Reign of Gaming

This list is focused on the champions that have the most success in solo queue. In simple terms this list ranks who you should be playing right now if all you care about is winning games. Above is an accompanying video on the so called “Pick or Ban champions” that elaborates on exactly why they are the best choices right now and it'll explain the format of this tier list in more depth.

Chances are you may disagree with where I have placed your favourite champions but remember that everyone on this list is at least strong in the current meta. 

I'm not going to include commentaries or guides next to each champion but if you're interested then you can find videos for most on my youtube channel along with a bunch of other content!  https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePhylol

How Does The Layout Work?

• Each Role (Top / Jungle / Mid / AD Carry / Support) has it's own Tier list to keep things simple.
• Each champion is placed in to a Tier ranging from Pick or Ban to Strong. I haven't included every champion, only those I feel fit into these categories.
• In addition to the first two Tiers there is also the "Underrated" Tier which contains champions that I personally think will be played a lot more this patch.

Tier Explanations

• Pick or Ban - These are, funnily enough, champions that you should really look to pick or ban. These champions excel at their roles and generally outperform their counterparts in every way making them the best choices for carrying solo queue games. Many of these are also classed as "overpowered" though I'm going to lean away from labelling any champion as that.
• Strong Tier - These champions are just under the Pick or Ban Tier, still extremely strong but they fall short in some way. In most cases a small buff or shift in the meta would result in them moving to the Pick or Ban Tier.
• Underrated Tier - These champions are still good but are not played often in the current meta and, in most cases, require you to practice the champion to unlock their potential. Whether it be changes to the champions, items or the general meta, I believe these champions will be played more moving forward.

Patch 4.4 Tier List

Champions that are in the Pick or Ban Tiers, alongside those in the Underrated Tiers and a few in the Strong Tiers will have explanations written below. The champions in each Tier are not in any particular order.

Explanations

Mid Laners

Kassadin - Why Is He Not Here?

Kassadin received a complete rework this patch and is honestly underwhelming now for a few major reasons. Firstly, the removal of the silence on his Q effects every phase of the game. In the Laning phase you could silence your opponent to prevent them harassing you with you cs, you could silence them to prevent flashes when your jungler came to gank and then shifting to the mid game it made it impossible to escape Kassadin. By removing this they've weakened him at every stage of the game and the magic damage shield that replaced it is not significant enough to balance the change. The second problem is that by reducing the base damage on Kassadin's abilities, he is forced to stack more AP to do the same damage which means that he'll be a lot more vulnerable and easier to shut down. In my opinion, Kassadin is more of a counter pick now to certain mages since he'll struggle to lane anywhere if picked blindly. 

Ziggs - Pick or Ban Tier

Ziggs came into the scene a few months ago and since then has kept his crown as the best all round mid laner. Ziggs is strong in every aspect of the game, he has great lane control, great teamfight damage and incredible wave clear. The meta recently has shifted more to objective control by taking towers and dragons early but it's impossible to push against a Ziggs, practically stalling the game out by himself and preventing the enemy team from snowballing. When a fight does eventually break out he has an aoe nuke, aoe persistent damage and even zone control with his minefield and satchel charge. The biggest problem with Ziggs is all of his main damage are skillshots meaning that if you miss them you'll be completely useless and so player skill does somewhat determine how effective the pick will be. He is one of the few champions in the Pick or Ban Tier that is not banned or considered "overpowered" despite his dominance.  

Yasuo - Pick or Ban Tier

Yasuo has been banned almost since release and while he is strong there is one reason why no one wants to play against him. That reason is that he is impossible to shut down. You can set up a tent in his lane, you can counter pick him and you can play around his ultimate but as soon as he gets Statikk Shiv and Infinity Edge he has the potential to dominate the entire game. Only requiring 2 items to be effective is why most people consider him to be so dangerous and until Riot addresses that I highly doubt anyone will stop banning him in Solo Queue.  

Lulu - Pick or Ban Tier

Lulu saw a rise to power in patch 4.2 and has since stormed the scene. Her crazy damage combined with her amazing utility is what makes her such a contested pick. The recent nerf to Lich Bane will go someway to reducing her effectiveness but I still believe that he is Pick or Ban in her current state. The base damage on her abilities is incredibly high, which is why you could rush Lich Bane previously, giving her a lot of early game damage and lane control. You then combine that the AP Scaling effects both her damage and shields and suddenly she becomes incredibly dangerous. Simply put, a champion that can speed up, shield, grant health and slow should not be doing as much damage as Lulu is right now. She is THE complete package for your team. 

