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The ADC Meta has seen a major shake-up for patch 14.5, while the priority picks in the jungle have shifted drastically as well. Smolder hot fixes have hit live servers, as the champion has been excelling in three different roles throughout this patch.
ADC Meta and Jungle Shifts
With the help of our Challenger players and by analyzing the most recent data, we strive to bring you the most accurate tier list for the majority of ranks to stay in the loop with the meta throughout season 14. We have a new tier list update every single week.
Smolder’s Rise in Popularity
As if this champion wasn’t already high priority enough, the 14.5 Smolder changes have taken him to another level. The changes were supposed to be neutral adjustments, but they’ve turned out to be extremely positive and have provided Smolder with a massive win rate spike for top, mid, and ADC. Riot has gone ahead and issued some hotfix nerfs, but they really haven’t done a whole lot in terms of lowering Smolder’s power level.
E bolts were reduced from 1 per 50 stacks to one per 150 stacks, while R cooldown was increased by 20 seconds at all ranks. So far, with these changes on live servers, they’ve led to about a 1% drop in Smolder’s win rate, so it’s significant but nothing too massive.
Top Lane Smolder Performance
Although Top Lane Smolder is not performing as well as ADC, it’s right behind and still a really great pickup for 14.5. The build that’s giving Top Smolder so much strength right now is a bruiser setup, consisting of Spear of Shojin, Iceborn Gauntlet, and Liandry’s. The 14.5 changes were, in theory, supposed to lessen the strength of these bruiser builds, but analytically, that has not been the case at all. Bruiser Smolder is outperforming crit Smolder for this patch up in the Top Lane, making him a much more forgiving and easy champion to execute.
Top Lane Meta Evolution
The Top Lane meta over the past few patches has been super strange, because it’s been these range picks like Twisted Fate, Vain, and now Smolder that have been excelling super hard. TF and Vain are much weaker for this patch, but now Smolder comes in to take their places as one of the higher priority ranged picks. As you’ll find him in the Top Lane, a tier one of the most strange occurrences we’ve seen in a while. When it comes down to a buff not meeting expectations, the Wukong changes in 14.5 were particularly noteworthy.
Unexpected Turn for Wukong
Looking at the analytics, Wukong Top Lane actually saw a decrease in win rate from 14.4 to 14.5, despite being buffed. It’s puzzling, as what on paper looked like huge buffs led to a decrease in his win rate. One factor that might be holding Wukong’s win rate back a bit right now is the fact that most players are not taking advantage of Domination Secondary. Resolve Secondary is most popular but is performing very poorly in relation to Domination.
Wukong’s Build Optimization
The core build for Wukong right now has been building three items that all benefit from Ingenious Hunter. Ingenious Hunter reduces the cooldown of passives and actives. So, with Trinity Force, Eclipse, and Sunderer Sky as a strong core build for Wukong right now, taking advantage of Ingenious Hunter is crucial.
Mid-Patch Tier List Update
As for Wukong’s tier list placement, we’re moving him into the Top Lane A tier for the mid-patch update. Other than Smolder seeing a massive move up the tier list, the meta is aligning pretty similar to what we had expected. Urgot remains in the OP tier as the best blind pick Top Lane Champion for the majority of ranks. Twisted Fate sees a further push down the tier list for Mid patch as the changes really put a massive dent into his solo Q strength, and he’s just not really worth playing now unless you’re very proficient on the pick.
Volley Bear’s Optimal Build in 14.5
For 14.5, it’s becoming clear how players who build Sundered Sky win much more on the pick, and as more players have gravitated to that build, the champ’s win rate just continues to rise. It’s a core of Sundered Sky and Dead Man’s Plate that is working wonders for Volley Bear right now, as you get a little bit of everything the champion wants from sustain to durability and movement speed.
Players who rush Iceborn Gauntlet are actually below a 50% win rate for this patch, and it’s still the most common first item, while players that rush Sundered Sky are winning over 54% of the time. So, overall, build Volley Bear correctly, and he’s a monster pick, especially for the lower ranks in 14.5, and is being moved into the jungle OP tier.
Eclipse’s Impact on Solo Queue
Champions that can take advantage of how powerful Eclipse is right now are performing incredibly well for solo queue, and Lein is one of them. It wasn’t until these past two patches where Lein players really started to prioritize the Eclipse rush over Sundered Sky. As more and more have done so, it’s led to a pretty big spike in Lein’s overall win rate, and Eclipse is now the most common rush item on the champion. It’s actually the exact same build that is making Brier super strong right now, with Eclipse, Sundered Sky, and either Black Cleaver or Sterak’s Gage.
Jungle Tier List Adjustments
Looking at the jungle tier list, we have a few minor adjustments taking place. The OP tier will now be comprised of two champions, with Volley Bear moving up and joining Brier. If you were wondering why Lilia randomly had one of the lowest win rates for any champion at the start of the patch, it was because her E AOE was not dealing damage. The bug has been fixed now, so even though Lilia’s win rate may appear a lot lower throughout this patch, she’s not actually become any weaker and will remain in the A tier.
Mid Lane Meta Shifts
Moving on to mid lane now, one of the biggest meta-shifting changes for this patch has been the fall of Twisted Fate. TF was a godlike pick for multiple patches in a row.
