One of the game’s main developers, Riot Games’ August, believes LoL is in a less than ideal state for the current meta in League of Legends heavily favors Corki and Tristana in the mid lane for various reasons.

During a Twitch stream on June 6, August delved into the details of the current state of League, focusing particularly on the mid lane dominance of Tristana and Corki. He expressed concerns about the impact these two champions are having on the game. Although he believes they will likely be nerfed, he is not convinced that this will fully address the issue.

“Personally, I agree with you that Corki and Trist being in the meta is probably pretty rough and I don’t think the game looks like it’s in a great spot when those two AD Carries that are really safe are the ones you should be playing in mid lane,” 

While acknowledging that Corki and Tristana are not “optimal” for the current state of League, August also pointed out the difficulties in balancing the current meta due to other gameplay dynamics.

Like, AP junglers are currently very strong and popular, which August sees as positive for League. However, this popularity has increased the demand for AD-based mid laners to ensure teams have a diversified damage. Currently, Corki and Tristana are the best options.

August further explained that other mid laners, such as assassins, are not picked in the current meta because they are weaker and less suitable. He suggested that Corki and Tristana might simply be overpowered and in need of nerfs. However, he also proposed that making other AD champions viable could be a better solution.

“They might just need nerfs. But in a meta where you need to run a physical damage mid laner to account for your magic damage jungle, if there’s only two physical damage mid laners you can run, that’s going to look like these two characters are completely broken, “

Currently, both Tristana and Corki are extremely popular in high-ranked solo queue. In the 2024 LPL Summer Split so far, they have a 100% pick and ban rate, according to Oracle’s Elixir.

Fortunately for those tired of the current state of the mid lane, significant changes appear to be on the horizon. Riot Phroxzon has hinted at major adjustments for both Tristana and Corki, possibly coming as early as Patch 14.14.

For many players, Zac is the usual tank jungler champion with strong crowded-control skills and a reliable combat start. However, it is quite interesting that in the Preseason 2023, he emerged as one of the strongest mid-lane champions.

According to League statistics op.gg, the win rate of the champion in the mid-lane is up to 54.59%, currently one of the highest in League of Legends.

So how did Zac reach this place? According to many players, the direct cause of the rising of this champion in the mid lane was the new preseason item Jak’Sho, The Protean. Possessing this item after Sunfire Aegis will make Zac incredibly hard to kill, while still dealing huge damage to the opponents.

Moreover, The Secret Weapon’s ability to reach ideal positions helps him create huge pressure in the middle of the combat. At this time, normal midlaners usually had to stay in their lane to clear troops, heading for main items. Meanwhile, Zac is a resistant champion with cheaper, more reliable items, so he can roam comfortably through other lanes to help them.

Creating high pressure is extremely important as Zac will help teammates occupy the map. From there, the opponent will be gradually pushed to the base, thus, creating more advantages for your teammates. This will help the whole team create a big difference with the opponent and win in the end.

In fact, this gameplay has been around for a long time when it was used at the Worlds 2022 by the VCS representative, Saigon Buffalo. However, it wasn’t until Jak’Sho, The Protean appeared that this gameplay really became powerful and highly effective.

In summary, with Jak’Sho The Protean’s greater strength, Zac mid is incredibly powerful in the current meta. If you need a good climbing alternative for the new season, this one is a great option.

It’s Worlds, which means it’s time for some non-meta choices from pro players around the globe. As the playstyles of many areas collide, the meta morphs into a one-of-a-kind beast that is only seen in international competitions.

And the Worlds 2022 meta has witnessed its first significant evolution: Zac in the mid lane. The choice was made by Saigon Buffalo’s Froggy and presently has a K/DA of 3.6 and a 100% win rate after the Buffalos used it in a 35-minute triumph over the TCL’s Istanbul Wildcats.

Zac mid at Worlds 2022

Despite the fact that Froggy was the first to pick on the Worlds stage, G2 Esports mid laner Rasmus ‘caPs’ Winther has been tormenting EU West solo queue with it.

With the current meta focused on bot lane carriers, Zac mid is a strong tank option. While his laning phase isn’t particularly impressive, he’s just another crowd-control, heavy tank that can clear the way for a carry to come in and clean up.

In SGB’s victory over IW, the Zac pick allowed SGB to choose a backup tank. Zac offers the crucial teamfight setup with Leona, with a Gwen pick in the top lane and Hecarim in the jungle providing enough damage already.

These are the runes Froggy used to fight against Sylas.

In terms of items, you want to grab a Bami’s Cinder as soon as possible. Farming on Zac, especially in the mid lane, is a miserable experience – Bami’s will help alleviate some of that, as well as provide a nice boost of extra damage while fighting melee units.

