Valkrin's Interactive Solo Que Tier List: Patch 3.15

Valkrin's Solo Q Tier List

Patch 3.15

First...

I explained the 'God Tier' Solo Que champions in a video. You can skip it and come to it later. The meat of the presentation is in the middle.

Top: Riven, Rengar, Nasus

Mid: Kassadin, Ziggs

Jungle: Evelynn, Kha'Zix

ADC: Jinx, Lucian

Support: Annie

God Tier:

Jax

Mundo

Shyvana

Renekton

Top Lane

Very Strong

Tank, high aoe magic damage, resource-less abilities and sometimes a dragon? Awesome-ness confirmed. In all seriousness, Shyvana is an effective and easy to use top laner. Her E (Flame Breath) does % based damage making her fit nicely into the "being a tank and countering other tanks" meta. She is the highest AOE damaging tanks in the game. The only problem is that Shyvana lacks hard crowd control to setup kills. If a proper Aoe and crowd control team composition is built around Shyvana then she can be extremely devastating. Yet, if a team comp is formed with Shyvana and has no crowd control, then it will feel like climbing a set of stairs with your ears

Jax is a long standing formidable force in the top lane. With the true scaling of a hyper carry, Jax's early game isn't too shabby in the right match ups. However, there are quite a number of counter picks to Jax in the top lane so picking Jax early in Solo que can bring with it a painful laning phase. 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. Much like a lot of other star top laners, Jax does both magic and physical damage making it difficult to defensively itemize against Jax.

With the new defensive masteries, a lot of tanks saw an indirect buff. Mundo is just one of the many tanky top laners that is currently dominating the meta. However, Mundo is different in the fact that he does very well against other tanks. His cleaver does % based damage making him effective against other tanks while still being a brick wall that AD carries can't knock down without significant coordination. Mundo is also powerful because of the mixed damage he deals. His Q and W (burning Agony) deal magic damage while his E (Masochism) gives him a rather large AD steroid which makes itemizing against Mundo very difficult.

Known as the god of laning phase.

Renekton is a solid choice for top lane if it's your goal to dominate lane and shut down a weak lane opponent. Renekton's easy to use kit allows for even relatively inexperienced players to do well. The fury system allows adds a bit more depth to be utilized by an experienced player than just mashing the keyboard (which you can still do and still do well as Renekton). Renekton's weakness comes in the form of the late game transition. Renekton simply doesn't scale as well as some other top laners, but that can sometimes be overcome with a strong enough early game.

Top Lane

Very Strong

Wukong

Elise

Vi

Very Strong Champions

Jungle

Very Strong

It's simple, you punch their face.

Vi is a nightmare for squishy champions. Vi ganks can close and impressive amount of distance in a short amount of time with her Q (Vault Breaker) fully charged and her Ultimate (Assault and Battery) . Every time her ultimate is up should translate into a kill in a gank. It's very easy to be effective as Vi. She has a quite fast clear time in the jungle. Vi is also strong at taking an early dragon because of her % based damage on her W (Denting Blows) . Even though Vi has seen nerfs in a lot of patches, her kit is quite strong for jungling and in the current meta, she is one of the better junglers.

High early damage, very powerful ganks - Elise is a wicked jungler. Even after numerous nerfs, her kit devastates Early and Mid game. Her level 3 gank has 6 different abilities and if used correctly, she can wreak havoc. She can easily control lanes depending on what lanes she pressures early game. Elise also has the option of soloing dragon very early in the game. However, Elise starts to fall off towards late game compared to some other junglers with better team fight presence.

Wukong might seem out of place being placed close to or on par with Elise and Vi, but I promise you that Wukong is incredibly effective at what he does. The reason why Wukong is so good in the jungle right now is because you get to avoid bad lane match ups and transition into the mid game without being to far behind. Wukong has one of the highest win rates in solo que for a reason. Frequently being at or above 55% and this is because Wukong is a team fight God. A Wukong with 300 AD will deal 2240 aoe damage over 4 seconds with rank 3 ultimate . That damage is enough to just gape at but Wukong's ultimate also knocks up targets as well making it even easier for the allies to stack AOE crowd control. Wukong's kit is also reasonably strong for clearing the jungler. W (Decoy) can tank jungle creeps. Wukong's E (Nimbus strike) hits 3 targets and gives a large attack speed steroid and his Q is an increased ranged and damage auto attack reset that shreds 30% of the targets armor.

Wukong is not without his weaknesses though. He doesn't have the gank pressure pre 6 that Elise or Vi can bring to the table and Wukong is vulnerable to counter jungle. Knock backs are also very effective against Wukong.

