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Consistently climbing the ranked ladder in League of Legends solo queue is one of the most incredibly difficult tasks to achieve in Riot Games’ MOBA.
From in-game toxicity to a teammate AFK-ing in the base, there are a lot of hindrances that players face when it comes to the competitive side of League of Legends.
And to make matters worse, there is also the question of keeping up with the meta that Riot keeps on destabilizing with every major patch update.
In Season 11 specifically, the League of Legends devs have introduced a series of significant changes that sought to do away with how items and itemization work in the MOBA.
The League of Legends pre-season 11 patch 10.23 update completely overhauled the items and the in-game shop. Riot brought in new Mythic Sets and introduced certain weapon passives, which did away with the old meta, creating a completely different one.
Out of all the roles, the mid-lane was perhaps the most affected by the new items. Mages fell out of grace in solo queue, while Assassins and other mana-less champions took the front seat in picks-and-bans.
Today’s guide will go over some of the best mid-lane picks in League of Legends Season 11 for solo queue ranked matchmaking.
Top 3 Mid Lane picks for ranked solo queue in League of Legends Season 11
#1. Katarina
League of Legends Season 11 has been quite good to Katarina, and she has seen a surge in popularity throughout the ranked tiers.
Though the Kraken Slayer build is no longer viable after the item’s on-hit effects got nerfed, in a subsequent patch, Katarina still boasts one of the most versatile build paths out of all the champions in the game.
Moreover, being mana-less, she naturally has an advantage over other mid-lane mage picks in the game at the moment. With the Conqueror rune, along with the Nashor’sTooth and Lichbane rush, she has an incredibly high burst potential from mid-game onwards.
AP Katarina has a much better scaling than the BOTRK + Divine Sunderer AD counterpart. Though the latter comes with insane early to mid-game power spikes, it falls off quite a bit as the game progresses to the later stages.
However, Katarina has a very high skill ceiling and is, by far, one of the most difficult champions to master in League of Legends. She can be easily countered with team comps boasting a lot of CC, and this is one of the reasons why she is never played in pro-play. However, for ranked solo queue, the lack of team coordination allows her to single-handedly take over games.
#2. Viego
The League of Legends community has often highlighted Viego as the "embodiment of what drives mages off from mid lane."
A mana-less champion like Katarina, the Ruined King has been another dominant pick in the mid-lane ever since his release earlier in January.
Though he is meant primarily as a jungler, Viego can be easily flexed in each of the lanes. However, it’s in mid that he shines the most.
The Kraken Slayer and BOTRK rush make him incredibly difficult to counter, as the amount of damage he deals to squishy League of Legends targets is just staggering.
His passive Sovereign's Domination, which allows him to possess the bodies of fallen enemies, can be a game-changer when it comes to team fights. Moreover, the passive health regen and invulnerability he gets from it makes him one of the hardest champions to pin down and kill.
However, much like Katarina, Viego is extremely squishy and does not do all that well against League of Legends teams that boast a lot of point-and-click crowd control.
Having said that, he is much easier to learn and has a lot of quality of life in his kit, making him quite well-rounded in the lane.
#3. Ahri
The Everfrost buffs in League of Legends patch 11.4 made the item a must-pick for some of the mid-lane mages in both pro-play and standard matchmaking.
Mages are not doing all that well in the meta right now. However, Ahri is one of the exceptions, solely because of her high mobility and assassination potential.
She fits comfortably in a lot of League of Legends team compositions as a control mage. With the help of items like Everfrost, Cosmic Drive and Banshee's Veil, she can get quite elusive in team fights, safely bursting down the squishy targets and then moving out of harm's way when the opposing team tries to collapse on her.
Ahri is one of the more well-rounded champions in League of Legends at the moment and comes with a lot of kill potential from level 3 onwards.
With the Electrocute passive, she can be a terror to deal with in lane. Life sustain items like Corrupting Potion and the Biscuit Delivery passive can help her knock out enemies and manipulate the lane state to her own benefit.
Unfortunately, Ahri does not do well against picks like Heimerdinger and Swain and can be shut down if singled out and focused.
