Top Lane Meta is Broken, RNG, and needs fixing Riot

BarbarianBoi··2 votes·1,475 views

Current state of top: five Tier 1 meta top laners, essentially pick or ban at this point (stats provided by op gg as of July 23)

Aatrox 51.1%wr and 11% Pick Rate Kled 53.44%wr and 6.06% Pick Rate (explosive increase in win rate after rng buff 9.14) Renekton 50.21% wr and 13.71% Pick Rate Darius 50.71% wr and 8.88% Pick Rate Riven 52.10% wr and 9.99% Pick Rate

The common denominator here is random, rng, BUFFS to their strongest abilities.

  • Kled received a absolutely random buff when he was a balanced tier 2 top laner, the buff gave his Q a executioners calling passive when landed, this buff absolutely sky rocketed play rate and win rate on him as of recently

  • Darius received a absolutely random buff to his most powerful ability his Q when he was balanced as a tier 2 lane bully, his winrate and pick rate increased and he became a prevalent pick in top lane with little counter play potential in solo q

  • Renekton received a absolutely random buff to his most powerful ability his Q (noticing the trend?) when he was a balanced tier 2 top laner, sky rocketed his wr and pick rate making him a powerful pick in solo q and nearly always locked in or banned

  • Riven after rightfully receiving her nurfs was given a buff in compensation, her Q buff. This has made her even more powerful on skilled Riven players and allowed her to remain a tier 1 high wr high pick rate top laner, indicating a complete failure on Riots part to properly address her. Simply put she is still broken

  • Aatrox while worth noting has had his passive revive removed in patch 9.14 so not much can be said in his regard until the nurfs impact is observed, all together he was a extremely powerful utility pick that had little to no counter play and consistent high wr and pick rate.

So now my questions to Riot are as follows,

When are you going to address top lanes skewed and broken meta where many prevalent top champions have been gutted and now all top laners have to pick from is 5 meta champions or lose?

Why are you randomly buffing the most powerful ability on balanced top champions causing them to immediately become broken and when will it stop?

10 Comments

TheBrothersGrymm3 votes

top lane is so dumb atm, i hate it

Death by Glamour2 votes

toplane has been a wreck since the renekton bar stopped being a thing

Yami No Ignis2 votes

i think you forgot add "all lane metas" for the title. But yea, being forced to play meta destroys the creativity of the actual game itself. like being forced to play META picks. idk why riot just wont let people be creative.

Pxerkza1 votes

kled is the only OP top laner aatrox slightly but he isn't too hard to play against

BarbarianBoi1 votes

Wrong about everything except Kled being op.

Darius after Q healing buffs has become a extreme lane bully that is impossible to outplay if played correctly against melee, not to include land one Q in a team fight as him and from no hp he is full hp.

Renekton has a insane pick rate in diamond+ elo and wins nearly all his match ups after Q heal buff which gave him unbeatable sustain (other than the select few match ups against fellow tier 1 champs). Rivens stats and gameplay speaks for itself.

Not to bm but frankly I don't think you have enough experience with these match ups and that's what led you to comment something blatantly wrong.

BarbarianBoi1 votes

Also not sure if you noticed the point of this post but I want a explanation as to why these champs were buffed, provided a thorough analysis of their insane meta after said buffs, and am essentially saying that they need reverts or buffs in a more balanced fashion

Pxerkza1 votes

why is any champion ever buffed? because riot wants them to be played

TakaDama1 votes

Might be my MMR in normals and the lack of a ranked placement, but I hardly have any trouble around these champions either as Darius (which I'm aware you did mention him as one of the culprits) or Illaoi. I can and have outplayed Renekton and Aatrox as Illaoi, eat Rivens (as well as Yasuos) for Vitamin KDA, and although the one game I played against Kled didnt work out so well, that was because of my own playstyle being overly aggressive while I had no vision on their jungler.

[Off-topic Rant Incoming]

In fact I have more of an issue with the supposedly nerfed ranged top laners such as Teemo, Kennen, Gnar, etc. and even some new ones like Karma (yes I have played against Karma top), Lulu, Vayne, Ezreal, etc. And to rub salt in the wound Riot actually thinks that nerfing their damage helps, when any number of melee champions that are playable top lane already outdamage and outsustain them early to mid game if they get to them.

The issue is the combination of range in their kit with mobility or CC in their kit, giving superior engage amd disengage to juggernauts, divers, and skirmishers. Something as simple as buffing fighter's base MS by 5 or 10 would be a great start.

The thigh guy1 votes

I mean. Welcome to adc? Our role has been pick top 3 or lose for years now and we just get told to “stop complaining”. So I’m failing to see why it’s only a problem when top lane has to deal with it.

BarbarianBoi1 votes

I'm failing to see why you don't understand this post is about top lane and not about adc, is it that difficult to not talk about yourself and change the topic when I'm talking about balance issues pertaining to particular champions in a particular role?

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