Top Lane is an Island

When you finally leave top lane

THIS. Holy crap. Since the new Dragon changes I've often gone entire laning phases without anybody from my team so much as pinging my toplane. Mid and bot will be in 4v4 teamfights before midgame and I'll still be up top trading blows with my fellow castaway... I get hopeful when the jungler enters the nearby jungle but alas, he's only there for Bluebuff then off to bot he goes...

DW, you still have a soul mate who got stuck there with you.

So just try to get along with him, instead of, hmmm trying to bash each other's head in.

Top lane is an island because of two reasons.

1. The community itself came up with the basic league meta* and top became an island by default. Baron is a late game buff for pushing through turtle tower huggers.

2. Riot made Dragon very important. Baron simply cannot be obtained in mid game without huge risk of being wiped and it stolen.

*The meta being 1 Top (typically a melee bruiser or tank), 1 Mid (typically an AP scaling mage or an AD assassin), 1 Jungle (almost always melee and usually something with innate sustain aka Warwick), 1 Ranged AD carry and 1 Healer or Initiator Tank Support Bot. It has been the grand overriding meta since the end of Season 1 Worlds. Every other "meta" defaults back to this one time and time again.

The only solution I can see without completely remaking Summoners-Are-Not-Canon-Despite-Champions-Addressing-YOU-As-Summoner's Rift, is to make Baron easier to obtain in the mid game. Differentiating Baron and Dragon's buffs for two different purposes is key. Baron is for pushing down towers and breaking turtlers. Dragon should be for map control and general battling. A team should be able to focus on grabbing an early Baron (before even the first towers going down) to make major split pushing pushes, or focus on getting Dragon and being better in battle.

So it's like comparing Teemo to Volibear. Teemo is a fantastic split pusher, and a team built around pushing, escaping, and misleading would go for Baron. A team that wants to fight (in particular the wombo combo groups) should as those that include Volibear, would rather focus on taking and retaking Dragon so that can have better chances of beating their opponent in duels and team fights.

However, both sides are forced to ward and defend each monster in case their opponent goes and takes it, requiring people to be around the top lane in the early to mid game, rather than late game Baron grabs. You do NOT want Teemo or any major split pusher to get a major boon in pushing. Especially if his lane opponent is just atrocious at countering pushes (such as trying to get Shen to push).

Im a jungle main and I've been ignoring top lane for some time.

Main reasons are dragon, but mostly ADC's being so OP in the past few months, they just skip right past mid-game with IE + Shyv. At level 3 chances are Top lane is warded, while bot lane isnt because they dont expect it.

This might sound weird, but nerfing Statik Shyv should fix alot of issues, including top lane being an island. Why? It allows any adc to push waves as good or better than a AOE mage and on top of that kills turrets like, well... an ADC.

What does this mean for top lane? ADC's control their lane alot more and are pushing turrets much faster > laning phase ends sooner. Why should I invest in a top lane in the hopes he can carry us through mid-game when an ADC can be at his Late-game at the same time, while pushing towers and securing dragons.

I dont feel sorry for you though.

We Top Laners must stop fighting and just farm. let's face it, the only people we're going to be killing are each other. Might as well sit back, farm, and laugh at our two teams as they fight over dragon for the 10th time.

This is true. I main top lane, and the only time I see my Jungler is when I'm saving them from an invade that went wrong. Oh, I also see them on the notifications every so often.

"Executed"

Though, I see a lot of the enemy Jungler.

Cuz the jungler is lost in the jungle.

Last pick an ascended.

Let the other lanes fight their silly little battles.

Let the enemy top try and teleport to siege a tiny bit more.

But every 3-6 seconds (depending on how hardcore your rune page is), you take a step closer to winning the war.

I like being an islander top. It has its lonely moments sure, but when you're up against someone that is just as good as you are the island is fantastic.

Tanks can't carry :(

This only seems to be true for my team! I will get ganked like 20 times, but my jungler is no where to be seen like ever... Half the time no one even bothers pinging MIA if they know their lane is coming top, its like "Hmmm where are they going? Top? I should ping... oh well they will figure it out eventually ill just head bot lane for no reason as an excuse". Then everyone is mad at you for feeding Top, Jungle, and Mid... Well im sorry there is always 3 people diving me, should i just not come to lane anymore? want me to just peace out? what do you guys want?? WHY IS NO ONE COMING TOP TO HELP ME?!?

One of the few benefits of top lane is that you can get fed without worrying about a jungler (in high elo),however if they do come they likely took the dragon already. Only way top could matter is if Baron hp and boosts were nerfed and dragon buffed,cuz really dragon has 3-4 people who can take it,sometimes it can be solo'd too.

It's humorous because all these top-lane complaints are what made me main Rumble in mid-lane instead for 2 seasons straight, so now I can play him in either lane without major problems.

30 mins in.... JUNGLER: i just realized i didnt gank top at all xD TOP LANER: whats a gank? seriously i hear people talking about it all the time

I didnt get it. why shoud i canp top. for one idiot that cant play alone? Then wtf u are playnig top lane!

The only thing as bad as this, is when your jungler actually wont stop coming top and keeps dying to the other guy on lane. Feeding him and making him unstoppable in comparison to you.

Always play as if you have no jungler rather than whining about it all of the time. This may motivate you to put down wards more often or play safer. If you take the path of warding, you don't only help yourself but you also help your team significantly. If you buy one ward and it spots the enemy jungler, then you just helped your entire team.

Don't worry, just had a game where a Warwick decides he doesn't have an Ulti and forget about top that's being camped by an Udyr. The game blame then goes to me :/

I always like when I get ahead in top lane for this very reason. The transition from "top lane is a lonely island" to "this place, it is my domain!" is far too fun.