We’ll be making a few adjustments to the Top Lane Tier List for the upcoming patch. The first consists of moving Volibear up to the S tier. With this build, you’re able to get maximum value out of the new rune, Jack of All Trades, which gives you 25 adaptive damage at max stacks.
Volibear’s New Setup
If you haven’t seen the build yet, it’s a Rod of Ages rush into Flicker Blade second, and then Spirit Visage or Frozen Heart third. Here’s a look at the rune page: it’s Press the Attack for the Keystone Rune, and it’s super important you take Jack of All Trades as well. Not only is this build extremely fun to play, but it’s actually very strong at the same time, and we definitely recommend you give it a shot for patch 14.1.
Twisted Fate Top Lane Return
A more niche Top Lane champion that we’ve had too low down on the Tier List over the past couple of patches that we are moving up for 14.11 is Twisted Fate. Especially for this patch, Top Lane TF is back in a great spot due to the Static Shiv buffs.
Top Lane Build Options
You can either run a Static Shiv or Kraken Slayer rush, and both items are currently very effective. The removal of crit from Kraken Slayer in exchange for movement speed has made AD Twisted Fate even better, as he benefits significantly more from movement speed. This advantage comes from the need to be in range to land his gold card. There are two really strong builds you can consider right now. The first consists of Kraken Slayer with Fire Cannon and Terminus, while the second build has you rushing Static Shiv. If you’re playing against a Top Lane champion who’s difficult to kill in a 1v1, then going for Shiv to just clear waves and play for roams is a great strategy.
Choosing Between Builds
Our new macro course for Shiv is a phenomenal resource to help you with that kind of play style. Conversely, if you are snowballing early on and are in control of the 1v1, Kraken will provide more damage in straight-up duels. There’s really just one matchup that you want to avoid when picking Shiv TF, and that matchup is Jax. Jax, with his ability to dodge out on Twisted Fate’s gold card, makes the matchup very difficult for TF to succeed in.
Top Lane Tier Adjustments
Other than that, Twisted Fate is superb in top lanes against champions who lack gap closers like Darius, Sett, Volibear, and Garen. Besides Kennen, TF is right up there as one of the best ranged top laners for solo queue, and you’ll find him in the S tier for patch 14.11. If we take a look at the Shiv Tier List for 14.11, it’s mainly just a bit of reshaping for mid-patch. Urgot is being moved down into the S tier as Tryndamere and Sett are just on a level above all else right now, especially Tryndamere. He was buffed in 14.10 as Riot thought that removing Lethal Tempo would negatively affect him, but Tryndamere is doing completely fine with Grasp.
Mid-Patch Adjustments
It looks like Riot may have to revert a bit of that buff moving forward. Many Shiv Champions were buffed in 14.11, and all the changes have panned out to expectations except for one. Gnar was the only top laner who really didn’t gain a whole lot of strength off the back of his buffs, so we’re moving him down into the B tier for mid-patch. Nasus, Singed, and Pantheon have all become considerably stronger due to their buffs, and our pre-patch prediction of moving all.
Top Lane Changes
Three champions moved into the A tier have played out nicely. Changes to Cante have also met expectations as the adjustments were net negative, and he didn’t gain any power at all for solo queue. He remains in the Shiv C tier. As for one Shiv champion who was nerfed, Aelia, her change landed a bit more harshly than anticipated. On paper, it didn’t seem like a huge nerf, but with Aelia’s health growth dropping, she’s actually lost over 2% win rate. For 14.11, we’re going to move Aelia down one more tier for mid-patch as she’s being placed in the B tier.
Impactful Jungle Changes
14.11 has been a massive patch for Kha’Zix, as he’s gained around 3% in win rate due to his Q buffs. Rune optimization could lead to Kha’Zix’s win rate spiking even higher, as so many players are running Time Warp Tonic when Triple Tonic is heavily overperforming. Unless your game plan is to invade, the value from Time Warp is quite inconsistent. Triple Tonic, on the other hand, provides guaranteed value every single game and should be run more often. Regardless, the buffs this patch have transformed Kha’Zix from one of the more underwhelming junglers to one of the best in the entire game. We are moving him up into the Jungle S tier.
