Note:
This tier list is based off of our (Elalya & Talith PA) experiences in the Dominion competitive scene. It is purely our opinion based on our perception of two factors: the actual strength of a champion, and how valuable of a pick they are.
Please remember that a strong team composition may not consist solely of top tier champions - it is important to balance factors such as damage type and to fill all necessary roles.
Compositions are more flexible on Dominion--here are a couple of things to factor while putting together a team.
- What is the ultimate goal of the comp?
- What do your picks counter? Which of their picks counter yours?
- What individual hero synergy is there on your team? Are there any skills which interfere with each other? (Think Gragas and Janna.)
Note 2:
If you’re wondering about why a champion is placed here, check the first post and there’s a comprehensive (it may become outdated in time, in which case I will rewrite summaries for each champion) listing on each placement. Alternatively, just feel free to ask below.
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Tier 1 -- Kassadin, Urgot, Rammus, Yorick, Darius, Malphite, Poppy, Lulu, Wukong, Pantheon, Jax, Jayce
Tier 2 -- Cassiopeia, Nunu, Sona, Warwick, Janna, Jarvan IV, Riven, Irelia, Malzahar,Teemo, Amumu, Ezreal, Nidalee, Kog’Maw, Rumble, Gragas
Tier 3 -- Udyr, Maokai, Blitzcrank, Evelynn, Alistar, Leona, Dr. Mundo, Swain, Varus, Skarner, Volibear, Twisted Fate, Renekton, Gangplank, Ryze, Kayle, LeBlanc, Shyvana, Shen, Karma, Annie, Lux, Olaf, Trundle, Vayne, Fizz, Graves, Talon, Xerath, Ahri, Zilean, Heimerdinger, Tryndamere, Nocturne, Lee Sin, Corki
Tier 4 -- Morgana, Singed, Xin Zhao, Soraka, Master Yi, Fiora, Brand, Karthus, Caitlyn, Ashe, Hecarim, Garen, Nasus, Sivir, Galio, Fiddlesticks, Twitch, Nautilus, Ziggs, Tristana, Taric, Anivia, Cho’Gath, Akali, Kennen, Sion, Shaco, Draven, Katarina, Viktor, Vladimir, Veigar, Sejuani, Miss Fortune, Mordekaiser, Orianna
Stay Positive Tier* -- Zilean (POOTERSS)
HUEHUE Tier -- What’s that, arch-rivals? You lost in the Ro16--twice in a row? AHAHA.
Hard to Place on a Team: Zimike - We dislike our own captain so much that we sent him to sub for the enemy team.
Unplaced**: We’ve seen enough Jayce to know that he is an absolute monster.
*I just want to leave a special place for the POOTERSS meta, a strategy in which one person (usually Zilean) perpetually backdoors points with the goal too much aggression from the other team, thus weakening their stance on the map. It’s easily countered by having one person (like Janna) just follow him around and then turning a blind eye to it which then turns the game essentially into a 4v4. It’s not very good unless you build a comp which really likes small skirmishes.
**In general, I delay placing champions for one release cycle.
Bolded champions are ones that have moved.
Italicized champions are ones who are probably going to move yet, but I’m postponing it for one reason or another.
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A basic explanation on what the different tiers mean:
In a hope that people will actually read this, I am going to keep it short and sweet.
Tier 1:
Required bans/priority picks.
Tier 2:
Priority picks/picks that comps are built around.
Tier 3:
Situational picks/counter picks.
Tier 4:
Lesser grade picks/infrequent counter picks/extremely situational picks.
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Malphite moved up in Tier 1:
Every single tourney this guy keeps on showing why he is a must pick/ban. He is the end all answer to crushing the enemy AD, and can single handedly make entire compositions not work. It is disgusting just how strong this guy is throughout the game.
