Need advice on top lane

200 IQ OPTICIAN·1/14/2020, 1:08:25 PM·3 votes·4,806 views

Hey guys,

I am a low elo player, trying to polish my skills as a top laner and I encounter the following scenarios:

a) I get destroyed and the enemy toplaners becomes an unstoppable supervillain that my team can do nothing against.

b) I destroy my enemy but I cannot take that advantage to the level my enemies usuay do and end up losing anyway.

I can't remember a game where the situation was even, either win hard or lose hard. Late game even if I am far ahead I end up being ccd to death. On the other hand if enemy toplaner is fed, no matter how much cc we have my team seems like not strong enough to kill him.

What advice do you guys have for me to survive a stronger enemy and to help my team and not feel like a target dummy after I win lane.

I mainly play Darius and Mordekaiser.

Thank you.

PS Excuse bad English

39 Comments

big boi edri1/14/2020, 4:29:40 PM5 votes

Sounds like your macro game is weak and you aren't pressing your advantage when you do gain a lead.

Some things I see fed top laners do that carry games in lower elo:

Use TP for lane backing only the first time. After that it's to make plays on the map and capitalize on their lead (general rule of thumb).

Shove lane/kill laner then immediately roam. Either opponent jungle or mid (or in the case they are very far ahead, both). If you can't tower dive, you can usually take the enemy jungle camps, and possibly the jungler.

Take Heralds obviously.

Keep an eye on scuttle early, if its spawning you can probably feed your mid/jgl by walking over there.

If you saved TP as you should've, securing drakes.

If you're already 6/0 or something and TP say bot, give your ADC/mid the kills. A lot of people in gold get fed then just take every single kill. That's not the optimal way to carry imo.

Rolling off that last point, don't take every single kill just because you can. You're all in the same elo, odds are very high that if you get another lane as fed as you they can help carry too. A lot of people in low elo just assume everyone on their team is trash and they're the only key to victory. Most of those people are hard stuck with no idea why (JK, obviously their team mates right?)

If you're playing Morde (going off your history) don't just ult who you think you can kill. Take the fed person out of the fight. If you listened to my prior point, you'll win the team fight.

Learn when to split and when not to split and where to split. If Drake is up and your team is mid, and you're splitting top - you might be fucking up.

In Silver/Gold there comes a point where they game generally devolves into two scenarios: Either A) it's now an ARAM or B) Everyone is running around trying to pick or getting picked because they overextended somewhere. Take advantage of that.

If you're 20/2 and overextending forcing fights and you get picked at Barron or elder or something of significance, allowing the other team to take it while you respawn, then inevitably lose an inhib or worse - you threw the game harder than your entire team. Nobody gives a fuck about your KDA or end game damage. If you got a massive lead then dumpstered it by being stupid, that entire loss is on you. Don't be dumb with your lead, most come backs in low elo are because of this right here. Someone got fed then threw the game they could've won. Then inevitably they say some shit like "can't carry this" in all chat. Well no shit you can't carry this, you fucked up.

This should go without saying, but people obviously tilt easily in low elo. Don't spam ping or talk shit to your team, it does nothing useful. The only time you should be pinging is if it's of use. I've met some great players in gold, but they're very inconsistent and tilt off the face of the earth. This gets exasperated by every idiot who wants to ignore their own bad plays and ping everyone else's. Nobody in Gold is good enough to ping anyone, you're all doing dumb shit repeatedly.

Regarding lane control, don't push to their tower without wards and give up a shutdown. Your 1000 gold death to a Yi in Gold league can end the game. Doesn't matter if you're 7/1 at the end of the game, if you gave that guy the tools to snowball on other lanes - that's your fault. After a lead, if you can freeze the lane try to. Don't just endlessly shove to tower if you can't make use of it.

