Which Champions are Strongest When Mastered? - September 2026

Some of these champions take real work to pick up, and every one of them is worth the hours. Five per role, chosen on what a good pilot does with them. The tier list gets no vote here.

Strongest When Mastered

September 2026

Patch 26.18

Some of these champions take real work to pick up, and every one of them is worth the hours. Five per role, chosen on what a good pilot does with them. The solo queue tier list gets no vote here. Current as of Patch 26.18.

Mid Top Jungle Support Marksman What Changed

Strongest Mid Laners

Zed

Snowball

Wins lane, then spends the rest of the game deleting the enemy carry before the fight has started.

Akali

Outplay

Her shroud eats the crowd control that was supposed to stop her, and she kills you anyway.

Locke

Snowball

One takedown resets him straight into the next, so a single pick becomes a lost teamfight.

LeBlanc

Snowball

She can end a lane at level three, and a LeBlanc that far ahead never lets it back in.

Sylas

Utility

Steals the enemy's best ultimate and uses it on them. A different game-winning ability every game.

Honorable Mentions Qiyana Fizz Talon Katarina Viktor Vladimir Malzahar

Strongest Top Laners

Yasuo

Outplay

Windwall erases the abilities the enemy was counting on, then he wins the fight they saved them for.

Yone

Snowball

He can win a side lane and still show up for the teamfight, which is how a small lead turns into a large one.

Riven

Outplay

The widest gap in League between an average player and a great one. Mastered, she kills you at even items.

Jax

Outplay

He dodges the hit that mattered, wins a duel he should have lost, then does it to everyone on the map.

Gangplank

Utility

His barrels kill people in fights he never walked to, anywhere on the map.

Honorable Mentions Camille Fiora Irelia Aatrox Darius Yorick Illaoi Vayne

Strongest Junglers

Lee Sin

Snowball

He can put all three lanes ahead before fifteen minutes, and most games are decided by then.

Shaco

Outplay

Boxes, clones and an invade that might not be happening. He wins fights the enemy jungler never sees.

Graves

Snowball

Beats every other jungler in a straight fight, then takes their objectives for it.

Naafiri

Snowball

The enemy team is dead before it finishes reacting, and the games she's ahead in end at twenty minutes.

Viego

Snowball

Take one kill in a teamfight and he heals, resets, and takes the next four. Highest ceiling in the role.

Honorable Mentions Nidalee Rengar Kha'Zix Kindred Briar Nocturne Kayn Elise Master Yi

Strongest Supports

Pyke

Snowball

He hands kills to three lanes at once and somehow never falls behind for doing it.

Blitzcrank

Utility

One hook decides a game. A great Blitzcrank lands the hooks nobody believed were coming.

Thresh

Utility

Creates kills out of nothing and saves teammates who were already dead. Nothing else does both.

Rell

Utility

She starts the fight on her own terms, and a fight started on Rell's terms is over in about three seconds.

Leona

Utility

A mastered Leona means the enemy carry simply never gets to play.

Honorable Mentions Bard Brand Xerath Morgana Nautilus Karma Lulu

Strongest Marksmen

Draven

Snowball

A Draven who never drops an axe is unbeatable by fifteen minutes while everyone else is farming.

Samira

Outplay

Nothing else in the role turns a lost teamfight into an ace that fast.

Twitch

Outplay

He wins the fights his team is losing, from the one place nobody kept checking.

Jinx

Snowball

One reset clears the fight and the resets keep coming. The skill is being alive when it starts.

Aphelios

Utility

Five kits in one champion, so he always has the answer the fight in front of him needs.

Honorable Mentions Kalista Yasuo Ezreal Smolder Ashe

What Changed Since Last Time

Locke

New to the list

He's been out long enough for the ladder to decide it's frightened of him and nowhere near long enough for anyone to be good at him, which is the exact profile this list was built around.

Riven & Gangplank

Into the top five

Riven belonged here before Locke existed. Gangplank spent one refresh in the mentions and comes straight back, because barrel play is still the widest skill gap in the lane.

Vayne, Aatrox & Darius

Out of the top five

All three drop to the mentions. Darius punishes a bad trade as hard as anything in the game, but knowing which trade to take isn't the same kind of test as the four names now above him, and Aatrox sits in similar company. Vayne top is the one that stings (I've defended that pick for years), because the kiting pattern is genuine work. She just isn't winning enough of the lanes she gets put into.

Yone

Moved up

Promoted out of the mentions. He's been one of the two or three most feared picks in the lane for a while now and the list was behind.

Irelia

Moved down

Her mark-stacking is as exhausting to play against as it ever was. Top lane is simply where she's spending her time now, and she joins the mentions there instead.

Naafiri

Moved up

She moves up from the mentions on the strength of what good ones do with her timing. Nobody is going to call her mechanically demanding.

Briar

Moved down

Briar is strong. That's a different thing from rewarding mastery, and a champion who takes some of the decisions out of your hands by design was always an awkward fit here.

Rell

New to the list

First appearance. Engage timing doesn't get talked about as a skill the way a skillshot does, and it's the thing that decides more bot lanes than either marksman.

Brand

Moved down

Stun first, then combo. Getting that order right is a real habit, and once you have it there isn't much more Brand to learn.

Jinx & bot lane Yasuo

Swapped places

Jinx comes back after one refresh away. Yasuo drops to the mentions in the role, since the same champion twice in one list is padding.

Qiyana, Nidalee, Kindred & Kalista

New mentions

Four names added to the mentions across three roles. Every one of them is a champion whose good players look like they're playing a different game from everyone else on the same champion. (Watch a Nidalee clear once and you'll see what I mean.)

Common Questions

What makes a champion "strong" here?

Three things, and every champion above is labeled with whichever one carries them. Utility is doing something game-changing the enemy team has no way to ignore. Outplay is making abilities miss that had no business missing, which erases damage somebody already spent. Snowball is converting one small lead into a bigger one, over and over, until the game is out of reach. Plenty of these champions do two of the three. None of them are on here for raw damage, because damage is the part that doesn't take mastery.

Why isn't this the same as your tier list?

The solo queue tier list grades on ease of play, synergy with whatever's popular, and how much margin for error a champion gives you. This list throws all three out. A champion who's punishing to learn isn't marked down for it here, it's usually the reason they made the cut.

Can a champion be here with a mediocre win rate?

Constantly, and several of these are (Riven is the clearest case on the page). A champion whose average player hasn't learned the matchups yet drags the number down while the good ones are out there ending games in twenty minutes. This page goes looking for that gap.

How often does this list change?

Slowly. It isn't patch-driven, so most refreshes shuffle a name or two between the five and the mentions. The ones worth learning stay worth learning through a lot of balance changes.

Older versions of this list are in the archive here. Think we've missed somebody? Comment below.