Reign of Gaming

He only really counters AP that can't help against his CC/sustain

Naming Vlad most notably.

With Viktor at like...19 on the previous list. I must wonder what got him into 2nd tier? Don't get me wrong though. I love me some Viktor. Just curious.

His W is a great zoning ability in teamfights, the enemies have to think : Do I stay and get stunned, or do i try to get out and waste time. He also has great damage potential, harass abilities.  I'm not sure if he deserves that high, even though I play him alot, but he's indeed good. (He just got 2 places higher too)

I think you could put AP Yi into this section. While his harass isn't that reliable, he has the strongest sustain in the game and if he hits you with alpha you take a huge hit because of 1,0 ratio. Lategame he isn't that good, but if he can cleanup, he will. That sounds at least average to me so tier 3.

Tristana is, played as AP, another champ that should be considered viable. She has very very high burst and her jump resets the cd on kill, so she can even towerdive. As Master Yi, she falls of lategame, but she has still good cc and adds something to the team. I would place her a bit under AP Yi.

Well, I would like to ask about Xerath's placement.
I for one love the insane range/nuke, and his ability to kill a carry from the other side of the map (Give or take)
I'm curious about the placement of both Ziggs and Malzahar as well. (Kassadin)

I feel like Xerath is great, but he's kind of like Brand or AP Kog, I mean that he needs really good positioning and if he doesn't get it, he's dead for sure. His passive is kind of meh for an AP carry and your W hinders you more than anything in teamfights. He has a great laning phase, can gank relatively well, but he doesn't shine the rest of the game as hard as some of the other AP carries. Maybe he'd need to be a lil higher (head of tier 3) , but i dont think he belongs in high-medium tier 2.

I'm as curious as you about Ziggs ;) 

About Malzahar, he's kind of a caster that can win his lane with almost no problem, he can gank relatively well too. But that's it. He takes down targets one by one instead of AoE nuking them, that's the main problem. This causes the fact that even if he's 20-0 in lane, he just simply can't carry games single-handledly. Not to add that his ultimate his cancelable by CC or QSS, his damage is thus mainly hypothetical and not certain.

Kassadin is overrated since a --big-- while, assassins meta had a shining moment, and he made himself a high place in the game. However, that meta is gone since a while but many are the people who still think Kassadin is a must pick/ban. He can get countered really easily. He probably never will get fed in lane against most matchups, he has to rely on successful side lane ganks to make himself a place into late game. Plus, like most assassins, every kills he gains in early game lenghten his lifetime a bit more into late game. His era is done, get over it.

Thank you for the informative answer
Great that there are people like you around to explain stuff to guys like me

No problems :)

I'm still not sure why you put Ziggs so low. But overall the list is better now than the last one.

Ziggs:

He has consistent powerful DPS damage, map control with his ultimate, 2 forms of CC, an escape (most of the mages dont have one) which is also a gap closer, powerful autoattacks and great AA range, he also can steal the enemy's wraiths pretty easily.

Yea he's mana hungry, that's his big weakness, but he definitely deserves tier 2, big least high tier 3.

Also, Annie may need a relook sooner or later, she got a nice freshing buff which really put her back in the AP carries righteous picks. What do you think?

I'd say you miss one champion in the tier list. And I'll tell you why. 

Most underestimated thou viable champion in your team, with one of the best abilities to poke, even better to help your AD Carry survive and kill, not counting perfect escape or engage methods on ultimate.. Talking about Nidalee. Explanation ? Here it goes, starting from WHY : If you master Nidalee, you most likely don't get a dead until late game teamfights, cause she is ungankable, not only because of her cougar form and jump, but also traps, which viably placed may easily reveal any incoming champions, her mobility grants you options to put those traps between minion waves, as each trap has approximately half wave spawn cooldown. So, how you do it? Just master the map control, so you may see any enemy that walked into your trap just instantly. Second thing, her sustain on lane. If you build her up the way I do (took me a while but found a best build for her - of what I think and see), you have the mana sustain which equals to health sustain, because of her E (heal) ability on human form. So you do have the possibility to stay on lane for long time with no backs, good, but what about the enemy, can't he stay also? Well, yes, if you can't harass nor damage the enemy. The way I do it, I throw spears that can't be avoided, unless you think the way I do, the question is how to hit your enemy with Q, and the answer is, think like him, predict enemy movement, where he will run from your spears, kill the minions just before a throw to open yourself a way for the spear. Clear the spawn with your cougar, then wait for the enemy to stand in position that can't be avoided, like tower side from bushes. This is the way you damage in early and mid game, if you want you can also ambush in bushes etc, which is great while on cougar, or doing big combos like W Q R E Q W from the bush onto coming enemy. She is  very good soloer, but also mid lane. I play her a lot, after I think I did master her (after about 200 games) I'd say I can counter most of mid lane picks, I just started playing ranks with her, 4 last matches were like 17:0:5, 17:2:11, 11:1:19, 5:0:14 :) I'm not that high elo, but just starting with the rankeds I'd say, cause I'm just after 1400+.. So what now.. Teamfights, late game - This is what decides whether the champion is viable or useless, Nidalee can be a great poker with her Q, can lay traps that find enemies and lower their armor and magic res for 40%/12s so it's big amount.. Also, she may heal every like 5 seconds if you have 40% cd red which is not hard to get in late game, giving AS to AD Carry or healing runners/herself. She may join into teamfights also on her cougar form, the best if you have a teammate with Aegis. That makes her crazy resistant which means, can stay inside for a bit to do some massive AP damage with E, W (and Q if lich bane is up). So she may poke the enemy, find them in bushes, exclude some champions from teamfights (if they're hp is dropped to 1/3 after one spear), and the ability to survive even there, so she doesn't feed at all, and she heals other teammates giving them additional AS :) (compiling with Soraka gives you imba heals, with Nunu gives your AD Carry imba AS bonus, same goes for Warwick etc) 

So I do think she is a viable option as an AP Carry. I'd play her at least in Tier 2 if not Tier 1 because of her ability to combo and sustain or stay alive. 

