Anyone ever thought of pairing their support with their top laner instead of ADC?

Hibeki·Oct 15, 2017·3 votes·395 views

ADC always have reliable damage, but the top laner has a hard time being relevant. So what if you had the ADC top lane and you had that top 'laner' bottom with the support? Fighter becomes more relevant, can do more early game when taking dragons, and the ADC can just peacfully farm.

If the jungler pays more attention to the top lane to dive the ADC it opens up dragon for your team.

Having the fighter roam means you can get more done.

Thoughts?

7 Comments

VoidStaresBackOct 15, 20172 votes

The strategy tends to have a very predictable issue: you're putting a melee laner, who likely can't farm beyond melee ranged, against a ranged laner who can use that range advantage to zone you off farm and experience. Additionally, a lot of marksmen, when solo, are vulnerable to being jumped on by top lane fighters. This was actually done at Worlds once, but they took very specific laners: Xayah (who can defend herself post-six when most fighters get their spike) in the top lane and Galio (who can farm from ranged and has significant AOE) in the bot lane.

HibekiOct 15, 20171 votes

Agreed, but if this becomes efficient enough with particular laners that can clear well against ranged matchups (Jayce, Cho'gath etc) and ADC's that can kite (Xayah, Cait etc) Then it will become meta, then the meta will shift so ADC's go top lessening the pressure. Thus opening up the fighter option for bot lane since both teams will be doing it

VoidStaresBackOct 15, 20171 votes

Even with the Galio, they still fell significantly behind in CS, which was only compensated for by the Xayah zoning J4 off his farm just as much. I've seen Jayce bot lane work (even supported it a few times) because it's ranged, but Cho'gath, Galio, etc. are just getting small amounts of farm, they're still falling behind while giving their lane opponent effectively free farm.

It's the type of thing that could definitely work in lower ELOs if you're good enough, but outside of that it's super punishable.

DurzakaOct 15, 20172 votes

There is a reason Supports go with the ADC bot lane. Well, 3 actually.

One, ADCs are not unkillable gods in the early game, regardless of what people want you to believe. A large amount of Fighters/Juggernauts will DUMPSTER an ADC in a 1v1 early game (with some ADC exceptions obviously).

Two, dragon is bot lane. Pretty straight forward. You want your best damage (ADC) to be around for Dragon early on.

And lastly, an ADC is more valuable than a Fighter. They need more gold, and once they have that gold they are a lot stronger than a fighter with an equal amount of gold. So protecting them to make sure they get as much gold as possible (while also being safe about it) makes A LOT more sense than trying to protect a fighter getting gold.

PrimaquariusOct 15, 20171 votes

Seems legit, but lets see if this post gets any attention

Very Hard EngageOct 15, 20171 votes

yes.

it doesn't work.

reason being it leaves the adc too open or you dont get one at all and its incredibly easy to gank an adc early game. even if you get a super well protected trundle or darius or even a riven in the top lane. its too easy to evade or tower farm top lane reliably to the point where you're only sacrificing exp on your top laner for lackluster scaling.

basically it comes down to the adc scales better than the top laner. and any composition that isn't tank/melee/ap/adc/sup is lackluster in the late game.

so where do you put your support? with the adc so you do have the most reliable late game, because if the enemy team reaches it first(when you're adc is so far behind, like 2 full items) you just lose any 5v5 no matter what you do.

Solidair3Oct 15, 20171 votes

Not ONLY has it been thought of, Lulu was specifically designed to work with melee champions. While the things she does are great for ranged champions, they are even better for melee heroes.

Sadly it didn't pan out, because of how the meta works. What if one support stays at bottom? Your adc won't even be able to farm. Sure, the enemy bot is open to ganks, but your bot will be garbo and contribute nothing. The enemy top lane would have contributed less anyway, so even if you get your ahead, it probably won't work out. Additionally, the duo lane is bot to be closer to dragon. Putting the support top means you are MUCH further from dragon.

EVEN if the fighter is at bottom, their lack of range and scaling compared to marksmen leaves your team at a disadvantage in most situations.