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The State of Top Lane: AKA Nerfed Midlane

Ñex·7/7/2014, 3:52:28 AM·4 votes·679 views

Dear, Riot

This is ridiculous, at the end of last season you guys told us the fighter reworks were coming, you mentioned darius and garen, we saw kits for yorick, jayce, and rengar, and you basically told us that you understand fighters don't have clearly defined roles, and you were working on it. But since the beginning of preseason the only rework to come out is the rengar one, which was supposed to push him more towards fighter, but didn't really. he's still way better as an assassin. The only other changes fighters have gotten since then is nerfs:

You nerfed fighter itemization. Randuins and Wardens mail; self-explanatory. Dorans; terrible on most meeles now. BotRK; i'd argue the slow is more important on meeles. Sunfire; straight nerf on a melee exclusive item. Spirit Visage; Almost exclusively used on Melees. Frozen Heart; buff and nerf but the AS slow was important against ADCs.

You buffed ADCs ability to kite. See the youmuus, and mercurial in 4.10, and heal a while ago, although it was tuned down slightly.

Any fighter that was strong was nerfed. Jax, Renekton, Riven, Nasus, Shyvanna, Shen, and even Wukong, Olaf and Lee sin, although the first two are because of jungle, and Lane-sin nerf was just minion shielding.

The only Buffs have been the recent J4, Malphite, and Rumble, which were small but a nice start, The Nidalee and Rengar reworks, bruiser Nid is strong, but Rengar is still an assassin, and a super minor darius buff.

That being said, Let's look at this weeks LCS picks for Top Lane, or as I've been calling it Nerfed Mid Lane, because apparently it's now where mid lane champions go after they have been nerfed and are no longer good enough for mid lane. The picks were almost entirely Kayle, LuLu, Gragas (3 nerfed midlaners), Jax (who got nerfed in 4.11), Renekton (because he can lane against anything), and a little bit of Shyvanna and Irelia. I'm not saying LCS is the be all end all, but pros are picking what they pick for a reason, because it's the safest thing with the highest impact on the game. Mages shouldn't be the safest default pick in top lane. This is the culmination of the way riot has handled fighters over the season, fighters as a class are on a downward spiral and I don't see it turning around anytime soon.

EDIT: I'm not saying that the nerfed champions weren't too strong, but that doesn't change the fact that the constant nerfs are a contributing factor to the state of fighters as a whole.

TL;DR: Riot said fighter reworks were coming, instead they've nerfed every strong fighter, nerfed fighter itemization, and made it easier for ADCs to kite them. As a result the default top lane picks have become mid laners that aren't good enough to go mid anymore.

10 Comments

Chilly Willies7/7/2014, 3:54:38 AM3 votes

I agree. I play Shyvana, and although I only have maybe 50 games under my belt as her, I feel the same way. Randuin's Cost should have went down with that nerf, and Its funny how Lucian is so strong that they have had to tell us that for 3 patches and they still have not done anything yet. But yes, it is alot easier to kite as an ADC, especially Jinx. I am probably going to main support now because I do not feel I can carry as a top laner. That is scary. Yes they are supposed to be the tank line but even when I'm 3/0 with great CS I still feel powerless. The fighter role is being sent to the graveyard.

Sire Hippington7/8/2014, 10:49:04 AM2 votes

midlaners that aren't good enought for mid?
Gragas was reworked into a tank/fighter, so he belongs top more than mid
Kayle still was played alot mid till the latest nerfs, wich probably keep her from top aswell(remember LCS doesn't play on the most recent patch)
Lulu is still a nightmare in mid and needs some serious nerfs, especially on her W.

TheJuzzo7/13/2014, 8:55:52 PM2 votes

Were I a member of Riot, I would see a wall of text that starts with "This is ridiculous", and probably not bother.

(Even if I liked reading walls of text)

Edit that out, might come across less aggravating and get a response.

ArtoriusIV7/7/2014, 5:40:43 AM1 votes

The issue IMO with top lane picks, is that to do well in solo q you want a champion who can set something up, that has a lot of hard CC or that has a lot of power, like an ADC or assassin. The issue is that top laners need to be sustainable, as well as strong in 1v1's, and in order to feel like you matter later on you need high damage or hard CC. Most top laners don't have either of those while being able to lane very strong.

Serpents Embrace7/10/2014, 10:48:21 PM1 votes

You raise some valid points, but I'd like to remind you that the fighter change is still pending. It's not cancelled. There may be a lack of communication between the Riot team heading it and the player-base, but that's nothing new and something Riot has admitted to needing improvement on. However the meta shifts before this change drops isn't under Riot's control.