Whether a champion is powerful in League of Legends is usually measured with their overall win rate in solo queue.
In other words, if enough players have proved that a certain champion can win more than 50% of the games as a whole, then that’s definitely a powerful/meta pick.
However, there’s another side of this reality where champions constantly fall below the 50% average win rate status. In fact, there are many champions in League of Legends that have around 45% win rates in certain roles, which is considered extremely low.
But the win rate isn’t the only metric for how good a champion is in this game. In this list of worst LoL champions, I also considered their overall design, how well it fits the modern gameplay, as well as the overall potential of the pick.
So if you’re interested to see which champions you should avoid in League, scroll down and check them out.
But before you do so, here are the worst champions categorized by their role:
- The 7 Worst Top Laners
- The 7 Worst Junglers
- The 7 Worst Mid Laners
- The 6 Worst Supports
- The 6 Worst ADCs
1. Poppy
With her glorious hammer, Poppy usually manages to impact the map in one way or another. Either as a jungler, support, or top laner, she isn’t shy when it comes to engaging and setting up fights.
However, according to her overall win rate, Poppy fails to carry games in any elo. And even though she has an average win rate of 50% in the top lane, her jungle win rate is around 48% and as a support she also has a 48% win rate.
Poppy’s key weaknesses:
- Melee champions with extremely short-range abilities
- She’s a tank that doesn’t deal enough damage
- Her R isn’t always useful, especially when you need more damage
But Poppy has some strengths too. She can push an enemy into a wall to stun them and effectively set up a kill for her teammates. She can even interrupt dashes which is definitely useful in today’s meta.
Unfortunately, these advantages are simply not enough for Poppy to have the influence she wants. She can easily be kited or outplayed thanks to how predictable her kit is. For example, an enemy champion can simply walk away from her Q and avoid its damage.
So, Poppy definitely needs a buff or a mini-rework to really be the champion she was intended to be.
2. Rell
It’s difficult to pin down why Rell is on the list of worst champions is simply because of her stellar win rates. And if you look at the statistics from patch to patch, this champion always manages to win more games than she loses.
On the other hand, Rell’s popularity is amongst the lowest in League of Legends. There are only a handful of Rell mains out there and most players that try her almost always go back to their other picks. So, why’s this?
Rell’s key weaknesses:
- Low damage overall
- Slow animations leading to a predictable playstyle
- She can easily be kited
As a support, Rell’s ability to crowd control the enemy is fantastic. Rell usually goes well with a few specific ADCs in the bot lane and she isn’t necessarily a bad champion.
However, her unpopularity combined with the fact that everyone can outplay her, especially ADCs like Ezreal or Sivir, launch her near the top of this list.
I’m not sure what Riot Games can do to fix Rell’s problem. They already redesigned some of her abilities and buffed the others. So if players don’t seem to like playing or fail to be winning on Rell despite all of that, maybe there’s no solution at all.
Read Also: The 7 Most Unique Champions in League of Legends
3. Kalista
Here’s another bot lane pick, an ADC that’s largely forgotten by the League of Legends community. Kalista hasn’t had a spot in the meta for a very long time and it doesn’t look like she’s going to either. Here’s why.
Kalista’s key weaknesses:
- Weak early game/laning phase
- Needs a specific support (lots of CC and protection)
- Requires getting used to holding SHIFT or ALT while auto-attacking.
Kalista is a unique champion, a mobile marksman who can kite the entire enemy team and outplay them with proper mechanical skill. But the fact that she requires such a mastery results in her having one of the lowest win rates in solo queue.
In other words, Kalista is a pretty decent champion when handled by experts. You can often see this in professional games where pro ADC players end up carrying with Kalista. But that’s also because the rest of the players there play around her and support her so she could do all the damage.
In solo queue, most Kalista players fail to synergize with their support or make excellent use of her ALT/SHIFT mechanic. And unless you’re an OTP Kalista and you love playing her, I’d stay away from this champion when trying to climb.
Read Also: 10 Best Top Lane Champions for New Players in the Role
4. Corki
Corki also started as an ADC in LoL but later transitioned over to the mid lane. This was because he’s a self-sufficient marksman with an ability kit that allows him to huge bursts of AoE damage.
Corki’s popularity has never been high, especially in lower elos. And most League players don’t even know whether Corki is actually an AP or an AD champion.
Well, Corki is a hybrid champion that’s almost forced always to build both AP and AD. His abilities do magic damage but they have higher AD ratios than AP, so it’s necessary for him to get both.
So what this does is that it compels players to only go for a specific set of items that limits them. And if they don’t get it early enough, they fail to do any significant damage, no matter if it’s physical (auto-attacks) or magic (spells).
Corki’s key weaknesses:
- A very weak champion if you fail the early game
- A bad pick against assassins (he’s squishy)
- Can’t always make good use of his package
Corki’s most unique ability is his passive which allows him to collect a package from the base and use it to empower his W. However, this is a very predictable thing and players in high elo always retreat, not allowing Corki to make full use out of it.
So, Corki definitely needs a few quality-of-life changes.
5. Pantheon
Out of all champions on this list, Pantheon is the one that least deserves a spot. He’s strong melee fighter able to fit in multiple roles and do everything from CC to damage and provide protection.
However, Patheon hasn’t had a stellar win rate in any role for such a long time. This is partly because the meta doesn’t favor his playstyle but also because of his overall low stat numbers, especially damage.
Patheon’s key weaknesses:
- Must get ahead early on
- Depends too much on ability use (has slow attack speed)
- Doesn’t have an optimal role
As you can see, Pantheon’s weaknesses aren’t necessarily unfixable. And if Riot Games decides to buff this champion in a certain way and make him a mid laner, for example, then they could do it in a day.
