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How do I play melee coming from ranged?

The Stormex·2/11/2015, 4:27:58 AM·1 votes·986 views

I am a support main and today I was forced to play top lane due to someone else taking support. I just bought Fiora and did pretty well against bots in custom practice games, but since I have only played with ranged champions for a long time, I didn't do as well as I thought I would. In the game, I decided to play Fiora instead of Kennen which I go top lane usually. I was against Riven , another one of my favourite top laners. I was actually not doing badly at first as I out damage and out farms Riven but later, Riven can stun me and attack before I can Riposte, I started to lose from this point on. I would like to ask why this happen and how I can fix the problem, I mean of course, I lack experience in playing Fiora and melee in general (plus I farm pretty badly coming from support) but is there something I was doing wrong? Or does Riven simple counters Fiora with her mobility? Any help is appreciated, thanks.

5 Comments

EndlessSorcerer2/11/2015, 4:38:55 AM2 votes

Fiora can be a hard champion to play because of how reliant she is on snowballing to be useful, since she doesn't offer any durability or CC and she can't farm safely from a distance.

If you are trying to relearn melee top laners, I would probably recommend trying to learn Trundle, Nasus, or Maokai. They are all fairly tanky, don't rely on items to deal damage, are quite durable (so you can survive mistakes), and they offer good utility to their team (Pillar and resistance shread, Wither and Armor Pen, and CC and Damage Reduction repectively). Their innate sustain and durability make trading and fighting pretty simple, which would allow you to focus on watching the match, examining your opponent, and determining when and how to trade while you regain experience.

As to your question, Riven can work quite well against Fiora with her interrupts, shield, and burst damage. The matchup if very snowbally since Fiora can kill Riven if she ults and Riven can kill Fiora if she stops it. In addition, Fiora doesn't have much in the way of survivability or CC, so Riven's shield and stun can help her win trades.

Also, since Fiora is dependent on snowballing, you might want to use Ignite (or Exhaust against bursty champions) instead of Teleport to help you secure an early advantage.

If you are having trouble with melee champions, perhaps starting with a ranged top laner such as Swain or Gnar could help you transition?

The Stormex2/11/2015, 10:53:41 PM1 votes

thx for the tips