Support Tier List Patch 26.13 — Best Supports LoL 2026

If you want to climb ranked as support in Patch 26.13, picking from the right tier makes a bigger difference than your individual mechanics. This guide breaks down every viable support champion by tier — from the dominant S-tier playmakers to the situational B-tier picks — with win rates, key strengths, and the comps where each champion shines.

The support meta in Patch 26.13 is shaped by two moves: targeted nerfs to poke-heavy picks (Bard, Brand) and an Imperial Mandate buff that opens up enchanter mages (Karma, Lulu, Sona) as a viable second-item power spike. Teamfight supports rule the patch — Seraphine leads the entire role.

S Tier — The Best Support Champions Right Now S

These are the support champions with the highest impact on Patch 26.13. If you want to maximise your win rate, start here.

Seraphine

Seraphine dominates the role at a 54.2% win rate and is untouched this patch. Her Stage Presence passive (double-casting near allies), poke plus heal in a single kit, and an ultimate that chains through multiple targets make her the go-to teamfight support. With Bard and Senna both moving out of the dominant pick slots, her numbers only trend up.

She’s the pick when your team wants to group and fight — which, in patch 26.13, is most games.

Rell

Rell is untouched and thriving. Crash Down into Magnet Storm remains one of the highest crowd-control chains in the game, and the 26.13 ADC buffs play straight into her hands: she synergises particularly well with Draven (who needs a short follow-up window to keep axes rolling) and Miss Fortune (Bullet Time into a stunned-and-slowed cluster). If you like setting the pace of the bot lane, this is the engage pick of the patch.

Sona

Sona benefits from both item stories of the patch: the Imperial Mandate buff gives her a real second-item power spike, and the Doran’s Helm nerf cuts Senna’s sustain advantage in the matchups Sona used to lose. Her Crescendo plus Mandate combo now has the easiest path to being the most efficient support damage setup in the game — and the Kog’Maw + Sona duo is a priority pick in organised play this patch.

Lulu

Lulu rises with the carries she protects. With Caitlyn, Draven, Aphelios, and Kog’Maw all strong in 26.13, Polymorph into Wild Growth is the most reliable hypercarry-saving toolkit in the pool — her value scales directly with how much the enemy team wants to dive your backline. Pick her whenever your ADC is the win condition.

A Tier — Strong and Reliable Support Picks A

A-tier supports are excellent choices with a clearly defined game plan. They just have slightly more situational limitations than S-tier.

Nami

Nami blends sustained poke, healing, and chain CC in one kit. Her Q lands as one of the most punishing AoE stuns in the bot lane at level 3, her E empowers your ADC’s auto-attacks with a slow on every hit, and Tidal Wave provides team-wide engage or disengage in one button press. She’s safe into aggressive lanes — which the 26.13 Draven meta produces plenty of.

Thresh, Milio, and Leona

The former S-tier trio remains excellent, just no longer top of the pool. Thresh keeps his unlimited playmaking ceiling — hook, lantern, box — and there’s still no wrong time to pick him unless your team lacks peel. Milio stays the safest enchanter blind pick with his team-wide cleanse, though Lulu’s synergy with the buffed hypercarries edges him out this patch. Leona still owns the fastest stun chain in the game, but Rell’s chained CC converts better into the Seraphine-era teamfights.

Soraka

Soraka held a 52.0% win rate in Emerald+ last patch and remains the best pure healing support for sustaining carries in lane. Her Wish ultimate frequently swings fights she was never near. She is the go-to pick when your team drafts a frontline that lets her position safely.

Avoid Soraka into teams with Grievous Wounds priority — Ignite, Katarina, or Viego can cripple her output. She also has virtually zero engage, so your team needs to provide that elsewhere.

Karma

Karma rewards flexible thinking — and the Imperial Mandate buff makes her second-item spike genuinely valuable in poke compositions this patch. Her Mantra Q delivers massive poke damage, her E provides a strong shield with movement speed, and her Mantra W root-plus-slow can substitute as soft crowd control in non-engage comps.

She fits poke lanes alongside Caitlyn or Ezreal, protect comps with immobile carries, and roaming setups where her speed bonuses help her rotate faster than most supports can.

Alistar

Alistar rises with the aggressive bot lane meta. His Q-W combo is a two-hit displacement that knocks enemies away and stuns simultaneously — one of the best 2v2 kill combos in the game, and it pairs beautifully with Draven’s buffed lane pattern. His passive healing and ultimate tankiness let him absorb enormous punishment in extended fights. He requires a communicative partner to convert his setups.

Blitzcrank

Blitzcrank is always relevant when your team drafts well around him. A landed hook in the right moment is a free kill, and his ultimate silence at close range punishes grouped enemies in fights. He provides the highest single-target pick threat of any support in the game.

His limitation is predictability — experienced players dodge his hook consistently. He rewards discipline, lane knowledge, and reading enemy positioning rather than random hook spam.

B Tier — Solid Situational Support Choices B

B-tier supports work well in specific scenarios. They are not the highest-efficiency pick on most drafts, but mastery or the right team composition can elevate them.

Bard

Bard drops from A to B tier with a direct 26.13 nerf: his Meep damage formula changes from 35 (+10 per 5 Chimes) to 30 (+6 per 5 Chimes), removing significant damage in Chime-heavy late-game scenarios. He’s still effective on roam-heavy compositions, but the skill floor for extracting value from him just went up.

