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Serious question about how I should play top lane

ContDeCaterinca1··1 votes·832 views

So here is the thing. This thread is purely for how I become a better top laner myself, not complaining about anything in particular. I main jg, but I want to play top with more confidance.

What I have to ask is how do I have to manage the typical top lane match-ups?

Here are 2 examples that were particularily titling: In both cases I was with Jax, up against Darius the 1st time, then Yasuo.

I lost both quite miserably, because:

  1. They would always look for trades instead of CS-ing; Darius does more damage and Yasuo ran ignite(me TP) and he was doing similar damage, while having the possibility to harass with ranged autos and the nados.

  2. If I try to trade back I get minion aggroed, they don't (Darius apprehands me in his minion wave and can just attack me at will, Yasuo runs away through minions)

In general, playing top lane feels like I can't do anything, can't CS, can't kill anyone. I only have to watch the opponent do as he pleases.

The only champion I do well with top is Garen, but that is because he is braindead easy and has endless sustain after lv11.

TL;DR: how do you manage top lane as melee in general in terms of CS'ing, wave management, not getting too much harass if you are farm oriented or trading efficiently if you want to fight.

2 Comments

woodvsmurph3 votes

SRO and RTO on YouTube offer some great wave management and matchup specific guides. Beware though, they're renekton mains which makes the matchup specifics a bit different.

As jax it's fine to farm under tower early, give up some pressure, and just scale. If you're new to toplane, it's often better to learn the basics of matchups and wave manipulation by playing easier champs. While the matchups change slightly if you're playing garen or darius vs playing jax, you can still understand and apply a champ's strengths and weaknesses to the new matchup. Ex: yas is very strong lvl 1 and 2 so you basically always let him push you in first.

Vs yas, you try to pop his shield/passive first and THEN you can look for a combo. Jax actually has more burst than yas - especially once you get sheen - and should match his dps fairly well. An early tiamat to keep him shoved in and forced to clear minion waves or tank a ton of extra damage can be useful. Try do dodge back and forth to avoid his tornadoes... or you can just e,q onto him when he has them up so you trade cc and prevent him ulting off his knockup since he's stunned during this time due to your e.

Vs darius you kinda look for quick trades and mostly save your q to hop on him or away when he throws out his q. This let's you dodge his outer part of his q so he doesn't get the healing and bleed stack. You can also pop e as you jump on him so you can stun him. After stunning... disengage asap. Never fight darius if he has multiple passive stacks on you... disengage immediately if he has say... 3 of 5 stacks. If you can hit 2 items on even terms with him, you should pretty easily beat him at that point I think.

OtterlyLost2 votes

Darius is just going to be a nuisance. He's a lane bully so he's a match up where you just have to concede for a bit. Even if you didnt draw minion aggro, you wouldn't win trades with him just based on his passive and how it works.

My suggestion is to acknowledge that you dont win that lane and try to let the wave push to you. You will lose level 2. Be prepared for this. Let the wave push into you and set up a freeze; that's four minions just outside of tower aggro. Just last hit. This way you can deny him farm, be relatively safe, and, since you scare, this works out well for you. You're also in a better position for jungler ganks.

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