LoL Tier List Patch 26.20: Best Champions for Solo Queue

Malphite is the strongest top laner on the patch, up from the back of Tier 1. Most top laners hit with physical damage, and every item he buys makes their best trade worse. Once teamfights start, one engage from him lands on three or four people at once. He doesn't need fast hands to play well, either.

Nasus wins top lane by outlasting whoever he's up against. Every last hit makes him stronger. Once the stacks add up he walks down a side lane taking towers that nobody on the enemy team can stop him from taking alone.

Realm of Death [R] got buffed this patch with a much shorter cooldown at rank one (120 seconds, down from 140), and his damage grows a bit faster from level ten on. Mordekaiser moves up from Tier 1 on it. The ultimate drags one enemy into a duel nobody else can join, and that's usually the carry who was about to win the fight.

Cho'Gath is the best jungler on the patch. He clears without spending health he can't get back and brings a knock-up and a silence to every fight he walks into. Give him twenty minutes and he's grown into something the enemy team can't kill in the time they have. He's forgiving to pilot too (not a common thing to say about the top of this role).

His clear is quick and his decoy wins the duels he picks in the enemy jungle. Then there's the ultimate, which knocks up everyone standing near Wukong. In a teamfight that's pretty much the whole enemy team, and few junglers get an engage that big this easily.

Briar commits to a target and doesn't let go, and by the time anyone peels for their carry it's usually over. She's simple to pick up, too (a week on her is enough to play her on instinct).

Yone's the pick to beat in mid lane. He builds crit into a champion who dives the backline and gets back out, and his ultimate lines a whole team up for the follow-through. Nobody else in the role turns mechanical practice into wins the way he does. In top lane he's a Tier 1 pick this patch.

Vex climbs from Tier 1 into God Tier mid. She punishes anyone who dashes. Her fear stops a dash in the air, and the assassins and skirmishers who crowd mid lane (Yone and Yasuo included) spend the lane running into it. Her ultimate is one of the best engage tools in the role. She fires it from well outside the fight, dashes onto whoever it marks, and a takedown resets it so she can go straight into the next target.

Fizz beats the mages that fill mid lane. He hops out of the one spell they needed to land and answers with a kill, and past the laning phase he roams with almost no risk and deletes a backline in a single rotation.

Jinx gets a burst of move speed and attack speed off every takedown, and she can chain one kill into the next three. No other marksman gets more out of a won teamfight. She leads bot lane.

Tristana doesn't need the game to go well to stay useful. Her escape is built in, and nobody in bot lane takes a tower down faster. Her range grows on its own as she levels, too (by level eighteen she outranges most of the role).

Few supports can cover for a mistake their carry already made. Thresh can, and nobody in the role does it better. He starts fights from most of a screen away, and the lantern pulls his marksman out of the ones that went wrong. Nothing he brings falls off at any point in the game.

Leona picks when the fight starts. Every time. One engage puts her on the enemy carry with a stun ready, and her ultimate catches whoever was standing behind them.

Every hook Blitzcrank lands pulls an enemy straight into his knock-up and his team's damage, and one on the enemy carry decides a teamfight before it starts. He's a threat from fog all game, too. Nobody on the enemy team walks past an unwarded bush while he's alive.

Teemo sits first in Tier 1 for top lane. Most of the lane's popular picks trade by auto-attacking. Blinding Dart [Q] turns that off. Teemo wins the lane from range. He poisons every wave he touches, and by midgame the enemy team is walking into mushrooms it never saw placed.

Garen drops to Tier 1, a bit behind the three above him. He's still the easiest top laner in the game to pick up. He walks out of a bad trade, heals up behind a bush and comes straight back for another.

Lillia sits at the top of Tier 1 in the jungle. She clears about as fast as anyone in the role and runs circles around anyone trying to catch her. This patch's buff stretches her ultimate's sleep to three seconds at rank three (it was two and a half at every rank before), so when she opens a late fight the enemy team spends most of it asleep. It's a big buff.

Lux drops to Tier 1 in mid lane and tops Tier 1 in support. She's still the forgiving pick in both. She clears waves from a safe distance, so she's useful even in games where she never gets ahead. Her root catches two people at once and her laser finishes kills from off screen. She's about as easy to learn as mid lane gets, too (and support's no harder).