2016 Champion Tier List - Solo Queue - Patch 6.2 Update

Preface Chatter

The Tier List

God Tier [Highest Influence]:

Tier 1 [Strong/Preferred Choices]:

Tier 2 [Viable/Balanced Choices]:

Tier 3 [Needs Higher Skill/Knowledge Than Usual]:

Tier 4 [Low Benefits for Effort Used]:

• Alistar [Tier 1 Support] - First Zed makes it to God Tier and now Alistar?! Is skill no longer a factor on this tier list? Actually, it's simply a matter of rising skill levels across the average player base along with the change to Alistar's headbutt speed they made late last season. Since his combo is much easier to pull off now, the majority of Alistar players can reliably execute this combo on whim. This means that as a whole, Alistar is now more viable as a result of increased consistency. With his AOE CC, excellent heal, and relatively easier combo, Alistar is finally becoming the solo queue champion we think he should be when we see him in LCS. Nerfs likely incoming.
• Azir [Tier 2 Mid] - I've increased Azir up slightly to Tier 2. The reason for this is that by practicing a few small Azir techniques, it's definitely possible to advance quite high as long as you're willing to put some time into practicing the use of these mechanics. He's still a very intensive champion, but it seems like his potential strength is currently in line with his difficulty. 
• Corki [Marksman God/Tier 1 Mid] - A champion that naturally deals a lot of magic damage, Corki does surprisingly well as a mid laner too. As a mid laner, he provides excellent poke damage and early game trading potential. By adding in an extra marksman type champion, it also frees him up to use his special delivery in more aggressive ways without worrying that he's the the main target.
• Dr. Mundo [Tier 1 Top/Tier 2 Jungle] - Nerfs to Dr. Mundo brought him in line with other balanced champions on the rift. However, his top lane sustain is still quite good, and his ability to CS with both his Q and his E means that his laning phase is extraordinarily simple.
• Fiddlesticks [Tier 1 Jungle] - After the release of the new runic jungle item, Fiddlesticks is continuously on the rise, reminding us how to 1v5 enemy teams in seconds. 
• Graves [Marksman God] - Although Graves is played primarily as a jungler now (who would have thought it?), His burst damage still works quite well as a marksman too. This allows him to duel extraordinarily well during all-in fights. Currently, the most popular supports are also kill lane supports (other than Soraka and Janna), which works well with Graves in the current meta.
• Jax [Tier 1 Jungle] - Jax jungle is still strong, but losing ground after nerfs and the release of the new AP jungle item.
• Jhin [Tier 3 Mid/Marksman] - So far, it appears that most Jhin players end up sniping from afar, which may not be the optimal way to play him. We'll need to see how he pans out, but as of now he deals about as much average damage as mid lane assassins over the duration of poke based champions. That's not quite the hallmark of a good mid laner. As for his marksman abilities, they seem to show a little more promise, but will likely still need a few buffs.
• Kayle [Tier 1 Top] - More people should play Kayle...I'm not sure why they don't. She essentially counters every melee champion, and can 100 to 0 many enemy laners at level 2 during the duration of her E. Her ultimate is also extremely clutch in the assassin meta, and also synergizes with the double marksman kiting style popular today.
• Lee Sin [Tier 2 Jungle] - Similar to Jax, Lee hasn't received a buff since the tracker's knife release whereas other junglers have been buffed.
• Nautilus [Tier 1 Top] - In his current state, Nautilus works quite well as a top laner against many other top laners such as Malphite. His excellent CC and long duration on his W allows him to trade well against the majority of melee champions, but he does still have trouble against very aggressive champions like Darius or Garen.
• Quinn [Top Lane God] - Similar to Kayle, she absolutely dominates melee champions and cooldown based spellcasters. However, she is superior to Kayle in the fact that her roaming potential is stronger and can snowball games quickly.
• Rengar [Tier 3 Jungle] - After the nerfs to Rengar, his kit became clunky and difficult to use, even for high level challenger players. The general consensus is that he's not nearly as effective as he used to be. Rejoice.
• Ryze [Tier 2 Top] - Similar to Azir, Ryze's damage potential is quite high. However, unlike the skillcap required to play Alistar correctly, playing Ryze correctly is also somewhat dependent on your opponents for many many short intervals. This adds up to be a major difference between a good Ryze player and an average Ryze player.
• Shen [Tier 2 Top] - The new Shen changes complicated Shen somewhat, but more for the Shen player than enemy laners. His new sword mechanic seems to be more burdensome on Shen since he needs to position himself well in order to maximize its effectiveness. Meanwhile, enemy laners don't really need to know what Shen's sword does to understand that enemy laner weapons should be avoided (anti-Orianna training).
• Udyr [Jungle God] - Runic Echoes tank Udyr is one of those weirdly effective builds that leaves you questioning what exactly you're supposed to do against it. As his Turtle Stance and Phoenix Stance stack off ability power, he quickly becomes insanely tanky while still dealing unignorable damage to whoever he's chasing down. Players also tend to build Iceborn Gauntlet on him, which gives him plenty of mana to spam his spells along with the knowledge that you can't escape the bear. I'll try and do a more detailed write-up later this week.