2014 Champion Tier List - Solo Queue - Patch 4.20 Update

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SEASON 4 - PATCH 4.20 SOLO QUEUE TIER LIST

PRESEASON 5 UPDATE

This List has been updated, and new versions are available via this link

Preface Chatter
Hello ladies and gents! Welcome to the preseason, that chaotic transition period in which Riot turns our entire league of legends world upside down in the name of balance. Surprisingly, this year's changes actually seem relatively tame compared to the last few seasons, must be because of the visual update.

The biggest change this patch is obviously the changes to the jungle, but surprisingly a lot of the champions that were strong last patch are still strong this patch as well. Check out the list below!

If you're looking for a more meta based tier list based on popularity, check out the FOTM list!

Patch 4.20 Summary

Buffs: Azir, Evelynn, Sion
Nerfs: Amumu, Fiora, Gnar, Katarina, Kha'Zix, Lee Sin, Rammus, Sona, Warwick,
Tweaks: Heimerdinger, Soraka

Updates:

• 11/27: 
• Mid:
• Akali mid moved to God Tier
• Xerath mid moved up, Ahri moved down
• Swain moved down: Morello rush over Athene's hurts him a ton
• Added AP Malphite - Very strong level 6 burst, and great laning phase. However, majority of damage comes from ult, which can be dodged and has a high cooldown. Needs to carefully manage skills and make sure not to get poked down.
• Jungle:
• Fiddlesticks/Sion jungle moved up
• Broad changes through the jungle placement...received some updated statistics
• Support:
• Nami and Zyra support moved up
• Top:
• Gangplank moved up, Yorick moved down
• 11/28:
• Sejuani moved down slightly
• Added support Brand
• 11/29:
• Vel'koz mid moved up
• 12/4:
• Soraka support moved up
• Jungle:
• Amumu moved up
• Diana moved up
• Dr. Mundo moved down to T3
• Evelynn moved down
• Fiora moved up
• Gangplank moved to T2
• Kha'zix moved down
• Malzahar moved up
• Master Yi moved down
• Nunu moved up
• Udyr moved up
• Xin Zhao moved to T1
• Yasuo moved to T4

Search for a champion:

The Tier List

God Tier [Highest Influence]:
Mid-Lane Gods: Akali, Katarina
Jungle Gods: Warwick, Pantheon, Fiddlesticks, Vi
AD Gods: Jinx, Corki, Graves
Top Lane Gods: Fiora, Malphite, Wukong
Support Gods: Sona, Janna

Tier 1 [Strong/Preferred Choices]:
Mid-Lane: Vel'Koz, Annie, Ahri, Orianna, Malzahar, Talon, Lux, Syndra, Zyra, Wukong, Xerath, Brand, Galio, Anivia, Morgana, Fizz, Swain, Heimerdinger
Jungle: Sion, Wukong, Jarvan IV, Amumu, Sejuani, Volibear, Xin Zhao, Master Yi
AD Carry: Draven, Sivir, Miss Fortune, Lucian, Ashe, Caitlyn
Top Lane: Maokai, Warwick, Irelia, Akali, Lulu, Jarvan IV, Tryndamere, Rumble, Swain,  Gnar, Singed, Teemo, Lissandra, Nasus, Jayce, Riven, Gangplank, Vladimir, Heimerdinger, Pantheon
Support: Leona, Blitzcrank, Braum, Vel'Koz, Nami, Zyra, Morgana

Tier 2 [Viable/Balanced Choices]:
Mid-Lane: Ziggs, Diana, Karthus, Lissandra, Pantheon, Lulu (AP), Viktor, Kayle, Karma, Zed, Sona, Mordekaiser, Twisted Fate, Fiora, Vladimir, Teemo, Jayce
Jungle: Nunu, Udyr, Maokai, Rammus, Nautilus, Shaco, Lee Sin, Kayle, Skarner,  Jax, Zac, Cho'Gath, Nocturne, Aatrox, Malphite, Diana, Nasus, Tryndamere, Olaf, Trundle, Gangplank, Zed
AD Carry: Tristana,  Kog'Maw, Vayne, Ezreal, Kalista, Varus,
Top Lane: Kennen, Darius, Volibear, Alistar, Rengar, Jax, Renekton, Dr. Mundo, Trundle, Aatrox, Udyr, Karma, Garen, Lee Sin, Kha'Zix, Shyvana, Kayle, Cho'gath, Olaf, Yorick, Xin Zhao, Viktor, Poppy, Quinn, Vi, Zed
Support: Thresh, Alistar, Annie, Soraka, Fiddlesticks, Lulu, Xerath, Karma, Brand, Taric,

