How to carry in the top lane?

Electrya·Nov 15, 2016·2 votes·1,933 views

Hello! Today I wanted to reach out the League of Legends community on the top lane, discussing how to exactly carry and not feed. First I wanted to ask some questions because I feel like you guys know a lot more then I currently do. Please answer the questions based primarily off the champions I play, It'll be super helpful. If not, answering them is just fine. *Champions listed below. If you do know recent Youtube videos that refer back to these questions, please link!

Questions ~ 1.) As playing a melee champion, how do you farm versus a ranged champion? I find I always die very quickly do to them poking me down etc. I do not know how to trade either due to if I try to the minion wave will just massacre me.

2.) Which is a better start? When I do I use what? Doran's Ring? Doran's Shield? Corrupting Potion?

3.) Where do I stand in a team fight when playing the kind of champions listed below? (Answers may vary)

4.) Lastly, this question is fairly easy. Can you help me understand the champions I play by listing counters, easy match ups and build sets and situational items.

Champions I feel comfortable with top lane

Illaoi the Kraken Priestess Fiora the Grand Duelist Irelia the Will of the Blades

Thank you if you took the time to answer these questions I seriously need help and want to become better. Thank you .

9 Comments

Brutalitops01Nov 15, 20162 votes

Illaoi, Fiora, and Irelia are all very good at split pushing. Now, I don't play top lane much, but I do somehow have Fiora at mastery level 6, so I know the role somewhat, and I've been playing since season 1 and really just have a lot of game knowledge.

Farming vs a Ranged Champion: You'll typically need to use your ranged spells to farm vs a ranged champion, either to poke them out of lane or to kill the minions. The other way is to just stand very far away from them, since they will outdamage you from range, and let the wave push in on you. This way, you can farm under the safety of your turret.

Illaoi 's Q is good waveclear, poke, and it heals you if it hits an enemy champion, same with the W if you have tentacles nearby to slam them. Once you have all 3 spells, use your E on them to pull the soul either into your turret or just into some tentacles and whale on it. This will force them to either back off or all-in you, and either way you win that trade. Fiora 's Q always prioritizes champion vitals if it can, then anything it will kill if it hits, then the nearest enemy if none fit that criteria. Use it to last hit under turret or to initiate an all-in on an enemy champion, and remember that you can use W while dashing with Q (I do this all the time when I try to fight a Veigar, I dash into the wall and pop W before I hit it to absorb the stun). Irelia 's Q resets if it kills the target and refunds some of the mana cost. It also applies on-hit effects (things like Sheen). If the enemy champion is standing next to a nearly dead minion, Q to the minion, then immediately stun them, activate your W, and start hitting them. This way, you also get the reset from the minion, so if, say, a Quinn E's you to get away, you can jump after her with your Q and continue the chase. You can also just use Q to last hit under turret.

Starting Items: For all 3 of these, I would think to go Doran's Blade or Corrupting Potion, depending on the matchup. I think Gbay99, a diamond-level YouTuber who mains Irelia, always starts Corrupting Potion on her. If you know it's a rough matchup, start Potion. If you know you can beat them, start Blade.

Where to stand in teamfights:

As I said, all 3 are great split pushers, meaning that you can just choose to go top lane and split permanently if you want and nobody should be able to kill you solo. This is an especially good tactic if you are behind or not the only person with a tanky build (with Illaoi and Irelia), making you less needed in teamfights. Basically, these guys are all melee and need to get in there to have teamfight impact, so if you don't think you can get into a teamfight long enough to actually deal damage, just pick a lane and push until either someone comes to stop you or you have towers that are easier to take on the map. For splitting, bot lane is the most important inhibitor in the game to get because that puts pressure on the bottom lane, which is the furthest lane from Baron. Getting a bottom inhibitor could very easily mean that they have to send multiple people bot to defend it if they let the wave build up enough, which can easily give your team a free Baron. However, you typically want to go either top lane or bottom lane for your split, depending on where your team wants to apply pressure elsewhere on the map. If they want to try to go for dragon or a bot lane tower, go top lane so that anybody who comes to stop you is guaranteed to not make it to a teamfight in time. If it's a baron or top lane tower your team is trying to get, go bot lane for the same reason.

