Ady’s Tier List 4-28-15

The meta is constantly evolving, and the Tier List needs to be updated! This patch we’ll look into how Vox and Koshka have dominated the meta, and why Krul has started to spike.

Vainglorious Tier:

• Koshka
• Vox

Pinnacle of Awesome Tier:

• Ringo
• Krul

Simply Amazing Tier:

• Ardan
• Skaarf

The Hotness Tier:

• Celeste
• Petal
• Adagio

Pretty Good Tier:

• Catherine
• Taka

Decent-ish Tier:

• Glaive
• SAW

Getting There Tier:

• Joule

1 (+0) Koshka: She holds too many titles to not be the best. Competitive teams have no fear running her in lane, she has the fastest jungle of any hero, she has the highest sustained movespeed of any hero, she is extremely durable in the early game, and her sustained level one damage is the highest. She can control the early game well enough that the rest of the game doesn’t seem to matter. She invades after she clears her own jungle faster than you, and then takes your jungle minions, gets a level advantage, and you lose to her in a fight when down in gold and experience. Patch 1.4 can’t come soon enough.

2 (+2) Vox: What’s this?! A new Vainglorious contender!!! I hated Vox when he came out, but the truth is, I didn’t hate Vox, I hated the people who instalocked Vox! I’ve seen Vox do some pretty ridiculous stuff, but not because people were exceptional at the game, but rather because Vox is more broken than myth. A targetable dash on a ranged hero with an AoE slow and an AoE silence that gets a shield each time he attacks something. Sounds like a recipe for disaster! Vox deserves this spot because when teams group up late game to avoid getting picked off, Vox can kill any or all of them by focusing the tank on the front line and bouncing damage back to heroes, despite how well they try to position.

3 (-1) Ringo: While still the king of single-target damage, Ringo doesn’t punish Vox well enough in lane to keep him from scaling. I know that might sound silly, but when was the last time you laned vs someone other than Vox or Ringo? On my Pinnacle account, I think I remember facing a different hero before the Vox release. Ringo has the potential to be the strongest hero in the game, but I see him so poorly utilized and itemized that it might take some time before we see him rise to the top. People keep building him burst, and it makes me hate people. Don’t make me hate people! Or rather, don’t make me hate, people!

4 (+5) Krul: Well, well, well. Look who decided to show up. I say Krul is OP, I get people shaking their heads at me. Krul gets a baby buff, people actually give him a chance, all of a sudden “Krul OP” is all over the forums, reddit, Pinterest, and now BrokenMyth! I saw an Aftershock-rushing Krul get 14 kills in a game yesterday, but ended up losing. While Aftershock gives him significant burst to help dictate the early levels of the game, it doesn’t maintain its value of crippling squishies as the game progresses. I think people are getting better at building and winning with Krul, so naturally he is moving up the ranks! Wait, did you say Pinterest??

5 (+3) Ardan: He’s no Vox, but at least he isn’t the black sheep of the family (glares at Celeste). Ardan is a great protector. Players have become more comfortable splitting an enemy team with his ultimate and saving their Vanguard for the opportune moment. It’s more than just a shield; it’s mobility, positioning, an element of surprise… AND a shield! Ardan enables tower dives, jungle escapes, near-death experiences, and low gravity hover-duels!

6 (-1) Skaarf: Still a caterpillar, and when people play into his ultimate he has the same potential to rip through a team positioned too closely together. However, when people play around his ultimate he doesn’t provide enough value to a team. His laning phase is much too predictable and weak. Being able to Reflex Block has definitely benefitted the little guy, but won’t impact his spot on the List due to his other drawbacks.

7 (+0) Celeste: This hero shouldn’t be the black sheep of the family trio, but she really needs a break out performance. Sadly, like most heroes, she’s compared to the champions controlling the meta, and that is Koshka and Vox. Celeste gets shrekt in lane against Vox, and will almost never be able to 1v1 him without catching him off guard. Her slow triggers too slowly, and her damage just isn’t reliable against mobile targets. Potentially really good, but not until the people at the top see some changes.

8 (-2) Petal: If every hero fought at level two I really think that Petal would give any hero a run for their money. However, things don’t end up too great for her after that. Her range is still great, her munion damage can be good, but she’s in a weird state where I’m not sure if she’s strong built as Weapon or as Crystal. She has the ability to punish some heroes, but amplifies Koshka’s damage by leaving seeds and munions on the Fold, and Koshka seems to be in games.

