League of Legends Solo Queue Tier Lists for Patch 12.1:

Welcome to the longest-running League of Legends tier list in the world. This tier list is created using statistical analysis coupled with nearly a decade of experience in League of Legends. Specially curated for players that aren't already God's gift to the world, this list is for the humble player looking to climb without massive hours dedicated to mastering champions.

Trusted for our consistent updates and constant feedback, this list is as much yours as it is ours. If you disagree with any champion placements feel free to post in the comment section! We'll gladly either voice our opinion or enter into a discussion on champion placement.

Read on to see the tier list that's granted millions of players around the world massive success in their League of Legends ranked climb.

LoL Tier List God Tier Pick

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS
SOLO QUEUE LOL TIER LIST
SEASON 12 - PATCH 12.1

Welcome to the longest-running League of Legends tier list in the world. This tier list is created using statistical analysis coupled with nearly a decade of experience in League of Legends. Specially curated for players that aren't already God's gift to the world, this list is for the humble player looking to climb without massive hours dedicated to mastering champions.

Trusted for our consistent updates and constant feedback, this list is as much yours as it is ours. If you disagree with any champion placements feel free to post in the comment section! We'll gladly either voice our opinion or enter into a discussion on champion placement.

Read on to see the tier list that's granted millions of players around the world massive success in their League of Legends ranked climb.

Patch 12.1 Tier List Update Summary

The new ranked season is upon us! While the nerfs and buffs are sparse, the meta is moving back towards old favorites as players spam their top picks to climb the ladder. Meanwhile, the change to the teleport summoner hasn't quite launched Shen to the top of the charts yet, but rest assured he's a sleeper pick that shouldn't be underestimated.

Check out the full tier list below!

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Contents and Related Links:

Optimal Champion Bans by Division
Strongest Potential Champions - Champions with the highest potential in the game

Patch 12.1 Summary

Updates

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Toolkit and Options

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LoL Tier List For Solo Queue

The tier lists below start at the strongest champions on the tier list and is ordered from left to right in power level. The tier lists are also separated into multiple segments for ease of understanding, but champions from a higher segment of the tier list may still lose to a counter pick from a lower-tier segment of the tier list.

Full LoL Tier List For Solo Queue

The tier list below lists every viable champion in the game along with a few unorthodox picks that can still perform fairly well. This tier list is meant to organize every viable champion in the game into an order with the average experienced player in mind. Generally speaking, this is somewhere between silver and platinum. This tier list can also be used for higher divisions, but the higher you go, the more specialized at specific champions you become.

God Tier List

[Highest Influence | Good In Almost Every Situation | Easiest to Gain LP With]

Mid Lane	Viktor, Vex
Jungle	Graves, Xin Zhao, Lee Sin
Top Lane	Camille, Shen, Poppy
Bot Lane	Vayne, Jhin, Jinx
Support	Blitzcrank, Lux, Leona

Rising to God Tier: Lee Sin (Jungle), Lux (Support), Shen (Top)

Tier 1

[Strong/Preferred Choices | Faster to Learn and Win | Works Well In Solo Queue]

Mid-Lane: Zoe, Akshan, Ahri, Anivia, Zed, Qiyana, Talon, Galio, Kassadin, Leblanc, Xerath, Pantheon, Sylas, Annie, Lissandra, Malzahar, Yone, Aurelion Sol, Rumble, Fizz, Corki, Yasuo

Jungle: Shaco, Rek'Sai, Taliyah, Talon, Fiddlesticks, Viego, Elise, Vi, Ekko, Kha'Zix, Zac, Warwick, Rammus, Hecarim, Master Yi, Nidalee

Top: Tahm Kench, Malphite, Viktor, Jayce, Sett, Darius, Tryndamere, Fiora, Wukong, Maokai, Jax, Sion, Kled, Akshan, Heimerdinger, Teemo, Yasuo, Aatrox, Cassiopeia, Irelia, Kennen, Garen

Bot Lane: Ziggs, Ashe, Samira, Miss Fortune, Kai'Sa, Twitch, Ezreal, Swain, Draven, Sivir, Tristana

Support: Lulu, Soraka, Morgana, Yuumi, Xerath, Rell, Alistar, Amumu, Thresh, Bard, Nautilus, Rakan, Gragas, Swain, Galio, Janna

