With the addition of Qiyana, LoL now has 145+ champions that you can choose from. With so many options available, you’re probably wondering which ones are the most effective at carrying games. Today, we’re taking a look at League of Legends best carry champions.
Once you’ve found your go-to carry champion, don’t miss out and check out this guide on how to become a better player in League of Legends
League of Legends Best Carry Champions – The Rundown
For those looking for quick answers, we have a rundown of which champions work great for carrying entire games, plus a bit of what makes them great carry picks.
- Akali – Allows high priority picks while having great sustainability
- Draven – High raw damage for a marksman
- Fiora – True damage melts down any targets, plus good dueling potential
- Fizz – Very hard to kill while being able to burst down targets
- Irelia – High mobility champ that excels at both duels and team fights
- Jax – Strong late game DPS and damage mitigation
- Kai’Sa – Gives you the option to make high priority picks or deal straight up damage to tanks or squishies alike in team fights
- Kassadin – High burst damage and damage mitigation and ability to both initiate and disengage in skirmishes
- Kha’Zix – Allows high priority picks and excellent lane and jungle pressure
- Master Yi – Simple kit that can take down entire teams without a reliable CC
- Nasus – Great late game tank that can take down most targets in one or two hits with stacked Siphoning Strike
- Rengar – Great burst damage for initiating teams while also having decent sustain.
- Riven – Highly mobile champ with good damage capable of fighting even with the numbers disadvantage
- Vayne – Insane damage courtesy of her Silver Bolts, capable of winning 1v5 fights with the right items in the late game.
- Yasuo – Highly mobile, highly versatile champion that offers both utility and raw damage if mastered.
Take note that while future patches may change how well these champs can carry games, these ones have consistently performed well as carry champions. What sets them apart from other champions? Keep on reading to find out!
What is a Carry Champion?
In League of Legends (and other MOBAs), a “carry” Champion is a champion that has the biggest effect on how a team can win a game. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t always have to be the marksman or the mid laner. A carry champion revolves strongly around making significant plays that either gives your team an advantage or takes it away from the enemy.
While it’s possible to carry games with any champion, those considered carry champions have a few things going for them that others don’t:
- Huge power spikes at certain points of the game
- Stats or abilities that scale well later in the game
- Significant impact in team fights or skirmishes
- The need for the enemy team to create tactics specifically to counter a single champ
With those criteria in mind, here’s our list.
Best Carry Champions in League of Legends
Best LoL Carry Champions 2020 – Akali
Akali is one of the few Assassins in the game that gets burst damage while also being able to last long in the thick of things. Whatever damage she can’t avoid with her mobility and invisibility, she can mitigate with her passive’s heal. To top things off, she also happens to have an excellent split-pushing ability so even if she can’t provide kill pressure she can still split push and keep the enemy team from properly grouping up. With that said, it’s obvious that Akali is one of the best carry champions in League of Legends.
Recommended Role – Top Laner or Mid Laner
Recommended Core Items – Sorcerer’s Shoes, Hextech Gunblade, Morellonomicon
Best LoL Carry Champions 2020 – Draven
A “high skill floor” carry, Draven has the potential to kill even faster than a fed Vayne. Carrying with a Draven requires being able to “juggle” his spinning axes; the rest of his kit is meant to make that easier. Unlike many other carry champs, a good Draven player can be a threat even in the early phases of the game. His ult can be used to pick off stragglers but is also a great way to just lay on more damage on top of his already ridiculous DPS coming from his spinning axes.
Recommended Role – Marksman
Recommended Core Items – Berserker’s Greaves, Infinity Edge, The Bloodthirster, Rapid Firecannon
Best LoL Carry Champions 2020 – Fiora
Fiora is widely considered as one of the best duelists in the game. Because of this, it’s almost like she’s perfectly designed to be a top laner. Aside from having enough mobility to get to the enemy’s backline, she also has an excellent defensive tool in the form of her Riposte. Fiora’s kit is simple enough that even an average player can get used to her. At higher levels where players are good enough to maximize her abilities to the fullest, (especially her passive and her ultimate) she’s a straight-up monster. Late game, her ability to deal true damage on targets courtesy of her passive means she remains a threat even to tankier targets.