Master Yi’s Surprising Success
Base stat changes always seem to get overlooked, and even we did not expect as much to come out of the Master Yi buffs. Master Yi had his health, armor, attack damage, and attack speed growth increased this patch, and the changes have turned out extremely impactful. Master Yi has gone from arguably one of the worst junglers in the game straight up to the top of the Tier List due to these buffs.
The craziest part about the changes is that we really aren’t seeing a huge disparity in the strength of Yi based on the ELO. Generally, with scaling buffs like these, we see the champion gain a lot more win rate for low ELO, but Master Yi has been winning a ton in high ELO as well. It’s kind of weird to even say this, but Master Yi is just a well-rounded pickup regardless of rank in 14.11, and we’re bumping him up into the OP tier.
Jungle Tier List Insights
If we take a look at how the jungle Tier List is constructed for 14.11, the OP tier will be locked down by three champions: Lillia, Rexi, and Master Yi. Carus and Tiia ended up losing a good chunk of strength due to their nerfs this patch, so Lillia now stands alone as the best Blackfire Torch jungler. The OP tier honestly has a little bit of everything right now. Rexi is great if you want to play a more early-game focused pick, Lillia is solid all around, and Master Yi scales exceptionally well due to his buffs. With someone like Yi, being able to master the mid to late game is really important to get the most out of the champ, and our new mid to late game course for jungle can help you out with that massively.
Bot Lane Synergies
Now, if your support locks in a melee engage champ, then spamming Rexi is just such good value right now. Getting bot lane ahead is pretty reliable if you’re ganking for a melee support, as the CC lockdown that you’ll have helps to secure kills. Conversely, if your bot lane has locked in a more scaling-focused duo, where pulling off early ganks will be a lot more difficult, locking in Master Yi or Lillia is going to suit you better.
Mid Lane Meta and Lux’s Rise
Mid lane champions that can abuse the new First Strike rune to the fullest are finding really great success right now, and Lux is one of them. As more players gravitate towards First Strike instead of Comet, mid lane Lux’s win rate continues to rise. With the long range from Lux’s E, it’s just so easy to consistently proc First Strike in lane and amass a bunch of bonus gold. Remember, the base gold that you get for proccing First Strike went up from 5 to 15, so you’re able to stack a lot more gold in lane now to accelerate into your first item spike quicker. Here’s a look at the full rune page that you should be running on your Lux.
We’ll be giving Lux a push up the Tier List for mid-patch, moving her from S into OP tier. If we have a look at the mid lane Tier List, the OP tier is being locked down by Brand, Auction, and Lux. Other than Lux, some really good First Strike users right now are Vel’Koz and Xerath.
Mid Lane Trends with First Strike
For the first time in a while, Vel’Koz mid has seen a decent play rate spike, and it’s mainly due to First Strike along with his ability to abuse the Blackfire Torch rush. Zerth and Vel’Koz, both being very long-ranged mids, have great power with First Strike since it’s so consistent to proc in lane.
We had moved Tryndamere Shiv up into the OP tier recently, but Mid Lane Tryndamere is also quite good right now too, and we’re adding him back to the Tier List, placing him in S. It’s the exact same build as Shiv with Ravenous Hydra and Phantom Dancer as core items. The main difference, though, is that Fleet is the better Keystone than Grasp, especially if you’re in a ranged matchup.
Corki’s Current State
If you fall behind on Corki, you’re basically as useful as a cannon minion, so you need to be very proficient on the champ to succeed with him. If you want to spend a ton of time on Corki and get really good at him, then you can make him work, but if you’re looking to climb as fast as possible right now, there are just so many more reliable options. Corki did get even weaker this patch as well, with the nerfs to The Collector and Infinity Edge.
Smolder’s New Build
After struggling mightily due to the ADC item rework in 14.10, it looks like Smolder has finally found a build that’s giving him some solid strength. Instead of rushing Essence Reaver or Trinity Force, it’s Manamune that’s gaining in popularity and winning at a much higher rate. Smolder’s base AD has been buffed up from 55 to 60 over the past patch, and going for a heavy AD stacking build is looking really strong.
