Buffed champions
Ekko
We touched on it above, but the buff to his E – Phase Dive brought him back into the A tier. His pick rate in the mid lane has spiked following the buffs, as has his win rate.
Lissandra
I said the buffs to Lissandra’s W – Ring of Frost wouldn’t help solve her core problem (lack of wave clear early after the nerfs to her Q). Lo and behold, Lissandra did get a decent bump in our tier list, but not enough to bring her out of C tier.
Sylas
Yep, those buffs to his W – Kingslayer‘s damage definitely helped the Unshackled escape from the prison of C tier. He’s firmly B tier with potential to continue to rise as his win rate and pick rate both keep climbing.
Manamune/Muramana users
We touched on this briefly in our discussions of Ryze and Cassiopeia, but there are a few other champions who are big Manamune users. 10 extra damage onto an item, even when those champions don’t rely on physical damage can be huge. Among the champions that have Manamune or Muramana in their core builds (per LeagueofGraphs), here is how they fared after the changes relative to their standing in Patch 9.8:
- Anivia (+ 0.132)
- Cassiopeia (+ 0.585)
- Kassadin (- 0.074)
- Ryze (+ 0.644)
- Zilean (- 0.057)
- Karthus (- 0.026)
Nerfed champions
Akali
Unfortunate news for all of us as the nerf to Akali’s W – Twilight Shroud didn’t stop her from shuriken-flipping her way further up our tier list. Luckily, her win rate and pick rate both show signs of falling off.
Morgana
The nerfs to her E – Black Shield were more targeted at her support dominance. I predicted it wouldn’t hurt her at all in mid lane and, yes, she stayed right about where she was last patch in the high-A tier.
Aftershock users
Aftershock got nerfed in Patch 9.9 to make it more focused towards tanks, rather than giving extra survivability to squishies who happened to have some CC in their kits to proc it. Lissandra was a big abuser, but she rose after getting buffs in this patch (boy I whiffed on that prediction). There were some other mages who took Aftershock before 9.9 though like Sylas and sometimes Ryze. All of them improved from Patch 9.8 despite the nerf to this keystone.
What are your thoughts on our mid lane tier list? Let us know if your main is doing better in the comments below!