Top 5 Best Late Game Mid Laners In Season 12

League of Legends has an extensive champion roster. We usually categorize the champions based on their type (mage, assassin, marksman) or their role (mid laner, top laner, jungler). Additionally, we can also divide the champions into groups corresponding to how fast they gain their powers in a given game.

For example, Lee Sin is strong at level 1. He doesn’t need too many additional levels or items to really shine. But Ryze does! And he needs way more gold than Lee or any similar champion to have a chance at winning the game.

However, the reason why most people have problems with late game champions, especially late game mid laners, is that they often seem broken. When they do get the items and levels they need, they can usually beat everyone. They deal a lot of damage, they heal a lot, and they pretty tank!

So, a lot of people enjoy this type of gameplay in League and prefer to have slower but more powerful progression. Fortunately, there are incredible late game champions in every role. But here, we’ll focus only on the top 5 best late game mid laners in League of Legends.

Let’s begin!

1. Veigar

Veigar hasn’t been a dominating mid lane pick in a long time. There are many factors that made this a reality, but two of them stand out from the rest. First, Veigar is an old champion with a simple ability kit that most people know how to play against. And second, Veigar is a scaling mage that prefers slow-paced games, which League doesn’t have anymore!

However, facts are facts. Veigar is one of the scariest champions to face in the late game, no matter what you’re playing. 

Thanks to his passive – Phenomenal Evil Power, Veigar’s ability power grows to absurd heights. This effect grants him AP every time he slays a minion with his Q or damages an enemy champion. In the course of a longer game, Veigar can reach up to 1000 AP (with items) or more. As a result, his damaging abilities hit like a truck and melt even tanks.

But this is the most obvious with Veigar’s ultimate. Primordial Burst has pretty high base damage, even without any items. And it deals more damage the lower the target’s HP is. But if you enhance this spell with 800+ AP, it can kill anyone on Summoner’s Rift. 

ADC mains often like to joke about Veigar being broken a call him a “one-button” champion. And they’re right to some extent. If Veigar reaches late game and has a large number of stacks, he can essentially one-shot the enemy carry simply by pressing “R.” This ability can have more damage than the marksman can have maximum HP, so a true one-shot is totally possible with this champion!

And that’s why Veigar is one of the best late game mid laners in League!

Also read: 5 Best Off-Meta Mid Laners

2. Sylas

Sylas is a unique type of champion in League of Legends. He is one of the few AP bruisers in the game, which basically means a melee fighter that can sustain himself. But Sylas’s ultimate also makes him a mage, marksman, and enchanter. And that plays a big part in his late game’s power!

You see, Syla’s R – Hijack steals the ultimate ability from a targeted champion. Early on, Hijack has an average cooldown, matching the ultimates from the other champions. However, Sylas build is packed with a lot of ability haste, so Hijack reaches a cooldown of around 15-20 seconds in the late game. 

In translation, Sylas can steal ultimates from two or three champions during the same team fight! For example, he can grab Ashe’s Enchanted Crystal Arrow to open up the fight. But he can also take Aatrox’s World Ender near the end to boost his self-healing and survive. Sylas’s effectiveness is often measured by the enemy composition, but that’s also what makes him strong!

Aside from Hijack, Sylas’s basic abilities are extremely useful too. His Q deals tons of damage after detonating, and his W is one of the best healing spells in the entire game. Because of it, players often find it difficult to slay Sylas in the late game, especially after purchasing Zhonya’s Hourglass.

So if you like to play as a mid lane melee powerhouse and beat everyone on the Rift with their own abilities, then Sylas is your type of champion!

3. Vladimir

Vladimir has always been a synonym for a late game champion. The way he is designed is to grow and outscale all other champions in the game if given enough time. Fortunately for Vlad, though, the last few seasons have introduced items that help him reach his power sooner rather than later. And truthfully, Vladimir is now a menace in all stages of the game!

One of the things that make Vladimir such a good late game mid laner is his passive. Crimson Pact takes a portion of Vlad’s ability power and turns it into maximum health. But it also takes a percentage of his HP and grants him a bonus AP. This means that no matter whether Vladimir builds HP or AP items, he still gets the opposite stats.

As a result, Vladimir is tankier than your average mid lane mage. And this tankiness works fantastically well with the rest of his abilities. That’s because Vladimir sacrifices his own health in order to cast his spells.

However, Vladimir has two ways to regenerate his lost HP. His Q is a simple point-click ability that grants an instant heal. And his R is an AoE debuff that explodes after a couple of seconds and heals Vlad from every champion hit.

Keep in mind that Vladimir doesn’t only heal himself with these abilities, but he also deals damage. And that damage is incredibly high in the late game, usually high enough to one-shot an enemy ADC. Combine it with the fact that you can’t kill Vladimir (not least not quickly enough), and you’ve got yourself one the best late game mid laners in LoL!

4. Kassadin

Kassadin is one of those champions that you don’t see very often, but when you do, he’s going absolutely bonkers on everybody! His ability kit is also designed to achieve full power in the late game, so prolonging the game against Kassadin is always risky!

And If you’re looking for tips on how to beat Kassadin, the first thing you’ll find is to end the match around the 20th minute. This is because Kassadin’s powers double at level 16 when he takes the 3rd rank of his ultimate – Riftwalk.

Riftwalk is a simple point-click jump spell that also deals damage. You can stack this damage up to 4 times. And in the late game, when Kassadin has 3-4 scaling AP items, Riftwalk can obliterate anyone on the map. The cooldown is ridiculous, and Kassadin can practically use it every second.

But the thing that makes Kassadin such a scary champion in the late game is the realization that you can’t really counter him in any way. True, he’s one of the easiest champions to beat in the early game. But if you’ve allowed him to farm and scale, it’s already GG! He doesn’t fight like most melee champions. Instead, he only jumps around and kills everyone!

On top of that, the way people build Kassadin is also difficult to beat. Zhonya’s Hourglass is one of his core items, making it hard for you to one-shot him. But items like Morellonomicon and Everfrost are also recommended since they give HP as well as AP. 

In the past, Kassadin’s Q used to apply silence to the target, on top of all these bonuses. And even though that’s not the case anymore, he’s still one of the most broken champs in the game!

5. Yasuo

Yasuo’s average performance may be your favorite meme on the internet, but the fact is that he’s in the top 5 strongest champions in League! He’s got defensive effects, mobility, dashes, and incredible damage that grows the more the game goes on!

When it comes to Yasuo, people often joke about his 0-10 power spike. The idea is that we often see Yasuo players do terribly on the champion but still manage to be unbelievably strong in the late game. They pick up Immortal Shieldbow and Infinity Edge, and suddenly Yasuo becomes this super-Saiyan that can duel everyone without even needing skill.

And we have Riot Games to blame for this! They haven’t properly distributed Yasuo’s power. And as a result, he is in a state in which he only requires 2 items to become better than all other champions at the game. The amount of critical strike and self-healing he gets is way too high to deal with, so people often ban him.

The strategy that most players run against Yasuo is to constantly camp him just so they can delay his 2 big purchases. But the reality is that Yasuo is similar to Kassadin in this regard. If you don’t finish the game before his power spike, he’ll eventually outscale you. 

But unlike Kassadin, Yasuo is strong in the early game too! And that’s what triggers most people. He’s great in all stages of the game but magnificent in the late game. 

Yasuo is probably one of the best champions to one trick as a mid laner and climb. So give him a chance and take these advantages for yourself!

Those are the top 5 best late game mid laners in LoL!

Check out this list of the top S13 junglers!