The Mage playstyle in League of Legends is one that has existed and been supported since the start of the game. From older Champions like Anivia and Annie to the newest Mage on the block, Aurora, each Mage has a unique design and playstyle that caters towards a particular niche or fantasy for players to enjoy from both aesthetics and gameplay angles.

With Season 14, Mages are in a decent spot! Viable in various roles and deeply present in Pro-Play. This defines Mages as one of the most consistent archetypes in the game, so let’s talk about what Mages are the best of the best. We’ll break down each sub-type of Mage, while also throwing in a few honorable mentions as well!

The Mage - How They Are Designed

Mage Champions in League of Legends are defined by their range, damage, area of effect ability, and their crowd control. Each of these tends to layer themselves over the others through ability combinations, so you'll find that Mages have kits that promote early set-ups, timely aggression, and resource management. Due to the raw damage that Mages can pump out, most Mages are designed to be high resource and skill-shot focused, meaning that most of their damage isn’t guaranteed and requires careful aim and timing on the player’s part. Due to this, many Mages scale extremely well due to items giving Mages access to base stats that amplify their output and resiliency.

While Mages are often considered a ‘Carry’ playstyle due to their damage output, when a Mage is struggling in-game, many can opt for more utility focused playstyles due to the crowd-control tools they are equipped with. Their CC can be used to manipulate the movement of the enemy, peel off divers from important teammates, and help control choke points around objectives and within the Jungle. This allows them to be viable in multiple lanes in-game with each role having a prominent Mage to take advantage of certain matchups and conditions.

Generally speaking, Mages match well against squishier archetypes like Marksmen due to their ability to hold them down and burst them down quickly. They also excel against Champion archetypes like Juggernauts due to their low mobility. Being a high crowd-control focused class themselves, Mages can use their CC to kite out and limit the options of Champion designed in this space.

Lastly, not every Mage is made equal. There are three prominent sub-types of Mages, and a few Champions that are outside those sub types that have similar play-patterns to the typical Mage style while bending their rules a bit. The three archetypal Mage designs are: Burst, Artillery (Poke), and Battlemage. The rule bending crowd are called ‘Specialist’ within their own category, but Champions in this space often have similar play patterns and ideas as Mages and thus are typically considered within the same space.

So, with all that said, let’s get into which Mages are currently dominating Season 14!

Burst Mage - Vex, the Gloomist

Released in 2021, Vex has been an extremely successful Mage since her release with only one or two down patches in her three-year lifespan. Almost always floating at a 50% or higher win rate, Vex finds herself as a mainstay in League of Legends’ meta due to her uniquely punishing gameplay design.

While simple to understand and play around, Vex is known to be one of LoL’s premiere mobility punishers. Champions like Azir, Ezreal, Yasuo, Yone, Irelia, and Leblanc all hate laning and playing against Vex as when these Champions get to dashing around, it triggers Vex’s passive Doom ‘n Gloom.

Doom ‘n Gloom periodically empowers Vex’s abilities, causing them to fear enemies that she hits. But, when an enemy Champion dashes near Vex, they are instead marked by Doom ‘n Gloom, allowing Vex to proc the mark with an ability resulting in the marked target being feared. This allows her to take advantage of matchups that many Mages struggle with, Assassins and Divers, as these Champion types often look to use their mobility to get on top of their foes for big damage. Vex simply denies them of that gameplan and bursts them down with big damage in return.

However, Vex suffers from low range, a weakness that Mages typically don’t possess. This allows her to be abused by the scrappier Battlemages and Poke Mages, as well as other archetypes that can circumvent her dash related proc.

As of patch 14.14, Vex is sitting at a respectable 51%+ win rate in Mid and is ranked S+ tier according to U.GG.

Battlemage - The Serpent’s Embrace, Cassiopeia

Released in 2010, Cassiopeia is one of LoL’s longest running Champions with a penchant for poisons. Her design space initially existed as a DoT focused Mage, who wanted to control space with AOE poisons, biting at those that dared entered into her viper’s pit. But that design didn’t stick with much success. Reworked in Patch 6.9, Cassio became Riot’s first attempt at an anti-mobility Mage and the design has stuck. Cassio has since been one of League’s best counter-pick Champions and often has her time in the sun across Top, Mid, and Bot Lane.

Of course, Riot didn’t fully abandon the venomous identity of Cassio’s damage over time. In fact, each of her abilities, minus her ultimate, applies a bit of ticking damage that serves to unlock Cassio’s primary damage ability, her E, Twin Fang.

