League of Legends: Patch 10.2 Aggregated Mid Lane Tier List

League of Legends. Photo courtesy of Riot Games. /

We take a look at the League of Legends mid lane meta in Patch 10.2.

Patch 10.2 gave some life to a few of the weaker-performing mid laners. Today we look to see if any of those changes shook up the top of the meta or if Diana will continue to dominate the mid lane in League of Legends.

Mid lane tier list

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

Dropped: Pantheon, Aatrox, Tristana, Corki, Pyke

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

More from Blog of Legends

A lot of surprising champions fell out of our tier list, including Aatrox, Pantheon, and Corki. With Corki slated to get buffs in the coming patch, I’d assume he will rebound, but the poor melee fighters in the mid lane just seem to be vanishing.
Not much to say about the top of the meta, as it’s still largely the usual suspects (Diana, Kassadin, Fizz, Katarina). One interesting champion to look at, though, is Qiyana, who rose up this patch despite being nerfed.
Thanks to the buffs he got in Patch 10.2, Ziggs had the biggest rise in our tier list this patch. Sylas was actually second, along with Rumble in third, so both of those champions look to be doing better despite not getting any buffs.
We spoke of the hit to melee fighters in mid and Irelia was not immune to that pain. She dropped the most in this patch, falling all the way to our F tier. She now has the lowest win rate of all mid laners at just under 45%.
Following Irelia at the bottom of the win rate pile for mid laners are Akali (45.8%), Lux (46.4%), and Ryze (46.5%). Akali has a pick rate over 8%, so her win rate is probably not as representative of her power, but poor Lux has a pick rate of less than 1% and is still languishing. When even her hardcore mains can’t make Lux mid work, Riot might need to look into some buffs.
On the other hand, Taric (not on our tier list) has an incredible 61.4% win rate in the mid lane, which I guess means it’s time to slam our heads into something heavy because the funnel comp is back baby! In terms of the win rates for actual mid laners, it’s Malzahar (53.8%), Zilean (53.4%), and Rumble (52.9%). Rumble is the only one among those three with a pick rate over 3%, so he’s likely the one I’d consider the strongest.

Buffed Champions

Ziggs

Riot elected to give Ziggs strength into three of his abilities to let him be a better early game champion. The results were quite impressive, as noted above, pushing him into the mid-C tier for Patch 10.2. His win rate is now over 50% (50.7%) for the first time in five patches and his pick rate is over 1% for the first time in that span.

Nerfed Champions

Qiyana

The nerfs to her W – Terrashape were aimed at curbing her jungle presence, but I still didn’t think that she would be in our top ten after these nerfs let alone actually improving. While her win rate is down slightly in Patch 10.2, she still has the second-highest pick rate in mid lane.

Yasuo

He didn’t get directly nerfed, but the nerf to Cloak of Agility certainly his the Unforgiven hard. He fell from the A+ tier down to the mid-B tier in this patch. His win rate is down slightly (currently 47.8% in the mid lane) but that hasn’t stopped everyone in mid from picking him. He still has the highest pick rate in mid (10.2%).

Next. Which mid is best to main?. dark

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.

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