LoL Tier List for Patch 26.7: Best Solo Queue Champions by Role

So 26.7 dropped on March 31 and honestly? Not much changed. Riot is clearly saving their ammo for the Season 2 rework next month. The LoL tier list barely shifted from 26.6, but a few nerfs did shuffle things around enough to matter. Garen, Nocturne, Ahri, Jinx and Sona are sitting at the top of their roles right now, and a handful of nerfs shook up the mid-tier picks. Ornn and Singed both caught nerfs, Graves lost base AD, and the support farming gold penalty is gone for good. I went through the data on u.gg, lolalytics and mobalytics to build this breakdown, so everything here is backed by Emerald+ ranked stats.

I broke the full LoL tier list into two brackets: one for general ranked (Bronze up to low Diamond) and a separate high-elo version starting at Diamond 2. I also cover what changed this patch, sleeper picks worth trying, and which champions dropped off.

Quick Reference: S-Tier Picks by Role

Role	S-Tier Champions	Top Win Rate
Top	Garen, Kayle, Shen, Yone, Renekton	Shen 53.4%
Jungle	Nocturne, Briar, Shen, Naafiri	Briar 53.1%
Mid	Ahri, Xerath, Lissandra, Kog’Maw	Lissandra 52.4%
ADC	Jinx, Xayah, Ashe	Jinx 52.6%
Support	Sona, Thresh, Rell, Milio	Sona 53.2%

Short on time? Grab something from that table and queue up. The rest of this page explains why those picks work and when to avoid them.

What Changed in Patch 26.7

Patch 26.7 is light on changes. Riot explicitly said they’re focusing on the Season 2 update coming in May. But a few things still matter for your ranked games.

Who got buffed: Kayle, Shen, Cass (base mana +30 and E ratio went up), Kalista (E stacking ratio), Rell, Thresh.

Who got hit: Ornn (Brittle went from 10-18% to 9-16%), Singed (lost ult resistances at ranks 2 and 3), Graves (base AD 68 down to 66, ouch), Veigar (ult CD up by 20 whole seconds at rank 1), Nami (early game gutted), Karma.

The biggest system change is the complete removal of the support minion gold penalty. Supports catching farm during late-game rotations or when the ADC is dead no longer lose gold for it. This mostly helps mage supports and makes late-game wave management less awkward for the whole bot side.

LoL Tier List Changes from Patch 26.6 to 26.7

Here’s the patch-over-patch diff. If you played 26.6 and just want to know what moved, this table is all you need.

Champion	Role	26.6 Tier	26.7 Tier	Reason
Kayle	Top	A	S	Buffed, XP tuning favors her
Shen	Top / Jungle	A	S	Direct buffs to both roles
Nocturne	Jungle	A	S	Graves nerfed, Nocturne fills the gap
Naafiri	Jungle	B	S	Hubris rush build discovery
Lissandra	Mid	A	S	Q CD buff from 26.6 paying off
Cassiopeia	Mid	B	A	Mana + E ratio buff this patch
Milio	Support	A	S	Nami nerfed, Milio fills the vacuum
Ornn	Top	S (OP)	S	Brittle nerf, still strong
Singed	Top	S (OP)	S	Ult resistances nerfed
Graves	Jungle	S	A	Base AD nerf, ~1% WR drop
Veigar	Mid	S	A	Ult CD +20s at rank 1
Nami	Support	S	A	Early game nerf hit her hard

Top Lane LoL Tier List (Patch 26.7)

Top lane barely moved this patch. The Ornn and Singed nerfs look significant on paper, but in practice both champions are still strong. Ornn drops from “must ban” to just “very good,” and Singed lost some late-game tankiness but his laning and proxying are untouched.

The real story is Garen. His pick rate jumped to 14% out of nowhere. Most played top laner in the entire game right now, and he’s sitting at 52.3% win rate on top of that. That combination of simplicity and effectiveness is hard to argue with, especially below Diamond.

General Elo (Bronze to Low Diamond)

S: Garen, Kayle, Shen, Yone, Renekton, Sion, Yorick

A: Ornn, Singed, Camille, Olaf, Darius, Malphite, Morde, Sett, Ambessa

B: GP, Jax, Nasus, Voli, Illaoi, Teemo

Kayle got a direct buff and the current XP pacing in top lane suits her perfectly. If you can survive until level 11 (and your team has enough engage to buy you time), she turns into one of the hardest carries in the game. I’ve been playing her into Garen and it’s honestly not bad once you respect his early all-in.

