A little trick in playing melee vs ranged which will make all your melee ass lives easier

Spoofghoul··49 votes·15,469 views

Time your last hits with theirs, make them choose between getting a cs or getting a basic attack on you. If they harass you, you take out their minion and gain a cs advantage, this adds up over time.

Now you might think but they will bully me out of lane, well no, not really unless you got absolutely 0 defense and 0 sustain. You see if they choose to harass over cs often enough, your minion wave will build up and become larger and therefore minion aggro becomes a bigger threat to them.

And with a slightly bigger minion wave on your side you got options

I play Yorick and Sion a lot so ill take those two as my examples

When say the enemy Quin top basic attacks me, i can apply a slow or wall/stun what happens is they take minion aggro and i don't and because they are slowed or cc'd they will have trouble disengaging the aggro quickly thus they take a lot more damage then i did.

Meanwhile their minions attack mine which evens out the wave again my ability did aoe damage their minions attacking mine counteracted that plenty. Now its back to timing last hits.

Remember stay on your feet, last hit and move away. Don't let them get any free basic attacks in, if they do attack apply your slow or cc to at minimum even out the trade, and in most cases win the trade. Most melee champions have better sustain too in the form of extra hp/armor and health regeneration. Trading like this often enough will leave the ranged laner weakened and vulnerable to all ins and ganks.

It is important to move back after last hitting, if they still want to attack you, you are now behind your minions this means they are close to them and thus take full aggro.

Don't bother chasing after them unless you are very mobile, and/or they used their mobility and can't escape. And before you make an engage on them make sure you have the larger group of minions.

But usually you do not want to try and all in them until the golden opportunity presents themselves because if you fail they can chase you all the way back to your turret attacking you from range whilst your engage tool is on cooldown. This si also why you must have more minions then them if you try too because it will safe your live if your engage fails due to minion aggro preventing them from chasing.

Ok final word of advice here, Another trick with minion aggro, sometimes your lane gets pushed a bit to far and that nasty Quin is trying to freeze lane closer to her turret. In this case attacking you will make the lane freeze faster. Again use your slow/cc try to not hurt the minions too much here, once she is slowed get 1 basic attack in and run back and draw as many of her minions with you as possible. So now most of her minions are closer to your tower and yours are closer to her tower. now you can safely farm them without being bothered by harass. The best way to describe it is like a proxy farm situation but then in the middle of a lane. If she does come up to harass she will be squarely behind your minions and take full aggro use a spell to slow/cc her and walk away.

Ok i was lying i have more tips. Conserve your abilities/mana only use it to win trades. Only time to use abilties to farm is if their wave will grow too much. Just try to stay even in numbers of minion with about 1-2 more at times due to timing last hits with his/hers while they harass.

Use brush when possible, they can't attack you in there unless they ward it. once they do, make sure to tell your jungler so he can come up from river and gank their ass

Rush a defensive item with offensive capabilities Like thornmail, iceborn gauntlet or sunfire cape. they are cheaper then whatever they want to build counter their damage and boost yours. Thornmail is quite good in these cases since it doesn't push the wave and it's cheapest but the other too are overall better items. The thing is you want to survive until this point and then take advantage since you get your power spike way sooner then they do and this is where you can start your snowballing.

Final word I hope this helps you guys in your melee into ranged match ups. It works for me so it will work for you too. It is not easy but with a bit of practice you should be able to do it too. If you get the hang of it you will notice they can't really harass you much at all until it is too late and you got to your powerspike and start stomping them.

