Laz's League Tier List

[LazaHorse]

So people have been asking me lately "what tier does this champ fall into?" or "should I try learning this champ?" As such, I made a little tier list that I may be editing from now and then of where I think all the champions lie. This is not a solo queue tier list, because the rules in solo queue are a bit different from just general play (i.e. pick a champ that can hard carry). Champions who need a bit of explanation for their position in my list will be in bold and the description will be below. Champions that I feel may be too high are red and champions I feel may be too low are green. This is a tentative list, and those red/green names are the most subject to change. Enjoy!

 

 

Tier 1:

Ryze, Lee Sin, Kennen, Morgana, Tristana, Janna, Cassiopeia, Shen, Kog'maw, Rumble, Irelia, Rammus, Warwick, Ahri, Skarner

 

Tier 2:

Alistar, Vayne, Udyr, Graves, Soraka, Nidalee, Corki, Yorick, Xerath, Sion, Sivir, Lulu, Galio, Taric, Singed, Maokai, Karthus, Urgot, Fiora, Twisted Fate, Nunu, Nocturne, Leblanc, Lux, Gangplank

 

Tier 3:

Mordekaiser, Kassadin, Olaf, Brand, Dr. Mundo, Sona, Trundle, Ashe, Riven, Katarina, Talon, Vladimir, Nautilus, Miss Fortune, Wukong, Anivia, Pantheon, Ezreal, Blitzcrank, Zilean, Master Yi, Cho'Gath, Caitlyn, Jarvan IV, Akali, Renekton, Swain, Malphite, Shaco

 

Tier 4:

Malzahar, Nasus, Ziggs, Tryndamere, Leona, Amumu, Fizz, Veigar, Poppy, Gragas, Fiddlesticks, Twitch, Heimerdinger, Kayle, Jax, Teemo

 

DO NOT PLAY!