Malphite deserves a mention. He sits at a 41% ban rate right now, which is absurd for a champion that hasn’t been touched in patches. People just hate playing against his ult. Pick him whenever he slips through bans.

High Elo (D2+)

S: Camille, Renek, Shen, K’Sante, Irelia

A: Jax, Gragas, Jayce, Yone, Gwen, Vlad

B: GP, Fiora, Aatrox, Akali

High elo is a different world. Garen falls off hard because players know how to kite him and deny his passive. Camille and Irelia take over since their mechanical ceiling actually matters when both players know what they’re doing.

Jungle LoL Tier List (Patch 26.7)

Graves got nerfed (2 base AD) and that’s enough to bump him from S-tier staple to a solid A-tier pick. Expected win rate drop is around 1%, which doesn’t sound like much but it matters in a role where the top picks are separated by fractions of a percent.

Nocturne steps up as the top jungle pick. His dueling is strong, his ult creates chaos across the map, and he’s simple enough that you won’t int games while learning him. Briar is right behind with her snowball potential and fast clears.

General Elo

S: Nocturne, Briar, Shen, Naafiri, WW

A: Graves, Lee, Vi, Ekko, Heca, Xin

B: Bel’Veth, Kayn, Viego, Elise, Lillia

Naafiri jungle is a real thing now. The Hubris buffs from Patch 26.5 turned her into a snowball assassin that can rush the item and start deleting people after two kills. She’s not for everyone because you need to close games early, but in low elo where people don’t know how to play safe against fed assassins, she’s free LP.

Shyvana got her big rework this patch cycle. Looks cool, new model, updated abilities. But the numbers aren’t there yet for ranked. She’s a niche low-elo pick with Kraken Slayer, nothing more. The new Fury generation scaling with Ultimate Haste sounds interesting on paper but nobody is building ultimate haste on Shyvana in practice.

High Elo

S: Lee, Graves, Elise, Nid, Viego

A: Noct, Briar, Rek’Sai, Kindred, Taliyah

B: Ekko, Kha, Eve

Lee is the pick again in D2+. Graves nerf opened the door and Lee walked right through it. Graves is still good even post-nerf because high-elo players squeeze every last bit of value from his kit. And Elise continues to punish squishy junglers with her early pressure.

Mid Lane LoL Tier List (Patch 26.7)

Ahri is still the queen. Riot tried to nerf her Q damage back in 26.6 and it felt like a placebo. Her waveclear is slightly worse early but she still hits her item spikes at the same tempo, still roams hard, still one-shots squishies with charm combos. Unless they touch her mobility or charm duration, she’s staying on top.

Veigar caught an ult cooldown nerf (+20s at rank 1) because he was running bot lane with an insane win rate. Mid Veigar drops from S to A because of it, but he’s still perfectly viable if you like the scaling cage playstyle.

General Elo

S: Ahri, Xerath, Liss, Kog, Malz

A: Veigar, Cass, Syndra, Kata, Galio, Diana

B: Zed, Yas, Ekko, Viktor, Aurora

Lissandra is the sleeper of this patch. The Q cooldown buff she got in 26.6 turned her into a roaming machine. She shoves waves fast and shows up in side lanes before anyone can react. If you’re looking for a new main that isn’t Ahri, Lissandra is the move.

Kog’Maw mid is the tech that high-elo streamers have been running with the Dusk and Dawn build. He scales harder than almost any mage and if the enemy team can’t dive him, it’s pretty much over. Weird pick, but the numbers back it up.

High Elo

S: Ahri, Ori, LB, Azir, Kata

A: Syndra, Cass, Taliyah, Qiyana, Zoe

B: Viktor, TF, Ryze, Hwei

ADC LoL Tier List (Patch 26.7)

Nothing happened to bot carries this patch. Literally nothing. No buffs, no nerfs, no item changes that affect them. So the LoL tier list for ADC is identical to 26.6.

Jinx is the 1v9 machine. She pairs perfectly with enchanter supports (Sona, Lulu, Janna) and once she gets a reset in a teamfight, the whole thing snowballs. If you want to climb on ADC and you don’t know what to play, just play Jinx.

