Toplane LoL tierlist patch 26.20 – Worlds 2026 HYPE Update
Hey Friends,
Toplane lol tierlists for the patch 26.20 are complete.
Today we have the pleasure to break down the most important patch of the year. You guessed it, it’s WORLDS 2026 time and we couldn’t be more excited to what best teams and best players in the world will bring out to surprise us! As expected, the patch will tap down some of the most popular strategies to open up even more diversity. Friendly reminder, Worlds 2026 starts on the October 15th!! Don’t miss out. We got a couple of things to cover so let’s dig in.
Toplane lol tierlists have been updated according to the changes in patch 26.20! Notably, most important changes will shift around priorities in the other roles, though we are also going to cover the smaller changes to the most popular meta toplane champions such as Ambessa and K’Sante.
Prediction check-in: 26.19 in retrospect
I also wanted to introduce a mini game called prediction check that will keep track of my analysis on the impact changes had on the toplane. So, here is the first edition that will always timewalk into the previous patch! If you’re interested, you can check out my analysis of the previous patch here.
| Champion | Sacre:gg Call | Diamond+ | How it held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aatrox | ±0.3% at best, net neutral | 51.5% → 51.97% (+0.47) | a bit more at Diamond+ |
| Fiora | +0.5% | 52.58% → 53.22% (+0.64) | a bit more at Diamond+ |
| Nasus | −0.25 to −0.5% | 53.3% → 52.84% (−0.46) | In range at Diamond+ |
| Rumble | −1 to −1.5% | 50.48% → 49.78% (−0.70) | about half the drop I predicted |
| Volibear | +0.5–1% Diamond+, +2% lower elos | 50.99% → 51.18% (+0.19) | Much smaller |
Correct direction on all, though I overshot on my prediction about Volibear buffs and Rumble nerfs!
Champion changes
Ambessa – Nerfed
- Passive damage: 5 – 30 (+25% bonus AD) ⇒ 5 – 25 (+20% bonus AD)
Nerfed with no implication for a build change. Expecting -0.5 to -1% win rate loss. Remains A tier for solo queue and slightly lower priority in competitive.
Early levels basically untouched, a scaling nerf. Riot aims it at pro and high mastery. You’re losing about 5~15 damage per each passive auto attack proc based on the number of items you have. This can add up quickly especially in the matchups where you are consistently trading blows over time instead of bursting a target.
K’Sante – Nerfed
- W mana cost: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 ⇒ 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 / 65
- W base / All-Out damage reduction: 30 / 75% ⇒ 25 / 70%
Nerfed with no implication for a build change. Expecting -0.25 to -0.5% win rate loss. K’Sante will remain A tier and high priority in competitive.
the mana nerf hits the early levels of laning phase slightly, the damage reduction nerf to W and W-R will be slightly noticable, but nothing major. This is another nerf strictly for pro play and high mastery gameplay.
Kennen – Adjusted
- E bonus attack speed: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80% ⇒ 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90%
- Rocketbelt Nerfs
These changes ultimately are a Kennen nerf. Expected win rate loss of -0.5 to -0.75%. Kennen, just like Ambessa, will remain A tier though slightly lower.
While Kennen is on the edge of being pro viable, I don’t see it happening especially after this change. Rocketbelt turned out to be the superior item for Kennen, instead of Gunblade since the beginning of the year. Now, it’s even less clear because thematically Kennen needs rocketbelt to perform, though statistically gunblade is straight up better in solo queue as of 26.20. Attack speed will feel nice in the early stages of the laning phase, but it’s not good enough to offset the Rocketbelt nerfs and how prevalent Exhaust is in the current meta game.
Mordekaiser – Buffed
- Q scaling at levels 10–20: (+5/lvl) ⇒ (+7/lvl)
- R cooldown: 140 / 120 / 100s ⇒ 120 / 110 / 100s
Morde is buffed! Expected win rate gain of 0.25 to 0.40%. Mordekaiser promoted to B tier.
Ever since they bugfixed Mordekaiser after the recent buffs, he went back to being kind of bad. I’m eager to see if it will be enough to see him in pro play into champions like K’Sante. Giving Morde less R cooldown is one of the best buffs this champion could get in order to push him more towards pro play because without it, he kind of doesn’t do much. He is also a champion, unlike other ap bruisers or champions that need to get in your face, that does not rely on Rocketbelt so much. He has plenty of options in Rylai’s, Dusk and Dawn or Riftmaker who do the job just as good.
Vayne – Adjusted
- Health per 5: 4 + .5/Level ⇒ 5.5 + .4/Level
- Q mana cost: 46 / 42 / 38 / 34 / 30 ⇒ 30
- Hexplate nerfs for ranged
Vayne is buffed this patch and implications to diversify the 1st core item! Welcome back satan (Riot really wants toplaners to glide on the rift). Expected win rate gain of 1.5 to 2%. Vayne promoted from C to A tier.
Vayne is eating good this patch. I think Riot is putting too much weight on the Hexplate nerfs to balance this out. I’m fully expecting Vayne players to diversity their 1st core item choice: Hexplate is still solid btw, but consider bork/kraken on hit builds or trinity stormrazor as an alternative.
Tahm Kench – Buffed
- Q base healing: 10 / 13.75 / 17.5 / 21.25 / 25 ⇒ 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50
Catfish buffed. Expecting a very small win rate increase of 0.25% at best.