As for teamfights, Fiora and Illaoi are very good in teamfights, but I'm not sure about Irelia as much. Fiora and Irelia I would expect to play like divers, basically assassins, but tankier. They try to dive onto the enemy ADC and force the ADC to focus them. Fiora can burst them down pretty quickly, using her ultimate to give her a heal field when she does and her W to block some damage/cc. Irelia can't burst them as fast, but can draw their focus for a lot longer. However, make sure you can get onto and stick onto the enemy ADC with both of them. If you can't, especially for Fiora because of the ultimate and vitals, it's better to just hit the tank if you can't safely get onto the enemy ADC and kill them.

Illaoi, on the other hand, plays as a damage tank. You get as close to the middle of the enemy team as possible, rip someone's soul out with your E (because that counts as an enemy player for your ult), then immediately ult. The tentacles will start bringing the pain on the enemy team as you spam your W, using your Q whenever you can. If you can't safely get into the teamfight, it might just be better to use your Q and E to poke from range, letting your tentacles and your team kill any souls you get with the E.

Fiora: Matchups:

Fiora is very heavily countered by anyone who can cc her for extended periods of time while dealing damage. Illaoi can also be annoying, since no matter what, you can't use your W to block her E, however you can use your Q to dodge it. She's very strong vs tanks with lower amounts of cc because she can proc her vitals on them for a lot of damage. Any time you are looking for a trade, try to get your vital to spawn on a side that's easy to hit, dash in, then use your E. If you think they'll cc you during your dash, use your W to block it. Garen is a pretty annoying matchup in the early game. Pre-6, use your W on his Q to stop the silence, then start hitting him with your other spells, hitting vitals whenever possible. Once he has ult, always save your W for it. It deals too much damage for you to not have the W absorb. Riven is entirely a skill matchup. If you let her bait out your W, you'll lose to her. If you don't, you can use the W to stop one of her cc spells pretty easily and stun her. Get a sense of how that particular Riven plays, and adjust when you use W accordingly. If they use the Q on you 3 times, then W, use the W when she's using the third Q. If they use the Q twice, then W, use the W after the second Q.

Build: I typically like to rush Tiamat, then get the Black Cleaver, then finish Hydra, but it's really up to you. Spirit Visage is almost always a must-have because of the heal increase; it'll make your ult field and your vitals heal you more, which is always good. Death's Dance can also be a pretty good item. Youmuu's, GA, and several other items can also be good. For Runes, go attack speed reds, armor yellows, magic resist blues, and AD quints, or alternatively, AD reds and attack speed quints. Getting 10% CDR in blues might also not be a bad idea, but I personally find that I typically build 40%, so the 10% is unnecessary for me.

Masteries: Ferocity: Fury, Fresh Blood, Vampirism OR Natural Talent, up to you, Double Edged Sword OR Battle Trance, up to you, untested but I think Battle Trance would be better, Battering Blows, Fervor of Battle Resolve: Recovery (not going to be building enough Armor/MR for Unyielding to be useful), Tough Skin or Siegemaster, depending on matchup and if you want to let them push towards your turret, Runic Armor because better heals from passive + ult, and then the tier 4 is really your choice, but I personally like Insight.

Illaoi: Matchups: I think that any matchup has the potential to be good or bad for you, depending on how you and your opponents play it. Hitting E's on your opponent is some very oppressive poke, meanwhile you also have strong pushing with the tentacles.

Build: either item 3078 or item 3025 , depending on if you need to be a wall of fat for your team or not, item 3071 first item if you aren't going for that game, item 3812 can be good, item 3748 , item 3053 , item 3742 , item 3026 can also all be super good.

Runes: I think AD reds, armor yellows, MR blues, and health or % health quints can all be good, but I'm not too sure. I typically just run my fat tank page of exactly that.

Masteries: you can run either a damage heavy or a tank heavy page. For damage, 18/0/12, doing pretty much the same thing as Fiora, but I think a tankier page of Fury, Feast, either Talent or Vampirism, Battle Trance, pick one, pick one, Runic Armor, pick one, Swiftness, and Grasp are best.

Irelia: I don't play this champion, I have no clue. For items, I know the extent of Trinity Force into full tank, maybe Sterak's, and I think she runs Fervor for masteries. Other than that, I'm completely clueless. Sorry I can't help this one as much, but I don't even own Irelia.