66 Comments

Critmaster Garen14 votes

{quoted}

Time your last hits with theirs

we have to walk up to the minion were trying to lasthit, then we have to get out of their range again. this process takes a couple of seconds even if timed with their cs attempts.

which only works even in theory, if theyre trying to cs at exactly the same time as you. an enemy minion and your own being ready to lasthit at exactly the same time isnt a common occurance.

they can cs from whereever they stand, and dont have to waste time on movement.

there is usually no chance to be in and out to grab a cs before they can throw an auto attack or two at you and get the minion they want themselves.

even in the best scenario, where youre not minion blocked or cced by an ability in some shape, they can auto attack you while youre on the way to the minion, then cs at the same time with you, then auto attack while youre retreating.

you also assume that the ranged champion doesnt have some form of waveclear to compensate for your minion wave building up, when he tries to poke you.

a little bit of lifesteal from, say a dorans blade and masteries easily helps them out sustain a couple minion hits. next to jsut making a sidestep into a bush and resetting minion aggro.

Tychusfindlay9199 votes

Neat trick, but if the enemy is smart, a little stutterstepping can allow them to get their cake and eat it too, aka get the minion and follow it up with a poke.

Timethief496 votes

or throw your weapon at them

Only Play Darius6 votes

However if they fuck up and somehow give you first blood, they can spend the rest of laning phase staying away from you and still getting perfect CS

Melledoneus4 votes

Works against most ranged top laners.

Then there's THIS fucker: Kennen

cyberchade3 votes

what do i do vs Graves if i am playing say Maokai Poppy as he can AA me and clear the wave

Kingdom Corn1 votes

Graves top? That is REALLY unlikely going to happen

cyberchade1 votes

just had it i was poppy i didnt do well

edit: i am low silver

Kingdom Corn1 votes

There is a 0.90882% chance that will happen to you.... Not even 1 out of 100 games. lul

cyberchade1 votes

well i have had it happen to me twice in two months SO...

Kingdom Corn1 votes

That means you are unlucky I have had it happen twice in the past 6 months lmao.

TotalJerk1 votes

Minions block his autos, you can avoid them by just standing within your wave.

cyberchade1 votes

the two times i have seen it his first shot pushes them behind me second hits me E for the third throw a Q in there and the wave is gone and you are at half health

Requiemsfire1 votes

Graves is just an abomination of a champion balanced around being a marksman with low range but built in such a way that he becomes more or less dominant against a huge portion of melee champions.

Rakvir3 votes

I remember I was blundering about as J4 top vs Quinn... yeah, she didn't like that I kept correctly guessing where to aim my Q when she blinded me. Eventually got too tanky for her and she wasted all her time harassing me instead of roaming so it let our mid and bot farm up.

It was a long, nearly insufferable game but we made it...freaking Quinn, god I hate that champ.

TotalJerk2 votes

Sion doesn't actually get bullied by range that hard. He can absorb harass with W, poke/farm with E, Q range is comparable to auto attacks, and most importantly he has the second highest base HP regen in the game.

Xonra2 votes

That sounds good and all but...

If they choose to poke you as you cs, you have a 1 cs lead (just assuming you are both perfect otherwise for argument sake). They aren't going to just auto you once. So you have a cs lead of 1, they have an hp lead.

Say they do it a second time, now you have a 2 cs lead. By the time you have a 5 cs lead doing this trick, woopty dooooo, because now you are at half health and now you CAN'T make that trade off because suddenly you are in the "danger zone" of just being poked out or to death while they can just farm just fine, and every time you come just close to your wave, they know they can bully you.

Your idea sounds good in theory, but I'll take a 5-10 cs deficit to poke someone out of lane. Then you just instantly get that lead back, on top of now having an xp lead. It really isn't that simple, and rarely will someone just watch you walk up. I know I would personally be more than happy to miss 1 cs to poke someone out. Because it starts to stack up fast that damage, and suddenly they are forced to farm under turret or have to back and lose xp.

Big Lincoln1 votes

they should just make everybody ranged imo

Ralanr23 votes

Throwing your axe always works!

Sahn Uzal6 votes

tbh I'd prefer to see them make everyone melee

Erdamon18 votes

Punching people with firearms sounds like fun!

