[Top 10] LOL Best Bruisers That Wreck Hard!

Updated:

17 Feb 2021

10. Shen

Coming in for the tenth spot on the best bruisers list, Shen is a tanky bruiser who excels in providing support for his teammates. A relatively strong laner, this champion will come out of the early game at optimal strength with a full tank build. His best skill is his ultimate, which provides a massive shield to a targeted ally and allows him to teleport to their side. It’s great to bait in enemies or to keep his carries alive.

Why Shen Is a Fearsome Bruiser

Imposing taunt ability which will help peel ally carries or find picks for his team
Powerful teleportation ultimate to keep allies alive and help him split-push with relative ease
His Q ability empowers his auto-attacks for a considerable amount of percent-health damage

9. Wukong

The Vastayan who rose to become Wukong is next up on this list. He follows the more traditional style of a bruiser, able to run enemies down as well as escape with his shifty clone ability. Wukong is an excellent engage bruiser with his ultimate and dash-damage toolkit. His ultimate also provides a knock-up, so he pairs extremely well with Yasuo especially if he can hit multiple targets.

Why Wukong Is a Fearsome Bruiser

Strong early laning phase through his pure damage
Can make clever plays with his Warrior Trickster ability, which leaves behind a clone of himself while he turns invisible for some time
Strong engage and disruption with Nimbus Strike (E) and Cyclone (Ultimate)

8. Gnar

Gnar is unique in that his main form resembles the marksman style more, but when he transforms into Mega-Gnar, he offers all the tools that any bruiser would. With his kiting playstyle, Gnar can be a huge lane bully. In Mega-Gnar form, he’s an excellent team-fighter, as he’s able to offer a lot of damage and crowd-control. The best part of him is his ultimate in Mega-Gnar form which slams enemies against terrain to stun them.

Why Gnar Is a Fearsome Bruiser

A lane bully with his long-range in Mini-Gnar form
Strong engage with the right timing of his Mega-Gnar transformations
Offers a hybrid playstyle in the top lane

7. Volibear

After his rework, Volibear has become somewhat of a juggernaut in the jungle and top lane. He does an exceptional amount of damage for how tanky he is, and is great for disrupting teamfights and locking down enemy carries. His ultimate is amazing for turret dives as it disables them for a while. A strong Volibear is extremely difficult to kill.

Why Volibear Is a Fearsome Bruiser

Powerful engage and movement speed to get Volibear into the fight
Ability to deal damage from a mid-range distance with his Sky Splitter ability (E)
Ultimate provides a great form of engage as well as a tremendous health boost

6. Cho’Gath

Cho’Gath has several tools to help him thrive on the rift. His Rupture (Q) knocks enemies up and can also provide vision in the fog of war. He also has a silence-ability, which he emits in a cone to further prevent enemies from escaping. The cherry on top is his ultimate, Feast, which deals a huge amount of scaling true damage to any target. Each stack of Feast he gains grants him permanent health, attack range, and size.

Why Cho’Gath Is a Fearsome Bruiser

Can take over a lane with his oppressive abilities
Good disengage and tool kit to be a constant thorn in the enemy’s side
Can one-shot an enemy carry with full use of his abilities

5. Illaoi

Out of all the bruisers on this list, Illaoi might be the best team fighter. She excels in long-trades and spawns tentacles near her through her passive ability. Tentacles react to her actions and attack the same target as Illaoi. Each slam deals a good deal of damage and also heals Illaoi for a good amount. Illaoi is amazing in taking on multiple enemies with her ultimate, Leap of Faith, which spawns tentacles based on how many enemies were caught in her range.

Why Illaoi Is a Fearsome Bruiser

Nearly impossible to dive into an Illaoi with her ultimate and tentacles
Ability to solo-carry a teamfight
Great sustainability through healing from her tentacles

4. Nasus

Nasus is rather weak in the early game, but he’s a terrific scaling champion through his Siphoning Strike (Q). Each unit he kills grants a permanent increase in damage to this ability, so by the mid to late-game, he’ll be able to Wither enemies and run them down with his Q for an insane amount of damage. He’s a tough bruiser to deal with since he will be extremely strong if he isn’t punished early.

Why Nasus Is a Fearsome Bruiser

Can solo-carry a game through the pure damage of his stacks on Siphoning Strike
A powerful slow ability that allows him to run enemies down
To keep him in the fight even longer against strong enemies, Nasus’ ultimate grants him the boost in damage and health he needs to close out fights

3. Darius

A powerful and dominant lane bully, Darius is one bruiser you do not want to feed. He heals off of his Decimate (Q), and this effect scales the more enemies are caught in its arc. His ultimate, Noxian Guillotine, does scaling true damage and resets off of kills, which gives him the massive potential to 1v5.

Why Darius Is a Fearsome Bruiser

Tremendous damage with the use of all of his abilities
Great healing to sustain him while it does damage to enemies
Strong passive that grants Darius scaling damage when he auto-attacks a single target at least 5 times

2. Malphite

Malphite is an absolute monster in the current meta. His early game damage is just nowhere near balanced and his ultimate can change the tide of a teamfight in a heartbeat. Malphite is an extremely tanky bruiser, making it difficult to take him down in any situation. The rock-solid mountain gives his teammates everything they need to chase enemies down and force a teamfight.

Why Malphite Is a Fearsome Bruiser

Extremely strong laning phase with the Arcane Comet rune
Great engage with his ultimate and slow ability with his Q
Very tanky and hard to take down in most circumstances

1. Garen

Taking the number one spot, this champion needs a nerf; that’s how over-tuned the champion is right now. He has decent movement speed with his Q ability to strike enemies and silence them, while his other abilities whittle their health down. To finish things off, his ultimate acts as an execution-type ability, dealing insane true damage to low-health enemies. His base stats are just too high, but it makes him a great champion to spam solo-queue with for an easier win.

Why Garen Is a Fearsome Bruiser

Can run down enemies who have very little chance of punishing him
He heals by himself when he hasn’t taken damage from a champion in a short period
Insane, insane damage throughout his kit