A new champion landing in League of Legends is like Christmas for MOBA fans. The already stacked roster always has room for more, and each new addition brings meta shifts that can affect how the entire game is played. Needless to say, it’s a big occasion.
The latest champion to enter the Summoner’s Rift is Milio, an enchanter support who uses his magic to heal and buff his allies while they soak up the damage and get the kills. While his moveset has some offensive capabilities, Milio players will mostly be looking out for the rest of their team when the action really kicks off.
With Milio being still so new to the game, it’s tough to recommend item builds that are guaranteed to make him effective. However, thanks to OP.GG, we can see what the community is using for the cheerful little enchanter, and which builds appear to be paying off so far. Let’s take a closer look at Milio and the builds that are winning for him in these early days.
Skill check
Milio is definitely going to be best kept on the backline in any combat scenario. His skills can all be cast at range, so there’s no need for him to be right next to an ally. With his passive, Fired Up, any abilities he uses that touches an ally gives them boosted damage for their next attack, as well as setting the target of the attack on fire. This small boost will certainly help turn the tide of the battle in your team’s favour.
His Q, Ultra Mega Fire Kick, launches a fiery ball in a straight line at the enemy, knocking back the first target it hits. The ball then bounces behind the target and explodes, dealing area of effect damage and slowing enemies caught in the blast. This will be perfect when partnered with Fired Up, as you can kick the ball through your ally to buff them, knock back the opponent to provide a window for attack, and then slow them so your ally has a chance to run in and strike.
The rest of Milio’s skills are purely support-focused. His W, Cozy Campfire, is an area-of-effect spell that heals allies inside it while also increasing their Attack Range. Better yet, it also triggers Fired Up, which continues to regenerate after attacks, as long as allies stay in its zone. Cozy Campfire will automatically move to Milio’s nearest ally, so don’t expect to throw it on your tank and walk away – unless Milio’s right up there next to the tank, it’ll start drifting towards the backline and your ranged fighters. If timed well, this could be very useful, but will also leave the frontline without all the essential buffs provided.
Milio’s E, Warm Hugs, is pretty straightforward – he tosses a shield onto an ally, which also grants extra movement speed for a short time. You have two charges of this, so it will be useful for helping the frontline fighters charge into the fray. You could then follow it up with an Ultra Mega Fire Kick to help your ally close the distance with their target.
Finally, Milio’s ultimate is Breath of Life, which provides healing and removes any crowd control debuffs they may have on them. This will be best saved for bigger late game fights, especially when your allies are closely grouped together around drakes and the Baron.
Build me up
This may shock and surprise you (it won’t) but your item build for Milio is mostly going to be focused on improving his mana and HP so that he can keep his teammates buffed as much as possible. That’s unlikely to change in the future given his limited offensive capabilities, but his item build may well change over time.
It’s still early days for Milio, so it’s impossible to know what his most competitive item build might be, but thankfully we have apps to help us out. OP.GG and their new in-game app shows the best Milio builds and counters right when you need them – during champ select. Using this function, you can see how players are building Milio’s items and the win/loss rate they achieve with certain builds.
Currently, Shurelya’s Battlesong has a win rate as high as 66.7%. However, it’s still considered an untested build – OP.GG only has a few hundred matches tracked with this build so far. Other players opt for Moonstone Renewer as their mythic instead, but those builds only see a winrate of 58.7%. These are still stellar results, but fall short of the Shurelya’s builds. It seems that the speed boost of Shurelya’s Battlesong is proving particularly useful – likely thanks to Milio already having two shields to throw out via Warm Hugs.
After securing Shurelya’s Battlesong, OP.GG is showing that the best items to build to next – statistically speaking – are Ardent Censer and Redemption. Both items increase Milio’s healing and shield powers while giving him a boost of HP, meaning he can stay in the fight longer while keeping his allies alive.
Lane to the party
According to OP.GG’s handy in-game info cheatsheet, Milio players are seeing the strongest success against lane opponents who are AP mages and enchanters such as Miss Fortune support (62.1% WR), Janna (60.0%) Renata Glasc (56.4%), and Swain (55.5%). On the counters side, Milio players seems to struggle the most against Annie (42%), Morgana (43%), Soraka (43%), and engage tanks like Leona, Blitzcrank, and Rel (45%).
