There's been a long history of "overpowered" champions staying just under the limelight in solo queue, but then suddenly rising to popularity once they change to a different role, even if that's not their optimal location.
The idea that "wow...xxx is SO overpowered that they can even stop lane as a xxx" is hard to get out of our minds.
Examples
Taric support - 60% win rate shifts to top and jungleWukong (mostly top) - 55% win rate shifts to jungle
Nunu - Pre-reworks, shifts to Top
Vel'koz/Brand - 53% win rate shifts to support
Braum (on release) - Played as top and jungle, now stuck as support
Maokai - Shifts to Top
Rammus + Sona
Currently Rammus and Sona both have respectively, top 3 win rates in solo queue and have held this position for quite some time now, Rammus especially.Rammus
Rammus Top provides insane damage mitigation and catching power, while also providing strong jungle gank support combined with strong split pushing damage. All in all, his biggest weakness is against ranged mages, but even if he can get close enough for a taunt he can outtrade the majority of them (except Swain),
While by no means a first pick priority in this world of heavy ap tops (eg Ryze), the fact that he's normally a jungler gives him the ability to swap out if the lane match-up isn't in his favor. Additionally, even though his early game isn't very good, his come-from-behind power is immense. Getting tower dove is no problem with him with his innate tankiness and taunt, and he can always powerball out of a sticky situation.
This Plat Rammus had a rough start vs Irelia, but once he got the ball rolling...
Sona
Sona currently has an absolutely insane heal + damage + utility balance as a support, and can easily snowball a lane by herself. While she still has trouble early game vs heavy burst type champions, if she can get to 40% cdr and enough mana regen, she can take out 1/3 of a squishy's health while simultaneously healing for 1/3 at the same time every few seconds.
As a mid laner, she gets many of these perks with the added benefit that she can harass early game against many people who as mid lane mains, don't really get the experience laning against her, and thus don't know her effective range.
After getting chalice and Lichbane, she can easily annihilate single targets with her powerchord. She's also very versatile, and can build a morellonomicon if you have a jungle that's blue dependent or is trolling (welcome to solo queue).
The only drawback of placing her mid rather than support is that as a mid laner she's forced to CS, whereas as support she can hold onto her powerchord for longer.
This Plat Sona fought a Fizz and lived to tell the tale
Conclusions
There are a few champions out there that perform best in a certain role. However, if they're strong enough, other roles are definitely still possible simply because of their insane base stats and utility scaling.
Got any more of your favorites? Think these two have a shot at the big leagues? Comment below!
That taric 60% winrate must be wrong xD
ReplyDeleteSona is indeed hella strong. I think you do a good job of detailing her underrated power here.
ReplyDeleteHowever, when placed mid-lane, she robs the team of a mid-laner with waveclear, something even a fizz can do with an e.That doesn't detract from her viabilty - especially when paired something like Lulu top, Vel Voz support, or a Lucian ADC - but it might hurt your team's versatility when it comes to comp building in Champ Select.
At the beginning of season 3 he had a 60% win rate, but has been nerfed so many times since then that nobody plays him anywhere anymore.
ReplyDeletei love taric, and i have a 60% win rate on him, but I had to admit to myself he just doesn't really work anymore unless the entire enemy team is pure ad.
ReplyDeleteI have been playing a lot Sion lately. Especially full tank mid lane Sion with teleport is a lot of fun. By maxing E>W>Q, getting sorc shoes and full tank you get massive long range poke, sustain and the best roaming in the entire game. Already won against LB and TF without any problems at all. But you can only play Sion mid when top and jungle have enough damage for mid to late game.
ReplyDeleteLegitly confused about sona's future...
ReplyDeleteLeona top and jungle are still hidden, good... good...
ReplyDeleteSSJ, where do you find these winrates and all? I would really like to look into this info.
ReplyDeleteI have played the mid match up of Sona Vs Fizz as the Fizz. As someone who played a lot of Sona at the time I thought I understood the range and damage. Once she gets some AP and Shen, she just crushed me. So much damage. Didn't help I had never Fizzed before, but, mid Sona is fun and strong.