Annie, Garen, Viktor, Orianna, Karma, Evelynn, Xin Zhao, Volibear, Sejuani

 

~~~EXPLANATIONS~~~

 

Ryze - Ryze is right now the best champion in the game, bar none. His passive is insane and I think will probably be nerfed a bit. Right now it gives 1 second cooldown to each of his abilities any time he uses any other ability. With 40% CDR, that means his ult can come up twice in any team fight (I've actually had it come up 3 times over a long team fight). He has two strong nukes that scale with tankiness (mana) and VERY POWERFUL aoe damage in team fights.

 

Lee Sin - I may overrate the role of the jungler a bit, so it's no surprise I put Lee so high. He is considered by most to be the best jungler because of his very fast clear times (max E first in the jungle), his very high range with Q, and his utility with his ult. He helped me carry myself up from 1400 to 1700 elo and is in my opinion deserving of the number 2 spot.

 

Tristana - Most will be surprised that I rate her so high. Again this isn't a solo queue tier list, so don't expect to win every ranked game you play as Tristana. However, for an AD carry, Tristana has THE BEST KIT. She has more utility than most supports, and also scales insanely well with her Q steroid. Slow, HUGE jump, knock back, grievous wound, and the game's highest range at lvl 18. She is VERY strong, and is this high because of it.

 

Janna - Janna had the highest number of games played and wins at IEM Hanover, and for good reason. She counters the heal based supports that you see now (Sona/Taric) and tears while doing so. Her insane amounts of utility make her a very scary champion mid to late game where she can pretty much dictate team fights for her allies. Don't knock AP Janna either. Tornados clear waves to push like hell while W harass is stupidly strong.

 

Vayne - Vayne at one point was considered a completely broken champion. She was in Elementz's tier 1 for a while, but people are now starting to realize that her struggle in lane early game leads to a moderately difficult mid and late game if you don't farm enough. She scales very well with Attack Speed thanks to Silver Bolts, but you end up having to choose between two PDs or AD items (IE and BT), and neither of those choices are as good on other champs (AS on Kog'Maw and AD on Tristana). She's also countered by a single 400 gold item (Oracle's Elixer).

 

Sivir - After he kit change with her W, she was considered the game's best AD Carry for her AOE and movement speed utility. She's still in the top 5, but her lack of movement early and her low auto attack range make her susceptible to lots of damage. She has a nutcase late game, but it takes a while to build up to that.

 

Nunu - I want to put this guy higher... but it's kind of a struggle playing him. He is usually played as a support now, keeping blood boil on your allies and his E on the enemy AD carry. However, the moderate range on that E, the required tankiness you have to build to not get rocked, and the lack of usefulness of his ult make him a difficult champion to win with.

 

Kassadin - The king of solo queue. Kassadin's problem is pretty simple. Yes he can nuke people to fuck... but... his late game is garbage. He is leblanc, but with a weaker early/mid game. He can't farm for shit. He has mana problems ALL game. His ult cooldown feels too long now. And because his kit REQUIRES Rod of Ages, it takes a while to build anything powerful. Maybe I'll slide him into tier 2 later, but for now tier 3 seems fit.

 

Talon - Many will be surprised I put Talon so low because I favor him in solo queue. But while he does great burst and is one of the better AD casters in the game, he is VERY easy to pin down and kill since he has to build glass cannon to do any damage. As such, similarly to Vayne, he is countered by a single Oracle's Elixer.

 

Akali - What else do I need to say? Oracle's Elixer? Lol... Her early and mid game are unquestionably strong, but late game she is easy to focus, and the spell vamp that you spend a lot of money on early does not help you nearly as much late.

 

Viktor - I would... love for Viktor to make it into this list. His kit is very strong poke-wise and his W is one of the coolest abilities I've seen Riot make. That passive just gimps him so hard late game without providing much utility/stats. Augment Death is a bit more than a Needlessly Large Rod (~1800 gold), and is very clearly the best augment. If they change his passive a bit... or just make it stronger. I would love to put him into tier 3 or maybe even 2. However, any game that goes past the 35th minute will go to whichever team doesn't have Viktor. Overstatement? Maybe... but that is how badly his passive gimps his late-game effectiveness.

Edited March 30, 2012 by LazaHorse

[BluHorse]

so basically, assuming equal skill level, a ryze mid shen top lee sin jungle and janna/trist bottom is the best group comp according to you?

[LazaHorse]

Not necessarily because there are champions whose abilities compliment each other better. That IS a very strong team, but I can think of better compositions:

 

Mid-Late AOE team comp:

Kennen Mid, Rumble Top, Graves Sona Bot, and Skarner Jungle

 

Poke comp (mid-game dominance, late game harass):

Nidalee Top, Morgana Mid, Corki Sona/Lulu Bot, and Mundo Jungle

 

Early Game Tower Push comp:

Morgana/Malzahar Mid, Nidalee Top, Caitlyn Janna Bot, Shyvana Jungle

 

It depends on what kind of game you want to run when you're talking about a whole team comp. This is just a list of the best champions at their respective niches.

[ttaM]

