With the powerful updates to the jungle monster reward system, solo kill experience in patch 10.8, and the buff to Bloodthirster in 10.9, the current mid lane meta in League of Legends heavily emphasizes roaming and ganking. The reason is very simple: when junglers focus on farming, the responsibility to roam and control the two side lanes falls to the mid lane.
Pyke
It’s a fact that Riot has always tried to limit Pyke’s effectiveness in solo lanes with a series of heavy nerfs to this champion’s wave-clearing abilities for a long time. However, as the meta shifts, particularly with roaming and burst damage upon reaching level 6 taking precedence, Pyke once again appears in the central position of the map.
For mid lane Pyke, the most important item is not any lethality item but rather Tiamat, which allows this champion to push waves effectively and execute his ganks. Our advice is not to stay in mid after reaching level 6; instead, push the wave quickly and roam to the side lanes for kills. Each successful R – Death from Below increases the gold gap between you and your opponent.
Katarina
This dagger-wielding assassin has somehow gone a long time without being nerfed, despite always being among the top mid lane champions in the game. With her versatile skill set, Katarina can navigate mid lane comfortably and dodge most enemy skill shots. This allows her to establish immense pressure on her lane opponent, as they are always at risk of being solo killed at any moment.
Furthermore, Katarina’s ganks are truly deadly with her ability to reduce cooldowns every time she gets a kill. As she can ‘clean up’ multiple kills, her items and damage scale incredibly fast, making it very difficult to stop her from assassinating your team’s carry.
Diana
Diana can be seen as a more perfected version of Katarina, possessing significant damage while also having crowd control and a robust engage. With adjustments to her skills during the pre-season, Diana seems to have transformed into a different champion, especially with her ability to threaten opponents right from the early levels rather than waiting until level 6 like before.
That being said, it doesn’t mean Diana is weak at level 6; in fact, this moonlight champion can coordinate with almost any type of champion in lane or jungle whenever she goes to gank with her ultimate. Who wouldn’t want to team up with a champion that can engage and pull opponents in? Diana is almost the perfect champion in the current mid lane meta and is a great pick to practice if you want to climb ranks in the mid position.
Talon
The “King of Roaming” might be the most fitting title for Talon, as this champion has been designed, reworked, and adjusted multiple times solely for this purpose. In the early levels, Talon may struggle, but that story completely changes once he gets Tiamat and Mobility Boots. At that point, Talon can push lanes incredibly well, roam at lightning speed with his high movement speed, and leap over walls with his E ability, allowing him to secure kills and snowball the game.
Moreover, Talon is a champion that fits perfectly into solo queue games, where players’ abilities to protect teammates are quite poor. He can wreak havoc on the enemy formation with wall-jumping attacks into the backline, creating numerous advantages in team fights. When facing Talon, there is no safe place, except perhaps a healing fountain; he can engage from behind at any time and eliminate you very quickly.