The top lane tier list for patch 26.21 has the same shape it had two patches ago: tanks and stat-check bruisers own the lane, and the flashy picks you see on highlight reels sit lower than their popularity says. Malphite, Shen, Ornn, Garen and Sett are still our S tier. All five win more than half their games at Emerald+ and all five can go in blind without auto-losing lane. Our numbers come from op.gg’s Emerald+ Ranked Solo/Duo data for the full 26.20 patch, last checked October 2026. Patch 26.21 only went live on 21 October, so it has no usable sample yet, and we have adjusted placements for its changes by hand. Riot does not publish official win rates, so every figure here is third-party match sampling.
This page is the patch version, and it gets rebuilt every time Riot ships a new one. If you want the evergreen version (the top laners that climb no matter what the patch notes say), that lives in our best top laners to climb guide. Here you get the full S-to-D table, why each S-tier pick is there, which picks are safe blind, how the best pick changes from Gold to Diamond+, and what moved since 26.19.
Patch 26.21 context: what changed for top lane
Two patches landed since our last rebuild. Patch 26.20, the Worlds patch, went live on 7 October and patch 26.21 on 21 October. The Top Lane Role Quest change from the patch 26.19 notes is still in: the free Teleport comes back after 390 seconds instead of 420, and Unleashed Teleport runs 300-210 seconds. That still favours the tanks who can be in two places at once.
Riot’s official patch 26.20 notes were aimed at pro play, but a few changes hit solo queue top lane:
- Mordekaiser (buff): Q scaling from level 10 goes from +5 to +7 per level, and his R cooldown drops from 140/120/100 to 120/110/100 seconds.
- Kennen (buff): E bonus attack speed 40-80% up to 50-90%, to offset the Rocketbelt nerf.
- Tahm Kench (buff): Q base healing 10-25 up to 10-50.
- Vayne (buff): more base health regen, and Q now costs a flat 30 mana.
- K’Sante (nerf): W costs more mana and its damage reduction drops from 30/75% to 25/70%.
- Ambessa (nerf): passive damage 5-30 (+25% bonus AD) down to 5-25 (+20% bonus AD).
- Items: Experimental Hexplate gives ranged users 50% of its value instead of 70%, and Hextech Rocketbelt loses 10 ability haste.
The patch 26.21 notes add more top lane changes that are not in the numbers yet:
- Darius (buff): Q cooldown at rank 5 drops from 5 to 4 seconds.
- Sion (buff): health growth 87 to 95 per level, and his R damage ramps up to +200% over the first 3 seconds of the charge.
- Yone (nerf): Q ratio 110% AD down to 105% AD.
- Varus (nerf, aimed at top): W on-hit and per-stack damage cut, with the power moved into Q.
- Wukong (lane compensation): base health regen 3.5 to 5.5, paid for with a jungle-targeted passive armor nerf.
- Hubris: now 15 base AD for melee and 10 for ranged, so melee lethality tops get a little more out of it.
How we built the list: we started from op.gg’s top lane champion stats, using the Emerald+ sample for the whole of patch 26.20, and set every champion’s win rate, pick rate and ban rate against the full 26.19 patch. Then we applied our own judgment on top, including where a 26.21 change should move a champion before the data catches up. Wherever we disagree with the raw numbers, the table and the counter-argument section say so.
LoL top lane tier list: the patch 26.21 master table
Win rate and pick rate come from op.gg’s Emerald+ Ranked Solo/Duo data for the top lane role on patch 26.20, last checked October 2026. The average top laner sits right around 50%, so a champion at 51.5% is winning meaningfully more than the lane, and anything under 48% is a real hole.
