Aatrox Even HoB/Sword. Unsure how Hail fares into him, but it should be alright. Almost always goes top, but every once in a while you'll get someone who takes him mid. It’s tough for him to land his full combo since you can W straight backwards out of his pull. Even with boots 1, you’re fast enough to just run to the side out of it if you’re not hit by a Q right afterward. You win handily with a Seeker’s at level 6. Abuse your movespeed to avoid his sweet spots; hug close and auto him for the first two, then ult through him for the third and he’ll completely whiff it. That third sweet spot does serious damage, so it’s crucial that you avoid it. You’re fast enough to just avoid most of his damage, so only being able to dash once per Q cycle completely annihilates his all in potential compared to the good old days. All in all, he should not be able to kill you unless you let him, but killing him through his lifesteal is also extremely hard on your own. Probably a farm lane.

Ahri Even HoB/DH/beads. Ahri is an exceptionally popular champion and very common matchup, and one that you will have to learn well. Thankfully, it’s also a pretty good lane until you start facing players who really know what they are doing. Her Q is dodgeable, but that charm is quite quick and is the only truly threatening part of her kit. Since they reworked her to be very reliant on her charm to do real damage, as long as you never let her E you, you’re golden. If you do happen to get charmed though, you’ll take a brutal amount of damage. Be safe and make sure she never has a shot. A skilled Ahri will always Q the wave and create an enormous amount of threat while you are shoved in. You will not be able to step up for creeps unless she misses her charm, so expect to go down about 2 dozen CS in the early game. Shove hard any chance you get, E the whole wave, sit in the melee group with burnout active. Use your creeps as shields when going up to farm, but also position so she has to choose between trying to Q you or shoving/lifestealing off of your wave. You can expect her passive empowered Q to target the wave over you if she’s hurt, so watch for that. Mind your spacing; if your W is down and you’re at her maximum Q range, you can get double hit by it very easily. She can reliably proc electrocute with W and autos, so respect that damage. At 6, NEVER just ult at her out of the blue, even if she doesn’t have vision and you’ll catch her by surprise. She will land a guaranteed charm and kill you with her full combo; you won’t be able to run away from her ult. Wait for her to Q the wave or whiff charm then ult on her. She will always retreat without her E and Q both available. Wait for her to ult back once, then E after her before she can dash again. You only have 1 second to shoot. Don’t let her dodge your fireball. This will secure your advantage. From there, shove in and deny. It will only take one solid all in to get you back on your feet and make up lost ground. Then you’ll be able to maintain farm parity easily with Runic killing waves before they have the chance to crash.

Akali Even HoB/DH/Beads. FINALLY she's been hit in a significant way. Her R1 now must be target-cast on a champion, so she lost one of her on-demand dashes and her engage range is significantly shorter. Her Q also cannot be spammed as much early, making the lane much less oppressive. Akali has the highest skill ceiling on the game; a good one will eat you and your team alive and there's nothing you can do about it. A bad one will do nothing and feed though, so you shouldn't have much to worry about playing into her until Diamond. You can take her Q all day long and get the health back, but her passive if shroud comboed properly will chunk you out of lane. Get a cs, take her Q, back off with W and Fleet's speed bonus, repeat. Farm safe and try to chip her down. At 6, don’t ult in if her shroud is off CD. She’ll slaughter you if she shroud combos properly and lands both ult hits, which with how ridiculously mobile she is is almost guaranteed. Instead, ult in place and poke her down unless she wastes shroud for some reason. Keep her on the back foot so that she’s too nervous to go all in on you or roam, which is where her real threat lies. E covers a good portion of her shroud so you have a good shot of chunking her while she hides. If she wastes shroud for some reason, feel free to tackle and nom her at your convenience. It will take an eternity to come back up. Make sure you dont ult over her so she can R1 through you to safety. BEWARE once she has Gunblade. She can engage and kill you from full in three seconds flat from over 1500 range away once she has that item.

Anivia Tiny HoB/Sword. Count your blessings if you get this. Anivia is the second easiest lane. You hard counter her for a number of reasons. Her Q should never hit you with how slow it is and how fast you are, and even if it does or she walls to help land it, you can sustain through two or three combos, and then she’s out of mana. It’s a free early game. After 6 it turns into a farm war while your ult is down. The one thing you must pay very close attention to is not to be within range of her wall while building fury. You can't avoid her WRQE combo without flash or your ult and it will almost certainly kill you. Once you can rawr, ult at her when she puts her ult down, cancelling it, then roast her while she’s helpless. Bird must always rush tear, so she’ll be an extremely soft target. Try to have your E deal the killing blow if possible. Your fire patch will hard boil her egg afterwards, so you should always be able to convert an egg proc into a kill. She's extremely slow and a good gank target, and any landed CC should easily turn her a very dead chicken with how much damage you do.

Annie Minor HoB/beads. Annie is great. Short range, which forces her close enough to jump on, and you can immune her stun, the one dangerous part of her kit, with good timing. Don’t take QWs for free, you can get forced out of lane with just a few missteps with how often you’ll be eating her auto attack to farm. Sit back, E for farm, and melee CS between her Q CDs. You should have plenty of opportunities to E her with your last hits since her spell range is so short and she’ll be trying to auto you. You’ve got the spell range advantage here, so use it. The lane’s a little tougher if she’s confident enough to CS with autos and just holds her stun to QW you. Sacrifice CS to prevent getting harassed out of lane. Once you land a few good pokes and you’re in a position to all in, if she starts a trade with her stun Q, ult at her and kill her. Either that or right after she blows her stack to farm. If she holds onto it, you can still just go with a small health lead and eat the stun. Buy a null magic and run double MR shards and she shouldn’t be able to 100-0 you. Just beware the bear once she’s dead. It hurts.

Aurelion Sol Even Beads. The only people who play Asol are super one tricks who are very confident, so you'll have to be on your toes. They will shove you in early and then look to chip you down under your turret. It's tough to farm while he's pushed up; getting stunned into 2-3 star hits is a lot of damage, and he can do so while well out of turret range. Look to bait out his Q and W and retreat before they can land until he is low on mana, then farm what you can before he backs and returns to lane. Be ready to spam ping when he goes to roam, you won't be able to match his pressure until Runic is completed. You might have to just kill mid turret while they 4man botlane. Because of how plates work you should be able to get first turret if they throw everything bot. He can now double-tap his stun to disengage you in melee range, so keep that in mind. He's so rare that I can't offer much more than that, unfortunately.

Azir Extreme MANY BEADS. Oh boy. They keep buffing him and won't stop. Expect to see more and more of this, unfortunately. Azir starts off alright, he doesn't do much damage and you can farm alright for a couple of levels, but he quickly becomes too oppressive to handle by level 4 or 5. It's very easy for him to completely deny you under turret with how his soldiers work. His soldiers deal reduced passthrough damage, so try to make sure you have a shield between you and them. He's squishy, but you can't just all in him through his ult and/or shuffle. Look to roam between waves and kill bot turret ASAP; mid will be a lost cause. Then have bot go mid to deal with the chicken while you farm back up to relevance in a side lane.

