I need advice on how to climb top lane

Thai777··1 votes·2,675 views

I am a top lane main that has mostly played normals until now but I'm trying to climb, and the more I play, the more I see how I can't carry the game as riven top. I know this is a ardent censer meta with bot lane deciding most game by their skills, but in 10 of the ranked I played, my bot lane lost 8 time and won 2 time. In those 10 games I lost my lane 1 time. Aren't I supposed to win more than lose as long as I don't lose my lane? I even use the mastery for reduced cd on tp to help bot as much as I can, I make sure to ping when I see the enemy jungler or when my top laner roam but I just can't seem to be able to climb. I can never get an enough big advantage to solo carry the game, most of the time bot lane would already be 0/6 when the enemy top is only 0/2 then they lose their tower and they all come roaming top giving the enemy a chance to come back.

I need advice on how to climb on riven top, I can't seem to see the path to climb.

10 Comments

Nik Nikerson1 votes

10 games is such a small sample size, it means nothing. You will win more if you're winning lane, but that's over the long term. There's just too many variables in game for it to have an implications in the short term.

Grinding out ranks is usually just that: A grind. It takes a while, and losses are part of it.

Riven is also an early game snowball champ. Just winning lane isn't always enough because she needs to come out of lane with a big advantage. Some times this means you'll win lane, but not by enough to impact the rest of the game.

Thai7771 votes

But I don't have the time to grind a lot, does that mean I'll have to get stuck until I get more time?

Nik Nikerson1 votes

Pretty much.

Thai7771 votes

I see. Thank you for the advice

Cybernetic Ghost1 votes

Player has a bad game = unskilled Player trying a new champion = unskilled Player new to League = unskilled .... ....

You would have no way to accurately measure the gameplay success of players by letting others mark them as "unskilled." I've played plenty of matches where I dominated the enemy player/team, and others where I got crushed just as badly. Losses don't necessarily mean lack of skill. This idea won't work.

Thai7771 votes

I don't understand this point, I don't think I mentionned anyone that was unskilled? I know that people can have bad games. What I'm wondering is if I'm doing something wrong since it seems every game I lose because the bot lane enemy is dominating my bot lane. And as a Riven top I'm nowhere near as useful as a tank for the bot lane in teamfights.

Cybernetic Ghost1 votes

Ignore my above statement. I mistakenly posted that initial reply here instead of the intended thread. Sorry for the confusion.

Now, for this thread: I'm not familiar with Riven except for the 2-3 times I have played her, but in general, just remember that this is a team game, and you're attempting to climb solo queue. That means you're with 9 other people all competing for their own self-satisfaction instead of playing cohesively.

That said, again, this is a team game. You and your team have to be swift in adapting to the strengths and weaknesses of the other team. If your bot is losing to the enemy adc, then ideally jungle and mid need to apply more pressure to the bot lane. If the jungler on your side is forced to camp bot because of it, be ready to cover mid instead of relying on the jungler to do it. Of course, your mid should be winning their lane too, but your timely interventions can help your mid dominate theirs if your jungle and bot are occupied by their own lane's activity. Evidently, Riven snowballs early. If you don't get enough of a lead on your opponent, you will have a hard time dominating the lane. That's fine. Rather than being the top lane carry, you can switch to being a bruiser-assassin to support the team by cleaning up in teamfights if the situation requires it.

Solo queue is brutal for anything other than organized teamwork. Don't feel too bad if you're not getting up the ladder as fast as you expect. It takes lots of practice, as I'm sure you know. Remember--you're with 9 other people in it for themselves. Teamwork wins games, not individual skill. You have to convince the team to work as a unit. In solo queue, everyone assumes you know all the ins and outs of the champion you bring to the match, which is why the attitude from a lot of them is horrible if you perform poorly.

Look up a few YouTube videos about "climbing solo queue." If you pay close attention to each video, the players featured almost always play with one buddy to coordinate abilities with, even if it was just a guy the user formed a premade with for the next round. Hardly anyone actually gets up the ladder completely on their own. You'd have to be incredibly lucky or extremely skilled, and that combination is quite rare.

Thai7771 votes

The problem is that in the environment of solo queue sometimes people just don't trust what you say so teamwork is impossible. Thank you for your advice.

Senpai Negro1 votes

I play Riven and Darius and I have been working on my smurf this past week. It started off Silver 3 and I just got it to Plat. Going for Diamond now. Currently at a 41 win/21 lose. Yeah, this meta seriously hinders top lane solo carrying. Bot lane just has such a massive influence on the game its unreal. Oh you're 4/0 Riven but the enemy bot is a 5/0 Tristana with a Janna support? Bye. Doesn't matter. The only thing you can hope for in a situation like this is to try and find Tristana alone. My only advice is to take top tower as fast as possible and roam. Nothing more to it. If you're trying to climb from top lane as Riven and not smurfing good luck, you need it. Bot lane is just too influential right now.

Thai7771 votes

Thank you for your advice

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