9 (-6) Adagio: Oh, how the mighty have fallen. His attack range is still pretty great, but this champion needs to find his niche. I really believe that Adagio has more potential than people give him credit for because of one small fact: Adagio counters Krul. It seems strange to see Adagio so low, but give people some time to see how quickly he handles Krul and I imagine he’ll climb the ranks.

10 (+1) Catherine: Confession: I hate Catherine. I do. I hate her. Ok, so I’ve never hid that fact, so that probably wasn’t much of a surprise to anyone, but I recently played a game as her. Get your jaw off the floor, I can explain. I was playing on an account in The Hotness, and was building Assasserine. This is when you start by building a Tension Bow (I wouldn’t recommend this as a first item on Catherine) and when that is completed you immediately rush an Aftershock (I wouldn’t recommend this as a second item on Catherine). Then you kill people. I felt terrible. Diving past two turrets to kill the enemy tank, and then walking out unscathed just felt so wrong that it justified all the hate I had for this champ. It only amplified when I had the most gold in the game after we won. She is still great at disrupting the enemy team, but isn’t a carry. Her ability damage was mediocre, and I felt sorry for the other team the whole time I was playing her. I’m sorry guys, it won’t happen again.

11 (+1) Taka: While slightly improved, Taka still preys on heroes without defensive stats. If your idiot laner builds an Aegis, then you win. If not, then Taka has the potential to take over the game. That dice roll bothers me quite a bit, because I can’t suggest to my carry “hey, do the right thing and buy one defensive item, you big dumb idiot.” Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t have chat, but if the enemy team has a Taka then buy one defensive item, you big dumb idiot.

12 (+1) Glaive: A couple heroes were handed a promotion on a silver platter this week because of how badly SAW plummeted. Glaive was a lucky recipient of that increase. He’s not any better than he was before. I don’t see Glaive at high elo, and the last time I saw him played in competitive play was embarrassing. I’m not a fan of the dash being a fixed distance. His biggest potential comes early on when he can gank the lane, but he should GTFO of the lane so the carry can farm minions! That potential kill is worth 210 gold, which is only a handful of creeps. Go get that gold from the jungle, you big scary cat!

13 (-3) SAW: This is the lowest that a lane carry has ever fallen on the Tier List. The previous record was held by SAW at rank 10. Now, at rank 13, SAW is lower than ever. His lack of mobility isn’t fairly compensated by impressive damage output; he still easily loses lane to most heroes. Weapon SAW has seen too many nerfs to consider viable, and Crystal SAW takes too long to become a relevant threat. His one redeeming factor in my eyes is that Weapon SAW beats Vox in lane. So, while you shouldn’t have picked SAW in the first place, if you are matched against the insta-locked Vox from the other team, you have a way to stomp him in lane, keep him starved of money, and pray that the other team doesn’t have a stun in their roster.

14 (-0) Joule: Who? Oh right, the lady that talks to her robotic walker. Some people are lazy, but Joule puts them to shame. She doesn’t wear that suit because it makes her effective in combat, or makes her walk faster than normal. No, no, she wears that suit because she’s lazy. She’s too lazy to even stand her ground as she lazily presses a button for her ultimate. Skaarf and Ringo breathe fire for their ultimates! SAW reloads a gun! Krul rips a sword from his chest! Joule? She pushes a button. It’s a miracle she even lets you aim it! Woah! Idea! After targeting with Joule’s ultimate, allow her to slowly adjust the aim. That might take away the impression that she’s super lazy, even though she would just be making the suit do the aiming for her. In all seriousness, her Thunder Strike should have a 50% Crystal Power ratio on it. If Vox and Celeste get that on their ranged auto attacks (that have guaranteed chances to hit) then Joule deserves that on an ability that’s roughly the length of an auto attack, but uses energy, rewards the player for landing it, and punishes them if they miss.

It’s amazing how much the meta can shift without a patch release! This community adapts so well to the shift of the game. It’s really a fun Rock, Paper, Scissors challenge that we get to try to interpret. The views, opinions, and sarcasm in this post are mine and do not reflect the views of anyone else. Feel free to submit feedback or your opinions on the Tier List. I review each comment, and I appreciate hearing other views and opinions.