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.
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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.
Updated February 5, 2025 by Joe Grantham: There are many debates about the hardest champs to play in League, with some champions being harder to figure out at first while others have an achievable skill floor, but a skill ceiling that can take years to reach. This list is mostly focused on those who are hard to pick up at first, with some champions being so confusing or complex that many players are put off even attempting to pilot them.
There is also application to consider. For example, early-game and difficult champions like Kalista and Nidalee are useless if players don't get ahead on them, which is hard to do for beginners.
14 Cassiopeia
High APM & Requires Great Kiting
- Players have to constantly weave Cassio's Es and Qs in while kiting.
- Chaotic teamfights can quickly become overwhelming.
Cassiopeia is among the hardest LoL champions to play as her play style is similar to DPS marksmen, except she deals damage with abilities, rather than easier autos. Her E - Twin Fangs, are her main source of damage with an incredibly low cooldown. However, to maximize its damage and heal herself, her E needs to be used on poisoned targets, which means she needs to hit her Q every 3 seconds or so.
If everyone was stationary, including Cassio herself, this wouldn't be too hard, but to play the Serpent's Embrace effectively, players need to do all of this while kiting. In chaotic teamfights, this is far from easy. Additionally, her W is a unique ability in the game, and players will have to learn when and where to place it in order to ground champions with dashes. Lastly, her ultimate can be incredibly impactful, but it requires great timing as enemies are only stunned if they are facing Cassio when it is cast.
13 Katarina
Katarina Has Tonnes Of Dashes, Resets, & Combos
- Players must constantly dash around and perform combos, all while playing on a knife's edge.
- With no CC, utility, or tankiness, Katarina must deal lots of damage to be of any use.
Katarina has some of the highest damage potential in the game, but those playing her for the first time are in for a rough learning curve. First of all, Katarina is extremely squishy and deals most of her damage in melee range, meaning she is incredibly easy to kill. The only exception to this is her mobility, but this relies on the player's skill and accuracy.
To deal damage, players will need to execute a variety of combos, and constantly pick up her daggers for extra burst. Katarina also relies on resets to come out ahead in teamfights, which is why skilled mains are often able to get pentakills. This leads to another aspect of why Katarina is considered one of the most difficult-to-play champions in League. To be of any use to her team, with zero CC or utility, Katarina must get ahead. She cannot simply farm and scale for the late game, so players must be aggressive, get kills in lane, and then roam for more.
12 Draven
To Deal Damage & Stack, Draven Must Catch His Axes After Each Auto
- Catching Draven's axes between autos completely changes the play pattern of an ADC.
- If players don't play aggressively and get ahead, Draven will be practically useless.
Most ADC champions or marksmen play in pretty much the same way, and picking up a new one usually isn't too hard. However, Draven is a notable expectation to this rule. What makes him much harder to pick up is that after every auto, Draven should ideally catch the axe he just threw, which means completely repositioning.
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Draven wants to catch axes for two reasons. Firstly, he will deal more damage and can reuse his W for a burst of movement speed. Secondly, every catch results in an extra stack, which he can hopefully cash in by securing a kill. This is how Draven gets strong. Predicting where axes will land, dodging enemy attacks, and chasing down opponents while catching axes are all hard for newcomers to Draven. Even once players have learned to farm with Draven, and they feel comfortable in small bot lane skirmishes, transferring these skills to teamfights is another problem.
11 Qiyana
Lots Of Combos & Players Must Learn Which Elements To Use In Each Situation
- Qiyana's elements change the way her abilities work, and the difficulty lies in selecting the right one for each moment.
- She has a number of surprisingly difficult combos.
To those who don't play Qiyana, she doesn't appear to be the hardest of champions. However, anyone with in-depth knowledge of the mid lane assassin, knows that there's a big difference between a newcomer fumbling around with her abilities and a main who has mastered all the combos for maximum damage.
Qiyana has a plethora of combos and they all need to be executed at lightning speeds, but the other tricky thing about her is knowing which elements to use and when. For example, there are times when using her invisibility makes more sense than her stun, even if the latter seems like the better option at first.
10 Riven
High APM, Dozens Of Combos & Animation Cancels
- To maximize DPS, Riven players will want to learn how to weave in autos between abilities.
- Riven is balanced around her combos, so players who don't know them won't be strong.
Riven has always been considered one of LoL's hardest champions, and when people think of animation canceling and complex combos, she is likely the first name that pops into their head. In terms of jumping into a game without any prior experience, Riven's abilities by themselves aren't that hard to understand or use. The problem is that players will deal very little damage without the correct combos, as she is balanced for players who know them.
With three casts of her Q and short cooldowns across her other abilities, there are dozens of Riven combos to learn, and these need to be memorized and pulled off mechanically. Finally, players must also discover which combos should be used in certain situations. With lots of autos and movement commands before or after her abilities to cancel their animations, it's easy to see why Riven is one of the highest APM champions in League.
9 Lee Sin
Lee Sin Is All About Tricky Combos & A Difficult Ultimate
- Lee Sin has double the amount of basic abilities that need to be used in complex combos.
- His ult is hard to use effectively.
Lee Sin has always been considered one of League's hardest champs for several reasons. Firstly, his three basic abilities all have two parts, meaning there's a lot more key-clicking for the blind monk. As no single ability of Lee Sin's is that strong by itself, success comes down to how players use their multiple casts in combination. The amount of combos on Lee Sin with his two dashes is truly staggering.
Arguably the hardest thing about Lee Sin, however, is his ultimate, which kicks an enemy away. While simple in isolation, kicking an enemy away isn't that useful for a champion who wants to get kills. Thus, players will need to learn how to "insec," which is a term for delivering a target into the team's hands, and in Lee Sin's case, he must find a way to the other side of his opponent to find the right angle. This can be done by ward-hopping or with a kick-flash combo.
8 Kalista
Kalista Jumps With Every Auto & Players Must Know When To Rend Her Spears
- Players must get used to Kalista's unique form of movement.
- Knowing when to press E and Rend her spears from a target takes a lot of experience.
Kiting is already one of the hardest mechanics for ADCs, but Kalista takes this to a whole other level. This is because, with every auto attack, Kalista can hop with movement commands that would make a normal champion walk. What this means is that before players can even learn her four abilities, they must first relearn how to attack.
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Chasing after enemies or kiting back while dodging skill shots is quite the headache for those new to Kalista. Moving on to her abilities, Kalista is all about landing as many spears on an enemy as she can until they look like a porcupine. The difficulty with this is that her autos and Q don't deal much damage upfront, and instead, players must have experience with her to know exactly when to Rend, pulling out all the spears for terrific damage. Kalista also has many niche mechanics that are required to deal significant damage.
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.
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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.