League of Legends: Top champions are strong in each position

League of Legends update 9.14 was a mess when there were tons of bugs popping up. Fortunately, professional competition is still using version 9.13.

Version 9.14 brought a lot of game bugs. The good news for the pro arena is that they’re still on version 9.13. Maybe those bugs will be fixed before 9.14 is applied to the professional league. However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect the game.

To find out how the pro meta will be affected by the 9.14 changes, we’re going to use the stats site Mobalytics to find out which champions are strong at high elo. After that, analysis will be added to get a realistic view of the strength of these champions in the professional arena.

For more insights from the experts, check out the Mobalytics League ranking list. Mobalytics also provides a way to build equipment and counters for every champion in League of Legends.

Top lane

Patch 9.14 showed us major changes where Jayce, Kennen, and Neeko were nerfed. However, according to Mobalytics, these three champions will still be very strong.

The important thing is that they will all be weaker in the first 3 or 4 levels, but will be much stronger later on. In fact, when the Q skill is raised a few points, Jayce will still be very strong, so it can be said that this is a buff for Jayce.

The champion that Mobalytics underestimated is Karma. She’s got a lot of bans lately and can lane with long-armed champions. Both Karma and Gnar are being picked more and more to go with those nasty champions.

Forest

Mobalytics’ favor for Nunu remains, but Nunu is definitely not a strong champion to use. In fact, that’s true of both Nidalee and Rengar, two champions that are too difficult to fit into a controlling playstyle.

The next two taxonomies show the current meta of the forest. You can try to rush in with Olaf, the champion is a lot of priority. Or you can play like a Korean, where tankers are always popular and Sejuani is very popular. Trundle is also used a lot to counter tankers. Griffin also used Zac and got off to a good start, but couldn’t finish the game.

There’s one champion that can ruin everything, and that’s Karthus. He is playing more and more in Asian tournaments. Even Korea, a region that hasn’t trusted Karthus for a long time, has now played Karthus and made him almost a banning champion. In general, the jungle meta is shifting from strong early game to controlling late game, and that shift will affect a lot in the mid-map area.

Median

The mid lane meta must be called lousy. After nerfing Akali and Irelia, Azir and Corki were freed and only went to the lanes and then fought.

That helps counter champions like Vel’Koz, Malzahar and Veigar appear. Long-handed champions that can push minions are a good choice to use in the mid lane. But Mobalytics has another option: Assassin.

You will see that in Qiyana where her priority in EU and NA servers is quite high. Mobalytics thinks that Zed and Talon are also very good and that Akali is not completely gone.

And then there was the arrival of Aatrox. Riot continues to struggle with Aatrox’s respawn ability and in this update the respawn ability has been removed by Riot. That might be fine since he gets a massive boost to his healing with R on and that can be equated with respawn.

Bottom lane

The bot lane meta hasn’t changed in a long time. Choose Draven if you know how to play, and Xayah or Kai’Sa if you can’t play Draven. You can use Ezreal or Vayne if you feel you can play well.

One small drawback with Mobalytics is the overestimation of critical marksmen other than Xayah. These champions aren’t too bad either – Caitlyn is also very good at laning and Sivir was also used a lot in patch 9.13.

The problem lies in the fact that Riot is nerfing Tahm Kench to death in this patch, and it’s a fatal blow for ADC champions who lack mobility. As such, in the end there won’t be any significant changes to the bot lane meta.

Support

Yuumi will be nerfed in this update, but this nerf is more of a free nerf than making Yuumi weak. However, Lux was a different story. Lux and Tahm Kench will become much weaker. Perhaps for some reason, Korea will still use Tahm Kench, but Europe and China have so far not been too interested in this Catfish.

Nautilus is still very good, but he is not on this list, which is a big omission. And besides Yuumi, there won’t be many buff-type champions used. That’s not to say they aren’t good, but solo lane is the main strategy right now so it’s going to require more from support. So there won’t be many changes in this update.