League Of Legends: The Hardest Characters To Play, Ranked

There are over 160 champions to choose from in League of Legends, which means there is something for everyone, including a wide range of skill levels. Just as there are many beginner-friendly League champs for those taking their first steps on the Rift, there are also plenty of difficult options.

The hardest champions in League often have lots of tiny mechanics which take dozens of games to learn and to get the most out of their kits, players must play on a knife’s edge.

7 Irelia

Irelia’s Q Requires Incredibly Fast Hands

• Her Q often needs to be clicked multiple times a second on specific targets.
• Players must understand Irelia’s limits to be useful.

With how many precise and perfectly timed clicks players must make, Irelia is easily one of the hardest League champs. Her skill mostly comes down to her Q, a dash that resets if the target was marked by her passive or if the target dies. She can mark targets by landing her E or R, and keeping her Q active with constant resets takes her from zero to hero.

Irelia players can surge through minion waves as long as they know at which health minions will die to her Q, allowing them to keep going, and when skirmishing or team fighting, only the best can keep on top of only dashing to marked targets. As with any Top-Laner, Irelia also has highly nuanced matchups that must be learned.

6 Azir

Azir Must Position & Keep Track Of His Soldiers To Deal Damage

• Azir’s soldiers are a unique mechanic.
• He has difficult combos to reposition himself and his soldiers.

Azir is a fairly unique champion as most of his damage comes from the soldiers whom he commands. In the late-game especially, as one of the best scaling champs in League, the auto-attacks from these soldiers can shred through enemy ranks, but doing so is far from easy. Positioning these soldiers is absolutely key as they cannot move on their own accord and only have a short range at which they can attack.

Keeping track of these soldiers, on top of Azir’s own positioning as a squishy mage, and using his other abilities is a lot to do, and it can take a while to understand how to play this particular Mid-Laner.

5 Gangplank

Gangplank’s Barrels Combos Are One Of The Hardest Mechanics

• Players need to study tutorials to learn how to chain barrels together.
• Multiple inputs are needed at once with precise mouse movement.

While the rest of his kit isn’t too difficult, most of Gangplank’s damage comes from his barrels, and to new players, they are practically impossible to figure out. Unless enemies are under the effects of CC, they won’t be hit by a single barrel, as before it explodes they can either destroy it or walk out of range. Therefore, Gangplank players must chain their barrels together, placing and exploding multiple at exactly the right moment.

There is no way to learn this other than to head into the practice tool and load up some tutorials. However, even when players have figured out this mechanic, actually applying it in real games where the enemy moves and attacks is a whole other problem.

4 Yasuo

Yasuo Is A Volatile Champion With Lots Of Minute Mechanics

• Weaving in autos and Qs while dashing around minions is not easy.
• Impeccable timing is required for his windwall.

Yasuo is without a doubt one of the most hated League champs, but in a large part, this is due to how hard he is to play. Players hate having a Yasuo on their team, as most who try him out can’t make use of his near-unlimited dashes and minute mechanics. Instead, as the only way to deal damage to Yasuo is to go in, they end up feeding and providing nothing for the team.

To even gain access to his iconic tornado, players must first land two Qs which are short skillshots, all while dashing around minions and timing their windwall perfectly.

3 Aphelios

Aphelios Has 5 Unique Guns Which Players Must Learn

• Each ability is different with each gun.
• The current secondary weapon also affects abilities, so players must learn gun rotation orders.

While some champions are hard mechanically, others require a lot of thought about every decision. Aphelios is the embodiment of a champion who requires brains to play, as he has five guns to switch between, all with their own effects and abilities, and on top of this, they each interact with his other guns in unique ways.

Aphelios is a champion who players must study, as without proper gun management, they will deal practically no damage and be useless to their team. This is all on top of being an immobile ADC, for whom positioning and kiting is naturally a hard skill.

2 Hwei

Hwei Has 9 Basic Abilities Instead Of 3

• Players must click two keys for each ability, making combos incredibly complex.
• Knowing which version of abilities to use in each situation takes hours of practice.

Hwei is one of League’s most recent additions to the roster and with an unprecedented amount of abilities, some would argue he is the most complex champion in the game. While most champions have three basic abilities, Hwei instead has three variations of each of his abilities, meaning he really has nine basic abilities. In other words, when Hwei presses Q, for example, he must then press Q, W, or E to choose the variant.

This not only means that Hwei requires fast fingers, but players also have their brain turned on at every moment to make sure they are using the correct ability for the current situation. Naturally, Hwei has many combos and many of his abilities happen to be skillshots too.

1 Nidalee

Nidalee Must Be Played To Her Limits Or Prove Useless

• Nidalee’s spear is incredibly hard to hit, and without it, she is practically useless.
• Players must play super aggressively by invading and ganking for quick wins.

On top of her notoriously hard-to-hit spears, Nidalee is a hard champion to pilot for many reasons. The first reason is that even farming the jungle is no easy task with Nidalee, as players must learn which places to stand and where to lay their traps.

Nidalee is also a transforming champion, meaning she has two sets of abilities with their own cooldowns. Getting the most out of her kit means using all six of these abilities effectively, and knowing exactly when to switch between human and cougar form. Furthermore, while players may find some easy success with her on ARAM, Nidalee on Summoner’s Rift is an incredibly early game-focused champion, and players must look for leads by playing aggressively at all times and then pushing any advantage for a quick win.