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Why the Rift Herald means duo lanes might do better in top

Fair Champion·12/9/2015, 9:00:54 PM·7 votes·1,709 views

When I first began playing Legal Legends, everyone's favorite court simulator, I had wondered to myself: Why are the lanes as they are? Why is the mage or assassin in mid, the ADC and support in bottom, and the tank or fighter in top? Why not switch your lanes up? Indeed, this was a very crucial question.

As many people know, there is a method to the madness of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The mage or assassin goes mid to soak up exp and get solo lane farm so that they can hit their mid game power spike more easily. It's the easiest lane to roam from if you want to gank other lanes, thus taking advantage of your mid game power. The raptors are also nearby, just in case you'd like some extra gold or exp. It's also the most opportunistic lane for your jungler to gank (there are seven openings to mid lane, whereas most lanes only have three). Even if you're pushed, a gank is still plausible, helping you get ahead of your enemy.

So why the duo lane in bot and the tank in top? Objective control, of course. From seasons 1 through 5, the dragon has been near bottom lane, and Baron has been in top lane. As of season 5, Baron doesn't spawn until 20 minutes, so there was virtually no need to control it in the laning phase. The dragon, on the other hand, spawned much earlier in the game. Early dragons were very useful in seasons 1-4, and they can still be helpful in season 5. Dragon buff number 1 gives AD and AP that scale pretty well into the late game. As this was the only objective for the first 20 minutes, it makes sense to put the duo lane here. The support, who typically carries a sightstone, can keep it warded. If the support is out of sightstone wards, at the very least you still have two people in lane with warding trinkets. This made sense.

So I know what you're thinking. "Wow, thanks for the recap of info that we already know. Who cares?" Potentially every ADC main in the game should care, actually. Because preseason brought in our good friend Harold.

Harold (also known by the politically correct as "Rift Herald") spawns in the early game and despawns at 20 minutes. Located in the Baron pit, Harold is a hard-hitting objective that gives the team that kills it a one-person buff that empowers minions, stats, and recall. Basically, unless you fed hard or you're against a direct counter, killing Harold often wins you your lane. Thank you, based Harold.

I don't play a lot of top or ADC myself - I'm more of a mid/support person. But when I learned about Harold, my first thought was instant - Harold is a hidden Ezreal, Draven, and Jinx buff! Using their global ults, these marksmen can steal - I mean, receive - the lane-winning Harold buff from their jungler and top laner. In an ADC-oriented meta where AD items have been pretty decently buffed, an ADC winning lane has become more important than ever. Now, I didn't necessarily try this out in a real game (like I said - not a big fan of ADC), but it seemed like it could be a great idea.

As of the last patch, Harold no longer gives its buff to its killer, though. It gives the buff to the one that picks up the orb that it leaves behind. In other words, unless your ADC wants to replace their Heal with Teleport, Teleport up to top to get the orb, then back to base and go back into lane, it doesn't have much purpose for a marksman.

And here's where my idea comes in: Play your duo lane in the top lane. Like I said before, Harold does lots of damage - it's important to have someone tank it. So sure, a top lane tank could do it... Or a support. And while your tank could win their solo top lane... Why have your tank prioritized when you could give it to your ADC? Don't get me wrong, the tank is drastically important, but doesn't it seem like the Rift Herald's buff would be better in the hands of an ADC?

The support would be able to keep vision of Harold, so the other team wouldn't get it. Yes, dragon wouldn't have as much ward coverage, but like I said before, the first dragon buff is helpful in the late game... But not as much in the early game. Yes, stacking dragon buffs is important, but so is getting a person (that the meta is itemized for) fed. I'm aware that ranged autos do less damage to Harold, but this is fairly inconsequential - an ADC can still do it. And even if they can't, then the support could tank while the jungler kills it, and then they can let the ADC take the orb and get the buff.

I haven't experimented with this idea yet, but I plan on doing so pretty soon. What do you guys think? Have you tried it out? Do you think its feasible, or is it not as useful as I anticipated? I'm rather curious as to whether the Rift Herald might have unintentionally broken the meta.

TL;DR: Rift Herald exists now, so why not put your duo lane in the top lane and get your ADC fed?

