Sometimes games release characters that end up being too powerful. These are the most overpowered League of Legends champions on release.
Over the years, Riot has accumulated notoriety for releasing champions in an overpowered state. Aside from overtuned numerical values, Riot frequently overloads new champions with never-before-seen mechanics.
Power creep is an ongoing issue in Summoner’s Rift, and outdated champions slowly lose relevance with each new addition. In this list, we’ll look at some of the League of Legends’ champions that were most overpowered on release. While this list deserves to be much longer, these champions make the cut for deeply traumatizing players during their peak.
Zoe
Zoe’s gimmick centers around her second ability: Spell Thief. The ability lets her steal enemy summoner abilities and active ability casts, which means that winning the lane comes down to simple luck. If Zoe gets lucky (which often happens), she can grab a Teleport to reset the lane or go all-out with offensive spells.
Furthermore, Zoe had busted numbers on release. Back then, she would fish for sleeps with Sleepy Bubble Trouble and one-shot enemies. There was virtually no counterplay once you got hit by one ability.
Irelia (2018 Rework)
Irelia is one of the most overpowered champions on release because of how fast she needed a hotfix, rivaling LeBlanc in Riot’s emergency response time. Her full rework made her a durable bruiser with unparalleled sustain and mobility. Irelia was a dominant dueler and team fighter who could take big hits and dish out even more.
Aside from her base stats, her ultimate is amazing at locking down the target with the additional disarm component. Even today, Irelia is still a difficult champion to take on—now, just imagine her during her peak.
Ryze (2015 Rework)
Ryze is one of League of Legends’ most reworked champions, as Riot isn’t exactly sure what to do with their spell-slinging battlemage. Ryze’s 2015 rework is his most oppressive iteration, able to lock down anyone in the game while barraging them with an unending amount of spells. Ryze’s endless roots, durability, and damage made him the king of duels.
Aphelios
Aphelios highlights Riot’s obsession with an overloaded kit. Aphelios doesn’t have abilities like a regular champion; instead, he rotates between five weapons, each with its attack modifiers and abilities. From the casual players to pro players and casters, people were still determining what an Aphelios player was doing (if they knew at all).
But, one thing was certain: Aphelios tormented Summoner’s Rift for nearly a year. His weapon variety gave him all the tools with none of the weaknesses, easily adapting to any situation. Only Riot, and their 200 years of collective experience, can create such a complex champion.
Xin Zhao
Xin Zhao was one of the earliest yet most oppressive overpowered releases. Affectionally named “Win Now” by the community, you could do nothing once you were on the same screen as him. Xin Zhao was more than capable of taking the enemy team by himself, and players back then were happy to exploit his power.
Xin Zhao was one of the first cases of an emergency hotfix attempting to nerf him; despite that, it took many patches before he wasn’t dominating every game he was in, making him the champion that was most overpowered on releases.