That Bami’s Cinder will transform into a Sunfire Aegis, and you can then choose whether to go for a tankier variant of the build or itemize for some AP damage.

Patch 12.11 featured a Ryze buff to his E, the developers increased its ability power ratio from 30% to 35% while decreasing its mana cost from 40/55/70/85/100 to 35/45/55/65/75.

Then, in the extended Patch 12.11b, Riot again buffed Ryze’s Spell Flux (E). The devs improved Spell Flux’s AP ratio to 45%, while also raising its base damage. They also lowered the Overload (Q) cooldown from six to five seconds.

However, that wasn’t enough for the Rune Mage to show his full potential in these days’ meta. According to League statistics OP.GG, the champion now has a 45,76% win rate in the mid lane. As such, Ryze is now the game’s weakest mid laner and he ranks just above Nunu Mid, and that’s not even Nunu’s primary role.

Ryze isn’t simply bad in solo queue. According to Oracle’s Elixir, he hasn’t been selected at all in the LEC or LCS this split. He was selected six times in the LPL, although he only won one game.

And this isn’t even the worst. Following the durability update in Patch 12.10, the champion’s win rate dropped to as low as 40%. Prior to then, he had been the weakest mid laner for five patches in a row.

Ryze was once a beast in League of Legends. As a result, various nerfs and reworks have counterbalanced his previous success. The Rune Mage will almost definitely get further buffs in the upcoming patches. It remains to be seen whether they will have a favorable effect on the champion or not.

For you guys who have not heard about Riot August before: this man is the Lead Designer of LoL. He is the creator of  Jinx, Vi, Jhin, Ekko, Gnar, Senna, Viego. Besides his designing work, he is also regularly on-stream to answer the questions about creating champions, balancing the meta,… from the community.

And on his latest stream, he received a question about whether or not mages are now weaker than other classes. The Lead Designer stroke back but then, he had understood why this player said that. He said mages were not that weak, but playing them was actually bad.

According to Riot August, the main reason for the current problem of mages is that melee champions in mid lane are now too popular, they appear in almost every lane in every match. This class usually focuses on purchasing healing items to make mages’ harassment useless. Besides, melee champions having high mobility will be able to dodge their skills, approach and slay them quickly.

He also said that the kits of most mages were created to encounter ranged champions. For example, Bot Ziggs strategy seems to be OP as his kit is obviously suitable for fights against marksmen. However, Mid Ziggs is not that good as if the enemy mid laner has so much mobility like Yasuo, he will definitely have a difficult match.

This will make mid mages have only one mission: continuingly pushing and putting pressure on the enemy laner. As a result, their playstyle gradually becomes boring, and players will probably doubt their power. “You will still win when you have enough items, but their laning is really having trouble” – Riot August concluded.

To be honest, if we only consider their win rate, we definitely cannot say that they are weak now. As stated by u.gg, those like Heimerdinger, Anivia, Annie, or Kennen, all have over 52% of win rate in solo queues. Nevertheless, as Riot August said, their playstyle is so bad that their pick rate is extremely poor.

Basically, this problem cannot be solved via some patches or reworks. The main problem here is that melee champions in mid lane appear so regularly, and Riot will have to spend a lot of time decreasing their popularity.

League of Legends’ 152th Champion – Seraphine has her rough debut recently when she receives multiple negative attitudes against her. For example, her Champion Spotlight up to now has got 68.000 dislikes and kept growing. Not only her lore is really disturbing that leads to a whole campaign called “#JusticeForSkarner”, but her in-game mid stats are also somewhat miserable, she is currently having a 19% pick-rate in the mid lane and her win-rate is not positive at all (<50%).

Sadly, most players are now using her as a Support champion, which really fits the title that the community gives her “Sona 2.0”. She reaches nearly 80% pick-rate in the Support role. In order to fix this, Riot Mark “Scruffy” Yetter had posted on Twitter how they were going to change her in the next Patch 10.23.

He stated: “First patch is showing us that Seraphine has been skwed towars Support more than intended so we’re adding adjustments to 10.23 to shift her primary position to Mid. Support is quite good right now, so these shouldn’t remove the position, just bring it to a reasonable state.”

All the changes that will be made: We’re pushing the distinction between mid and support Seraphine. Mid Sera, who will be higher level throughout the game, will have better access to scaling damage via the Passive and Q changes and can now use E more comfortably for waveclear when needed. Support Sera won’t be able to hit those same levels or damage numbers, but will still be able to lean on E-max to provide consistent CC for her team.

• Base mana regen: 10 > 8.
• Passive – Stage Pressence: Note ratio 7.5% AP > 6/7/8/9% AP (levels 1/6/11/18).
• Q – High Note: Damage 55/65/75/85/95 (+ 55% AP) > 55/70/85/100/115 (+40/45/50/55/60% AP)
• E – Beat Drop: Base damage: 60/86/110/135/160 > 60/80/100/120/140. Damage to minions 60/70/80/90/100% > 100%.