Brand Minor HoB/beads. Almost always goes support nowadays, shouldn’t be too bad, but he does tons of damage and can be very unforgiving. Save W to yeet out of his pillar and never get EQ’d and you’re good. Be careful when walking up for farm, as a good Brand will put his pillar down right in your path expecting you to run into it. Feint walking up and bait it out beforehand if possible; that ability seriously hurts. I’m pretty sure he just explodes you instantly if you ult on top of him at 6 out of the blue, let him stun you, and guarantee him a full combo, so don’t do that. Wait for him to use spells on the wave (especially E, his EQW combo is what makes him truly dangerous), then charge him and R when you’re too close to miss. He has no mobility; you will easily catch and absolutely melt him. If your jungler swings by and lands some CC, you will kill him before it expires.

Cassiopeia Major DH/beads. I'm knocking Cass down a peg in this update after doing quite well into the last few I've faced, but that could just be good luck and recency bias skewing the decision. It's still a tough lane. Switching to Smite seriously helped against her in particular, as well as the repeated nerfs she's gotten. That being said, you need to respect her and you have one job: not letting her land Q in the middle of the lane. With that movespeed buff letting her keep up with your burnout, you can take up to 5 E's before getting to safety if you get hit in a bad spot, which will kill your lane phase. Play well back and close to your turret so that she never has the chance to QE you more than once or twice at a time. As long as you limit her damage like that, your smite and beads will outsustain her and you'll scale up just fine. You can’t solo kill her at 6 on even footing since your ult guarantees her stun and full combo, so don't try to take her alone unless it's down or she's out of mana/health. She is very vulnerable without her ult and you can squish her quickly like any other champion; pounce at first opportunity before she gets it back up. Best bet is to call for help at 6 and hope to burst her within whatever CC your jungler brings. Try to turn away for her ult, you can usually intuit when she’ll go for it. Cass players are typically very bad at using it unless they're mains or onetricks and miss it frequently. Failing that, either roam and look to take advantages elsewhere, or spam ult to farm and poke her from a safe distance.

Corki Extreme HoB/MANY BEADS. Buffed recently, but hasn't regained popularity yet, thank God. You'll be taking a ton of damage with every last hit. Save your W to run away from his Q; it covers a wide area and is pretty quick. Take fleet; it’s not for the early so much as it is for post-6. Missile harass does a lot of damage and you’ll need to heal through it. He’s a monster with Triforce, so be extremely careful once he gets it. If you manage to get Runic and Sorcs while he’s still on components, it should be an easy duel. Get close before ulting him to give him less time to dodge with his W. Be very careful when you hear him get the package; he can yeet right on top of you from fog and catch you by surprise with whatever he just bought. If that’s Trinity, you’ll be in a load of trouble. The package slows you by 90% and does A LOT of damage. If you take even a single tick, you are probably a very dead dragon. Flash out of it if necessary; you CANNOT let it hit you, period.

Diana Minor HoB/Long sword. Diana's rework was actually one of the better things Riot's done in the last few years. I'm actually amazed! THEY DID SOMETHING GOOD! It was a stroke of genius to simply swap her E and R. Now she has mobility for playmaking and an ultimate that feels, well, like an ultimate. But in exchange, they cut a significant amount of power from her early game, particularly her W, so now we can actually fight her! She has more options, feels better to play, and is less stat checky and more approachable! I love it! Her Q arcs from her right side, so juke to her left and move forward to dodge if you aren't looking to trade. It will take some getting used to. Once she chooses to engage on you, and she will, simply put her in her place. You outtrade the hell out of her. Her new ult scales based on per target hit and is not a big deal in a 1v1 setting. Engage and smash her at will post-6.

Ekko Even HoB/DH/Beads. A bit tougher than it used to be after a few rounds of frankly unnecessary buffs. You can trade somewhat evenly into his combo assuming you can get your Q off before he backs off with his movement speed, but you will need beads to sustain through his frequently applied harassment pattern. HoB may discourage him from sticking around after going in, but it's unlikely you can complete combos through his Q slow and passive speed. He will outsustain you if played properly. W is fast enough to always avoid the recall on his Q, which is where all of his early harass comes from. Most of the time they use Q for lane pressure anyhow, so just don’t hug your creeps and you’ll be fine. You just need to watch out for his stun. Hightail it out of those bubbles when they go down, as it now lasts for an eternity. Never fight into that shield, it's far too big. Pay special attention to your lane position, as his gank assist is ridiculously powerful. If any jungler's CC touches you, you'll get bubble stunned for sure and are probably a very dead dragon. After 6, watch his shadow and do NOT let him ult on you. That s*** hurts. Wait for him to use Q on the wave, all in him, do your combo, and move to the side away from the clone. If he immediately retreats, take care you don’t chase him into his ult. You’ll probably have to all in for his ult and then again for the kill later. A HoB build may kill him before he can ult if he gets caught by CC near you.

Fizz Extreme DH/beads/prayers. Fizz is my ban right now. He's very popular and it's a very frustrating lane. You have to treat him somewhat like a ranged matchup and play well back. His trade pattern is MUCH stronger than yours, designed to avoid all counterplay, and stepping one inch too close to the creep wave will chunk you down below half and forfeit the lane. He can tower dive very easily with his mobility, strong burst with ignite, and turret dodging E. DO NOT hang around under turret at half health or below. You will die. Do not take any damage you can't heal back and farm under turret. Play passive until 6. Then if he’s dumb enough to waste his troll pole, that’s your cue to go in. I’m pretty sure you’ll win an all in with double MR shards. If you’re down, just holding ult will give you a ton of safety since you can disengage if he ever lands his fish. Fish is also on a stupid low cooldown, so assume that it is always up. Respect his lich bane once he has it; he’ll mess you up good real quick.

Galio Even HoB/DH/beads. Galio has been significantly buffed recently and is now a bit of a pain. His Q poke hurts now and his punch is much faster and will catch you if you slack with your positioning for a fraction of a second. You can still move out of the way with your W up, but you’ve gotta be quick. Never let him taunt you. If he walks up and lands a taunt into a full combo, you’ll be chunked down to one third from full. If he punches and falls just short he will probably spam and land taunt, then his Q and passive will still do about a third of your life. Stay the hell away from him until 6 and just farm up under turret. You still can’t poke him down easily, so just prioritize farm and wait for a gank. You can handle getting nicked by his Q here and there. He’s heavily incentivized to build full AP now, so he’ll squish with a little bit of help. Once you have your ult, you can kick his ass by baiting his punch and immuning his follow up taunt. Be mindful if you go for a roam that he doesn’t follow, ult the fight, and ruin your team.

