Hey guys!
I am a newer player trying to improve top lane skills. I am working on a champion pool so I can counter-pick common top lane champions. Does anybody have a list of their top lane champions they use? I'm trying to expand mine!
Thanks!
Umm, you want a good mix of champions so you can both counter pick and pick into a team comp. My most played top lanes include:
Yes, blitzcrank. But some champions I feel are very important to have, as top lane is my favorite lane to play ( cause jungle isn't a lane ) include:
Especially in this ADC meta and how often you see high DPS champs, Malphite is a great champ to have in general and his kit is very valuable to a team.
Kinda the same thing as malphite, he's good against auto attack reliant champs due to his passive and is also awesome against squishy champs
Teaches you map awareness but is super good in general for your team to have
Also, have some AP tops just in case. If you need a list they include, but are not limited to:
So on and so forth
First off welcome! Hope you have a lot of fun here. As for top lane, I'd recommend playing champions you feel more comfortable with rather than trying to hard counter pick. For instance I counter picked a Riven as Garen as lost super hard. Play someone whose mechanics you enjoy.
In top lane I main Darius because he is just a tank and I love playing him, don't mind losing with him either, he's fun for me.
Now for some top lane recommendations. It does depend on what skill cap you're comfortable with.
Cho'Gath-I don't see him much anymore, but he's pretty easy. Q is a knock up, W is a silence, E is an auto attack toggle for damage. and your ult deals true damage and makes you more tanky on kill for champs, minions, or monsters.
Darius- The dunkmaster himself, Q is a ring of damage that applies damage and his stacking damage passive. W is an AA reset and slows you enemy. E pulls your enemies towards you. Lastly, the ult dunks the enemy for a flat damage amount that increases its damage depending on how many stacks of your passive you apply (5 max).You get stacks by AAing the enemy and the edge of your Q. Q deals DoT and heals you.
Gangplank- Banned relatively often, but is good. Passive applies a small DoT every several seconds. Q is ranged and upon killing minions grants bonus gold. W is a heal and a cleanse of CC. E is the barrels he's infamous for but takes a little positioning and luck at times. His ult is global and allows constant map pressure.
Nasus- He is really passive and all you will do is get minions for a while since the more you kill with Q you gain a permanent damage increase. W is a slow. E is a DoT spell. R gives you health and other good stats in general.
Olaf- Really good right now with the new Warlord's Bloodlust mastery. Essentially he gains attack speed with everything and can ignore all CC with his ult. A good Olaf is terrifying.
Pantheon- Very early game dependent and very aggressive. His passive blocks one attack (including turret shots) every several autos/spells. Q is ranged spear throw. W is a jump that's targeted and a stun. E deals damage in a cone. R is a mini-teleport of sorts that lets you jump up then drop down at a location dealing damage.
Tryndamere - pretty easy. He's based on auto attacks. He gains crit chance just by attacking with his passive (up to 35% for free). Q heals but lose you passive crit chance until you build it back up. W is a slow. E is an escape or engage that goes through terrain. Ult makes you unkillable for 3 seconds.
Vladimir - laning against Vlad is god awful. He has targeted life steal on his Q. W is an escape where you become untargetable. E deals damage in a 360 cone that's spammable. R is a skill shot that makes all affected enemies take more damage.
Hope this is helpful and if you have any questions feel free to ask! Good luck out there!
My personal Top Lane champion roster is:
Dr. Mundo is my all rounder, the guy I pick if I'm first or second pick, not knowing who I'm going up against. He can farm while zoned and has pretty good wave clear. If I had a nickel for everyone who took Ignite against me and still lost lane, I'd have an annoying amount of nickels. Its actaully better to use his ultimate to stay in lane rather then juke people into attacking you; it doesn't heal a whole lot early on and is better for lane sustain.
Malphite is really good right now with how powerful Attack Damage Champions are right now and is ultimate is fantastic for engaging team fights.
Renkhton is a good counter to a few select Top Laners and he recently got a buff; if you manage his Rage properlly, it takes a lot to get you out of lane.
Shen has decent kit that helps him apply pressure to other lanes and manage his own lane; he loses in some match-ups, but he's a great supportive Top Laner.
Singed has been my favorite champion for a long time and I still play him quite a bit; his playstyle is a bit to get use to and you have to utilize his power spike at level six effectively. You can get pretty hard countered by kiting, like from Gnar, so its best not to pick him if you don't know who you are laning against.
These champions are reliable and safe picks into most laning match-ups. Their sustain, mobility and burst damage provide strong trades in lane and let them hold their own against most opponents while snowballing with any advantage they can get. Their build paths are flexible and can easily be adjusted depending on the situation. One item of note is their ability to survive against and kill ranged champions during laning phase.
- An influential champion in the early- and mid-game whose mobility, burst damage and sustain let him bully and/or survive most lane match-ups. While he does fall off later in the game, items introduced during the Juggernaut update have helped mitigate this somewhat and keep him relevant as the game progresses.
- A mobile champion with strong laning mechanics and an extremely powerful mid-game, capable of diving the enemy carries and sticking to her target through the enemy's peel. Her burst and sustained damage and deceptive durability make her a powerful threat while her mobility and CC let her dominate opponents once she gets a lead (or survive against them when behind).
These champions are useful for fighting against and killing enemy fighters and tanks at all stages of the game, becoming extremely durable while dealing high amounts of damage to enemies. They tend to work well as split-pushers since they are generally strong at 1v1s and can hinder the enemy during teamfights.
- Trundle is one of the best buff/debuff champions in the game; he is capable of stealing an enemy's AD (weakening their trades) and their health/armor/MR for himself, both weakening the enemy tank/fighter and greatly empowering himself. He's a strong duelist and split-pusher while his passive sustain and buffs/debuffs make him very difficult to lane against. Also, one should not understate how useful and flexible his Ice Pillar can be when used properly, blocking off paths and disrupting/trapping enemy champions.
- Dr. Mundo scales extremely well with defensive stats and can quickly turn into an unkillable nuisance to the enemy team. His high innate damage lets him build pretty much entirely defensive items, so his durability and sustain (passive and ultimate) can him very difficult to shove out of lane after his first item is finished. His Q provides safe last-hitting, a chainable slow and potent harass while his movement speed can make him difficult to stop or chase down. Also, he's quite useful for early baron attempts. His sustained mixed and percent-health damage mean that he can be quite difficult to build against and that he's quite good at killing enemy fighters and tanks.
Champions with high durability and utility who are still capable of surviving and trading in laning phase against most match-ups. They are especially useful options for when your team has multiple squishy carries (DPS mages, ADCs, assassions) and little else.
- An immovable titan who excels at initiating, peeling and locking down targets while slowly beating them to death with his anchor. Nautilus is a rather strong laner with decent damage, high durability and massive amounts of CC. I will commonly pick him when my team has multiple assassins and/or carries.
- Maokai provides a massive amount of utility in multiple forms while being capable of trading with most opponents.. He is deceptively durable during fights due to his passive (which will be procs frequently in teamfights), untargetability, disruption and damage reduction. He's great at peeling/protecting for his team and the vision provided by his saplings is quite useful.
- He an extremely potent mid-game threat whose durability and sustain can make him extremely difficult to push out of lane. His laning phase can be quite safe (provided you have proper wave management) due to his sustain and how difficult it can be to dive him (between Wither, Armor Reduction, and his ultimate providing health). He can become a split-pushing menace who requires multiple enemies to properly kite or kill even as he decimates towers.
