Best solo queue champions for LoL Patch 12.2

League of Legends Patch 12.2 has arrived on to Summoner’s Rift. Along with this comes the release of a new character, Zeri, The Spark of Zaun, and a series of adjustments to Tahm Kench that now leaves him unplayable in solo lanes along with other adjustments to Janna and Rengar. With those, and a host of other changes, the best champions to use for solo queue in Patch 12.2 has changed slightly.

In order to find the best champions in solo queue, Upcomer has researched and asked some the best pro players in the scene, many of them LEC or major league players and all of them among the best solo queue players in Europe, in order to find the strongest champions in each role for Patch 12.2. The fist half of the list is what the pro players say, while the last is Upcomer’s own choices.

Top lane, GamersOrigin Vizicsacsi

• Gwen
• Gragas
• Sion

According to Kiss “Vizicsacsi” Tamás, these are the top three top laner champions for solo queue.

“Gwen, well, she is a zoning monster, too OP at the moment.” Vizicsacsi said. “I think she is No. 1 at the moment. For the other two champions, I think tanks are generally OP in solo queue because they fix your team comps and allow your team to make more mistakes.”

Jungle, BDS Cinkrof

• Viego
• Lee Sin
• Volibear

According to Jakub “Cinkrof” Rokicki, these are the top three junglers for solo queue players to climb in the current patch.

Mid lane, MSF Vetheo

• LeBlanc
• Syndra
• Sylas

According to Vincent “Vetheo” Berrié, these are the top three mid laners for solo queue players to climb in the current patch.

“LeBlanc is a very safe pick, she is a very good laner and it is very easy to kill the enemy mid laner. She also can roam so easily,” Vetheo said. “In my opinion Syndra is the best blind pick because she wins every match up and Sylas is a really strong champ if you don’t have a hard laning phase.”

He also wanted to put Akali with Turbo Chemtank as her Mythic item as an honorable mention.

Bot lane, MAD UNF0RGIVEN

• Jhin
• Jinx
• Kai’Sa

According to William “UNF0RGIVEN” Nieminen, these are the top three bot laners for solo queue players to climb in the current patch.

“Jhin is best because it’s Jhin, he just chills and works in every game.” UNF0RGIVEN said. “The second option I will say Jinx because she is a broken champ and kills everything. Then I don’t think there is a clear top three. Aphelios, Caitlyn, Ezreal and Vayne are good, but I’ll choose Kai’Sa.”

Support, G2 Targamas

• Sona
• Soraka
• Lulu

According to Raphaël “Targamas” Crabbé, these are the top three supports for solo queue players to climb in the current patch.

“I’d say Sona, Soraka and Lulu since they are very unskilled champs that even if you hard-lose lane, once you get [Moonstone Renewer] you heal your team for 1,000 health every second.” Targamas said.

Upcomer’s Selection

To select the best solo queue champions for Patch 12.2 according to our criteria, we used League of Graphs and Blitz.gg. With these websites we can analyze the champions depending on the winrate they have per game and in turn see the percentage of pick rate and banned percentage of these champions.

Top lane

• Garen
• Shen
• Kayle

We have selected Garen because of his ease of use, high damage and the damage he is able to mitigate. His biggest problem is his mobility. If Garen is not able to reach his target, then he is useless. Despite this, Garen is performing very well in ranked queues over platinum rank, so he is a great pick to take into account.

In the top two we have selected Shen, a great solo queue champion due to his great crowd control, and above all, his ease of creating numerical superiorities across the map. Since the change to Teleport, Shen has become more valuable as it is not easy for the enemy team to follow the ninja with his ultimate.

Finally, we have selected Kayle, a very vulnerable top laner in the first levels, but a solo queue beast once she reaches high levels. Considered by some to be the queen of the late game, this champion could not be left out of the top due to their great performance in all ranks.

Jungle

• Nunu
• Fiddlesticks
• Rek’Sai

Nunu is a simple champion, with easy ganking ability as well as the ability to easily initiate teamfights. Being a tank, he can mitigate a lot of damage and he can clear or zone a teamfight with his ultimate. The next choice is Fiddlesticks, a vulnerable champion in the first minutes of the game, but once he gets his ultimate he is a teamfight-winning machine. He also has an easy and fast clear in the jungle. Finally we have chosen Rek’sai, a champion that is performing quite well in ranked due to their damage and easy burst to the enemy back line.

Mid lane

• Veigar
• Anivia
• Talon

Our first choice is Veigar as he is being the best mid laner with a decent pick percentage. His lane phase is sometimes a little complicated due to his early game, but once scaled he has a wild amount of damage and is capable of one shotting the enemy team. His E is incredibly good for zoning as well as being able to stun several targets. The next choice is Anivia, a mage with incredible wave clearing and great damage. She is difficult to play in competitive because of her low mobility, but is very useful in solo queue. As option No. 3 we have chosen Talon, he is a champion with a very strong Level 2, able to push fast, rotate and move around the map quickly. This way he can help accelerate the rest of the lanes and end up winning any ranked match.

Bot lane

• Senna
• Vayne
• Jinx

Since the buff to Senna she has been a great performing bot laner with a 54% win rate in ranked games. Our second choice is Vayne. Since the beginning of this new season, the bot laner is a great choice due to her prolonged damage and her tank killer excellence. Finally we have Jinx. She has been performing great in both professional LoL and solo queue. With her great range and explosive autos, she is able to wipe an entire team if she manages to kill someone by activating her passive.

Support

• Janna
• Sona
• Soraka

These choices are very similar to those of Targamas, but we wanted to include Janna because of her change in this last patch. Solo queue players around the world are using her, and she has the highest winrate in the game (in support! We haven’t counted Janna Toplane’s strategy with smite).