Ever since the start of the League of Legends season 13, players have been grinding hard on the solo queue ladder to get to their deserved rank and beyond.
Aside from the better mechanics and stronger game knowledge, high-Elo, and professional players are quick to pinpoint the strongest champions of any given patch, as well as the strongest bot lane duos.
That said, League has seen a rising importance of the jungle-mid synergy, which is responsible for most of the early and mid-game action and has the highest potential for helping teammates all over the map.
If jungle and mid can work well together, it can create a great advantage that often leads to victory, especially in an uncoordinated environment like solo queue.
There are lots of combinations and different jungle-mid duos to choose from. In this article, we will go over the best jungle-mid duos to play in Patch 13.21, giving you the most meta-adherent options and explaining why they are so powerful.
Best jungle-mid duo pairing in Patch 13.21
Orianna-Jarvan IV
The first duo we recommend playing this patch includes two of the strongest champions of the meta: Orianna and Jarvan IV. The Demacian jungler has been a constant presence ever since the developers introduced the new version of Spear of Shojin in Patch 13.17, allowing him to spike even more in the mid-game with the lower cooldowns.
Orianna, on the other hand, received a streak of buffs throughout the season that slowly pushed her to the top of the mid lane meta. She has much more damage in the late-game now, making her a perfect threat in game-deciding teamfights.
By pairing with Jarvan IV’s hard-engage tools, Orianna has an easy setup for a multi-man Command: Shockwave (ultimate). All she has to do is press the R button at the right time to blow an entire enemy team up. Most of the work is done by the jungler who needs to find the right openings and commit to the plays.
Be careful, though, not to engage too early: If Jarvan goes too far away, it’s likely that Orianna’s ball cannot stay on the champion and will return to the control mage. Always pay attention to the maximum range to follow-up and you will be able to get those sweet wombo combos.
Sylas-Graves
If you enjoy early skirmishes and forcing enemies to have a mechanical showdown with you, then Sylas and Graves are one of the best combos you could ever ask for.
Even though Graves is not one of the best early game champions in the meta, he is exceptional in skirmishes and situations where fights are quite extended.
Sylas is the perfect partner for this: Thanks to the sustain from his W, he can heal up most of the damage taken, making him tough to take down. Similarly, Graves gets additional armor from his E, so he also becomes more resistant. In addition, Sylas is quite a mobile champion so he can easily follow and cover for his jungler.
When playing this duo, you ideally want to get some lane priority and have Graves invade the enemy jungle, forcing the opponents to either contest the camps or bleed out on the farm and experience. Regardless of what they do, they are likely going to be in a losing position.
Aside from that, this bot lane duo also has enough burst damage to kill any squishy target. Considering one deals physical and the other magic damage, the enemies will always struggle to itemize for both types of resistances.
Zed-Lillia
AP junglers are still a minority in the solo queue meta. Lillia, though, is one of the few picks on the rise, thanks to the higher importance of scaling picks across all roles.
Her mobility and damage make her a scary late-game threat in all games but her power is offset by a much weaker early game. This is where Zed comes in, as he’s one of the best champions at snowballing games.
With this pairing, Lillia has a much easier time finding advantages on the map. Zed has great all-in potential once he unlocks the ultimate, and all Lillia has to do is hit her crowd controls to set up for him. Once both champions get a few resources, then Lillia can take over in the mid-game teamfights.
This jungle-mid duo boasts over a 1.4 percent increase in win rate when played together, according to stat site U.GG, showing how much synergy there is between the two picks.
Syndra-Briar
Just like with most new releases, Briar has risen to the top of the jungle meta. Not only does she have great carry potential, but she also has several tools to impact lanes during the early stages of the game.
Among the picks that work well with Briar, Syndra happens to be the ideal champion. This is because the control mid lane mage has great all-in potential with her spells while also providing a good setup with the slow on her W, as well as the stun from her E.
The burst damage gets even stronger in the late game since both champions scale fairly well, especially Syndra. Briar can engage with her ultimate and fear the enemies at the start of the fight, giving her mid lane all the time to cast her spheres and throw them into the mix.
Having said that, given the power of this combo, both champions are often banned in solo queue. If you’re looking for an alternative to Syndra, you can consider going for Ahri or Orianna, if available. For Briar, instead, swap to Lee Sin or Jarvan IV. As long as you have good gap-closers in your kit, the champion will work fine with Syndra.
Jayce-Maokai
Junglers in solo queue are much more carry-oriented than in professional play, and they prefer taking most of the resources for themselves to take over the game. Most of the jungle champions on this list need the gold and experience to reach those item spikes.
If you have more of a supportive playstyle, then Maokai can be the right pick. He has an easy kit to learn and pick up while dealing good damage until mid-game fights.
Since the jungler deals magic damage, Jayce is the best mid lane pick to play alongside Maokai. Aside from having two different types of damage sources, Jayce can easily hit his poke and all-in thanks to Maokai’s lockdown potential. As long as the latter can root the enemy with the ultimate or W, Jayce is basically guaranteed to hit empowered Qs and take down the focused target.
What’s great about this combo is that Maokai can also use his abilities defensively, protecting Jayce from getting killed. This flexibility can be crucial during heated teamfights where Jayce must stay alive throughout the whole fight to dish out as much damage as possible.
This duo, however, requires a much higher level of coordination, so play it only if you’re mechanically proficient at the champions and have a good understanding of how to link up all the abilities.
