Strategist is a LoL content creator who has been playing League since Season 2. He loves to theorycraft, help new players improve, and plays a wide variety of champs, roles, and playstyles. In this Mobalytics Partners Program spotlight, he’ll be recommending 9 awesome duo comps for you and your duo partner to use in your matches!
9 Champion Duos for Climbing Ranked
When you think of duo queue strats, you either think, “Oh great it’s a Yi/Taric funnel comp,” or “Oh great someone has to get their Diamond smurf friend to carry them out of Silver”.
Even with these factors, there are ways to duo without spending money on account boosters. So we made not one but nine duo comps to 2v5 the game and finally spam “Duo Diff” when you collect that LP.
Each of the duo synergies we list will have builds, items, runes, and playstyles listed so all you have to do is load it up and stomp some kids (not physically that would be illegal).
Our list will be covering a wide range of roles and difficulties as well to give you and your duo partner more options.
Here are the 9 duos we’ll be covering:
- Darkin Bros (Aatrox + Kayn)
- The Emperor and his Pet (Azir + Gnar)
- Wombo.png (Malphite + Orianna)
- Void of Demacia (Jarvan IV + Vel’Koz)
- Gate Busters (Diana + Nasus)
- Instant Transmission (Shen + Twisted Fate)
- Wait, Two Supports? (Ivern + Pyke)
- Assassin Bullies (Galio + Pantheon)
- Saviors of Ionia (Yasuo + Yone)
1. Darkin Bros (Aatrox + Kayn)
Playstyle
- Difficulty: Medium
- Top/Mid/Jungle duo
- Juggernaut/Fighter playstyle
- Team fight destruction
- Adaptive duo comp
Aatrox destroys laners while being a massive threat in team fights. He can play both mid and top as long as Kled or Sylas are banned and becomes a Dark Souls player’s worst nightmare: A Raid Boss with built-in lifesteal.
How to Build Aatrox
Aatrox’s Skill Order
Kayn on the other hand has two kinds of Raid Boss forms that counter both of Aatrox’s weaknesses. Blue Kayn to flank and roam as fast as other high mobility Mid laners while Red Kayn shreds tanks and offer more CC.
How to Build Kayn
Red Form
Blue Form
Kayn’s Skill Order
Together, these two destroy teams, especially in low elo because Grievous Wound items are just a tale of legend to that player base.
2. The Emperor and his Pet (Azir + Gnar)
Playstyle
- Difficulty: Hard
- Top/Mid Duo
- Late game scaling with hard CC
- Split push monsters (Gnar in a literal sense)
- Build diversity
- Mixed Damage
Both champs can either be useful in teamfights or split push with their built-in attack speed and escapes.
Gnar offers 1v1 dueling potential and doesn’t suffer the usual weakness of being immobile like other tanks.
How to Build Gnar
Gnar Skill Order
He is also very flexible with items going from juggernaut setup to even building support items to help Azir.
Gnar also deals with most melee top laners in the meta like Sett, GP, Darius and Garen.
Azir, on the other hand, is one of the hardest scaling champs in the game and can destroy a team himself when wielded by a good player.
How to Build Azir
Azir’s Skill Order
By outranging most champions while staying safe and with Gnar as his guard dog, Azir can go to town.
Azir provides an extra wall with his ultimate to give Gnar more areas to chain CC entire teams.
3. Wombo.png (Malphite + Orianna)
Playstyle
- Difficulty: Easy
- Top/Mid Duo
- Layers of safety and CC
- Win games even when behind
- Low elo friendly
- Minimum skill floor
This duo is for when you need one enemy chain CCed and not playing the game. Just by both champs pressing R, the duo either provides enough damage to 1-shot the enemy team or enough CC for your team to 1-shot them.
Malphite is great for being the only champion with an AoE attack speed slow for the pesky fighters and ADCs that want to out-DPS Orianna.
How to Build Malphite
Malphite’s Skill Order
Orianna has similar traits such as being useful when behind because she deals a lot of damage even when building utility.
How to Build Orianna
Orianna’s Skill Order
Both champs can trade blows with their opponent, go aggressive even with the slightest of leads, and dominate games with it.
So if you want an easy duo synergy while being 70cs at 15 minutes, give this a shot.
