League of Legends Patch 9.12 tier list – mid lane edition

Rising Champions

Katarina (A to A+ tier)

It’s a little surprising, but this is the highest Katarina has ever been rated on our mid lane tier list. A large reason for that is that her win rate spiked to over 52.4% in Patch 9.12. The only reason for concern is that two sites put her in their C tier, but three others gave her an S grade.

Vel’Koz (B to A tier)

I said last patch that the drop in Vel’Koz’s tier was probably a bit premature, given his high win rate. That has come to bear in this patch, with five out of the eight sites we evaluated giving Vel a grade of A or higher.

Pyke (C to B+ tier)

Pyke got under-valued in Patch 9.11 because he was brand new to the mid lane meta. After a patch to get more of a sense of his power level, three sites have him in their S tier. His 53.2% win rate is also fifth-best among all mid laners.

Aatrox (B to B+ tier)

Dare I say it, but Aatrox mid might still be underrated even after this rise. He was left off of two tier lists, but all of those that had him in at least B tier (four of them had him as an A grade).

Anivia (B to B+ tier)

Can we chalk this up to the Froggen effect? Anivia actually saw her win rate drop in Patch 9.12, but she still rose a tier. Considering she’s sitting at just under 52.3% right now, my belief is that she was probably being undervalued in past patches.

Zoe (B to B+ tier)

There was a lot of movement around the B/B+ border for a variety of reasons, but Zoe jumped up thanks to an over 1% boost to her win rate in Patch 9.12.

Corki (C to B tier)

Sitting at just a shade under a 50.5% that’s remained steady for the last five(ish) patches, it was quite odd to see Corki in the C tier the last few patches. He’s vaulted up, solidly into the B tier, on the back of two sites giving him A grades and the majority of the other sites having him in their B range.

Veigar (C to B tier)

One thing to know about Veigar is that his win rate has been below 50% the last few patches and when it was above 50% it was only barely so. He’s gotten mostly B grades, but also enough A and D grades to balance it out. Don’t be surprised to see him drop back down.

Twisted Fate (C to B tier)

After a few patches in the depths of the C tier, Lady Luck has smiled on TF, bringing him back to the B tier. Considering, though, that he has barely above a 50% win rate at the moment, I think the smart play wouldn’t be to push all your chips in on him as a power pick.

Taliyah (C to B tier)

Taliyah’s a strange case, given she has had a strong win rate for the last few patches (currently sitting at 52.3%) with a decent pick rate, but she continues to get left off a lot of people’s tier lists. Two sites did so for Patch 9.12, which weighed down her average despite getting A grades from four other sites.

Leblanc (C to B tier)

She’s one of the most oppressive champions if you’re good on her, having the ninth-highest pick rate in Plat and above, but the 11th lowest win rate. Her ratings are all over the place, so she can definitely be used effectively. If you have the proper skill on her.

Syndra (D to C tier)

Syndra has the same problems as Leblanc: decent pick rate, terrible win rate, and high-skill cap. She got rated higher by a couple of sites in Patch 9.12 (two that had her with Cs in 9.11 gave her Bs now), but it’s definitely not the case that she’s a pick/ban champion.

Ziggs (D to C tier)

A friendly champion for new players, Ziggs actually saw his win rate drop drastically in 9.12, from 49.9% down to 48%. Still, that didn’t dissuade half of the sites from giving him a C or B grade.

Diana (D to C tier)

On the other hand, Diana‘s win rate did spike up this patch to it’s highest point in a while. Sitting at over a 50% win rate, it’ll be interesting to see if Diana keeps rising.

Swain (F to D tier)

The curious thing about this is that last patch fewer sites actually omitted Swain than in Patch 9.12 (three versus two) but Swain got consistently better ratings here. His win rate in mid has been trending upward for a while, but given the high level of disagreement as to whether he should be this high among our sources, I’m not confident he’ll stay this high for long.

Karthus (F to D tier)

Like Swain, there are a lot of disagreeing opinions as to whether Karthus even belongs this high, with half of our source sites not rating him at all. All I can say is that his win rate hasn’t rebounded from the nerfs in Patch 9.10, with him still sitting below a 50% win rate in mid.