League of Legends boasts one of the deepest champion rosters in modern gaming—or any gaming franchise, really. This of course ranges from the easiest characters to the true demons that, in the right hands, totally dominate Summoner’s Rift.
League’s toughest champions aren’t for the faint of heart; it’ll take you dozens of losses and hundreds of games to get used to these power picks. Ranging from the most mechanically intensive junglers to one-half of the infamous sword brothers, and including several unique ADCs, here are the most difficult League champs to attain true mastery on.
Hardest League champions to learn and master
Aphelios
We’re counting down the list alphabetically, but I would have put Aphelios No. 1 regardless of the list order—this gun-totting AD carry is easily one of the most convoluted champions Riot has ever made.
These are his five weapons:
- Calibrum (Rifle): A long-range attack that marks enemies
- Severum (Scythe Pistol): Boosts speed and dishes out two attacks
- Gravitum (Cannon): Roots and slows enemies
- Infernum (Flamethrower): Blasts enemies in a cone
- Crescendum (Chakram): Deploys a sentry
This boils down to Green, Red, Purple, Blue, and White respectively. You have to cycle through them during battles, making it one of the hardest characters to pilot on the fly in any teamfight. I’ve often slipped up and failed to grab the right gun in a key moment, so I just make sure I ban Aphelios now.
Azir
The risen ruler of Shurima has long been one of the hardest-to-play champions in League because you have to split your time between several summoned soldiers, Azir, and his long-ranged attacks. It’s no surprise the Emperor of the Sands has dominated pro play for much of his decade in the game while struggling to just eke out a reasonable win rate in ranked games.
If you spend time figuring out all his abilities—and their combos—though, you’ll certainly enjoy a sharp spike in your wins, especially in the mid lane.
Gangplank
There are plenty of simple features about Gangplank, especially his point-and-click Q and healing W, but everything about his barrels ramps the difficulty way past 11 and makes mastering him a real challenge. Perfecting the Saltwater Sourge’s Powder Keg is an easy way to boost your ranked climb though—top-level Gangplank players win 52.3 percent of games.
Hwei
Hwei is one of the newest champions in the League’s roster, and if Aphelios is the hardest to master, this champion is a solid number two. Most glaringly, the champion has 10 active abilities, with Q, W, and E each having three different versions, depending on Hwei’s current stance. But, don’t ask me what they do, since I usually ban Hwei in my games.
Jokes aside, while Hwei’s complexity is one of his biggest pros, it’s also his greatest weakness. With so many tools at disposal, he’s capable of three different roles: mid lane, ADC, and support. But, as a jack of all trades, he’s a master of none—at least so far, accumulating mediocre win rates across the board.
Kalista
Kalista finds her place among the hardest characters to master because she boasts a gameplay style a little different from most others in her role.
While most AD carries—and I would include myself in this—play the role to stick to powerful, relatively similar champions, Kalista offers up a unique, kiting-heavy auto-attack pattern. If you can’t kite (a pretty standard mechanic these days) then Kalista is going to look very daunting but when you master it, you’ll master Kalista and bot lane at the same time.
Lee Sin
This blind master really demands the most out of his League players. So much of his gameplay revolves around landing his Q skillshot (no easy feat) but then he also has several staple combos like the famed Insec. Skilled Lee Sin pilots can look graceful and incredible when played properly.
There’s a pretty simple trick here I used to master the Blind Monk; don’t make the flashy plays. Instead, ignore that “Lee Sin-drome” and stick to the basics, including his Flurry passive and taking advantage of his Safeguard shielding.
Nidalee
There are plenty of tough elements to Nidalee, enough for the Bestial Huntress to well and truly earn her place among the hardest League champions to play, let alone master. Players have to optimize her dual roles—human and cougar—which have seven abilities spread across them, and get their eye in with her iconic Javelin Toss, and on top of all that, they just have to learn jungle too.
Even worse, she’s an early-game character, meaning if you fail at pathing, ganking, and balancing her forms across those two jungle jobs, she can quickly become quite obsolete in late-game fights.
Riven
Combos are the key to Riven’s gameplay and for that reason, she earns her place on this rankings list. I’ve found myself in enough battles where a weaker Riven tries to pull off her knock-ups and playmaking just to fall flat on her face—a tough thing to watch. Then, on the other side, I think we’ve all been on the receiving end of the “main character” Riven that solo carries the entire match.
Zed
The Master of Shadows has lost some of his meta-defining power from seasons past—I remember he used to be a nightmare on the Rift in seasons three, four, and five—but those who spend the time mastering him still bring back that fear and strength, especially when hunting down poor little AD carries that have been split off from the pack.
Zed embodies League assassins with his shadow abilities and one-target kill pressure. It can take some time to balance using his Living Shadow (which deals out damage at range) and especially how to use his Death Mark ultimate ability effectively, but it all eventually comes together in a glorious cacophony of death. Once you have a handle on this mid laner, you too will become the master of shadows, and quick kills.
Yasuo
Last, but very much not least, is one-half of the iconic sword brothers.
Is Yasuo tough to play? I mean, let’s just ask any player who has ended up 0/10/0 on him in ranked and then quit the game entirely. I think any League player has a war story like that (and there’s a reason it’s a meme in the fandom), and it answers that question quite succinctly—yes, Yasuo is hard to master.
He’s not impossible, of course, but the sword brother we’ve had in the roster longest is basically the poster boy for trying to learn tough characters. Mastering his Steel Tempest, Wind Wall, and Last Breath is just the first step on a very long journey.