4. Void of Demacia (Jarvan IV + Vel’Koz)
Playstyle
- Difficulty: Medium
- Mid/Jungle, Bot/Support Duo
- Mixed damage
- Adaptive build paths
- Excellent Team fighters
- Engage + high DPS
This is if Azzapp and Nidhogg became duo partners and just like these two streamers, Jarvan and Vel’koz can destroy a team alone.
Jarvan can get Aftershock + Cinderhulk, Electrocute + Lethality or go Conqueror + Juggernaut and will still be effective because he is that flexible.
How to Build Jarvan IV (Conqueror)
Jarvan IV’s Skill Order
He can do this while getting very little resources so even when behind, he isn’t a free-roaming melee minion.
Additionally, he has great engagements, can lvl 2 gank, and will still be a useful late game engage compared to Olaf and Rek’sai.
Vel’koz is the only artillery mage that does full true damage as well as offer set up for picks.
How to Build Vel’Koz
Vel’koz’s Skill Order
Having the slightest set up will eliminate any champion that can’t dash or Flash away.
Since you do true damage they can’t resist you and you’ll sometimes kill without even needing your ultimate
With these two together there is no escape and no resistance to the disintegration of an entire team.
5. Gate Busters (Diana + Nasus)
Playstyle
- Difficulty: Easy
- Top/Mid Duo
- Split push
- Team fight
- Trick2g’s wet dream
- Low elo friendly
- Mixed damage
D’cane and his heretic prodigy Diana are not only the fastest but the most reliable split pushers in the game, each offering their own set of tools for the team.
One can split push if they are ahead while the other breaks whatever lane they are in.
Nasus is a fantastic late-game scaler with Siphoning Strike stacks and building tank items.
Even in team fights, having Spirit Fire armor shred and Wither’s attack speed slow is every ADC’s worst nightmare.
How to Build Nasus
Nasus’s Skill Order
So when Nasus has to join the team he helps by crippling the main carries and the tanks that defend them.
In lane, max W second if you are against attack speed fighters like Jax, Tryndamere, or Irelia and max E second if you’re against tanks like Ornn and Maokai.
Diana herself is the queen of low elo solo queue because no one respects the power of switching two abilities.
Not only does she offer much needed AP damage but her dueling and team fighting are great for an assassin.
How to Build Diana
Diana’s Skill Order
Just blowing her whole kit on a team is enough to end the fight and have people spam “Nerf Diana” in chat.
So those wanting to become the comp Trick2g and Cookie always wanted here you go
6. Instant Transmission (Shen + Twisted Fate)
Playstyle
- Difficulty: Map-I mean…Medium
- Top/Mid, Jungle/Mid, ADC/Support Duo
- Instant roams
- Split push
- Safe and solo carry picks
- High map presence
- Please ban Nocturne
We all know the importance of keeping a numbers advantage so why not get there instantly? Let’s face it, both lanes are just two free kills for everyone to grab.
You might as well pick two champs that both protect your bot lane and kill theirs. Shen and Twisted Fate are your safest options.
Shen top is great against tanks for his max health based dueling while having an ultimate to help the team.
How to Build Shen
Shen’s skill order
Shen with only Bami’s Cinder and Tiamat makes him wave clear reliably and duel whoever tries to fight him.
As a side note, taunting someone who’s greedy to hit you under tower is the funniest thing ever.
Twisted Fate can’t kill tanks but he sure can destroy everyone else. He has a great split push with built-in attack speed and rotating through cards with W can activate Sheen’s passive twice.
How to Build Twisted Fate (Spellbook)
Twisted Fate’s Skill Order
His builds can be Spellbook AP, on hit with Trinity Force, or hybrid while still obliterating the enemy regardless of your option.
So if you want to do a little bit of everything even when you’re behind, I suggest this for any high elo duo comp.
7. Wait, Two Supports? (Ivern + Pyke)
Playstyle
- Difficulty: Carry difference
- Jungle/Support, Mid/Jungle duo
- Multi-lane influence
- Roam-heavy
- Carry assistance (not funnel)
Now, we could just put any Support/Jungle champ together but most combos tend to do similar things.
Because of this, we made sure both champions “support” in completely opposite ways.
This duo is for you if you want to give tools to help people carry while not being completely useless solo. These two can do just that while not overlapping in goals.
Ivern is as unique as you can get since he can go full Support items and still be an efficient Jungler.
