I am just starting to play LOL and I have a question about playing top lane. (Malphite) How do I know when to engage or help a teammate get a kill as opposed to push my lane? I often find myself going to help a teammate get a kill I either get killed trying to help them, or if I survive, I lose control of my lane, and am very vulnerable to being ganked. So I guess this is mostly about how to engage with Malphite.
PapaGreg211 votesMalphite is tough to gank after building an item or 2 because he is so tanky. Just focus on farming in your lane until you have a sunfire cape and boots. If your jungler is getting invaded you should probably leave to help him though. Buy a pink ward on your first back and put it in the river bush.
If you help the midlaner with a gank and secure a kill try to take the tower or an objective. That will even out what you lose from leaving your lane with your own tower. If you just started playing remember that the 3 most important things are farming, getting objectives and understanding what the 130 or so other champions can do so you can address situations appropriately. Getting kills is a lot of fun and feels good but it should not be your top priority. Malphite shines in team fights as he has maybe the best initiating ability in the game but he isn't the best at dueling 1 on 1.
Nahui1 votesConstantly ward that bush in the river.
Focus on CS, not killing.
Try and trade effectively, varies per champion.
Keep map awareness. If you can't roughly pinpoint where the enemy jungler is, don't be too aggressive.
Watch the minimap. If your team is contesting dragon, TP in. If you see bot lane is pushed in and they have reasonable health, tp from behind to a ward if there is one.
Understand how tanky you are, especially as malphite. Understand how much damage towers do and if you can dive to assist your team.
CS. Seriously.
Push your lane if your enemy roams and you can't follow. Say they tp bot for a gank and you don't have tp, push as hard as possible. This game is about trading. He trades his lane for the opportunity to assist his team and get kills.
If you get wildly ahead in lane, like stomping your enemy, try and roam a bit. Killing an enemy over and over has diminishing returns and you'll do more helping your teammates that proving a point to your laner. Exception is Nasus. He's not allowed to be left alone.
And lastly. CS. New players think the game is about kills. Then they wonder how they had like 15 kills and lost, but they killed like 50 creeps. Creeps are your gold. 16 creeps = 1 kill
redniwediS1 votesThis may take some practice, but you have to look at what your team currently has to offer if you start a fight. Look at what summoner spells and ultimates are available, and check mana levels, before you even think about going in.
Next check the positioning and movement of your allies. If all the other things check out, and they are positioning in a way that clearly shows they want to attack the enemy in front of them, then it very well could be a perfect time to go in. Unless you're building AP you have to understand that Malphite is a tank, and tanks require their team to follow up on their engagements. If your allies are positioning defensively instead of offensively try saying something in chat or using pings to inform them of your intentions. Reading the body language of both allies and enemies alike is a very important skill you can learn.
If you're still in the lane phase at the time you have to consider what top lane is currently like. Did your opponent just back or die? Does your opponent have teleport available? Are the minions pushing toward their tower? If all three of these questions are answered yes then it's the perfect time to roam.
Making sure each of these is a yes is the best way to make sure you minimize the amount of gold and experience lost by leaving your lane. Every time you roam you're sacrificing possible gold and experience, so when it's time to roam make sure mid lane is in a gankable position, or your jungler is preparing to invade the enemy jungle on your side of the map. I always feel it's worth while to back up your jungler, because even if you don't get a kill or assist and you just end up wasting your time a few lost CS is worth making sure your jungler lives.
Lastly make sure you are buying wards for your own lane if things don't go well. Buy pink wards and use your yellow trinket if you haven't seen the enemy jungler in a while. Just make sure you don't ward when your laner can't sandwich you and prevent you from escaping if the enemy jungler is in the bush you're about to ward. On the blue side I try to put a pink ward in the tri bush behind my tower, since that's the easiest spot for a jungler to surprise dive me from.
In the end all you really need to do is practice. Tips are nice, but nothing helps you more than first hand experience.
Wolfram Oxford1 votesI will just give you some general advice for the game. Being new you need it. So as a top laner such as Malphite you offer a miniscule amount of split push pressure. So, you need to know when it is time to move on from lane and start helping out your team. As Malphite you can leave your lane when either: your enemy has pushed your tower and you have a pushing wave, when you pushed the enemy tower and you have a pushing wave, and when your enemy laner is missing from lane. You want to make sure that waves aren't being pushed to your tower, you lose cs, you lose vision of most of the lane, and you are allowing the enemies to threaten your towers. Early-mid game you can manage the waves by yourself. Later on you will want to invest in a Zz' rot Portal, this will allow you to neglect top lane as a whole unless the enemy top laner is aggressively pushing the lane.
Now that you know how to control your lane and when to roam lets talk a bit about engaging. Engaging is all about seeking out the best opportunity. As a tank such as malphite your best time to engage would be when the enemies have less people than your team grouped up. This makes your team have an innate advantage when fighting, and will almost always leave your team positive from the fight. The next best time is when the enemy carries are out of position. When an enemy carry steps up to a place where you are able to engage on them, even if you just hit them, engaging onto their carries will allow your team to either kill them, or force the enemy team to spend a lot of resources saving them, either way an initiation like this will almost always leave you positive. Lastly, the third best time to initiate would be when the enemy team burns important spells. Spells could include ultimates, or even normal spells such as Ahri Charm or Ezreal E, these spells are essential to the combinations of these champions. This makes an engage like this more in your team's favor.
Some more advice you may need in the future as a top laner is knowing what to pick. This isn't something you have to completely stress out about, but it still counts. Certain champions will fit better with other champions. If you have a team consisting of Vayne, Bard, Master Yi, Anivia, and Nidalee it may not be wise to choose Malphite. Instead you may want to choose something that has utility and peel opposed to heavy engage. In ranked you will get teams like this, they aren't centered around one particular use, or may even not synergize at all, but trying your best to compliment your team's champions will always improve your chances of winning.
Hope this helps. :)
MrHighfalutin1 votesThanks, this really cleared up a lot of the vagueness that I had