ElectryaNov 16, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Illaoi, Fiora, and Irelia are all very good at split pushing. Now, I don't play top lane much, but I do somehow have Fiora at mastery level 6, so I know the role somewhat, and I've been playing since season 1 and really just have a lot of game knowledge.

Farming vs a Ranged Champion: You'll typically need to use your ranged spells to farm vs a ranged champion, either to poke them out of lane or to kill the minions. The other way is to just stand very far away from them, since they will outdamage you from range, and let the wave push in on you. This way, you can farm under the safety of your turret.

's Q is good waveclear, poke, and it heals you if it hits an enemy champion, same with the W if you have tentacles nearby to slam them. Once you have all 3 spells, use your E on them to pull the soul either into your turret or just into some tentacles and whale on it. This will force them to either back off or all-in you, and either way you win that trade. 's Q always prioritizes champion vitals if it can, then anything it will kill if it hits, then the nearest enemy if none fit that criteria. Use it to last hit under turret or to initiate an all-in on an enemy champion, and remember that you can use W while dashing with Q (I do this all the time when I try to fight a Veigar, I dash into the wall and pop W before I hit it to absorb the stun). 's Q resets if it kills the target and refunds some of the mana cost. It also applies on-hit effects (things like Sheen). If the enemy champion is standing next to a nearly dead minion, Q to the minion, then immediately stun them, activate your W, and start hitting them. This way, you also get the reset from the minion, so if, say, a Quinn E's you to get away, you can jump after her with your Q and continue the chase. You can also just use Q to last hit under turret.

Starting Items: For all 3 of these, I would think to go Doran's Blade or Corrupting Potion, depending on the matchup. I think Gbay99, a diamond-level YouTuber who mains Irelia, always starts Corrupting Potion on her. If you know it's a rough matchup, start Potion. If you know you can beat them, start Blade.

Where to stand in teamfights:

As I said, all 3 are great split pushers, meaning that you can just choose to go top lane and split permanently if you want and nobody should be able to kill you solo. This is an especially good tactic if you are behind or not the only person with a tanky build (with Illaoi and Irelia), making you less needed in teamfights. Basically, these guys are all melee and need to get in there to have teamfight impact, so if you don't think you can get into a teamfight long enough to actually deal damage, just pick a lane and push until either someone comes to stop you or you have towers that are easier to take on the map. For splitting, bot lane is the most important inhibitor in the game to get because that puts pressure on the bottom lane, which is the furthest lane from Baron. Getting a bottom inhibitor could very easily mean that they have to send multiple people bot to defend it if they let the wave build up enough, which can easily give your team a free Baron. However, you typically want to go either top lane or bottom lane for your split, depending on where your team wants to apply pressure elsewhere on the map. If they want to try to go for dragon or a bot lane tower, go top lane so that anybody who comes to stop you is guaranteed to not make it to a teamfight in time. If it's a baron or top lane tower your team is trying to get, go bot lane for the same reason.

As for teamfights, Fiora and Illaoi are very good in teamfights, but I'm not sure about Irelia as much. Fiora and Irelia I would expect to play like divers, basically assassins, but tankier. They try to dive onto the enemy ADC and force the ADC to focus them. Fiora can burst them down pretty quickly, using her ultimate to give her a heal field when she does and her W to block some damage/cc. Irelia can't burst them as fast, but can draw their focus for a lot longer. However, make sure you can get onto and stick onto the enemy ADC with both of them. If you can't, especially for Fiora because of the ultimate and vitals, it's better to just hit the tank if you can't safely get onto the enemy ADC and kill them.

Illaoi, on the other hand, plays as a damage tank. You get as close to the middle of the enemy team as possible, rip someone's soul out with your E (because that counts as an enemy player for your ult), then immediately ult. The tentacles will start bringing the pain on the enemy team as you spam your W, using your Q whenever you can. If you can't safely get into the teamfight, it might just be better to use your Q and E to poke from range, letting your tentacles and your team kill any souls you get with the E.