How to Build Ivern
Ivern’s Skill Order
The jungle has very little resources to help you scale like Yi but it does give enough to be a secondary support with a lot more gold.
Especially if you have a Pyke Support, you will be a shielding/healing enchanter that can defend for himself unlike a Nami or a Lulu.
Pyke is competing with Senna for a Support that can solo carry games. I picked Pyke because again we already have someone that shields so we don’t want to double whammy on one thing.
How to Build Pyke
Pyke’s Skill Order
Pyke can give gold directly to whoever needs it while still winning 1v1’s. That’s why he is brought mid lane because who cares about CS when you can get 1200 by executing bot lane with ultimate?
With Pyke funneling gold to carries and Ivern protecting them, there is nothing stopping whoever is ahead on your team.
8. Assassin Bullies (Galio + Pantheon)
Playstyle
- Difficulty: Abusively easy
- Mid/Jungle, Mid/Support, Jungle/Support
- Press R to Roam
- Low elo friendly
- Team fight turner
- Mixed damage
- Early/Mid game abusers
If you’re dealing with assassins roaming bot and top instead of staying mid, this is the duo comp for you. This is a more tanky and straight forward version of the Shen + Twisted Fate duo.
The rise of assassins made it impossible not to add a duo that utterly destroys them in every way. With Zed being one of the assassins back in the meta, why not have 2 champions that mess up Zed be in the same game? These two can do that while being useful for other things
Pantheon offers great dueling potential as early as lvl 2 regardless if he’s Mid, Jungle, or Support.
With his passive enhancing abilities, he can burst someone with Spear, stun with Shield Vault, and best of all, use enhanced Aegis Assault to tank entire combos just by standing in front of them.
How to Build Pantheon
Pantheon’s Skill Order
Pantheon is the chad that beats up anyone thinking they can build to 1 shot because they instalock an assassin for the ADC.
Galio does the same thing against AP champions like Diana and Fizz who are the main mid laners in low elo.
Just like Pantheon, he can tank hits and obliterate whoever tried to kill him but with magic damage.
He has a very up close and personal style but has more reliability with farming thanks to his Q offering range and poke.
How to Build Galio
Galio’s Skill Order
If all else fails, build him like the AP juggernaut that Riot never wants to give us with Liandry’s and Protobelt.
So if you want to destroy assassins in every aspect from their farming, their roaming, and their dueling. Pick up these two and make any assassin main regret selecting their champion.
9. Saviors of Ionia (Yasuo + Yone)
Playstyle
- Difficulty: Extreme
- Top/Mid, Top/Jungle
- Chain CC
- Split push
- Team fighting
- 1v1 outplay
- Mostly AD
This is an upcoming duo comp that will absolutely destroy teams while being as stylish and as toxic as possible. Just like Sett, the release Yone is definitely going to be in every lane and probably a Support because of his built-in poke, CC and Spirit Form doing free damage over the minion waves.
How to Build Yone
Yone’s Skill Order
Yasuo is no stranger being matched up with duo comps since anyone with a knockup can match with him. With high damage, easy trades, and the builds to boot.
You will climb the ladder regardless of enemy composition. Just don’t pick him into Poppy or Cassiopeia because grounding effects neutered Yasuo harder than Riot to their ADCs.
Yone and his kit provide a lot of utility for a team especially having not one but two AoE knockups for Yasuo ultimate.
How to Build Yasuo
Yasuo’s Skill Order
His W gives max health damage and a shield for each champion hit and his E offering poke while social distancing. Yone has the kit to do the mixed damage Yasuo can’t do while tanking more damage than Yasuo tank back in season 6.
If you and your boy/girl want to show those Xayah/Rakan or those Lucian/Senna what a real duo can do, give the Ionian brothers a shot!
Conclusion
If you have any questions about comps, other duo strats, or guides to playing, I stream almost everyday on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/strateg1st_. There, I do all my testing, theorycrafting with chat while having fun along the way. So if you want to know who this crazy person is, be sure to tune in!
I also upload videos on YouTube for the topics I post so if you want a video version of this and other topics that will be right here
Anyway, thank you for reading. I’m Strategist, thanks for letting me share my knowledge and let me know how it goes.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow Strategist on Youtube, Instagram, and Twitch where he streams everyday from 4PM – 8PM EST.
