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Frustrating champion tier list based on community feedback

FalconPawwwwnch··31 votes·4,119 views

Hi, since here on gameplay and balance we often vent frustrations about champions, I thought I'd try to do it in a fun way, making a frustrating tier list based on community input. I figured I'd start based on what I know and will edit based on popular opinion. I'll make the first few tiers based on what I've seen from the community. Community support is obviously appreciated

Rules: I'll keep 8-10 in God tier for tier purposes, 20-25 in the others The assumption of this list is that the champions are actually viable at the time; i.e., just because yorick is trash tier doesn't mean he isn't massively stupid to fight against when he's viable

Riven tier: Riven

God tier: Nidalee, Leblanc, Kalista, Fizz, Katarina, Annie, Gnar, Zed

Tier 1 - Insanely frustrating: Vladimir, Yorick, Kayle, Morgana, Janna, Nunu, Lissandra, Heimerdinger, Teemo, Shaco, Blitzcrank, Lulu, Ahri, Fiora, Kennen, Azir, Quinn, Karma, Tryndamere, Kassadin,

Tier 2 - Moderately frustrating: Sona, Thresh, Lucian, Akali, Irelia, Caitlyn, Vayne, Yasuo, Darius, Malzahar, Jayce, Singed, Swain, Graves, JInx, Alistar, Xin Zhao, Zyra, Jarvan IV, Jax, ????

Tier 3 - Somewhat frustrating: Nasus, Master Yi, Olaf, Taric, ????

**Tier 4 - Manageable: ** Miss Fortune, Trundle, Ashe, Brand, Karthus, Anivia, ???

64 Comments

Wheatloaf24 votes

If we go purely off community feedback, a lot of champions don't even exist most of the time.

Rock MD17 votes

In terms of midlane, the champions you see are

Ahri Akali Anivia Annie Azir Brand Cassiopeia Chogath Corki Diana Fizz Heimerdinger Jayce Karma Karthus Kassadin Katarina Kayle KogMaw Leblanc Lissandra Lux Malzahar Mordekaiser Nidalee Orianna Ryze Swain Talon TwistedFate Veigar Viktor Vladimir Xerath Yasuo Zed Ziggs

Ahri - Tier 2. Incredibly hard to engage upon, but you can dodge most of her shit. Watching her run around like crazy fast can get infuriating. Akali - Tier 2. Still bullshit when fed. It's simply harder to do so. Anivia - Tier 2. Feels pretty impossible to engage on post-6 and has god-tier anti-siege. Basically, even if you're ahead she makes the game a pain in the ass and has good stall. Annie - Fuck you. Fuck you. Go to hell you piece of shit I fucking hate you. God tier. Azir - Tier 2. Although he's difficult to play against and it feels helpless trying to dodge his damage it's offset by him not having a lot of damage early on. Brand - Manageable. High CDs + high mana costs = not a difficult lane. If he stuns you I don't give a fuck how long it lasts you certainly deserved it. Cassiopeia - Did she land a Q? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Tier 1. Chogath - Unless you're Cassiopeia you're not going to burst him down in the slightest. Scales into a godly tank. Tier 1. Corki - Obnoxious but manageable. His poke is a bitch. Diana - There's a reason this bitch got nerfed. Tier 1. At least she has a weak laning phase. Fizz - Can be abused. Weak fish. If he starts snowballing or lands an ult on you though... G_G. Tier 1. Heimerdinger - Oh, I didn't want you to have fun this game. God tier. Jayce - Pain in the ass. Tier 3 though. He's not as ridiculous early with all those changes to everything that isn't his EQ/QE combo. Karma - Manageable. Perhaps just because I haven't seen her in a while. Karthus - Only things that are a pain in the ass involving Karthus are his ult and passive. Tier 3. Kassadin - Bullshit. Can't be caught without a bunch of hard CC and burst (or MasterYi). Only problem is he negates a good chunk of most burst. Tier 1. Lissandra - Tier 2. She's completely manageable for some champs, Living hell for others. Lux - I don't give a shit if she's got more counterplay than any other champ, between that laugh, shield, snare, and 1k range... tier 1. Fuck her. Malzahar - Have fun sitting at your turret all game. Basically Donger with more room to play around. Mordekaiser - Tier 3. He's obnoxious but can get absolutely wrecked. It's top Mordekaiser that's more scary. Nidalee - Fucking. Cancer. God tier. Orianna - Tier 2. Luckily she's short ranged. Ryze - Manageable right now. Swain - Lots of targeted damage, CC, and sustain. 'Nuff said. Talon - Gives you very little room to work around. If you do manage to beat him (assuming their jungler didn't camp the living shit out of your lane for the free god-tier roam) he's going to go bot and get lucky anyways because fuck you. Tier 1. TwistedFate - Tier 2 SOLELY due to his targeted stuns. Veigar - Still strong, but isn't as frustrating. Tier 3 IMO. Viktor - Too much damage to be fun to handle. Tier 1 at the moment. Vladimir - God tier. Will poke and be annoying and then will dodge all your shit. Same thing as Nidalee but with so much more sustain, targeted damage, and AoE threat. Xerath - Tier 1. Damn near undodgeable skillshots with ridiculous range. Yasuo - See Lissandra's explanation but with more punishing power. Even if you win against him hard it still feels painful and often unrewarding. Tier 1. Zed - This one is very interesting. I'm going to have to say Tier 2 because he's such a damned wild card. Ziggs - the king of waveclear and stalling. Tier 3, simply because while that's annoying, waveclear and stall with crazy kill potential and harder-to-dodge abilities is far worse. (Xerath)