Even though Riot does state quite clearly that they still want to keep Seraphine a viable option in Bot Lane, players who are currently loving her and ultilizing her in Bot Lane have shown some serious concern about these changes.

As for these changes, we are somehow thinking Seraphine has some similarities to Aatrox. They all really need as high level as possible to perform well and now with the changes that Seraphine is going to receive, maybe she will reach her peak after level 9 when her Q – High Note is maxed out and some decent small items. Let’s see if Riot can somehow balance her in the mid lane but still able to keep her in the bot lane.

When thinking about balancing out such a high ultility champion like Seraphine, it’s an extremely hard task for the balance team. In the past, we already had Top Tank Karma which created a frustration shockwave throughout the Summoner’s Rift. Making her to strong, she can basically build anything and still become a killing machine, nerfing her too much, well, players would rather pick more simpler champions than having to use her.

The 152^th Champion – Seraphine was introduced to be a Champion which can be powerful in both Mid Lane and Support Role. However, she just has been released a few days, but players realize that she is better in Support Role than on Mid Lane. This demands Riot to buff Seraphine in the near future.

Even more, players are complaining that there is no reason to pick Seraphine on Mid Lane. There is one simple reason not to pick Seraphine is her Passive, it needs to interact with her allies, which makes her a good Supporter. Many players concerned that Seraphine will follow some older Mid Lane Mages path, not strong enough to go Mid then pushed to Support Role.

In response to these demands from the community, Riot Reav3 – product manager for Champions in League of Legends – leaked that they are finding a way to buff Seraphine in the future, in order to make her comeback on Mid Lane.

According to LoLalystics, Seraphine pick rate on Mid Lane is really low, nearly 20% and the win rate is 46.6%. Meanwhile, she has a higher pick rate in Support Role, at a proportion of 76.6% and a win rate at 48.35%. It seems like Seraphine is truly stronger in Support Role.

The complaints from players are reasonable, she has a big problem in clearing waves and control Lane at Laning Phase. This leads to a fact that she can easily lost her lane and must play passively.

As players mentioned, Seraphine condition is really bad, it is hard to balance her power on Mid Lane. If Riot directly buffs Seraphine in her damage, she will become a more powerful Support with good Poking Ability. Maybe, there is an option for Riot to buff Seraphine, by increasing interaction with AP items of her Skills. In any way, Riot will go, hopefully, that they will not create another ‘monster’ on Mid Lane.

What changes will LOL Season 11 make?

A colossal assortment of items adjustment

Jungle items

Riot will bring forth a very pivotal turning point to the jungle meta by one big modification of the jungle item. Much like the combination of the Sightstone item and the gold income item into a single evolving support item that we see today, the jungle starting item will automatically transform into a fully-fledged enchantment item, such as the Stalker’s Blade.

This change is expected to save junglers lots of time going back to base just to upgrade the jungle item to improve their clearing capability. Also, junglers will have earlier access to the Chilling/ Challenging Smite to improve their chasing and dueling potential.

Marksman items

Marksman items will receive some love from Riot as well. Currently, they are suffering from building the same set of items over and over again, such as Infinity Edge and some critical strike chance items, and maybe a Manamune for a change or some sort of defensive items, but overall the freedom of choices are almost nonexistent. Therefore, Riot is addressing this in this system overhaul by adding more items for ADC, including “an AD armor item”, “more spellcaster marksmen options” (think of someone like Ezreal, though we think that he should be gutted to oblivion), and more.

Another marksmen problem is that they are excessively dependent on the protection (also the competence) of their team for them to be able to dish out those juicy DPS to win team fight, so this system overhaul will introduce several options that help those glass cannons to survive without lots of babysitting, though it might come with the cost of losing some DPS compared with a 100% aggressive build.

Alongside those changes, Riot also wishes to shift the power spike a bit more early than the traditional “late-game carry” power jump, so marksmen can be functional in this quick meta.

Mage items

The current issue with most mages, especially artillery mages (Syndra, Xerath,…) is how they always have to rush for that one item most of the time, and it is always Lost Chapter. It provides a hefty amount of mana to supplant their higher than average mana consumption and some ability power for higher damage and better wave clear. It has become a must build component item in most of the games, if not all of the games for artillery mages.

Riot is going to address this tedious gameplay pattern by adding items specialized for artillery mages, adding effects for the subclass. We assume that the effects will be something either related to their range, like increasing the damage based on the distance the spell traveled, or adding crowd controls to their kits, like Rylai’s Crystal Scepter but will be more potent at a longer range.

