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

Nova Skye·Feb 5, 2015·1 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 TarantinoFeb 5, 20152 votes

Unfortunately, one of Renekton s 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

TehNACHOFeb 5, 20152 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:

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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Nova SkyeFeb 5, 20151 votes

This helps a lot. It's sort of like the ADC Mentality then - CS first, poke when possible. It's just harder because poking means taking damage, which I've been trained to avoid at all costs (hello new turret diving issues).

So proxying is getting the next minion wave before the first is completely gone. I suppose wards will tell you when that's a good idea. I'm also guessing this is not smart until post level 3 for when you've been spotted - and only if you're ahead, at that. When would you say is the best time to proxy?

Have you had to go against a Rek'sai top? How would you handle that?

One thing I'm really struggling with is when to buy that Hydra - do you build your tank item first and then Hydra, or Hydra first and then tank? I can tell now that this is situational, but in which situation?

Thank you again!

TehNACHOFeb 5, 20151 votes

This video should help in regards to understanding top lane, and more specifically, proxy farming. Unfortunately I'm in a relatively crowded room atm, so I can't check the audio and see if it's one of the videos that he actually explains what he's doing. I'll try to find the video later if this isn't the Garen video the guy uses to explain how proxy farming should work.

Against Rek'Sai, here's the thing. You can't win a long term fight against her. What I mean is, if you go in to trade, get out, and then wait for an extended amount of time for your Cooldowns, she will sustain right through the damage you did during the trade. When laning against Rek'Sai, doing damage isn't your priority, manipulating minions should. More specifically, try to keep the lane shoving in her tower's direction as long as possible. Especially post 6, she may try to set up teleport/tunnel plays and leave top lane to do whatever. When she does this, use the minion wave you've been shoving to very quickly take down her tower as she leaves. Minions are your best friends against Rek'Sai.

My personal opinion is, unless I am absolutely sure I am ahead in lane, to always prioritize building at least mostly tanky as a top laner. Sunfire Cape is a good rush item if you want to shove the lane quickly but need the defense.

...but then again, I don't tend to play Top Laners who are as strong early game as Renekton. I suggest you find an actual Renekton main who can explain to you your match ups. Obvious ones who are obviously weak early game like Nasus you can probably afford to rush Ravenous Hydra, as you yourself shouldn't be in any risk if you are controlling the minions correctly, but really don't know the deal with specific match ups so ehh.

Nova SkyeFeb 10, 20151 votes

That video did help a lot! (also, just realized I already have Garen, time to learn him!)

slôwFeb 5, 20151 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.

Nova SkyeFeb 5, 20151 votes

I have some new items to learn.

I had a game where our support did not connect in until almost 20 minute mark. I was top vs Nasus, and early game I literally kicked him to the curb. Even at 6 his circle thing did almost no damage and every time he went in I forced him to recall immediately.

But then their midlaner Ahri began roaming and pretty much shut me down (I should have warded, and immediately started doing so after) - then she started going bot. Our poor Sivir was completely alone against 3 and sometimes 4. So I had to start roaming to cover - again, almost the 20 minute mark so it was about time to group anyway. So, being forced to leave lane meant that Nasus got free farm. I would immediately return and shut him down again, but our team fights just sucked even at 4v4 when Nasus didn't show up.

The game ended with him 2 levels ahead of me.

Would that have been an instance to stay in my lane no matter what? Or was it just lack of coordination/support that lost that game?

BluePolarizerFeb 6, 20151 votes

You must accept that Nasus is extremely hard to completely shut down, and that eventually, you won't be able to 1v1 him even if he is 0-10. To delay this point, you have to specifically build for Nasus to help your allies beat him at all points of the game. That means you should go BoRK and cleaver as your damage items, to slow Nasus, to shred his armor and to deal percent HP damage vs. him so when your spells fall off, you have autos to fall back on. Remember W applies on-hit effects. The rest of your build should be full tank so you can tank the hits for your ADC with items such as Randuins to slow Nasus even further, Spirit Visage/Banshees Veil, etc. You may even need to skip sunfire because it does not help whatsoever vs. Nasus - you cannot splitpush vs. a Nasus without killing him, and Nasus is not bothered by sunfire whatsoever. It also doesn't help peel for your ADC.

Remember this: Nasus's Q has infinite scaling, but his tankiness is capped by 6 items. He can 1 shot your ADC, but can he touch your ADC in the first place?