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Playing Katarina and Akali in top lane, results.

Zerenza··2 votes·1,043 views

Top lane is sooooooo much easier than mid lane for both of them here's why.

In mid lane the common phrase for either of these champions is to play like a bitch until 6, the reason why is due to massive poke and high damage from the enemy mid laner so it's not like you'll be able to do much until you get your level 6 spike. This means you'll often have to deal with being behind in farm and overall gold making you roughly useless.

In top lane however it's a whole different story, the top lane for the most part is full of low damage tanks (in comparison to an assassin at least) and the vast majority are melee with little to no poke ability. This means you can farm much easier and in Katarina's case poke with your Q if they get to close, did i say ZONE POTENTIAL?! In addition all in's at level 3 and cheesy level 2 kills are infinitely easier on champions that can't out trade you until they have tank items and in many cases people will still go damage items first even if their losing.

Conclusion: Try taking Katarina and Akali up into top lane, play smart, poke and don't pick them into these champions.

Jax Pantheon Renekton Graves

Your first item will be Hextech Gunblade (regardless of match up) and your second item should be either Rylai's Crystal Scepter or one of the AP resistance items depending on which is more important.

Happy farming!

Edit: Explanation on Gunblade buy, you become a drank tank to the enemy top laner, they can't do enough damage to kill you and their not tanky enough to out sustain you either if you get this first. In addition this item has a nice 250 base damage active that can be used to either engage or secure a kill.

12 Comments

Jbels2 votes

Your roaming is severely gimped as a top laner though, you ARE giving up something no matter where you go

Asayake 5150glow1 votes

Yeah no unconventional top laner is ever gonna work against Panth and Renekton unless they specifically counter them :P

Although I'd have to say, Fiora's and Riven's will stomp you if they can outplay you, whether thats with hitting a Riposte or getting a good W on Riven and then blocking most of your damage with E. That is because you have no escapes, and these guys are a lot stickier in top than mid due to the longer lane.

Rossendale1 votes

OP played against dumbasses. You might have a ranged ability or two but you're still melee, you need to get close to CS and almost any traditional toplaner will outtrade you at lvl 3.

Unless they're a tank, but in that case they don't give a shit anyway because they'll just outscale you by lightyears out of the laning phase.

Zerenza1 votes

With katarina i'v beaten Illaoi, Riven, Malphite, Yorick, Teemo and Gnar along with Yasuo. Some of them did built tank items but it still wasn't enough to win trades and by mid game i was already fed enough to be a major threat when the team fight stage started despite not being able to roam as often.

Regardless of whether the Tank outscales you later assassins accel when ahead in mid game and top lane is the way to do it. CSing is extremely easy compared to mid lane and i'm sorry but no top laner can out trade a katarina at level 3, they lack the damage to and even if they don't die, zoning them away with kill pressure is plenty enough to win lane.

After wining lane (which i'v found extremely easy.) it isn't about top lane anymore, it's about team fighting and pushing your advantage past just staying top and fighting the enemy laner. If he's there he can't stop you and your fed af self from decimating his squishy teammates, regardless of whether HE will outscale you, his squishy ADC, Mid laner and Support still can't deal with you anyway and the number one way to stop an assassin is to stop them in lane which top laner's usually can't do.

JustMonika131 votes

Katarina's level 2 trades and even all-ins are among the best in the game, rivaling that of Yasuo's, and pretty much far surpassing that of mage's mere poke in the mid lane. Mages and assassins have their hands bound to building damage, so they're going to remain squishy and easy targets. Tanks and Juggernauts on the other hard, start building tank on their first back and you struggle to kill them at all (especially the all feared Hexdrinker rush). Top lane being the island it is, you're going to have at least a small amount of trouble roaming to help other lanes, when it isn't the case in mid lane. Sure you're going play like a bitch at level 1 against pokey mages, but that's nothing new.

I can't speak for Akali however.

Dark Nephthys1 votes

I feel Akali kind of have to go Top lane now. Her sustain was hit way to hard for mid lane and most mid lane matchups will make your life a living hell pre 6. Possibly one of the worst match ups for Akali mid might be Zyra with her easily having 5 seeds just sitting there all lane phase. At least with top, you would have some chance to walk up to your minions and get some CS and auto attack to proc your heal. Yea there are some bad match ups for Akali in the top lane but most of them are at least melee giving you some form of safety if they push you into tower.

Shen is SO HOT1 votes

Are we playing the same game? Zyra is possibly one of the easiest match ups in the entire game for Akali. I would say easier than Yasuo if that's possible.

Dark Nephthys1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Trash Akali Main,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=pEp3ocLB,comment-id=00040000,timestamp=2016-12-07T06:34:07.960+0000)

Are we playing the same game? Zyra is possibly one of the easiest match ups in the entire game for Akali. I would say easier than Yasuo if that's possible.

That depends on how bad you get messed up pre 6, since Akali is one of the weakest champions pre 6 with no real fight until level 6 and Zyra has some very strong burst damage that can easily take advantage of you a lot harder then other mages.

Shen is SO HOT1 votes

Even if you get completely zoned from cs it won't matter. Once you hit 6 and get your revolver, the lane is pretty much over for Zyra, that's how hard Akali counters her. I'd take Zyra any day of the week over any top lane match-up (unless it's Yasuo) or any other mage like Annie, Lissandra, or Lulu.