Zenthon Prime2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Mia Bella Volpe,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=lio7uXER,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2015-05-10T00:40:20.207+0000)Annie - Fuck you. Fuck you. Go to hell you piece of shit I fucking hate you. God tier.

Ok, I main a Tier 1 (Xerath, which I can't disagree with), and I still want to upvote this one more than once.

YOU BEEN WARNED15 votes

Katarina and Akali shouldn't be god tier, they snowball hard but they don't suddenly delete you or troll you like fizz and lebonkers.

IMO Jinx much more frustrating than akali and kat.

Blitzcrank needs to be up there, along with ranged cancer toplaners Azir Karma LissandraKennen Jayce Cassiopeia Quinn Immortal demons with damage coming out of their ass: Leona Maokai Singed Thresh Udyr

You'll never catch me, but I always will catch you: Ahri Sivir Zed

Disengage & Anti focus: Lulu Janna Kayle Morgana Nami Braum

I'm either broken or I'm useless: Evelynn Elise Heimerdinger Khazix

Ridiculous ADC mechanics: Caitlyn TwistedFate Draven Orianna

STOP CAMPING WTF: Shaco Pantheon Vi

Trolls : Alistar Bard Trundle

Single player mode: Jax Nasus Tryndamere

Bullshit laning phase: Veigar Zilean Syndra Darius Rengar Renekton

Davy Crockett1 votes

Dat darius pick tho. I agree with TF on this.

Aych Pii15 votes

Zed Yasuo Katarina Riven Fiora Leblanc Are absurdly frustrating because it seems like whenever you queue against one the outcome of the game is placed solely on the shoulders of how well that player does. If they're good, their team wins, if they're bad, they feed like crazy and it's basically 4v6. There is practically no inbetween.

Edit: Add Nasus to that list too

Old Man Teeto13 votes

Darius Tier 2 - You don't lane against him, you lane "around" him trying to avoid him. Singed Tier 2 - GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN fart Irelia Tier 2 - I have a tri-force, I am now god, PUNY MORTAL YOU DARE MOVE WITHIN 600 FEET OF YOUR MINIONS?!?!? DIE! Graves Tier 2 - I'm the "Consistent" damage for my team. BOOM 100-0'ed.

Siachi6 votes

Shouldn't Teemo be up there somewhere? The whole "Teemo is Satan" meme came about almost entirely because he's frustrating to play against.

