Best mid lane champions in LoL: Tiered Ranking List for Patch 14.12

Mid lane is one of the easiest roles to carry in League of Legends, mostly because you have easy access to any other part of the map and can dish out a lot of damage. Great mid laners can effectively roam into other lanes while keeping good pressure on their own mid lane opponent, and champions that excel at it are indispensable.

Best mid lane champions in League Patch 14.12

Tristana

Pros

Highly mobile
Single-target nuke
Extremely powerful in lategame

Cons

Weak laning phase
Tough to come back into the game after being shut down.

A few years back, Tristana was associated with the bot lane. However, she’s more often picked for the mid lane lately. And she’s bringing great results in that position. Her mobility kit and single-target burst make Tristana one of the greatest and most versatile mid laners to pick in the current meta.

Tristana item build

There’s no significant philosophy when it comes to Tristana’s Runes and item build. Regarding the former, you should pick Precision tree to maximize her AD while also boosting mobility in both the laning phase and teamfights. Therefore, Fleet Footwork is your greatest ally. It allows you to stack Energy stacks, that make your attack every 100 stacks Energized. These enhanced auto attacks heal you and give you additional movement speed. Given you’re going to be an auto-attack machine in the lategame, it’s truly the best option.

Follow this rune with traditional choices from the Precision tree, like Absorb Life, Legend: Alacrity, and Cut Down. You can round up the Rune build with Overgrowth and Bone Plating for some much-needed early survivability.

The item build in its core is really simple and straightforward as well. Go for Kraken Slayer first, as it gives you both attack damage and attack speed while also improving your mobility with additional movement speed. Then, it’s all about boosting your primary stats, so Navori Flickerblade, Infinity Edge, and Bloodthirster are advised. At some point, you’re bound to face enemies with tons of armor under their belt. In that case, go for Lord Dominik’s Regards, which will aid you in terms of armor penetration.

Ability priority

Explosive Charge (E) is Tristana’s strongest ability in all stages, except maybe Buster Shot (R) later. That’s why these two abilities should be prioritized. Once you have the former maximized at level nine, go for Rapid Fire (Q). By that point, you will have damaging items in your inventory, and there’s no point in maximizing Rocket Jump (W).

Game plan

Since she’s a lategame champ, Tristana’s primary objective is to get to the mid game. This is a bit tricky. On one hand, you have Flash and Rocket Jump to get out of any early trouble, like enemy ganks and so on. On the other hand, skilled players will know how valuable it is for them to shut Tristana down early. With that in mind, try to keep your vision high around the mid lane so you can anticipate incoming ambushes and avoid dying.

Once you get your core items, that’s where the fun begins. Tristana relies on aggressive gameplay and taking risks, though, the latter are tough to calculate for beginner players. Your best plan during teamfights is to stay back and look for openings. If you think you can take down an enemy champion, you may jump in, take the kill, and jump out with a Rocket Jump (W) reset. If you overextend or engage too early, you will likely end up dead.

It’s much easier to handle the majority of the game if you get help from your jungler and get ahead early. Therefore, if you’re facing a squishy opponent in the mid lane, ask them for some help and possibly start carrying the game in the laning phase.

Sylas

Pros

Works well against most meta champions
Steals ultimates
One of the best mid lane carries

Cons

Tough to master
Struggles against particular matchups

With short-range mages making it back to the meta, Sylas is also rising in popularity. Not only does the champion fare well during the laning phase thanks to his gap closers, but it can also hijack the powerful ultimates and use them to his own advantage.

Sylas item build

While Sylas has quite a few different rune setups, high Elo players have started using Electrocute as his main keystone rune. This is because it allows him to generate more gold in the mid-game, create bigger gold leads and widen the item gap.

When it comes to the minor runes, he chooses the ones you see on most mid lane champions: Sudden Rush, Eyeball Collection, and Relentless Hunter. Never change any of these, as it’s the most efficient combination from this rune tree.

