League of Legends: The 5 best mid laners for climbing ranked

Malzahar

A lot of people might classify Malz as a “cheap” pick who teaches a lot of bad lessons. To an extent, I understand and might even agree, as Malzahar has a very unique and binary play-style (I shove the wave and keep you pinned under your tower but good luck ganking me). But if you’re just interested in climbing, Malzahar has all the tools to enable you to do so with ease.

Between having two forms of CC in his kit (including one of the few silences remaining in League of Legends) and a spell shield on his passive, Malzahar has an incredibly obnoxious laning phase. His voidlings will perma-push the lane and his point-and-click CC on his ultimate makes his all-in and gang assist among the best in the mid lane.

You might not learn a whole ton playing Malzahar if you’re in lower elos, but there’s a reason that he has a 53.2% win rate among players in Silver and below. If you’re struggling with mages and high-mechanic champions, Malzahar is a great option to pick up.

Ekko

Although he was a bit towards the weak side earlier in Season 9, Ekko has become one of the premier mid laners in the last few patches. He’s got exceptional mobility, ranged damage and wave clear on his Q – Timewinder, and the “get-out-of-jail-free” card in his ultimate.

Now, his gank assist may not be the best, with him only having his W – Parallel Convergence for crowd control (which is difficult to hit and is honestly better used as a sort of zoning tool). Still, Ekko has all the tools you would want in a good mid laner to be able to all-in, escape, or waveclear.

Finally, Ekko is damn good in lower elos, sporting a 51.2% in tiers below Gold. With such a forgiving kit with a lot of flexibility, Ekko is a great champion to pick up even if his kit is a bit on the more difficult side.