General Elo

S: Jinx, Xayah, Ashe, MF

A: Cait, Kai’Sa, Trist, Jhin

B-Tier: Nilah, Samira, Draven, Lucian, Ez

Ashe has been surging this patch with the Stormrazor rush build. The energized burst combined with her passive slow makes early skirmishes brutal. She falls off slightly in terms of raw DPS compared to Jinx late, but her utility through Hawkshot and arrow keeps her relevant at every stage of the game.

Kalista got a buff to her E bonus damage per stack, but community consensus is that it’s “meaningful but modest.” She’s not going to flip the meta. You still need near-perfect synergy with your support to make her work, and that’s asking a lot from solo queue.

High Elo

S: Jinx, Kai’Sa, Cait

A: Draven, Aphelios, Xayah, Ez, Trist

B-Tier: Lucian, Varus, Kalista, Zeri

Support LoL Tier List (Patch 26.7)

Support is where most of the action happened this patch. Nami got hit with an early-game nerf that knocked her out of S-tier after months of dominance. Karma also caught a nerf. On the flip side, Rell and Thresh both got buffed, and the removal of the support gold penalty is a quiet but important change for the whole role.

Sona is kind of disgusting this patch. Zero nerfs, zero attention from Riot, and she just keeps winning. Her W and E auras scale so well into mid-game that your ADC becomes almost unkillable in grouped fights. I’ve been spamming her on a smurf and the results are dumb. If you play support and you’re ignoring Sona, you’re griefing your own LP.

General Elo

S: Sona, Thresh, Rell, Milio, Blitz

A: Janna, Lulu, Nami, Naut, Leo

B-Tier: Pyke, Karma, Ali, Soraka, Brand

Milio slides into the top tier now that Nami dropped. He’s been quietly strong for a while, but there was no reason to pick him over Nami when she was broken. Now there is. His cleanse on ultimate is clutch against engage comps, and his laning is safe enough that you won’t feed while learning him.

Thresh got buffed and he feels good again. He’s the kind of champion where even a small stat increase matters because his kit is loaded with playmaking tools. One good hook wins a fight. One good lantern saves a carry. A good Thresh player can solo carry bot lane, and that’s not an exaggeration.

High Elo

S: Thresh, Bard, Naut, Rell, Ali

A: Rakan, Pyke, Lulu, Karma, Renata

B: Sona, Raka, Senna, Maokai

Sona drops in high elo because skilled players punish her weak early game. Thresh and Bard take over because their agency doesn’t rely on scaling. If you can land hooks and roam effectively, those two are unmatched above Diamond.

LoL Tier List: What to Ban in Each Role

Banning the right champion matters almost as much as picking the right one. I see so many people waste bans on champions they personally hate instead of banning what’s actually strong. Here’s what the data says you should be removing from your games.

Your Role	Best Ban (Low Elo)	Ban Rate	Best Ban (High Elo)	Ban Rate
Top	Malphite	41%	K’Sante	28%
Jungle	Nocturne	18%	Lee Sin	22%
Mid	Ahri	15%	Azir	19%
ADC	Jinx	12%	Kai’Sa	14%
Support	Blitzcrank	25%	Thresh	17%

In low elo, ban what tilts your teammates. A Malphite pressing R into your team when nobody knows how to flash it is worth more than any “statistically optimal” ban. In high elo, ban what’s strong in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing.

One thing I notice a lot: people ban Yasuo out of pure hatred even though he’s sitting at a 49% win rate. That ban does nothing for your LP. Save it for something that’s actually winning games.

Best Bot Lane Duos (LoL Tier List Patch 26.7)

Bot lane is a 2v2 and your support pick matters just as much as your ADC pick. These are the strongest pairings based on combined duo win rates in Emerald+ solo queue.

ADC	Support	Duo Win Rate	Why It Works
Jinx	Lulu	54.8%	Lulu keeps Jinx alive, Jinx resets clean fights
Jinx	Sona	54.2%	Double scaling, unbeatable after 3 items
Xayah	Rakan	53.9%	Built-in synergy, engage + self-peel combo
Ashe	Thresh	53.1%	Double catch potential, arrow + hook chain
Miss Fortune	Leona	52.8%	All-in at level 6, MF ult behind Leona lock
Kai’Sa	Nautilus	52.5%	Hard engage into Kai’Sa burst follow-up

Jinx plus any enchanter is basically cheating right now. The enchanter meta keeps her alive through fights she has no business surviving, and once she gets one kill the resets take over. If you duo queue with a support main, tell them to play Lulu or Sona and just lock Jinx every game.