Ariel the Cruel5 votes

I don't really mind playing against Teemo, per say.

It's those damn mushrooms that I hate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTBeMonEXIM

41noob5 votes

god tier: fiora, vlad, soraka

DEmperor955 votes

Fiora Akali Katarina Leblanc Talon Fizz Annie Feel helpless while you die by no-skill bs.

Lao Fu the Tiger9 votes

{quoted}

Fiora Akali Katarina Leblanc Talon Fizz Annie Feel helpless while you die by no-skill bs.

You sound like a Riven/Nidalee player.

Mandang08 votes

He's still right, though.

Lao Fu the Tiger3 votes

{quoted}

He's still right, though.

No, not really. Each one of those listed champions has core strengths and weaknesses that players can note and work around. People that refuse to do so are failing to understand a huge part of what real counterplay is and instead jump to conclusions of "this champ is so broken QQ rito pls noskill."

Mandang06 votes

Coming from the guy who was accusing him of playing Riven/Nidalee....

Fact is EVERY champion has nominal strengths and weaknesses, it's just whether they actually come into play. Pre-6 'weaknesses' are notorious at being overstated as they're usually solved by taking 5 potions and just playing safe. Putting all the burden for dealing with a champion's gameplay pattern on others is another way people cover up the amount of strength that champion has (like with assassins). Riot's right to avoid 100-to-0 mechanics in the game, and they were right to remove silences on assassins, yet both could have been defended by your argument. "Oh, they just refused to play around Kass's silence", "They didn't pick the right champion to deal with LB", etc.

Also, just to note, the guy never said they don't have weaknesses, he said what they do doesn't take much skill. Akali putting her cursor on you and rolling her keys isn't exactly skillful. Same goes to a lesser extent for the rest of them, save possibly Fizz/LB (and they excel in the 'bs' part of his statement).

Lao Fu the Tiger3 votes

{quoted}

Coming from the guy who was accusing him of playing Riven/Nidalee....

Fact is EVERY champion has nominal strengths and weaknesses, it's just whether they actually come into play. Pre-6 'weaknesses' are notorious at being overstated as they're usually solved by taking 5 potions and just playing safe. Putting all the burden for dealing with a champion's gameplay pattern is another way people cover up the amount of strength that champion has (like with assassins). Riot's right to avoid 100-to-0 mechanics in the game, and they were right to remove silences on assassins, yet both could have been defended by your argument. "Oh, they just refused to play around Kass's silence", "They didn't pick the right champion to deal with LB", etc.

Also, just to note, the guy never said they don't have weaknesses, he said what they do doesn't take much skill. Akali putting her cursor on you and rolling her keys isn't exactly skillful. Same goes to a lesser extent for the rest of them, save possibly Fizz/LB (and they excel in the 'bs' part of his statement).

It's funny, because with these champions the pre-6 match is incredibly important and the result of that can often incredibly influence the champion's impact post-6.

Each of these champions is very snowball-oriented, first off. If they do not snowball, they are useless. Leblanc's damage is tied to her level 2 and level 6 kill potential. As someone once said, "If you don't feed Leblanc, we've already won." If Leblanc doesn't snowball, she becomes irrelevant. Not only this, but later on in the game, when people have a defensive item (if you don't build one, you can't complain), Leblanc doesn't do very much whatsoever. She's great for individual picks, but she's absolutely terrible at direct teamfighting.

Akali, I won't even talk about. She's in such a bad place right now that even putting her on this list is kind of a joke. She's got INCREDIBLY easy counterplay, and that involves nothing more than a pink ward or a sweeper many times. Don't like buying one? Don't complain.

What you seem to be failing to see is that counterbuilding is part of counterplaying. I don't give a rat's tail if you don't want to build an Abyssal Scepter to deal with Leblanc's laning phase. I don't care one bit if you refuse to build a Banshee's Veil on Caitlyn because "muh, muh damages." People like you need to learn that part of League of Legends is learning how to build for a situation and actually adapt to a champion who has a strong laning phase or a strong roam, etc. If you want to stick to the same build every single game, then you can't complain.