Recommended Role – Top Laner
Recommended Core Items – Ninja Tabi, Ravenous Hydra, Trinity Force
Best LoL Carry Champions 2020 – Fizz
Taking down a Fizz in the middle of a team fight is one of the most difficult things in the game. Between his high mobility, damage mitigating passive, and ability to become untargetable every few seconds, Fizz can stall entire teams while also bursting down fragile high-priority targets. Teams trying to protect their squishies could try to group up, but that’s just asking to be hit by his high damage AOE knock-up ultimate.
Recommended Role – Top Laner, Mid Laner, or Jungler
Recommended Items – Sorcerer’s Shoes/Mercurial Treads, Hextech Protobelt-01, Zhonya’s Hourglass, Lich Bane
Best LoL Carry Champions 2020 – Irelia
Most mobile carry champions are designed to get in, deal damage, and then get out. Irelia does the opposite of that, with her kit focusing on staying in the thick of things while dealing steady AOE damage to the enemy team. What she lacks in durability, she more than makes up for with her ability to minimize damage with her resetting dashes and heals. She also excels at forcing team fights using her ultimate ability.
Recommended Role – Top Laner
Recommended Core Items – Ninja Tabi, Trinity Force, Titanic Hydra, Sterak’s Gage
Best LoL Carry Champions – Jax
Even in the early days of LoL, Jax was known to be one of the strongest late-game bruisers in the game. Some will argue that he has an even weaker early game than either Nasus or Fiora, but once Jax gets his power spike courtesy of Trinity Force, he becomes a force to be reckoned with. A late-game Jax with core items and full stacks of Relentless Assault and his ultimate’s passive bonuses will melt anything in seconds. To make things worse for the enemy team, shutting him down is difficult because of his Leap Strike and Counter Strike.
Recommended Role – Top Laner or Jungler
Recommended Core Items – Ninja Tabi, Trinity Force, Spear of Shojin
Best LoL Carry Champions – Kai’Sa
Kai’Sa is one of the best backline killers in the game right now, making her a cross between a marksman and an assassin. Her Q offers some level of versatility, allowing you to pick between spreading damage across multiple targets or focusing on an isolated victim. Her ultimate allows her to get past the frontline, while her W offers significant mobility for positioning, followed by a DPS increase. Kai’Sa’s ability to make priority picks or deal damage even to tanky targets makes her one of the biggest threats in team fights or in smaller skirmishes.
Recommended Role – Marksman or Mid Laner
Recommended Core Items – Berserker’s Greaves, Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Muramana, Nashor’s Tooth
Best LoL Carry Champions – Kassadin
In the earliest days of League, Kassadin was widely considered as one of the most overpowered heroes in the game. While he’s no longer the broken mess that he was before. However, he still remains one of the strongest AP carry heroes in the game. Once he starts scaling, he becomes a highly mobile champ with plenty of magic resistance, an interrupt that doubles as a single-target nuke AND shield himself, and a reliable AOE damage that can either clear waves or takes a chunk out of multiple enemies.
Recommended Role – Mid Laner
Recommended Core Items – Sorcerer’s Shoes, Rod of Ages, Seraph’s Embrace, Lich Bane
Best LoL Carry Champions 2020 – Kha’Zix
Kha’Zix is another high-damage carry champ that favors catching isolated targets rather than straight-up brawls. What makes him such a strong pick is his ability to kill targets well before they even have time to react. His main threat comes from the ability to shut down squishier targets hiding behind the frontline while also punishing the enemy team for spreading out or trying to escape. He also has a ton of flexibility depending on what you evolve, allowing you to pump more DPS (Q or ultimate), add a slow to his kit (W), or gain extra mobility (E).