Fiora: Matchups:

Fiora is very heavily countered by anyone who can cc her for extended periods of time while dealing damage. Illaoi can also be annoying, since no matter what, you can't use your W to block her E, however you can use your Q to dodge it. She's very strong vs tanks with lower amounts of cc because she can proc her vitals on them for a lot of damage. Any time you are looking for a trade, try to get your vital to spawn on a side that's easy to hit, dash in, then use your E. If you think they'll cc you during your dash, use your W to block it. Garen is a pretty annoying matchup in the early game. Pre-6, use your W on his Q to stop the silence, then start hitting him with your other spells, hitting vitals whenever possible. Once he has ult, always save your W for it. It deals too much damage for you to not have the W absorb. Riven is entirely a skill matchup. If you let her bait out your W, you'll lose to her. If you don't, you can use the W to stop one of her cc spells pretty easily and stun her. Get a sense of how that particular Riven plays, and adjust when you use W accordingly. If they use the Q on you 3 times, then W, use the W when she's using the third Q. If they use the Q twice, then W, use the W after the second Q.

Build: I typically like to rush Tiamat, then get the Black Cleaver, then finish Hydra, but it's really up to you. Spirit Visage is almost always a must-have because of the heal increase; it'll make your ult field and your vitals heal you more, which is always good. Death's Dance can also be a pretty good item. Youmuu's, GA, and several other items can also be good. For Runes, go attack speed reds, armor yellows, magic resist blues, and AD quints, or alternatively, AD reds and attack speed quints. Getting 10% CDR in blues might also not be a bad idea, but I personally find that I typically build 40%, so the 10% is unnecessary for me.

Masteries: Ferocity: Fury, Fresh Blood, Vampirism OR Natural Talent, up to you, Double Edged Sword OR Battle Trance, up to you, untested but I think Battle Trance would be better, Battering Blows, Fervor of Battle Resolve: Recovery (not going to be building enough Armor/MR for Unyielding to be useful), Tough Skin or Siegemaster, depending on matchup and if you want to let them push towards your turret, Runic Armor because better heals from passive + ult, and then the tier 4 is really your choice, but I personally like Insight.

Illaoi: Matchups: I think that any matchup has the potential to be good or bad for you, depending on how you and your opponents play it. Hitting E's on your opponent is some very oppressive poke, meanwhile you also have strong pushing with the tentacles.

Build: either or , depending on if you need to be a wall of fat for your team or not, first item if you aren't going for that game, can be good, , , , can also all be super good.

Runes: I think AD reds, armor yellows, MR blues, and health or % health quints can all be good, but I'm not too sure. I typically just run my fat tank page of exactly that.

Masteries: you can run either a damage heavy or a tank heavy page. For damage, 18/0/12, doing pretty much the same thing as Fiora, but I think a tankier page of Fury, Feast, either Talent or Vampirism, Battle Trance, pick one, pick one, Runic Armor, pick one, Swiftness, and Grasp are best.

Irelia: I don't play this champion, I have no clue. For items, I know the extent of Trinity Force into full tank, maybe Sterak's, and I think she runs Fervor for masteries. Other than that, I'm completely clueless. Sorry I can't help this one as much, but I don't even own Irelia.

Ah! This is so much! Thank you this seriously helped me play my favorite champions! I have one quick question, as Illaoi, (I Think you said this) To E then Ult, doesnt that mean I have to be inside their team to do that, for the ult tentacles? How do I get inside a team if I will die to their poke champions? Do I stack resistances and not damage? Thank you for all your help

Brutalitops01Nov 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Ah! This is so much! Thank you this seriously helped me play my favorite champions! I have one quick question, as Illaoi, (I Think you said this) To E then Ult, doesnt that mean I have to be inside their team to do that, for the ult tentacles? How do I get inside a team if I will die to their poke champions? Do I stack resistances and not damage? Thank you for all your help

Resistances and Dead Man's Plate are very good. Another pretty good strategy is to run the Insight mastery to lower your Flash cooldown and then any time you want to engage a fight flash into their team, E someone, ult. You'll spawn tentacles equal to the number of champions the ult hit +1 from the E soul, since that counts. You could also run Ghost instead of Flash, which with the Insight mastery will be up for pretty much every late game fight and lets you just run really fast into them.

IronfieldNov 15, 20162 votes

Hello Summoner!