Nidalee - Strong Tier

Nidalee can struggle in lane but her real strength is mid to late game. She has insane poke, a ridiculous heal, she is really safe and can carry the game completely on her own. The reason I want to explain myself here is because I think that Nidalee is honestly the most annoying champion to play against, and when mastered you could take her to the same level as a "Pick or Ban" champion. Weaker nidalee players will struggle when their team doesn't let her poke but all you need is one or two magical spears and you can turn a lost game around. Playing Nidalee is all about pushing her to her limits, putting yourself in seemingly bad positions and attracting attention before escaping. There is a reason why she is played in the LCS and Solo Queue so often and unlocking her potential will show you why. 

Swain - Underrated Tier

Swain has always been in a strange place. Being an AP Carry and a Tank is not something you often see go hand in hand but that is what makes Swain so deadly. His damage is insane, he's hard to kill and if he gets out of control it's so hard to shut him down. He has a lot of poke in the Lane Phase but if you get hit by his root on 60% health or lower you're most likely dead so it makes laning against Swain pretty difficult. The reason I think he is Underrated right now is partly just because of how strong he is but also because of the kind of "meta" compositions that we see right now. Most teams are heavy engage with champions like Lulu, Wukong, Vi, Pantheon etc and that is exactly what Swain wants, to be in the middle of everyone. If you master Swain and can snowball your lane (which is not that difficult) then you can easily carry games. 

Karthus - Underrated Tier

Karthus hasn't received any changes but is flying under the radar right now. You can't pick him blindly like you could Swain, but in some situations he is extremely effect. There has been a lot of talk about Riot's changes to extending games and causing the "League of Lategame" and this is exactly what Karthus wants. Karthus is unique because not only does he do a ton of damage at the start of the fight but after he dies he can do 1000-2000 GUARANTEED damage with his ultimate. All I've spoke of so far is his late game but his early laning phase is not something to ignore either. His Q does a surprising amount of damage but more importantly it allows him to farm from range safely. If you play it correctly then there is no way that your opponent can shut you down and the sooner you get your items, the sooner you will destroy everyone on the enemy team. 

Katarina - Underrated Tier

I started playing Katarina a few patches ago and in the right matchup, or when you master her, she is insanely powerful. She has amazing damage with few items, great snowball potential, probably the best clean up with her resets and can carry a game completely by herself. Her early lane phase is not that strong but once she gets going it's very hard to stop her and she doesn't even need to be fed to be effective. This is one of the reasons why I think she is so good. If she gets fed then she'll dominate, if not then she still has the potential to clean up a lost fight and carry. In this way she is kind of like a ticking time bomb, if you drag the game out and let her farm then eventually she is going to get a few items and punish you. Her biggest weakness, and why she isn't played more is because anything that interupts Katarina's ult will completely shut her down. This is really the only way to beat her, you have to save your knock backs and cc for when she ults in because if she gets that full channel off you are dead.  

AD Carries / Marksman

Sivir - Pick or Ban Tier

Sivir's ultimate is really strong, she lanes decently well against anyone and has a lot of damage. After her recent nerfs honestly most lanes are now a skill matchup because you need to hit more Qs to get control of the lane. Despite the second round of nerfs this patch, her real strength is her ultimate because you become really strong in 2v2 situations and also with ganks. In a 2v2 situation, if the enemy laner steps out of position at all you can ult and catch them really easily, it's impossible to out run her and Sivir packs a decent punch when she does hunt you down. It's also really easy for a jungler to be ultied into a gank and just makes her even more deadly. When you move this into the team fighting phase she can punish people who overextend, engage and disengage giving her probably the highest utility out of any AD. The reason she is Pick or Ban is because she does a ton of AoE damage in teamfights, something that is sometimes hard to notice, and is the safest AD to play with her Spell Shield and Ultimate. 

Lucian - Pick or Ban Tier

Lucian's passive is where a lot of his strength comes from in lane and the culling actually does a lot of damage if you hit every single bullet on the a target. So not only does Lucian do a lot of damage but he's a safe pick too. He has his dash which is low cooldown and he also has his speed up. The speed up is useful when you're getting chased or chasing someone as you can apply your w to them and culling and every bullet that hits procs and speeds you up. The main reason he is pick or ban right now is because of his insane damage in lane and teamfights. The combination of the culling and his passive make short work of any bruiser running straight at him and his Q is a great way of controlling any lane. 

