10 Best Champion Builds for LoL Patch 13.21

LoL Patch 13.21 has brought us many exciting Champion changes. Based on pro analysis from Skill Capped, we delve into the latest trends and most powerful builds that have been making waves in the League of Legends meta. This article will explore 10 OP builds, drawing from valuable insights to showcase the most impactful strategies gaining traction in the current patch.

Let's dive in and explore these emerging builds in Patch 13.21!

10. Rocketbelt Gwen

For a while, Gwen mains favored the Riftmaker as their primary mythic item, but there's a better one - Hextech Rocketbelt. This item provides Gwen with significantly more value compared to Riftmaker. Rocketbelt boasts increased burst potential and proves advantageous, especially against teams with a weak front line or composed of squishy opponents.

While Riftmaker excels in prolonged fights, it might lose value if the battle ends before your passive fully activates. To optimize your core build, aim to prioritize Nashor's Tooth, followed by Rocketbelt and Rabadon's Deathcap.

Runes:

Core Items: 

First Item	Nashor's Tooth Nashor's Tooth stands out as a common first item for Gwen, thanks to its on-hit magic damage that perfectly matches the champion's playstyle.
Second item	Hextech Rocketbelt The Hextech Rocketbelt offers increased burst potential, proving beneficial, particularly against teams with a weak front line or squishy opponents.
Third item	Rabadon's Deathcap Rabadon's Deathcap is beneficial for Gwen due to her scaling with ability power (AP) and her kit's synergy with stacking AP.

Situational Items:

Zhonya's Hourglass	Zhonya's Hourglass serves as a great defensive    choice for Gwen, especially when you're falling behind and require additional sustain.
Cosmic Drive	Cosmic Drive is an excellent item offering not just for Ability Power and mobility, but also cooldown reduction.

9. Speed Strike Pantheon

A new Pantheon build has been gaining popularity in patch 13.21, offering a more aggressive core. Youmuu's Ghostblade is the key rush item, especially after its recent buff. The recommended sequence involves rushing Youmuu's first, followed by Blade of the Ruined King, and ending with Mortal Reminder.

One great aspect of this new build is the increased movement speed and agility from the initial two core items. The active ability of Youmuu's and the passive ability of Blade of the Ruined King both grant extra movement speed. This enhancement makes chasing your targets much easier, and if you're ahead in the early game, staying close to your enemy will likely lead to victory.

It's important to note that this build primarily focuses on 1v1 situations or side-lane battles because it lacks durability.

Runes:

Core Items: 

First Item	Youmuu's Ghostblade The improvement to this item makes it much easier to chase your targets and enhances your agility.
Second item	Blade of the Ruined King Both Youmuu's active ability and the passive trait of Blade of the Ruined King contribute additional movement speed, significantly enhancing your maneuverability and allowing for swifter engagements or escapes in combat scenarios.
Third item	Mortal Reminder The Mortal Reminder offers substantial damage, elevating your killing potential significantly. Moreover, it provides anti-healing effects against adversaries relying on substantial healing, presenting an effective countermeasure against most tank champions.

Situational Items:

Edge of Night	The Edge of Night provides excellent survivability, especially against most mages and champions with heavy crowd control abilities.
Sterak's Gage	Sterak's Gage offers substantial sustain and enhanced damage potential, particularly effective in the late stages of the game.

8. Swift Shooter Graves

The latest trend among Korean Graves players features a high-mobility build centered around Stormrazor and Ghostblade. While Ghostblade has been a popular choice for Graves for some time, the recently buffed Stormrazor is a fresh addition to this setup. This build shares similarities with the Pantheon build, offering excellent kiting ability and the power to stick to targets effectively.

The Stormrazor's energized proc grants you a significant 45% movement speed for 1 second. It's all about reaching your target, but once you do, they won't escape easily.

The recommended order for purchasing items is as follows: Start by rushing Youmuu's for early damage and bonus movement speed, then invest in The Collector for executing power, and finally, acquire the Stormrazor. With these three items, no enemy is secure. To further enhance your movement speed, consider using the Fleet Footwork Rune.