Tier 3 [Needs Higher Skill/Knowledge Than Usual]:
Mid-Lane: Kassadin, Ryze, Zilean, Master Yi, Kennen, Gragas, Jarvan IV, Veigar, Leblanc, Nidalee (AP), Kha'Zix, Yasuo, Azir, Riven, Cho'Gath, Fiddlesticks, Malphite, Cassiopeia, Tristana, Kog'maw, Ezreal (AP), Elise
Jungle: Hecarim, Rengar, Kha'Zix, Fiora, Malzahar, Leona, Poppy, Dr. Mundo, Elise, Shyvana, Shen, Gragas, Riven, Darius, Evelynn, Fizz
AD Carry: Quinn, Twitch, Twisted Fate, Kennen
Top Lane: Shen, Gragas, Nidalee, Master Yi, Zac, Galio, Talon, Ryze, Kassadin, Rammus, Elise, Mordekaiser, Sion, Vayne, Yasuo, Nunu
Support: Nautilus, Lux, Gragas, Maokai, Volibear, Zilean, Nunu, Kayle, Teemo, Malphite, Anivia, Syndra, Veigar, Gangplank

Tier 4 [Low Benefits for Effort Used]:
Mid-Lane: Urgot, Soraka, Janna
Jungle: Yasuo, Garen, Blitzcrank
AD Carry: Urgot
Top Lane: Soraka, Urgot
Support: Nidalee, Orianna, Poppy, Elise, Galio, Shen, Yorick, Lissandra, Ashe, Leblanc

Instructions and Caveats:

• Champions in BOLD I will talk about shortly
• Champions UNDERLINED may be over/undervalued, but aren't/haven't played enough for me to make a better judgement.
• Within each tier the champions are strongest from left to right, but within a tier each champion's strength is relatively close. This is especially true for Tiers 2 and 3 where these champions are ALL highly playable and player dependent on how strong they are in-game.
• This tier list takes data from ALL players; however, since the majority of players fall in the first three tiers, the majority of data points will come from there.
• Win Rates are important in analyzing each champion's strength, but are not the end-all criteria for any champion's position.
• The creator of this list is diamond, so there may be some personal bias towards higher tier play on certain champions.

Click Here for a description of the tiers

God Tier: These champions are almost impossible to keep down. If your team doesn't make it a priority to shut down these champions and shut them down hard, even if they lose their lane, lose in CS, and it's their first time playing the champion, they can be a massive nuisance for your team. On the other hand, if they're actually good at the champion...that's when it's time to throw in the towel.

Tier 1: These champions generally do very well regardless, and have some sort of advantage over most other champions. When they do well, their team does well. Even when they don't do well, their team still has a good chance of a comeback victory by utilizing one or more aspects of their late game utility.

Tier 2: This is the Tier of balanced champions where Riot shoots to place their designs. These champions generally do well in their own right, and are very strong picks with a good chance of winning. However, they're not overpowered by any means and do have their weaknesses.

Tier 3: These champions can still do very well, but tend to need a little more snowballing to get rolling. Even if they get an early lead, it's still very possible to turn the tides on them with just a mistake or two. They may also have some weaknesses that can be capitalized on.

Tier 4: These champions are either underpowered or offer less reward than other champions for the same amount of effort. These champions basically start winning from the get-go or get made fun of for the rest of the game. They need gold to do their job correctly, and if they don't get enough of it, they become sandbags for the enemy team to punch. Chances of a comeback with one of these champions feeding on your team is almost none.

Champion Explanations

This week I've split up the junglers away from the other champions since the changes impact them the most.

Junglers:

• Fiddlesticks [God Tier Jungle] - As a heavy sustain jungler, Fiddlesticks does very well in situations when he's not counterjungled as can continuously clear camps with ease. However, as his jungle path is somewhat predictable, junglers can take advantage of this and counterjungle all his small camps. With the new XP changes on camps, this could swing either way. However, his ultimate and CC abilities are still just as good as they were last patch.
• Nunu [Tier 2 Jungle] - Nunu does very well in the new jungle, however, although he can make life painful for the enemy jungler, his late game still leaves much to be desired and makes little impact at the moment except for soaking a single CC and giving someone his bloodboil buff.
• Pantheon [God Tier Jungle] -Pantheon's "sustain" in the jungle is absolutely insane right now, and the fact that he can sneak a dragon at literally any point in the game makes him exert an extraordinary amount of pressure on games.
• Rammus [Tier 2 Jungle] - After some more testing and viewing the results from the past week, it appears he's actually significantly weaker in the jungler, mostly due to the jungle item changes combined with his nerf.
• Sejuani [Tier 1 Jungle] - Sejuani may very well be a god tier jungler, but at the moment I think she's more deserving of Tier 1. Although her damage output isn't particularly high, I think that due to her underplayed value, many people still underestimate her damage and CC ability. In cases where they could flash Sejuani ult, many still try and sidestep it, and that simply just won't work.
• Shaco [Tier 2 Jungle] - The new jungle changes are a bit favorable to Shaco, as objectives and counterjungling are more important now. However, he's still Shaco, and it takes a certain amount of finesse to play him and stay relevant throughout the game due to his weak teamfighting ability against AOE heavy comps.
• Sion [Tier 1 Jungle] - Sion does fairly well in the new jungle, and his buffs have also given him some extra power. His level 6 gank is still very strong, especially when the enemy team is grouped in mid as they usually tend to do.
• Volibear [Tier 1 Jungle] - After staying under the radar for a while, I think that Volibear is close to breaking out again with the new jungle. The only thing holding him back (especially at higher divisions) is the fact that morellonomicon is substantially better than Athene's now in gold value, so most mid laners will tend to build that. However, from what I've seen the majority of people still favor Athene's though, so he's fairly safe for now.
• Warwick [God Tier Jungle] - Warwick is the new king of the jungle. The new items and jungle is extremely favorable to him, and he's seen his win rate soar from 55% to 60% in the past week alone.

Other Changes:

• Ashe [Tier 1 ADC] - With nerfs on other AD carries, Ashe has cycled back around again and is currently very strong in comparison to the other AD carries. With the second highest base attack range in the game (without buffs), she does very well against many of the popular low range AD carries popular on the rift right now. This combined with the fact that her arrow gives her massive utility from a losing position lets her carry from a variety of scenarios.
• Azir [Tier 3 Mid] - Despite continuously buffs to Azir, his skillcap is still very high. If you've mastered him he can be very good, but there are other champions with lower skillcaps that are just as rewarding.
• Fiora [God Tier Top] - Despite being nerfed, Fiora's actually still very very strong and utilizes essentially the same strategies as before.
• Graves [God Tier ADC] - With nerfs on Lucian, Graves is really stepping back out as a high powered burst ADC.
• Jinx [God Tier ADC] - Jinx with standard runes does very well, but if you're following the guides that use attack speed runes instead, she's definitely still very very overpowered, especially in solo queue. Her laning power is much stronger the faster she can get up her Q stack, and pressures extremely hard. She can also snowball out of a losing lane once she hits 6, and has decent self-peel and re-engage.
• Kalista [Tier 2 ADC] - Kalista's a very high skillcap champion, but the fact that her ultimate can deny death is potentially game-breaking. I think she works well with champions like Alistar and Braum, but the two of them tend to be somewhat higher skillcap champions now as well post-nerfs.
• Lucian [Tier 1 ADC] - Lucian is probably closer to balanced, but looking again at the listing it seems that he should be a bit higher. AD carries don't impact games as much simply because there's one in every game, but when you don't have one, it's definitely very noticeable.
• Malphite [God Tier Top] - Malphite, the new rock in god tier top. He's been essentially untouched for a very long time, and with assassins like Zed back in mid/AP tops like Ryze nerfed to oblivion, Malphite's back in the scene as a huge contender. Although his ult is dodgable, at most tiers  it's fairly difficult to execute. His ult synergizes well with pretty much every champion in the game, and his laning phase is extraordinarily simple to stay alive and win through sustain.
• Sona [God Tier Support] - Even after the nerfs from last patch, Sona still remains very strong, and her current sustain and ultimate utility are simply through the roof compared to similar supports like Nami.
• Sona [Tier 2 Mid] - Sona Mid took a bit of a beating from the patch, but still remains viable.
• Talon [Tier 1 Mid] - A few weeks after removing his silence, it's becoming more and more apparent that Talon, like many other assassins with no silence, does not suffer greatly from *only* being able to one shot his enemy laners, and will let them say what they please.
• Twisted Fate [Tier 2 Mid] - Ever since they increased the timer on his pick a card, he's been slowly drifting farther and farther down. Although we'll all remember the horrors of being killed at level 6 bot lane by a TF ult, it's this fear that really keeps TF from snowballing. 
• Vel'Koz [Tier 1 Support] - Vel'koz's base stats are simply through the roof right now and executes exceedingly well with his long ranged poke. 

Disclaimer:

• The purpose of this list is for discussion and to provide a starting point for hero selection.

Agree? Disagree? Comment below!