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Best Well-rounded Mid Laner

SirPurrr··3 votes·3,111 views

I'm probably picking mid as my secondary role and I don't want to develop a large champion pool for it since it's rare I'd even get to play it. Thus, I want to choose 1-2 champions which aren't banned often and fit almost any team comp. without having terrible matchups. I especially like the idea of a mid with high utility because it doesn't put as much of a burden on me to win lane. What champions would you recommend?

Here are my current candidates: Zilean Lux Lulu Karma Kayle

It would be a big plus if said champion was good vs assassins like LB. For example, Zilean struggles a lot vs her because she can dodge bombs and poke super hard constantly. Sometimes she can burst you before you even get to ult. too.

I should also add that I've so far found it a bit difficult to use champions like Lulu because you need great timing and precision when clicking for her shields, speed-ups, the ult. etc. ALONG with being ready to self-cast at any moment. For a normal champion without utility, you just have one target, your enemy. It's simple. For a champion like Lulu, you have potentially 10 targets for multiple abilities and need to constantly decide whether it's best on an enemy, ally or yourself.

33 Comments

Dominick Destine5 votes

Viktor

MunchCrunchLunch1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Dominick Destine,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ElrB2tY4,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2016-01-24T23:22:50.615+0000)

Viktor

hes good. but he kinda gets destroyed by assassins.

WalkingInACircle4 votes

Ahri

Shonjl3 votes

Morgana is one of the best mid laners currently. On par if not better than Lux even.

2 Hard ccs, a shield that nullifies any cc, long range instant aoe, builds hp tanky but also hits like a truck, extremely good passive sustain.

Honestly only thing bad about her is speed which throw some swifties on her or get Lucidity/Alacrity and that problem is solved with a respectable 420ish speed. Only Zed can give her issues and even then you can beat him by just being by tower and CCing him to death when he ults you.

Just play who you enjoy most though is all that matters.

Zilean has a lot of utility but his drawback is little damage(If you miss your bombs you do nothing at all) Lux is basically a mage sniper with high burst if she lands it all on you but is extremely squishy and has no way to escape or survive if you jump on her(If she chooses to use Q offensively which if baited is her only safety net) Lulu I feel is the most balanced since she has utility and damage, really don't know what else to say about her. Karma is basically the same as Lulu but not as good I personally feel. Lulu generally does the same thing Karma can but just better. Kayle I personally dislike since she kinda sucks but thats just my opinion. She has 2 ranged pokes, one of the strongest heals in the game, and an ult that prevents her from dying. Her weakness is squishy and the ult doesnt stop CC, so 1 cc will make her basically waste the ult.

Darkslayer853 votes

AP Garen is the best mid. We all know that.

Jeddy0171 votes

Rest in Peace DFGaren.

EndlessSorcerer2 votes

I haven't played mid-lane much in a while, but I still have my old favourite. I find that the following are generally reliable and safe picks and they may be worth trying.

Ahri Anivia Lux Orianna Veigar Viktor Karthus

They all have weaknesses which can be exploited, but they can be quite useful in most team compositions and provide good utility, damage, and teamfighting.

MunchCrunchLunch2 votes

Syndra Lissandra Anivia . ofcourse if they pick Kassadin . don't pick those 3.

Catastrop2 votes

Of the three you listed, Anivia Syndra are solid picks against Kassadin. Lissandra is a skill match up at best.

MunchCrunchLunch1 votes

{quoted}

Of the three you listed, Anivia Syndra are solid picks against Kassadin. Lissandra is a skill match up at best.

lissandra gets absulutely destroyed by kass. you really. don't want to go lissandra vs kass. at all

Earl Eulrich1 votes

you can easily push him in early and have way stronger midgame-teamfighting with liss - just get an early abysal and he´ll be crying someplace.

Catastrop1 votes

Well in my experiences, every Kass ever just always got poked into minion levels of useless. Maybe I should attribute that to my playing Liss as a lane bully, but I've honestly never witnessed Kass come out on top in this match up...then again, I probably just never encountered a good Kass.

MunchCrunchLunch1 votes

{quoted}

Well in my experiences, every Kass ever just always got poked into minion levels of useless. Maybe I should attribute that to my playing Liss as a lane bully, but I've honestly never witnessed Kass come out on top in this match up...then again, I probably just never encountered a good Kass.

after level 6 lissandra shouldn't stand a chance as kass can simply all in her. and if she tries to all in you you simply ult out of her ult.