| Tier | Champion | Win rate | Pick rate | Why it sits here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | Malphite | 51.82% | 7.39% | op.gg’s number one top laner, up again on 26.19 |
| S | Ornn | 51.77% | 3.77% | Free item upgrades, near-impossible to kill in lane |
| S | Shen | 51.19% | 3.55% | Global ult plus the faster Teleport, best map-impact tank |
| S | Garen | 50.64% | 6.15% | Blind-safe, zero mana, 52.13% in Gold |
| S | Sett | 50.38% | 6.10% | Wins most melee lanes below Emerald on stats alone |
| A | Mordekaiser | 50.73% | 5.82% | Buffed on 26.20, biggest riser in the lane |
| A | Teemo | 51.27% | 4.32% | Punishes every immobile melee player in the queue |
| A | Singed | 51.35% | 2.24% | Best top laner in Platinum at 52.24%, specialist pick |
| A | Kayle | 51.31% | 2.27% | Survive to level 16 and the game is yours |
| A | Warwick | 51.09% | 1.45% | Still the answer to Fiora and Camille |
| A | Kled | 51.01% | 1.66% | Steady 51% from Platinum to Master+ |
| A | Pantheon | 50.92% | 3.76% | Up half a point with no direct change |
| A | Camille | 50.85% | 4.17% | Gets better the higher you go |
| A | Gangplank | 50.81% | 5.27% | Top-tier scaling, but the barrels take real practice |
| A | Urgot | 50.79% | 2.50% | Above 50.5% in every bracket from Silver up |
| A | Fiora | 50.61% | 4.64% | 51.65% in Master+, held 26.19’s buff |
| B | Quinn | 52.10% | 0.82% | Highest win rate, tiny and self-selected sample |
| B | Olaf | 50.84% | 2.79% | Early skirmish monster, falls off late |
| B | Gwen | 50.46% | 2.46% | Tank shredder, 51.16% in Master+ |
| B | Cho’Gath | 50.38% | 3.25% | Solid, but his real home is still the jungle |
| B | Illaoi | 50.35% | 2.53% | Above 51.5% in Silver and Gold, under 50% in Master+ |
| B | Gragas | 50.27% | 2.55% | Fine from Emerald up, awkward below it |
| B | Tryndamere | 50.16% | 3.26% | Split-push pressure, Garen’s worst common matchup |
| B | Nasus | 50.10% | 4.27% | Pick rate still falling after the 26.19 nerf |
| B | Dr. Mundo | 50.07% | 3.27% | Low-elo stomper, back above 50% |
| B | Zaahen | 50.06% | 2.73% | Playable, unchanged |
| B | Irelia | 49.99% | 4.56% | Strong in good hands, punishing in average ones |
| B | Aatrox | 49.93% | 6.36% | Still a hair under even |
| B | Yone | 49.86% | 8.85% | Most picked top laner, and nerfed again on 26.21 |
| B | Sion | 49.86% | 2.89% | Buffed on 26.21, the pick to watch |
| B | Kennen | 49.77% | 1.92% | Buffed on 26.20 and still lost a point |
| C | Renekton | 49.70% | 5.46% | Wins lane, loses the game after 25 minutes |
| C | Darius | 49.50% | 6.38% | Banned in 12.38% of games, Q buff on 26.21 |
| C | Jax | 49.45% | 5.92% | Needs items and a long game to pay off |
| C | Riven | 49.27% | 2.30% | 45.66% in Silver, 50.26% in Master+ |
| C | Gnar | 48.84% | 3.50% | Rage management is a full-time job |
| C | Yorick | 48.82% | 2.81% | Split-push only, gets collapsed on at Emerald+ |
| C | Ambessa | 48.62% | 3.39% | Nerfed on 26.20, down half a point |
| D | Volibear | 48.55% | 4.34% | 4.3% pick rate at 48.6% is a lot of lost games |
| D | Trundle | 48.34% | 1.58% | Under 49% from Emerald up |
| D | Vayne | 48.11% | 1.32% | Buffed on 26.20, still a counter-pick meme |
| D | Jayce | 47.60% | 5.44% | Hit by the ranged Hexplate nerf, and he was already losing |
| D | K’Sante | 46.77% | 3.64% | Nerfed again, worst popular top laner in every bracket |
Three placements go against the raw data, so here is why. Yone is still op.gg’s number two top laner on its composite score, mostly because of pick and ban volume. We have him in B because 8.85% of the lane is playing a champion that wins 49.86%, and Riot nerfed his Q again on 26.21. Mordekaiser is op.gg’s number four and we hold him at the top of A, since he wins 52.33% in Gold and only 49.57% in Diamond+. Quinn has the highest win rate on the board at 52.10%, but on under 1% pick rate that number comes mostly from Quinn specialists picking her into matchups they know. Put her in the hands of a random top laner and she drops like a stone.
The S-tier top laners, one by one
Five picks made it to S, and four of them are tanks or close to it. All five forgive a bad lane, and none of them need a big lead to matter.
