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@Renektoneers: New to Melee, New to Top, New to Renekton.... But bringing him back!

Nova Skye·2/5/2015, 2:45:30 PM·1 votes·747 views

If you are reading, first let me shout out a great big THANK YOU for doing so. So often I feel like my posts just don't matter around here.

Alright, on to the question. I'm an ADC/Support main, and even when I go mid, I ALWAYS take ranged champions. I'm a cowardly player, as I heard one of the shoutcasters put it. I like to be in the back.

Well, time for a change. I want to be proficient in all parts of this game, in all roles. I am tired of being shut down in a game simply because I was last pick and everyone else knew better than me what I would be good at [/sarcasm].

I've had Renekton for a while, and received a Pool Party mystery gift, so I figured I would pick him up. His dash seemed to make him best for learning melee - being able to get out of trouble that I find myself in is really cool. Because it happens. A lot. My poor jungler.

The problem I'm having is that I never see him picked up by anyone else. I'm having to learn his play style through reading alone, and some short video clips because as a college student with a full time job I don't have time to watch full games (especially when I would rather be playing when the time does come up). Watching LCS isn't helping either because when they DO pick him up... well, you can't play like them in Bronze 5.

I've learned his combo. I've learned his masteries and runes. I've learned (sort of) his item build (looking for tips on this). I've played several games in a row over the past few days (well over 10 I think) and I was pitted against so many different champs that I'm getting a feel for his counters and strengths (speaking of, why the HECK does Rek'sai counter Renekton so hard? Not only can you not get close to even touch him, but when you do he hits almost double the damage).

What I am having trouble with is the position itself (Tank / Top), wave control, Renekton counters. I am looking for as much input as possible on how you Renektoneers play your favorite reptile. How do you play against your counter? How did you learn to Melee? How do you know when its safe to roam into enemy jungle to steal some camps? What do you do when a Garen does twice the damage with twice the armor at level 3 than you do and doesn't let you leave your lane?

Just for some ideas about my matches: http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=EitanLeigh

9 Comments

Tin Tarantino2/5/2015, 4:40:03 PM2 votes

Unfortunately, one of Renektons best strategies was nerfed with the summoners rift update, since he can no longer stand in the enemy jungler pretending to be the red buff for an ambush.

http://res.cloudinary.com/urbandictionary/image/upload/a_exif,c_fit,h_200,w_200/v1395991705/gjn81wvxqsq6yzcwubok.png

TehNACHO2/5/2015, 4:51:28 PM2 votes

Tank

Fighter.

Anyway, while I'm not much of a Renekton player, I do have some tips about top lane in general. Especially early game, minions are everything. Their gold is what will primarily be filling your pockets, their aggro can make or break top lane fights, and proper lane control is all about knowing how to manipulate the minion wave.

Renekton is all about laning strength, but he tends to fall off in damage and thus usefulness by the late game. This means, while you still really need to farm for yourself, your job is to zone the opponent so that they can't CS at all. Stun them every time they walk up, be big and obvious whenever you want to Q, etc. etc. If you know your opponent has terrible sustain, you can also afford to proxy farm if you can set up fast enough. You can escape relatively easily thanks to either the Krugs or the Gromp, depending on what side of the map you are on, and Renekton has some built in sustain. Get a few items under your belt, you can force the opponent to farm under tower while you guarantee yourself all the CS.

Renekton's full combo as I think you should be aware by now can be very long and take a lot of Auto Attacks to properly execute. If you're not careful, you can be eating all of your enemy's minion aggro as a result. You can mitigate this by using your Q, clearing as many minions as possible (and maybe even smacking your opponent (Only auto attacks, not abilities, activate minion aggro)), thus negating the problem in its entirety by not letting the opponent have any minions to defend them in the first place.

As for the problems you listed at the end of your post:

  1. You're a fighter. One with a strong early game but terrible scaling at that. You are not the team's tank, you are the team's Anti Carry, designed to make the enemy top laner's day absolute shit. Do what you can to win lane and very quickly establish dominance (ala Proxy Farming or through creating picks (not full on Teamfights) for your team or just flat out denying the enemy top laner any farm at all).
  2. Big waves are bad. Very bad. Don't do anything too aggressive other than spam your Q when the enemy's minion wave is bigger than yours.
  3. Any by name? Most counters in League are either soft counters or skill counters, so it's more of a matter of knowing how to deal with your opponent then just getting countered in the first place.
  4. I am primarily an AD Assassin player in mid lane. You tend to learn the correct mentalities regarding minion waves and dealing with Counters doing that, so being a melee player has become second nature to me.
  5. When you have wards. Vision is your friend. If you have an extra 75 gold to buy a Green Ward, do it. If you know any really cheap spots to put a pink ward, do it. You say you are a support player so I hope you already know this, but ward constantly. Very aggressive wards in the enemy Jungle is how you take advantage of them, either by stealing their camps or even ambushing them.
  6. Just farm. Really, champs like Garen are literally identical to champs like Renekton. As long as you don't die, your primary goal is CS leads.
slôw2/5/2015, 6:41:52 PM1 votes

For items,

Brutalizer if you aren't losing terribly, otherwise you want to just go armor/mr after brutalizer and you aren't losing terribly, get hydra and ninjatabi/mercury treads.

basically AD is completely useless unless you can kill him 1v1, 20% health is the same as 90% health in top lane.

It is because of that makes it so you must know your and his power spikes and create a plan, "if i get brutalizer, and then start building tiamat, will i be strong enough to kill him?" and if you know you can't kill him, then you want to be able to not die against him.

Top is about screwing your opponent over, then screwing over the enemy team. Its not about getting massively ahead, its about putting them behind.