While playing a melee vs ranged matchup it is important to play safe and freeze the wave near your tower. Learning wave control is a important strategy allowing you to set up ganks, cs and zone your opponent. Try not to engage champions while there wave is large due to the amount of damage minions provide and creep block. When enemies use abilities to harass and you dodge them, this provides a opening where you can engage on them due to them having a portion of there combo down.

I don't play Illoai much so i cant provide much information on how to play her.
My friend plays Fiora quite a bit and says "Fiora has great outplay potential with q and riposte offers a strong slow/stun and damage mitigation that should be used enemy's key abilities. I suggest playing safe until a jungler ganks unless you find a opportune moment to engage."
Irelia should look for opening with her q dashing onto low health minions and then engaging onto the enemy. You most likely will be equal or a bit lower health so the stun on e will be allow for a easier trade.

Best starting items will depend on which champion you play. On Irelia I prefer going corruption potion due to the added sustain with my passive healing.

As Illaoi you should e then r in the middle of a fight to create the maximum amount of tentacles. Usually i see illaoi's as huge damage/tank threats that disrupt a fight.
Fioras should be in the back line killing the important squishes and getting the clean ultimate heal for the team.
Irelia should be diving the back line with her q and trying to disrupt/kill the carries

This is just some of the statistics sights that you can find. Try looking up Lolking, Lolpro and various other sights. Looking up high elo streamer can help with game mechanics and game knowledge especially if you catch them playing those champions.

Edit: Wow the guy above me did a great post! Hopefully you can take out of both our post and do well!

DoomRPGNov 15, 20162 votes

Whilst I admit to not being an expert to top lane (though I am trying to be a top laner this season) I will try to answer some of the questions 1.When against a ranged champion it is a fact that you will miss CS. only take minions whilst they also have low health minions so they have to chose between harassing you and getting the CS, Cannon minions break this rule as they usually worth the health it takes to get them, unless you have a chance to die taking them, get cannon minions. and play it safe, get a doran shield and once your lvl 6 back buy and all in your opponet, even at a gold disadvantage you should win against almost all ranged champions in an all in, the few exceptions would in my opinion be 1. Teemo 2.Quinn (if she plays well) 3. Graves, with these you may need a gank, Or have a very powerful lvl 6 spike (since all of the champs you mentioned have fairly decent lvl 6 spikes you should be good) 2.Corrupting potion if sustain is the issue, Fighting against other mana hungry top laners like Jarven or Pantheon is usually better. Should they also grab corrupting potion it becomes a game of who can use them more efficently, Doran's blade is a pretty bad starting item for top lane in my experince, Get a long sword instead as it gives better damage more pots and builds into items you want. Doran shield against ranged champions that will poke you with auto's alot, like top lane ADCs, If you want defense against a melee opponet get cloth armor. 3. Fiora and Irelia are divers, wait for the best initator on the team (usually support or the jg) and then rush past the front line to try and kill the enemy MVP Whilst irelia is arguably better in 5v5 diving, Fiora is better in skirmishies (3v3s) as such (if fiora) in 5v5s it could be a better choice to help peel for your ADC by using your damage to kill other divers or assasins once any threat to the ADC is dead you can either dive in or run away depending on how the teamfight is going. Illaoi is a wall. Position in stratigically important areas for the enemy to take, and have your team behind you and the enemy in front of you, SInce nobody in their right minds wants to walk up and fight an illaoi (even one doing poorly) you can provide constant threat against opponets and zone them, limiting their control, if you get caught in a teamfight try to center yourself were your ultimate can attack the most people with your ultimate, after that attack the nearest thing best case scenario the enemy ADC gets confident and walks next to you, worst case scenario your stuck with the tank, but damage is damage so go ham 4.Sadly i have little to offer here. I apologize

