Analyze This: The Newest Champions

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News › Analyze This: The Newest Champions

by Hexadecimal on October 1, 2012

People in champion select are yelling at you to ban Diana. Your friends are telling you to ban Rengar instead. The professionals are saying Syndra is underpowered and no one can seem to agree on Kha'Zix. How do you know what to think? To save you from a stroke, we here at LolKing have used our data to provide you with an analysis of the four most recent additions to the Fields of Justice.

Diana - “A new moon is rising.”

Diana had win rates as high as 57% when she was first released and was rightfully considered overpowered. After she was nerfed her win rate dropped to an average of 50%, which she still maintains to this day.

Diana's success comes from her high kill potential in middle lane. She has the ability to gap close on to an enemy, stick to them, while also outputting tremendous burst damage. This makes her a great counter to squishy champions such as Twisted Fate. Additionally, Diana scales relatively well as the game progresses unlike other champions that try to fit a similar role such as LeBlanc or Fizz.

Syndra - “So much untapped power!”

Syndra had an abysmal 25% win rate on release. Shortly after she was buffed which resulted in an increase to 40%. Why is Syndra having such difficulty winning?

Syndra doesn't fit very well in the current metagame. She has no escapes, a crowd control skill that's difficult to use, and is relatively squishy. With the ever increasing amount of gap closing champions and the prevalence of junglers who focus on ganking, Syndra struggles to be viable as a mid laner. However, she does have strong lane harass, single target burst, and her win rates have steadily increased after her buffs. Still, it raises the question: Is the problem that her damage needs to be buffed again or is she doomed to fail because her design doesn't fit in the current meta?

Rengar - “Tonight we hunt!”

Rengar had win rates as low as 38% on release that steadily increased as people learned how to play him. He then received quality of life buffs and his win rate shot up to 59%. The following patch he was nerfed dropping his win rate to 53%.

Rengar is a strong addition to the plethora of gap closing bruisers. He can be played top or the jungle, but seems to excel as a jungler because of his ganks. His ultimate grants him stealth as well as movement speed, which allows him to move past enemy wards unseen. He can then jump on to an enemy, slow or snare him with bola strike, and output tons of damage. This makes his ganks not only extremely difficult to counter, but also frustrating to deal with.

Kha'Zix - “Change...is good.”

Kha'Zix has a relatively low win rate of 40%. It's still too early to tell whether or not Kha'Zix is underpowered or people are still learning to play him. However, Rengar had an almost identical win rate on release, and was later buffed by Riot. If Kha'Zix' win rates don't improve, watch out for a future buff.

Kha'Zix is a gap closing assassin with high physical burst damage. His ultimate grants him bonus movement speed and stealth, which helps his ganks, but he lacks strong crowd control. He doesn't have any defensive steroids and two of the most popular items currently built on him are the Brutalizer and Bloodthirster. This lack of defense could be why he's struggling to win games. The current metagame usually requires your jungler to be relatively tanky with a decent amount of crowd control. Junglers such as Amumu, Maokai, and Skarner have found great success in the current meta. Will Kha'Zix find a niche within the jungle, will he find success in the top lane, or will he fade in to mediocrity? We'll have to wait and see.

ejbisi

8 months ago

Syndra so bad :D

Dulet

8 months ago

Wow really? Bad? You probably didn't see her full potential or you are stick to playing 'easier' champs.

tgdm

8 months ago

her "potential" is limited by the functionality of her mechanics brand is a very potent ap carry. when he came out, his damage output was insanely strong compared to a lot of other AP carries. he served well in poke and burst comps and because of his range + cc, he could build a bit tanky and get away with high damage output still (double damage W). he is limited by mechanics as well. syndra is pretty good. brand is pretty good. both are situational picks.

Copycat

8 months ago

She isn't bad, she's a great champion to play. Lots of potential. However unlike the older champion her playing style requires higher level of skill. It a different learning curve

Dot145

8 months ago

"So much untapped power!"

Feathermoon

8 months ago

You can tap all the power after you master Syndra and get used to her spells and the way they land. Syndra's line "My potential is limitless" made me laugh when I played her for the first time since I thought she was pretty weak and her skillshots are hard to land but since I love impossible champs like Evelynn (nerfed to the ground) and Orianna (before she became viable) I kept trying to get used to her and learn modes to play her and actually own my lane. Even before the buff I loved her to death and I strongly believed she was invicible on the mid-lane if she was played right but now with the buffs she is freaking amazing, I have to agree though that she doesn't fit the current meta. I also hope that they will change the existing meta, it's so bloody boring.

McAzazel

8 months ago

Changing the meta isn't really in Riot's hands though. The meta evolves naturally, but Riot balancing around it doesn't help much. Still, if they didn't we'd see some really messed up stuff.

Myydrion

8 months ago

syndra is rlly fun to play, i lvoe being able to throw minions around, specially fun on 3v3 throwin red buff over the wall xD anyways, i do think syndra is underpowered. and needs an even bigger buff rlly. she cnt rlly compete with the other AP mages out there

Unregistered93

8 months ago

That's not really worth mentioning, but whatever. I played a bunch of games with her and *never* lost a single game (solo-mid), with positive score each time. I lost once, but I was playing support and the carry wasn't really good. That said, while her E can save a lot of lives, it's true that she isn't that "useful" in team fights (single target, cc, etc). But saving lives, killing the carry, these are her good points and I'm totally fine with that. I lost once, but I was playing support. It's not about skill, it's more of different way of thinking IMO.

Mpdrei

8 months ago

nah, she is really good now only problem I have with her is the ability to gank other lanes unlike our ap champs gotta be pro to master syndra

Exo Frog

8 months ago

Rengar op... I really like Kha'Zix's gameplay on top lane but in lategame its really hard, because if you want to do decent damage or outfocus the enemy ad he have to stand alone and that will never happen

Amocoru

8 months ago

Yeah, Kha'Zix has the Talon problem. Great burst damage with huge killing potential...but way too easily to kill late game. That being said, more people need to start evolving his E. I'm seeing WAY too many people not doing this.

Wozycz

8 months ago

Khazix is pretty strong and i dont get why he has so low win rate i build him more tanky way and i have good succeses till now so maybe just people play him wrong...

Trias

8 months ago

soon or later ppl will learn syndra and she will own everyone

Nekrocow

8 months ago

I think Syndra is a beast champ, but people never learnt to play her. At about lvl 10, she can be casting her abilities nonstop, and has a nasty burst. I see her as a harder to play "Brandlike" mage. But she is, to me, a better champ than Brand. Kha'Zix needs something that diferenciates him from being a "wannabe Rengar". Don't get me wrong: He's an awesome champ, but he fills no role well.