Jungle

Very Strong

Syndra

Orianna

Top: Renekton, Mundo, Jax, Shyvana

Mid: Syndra, Orianna, Gragas,

Jungle: Vi, Elise, Wukong

ADC: Draven, Sivir

Support: Thresh, Leona, Lulu

Gragas

Mid Lane

Very Strong

What sets Gragas apart from most mid laners is that Gragas has some better base stats from the other ranged mid laners. Gragas has more health, health Regeneration, armor, attack damage, and movement speed. Base stats (and per level) are often over looked for abilities but base stats are an extremely important aspect of a champion. While Gragas does have better base stats than other mid laners, he can still have difficulty laning against some match ups because he's melee. With all of that set aside, Gragas has a very powerful ability kit that synergizes well. The Gragas ultimate can make or break a team fight with advantages or disadvantages that repositioning can cause.

With the assassin meta and tank meta colliding to form the tangled mess that is the current meta, versatility is the name of the game mid lane. Syndra has always been a solid choice mid lane but her name was lost in the chaos of assassins in the prior metas. Now, Syndra is an incredible pick mid lane because she can perform well against assassins, tanks, poke comps, sieges, and more. She even excels at laning against strong melee mid laners like Kha'zik. Syndra has a very high skill cap compared to most mid laners and she has no real escape abilities, but if played correctly, she is one of the best mid laners right now.

Orianna is the epitome of a truly solid mid laner. She has very little to almost no weakness to exploit during laning phase and transitions very well into mid and late game. A skilled Orianna player can just safely farm through laning phase against high jungle pressure and then crush in team fights with safe positioning and well placed ultimates . If you can play Orianna well then you can quickly learn almost any mid laner because the same principles of lane and team fight positioning carry over.

Mid Lane

Very Strong

click next or go to the right to seen information on each individually

Sivir

Draven

AD Carry

Very Strong

Draven became a forsaken pick once his passive was changed. After that, Draven simply wasn't as good as the other AD carries. Since then Riot has been frequently nerfing some old AD carries while releasing new ones. Now, the new ones have started to receive nerfs and some forgotten picks have become solid choices again.

Although Draven isn't as good as Lucian or Jinx, he is close behind them now. If you're looking for the strongest current AD duelist with a high skill cap then Draven is a good choice for you. Draven scales very well because of his AD ratio on his Q (Spinning axe) . The passive is also very useful in solo q because if you win lane hard then you're going to get to big items even faster.

When Sivir was remade, she was hands down the absolute strongest AD carry. Her kit was slick and ludicrously effective in solo q and competitive play. The OGN (Korean league) saw a near 100% pick or ban rate on Sivir (almost always banned rather than picked). This was because not only was Sivir a monster in laning phase and Mid - Late game scaling, but her team fight utility was unparalleled among AD carries.

Post nerf Sivir is still holds a glimmer of her brief glory and her win rate in solo q is still above 50%. She can still perform nearly everything the same but the numbers have all been lowered. I'd say Sivir is probably the 4th strongest AD carry right now (behind Jinx, Lucian, Draven) for solo que.

AD Carry

Very Strong

Thresh

Leona

Lulu

Support

Very Strong

With some recent buffs under her belt, Lulu is in great form. She is a very well rounded support with poke crowd control and save potential +

Leona is a hit or miss support, literally and figuratively. If you're able to engage safely on your lane opponents then you can snowball very quickly as Leona. Yet, it's very easy to get poked down in lane so that you cannot safely engage and win an all-in-fight. This is the major problem that Leona faces. If you get behind then you can't do much to come back without jungle intervention. She's an all or nothing type of champion. To use her kit, Leona has to get close. If you get ahead on Leona though, she is a forced to be reckoned with in solo que. She is one of the strongest team fight supports with proper engages from her ultimate.

Lulu is easy to use but she still has a high skill cap with landing her poke and the decision making with her abilities.

I really wanted to put Thresh in God Tier, but

Thresh is extremely skill dependent. The difference between a good Thresh and just an o.k. Thresh is huge. However, if played to the fullest potential, Thresh is absolutely the strongest support in solo que right now. Thresh has amazing crowd control and kill potential in lane. Not to mention the fact that Thresh's W is quite possibly the strongest utility ability in the game. With the ability to save an ally up to 950 range away or use it to setup a surprise offensive play with a normally low mobility jungler. Thresh's kit is simply robust with potential.

She might not have as high kill potential as Leona or Thresh but Lulu's versatility makes her a solid support to pick early because she isn't easily countered and still can do everything well.