Recommended Role – Jungler
Recommended Core Items – Boots of Mobility, Duskblade of Draktharr, Challenging Smite (Enchantment: Warrior)
Best LoL Carry Champions – Master Yi
Master Yi is an easy champ to master but he also happens to be great at carrying games. His true value as comes from hitting power spikes once he gets his ultimate and core items. A good Master Yi player can win games by straight-up wiping the enemy team with his resetting alpha strike and fast, damaging basic attacks. He can also provide insane lane and backdoor pressure while somehow still being able to show up in team fights.
Recommended Role – Top Laner or Jungler
Recommended Core Items – Berserker’s Greaves, Phantom Dancer, Black Cleaver, Challenging Smite (Enchantment: Bloodrazor)
Best LoL Carry Champions – Nasus
Nasus is one of the best examples of a typical late-game carry champ. He truly deserves a spot in this list of the best carry champions in League of Legends. At the start of the game, he can’t do much outside of threatening enemies with his Spirit Fire. However, give him enough time to build up stacks of his Siphoning Strike and he can take out most targets in just one or two hits. Nasus doesn’t have a dash or a blink, which limits his mobility. Fortunately, he can equalize the playing field with his Wither and get extra durability with his ultimate and passive lifesteal.
Recommended Role – Top Laner
Recommended Core Items – Ninja Tabi, Trinity Force, Sterak’s Gage, Spirit Visage
Best LoL Carry Champions – Rengar
Kha’Zix’s biggest rival, Rengar is also a jungler carry champion that favors dealing a high amount of burst damage. However, he’s considered better at making “all-in” engagements because of his Ferocity stacks. A good Rengar carry will make sure that your team has the numbers advantage early on in a full-on brawl.
In our opinion, the best Jungle carry champions in League of Legends.
Recommended Role – Top Laner or Jungler
Recommended Core Items – Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Duskblade of Draktharr, Titanic Hydra, Challenging Smite (Enchantment: Warrior)
Best LoL Carry Champions – Riven
Riven is one of the most popular characters for two reasons. First, her kit is very fun to use. Second, she scales really well into the late-game. Even novice Riven players may require some effort to shut down. This is because her kit allows so much mobility while still dealing insane amounts of damage. On the hands of a skilled player, Riven is a semi-tanky brawler that can easily win 1v2 engages.
Recommended Role – Top Laner
Recommended Core Items – Ninja Tabi, Black Cleaver, Death’s Dance
Best LoL Carry Champions – Vayne
If played right, Vayne is one of the few champs that can reliably take down entire teams on her own. Vayne is one of the weaker marksmen during the early phases of the game. However, she starts becoming a major threat to as soon as she gets her hands on her core items. Once she has access to her ultimate, she becomes a highly mobile marksman that can melt even the toughest targets using true damage courtesy of her Silver Bolts passive.
Recommended Role – Marksman
Recommended Core Items – Berserker’s Greaves, Blade of the Ruined King, Phantom Dancer, Guinsoo’s Rageblade
Best LoL Carry Champions – Yasuo
Yasuo is one of those “hard to master” champs in the game. Because of this, unskilled players won’t get much out of him. However, once you understand how to master his kit, he can be one of the most versatile carry champions. He can choose to deal pinpoint damage, stall the enemy team with his Wind Wall and Sweeping Blade, and even set up multi-man engages with his tornado followed up with his ultimate.
Recommended Role – Top Laner or Mid Laner
Recommended Core Items – Berseker’s Greaves, Statikk Shiv, Infinity Edge
Also, check out this video made by ProGuides as they go more in-depth and showcase some other heroes than we did.
That sums up our list of League of Legends best carry champs. We hope this has helped you decide on which champ to learn (and watch out for) in your future games. For more content related to League of Legends, check out what we have by clicking this link!