Dark Nephthys1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Trash Akali Main,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=pEp3ocLB,comment-id=0004000000000000,timestamp=2016-12-07T21:07:22.165+0000)

Even if you get completely zoned from cs it won't matter. Once you hit 6 and get your revolver, the lane is pretty much over for Zyra, that's how hard Akali counters her. I'd take Zyra any day of the week over any top lane match-up (unless it's Yasuo) or any other mage like Annie, Lissandra, or Lulu.

A good Zyra can make your life hell pre 6 with how annoying her passive seeds are and would only use her Q to harass you + proc the seeds on you when you walk up to CS. They would save the snare for when you try to use your shroud to close the distance (pre-6) and even when you reach level 6 she would just save the snare until you jump on her and then as soon as you jump on her, she'll drop a seed + snare you and then ult you and you are basically screwed right there.

Not to mention the amount of harass you'll take from her pre 6 and the farm you will miss will make a difference when she comes back with more items.

Also Lulu shouldn't even be that hard of a match up for Akali. I mean, yea Lulu is good at keeping her self alive and she'll probably be able to barely live your burst thanks to her Shield + Ult and her polymorph, but her damage isn't all that high. As some one who used to main her a bit (Lulu is barely under my 2nd most played champion, by around 1k mastery points or so) her damage isn't all that threatening to some one like Akali and I'd rather fight Lulu way over Zyra...at least with Lulu I won't have to deal with getting bursted by plants even under my own tower during pre-6 when trying to get CS. The only thing Lulu has over Zyra would be the self peel and true sight on her E.

I don't mind Lissandra all that much either, if you can survive her ult then you would be fine against her imo. Though I'll agree with you on Annie...that is just torture to fight.

Shen is SO HOT1 votes

A good Zyra? Lul. If it's a "good" Zyra player vs a good Akali player, Akali should never ever ever EVER lose this match-up. Ever. If Akali loses it's not because she's a bad mid laner or because "her sustain was hit way too hard" (P.S. it wasn't) it's because whoever was playing Akali clearly didn't know what they were doing.

And btw most Zyra's max q. I believe her rank 1 E roots you for less than 1 sec.....on top of it being hella easy to dodge, that is not nearly enough to save Zyra if Akali jumps on her with a revolver. She will have to burn ult and flash or die. Once Akali gets Gunblade you can easily 1 v 1 her under tower while tanking her plants too (if her ult is down).

And again I don't think we are playing the same game because Liss and Lulu are both hard match-ups. They aren't hard because of how much damage they dish out they are hard because of how much CC and utility they have in their kits. Lissandra in specific i find hard because of how many times she can just spam q over and over, constantly keeping you shoved in, and the slow means you can't possibly win a trade with her pre 6 if she hits you with it. Post 6 you still can't kill her unless she's super over extended with no E up. And it's so easy for liss to set up ganks for her jungler with her bs ulti. She's just annoying and hard to kill, which usually means roam but with liss you can't because she'll keep you shoved in 100% of the time.

And as for lulu i disagree. Lulu can harass just as much as zyra can if not more because of her e. At least with zyra its an auto-win once you hit 6, with Lulu's poly-morph and Ulti you can't touch her unless she's oom or made a horrible misplay of some kind. Sure you can roam vs Lulu since she lacks the wave clear to keep you shoved in but if she follows you its prob not going to end up in your favor. Oh and btw Lulu has ridiculous early game power due to high base damages similar to karma. So you cannot tell me she doesn't deal that much dmg because that's just a lie. She will whittle you down to a point where you won't have enough hp to all in her. However, that's not the reason why the match up is hard it's just the cherry on top.

TLDR:

Champs like Annie + LeBlanc are hard because they have point and click burst dmg with some cc mixed into their kit and can kill you at every stage of the game. (HARD BECAUSE OF TARGETED CC AND/OR DAMAGE)

Champs like Liss + Lulu ARE hard because, even tho they cannot kill you with the bat of an eyelash at any given time, they still deal decent amounts of damage and have so much cc, defensive spells, and utility jammed into their kit it makes laning and team-fighting vs them a hassle. (HARD OR MEDIUM-HARD AT BEST BECAUSE OF TARGETED CC, DEFENSIVE SPELLS, AND TONS OF UTILITY MIXED IN WITH AVERAGE DAMAGE)

Champs like Lux + Zyra are easy because, although they can harass you early, they are super immobile & squishy with no targeted abilities. I.E. their cc is avoidable and their damage is dodge-able, and once you get gunblade you won't have to dodge anything. Just jump on them and kill them repeatedly. (EASY BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO RELIABLE ESCAPES, THEY HAVE 1 CC WHICH IS USUALLY MAXED 2ND AND THE RANK 1 ROOT DURATION IS PATHETIC, ALL THEIR DAMAGE IS TIED UP IN DODGEABLE SKILL SHOTS. EVERYTHING THEY HAVE CC AND DAMAGE WISE IS VERY AVOIDABLE)

bad arcade kitty1 votes

i think top lane is much harder because it is much easier for them to zone you of the creeps or to gank you

also why not jungle akali?

kat is strong pre 6 btw

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