Support

Very Strong

Teemo

Tryndamere

Singed

Rumble

Top lane

Strong

Sometimes a normally bad decision turns into an incredibly smart one when playing Singed. His play style seems backwards unless you really understand how to play Singed. In the right match ups, Singed can become a seemingly unstoppable force top lane. Top that off with the fact that he becomes one of the tankiest champions in the game with his item builds and his ultimate active. The damage output of Singed often depends on how stubborn his opponents are. It's very difficult to completely shut down a Singed because of his unique ability to farm. Singed can easily win team fights by displacing the right target with his fling and dealing a massive amount of damage to the entire enemy team. Singed's kit is just very effective against typical solo que mentalities.

Crit has always been a fickle subject in League of Legends. Tryndamere is incredibly powerful in lane because of his ability to crit early in the game, reduce AD on bruiser top laners /slow, and be mobile with his spin. Not to mention the fact that his ultimate allows him to play extremely aggressive or escape ganks. Tryndamere's ability to duel mid - late game is absolutely terrifying in solo que. If no one can handle Tryndamere then it becomes a game deciding problem. Tryndamere can also be very effective in team fights if used correctly. Most AD carries cannot kite or deal with Tryndamere in team fights. The main weakness of Tryndamere is laning against attack speed debuffing champions like Lee Sin or Nasus. An early Blade of the Rune King really helps Tryndamere lane against tanks and if played correctly, Tryndamere can have more influence on the game than most tanks can.

Rumble actually does quite well against some tanks top lane. Rushing a Liandry's Torment on Rumble is the most effective way to play Rumble now. Getting a quick Void Staff directly after Liandry's will dramatically increase your damage output on not only tanks but everyone in team fights because of the synergy with Liandry's passive. Rumble is still a solid top laner even in the tank meta.

The vision changes had more of an impact than just on the warding system. Stealthed based champions got an indirect buff. AP Teemo has become even more annoying to deal with because of the weakness of the new vision wards. The mid to late game objective control of a team with an AP Teemo on it is very intense. With Oracles no longer in the game, it's next to impossible to avoid every shroom even if you're careful. The true strength of AP Teemo lies in the act of 'softening' up a team before a team fight. All you need is a Liandry's as Teemo and 1 shroom can bring some squishy targets to 75-70% before a team fight even starts. Solo que is so disorganized that it's difficult to get willing teammates to all get the sweeper trinket and upgrade it. Even if you get 5 sweeper trinkets and upgrade them, unless you have control of the area before the fight, you won't be able to safely clear it.

Top lane

Strong

Top lane or mid

Strong

Olaf

Lee Sin

Udyr

Strong Champions

Jungle

Strong

Jungle Udyr has a really solid early and mid game. Udyr is perhaps the strongest counter jungler in the game because of his high durability, high mobility, and high damage during the early game. Phoenix stance and Tiger Stance are both solid choices for jungling depending on your play style and what's needed for your team. Tiger stance is probably better for early invades if your goal is to kill the other jungler, but Phoenix is better for farming. Udyr jungle is a solid counter to a lot of the 'carry' junglers like Kha'zik because of the counter jungling presence. The downside of Udyr is that he is easily kited and has difficulty fitting into some team comps

Lee Sin is a truly skill based champion. The gap between a good Lee Sin and just an o.k. Lee Sin is a bigger gap than on almost any champion. I must admit that I get frustrated when I see players rattle on and on about how strong Lee Sin is and how I should I put him in 'god tier'. The truth is, Lee Sin is only as good as you make him to be with your play. In fact, unless you play Lee Sin incredibly well, it's easier and more effective to just play a straight forward jungler like Vi. Jungle Lee Sin isn't very effective late game unless you land perfect 'Insec' maneuvers, but even then it's sometimes not enough. With Lee Sin, you have to abuse his strong early and mid game to get your laners ahead enough to finish the game out.

Becoming an unstoppable brick wall is the goal of every Olaf jungler. Olaf lacks hard crowd control but his Q makes it very easy to chase down kills and has a lot of power in early skirmishes. Olaf's ultimate counters heavy crowd team comps that are squishy. AD carries despise Olaf because teams can't peel an Olaf while his ultimate is active. This gives Olaf plenty of time to shred AD carries. Like a lot of other junglers, Olaf can fall off late game depending on the team comps. The best way to play Olaf is to try and force small 2v2 skirmishes between a laner and jungler very early in the game.