Rising to Tier 1: Cassiopeia (Top), Darius (Top), Jayce (Top), Qiyana (Mid), Xerath (Mid), Zoe (Mid)

Falling to Tier 1: Kassadin (Mid), Lulu (Support), Malphite (Top), Talon (Jungle)

Tier 2

[Viable/Balanced Choices | Common In Solo Queue | Needs Practice To Get Good]

Mid-Lane: Katarina, Ekko, Irelia, Lucian, Diana, Vladimir, Malphite, Morgana, Akali, Lux, Viego, Ziggs, Syndra, Cassiopeia, Seraphine, Nocturne, Brand, Heimerdinger, Vel'Koz, Veigar, Kled, Twisted Fate, Zilean, Karthus, Swain, Wukong, Orianna

Jungle: Kindred, Poppy, Evelynn, Jarvan IV, Olaf, Diana, Karthus, Sejuani, Gwen, Rumble, Nunu, Dr. Mundo, Skarner, Shyvana, Volibear, Trundle, Kayn, Amumu, Morgana, Jax

Top: Ornn, Vayne, Graves, Volibear, Pantheon, Sylas, Nasus, Gnar, Riven, Warwick, Gwen, Lee Sin, Akali, Viego, Skarner, Quinn, Rengar, Olaf, Jarvan IV, Renekton, Lissandra, Gangplank, Illaoi, Vladimir, Yorick, Yone, Dr. Mundo, Gragas, Cho'gath, Urgot, Swain, Karma

Bot Lane: Senna, Kog'Maw, Caitlyn, Yasuo, Xayah, Lucian, Seraphine, Cassiopeia, Varus

Support: Maokai, Syndra, Zyra, Taric, Pyke, Nami, Senna, Brand, Braum, Zilean, Sona, Karma, Shaco, Seraphine, Anivia, Tahm Kench, Vel'Koz, Vex, Pantheon,

Rising to Tier 2:

Falling to Tier 2: Maokai (Support), Katarina (Mid), Poppy (Jungle), Senna (Support)

Tier 3

[Needs Higher Skill or Knowledge | Counterpicks]

Mid-Lane: Azir, Neeko, Jayce, Pyke, Camille, Garen, Taliyah, Tristana, Tryndamere, Ryze, Karma, Gwen, Aatrox, Kennen, Rakan, Gangplank, Fiddlesticks, Ezreal, Zyra, Gragas, Kog'Maw (AP), Cho'Gath, Quinn, Lulu, Sona, Varus

Jungle: Ivern, Nocturne, Lillia, Gragas, Zed, Udyr, Sylas, Rengar, Sett, Malphite, Wukong, Maokai, Cho'Gath, Pantheon

Top: Mordekaiser, Nocturne, Hecarim, Singed, Kayle, Rumble, Lucian, Soraka, Nautilus, Neeko, Ryze, Malzahar, Shaco, Galio

Bot Lane: Aphelios, Kalista, Heimerdinger, Quinn, Corki, Akshan

Support: Shen, Ashe, Veigar, Twitch, Fiddlesticks, Neeko, Jarvan IV, Poppy, Annie, Malphite

Rising to Tier 3:
Falling to Tier 3:

Tier 4

[Low Benefit Based On Effort Used]

Mid-Lane: Nasus, Sion, Teemo, Jarvan IV, Riven, Jhin

Jungle: Darius, Tryndamere, Riven, Nasus, Tahm Kench, Qiyana

Top: Rammus

Bot Lane:Twisted Fate, Veigar

Support: Ornn, Sion, Trundle, Leblanc, Miss Fortune, Teemo

Falling to Tier 4:

New Player LoL Tier List

Many users have requested a summarized tier list that just includes suggested champions to play for new players. The tier list below includes the best beginner champions. The tier list is also organized from most beginner-friendly to least beginning friendly (Top, Bot, Support, Mid, Jungle). Since jungle isn't particularly beginner-friendly I've only included two champions on the list.