Draven - Strong Tier

Draven first came back into favour after a few LCS matches displaying his passive and its snowball mechanic. If you start getting kills on Draven you will soon snowball out of control and there is really nothing anyone can do to stop you. Draven is however probably the highest skill cap AD in the game because you have to catch nearly every axe to be effective which is why he isn't as popular as he should be. He scales with AD really well due to his Spinning Axes and does a lot of damage with relatively cheap items. The two reasons why he isn't in the Pick or Ban Tier is because he is very difficult to play consistently and he is also a high risk, high reward AD. If you get behind you will most likely stay behind as Draven has no escapes and relies on being able to kill the enemy divers before they kill him rather than escaping. 

Jinx - Strong Tier

Jinx is probably the best AD right now in terms of damage but I don't feel that she is Pick or Ban right now because of the other popular picks. Jinx suffers from having no escape and that means she can be shut down in team fights and the lane phase reasonably easily. Popular junglers like Wukong, Pantheon and Kha'Zix are able to gank her easily in lane and then prevent her doing anything in teamfights. She does has a really good late game, and in my opinion that's her strongest phase but then she has the ability to win lanes too. She has a great attack speed steroid on her Q, even though her base attack speed is pretty low, or she can have great range and AoE. When you combine that with an AoE execute ultimate and a root it becomes a really deadly combination. When, or if, we see a shift in the meta towards more utility junglers then I expect Jinx to become extremely popular again. 

Corki - Underrated Tier

I have always loved Corki and I firmly believe that if his Q did not look like a Pokemon ability a lot more people would be playing him. The change in 4.3 that gave an AD ratio to his Q meant that rushing a Bloodthirster became viable which went a long way to helping Corki's Lane phase. His attack range is relatively low and has always been shut down by strong poke lanes but the lifesteal from Bloodthirster means that not only does it make his main trading tool do more damage but it also gives him the lifesteal to sustain in lane. Getting BloodThirster, Sheen, Sorcerer Shoes and Triforce will give you a huge mid game power spike and he can actually out damage most of the "meta" champions right now. When people learn to get past his Q animation, or Riot changes it back, then I expect to see a lot more of Corki. 

Varus - Underrated Tier

Varus has always been really good, he has great utility, great poke and is really strong in lane. The reason I was slightly hesitant about putting him on this list is because he is very skill dependant. The first obvious reason why is because his Q is most of his damage in lane which is a skillshot and his ult is his main team fighting tool, which is also a skillshot and not that easy to hit. If you miss these skillshots you're pretty much screwed. The second reason why is more subtle and is because he has no escape. You have to be very careful with your positioning in lane and teamfights as you can get caught pretty easily. Saying that, if you hit those skill shots you stand a very good chance of beating any other ad in lane, even the Pick or Ban ADs.

Junglers

NOTE: The collection of junglers that are placed in the Strong Tier are almost all even in strength, they just excel in different areas. Many of these are banned in games because they can have such a huge impact, but Kha'Zix is the only one who I believe is above the rest.

Kha'Zix - Pick or Ban Tier

Kha'Zix right now is probably one of, if not the strongest champion in the game. The change to his ultimate in patch 4.3 meant that when you evolve his ultimate you increase the stealth duration to 2 seconds which is huge. Evolving his ultimate also reduces damage taken by 50% while in stealth and this scales with items that provide Health and Shields. For example the health on a Giant's Belt is doubled during stealth and the shield granted from Hexdrinker is also doubled. So not only does Kha'Zix do a ridiculous amount of damage but he has a reset, a 2 second stealth and increased effective health. This is the reason why he is Pick or Ban this patch and why we saw him so much at the IEM Tournament. Insec, from KTB, proved why this champion is so effective. 

Elise - Strong Tier

Elise has always been a popular jungler, she has great early damage, great clear, great ganks and outplay potential with her E too. This patch saw nerfs to her clear speed and objective control which is why I've moved her down to the Strong Tier. She is still a great pick, but it is harder to solo Dragon or secure Dragon and Baron with the execute smite combination. I still expect her to be played in Solo Queue and the LCS because she can have a huge impact in a game, but I don't believe she needs to be banned anymore. 

Vi - Strong Tier

Vi was nerfed this patch and that is the only reason why she has been moved down from the Pick or Ban Tier. Don't get me wrong, she is still extremely strong but she now has to build damage to do damage which makes her a bit more of a risky pick. If she didn't get ahead you used to be able to just build tanky and still do damage but now by building tank you won't do anywhere near as much damage. The main reason she is still so good in spite of is because, no matter how she performs early, she will always be relevant. She can duel with high effectiveness, counter jungle, gank, engage team fights, peel, dive onto the carries and is arguably the best mid lane ganker in the game. Her Q already leaves very little time to react, especially combined with a flash, and when you add her ultimate into the mix it almost guarantees a kill. 