Brand

Brand also drops. Higher mana costs (90 at all ranks) and reduced Blaze detonation damage soften the oppressive lane phase that made him a bot lane menace — and with Senna nerfed out of the dominant pick slot, he loses one of his best lane partners too.

Lux

Lux keeps her identity as the mage support with long-range poke, solid burst on a short cooldown, and a bind that sets up kills from across the lane. Her weakness is that her E shield has a long cooldown and landing her skill shots requires precision. She punishes immobile matchups and teams that play into her range advantage.

Braum

Braum is an excellent reactive tank support. His passive — four enhanced hits to stun — enables his ADC’s autos in fights, and his W vault onto allied minions or champions enables surprise engage angles. His ultimate Glacial Fissure is one of the best team-fight disruption tools in the game. He is strongest in melee-heavy comps and weakest against long-range poke.

Pyke

Pyke is the assassin support. He offers roam pressure, hook potential, and a resetting ultimate that gives gold to allies. He underperforms in pure lane phase compared to traditional supports, but his mid-game presence and snowball potential make him viable for players who prioritise map control over lane safety.

C Tier — Weaker Supports in Patch 26.13 C

These supports are below the current average and require more investment to produce results comparable to higher-tier alternatives.

Yuumi

Yuumi never fully returned from her long stretch outside viability. The W and Q buffs from patch 26.8 helped at the margins, but her reliance on a hyper-carry host means she has little independent agency — punishing in solo queue, even with the current hypercarry pool theoretically suiting her.

Zilean

Zilean is a niche pick for experienced players who want a time-stop ultimate that can single-handedly save a fed carry from death. His bomb slow provides solid poke, but his kit demands exceptional bomb-double-tap timing and offers less raw utility than most other supports at the same skill investment.

Patch 26.13 Support Meta — What Changed

Patch 26.13 reshapes support around two levers: who got nerfed, and which item got buffed.

• Bard nerfed: Meep formula drops from 35 (+10 per 5 Chimes) to 30 (+6 per 5 Chimes). Significant late-game damage loss on Chime-heavy games; he falls from A to B tier.
• Brand nerfed: Mana cost up to 90 at all ranks (from 70–90) and Blaze detonation max-health damage lowered from 8–12% to 6–12%. His oppressive poke lane gets harder to sustain.
• Imperial Mandate buffed: Enchanter mages — Karma, Lulu, Sona — can now build it as a genuine second-item power spike. This is the quiet change with the biggest tier list impact: it’s a big part of why Sona jumps into S tier.
• Senna nerfed (via Doran’s Helm): Not a support-slot change per se, but her exit from the dominant bot picks reshuffles lane matchups — Seraphine and Sona both benefit directly.

The net effect: poke supports lose ground, teamfight and enchanter supports gain it. Draft accordingly.

How We Rank Support Champions

Our tier list is built on three data points evaluated at Emerald+ rank on Patch 26.13 (26.12 win rate data adjusted for the 26.13 balance changes, same methodology as our full tier list):

1. Win rate — the most direct signal of a champion’s current strength. We weight Emerald+ data over all-rank data because it filters out mechanical skill gaps that skew lower-rank win rates (Thresh looks worse at Iron; Yuumi looks better).
2. Pick rate and consistency — a champion with a 53% win rate but a 0.5% pick rate may be a counterpick niche rather than a broadly strong choice. We factor in how often a champion appears and in what context.
3. Matchup breadth — a support that wins 70% of games in one matchup and 40% in three others is ranked lower than a support that wins 51–53% across the board. Blind-pick safety matters in solo queue.

Stats are cross-checked against public aggregators (u.gg, metasrc, Mobalytics). Win rates shift over the first two to three days after a patch as the player base adjusts.

How to Choose the Right Support Champion for Your Playstyle

Tier lists tell you who is strong. This section helps you figure out who is strong for you.

Enchanters (Lulu, Sona, Milio, Soraka, Karma) suit players who want to win by protecting and amplifying their carries. You need good positioning, awareness of your ADC’s cooldowns, and the discipline to not overextend. In patch 26.13 — with Caitlyn, Aphelios, and Kog’Maw all strong — enchanters are having a moment.

Engage tanks (Rell, Leona, Alistar, Braum) suit players who want to set the pace and create kills. You initiate, your team follows. Communication helps, but knowing when an enemy is overextended is a skill that transfers between all engage champions.

Mage supports (Seraphine, Lux, Zyra) suit players comfortable with skill shots and who want to deal damage rather than enable carries. They punish immobile ADC matchups and scale into relevant team-fight damage — and Seraphine is the single best support in the game right now.

Hook supports (Thresh, Blitzcrank) are the playmaking picks. You win or lose on the strength of your individual hooks and the timing of your reads.

Once you pick your champion, itemization adapts based on how the game is progressing — whether you need more shielding, more aura utility, or more tankiness. Tools like buildzcrank use real-time data to recommend item adjustments based on your specific in-game state, so you are never guessing what to build next.

For context on who your ADC should be playing alongside your support pick, check the best ADC champions guide for Season 2026 or the full LoL tier list for Patch 26.13 for a broader cross-role view.

Frequently Asked Questions About LoL Supports in 2026