Treeofwar1 votes

i am a mid laner main and the 2 champs i see that i would take would be lulu and lux because of their team oriented skills that dont fall off late game or that are weak early game so you can be there for your team comp. If you need help with mid i can help with my knowledge

SirPurrr1 votes

{quoted}

i am a mid laner main and the 2 champs i see that i would take would be lulu and lux because of their team oriented skills that dont fall off late game or that are weak early game so you can be there for your team comp. If you need help with mid i can help with my knowledge

Which do you find more difficult among those and how would you rank Zilean in difficulty compared to them? Thanks!

Treeofwar1 votes

{quoted}

Which do you find more difficult among those and how would you rank Zilean in difficulty compared to them? Thanks!

i would say lux is harder both are pretty easy with their combos and zilean is good only for his ult his laneing phase is not bad but his ult is on a long cd and if you dont land your bombs you become really useless so any burst mage like syndra or leblanc would kill you and you could not do much about it but if you can land his bombs in a team fight you will do so much damage and stun everyone

3ofGot40ve1 votes

Lux definatly the best idea on the list. Great cc and crazy burst with thunderlords. Also great harass and fairly simple to play. scales great.

4ManVotedAgainst1 votes

Brand Lissandra Syndra Velkoz

Demoman1 votes

Ya can't kilean the zilean. [(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpe-JoGyPsY)]

Void Nargacuga1 votes

Well from my own experience of enjoying playing as a mid laner. I would say Malzahar is an odd but strong pick. NOTE: Subject to change once Mid-Year Mage update happens.

My reasons:

  • His ultimate has THE hardest CC in the game, a Suppression that can last up to 2½ seconds.

  • Suppression info 1: The target is unable to control movement, attack, cast abilities or use summoner spells. 2: Will interrupt channeled abilities. 3: The duration is not affected by crowd control reduction. 4: The effect can be removed only by using Quicksilver Sash or Mercurial Scimitar (Cleanse is not an option since Suppression prevents summoner spell use).

  • He has a silence on his Q which is a linear AoE.

  • AoE % Max Health damage DoT on his W.

  • His E has a mana refund passive if the target dies before it ends, then passes it on to another target resting the time.

  • Insane 1v1 monster post 6 with his full ability rotation on a single target.

And now for his downsides:

  • Learning to "control" his passive Voidlings is a pain at first.
  • IMMOBILE MAGE! Needs boots and/or additional items/runes that give him Movement Speed. His base move speed is: 340
  • You can accidentally cancel his ultimate by trying to casting another spell or trying to move. NOTE: Casting summoner 14 will not cancel his ultimate.
  • Is VERY mana hungry early. Proper use of his Malefic Visions (E) will somewhat mitigate this.
  • Easily ganked due to him having NO form of disengage and low movement speed.
Earl Eulrich1 votes

Zilean currently is beyond broken (~70%winrate mid for experienced players, has to get adressed soon). He´s really tricky to lane though.

best alrounder would be Lulu, best alround control cassio and savest overall performance ahri.

ofart3 votes

He has a .5% play-rate and obviously even fewer that have 50-125 games. The sample size is incredibly small and nearly completely meaningless. He's probably also picked more in situations where he's supposed to shine. If he were broken, you'd see him in LCS matches and he'd be a lot more popular. Kog'Maw mid is in a terrible spot and has a 72% winrate for those with 50-125 games. With a .18% play-rate mid, these stats are equally meaningless.

Unless a champion has at least a 5% play-rate, win-rates are often skewed by small sample-sizes. Moreover, winrates usually reflect ease of use and reliability more than they do objective strength. LB has almost never had a positive winrate even when she was broken. Without context, winrates mean little in terms of balance.

Earl Eulrich1 votes
  • Ryze had a ~65% winrate even before worlds for mains, and still only Faker really picked him up to crush...now he´s pick or ban finally, pros are really slow to adapt to champs that hadn´t been in the meta for some time
  • Zil just offers an insane amount of control atm, you can´t get a good fight vs a good Zil. There are almost 0champs that get to even a 60%winrate for experienced players, so no matter the number of players, 70%really is telling.
  • Kog´maw is not in a terrible spot, he just needs a team that is willing to fight for him
ofart3 votes

For champions with these play-rates, the stats are absolutely irrelevant. I gave you many reasons why and there have been countless examples of 60%+ winrates for <1% play-rate champions in the same realm for experienced players, especially with most people still not playing ranked and only a 3.6 million sample size for all champions. You're right that there are few champions that get to 60%+ winrates for experienced players IF the statistics are reliable and from large samples but this is not the case here by any means. Show me a 10k game sample with those Zilean winrates for players with 50-125 games and then you'd have a point.