Nocturne - Underrated Tier

Nocturne has sat on the sidelines for a long time, occasionally being brought out in the odd LCS game but there are quite a few Nocturne players at high elo who completely carry games. You can afford to build full damage as your ultimate will place you directly onto your target and the fear makes it very difficult to escape. Early game he has just as much pressure. His ultimate punishes anyone who decides to push and the spell shield on his W gives him that extra piece of survivability early. 

Hecarim - Underrated Tier

Hecarim is in a very similar situation to Nocturne in that he flirts in and out of the meta for seemingly no reason. He has a lot of damage with the new Spirit of the Elder Lizard and has the choice of either building more damage and relying on the sustain from his W or going down a more tanky route. Apart from his damage there are two reasons why I personally think he could be viable in this meta. Firstly he snowballs ridiculously hard, almost of the same level as a Vi or Kha'Zix and can easily out duel the enemy jungler if ahead. Secondly he is a great ganker for laners that already have crowd control and right now, most bot lane supports have some sort of stun or snare along with most Top laners and some Mid laners.

Here a few video guides from my brother, Foxdrop, for the top junglers right now.

Top Laners 

Renekton - Pick or Ban Tier

Renekton is probably the most solid top laner who you could pick blindly every time. Renekton's kit is pretty simple to use with the most complex part about him being choosing the correct ability to use your Fury with. His sustain is one of the biggest problems when going against him right now. You may win the trade but chances are that he'll regain his health so quickly that he'll get control of the lane unless you base and if you do then you'll eventually get behind on CS and EXP. Renekton will almost always win his lane but now that games are tending to last longer and longer, you'll struggle to close the game out before your opponent outscales you. 

Shyvana - Strong Tier

She does a ton of damage with no items, she's extremely safe, she's a lane bully and she is a really strong team fighter. One of her biggest strengths is that she does a lot of damage and it's mixed meaning it's hard to build against. If you build armour then her W is still going to hurt you and if you build magic resist then her Q and autos are going to hurt. When you combine this with the fact that she can just build defences to shut you down while still hurting it makes it really hard to lane against. Because she doesn't need offensive items to do damage it's also very hard to completely shut her down. Even if you do beat her in lane she's going to most likely outscale you by mid game and that's one of the scariest things. 

Jax - Strong Tier

Jax has always been a good top laner and it's quite common to see short "sprees" of popularity in solo queue before someone figures out a counter to him. His hyper carry status means that if he does get ahead you are in serious trouble, and arguably he snowballs even harder than Riven does. The main problem with Jax right now in solo queue is that most other top laners on this list will beat him lane and you should never really pick to lose your lane. The best part about Jax is even if you get really far behind during laning phase, you always have the chance of coming back if your team isn't too far behind. Another reason why Jax will always be strong is because he does both magic and attack damage meaning it's very hard to itemize against him and really shut him down. 

Rengar - Strong Tier

Rengar is probably the most annoying top laner to play against because he's going to one shot you and it's also so difficult to make him useless. If you manage to beat him in lane, which is not easy, he can just build tanky and become really hard to kill. Spirit Visage synergies with his W really well, his W itself gives him a ton of amour and magic resist and he naturally does a butt ton of damage. And that's only tank rengar, if he builds damage then you'll literally just disappear when he jumps onto you. His roam potential is also pretty scary as you can go mid or even run bot lane after basing and stealth into the lane, there are so many creative ways for rengar to get himself ahead. When you combine all of this it really just means that there is hardly any risk picking him and he can carry as a tank or assassin. 

Ryze - Underrated Tier

Ryze is becoming more and more popular as a counter pick to champions like Shyvana, Renekton and Jax. Ryze scales very well with items and even if he gets behind in lane, he'll still be really strong in teamfights. One of the biggest reasons why he is so popular right now is explained in the ranged champions paragraph below. 

Jayce / Kennen (Ranged Champions) - Underrated Tier

Ranged poke is more effective now and any champions that can harass and punish melee bruisers has a decent chance of becoming popular again, much like Ryze has. This has really occured because of two recent changes. The first was the change to Perseverance that nerfed the percentage health regeneration and meant that tanks no longer regenerate a huge amount of their health while doing nothing. The second was the change the Dorans Shield. By making it less effective it has made other item starts more desirable and therefore making poke lanes much more viable. Right now these bruisers like Shyvana and Renekton still have the upper hand but eventually I wouldn't be surprised if these ranged champions came back into favour. 