AP Fighters and AP Assassin items

Being an amalgamation between a mage and a bruiser, AP fighters only contains a few champions, the few notable ones being Sylas, Cho’Gath, and Galio, therefore they suffer from the void of unique itemization. Riot plans to introduce more new item sets for this subclass, such as different starting/ early items, hybrid, and manaless items so they feel more distinct from mages. Also, Riot stated that they would make it smoother for AP Fighters to transition into either tank or full AP itemization if the situation calls for it.

It is expected that the company behind League of Legends will introduce AP version of Sterak’s Gage, Black Cleaver and Death’s Dance to support AP Fighters.

On AP Assassins, they have many good first buys, such as Protobelt and Gunblade, but later in the game it is kind of difficult to choose suitable build paths since they generally want more damage but Deathcap and Voidstaff do not seem to go with their play style. Riot will create more AP assassin versions of these two aforementioned purchases so that AP assassins like Akali and Diana can function better late game.

Tank items

The current problem with tanks is that they lack proper build paths for a myriad of role they have to fill depending on how the game goes, such as protecting a vulnerable carry, hard engaging and split pushing.

Tanks definitely require more utility options in their itemization besides items that further beef their toughness in the fray. In addition, the magic resist items have been panned for a while now, either too effective or too useless. Furthermore, tanks also lack capstone items like Infinity Edge or Deathcap, so all these problems will be addressed by Riot next season.

Enchanter (support) items

By now enchanter support players are probably getting tired of building the same Forbidden Idol items every game (Ardent Censer, Redemption, Mikael’s Crucible and Shurima’s Reverie) alongside with the Sightstone (you should quit the game if you do not build this as a support or sell it by the late game).

Somehow Riot thinks the high amount of active items is the problem. We agree with them that some Forbidden Idol items are simply too powerful; however. Redemption is a must every game, and most supports of this type generally rush Ardent Censer as their second item, aside from their gold income gig.

It is expected that, much like other classes and subclasses, Enchanter Supports are to receive more builds option, while stuff like Redemption and Ardent Censer will have to undergo some adjustments to make them less prominent.

Source: Preseason 2021 Class Item Goals

Top 5 Most Annoying Top Lane Champions

1. Teemo (10.5%) <<< This is not a big surprise!
2. Akali (9.5%)
3. Tryndamere (9.2%)
4. Darius (7.9%)
5. Illaoi (7.5%)

Top 5 Most Annoying Jungle Champions

1. Shaco (23.3%)
2. Master Yi (11.9%)
3. Lee Sin (10.2%)
4. Ekko (6.5%)
5. Evelynn (6.4%)

Top 5 Most Annoying Mid Champions

1. Yasuo (18.6%) << Not a surprise either!!
2. Akali (12.9%)
3. Fizz (11.2%)
4. Zoe (10.0%),
5. Zed (4.5%)

Top 5 Most Annoying AD Carry Champions

1. Aphelios (40%) <<< Well, done Rito!
2. Caitlyn (15%)
3. Draven (7.7%)
4. Yasuo (6.1%) <<< Okay?…
5. Ezreal (4.2%)

Top 5 Most Annoying Support Champion

1. Pyke (11.7%)
2. Nautilus (9.9%)
3. Blitz (8.0%)
4. Morgana (7.8%)
5. Brand (7.1%)

What are the most annoying champions in each role in your opinion?

Do you think who should belong in this chart?

Credit: Reddit

However, just listen to the following sentences, gamers did not want to continue the game.

1. Assured of this game, I will carry team

This is a sentence that gamers often hear quite a lot in the ranking mode of League of Legends. High level gamers will quietly monitor the situation of banning and start the match safely.

But with less confident players, this is an interesting way to increase confidence from teammates when entering the game.

However sometimes this sentence becomes a mental burden on the rest of the teammates in the Game.

2. Mid or AFK

Simple and concise “Mid or AFK” is the extremely stressful threat of angry gamers because they cannot play at their forte.

And more frightening is that these simple threats not only affect one person but the whole team because League of Legends is a team game, no matter how good you are, 4 vs 5 is hard to breathe.

Besides, there are exceptions when given the favored position, they are able to show their strong ability to carry team.

But that is only a small exception, because it shows you quite well in the rankings if you have a higher ability then you have already ranked higher.

3. Yasuo 15’’ GG

The same as above “Yasuo 15GG” almost becomes a scary idiom that expresses the popularity of this general. When there are players willing to defy all just to choose Yasuo

Yasuo’s ability to create Highlight is unquestionable, but this is not a reason for you to overuse this general.

4. The language barrier

This is often the case if you go to Tryhard at international Servers and team up with international players is a big problem to communicate and implement tactics.