Nearly 13 months in, Nilah is finally taking over the LoL metagame

While new character Nilah’s first 411 days in League of Legends may not have been the most noteworthy, the Joy Unbound has finally been finding boundless joy in season 13 as one of the very best AD carry picks.

Today, the demonbound League champion boasts a 52 percent win rate when picked as a bot laner in Platinum and above, stats on U.GG say. The Joy Unbound’s fast-spiking win rate is no puddle either⁠—Nilah has been played across more than 93,300 matches since Patch 13.17 hit live servers.

By weight of victory, Nilah ranks as the 16th best pick in League and that’s including Swain, Naafiri, and Poppy taking double slots above her off their dual roles.

In the bot lane specifically, the waterbending ADC ranks only behind Swain, Karthus, Seraphine, and Yasuo, and you’ll notice none of them are really traditional marksmen. In that regard, only Ashe (51.8 percent) and Vayne come close.

Nilah has enjoyed some success in the past, especially when her Ravenous Hydra build broke into the mainstream in season 12’s dying days. Nothing has come close to how ‘meta’ she is today though, and one of the main reasons for that is her ability to actually stay relevant against scaling mages.

The League meta on the southern side of Summoner’s Rift right now is, as mentioned above, dominated by Swains, Yasuos, and Seraphines⁠—all of whom scale quite beautifully into the lategame⁠. With Nilah, players who still want to take traditional (at least, mostly) bot laners into ranked play can impact the game from start to finish. It’s the same reason Zeri quickly became the meta queen after her release.

Nilah has enjoyed this rise nearly unanimously across the board too: in Iron, she has a 52.24 percent win rate and then she even betters that in Silver and Gold with 52.84 and 52.45 respectively.

However, in the loftiest ranks of Master and Challenger, Nilah does fall off a little and wins just 50.14 percent of matches.

If you’re looking to pick up Nilah for your next ranked match, make sure you buy The Collector into Navori Quickblades; that combo wins 60 percent of games this patch. Once the game goes long, items like Immortal Shieldbow, Bloodthirster, Lord Dominik’s Regards, and Guardian Angel are all good buys.

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For runes, you’ll want to take Conqueror with Triumph, Legend: Bloodline, and Last Stand. Then, round out her build with Sudden Impact and Treasure Hunter.