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I always fall behind when playing Top Lane, need lots of tips

AquariusGine·9/9/2015, 1:00:06 PM·2 votes·4,477 views

Top lane is very snowbally. But even when I'm not dying, I find myself somehow falling behind the rest of my team.

When I take teleport over ignite, the kill pressure decreases, however I can never net a kill in my own lane without the Jungler's help. When I take ignite, I often get kills. But I end up losing out on CS because they have teleport advantage.. which puts us back on equal footing.

Tricks I know :

  1. When I get a kill, I shove the lane a little and I recall, but I don't use teleport to return. I just walk back.
  2. The first person to lose a tower will lose a lot of CS ( I still don't understand how this works..)
  3. Doing raptors/ wolves can give xp advantage if the champ can clear fast enough.
  4. Sometimes when I get an advantage, I shove the lane. Then I gank mid, help the mid laner get a kill, return and find I lose 20-30 CS. Should I never roam until I get the enemy's tower?

Thanks for any reply, sorry I'm such a bronzie

6 Comments

Crowgun9/9/2015, 2:14:52 PM1 votes

I think you're focusing on the wrong things here. Missing 20-30 cs would be bad, but you got a carry a kill so that trade is more than worth.

You're not an ADC or APC, its not necessarily your job to carry, even though yes you can, your main job as a tanky/bruiser top is to provide for your team. If the enemy top laners is beating you by 35-55 cs that's okay as long as you're making plays around the map or provide more in fights.

Easy way to ensure your always relevant is to make sure TP is up for objectives. Shove a wave and force your opponent to recall and TP to lane, then TP to dragon. Objective beats CS.

Remember also, kills don't win games, objectives do. It sounds liem you're doing what you need to, just shift focus from kills/cs to "what helps my team the most objectively?"

Maicon9/9/2015, 8:36:38 PM1 votes

I main Irelia the most.

  1. If you get the TP, do not use it unless you die with upcoming huge minion waves. Usually, only use it once after eating one jungle area, and after become level2.
  2. Do not try to win the lane - This means, It will be the best idea to not die and cs more than the enemy top lane (Situation will be changed if you have strong early game)
  3. Always get back to the lane with one pink ward and regular ward (Most important)
  4. Try to hit level 2 and 6 faster than enemy. Top and mid is usually a solo lane. Thus, 1 skill level does matter.
  5. Always look out bot lane for future teleport. Irelia Irelia
Only Play Darius9/9/2015, 9:30:44 PM1 votes

CS above all else. Learn to get maximum last hits before you try to start trading, but as far as trading is concerned a quick tip is to abuse a level advantage the moment you get it, quickly level a skill and start a fight, you have higher stats during that time so unless its a particularly bad matchup you should win the trade and set them back. The most powerful level advantages occur at 2/3/6.

Its not your job to roam, its your job to farm so you can frontline for your team, dont feel obliged to teleport botlane unless you see a prime opportunity to get your team kills, otherwise as you said you will return toplane to find your opponent 30 CS ahead of you and you have nothing to show for it.

Unless you're playing someone like Riven or Darius you shouldn't be concerning yourself with kill pressure, for toplaners ignite is never worth the slot unless you know you need GW for that game. If you stumble upon a kill early on then that's nice but you shouldn't be missing cs or overextending in an effort to get one.

That being said, should you happen to get a big kill lead you should actually NOT try to take the tower early. Just recall and buy a damage item each time you kill them in lane, in low elo many players believe that their turret gives them protection against a 5/0 opponent, so they will keep coming back to lane and you can get more and more fed, ironically you want their turret standing for as long as possible if they are losing hard (mind games play a huge part in league). If you were to take the turret ASAP then they would either go mid and grab assists, or sit under their inner turret and make it much harder for you to farm kills without getting ganked. I kid you not, many games I have gone 10+/0 with pre-rework Darius before the first tower fell simply because I never attacked it, and my opponent would keep coming back to me and get 100-0'd the moment they step out of tower range.

This strategy is used in the LCS too (called "Extending the Laning Phase"), because taking the tower too early allows a losing top to freeze the wave closer to their base where their teammates can come gank for them. You want to force a feeding opponent to come as far away from his base as possible for farm so that his midlaner/jungler can't bail him out so easily. I know it sounds completely counterintuitive to keep the enemy tower standing when you are winning hard but trust me on this. And before you say you want to start roaming early as possible, believe me when I say that you will be much more terrifying coming out of lane 9/0 than if you started roaming 3/0.

And ALWAYS ask your jungler before you consider starting a camp, and don't be surprised if he tells you not to. As a jungle main having one of the easy camps level up can completely screw my first clear depending on what champ i'm using. You seem to be a nice person but if you ever tell a jungler to "Fuck off idiot I'm doing it anyway" after he asks you not poach his camps (and yes, lately I have found quite a few toplaners/ADC's who act exactly like this) then don't be surprised if he intentionally avoids ganking you.