Nerfs to Brand, Taaliyah, and Karthus affect their position in this patch's meta.
Patch 14.13 just dropped for League of Legends, and with all the changes coming in every other week, some of you might be wondering: which champion should I play today?
While we have our own favourite champs and mains per role, sometimes, the grind could be more fun when we win more and dominate our lane.
So for those seeking the most potent champions in Patch 14.13, here are the top picks you should consider.
Top Lane: Sett and Volibear
Sett and Volibear will continue to dominate the top lane this patch, especially with some nerfs to Gragas, who previously ruled the lane.
Volibear’s trending hybrid build is all the hype and will continue to reign supreme this patch. We recommend combining Rod of Ages, Navori Flickerblade, and either Spirit Visage or Frozen Heart.
Combining all these provides a balanced mix of durability, damage, and utility. This build makes Volibear durable and versatile and a pain to deal with up top.
While Sett and Volibear are the most OP champions in the top lane, other champions that traditionally thrive in the top lane will continue to be S-tier like Garen, Aatrox, Gwen, Fiora, and more.
Enchanters and AD Carries that have recently been effective in the top lane won’t be as good, mostly sitting on A and B tiers, so don’t expect the highest win rates for these champions.
Jungle: Lillia and Shyvana
Lillia is going to be the strongest pick for this patch, especially because Brand, Taaliyah, and Karthus all received significant nerfs.
On top of this, having a triple-burn effect can be possible for Lillia, because of her passive, combined with Liandry’s Torment, and the red pet, which will make it painful to 1v1 against her.
She will be followed closely by Shyvana on S-tier. Although she typically becomes stronger at level 6, she gained a considerable uptick in strength due to the Jungle XP changes from 14.10.
Shyvana's ultimate makes her extremely powerful, so reaching level 6 quickly allows her to be more effective in ganks and team fights.
Furthermore, Shyvana’s hybrid build outperforms full AP builds in the jungle, with Spear of Shojin, Liandry's Torment, and Riftmaker. This makes her a solid pick, especially at low elo.
Other S-tier picks in the jungle include Nocturne, Amumu, Briar, and Viego.
Mid lane: Vex and Naafiri
Naafiri’s buffs in 14.12 made her quite the OP champion, and with Brand out of the way, our resident doggo will have more room to reign.
Vex will continue to be an OP pick too. Some of the most OP builds for Vex include Luden’s Companion and Shadowflame, combined with Dark Seal and Cryptbloom, or Mejai’s Soulstealer.
Although significantly nerfed, Brand is still a solid pick, along with the likes of other S-tier champs like LeBlanc, Ahri, Lux, Swain, Annie, and Anivia.
Bot lane: Jhin, Jinx, Kai’sa
There will be a lot of overpowered champions in the bot lane this patch with Jhin, Jinx and Kai’sa being the top picks you’d want to take advantage of.
With Statik Shiv's return to the meta and Barrier being the ideal secondary summoner spell for Kai'sa, her performance has been noticeably improved recently.
This may be new information to most but recently according to statistics, Barrier outperforms Ghost for ADCs including Jhin by at least 3%, so it’d be best to give it a try.
Some of the main items for Jhin and Jinx like the Collector and Infinity Edge may have been nerfed in Patch 14.11, but they continue to remain strong. Jhin in particular, is a strong blind pick since he works well with any support champion.
Jinx herself was nerfed too in 14.11 but with no changes from this patch directly hitting her, she’s still powering through and will continue to dominate the bot lane until Riot does something about her.
Other S-tier picks after the Jhin, Jinx, and Kai’sa are Zeri, Nilah, Ezreal, Kog’maw, and even some enchanters like Seraphine, Brand, and Lux.
Support: Nami, Leona, Braum
There’s nothing in 14.13 that can directly affect Support champions, so the tier list remains the same, with Nami, Leona, and Braum being the top picks.
The buffs from 14.10 are definitely helping out melee supports like Braum and Leona. Both champions sync well with OP champs in the bot lane like Jhin and Jinx, so combining them with these champions makes them unstoppable.
The perfect build for Leona would include the Locket of the Iron Solari and Knight’s Vow, and consider taking Solstice sleigh when you upgrade in-game.
Nami is the most OP enchanter support right now because of the buffs she received in 14.11—when she actually didn’t need any.
Like Braum and Leona, Nami also dominates the lane when paired with Jhin, Jinx, and even Kai’sa, who are all OP-tier picks in this patch.
Other S-tier support picks include Poppy, Sona, Janna, Rell, Thresh, and Nautilus.Take special notice of Poppy who is actually a sleeper pick that can overtake our current OP picks, unless Riot does something and nerfs her.
One could also anticipate a slight increase in the power of Lux, Vel'koz, Zyra, and Xerath, though it would be intriguing to observe how the Dark Harvest buffs impact the effectiveness of poke supports in general.
While there have been many buffs and nerfs to specific champions in this patch, overall, it's not as meta-changing since most Runes and items remain untouched. However, it wouldn't be a surprise if a player discovers yet another OP build.
