Solo Queue Tier List Archive: Patch 4.21 (December 15, 2014)

All tier lists are archived for historical tier list purposes. The full always-up-to-date League of Legends Tier List has moved to a permanent bookmarkable page: League of Legends Tier List.

SEASON 4 - PATCH 4.21 SOLO QUEUE TIER LIST

PRESEASON 5 UPDATE

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

Preface Chatter
One patch after the first chaotic Preseason updates, things aren't looking any quieter and tons of switch ups are coming up this patch. With the number of buffs and nerfs Riot's dishing out, it's no wonder that some old favorites have jumped back into the fray.

Ranged junglers are also gaining popularity this patch, but for the sake of simplicity, I'm not doing a full out update on that yet as I think traditional junglers still hold the edge.

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

For a list of champions with the highest *potential* in the game without regard to difficulty or team synergies, check out the list of strongest potential champions in each position!

Patch 4.21 Summary

Updates:

• Added Top Morgana & Cassiopeia
• Added Jungle/Top Rek'Sai
• 12/16: Added Top (AD) Leblanc - More info here
• Added Irelia and Yorick jungle
• Removed Blitzcrank jungle
• 12/18:
• Warwick and Pantheon moved down further, patch hurt them more than first appeared
• 12/19:
• Added jungle Karthus
• 12/20:
• Added Olaf level 1 Dragon article
• Added Sejuani mid
• 12/24:
• Rek'sai moved to Tier 1 for jungle and God Tier for top
• New post - Strongest Champions When Mastered
• Rek'sai top moved to god tier
• 12/24:
• Moved Rek'Sai up to God Tier, added explanation
• 1/2:
• Added Taric explanation, moved up to Tier 1

Buffs: Azir, Cassiopeia, Diana, Galio, Jarvan IV, Jax, Kennen, Nocturne, Shen, Shyvana, Varus, Yasuo. Zac;

Nerfs: Corki, Fiddlesticks, Jayce, Lucian, Pantheon, Rengar, Warwick;

Tweaks: Cho'Gath, Sejuani, Soraka

Search for a champion:

The Tier List

God Tier [Highest Influence]:
Mid-Lane Gods: Akali, Katarina
Jungle Gods: Jarvan IV, Rek'Sai, Fiddlesticks, Sejuani, Vi
AD Gods: Jinx, Graves, Corki
Top Lane Gods: Rek'Sai, Fiora, Malphite, Wukong
Support Gods: Janna, Leona, Sona

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

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

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

• Cassiopeia [Tier 1 Mid] - Cass's buffs this patch are absolutely insane. The change on her twin fang give her back some of her early game that was missing earlier, and by smoothing out more of her skills that scale by level, she can stack her passive much faster than before. This gives her a decent early game and monsterous mid to late game.
• Jarvan IV [Jungle God] - The buffs this patch around weren't particularly amazing for Jarvan, but the nerfs on the big 3 (Warwick, Fiddlesticks, and Pantheon) mean that his presence is more meaningful in comparison now.
• Jax [Tier 2 Top] - Jax is much more user friendly now, and the cooldown reduction in his counter strike give him more margin to decide when to trade and when to turtle during laning phase.
• Kalista [Tier 3 ADC] - Kalista at the moment seems to offer less than usual in way of a traditional glass cannon ranged marksman. Instead, she seems to rely heavily on making sure her support gets somewhat fed and ahead, which tends to be a little counterproductive. I think she'll be better once more melee heavy cc supports come back into popularity. However, in a solo queue environment dominated by ranged supports, she doesn't synergize nearly as well.
• Kassadin [Tier 2 Mid] - Kassadin is definitely making a comeback, but he still tends to be somewhat of a difficult first pick. He does well against a lot of popular skillshot based champions, but suffers against strong waveclearing sustain champions.
• Kennen [Tier 1 Top] - Kennen received a pretty decent team-fighting buff this patch, which I think works well as a top lane crowd control type addition to most teams. I do tend to believe he's better top than mid though, since he can bully melee type champions harder.
• Lucian [Tier 2 ADC] - Nerfs to Lucian this time around left him pretty stripped. While I think he's still okay to play, he's definitely not as strong as before and requires more finesse and adjusting to his new power levels.
• Morgana [Tier 3 Top] - As a shove/zone champion, Morgana excels, and creates plenty of jungle pressure top lane to gank. However, with her black shield she remains very safe against most gankers. While in a 1v1 or 1v2 situation she does very well, in teamfights her burst tends to be slower and does poorly against highly mobile assassins.
• Pantheon [Tier 2 Jungle] - Changes to Dragon's attack to make it into spell damage have reduced his early game pressure on objectives, meaning that one more early game ward can be used by bot lane to prevent jungle ganks instead of preventing Pantheon cheese.
• Rek'Sai [Tier 2 Top/Jungle]- So far she seems fairly balanced, but as she appears to be a somewhat higher skillcap champion, I expect her potential strength to rise with time as we figure out neat tricks to do with her.
• Sejuani [Jungle God] - Sejuani's "tweaks" this patch have in fact been a blessing, and she's become insanely strong as of this patch. Expect to see a lot more of her in upcoming weeks if not possibly a nerf.
• Swain [Tier 1 Mid/Top] - With the changes to Athene's more people are switching back over to Athene's over Morello's meaning that Swain's power is heavily on the rise again.
• Taric [Tier 2 Support] - I'm not sure why Taric's win rate is spiking so heavily lately. The only direct change I can see is that Targon's brace is now easier to proc and thus easier to get gold with. It seems that Leona and Blitzcrank also shot up a bit this patch so this could very well be the source...were people really having that much difficulty last hitting creeps?
• Twisted Fate [Tier 3 Jungle] - I think that he does require some skill to work into a team composition, although being relatively easy to execute in jungle. Playing into him means one less peeler/front line team member, which tends to reduce chances of winning in solo queue. More information on Twisted Fate jungle available here.
• Warwick [Tier 1 Jungle] - Nerfs on Warwick have brought him back into line with where he used to be before this patch. However, he's still very strong and does well as a duelist, initiation, and as a team buffer.
• Zac [Tier 2 Jungle] - While Zac did get buffed this patch, I don't see a big change in his status. He's always had high teamfight participation, but more often than not, tends to jump in, make a big splash, and bait his teammates into a losing fight. This isn't to say that he's awful, and if a Zac knows his team's damage ouput his initiation is very good. However, the damage he deals often isn't sufficient in comparison with the enemy jungler's counter-initiation, and often teammates die trying to save his passive blobs with little reward.
• Zed [Tier 2 Mid] - Although Win Rates don't mean everything, Zed is a very high skill, high reward champion that needs intimate knowledge of his damage output in comparison with the enemy's armor and HP. This minute calculation coupled with his complex skill mechanics mean that timing and aim are everything, and thus those who want to dedicate long hours into practicing him may be rewarded against similar level players, but will still get stomped by higher level players.

Disclaimer:

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

Agree? Disagree? Comment below!