Ady’s Tier List 5-24-15

With Patch 1.5 just around the corner it’s high time to see how much the meta has shifted since the last Last Tier List.

Vainglorious

• Skaarf
• Vox

Pinnacle of Awesome

• Koshka
• Ringo

Simply Amazing

• Krul
• Celeste

The Hotness

• Taka
• Joule

Pretty Good

• Adagio
• Ardan

Decent-ish

• Catherine
• Petal

Getting There

• Glaive
• SAW

1 (+6) No longer a caterpillar, Skaarf is now what nightmares are made of. The balance team hopefully learned a good lesson about the imbalance of strong jungle heroes. Skaarf was so strong in patch 1.4 that he actually warranted a ban in the ESL. He lights you on fire, and then you die. In its current state, Vainglory offers almost zero counter to his new linear play-style.

2 (-1) The changes to Vox hardly hurt him; his ultimate is still insane, he’s the hardest to hit with a skillshot, and his mana costs are very forgiving. Playing as Vox is so forgiving because you can lose lane, lose the jungle, get three or four items, and show up to 1v3 the team fights.

3 (-2) Koshka’s position of dominance in the jungle has been taken over by Skaarf. She’s patiently waiting for patch 1.5 so she can return to the top of the list. As the second strongest jungler, it’s highly unlikely that you’ve played many games without seeing this feisty lover of Batman.

4 (-1) Ringo can normally beat Vox in lane, keeping him notoriously the strongest laner. However, that doesn’t matter as much when he’s not the best late-game carry. Still a strong, mobile carry in the lane, Ringo trades well, but doesn’t have a dash, or a passive shield, or ridiculous AoE team-wiping abilities.

5 (-1) Thanks to the implemented bans in the ESL, melees have been seeing more play. We’ve gotten to see players like jetpacks give us some impressive performances as Krul. He’s not ban-worthy because Skaarf and Koshka dominate too much too early, but a man can dream.

6 (+1) Celeste (being clearly the prettiest of heroes) is on the brink of moving up in the world. I feel as though Celeste doesn’t do well against Vox in lane, which greatly reduces her spot on the list. Also, the trade-off of relying on Celeste to land a skillshot doesn’t compensate for the difference in her damage compared to other laners.

7 (+4) People are starting to catch on to Taka’s weaknesses and are playing and building him differently. We’ve seen him in the ESL, and with the changes to Flare Guns it’s much harder to pin down a fleeing Taka. Expect to see this guy jumping into and out of more team fights in the coming weeks.

8 (+6) One of the most-buffed heroes this patch made a big stomp. I honestly think Joule was moved to a good place, and she’ll feel that way when the top of the spectrum is adjusted back into the curve. Her kit was modified to include better options for her to scale into the late-game with more armor penetration and smoother ability animations. Definitely not in last place anymore!

9 (0) The best thing to happen to Adagio was LostBoyToph. It’s hilarious to see someone still squeeze so much value out of Adagio after he’s been nerfed so many times. Adagio was the king of the “damage over time” meta when Breaking Point was the best and long battles were won with a well-timed Gift of Fire into Verse of Judgment. I don’t see those days coming back anytime soon, so don’t hold your breath.

10 (-5) While Ardan has some amazing opportunities to change early encounters, he doesn’t have enough damage output to let him scale. Some people rush Tension Bow on him for that bit of extra burst, and some people eat paste. He’s a great defender, and I’d love to see him in lane, but for now he’s fallen out of favor because defense isn’t keeping up with offense.

11 (-1) Catherine suffers from the same problem as Ardan where she lacks damage, clears jungle slowly, and tries to survive the game by being overly durable. While defensive items are affordable, they don’t allow you to scale when facing the percentage health items and abilities that dominate the game.

12 (-4) There isn’t a good build for Petal these days. Regardless of which items you try to get on Petal, Minion Candy is the most effective, and then on paper she could be a real force if she gets six items. Instead, her munions get eaten up in AoE damage, becoming a liability against Koshka and Vox. See those names anywhere on this list?

13 (-1) Glaive is defined by his A skill, which is very unique. If he lands his A skill, and you don’t Reflex Block, you have a good chance at dying. However, in higher Elo you can’t expect that trick to keep working. If you look at the rest of his kit, it’s not very impactful, and leaves Glaive lacking.

14 (-1) While SAW has managed to slip to the bottom of the list, I don’t feel like he’s totally out. His lack of mobility has always hurt him, and some of his nerfs (Roadie Run cooldown) did seem unwarranted. I was never a fan of CP SAW, but I would love to see WP SAW make a comeback with style. Until SAW can either beat out Ringo in lane or Vox in a game, don’t expect him to climb much in the list.

Thanks for tuning in! This was the first list to be impacted by competitive play and the ESL. Seeing Taka and Krul show up in competitive matches has been very entertaining, and I hope to see more non-meta picks as people discover more and more about heroes and how to win with them!