The High ELO Tier List for Patch 13.11
Now that we’re a few weeks into Patch 13.11, we’ve observed some interesting changes and updates, but will those impact the tier list rankings? Let’s take a look at the tier list for each role and find out!
Top Lane
Starting out with the top lane tier list, the first highlight we’ll point out revolves around one of the most commonly banned Champions of the last patch; Rengar. He’s been a menace in the jungle, and he’s also been a real problem when it comes to the top lane.
Even with Youmuu’s nerf, it’s still been useful for Rengar when it’s built. The item is mostly about the movement speed bonus that’s provided, and nerfing the number on the lethality value was required, especially when you factor in Rengar’s ultimate. Having around 12 extra armor penetration from his ult, and combining this with Youmuu’s lethality grants the Champ a lot of bonus damage during trades.
Next to this, we also have to talk about his healing capabilities with his W in short trades. It’s just really annoying to lock him down, and approaching any brush can turn into a deadly encounter for you. If you want to make it even more deadly, go for Youmuu’s Ghostblade and Essence Reaver as core items; other than that, situational items will help to boost the cat’s effectiveness.
There haven’t been many other major changes to the top lane meta, so we’ll highlight an all-time classic, Jax. His love for lethal tempo, lane dominance, scaling, and sidelaning are as big as they used to be. There do not appear to be any nerfs heading in his direction, and he’ll continue to remain a solid pick. Going with Divine Sunderer, Black Cleaver, and then some situational tanky items will make Jax a top-lane terror.
Jungle
Over in the jungle, we believe the changes to AD assassin items, such as Youmuu’s and Duskblade are going to be very interesting to see where people land on their builds. Will Rengar still remain permabanned? He is an assassin, so you can probably assume it’s likely. Putting that aside, let’s move to another tier list highlight with Graves.
Graves is a decent Champ into a few of the OP picks, namely Kha’zix and Rengar, and the item changes benefit him quite a bit. Especially the changes to BT, as it grants Graves significantly more up-front damage, which makes it substantially easier for him to maneuver in skirmishes.
Another thing that is intriguing about Graves is his flexible playstyle. You can be the most aggressive invading demon, or you can farm it out and wait for specific spikes to take fights. Either works, but you’ll need to specifically know about the enemy’s jungle clear speed and strength compared to yours, depending on your pick. Also, don’t forget that the enemy team will always move first, as if the entire universe is out to get you. We’d suggest looking into a Youmuu’s Collector core build, but depending on the situation, you may look into a Goredrinker, Cleaver, and BT approach to turn yourself into an unstoppable tank.
Another powerful pick from Patch 13.11 is Nocturne. He’s better than before due to Enchanters being picked more often… No way Echos of Helia is still broken, right? The previous buffs to Stridebreaker are another argument in Nocturne’s favor.
Nocturne is infamous for being an entirely ult-centric Champ that mainly indulges in a herbivore type of gameplay until his ult is ready to go. Upon switching out the lights, he’ll then quickly travel towards the ADC of choice at the speed of light, and after crashing into them, the Stridebreaker slow and fear will remove any counter-play options. The opponent’s only chance will be a literal statcheck against you at that specific moment, which sounds fun for you, doesn’t it? Make sure to grab a Stridebreaker and Cleaver as your core items, and you’ll be good to go.
Mid Lane
Now, as we move over to the mid lane, we’ll need to see what is busted over here as well. Since we’re mostly focusing on Solo queue, it’s important to consider the chaos and reliable setup that you can provide for your teammates on a consistent level. Picks such as Zilean are still absolutely broken on paper, as they hadn’t been addressed in this patch, but other power picks just do much more, earlier.
We’re still going to take a moment to discuss Zilean, who serves as more of a Tier 1 protector. He hugs his tower and wants to scale toward his powerspikes. Once he gains access to his ultimate ability, he can enable his teammates to completely disregard specific laws of the game as they gain a second life. To add to that, he also has a crazy point and click slow with a stun setup that you cannot miss once the enemy is slowed.
However, as mentioned earlier, it’s all about getting to those cooldowns and level breakpoints to truly come online. Once that’s done, he turns into a Sona-tier Champion that just completely takes over the game. To accomplish that in proper fashion, you’ll want Everfrost, and afterward, you can focus on situational items, and even Imperial Mandate can work as it’s affordable. Otherwise, a cosmic drive for its movement speed and ability haste come in clutch. Don’t forget to start with a sapphire crystal.