But in reality, Pantheon is a champion that fluctuates from top to mid lane, from jungle to support, all the while losing more games than winning.
I really like playing Pantheon as a support with specific ADCs but even then he’s only strong during the laning phase with his point-click stun (W). And so, I wish Riot would do something about this because this champion is very fun to play.
6. Swain
Swain is a scaling mage champion that doesn’t always disappoint. However, his power spikes in the mid game aren’t as influential as that of other similar champions such as Cassiopeia or Taliyah.
Swain can be played in multiple roles, more notably mid and support. He can also be a decent AP top laner, especially in certain matchups.
However, the difficulty with Swain is that his damaging numbers aren’t that high and he often fails to take control once the laning phase is done. Yes, he has great tools for winning the laning phase but he struggles to transition his leads later on, especially against bruisers and tanks.
Swain’s key weaknesses:
- Low damage overall
- Very immobile
- Gets countered by champions with longer range
If you really understand Swain’s weaknesses, it won’t be surprising to you when you see his overall win rates – Top Lane: ~48% win rate; Mid Lane: ~49% win rate; Support: ~48% win rate.
This is really disappointing because Swain doesn’t necessarily have a bad champion design. He’s a decent short-range mage that sometimes does well when he gets ahead. But he definitely needs a buff to become the best version of himself.
Read Also: Top 10 Best Mid Champions – Master Player’s Choice
7. Aphelios
Half of the controversy in League of Legends (at least connected to the balancing of the game) is directly linked to Aphelios. This is Riot’s “400 years” champion design at its best and it’s very weird to see him utterly destroyed in both solo queue and competitive play.
The problem here is obvious – Aphelios has an overloaded kit that has to be kept nerfed because a single would turn him into the most overpowered champion in the game.
I can’t blame Riot for failing to balance this champion and leaving him in the 45-47% win rate. You can’t balance something that breaks the game when you attempt to do so, so maybe it’s better for all of us that Aphelios is in this state.
Aphelios’ key weaknesses:
- Lower damage than most ADCs
- Broken kit that will never get significantly buffed
- Lacks mobility
In terms of actual gameplay, Aphelios often fails to deliver enough damage in order to carry the game. He struggles to keep up with the rest of the marksmen, especially when he falls behind in the early game.
Another issue is that his abilities are so complex that only a handful of players in the world know how to truly utilize them. Your average Aphelios in solo queue likely has no idea how to take advantage of the champion, so you’re left with a feeding ADC in your bot lane.
8. Ryze
It’s tough for me to argue about Ryze’s weaknesses since he’s one of my favorite champions and a pick that I often play, regardless of his “bad” state. And I do find some success with him!
However, Ryze’s power level has fallen significantly during the last couple of years. He’s no longer the hyper-carry mid lane mage that could 1v9 matches in the late game.
And even if you do win the early game and you farm and scale properly, it’s unbelievably challenging to close games with him.
Ryze’s key weaknesses:
- Lower damage than most mages
- Needs to scale and requires a lot of gold
- He’s short-range and struggles against ranged team comps
Ryze is a good example of a champion that does well in professional play and very poorly in solo queue.
Pro players are able to take advantage of his kit because they can synergize his ultimate and his snare to create opportunities around the map. But since solo queue is full of random players and the gameplay is often chaotic, Ryze fails to have the same impact there.
On the other hand, the reason why Ryze was such a great carry in the past was that his damage really exceeded everyone else’s in the late game. Nowadays, there are many other champions that deal as much damage as Ryze while also having better kits overall.
9. Aurelion Sol
For the longest time, Aurelion Sol was Riot’s forgotten champion. He was first added to the game back in 2016 and his pick and win rates have been among the lowest ever since.
There are a few glaring problems with ASol. The first would be that his champion design is way too weird for the average player. The second is that Aurelion Sol doesn’t even do enough damage for you to justify learning and mastering him.
Aurelion Sol’s key weaknesses:
- Champion design that forces you to make mistakes
- Depends on items and getting ahead in gold
- Gets easily kited
If you’ve ever played Aurelion Sol in a ranked match then you probably know how challenging it is to perform well. Your W requires you to move in a certain way and your Q often gets interrupted even when you don’t want to.
In the meantime, other champions are free to move in the ways they want to and can even predict where you’ll be. This makes it easy for them to counter you with CC and outplay you.
On top of everything, ASol’s damage even when you hit all of his abilities the right way simply isn’t impressive. It’s way less than what an average Syndra or Vex can do, so you’re better off without him.
So, Riot needs to step up their games here and give Aurelion Sol the buff he really needs!
10. Annie
And lastly, we have Annie – one of the best mid laners from the early years of League of Legends!
Many players believe that Annie simply needs a damage buff and she’ll be in a great state. But I don’t share that opinion.
You see, Annie’s whole playstyle revolves around utilizing her ultimate, Tibbers, to AoE stun and burst multiple champions at once. But that’s almost every player is aware of this and even people in Silver and Gold don’t give Annie the chance to do so.
So, no matter how much damage Annie has, she needs a mini-rework in order to make her much more flexible for solo queue.
Annie’s key weaknesses:
- Predictable playstyle
- Needs a stronger burst
- Lacks mobility
If Riot is reluctant to change Annie’s playstyle, then buffing her damage is the way to go. But I’d definitely be careful since Annie’s burst can easily get overtuned, especially if she enters the support meta.
Conclusion
Because of League’s competitive nature, there will always be stronger and weaker champions. But that ladder shifts on a two-week basis and not one list of worst champions will ever be definitive, including this one.
My aim with this post was to let you know which champion you need to avoid until Riot Games decides to improve them in one way or another. GL & HF!