Mandang01 votes

Haha, looks like I nailed it earlier. You're saying the exact same stuff that's always spewed by assassin players. Thankfully Riot's realized that the existence of defense in the game doesn't automatically make silences on assassins healthy & they nerfed them accordingly. I can only hope they continue looking at their kits, recognizing the false interaction in other places, and changing them there too.

Lao Fu the Tiger2 votes

{quoted}

Haha, looks like I nailed it earlier. You're saying the exact same stuff that's always spewed by assassin players. Thankfully Riot's realized that the existence of defense in the game doesn't automatically make silences on assassins healthy & they nerfed them accordingly. I can only hope they continue looking at their kits, recognizing the false interaction in other places, and changing them there too.

...I play Swain, Dr. Mundo and Vel'Koz. I never said the silences were healthy. My claim is that people often cry "OP" BEFORE they learn to counterplay these champions. People demand nerfs based on bad experiences rather than true game balance. And in Riot's eyes, and even their own words, these champions are incredibly close to where they want them to be, balance-wise.

It Hertz When IP5 votes

Why is Soraka on that list? She's all skillshots these days and trying to heal with her is a series of Russian Roulette adventures.

Lord Dusteon4 votes

Just in terms of the champions I often play

Tryndamere - Literally everyone hates you when you play Trynd and splitpush. No exceptions. Sion - Could be because I'm bad, but most people aren't that caring about him. Only frustration I've seen is from never dying. Nasus - If i get behind nobody cares. If I get ahead everyone complains about how broken Q and W are. Viktor - Only seen people get annoyed at E being a bit larger than the laser shows. Otherwise nobody seems to care.

TheUntitledKing4 votes

Rather then Power-Tiers, I'd rather just sort Champions into types of frustration.

(Champions can appear in more than one tier.)

The Skill Required to do well with you does not Justify your Strength: Zed Katarina Nidalee Heimerdinger Akali Riven Fiora Darius Gnar Jinx Vi Garen Fizz Leblanc Annie

Fuckingdieholyshit: Anivia Garen Graves DrMundo Volibear MonkeyKing Nautilus Nidalee Leblanc

Oh, did you want to enjoy laning?: Annie Ahri Akali Cassiopeia Caitlyn Gnar Garen Heimerdinger Leblanc Kalista Nidalee Rumble Teemo Tryndamere Morgana Katarina

You ground their face into the dirt and ruined any hope of coming back into the game? Did I mention Assists...and Reset Passives?:

Katarina Jinx Darius Nidalee Fiora

Our next Champion needs mobility in order to deal with all the mobility of our last Champion: LeeSin Leblanc Gnar Kalista Kalista Kalista Ahri Katarina RekSai Nidalee Riven Vi Zed Yasuo

(I know this one isn't strictly true, it's just general mobility issues.)

Pæan1 votes

What if Ekko had an ability to "undo" or "redo" (like an echo) enemy movements/spells. OH? that kali/lee/riv/leblanc/zed just jumped away? they are now pushed back to where they were before as if they never used that movement.

ProfDrDeath2 votes

I noticed a distinct lack of Kassadin . Or, to use his nick name, Hassadin - in German, Hass means hate.

TheUntitledKing1 votes

Kass requires both levels and items (and even then can eat through his mana pool fast enough to make Swain say: "Damn son, slow down.").

Lee and Zed use energy, Gnar, Rek, Kat, Riven, Yasuo and Nida's Cougar form don't use any resource. Ahri and LB have the damage to ruin someone's anus in a single rotation or have mobility tied to more than one aspect of their kits (Kass in only R, Ahri has Q and R, LB has her dash and R). Ahri and LB require little more than adequate mana management and a Morello's, whereas Kass requires RoA and often Archangel's too. He also gets nothing until level 6.

ImFlutterShy4 votes

It's so easy to make riven useless but sadly everyone prefers to cry about her on forums instead of learning how to play against her... (◡‿◡✿)

Duke Anax2 votes

She got insane early burst, but at the same time she got a specific pattern that you can abuse.

