Ultra Rapid Fire (URF) is back with the start of the 2024 season. The fan-favourite rotating game mode has been released on Patch 14.3. Find out which are the best duo lanes to dominate your enemies.
© Riot Games
What is different about URF this year?
URF is a special game made based in Summoner’s Fift, where all players receive the Awesome Buff of Awesomely Awesome. Some perks of this buff include; 100% mana cost reduction, 300 ability haste and increased attack speed. For even more action, the cannon allow players to teleport to their half of the map and get into fights faster, while all minions grant 40% more gold compared to Summoner’s Rift.
Unlike previous renditions of URF, Riot has opted to balance champions closer to their real win rate in Summoner’s Rift instead of a flat 50%. Riot will balance these champions through a combination of stat and mechanical ability changes.
Who can I play?
Riot has currently re-released the original URF instead of ARURF, meaning you get to choose your champion. Each player will gain the ability to ban one champion during champion select, leading to a total of 10 bans. Aside from champions banned during champ select, all champions are available for play in URF. While champions are generally balanced in the normals summoners rift, the URF buff completely changes the strength dynamic of various champions. The fast paced game mode also increases the importance of good synergy, with a strong duo lane being able to easily carry any URF game.
Like the last URF release, we will get the ability to choose our champions, almost a completely different experience compared to ARURF, where champions are randomized. While your favorite champions may still be target banned for the majority of games, it still allows you to select from a pool of your best or most enjoyable champions all the time!
Now, what are the best URF Duo Combos?
Top 3 + 5 additional Duo Lanes to play in URF
Making a Top 3 list in URF is hard, especially once you see the vast combination of opponents duos you can match up with. To that end, we have our top three picks, paired with another five potential combinations you can utilize to dominate the rift.
Smolder + Janna
We start off immediately with the new champion, Smolder. If he is considered weak in traditional 5v5 due to his weak early game, URF fixes most of his weaknesses, allowing him to quickly stack up his Q and become obnoxious already by the 10-minute mark. By pairing him up with a champion like Janna, she can make sure Smolder doesn’t get any damage thanks to her shields. Are you skeptical about the combo? Try it out and let us know.
Image Credit: Riot Games
Zed + Annie
On the synergizing combinations, we got a very solid one that features a top-tier URF champion: Zed. The mid lane loves the game mode as he can constantly poke and play with his shadows at all times, making it impossible for the enemies to respond. By adding up Annie’s point-click stuns, Zed can one-shot targets by hitting multiple shurikens on the target.
Image Credit: Riot Games
Shaco + Kayle
Shaco has risen up as one of the most annoying champions to deal with in URF. Not only can he stay invisible basically all the time but his boxes can be placed all around the map, and with the AP build, enemies will explode as soon as they walk on the map. It’s basically like playing Teemo with his mushrooms, with the expectation that Shaco will never get caught due to his slipperiness.
If you add up a late-game carry like Kayle, you are guaranteed success. By scaling up much faster in URF, she will become unstoppable once she gets to level 16. An extremely fun duo to play with that will become enemies’ worst nightmare.
© Riot Games
Ezreal + Xerath
If poke lanes are already hard to deal with in normal Summoner’s Rift, imagine what happens when these champion can hard-spam their abilities all the time. Well, Ezreal and Xerath do exactly that: harassing the enemy laners from start to finish. You’ll enjoy seeing your enemies trying to dodge abilities as if they are playing dodgeball and still end up dying.
The poke is even more oppressive later on when every single spell can potentially melt any opponent. Be careful, however, positioning will be tricky later in the game as the enemies will gain more ways to jump on your face and mess you up.
Fizz + Qiyana
This duo is possibly the most slippery pair in the whole game. Fizz + Qiyana is strong throughout all points of the game due to their high burst, gap closes, and ability to constantly dish out enemies while avoiding damage. Both Fizz and Qiyana have abilities that deal area of effect damage, and with good coordination, are a huge threat in the enemy jungle that can wipe entire careless teams. The pair should maximize ability haste when building, increasing their survivability and overall damage.
When played by proficient players, this URF duo lane is one of the most match-breaking combinations out there.
Shen + Tristana
It might be a weird combo at first, but it seems to be working: Shen and Tristana are a real deal when it comes to URF. The tank champion can set up Tristana for fast combos and whenever things get tricky, he can always save her by ulting.
What’s even worse is that Shen perfectly counters most of the melee champions that are dominating in URF, and all he has to do is press one button and trigger the zone by walking inside it. I was surprised at first but it does its job: make sure to try this one out.
Maokai + Morgana
What about a crowd control chain of more than 5 seconds? Well, that’s what Maokai and Morgana can do together (if they are able to land the combos consistently). This bot lane duo perma pushes with Maokai’s saplings and Morgana’s W, and if the enemies even try to fight them, they’ll get locked down so much they will regret their decision. In the teamfights, these two get even more oppressive with their additional CC coming from the ultimates.
Gragas + Malphite
While it will struggle to get through lane a little, once you hit level 6, it is all over for the enemies. The engage this URF duo has is absolutely insane, combined with their AoE and massive AP scaling, it allows you to easily one-shot enemies.
As expected, build full AP on this combo, and get a Hextech Protobelt to pop any annoying Banshee’s Veil or Edge of Night’s out there. To increase the effectiveness of this insane URF combo, you have to buy sweepers to clear out your vision so you can take them by surprise.
When will URF end this time?
Ultra Rapid Fire is likely set to end alongside the Heavenscale event for the Lunar New Year. While a date hasn’t been confirmed thus far, we assume the event will end around the end of February. That said, we might see Riot deciding either to anticipate its end or even extend it so make sure to not miss out on the action and play as much as possible.
Why is URF released so rarely?
Riot has previously stated, while they do understand players do love the URF game mode and that playtime does increase when released, data has shown players tend to burn out. This has led Riot to restrict its release for special occasions such as the upcoming 2022 League of Legends World Championships. This release of URF will almost certainly be your last chance to play the game mode in 2022.
Read also: How to play fantasy League of Legends
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