SEASON 3 - PATCH 3.0.5 SOLO QUEUE TIER LIST
Preface Chatter
Lots of movement in this tier list! It's gonna be a doozy!
Just to remind you guys, Tier 4 champions aren't necessarily bad (for the most part) and they can still do very well. The problem is, they either aren't as consistent as other champions, or can do well during the game but have poor scaling and/or presence later on.
Tier 4 dwindles ever smaller...Riot's been doing a good job balancing!
If I didn't answer your comment before (a copy should be sent to your e-mail) or below somewhere, I apologize! Just post again, I'm usually pretty good about answering anything directed at me :x
The Tier List
Tier 1: Rumble, Twisted Fate, Amumu, Hecarim, Miss Fortune, Elise, Singed, Jarvan IV, Nidalee, Fiddlesticks, Draven, Zyra, Jax, Shen, Darius, Blitzcrank, Sona, Cho'gath, Vi, Lee Sin, Malphite, Karthus, Nasus, Volibear, Graves, Ezreal, Kayle, Ryze, Lux, Akali, Xin Zhao, Garen, Kha'Zix, Taric, Thresh
Tier 2:Rammus, Shaco, Twitch, Katarina, Varus, Vladimir, Nocturne, Evelynn, Orianna, Diana, Caitlyn, Vayne, Talon, Maokai, Kassadin, Swain, Leona, Janna, Pantheon, Jayce, Lulu, Wukong, Irelia, Renekton, Zed, Riven, Olaf, Ahri, Karma, Morgana, Nautilus, Tristana, Kennen, Udyr, Anivia, Kog'Maw
Tier 3: Zac, Cassiopeia, Tryndamere, Yorick, Sejuani, Fizz, Master Yi, Xerath, Teemo, Dr. Mundo, Sivir, Malzahar, Annie, Gangplank, Quinn, Ashe, Corki, Mordekaiser, Brand, Sion, Gragas, Soraka, Skarner, Nunu, Galio, Syndra, Viktor, Poppy, Warwick, Shyvana
Tier 4: Zilean, Rengar, Alistar, Veigar, Nami, Urgot, Heimerdinger, Ziggs, Trundle, Leblanc, Fiora
- Heroes in BOLD I will talk about shortly
- Heroes in Italics may be over/undervalued, but aren't/haven't played enough for me to make a better judgement.
- 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 heroes are ALL highly playable and player dependent on how strong they are in-game.
Hero Explanations
- Draven - Draven may well be the strongest AD carry in laning phase right now. The only reason he's not placed above Miss Fortune is because her teamfighting potential is still insane.
- Gangplank - Ever since the nerfs to a lot of popular top laners, Gangplank started coming back into style. The new elemental items synergize well with him, and his strategy is still very basic and effective.
- Karma - I think the new rendition of Karma is very strong. I think her support is still subpar at best, probably a little above Nami, but her AP mid is pretty beast at the moment. Once people get the hang of her skills I suspect we'll see her a lot more.
- Lux - Lux is currently one of the strongest AP mids due to her extremely spammable skills and CCs. She's very similar to Twisted Fate in this regard, except her spells are stronger (but a little harder to land)
- Nami - Lots of people have been complaining about Nami's placement, and she's definitely a very strong hero if you're good at her. On the other hand, most Nami's I've seen tend to miss their CC at the most crucial moment, hence her having the lowest win rate of any support. If your ad carry cannot rely on you to stop an enemy during a battle, then you're not doing your job as support very well.
- Nasus - Jungle Nasus is the current FOTM jungler at the moment, and his cripple is absolutely devestating as usual. Jungling Nasus also allows him to maximize his E armor pen, which synergizes very well with the AD heavy meta of today.
- Poppy - Poppy does more than I give her credit for, hence her swap up from Tier 4. She's got a very specific job that she does very well. It's simply difficult for a lot of team compositions to cope with being down a peeler.
- Rammus - Rammus is very very strong right now after the nerfs to other junglers. He's still extremely fast, and with most junglers playing AD roles and many running berserker greaves instead of merc treads, Rammus is not to be trifled with. Homeguard boots also make his precence in the game very strong.
- Rumble - Nerfs did nothing. Can't trade with him in lane, can't run from him, can't force a fight without killing him, can't kill him.
- Ryze - Ryze is currently very strong, especially as other AP champions were nerfed.
- Sejuani - Sejuani's actually in a decent place right now, and continuously getting moved up as Riot nerfs all the other junglers.
- Shaco - Shaco's not as strong as he was before for the majority of players. His following is very small, but those who play him still play him very well. For others, we'll never understand the ways of the Korean Shaco.
- Singed - I was too hasty on the Singed nerfs; he's still got the same strategy and his damage wasn't affected all that much. He's still able to be a massive threat even after losing lane horribly...what else can you ask for in a champion as easy as this?
- Taric - Taric's been "suffering" after his nerfs. He's still very strong, but you have to know when to trade now instead of before where if you got the first hit off you could win every trade off against every lane.
- Thresh - You Thresh lovers are going to love this one. I think the general community has finally gotten the hang of using his lantern and his skills, and as evidence his winrate has finally climbed above 50%.
- Trundle - Trundle's still a very situational pick in my eyes. He's very easy to play and definitely got some unique aspects to him that give him the element of surprise, but he's still lacking in precence unless he gets fed, as evidenced by him still having one of the lowest win rates in solo queue.
- Vayne - Even with the blade of the ruined king nerf, Vayne is starting to make a comeback as Riot nerfs all her worst enemies...
- Volibear - Volibear is extremely strong right now, and I think that Volibear, Jarvan, and Nasus make up the current Triumverate to replace Hecarim (who's always banned), Vi, and Xin Zhao.
- Zac - Still a little early to say. I see XJ9 doing very well with him, but otherwise he seems pretty average and playable to me, but not anything overwhelming.
- The purpose of this list is for discussion and to provide a starting point for hero selection.