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© Provided by Dot Esports Some champions in League of Legends are just flat-out stronger than others.
Mid lane is one of the game's easiest roles to carry with, mostly because you have easy access to any other part of the map. Oh, and a lot of damage. Great mid laners are those that can effectively roam to other lanes while keeping good pressure on their own mid lane opponent. Champions that can do that well are indispensable.
This list of top-tier champions can be affected depending on a number of things. Sometimes the meta shifts for no apparent reason other than players' tastes, but usually there's some kind of balance change behind the whole thing. It can be difficult to keep up on the flavor-of-the-month champs, so let us do it for you.
Here are our top five mid laners for League's Patch 11.5.
Talon
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Pros
- Low counter play
- Small mana costs
- One of the best mobility spells in the game
Cons
- Need to know when to roam to obtain maximum advantage
- Weak against tanks
Talon is one of the best attack damage-oriented mid laners in the current meta. The meta favors early skirmishes and roams from mid to help the bot lane extend their lead, which leads to tower plates and drake control.
His E ability is potent for roaming and helps him travel huge distances in the blink of an eye. Coupled with his assassin kit, which focuses on snowballing early, Talon perfectly fits into the current meta.
Item build
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There are two viable routes for Talon right now. This is the most popular one that seems to be more successful. Precision primary grants you access to Conqueror, which is easy to stack as Talon. Once fully stacked, the damage increase coupled with the healing granted makes you a nightmare even for tanks later on in the game. Legend: Tenacity is taken alongside Last Stand to make you less vulnerable to crowd control and deal more damage if you get caught.
The Domination secondary grants you extra healing to help you out during the laning phase and increases your teamfight potential by being harder to kill.
Ability priority
Talon's skill priority is R>Q>W>E. While W is your AoE ability and should help you farm during the laning phase against ranged champions, Q is your primary ability if you're in melee range. In most games, you're going to be against melee champions, so it's advised you max it. After that, focus on the other damaging ability and level E last.
Game plan
Talon is an early to mid-game champion. He excels at pushing his lane with his low cooldown W. Once you acquire Prowler's Claw, you can begin roaming to the top and bottom lanes for kills every time your ultimate is up. You aren't a great laner and shouldn't focus on laning. If you sit in a lane and farm evenly, you'll most likely lose later on. Your goal should be to roam as much as possible and use your E to its maximum potential.
With your side laners having some advantage, you can focus on getting towers, drakes, and easier kills once some towers are down and enemies start to overextend. Keep up an aggressive playstyle around the map and don't let your opponent's carries pick up free farm.
In the later stages of the game when you group up with your team, look for creative flanks to ambush the opposing carries with your huge burst damage.
Katarina
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Pros
- Powerful burst damage
- Can take over games alone
- Rewarding if mastered
- Flexible build
Cons
- Relies on a roaming playstyle
- Squishy
Katarina is one of the most powerful mid laners after having received multiple buffs in recent patches. She is becoming a menace in the solo queue due to her flexible build, which allows her to counter various champions easily. If left uncontrolled, she can snowball and take over games with her roaming playstyle. Her dash allows her to bypass terrain easily and gank from unexpected angles, giving her team plenty of opportunities to set up ganks.
Item build
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The two core rune builds for Katarina are either Domination primary with Precision secondary or vice versa. The most important aspect is to decide whether you need the burst from Electrocute or the sustain from Conqueror.
The rune page with Electrocute gives you access to more damage early on via Sudden Impact and Eyeball Collection on top of sustain with Ravenous Hunter. The secondary precision tree is picked up for Triumph and Coup de Grace. The first one is aimed to help you escape after low-health plays, while the second is picked up for the additional damage to secure the kill against your opponents.
Ability priority
Katarina's skill priority is R>Q>E>W. Maxing Q first is your priority since it gets a lower cooldown with each rank up and is your main damaging ability. It also helps you by putting a dagger on a location, to which you can jump with E. Your mobility spell therefore should be maxed in accordance with Q to be able to jump around as much as possible and be a huge nuisance for the opposing team. W is maxed last since the utility and power of Q and E are much higher.
Game plan
Katarina is one of the strongest mid lane assassins and excels at taking over games with a couple of early-game kills. Your low cooldowns combined with your high base damage give you plenty of opportunities to snowball. You should use this to your advantage and look for proactive plays during the laning phase.
If you try to adapt a passive playstyle, you won't be useful in the long-run and the enemy can outscale and shut you down. Keep up an aggressive playstyle and try to win your lane. After you do, you'll be able to freely roam the map and either kill the opposing jungler or help your side laners.
With plenty of viable build paths, build accordingly to what you need. Don't rush the same item every game and adjust to various game states. There are a couple of strong first rush items, such as Hextech Rocketbelt, Nashor's Tooth, and Blade of the Ruined King. All are great in various compositions. Some are good for the additional mobility while others are good for sustained fights. Keep an eye on the enemy buildpath to know what to build and look for proactive plays throughout the entire game to increase your winning chances.
Galio
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Pros
- Max percent health damage
- Innate tankiness
- Global ultimate
Cons
- Melee mage
- Predictable movements
- High mana costs
Galio is back in the meta after the latest item rework. Even after countless nerfs, he keeps finding a way back into the meta. He dominates with his strong crowd-control and global ultimate which allows him to impact the entire map.
His kit is perfect against magic damage compositions or melee-oriented squads due to his ability to taunt entire teams or absorb magic damage with his passive from W. Even against a full team of physical damage-dealing champions, Galio can find a way to be powerful. His innate tankiness allows him to survive for long periods of time, giving his team enough time to take down opposing champions.
