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Top lane is terrible in Preseason 10

Anhydrax·11/22/2019, 1:33:32 AM·59 votes·19,390 views

Riot said they would make top lane more relevant, but let's be honest... It's even less relevant now?

They reworked both Herald and Drake, but the Drake rework far outweighs the Herald one (actually, they made this one worse than before). That means bot objectives are more important.

And who plays around both objectives: Jungler, Bot, Support, Mid.

Mid got an XP buff while Bot and Support got an XP nerf, meaning it's even more worth it for Mid to roam bot because it's easier to kill them. Of course, with a roaming Mid, it's a good thing for the Jungler to also gank the botlane to kill them. After all, Jungler XP is also nerfed, so might as well put your eggs in the botlane basket.

What does that all mean? The first time Top fights Bot/Support, he's either: 2 drakes up, 1 drake up 1 drake down or 2 drakes down. And whoever won overall botside is far ahead in gold because Support doesn't need to spend as much gold. They also have the gold from kills, turrets and drakes.

That means if Top solo kills the opponent 6 times, he's still the least relevant person in the game?! If your team won botside, you just win more with a stronger Top. If your team lost botside, they kill Top and get his shutdown gold.

Now, I do love the Support item changes. I'm also all for the alcoves (though I think they should put something in it like Mercenaries on Heroes of the Storm), but the drake changes are a big noooo and the herald as well.

115 Comments

Ionian Vulpix11/22/2019, 12:00:55 PM17 votes

Has there been a single season where top laners didn't say that top was terrible?

Ηuawei11/22/2019, 1:53:29 AM15 votes

I love how top lane is now completetly irrelevant and a meme 1 v 1 lane that has no impact in the game.

Blue Shift11/22/2019, 9:53:49 AM13 votes

This is what top laners wanted and have been asking for though, less jungle ganks and more freedom to express skill through 1v1.

You have TP to impact other areas of the map. Stop taking ignite almost every lane and when you do take TP, actually use it to impact other lanes instead of just using it as a free ticket back to lane.

Rift herald was almost never an objective that promoted top lane action, it was almost always a top laner soloing it when they got ahead and could use their pressure to impact the game through either forcing their turret down faster for gold and to be able to rotate around the map, or to help take other laner's turrets, most often mid lane turret.

I think you are getting things mixed up.

They made conqueror too strong on mages and not strong enough on bruisers by comparison. That and the fact that first picking 90% of the time means you will have to verse something that counters you so hard that it's not fun to play against, where it's less about individual skill and more about who can just pick the better counter.

I'm not saying the dragon changes are healthy or even balanced, all I'm saying is you are fighting for the wrong cause.

Also, for the whole being 6 kills up and still the least relevant person on the team, I think that's just not true in almost every case. Being that far ahead means you will be stronger for when you teamfight, and will mean you open the map a lot harder since most top laners are especially good at killing towers compared to every other role. Good macro can take you far, just by doing simple things like splitting and either forcing 2 or more enemies to come at you and just running away, or putting massive dents in their base.

PaffWasTaken11/22/2019, 1:58:13 PM11 votes

How weird is that. About 10 minutes ago, this thread and EVERY single comment defending toplane has been downvoted 4 times in the space of mere seconds. At the same time, a certain comment completely insulting anything related to toplane rose to the top in mere seconds, boasting 4 upvotes almost instantly after getting posted.

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7buirYcmV5nSwIRW/giphy.gif

Worst JG Wins11/22/2019, 1:46:41 PM9 votes

Top lane mains are actually just crazy. You play the the second most powerful role in the game and players like TF Blade and Theshy have already conclusively proven you can hard carry in both Solo Q and Pro play. Just stop already this shit it's embarrassing.

Top lane mains- OMG the JG is camping my lane it's not fair also Top lane mains- OMG the JG never comes top

Top lane mains- OMG the jungler is 1 level above me for a 30 second gank window at level 2:40 also Top lane mains- OMG i'm so weak, i'm only 4 levels above ADC, JG and Support for half the game i'm so irrelevant

Top lane mains- OMG Rift herald is so irrelevant compared to dragon also top lane mains- Takes Ignite over TP to win the lane harder almost every game, uses TP for a small amount of XP instead saving it for teamfights around dragon.

Darkstar Annie11/22/2019, 5:30:09 PM7 votes

Delete top lane. Add a split lane in bottom for a 2v2 and a 1v1 right next each other.

I'm just joking. Or am I?

Mihalikb11/23/2019, 4:14:08 AM4 votes

I think it's HILARIOUS how Rito thinks they "buffed" the Rift Herald.

Losing games over and over because the enemy team gets 2 drakes is piss annoying.

Like a couple of games ago the enemy got first 2 drakes... Fire and Earth.

I finally win my lane top and decide I'm getting 3rd drake no matter what. Ocean.

Great. Wooooo. Lost game of course. Our Jungle was too busy chasing kills mid and farming top enemy jungle to care about drakes. Meanwhile enemy jungle was on the drakes every time one spawned.

Romans VI XXIII11/22/2019, 1:47:07 PM4 votes

I mean, all I have done is play top lane since the Pre-season just opened. And I have carried every game.....so I am not seeing it. I agree that top lane doesn't have the objectives like bot lane does with dragons being so much stronger now.

MarshallgCqD11/22/2019, 11:56:45 PM4 votes

I mean they completely destroyed rift herald. Even if you could get 3 of the new ones it wouldn't make the reworked herald better than a single old one. Moreover, whoever wins the deathball game wins the game now because of how the new drakes work.

Karn Bishop11/22/2019, 8:03:50 AM2 votes

In order to make top relevant they would need to remove ward detecting plants and give junglers a warding item for better vision top to see when enemy jungler is coming, they wont do it because it makes LCS less exciting to watch.