This is the live LoL Classic tier list for Patch 26.17, built from current match data rather than launch projections. League Classic has been out since July 29 and has had two balance patches since, and the meta that formed is noticeably different from what the Season 3 history books predicted.
Best champion per role right now: Nasus top, Warwick jungle, Katarina mid, Ezreal ADC, Blitzcrank support. These five sit in S+ across every major Classic data source.
The single biggest surprise: Warwick. Almost every pre-launch list, including ours, ranked him near the bottom of the jungle. He is now the highest-performing jungler in the mode, because harder, faster-respawning camps reward a champion built entirely around sustain and a point-and-click ultimate.
Overall League Classic Tier List (Patch 26.17)
This combines every role into one ranking. A champion's position reflects performance in its best role — Nasus is here as a top laner, Warwick as a jungler. Role-specific lists follow below and are the ones to use when you already know what you are playing.
Nasus (Top) · Warwick (Jungle) · Katarina (Mid) · Malzahar (Mid) · Ezreal (ADC) · Blitzcrank (Support) · Morgana (Support) · Pantheon (Top)
The strongest picks in the mode. Each has both a high win rate and enough games behind it that the result is not noise.
Ahri · Akali · Veigar · Ryze (Mid) · Jax · Gangplank · Teemo · Shen (Top) · Master Yi · Lee Sin · Shaco (Jungle) · Vayne · Ashe (ADC) · Leona · Sona · Taric (Support)
Consistently strong and safe to first-pick. Most of these are the champions people expected to be good, and they are.
Lux · Master Yi (Mid) · Anivia · Annie (Mid) · Garen · Tryndamere · Sion · Singed (Top) · Fiddlesticks · Jarvan IV · Evelynn · Amumu (Jungle) · Miss Fortune · Tristana · Twitch (ADC) · Lulu · Soraka · Fiddlesticks (Support)
Solid picks with a real role and build. They need a slightly better matchup or more execution than the tiers above.
Kassadin · Nidalee · Brand · Heimerdinger (Mid) · Malphite · Cho'Gath · Wukong · Kennen (Top) · Rammus · Dr. Mundo (Jungle) · Corki · Sivir · Kog'Maw (ADC) · Zilean · Alistar · Shen · Brand (Support)
Workable with the right draft, but each has a clear timing, reliability or scaling problem in the current patch.
Teemo · Kennen · Zilean · Cho'Gath (Mid) · Nidalee (Top) · Dr. Mundo (Jungle) · Teemo · Malzahar (ADC) · Brand (Support)
Situational counterpicks. Playable if you know exactly why you picked them; not safe blind picks.
Corki · Kayle · Kog'Maw · Malphite (Mid) · Gragas · Taric · Alistar (Top) · Sion · Karthus · Cho'Gath (Jungle) · Kennen · Heimerdinger (ADC) · Kayle · Malphite · Anivia (Support)
Off-role or badly matched to the current item and pacing rules. Most of these are fine champions in the wrong lane.
Several champions appear more than once because they are viable in multiple roles at very different levels. Cho'Gath is B tier top and D tier jungle. Teemo is S tier top and C tier ADC. Always read the role list, not the overall one, before locking in.
Top Lane Tier List
Nasus · Pantheon ▲
Nasus is the defining Classic top laner: infinite scaling, Wither shutting down enemy carries, and no early item that hard-counters him. Pantheon dominates the opposite way, with an early spear and point-and-click stun that ends lanes before scaling matters.
Gangplank ▲ · Teemo ▲ · Jax · Shen NEW
Teemo's rise is the clearest example of old-League rules mattering: blind, no Grievous Wounds, and no easy sustain makes him miserable to lane against.
Garen · Tryndamere · Sion ▲ · Singed
Reliable and simple. Sion has found a real home here rather than only as the meme AP mid pick.
Malphite · Cho'Gath · Wukong · Kennen
Fine into specific matchups, but they lack either the scaling of Nasus or the lane pressure of Pantheon.
Nidalee ▼ · Olaf · Dr. Mundo
Nidalee was an A-tier pick in every historical list and has not translated. Her Classic damage profile is too thin against the current top pool.