Twisted Fate’s Decline in 14.5
But that has all come to a halt due to the 14.5 nerfs. AD builds are pretty much dead on Twisted Fate now as a result of the E nerfs. Even if you’re playing AP Twisted Fate, he’s still quite a bit weaker, as you have to remember the AP builds were actually nerfed a patch before, in 14.4. Overall, Twisted Fate is no longer top tier for solo queue and is being moved down into the mid lane B tier for 14.5. Twisted Fate was one of the biggest losers of 14.5.
Vagar’s Rise
One of the biggest winners from the mid lane has been Vagar. Buffs to Vagar have seen him gain a good chunk of power, and the champion was also indirectly buffed due to the Storm Surge changes. Going for this very bursty two-item core of Luden’s and Storm Surge is working great for Vagar right now, as it allows him to come online a little sooner as opposed to the Rod of Ages and Archangel’s build. Vagar is still nowhere near being a perfect mid lane champion, as his matchups and inability to impact the early game lower his priority, but he’s now much stronger than he was in previous patches and is being moved into the mid lane tier.
Karma Remains OP
For the mid lane tier list in 14.5, we continue to rate Karma as the most OP champ. With how easy it is to pick up Karma and with how strong she is with the current mage items, anybody can start playing the champ and see great success.
Smolder’s Versatility
Smolder is the big talking point of 14.5, as he shot up to being a strong pick in three different roles. With mid lane Smolder, it’s a little different than what we covered for Top Lane, as you aren’t building Iceborn Gauntlet and instead are going more offensive with Essence Reaver. It’s still a pretty durable build overall, though, as Spear of Shojin and Liandry’s are the second and third pickups.
Kog’Maw’s Rise and Twisted Fate’s Fall in Patch 14.5
With the buffs he received this patch, Kog’Maw has now shot up to holding one of the highest win rates for any champion in the game. Each buff on their own didn’t seem that impactful, but when added all together, they provided Kog with over a 2% boost to his solo Q win rate. Kog’Maw is looking really nice right now with his two-item core, Blade of the Ruined King and Guinsoo’s Rageblade, as it gives the champion one of the best mid-game spikes. It’s likely that Kog’Maw continues to remain quite underrated for a while, so definitely take advantage of him while you can, as he’s being placed in the ADC S tier.
After riding high as one of the most OP ADCs for multiple patches in a row, Riot killed Twisted Fate in 14.5. The champ definitely needed nerfs, but they’ve done way more than just lower the champion’s power, as Twisted Fate is not worth playing in the ADC role anymore. The EAD ratio going from 75% down to 25% was just an incredibly insane hit.
Riot’s Stance on Twisted Fate in ADC
This, in the first place, shows Riot doesn’t want TF to even exist in the role. If they wanted to keep the champion in a decent spot, they would have only lowered the ratio to 50 or 40%, not all the way down to 25%. Despite these nerfs, there are still a bunch of players who are picking TF this patch, but it’s really in your best interest not to. You’ll find Twisted Fate in our ADC C tier for now, but it’s likely within the coming patches he just gets removed entirely.
Shift in the ADC Role
The big shift in the ADC role for this patch consisted of Vain and Twisted Fate leaving the OP tier, while Smolder and Senna have taken over. Smolder is without question the most OP ADC based on every metric right now; win rate, play rate, and ban rate are all astronomically high, so there’s definitely going to be more changes coming in patch 14.6. If Smolder is open for this patch, he is the pick for ADC. Now, if you’re not able to get a hold of Smolder due to his high ban rate, shifting focus towards Senna or Kog’Maw is a really great strategy.
Senna’s Continued Dominance
As we expected, Senna did not lose very much power at all due to her Q nerf, so we continue to have her rated as an OP ADC. Riot has been trying for so long to lessen the strength of carry Seraphine while increasing the strength of support Seraphine, and they finally made a breakthrough in 14.5.
Support Seraphine’s Rise
Support Seraphine is finally in a spot where she’s about as good as carry Seraphine, which is not something we’ve been able to say in a long time. There were a ton of changes this patch, but in short, Riot increased a lot of the base values on Seraphine’s spells and buffed up a bunch of stats in the early levels while lowering the AP ratios and the strength of her spells at the later levels, which has been extremely positive for support Seraphine. It’s just way harder to achieve levels and bring in gold as a support, so more base value on spells and more strength in spells at earlier levels is always going to be beneficial.
Support Seraphine’s Improvement
A great trade-off for less strength and ratios overall, Support Seraphine is back to being a good solo queue pick for the first time in a long time and is being moved up to the A tier for 14.5. With the changes in 14.5, we have a bit of a new look to the support OP tier. Malai dominated and stood alone as the only OP tier pick for multiple patches, but that is no longer the case.
New Contenders in the OP Tier
With that being said, even after being nerfed for two patches in a row now, we were correct in our prediction that Malai would remain an OP support. The nerfs just didn’t hit quite hard enough to warrant a push down the tier list, and even though he’s not the super broken pick that he was in previous patches, he’s still higher priority than 99% of supports. All we’re doing is moving a few supports up into the OP tier to join Malai, as Blitzcrank and Janna are in and around the same power level as Malai now.
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