League of Legends Tier List: The Best and Worst Mid Laners in Patch 10.8

Our latest League of Legends tier list for Patch 10.8 looks at the best mid laners in the current meta.

Patch 10.8 was light on the mid laners, with just three champions receiving direct changes. We’ll look at how our League of Legends tier list for the mid lane shook out after these changes, as well as the kill experience changes that should be giving mid laners a (literal) level up on their bot and jungle counter parts.

Our aggregated League of Legends tier list pulled data from ten different sites around the internet to see how they each ranked the top mids in the current meta. From that, we are able to give our average ranking of each mid laner that was graded or listed in at least half of those tier lists. Without further ado, our latest League of Legends tier list.

Mid Lane Tier List

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

Dropped: Wukong, Ornn, Sett, Karma, Camille

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 (close to the next-higher tier)
• ⇒ = borderline-down (close to the next-lower tier)

Rising Picks

Orianna

Following the buffs in Patch 10.8 to her Command: Dissonance and Command: Protect, Orianna saw her ranking jump from the C to mid-B tier. She also saw a near-2% win rate increase to go along with this improved ranking.

Dropping Picks

Mordekaiser

While he may still be a terror in the top lane, mid lane Morde dropped like an iron ingot in the Patch 10.8 League of Legends tier list. Considering one of his worst mid lane matchups, Ryze, got buffs this patch, the skepticism about Mordekaiser’s mid lane power is probably warranted, even though his win rate is steadily over 51%.

Lucian

Mid Lucian has been a wacky, niche pick all season. It’s big drop from the mid-C to mid-D tier this patch isn’t a reflection of the pick being any weaker, but just that it was overrated by our tier list in the last patch.

Garen

Another niche mid lane pick, Garen has also received nerfs targetted at his top lane power in the past so it’s understandable that he would fall off a bit in the off-lane as well. That said, he does have a top-ten win rate for mid laners (52.4%) so his D-tier ranking doesn’t quite tell the full story (he also only has a 1.4% pick rate, though).

Underrated Picks

There are actually three champions with a sub-5% pick rate that are rated in our A+ tier in Patch 10.8: Vladimir, Cassiopeia, and Ekko. All of these would be solid additions to your champion pool as a mid laner.

Overrated Picks

Our overrated mid laner in Patch 10.8 actually goes to the champion with the highest pick rate in the mid lane. Leblanc has over a 10% pick rate, the only mid with a pick rate that high, but is only rated in our B tier and has a win rate (47.3%) in the bottom ten. An honorable mention goes to fellow B tier mid Yasuo who has an 8.8% pick rate but at least has a 49.5% win rate.

Buffed Champions

Orianna

As we noted above, those buffs to two of her abilities not only brought her into the B tier but also caused her win rate to spike. She is definitely running like clockwork here in Patch 10.8.

Ryze

A few small buffs to his base stats and his Overload’s bonus movement speed gave him a slight boost in our tier list, but not enough to bring him out of the C tier or bring his win rate to above 48%.

Nerfed Champions

None