I'm still struggling with my Ryze in general, but since I figured her out he is roflstomping those Rivens.

ModAcademy Kayn3 votes

Tier 1: Shaco- Insane early gank strength and with his kit, he has a very high chance of getting fed early and actually beng relevant in teamfights.

jmaishere1 votes

{quoted}

Tier 1: Shaco- Insane early gank strength and with his kit, he has a very high chance of getting fed early and actually beng relevant in teamfights.

he's also gotten continuous nerfs since he's come out, and is literally the most gold dependent champion in the game. If he doesn't have a kill by 5 minutes, the rest of the game is just an attempt to catch up

Baron of Bread3 votes

Singed spams laugh and runs away

The Red Warden8 votes

To beat a Singed ignore him. React at all and he wins.

Remlap12234 votes

That's really the sad thing. Singed's character fits him so well, he's a toxic troll that just annoys you. Just ignore him and help your team.

Sinister Snail1 votes

That's some buddha sage level advice right there.

Aroha Mai3 votes

MonkeyKing Fuck everything about him. It's R to win all over again with the new black cleaver.

Hinro Honato2 votes

You can drop nidalee, zed, riven, katarina, and gnar down to annoying. Unless you are blind picking into them they are easy as hell to deal with. nid's escape is annoying but the spears are easy enough to avoid. a zed has been swain'd Riven gets completely decimated by the power of the demacian beyblade. If only most of kats damage was easy to stop. Oh wait, it is. stop the ult and you stop the kat. gnar is easy enough, mega gnar is annoying.

Mandang04 votes

Everything you said, but in reverse.

Well, except the Garen bit, but then the Riven still wins because your team has a Garen on it in teamfights.

Hinro Honato1 votes

Yep they have garen. A dps megatank. how would swapping nids spears with her jumps make any sense? Is she constantly lunging at you? You may be doing something wrong. zed gets wrecked by swain plain and simple. throw an e on him and keep farming. If he keeps trying throw a rotation on him. If he ults you ult back. He will be forced to farm with his shadow at which point he is an easy gank. What are you having trouble understanding? Garen stops riven's combo every time she tries to use it. Under farmed riven's are not scary. Get a brutilizer and q-e will remove half her life bar. They either build armor or die repeatedly. most of kats power is in her ulti. That's simply a fact. move her even one pixel and she is on cd and dead moments later. minignar is squishy as hell. megagnar is a pain.

Mandang01 votes

"DPS megatank" - hard to take you seriously after reading that.

"X champion gets countered by Y champion" - This has been true of every OP champion ever, and doesn't say anything about whether they're balanced (or for this thread, annoying). I couldn't care less what swain does.

I find dodging Nid's spears to be the bigger pain than her escape (you just don't chase, ezpz).

"Most of Kat's power is her ulti" - No, most of Kat's power is her resets. That is simply a fact.

Minignar is squishy and ranged. If you're beating up on minignar in melee range, you're playing a bad gnar player.

MLDzXnRRR2 votes

Any champion can be annoying, if you are counterpicked. Ex: Playing as Lux, Ziggs vs Yasuo can be hell, but try Yasuo vs Fiora/Riven/any bruiser.

And so on.

Mandang02 votes

List looks good, but I'd nominate Ahri and either Vi or Jinx (depending on whether you play squishy champs or the champs that need to catch those squishy champs).

Snake Town2 votes

{quoted}

Riven tier: Riven

This +1

Troy2426211 votes

Udyr, when strong, is literally Hell. He either farms 10 kills worth of gold and is such an outstanding duelist you can't stop him and have to actually outplay the enemy team via ganks to offset his automatic lead, or he becomes godly with no effort whatsoever because managing clear times is just not that hard.

He is a miserable experience, because he just hardcounters melees insanely hard. He has to, because of how weak he is to mobile range champs, but dear f**king God does he make melee dueling miserable impossible.