Lane sustain from rank 2 of Q (+6.25 / +12.5 / +18.75 / +25). Really Small solo queue buff. Tahm Kench remains C tier.
Lucian – Buffed
- Attack damage: 60 + 2.5/Level ⇒ 60 + 2.9/Level
Lucian, similarly to TK gets a very minor buff. Win rate change will be negligible.
Slightly better as the niche counterpick you had at C. Remains C tier.
Lillia – Buffed
- R sleep duration: 2.5s ⇒ 2.5 / 2.75 / 3s
Still not toplane viable. This is another buff to push Lillia into the jungle meta game at worlds.
Cassiopeia – Nerfed
- Base health: 630 ⇒ 610
- Base mana: 480 ⇒ 450
Another cassio nerf directed at midlane. She will remain B tier in the toplane tier list.
Item change: Experimental Hexplate
- Ranged mod: 70% of value (35% attack speed, 14% move speed) ⇒ 50% of value (25% attack speed, 10% move speed)
Riot keeps nerfing this item for ranged, mainly to target Varus and Vayne. Notably, Vayne is very overbuffed this patch that you won’t notice much difference on the hexplate itself. While Varus will feel much more hurt by it.
Item change: Hextech Rocketbelt
- Ability haste: 20 ⇒ 10
- Active damage: 100 (+10% AP) ⇒ 135 (+15% AP)
Rocketbelt is basically nerfed for any champion that would rush this item. The only champion that likes more damage instead of haste is Rumble, as he isn’t as haste dependant as other mages. Though Rumble is still better off buying Liandrys in majority of the games. In toplane, this change will negatively affect Kennen, Galio, Sylas, Gragas, and Mordekaiser to some extent.
Other changes, unlikely top
Swain: base magic resistance 31 ⇒ 34; base armor 25 ⇒ 23; W damage 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+60%) ⇒ 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+60%); W cooldown 22 / 21 / 20 / 19 / 18s ⇒ 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16s
Swain is a weird champion that can be played in 4 roles with decent success. On toplane, we used to see Swain played into champions like Aurora, Rumble (this change buffs him) and into champions like Jayce, Renekton (this change slightly nerfs him). Overall W change is nice, but I don’t expect to see any Swain in toplane at worlds unless its deep fearless and the team comps start lacking damage. Overall its a minor buff to Swain. I overall wish Riot put in more effort in making these team composition champions such as Swain more viable.
Bugfixes that act like buffs or nerfs
Kayle: Q no longer applies the Spellblade on-hit effect (Sheen, Lich Bane, Trinity Force, Iceborne Gauntlet). Kayle will lose a bit of win rate from this, but nothing major. Remains A tier.
Malphite: Flash is no longer disabled after R. You can use flash now again as soon as the animation finishes. Won’t impact win rate.
Toplane lol tierlist 26.20 competitive overview
This is THE patch. Worlds 2026 is just around the corner. I’m expecting a very interesting meta game considering major blind picks like Ambessa, Rumble and K’sante got solid nerfs in the last two patches. Let’s talk about it.
- Korea has been cooking up some toplane Corki recently that plays around the Stormraider keystone. Setup is very interesting- You can max any ability depending on the matchup(yes, even W MAX) and you’re basically going ALL IN on the laning phase trying to beat up your lane opponent as hard as possible. I could see Corki show up as a counter to many of the meta game champions. Though i’d definitely use it as a counter pick to avoid playing into Olaf, Nasus or maybe Ambessa.
- Gangplank has been one of the champions I’ve been “larping” about for months now. Now would be the perfect time for some pros to step up and pull out this champion. He’s extremely difficult to pilot, but it could also be very rewarding. This is my dark horse champion of the tournament, fingers crossed im right!
- Ambessa has been lowered a bit in the priority list. I expect, ironically due to nerfs, for K’Sante to increase in priority with the side note of that teams will ban Vayne more often again if they want to blind pick it.
Tier changes: Vayne is back in the competitive tier list. Varus lowered to the bottom of the list. Trundle removed. Kled priority also lowered- seems like a niche choice for pros that play it and its only played into Olaf. I’m happy with the tier list for now, though I fully expect some unique pocket picks to show up from different players in the later fearless games. Removed Anivia in favor of Gangplank as i truly believe it is well positioned. Don’t get fooled though, Anivia is still quite good as a counter pick though and might show up as well!
Toplane lol tierlist 26.20 solo queue overview
Solo Queue remains quite stable overall. Tier list has been updated according to the latest changes.
- Ambessa: lowered, but remains A.
- K’Sante: remains A.
- Kennen: lowered, but remains A.
- Mordekaiser: promoted to B tier.
- Vayne: 2x promoted from C to A.
- Tahm Kench: remains C tier.
- Lucian: remains C tier.
- Kayle remains A. (bugfix)
- Cassio remains B.
- Vladimir, Aurora are also hit by rocketbelt changes if you still buy it- I’d recommend switching to Stormsurge, if you haven’t already (it’s much better).
- Corki, due to recent trends promoted from C to B tier.
- Rocketbelt users, except Rumble, all should feel slightly worse, but no tier changes. (Cho, Sylas, Kennen, Gragas, Galio, Zac..)