Malphite
Malphite is the best top laner of the patch because nothing else wins this much while being played this much. He posts 51.82% on a 7.39% pick rate at Emerald+ and holds 51.37% in Diamond+, where most easy picks fall apart. Unstoppable Force is still the most reliable engage in the game, and against an all-AD team he turns lane into a nap. His problem matchups are the champions who ignore his armor: op.gg’s Emerald+ sample has him at 45.9% over 3,201 games into Cho’Gath, 46.1% over 1,128 into Singed, and 46.4% over 5,073 into Mordekaiser, who got buffed on 26.20. Skip him if you hate waiting, because you will spend some games farming under tower at 0/0 until your one teamfight ult wins the game.
Shen
Shen is the champion the 26.19 Teleport buff was made for, and it is still live. He already had a global ult, and the free Teleport comes back 30 seconds sooner than it used to, so he can show up at two fights across the map in the time other top laners manage one. That map pressure is why he wins 51.19% at Emerald+ and 50.78% at Diamond+. Sustained-damage bruisers give him trouble: Tryndamere (47.8% over 1,145 games), Sett (47.8% over 2,502) and Mordekaiser (47.9% over 2,908) all keep him under 48%. If you never look at the minimap, pick something else. A Shen who never presses R is a weaker Garen.
Ornn
Ornn is the most blind-safe tank in the lane and the most consistent top laner on the ladder: 51.9% or better from Silver through Emerald, and 51.42% in Diamond+. He is very hard to kill before level 6, he scales into a front line that upgrades your whole team’s items, and his late game teamfighting is excellent. Swain, Warwick and Poppy beat him in small samples (all between 48.1% and 48.7% for Ornn over 337 to 519 games), and so does anyone who can shove him in and roam before he gets going. Players who want to carry by killing people will find him boring: Ornn’s job is to be standing in every fight with a knock-up ready.
Garen
Garen is the top laner who changes least between brackets and the one we would hand to anyone who just wants to climb. He wins 52.13% in Gold, 51.83% in Platinum and only dips to 50.21% in Diamond+, where players stop walking into his Q. No mana, a built-in heal and an execute. Nothing about him breaks when you are tired. Tryndamere (45.8% for Garen over 2,409 Emerald+ games) and Camille (46.0% over 4,069) are the matchups to dodge, along with ranged tops who kite him out of lane. Diamond+ players looking for an edge should look elsewhere, since up there he is solid and little more.
Sett
Sett wins by fighting, and in a lane full of melee champions, that is enough. He posts 50.38% at Emerald+ on a 6.10% pick rate, and his Haymaker makes the late-game front line fight a losing trade for most bruisers. His problem is rank sensitivity: 52.00% in Gold, 49.65% in Diamond+. Malphite is the counter to respect (47.1% for Sett over 3,645 Emerald+ games, the biggest sample on this list), and ranged picks like Quinn and Anivia punish him even harder in smaller samples. Sett is an S-tier pick for everyone below Diamond and a C-tier pick above it.
Blind-pickable vs counter-pick only
Knowing a champion’s tier is only useful if you also know whether you can lock it first. Top is the most matchup-dependent lane in the game, and a champion that is A tier as a counter-pick can be D tier when you lock it first. Our guide to the safest blind picks in every role covers the theory; this is the current-patch version for top lane. Worst-matchup figures are op.gg Emerald+ data for patch 26.20, and we only list matchups with 300 games or more.