Heimerdinger Major HoB/MANY BEADS. Hope you’re good at farming under turret, cause you’re going to be doing a lot of it. Your E is on too long of a CD to cleanly deal with his turrets, but you can do enough to keep him on 1 or 2. 2 E’s or an E-auto will kill them; try to line up shots which get a few last hits and also hit a turret, then follow up with a melee if you think you can get away with it. One turret shooting you does very little damage. You should be able to prevent him from leapfrogging all 3 turrets too far forward, which is the real threat of Heimerdinger. Stand behind creeps to avoid full-wave missile hits. You won’t be able to avoid his missile spreads, but they won’t hurt too badly. If you get clipped by a grenade, turn on W and run perpendicular to the incoming turret lasers. You’ll be able to run right out of the most damaging part of his kit. Do NOT get grenade stunned around 2 or 3 turrets or you'll be chunked right out of lane. He squishes easily, so you can kill him once he shoves in after you’ve just backed and bought, but check his inventory first and don’t get baited by Zhonya’s. He usually takes the Stopwatch rune. If he plops down a big turret and uses stasis, you’re probably dead. You’ll need to immediately go on him when you get back to lane after a buy before he chips you back down again. If you incidentally hit his big turret with your E during your all in, smite it to finish it off. Orbit him while you’re hitting him to make it harder for him to land grenade stun; the direct hit radius is pretty small, and mind those turret lasers!

Irelia Minor HoB/Sword. Finally, Irelia has been dealt with and is now in a more or less acceptable place. Look to trade starting at level 2. Get your combo off then retreat with your W movespeed before she can fully stack her passive and Conqueror. Then let Hail reset and repeat. You should have complete lane priority. She shouldn't be able to walk up for farm, so do your best to freeze the wave out of her reach and laugh at her helplessness. You may choose to skip Seeker's depending on how skilled she looks. Once you’re 6, click on her and all in when she has no passive stacks. The hitbox on Irelia’s ult is actually deceptively small and can be sidestepped, even by a thicc dragon. Make sure you give it a shot. If that whiffs and her stacks are down, she’ll be easy pickings. She got the magic reduction on her W trimmed off of her kit, so I almost never see her played mid anymore. That’s one less thing to worry about when you go to all in.

Jayce Major HoB/beads. Okay, so I've played against Jayce a few times since his nerfs, and I gotta say, they hit him HARD. His Q deals so much less damage than it used to and staying in lane isn't much of an issue anymore. Just a little bit of respectful play and smart farming is enough to go close to even against him. He still has full control of the lane early, but I haven't even really felt pressured to build Seeker's anymore and have been just skipping it half the time. It takes an absolute master to make this champion good now, and I do still think someone who knows how to do his ridiculously complicated combo properly and quickly would be an extremely high threat (which is why I still have him as major), but almost nobody is that good at Jayce. Even D1 level players aren't good enough to make him shine from my experience. Just play back early, hide behind creeps while he's in ranged form, trade back if he jumps on you in hammer form, then look to squish him at 6. He's quite vulnerable to being 100-0'd; I've been shocked by how much damage he takes.

Karma Tiny HoB/beads. Riot giveth, and Riot taketh away. Without that movespeed buff, we can once again simply burnout out of her tether and avoid every mantra Q, completely negating her champion design. I expect this lane to go right back to being a farm-off that you will use to outcarry the pants off of her in the midgame. Don’t stand within mantra Q range of your wave. You can still simply run out of her tether if she does it close to max range, or at least gain enough distance that she won’t be able to properly all in after the root, but if you're closer she can now run you down and chunk you. Your W really ruins her ability to do anything in the lane if you're careful, so just farm up. Killing her though is difficult through her shield and movespeed without some outside CC. I wouldn’t count on being able to finish her off without help, but what I would suggest is paying attention to and playing around your jungler. You're much more valuable than she is in an early skirmish.

Karthus Minor HoB/beads. I never have many issues with Karthus, but not many people are really good with him. They prefer to just take him jungle, not have to deal with hitting Q in lane, AFK farm 200 CS, and press R for 4k damage in the lategame. You should be able to farm up just fine. Early boots are super valuable here; with your W you ought to be able to avoid all the skittles fairly easily. Taking a direct isolated hit seriously hurts though, so be careful. A confident Karthus could very easily force your flash if he catches you with a wall while your W is down. That’s the only way this really turns against you. Just farm, poke, and eat him at 6. He shouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about it and you'll kill him instantly. Don’t go in unless you’re full though; expect to take a ton of damage while retreating from his ghost. Just 2 or 3 skittle hits while you’re killing him and his ult will still get you.

Kassadin Major HoB/Sword. I used to despise Kassadin with my scaling builds. He seemed unbeatable between his sustain, poke damage, and powerful W that kept me away from farm. Recently I've had some pretty successful lanes running HoB into him instead. The best way to handle Kassadin is to get the lane frozen and bully him away from farm with Hail. Your combo is terrifying for a champion with so little armor and will completely prevent him from walking up to melee farm, forcing him to Q creeps over you in order to avoid being hard starved. His E makes sticking to him and threatening solo kills unlikely, but as long as you keep him off of your creeps you are doing your job. Begin positioning aggressively and zoning him at level 2. You may be able to surprise him at level 3 and kill him if he isn't careful. The most important thing is to get that freeze going and keep it going to put him 50 CS behind. Mind that burnout doesn't end up breaking your freeze and never E more than 1 creep at a time, even if it may get you some damage onto him. Tank incoming waves in front of your turret and keep them parked right out of its range. Then position behind the caster minions so that you can hit Kassadin and only Kassadin with your E and W if he even thinks about going up for farm. Once I get more skilled at this, Kassadin may not be such a bad lane after all. I will probably drop the difficulty further in the future, but I'm leaving him at 4 for now simply because he's such a high scaling threat later on.

Katarina Even HoB/Sword. This lane is balanced on a razor's edge and you'll need to focus up early. Other champions are able to snowball a game off of 3 or 4 kills, but this bitch only needs 1 to start murdering everyone. You CANNOT die. Period. Katarina lives and dies by her dagger placement. The trick to beating her is getting a feel for where her Q is going to land and being anywhere but there when it does if you aren't in a position to trade. It will always land a short distance behind the first target it hits. Once you have that figured out, you can farm with relative confidence and safety while you wait for a favorable moment. Hail of Blades with skilling Q at level 2 completely out-trades her and will make her scared to walk up for farm. If you're healthy, keep your mouse over that dagger and stand in range ready for her to E in. Hit her with a point blank E and unload on her. She will absolutely MELT and will freak out trying to retreat. The lane dynamic changes rather rapidly if you mess this up and let her escape without retaliation, though. It's best to wait until level 3 to begin trading, though. If you're down any health at all, you are on the defensive. Remember, you CANNOT die to her. She can take many different keystones. DH is the easiest to handle, followed by Conq, with Electrocute being the toughest. If she Q’s you from max range, you can safely W and run back. If she Q’s you from midrange, run anywhere BUT back. The dagger will land right where you’re running and she will be in range to E and chunk you down. Do not ever attempt to tank her ult. It does too much damage and you will die. Either interrupt it with your ult or flash the hell away. If you decide to all in her from range and not hold ult to stop hers, you’d better be damn sure you kill her before her ult gets more than a few ticks off. Don’t go for a roam if she can follow you. The last thing you want is to lure her to 3 half health teammates and set her up for a free triple. If she starts to follow, it's best to set up in a bush and catch her facechecking rather than let her get to a big fight.