You rush Manamune and build into Spear of Shojin second, so that Smolder’s Q hits really hard and you can spam out his abilities without a worry of running low on mana. You’re going to be spiking really hard in the mid game with this build because you’ll have Manamune fully upgraded to Muramana and 225 stacks of Smolder’s Q. Smolder’s Q at 225 stacks deals true damage which scales off 2% of his bonus AD, so going.
Smolder’s Revival in Solo Queue
For an item like Manamune, which offers so much bonus AD, it is great value, and overall, Smolder is back in a viable spot for solo queue this patch. We’re moving him into the ADC B tier. Smolder ended up as one of the bigger winners from 14.11. However, one ADC who has lost a considerable amount of strength is Samira. The reason being is that Samira runs The Collector and Infinity Edge as her two core items, and both were nerfed. Samira was also directly hot-fixed nerfed in 14.10 as well, so she’s ended up losing a lot more power than many of the other ADCs who also like that item combo. As a result, there are definitely much stronger ADCs to choose from now, as Samira is being moved into the ADC B tier.
Summoner Spell Shifts in ADC Meta
Throughout the past year, we’ve seen so many different viable Summoner spells for ADCs, but now with Ghost and Cleanse recently nerfed, Barrier has begun overtaking as an optimal pickup. Barrier was buffed in 14.10, with the duration increased and the shield strength increased as well. You can honestly run the Summoner spell on the majority of ADCs; however, it’s going to be most optimal on champions that are looking to skirmish early on, as the low cooldown on the spell is really nice to constantly force all-ins. Corki, Samira, Lucian, Caitlyn, Kalista, Draven, and Zeri are a bunch of ADCs that pros have been running Barrier on the most in solo queue.
ADC Tier List and Item Impact
Moving on to the ADC Tier List, we have a lot to talk about in regards to meta shifts due to the item changes. The OP tier will continue to be locked down by Jhin and Jinx. However, Ashe is moving up to take the third slot for this patch. Ashe was not negatively influenced at all by any of the 14.11 item nerfs, so she’s taken an added step forward as she was already in a great spot prior to the patch.
We noted in the pre-patch Tier List that we’d have to wait and see exactly how impactful the Shiv buffs would turn out, and with the patch being live for a few days, it’s pretty safe to say the item is now a really strong pickup on a few ADCs. Zeri is the most notable who’s been performing incredibly well with the Shiv rush and is being moved up the Tier List as a result. A lot of Zeri players are still running the Blade of the Ruined King rush.
Shiv’s Impact on ADCs
So, if you have yet to try out the buffed Shiv, we would definitely recommend it. Sivir is back with Shiv as the two-item core of Static Shiv and Infinity Edge is leading to some really great success right now.
It’s not just the Shiv rush that has given Sivir a bunch of added strength, though, as she’s an ADC who has been loving the First Strike changes. It’s very easy for Sivir to constantly proc First Strike throughout the lane due to the long range from her Q, and being able to amass a bunch of bonus gold helps to accelerate into that deadly midgame spike. Kai’Sa with the Static Shiv rush is working really well again for 14.11. The buff to minion damage feels really clean to instantly clear waves with the Shiv proc and Kai’Sa Q damage. The fact Shiv now has movement speed as well is super nice, and the cost being 2,800 leads to a quicker spike than Kraken Slayer, which costs 3,100 gold.
Adjustments in ADC Performance
As for Caitlyn, her nerfs really didn’t hit that bad at all. We were expecting Caitlyn to lose a little more power than she did, especially due to the fact The Collector and IE were also being nerfed, but she’s held up really well, so we’re adjusting Caitlyn back up into the S tier for mid-patch. Draven, on the other hand, really didn’t end up gaining much power at all due to his buffs. A few days after the patch, he’s actually seen his win rate decline from where it was in 14.10. Changes turned out quite underwhelming, and he’s now in the lower percentile of bot lane carries, being placed in the C tier.
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