Learning Top Lane Tips

clavins·Jan 21, 2020·2 votes·1,482 views

Hey, I peaked at platinum 2 and this season I'm really hating the jungle... well I've always hated the jg but it was my best role. I'm going to try and learn top lane for this season and I'm looking for any pointers/tips and tricks. Anything I need to know that's blatantly obvious but no one talks about? or is there something that I need to be very aware about during laning? Anything helps as I am not a great laner since I'm moving from jg my whole career to a lane. Thanks guys!

10 Comments

kda akaliJan 21, 20203 votes

It really depends on who you play

Minimac2000Jan 21, 20203 votes

[{quoted}](name=kda akali,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=RvHgt4xo,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2020-01-21T22:26:50.399+0000)

It really depends on who you play

This, like different champs have completely different playstyles dependent on matchup and enemy jg

clavinsJan 22, 20202 votes

I play burst mages in the jg, any recommendations?

Minimac2000Jan 22, 20201 votes

{quoted}

I play burst mages in the jg, any recommendations?

Burst mages huh? Maybe try rumble or swain? Both are pretty strong rn top. Or you could play my favorite illaoi :)))) She isn't ap, but she sure does play like a burst fiesta when set up right, really really satisfying. I mean morde is still top tier too, but he doesn't really play like a mage

DamSonWhUFndThisJan 21, 20202 votes

Gl you're affected by your jungler that might never come or enemy jungler that could come as frequent as always.

Zero Skill TankJan 21, 20201 votes

Sadly for you the best way to play a toplaner in soloq is to pick to a suport champion and just donate all your gold to your jungler.

Like, no irony there.

AlienPrimateJan 22, 20201 votes

Well first and foremost, kills are not as important as cs. As a jungler, typically the way you impact laning phase is either by getting kills or enabling future kills. As a top laner, cs and lane control are far more important. The biggest advantage of getting a kill is being able to free farm for a bit. If you can force your opponent to back, you won because you are still farming while they are not. Basically the point of say all this is don't be greedy. Diving to kill your opponent and then dying in a trade (both get 300) is far less valuable than them backing and you staying to get gold and exp that they are not getting.

Minimac2000Jan 22, 20201 votes

{quoted}

Well first and foremost, kills are not as important as cs. As a jungler, typically the way you impact laning phase is either by getting kills or enabling future kills. As a top laner, cs and lane control are far more important. The biggest advantage of getting a kill is being able to free farm for a bit. If you can force your opponent to back, you won because you are still farming while they are not. Basically the point of say all this is don't be greedy. Diving to kill your opponent and then dying in a trade (both get 300) is far less valuable than them backing and you staying to get gold and exp that they are not getting.

But dying in a dive trade is almost always worth? I mean ideally you dive and either force them back or kill them and you don't die so you get extra gold and xp, but dying in a dive trade when roughly even with your opponent is always worth due to them losing at least a wave of gold and xp from tower and you not because the wave is under their tower. Generally the rule of thumb is the closer to the enemy tower the minion wave is at the easier it is to harass (due to low enemy minions, high allied minions, and enemy baiting themselves into abilities by farming under tower) and deny gold through their tower and gain gold through plates, but the closer it is to your tower the safer you are from jg, losing xp while alive, or dying if you mess up

Minimac2000Jan 22, 20201 votes

{quoted}

Well first and foremost, kills are not as important as cs. As a jungler, typically the way you impact laning phase is either by getting kills or enabling future kills. As a top laner, cs and lane control are far more important. The biggest advantage of getting a kill is being able to free farm for a bit. If you can force your opponent to back, you won because you are still farming while they are not. Basically the point of say all this is don't be greedy. Diving to kill your opponent and then dying in a trade (both get 300) is far less valuable than them backing and you staying to get gold and exp that they are not getting.

Unrelated, but a week ago you played a game of taric top (respect).... in ranked(alright bold).... with a master yi on your team(gross).... but it wasn't a funnel bc you ended with like 2x the master yi's gold and you didn't buy a relic(way to not give in to the obvious op meta)... and so you lost (maybe you should've oof).... so many mixed emotions lol

AlienPrimateJan 22, 20201 votes

My entire team did pretty poorly that game so we were simply outmatched. I should've lost against a team that was more deserving of a win. Also, you should scroll down a little further on my match history and see that I play Taric top a lot. It has nothing to do with having Master Yi on my team when I have 1.1 million mastery on Taric and play him in every position.

I also don't really support funneling. If I wanted a higher rank I would play more than 70 ranked games in a season. I wouldn't funnel. Funneling isn't good for the ranked system overall. You can pretty easily get at least 1 division higher than your skill level by funneling which ruins the integrity of the game for the people at your level when you start funneling and for the people in higher ranks if funneling gets controlled through nerfs in the future or if your picks get taken or banned. What happens if I get to mid-high diamond through funneling this season and then next season it gets gutted to the point that it is unplayable? Will I still be able to compete at that level?