Kennen Even DH/beads. Kennen in the mid lane isn't actually so bad. The lane is too short for him to set up a freeze and start zoning you, so it just turns into a farm war. I'd favor going DH here as Smite sustain is more than enough to overpower his 3rd auto W, and even a Q here and there. He's too fast to HoB combo or reliably gank, and that on top of his ult's zone control makes the scaling build the correct choice in my mind. Keep your lane pressure up so he can't start QW-ing you while you're last hitting under turret. Oh, and ulting on top of him alone is obviously suicide and will never work. Wait for that gank before going in. When making plays with your jungler, take care to never misposition and let the rat ult you both and you should be able to win fights and build a lead.

LeBlanc Minor HoB/Beads. Tricky, but actually isn’t bad at all anymore. You win the 1v1 quite handily at level 6. The problem is getting there. One misposition will kill you and snowball her into untouchability. Do not get QWed at level 2. You can’t afford to get chunked that hard so early. Sacrifice whatever you need to so that doesn’t happen. Do NOT get WEQ-Ignited at level 3. This will nearly kill you from full and forfeit the lane. Sacrifice even more to prevent that. If she W’s in and goes for a chain, don’t just run back and set her up for a clear shot. Rotate around your creeps and use them as shields until she’s forced to take her W back or be stuck in the middle of the lane with no mobility. At level 5, the matchup starts to turn and your E is now strong enough to hurt her. Just a few hits should get her low enough to discourage any aggression and set up your all in. At 6, go up and just start autoing a creep with your cursor over her. The second she distorts in, ult at her (your knockback actually completely cancels her ability if cast early enough). She will probably snap back to her distortion portal right away, so wait for her to do so before using your E and autoing her. Ignite will mark the correct target when her passive procs. Now, from this point the correct decision is for her to R distort away and cut her losses, but you will probably still have a Q mark over your head that she wants to proc, so she may use E instead. This will give you the time you need to tear her to pieces. If she was pushed up a good bit you should be able to chase and finish the kill. She’s been overnerfed because of pro play and a lot of her teeth have been pulled out by the addition of MR shards. As long as you avoid her absurd level 3 combo, the lane is free. A lot of LBs love just leaving mid lane randomly to go roam. Just spam ping ?, shove in and don’t worry about following her into fog, where she can set up on you for free and ruin your life. A level lead will seriously ruin her. Catching her facechecking on her way back is a good way to chunk her out of lane.

Lissandra Minor HoB/DH, Sword/Seal. Lissandra is a shell of her former self due to pro-play overuse. She now has absolutely no wave pressure and very little harass aside from her auto attacks. She had a lot of damage put onto her R and W though, and many have shifted to running Electrocute. They sort of hurt now, so I'm bumping her up a bit. As long as you're careful, It's a free lane for you to scale up in and dominate the game. Her Q range is pitiful unless it hits something and splashes behind it. Get a feel for the size of that cone and don’t be within that distance of a low health minion. You’ll get zoned a little, but nothing too bad, and its damage is low enough after her mini rework that you can trade a few hits to farm comfortably. Her W just got a ratio buff so her full combo hurts a lot; never let her walk up to you and make sure to burnout away from her claw. If they have Aftershock, you can’t ult at her. If you try, she W’s you, procs aftershock, becomes immune to damage, and you get chunked for free. Fish for a few E hits then ult in place and siege her down from range. An Electrocute build may be all-inned normally. If you're having trouble setting up a kill, just push her in and roam while she's struggling to farm under turret and remembering the good old days. Just keep in mind that she probably has TP and Lissandra flanks are as deadly as ever.

Lux Minor HoB/beads. Pretty easy. Her spells are telegraphed and quite dodgeable with your W. You should be able to farm quite well so long as your positioning is solid. Don’t eat the E’s that go for your wave while using the wave to block her Q. Don't greed for farm while she has you shoved in early, taking Q-auto-E-auto is too much damage to sustain through. Bait her Q then all in her at 6. Will it blend? Yes, it will. Alternatively just ult right through it. You might not kill her through her W and Barrier, which most of them run, but it will force her back and you can build up a solid farm lead. Recently, her Q CD and W shield were nerfed pretty hard, so you have all day to engage after she uses Q. Her ult is now a 1.0 ratio however, so make sure you watch out for and respect that damage. Flash it if necessary. Avoid roots at all costs while she has it available.

Malphite Minor DH, Dark seal. There's been a lot of this going around recently. Point and click harass is BS, and Malphite’s high base damage on Q makes staying in lane aggravating for many champions. Smite healing is plenty to do so, though. It's tough to harass him down through his passive. If you hit E on cooldown you can keep his armor off, but if you lapse by a few seconds you will lose the war of attrition, so just focus on farming until 6. He does an absurd amount of damage at 6 with his full combo, and can stomp you dead from as much as 60-70% health. You do even more, though. Take a good recall timing right before 6, come back to lane fresh, and put your cards down on even ground with him before he has time to chip you back down again with his Q. He hits hard, but you’ll hit harder. You can HoB him down with jungle lockdown early, but his movement and attack speed slows will probably prevent you from doing so on your own.

Malzahar Tiny HoB/Sword. There are two kinds of Malzahar in the world. The kind that E’s the wave and the kind that only E’s you. You can play around space AIDS on your wave and farm under turret once he has a few points in, but if he just spam E’s you things can get marginally annoying. Fleet would trivialize the lane since you can charge and proc it on his little critters and it counters his slow, steady damage, but it's totally overkill. A properly timed ult will immune and interrupt his R, but since it’s instant it’s tricky. You gotta pretty much be in his head to do it. It's also unnecessary; your Hail all-in will absolutely destroy him, ult or no ult. If your ult doesn't land, hit him with a tick of W to drop his passive before using your E. The best solution is just to poke him before going in, though; his passive is on a pretty long cooldown. Buying QSS delays your powerspike by a ton, so I’d suggest diligent warding and safe positioning to avoid inting to his flash R into gank instead. I do think you just need to rush one against Nocturne though; there’s just no way around that. If you think their jungler might be anywhere near midlane, do NOT be within flash R range of Malz. If for some reason you want to run DH over HoB, Smite makes him even easier to handle; he will run out of mana before being able to push you out of lane early and you can pop his passive shield on demand with chilling smite, letting you easily land RE for the kill the second he walks just a little too far forward. They usually think they are safe with their shield up since you just have the two big abilities. They are wrong.

Morgana Tiny HoB/DH, Sword/Seal. This champion literally just shoves mid. Hur dur press W me push me farm wave xd. You’ll be farming under turret a lot so will probably go down CS until you get enough AP to one hit the back line. Just gotta not get binded, but you won't take a truly painful amount of damage even if you do. Would not recommend ulting on her unless her Q is down, but it’s pretty easy to bait it out. I wouldn’t expect to kill her alone through her shield, ult, and annoying passive which keeps her life bar parked at full. Should be an easy, free farm lane as long as you don’t derp and eat a few root/pool combos. You’ll outscale the hell out of her.