Twin Fang has its damage increased against poisoned targets, so much of Cassio’s gameplay is fishing for an application of poison from her Q or W, before she proceeds to chase down enemies relentlessly biting them as a viper would if you entered its den. Beyond that though, there’s Cassio’s identity as an anti-mobility Mage. In this regard, her W and R serve as the primary deterrent. Her W, Miasma, grounds enemies that are within its radius. This prevents them from utilizing any mobility spells or abilities until they leave its noxious area. Additionally, it applies poisons and slows the targets within, allowing Cassio to nip at them with Twin Fang.

Cassio’s ultimate serves as her big choke point control spell. If enemies are facing Cassio when she casts it, they are turned to stone which stuns them for 2 seconds. Otherwise, enemies are slowed by 40%. Both aspects of this ultimate allow setup for Cassio’s Miasma and enable her to easily land her Q, Noxious Blast, all of which turn on Twin Fang’s DPS output.

Cassio’s weaknesses are common Mage-like weaknesses. If her abilities are whiffed, she can be abused by a high mobility Champion who can take advantage of her lack of movement options. Additionally, as a Battlemage, she’s designed to work within a short to mid-range setting. So, against long-range Mages like Xerath, she has a hard time impacting a lane.

As of patch 14.14, Cassio is sitting in U.GG’s S-tier with a 52%+ win rate in Mid, her primary role. While sitting at 54% win rates in Top and Bot, though the sample size for these is significantly smaller, is extremely matchup based.

Artillery Mage - The Lady of Luminosity, Lux

Released in 2010, Lux is one of League of Legends poster Champions. So, it’s no surprise to see her make this list as one of the strongest Mages in the game. While she’s had some down periods, Lux has persevered through them and to become one of LoL’s popularity pillars alongside the likes of Ahri and Yasuo. This means, whether she’s a viable pick in the meta or not, you’re probably going to see a lot of Lux.

Lux’s kit is simply designed. Each of her abilities mark enemies they hit. If Lux autos those enemies during the marked duration, they are dealt a burst of magic damage. Additionally, her ultimate also consumes those marks as well. So, much of Lux’s gameplay revolves around a pattern of hitting an opponent with an ability and looking to proc that mark with an auto, or hard burst with her ultimate.

The easiest way to apply her mark is with her primary damage and poke tool her E, Lucent Singularity. This ability sends out an orb to a target location, at the location the orb expands creating a slowing field. When reactivated, the orb explodes dealing magic damage and marking enemies hit. This ability can be used to threaten chokes, set up her Q, Light Binding, which is her primary CC tool, and can reveal fogged areas allowing for safe movement. When combined with her ultimate, all of her abilities layer together to offer quite a bit of burst to accompany her range, even at her secondary role, Support.

Lux’s major downsides are her mobility and paper-thin defenses. This causes her to struggle against champions with higher mobility, who force her to hold her Q for peel in most matchups in Mid. The same can be said for Support too, but an extra layer of weakness creeps in there as Lux’s poke and catch playstyle can be countered through Supports that offer good sustain for their lane partners. Think Milio, Nami, or Sona who can heal or shield most of Lux’s damage away.

As of 14.14, Lux sits at a 51% winrate in Mid and a struggling 48% winrate at Support, her most popular role, according to U.GG.

Honorable Mentions

Ahri - The mascot of League of Legends and the chosen champion of the Unkillable Demon King, Faker. Ahri is an all-around in Mid, occupying both Assassin and Mage-like spheres capable of diving deep or playing back in a flexible and mixed approach. She’s been a stalwart throughout Season 14 and with a $500 skin incentivizing Riot to keep her powerful, that doesn’t look like it’ll slow down any time soon.

Xerath - Were it not for Lux’s higher winrate in Mid, we’d have slotted Xerath where she stands. Xerath is a great option to work similar angles to Lux and other poke Supports, but he offers less utility.

Vladimir - For several patches now, Vlad’s been a sneaky competitor. With viability in both Top and Mid. While he’s not pushing high winrates, he’s a matchup nightmare for a lot of solo laners.

Seraphine - Narrowly missing the mark from making the full list, Seraphine is a triple flex threat between Mid, Bot, and Support. Able to take advantage of the income of carry lanes and work with the meager income of Support thanks to her utility. Playrates in her carry roles are declining though thanks to adjustments to steer her towards Support, but there are a few tried and true Carry Sera’s still kicking those winrates into the 54+ range.

Aurora - League’s newest Champion bunny-hopped on the Rift and has been overshadowed by the Swarm game mode. We expect once the event dust settles, more attention will be given to Aurora who is coming out the release gate strong!

Closing

There you have it folks! The strongest Mages in Season 14 thus far! We expect these picks, and our honorable mentions, to remain steadfast through the season unless Riot drop kicks them through extreme tuning. Keep an eye on those patch notes and pick up one of these Champs for some fun Mage-like time!