Riven is still one of the top picks to go for this season despite losing some popularity with the durability patch. Although other champions have taken the spotlight for a while, as they slowly begin to get nerfed back to normality, Riven remains untouched and still very much on the strong side. Riven has tons of mobility and damage and her skill ceiling is one of the highest in the game which is why she’s always had a lot of success at higher ranks. Riven scales well from a threatening lane phase, to a snowball heavy mid game, to a split pushing flanking devastating late game. With no resource restriction, Riven relies on ability haste and experience to really get those cooldowns lower and start abusing them to outplay and take down her enemies even against all of the odds. With a few items like Goredrinker and Death’s dance she now has a lot of sustain too and this can make her impossible to take down without the help of a lot of CC and anti-heal.

Kindred is one of the best scaling junglers in the game, and her playstyle reflects this by being incredibly unique. She’s not necessarily a powerfarming jungler like some other champions as her scaling relies on her passive. Kindred is all about invading and securing those marks through ganks too and the whole macro side of jungling becomes very crucial to playing this champion. As the game progresses Kindred turns from a skirmish heavy mobile jungler to a scaling marksman and in the very late game, your damage and range is going to be absolutely monstrous if really made the most use out of those passive marks. Kindred also has fantastic objective control alongside her damage and her Ultimate is a super unique ability that can be used in so many different ways. Kindred takes some practice but if you can pull her off and understand the jungle macro better than others, she’s one of the best junglers to play.

When Sylas is strong, you really notice it, and since his recent buffs he’s really come into his own again. Sylas has some decent kill threat throughout the lane phase as once he’s level 3 onwards he can really abuse his passive to out trade and take down his lane opponents. Sylas is a bit of a skirmish king though, he’s not the best in lane as he’s susceptible to poke and often gets out ranged, but in those fights in the river against multiple targets he can really pop off. Once Sylas has his ultimate, he just becomes such a versatile champion and he goes from being pretty one dimensional, to incredibly unpredictable. All those ultimates have all sorts of different uses and good Sylas will be able to quickly decide which one is best and how to use it. The better player you are, the better Sylas becomes and in this patch, he’s having a great time.

Draven will always be a fantastic AD Carry to play at higher ranks due to the intense mechanical gameplay that can be insanely rewarding in the right hands. If you can manage those axes and keep on the move whilst pumping out damage and farming efficiently, Draven is just such a great champion and if the meta allows him to be more viable, then he’s always a top bot lane pick to go for. Draven’s passive makes him arguably one of the best snowballing marksman in the game as all that bonus extra gold can allow him to spike so early and then just kill his lane opponents in 2 or 3 axes. He’s got self peel with his E, a global ultimate that help him cash in on that passive from across the map and of course that basically permanent movement speed steroid in his W as long as he keeps catching those axes. Draven works super well with a variety of supports too making him a solid champion to One trick from that bot lane in high elo.

The recent buffs Rakan got have really made the difference and have helped his performance out hugely since the patch. Rakan has always taken a bit of practice to be effective and therefore generally has had a lot more success at higher ranks. Rakan has great engage potential, peeling, mobility, utility and shielding, all of which takes some practice to use effectively as when compared to other engaging supports, Rakan lacks the durability that others do. Rakan is a lot squishier than other supports that like to play in the frontline which means he needs to dart in and out of fights to keep himself alive whilst remaining impactful. If you can pull this off though, Rakan is in a really good position this patch.