Runes:

Core Items:

First Item	Youmuu's Ghostblade Opting to rush Youmuu's provides excellent early damage and a bonus in movement speed, giving you an advantage in the early stages of the game.
Second item	The Collector The Collector significantly amplifies your execution power, particularly during the early and mid-game stages.
Third item	Stormrazor Stormrazor provides exceptional movement speed and agility, making it easier to catch and engage with enemies on the battlefield.

Situational Items:

Maw of Malmortius	The Maw of Malmortius is a valuable late-game item, especially effective against teams heavy on Ability Power (AP) champions.
Black Cleaver	Black Cleaver grants a substantial amount of health and excels in reducing the armor of your opponents, enhancing your overall effectiveness in combat.

7. Phantom Charge Hecarim

A return in the meta showcases a Hecarim build centered around Ghostblade. With Duskblade receiving nerfs and appearing lackluster, the recently buffed Ghostblade has become the top-performing mythic item for Hecarim. The two-item core works excellently for Hecarim, with a rush for Spear of Shojin to enhance durability, followed by Ghostblade.

This build offers a satisfying combination of consistent DPS and burn effect. Ghostblade synergizes perfectly with Hecarim, as its active ability grants him movement speed, translating to more damage due to Hecarim's passive, converting movement speed into AD. The third item in this build, Serylda's Grudge, introduces a slow effect on enemies, significantly improving your dueling capabilities. With a build like this, there's no escape for the enemy once you engage.

Runes:

Core Items:

First Item	Spear of Shojin The item's passive effect provides cooldown reduction when using basic attacks after casting a spell. This aligns well with Hecarim's kit, allowing him to potentially reduce his abilities' cooldowns more frequently during fights
Second item	Youmuu's Ghostblade For Hecarim, this offers an immediate boost in damage output and mobility, which synergizes well with his playstyle.The increased movement speed allows Hecarim to swiftly engage or reposition in fights, making it easier to reach priority targets or disengage from unfavorable situations
Third item	Serylda's Grudge The item provides attack damage and ability haste, enhancing Hecarim's damage output and reducing his ability cooldowns.Its unique passive applies a slow effect on opponents, which synergizes with Hecarim's kit.

Situational Items:

Dead Man's Plate	Dead Man's Plate is an excellent item for Hecarim, significantly boosting his movement speed and adding to his durability.
Frozen Heart	Frozen Heart is excellent for sustaining and reducing the attack speed of enemy champions.

6. Shadow Blitz Zed

Following recent Duskblade nerfs, a new highly effective snowball build has emerged for Zed. At the heart of this build is Axiom Mark, which significantly reduces Zed's R cooldown, allowing for more frequent impactful plays. The core item to rush in this build is Ghostblade, simplifying the process of making those key plays. It not only aids in reaching your target swiftly but also ensures your R is ready when they respawn.

Normally, players track ability cooldowns, but with Axiom, this timing is irrelevant. During the mid-game, opponents may attempt frequent engagements, assuming your ultimate is on cooldown. However, it's often back up, leading to easier eliminations of confused targets. The complete core involves rushing Ghostblade, followed by Axiom Mark and Prowler's Claw.

Runes:

Core Items:

Situational Items:

Death's Dance	Death's Dance benefits Zed by providing sustain and healing during the late game, enabling a stronger impact in teamfights.
Ravenous Hydra	Ravenous Hydra is advantageous for Zed, offering healing and exceptional wave clear, enhancing his impact in side lanes and turning him into a formidable force for split-pushing.

5. Ghostblade Burst Akshan

A new popular Akshan build focuses on prioritizing the recently buffed Ghostblade. Following its enhancements in patch 13.20, it stands as the highest win-rate mythic item for Akshan, being featured in 10% of all Akshan games. The core of this build emphasizes rushing lethality, then transitioning to The Collector as the second item, and finally incorporating Rapid Firecannon for increased poking ability and extended range.

Unlike other Akshan builds that center on consistent damage over time, this build offers upfront burst damage. It maximizes Akshan's side-lane threat due to the high burst potential, complementing his W ability, which provides invisibility. This burst-oriented build makes eliminating squishy champions in the side lanes much easier.

Moreover, this build is ideal for newer or less experienced Akshan players due to its emphasis on upfront damage. It reduces the need for intricate kiting and optimal spacing in fights.

