How Do We Get Ranged Champions out of Top Lane?

Cdore··1 votes·1,340 views

I've been thinking it over the last few days how top lane has been the most neglected role in years. I remember on Hashshin's stream when he was talking with one of the rioters a couple of years ago where the rioter even admitted that top lane is always ignored because no one on the dev team plays or thinks about it. It makes sense business wise considering the most popular roles are on the bottom half of the map. So when you have stuff like ranged matchups dominating top lane against your usual melee bruiser or tank, it has not been looked at for almost the entire year. Being the usual detective, I looked at reasons why this seems to be the case.

  • HP Sustain got nerfed on most champs, so to regen harrass is very hard these days.
  • Rune Reforged gives champs a lot of free starting stats, so that Vayne walking into top lane has a PTA that gives her a huge damage augmentation. The Vlad has phase rush so you can never get near him. Kennen or GP will just klepto you to get more gold than you ever could, and more items (and funnily more sustain which is the most hilarious). Due to reduction of MR in the game, mages can live there, too.
  • Most ranged top laners have a lot of mobility to get away from your immobile solo laners.
  • The bottom half of the map (mid, adc, support, dragon) have the most impact in the game, so there is little incentive for a jungler to come visit top these days. Top lane must self function.

Essentially, a lot of factors came together to make it where the balance of certain mechanics became too powerful, mostly due to Riot wanting certain styles of gameplay to dominate their viewing scene. Games these days feel like ranged teams do a lot better than melee ones. If you play a melee champion, you have to make sure you have a lot of mobility to either dive or to dodge the multiple skill shots used by these two specific classes.

15 Comments

Sinful Succubus2 votes

You forgot to mention the fact that riot does not enforce the meta. Going anywhere with anything with any build is perfectly allowed and always has been

[fiora-cool]

Zero Shingetsu2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sinful Succubus,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ERcfKrn9,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2019-10-11T15:11:28.115+0000)

You forgot to mention the fact that riot does not enforce the meta. Going anywhere with anything with any build is perfectly allowed and always has been

[fiora-cool]

They do it in a sinister fashion. Ever tried playing Nami in the jungle? LeBlanc? I have. Let me tell you, it doesn't happen. Even with all the runes, all the potions, and all the items, you'll be pressing B after every camp and it takes you a good 25 seconds to farm each camp.

Additionally, they make tweaks and nerfs pretty frequently to shoehorn champions into a role. For example, taking LeBlanc out of support by removing her silence. Literally the only utility she now has at support is a skillshot root on a delay. Karma also has this, and she has a shield, speed buff, and speed debuff. Why would anyone take Support LeBlanc now? As someone who used to main it, let me tell you: They wouldn't.

AD Bruiser Akali is no longer viable. It used to be quite strong.

Mid Janna doesn't really work.

I made Mid Yuumi work to the tune of 0/2/15, but I was only able to actually make headway when my jungler came to lane.

AP Miss Fortune is less viable these days.

These changes do happen. To say that "going anywhere with anything with any build is perfectly allowed" is true on a technicality, but Riot generally takes measures to ensure off-meta play isn't efficient. It's a soft restriction.

CharDeeMcDenniz1 votes

he's not saying it's viable, he's saying it's perfectly within the rules to take any champ any role as long as you are trying your best to win the game and not trolling your team in the process (cough Nubrac cough)

Zero Shingetsu1 votes

{quoted}

he's not saying it's viable, he's saying it's perfectly within the rules to take any champ any role as long as you are trying your best to win the game and not trolling your team in the process (cough Nubrac cough)

True, it's within the rules. But that's not what the post said. They said Riot "doesn't enforce the meta", and they do in effect by tuning things so that certain champions can pretty much only excel at certain roles.

CharDeeMcDenniz2 votes

that's not realy enforcing a meta though...

VampiricLlama1 votes

As far as the LeBlanc example: Karma support can't 100-0 the enemy adc from brush and teleport back into the brush afterwards.

Zero Shingetsu1 votes

Best way I can think of? Petition LCS players to stop doing it. That's the only thing that Riot balances around.

Sinister Anubis1 votes

Mobility is the answer

Cdore1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Ninja Anubis,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ERcfKrn9,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2019-10-11T15:36:48.025+0000)

Mobility is the answer

No more mobility. Mobility was the traditional answer to ranged, and we got too much of it in the game. We need less mobility, mostly on ranged. Make them have to position smarter.

Sinister Anubis1 votes

{quoted}

No more mobility. Mobility was the traditional answer to ranged, and we got too much of it in the game. We need less mobility, mostly on ranged. Make them have to position smarter.

play Rengar or renekton top. Its a serious answer mobility will ruin adc's top lane. The real issue in top lane tho is jayce. High level jayce players are godly. Poke for days, try to all in him guess what he knocks you back. Hes pretty hard to shut down unless the jayce is trash.

Darkdemon6531 votes

Doran's Shield gets a melee only passive that reduces damage received from ranged attacks pre-mitigation.

Linna Excel1 votes

Ask yourself 2 things, which ranged champs do you want out of top lane and where do they belong? The answer to this will lead you to why they are there to begin with.

FioraWillCarry1 votes

Where is it written that ranged champions shouldn't go Top lane? How is that a rule now?

Cdore1 votes

{quoted}

Where is it written that ranged champions shouldn't go Top lane? How is that a rule now?

It's not a rule. What matters is, when playing ranged champs (physical and magical) are the superior options, you need to ask yourself if you want the game to be ranged/ mage favored or not. Which I'm sure is a question that Riot never answers. They seem to just do things based off feelings.

The thigh guy1 votes

You accept that your champion has a weakness and move on.

Melee has EVERY benefit over ranged outside of just being ranged.

At any point if a bruiser gets on a ranged champion, that ranged champion loses.

More from Gameplay

More by Cdore