Lian Po

Lian Po starts the clash lane weaker than he looks. His Battle Spirit gauge is empty at level 1, so the damage reduction from his Passive isn't online yet — don't force extended trades before level 3. Instead, take short exchanges with the Skill 1 dash and the third-hit heavy strike from its passive, and soak waves behind the Skill 2 shield. Here's the trick: if an enemy is standing inside your Skill 2 charge zone, Skill 1's cooldown resets instantly, so you win trades on sheer number of touches. Once you hit level 4, rotate to the river for the 4:00 Tyrant and play knock-up bot next to your jungler.

Around the eight-minute mark, with two defensive items done, Lian Po gets to start fights on his own terms. You have super armor for the entire duration of your skill animations, so enemy stuns and knock-ups simply don't matter mid-cast — that's your license to dive. Drop out of a mid-lane brush with your Ultimate, use the first two slams to cut off the escape route, and land the third-slam knock-up on your real target. Win or lose the skirmish, leaving combat converts your Battle Spirit into HP, so you arrive at the next objective healthy. When teams start shadowboxing before Shadow Tyrant, volunteer to be the one who face-checks brushes.

Past ten minutes, when Shadow Tyrant and Overlord decide games, your entire job comes down to one decision: who eats the first hit. Before the fight breaks out, smack a nearby minion or jungle camp to pre-stack Battle Spirit, so you enter with the damage reduction and attack speed already rolling. Your Ultimate lets you adjust the slam position through the first two hits — aim the third slam where the enemy is running to, not where they are, and it stops missing. You don't need kills; peeling two enemy backliners out of the fight is a full day's work. The one true loss condition is overchasing and dying alone.

The dream engage is a Skill 3 that clips two or three members of the enemy midline. Land, then start charging Skill 2 on the spot — any enemy inside the zone refunds Skill 1 instantly, and the 15% slow while charging drags out their retreat. The blast hits hardest at the epicenter, so the closer you plant yourself, the better it pays. One caveat: the pull only grabs non-hero units. Enemy heroes never get dragged in, so the clumping has to come from your own footwork. Dash, charge, dash again — that loop draws enemy fire onto you while carving their formation in half. You're there to split the fight, not to secure kills; leave those to your carries. When your HP dips, disengage for a moment, let Battle Spirit convert back into HP, then walk right back in. From the enemy's side, the tank they thought they killed just keeps coming back.