Playing on EUNE, named Volikaris, same yt channel if you want to see how do I roll on Nidalee AP (videos there)

I feel like AP Nidalee can't carry as hard as other AP carries, adding that she has to rush in teamfights, making her an easy target to take down. I agree that she has amazing poke ability, offers map control, heal, and nuke relatively hard in courgar farm, but the whole is just not to the level of an AP carry like Annie or Gragas (to take a melee champ) adding that her risk/profit is also worse than them to make her a competitive choice. She can be AP, and do great, but she can't be the sole AP in the team and that's the problem, but i would put her above LeBlanc in that list.

I'd say if you want to rush inside teamfights, you can just build her toward items for survi, like, RoA, Rylai's, Zhonya's, Abyssal, which personally I don't use for her, cause IF I jump into teamfight i mostly am sure that there's no one to nuke me down, or he is the one that will be focused by my combo, then jump out, turn heal, and jump in again - if the teamfight is that long.. That just depends on your play style - you may also distract enemies in teamfight who may lose precious seconds to aim on you or chase you even thou they can't catch you actually ;) Everything about her makes her usable - cougar gives a little bit of tankyness so she may not be so weak. I have on mind also a AP Bruiser Nidalee build which I will test soon, if that works, she may find herself as not weak, but fair strong AP Carry with short cd nukes on cougar inside teamfights.. :)

AP is the hardest tier list but i do think you got several things wrong.

1. Ahri isn't tier 1 worthy at all imo. One of the biggest reasons I don't think much of her is that her Q is SO easy to dodge. It hits maybe 50% of the time going out and about 20% of the time coming back when i'm laning against her. It's really sad. Sure she can kite melee champs but I think that is her only use. Tier 1 is supposed to be about champs that are good vs all comps. Ahri just isn't imo. I don't see many competetive teams playing ahri either. You can't say she is a highly contested pick. Again I think her only real use is vs a double bruiser comp.

2. Anivia is not tier 1. No way in hell. She is basically a 1 spell champion. Her wall. The wall is very nice in competetive play but it's a gimicky thing which can cause things to either go very right or very wrong. Her Q is nearly impossible to land because it travels SO SLOW. Her E isn't particularly strong unless you are hitting someone in your ult. Your ult sucks in teamfights because everyone just avoids it. If she gets egged then you KNOW she is going to die before respawning so there isn't much point in that. If she were tankier then it would be a great way to draw fire but the fact of the matter is that people just MELT her egg and move on to mop up the enemy team. I haven't even mentioned her biggest problem yet which is her reliance on blue buff and that is particularly painful in this meta which is shifting more and more towards counterjungling, especially at buffs. Anivia without blue is essentially worthless for the next 5 min. It's so pathetic. Another problem with her is just the way you have to build her. You start boots and pots. You then rush tear of the goddess and then catalyst. You probably finish boots somewhere in here. AND THEN YOU GET AP. Anivia is forced to spend like the first 15 minutes of the game without a single blasting wand or ANY AP just because of how rediculously reliant she is on mana. It's a huge handicap. I'll stop ranting now but seriously she is bottom of tier 2.

3. Galio- To be honest I think he is either the 1st or 2nd best mage in the game. Why? Because he is the ultimate protection to your AD carry. You get a  comp like Galio, Kog, Nunu and the other team just drops like flies. He is impossible to push out of lane. He is impossible to zone. He is impossible to stop farming. He always gets his wraiths. He gets farmed, he gets tanky, his tankiness turns into AP, he does good damage, doesn't die, and does massive cc in teamfights. I think he is godlike.

4. Xerath- the godlike siege engine. I think he deserves mid tier 2. He is hard to lane against because of his range and he has a stun which is pretty easy to land in teamfights. He has a ton of armor so he's super hard to kill. I think that tanky mages are the way to go these days and you just have to rely on your AD carry. I think Xerath fits that job description very nicely. Give him some love.

5. Mordekaiser- Super strong pick. I think he is similar to Galio. The difference is that while he has much less cc, he is a much greater threat to the enemy AD carry. The AD carry means everything so to have a tanky guy just walk into the enemy team and drop the carry from 100 to 0 and then get an extra AD carry is just rediculously good. Morde is a good farmer and pusher for mid lane and is very hard to counter. He isn't reliant on mana. I honestly would put him tier 1, spot 3. He is a beast.

6. Swain- don't give into the pressure Elementz, you know he sucks and you are absolutely correct. His .2 ratio on his ult is just absolutely abysmal. The whole concept of swain is to walk into the enemy team, turn on your ult, and do massive regen. His ult's regen is such absolute trash that unless he isn't hit by a single cc and gets a full combo on the enemy carry he is worthless. Did I mention how reliant he is on mana? Counterjungling blue vs a swain team is so effective.

7. Lux- sux. I'd drop her to below Kat.

Yeah I know I wrote a lot but hopefully this was helpful feedback. Thanks Elementz for finally coming back with new tier lists :)

oh forgot to mention that another reason mordekaiser is going to start shining is the change to DFG. Now it's an item that can be built by champs who don't use mana. That just gives him an even stronger burst potential vs an AD carry.

Any reason why you didn't include AP Ez, while including AP Kog? I saw Scarra run him a few times, and I've toyed around with him and he does a fairly decent job. Not tier 1 worthy, but he isn't a trash pick. His harass is pretty solid, and his ultimate is amazing once you get built a bit.