Runes:

Core Items:

Situational Items:

Lord Dominik's  Regards	A situational but powerful choice for Akshan is Lord Dominik's Regards, offering significant power to shred tanks.
Edge of Night	Edge of Night synergizes effectively with the lethality from Youmuu's, providing Akshan with a shield against mages and champions with heavy crowd control abilities.

4. Hydra Bruiser Twitch

An emerging Twitch bruiser build has gained attention, notably for its core not including a mythic item. The strategy begins with acquiring Tiamat, followed by rushing Runaan's Hurricane as the first item. This combination enhances your shoving power, providing remarkable wave-clear abilities in the early game and a strong impact in 5v5 team fights, although it may not be as dominant in 1v1 duels.

The subsequent item involves upgrading Tiamat into a Titanic Hydra and combining it with the Black Cleaver to grant an additional 900 bonus health, significantly increasing resilience against assassins. When adopting this build, selecting Resolve as a secondary rune is recommended, particularly Overgrowth, which synergizes with the passive of the Titanic Hydra. As you acquire Titanic, your bonus health is converted into AD, amplifying the value of Overgrowth.

Runes:

Core Items:

Mythic Option:

Galeforce

Galeforce serves as a solid mythic choice for Twitch, offering bonus damage, agility, and an escape plan in case situations turn adverse.

3. Ghostly Lethal Kai'Sa

A new adaptation for lethality, Kai'Sa, has surfaced, eliminating the need for the previously nerfed Duskblade. Instead, the favored choice is the newly buffed Ghostblade. Analytics show that Kai'Sa players building Ghostblade are winning 1% more compared to those opting for Duskblade. A significant advantage of Ghostblade is its ability to create more opportunities for securing kills. While Duskblade's passive excels in engaging fights, Ghostblade provides more snowballing potential when you're in the lead.

The Umbral Glaive remains a popular first-item choice, maintaining consistency in this new adaptation. Subsequently, transitioning into Ghostblade as the second item and Nashor's Tooth as the third step enhances this modified build.

Runes:

Core Items:

Situational Items:

Lord Dominik's Regards	Lord Dominik's Regards significantly aids Kai'sa in the late game by granting her the ability to shred heavy tanks, courtesy of the armor penetration provided by this item.
Zhonya's Hourglass	Zhonya's Hourglass serves as a beneficial defensive item for Kai'sa, offering a notable amount of AP and armor, contributing to her survivability in certain situations.

2. Radiant Guardian Zac

An underrated support champion making waves is Zac. Patch 13.20 provided an ideal setting for Zac to thrive as a support. The increased health on starting items and the reduced snowballing nature of the game help him overcome his challenging early game. Zac serves as an excellent support, particularly effective against other melee supports like Thresh, Blitzcrank, and Nautilus. After reaching level 6, if they hook you, you can approach the enemy ADC and chain your crowd control (CC). With his array of CC abilities, Zac's support gameplay post-level 6 becomes highly challenging for opponents.

The recommended item to rush is Radiant Virtue, as it synergizes well with Zac's aggressive engagement style. Sunfire Aegis is the second crucial item for Zac to assert dominance. Beyond this, the choice of the third core item largely depends on the enemy team's mix of AP and AD damage.

Runes:

Core Items:

Situational Items:

1. Virtuous Anchor Nautilus

Following the anti-snowballing patch and longer game durations, the value of Radiant Virtue has significantly increased. Nautilus is a champion, reaping significant success with radiant virtue. Players who prioritize Radiant as their first item win 53% of their games. Given Nautilus's point-and-click CC ultimate, he consistently benefits from the passive effect of Radiant.

An unexpected synergy arises between Radiant and Nautilus's W ability. The bonus health obtained from triggering Radiant's passive amplifies the shield from Nautilus's W, as the shield scales based on his maximum health. The core build consists of Radiant Virtue as the initial item, followed by Zeke's Convergence, and Knight's Vow as the third item.

Runes:

Core Items:

Situational Items:

In conclusion, Patch 13.21 in League of Legends presents a dynamic landscape with various potent builds that have the potential to reshape the game. The findings presented from these 10 setups reveal the evolving strategies within the current meta. As the game continues to evolve, these builds serve as a testament to the constant innovation and adaptability within the League of Legends community, offering players diverse and formidable options to dominate the Rift.