Xayah-Rakan is the classic pairing and it still slaps because their kits were literally built to work together. Rakan’s W engage into Xayah’s feathers is a guaranteed kill on anyone caught out of position.

S-Tier Build Snapshots

I’m not going to write a full build guide for every S-tier pick here (that would be its own article). But if you’re trying one of these champs for the first time tonight, here’s what to build so you don’t int.

Garen (Top): Stridebreaker into Dead Man’s Plate

Stridebreaker gives Garen the gap close he desperately needs. Follow it with Dead Man’s for sticking power and then situational tank items. Runes: Conqueror with Resolve secondary. You take Demolish because Garen splits well and every plate matters. Max Q first for the silence and burst, then E for wave clear.

Nocturne (Jungle): Stridebreaker into Edge of Night

Stridebreaker Nocturne is the standard. Edge of Night second gives you a spell shield on top of your W, so you can ult into a team and not get instantly CC’d. After that it’s situational. If you’re ahead, go more damage. If you’re even, go bruiser with Sterak’s. Runes: Lethal Tempo or Conqueror depending on the game.

Ahri (Mid): Luden’s into Shadowflame

Standard AP burst. Luden’s for wave clear and poke, Shadowflame for the magic pen spike. Third item is usually Rabadon’s if you’re ahead or Banshee’s if their mid or jungle is diving you. Runes: Electrocute with Inspiration secondary for free boots and biscuits.

Jinx (ADC): Kraken Slayer into Runaan’s Hurricane

This build hasn’t changed in patches and there’s no reason to deviate. Kraken for DPS, Runaan’s for teamfight AOE and faster wave clear, then Infinity Edge third for the crit spike. Runes: Lethal Tempo. The attack speed from passive plus Lethal Tempo stacking makes her a turret in fights.

Sona (Support): Moonstone Renewer into Staff of Flowing Water

Full enchanter. Moonstone keeps your team alive through extended fights, Staff of Flowing Water gives your carries AP and ability haste when you heal them. Third item can be Redemption for teamfight value or Mikael’s if they have hard CC. Runes: Summon Aery with Manaflow Band.

LoL Tier List Sleeper Picks for Patch 26.7

Every patch has a few champions flying under the radar. Here are three that caught my eye in the LoL tier list data.

Cassiopeia mid. She got a meaningful buff this patch (base mana +30, E poison ratio up). That extra mana lets her cast two more E’s in an early all-in, which is often the difference between getting a kill and losing the trade. She’s climbing from B-tier to A-tier and I think she’ll keep rising as people figure out the optimal builds.

Shen jungle. He’s been quietly putting up strong numbers for a few patches now. His ult gives him unmatched map presence, his clear is decent after the first rotation, and he’s surprisingly hard to duel once he has Bamis. If you already play Shen top, try him in the jungle.

Ashe with Stormrazor. This build has been gaining traction in Korean solo queue. You rush Stormrazor for the energized burst, which stacks with her passive slow to make early trades devastating. It’s a different playstyle from traditional crit Ashe but the win rate is backing it up.

Champions That Dropped in the LoL Tier List

Not every champion wins when a new patch drops, and the LoL tier list reflects that. These champions dropped hard in the LoL tier list this cycle.

Graves jungle. The 2 base AD nerf doesn’t seem like much, but it compounds across his entire clear and every trade. Expected win rate drop of around 1%. He’s still fine, just not the auto-pick he was before.

Nami support. She dominated for months and Riot finally pulled the trigger. Her early-game presence took a real hit and enchanters like Milio and Sona are better options now.

Veigar mid. The ult cooldown nerf hurts his solo-kill threat before level 16. He’s still a scaling monster, but you can’t just cage someone and delete them as frequently in the early-mid game.

How to Use This LoL Tier List to Climb

Any LoL tier list is a starting point, not a rulebook. If you have 500 games on a B-tier champion, you’re going to perform better on that pick than on an S-tier champion you just started playing. The data backs this up consistently. One-tricks beat meta-slaves at every elo below Challenger.