ElectryaNov 16, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Whilst I admit to not being an expert to top lane (though I am trying to be a top laner this season) I will try to answer some of the questions 1.When against a ranged champion it is a fact that you will miss CS. only take minions whilst they also have low health minions so they have to chose between harassing you and getting the CS, Cannon minions break this rule as they usually worth the health it takes to get them, unless you have a chance to die taking them, get cannon minions. and play it safe, get a doran shield and once your lvl 6 back buy and all in your opponet, even at a gold disadvantage you should win against almost all ranged champions in an all in, the few exceptions would in my opinion be 1. Teemo 2.Quinn (if she plays well) 3. Graves, with these you may need a gank, Or have a very powerful lvl 6 spike (since all of the champs you mentioned have fairly decent lvl 6 spikes you should be good) 2.Corrupting potion if sustain is the issue, Fighting against other mana hungry top laners like Jarven or Pantheon is usually better. Should they also grab corrupting potion it becomes a game of who can use them more efficently, Doran's blade is a pretty bad starting item for top lane in my experince, Get a long sword instead as it gives better damage more pots and builds into items you want. Doran shield against ranged champions that will poke you with auto's alot, like top lane ADCs, If you want defense against a melee opponet get cloth armor. 3. Fiora and Irelia are divers, wait for the best initator on the team (usually support or the jg) and then rush past the front line to try and kill the enemy MVP Whilst irelia is arguably better in 5v5 diving, Fiora is better in skirmishies (3v3s) as such (if fiora) in 5v5s it could be a better choice to help peel for your ADC by using your damage to kill other divers or assasins once any threat to the ADC is dead you can either dive in or run away depending on how the teamfight is going. Illaoi is a wall. Position in stratigically important areas for the enemy to take, and have your team behind you and the enemy in front of you, SInce nobody in their right minds wants to walk up and fight an illaoi (even one doing poorly) you can provide constant threat against opponets and zone them, limiting their control, if you get caught in a teamfight try to center yourself were your ultimate can attack the most people with your ultimate, after that attack the nearest thing best case scenario the enemy ADC gets confident and walks next to you, worst case scenario your stuck with the tank, but damage is damage so go ham 4.Sadly i have little to offer here. I apologize

Ahhh thank you! this was sincerely helpful! I love it!!

DoomRPGNov 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Ahhh thank you! this was sincerely helpful! I love it!!

Glad you think so ^_^ I was and still am not an expert in top lane, however I hope that you will find my rambling helpful in any point of time Have fun in the island of top lane!

55976771DEL2Nov 15, 20162 votes

I can only help you with Irelia.

With Irelia start Corruption potion. It's really good for sustain, mana and health. Dorans blade is not that good start. Valuable against Nasus and those champions that can 100-0 pretty quickly if you aren't careful.

Cloth+4 potions against Hard matchups like Renekton/pantheon.

Build is Trinity>full tank with Blade of the ruined king as 5/6 item. Trinity>Titanic hydra>Full tank.

Trinity>Duskblade>Ghostblade>Edge of night but this is build for snowballing. Trinity>Frozen heart>Frozen mallet>Botrk a blue build but not good today.

Anyway with Irelia you need to learn every matchups how to play against, you have to dive backline but that's now always true. If you are fed you attack their backline ADc,apc if you are even just defend your team. Late game you want to peel for your ADC.

Watch videos from Irelia carries U, he is best Irelia on NA, Wicked, other in Korea and don't watch Gbay99. Not worth to watch him really.

Anyway this is low post because i have not enough time to write all.

ElectryaNov 16, 20161 votes

{quoted}

I can only help you with Irelia.

With Irelia start Corruption potion. It's really good for sustain, mana and health. Dorans blade is not that good start. Valuable against Nasus and those champions that can 100-0 pretty quickly if you aren't careful.

Cloth+4 potions against Hard matchups like Renekton/pantheon.

Build is Trinity>full tank with Blade of the ruined king as 5/6 item. Trinity>Titanic hydra>Full tank.

Trinity>Duskblade>Ghostblade>Edge of night but this is build for snowballing. Trinity>Frozen heart>Frozen mallet>Botrk a blue build but not good today.

Anyway with Irelia you need to learn every matchups how to play against, you have to dive backline but that's now always true. If you are fed you attack their backline ADc,apc if you are even just defend your team. Late game you want to peel for your ADC.

Watch videos from Irelia carries U, he is best Irelia on NA, Wicked, other in Korea and don't watch Gbay99. Not worth to watch him really.

Anyway this is low post because i have not enough time to write all.

Thank you so much! I am so happy people replied with such detailed posts! You are so helpful! Thank you!!!!!