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These pre season changes sound nice, but only make the top lane problem worse.

AdamrCc·10/16/2019, 11:03:06 PM·2 votes·824 views

Creating an alcove does nothing but promote junglers camping top lane. Nerfing jungle exp nerfs does nothing but exacerbate the jungler skill disparity. Nerfing bot lane exp does nothing but promote more junglers to camp top lane in which case you can only hope your jungler does the same.

Riot's balance team doesn't get that top lane's flaw isn't being behind in terms of exp but the fact that the lane is easily dominated by the team with the better jungler, coupled with the fact that top laners barely get to make a difference in the overall state of the game during the laning phase and are punished severely for ever leaving lane (courtesy of turret plates).

The scuttle changes sound good on paper, but doesn't really do anything to help the jungle pressure top laners usually face.

The scuttle changes also do nothing to help the ranged vs melee matchup.

If RIOT really wants to fix top lane, they need to start working on making the lane less vulnerable to jungle pressure, and at the very least fix the ranged vs melee matchup problem. Along with that help top lane integrate better into the game rather than be "that extra lane with Jax and Fiora who will sneak your turrets sometime late game while you're busy fighting".

4 Comments

Whisper8710/16/2019, 11:31:13 PM2 votes

If the top lane xp is being buffed, and jungle xp is being nerfed....how does that not at least partially address the issue that the top laner can get bodied by the opposing jungler?

Also, unless your jungler is taking TP as a summoner...I'm pretty sure the alcove is no worse for camping than the lane brush. You just put your ward in the lane brush, and you'll see them walk into the alcove. It's the same counter mechanic for the same investment either way. 1 ward, 1 location.

Now, if by chance the alcove thing does end up being enough justification for junglers to take TP instead of Flash...that would be saucy and I would actually promote that. Another thing to think about here is that while top lane tends to get bodied by junglers, bot lane gets bodied by both junglers and mid lane. If you put a ward in a top lane alcove the game becomes more dynamic cuz maybe mid lane TP's top instead of roaming bot.

I like the idea of making the game less cookie cutter and more wildcard.

iiGazeii10/17/2019, 2:49:59 AM2 votes

Giving the top laners more levels makes them less vulnerable to jungle pressure. The jungler will need to farm more to be a threat to the solo lanes, and the alcoves make it easier to escape a gank when pushed up. If the jungler comes up 2-3 levels behind you, they can't gank effectively.

Early/extra Rift Scuttlers mean an early top lead translates to map pressure. If you get ahead, you can break down your tower with Mama Scuttle and start roaming earlier.

Reworking Kleptomancy pretty much solves the melee vs. ranged problem. They can't just farm gold off of their lane opponent anymore, so they actually need to lane better to get ahead.