Gragas ▼ · Taric · Alistar
Off-role picks. Gragas in particular has fallen a long way from his projected mid-lane strength.
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Jungle Tier List
Warwick ▲
The biggest miss of every launch list. Riot made camps hit harder and respawn faster, which is precisely the environment where a sustain jungler with a point-and-click suppress ultimate wins. He clears safely at level one and never needs a favourable matchup.
Master Yi · Lee Sin · Shaco ▲
Master Yi and Lee Sin were correctly projected. Shaco outperformed his projection because early invades and box control are far stronger without modern vision tools.
Fiddlesticks · Jarvan IV ▼ · Evelynn · Amumu ▲
Jarvan is still a good pick and still the safest engage jungler, just not the top-of-meta choice we projected. Amumu rose on the strength of his team-fight ultimate.
Rammus · Dr. Mundo · Nunu & Willump · Skarner
Specialists. Rammus is a genuine counterpick into attack-damage-heavy compositions and better than his tier suggests in that specific case.
Olaf · Nidalee
Both need early leads they cannot reliably generate against the current S-tier junglers.
Sion · Karthus · Cho'Gath ▼
Cho'Gath was projected as an S-tier jungler on Season 3 history and is now the worst common pick in the role. His clear is too slow for the retuned camps.
Mid Lane Tier List
Katarina ▲ · Malzahar ▲
Katarina's old reset pattern is brutal without modern counterplay tools. Malzahar's suppress is a full point-and-click removal of any champion who lacks Quicksilver Sash — the single most underrated pick in Classic.
Akali NEW · Ahri · Veigar ▲ · Ryze ▲
Ahri is the safe pick our projection called correctly. Veigar and Ryze both climbed because old mana and cooldown items let them scale harder than expected.
Lux ▼ · Master Yi (AP) · Anivia · Annie ▼
AP Master Yi is real and viable at A tier — strong, but not the meta-breaking pick the launch hype suggested.
Kassadin ▼ · Nidalee · Brand · Heimerdinger · Twisted Fate · Sion (AP)
Kassadin is the notable faller. We called him the top ban candidate; in practice his weak early game is punished before his scaling arrives.
Teemo · Kennen · Zilean · Cho'Gath · Karthus · Morgana
Playable as counterpicks into specific lanes, not as blind picks.
Corki ▼ · Kayle · Kog'Maw · Malphite
Corki mid is the sharpest fall on this page. He works as an ADC and not at all in the mid lane under current item pricing.
ADC Tier List
Ezreal
The one launch call that landed perfectly. Safe laning, a poke-heavy kit that suits slower missiles, and the Trinity Force spike still defining his power curve.
Vayne · Ashe ▲
Ashe outperformed her A-tier projection: a permanent slow and a global stun matter more in a mode with fewer dashes and slower escapes.
Miss Fortune ▲ · Tristana · Twitch ▲
All three are lane-dominant. Twitch in particular punishes the weaker vision economy of old League.
Corki ▼ · Sivir · Kog'Maw
Corki was S tier in our launch projection and is now firmly mid-table. Sivir and Kog'Maw both need more protection than the current support meta provides.
Teemo · Malzahar
Off-role experiments that occasionally work in low-coordination games.
Kennen · Heimerdinger
Not viable as a bot-lane carry in this patch.
Support Tier List
Blitzcrank ▲ · Morgana ▲
Slower missiles did not weaken Blitzcrank's hook; the absence of modern dashes means fewer people can dodge it. Morgana's Black Shield is the direct answer to Blitzcrank, Malzahar and Ashe at once, which is why both sit at the top together.
Leona · Sona · Taric ▲
Leona and Sona were correctly projected. Taric climbed on the strength of his old stun and heal on a low support budget.
Lux · Fiddlesticks ▲ · Lulu · Soraka
Fiddlesticks support is a genuine Classic-era pattern that most modern players have never faced: a silence on a long cooldown lane bully.
Zilean · Alistar ▲ · Shen · Brand · Janna ▼ · Nunu & Willump
Janna is the notable faller — an A-tier projection that has not held up against the aggressive engage supports above her.
