New Region Tier List - Patch 1.6

Never before have we seen such a level of region balance in Legends of Runterra, which necessitates a new ranking system for my region tier list series, we will now be using a simple tier 1 to 3 ranking. Once again ranking are based on two things, the first being the number of OP decks being played competitively, and number 2 is the variety of lists that can be played semi competitively.

Tier 1 - P and Z, Bilgewater

Bilgewater allegience is proving to be the control deck of choice now that healing isn't as useful with the absence of aggro.

There are a number of pinging effects that can be buffed with kegs, and riptide rex is a board clear on a body

Yoink is still great on merchant and grifter offering insane card advantage

As for P and Z, Ezreal is an easy wincon for control decks, and Jinx has been buffed through her followers to be an aggro alternative

Vi and Heimer are still fine, even if they don't have a home at the moment.

Tier 2 - Noxious, Demacia, Freijord, Ionia, Shadow

The big changes here is that the Noxious nerfs have had the region rely more on it's midrange identity, which is very healthy

Freijord champs have been tweaked so they aren't the best in the game anymore

Demacia has room to be the best aggro region again, with Lux being there for control decks

Ionia is just doing it's thing, Zed is fine, Karma is fine and they serve their aggro and control lists effectively

Shadow is still doing it's thing in Deep and They who Endure

Tier 3 - Nothing

If we see a few tweaks to bilgewater allegience and Ezreal and riptide rex - I honestly believe that the game will be essentially balanced

At least till the new set releases

Take it easy everyone

Nifty, I'm curious: do you follow ImpetuousPanda's reddit surveys?

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/hu4bbq/reddits_perception_of_balance_prev16_balance/

Granted, this particular dataset was entirely collected pre-1.6 so it doesn't reflect those changes, but it had P&Z and Bilgewater both as markedly less powerful than Noxus / Ionia / SI / Frejlord.

Yep, that's what I had for patch 1.5 as well, look back at my post on that.

But I will sum up, Noxious had the best 2 drops, Ionia had elusives, Frej had the best champs.

These things were all gutted in patch 1.6 or tweaked at the very least, which was for the best

Now we see Ezreal in everything, and a whole lot of Bilge. Demacia is also a whole lot better

Quote From Nifty129

Yep, that's what I had for patch 1.5 as well, look back at my post on that.

But I will sum up, Noxious had the best 2 drops, Ionia had elusives, Frej had the best champs.

These things were all gutted in patch 1.6 or tweaked at the very least, which was for the best

Now we see Ezreal in everything, and a whole lot of Bilge. Demacia is also a whole lot better

 

I hadn't realized 1.6 had changed the meta that much (to be frank, my playtime has been very brief these past weeks and I've abandoned ladder entirely, so I've been mostly ignoring the state of the meta).  Regardless: I was mostly interested to know if you were are of / using ImpetuousPanda's work when you do your research for these posts.

I played a lot of ladder in the last 4 days and Bilg is almost non existent aside a few Miss Fortune decks.
Which is quite funny since i am playing a Bilgwawter Twisted Fate / Ezreal variation that doesn't run the Nab package.
Surprisingly, the matchup i face the most is Tempo Ashe with Yetis.

1- Yeti Ashe/Sejuani
2- Deep Nautilus/Maokai
3- They Who Endure Elise/Kalista
4- Warmother/Tryndamere
5- Darius/The Harrowing

Other then those 5, from time to time i see some Demacia + Relentless Pursuit, Ezreal / Karma and Ezreal/Swain

Tier list is here for 1.6

Ash Sej is only one of the lists at the top which is very beatable with any control brew

Second we have mf bannerman

Third is TF Ezreal like you're running.

https://www.swimstrim.com/runeterra/decks-and-meta

We also see bilge possible being the solution for old elusive decks, and old burn decks that were nerfed.

And we have an additional two Ezreal brews in tier 2.

Whenever I see something like that, I know there in need of a minor tweak.

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What it sounds like here is that you're struggling against slow decks like shadow and freijord, and cards like riptide rex as a 3 of will help, and so will yoink as much as I hate to say it, because you can steal their glimpse and use it to counter their own removal, although it's a liability against deep so up to you.