When playing League of Legends, you must have an understanding of crowd control. Even if the champion you choose doesn’t have a crowd control ability, you still have to watch your back for those champions that do.
Today, we will take a look at some of the crowd control abilities and then talk about the best crowd control champions…
What is Crowd Control?
Crowd Control, or CC for short, describes spells or abilities that reduce a unit’s ability to do anything for a short period. A champion who has crowd control can cause another champion to be temporarily helpless on the battlefield – also, it can be used to help you with your survivability. Just as you can prevent the enemy champion from escaping, you can also prevent them from following you.
Forms of Crowd Control
In League of Legends, you have various forms of control, and each one is unique in its own way. Some crowd controls can be near-exclusive or exclusive to certain items or champions. Depending on the champion you’re using, they can use the same crowd control in a variety of different ways. Take Yasuo’s Last Breath – this one requires a catalyst crowd control.
This list consists of some of the forms of CC that you can use in LoL:
- Blind – When a unit has been blinded, this will cause them to miss their basic attacks for a short duration of time.
- Stasis – When a unit is in stasis, then means they will not be able to perform any action while being invulnerable and untargetable for a short duration of time.
- Flee – When a unit is fleeing, they will be moving away from the source with reduced movement speed.
- Drowsy – When a champion is drowsy, they will be slowed over the duration, and fall asleep afterward.
- Sleep – When a champion is asleep, they will not be able to attack, move, or cast abilities.
- Forced Action – When a unit is under the influence of forced action, this means they cannot control their own attacks or movement, and they aren’t able to use item actives or cast abilities.
- Airborne – A champion that is airborne is unable to cast abilities, move, attack, or use item actives for a short duration.
- Knock Back – A knockback will cause the enemy to be made airborne in a direction away from the point of cast. The duration depends on how far the champion is knocked back – it can be anywhere from 0.75 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
- Knock Aside – When a champion used knock aside, the enemy will be airborne in a perpendicular direction to the cast’s direction.
- Pull – If you use this CC on an enemy champion, it will pull them in the cast’s direction.
- Cripple – When a champion has been crippled, their attack speed will be reduced for the duration.
- Disarm – When a unit has been disarmed, they will not be able to declare basic attacks for a short time.
- Disrupt – When a champion is disrupted, this means that their charged or channeled ability will be interrupted.
- Charm – When a unit has been charmed, they will move towards the source, and their movement speed will be reduced.
- Knockdown – If a champion uses knockdown on you, your displacement or dash will be interrupted.
- Ground – If you ground your enemy, they won’t be able to use their mobility spells for a short duration.
- Silence – When you silence an enemy, you will be preventing them from using their casting abilities or item actives.
- Nearsight – A champion that is nearsighted will have their sight radius reduced.
- Root – Rooting an enemy will take away their ability to control their movement.
- Polymorph – If you polymorph an enemy champion, you will be turning them into a cute little critter.
- Stun – A champion that has been stunned will be unable to attack, move, use item actives or cast abilities for a short duration.
- Slow – A champion that has been slowed will have reduced movement speed for a short duration.
- Suppression – If you use suppression on a champion, they won’t be able to attack, move, use cast abilities, or use summoner spells or item actives for the duration.
The Best Crowd Control Champions in League of Legends
If you like the idea of using CC on another champion in League of Legends, then go ahead and take a look at these champions with are well known for their crowd control abilities.
Nautilus – This champion right here can root enemies for up to 1.5 seconds with his basic attacks, a targeted AOE knock-up, and a hook, a 1-second AOE slow.
Thresh – Thresh has an AOE knock-up with a 1-second slow, a hook with a 1.5-second stun, and an AOE slow that lasts for 2-seconds.
Morgana – This champion has a 1.5-second AOE stun and a 2-second skill shot stun.
These are three champions that we feel have the best crowd control abilities. Curious as to why we picked these three champions out of all the other champions that have CC abilities? Continue reading …
What Makes a Good CC Champion?
Yes, many LoL champions have CC abilities. However, Morgana, Thresh, and Nautilus have abilities that excel at the following:
- Reliability – These three have cc abilities that can either be often cast enough always to be a threat or are easy to land.
- Duration – Through fast cooldowns or sheer duration, these three champions can hold down enemy champions for a long time.
- Impact – Thresh, Morgana, and Nautilus are major threats when they use their CC abilities.
Mind you, there are some LoL champions capable of outperforming these champions in one of these criteria, but they can never take on all three simultaneously. If you’re thinking about cc effectiveness, you’re making a good move if you choose one of these three.
Let’s take a closer look at the three champions …
Morgana
Morgana is a veteran champion, one of the oldest in League of Legends. Even back in the day, she was well known for her CC abilities. Morgana’s kit is simple, and this is what makes her CC so effective. Q (Dark Binding) is a long-range skill shot that will stun an enemy champion for 3 seconds. Dark Binding Binding has a low casting cost, and the cooldown is fast. R (Soul Shackles) is her other crowd control ability, and this gives her the option to disrupt the enemy team or initiate team fights.
Morgana is at the top of my LoL champions list with crowd control abilities because she has a very long stun with a short cooldown.
Thresh
Every LoL player should be familiar with Thresh. Q (Death Sentence) is both a hook and a stun, and it gives him the ability to dash towards the enemy. E (Flay) is an AOE knock-up that he can use to prevent enemy dashes or channeled abilities. R (The Box) either slows the enemy for 2 seconds or forced the enemy to stay.
Thresh can slow, hook, and knock enemies back, so he is a great CC champion. However, thanks to his W (Dark Passage), he can offer a lot of utility. This means he can hold down enemies and close the gap. Plus, his engaging tools make him great for defensive purposes, such as running away or peeling for his marksman.
Nautilus
If you compare Nautilus to Thresh, his cc abilities don’t last as long but don’t let that fool you because Nautilus is still an excellent cc champion. His passive (Staggering Blow) and E (Riptide) can be used often enough to the point that if any enemy champion gets close, they will be rooted or slowed. Even if an enemy champion gets out of range, Nautilus can use his Q (Dredge Line) and lock them down again.
If you play as Nautilus, you can keep enemies rooted or slowed until the fight is over.
Despite his low range, Nautilus is still a reliable CC champion – are you wondering how this is possible? His durability makes it possible. His armor and HP scales well into the late game. Plus, his W (Titan’s Wrath is a good shield that allows him to walk into the enemy lines, and this is where his cc abilities work the best.
Morgana combines her cc with raw damage. Her cc abilities synergies good with her AOE Attack called Tormented Shadow. Due to her W (Black Shield), she has some additional defensive utility, making her a champion that is immune to cc from enemies. Nautilus is durable, which allows him to be where his CC is needed, and Thresh compliments his cc with sheer utility.
Final Words
Now that you know about crowd control and have three good CC champions, we encourage you to give one a try. These champions will stop the enemy in their tracks!
