With the announcement of the newest champion Nilah in mid-June of 2022, the League roster continues to expand. With over 150 champions, some League of Legends champions are bound to be harder than others.
Many things can make a League champion difficult, but apm (actions per minute) required to play the champion and the presence of difficult skill shots in their kit can make a champion incredibly difficult to play compared to some simpler beginner champions. Which are the toughest to master in the entire game?
Jayce
The hextech inventor himself is one of League's stranger champions, complete with the ability to battle either in his ranged form or his melee hammer form.
Jayce is one of Arcane's most brilliant inventors, and his ingenuity is part of the fantasy in his gameplay. Swapping between hammer form and cannon form correctly can be tricky, and much of the champion's damage is built into his accelerated shock blast skill shot, so inaccurate players will have a tough time doing anything with Jayce.
Cassiopeia
This powerful mid-lane snake woman is a former Noxian noble who ventured too far into the crypts of Shurima and became cursed with a new hideous form.
Gameplay-wise, Cassiopeia can't function without the ability to quickly kite incoming enemies. The mechanical ability and actions per minute required to properly pilot Cassiopeia can be tricky for newer players. Furthermore, her ultimate ability requires the enemy to be directly facing her, which can be tricky to time.
Fiora
Fiora is a top laner from Demacia with incredible healing powers. She's renowned for her dueling abilities and is a noblewoman with great swordsmanship in the lore.
In-game, Fiora's fantasy of being "the grand duelist" is displayed perfectly. The champion is usually a split pusher that thrives in one-on-one or one-on-two fights, while her team fighting capabilities can leave something to be desired. Fiora's kit takes such precision that it's advised to not even play her on servers like North America with higher ping.
Kalista
Kalista, "The Spear of Vengeance," is a bot lane marksman and the niece of the mighty shadow isles king Viego. Her actions accidentally led to the death of Viego's wife Isolde.
Kalisa's kit has similar difficulties to Cassiopeia. Her main damage source requires constantly clicking back or to the side while auto-attacking, making it difficult for players that aren't mechanically inclined. She also has a rare trait in the game: the ability to move her own allies, which can be obnoxious for teammates if used incorrectly.
Riven
Top lane bruiser Riven, "The Exile," was an incredibly powerful warrior for Noxus who stopped serving her country after seeing the consequences of its conquest in Ionia.
Riven's combos and animation cancels make her notoriously difficult to play at maximum efficiency. A bad Riven can do more than someone underperforming on some of the other difficult champions, but without the proper mechanics, a Riven will always be stuck in mediocrity.
Azir
Azir is the revived emperor of Shurima, gifted with incredible power. A mid-lane mage capable of summoning soldiers of sand to aid him, Azir has one of the game's most unique playstyles.
Azir is one of the signature champions of Faker, one of the best League of Legends pros ever. The champion's skill expression is incredible, with the "Shurima shuffle" combo of dashing into the enemy team and ulting them back into the ally team for a cleanup.
Qiyana
An assassin that can be played in either the mid-lane or jungle, Qiyana is an Ixaocan princess who desires to kill all her older sisters to become the heir.
Qiyana's difficulty is mostly rooted in the difficulty of escaping after securing a kill, as well as the overall mechanics required to properly utilize her dashes and skill shots. It's incredibly easy for even a new player to trade kills with Qiyana against a squishier target, but only experts can truly carry team fights with her.
Irelia
In the lore, the top lane fighter and "blade dancer" Irelia is bitter rivals with Noxian general Swain and a powerful fighter against the Noxian regime.
Irelia is one of the more controversial champions in the game from a design perspective, but the skill required to play her shouldn't be controversial. Maintaining Irelia's passive stacks, navigating team fights with a relatively frail melee champion, and making use of her difficult to land E make the champion one of the hardest.
Zoe
A messenger from Mount Targon, the mid-lane mage Zoe is a celestial being whose role is the personification of mischief and imagination.
Nearly all of Zoe's damage comes from one ability: her Q, an awkward and tricky skillshot to land. Her ultimate isn't even a damaging ability and mostly exists to help facilitate landing her Q later into the game. If Zoe players can't properly land plenty of Qs throughout a fight, they'll more or less be useless to the team.
Akali
"The Rogue Assassin" Akali is an Ionian ninja dedicated to keeping Ionia safe from danger, regardless of what underhanded tactics she may need to use.
Akali definitely isn't a champion for beginners to try, with so many potential things that could make the champion completely useless in a team fight. Her dashes aren't as simple to properly utilize as they may seem, and if she misses her Shuriken Flip she can be unable to get onto a target enemy.