Overall, capitalize on your lead. Killing the Garen who is now worth a cannon minion does nothing for you after a point. Make plays on the map, be at objectives, and push for the win not for the kills. Use pings and chat to direct your team when necessary. If they aren't doing what needs to be done, play around them. Don't just go where you should be and bitch when they aren't there as you die. Use your team to your advantage.

Regarding losing lane, don't feed obviously. You don't NEED to stay even in CS when behind if it causes a death. Do try to get the experience though. A level disadvantage is massive compared to missing that cannon minion. If you have another lane that is winning, or getting ahead, there is no need for you to try and get ahead as well. Just go even or slightly worse and you win. That's it. Sometimes you just need to let someone else carry.

Not all games are winnable, but 60% or higher is perfectly obtainable by making the right decisions and capitalizing on what you can. The more you play and focus on yourself, the easier the climb becomes. Leagues are nothing more than a gauge of how rounded out a player generally is, if you're stuck in one its because you're lacking somewhere others aren't. Despite popular belief on the forum and in game, you don't need to be a literal God with all the luck in the world to climb. You just need to do decent and make some good decisions when it matters.

Also, because it is worth noting, sometimes you just fuckin lose. Sometimes everyone gets dumpstered. Shit happens, do what you can, but if its 2-20 at 15, just go next.

Vlada Cut1/14/2020, 1:17:00 PM5 votes

Learn how to:

  • Duel properly
  • Trade
  • Trade with minion (dis)advantage
  • Minion wave control
  • Slow push, fast push and freez
  • Split push
  • Skirmish

Make sure you take proper runes and itemize early game to adapt YOUR LANE, not enemy team comp (that'a for mid game).

hRnrBbWoTr1/14/2020, 1:18:55 PM2 votes

Step 1: FUCK. TOP. LANE

You don't learn the game in top lane it's the land of smurfs and hidden carries. If for some reason you HAVE to play top see step 2.

Step 2: Fiora

R4ndom F1nn1/14/2020, 2:04:08 PM2 votes

Honestly, don't play toplane, you win or you lose in champ select, better to just play any other lane

Ginger9761/14/2020, 3:48:54 PM2 votes

Hey OP. I'll add some more specific things. First, you say you're low ELO...what ELO are you in? I would say that the most important LANE SPECIFIC (as opposed to generic advice, like lane control and dueling) is that you should focus on what you can do to influence macro objective control in your lane. You play champs that can hard carry when ahead, so the most important thing is to learn how to turn that advantage into a win. How is that done? With objective control.

An important thing for players to learn is that kills are not a win condition. Kills are used to set the map for objective control. Objectives are turrets, Herald, Baron, Dragon, inhibs. The most effective way to climb, especially in low elo, is to learn how to call shots and influence your team to achieve objective advantage. Are you ahead in lane as Darius and Mordekaiser? First, always run teleport as a SS. Second, pressure the map by continuing to push lane. Darius and Morde are beasts when ahead and will require the enemy team to send two or three champs to counter you. This allows for the rest of your team to put pressure on bottom map objectives, such as drag. Do not be afraid to die while pressuing if it means that you keep the other team occupied enough that your team can get objectives. Objectives = Winning > your KDA.

Thefrostyviking1/14/2020, 4:37:44 PM2 votes

Hm there is no "Do this and you will 100% win lane and be able to go hit the nexus" strategy so i cant really answer in the way you want here, what i think is the general rule of thumb however is to learn your matchups and what your champ is good at.

Lets take Darius for instance.

Darius can fight majority toplane matchups and not be at a horrendous disadvantage and instead i think he even wins most of them when played well, he also scales rather well unlike say Renekton so he´s a pretty great champ.

However the tricky part comes here, for every matchup you´ll have to determine what you can do against the opponent, what they are good at and what you think you should accomplish.

From my own perspective playing Irelia into say Ornn, this bugger beats me pretty badly unless i outplay him and he outscales me to be a monster in teamfights so what do i want to do?

