Best Mid Laners to Play in a Tank Meta

Ahri

Despite technically being a burst champion, Ahri did not lose her overall utility. This is because she brings a lot more to the table in terms of providing excellent crowd control.
Her charm can set up kills really well and she can zone out enemy ADCs in team-fights to create space for your team. This is where her main purpose appears, as Ahri paired with a hyper carry bot laner or jungler is something beautiful to see.

The overall crowd control provided thanks to Everfrost and her charm, makes life way easier to ADCs with low mobility or junglers that require an engage in order to be effective (such as Viego or Graves). Also Ahri possesses one if not the best mobility ability within her ultimate, as it makes her dash an initial 3 times which can be reset after she uses an ability empowered by her passive, that plus her movement speed bonus from W makes her a quick engager/teamfight controller something every ADC dreams of.

Cassiopeia

Cassiopeia is arguably one of the best late-game scaling champions in League of Legends. Thanks to her kit sinergies with certain items in the game. Her ability to zone out enemies with her W and petrify them using her R is what makes Cassiopeia extremely deadly against low range tanks. Apart from that, once she is fully built, there is practically no way to out-dps her unless she is one shotted.

The only issue she faced was that her laning was nerfed multiple times in the past, making her unstable when scaling towards her power spike. She was very squishy early in the game and used to get one-shotted by most assassins. However in a possible tank and bruiser meta, she is able to easily kite her way out of those scenarios.

As mentioned above she is a “machine gun” or dps mage, meaning that she focuses on spamming abilities to kill her enemies. This is where synergy between her Q Noxious Blast and E Twin Fang come into place. Every time Twin Fang deals damage against a poisoned target (mainly from your Q) it will reset its cooldown, thus if played well makes her spam the ability while applying damage from items like Liandrys’ Torment. Tanks are not able to sustain that amount of damage in such a short amount of time.

Yasuo

Amongst the various champions that exist within League of Legends, Yasuo is one who has remained prevalent within the midlane either as a meta pick or a counterpick. He has very good scaling and is definitely someone who can counter almost anything that this game has to offer if piloted correctly.

The only issue is that Yasuo’s kit depends on knockups or an extreme understanding of how to maneuver him within teamfights. It is vital to remember, though, that Yasuo can certainly carry a game by himself.

The overall idea behind Yasuo in a tank meta is the possibility of building him for the occasion. Yasuo thrives in a meta where he doesnt get one shotted, as his value comes from extended trades after utilizing his ultimate Last Breath. Last Breath has a passive which after usage, for the next 15 seconds, Yasuo’s critical strikes gain 50% bonus-armor penetration.

This helps Yasuo by quite a margin as he does not depend as an AD damage champion on buying items to lower armor from the enemies. Thus he can build a lot of sustain via life steal and defensive options that make him an unkillable machine when played against a tank meta.

Azir

Azir is one of those late-game hyper scaling mages that everyone fears as soon as it gets to its power spike, as it can single handedly carry a game via pure range and damage. However, according to many lol gambling experts, he is a champion that requires some experience in order to understand how to get to that point of power.

Just like every other entry on this list, Azir also suffers from getting one-shotted by assassins. There is no doubt that it was hard to play this champion if an enemy LeBlanc or Qiyana could one-shot him by level 6. Nevertheless, it is amazing against tanks and scaling metas. As it can be compared in the same fashion as a traditional ADC, as it technically utilizes ranged auto attacks (via its minions) to create space in teamfights and deal a huge amount of damage to the front line.

As previous “machine gun” mages, Azir’s main allure is his sinergy with Liandry’s Torment as every single auto attack from his minions activates the item, also it has one of the best disengaging/engaging combo in the game with his ultimate Emperor’s Divide.

Most tanks in the game are teamfight focused, thus dependent on a single timed engagement in order to be successful. Azir’s ultimate can easily break an engage by pushing away the frontline or with its mobility flanking behind the enemy lines to bring the carries towards your team.

Zilean

This is a champion who is arguably hated by almost every assassin player within the community. Zilean’s utility is almost unmatched and he can single-handedly turn the tides of a fight in any instant thanks to his ultimate. However he is different from other options within this list, as he focuses more on boosting other champions while poking from the backline.

He can revive fallen team-mates with his ultimate Chronoshift, and both slow down enemies and boost the movement speed of allies with his E Time Warp. He used to be played mainly as a support, but in high-elo games, players found that his scaling was way too good in midlane while still being able to support other carries within the team.

The issue with Zilean was the same as every other squishy champion. His early laning was very weak and he needed to survive the first 15-20 minutes in order to have a stable game. However in a tank focused meta, he is quite a viable pick, though it takes some serious skills to make Zilean work to his full potential.

Orianna

Orianna is the jack of all trades within this list. She is very good at scaling and laning, while thriving in games that last for long durations. However, the main reason why Orianna makes her place on this list is because of her team fighting prowess. Orianna can practically turn the tides of any team fight using her ultimate Shockwave.

The issue, however, is that it is hard to land consistently and unless someone times it properly, they can miss it. However as mentioned before tanks specialize in providing that first engagement which can easily set up multi champion Shockwaves for Orianna.

Orianna has remained relevant in the professional play for more than 8 years, and having a mid laner on your team that can play her to her full potential will skew the lol odds in your favor.

On top of that Orianna can provide boosts to hyper carries within the meta, as via her E Command:Protect she can give shields and also use her passive which grants armor and magic resistance to the current wielder of the ball. Even after providing all of this she can still use her W Command:Dissonance to deal damage while slowing enemies and providing movement speed to allies. All of that combined with her stable early game laning make her an absolute monster within teamfight and tank metas.

Viktor

Lastly we have one of my favorite champions in the game, Viktor. Amongst the various scaling mages that exist in the game, he is probably the strongest currently. Once he reaches his 2 item power spike plus his passive, his E Death Ray alone is enough to destroy the health bar of tanks and carries alike without putting himself in danger.

His ultimate Chaos Storm is a brilliant zoning tool that can push out not just one, but the entire enemy team away from a fight as it deals constant bursts of damage while near it. It can be used to assert control over choke points or to generate threat.

All of his abilities have natural scaling thanks to their upgrades from Viktor’s passive Glorious Evolution. Thus making the champions scale passively while investing gold into his mythic item of choice Luden’s Tempest or Liandry’s Torment, depending on how many tanks are on the enemy team. At the end Viktor is able to lower his cooldowns quite easily via itemization making him a constant threat in teamfights, making tanks think twice on how much magic resistance they really need.