Ultimate Guide to playing Ambessa: Tips and Tricks for the latest League of Legends Champion
Ambessa is one of the most unique and exciting Champions to have come out in a while. She's pretty easy to pick up, but her Mastery curve is significant, making her a satisfying Champion to put a ton of hours into. On top of that, she's a ton of fun well for those playing her. She's definitely giving K'Sante a run for his money as the most hated champion in the game.
If you're looking for a high-risk, high-reward type of champion where you're constantly making big plays, then Ambessa is definitely the champion for you. We've got you covered. In this article, you will learn everything there is to know about Ambessa. We'll cover her kit. Laning, the essential tips you need, Combos, and much more.
Image Source: Riot GamesAmbessa's Abilities
A lot of playing Ambessa well will come down to understanding her kit. She doesn't have any super fancy combos to learn. You need to know how her abilities work and how to properly get value out of them, so let's break down her kit.
Her passive is what defines Ambessa; after every ability, she can input a movement command to dash toward that location, much like Kalista does with her Auto attacks; the second part of her passive enhances her Autos, giving her extra damage. She also gains 75 range, which is a lot, and 50% attack speed. Plus, this stacks up to three times, so you don't need to auto-weave perfectly between every spell.
The critical aspect of this passive is that it makes it impossible for Ambessa to run out of energy if she's constantly auto-attacking.
Image Source: Riot GamesAs long as you're near a Target to hit, you will never run out of steam, and you can continuously cycle abilities over and over again, but this is also why we called her a high-risk Champion as well. Running out of energy feels really bad when you're running away, as her Mobility runs out very quickly.
Moving on, her Q is a two-part spell; the first part deals damage in a semicircle in front of her, much like a Darius Q, though it will deal double the damage if you hit the outer edge of the ability if you hit your Q1 you can cast the second part this deals damage in a line much like your Q1. However, the damage is doubled, but only on the first Target hit.
For your W Ambessa Shields herself, then you can Dash during the cast to deal damage around you; however, if she's hit in the brief moment where she's bracing herself, you will deal extra damage to your opponent's; timing this will definitely help you score kills. You can also brace Tower shots, and large monster hits.
Her E is straightforward. You spin around yourself. Dealing damage and slowing significantly, then if you dash, you do that again; this is excellent for chasing targets down as it's a 99% slow applied twice.
One thing to keep in mind is that Ambessa has a reasonably significant weakness in terms of being kited. She's definitely going to struggle versus comps that want to keep their range because her Mobility isn't the best at getting on faraway targets; that's where her ultimate comes in as she shoots a line skill shot, dragging her to the last Target hit carries cannot hide behind a tank. This works much like Yone's ultimate where you travel deal damage and CC your target, but you do not travel unless you actually hit someone which can definitely lead to embarrassing moments.
A lot of the skill to playing Ambessa is definitely just understanding how her kit works timing your W to enhance the damage and then using your E slow and dashes to set up sweet spot. Your Q is most of your play pattern, and then your ultimate is there mainly as a reserve to reach targets you can't immediately get to with your other dashes; it's not a super impactful spell as it's mostly a Mobility tool for you to get in range; however, some essential skills can take you to that next level of Mastery on Ambessa.
Image Source: Riot GamesLaning
Let's start with laning because the difference between knowing what to do on this champ and not knowing what to do can be massive. You usually want to only use your Q1 in Lane if you're guaranteed to hit someone. This is because you can't cast Q2 if you miss, leaving you very vulnerable to Counterattack.
What you want to do is go for Q1s, where even if you miss, you will hit an enemy minion. This way, you still have your Q2 to fall back on, giving you more damage and another passive proc to work with; you can also use this pattern to play a poke-oriented style in Lane Ambessa, which can deal quite a bit of damage from range when Landing both sweet spots of her Q but you shouldn't always tunnel vision. Landing both parts, Ambessa has a lot of reach to harness in Lane by Q1'ing a minion dashing to the enemy and then Qing them while backing away. This can be oppressive since you can engage from so far away and then use your Q2's Dash to get out of danger before your opponent can retaliate.
The primary skill to practice is to use your Q1s Dash to make it so that your Q2 will land directly on your opponent for the full damage; this is definitely Ambessa's greatest strength during the laning phase; you get to pick your battles thanks to your ability to dash in, but you can also disengage very quickly with one or two dashes making it extremely frustrating to try and fight you.
Ambessa is relatively weak early on, but she scales pretty well with items so don't expect to be solo killing players at the start of every single Lane. Play fights very carefully at the beginning of the laning phase. Once you pick up some flat AD, especially around levels 5, 7, and 9, when you put a point in your Q, that's when you can start going much more aggressive now. Suppose you do want to go all in. In that case, there's one critical concept to know: Ambessa during Lane typically kills in two Q rotations, so how you ideally want to play fights early is to space out your spells and take the fight slow start with Q, getting it on cooldown, and slowly start ramping up your conqueror with your other spells.
Don't entirely go in; space the enemy out and play it slow. This buys time for your Q to come back up, and then you can finish them off while your conqueror is fully stacked, giving you a ton of damage on the second cast. After you have your ultimate, this becomes a lot easier. Now, you can fully commit all your spells if you want to. Then, as you wait for your Q's cooldown, you fall back to mid-range, and then you can Ult to re-engage as your Q is coming back up to finish your Target off with that second rotation.
Image Source: Riot GamesAmbessa Build Order
For her build order on the Top Lane, we recommend starting off with Doran's Blade and a Health Potion, progressing into Eclipse, Plated Steelcaps, and Black Cleaver. Then, get Death's Dance, Sterak's Gage, and finish off with Ravenous Hydra or Spear of Shojin.
For Runes, take Precision into Conqueror, Triumph, Haste, and Last Stand.
For secondary runes, take Resolve into Second Wind, Overgrowth, Adaptive Force for both Offense and Flex, then Health.
Ambessa stands out as a formidable and exhilarating champion, blending high-risk gameplay with substantial rewards. Her unique kit offers players the opportunity to master intricate mechanics that can significantly impact the game. With her ability to maintain energy through continuous auto-attacking and the power to engage or disengage through her dashes, Ambessa allows for a dynamic playstyle that keeps opponents on their toes.