Best League of Legends Season 11 Champions & Builds in Top, Jungle, Mid

Following one of the shortest Preseasons ever, Riot Games has kicked off Season 11 of ranked play. They have not, however, addressed a notable number of champions that became strong after the item changes. Here are the best proven and new options in Top, Jungle, Mid.

Best Top Champions in Season 11

Darius

Darius is a Juggernaut. By Riot’s definition, Juggernauts are the only champions designed to both take and deal damage exceptionally well. The trade-off is that Juggernauts struggle to reach backline carries. This is what Juggernauts are balanced around.

Actually, this is what Juggernauts were balanced around until the itemization overhaul. Now, Darius simply speeds up off Stridebreaker, jumps forward with an AoE slow, and runs you down. Not sure if there’s a way to counter that, but we can sure give you a Darius build straight from our desktop assistant.

Malphite

Malphite is too good for his own good. His kit is exhausting to play against, as you literally get rocked to death (or recall). Whenever Malphite is strong, he feels oppressive because anyone can pick up and take advantage of the meta shift. At the end of the Preseason, Malphite had a win rate of 53% with a pick rate of 30%. Why? Sunfire Aegis is outright busted when it comes to spammy tanks, as they now enjoy a solid 15% of Ability Haste on top of both Armor and Magic Resistance.

Garen

Garen is another beneficiary of Stridebreaker. His damage may be on the lower side compared to Darius, but the item still largely covers Garen’s key weakness in reaching targets and sticking to them. Garen’s silence also allows him to pick fights against champions that have been doing better, kill them, and bridge the gap. Just like Malphite, Garen is very easy to use.

Best Jungle Champions in Season 11

Kha’Zix

Assassins have generally benefitted from Season 11 item changes, and Kha’Zix has been an elite Assassin for a while. Early on, the issue was with Prowler’s Claw: it comes with a 20% Ability Haste on top of Lethality but, most importantly, does not break Stealth. Now, most people opt for Duskblade of Draktharr with invisibility on takedown. This item makes Kha’Zix no different from John Cena.

Olaf

Much like Malphite, Olaf is riding the wave of an item that was almost tailored to him. Goredrinker comes with a 20% Ability Haste and an active that grants Attack Damage, deals AoE damage, and restores HP based on Olaf’s missing health. Now, if Olaf reckons his Attack Speed boost from having low HP is not helping, he can use a 15-second cooldown item to heal up. Great stuff.

Nunu

Nunu is a proven quantity. He enjoys the rise of the Phase Rush rune which, admittedly, has not been tweaked since the first part of Season 10. It now, however, makes Nunu ignore solo laners buying slowing items (a 75% slow resistance on proc). Besides, people do not necessarily know what they are doing early in the Preseason, and good map awareness is a must to handle Nunu.

Best Mid Champions in Season 11

Pantheon

Pantheon is finally back from being stuck in Support, but I’m not too happy about that. He blocks your damage, he stuns you, he instastacks Conqueror, and then jumps across the map to make your teammates suffer. Apart from some general buffs, Pantheon enjoys Eclipse, a Mythic that grants him yet another shield as well as %HP damage.

Fizz

Fizz loves Ability Haste and mobility. Night Harvester grants him both with the movement speed buff extended upon dealing damage. Fizz was strong but somewhat vulnerable early—good luck catching him now.

Zed

In confident hands, Zed is a strong choice since Lethality builds are strong. Eclipse makes it easier for him to finish off enemies while providing an early shield and sustain from Omnivamp. When playing against a poke mage, you no longer need to sacrifice money and damage for Hexdrinker. Do not let the ~50% win rate fool you: it does not appear busted simply because inexperienced Zed players lower the average.