League of Legends: Patch 10.3 Mid Lane Aggregated Tier List

League of Legends. Photo courtesy of Riot Games. /

We take a look at the League of Legends mid lane meta in Patch 10.3.

Mid laners across Summoners Rift cringed as they saw the changes scheduled for Patch 10.3 included buffs to old “friends” Azir and Corki. Although nerfs came to some of the more dominant mids like Akali, Diana, and Rumble, no one is ready for the return of the Gruesome Twosome. Hold your breath as we see how strong the pair is in the League of Legends mid lane meta.

Mid lane tier list

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

Dropped:

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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A bunch of champions who fell out of the meta last patch quickly rebounded to join the meta. Most of them are fringe picks at best, like Morgana and Tristana, but Corki rebounded following his absence from the mid lane tier list in Patch 10.2.
The top of the list is looking a bit different in Patch 10.3 as the Unforgiven, Yasuo, has hit the S tier for the first time this season. Oddly, neither Yasuo’s win rate nor pick rate changed drastically from the last patch, but he got the biggest bump to his ranking in this patch.
Yasuo got that massive bump, but we should also look at two other champions who got their own massive boosts in our rankings. Leblanc went from low-B to low-A tier this patch and Galio took those buffs into the high-C tier.
Unsurprisingly, Akali is the champion who took the biggest hit in her rankings in Patch 10.3 following those brutal nerfs. She went from respectably in the B tier down to our D tier, requiring Riot to hotfix those changes (note, these data points were taken before that hotfix so she is likely stronger now).
The best win rate champions in the mid lane are Aurelion Sol, Annie, and Cassiopeia, but only Cass has a pick rate above 5%. On the other end of the spectrum, Akali now has the lowest win rate of any champion at 42.1% and her pick rate has dropped to 3.2%. The next two-closest champions to her in terms of win rate are Ryze (45.5%) and Irelia (45.6%), both with higher pick rates.
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.

Buffed Champions

Azir

His base mana increase and the longer length of his Emperor’s Divide gave Azir a very nice bump in our tier list. He went from F tier to mid-D tier following the buffs and his win rate went up by 1% from the last patch.

Corki

The other half of this god-forsaken coin, Corki got increased damage per second, burn duration, and a slow on his Special Delivery that brought him back into the mid lane meta where he belongs in Patch 10.3. So far the changes don’t seem to have over-tuned Corki too bad as he’s right around Azir in terms of win rate (48%) but has a much lower pick rate of 0.7%.

Galio

The buffs to Galio’s Winds of War gave him a huge gust in his sails and propelled him to high-C tier. Although his win rate didn’t show a corresponding rise as well, Galio’s pick rate did rise by 1% after these buffs so he’s certainly looking stronger.

Nerfed Champions

Akali

Not much more we can say about Akali that hasn’t already been said. Those Patch 10.3 nerfs savaged Akali, requiring Riot to give her a hotfix buff just to stabilize her state. I don’t think the buffs have really helped though, so Riot is going to continue with their struggle to balance her.

Diana

Nerfs to her base mana and the damage on her Pale Cascade couldn’t dim the moonlight as Diana remains in our S tier in Patch 10.3. However, her win rate did drop by almost 1.5% from the last patch, now at 51.2% in the mid lane.

Rumble

Riot took some power out of Rumble’s Scrap Shield (both the bonus movement speed and the raw shield strength) and that did drop him down to the low-B tier. Rumble was never exactly a prized pick in solo queue as a mid laner, so we’ll have to wait for the professional teams to start play on Patch 10.3 to see how severe the nerfs are.

Sett

Despite getting a nerf to his base health regen and damage on his Haymaker in Patch 10.3, Sett has joined the mid lane meta for the first time. Sett actually took over a 6% win rate hit after these nerfs and doesn’t seem to be bossing anyone around in the mid lane.

dark. Next. Which mid is best to main?

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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