League of Legends: Diana climbs the mid lane tier list in Patch 9.24b

We take a look at the League of Legends mid lane meta in Patch 9.24b.

Patch 9.24b didn’t bring a ton of changes to the mid lane meta, other than buffs to the top assassins via lethality buffs. We will examine if those buffs moved up some of those AD assassins or whether the best mids in League of Legends from the last patch remained the same.

Mid lane tier list

S tier: Kassadin, Diana (⇑), Cassiopeia (⇑⇒)
A+ tier: Fizz, Katarina, Vladimir (⇑), Talon (⇑), Ahri (⇒), Zed (⇑⇒)
A tier: Yasuo (⇓), Ekko, Malzahar (⇑), Qiyana (⇑)
B tier:  Twisted Fate, Aurelion Sol, Syndra (⇓), Zoe, Nocturne (⇓), Orianna, Ryze, Akali, Leblanc, Veigar, Viktor (⇑⇒)
C tier: Lux (⇐⇓), Anivia, Rumble, Mordekaiser (⇓), Galio, Xerath (⇑), Vel’Koz (⇓), Annie, Neeko (⇑⇒), Heimerdinger (⇓⇒)
D tier: Zilean (⇐⇓), Malphite (⇓), Irelia, Camille, Pantheon, Lissandra (⇒), Aatrox (⇒), Lucian (⇒), Swain (⇓⇒)
F tier: Sylas (⇓), Ziggs (⇓), Azir, Tristana, Corki

Dropped: Kled, Kayle, Taliyah

Key

• * = new to the tier list this patch
• ⇑ = improved (rated at least one tier higher than the previous patch)
• ⇓ = declined (rated at least one tier lower than the previous patch)
• ⇐ = borderline-up (within 10% of being in the next-higher tier)
• ⇒ = borderline-down (within 10% of being in the next-lower tier)

Observations

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• Once again, there is a lot of diversity in the mid lane meta. The top 10 has a mix of AP assassins (Kassadin, Katarina, Fizz, Diana), AD assassins (Talon and Zed), battle mages (Cassiopeia, Ahri, and Vladimir), and a fighter (Yasuo).
• Swain had the biggest drop in ranking from Patch 9.24, going all the way from mid-B tier down to nearly the F tier. Swain’s win rate continues to rise in the mid lane, now 53.1% which is sixth-best in the role.
• Diana is the champion who rose the most in Patch 9.24b, going to the mid-S tier from the high-B tier. Her win rate did go up this patch by about 1%, but what is most surprising is her pick rate being second-highest in the meta.
• The winningest mid laner in Patch 9.24b is Aurelion Sol, with a 54.5% win rate and 1.6% pick rate. The only highest win rate champion with a pick rate over 5% is Kassadin (53% win rate, 7% pick rate). The lowest win rate mid laner is Irelia with a 45% win rate and a 5.9% pick rate.

Buffed Champions

Lethality Users

Both Serrated Dirk and Edge of Night got buffed by 5 AD in an attempt to help out the lethality users. Below are the mid lane champions who regularly build lethality as part of their core build (three most commonly built items) and how their ranking changed after this buff from Patch 9.24.

• Nocturne = -0.323
• Pantheon = +0.037
• Qiyana = +0.377
• Talon = +0.141
• Zed = +0.255
• Average = +0.097

So, compared to junglers, the mid lane assassins who are building lethality got a healthy buff.

Nerfed Champions

Heimerdinger

Those nerfs to his W – Hextech Micro-Rockets and Empowered E – CH-3X Lightning Grenade hurt him far worse in the mid lane than they did in the AD Carry role. In the mid lane, Heimer fell from the low-B tier to the low-C tier. His win rate is still strong (53%) in the mid lane, so we’ll have to see if his ranking stabilizes in the next patch.

Methodology: These rankings were determined by finding the average standardized score of a champion from nine different tier lists from sites around the internet. This is done by assigning a certain weight to each different score, rank, or grade given by these sites (for instance, both a “Diamond” rating and “A” grade would be worth a 90 score). The standardized score is then determined by looking at the average score given to all champions in every role by that site as well as the standard deviation of scores given (so that sites that give out more high grades will not have their As be worth the same as a site that gives out very few high grades).

The full, underlying data can be found here. This link also includes the full listing of how the scores are assigned. Champions must be rated by at least half of the sites audited in order to qualify for our tier list.