Vadim "Vadim" Dybinskiy Riot Games has released a new patch 14.5 for LoL. The launch of the new patch means it's the perfect time to highlight the best League of Legends champions. Balance changes will undoubtedly affect the win rate of many champions. Given the changes to the meta, we have compiled our League of Legends tier list for you. The purpose of this tier list is to offer you a selection of the most relevant champions in the current patch.
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The higher a champion is on the tier list, the more ranked matches have been won with it. High-ranking players often prefer stronger but more complex to control champions, making some characters from the higher tiers challenging for newcomers to play. Characters closer to Tier A are easier to master while still being very useful.
Characters from Tiers C and D are generally played less frequently, and their win rate leaves much to be desired. However, it's important to remember that with great skill, any champion can lead the team to victory. Often, the best pick might be countering the opponent's champion, rather than choosing one from the top of the tier list. And if a champion from the S+ tier counters the opponent, it's excellent if you know how to play them.
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Also, do not forget about the importance of the lane for which the champion is picked. Many of them prefer to be on specific lanes, for example, in the current patch, Ashe is often taken on the bot lane as a support. When choosing characters from the tier list for yourself, look at which lanes the champion is most commonly used on. We distributed the characters across tiers, focusing on the most suitable lanes for them at the time of the new patch.
D tier champions of the patch
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Lower tier champions are irrelevant in the current patch. With enough desire and persistence, victories can still be achieved with them, but it will simply be much harder than with the other champions.
For example, Fiddlesticks can be a very powerful solution against Nunu & Willump, but in most cases, if one cannot play well with the champion, they quickly become fodder for the opponents.
Meanwhile, Sejuani's strength changes so frequently that she can be seen in either S or D tier in different patches. Today, she remains among the lagging champions.
On the bot lane, a decision was made to strengthen Kog'Maw. His movement speed in his passive ability has been increased. Now, it will be easier for him to seek revenge on his enemies after his death.
Also, the casting time of his Q ability will depend on attack speed, making the ability more convenient to use in attack speed builds. The slow on his E ability is increased, and the scaling from attack power on his ultimate is raised. There are many changes, but no significant increase in damage was added, so we await new patches.
C tier champions of the patch
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Many ADCs remain in D and C tiers. This is another patch that maintains the dire situation for Xayah, Jhin, Samira, and Lucian. Some former supporters now perform much better in the ADC role than these champions.
Some C tier characters received improvements in this patch due to an increase in the power of Hextech Rocketbelt abilities, but not enough to rise to B tier. Akali will feel the boost from this change the most.
B tier champions of the patch
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On the top lane, Wukong has become stronger. The number of charges on his passive ability has been changed from ten to five, but now each charge will provide twice as much in stats. Thanks to this increased charge rate, Wukong will become stronger in shorter fights. Moreover, the charges will now drop off one by one, not all at once. This will greatly help Wukong's survivability in the jungle. Overall, a good improvement to the champion, but not enough to return to the power of past years.
The jungler Jarvan IV had been weakened throughout the last season. With patch 14.5, he finally enters a cycle of buffs. His armor growth per level has been increased, which will bring seven additional units of armor by level eighteen. In addition, his Q ability's cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds at full rank. For now, Jarvan IV firmly remains in the B tier, but it is anticipated that he might climb higher in future patches.
The mid laner Veigar has been strengthened. His damage scales on his Q ability have been increased, and the cooldown of his ultimate has been reduced at levels six and eleven. Now, Veigar will be able to kill opponents in the mid lane much more frequently. An increase in the champion's win rate is expected.
Sivir receives a slight buff. Her base armor is increased by four units. It will be slightly easier to stand on the bot lane, but in reality, this will have little impact on the champion's win rate. Sivir significantly lags behind almost all other ADCs in terms of damage and scaling.
A tier champions of the patch
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Riot Games decided to buff the red form of Kayn. His passive ability received scaling for healing from bonus health, and the healing scale on his ultimate was also enhanced. The developers clearly want to draw players' attention to the champion to evaluate his win rate with a larger number of matches played as Kayn. It's possible that this will be followed by a more significant buff to the jungler Kayn, especially his red form.
