Good Top and Mid AD laners

Antodara·Feb 23, 2015·1 votes·1,151 views

I'm not sure if this is the right spot as I normally don't post here, so i'm giving it a shot.

I normally play and top, and i've been trying out and in mid lately (I know Nid isn't AD but that's beside my point). I've been wondering, what makes Yasuo so good and recommended at mid, and what makes it hard to play Nasus or Darius/Gangplank in mid?

Also wondering if anybody had any tips on good champs to buy that are cheapish that can work well in either top or mid lanes. I'm not one to shy away from difficult champs but easier champs to play are preferred with me. Skillshots etc i don't have trouble with, but my connection isn't the greatest.

9 Comments

destiny fanFeb 23, 20152 votes

Darius and nasus will suffer heavily against mobile AP Champions like ahri or against long range Heavy CC champions like Lux and Annie.

Gangplank is weak to Ganks and usually builds not tankiness and has no real burst until way late on the game, champions like leblanc-talon-zed will delete him instantly.

Personally i enjoy Garen, stuff like Jax and Irelia are always good to have, on the mid lane, Annie absolutely shits on leblanc and Malzh can shit on Zed

EndlessSorcererFeb 23, 20152 votes

Yasuo is recommended as a mid laners for several reasons:

His shield is useful for mitigating ranged harass
His Windwall can block skillshots, potentially negating a lot of damage from his opponent.
He can deal a lot of damage to squishy opponents, but he may have trouble fighting other bruisers or tanks.

Nasus and Darius can have trouble laning mid if they cannot close the gap to fight their opponent. They don't have much in the way of ranged harass or gapclosers, so they can easily be kited through minions and will take a lot of damage before getting close enough to retaliate against most matchups. In addition, they don't have the best waveclear so they can't really prevent their opponent from shoving them under tower and harassing them when they try to farm.

Darius and Nasus are also not the best gankers, so they can't really roam as well as most mid laners to help their allied laners or gank.

Some 1350IP champions who are good in top lane: Chogath DrMundo Jax Malphite Nasus Singed Sion Tryndamere Udyr

Some 1350IP champions who are good mid lane: Annie Morgana TwistedFate Akali

AntodaraFeb 23, 20151 votes

I've tried Trynd out and he doesn't really tickle my fancy. Too reliant on AA and not enough active abilities outside sustain and survival. I won't deny his effectiveness though. Jax I like the look of, he used to be quite hard but now it seems he's mid range in skill and pretty good at top.

Some great recommendations.

I've heard Twisted Fate is quite hard, is that just because of his card selection and ridiculous squishy-ness or are there other reasons?

TerffFeb 23, 20151 votes

Positioning is really important as TF and using your ult effectively all go along with what you said.

EndlessSorcererFeb 23, 20151 votes

Twisted Fate is considered difficult for a few reasons such as his lack of mobility, his telegraphed W, the slow travel time of his Q, and his low burst damage compared to other mages.

However, the biggest reason he may be considered difficult is his ultimate. He requires good map awareness and judgement to know when to roam and how to gank other lanes, where and when to teleport in, and how to kite enemies. In addition, later in the game he has a pretty short effective range and is extremely squishy which can expose him to a lot of danger.

When played well, he's great for arranging picks, sieging, bursting targets, and peeling/picking enemies with his stun card.

vIbvdOwbkoFeb 23, 20151 votes

Yas isn't even considered a good midlaner at the moment. He lacks ranged waveclear or poke compared to other midlaners. He's very easy to focus down and CC because of how innately squishy he is and how his kit forces him to get in melee range. You have to be good with your positioning or prepare to be destroyed. Otherwise he's a great splitpusher with instant, resourceless waveclear and he's good at trading thanks to passive shield. Also you can deal some heavy damage even if you're behind thanks to all his free stats like 50% bonus arpen and 2x crit.

Darius isn't a good midlaner because he's not a great roamer and doesn't bring poke or waveclear like other midlaners. He's very easy to poke and kite because he has no tanky steroids or mobility to catch up to a ranged midlaner or ADC.

Nasus is easy to force out of lane from poke and can literally never roam effectively due to his lack of hard CC and damage early.

Gangplank is probably the best out of these three for a midlaner but that doesn't mean he's good. He can barely compete at top against strong meta picks and he won't fare too well vs midlaners who can outrange him and outsiege him and outdamage him. He's not a terrible roamer because he has nice constant CC.

Basically picking any of these three is just giving the enemy midlaner free pressure over your other lanes.

AntodaraFeb 23, 20152 votes

I love hearing stuff like this. It all sounds bad, but at the same time lets me know why bad things are happening in my lanes and why i'm not doing well.

How would you guys recommend Katarina? I picked her up for some RP and want to try her out but I don't really have any idea how to even start that. AP melee is something of a mystery to me. I played fizz ONCE in ARAM when he was on free and did reasonably, but not like I can pull with darius, garen or nasus.

Am I just locked into the mindset of a top lane champ, where you go in for trades and harass the crap out of your opponent, when that is a bad choice for mid lanes? Or is there something else i'm doing wrong?

Skia AsteriFeb 23, 20151 votes

Morgana for both.

Works better in team comps that bring a second source of magic damage incase the game goes long and teams with more reliable CC to chain into her CC. Exceptionally strong laning phase. Counters Zed .

SociopathFriendFeb 23, 20151 votes

Yasuo brings 3 features to mid that I consider a "problem" for the other laner:

Wind wall Honestly, as a mid-laner this is actually the part of his kit I find the least annoying. For the most part it's easy to deal with his wall, the only champ I ever really find this an issue for is Lux- just because I throw my shield forward out of habit and his wall stops the return.

Perma-shield His flow does become slightly annoying, just because the best way to remove it is to auto him, and many mid champs really, really don't want to get in AA range to do so.

Perma-dash As a mid player, pretty much most of my hate for Yasuo is based on his almost unlimited ability to dash. Landing skillshots is hard enough in LoL, and so long as he hits something Yasuo can dash forever.

The knock-up is fairly easy to dodge (though he can spam it somewhat easily) and he doesn't become too much of a threat until he gets a shiv.