Brand · Sion
High damage, low protection. Workable in a kill lane, punishing everywhere else.
Kayle · Malphite · Anivia
Off-role picks with no support item synergy.
Biggest Winners and Losers Since Launch
We published a pre-launch projection built on Season 3 history. Six weeks of live data have proved parts of it wrong, and the pattern behind the errors is consistent: historical records predicted roles well but predicted power badly, because Riot's Classic is a curated mix of eras rather than one restored patch.
Winners
Our worst call. We placed him in C tier on jungle. Harder, faster-respawning camps turned his sustain into the best clear in the mode, and his suppress ultimate needs no aim.
Point-and-click suppression in a mode where Quicksilver Sash is not a default purchase. He deletes a carry per fight regardless of skill gap.
We assumed slower missile speed would weaken the hook. In practice fewer dashes means fewer dodges, and the hook decides more lanes than it did in modern League.
Her reset snowball is far harder to interrupt without modern crowd-control tools. Now the most-played mid in Classic by a wide margin.
We ranked him C tier top. Blind with no Grievous Wounds and limited sustain items makes him one of the most oppressive lane bullies in the mode.
We kept him on the watchlist for top lane. His early spear and stun end lanes before scaling champions come online.
Losers
We projected him as an S-tier jungler on historical evidence. His clear is far too slow for retuned camps, and he is now the weakest common jungle pick.
An S-tier ADC call that did not survive contact with live item pricing. Mid-lane Corki is worse still, sitting in D tier.
We named him the top ban candidate. His early game is too weak to reach the scaling that made him famous, and the current mid pool punishes him directly.
Projected S tier mid on Season 3 records. He has not found a working role in Classic at all.
Still good and still the safest engage jungler, but Warwick, Master Yi, Lee Sin and Shaco all outperform him.
An A-tier top projection with no live support. Her damage profile is too thin for the current top pool.
Three champions our projection missed entirely: Akali (S tier mid), Shen (S tier top) and Kennen are all in the Classic roster and were absent from the launch list. Akali in particular is a strong blind pick.
Best Champions for Solo Queue
Solo queue rewards champions that can win without coordination. These are the picks that carry games on their own rather than enabling someone else.
| Role | Best solo queue pick | Why it carries alone |
|---|---|---|
| Top | Nasus | Scales independently of your team. Even a lost lane converts into a side-lane threat, and Wither single-handedly neutralises an enemy carry. |
| Jungle | Warwick | Clears safely without needing leashes or good pathing knowledge, and his ultimate is a guaranteed pick with no aiming required. |
| Mid | Katarina | One reset chain wins a team fight regardless of what your team is doing. The highest single-player ceiling in the mode. |
| ADC | Ezreal | The safest carry: long range, an escape, and poke damage that works even when your support is not helping. |
| Support | Blitzcrank | A single hook creates a kill without needing your ADC to be good. The most independent support in Classic. |
Easiest Strong Picks
These are high-tier champions with genuinely low mechanical demands. If you are new to the old kits, rune pages and item shells, start here rather than with Lee Sin or Katarina.
| Champion | Role | Tier | Why it is easy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warwick | Jungle | S+ | Simple clear, no skillshots, ultimate is point-and-click. The single easiest strong pick in Classic. |
| Malzahar | Mid | S+ | Push the wave with voidlings, hit the suppress on the enemy carry. Almost no mechanical requirement. |
| Nasus | Top | S+ | Farm Q stacks, use Wither on the biggest threat. Hard to play badly, difficult to punish. |
| Garen | Top | A | No mana, no skillshots, strong lane. The classic beginner top laner and still perfectly viable. |
| Annie | Mid | A | Stun on a counter you control, then burst. Simple pattern with a real payoff. |
| Ashe | ADC | S | Permanent slow means you rarely need to kite well, and her ultimate is a game-winning button. |
| Sona | Support | S | Auras and healing with no aim required beyond the ultimate. |
| Leona | Support | S | Point-and-click stun engage. Forgiving because your durability covers early mistakes. |
Best Duo Combinations
These pairings show the strongest measured synergies in current Classic games. Notice how often Nasus and Warwick appear — a scaling top plus a sustain jungler is the backbone of the current meta.
