Do you adore a challenge? Some League of Legends champions take hundreds of games to get the best out of them. This is a skill ceiling, a term used to describe how difficult it is to optimise your gameplay with a specific champion. It doesn’t take long for a player to wrap their head around the kit of a champion with a low skill ceiling (lets say Ashe). For some players, a high skill ceiling is off-putting but other players relish this challenge. Take a look at the top 10 highest skill ceiling League of Legends champions!
10. Shaco
Shaco isn’t a great team-fighter by any stretch of the imagination, he relies on taking objectives and getting picks to have an impact on the game. Doing this requires a lot intelligence, as well as mechanical ability. A lot of Shaco’s power is in his ability to deceive and play around his enemies, attacking from behind is important. While facing good players, this can be really difficult to get a grasp of but if you put the time into learning his kit, Shaco is a great champion.
9. Riven
Absolutely devastating in the right hands, Riven can single handedly demolish enemy teams if her summoner is on the cards. Hosting a myriad of combos, Riven’s damage can be amplified to extreme lengths if you get your timings right. Good luck with that, though, as such combos require hundreds of hours of play-time and high mechanical skill to pull off.
8. Katarina
Insane damage means insane squishiness, Katarina can commit genocide on bad players but good players have no problem dealing with her. Her damage is nullified while she’s hard CC’d (even Exhaust will negate her killing potential massively) so Katarina players need to go in at the perfect times. Arguably the best at cleaning up team-fights after the enemies have used their CDs/summoner abilities, she can carry games easily.
7. Draven
Right now, Draven is considered OP as the return of crit items have boosted his viability. Able to 3-hit anyone late game, the Executioner is a good choice at all ELOs bar professional play. Most of his damage is in his Spinning Blades ability, so pro players know to take advantage of this. When Draven moves to catch his axe, enemies can use their abilities on the axe drop location, punishing Draven. To make this champion work against good players, you need to reach his extremely high skill ceiling.
6. Yasuo
Even though he’s called the “noob champ” by most players who haven’t the foggiest how to take advantage of his weaknesses, Yasuo is actually a skillful champion to use. His Windwall, while powerful, doesn’t last long and has a high cooldown. He’s insanely squishy, a team that focuses him will take him down in less than a second or two. His damage can be a over-bearing but these weaknesses need to be taken advantage of, or covered up by the Yasuo player to prevent the enemies from taken advantage of them.
5. Ryze
There’s a reason he’s been reworked multiple times, Ryze has never been in a spot that doesn’t require exceptional skill and a low ping to perform well with. His spell timings are crucial to his success, with him being all-powerful when used correctly while underwhelming if used wrongly. His new ultimate, added in his last rework, requires team co-ordination to use properly. For some players, his ult is borderline useless.
4. Azir
Before his many nerfs, Azir probably wouldn’t have made it onto this list. Now though, he requires a great deal of experience and intelligence to play. His soldiers are difficult to control while retaining good positioning on Azir himself, this is the aspect that most players struggle with. It’s all well and good dealing tons of damage to the enemy but if you aren’t safe, it’s in vain. His ultimate is also much less forgiving now, providing barely any self-peel and primarily being used for a short burst of CC. He’s still fun as hell to play though.
3. Cassiopeia
Positioning is absolutely everything for Cass, being squishy and having no real burst means you have to stay alive to do well. If she’s left untouched in a fight, she can melt through the frontlines and delete those in the back. Doing this requires an exceptional team, as well as perfect positioning and awareness from the Cass player. While not impossible, it’s extremely difficult to use Cass at a high level of play.
2. Gangplank
Some say the Saltwater Scourge has no skill ceiling at all, some may be right. With so many aspects of his kit requiring setup, mechanical ability and awareness, he’s tough to get used to. His barrels in particular have plenty of counter-play, allowing your opponent to either kill the barrel or escape its range. Gangplank is a late-game hypercarry in the right hands, being able to 1-shot squishees and dealing surprising damage to frontliners.
1. Aurelion Sol
So much counter-play yet so much effectiveness. Aurelion Sol has seen a low play-rate for quite some time, this isn’t particularly because of his theme or how fun he is (or isn’t) to play. Even if you’ve earned 100k mastery points with Aurelion, you’ll still find opponents out-playing you and taking advantage of his weaknesses. His disadvantages are glaring and his strengths are almost invisible to anyone other than pro players. Even then, pro players simply don’t want to put so much time into learning Aurelion Sol, even if it means they will perform well with him. Other champions can do the same job he does while having a much lower skill ceiling.