As set 12 comes to an end and set 13 is on the horizon we say our last goodbyes to the world of magic and mayhem as we enter into the arcane. With many new units, augments, traits, and a cool set mechanic, this set has lots to learn and explore. To start, let’s take a look at what’s performing well on the first couple days of PBE.

Conqueror Ambessa

Firstly, let’s dive into a new vertical trait with the forces of Noxus, conqueror. This new trait allows you to snowball from takedowns, so it is good to play early if you get a good start for them. Getting takedowns gives you the opportunity to earn loot known as war chests, which is similar to the augment “spoils of war.” The more war chests opened the stronger your conqueror units will get. To begin snowballing, you can put ad items on Draven, tank items and Swain, and bruiser items like Bloodthirter and Titan’s resolve on Darius. Later, you will want to stack items on the 4-cost and 5-cost carries of this comp, Ambessa and Mordekaiser. You can move the items from Darius to Ambessa and give Mordekaiser similar items or AP. You do not have to worry about having items stuck on Darius as you will get guaranteed magnetic removers with the changes from set 12.

Some downsides of this comp include crowd control on your frontline and a lack of a consistent backline carry, as draven is a 1-cost that will fall off. If there tends to be a lot of crowd control in your lobby, you could consider building a quicksilver sash on your Ambessa or Mordekaiser.

Scrap Corki

For this next comp, we will be going over a vertical trait from set 6, scrap. For those who have not played set 6, scrap has a unique playstyle of spreading out your components. This is because it transforms components into full items, and at 6 scrap, all components get transformed and become lucky. This means that they should all be useful for the units that you put them on, and you will have a massive item advantage over your opponents if you can achieve this.Your primary carry with thai comp will be Corki, and you will want to put items such as Last Whisper, Infinity Edge, and Red buff on him. B.F. sword, recurve bow, and sparring gloves are great components to put on him. Also, due to form swapper, depending on if your gangplank items have damage items or frontline items, you can put him in the frontline or backline to change his ability.  Late game, you can also play around Rumble, who is a 5 cost scrap that can upgrade his abilities throughout the game, so he is really powerful if you obtain him early.

Family Powder Reroll

For our reroll lovers out there, you should try this new reroll comp based around Powder. Powder is a unique one cost this set that has a huge mana cost, but does a ton of damage. With this, you want a mana item like a spear of shojin, as well as some AP items like jeweled gauntlet on her. The family trait reduces her max mana so she can cast even faster, and this comp accels with 1 or more family emblems. 

While there are many variations currently of family reroll, the most successful one at the moment is playing around 4 watcher, which provides a solid frontline that can stall and give Powder time to cast. When you play a reroll comp, make sure not to level up and roll on stage 3-1 until you have 30 gold. Then roll above 50 gold until you hit the desired 3 star 1 cost units. 

Augment Specific Comps

With a variety of new augments in this set, there are a ton of comps you will only get the chance to play with specific augments. Hero augments are returning, as well as trait augments, which is a new type of augment that combines two characters that you usually would not play on the same board together. There are so many of these sets that we can not cover all of them here, but here are some of the ones succeeding at the moment.

Hero Augment: Combat Medic Steb

This augment turns your Steb from a healing tank into a frontline bruiser that does well with bloodthirster combined with AP items such as jeweled gauntlet and rabadon’s deathcap. Titan’s Resolve also works exceptionally well due to the AP it provides now. 

For a secondary 1-cost backline carry you can reroll with Steb, Maddie is a great choice. Try giving her items like guinsoo’s rageblade, red buff, infinity edge, and spear of shojin. Loris is a great frontline tank later for this comp, and if you can make it to the 5 costs, Caitlyn is great to move your Maddie’s items to later on.

Trait Geniuses: Heimerdinger and Ekko

While playing around these trait augments, you are going to want to try stacking both of the units in the augment with three items each because you are sacrificing an augment to make both of them more powerful. However, in some games you will not have enough good items for both of them. In these situations, a thief’s gloves can do the job until you can replace it with better items. 

This augment makes it so Heimer fires missiles when ekko casts his ability and ekko creates afterimages whenever Heimerdinger casts his ability. With this in mind, making sure Heimerdinger casts a lot with items like Spear of Shojin is crucial to succeeding with this augment. This combined with playing around Heimerdinger’s trait visionary, can grant him a bunch of mana in order to keep the cycle going and unleashing the true power of this augment.

Trait Martial Law: Caitlyn and Ambessa

This trait augment is powerful because it gives you an early 5-cost carry, which is Caitlyn. The augment has Caitlyn fired an empowered attack every time Ambessa casts, and gives her a portion of Caitlyn’s attack damage. Knowing this, deathblade would be a great item on Caitlyn, as it will get more value transferring some of the attack damage to Ambessa.

To play this comp, you can play around conquerors with Ambessa or Enforcers with Caitlyn.

More Comps

If you want to explore more comps for set 13, feel free to check them out here.