minions, that is less farm going to the carry, and a farmed carry is generally more dangerous than a farmed support. If the support is attacking the minions without last-hitting them, that pushes the lane, leaving the support and carry dangerously exposed to jungler ganks. Assuming certain levels of competence from both players, the support should manage the map via wards and Clairvoyance and the harassment of enemy champions and the carry should manage the creep waves. How aggressive the support and carry play against their enemy depends on the composition and skill of the players involved.

For example, a Caitlyn/Taric lane can play very aggressive, using the combination of Yordle Snap Traps and Dazzle to lock down their laning opponents while Caitlyn takes advantage of her high early-game damage and range to zone and harass her opponents. Taric's Imbue can help shrug off harass while Shatter and Radiance provide some added boosts to Caitlyn's damage. In contrast, an Ashe/Janna lane will play much more passively since Ashe has low damage early game and needs items early game, while Janna has no sustain aside from her ultimate, Monsoon. However, thanks to the spammable CC and range of both champions, Ashe and Janna can successfully kite most opponents who lack gap-closers, ranged CC, or superior poke.

Double Burst

This lane is designed to destroy squishy opponents by jumping on them and bursting their faces off. To make this lane work, both champions will need to have CC and high burst damage, preferably in the form of high base damage. This lane is centered around zoning enemy champions out and destroying them if they get in close. Depending on the support and carry, this lane can be very dangerous to support/carry lanes. Since most of these earlygame burstmode champions are melee, warding bushes and constant ranged harass can prevent the worst of their damage, but they will still most likely zone out a support/carry lane. Picking champions that have innate sustain (or including Taric/Alistar) will also make this a very formidable lane combination. Targeted stuns (preferably not skillshots) will work very well here.

In this lane, both champions farm, though they should alternate using the brush to zone out their opponents. This lane should play very aggressively and seek to dominate their opponent. The goal of the double-burst lane is to dominate their lane opponents and gain a gold and/or experience advantage, not to get a lategame carry farmed up.

Combining Garen and Maokai provides a potent lane that brings all of the qualities needed for a successful double-burst lane. Both champions have innate sustain. Maokai can get brush vision and poke with Sapling Toss, while the combination of Arcane Smash, Twisted Advance, Judgment, and Decisive Strike can burst off well over half a carry's life in the early game. Given that any bush in this lane is likely to either contain Maokai and his saplings or Garen, whose bush-stalking habits are the stuff of memes, the only option for squishy opponents would be to either sink money into wards and hope to outpoke Garen and Maokai, or else sit back at their turret and wait for the creep wave to be pushed into them, which could be a very long time.


Grabbing one champion from each list will bring a lot of CC and burst damage to the lane. Sion, Garen, Renekton, and Lee Sin have enough innate sustain to shrug off ranged harassment.

Double Poke

Another way to beat up a carry/support lane is to simply wear them down with brutal, relentless harassment, preferably from long range. Anything with less than 600 range is not going to be as effective as a poke since most ranged carries have about that range. A double-poke, particularly with a healthy dose of wards and map awareness, will beat a double-burst lane if the bursters can't get close enough to engage without losing half their lifebars from poke. Again, champions with sustain are going to excel at this role and effectiveness against a carry/support is dependent on the composition. The two biggest concerns for a double-poke lane are not pushing the lane too hard and mana management. While a poke lane can probably still inflict damage on enemy champions huddling under their tower, they are quite vulnerable to a jungle gank. The other risk for a double poke lane is that if they fail, they will probably cripple the team since they won't have a gold and experience advantage over their opponents and most of them are casters, who generally need good early games to excel later.

For example, a lane with Lux and Nidalee in it will bring tremendous long-range poke provided both players can land their skillshots. Ideally, they should both try and poke the same champion. Nidalee can also heal back some level of harassment and use her Bushwhack traps to create a zone of control, while Lux can use Light Binding to set up for wicked Javelin Tosses combined with Lucent Singularity. For best results, have at least one champion launch their skillshots from the cover of the brush for surprise effect. Due to the high mana costs involved in prolonged, repeating provoking, having one champion get a Mana Manipulator (likely Lux in this case) will help significantly.

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