2015 Champion Tier List - Solo Queue - Patch 5.8 Update

Preface Chatter

The Tier List

• Ahri [God Tier Mid] - Strong as always, Ahri seems to be back on top with nerfs all around the rift. Despite receiving a minor nerf herself, it was a very niche change that most players likely won't notice. That being said, the mobility she provides is extremely powerful against the popular junglers these days, especially Gragas.
• Anivia [Tier 1 Mid] - A dark horse rising, Anivia is one of those champions that's slowly been climbing the ranks of solo queue ever since she dropped out of popularity a long time ago. With her strong synergy with Liandries combined with the excellent front line that the League of Tanks currently provides, she's become a great pick for carrying in solo queue through raw damage.
• Ashe [Tier 1 ADC] - With her rework coming up soon, it's interesting to note that she's actually doing very well in solo queue. With nerfs on both Jinx and Graves (mostly Graves), the danger of her getting instantly burst down is lower than ever, allowing her strong poke damage to be fully realized in lane.
• Fizz [Tier 2 Mid/Jungle] - As players get used to his new/old changes, Fizz is finding more success mid lane again. Despite what originally appeared to be a huge jungle nerf with changes on his W, he's surprisingly still fairly viable and still does well in that role too.
• Garen [Tier 2 Top/Tier 3 Jungle] - With the black cleaver rework in action, it seems that Garen has a few more options open to him than before. Although it's not translating to a direct success boost just yet, it seems a matter of time before he starts flowing back into the mix again. As a strong Riven counter top and being the new highlight of Saintvicious' stream, it seems likely that you'll be seeing more of him soon.
• Gragas [Tier 1 Jungle] - Definitely a very strong jungler in competitive play right now, much of it also translates over to solo queue as well. See this article for more information.
• Jinx [God Tier ADC] - The nerfs on Jinx's ultimate impact her at a very selective level. Most players likely didn't even notice the change.
• Kog'Maw [Tier 2 Mid/Tier 1 ADC] - As mid-laners go, Kog'maw is still very powerful against similar poke champs. However, with Ahri jumping back into popularity he faces strong difficulties against her mobility and burst considering he has no way of running. Meanwhile, as an ADC he's definitely feeling some boosts from the Graves nerfs.
• Lee Sin [Tier 3 Jungle] - In a pure tank role, Lee has few engagement options open to him compared to other "support" type junglers. However, with the strength of Cinderhulk at the moment, it's relatively difficult for him to use his damage build and stay relevant into late game.
• Lucian [Tier 2 ADC] - As an ADC Lucian is definitely still viable. However, he simply doesn't have as much "surprise" factor in solo queue with the amount he's played. As a result, he's mostly balanced and doesn't get many free cheese kills like other ADCs can.
• Malphite [Tier 1 Jungle] - Despite a weak early game, he's something like a slightly stronger Warwick jungle now. If he really wants to gank pre-6 he can, but with his late game scaling he ends up being a very big factor even if he doesn't.
• Nunu [God Tier Jungle] - As his popularity rises with little to no impact on his win rate, it's hard to attribute his success to mastery anymore. With his impressive 10% HP scaling on consuming elementals combined with his 1% bonus damage based on his maximum health, Nunu gets a ton of free stats for simply building to be an unkillable beast. In solo queue, this means that if he can run around the enemy jungle wrecking havoc for long enough, his team can gain a strong lead through CS. His biggest weakness is still his relatively weak ganks, but in a 2v2 situation he can easily deny jungle kills.
• Riven [God Tier Top] - Like Nunu, once the data reaches a large enough quantity, it's hard to ignore. Riven is a champion that generally requires high skill and decent mechanics to play. However, if she out-trades the majority of the time without needing to worry about specific spell timings and cooldowns, then she does very well in solo queue. At the moment, this is the case. Starting from level 1, any triple Q trade almost always comes out in her advantage, meaning that she can assert her lane dominance from the start. Additionally, since most junglers go Cinderhulk now, her team no longer lacks front lining/crowd control power like they did when Kha'Zix/Lee Sin were popular.
• Ryze [Tier 2 Top/Tier 3 Mid] - Despite seeming like a buff, Ryze experienced a sharp drop in win rate this patch. I think that similar to Gnar and his passive, players just need to gain some knowledge of when and how to best utilize Ryze's burst passive. However, as this is the case, I will leave him where he is and watch carefully for now.
• Twisted Fate [Tier 1 Mid] - With CC and support type junglers coming back into the fray, Twisted Fate does excellently in solo queue. With nerfs on Graves, it also helps him snowball bot lane as he's no longer in as much danger of instantly getting exploded on landing. This allows him to pick his team up early dragons and earn victory.
• Varus [Tier 3 Mid] - Although I still think that Varus may deserve higher with his excellent poke power, it seems that like Kog'Maw, it's very unfortunate timing that Ahri is coming back into the fray. Again, with little to no method of escaping, many Varus players have fallen prey to the 9-tailed kitty.
• Vayne [Tier 1 ADC] - Nerfs on Graves and "nerfs" on Jinx have allowed Vayne to start showing her stuff as a tank killer. Indisputably, her late game power in this meta is extremely powerful with good front lines and her ability to take them out. Prior to this patch, she was under constant pressure by Graves in the early to mid-game. However, now the match-up is a bit more even and allows her to farm and scale up safely.
• Xin Zhao [Tier 1 Jungle/Top] - The advent of black cleaver changes is great for Xin, as he synergizes very well with the item. Additionally, the fact that it gives him some tankiness means that it's easier for Xin players to avoid the pitfall of going pure damage.