Supports 

Thresh - Pick or Ban Tier

Thresh is always going to be strong because he has so much utility in his kit. He has pretty good poke, a knockback, an AoE slow, a hook, a shield and the lantern. With all of these mechanics in one kit it means that he can fulfil pretty much any role whether that's protection, diving or initiating. The reason he is only Very Strong is because Leona and Annie can beat him in lane and shut him down, but these 3 are all very close. Thresh is probably the number one play maker support as there are so many creative ways to enable ganks and kills in lane. His lantern is a completely unique mechanic and is responsible for a lot of this creativity. Just a few examples, he can engage bot lane and lantern his jungler in from behind making ganks really easy. Even more creative he can hook someone over a wall, go over on that hook and bring someone with him on the lantern. This kind of catch potential is something that can snowball games and I honestly think he has the highest skill cap ceiling out of any support. What I mean by this is that he's not that hard to play to start with but there is a lot of room to improve with him and become incredible, much like Madlife has proven. 

Morgana - Pick or Ban Tier

Morgana has risen to popularity because of two reasons, the new Spellthief's item and Thresh / Leona. The new Spellthief's grants gold when spells hit an enemy and the important thing to note with Morgana is that EVERY tick of her Soil (W) uses a charge and grants gold. That means all you have to do to get gold is occasionally put your Soil right on top of the AD or Support and is a very easy way of getting ahead early. Combine this is with a very long snare duration, her ultimate and most importantly her Black Shield and you have yourself a top support. The shield is so important because it can stop Leona's stun and Thresh's Hook / Flay and naturally grants a huge advantage when laning against them. 

Leona - Strong Tier

Leona pretty much sums up what the meta is for supports right now. She's naturally tanky with her W, she has 2 forms of crowd control, a gap closer and she does a ton of damage with her passive. Supports get more gold right now and defence is pretty cheap which means that if she gets ahead she's going to become so tanky there's no way you can kill her, she is pretty much like another top laner. The scary thing is that it's not really that hard to get ahead as Leona because of the combination of her damage and cc. One drawback with Leona is that if you do get behind then you're pretty much useless. You have to dive into people to get your cc off and chances are that if you're behind, they're just going to turn around and kill you. This kind of leads on to the other problem in that, if you're passive in lane then you're just accepting you're going to lose the lane and so you have to be aggressive to win. When you put together how much damage she does, how tanky she is and how aggressive she can be then she definitely deservers her spot as a top support. 

Sona - Underrated Tier

Sona is here for a very similar reason to why Morgana has become so popular. Spellthief's means that not only does she get gold from her poke but her poke also hits harder right from the start of the game. A change a while ago meant that you now had to chose with path you would with Sona, either damage or healing and while this nerfed her overall presence it meant she was much more tailored to that role she chose. She can nurse a weak AD or a weak AD player through the lane phase or even go aggressive if paired with a high damage AD. Also note that defence is much cheaper now meaning that one of Sona's biggest weaknesses, being so squishy, is not as big an issue as it was before. 

Alistar - Underrated Tier

Alistar has seen more play, not only in Solo Queue but also in the LCS and so I'm not going to go too in-depth about him. The reason I list him here as Underrated instead of Strong is purely because we're still not seeing him that often. He has a good heal, great crowd control and an innate ability to run interference better than any other support. This interference side is probably his strongest aspect in teamfights, he can either keep everyone away from his carry or he can completely keep an enemy carry out of the fight.

Karma - Underrated Tier

 Karma is actually really strong, she has great poke, great utility, an AoE shield and is pretty hard to kill too. The reason she isn't higher on this list is because she is a very aggressive support and she isn't great at getting someone away from your AD if they are already on top of them. Her poke early though can literally win you lane by itself, it's extremely strong and using her ultimate to empower your Q can easily take of 30% of the enemy ADs health which is crazy. When you combine this kind of poke with a root and a shield it becomes really hard to avoid fighting her and if you aren't stronger then you're going to get zoned in lane. Mid game she doesn't really have a big impact ultimate but she can speed her whole team up and when combined with the new shurelias item this is such a good way to engage a fight.

 Thank you for taking the time to read my Tier list! Please leave any comments as to how I can improve and make sure you check out my youtube channel where I put out a bunch of different content mainly aimed at improving you as a player.

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