2014 Champion Tier List - Ranked 3s Twisted Treeline - Patch 4.18 Update

SEASON 4 - PATCH 4.18 RANKED THREES TIER LIST
Season 4 UPDATE

Introduction
While I'm by no means a guru on the Twisted Treeline I do enjoy playing the game mode quite a bit and hope that they'll move the solo queue 3v3 over from the PBE servers to the live servers some day.

That being said, take this tier list with a grain of salt and feel free to engage in open debate in the comment section with your own thoughts and comments. As the game mode isn't all that popular right now, hopefully this list will help spur some of you to try it out!

Current List Updates
As Season 4 winds down into its close, I had a chance to jump into the fray with a few diamond and master tier 3s players, who kindly offered their insight to how the metagame has progressed so far, which seems...not that much from the beginning of the Season as far as NA is concerned.

Current Metagame
Right now there are two main methods of playing Twisted Treeline:

1. Duo top with a support like Leona or Annie
2. Two solo lanes with a jungler

For the most part it seems like the NA region prefers the jungler meta, whereas the EU region prefers the support meta. I can't say for sure which one is better, but personally I think the support meta gives a much safer early game, which allows you to potentially snowball off of.

Based off of this, I'm splitting this tier list into "roles" similar to the solo queue 5s list. However, as there are only 3 positions open, I won't be including every champion into this list. If you feel that I've missed out on a strong champion, please let me know and I'll include it in the next update.

Search for a champion:

The Tier List

God Tier [Very Strong]:
AP Bot Gods: Syndra, Morgana, Vel'koz, Karma, Lissandra, Kayle
Jungle Gods: Jarvan IV, Lee Sin, Xin Zhao, Maokai
Top Solo Gods: Jarvan IV, Maokai, Darius, Pantheon
Support Gods: Leona, Braum

Tier 1 [Strong]:
AP: Lulu, Orianna, Anivia, Ahri, Malzahar, Zilean, Brand, Annie, Gragas, Fizz, Rumble
Jungle: Vi, Wukong, Yorick, Kha'Zix, Rengar, Olaf, Udyr, Shyvana, Sion, Aatrox, Skarner, Trundle, Riven, Warwick
AD Melee: Wukong, Trundle, Jayce, Riven, Yasuo, Gnar, Jax, Olaf, Lee Sin, Renekton, Rengar, Zed, Aatrox, Fiora, Shyvana, Kha'Zix, Xin Zhao, Volibear, Garen
Support: Annie, Karma, Thresh, Volibear
AD Ranged: Lucian, Jinx, Corki, Ezreal

Tier 2 [Viable]:
AP: Diana, Viktor, Singed, Zyra, Ziggs, Elise, Cassiopeia, Teemo, Xerath, Mordekaiser, Kassadin, Lux, Katarina
Jungle: Dr. Mundo, Malphite, Amumu, Nunu, Fiddlesticks, Evelynn, Nocturne, Sejuani, Elise, Zac, Nasus, Cho'Gath, Shaco
AD Melee: Tryndamere, Kayle, Irelia, Cho'Gath, Yorick, Azir, Udyr, Dr. undo, Nasus, Gangplank
Support: Lulu, Morgana, Nunu, Malphite, Karma, Taric
AD Ranged: Quinn, Vayne,

Tier 3 [Not Played Often]: Everybody else. Not to say that you can't win with other champions, but for the most part the ones above will give you plenty to work with. Feel free to try out other strategies and post your experiences in the comment section below!

AD/AP Positioning
Due to the way the map is arranged, bot lane is generally considered the "safer" lane, so the solo laner almost always goes here. However, as this game mode is somewhat uncommon, you may see teams send two champions to bot lane. As a result, it's generally best to send an AP bot with long range waveclear, as these champions can deal with both 1v1 and 1v2 lanes.

This means that for the most part, the AD based champion will go top. However, swapping these around isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's a good idea to make sure that you have a mix of damage types so that the enemy team can't easily itemize against you.

Champion Explanations

• Gnar [Tier 1 Top] - Despite being a relatively new champion, Gnar's definitely made his impact felt as his ranged kiting abilities are extremely potent against the majority of AD melees as long as they don't get bush control, and his mega Gnar form provides an amazing source of CC during teamfights.
• Karma [God Tier Bot] - Karma's utility and damage are absolutely through the roof, and can kite/chase down pretty much any set of champions in the game.
• Maokai [Top Solo God] - This should come as no surprise based on his solo queue reworks that have been dominating summoner's rift, but Maokai's ability to gank and sustain on the Twisted Treeline is insanely high right now.
• Pantheon [Top Solo God] - Even without the super high utility of his ultimate on a small map, Pantheon's in-lane harass is absolutely brutal, and against the majority of auto-attack heavy champions he comes out on top due to his passive.
• Trundle [Tier 1 Top] - Although difficult to execute properly against a high mobility kiting composition, aligned with some strong CC, Trundle's late game is absolutely god-like, and his pillars are extremely effective when it comes to the narrow corridors of the Twisted Treeline.
• Vel'koz [AP Bot God] - With his strong waveclear, short cooldowns, and insane range/base damage/scaling on his spells, Vel'koz is an absolute terror right now and one of the strongest newcomers to the Twisted Treeline.
• Wukong [Tier 1 Top] - Although Wukong can jungle as well, his early game trading power combined with his absolutely devastating ultimate synergizes extremely well in a 3v3 setting.
• Yasuo [Tier 1 AD] - Despite having mixed feelings about Yasuo in summoner's rift, even after his nerfs Yasuo is extremely powerful in Twisted Treeline simply because of the narrow corridors and the strong utility that he can provide via his ultimate combined with his teammates.
• Yorick [Tier 1 Jungle] - Yorick's jungle works fairly well in Twisted Treeline, as he depends on relatively little gold to provide the CC and ultimate necessary for his top laner to snowball and carry the game.

Disclaimer:

• The purpose of this list is for discussion and to provide a starting point for hero selection.

Agree? Disagree? Comment below!