Top Tier List

God Tier: Malphite, Shen
Tier 1: Darius

Bot Tier List

God Tier: Miss Fortune
Tier 1: Jhin, Ziggs

Support Tier List

God Tier: Lux
Tier 1: Lulu, Leona

Mid Tier List

God Tier: Galio
Tier 1: Malzahar

Jungle Tier List

God Tier: Xin Zhao, Graves
Tier 1: Poppy

Instructions and Caveats

Champions in BOLD I will talk about shortly
Champions UNDERLINEDmay be over/undervalued, but aren't/haven't played enough for me to make a better judgment.
Within each tier, the champions are strongest from left to right, but within a tier, each champion's strength is relatively close. This is especially true for Tiers 2 and 3 where these champions are ALL highly playable and player dependent on how strong they are in-game.
Win Rates are important in analyzing each champion's strength but are not the end-all criteria for any champion's position.
Professional Picks may not necessarily translate into good picks for the solo queue ladder, the two have slightly different meta-games and skill levels.
The creator of this list is diamond so there may be some personal bias towards higher tier play on certain champions.

League of Legends Tier List Descriptions

When making this tier list we initially considered using tier list descriptions similar to others with S-tier, A-tier etc. However, In the initial build of the tier list way back when we started, it was more popular to use a God Tier designation and then go down from there on the tier list. As a result, we've stuck by this concept through the years. However, since God Tier is supposed to be relatively exclusive on this tier list, we try and limit it to only three or four picks at most. This means that there may be champions that are close to God tier on this tier list, but don't quite make it and are instead at the top of Tier 1.

God Tier: These champions are almost impossible to keep down. If your team doesn't make it a priority to shut down these champions and shut them down hard, even if they lose their lane, lose in CS, and it's their first time playing the champion, they can be a massive nuisance for your team. On the other hand, if they're actually good at the champion...that's when it's time to throw in the towel.

Tier 1: These champions generally do very well regardless, and have some sort of advantage over most other champions. When they do well, their team does well. Even when they don't do well, their team still has a good chance of a comeback victory by utilizing one or more aspects of their late-game utility.

Tier 2: This is the Tier of balanced champions where Riot shoots to place their designs. These champions generally do well in their own right and are very strong picks with a good chance of winning. However, they're not overpowered by any means and do have their weaknesses.

Tier 3: These champions can still do very well, but tend to need a little more snowballing to get rolling. Even if they get an early lead, it's still very possible to turn the tides on them with just a mistake or two. They may also have some weaknesses that can be capitalized on.

Tier 4: These champions are either underpowered or offer less reward than other champions for the same amount of effort. These champions basically start winning from the get-go or get made fun of for the rest of the game. They need gold to do their job correctly, and if they don't get enough of it, they become sandbags for the enemy team to punch. Chances of a comeback with one of these champions feeding on your team is almost none.

Thoughts on Win Rates

In the past, some people complained that this tier list focused too much on win rates and not enough on play rates. However, this tier list takes into account both win rates and play rates before performing analysis on the champion. Just because there's a high correlation on win rates and position on the tier list doesn't indicate that this tier list is solely based on win rates, if anything the champion power level drives the win rates and supports the claim to validity.

League of Legends is an extremely intricate game and this tier list strives to be as accurate as possible to give you the strongest champion picks. We ordered them on the tier list based on what is most likely to give you the highest chance of winning the game. However, the tier list will over time, have a bias towards win rates since this does indicate that the ordering is accurate and not prone to fluctuations in play rate.

With enough playtime, a high win rate on a champion indicates *something* generally goes right, and a low win rate indicates that whatever is happening in games with this champion isn't in their favor.

A low win rate may mean a champion is being played incorrectly and is stronger than his win rate indicates, but a top 25 win rate (with 120 champions) almost always indicates that a champion is at least a good candidate for Tier 1 or high Tier 2 if the sample size is large enough.

This means that champions with high win rates do not mean that they're necessarily GOOD right now, especially if they have a low play rate or tend to get into favorable match-ups. If we feel this is the case, these champions will place differently on this tier list than you'd think.

Similarly, champions with low win rates that are still within the acceptable deviations may end up slightly higher than you'd expect from a champion with mediocre win rates.

If there are champions on this tier list with low overall play rates but good win rates after relatively few games of practice, it may mean that players that pick those champions up just to try them are bringing down the average. If this is the case, we will place them higher on the list.

More thoughts on win rates here.

