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What do I do as a Top Laner when all of my lanes are feeding?

World Ender·7/20/2016, 1:23:14 AM·1 votes·676 views

So recently I decided to take a break from Jungle (my main) to work on my mechanics and skills as a Top Laner (my secondary). One thing I have a lot of trouble with, though, is how to save a game when all lanes are behind and the Jungler is not applying any pressure anywhere.

Coming from the position of a Jungle main, I have a really hard time just sitting back and watching all of my lanes die. Sometimes I'm able to roam if I stomp lane, or when I play Shen I can ult to save people and join fights, but outside of those select circumstances (especially with the TP nerfs that now pretty much make TP ganks laughable at best) I have no influence. On top of that, now that the meta in Top has switched with fighters and strong pushers being more prevalent, leaving lane for long periods almost certainly means a destroyed first tower.

How do I remedy this, outside of playing someone like Shen every game? Are these games just lost no matter what I do? I recently played a game as Vlad vs. a Yi top with this exact thing occurring. Every lane was feeding before 10 minutes, and against a Yi, if I were to roam I would have to deal with a splitpushing monster later on. I ended up doing pretty well myself, with a lot of kills and cs and few deaths, but the rest of my team had upwards of 10 deaths a piece by the time I was able to take top tower. Even though I could kill one or two people, my team was so far behind that as soon as I died or had to retreat the rest of my team just got destroyed.

Matches like that frustrate me, because I felt like I did everything I could and if the game were based on me alone I would have won. How can I translate this success as a Top Laner into an advantage that the rest of my team can use? Would really appreciate any advice on this.

3 Comments

Daxanater7/20/2016, 1:24:09 AM1 votes

/ff

EVD Ghost7/20/2016, 1:31:15 AM1 votes

If you're winning as a top laner, the best thing to do is to gain as much of a lead as possible.

  1. Push your lane to tower, don't freeze. If you freeze, you may be preventing him from csing, however, your other lanes will be feeding in the mean time. As an individual you represent 1 out of the 3 lanes excluding jungle. You would not want to trade your cs lead for both your mid/bot's disadvantage in cs.
  2. Go get the scuttle, Go steal the enemy's jungle. Ward the enemy's jungle. Helping your team with vision is essential when you have a lead. By giving your team vision of the enemy's jungler, the pressure is relieved and you may also catch a kill if you're lucky!
  3. Gank mid lane and maybe even bot lane (If the top is freezing at tower and not pushing [Roam]), TP to return to lane if you're about to miss a huge wave of minions.
  4. TP anywhere on the map if there's potential for a kill/save your team mates/get an objective (This is only if you have TP as a Summoner Spell). --- Keep in mind because you pushed the minions to tower before you roam, after the attempt gank at mid or execution of the scuttle, enemy's jungle, or the jungler himself return to lane to farm the cs pushing to your tower.

--- I find that another important factor is buying the right items. Make sure you build according to the enemy's overall team composition and not just the top laner that you are already dominating.

Cleanse and Repeat.

Sincerely, EVD Ghost.

specter4247/20/2016, 1:44:16 AM1 votes

Lose if you can't compensate