Jawhead
I can’t stress how much fun this hero is. His(its? her?) toolkit is extremely fun and can be deceptively tanky. However, like most tank/support heroes – you can’t end the game on your own. You will need to play around your team and respond to calls for help. The way I play Jawhead is as a roamer unless another teammate wants the role, then I’ll just head to the EXP lane for the first few minutes and start roaming after.
Jawhead punishes your opponent’s bad positioning – but you also have to be alert and quick on your fingers. I love punishing cocky opponents who underestimate Jawhead’s toolkit – you can usually get free kills from them as early as level 2 (toss them into turret range and rocket them). Jawhead is useful at every stage of the game, and making the right moves during the later stages can usually be game-winning – it’s hard to outplay a flicker into toss back into stun if an enemy steps out of position. When you toss an enemy away, there’s also a chance that the rest of them will try to save them, possibly putting them in a bad place as well. A 4 v 5 on the enemy’s side of the map can turn into an easy push to win the game. If the enemy is ahead, they’ll tend to play cockier and you can set up easy ejects back to your turrets or allies.
However, Ejector isn’t an auto-win spell. You can mess up team fights if used improperly – this means you have to be aware of your teammates’ spells and positioning. Also, make sure to toss the right targets because things can go wrong. Tossing in a Tigreal to your teammates can give him a free implosion on your unprepared teammates, or tossing an enemy out of an area can ruin an incoming Vale Windstorm.
A lot of people also forget that Ejector can be used to save allies – just make sure you toss them in the right direction. While Jawhead is a good initiator, you can also use it to counter-initiate any ganks on your squishy teammates by ejecting them to safety. You need to have a good feel of the situation and map awareness. There is also a cool trick to extend the range of your ejector (something I only learnt today!):
And let’s not forget the movement speed and damage shield you get from the spell – this ability has saved me from death countless times! Enough to run away while spamming the emote to frustrate opponents and bait further dives from them.
I usually go Magic Defense Tank emblem, and magic defense items on this hero because if there’s one thing that Jawhead hates, it is getting stun-locked and burst down by spells before being able to cast anything. With how versatile Ejector is, being missing from a teamfight can spell disaster for your team. Roaming equipment is good since I like to move from lane to lane to setup ganks or save allies, I don’t spend much time farming.
Alistar
In Wild Rift, I’ve been playing a lot of Alistar (you see the trend here?). While he isn’t as versatile as Jawhead, he’s great at disrupting team fights and crowd control. Headbutt has got to be one of the most fun spells in the game. Instead of pulling enemies towards you like Blitzcrank’s Rocket Grab, you charge into enemies and push them towards the direction you are facing. This spell is great for catching out-of-position enemies and for saving allies who are getting dove.
Used in combination with Flash, Headbutt is a decent initiating spell. Flash to behind your opponent, and then Headbutt them into your teammates. If the enemy tries to escape, you have Pulverize to stop them. It’s a bit tricky to pull off compared to Jawhead’s ejector since you don’t select the direction – you have to face the right direction, but it can be just as effective (assuming your teammates are ready for it).
Trample is a pretty good spell you can spam in the middle of team fights, while I’m still trying to remember to use Unbreakable Will in the heat of battle (I keep forgetting that the ability is there sometimes). As for item build and runes, I’m still experimenting, but the usual front liner gear seems to be the choice.
The problem I have with this hero is figuring out what to do during the laning phase. Alistar seems quite difficult to play versus ranged Champions – I keep getting harassed with no good way of returning the favour. I’m going to have to watch some replays of better players than me.
I’m still a big noob in Wild Rift (Silver) but my rank is slowly increasing – I’m not stuck yet. I feel like I have a better grasp of when to fight or retreat, I recognize more enemy champs, and have a better read on the game state.
This has been my experience in MLBB/Wild Rift over the past couple of weeks, and if you’ve been looking for some fun repositioning heroes to play give Jawhead and Alistar a shot, you might have as much fun as I did! If you have any tips about playing these heroes, feel free to drop them in the comments.
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