Expeditions Tier List: Best Champions to First-Pick

Updated for Beyond the Bandlewood!

When a player embarks on a new Expedition trial, the very first decision he has to make is to pick two Champions for his deck. This choice is of utmost importance as it will guide a whole draft in a particular direction.

The Expeditions mode algorithm offers draft choices based on the cards a player has already included in their deck during previous picks. Hence, starting champions determine your deck to a great measure, and knowing the criteria by which to select your champions comes a long way. The tier list presented in this article is a tool to help with that crucial drafting decision.

• This guide is intended for newer LoR players who need help evaluating the strength of champions in the environment of the Expeditions mode.
• Expeditions offer a player card choices within certain pre-built archetypes. Because of this, when making our Champion Picks we have to think of champions as staples from certain archetypes. The quality of those archetypes associated with a particular champion affects champions’ positioning in the tier list.
• The tier list below evaluates each LoR champion card in a ‘first Champion Pick scenario’. It is not advised to rely on the list heavily in the later stages of the draft.
• As you score more and more wins in a trial, you will also add new champions to your draft deck. However, at those later stages, many more factors affect your pick decisions than in the pure ‘first pick scenario’. By then, the deck will dictate your choice – in particular, the synergy and mana curve will be crucial to consider. As such, the lines drawn by the ‘first pick’ tier list can become blurry.
• Expeditions is a fairly diverse and well-balanced game mode, and any champion – even the one in the lowest tier – can carry the deck to 7 wins given the right build and circumstances. Tier list reflects only a relative strength, while it is your deckbuilding and piloting skills that matter the most to determine an outcome.

Criteria

While compiling the list, we took two parameters into account for each champion: 1) base value of a champion; 2) the quality of the champion’s archetypes.

‘Base Value Grade’ evaluates the power of a certain champion as a standalone card. Here’s the grading scale that was used to rate the base value of each champion:

• 5.0: The best of the best, one of the most powerful cards in the mode;
• 4.0: A bomb – but not unbeatable;
• 3.0: Good, perfectly playable champion;
• 2.0: Low-end playable;
• 1.0: Very hard to make work.

After the ‘Base Value’ grade for each champion wass determined, we then added or subtracted a few points from it depending on the quality of the champion’s archetypes. Those ‘Archetype Modifiers’ are ranging from -1.0 to +1.0 in points. The resulting ‘Overall Grade’ is then used to assign a ‘tier’ to each champion.

Thus we conclude our overview of Runeterra champions in a draft environment. Expeditions are a great way to learn the game and build up your collection, so hopefully, our tier list will help with your trials. Please, feel free to share your thoughts on the tier list, and good luck in your next Expedition!