For the secondary tree, go for Sorcery and then choose Transcendence and Scorch. These runes are there to help you harass enemy laner and trade. If you’re playing into long-range champions, you need to trade for health, and these runes help you do a bit more damage.

Build-wise, Sylas loves picking up Lich Bane, but before that, he builds Sorcerer’s Shoes. Shadowflame is the second item that unlocks Sylas’ power, allowing him to nuke down the enemies that he locked down.

Get Zhonya’s Hourglass after, as well as Rabadon’s Deathcap and Cryptbloom. If the enemies are stacking a lot of magic resistance, swap one out for Void Staff to get extra magic penetration.

Ability priority

Sylas’ maxing order is always R>W>E>Q. That said, you want to start with E, Abscond/Abduct because it can be great for potential level one invades and deals more damage than the other spells in early trades. After that, however, max in the correct order.

Game plan

Sylas’ goal mainly depends on the matchup and what kind of role he needs to fulfill in the game. Generally speaking, Sylas should be able to win matchups where he can easily close the gap and fight the enemy. If that is not possible, stick to farming and find opportunities to roam and help your jungler invade or set up dives onto the side lanes.

Thanks to the healing from his W, Sylas shines the most during the mid-game skirmishes, where he can also start stealing ultimates and using them to his own advantage. Ideally, you want to look for flanks and burst down the squishiest targets: play with the fog of war and find ways to get onto the backline.

Brand

Burn. Image via Riot Games

Pros

Impressive scaling, super strong after level 16
Many building options
Great both in laning phase and teamfights

Cons

Weak early game and can be shut down easily
Tough to play against some champions

Brand is one of the mages who’s making a comeback in Season 14. With the latest changes to the ability power-based items, many of them are returning to mid laners’ favors, with Brand leading the charge.

Brand item build

There are a few rules League‘s mages live by. It’s unnecessary to name them all, by the primary principle for a lot of them is “survive early game, destroy enemies in the late game.” Given how most of them are great at scaling and have AoE damage, it’s very much true, and it applies to Brand as well.

With his AP-based kit, there’s no better option for Brand than the Sorcery Rune Tree, with Arcane Comet leading the charge. It enhances your burst in the lategame and adds more skirmish potential early on. Round it up with Manaflow Band, Transcendence, and Scorch to further elevate your damage.

The fun thing about mages is, as far as items go, there is no one “safe” path. The list of possible options is massive, with each giving you something different. Yet, when it comes to Brand, starting with core items Liandry’s Torment and Rylai’s Crystal Scepter is undeniably the best. They go perfect with the champion’s AoE abilities, allowing him to fully spread his wings.

Once you get these and Sorcerer’s Shoes under your belt, you can have some fun. If you want to go for as much damage as you can, Rabadon’s Deathcap is the perfect choice. But, Blackfire Torch, Zhonya’s Hourglass, and Cryptbloom are all perilous and useful assets in Brand’s inventory as well.

Ability priority

Like we said: AoE damage is our primary objective. Therefore, Brand’s main ability, outside his ultimate, is Pillar of Flame (W), that should be maximized first. Then, go for Conflagration (E) and Sear (Q), in that order.

Game plan

Brand’s game plan relies on his and enemy team’s composition. If you’re in a winning matchup, you should go for as many trades and skirmishes as possible. In other cases, however, playing defensively and waiting for the mid-game to arrive might be a better idea.

Like most mages, Brand is best after reaching level 16 and having at least four items under his belt. If and once you reach that point, you should try to poke enemies with your Pillar of Flame and Conflagation. The more opponents are on fire the better since your passive enhances abilities if they hit a champion who has “Ablaze” status on them.

If you have a champion like Alistar or Neeko in your team, who have an AoE-type crowd control, you can try and synchronize your attacks with them. If not, possibly looking for a flank could be a game-winning option.

