Not even two months have passed since the start of League of Legends season 13, and we’re already seeing two major meta shifts. Following the preseason changes and the important fighter and ADC item updates, it’s now time for yet another transition with the engage support buffs in conjunction with ranged support nerfs.
Given the high amount of variance caused by updates over the past few weeks, we have created a list of the best champions that are going to be relevant in the new patch. Here are the 10 strongest League champions heading into Patch 13.3.
Best 10 League champions in Patch 13.3
Aurelion Sol
Aurelion Sol’s Comprehensive Gameplay Update is finally on the live servers and it’s already performing well above expectations. Players have been hyped about the update and this is shown in his play rate: he has the highest number of matches played in his main role (above 200,000, according to stats site U.GG), but he also has ranked games registered on the four remaining roles.
As a mid laner, having a positive win rate (52.02 percent) and the second-highest ban rate means the champion is strong. Considering that Aurelion Sol should be a hard champion to master, seeing people succeed with him on the first days can be a worrying trend. He’s certainly one of the best champions in Patch 13.3, but there are high chances he gets nerfed soon.
Jhin
Ever since Riot Games changed the crit items, Jhin made a return to the meta. He’s one of those champions that loves having Infinity Edge and building it early while also getting the item passive makes him even stronger.
Since he doesn’t rely on attack speed like other traditional marksmen, Jhin can rush Galeforce and Infinity Edge to get a great mid-game spike. Paired with his strong laning phase and long-range, as well as the return of engage supports, he has little to no weaknesses in this patch. The stats are backing this up: second most-picked ADCs with a 52.66 percent win rate, according to U.GG.
Nautilus
Nautilus has been off the radar for quite a while so Riot decided to give him some love as well, adding him to the buffed engage supports. While he didn’t get a big pump in numbers, people have noticed the buffs and started playing him more, with great success.
According to U.GG, he is nearing a 51 percent win rate with the fourth-highest pick rate. What makes him better than other top-tier supports, though, is his ban rate: only 8.8 percent.
Nautilus is the kind of champion that works better with specific ADCs since they can synergize their kits to make an explosive duo. As long as these marksmen are meta, he will be a constant presence in the patch.
Samira
Speaking of marksmen working with Nautilus, we can’t forget about Samira. Just like Jhin, she was one of the great winners of the ADC item changes since she can now build Immortal Shieldbow and Infinity Edge to get the crit bonus damage.
This allows her to scale faster and become a menace in the mid game. In the past, Samira had to build three items to come “online” and become the carry. Now, she only needs two.
If you add the fact that the best Samira partners are also strong in the meta, then it’s a given that she is one of the strongest League champions in the patch. League players are aware of this and have started banning her. Her 41.0 percent ban rate with a 51.91 percent win rate, according to U.GG, are outstanding numbers.
Maokai
Despite being one of the most-picked champions in professional play, and a top-tier solo queue pick, Maokai was able to dodge Riot’s nerf list in Patch 13.3 and players are now taking advantage of this.
He is the most-banned jungler in the game currently, according to U.GG, with a worrying 32.7 percent ban rate (Zed and Aurelion Sol have higher ban rates but they correspond to their main role). His full ability power build is perfect to carry games in solo queue and his kit of crowd controls makes his gank setups easy.
Related: The winners and losers of League of Legends Patch 13.3
On top of that, Maokai is also being played as a support with great success. While his support pick rate is low (3.3 percent), his win rate is the second-highest (52.49 percent). Players are slowly realizing his potential as a flex pick across the two roles, making him an even more valuable champion. Maokai is a pick-or-ban champion in Patch 13.3.
Jax
Jax received a mid-scope update at the beginning of the season that made him even stronger than he already was. Now he can go for both AD and AP items, offering consistent or burst damage depending on the enemy team composition.
His laning phase is strong as long as he can stack enough attack speed during extended trades thanks to his passive and the keystone rune Lethal Tempo. On top of that, he’s a great duelist that can beat almost any champion in one-vs-one situations at any point of the game.
In professional play, Jax is seen as a great scaling pick that can act as a secondary carry for the team. In solo queue, he is a top-tier bruiser to climb the ladder. Given that he didn’t receive any nerfs, he will continue to be strong in this patch.
Anivia
Ever since Rod of Ages was introduced at the end of season 12, champions that can synergize with the item have risen in popularity. Now that champions like Kassadin were nerfed, Anivia is the new pick ascending to the top of the tier list of the best mid laners.
The main reason that makes Anivia so strong is her AoE damage: she can single-handedly carry mid and late-game fights with her ultimate and crowd control. As long as she can get safely through the laning phase, which she does most of the time thanks to her passive, she can scale to the point of becoming an unstoppable force.
What’s even better is that players are rarely banning her: 5.4 percent so far (according to U.GG), meaning she can be played in the majority of the matches. Anivia is not an easy champion to master but she can be a great pick to gain some LPs in this patch.
Elise
After years of being a weak champion in both professional play and solo queue, Elise has returned to her throne as the Queen of the jungle.
In a meta where early ganking is key to snowballing the game, Elise is the perfect pick to do so. She can make consecutive ganks to impact the map as soon as she hits level three, and can one-shot people with a rotation of her spells. Being an AP champion, she can increase the magic damage output, making her team overall harder to itemize against.
Considering she hasn’t been touched this patch, she will continue to be present, especially at higher Elos. While she has a 14.3 ban rate across all ranks worldwide, this number goes up significantly at master Elo and above (48.9 percent, according to U.GG), making her the most banned jungler of Patch 13.3.
Now that Zac got hit in this patch, she and Maokai are going to be the undisputed best AP junglers to play.
Xayah
Xayah is one of the most underrated picks of the new patch because not many people have caught up on her yet. The Navori Quickblade change allows her to gain a much faster mid-game spike which transitions to a great increase in her overall damage output.
She’s almost one of the few ADCs to have a self-peeling ability with her ultimate, making her harder to punish and pick off guard. Xayah’s numbers are not as high as Jhin’s or Samira’s but her play rate has been rising slowly (a 1.5 percent increase from the previous patch, according to U.GG) and her win rate is also steadily above 51 percent.
If other ADCs keep getting consistently banned, then Xayah will likely witness a further increase in numbers in the following weeks.
Annie
Annie is the highlight of the new patch. Riot was finally able to bring her to the live servers, following the recent cyber attack that saw the devs delay the release.
While she hasn’t been played as much as Aurelion Sol so far, her stats are actually a lot more impressive than anticipated. She has a whopping 56.49 percent win rate worldwide, considering all Elos, which is the highest out of all the champions in the game (according to U.GG).
Not only is she performing well as a mid laner but she also holds the second-highest win rate (55.11 percent, according to U.GG) as a support. Given that she has only been out for a few days, these numbers are unheard of in the recent era of League.
The question now will be whether the champion will receive a hotfix in the following days or if the balance team thinks the matches played are too small of a sample. Regardless of what they will do to her, Annie is set to be the strongest champion of Patch 13.3.
Published: Feb 13, 2023 04:44 am