Counter Picking Champions

In Tier 3 of this tier list, we've placed certain champions that are good as a second pick but can get spanked hard if they end up first picking by a variety of meta champions. If you're good at a large variety of champions, picking a champion that counters your lane is a good place to start. If you can get a slight advantage and don't have a clear experience advantage, picking a champion that both places high on this tier list and also counters your enemy lane may give you enough to win a game.

Check out a few of our more popular champion counter guides:

LoL Tier List Champion Explanations

Ahri [Tier 1 Mid]

Fiddlesticks [Tier 1 Jungle]

Fiddlesticks is perhaps one of the most underrated junglers out there right now and sports a very low play rate despite having the ability to literally 1v5 enemy teams. He does take good positioning and dueling knowledge, but as long as you're not caught out on a ward the game is fully in your control to win or lose. That being said, getting caught can be an issue for Fiddlesticks and against champions with good crowd-control he can be unforgiving when he's discovered.

Lee Sin [God Tier Jungle]

In the current fast-paced solo queue meta, Lee Sin is a premiere early game duelist and specializes in reducing morale. His late-game isn't so bad to be meme-worthy as it was in some patches as a result of Goredrinker and Conqueror, and overall he's a consistent pick that works on any team. While there may be better jungle picks, grabbing Lee Sin is never a bad idea and will rarely lose you a game from champ select.

Maokai [Tier 2 Support]

Maokai is a support that still has many of the qualities that made him dominate in the previous season. However, as the game accelerates, players tend to begin fighting before his saplings can be set up, thus reducing the effectiveness of his map control. Overall, he still has a lot of the initiation and crowd-control that you'd expect in a bruiser-like support, but he doesn't have the free states that other champions like Leona or Rell pack in their kit. This means that while aftershock is down he's extremely vulnerable.

Shen [God Tier Top]

The changes to teleport give Shen a window before platings fall where his ultimate is exceedingly effective, even if the enemy top laner is packing teleport as well. When you combine this with his natural counter-abilities against popular top lane champions like Jayce, Shen becomes an incredibly good pick in nearly any scenario.

Taliyah [Tier 1 Jungle]

Taliyah is another jungle champion that's overlooked. While she isn't nearly as potent as Fiddlesticks late-game, she makes up for it through her early to mid-game power. As a highly mobile champion with excellent burst damage and low cooldowns, she clears fast and ganks hard. Overall she's not consistent enough to make it to God Tier, but a practiced Taliyah can easily take over the game on her own.

Vayne [God Tier Bot]

Nerfs to Immortal Shieldbow and Wit's End weakened her slightly, but not enough to knock her off the powerhouse bot lane list. In her current state, Vayne simply deals more damage than comparable marksmen. Her laning phase still struggles a bit and she rarely has a positive kill rate in most match-ups. However, she more than makes up for it through scaling and shredding otherwise unkillable enemy champions.

Vex [God Tier Mid]

Vex is a champion that lost a bit of popularity during the preseason after her release, then quickly started picking up steam again as ranked season came underway. Her laning phase is decent but nothing spectacular, but it's the late-game long-range initiation where she really shines. Her ability to blow up high priority targets while simultaneously CC'ing enemy teams is extremely valuable, and some supports still have the tendency to move towards a marked target to try and save them.

Ziggs [Tier 1 Bot]

What started as a weird off-meta pick that was good on teams with heavy AD in other lanes has evolved into a core part of the bot lane meta. Ziggs simply deals massive sustained damage and also plays very safe as a result of his long-range and high waveclear. His first strike build also gives him immense gold as the initial burst damage that puts him in battle gets the proc and also generates extra resources.

Zoe [Tier 1 Mid]

In a meta where active items are so popular, Zoe's utility is higher than ever before. Meanwhile, her damage still presents an ever-present issue in the game and she's more than capable of one-shotting enemies mid-game. Her weakness like many casters is the lack of an escape if she's sat on, but nerfs to Eclipse this patch will help keep her alive for longer.

Disclaimer:

The purpose of this list is for discussion and to provide a starting point for champion selection.

Agree? Disagree? Comment below!

If you're looking for a more meta-based tier list based on popularity, be sure to check out the FOTM list as well!

For a list of champions with the highest *potential* in the game without regard to difficulty or team synergies, jump to the strongest potential champions in each position!

Be sure to visit Optimal Champion Bans by Division too!