Ralanr1 votes

Shotguns to the face and pistol whippings for everyone!!!

Sahn Uzal17 votes

Dude, I want to see Malzahar Bitch slapping people Karthus / Viktor do this: http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view7/4681909/gandalf-beats-denethor-o.gif etc

Ralanr14 votes

We really could use a mage that actually knows how to use a staff in melee combat.

Sahn Uzal13 votes

''Could use''

WE NEEED IT

Critmaster Garen4 votes

{quoted}

We really could use a mage that actually knows how to use a staff in melee combat.

i feel there is still room for an archetypical RPG mage who fights with a staff and flings fire at his enemies, and has a familiar at his side in this game.

if that character was a more melee focused battlemage, it would also be pretty cool.

though i fear riot would never make such a character, since they have the obsession that every new champion has to be super unique and never been done before.

Ralanr1 votes

Closest we have to that is Swain. But Riot wouldn't make him melee.

Sahn Uzal1 votes

I kinda hope he will be after his VGU. I mean Swain's handy with the sword, that's part of his lore, is it not?

Ralanr1 votes

I'm not sure. But I don't think any battle mage beyond GP (who is a hybrid) is melee.

And not meaning to dis Swain, but it's hard to keep convincing people you have a limp when you're melee.

Sahn Uzal1 votes

But he should be D:

The Space Cowboy1 votes

Mordekaiser ?

Ralanr1 votes

Juggernaut.

The Space Cowboy1 votes

Chogath Azir ?

Ralanr1 votes

Cho is a tank (but he's a battle mage hybrid so yeah, I guess he counts) and Azir isn't melee.

Sire Hippington2 votes

And whats the big difference betwen a melee-batlemage and a juggernaut that scales of AP and relys on abillities?

The idea of a battlemage is bad mobillity, lowish range, sustained damage, good(sustained) survivabillity, lowish utillity. Which all fits juggernauts aswell, besides them beeing melee rather than just low-ranged.

Also, Chogath Galio are kinda melee battlemages with disruptor qualities

TFBaam1 votes

Azir Ekko Diana Fizz Kayle are not too sure about fizz though

Ralanr1 votes

Ekko and Fizz are assassins, Diana is a diver, Kayle is Kayle, and Azir is ranged.

TFBaam1 votes

we dont mean actual battlemages like in http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/3A5uuBw7-champion-subclass-list

but we mean champions that mix sword and staff, surviving in the think of combat providing dps and utility. they always come with balance issues though

It Hertz When IP3 votes

I always feel like when I buy item 3009 on Swain that he looks at me like "gee, thanks asshole".

Ralanr2 votes

Thank you. I needed a laugh to wake me up.

Blades in Exile1 votes

It would be interesting to have a champ that has a ranged aa and a melee aa up close, giving them a defining range for which one they use like Talon 's new Q

50000000000000005 votes

Malzahar has a knife that he doesn't ever use

Ralanr1 votes

Except when sacrificing people.

Sahn Uzal4 votes

Dude, who needs a knife when you can bitchslap?

Nameless Voice1 votes

He used to toss it from hand to hand during his taunt.

Not sure if he still does after his rework.

Valeckserai1 votes

Well, Karthus already wants to be up in everyone's face, once team fights break out. It would be awesome if they could change his aa animation if he was within mele range to smacking someone with his staff.

Spicy Rice1 votes

Battlefield Rift

l Helios l1 votes

Sarcasm?

Sahn Uzal1 votes

it was a joke, which I thought was somewhat obvious.

Allthough I would prefer to see everyone become melee over seeing everyone become ranged :P

WarlockLaw1 votes

Rush a defensive item

I don't understand why more people don't do this in general. I find that when I fall behind top lane, regardless the match-up, building tanky always helps me more than rushing a damage/health item. If you fall behind you should itemize as defensively as possible. You can't deal damage while dead, nor can you cs.

More from Gameplay

More by Spoofghoul