league of legends has over 160 champions released during its 14 year history. The problem the game faces is that most of these characters are now out of date. LoL has changed a lot and the champions on the list, for the most part, were made for a game that basically no longer exists. Using the Lol Tier List website, Oficina da aNet put together a Top 10 least played champions in 2022.
10- Karthus
Here we have an original League of Legends champion, it was released along with the game back in 2009. Karthus hasn’t suffered any major reworks during his 14 years of life as a champion. The point is that his skills were developed for a very different game than today – much slower. Much of the champion’s damage is based on Q, which is a skillshot.
Karthus’ ultimate is one of the most famous in the game, and his passive is still useful, but in a meta where all champions have zillions of dashes and bonus movement speed, few players find reason to play Karthus.
9- Poppy
A pattern we noticed in this list is that most of the champions present were released a long time ago. This is the case with Poppy – originally released in 2010, suffering a rework in 2015. In our opinion, the main point of no one playing Poppy is unsatisfactory gameplay: playing with the hammer yordle you never feel really strong or tanking enough. In a teamfight you need to use skills very well and focus on the right enemies – even risking “saving” enemies with a poorly used ultimate.
8- Kennen
Kennen is successful in everything but League of Legends. He’s a champion in Wild Rit, he has a card in Legends of Runeterra, he often appears in promotional materials for Riot, but in the game, he’s a forgotten doll. Very dull to play with and hard not to fall asleep playing against. Kennen survives any engage by running away with his E.
During the teamfight, if Kennen is totally reliant on Zhonyas or Timer to not die instantly. He’s a situational, bland champion. He desperately needs an overhaul in his skills and playstyle.
7- Rumble
With the durability update and item rework in 2021, Rumble is slowly losing his all-in potential. It’s not a bad champion, but like everyone on this list, its gameplay is currently unsatisfactory.
It’s a champion that also suffers from the invariability of magic damage builds in the game, and there’s no prospect of that changing during season 13. Champions like Anivia, Malzahar, and Vex do everything Rumble does, only better.
6- Corki
Like Karthus, Corki is an original League of Legends character, released with the game in 2009. He also never received a complete rework of his skills – just several visual reworks (and even then he remains an ugly ugly champion).
Corki hasn’t had a positive win rate in a while, and his abilities feel weak and unsatisfying when used. Compared to the monsters “snowballers” that we find in mid lane, like Irelia, Zed and Kassadin, it’s hard to find justifications for picking up a yordle in a toy plane.
5- Rek’Sai
Rek’Sai was picked or banned for a while in season 9 and 10, but after that it just dropped, especially after the update that increased the durability of all champions. Play style is fun – spamming ganks – but it’s no use getting to your enemies if you don’t have the necessary tools to win the fight.
4- Ivern
The friend of the little animals has a style of making the jungle different from all the other champions. Rather than farming them directly, interacting with the jungle field activates a timer, which farms the creatures over time. So Ivern can focus his time on ganking lanes. He is a support jungler-his abilities are focused on applying crowd control and shielding his allies.
Since this champion’s victory is heavily dependent on the abilities of his allies, Ivern is an inconsistent pick – particularly at lower elos. Still, he’s an interesting, fun, and definitely strong champion.
3- Taliyah
It’s an interesting champion that has some very unique gameplay features, like the mechanic of dropping more rocks on a specific area of the ground and surfing the terrain. To try to lift this champion from the abyss of oblivion, Riot released a mini-rework of the character in mid-2022. It even seems that the rate of choice decreased after that.
In my eyes, there’s nothing Riot can do with the character to increase the pick rate other than a complete rework. Apparently some characters were made to be played by few, like Ivern and Yorick.
2- Skarner
Skarner is a former champion who never managed to find a place in the game. Although some religiously play with the dummy (save for the “0 0ff M3t4” and its 9.5kk of mastery), is generally an overlooked pick. His jungle playstyle is very inconsistent and reliant on allies (which is never a good thing in Solo Queue).
Even forgotten by Riot, the scorpion was not forgotten by players: in a poll conducted by the company in 2022, we had the option to vote on which champion would receive the next full rework, just as they did with Volibear, Dr. World and Udyr. The options were shivana, Tryndamere, Kog’Maw and Skarner. With over 30% of the vote, Skarner will be the next champion to receive a full rebuild. When? Hard to say, we estimate the earliest is late 2023, maybe even 2024.
1- Aurelion Sol
Aurelion Sol receives the award for least played champion in 2022, with only 0.43% pick rate. Like Taliyah, Aurelion isn’t an extremely old champion, but he also never managed to find his place in the game.
Like Karthus, Aurelion is heavily hampered by the meta of ultra-mobile champions, with lots of dashes and bonus movement speed, as the entire gameplay of the dragon comes down to keeping the right distance from enemies – not too close, not too far.
His style of play is unique: the gameplay is focused on pushing the wave using his constant source of damage, the 3 energy balls that orbit the champion. The problem is that the Aurelion has great difficulties in arriving by surprise, since it cannot hide in bushes and ambush enemies. He also has another unique weakness: he’s the only champion in the game with a minimum attack distance. This means that if a champion stays in melee, Aurelion Sol does very little damage.
Riot is aware of the problems faced by Aurelion Sol, and good news, the champion’s rework is ready and will be released on February 7, 2023. Check out the news below.
Wassup what did you think? Are any of these champions salvageable? Are you one of the brave ones who play with them? Leave your comment below!