ExaltedVanguard1 votes

Annie Talon Point and click to win. No thought required. Evelynn Shaco These two make the game suck simply by existing. By the simple fact of them being in your game, you're forced to play super defensively and avoid taking risks at all costs. Essentially, the only way to win is to not play. That seems like poor game design to me. Fizz You know what shouldn't exist? Damage+Gap Closer+Invincibility. It's basically the definition of no counterplay. Kassadin Leblanc Point and click AND super mobile. Yay! They also shit on anyone who uses skillshots, but who cares about that? Riot's been nerfing skillshot champions for months. Point and click's where it's at. Xerath It makes absolutely no sense. Ziggs was nerfed, even though he really wasn't that bad. Meanwhile this guy is untouched. It makes no sense. Yasuo Fuck the windwall. I don't give a shit about the rest of his kit. The windwall is bullshit. Accidental plays shouldn't exist. He throws it at cait and blocks nami ult - which ultimately wins the teamfight. That's bull.

Felixphaeton1 votes

Fiddle in God Tier or Tier 1. Very similar to Annie, he just ults on you, point and click CCs you for 3 seconds, and kills you without any chance to retaliate.

Athenes Lulu1 votes

Maybe I should drop off some opinions (not listed) here as well. It's all botlane though, since that's what I mostly play.

Tier 1: Draven Caitlyn Soraka Zyra Sona (you will cry if you play Lulu against her) Tier 2: Leona Sivir Kalista Janna (we all know she ALWAYS has the best adcs around) Tier 3: Graves Nami Vayne Ashe Corki Ezreal Tier 4: Braum Twitch Varus Quinn

The GG EZ tier: Alistar Taric The nonexistent tier: Bard

Otherwise everything else is already listed above.

kile1471 votes

Why is Gnar Gnar God tier? I rarely see complaints about him anymore.

jmaishere1 votes

I think most champs are easy to counter by good itemization or understanding their playstyles, but I do have a few gripes here and there Kalista since i play Malzahar she somehow can still auto when I ult Nidalee gap closer + spears, and sometimes spears are invisible MonkeyKing even with a pink ward, there's not much you can do to survive when he goes all in, unless you're a tank, building armor doesn't help because of his q Udyr can literally build full tank and still out trade nearly anyone in a 1v1 situation

Miku Lv991 votes

Yasuo Katarina Ridiculously inconsistent power in fights. They can potentially deal almost no damage or just wipe out your whole team. How much they do has way too big of an impact on who wins the fight.

Caitlyn Much more oppressive laning phase than the Sona that they nerfed for having an oppressive lane phase. She can attack from a safe distance and still has an escape. Sona can't be too aggressive or she'll die to a gank if the other team is good. Not only that, you can't even really trade with her and are forced into just being passive all the time. Even if she's like silver and I'm platinum and I'm playing support against her I still feel like I can't just make up trades and win them or anything and it's still hard to get ahead by very much against her unless she makes some real mistakes you can take advantage of.

Fizz Akali TwistedFate Oh joy, your teammate fed and now this champion now just keeps killing you in one little combo. Great.

Xerath Too much range. Way too hard to do much about him even though he still does a lot of damage.

Nidalee Does she even need an explanation?

LeeSin Way too much mobility.

Nasus Oh no, your teammate let him farm too much so your team loses the entire game. Also scales ridiculously and can eventually just OHKO anything.

Kalista OP, messed up ultimate on so many levels, most ridiculous passive in MOBA history, and still tons of other toys to play with.

GG Noob Team1 votes

Shaco - the most fukin annoying crap out there, for real. MasterYi - master EASY MODE YI. He could die hundred times in the match and even thou he will kill you without any fukin effort. Unbaitable, piece of biggest bullshit crap you can imagine, requires no skill at all. No ways to counter this bitcher.

grLKQ9ma0o1 votes

As a jungler...

Fuck Shaco Nunu Heimerdinger .

One always tries to kill you, one always steals all your shit, and the other one is completely ungankable. So annoying.

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