Neeko Extreme MANY BEADS. Overtuned garbage champion, at least against melees. Her root is quick, travels through creeps, has a long range, and guarantees two ticks of her Q plus probably her on-hit proc. Extremely abusive. You’ll get chunked to half or below every time it lands. Even if it doesn’t, single ticks of Q plus her W damage will chip you down quick. Fleet does not help much since you'll be getting hard zoned under turret by her E. NEVER let her land ult. You’ll die. Ult or flash away. If you’re healthy, going for an all in over her root or to negate her ult’s stun will give you an opening. She’ll squish if you manage to get onto her on even footing, but you'll probably be down too much experience and farm to even consider it. Highly suggest dodging.

Orianna Extreme MANY BEADS. Disgusting. Her QW is too quick to dodge and you’ll be forced to take hits in order to farm creeps under turret. Her auto attack also really hurts, and actually comprises the majority of her harass pattern if she’s aggressive and confident. Ori players seem to be a pretty even split between aggressive Aery/Comet/Electrocute/Ignite builds and defensive Phase Rush/Heal or Barrier builds. An Ori with defensive tools isn't so bad, though the lane is still a challenge. A confident and aggressive Ori whose mission in life is to ruin yours is an infuriating matchup that you will need constant jungle pressure to survive. It never gets any easier since it's so tough to finish her through her E and ult self-peel on your own, too. You NEED a BS early game jungler to take advantage of her incredibly obnoxious zoning. At 6, wait for her to W the wave to shove in, then jump on her and do your best, or just ult to secure stacked waves before they have the chance to crash. If your jungler was able to put her behind you can easily keep her there, but if not, don’t expect to have much kill pressure until you’ve got Echoes and sorc shoes.

Rumble Major Beads. Thank Christ Rumble isn’t a popular champion. This lane is aggravating, and more people are running it mid over top. Fleet and beads gives enough sustain to just farm it out evenly if you play smart, but you still can never afford to take double harpoon into a full flamespitter. The movement speed bonus from Fleet will get you out of his fire very quickly. Your E is slow enough that it gives him plenty of time to press W, so you can’t poke him. His Q makes going up for farm health intensive. You will take lots of little numbers of damage in this lane, and it's up to you to not take too many of them before your next Fleet proc becomes available. You can’t all in him 1v1 through his W and base stats before being E’d twice, ulted on, and roasted to death. Survive, concede farm if necessary, and don’t int. His range is very short and will force him to hang out extremely far forward for extended periods of time if he wants to deny you under turret. It’s up to your jungler to capitalize on that and even things out.

Ryze Major MANY BEADS. Ryze has had his damage combo streamlined in exchange for his safety and flash root capability. Good Ryze players are still annoying; they can deal tons of damage earlier, but must choose between the root or the Overload chunk. A bad Ryze will just sit back and stack tear, occasionally walking forward like a homunculus to attempt to WQ you. The way this goes really depends on how confident the Ryze is. He’s less demanding to play to his full effectiveness now, so you should expect frequently applied harassment at all stages of the game. Don't let him spread E to you from your wave if you can help it. Though he is squishy without his shields, unless he’s really bad I’d advise against all inning him out of the blue. He can roll his face on his keyboard and probably outtrade you; the champion does a disgusting amount of damage in 1v1 situations. However, all of that costs several hundred mana. Wait for him to deplete his mana first, then go to nom him. He will want to continually cast spells to stack that tear, so look for that brief moment of vulnerability before he goes to back. HoB will destroy him in an all in, but you won't survive levels 1-5 unless he is bad or your jungler hard camps him. Ulting him while his ult is channeling will cancel it, so keep that in mind.

Swain Minor HoB/DH, Sword/Dark seal. The only thing you need to worry about with Swain is his E. It goes through creeps and has quite a far range, and will guarantee his full combo if it lands. It’s got a reasonably long cooldown, so make sure to bait it out before going up for farm. Does no damage outside of his ultimate and requires you to repeatedly get caught by his E to lose the lane, which is nice. A chill lane to scale up in so long as you're attentive and respectful. It's just tough to finish him off since he usually goes RoA and gets a ton of health back with his ult. I've only been seeing him as support of late since other champions can set up his passive for him. You'll almost never see him mid lane.

Sylas Minor HoB/Sword. Rush Executioner's. Press F for Sylas, another casualty of overloaded kits being too damn good in pro play. In this episode of drastic Sylas reworks, he's worse early than ever! Good for us! His winrate is something like 44% last time I looked at it. They took away his animation cancels so now he can't whip you like a dominatrix and instantly stack Conq, which is great. They shunted most of his damage into his Q explosion and E2, so put on your happy feet and keep creeps between you until you are ready to trade. If he engages level 2 you should trade fairly evenly, and he will lose HARD at 3. Try to juke or block the E2 if he initiates, then trade back. His W does less damage but more healing, so drop your Ignite on him nice and early. He can steal your ult and yeet away once in a while, which is annoying. Transforming gives him your entire kit with fresh cooldowns, but you'll probably kill him before he can make use of them. Sylas does not build make effective use out of Shyvana's kit, so using your ult against you is actually a really bad idea. Respect E poke while he's a fake dragon and avoid flame patches. If it turns into a dragon duel, also stay close and rotate around him. He won’t be used to how hard E is to hit at close range and will probably miss. Better dragon wins! If things go poorly and he gets a lead, remember that he has a ton of very high ratios on his kit now, so make sure to respect him. A lot has to go wrong for that to happen, though.

Syndra Even HoB/DH/beads. A bad Syndra is food. A good one will be very annoying with her stuns, and turn the lane into a chess match of positioning. Dodging QE is easy. Dodging QWE is tougher. Dodging EWQ is impossible. Against a good Syndra, never walk up to her E range or expect to be chunked out of lane. Make sure to bait and juke Q before going in for farm. Keep in mind that her damage and mana were just buffed a fair bit, so the lane is a little tougher than it used to be. Her ult balls do more damage, as does her max rank Q. Remember this once she's level 9 and don't get lazy with your jukes. Her E can instantly disengage your all in, but if you catch her with your ult's damage and follow up E you will do enough to threaten a kill with your second E and flash. Only engage her while very healthy. You just need to survive her full combo. Her cooldowns are long enough that she’s helpless afterwards.

Talon Even HoB/Cloth armor. Talon finally received a meaningful nerf through the recent Tiamat cost increase. He’s still unbelievably busted and will execute your entire team with with terrifying efficiency if he is allowed agency in the game. You can’t hope to match his roams, so your job is to control him and keep his health too low for him to even think about it. Don’t underestimate his early game combos, they hurt way too much for such a slippery and mobile champ. His level 2 does an incredible amount of damage, and he probably has the most dangerous level 2 in the entire game. Wait until level 3 to trade. Starting cloth armor seems to work wonders; you need a little bit of armor to prevent being bursted down too low and preventing you from re-trading. Gets you a faster Seeker's, which is always a good idea. Trades are pretty much even at level 3 with this start. Never let him proc his passive or electrocute for free. You can easily run out of his W recall with your W, and the first half of the ability pretty much does chip damage. At 6, immediately ult at him and force his ult. He should retreat knowing he can't stand up to you, but if he all ins you should survive with a stacked Seeker’s. Then keep doing it. Killing him isn’t the point; it’s to apply enough pressure to force him back continually and off of your other lanes, who will int to him in half a heartbeat if you let them. A roaming Talon is MUCH less threatening without his ult. If he goes for one anyway, shove in and build a level lead, and make sure to spam ping while you’re doing it.