Jungle

Strong

Top: Tryndamere, Rumble, Singed, Teemo

Mid: Fizz, Kayle, Leblanc, Katarina, Ahri

Jungle: Lee Sin, Udyr, Olaf

ADC: Caitlyn, Varus

Support: Sona, Nami, Janna

Katarina

Leblanc

Kayle

Ahri

Fizz

Mid Lane

Strong

Kayle's winrate is consistently above 50%. She's straight forward and easy to use. The hardest part about playing Kayle is knowing which one of your allies to use your ultimate on. While Kayle has a lot of utility, her damage also scales incredibly well with a Nashor's tooth and other AP items.

It takes one team fight to turn a game as Katarina. You've no doubt seen the potential of a Katarina reset cleaning up a team fight. The problem with Katarina is that she has a really hard time laning against a lot of match ups, and hard crowd control makes it really difficult for her to go crazy in team fights. With that said, it's terrifying to play against a good Katarina because they know to wait to go into a team fight (look for specific crowd controls used on your allies). If you go in too early as Katarina, you'll just get crowd controlled and killed immediately. At the same time, if you wait too long to go in then you'll miss your chance. It's about balancing patience with your blood thirst for penta kills. Penta kills will come to you if you play correctly.

In one of the more recent patches, Ahri's damage was moved to be weighted on her E . This made the skill difference in Ahri players even more apparent because if you missed Charm then you would be missing out on a lot of damage on your target. Ahri is still a solid assassin pick for mid lane. Get a DFG

and you can still 100 - 0 squishy targets IF you land your skill shots. She is not necessarily an easy champion to play but her kit is very straight forward. If you land your Charm E then it's extremely easy to land your Q and so forth. It's Ahri job to pick off out of position supports, AD carries , and other squishes that get out of position.

Fizz has always been a really strong assassin. Fizz saw a nerf a few patches ago and with it his popularity dropped a lot. He's still pick worthy mid lane. Since Fizz is a melee caster assassin, it's important to get an Hourglass 2nd item. Lich Bane is the primary damage item for Fizz because of Fizz's Q applies on hit effects which would work on Lichbane and Fizz's W . Fizz does have some rough match ups and that's really the big downside of blind picking him, but Fizz can stomp a lot of the traditional AP mid laners.

In my mind, what really defines Leblanc is her ability to W over a wall and kill an AD carry with DFG

Q + R + E during the mid to late game then safely return to the original location. Yes,Leblanc has the kit that makes juking easy and that is definitely a big part of her strength, but the true power of Leblanc is her incredibly high mobility combined with damage. Her combos are situational and veteran Leblanc players embrace this aspect. Leblanc is an extremely fun champion with one of the highest skill ceilings in the game. It's easy to be an effective Leblanc in solo que, but nearly impossible to play her absolutely perfectly.

Mid Lane

Strong

click next or go to the right to seen information on each individually

Varus

Caitlyn

AD Carry

Strong

Most likely one of the easiest solo queue AD carry to play. With her superior early game range, it's very difficult to not take an advantage early game as Caitlyn. With laning phase being so important in solo queue, Caitlyn has an edge over most of the other AD carries in that she can easily and consistently win laning phase. She doesn't fall off late game so her early game advantages can even lead to a very strong late game. Overall, Caitlyn is a safe choice for a solo que AD carry, and very annoying to play against.

While Varus is nowhere near as good as Jinx or Lucian, Varus is still a solid alternative. With AD carries getting nerfed left and right, Varus has become more appealing. Varus has a decent laning phase and the crowd control from Varus's ultimate is really amazing for initiating team fights. My favorite way to play Varus is to get a Bloodthirster and then a Last whisper directly after. This makes your abilities hit really hard and helps deal with tanks.

AD Carry

Strong

Sona

Janna

Nami

Support

Strong

Sona is a very easy support to play. Laning phase can get boring but Sona is quite effective in out poking and sustaining most lanes. Sona is pretty weak against Leona and Thresh but then again most supports are. Sona is a well rounded support that can still setup a lot kills with her ultimate and her decent amount of damage early game.

Nami is one of the harder supports to play. Her Q

is very effective if you can hit it consistently. Nami works best with AD carries that can poke and take advantage of the bubble. Caitlyn works especially well with Nami because Nami's E complements long ranged AD carries when kiting. Nami's ultimate is versatile in terms of it working in disengage / kite comps and it can also be used as an initiate

Probably the best thing about Janna right now is that she is a really good counter to Leona. Janna's tornado Q cancels Leona's Zenith Blade (E) and prevents Leona from traveling to the target. Janna also still scales pretty well with AP. Her shield E also increases the AD the shield gives with a .1 AP ratio. Late game, support Janna can buff her AD carry quite nicely. Janna also still works best as a counter against AOE engage team comps.

Support

Strong

Good luck with your Solo Que games !

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