To use this data and draw conclusions is completely ridiculous. ZIlean Mid in total has 1903 games on champion.gg and the number of games from players with 50-125 games is probably less than 10% of that. Kog has a total of 674 games mid and again, the number with 50-125 games is probably below 10% of that. To highlight how stupid it is to use these stats to support a point regarding balance, Kog goes from 72.32% at 50-125 games to 45.66 at 125+ games. Do you think the champion becomes nearly 30% worse when you play him 125+ games?

It's just nonsense and in Kog's case, he most definitely is NOT OK regardless of team comp. He is not at all a good mid laner now compared to other choices. He lacks CC, lacks good poke, is extremely squishy, has unsafe + fairly mediocre damage all while being quite item dependent (due to being gated by CDs, mana more than other champions). I've talked to multi-season Challenger players about this and I quote "I'll play Kog'maw when Riot wants me to again" - Valkrin "Kog is garbage" - Imaqtpie. I don't know what ELO you are at but he is simply no viable in high ELO vs competent players. He used to be situationally quite good.

That is no longer the case and that's a big reason why his play-rate mid went down to .18%. He is better as an ADC but still not good. Zilean mid is different. He's definitely better than Kog but is in no way shape or form OP. He has quite a few bad matchups like vs Diana, LB and Yasuo. I don't care what the winrates are, this is the truth and assumes competent play from both Zilean and these other champions. Stats are merely correlational factors and in your case, it's completely misused because of the sample sizes. A much better indicator of strength is what's picked/banned in pro play and high ELO.

Catastrop1 votes

Personally I'd have to say; Anivia Lissandra Orianna Syndra Velkoz.

Handin Out Naps1 votes

Try Ahri, Viktor, Ori, or Lux. Viktor is my favorite though :x.

lightdragoon881 votes

Disregard all other choices, acquire Swain

SnazzyTheMister1 votes

of your list lulu and kayle are probably the best pick ups. you wont need to spend a whole lot of time on them to play them well but the more time you do spend the better they'll be. they both also do fine in top lane. they don't have many bad match ups and have some match ups where they are really strong. they can solo carry to an extent but still have lots of team utility if you aren't the main carry of your team. there isn't really a comp that doesn't get better by adding a lulu or a kayle.

zil and lux are great and all but they have some match ups that are more difficult and it will take more time to learn to play them. i personally play alot of karma and shes pretty great but i have to admit that lulu and kayle are probably better picks most of the time.

SirPurrr1 votes

{quoted}

of your list lulu and kayle are probably the best pick ups. you wont need to spend a whole lot of time on them to play them well but the more time you do spend the better they'll be. they both also do fine in top lane. they don't have many bad match ups and have some match ups where they are really strong. they can solo carry to an extent but still have lots of team utility if you aren't the main carry of your team. there isn't really a comp that doesn't get better by adding a lulu or a kayle.

zil and lux are great and all but they have some match ups that are more difficult and it will take more time to learn to play them. i personally play alot of karma and shes pretty great but i have to admit that lulu and kayle are probably better picks most of the time.

How do people find Lulu easy? I don't get that at all. I think she's one of the mod difficult champions in the game to play well . I explained why in my original post to some extent. I mean, sure her kit is straightforward but actually utilizing it well seems another thing entirely. Maybe it's just something about me but I find it much harder to play champs. with abilities that can apply to themselves or allies as well as enemies. To me, it's easier to learn to land some skillshots than to know exactly who/when to shield and be able to do it instantly at the right time.

SnazzyTheMister1 votes

{quoted}

How do people find Lulu easy? I don't get that at all. I think she's one of the mod difficult champions in the game to play well . I explained why in my original post to some extent. I mean, sure her kit is straightforward but actually utilizing it well seems another thing entirely. Maybe it's just something about me but I find it much harder to play champs. with abilities that can apply to themselves or allies as well as enemies. To me, it's easier to learn to land some skillshots than to know exactly who/when to shield and be able to do it instantly at the right time.

the way i see it a bad lulu can still save someone. maybe its not the right someone or the most clutch thing but you can still make it happen and as you get better at the champion you recognize these where to make the right play more and more. where as if you are a bad zed lets say you aren't gona do much for your team.

Korillo1 votes

Orianna hands down

SirPurrr1 votes

{quoted}

Orianna hands down

I've never played Ori but she definitely seems versatile. I'm just worried about her being too difficult.

Weathered1 votes

Heimerdinger

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