Twisted Fate Minor HoB/beads. A great lane, all things considered. His W is on a low CD and is threatening in conjunction with his Q, but is very telegraphed and easy to bait. Challenge the wave, force his card, back off, let him card the wave, go up to farm a few creeps, repeat. His Q should never hit you unless you get carded like a fool. He's extremely squishy and your combo will instantly kill him if your jungler can swing by and lock him down for a second. If not, just dance around his cards, chip him down, then all in and kill at 6. People have been building AD TF more and more recently, which has much more sustained damage after he starts picking up triforce components and is a little tougher to stay in lane against. I suggest starting beads regardless of keystone. If he tries to roam, stay on him and cancel his ult with your own if possible. His camera will be elsewhere and you’ll probably kill him for free, as well as potentially baiting his own team to overcommit and die. Keep one eye on your minimap and if those 4 circles in bot lane get real close together, charge TF with your W and keep him in vision range. Keep the bot side of your lane diligently warded to catch him looking for an ult. Don’t worry so much about top; it’s not a big deal if he spends ult for one kill topside. Two or three kills into a tower and drake, however...

Veigar Tiny HoB/Sword. The best matchup. Veigar is a late game scaling monster, but he is unbelievably weak early. It’s a free lane. He can do nothing to you. His Q tickles. He’ll be aiming it at your creeps most of the time to stack up and not you anyway. His W will never hit you. Even if you get caged, you can still dodge his damage unless you run into the walls like Doublelift. Poke him once or twice then all in and slaughter him at 6. He’s absolutely helpless and his short Q range forces him into ulting distance. Unless he builds Abyssal, you will probably 100-0 him before his cage even has the chance to spawn. He will die instantly to a HoB combo. Your dragon form Q even has enough range to tag him through his cage as he runs away most of the time. Additional MR is unnecessary. Veigar is another champion who has been playing around with the cancer Glacial Augment build, and it’s even easier if you get one who opts into it so long as he doesn't get ahead of you. Enjoy your free lanes, folks.

Vel'Koz Minor HoB/DH, Sword/Dark seal. Vel'koz is quickly becoming one of my favorite lanes as I practice it more and more, and is actually quite a lot of fun to play into. All of his spells are telegraphed and should not hit you, with the exception of the first tick of his W. Back off when that inevitably hits you; it’s a quick cast and a wide area, so it will happen. Make sure not to let him proc his passive. Most of the difficulty of the matchup comes from learning his Q, which is a unique and deceptive mechanic. Hide behind your wave so he can’t directly Q you, then dodge back if he tries to split it around your shields. His E has a very short range but will guarantee his combo if it connects, and is his most threatening ability. If you were close enough that he can follow up a Q hit with an E, you’ve f***ed up. A good Vel will shoot E's right in front of creeps that are about to die, attempting to catch you when you walk up to last hit them. Pay extra special attention to this and don't walk into his trap. You'll take a full combo and be forced to back. If you do this after 6, you probably just die from full. You can wreck him at 6 if he is dumb enough to int into range; he is extremely squishy, builds greedy, and you can easily kill him through barrier, but his spells don’t force him to and a good player won’t give you the chance. If you see a moment, don’t chase after him immediately after ulting in. If he lands E and full combos, you almost certainly will die. Mash flash if he tries to catch you with E at your landing spot. If he is truly determined to play safe, it’s best to either just ult in place and chunk him from range or roam. He's got no mobility and won't be able to answer.

Viktor Major MANY BEADS. The age of Klepto Fist Viktor is over, but the champion still deserves respect. Most mid Viktors are back to maxing E it seems like, which is MUCH easier to deal with. It can be played well enough to not need Fleet, but that's rather difficult and a risky gambit. It's probably best to just bite the bullet and take the safe option. Smite back the damage you take from his laser poke and farm normally. Make sure not to ever let his laser hit you twice once he has it augmented. Burnout should completely invalidate his W, just make sure you don't let him get too close while it's on cooldown. It will also let you outrange and kite his ult after the intial tick. He's a bitch to chase down and kill through his slow field, shield, speed buff, and probably Barrier, so help is probably required to finish him off unless he decides to position carelessly.

Xerath Even HoB/DH, beads. Not the easiest thing in the world, but survivable. I’ve laned vs Zwag, who is a crazy good Xerath player, and I only exited lane like 20-30 CS behind. Your keystone choice depends on the jungle matchup here; if early rotations will probably be necessary or your jungler is an unfair ganker, run HoB. he real threat here is his W. You can juke his Q fairly easily with your W up and his E isn’t an issue if you don’t position stupidly, but his W is very quick and will guarantee him a comet proc and a Q poke if it lands. You have to be very careful when going into that range. And God forbid he ever lands a direct hit with W, slowing you to a crawl. That might get him a full combo and several autos, probably killing you. Play back, play safe, concede farm and gain levels. You won't be able to ever run Xerath down on your own unless he whiffs his stun after 6. They usually run Barrier as well. You’ll probably be stuck farming it out and waiting for your jungler to make a play. His rank 1 ult has 5000 range now, so strap your juke shoes on if you ever fall below 300 life. It's pretty easy to dodge all of his shots with your W active.

Yasuo Even HoB/Sword. Extremely frustrating matchup, but very winnable with careful play. Yasuo players have a big problem with diving and throwing and 1v5ing and generally being retarded, which is why his winrate is so low. You outtrade him massively in a straight up fight, but since his E has no cooldown a good Yasuo will simply E forward, knock you up for poke, and retreat before you can retaliate. They will also look to Q you when you walk up for farm, being careful to stay out of your range. Though you can't set up kills against a good player, HoB forces him to respect you and not stick around autoing. It is therefore highly inadvisable to take another keystone. If he tries to go for an extended trade, your combo will kill him from 90% health with a full shield. I've been reliably first blooding this champion with this new build. Yasuo is at his most mobile and dangerous while your creeps are running into lane, so take care whlie they are if you fall behind. Seeker's is always a very good idea since his ult shreds armor, so if you're even or behind make sure to snag one. At 6, tag his shield with an E and then all in the second you have the cooldown back while his shield is still down. Count his Q's and try to do this while he is still stacking to his third. Initiating while he has no knockup stacked is much more important than initiating while his shield is down. If he starts dashing at you with 3 stacks, he is planning to knock you up with his E to guarantee his ult. Press R when he gets to you to immune the CC and leave him without his ult's damage, armor shred, and free passive shield. This should guarantee you the win. Alternatively, simply ult through his tornado to initiate. Hold E for a half second to wait for his wind wall, which should be immediate if he knows how much trouble he's in, then find an angle to nail him and unleash the blender. Remember that you must land your E before proccing HoB. Do NOT let him fizzle or dodge your E, as that's where all your power comes from. If he does land his ult, he will always dash through you right afterward, and neither your E nor R are fast enough to beat it, so wait for him to do so. You land that E and you have that Seeker’s, you’ll win and leave him scratching his head. Yasuos will always commit for the kill and won’t retreat until it’s too late to escape.

