Phase Rush has seen a decrease in popularity in recent months. While originally the rune was taken on ranged champions to make them practically immune to engages in the lane, it was quickly nerfed to make it more appealing on melee champions. The rune still remains a great option for champions that need an escape or sticking power.
The Top 7 Best Champions For Phase Rush Rune are Cassiopeia, Gragas, Jayce, Poppy, Ryze, Skarner, and Vladimir. These champions either require safer laning phases because of their weak early game and strong scaling or simply because the bonus movement speed provides them great utility.
The best champions for Phase Rush are the ones that can proc it very easily. Most of the champions listed here have short cooldowns or prefer building Ability Haste. Furthermore, these champions must benefit from the bonus movement speed in some way, either defensively or aggressively.
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Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia has always been an amazing Phase Rush user. This is because she can run down her opponents using her E, an ability with a very short cooldown. Cassiopeia may want to use Phase Rush aggressively to chase her targets, or defensively to disengage from opponents that manage to close the gap.
Phase Rush Usage
Cassiopeia can proc Phase Rush very easily because of her Q and E. If she hits her opponent with her Q, it gives her the green signal to continue fighting her opponent. She can proceed to spam E, which is a targeted ability, to immediately trigger the keystone. Cassiopeia’s W also deals magic damage and can trigger Phase Rush, but it is rarely used for this purpose aggressively.
Cassiopeia can simply proc Phase Rush with three hits of her E when she needs to escape from a target. This prevents her from relying on the Q and W to land to proc this keystone. Cassiopeia can utilize Phase Rush in matchups where additional damage or healing from Conqueror is not required, and mobility alone allows her to win teamfights.
Gragas
Gragas has resurfaced in the top lane this year after a long time spent in the jungle. In the jungle role, Gragas would opt for Predator as his primary rune. He would run to lanes with great speed and set up a fight with his E. But as far as laning is concerned, he needs a keystone that allows him to trade well using his combo and disengage before any retaliation.
Phase Rush Usag
Gragas has three damaging spells in his kit outside of his ultimate. Without weaving in an auto attack, Gragas can simply proc Phase Rush by using these abilities in proper order. The easiest way to trigger Phase Rush is to use your W first to prepare the empowered auto attack. Then E forward to hit your target, immediately following up with the auto attack you previously prepared. Now you can simply drop your Q, explode it, and run away.
This combo allows Gragas to trade with his opponent when his cooldowns are down. It also prevents him from getting punished for using his E aggressively, his only source of mobility. If the enemy dodges your E or Q, you will have to add another auto attack into your combo to proc the rune.
Jayce
Jayce has seen a variety of keystones in play, from Conqueror to First Strike. But the safest option among all of these has always been Phase Rush. Phase Rush has been standard on Jayce for years now, mainly because of the utility it provides to his already-strong damage. Jayce can use it to extend his trades, or simply disengage when necessary.
Phase Rush Usage
Jayce can proc Phase Rush very easily. He has a lot of damaging abilities thanks to his R, which switches his weapon between a range and a melee form. This allows Jayce to perform multiple combos to proc Phase Rush. A common combo is to use his ranged E+Q for a large burst of damage and then follow up with a melee Q, W, and E to finish off the trade and disengage.
Once Jayce is in melee form and has triggered Phase Rush, he can hold his E if he wants to continue the trade. This allows him to run along his opponent in the hammer form with the additional movement speed. In teamfights, however, Phase Rush will mostly be used to disengage and escape from situations after dealing your entire damage combo.
Poppy
Poppy has recently resurfaced in the meta, this time making the jungle her new home. Phase Rush poppy with Hexflash secondary has become a great pick in professional play, as well as in Solo Queue. Phase Rush allows poppy to stick to her opponents, and outpace them to find better angles for her E.
Phase Rush Usage
Poppy’s strength as a utility jungler lies in her W and E. Poppy’s E allows her to slam enemies in the target direction, displacing them or stunning them into a wall. This is great for setting up kills, so it is essential that poppy positions properly for it. Triggering Phase Rush using her passive, Q, and auto attack(s) allows her to run past her opponents and position for the perfect stun. She can also use this to push enemies into her teammates.
Her W prevents escape by grounding any opponents that try to dash or blink inside the area. Once Phase Rush is triggered, Poppy can use the mobility to keep up with her opponents while using W to prevent any outplay. This is a great way to ensure your teammates can dish out some damage before the opponent dashes away.
Ryze
Ryze has been feeling under the weather for a few months, but he has seen a lot of play in Professional leagues in the past. Ryze functions similarly to Cassiopeia when it comes to Phase Rush usage. Disengaging using your W to root the opponent and triggering Phase Rush with your Q, combined with its innate movement speed, gives you a guaranteed way to escape ganks.
Phase Rush Usage
Ryze can proc Phase Rush relatively easily. He has three damaging abilities and all of them have decently short cooldowns. This allows Ryze to perform a variety of combos according to his need, and get Phase Rush proc out of any of those. The most common combo seen in this regard is used for disengaging.
You must first get in range to E an opponent, and then immediately W them to root them. Now you can simply press Q on the rooted target to get guaranteed damage on them, triggering Phase Rush and Overload’s bonus movement speed. Ryze can cast Q before casting E to maximize his DPS as well.
Skarner
Skarner is an infamous tax collector, picked mainly for the amazing utility provided by his ultimate. As he is not played as a carry, but simply as an R-bot, there is no reason to go any combat keystone on him. Utility runes like Aftershock and Phase Rush have been great options for him. Phase Rush has gained popularity recently because of its synergy with Skarner’s ultimate.
Phase Rush Usage
Phase Rush is the primary rune of choice for Tank Skarner build, which mainly focuses on his CC as the strong point. Phase Rush is strong in general as it allows him to escape from duels that he would not usually win. Similarly, it can be useful for chasing targets that might try to get away from duels that favor Skarner.
But the best part of Phase Rush is that it can be combined with his ultimate for great utility. If Skarner has Bami’s Cinder (or Immolate Passive), he simply needs to use his Q and R to proc Phase Rush. Without Immolate, Skarner can use E+Q before using his R to proc Phase Rush. Once a target is impaled and Phase Rush is triggered, Skarner can drag his enemies very far because of the bonus movement speed, adding value to his ultimate.
Vladimir
Vladimir is a great scaling champion that benefits a lot from the safe laning phase and CSing. Once Vladimir has bought his core items and is ready for teamfights, he must utilize his mobility to get maximum value out of his cooldowns. This is mainly done through Ghost or Phase Rush. This also allows Vladimir to begin a fight and get in the middle of the enemy team without flash.
Phase Rush Usage
As mentioned earlier, Vladimir primarily uses Phase Rush for a safer laning phase. In the early game, he requires an auto attack to proc the rune as his Q and E are on longer cooldowns. In the case of ganks, using Q+E+W can instantly proc Phase Rush as long as the W damage connects to at least one opponent. This allows Vladimir to scale safely.
In teamfights, Vladimir can start the fight using his R and then proc Phase Rush using his Q and E to get in the middle of the fight. He may also hold his ultimate until he is in a better position. Once in the middle, Vladimir can tank a lot of damage because of his healing and benefit from his short-range but low cooldown abilities.
Conclusion
Phase Rush has been nerfed multiple times because of the safety it provides to weak champions in the early game. It is still a great keystone and can be taken on any champion that needs it to disengage or to stick to their opponents. Just make sure your champion has abilities that can consistently damage opponents to proc this keystone.
Check out our top predator rune champions.
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