Jayce placed in Tier 1:
Usually we delay placement by one release cycle, but we feel that we’ve experienced enough of him with the delayed post that we can accurately place this monster. He starts out as an absolutely devastating AD caster, just chunking people with accelerated shock blasts and then he scales into a monster of a ranged AD.
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Nunu moved up from Tier 3 to Tier 2:
The increased damage and reduced cooldown on consume reduces the harshness of his early game because now he can eat the lone melee minion from the opening and the lane will naturally push really hard. Late game he is a fortress that produces snowballs and really awesome buffs. He’s mostly just a stall lane, but he facilitates ganks extremely well. He also beats up AD Malz really hard, which is the sprinkles. JUST INJECTING SOME OF MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION HERE, THOUGH: IF YOU PLAY NUNU, THEN YOU’RE A BAD PERSON. HE MAKES BOTTOM LANE BORING. JUST STOP. IF YOU PLAY NUNU AT BOT THEN YOU ARE EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG WITH THE COMMUNITY. <3
Warwick moved down from Tier 1 to Tier 2:
The wolfman drops again! Noooooo! There’s basically two reasons that he’s dropping down to tier 2. First off, he takes a long time to scale and so he’s a lot harder to fit into comps. Second, recently there have been a LOT of new champions that have become powerhouses and so his relative strength has dropped down quite a bit compared to a few months ago. He’s still really good, just quite not worthy of the officer’s club.
Rumble moved up from Tier 4 to Tier 2:
I kind of have to apologize for this one. I always knew he was strong, and for some reason he was still in tier 4. Recently however, people have begun to pick him up and show just how strong he is. The fact that he does AP damage also automatically makes him a little bit more valuable because there aren’t very many viable sources of magic damage. Very tanky, very high damage and excellent team fighting ability.
Gragas moved up from Tier 3 to Tier 2:
The fat man strikes back! Always really liked him, but recently the whole tanky AD off-tank thing from like 16 months ago where you get a trinity on him is coming back and it’s really good. He’s actually a reasonably good substitute for Malphite because his barrels also reduces IAS by 40%. The buffs to his body slam will probably just make the AD off-tank build more viable. He’s a fun champ, and he deserves to be played so I’m actually pretty happy about this.
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Swain moved up in Tier 3:
The buff to his decrepify and the release of super chalice is really starting to pay dividends. Birdman is very strong, and if you need a good source of magic damage then he will likely be your man. He also counters a lot of melee teams, specifically bruisers like Riven who don’t have a hard gap closer.
Volibear moved up from Tier 4 to Tier 3:
The armored bear needs someone who can support him to be effective, but if he has that then he will tear entire teams to shreds. Yeti powered polar bears is one of the most terrifying things in the game.
Kayle moved down from Tier 2 to Tier 3:
She was a bit too high. She’s still really good, a well placed ultimate can swing games and her scaling is quite high. It’s more that when I think about it, in general I’d prefer to have a Ezreal or a Kog’maw on my team to a Kayle.
Shen moved down from Tier 2 to Tier 3:
He can’t really fight anyone heads up any more, and so now that his global presence is getting nerfed significantly there’s not really a good reason to put him onto a team over someone like Alistar or Leona.
Zilean moved up in Tier 3:
Non-POOTERSS Zilean is pretty solid all around. He works really well with items like Frozen Heart and has a lot of specific synergies with heroes like... a certain polar bear. “Back in my day, we would never have allowed armored bears into the league...”.
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Caiflyn moved up in Tier 4:
The increased range on her ultimate works quite well in conjunction with map control characters like Nidalee. Once she picks up a little bit of CDR, her ultimate’s cooldown dips down to ~40 seconds and the armor shred from Nidalee makes Caiflyn quite a bit more dangerous.
Draven placed into Tier 4:
His core axe catching mechanic does not work well on Dominion.
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Questions? Feel free to post below and we will be more than happy to answer and questions that you have.
Different opinion? Voice them, just do it in a constructive manner.
Thanks for reading! :)