Why would you buy oracles to counter Vayne's 1 second stealth assuming she has her ultimate and tumble up?

[LazaHorse]

You should be getting Oracle's every game (unless they're clearly not trying to ward) anyway. The point is that if the enemy team has an Oracle's the thing that makes Vayne so threatening during team fights (not knowing where her position is to pin her down) is taken away.

[ttaM]

I was more concerned about "countering" Vayne with oracles. Vayne can do TONS OF DAMAGE without her ultimate.

[racker16]

cassio too high? she's so over powered at the moment. Great ultimate, great lane control, is squishy if caught out of position but if you're half decent at her you should never be caught out of position.

 

Irellia i have to agree with though after the slight changes, she just doesn't have that presence that she used to.

[BluHorse]

gonna poke your brain as to why malphite is so low on your tier, just want your reasoning >.>

[LazaHorse]

I was more concerned about "countering" Vayne with oracles. Vayne can do TONS OF DAMAGE without her ultimate.

 

Vayne's kit is full of damage, that's unquestionable. The problem is it's all relatively short ranged auto-attack based damage. She's made as a chaser and in fights she uses positioning and her knockback to provide opportunities for DPS. The problem with that is it's MOSTLY set up in team fights by the one second after her initial tumble. If you can see her in that one second and tell where she's going or CC her before she starts chunking with auto attacks, you can handle her relatively easily. Yes she can still put out crazy deeps if she comes in late or isn't targeted properly, but having that ONE ITEM lowers her effectiveness by a great deal.

 

cassio too high? she's so over powered at the moment. Great ultimate, great lane control, is squishy if caught out of position but if you're half decent at her you should never be caught out of position.

 

Irellia i have to agree with though after the slight changes, she just doesn't have that presence that she used to.

 

Cassio is a very very strong champion. The only problem with her that people at low ELO are finding out after trying to emulate players like Regi and Alex Ich is that because her spells have relatively long cast animations, pretty short ranges, and are lasting dots (not immediate hit and walk away damage), she has to stay in "combat" for a long time to deal desired damage. She can't do what Ryze can in nuking twice, snaring them, and walking away without much room for retaliation. Because of that, she can be beaten by strong nukers in middle (Brand/Ryze/Kennen) who can just hit her and walk away before she can land her Q + E. In team fights, she also has to put herself far into harm's way to deal significant damage. Still she does deal INSANE damage and with the items you usually build has some good defense, so she is tier 1 worthy... just not sure how high.

 

gonna poke your brain as to why malphite is so low on your tier, just want your reasoning >.>

 

Malphite's kit is what I would consider "out-dated." There aren't many PURE TANK champions anymore, just a whole lot of meta-golem "off-tanks." These champions soak up shit-tons of damage while dealing strong bruiser-style DPS. Malphite's kit makes it difficult to build that way, lending more toward a straight up tank. While he is good in that role, and if he gets good start he can build armor to make his E deal good damage, as you approach late game Malphite loses strength rapidly. There's only so much armor you can build without getting diminishing returns, mostly due to what I consider a low armor scaling ratio on his E. His Q becomes relatively ignorable after ~30 minutes and you end up with a champion whose only use is a group stun/knock up. His only viable niche is a pure tank, but even at that role there are better options. Rammus, Amumu, and Nautilus all perform better as "pure tanks" than Malphite. Amumu's problem (tier 4) is that his only viable position is in the jungle (he lanes like a downie kid) but even there he is stupidly susceptible to counter-jungling. Malphite can at least solo top and beat some AD champions early.

[BluHorse]

gotcha, i personally enjoy malphite because of the knockup+the auto attack debuff he can put on champs with his E

[BranHorse]

tier 3 has to many champs in it....add 3 more tiers

[Richie]

Graves isn't tier 1? wut.... If this is based on a 5v5 team, teams build around their ad carry, in which case graves should be t1 and ashe moved up. She shouldn't be close to urgot unless someone knows what they're doing with urgot, in which case is the only time he is ever picked. IMO, if this is supposed to be 5v5 pre made ranked matches, then people build their teams around ashe and graves. A graves with a janna bottom is ridiculous. It's really not even fair unless you have an equally or better combo, stopping graves from csing. It's hard to stop graves once he gets farm or kills. Same with ashe. Despite the fact that they are pretty squishy, even with graves passive, they should still be higher tiers. Both of them.

[Mr.Tin]

Lol why is Garen DO NOT PLAY, you spin and you win, its that easy.

[LazaHorse]

Lol why is Garen DO NOT PLAY, you spin and you win, its that easy.

 

You have to build him relatively tanky to NOT DIE in half a second. But if you don't build with at least 300 AD and a LW, you do insignificant damage and are little more than a KSing machine. His kit is what I would consider outdated (passive requires you to be out of combat in a meta where aggression pays), so I would say avoid playing him.