| Champion | Tier | Pick it | Worst common matchup (Emerald+) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malphite | S | Blind safe | Cho’Gath, 45.9% over 3,201 games |
| Shen | S | Blind safe | Tryndamere, 47.8% over 1,145 games |
| Ornn | S | Blind safe | Swain 48.1% (337 games), Warwick 48.4% (519) |
| Garen | S | Blind safe | Tryndamere, 45.8% over 2,409 games |
| Sett | S | Blind safe | Malphite, 47.1% over 3,645 games |
| Mordekaiser | A | Blind safe below Diamond | Heimerdinger 44.3% (822 games), Kayle 46.1% (1,195) |
| Urgot | A | Blind safe | Kayle 45.6% (764 games), Sion 46.0% (960) |
| Gangplank | A | Blind, if you know him | Kayle 46.5% (1,287 games), Sion 47.4% (2,034) |
| Teemo | A | Counter-pick only | Ornn 46.4% (1,749 games), Olaf 46.5% (1,771) |
| Kayle | A | Counter-pick only | Malphite 46.0% (1,454 games), Camille 46.3% (870) |
| Fiora | A | Counter-pick only | Warwick 44.8% (1,140 games), Malphite 45.9% (3,756) |
| Camille | A | Counter-pick only | Heimerdinger 45.6% (384 games), Warwick 47.1% (801) |
| Warwick | A | Counter-pick only | Nasus 44.4% (439 games), Teemo 44.9% (586) |
| Yone | B | Counter-pick lean | Wukong 46.0% (1,075 games), Gangplank 46.2% (4,464) |
| Aatrox | B | Blind, but it costs you | Singed 43.2% (1,476 games), Fiora 46.4% (3,865) |
| Quinn | B | Counter-pick only | Malphite 42.9% (609 games), Irelia 45.8% (406) |
Read down the right-hand column and one name keeps coming up: Malphite. He is one of the worst common matchups for Fiora, Kayle, Quinn and Sett, and Aatrox wins only 47.2% into him over 4,111 games. That is the best argument for first-picking him. Lock Malphite early and you take the most common counter off the table for a big chunk of the lane. Warwick, last patch’s sleeper, has lost that role on the full 26.20 sample: Garen now goes 50.2% against him and Shen 54.4%. He still beats Fiora (55.2% from his side) and Camille, so keep him for those two. For the full matchup logic lane by lane, see our counter-pick guide by lane.
Best top laner by rank bracket
What wins in Gold does not win in Diamond, and top lane is where the gap is widest. We pulled op.gg’s patch 26.20 top lane pages for three brackets: Gold (standing in for Iron to Gold, where most of that player base sits), Emerald, and Diamond+. Only champions with at least 0.8% of the lane’s picks in that bracket count, so a 12-game one-trick cannot top the chart.
| Gold | Emerald | Diamond+ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highest win rate | Mordekaiser 52.33% | Malphite 52.15% | Quinn 52.36% |
| Second | Garen 52.13% | Ornn 52.07% | Anivia 52.00% |
| Third | Sett 52.00% | Quinn 51.90% | Zed 51.78% |
| Best popular pick (4%+ of the lane) | Mordekaiser 52.33% | Malphite 52.15% | Ornn 51.42% |
| Worst pick | K’Sante 45.14% | K’Sante 46.26% | K’Sante 47.27% |
| Gets better as you climb | Camille 48.48% | Camille 50.43% | Camille 51.28% |
| Gets worse as you climb | Mordekaiser 52.33% | Mordekaiser 51.36% | Mordekaiser 49.57% |
The practical read: below Platinum, pick the champion that is hard to play badly (Garen, Sett, Mordekaiser, Malphite) and you are already ahead of most of the lobby. From Diamond up, the lane rewards champions with a real skill ceiling, and the top three there are off-meta specialists (Quinn, Anivia and Zed top all sit under 1% pick rate). Camille is almost three points better in Diamond+ than in Gold, and Riven swings from 47.25% in Gold to 49.88% in Diamond+. Mordekaiser shows the reverse: the 26.20 buff made him the best Gold top laner, and by Diamond he is under 50%.
Our boosters see exactly this on orders. The fastest Platinum-to-Emerald top-lane climb we ran last split was done on two champions, Malphite and Garen, and the booster said afterward that the plan was just to never lose lane and show up to every drake. If you would rather skip the grind through the busiest part of the ladder, our League of Legends division boost team plays top at Master and above every day and can take the climb off your hands.
Rising and falling vs patch 26.19
The biggest mover is the champion Riot buffed, and the second biggest faller is one Riot also buffed. Both columns are op.gg Emerald+ top lane data for the full 26.19 and 26.20 patches, last checked October 2026.
