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

Buffed champions

Kayle

Kayle got changes that were both buffs and nerfs in 9.17, an attempt to rebalance her to make the laning phase and scaling curve a bit more forgiving. Riot reworked her Passive – Divine Ascent to give more range into the scaling phases of her passive at the cost of bonus movement speed and attack speed. She also got some nerfs to her Q – Radiant Blast and base ratios on her E – Starfire Spellblade to give more scaling to her E and more range to her R – Divine Judgement.

Unfortunately, these changes were a net nerf to Kayle and in a big way. She crashed out of the B+ tier where she had been in 9.16 and dropped all the way down to the D tier. Her top lane win rate, though above 50.1%, dropped by over 1.1% from last patch. In all likelihood, Riot will need to give her some power back in a future patch to compensate for this “buff.”

Neeko

Neeko got a quality of life change, allowing her to de-activate her Passive – Inherent Glamour so that she doesn’t have to auto-attack to change back to her true form. Unfortunately, it didn’t really help her out. Neeko’s top lane win rate remained stable and she stayed in the D tier.

Pantheon

After the rework went through in 9.16, Pantheon’s win rate was quite underwhelming and he was among the worst top laners. Riot, justifiably, decided to give him a little love in the form of execute damage to his Q – Comet Spear and buffs aimed at the jungle to his E – Aegis Assault (removing the reduced damage block against monsters).

In the top lane, Pantheon has begun to thrive as players understand his reworked kit. He’s currently an A tier pick (higher than he was with his old kit at any point in Season 9) and he has the second-best win rate among top laners at 52.6%.

Ryze

It wasn’t a huge buff, just four base MR to allow Ryze to battle against the stronger mages in top lane. It was effective in bringing Ryze up from F tier to D tier, although he had been a D tier pick for the three patches prior to 9.16. More tellingly, Ryze’s win rate in the top lane has been unchanged, indicating the buffs were really meaningless.

Nerfed champions

None

Who will you be playing in the top lane during Patch 9.17? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!