Zed Minor DH/beads, Seeker's rush, exhaust. You do quite well into Zed. He’s like you in that his kit is designed to work together and he needs level 3 to be a threat. His Q is one of the few abilities that still deals reduced damage on passthrough, so hide behind your wave early and his poke will tickle. The biggest thing to watch early is not let him harass with electrocute. When he drops his shadow and E's you, use W and look to juke whichever shuriken is less likely to hit. Stay away from his shadow if you don't have your combo ready; a good Zed will look to port and beat the crap out of you when they see a good trade. Highly suggest running DH and rushing Seeker's no matter how poorly he's doing; even a trash Zed will kill you with no armor. Exhaust on top trivializes the lane. He can go PRRRRRR all he wants, but will NEVER be able to get anything done with this setup. If he initiates on you, bring him away from his shadow then all in him the second he reappears. He should die or port back. You must NEVER ult at him first, or he will R and avoid its damage. Since you can't make any plays on eachother directly, the game will basically become about which one of you can shove in and outroam the other. With your W and superior waveclear, this should be you.

Ziggs Extreme MANY BEADS. Third worst matchup. Dodge the game. His Q travels a mile and is deceptive. W doesn’t let you close distance. E zones you away from all farm. And even if you dodge all of that, his passive will still chip you down and force you back. You basically aren’t allowed to ever auto a creep, even under your own turret if the Ziggs has two hands and half a brain. You have one very brief window to all in him at 6 and gain some ground back, as he is fragile and will melt, but past that he will probably have too much gold on you. Fleet is necessary here. Your only hope is that you have a jungler that can take advantage of him while he’s denying you under turret. Ask to swap with top if the alternative matchups would be more beneficial. Thankfully, Ziggs is rare for reasons that I do not really understand, he is still REALLY good, so here’s hoping you’re never in this situation.

Zilean Minor DH/Dark seal. Zilean’s early game is pretty weak. His bombs are telegraphed and dodgeable, but have a somewhat deceptive hitbox and can snap to you in surprising fashion, so be well away from their landing point. They don’t do much damage until he gets a few points into the ability, and he doesn’t have the mana pool to sustain his undodgeable EQWQ harass pattern. You won’t have much difficulty in the lane for a while and should be able to maintain farm parity. Once he gets Luden’s, the lane starts to become obnoxious. Now he’ll have the mana to guarantee chunk you if you step into E range and you won’t be able to stand anywhere near your wave for fear of double bombs. Remember that he doesn’t have to Q you twice to stun you, only something near you. It’s also very hard to all in him through his self E and ult, and the best you can hope for on your own will probably be to force the latter. HoB is inadvisable with how easily he can ult whoever you're hitting, or just press E on you and prevent you from completing the combo. He can't ult more than one target though, so the dragonfire scaling build to chunk several targets at once is the way to go. Just farm up and wait for your jungler to make a play. When he comes, try to make sure both of you don’t get stunned if Zil is too healthy to get immediately gibbed.

Zoe Even HoB/beads. Unfortunately, Zoe is making a resurgence with the new DH and is just as cancerous as ever. The early game is pretty rough. Be aware that Riot put the AoE back on her Q, and it hurts. Be well away from your creep shields when she throws it out. Do not ever get bubbled, or you’ll die from as high as 70-80%. But even if you play well, she’ll still chip you down from the free damage she gets on W and her passive. Things change at 6, however. With ult available, intentionally eat her bubble, wait a second, then R at her to immune the CC and fizzle the true damage chunk. You must be airborne and unstoppable when the ability actually procs the sleep; don’t ult at the projectile or over the trap, it doesn’t work like that. You’ll take her by surprise for sure; Shyvana is nowhere near common enough for many people to know about that interaction. She can’t stand up to you at close range. From there, just don’t let her dodge E with her R, unleash the wood chipper, and she’ll fall over.

Vladimir Even HoB/DH Sword/beads. Obnoxious, but he has a very weak early game and you get the chance to ramp up with him. His Q cooldown is visible to you, so make sure to back well off when his bar is nearly full. When he charges his E, hide behind your wave to block the damage. If you do the dance properly you should take very little damage and be just fine in lane. If he positions poorly you may be able to do a good chunk of damage at level 2 with HoB since he typically skills W at 3 or even 4. A good Vladimir will just stand in front of his creeps to block your E's and heal the damage back, but this has only happened to me exactly once. Most of them never figure this out. Look to all in right after he uses his super Q. He will be forced to back off without access to it. Wait for him to pool before firing your E. You're stronger on even footing, but finishing a kill is difficult through his healing and W. Most of the time it's your second E after your all in that ends up killing him, and that usually only happens if he is disrespectful. Probably wise to wait for help and blow your load on him while he cannot pool. Be very careful if you're low and the wave is pushing in; he has one of the best kits in the game for tower diving and can easily burst you down from as high as 600 life and effortlessly get away with it.

Kayle Minor DH/Dark seal. Kayle's 1-5 is pathetic; you only have to worry about her Q and E, one of which is dodgeable, and both have long cooldowns. You should be able to farm relatively undisturbed. However, now that she gains her ranged attacks at 6 instead of 11, she can become aggravating to deal with. I need to see the lane more (she's back to being run mostly top lane nowadays to hit 16 faster), but I don't think she should be abusive enough to warrant Fleet. I would suggest buying a few beads on your first recall, though. HoB is a bad idea for this lane since she can simply immune its entire combo, but it may be worth taking anyway to help your jungler fight for objectives. Your call. Her ult has a massive cooldown, plenty of time to build another bar and get her the second time around if necessary.

Taliyah Even HoB/DH, beads. Easy to play in theory, but you do not have a lot of room for error in this lane. Her entire threat revolves around hitting her W. If she full combos you, you will either die or be forced to back. It does craptons of damage. AVOID HER W AT ALL COSTS. Boots 1 are a priority on your first back. If it's gonna catch you and you're hurt, just flash out. Don't take any chances. Aside from that, your W is able to get plenty of lateral distance to avoid her Q if you get caught with no creeps around to block it. You can't match her roams, so just shove like a madman, keep her pinned mid, and scale up. If she foolishly overroams and puts herself behind in XP, be ready to ragdoll her with your combo. Try setting up in the most likely bush for her to path back to lane through for a free combo. When the opportunity presents itself, R over her next W and eat her. She will absolutely melt.

