Firstly, congratulations to anyone who survived the era of Syndra. There's a near-unanimous consensus that Set 12 release Syndra is the most overpowered and dominant 2-cost ever released. But she is now relegated to a B-tier niche comp -- who is now on top?
Well, good news if you enjoy rerolling, because we are now in a Hero Augment meta similar to a few months ago in Set 11: Inkborn Fables.
The new meta flow is largely dictated by two phases of the early game: Do you have a hero augment? If not, win streak and push your tempo for a fast 8 to play for a 4-cost carry. The only consistent non-hero augment reroll comp currently is Scholar Ahri (featured in S tier). There is speculation about a few other reroll comps such as Katarina or Wukong + any backline carry like Jinx Hunters or Preservers. However, those aren't appearing on data websites and results at high elo are mixed right now.
The Hero Augment Rankings
S tier: Lillia (Scholar Ahri) Rumble (Vanguard Preservers) Blitzcrank (Kogmaw Tristana) Galio (Vanguards)
A tier: Elise (Shapeshifters) Wukong (Flex) Poppy (Scholar Ahri) Nunu (Kogmaw Tristana)
The Poppy and Nunu hero augments are the less ideal openers for their counterparts (Lillia and Blitzcrank), but they are serviceable if you have a strong enough opener. Check out the tier list for more info on these comps.
There is lots of debate at high elo about what are the strongest four costs to play around. First initial impression tier list:
S tier: Kalista Flex, Portal Ryze, Pyro Varus
A tier: Scholar Ryze, Frost Varus/Olaf, Gwen/Fiora
B tier: Karma Preservers, Nami Flex
Kalista is the best 4 cost to play around simply because she has the fewest conditions. All she needs is Rageblade, Rakan, Zilean, Camille, and you can flex in whatever else makes sense. She caps enormously high and as long as you have 1 good combat augment and a combat charm late game, you should be able to land 1sts if you're far ahead enough.
Ryze and Varus both are quite good, but they seem to be tied to having an emblem. Without an emblem for 8 Portal + Frontline, you are going to fight for the 4th-5th range often. The ideal Varus opener is Pyro emblem to play on Smolder late game, but Varus without it looks quite mid unless you are far ahead of tempo. Unlike Portal, Varus has the potential to move up since there's a possibility we need to optimize the board around him instead of trying to hamfist a Pyro-Blaster setup. Data indicates you drop 4 Blaster late game and try to fit in 5 costs. We're keeping an eye out for that.
Other variations of Ryze and Varus exist too such as Scholar Ryze playing around Arcana and Frost Varus duo carrying with Olaf. Scholar Ryze is probably the best version of Ryze without an emblem, but it seems to lose consistently to high-cap Hero Augments and better 4-cost boards. It has high late-game cap potential if you get to 9 for Xerath. Frost Varus has an awkward mid-game to solve since you are often transitioning from a Nomsy or Twitch into Varus. That leaves a wide gap of power where you're either still carrying a 1-cost or on a 1* 4-cost. If you highroll a better item holder like Kogmaw or Jinx 2, that could be the missing link to stabilize until you hit 2* 4-costs.
Gwen/Fiora Flex has a ton of potential now that they fixed some of Gwen's pathing AI. The best-performing surrounding units tend to be Preservers, but there are likely better builds we haven't discovered yet. Keep an eye out for Warrior heavy builds that lean towards several carries, similar to Ionia Challengers featuring Yasuo and Kaisa from Set 9 Runeterra Reforged.
Karma seems to be okay if you can build around the Preserver core, but her flexibility has dropped immensely. In the previous patch, you could splash in Karma secondary in almost anything. Now she seems to be much more niche. Likely a solid top 4 farmer. Nami flex has fallen by the wayside because she simply cannot deal enough single target to kill super units like Hero Augments or a Nasus 2.
Keep an eye out for overperforming augments in specific comps, such as Hunter Kogmaw with Hunting Frenzy. This augment got a huge rework to give it execute below 12% HP on top of AS buff. That HAS to be broken.
One subtle reason why Hero Augments may be broken is when you can combo it with effectively another Hero Augment. In this set, one of the crazy combos is Raid Boss when you hit Lillia, Nunu, or Poppy Hero augments. Absolutely bonkers combination that makes them nearly unkillable when built correctly.
Golden Quest stats filtered by rank
Finally, one of the hidden S-tier augments is A Golden Quest. Don't be fooled by the stats. If you filter for a higher rank, this augment climbs from a B-tier augment to a clear S-tier augment. This means the better players are converting them into wins consistently. The play pattern of it is quite fun, as if you're playing a mid-game Fortune and need to manage your risk-reward profile carefully. We do expect it to be nerfed eventually so get your games in while you can.
S tier: 3 Portals + 2* Frontline
A tier: Frost Hunters, Eldritch, Faeries
B tier: Shapeshifters
Portal is the best opener anchored by Zoe and an upgraded frontline that fits another trait like Vanguard (Blitzcrank), Shapeshifter (Elise), or Witchcraft (Poppy). This opener tends to lean towards AP Fast 8 but you can also transition to AD if you play around Ezreal.
Frost Hunters have become much more stable when you hit Blitzcrank 2 and Warwick 2 with items. A single tank item on Blitz and Nomsy 2 backline is quite stable until Stage 3. You'll most likely transition to Varus from this opener.
Eldritch is always good when you get upgrades and a strong summon. With Syndra nerfed your early-game damage options have been reduced significantly, but it still has high potential for win-streak. A good Nilah carry or Ashe 2 with Rageblade still gets the job done most of the time.
Faeries is surprisingly strong if you get Katarina early. With huge buffs to Lillia and Katarina, you'll win-streak and either transition to Fast 8 Kalista using Tristana item holder or even reroll Katarina. However, we are not sure what the optimal version of Katarina is. The tierlist may have the most popular version, but there are likely even better ones out there.
Other openers like Mages, Sugarcraft, and Multistrikers are much less consistent for win-streaks unless you have strong upgrades and item slam combinations to start snowballing tempo.
That's all for now. Thanks for being a loyal Patreon sub! If you have any further questions, feel free to drop them in our Discord server. See you on ladder!