The strongest bot lane in the mode. Blitzcrank creates the opening, Ezreal converts it from a safe distance. Both are S+ in their roles independently.
The most common winning jungle-top pairing. Warwick's early pressure buys Nasus the farm he needs, and both scale into an unkillable late game.
Malzahar's suppress guarantees the reset chain starts. One of the highest-value mid-plus-anything combinations in Classic.
Black Shield turns off the enemy Blitzcrank, Malzahar and Ashe ultimate, which is exactly the threat pool that punishes Ezreal.
The classic protect-the-carry pattern. Warwick's suppress removes whoever dives Kog'Maw, letting him output damage uninterrupted.
Sona's auras accelerate Nasus's scaling, and her ultimate sets up the fights where his Wither matters most.
S+ Champion Builds, Runes and Masteries
These are the live Patch 26.17 setups for the five S+ picks, using Classic-specific runes and mastery pages rather than modern equivalents.
On mastery pages: the historical splits still apply — 21/9/0 for physical fighters and assassins, 21/0/9 for mages and marksmen, 9/21/0 for Nasus, and 1/13/16 for low-income supports. The client is the authority if a node differs from an archived calculator.
Who to Ban in Classic
| Ban | Why | If you cannot ban it |
|---|---|---|
| Warwick | No bad matchups, no mechanical requirement, and he punishes every slow jungle clear in the mode. | Pick an early-pressure jungler and invade before his level six. |
| Katarina | One reset ends a team fight, and the crowd-control tools that answer her in modern League do not exist here. | Pick Malzahar or a hard early-lane mid and deny her farm. |
| Blitzcrank | Decides bot lane on a single hook regardless of skill difference. | Pick Morgana. Black Shield is a direct answer. |
| Malzahar | Point-and-click removal of your carry every fight. | Buy Quicksilver Sash on the target he will pick, and take Morgana support. |
| Pantheon | Ends top lane before scaling champions reach their items. | Pick a ranged top or a champion with a reliable escape. |
League Classic Tier List FAQ
What is the best champion in LoL Classic right now?
By role: Nasus top, Warwick jungle, Katarina mid, Ezreal ADC and Blitzcrank support all sit in S+ on Patch 26.17. Warwick is arguably the single strongest pick overall because he has no bad matchups and almost no mechanical requirement.
Why is Warwick so strong in League Classic?
Riot made jungle camps hit harder and respawn faster in Classic. That directly rewards a champion whose entire kit is built around sustain, and his ultimate is a point-and-click suppress that needs no aim. Almost every pre-launch tier list, including ours, ranked him near the bottom.
Is the Classic tier list different from the normal LoL tier list?
Completely. Classic uses 62 champions with pre-rework kits, legacy Runes and Masteries, and old items. A champion can be S+ in Classic and mid-table in Ranked, or the reverse. Never use a Summoner's Rift tier list for Classic.
What is the best champion for a beginner in Classic?
Warwick in the jungle, Malzahar mid or Nasus top. All three are S+ tier and all three have very low mechanical requirements — no skillshots that decide the game and simple item paths.
Is AP Master Yi actually good?
Viable but not dominant. He sits at A tier mid, well behind Katarina and Malzahar. The build works, but it depends on securing an early reset and it collapses against hard crowd control.
What is the best bot lane duo?
Blitzcrank with Ezreal. Both are S+ independently, and the combination of a hook that creates openings with a safe ranged carry who converts them is the strongest measured pairing in the mode.
Who should I ban in Classic?
Warwick, Katarina and Blitzcrank are the highest-value bans because each one wins games without needing a skill advantage. Malzahar is the next priority if your team has no Quicksilver Sash plan.
Which champions fell off the hardest since launch?
Cho'Gath jungle and Gragas both went from projected S tier to D tier. Corki dropped from S tier ADC to B, and Kassadin from S tier mid to B. All four were ranked on Season 3 historical records that did not survive Riot's curated item and pacing rules.
How many champions are in League Classic?
62 on the current patch, including Akali, Shen, Kennen, Rammus and Skarner alongside the more obvious Season 3 names.