| Champion | 26.19 win rate | 26.20 win rate | Pick rate | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mordekaiser | 49.81% | 50.73% | 4.75% to 5.82% | Q scaling and R cooldown buff, now op.gg’s number four |
| Tahm Kench | 49.42% | 50.27% | 1.77% to 1.95% | Q healing buff meant for support, works top too |
| Illaoi | 49.72% | 50.35% | 2.59% to 2.53% | No change, still went up |
| Pantheon | 50.43% | 50.92% | 2.90% to 3.76% | No change, pick rate up by almost a third |
| Dr. Mundo | 49.61% | 50.07% | 3.19% to 3.27% | No change, back above even |
| Kennen | 50.72% | 49.77% | 1.90% to 1.92% | E buff did not cover the Rocketbelt nerf |
| Warwick | 51.86% | 51.09% | 1.44% to 1.45% | No change, lost most of his edge on the S tier |
| Ambessa | 49.11% | 48.62% | 3.84% to 3.39% | Passive damage nerf |
| K’Sante | 47.22% | 46.77% | 3.87% to 3.64% | W mana and damage reduction nerf |
Kennen is the interesting one. Riot gave him more E attack speed specifically to make up for the Rocketbelt changes, and he still went from 50.72% to 49.77% on a flat pick rate. Most Kennen players build Rocketbelt, and 10 lost ability haste costs more than a bit of attack speed gives back. Nasus is the other story worth knowing: his 26.19 nerf keeps biting, with his pick rate down from 5.14% to 4.27%, though his ban rate is still 15.88%. People still hate him. They are playing him less.
Where this tier list is wrong
Every tier list is wrong somewhere. Ours has three weak spots we know about.
First, the data is one patch behind the label. Our numbers are a full patch of 26.20 games, which is a far better sample than six days of a new patch, but they do not include 26.21’s changes. Sion and Darius were buffed and Yone was nerfed after these games were played. We flagged Sion as the pick to watch and kept Darius in C, and both calls could be wrong by the end of the patch.
Second, trackers disagree. Lolalytics’ Emerald+ top lane list for patch 26.20 puts Yone in S+ at 51.65% and has Gangplank at 52.55% and Garen at 52.73%, because its bracket average runs hotter (51.71%) and it weights pick rate differently. Both are reasonable reads of different samples, and Riot publishes no official figure to settle it. Treat the order of the list as more reliable than the decimals.
Third, win rate measures games won, and top mains care about lanes won. The community lists in threads like this r/topmains tier list thread rank champions on how the 1v1 plays out, and on that measure Fiora, Camille and Irelia belong well above Garen and Malphite. That is a fair way to judge the lane, but it measures something else. A tank who goes even and wins the 5v5 shows up at 51.5% in the data, and a duelist who wins lane and throws the game shows up at 49%.
Top is also the lane where your jungler decides how much your pick matters. If you want to know which junglers will actually show up for you, the current jungle tier list has the same op.gg treatment.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the best top laner in patch 26.21?
Malphite. He won 51.82% at Emerald+ on a 7.39% pick rate over the whole of patch 26.20 in our read of op.gg data, last checked October 2026, which is the best mix of win rate and popularity in the lane. Ornn is right behind him at 51.77% on about half the pick rate. Neither was changed on 26.21.
What top laner has the highest win rate right now?
Quinn at 52.10% in Emerald+, but on a 0.82% pick rate she is mostly played by specialists. Among champions with a real pick rate, Malphite (51.82%), Ornn (51.77%) and Singed (51.35%) lead the lane.
Is Nasus still good after the 26.19 nerf?
He is fine, not great. He won 50.10% at Emerald+ on patch 26.20, his pick rate fell from 5.14% to 4.27%, and he is still banned in 15.88% of games. That puts him in B on our list, down from A.
What is the best top laner for low elo?
Garen is the safest pick below Platinum, at 52.13% in Gold on an 8.08% share of the lane. Mordekaiser (52.33%) and Sett (52.00%) win about as much in Gold, and Mordekaiser leads Silver at 52.57%, but both drop off harder as you climb.
Who is the best blind pick top laner?
Malphite, Shen, Ornn, Garen and Sett, the whole S tier. None of them drops below 43% in any Emerald+ matchup with 300 or more games, and all five still do their job in a losing lane.
How often does the top lane tier list change?
Every patch, which is every two weeks. Patch 26.22 is due on 4 November, so check the patch label on any tier list before you trust it.
So for patch 26.21: tanks and stat-checkers on top, Malphite as both the best pick and the most common counter, Mordekaiser rising in low elo, Kennen and K’Sante sliding, and Sion one to watch after his buff. Pick from the S tier if you blind, reach for Teemo or Kayle when you have last pick, and check the rank table before you copy a Diamond player’s champion pool. And if you would rather have someone else play the lane for you, our League of Legends boost covers division climbs, placements and duo queue, played by boosters who main top at Master and above.