Yorick has a couple of changes. The bonus damage from his minions on targets marked with his E has been reduced from 30% to 20%. This will significantly weaken the effectiveness of this ability. The ultimate has been ambiguously changed. The Maiden now receives 100% area damage (previously it was 50%), but her armor and magic resistance are significantly increased. Thus, she will become more armored than Tibbers or Daisy. It's unlikely this will change Yorick's win rate on the top lane, but a mini-rework is planned for him in the near future.
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Rek'Sai receives a buff after the rework in the last patch. Riot Games fixed numerous bugs and improved auto-attack animations. Regarding ability changes: they increased the damage of charged E at early levels, as well as its damage to monsters, and also increased the ultimate's base damage and scaling from the target's missing health. A significant increase in win rate for the jungler Rek'Sai in this patch is anticipated.
Vex is also getting stronger. Her base damage on passive ability is increased by 10 units, and the scales by 5% from ability power. Now, killing minions with the E ability will charge the passive, allowing Vex to farm without losing combat potential. Likely, players will now pay more attention to the champion.
S tier champions of the patch
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The jungler Bel'Veth is being nerfed in this patch. The damage reduction on her E has been significantly worsened. Bel'Veth is one of those champions that have been firmly established in the S tier for the last few patches, so changing her win rate will require more than just one nerf. For now, don't expect a significant decrease in her pick rate across all ranks.
Meanwhile, Zac has been slightly weakened in lane play. His W's damage buff has been reduced, which, according to Riot Games, should only affect his play in the top lane and not worsen his life in the jungle. On the contrary, it might even speed up his jungle clear. Such a change is unlikely to radically alter Zac, so he remains one of the best champions in the S tier.
Nidalee's movement speed and damage from her Q ability in cougar form have been reduced. Running and counter-jungling will become a bit more challenging. This will mostly impact high-elo matches.
Smolder is being reworked again. The burning effect on the fully upgraded ability will now scale with attack damage, ability power, and the number of passive ability charges — this represents a slight decrease in damage mid-game. The number of attacks in flight on E will now depend not on critical chance but on the number of charges in the passive. The base damage of the ultimate has been reduced, but the damage at the center of the strike has been increased. Healing has been reduced, but now includes a scale of 50% from attack power.
S+ tier champions of the patch
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Brand is receiving a reduction in his ultimate's damage and an increase in its cooldown by 5–15 seconds, depending on the level of upgrade. Such a significant nerf will definitely lower his win rate by a few percentage points, but it's important to consider how strong he was before this change. Brand still retains his place in the S+ tier as either a jungler or a support.
Evelynn has also been weakened. Her Q ability's scales were reduced by 5%. Besides the direct change to her, Evelynn will be significantly affected by the nerf to Lich Bane in this patch. A slight decrease in the champion's win rate is expected.
Maokai has been weakened in the support role but strengthened in the jungle. His W ability's cooldown has been increased, and his base movement speed has been reduced, making Maokai's initiation process more difficult. He will also receive less bonus movement speed from Solstice Sleigh, which is also being nerfed in this patch. The damage to monsters by his Q ability has been increased at early levels, so his initial jungle clear should become slightly faster.
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Vayne has been made weaker. Her passive ability's movement speed and the cooldown of her abilities have been increased. In the early levels, Vayne will be less mobile in the top lane. Since her damage was not reduced, this does not significantly weaken her but makes the start of the game with her more balanced.
Twisted Fate has been weakened for the ADC role. His attack speed on his E ability has been reduced. Additionally, the scaling of damage from his E from attack power has been worsened by a whole 50%. It's possible that Twisted Fate will soon drop to the S tier.
Overall picture
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In patch 14.5, Riot Games tried to shift players' attention from the established S+ tier champions to heroes from the A and B tiers. Buffing already decent champions will definitely lead to an increase in their win rate, but the nerfs to the leaders are too minor to really dethrone anyone.
Sadly, it seems like champions from the D and C tiers have been almost entirely forgotten. Improving Kog'Maw is a sensible step, but so small it's barely noticeable.
It will be interesting to see what comes out of the changes to Smolder. The developers clearly want to make the character more challenging to master while not accidentally making him too weak by significantly worsening his stats.
We wish you a pleasant game!
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