Katarina

Pros

Versatile builds
Strong burst and DPS
High mobility

Cons

Weak early game
Feast-or-famine champion (struggles if behind)

Katarina is quite similar to Akali, and you can play her both as an assassin and a bruiser. On top of that, you can lean into her on-hit build, heavily focused on DPSing enemies down using your knives. She has a steep learning curve, but she is, by far, one of the most rewarding mid lane champs to learn and play.

Katarina item build

Even though there are plenty of different builds Katarina can use in season 14, all of them use Conqueror as the main keystone. You want to combine this with Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, and Last Stand. Pick Domination as your secondary tree, and get Sudden Impact for extra damage from your dashes, and Relentless Hunter for additional movement speed. Katarina’s biggest disadvantage is that she’s melee and she has to play around her daggers. This will help her move to the blade faster and catch up with enemies.

A lot of high-elo Katarina players are rushing Nashor’s Tooth. Not only does this give her plenty of AP from the start, but it gives her on-hit damage and attack speed. Get Shadowflame next for raw AP, and amazing potential to nuke priority targets. The rest of the build is pretty standard—Rabadon’s Deathcap, Zhonya’s Hourglass, and, of course, Mejai’s Soulstealer. You can swap out Mejai’s for Void Staff or any other utility item if you’re facing a tankier or heavy-CC teamcomp.

Ability priority

Katarina’s maxing order is R>Q>E>W. Your most important ability is Bouncing Blade, and you’ll need to learn to play around it. You have to get in the habit of picking up your blades to optimize damage, and remember that you’re quite squishy.

Game plan

The best Katarina players are always on the hunt for kills, and they typically shove the wave into the enemy turret and look for picks. No matter if that’s in the river or bot lane, Katarina wants to punish enemies who are rotating or have stayed under their turret a bit too long. You unlock her true potential as soon as you grab a couple kills and get your core items.

Remember, you’re still quite squishy, and finding the right moment to cast your ultimate is tricky, since you can’t be hit with any hard CC. Katarina is hard to pick up and master, but she rewards your efforts when you finally understand how your daggers work.

Twisted Fate

Pros

Strong roaming potential
Great utility and CC

Cons

No mobility

If assassins aren’t your cup of tea, I recommend you pick up Twisted Fate. He has a kit full of tools to counter Katarina and Akali, and on top of that, he can easily contest their roams and control the map.

Twisted Fate item build

Twisted Fate’s goal in laning phase to poke down the enemy laner, and that’s why you should get Arcane Comet as your primary keystone. Next, get Manaflow Band for additional early-game mana, Celerity and Waterwalking. The last two runes are there to help you catch up with escaping enemies. Inspiration is the best secondary tree since you can get a bit more cooldown reduction with Cosmic Insight and better waveclear with Minion Dematerializer. If you don’t have a habit of using Minion Dematerializer, pick Future’s Market or Magical Footwear.

The best Twisted Fate build right now revolves around Shurelya’s Battlesong, and this, paired with Boots of Swiftness, gives you more than enough movement speed to catch enemies and lock them down. Round out the build with Rapid Firecannon, Mejai’s Soulstealer, Rabadon Deathcap, and Zhonya’s Hourglass.

Ability priority

Even though Twisted Fate starts the game off with Pick a Card and then Stacked Deck, you actually max out the abilities in this order: R>Q>W>E. You want more damage from Wild Cards, and more control from W.

Game plan

There are two main ways of playing Twisted Fate—offensively and defensively. While you’ll be focused on contesting enemy mid laner’s roams and nullifying their pressure when playing defensively, offensive gameplay entails making plays before them. Essentially, you want use your Destiny to scout where enemies are, and then catch players who are overextended. Twisted Fate is strong at every point of the game, and as soon as you get your ultimate, you should keep your eyes peeled on the minimap for plays.

You want to stay in the backline to help protect your AD carry and support, or you can catch enemies with Shurelya’s Battlesong and Rapid Firecannon. Unlike other champs on this list, Twisted Fate is quite simple to play. Still, the more you play him, the better you’ll get.