ReplyDeleteLeona top Vs Melee is fun.
ReplyDeleteLeona top can counter champ like Yasuo (which is still popular), but that's still counter pick.
ReplyDeleteSince Jax nerf there are more and more AP top arises, which will result in the success of gap-closer champs (AP top may be very careful with Pantheon, but will be caught by surprise by J4, Xinzhao, Wukong, Aatrox - although these ones will have a hard time with tanky damage Darius/Renek/Irelia or do not have kill potential against passive meat-shields like Mundo/Maokai/Shen).
Basically when a strong champion is took down by Riot (nerfed into obvillion), the "countered" champions who have been overshadowed by that nerfed champ will be viable (since their main counter is no longer an actual threat)
www.lolking.com
ReplyDeleteALL HAIL SONA
ReplyDeleteCSing as Sona is tricky, other than that she can do some crazy damage with the lich bane, not to mention 40% cdr sona can do this crazy damage like ever 5 seconds, my apporoval (as though it was needed)
ReplyDeleteLike Irelia, her main counter, Renekton, got nerfed and fell out of favor, so she is once again able to show her strength. So Leona counters these AP tops due to her gap closer, or no? I played her more jungle so
ReplyDeleteSorry, but this post makes no sense.
ReplyDeleteSona Mid and Rammus Top are not top tier picks, barely viable if played right.
Rammus Jungle improved when the AD assassin meta appeared, and Sona Support "counters" Janna, who is also very popular right now, who in turn counters hard-engage supports.
Taking Rammus and Sona to other lanes is really not worth it in my opinion, but feel free to comment and give me your opinions ^^
He isn't saying that Rammus Top and Sona Mid are better than their traditional roles, but merely that they are possibilities given their current strengths in the meta. Rammus Top is actually pretty strong as long as he's against an AD melee.
ReplyDeleteMaybe as a top of tier 3/bottom of tier 2 specific counter pick. Or you could just get skilled as an all around good champion in top lane.
ReplyDeleteDamn i can remember those "rammus taric" players that were doing more damage than our adc while taking more dmg than our tank. good old days.
ReplyDeleteJust telling this have been carrying my bro out of silver easy with sion sup,where the troll adc's can't carry and i can easily harras the lane when they try to counter me on top or jungle they fail where i am a tank sup with insane speed some mixed ap and ad and carry my adc if the adc sucks i just take kills to carry and rush tankyniss and cdr (40%) to snowball lanes with #ONSLAUGHT
ReplyDeleteNever said they were top tier, just things that work a little better than expected, and people don't expect these champs.
ReplyDeleteLove Taric too, but he doesn't have a gap closer that would allow him to deliver his damage without getting murdered. I can only imagine how good he must have been before being nerfed.
ReplyDeleteOK, now I understand the post better,thanks ;)
ReplyDeleteGalio top also works well. After you get the unholy grail and the first armor iten, just a W+R will make you win the tf alone, plus healling you.
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't scale tath well, but his base damage on Q and R is enough to hurt any squish target.
There is also TopWick, but you already make a post about it.
This may sound silly, but I find ali mid really strong. He can have trouble farming in the early stages but once you get a couple of items under him (chalice/tear plus blasting wand) he can very easily stick it to many mid champions by simply using headbutt. And his heal makes him annoying to vs. His ult ruins just about any hard engage or burst from mid laners also.
ReplyDeleteyou also can check at http://na.op.gg/statistics/champion/
ReplyDeleteor http://loldb.gameguyz.com/statistics/winRate
trust me i know, i've been playing him since feb. 2010.
ReplyDeleteGuide for Sona Support?
ReplyDeleteam i the only one that sees rammus and sona holding the top three slots.... just two of them so OP they hold the top three lol
ReplyDeletewhile Leona top vs ranged ends in a disaster every single time
ReplyDeleteCheck Lolking.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't the same thing happen when you pick Akali or other mid-laners with bad multi-target damage?
ReplyDeleteWhat about Skarner Top? That fella can literally bring people under his turrets at level 6.
ReplyDelete