Item build
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Resolve is the most-picked tree on Galio because he needs the additional resists to be played effectively. Aftershock enables you to survive after your initial engage and be a beacon of crowd control for your team getting burst down in the first second of a teamfight. Shield Bash syncs well with your passive and W, allowing you to do huge amounts of damage in the short trades during the laning phase. Bone Plating makes you even more difficult to kill both in the laning phase and afterward. Overgrowth is a staple rune for most tanky champions, granting you free health as you farm.
Nimbus Cloak will make you faster in teamfights since flashing will grant you movement speed, which will allow you to catch unsuspecting enemies off guard and crowd control them. Transcendence is taken for the additional ability haste since Galio's base cooldowns are quite high due to their power.
Ability priority
Galio's skill priority is the following: R>Q>W>E. Q is your wave clear and poke spell, so it should always be maxed first. There's some flexibility with the second basic ability max, but W is taken more often than E due to needing to taunt enemies rather than dashing away with E. If you find yourself in a game where you need mobility more, max E after Q instead.
Game plan
Farm and poke early on with your Q. Use the additional AoE damage from your passive to clear waves without wasting too much mana. Galio has high mana costs, unlike other mid lane mages, so you should be wary of every spell cast. It's better to use spells to clear one wave instead of attempting to poke an enemy hiding behind the wave.
Once you reach level six, start pushing your wave and look for roam opportunities around the map. Your ult range is high and you should look for plays as often as possible when it's up. The cast time is slow, but it can quickly turn the tides of battle in your favor.
As for items, build depending on what your team needs. Galio is flexible in this regard and has multiple viable build paths. You can build tanky to be a great frontline or if your team needs you to do damage, you can go for an AP-oriented build.
Pantheon
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Pros
- Immunity on a basic ability
- King of laning phase
- Global ultimate
Cons
- Melee
- Scales poorly into later stages of the game
Pantheon is a great mid lane pick, especially against all the squishy mages. He has an oppressive kit that is hard to deal for any mage. The early game damage from his spears combined with his kill threat force mages to play on the defensive for the most part of the laning phase. His E, which allows him to block all incoming sources of damage from one direction makes him the perfect teammate if you're a jungler. Dives are easy with a Pantheon on your team, so be ready to have a lot of jungle intervention early on that should help you snowball out of control.
Item build
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The Precision primary rune page is the best on Pantheon. It grants you access to three keystones that you can use well: Press the Attack, Fleet Footwork, and Conqueror. Overall, Conqueror scales the best and allows you to slice through tanks and squishies with ease. Triumph will help you survive in low-health encounters, Legend: Tenacity will reduce crowd control duration on you, and Coup de Grace acts as the perfect finisher, especially when combined with your Q ability.
Pantheon's secondary rune page is more flexible, with Inspiration holding superiority over others due to the extra sustain from Biscuit Delivery and Time Warp Tonic.
Ability priority
Pantheon's skill priority is R>Q>E>W. Maxing Q is essential on Pantheon since it acts as your primary tool to wave clear and poke the enemy down. E is maxed second due to how strong it is as a basic ability. It allows you to deny crucial spells and execute early dives without issue.
Game plan
Pantheon has a clear game plan. He wants to snowball as soon as possible and finish the game before it gets to a stage where he's less useful. He scales well early on with Lethality items, making him a huge threat in the mid stages of the game where he has two Lethality items.
You want to shove the mid lane and look for opportunities to roam around the map-that's the easiest way to snowball and get early kills. Once you secure a couple of early kills, get Eclipse and keep roaming around the map, getting objectives in the process of killing enemies as well.
You fall off in the later stage of the game, so it's important to try to finish the game as soon as possible by keeping up with your roams. Carry a sweeper lens to prepare death bushes and ambush unsuspecting enemies.
Zed
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Pros
- No mana
- High skill cap
- One of the rewarding mastered champions in the game
Cons
- Weak against tanks
- Hard to come back if behind
Zed is one of the most popular assassins on the Rift with whom the arguably best League of Legends player Faker became known for. The skill cap is tremendous and the difference between a one-game Zed and a one-hundred-game Zed can be easily seen.
The recent revert of his nerf from season three brought him back to terrorize the Rift once again.
Item build
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Zed excels at dealing huge amounts of damage in short periods of time and getting out unscathed before the opponents realize what happened to them. The Domination primary Keystone aids his goal considering it gives you Electrocute which you can proc easily, Cheap Shot to ensure you have enough sustain to reach your power spikes, Eyeball Collection for the additional AD and Ultimate Hunter for that low cooldown on your ultimate.
There's a couple of viable secondary rune pages, with Sorcery being the most popular one for the additional cooldown reduction and Scorch for additional damage.
Ability priority
Zed's skill priority is: R>Q>E>W. You want your main damaging ability in Q to be maxed out as soon as possible. Afterwards you want to focus on maxing E to increase your burst potential. While W is an amazing ability, the additional damage from Q and E outweigh the utility from the W.
Game plan
Zed is an early to mid-game assassin who excels at getting in and out in a couple of frames before enemies realize what happened. You have a lot of damage early on but at the same time you become vulnerable if you use your shadow aggressively.
Balance out aggressive with safe plays during the laning phase, look for opportunities to land a deadly W>E>Q combo on the enemy when he tries to last hit. Once you reach level six, start looking for opportunities to kill your opposing laner or go for a roam on the side lanes.
As you slowly grow in power with your lethality item spikes, you'll reach a plateau in the mid-game unless you are extremely fed. It's important to look for opportunities by split pushing, ambushing opponents to end the game before that point, otherwise you'll get out-scaled and lose the game.
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