Ideally i do outplay him and snowball lane, but assuming he is careful then i should just do my best to survive and build the stuff i need to splitpush, then do that fairly relentlessly to keep him from actually getting to teamfight.

Then i should go and gather as much gold as possible to get myself the items that actually lets me beat him 1v1, damage dealer always beats a tank if they build for that only and like so i can force him to get stuck under tower, then i can look to rotate around while he is stuck there to flank the enemy team or ambush him if he follows me to hopefully kill him and freely push.

Now translating this into Darius instead, he can certainly splitpush too but he is actually pretty good in a teamfight as well so ideally you just wana win lane then if you are sufficiently strong relative to the enemy team then you can start forcing teamfights.

However if the enemy team has a strong carry that can mess with you? Split,not like the guy who you already beat can leave his tower and if you manage to rotate and flank the enemy team while that guy is still scared under tower then chances should be good your team wins that fight.

Alternatively if you have demolish then proc that on his tower every now and then while pressuring it to make him call for help while being careful to avoid being collapsed on, enemy team busy chasing you is not doing anything else and if you survive that´s securing advantages right there.

As for Mordekaiser? Bonk fools who would oppose you out of lane, walk down into the enemy team and ult whoever you can kill with it and lead your team to win the resulting 4v5.

Unless faced with someone who actually beats you 1v1 you can even splitpush and kill anyone who tries to collapse on you as long as all your enemies dont suddenly grab QSS.

Skia Asteri1/14/2020, 5:01:34 PM2 votes

[{quoted}](name=200 IQ OPTICIAN,realm=EUNE,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=NYxftzEU,comment-id=,timestamp=2020-01-14T13:08:25.551+0000)

Hey guys,

I am a low elo player, trying to polish my skills as a top laner and I encounter the following scenarios:

a) I get destroyed and the enemy toplaners becomes an unstoppable supervillain that my team can do nothing against.

b) I destroy my enemy but I cannot take that advantage to the level my enemies usuay do and end up losing anyway.

I can't remember a game where the situation was even, either win hard or lose hard. Late game even if I am far ahead I end up being ccd to death. On the other hand if enemy toplaner is fed, no matter how much cc we have my team seems like not strong enough to kill him.

What advice do you guys have for me to survive a stronger enemy and to help my team and not feel like a target dummy after I win lane.

I mainly play Darius and Mordekaiser.

Thank you.

PS Excuse bad English

I would work on the first problem until it is mostly gone. You will play the early part of the game every game you manage to connect to successfully. As such you will get more practice for it.

Focus on the second on the second more once you are mostly getting ahead in lane, and just doing 'okay' in a good portion of the rest. Then you will be able to practice how to use a lead in a higher percent of games as you will have a lead in more games.

This does not mean pay no attention to post lane, it just means when allocating time and energy spending more on the early part will likely show results sooner.


I do not play Darius , but I have played against a fair number of them. The two things that set the ones that are good at him apart from those that are not are:

  • They are good at positioning such that their opponent will feel it is risky to walk up for last hits.
  • They are able to execute trades in a way that limits their opponents ability to respond.

Knowing when to push versus letting the wave push back to them, and how fast to push are also good things for playing Darius , but people that I feel do them well are uncommon in low gold where I was playing for much of last season.

Silly Neeko1/14/2020, 1:17:21 PM2 votes

What items do you normally build? Do you build based on enemy top laner first only or do you take into consideration the rest of the team? Do you pick your champions based on what your team picks as well?

Also, mentality is a major factor. Personally, i enjoy listening to music when i play league. Makes it easier to weather a worse game, and makes it harder to tilt during a good one. I find words with good music AND words works best for me because i am less in thr chat reading snarky comments etc.

Thingamajig1/14/2020, 1:17:23 PM1 votes

someone needs to look at your games and point out specific gaps in your play patterns this is way too generalistic problem for anyone to give you any advice that would be of value