If you’re looking for a Champ that provides setup earlier with a lot more damage than you want, take a look at Annie. This Champion’s design is as easy as it gets, and yet powerful as hell. You provide an immensely broken gank setup with your stun, and can constantly zone off enemies just by having it available. Moving forward triggers an automatic response by your enemy, as they’ll have to respect you, and that’s the thing you’re going to make use of
make sure to keep your opponents on their toes and confuse them, then once your jungler is within range, you can simply flash on their head and one tap them with your jungler’s assistance.
For your items, you obviously have pen as your signature core build. On one hand, Luden’s Echo, Sorc Boots, and Shadowflame will wipe an enemy off of the lane in a hurry. On the other, against tankier Champs, you can also build into Liandry’s Anguish instead of Luden’s to abuse your Tibber’s burning aura. Generally speaking though, you’ll be fine with the Luden’s pen build most of the time.
Bot Lane
Heading down to the bot lane, we have some adjustments for ADC’s with new builds. Trinity Force Zeri is back, and she’s going hard in 13.11!
Alongside her, there are also other ADCs who enjoy this item so far, so let’s take a look at Lucian. For your core, you have basically two options; you can opt into the Trinity Force build, or you go for the current option of Stromrazor into Galeforce. The burst provided by this build is the highest, but the Trinity Force build grants you more consistent DPS. Keeping that in mind, it’s time to think about your laning partner. Are you going to be playing with a support that will enhance you with even more burst, or are you going to be allowed to safely deal damage within extended trading windows?
It’s important to note down here that the Trinity Force build doesn’t really feature crit, but rather, it goes for an on-hit approach with the blade and Cleaver. You’re a lot tankier, but you’ll deal far less burst damage. To give you a third option, you can also look into Essence Reaver and Navori as a combo for maximum ability haste. With Navori’s change, this might be something interesting as they gave the item more damage by trading it for some ability haste. Just remember, you’ll have plenty of haste already.
The next Champion we want to highlight here is the virtuoso, Jhin. Again, we’re going to keep this simple and easy. Start with Stormrazor, Galeforce, and most likely Rapidfire into LDR for your core, as these items are just too good.
If Jhin isn’t really your preferred type of Champ, you can also look into poke-Varus. While Jhin is a burst-centric ADC that provides utility in the form of setup with his deadly flourish and curtain call, Varus is more about poking and locking people down. With lethality items such as Youmuu’s for the added lethality, Manamure for infinite mana, and bonus on spell-hit damage, you’ll deal a ton of damage before the fight has even started. Previously, we had mentioned that BT is now providing a lot more AD as it received a change to its identity, so adding that and Serylda to your build will grant you a boatload of attack damage to take down enemies.
Support
Winding down the tier lists will be support, and we have a few different sub-tiers featured here.
Enchanters being around more often now, it’s Pyke’s time to dominate the map as they’re stuck or late to rotations. The power of this pick is mainly linked to your prowess when it comes to map domination, so here you have to put in some effort to make him work.
He’s also a big fan of Ghostblade, as the nerf isn’t affecting Pyke all that much. It surely makes him weaker, but it doesn’t push him into buying another mythic, as this one provides everything he needs. For your core, you really want those ability haste boots with a Ghostblade to take over as quickly as possible.
While Pyke wants his boots as early as he can get them, our next two Champs might have a different approach. Buying early boots is an investment to have increased pressure on the map, but what if there’s a way to brutally statcheck people with a single item?
In the distant past, a certain Janna one-trick introduced an Ardent rush. Ardent was absolutely broken, and it was almost gross to see the difference between an ADC who had its buff, and one who didn’t. Something similar is happening with Echoes of Helia now. For your peel support Janna, you have the following adjustments to your build: For Runes, you now want Glacial Augment and Font of Life to consistently trigger Echoes of Helia.
For playing Bard, on the other hand, you’ll just want to opt into the typical Resolve tree with Guardian to gain access to Font of Life. Both of these builds mainly revolve around Echoes of Helia, which is the very core of everything that makes up a broken enchanter currently.
Now ask yourself the following question: Can your Champ proc Font of Life consistently on maybe multiple targets while still dealing damage? If so, Echoes of Helia is probably broken on said Champ, and you’ll inflate your winrate significantly.
The fact that Bard the chad can even opt into tanky items afterward makes it even more difficult to kill him when you add the mobility of his magical journey to the mix. Since killing Janna was never, and will never, be an easy task, the Champion is just straight-up obnoxious to face as it denies so many other Champs.
How do our tier lists look compared to your own? Did we surprise you with any of our picks or highlights? Be sure to let us know and keep an eye out for any changes when 13.12 inevitably drops in the future!
