Ranged Top Laners, and How Painful it is

Atreus Jones··7 votes·6,833 views

Yesterday, I ran into another ranged top laner, and, since I was playing Darius, it was very hard to farm, forcing me to fall behind, and the whole time, the entire enemy team was watching top, making sure I never got any sort of lead. Jinx ults, Vi ganks mixed with Urgot ults, Jinx coming top.

Usually i'd play Pantheon into ranged match ups, being the lane bully god he is. But seeing as I had no idea i'd be up against a ranged top laner, I picked Darius.

Although I said nothing in chat besides ranged top laners are stupid, I was tilting so hard in reality.

Being a player of all the lanes, I run into many strange and interesting match ups. Ranged top laners are neither, they're painful to lane against as a Juggernaut, especially Quinn and Vayne, divers don't have to many problems with them, aside from a few.

Being someone used to playing a melee champ in the top lane, ranged top laners are very difficult, and yes ranged top laners have been around from the very beginning, Teemo, Ryze, yada yada, some of those old ranged top laners don't have a disengage that send you a couple to a few hundred units from them

As much as I want for there to be a system prohibiting ranged champions from going top, it's not likely a solution like that may exist. We either pray the Juggernauts and tanks get something, anything to stop this, or we wait for the inevitable top lane being a ranged lane as well

17 Comments

WalkingInACircle5 votes

Darius doesn't make me particularly sympathetic to this cause.

Atreus Jones1 votes

{quoted}

Darius doesn't make me particularly sympathetic to this cause.

I agree. I wouldn't be sympathetic towards someone who plays cancer champs, like me

im happy i dance3 votes

i dunno, heavy sustain and cc could easily counter range, aatrox and chogath are the answer

Penns2 votes

At least Darius can go tanky and beat squishy ranged champs like Gnar or Ryze. Also with preseason there are many melee top laners that are strong again Nautilus Sion Poppy Darius JarvanIV Renekton Nasus Maokai Irelia Riven even Rammus and so on.

What about ranged mid laners tho? If you look at the top win rates there, youre gonna start seeing melees at like 20/48 item 3070

Atreus Jones1 votes

{quoted}

At least Darius can go tanky and beat squishy ranged champs like Gnar or Ryze. Also with preseason there are many melee top laners that are strong again Nautilus Sion Poppy Darius JarvanIV Renekton Nasus Maokai Irelia Riven even Rammus and so on.

What about ranged mid laners tho? If you look at the top win rates there, youre gonna start seeing melees at like 20/48 item 3070

Ranged mids are getting beat out by Zed and Yasuo, off the top of my head. But Zed is an ad caster. So he is technically ranged in a sense.

Tychusfindlay9191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Alpha Braum Main,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=2YUaaY5p,comment-id=00040000,timestamp=2016-11-30T15:24:20.443+0000)

Ranged mids are getting beat out by Zed and Yasuo, off the top of my head. But Zed is an ad caster. So he is technically ranged in a sense.

Darius is also an ad caster. Caster doesnt mean ranged, ranged means ranged.

Tychusfindlay9192 votes

Take ghost flash, rush phage and defense boots. With that you can pretty much run down any top laner except this stupid fuck Jayce

legionnaire992 votes

item 3047

Lux HD1 votes

I'm gathering you were playing Darius into Urgot.

Obviously not a favorable matchup, but there's very little he can do if you have the jungler gank him.

And if the enemy Vi is camping top to keep you from getting any lead, then that opens mid and bot up for TP plays and snowballing.

Not every lane is going to be a winning matchup. Find your advantages elsewhere on the map. As the top laner, you should have as much map threat as everyone else on your team. If your strategy is "I'm going to stay top all game and get fed off of the enemy laner", you might want to rethink things.

Atreus Jones1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Lux HD,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=2YUaaY5p,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-11-30T14:52:54.793+0000)

I'm gathering you were playing Darius into Urgot.

Obviously not a favorable matchup, but there's very little he can do if you have the jungler gank him.

And if the enemy Vi is camping top to keep you from getting any lead, then that opens mid and bot up for TP plays and snowballing.

Not every lane is going to be a winning matchup. Find your advantages elsewhere on the map. As the top laner, you should have as much map threat as everyone else on your team. If your strategy is "I'm going to stay top all game and get fed off of the enemy laner", you might want to rethink things.

I used to play A LOT of Nasus when I was top. And my higher elo friends, yeah, Ikr weird that I have any, always tell me to push my lane no matter where my enemy laner is. Of course I did decide to finally leave lane. But Mid got beat to a pulp, before I was camped, and bot fed and just let Jinx free farm without any punishment for it, which is weird since our adc was an Ezreal. And our support was a Zilean. And yes, I am aware it sounds like i'm complaining, but just go look at the match. I'm not happy with my own score. But I wasn't exactly happy we had eyes on drag all the time and our Jungler didn't attempt a single steal or even to try and stop Vi totally. It cost us 3 infernals. Yes. He was nearby. And for a while I thought we could come back. Until Jinx was 13/0.

Atreus Jones1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Alpha Braum Main,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=2YUaaY5p,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-11-30T15:32:59.835+0000)

I used to play A LOT of Nasus when I was top. And my higher elo friends, yeah, Ikr weird that I have any, always tell me to push my lane no matter where my enemy laner is. Of course I did decide to finally leave lane. But Mid got beat to a pulp, before I was camped, and bot fed and just let Jinx free farm without any punishment for it, which is weird since our adc was an Ezreal. And our support was a Zilean. And yes, I am aware it sounds like i'm complaining, but just go look at the match. I'm not happy with my own score. But I wasn't exactly happy we had eyes on drag all the time and our Jungler didn't attempt a single steal or even to try and stop Vi totally. It cost us 3 infernals. Yes. He was nearby. And for a while I thought we could come back. Until Jinx was 13/0.

I have come back from many games because I got fed top. But I was to behind to do anything against a fed enemy team, they counter jungled in pairs, ganked in threes, the cards were stacked against mefrom the start. But I had hope everyone could do what I wasn't capable of doing.

Lux HD2 votes

So you being melee vs. ranged is not the reason the game was lost. Your team got outplayed on all fronts.

Atreus Jones1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Lux HD,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=2YUaaY5p,comment-id=0000000000000000,timestamp=2016-11-30T15:44:52.452+0000)

So you being melee vs. ranged is not the reason the game was lost. Your team got outplayed on all fronts.

Yes, but this post is mainly about the match up in the top lane

Maximum Morde1 votes

Kiting is supposed to counter Juggernauts. Either ban the counters or accept that picking a Jug early puts you at high risk of counter pick.

Of course, Urgot pick was hard to forsee. You probably should have dodged that one.

Slythion1 votes

Riot, just buff item 1054 already...like c'mon it's not hard to increase it's single-target damage reduction by a few more points

Teémò1 votes

Not sure if serious, or doesn't understand how to fight urgot with massive mana issues. [slayer-pantheon-popcorn]

Noblewind1 votes

I'm trying to think of why this is unfair, because this is supposed to be an advantage during the laning phase.

Think of a situation where Darius into Quinn for example is an even matchup. If Darius on paper is ever even with champs that actually take advantage of his main weakness, that instantly makes him broken.

Also if you're rushing a BC every game regardless of matchup just delete the post

More from Gameplay

More by Atreus Jones