That said, here’s how I’d use it:

1. If you’re picking up a new role or don’t have a main yet, check the LoL tier list S-tier picks first. These are the safest bets for climbing.
2. If you already main someone, check where they land. If they’re B-tier or above, keep playing them. If they dropped to C or below, consider adding an S-tier pick to your pool.
3. For autofill games, stick to the simplest S-tier pick. Garen top, Nocturne jungle, Ahri mid, Jinx ADC, Sona support.

Also worth mentioning: if you want to skip the grind and jump straight into ranked on a fresh account, that’s always an option. Sometimes starting fresh with clean MMR is easier than fixing a tanked main account.

How We Build This Tier List

I pull data from three sources: u.gg, lolalytics and mobalytics. The LoL tier list placements are based on win rate, pick rate, ban rate and how consistently a champion performs across different game lengths and team compositions. Emerald+ is the default bracket because it filters out the noise from Iron-Gold where literally anything works if you play it enough.

For the high-elo LoL tier list, I use Diamond 2+ data and cross-reference with what challenger players on Korean and EUW servers are actually picking. Pro play is a different game entirely, so I don’t weight it heavily. Solo queue is solo queue.

This LoL tier list gets updated every patch cycle, usually within 3-5 days of the patch going live so there’s enough data to be statistically meaningful. The LoL tier list is just one piece of the puzzle. If you want to understand how the League of Legends ranked system works under the hood, I wrote a separate guide on that.

LoL Tier List Meta Summary for Patch 26.7

The current LoL tier list meta in Patch 26.7 rewards consistency and scaling. Snowball assassins can still work (Naafiri jungle, Katarina mid), but the safest LP gains come from champions that scale well and don’t fall apart when your team is behind.

Enchanter supports are still dominant. Sona, Milio, and Lulu turn late-game carries like Jinx and Kog’Maw into unkillable threats. If your support is willing to play an enchanter, pick a hypercarry and play for teamfights.

The support gold penalty removal is more of a quality-of-life change than a meta shift. It mostly means you don’t feel bad about catching a wave when your ADC is dead. Some people on Reddit are theorycrafting Senna-Cho’Gath fasting lanes and Seraphine-Sona double support comps, but none of that is showing up in meaningful numbers yet.

Riot said they’ll revert the change immediately if anything becomes broken, so don’t expect wild support meta shenanigans to last even if they appear.

If you’re thinking about testing new champions on a secondary account, you can create a fresh LoL account or pick up a ranked-ready EUW smurf to practice without risking your main’s LP.

And if you want to check whether your current MMR is healthy, use the MMR checker tool to see where you actually stand.

FAQ

What are the best champions in LoL Patch 26.7?

The best champions in Patch 26.7 are Garen and Kayle for top lane, Nocturne and Briar for jungle, Ahri and Xerath for mid, Jinx and Xayah for ADC, and Sona and Thresh for support. These picks have the highest win rates in Emerald+ ranked solo queue.

Who got buffed in LoL Patch 26.7?

Patch 26.7 buffed Kayle, Shen, Cassiopeia, Kalista, Rell, and Thresh. Kayle and Shen received the most impactful buffs, pushing both into S-tier for top lane and jungle respectively.

Who got nerfed in LoL Patch 26.7?

Ornn, Singed, Graves, Veigar, Nami, and Karma all received nerfs in Patch 26.7. Ornn lost Brittle damage, Singed lost ultimate resistances, and Graves lost 2 base AD.

What is the support farming penalty change in Patch 26.7?

Riot completely removed the support minion gold penalty in Patch 26.7. Supports no longer lose gold for killing minions, which opens up late-game wave management and benefits mage supports who help with wave clear.

Is Ahri still good in Patch 26.7?

Yes, Ahri is still an S-tier mid laner in Patch 26.7. Her Q base damage was nerfed in Patch 26.6, but the change barely affected her performance. She still has strong roaming, pick potential, and sits above a 51% win rate in Emerald+.

What is the best ADC in LoL right now?

Jinx is the best ADC in Patch 26.7 with a win rate above 52% in Emerald+. She scales hard, pairs well with enchanter supports, and can carry teamfights through resets. Xayah and Ashe are strong alternatives.

How often does the LoL tier list change?

The LoL tier list changes every two weeks when a new patch drops. Major balance patches shift the meta more than smaller ones. Patch 26.7 was a minor update, so most tier placements carried over from 26.6.

Last updated: April 2026