Mordekaiser Even HoB/DH, Sword/Dark seal. So this is an obnoxious unstoppable meatball of a champion right now. He's stat checky garbage that you can't ever beat without a hell of a lead. Thing is, you don't actually ever have to fight him. Just farm and scale up. Burnout should be able to get you out of his claws. Remember that his Q deals double damage to single targets like Karthus Q, so hide in your wave while you go up to farm. HoB will hurt him quite a bit but not enough to trade through his absurd shield, so if your jungle matchup is favorable it's an option to assist him in killing Mord early. A carefully timed ult can cancel his, so watch for him to point his big stick at you and press R if you've got the reflexes. The ability cannot affect an unstoppable target and as such will fail. AP can't duel him unless you're significantly ahead, so you really don't want to be forced into it. A tankier on hit build does not have this issue however, so it may be worth going Conqueror and rushing Merc's/Wit's end to gain priority and kill him if he ever tries to fight you (if your team comp allows for it, that is).

Qiyana Minor HoB/Sword. Your level 3 all in makes this champion cry. If she goes to auto a creep in front of you, maul her. Water Q into Rock Q poking is the only way for her to play this lane, but she will probably underestimate you and close to melee range thinking that she wins. She does not. Going for Seekers depends on who has the lead. She doesn't have much all in potential as long as you stay away from walls after 6. Her ult does knockback for flash distance, so make sure that her dash distance can never put you between her and said walls if your fury isn't full. If she manages to get that full combo off, Seeker's should keep you alive if you were healthy, but you'll definitely be forced to back. Pressing R to immune her knockback and avoid her ult will leave her absolutely defenseless, use it right when she dashes in. One thing to note however, your turret counts as a wall and she can ult it, too. Which is BS, but whatever I guess. This means that you don't have a lot of viable ground to stand on while you are shoved in with low health, so just back if you find yourself in this situation. Aside from that, in most situations I would hold ult and wait for your jungler to all in. It's tough to stick to her and finish her off if she can use grass empowered E, meaning that ulting at her head-on while she is in the middle of the lane will probably just waste your fury and leave you overextended. If she's pushed away from side bushes and holding Rock or Water Q, well, that's a different story. She loves to build mobi boots and roam, so look to catch her facechecking on her way back to lane.

Pantheon Minor HoB/DH, beads. I am not impressed by this champion in lane, honestly. At all. Old Pantheon did MUCH more damage and was MUCH more threatening in the early game, for which we may all be thankful. It does so little damage that I don't even think you need to build Seeker's for the lane if it stays even. His new W negates all damage now, so make sure you don't all in until it's either down or you get behind him. The immunity is only in a 180 degree arc in front of him. He can tower dive and roam very effectively after he gets his ult, which is where the real strength of the champion lies. It's why he was permabanned at Worlds, but most solo queue teams won't be coordinated enough to take full advantage of his semi global ult and make him look super OP. Don't hang out on low health after 6 and watch for him to join very quickly if you go for a roam.

Cho'Gath Even HoB/DH, Long Sword/Dark Seal. AP Cho'gath is a very potent cheese pick to be feared and respected. Because of his ridiculous burst potential and low mobility, he is most frequently run mid over top. You will never be able to poke him down through his passive, so don't even try. Keep your distance and don't let him E slow you, which will force you to take his Q and W. Just farm it out until 6. After 6, you CANNOT get hit by Rupture. He will flash on you and kill you from full with his 1.0 scaling ult. You MUST flash or ult away if his Q might hit you. Save your W to dodge this one hit kill ability. I'll say it again; AP Cho's combo kills you from 100% health, and I've got the matchup at even because of how unforgiving the lane is. They will frequently push in at this point and fish for those instant death Q hits. Call your jungler while he's doing so and he should go down easy. Don't just ult at him without backup, as a good Cho will put his Q under your landing position and nom you. At some point, he will give up trying to kill you and will just use his ult on a creep to start stacking health. That's when it's safe to go for him, force a back, and regain lane priority. As long as you don't get hit by his Q while he has his ult available, you'll outscale him and contribute much more in fights than he could ever dream of doing. Haven't had the chance to run Hail into him yet, his auto slow into combo may make trading unwise. Would be way more gank assist for an immobile champion though, probably worth taking.

Tristana Even HoB/DH/beads. Tristana mid is being popularized by competitive play, and for good reason. Her all in does a crazy amount of damage to low mobility mages and she can frequently kill people with no escapes from full with a PtA buffed E and R burst. Thankfully, you are not low mobility and have this little thing called Burnout. You can W back whenever she tries to stack her bomb up and prevent the brunt of her damage. Tristana must also shove the wave and doesn't really have much of a say in the matter because of her E. You play this lane by keeping a respectful distance, never letting her have the chance to proc PtA and stack her bomb past 2 hits, and making damn sure you're never close enough for her to land her W slow, which is significant. Just farm under turret and stack up Seeker's. She can disengage in two different ways, so hold ult for a skirmish or gank. Tristana's damage comes from repeated hits, so you can quickly walk up to peck the caster wave under your turret without taking much punishment. Be mindful if you smell blood and jump in that she can't ult you into her jungler or her turret, though.

Lucian Extreme MANY BEADS. This lane is a very not fun experience. It's tough to think of a more abusive champion into melee. If you even think about going up to farm, he will E at you, insta-proc PtA, and chunk you for 30-40% of your life. Probably will only get what CS you can safely E at max range. If he freezes the wave properly in the middle of the lane, you won't even get that. You'll go down... oh, I dunno, 40, 50 CS? At least? Spam ping your jungler and hope someone else on your team can pop off. Beware at 6; Culling will do more than half of your life on its own if he manages to catch you with it. Aside from that, Lucian mid is about as win lane lose game as it gets, so if you don't feed your ass off you'll be in great shape to win. Don't dodge the game, buy those beads and a Seeker's if needed, farm it out and collect your win.

Senna Tiny HoB/beads. Very rarely run mid lane, and it seems like there are good reasons for that. Senna applies frequent harassment, but does not hit very hard at all. Her early game will whittle you down and there isn't much you can do about it due to her range. It's all frequently applied chip damage though, so beads will be enough to heal it all back as long as you aren't reckless. At 6, wait for her to auto you then ult at her. Her auto attacks immobilize her, allowing you to land your ult and combo for free. Her root will deny you from chasing, but you don't need to chase down a dead target. She will get 100-0'ed instantly.

Riven Minor HoB/Sword. Rare to find it mid, but every once in a while you might decide to swap with your top laner to avoid a bad lane. Hail of Blades, as with almost any other melee champion, makes Riven completely unable to take an extended trade in the early game. The best she can do is to Q into range, W, and E away. This is easy to sustain through. If she does not go for the pokey trade pattern and instead decides to keep autoing you, tear her face off. I do suggest building Seeker's, as her all in at 6 may kill you before you can kill her otherwise. Also, you should remember to never go near her while she has her ult and you do not have yours. Even while behind, she can all in and kill you in the blink of an eye if you do not respect her. She's an easy duel with your ult, but she's tough to chase down and finish off through all those dashes. You may need both flash and the Gunblade slow to do so. Ult at her right after she uses Q3 on the wave for best results. If she survives, shove in and zone her off the wave. Diving without ult is highly inadvisable.