League of Legends Patch 9.17 top lane tier list aggregation – why Pantheon is one of the strongest top laners

New Additions

None

New subtractions

None

Rising Champions

Darius (A+ to S tier)
Kled (A to A+ tier)
Pantheon (F to A tier)
Tryndamere (C to B+ tier)
Vladimir (B to B+ tier)
Quinn (C to B+ tier)
Camille (B to B+ tier)
Yasuo (C to B tier)
Akali (C to B tier)
Nasus (C to B tier)
Dr. Mundo (D to C tier)
Sylas (D to C tier)
Ryze (F to D tier)

Observations

As usual, we’ll set aside those champions who got direct buffs in this patch – Pantheon and Ryze – and set them aside to discuss later. We also won’t spend a lot of time on those champions that got buffed in Patch 9.16 – like Dr. Mundo – since their rise is likely off the back of those buffs effects starting to be felt.

There are several candidates for bounce-back or stabilization rises, meaning their actual in-game power hasn’t changed but they are returning to their previous ranking after an aberration last patch or this recent rise could be that anomaly. Of the champions that rose, Darius, Kled, Vladimir, Akali, Nasus, and Sylas all appear to be candidates for bouncing back after being rated too low last patch.

On the flip side, Quinn is a prime candidate for a champion who’s ranking might drop back down next patch as her win rate hasn’t significantly moved in several patches (though her pick rate has increased slightly) and this is the highest she’s been rated in 15 patches. Ditto for Yasuo, who had been in the C or D tier for the seven patches prior before suddenly jumping up into the B tier in 9.17. Without a corresponding win rate in top lane (it’s hovered around 48.5%), I expect he won’t remain this high for too long.

That leaves Tryndamere and Camille as champions who aren’t bouncing back after being rated too low last patch or likely a bit over-estimated in 9.17. We’ll start with Camille since she moved very little in our rankings and hasn’t seen a noticeable change to her win rate this patch. In all likelihood, she’s just settling into this high B/low B+ range and might flip-flop between those two tiers for a little bit.

Tryndamere did see his win rate improve slightly in 9.17 (by about 0.4%) but not enough to justify the huge leap from C to B+ tier he took. I think the answer is more likely that Tryndamere was underrated for a few previous patches (he was C tier in 9.16 and 9.15) but before that, he was consistently in the B/B+ tier.