Thoughts?

24 Comments

ValyrianBlade12/9/2015, 9:08:16 PM3 votes

I don't think the rift herald is going to win you your lane.

What it will do is make your minions attacks do more damage, so the lane auto pushes. Great if you're a tower sieging ADC, but not so great otherwise. Not to mention, it doesn't buff their defenses, so any adc that can clear a wave reasonably fast will not get super pushed. The enemy support can start helping to clear. etc... AND the rift herald hits like a truck. You're taking a huge risk doing it. Top laners only do it after a kill or a forced base, and even then typically only if they know where the enemy jungler is. Having the enemy adc+supp up there and the jungler unknown? You'd need a triple kill to get herald. Guess what, an ADC with 3 kills under his belt is going to win lane even without herald. So why not get dragon for a buff that's going to help your other lanes get a slight edge too?

Dragon is more valuable for the team as a whole is my viewpoint - it's the priority. Herald is just there so top laners can be like "hey I matter". I don't think it actually does all that much. Some xp, a handful of gold, and a short buff that makes laning easier but definitely not free.

AhhShucks12/9/2015, 10:07:50 PM3 votes

Now that there are objectives on both sides it makes more sense to me to put your duo lane mid. Also gives you two trinkets in mid to ward both sides.

Sneakyy XD12/9/2015, 10:55:07 PM3 votes

The dragon is far more important than the RH.

Incognonymous12/10/2015, 1:06:25 AM2 votes

Rift Herald gives a dumb buff. The person most equipped to take it is the least equipped to use it.

Vesarixx12/9/2015, 9:47:34 PM1 votes

Duo mid seems more likely, since it's equidistant from both objectives and the current mid champions seem to be more item reliant than level reliant.

Spizzle900012/9/2015, 9:51:43 PM1 votes

So what I'm hearing is that you have ADC and support top, then your top in bot lane? Personally, I'm not a fan of major change and hope it never happens. I like the idea of the top lane being solo because it's just so far away and distant from anything that people care about a ton, such as dragon. I like the island. Please don't take it from me.

Transgressor12/10/2015, 2:03:41 PM1 votes

Good luck convincing people about such a change in the metagame untill some twit picks it in LCS.

ThunderHoof2312/9/2015, 11:09:19 PM1 votes

The meta is going to switch. The adc/support are going to be going mid and the mage/assassin are going to be going bot. I've actually done this with a team of friends during the recent patches and it works pretty well. The rotations are much faster for Rift Herald/Barron and Dragon. But the meta will change. It's only a matter of time and how often players actually want to do it.

LadyRenly12/10/2015, 12:09:55 AM1 votes

put duo top and 1 bot it won't matter, the bottom will face 2 and get wrecked or force the jg to contantly gank, making it obvious and easy to countergank

This only works if everyone is on board, which won't happen

Nekusen12/10/2015, 12:23:03 AM1 votes

dragon control is faaaar more important than herald, as drag gives a global and infinite buff.

Nekusen12/10/2015, 12:38:16 AM1 votes

to have stacks of dragons in the late game, you need to start stacking them in the early game. but i would even argue that early dragon itself is already more important than herald, besides the fast recall, it can end up being a disadvantage.

Habitz12/9/2015, 9:10:59 PM1 votes

You.. you want me to change how I play... how dare you!?[zombie-nunu-tears]

Truly Prideful12/9/2015, 9:26:32 PM1 votes

I've been thinking this since his introduction too. The first dragon is fine to give up, it won't change much. Getting the Herald buff early on with a ranged champion means your team can knock down multiple turrets and get a huge edge which also makes the next dragons easy to pick up. Getting people to try something different is the near impossible part though, at least until some pro team does it and they need to follow like they always do.

IcyPepper12/9/2015, 9:15:35 PM1 votes

There's other possibilities as well.

You can duo mid, you can have a roaming support for equal focus on the two objectives, or you can have the support duo lane with a non-ADC since some ADC's seem pretty independent depending on the matchups. It's possible to consider the support as an individual, and that they can indeed be separated from the ADC.

Some non-ADC champions are more dependent on items than levels, so it's possible to support them :V