Reaching high elo possible through maining top lane?

Aozora·2/21/2015, 6:53:56 PM·1 votes·3,484 views

I'm thinking about maining top lane to climb as high as I can, but is it a good role to climb on? I usually hear that it's harder to carry from top lane due to it being an island and such, but can you carry from that role? I've watched a lot of WingsofDeath, Sickmotion, and Irelia Carries U who all tend to go top more than any other lane and are very high elo players. At low elo is it a good role to try and carry (I usually play Irelia, Lulu, and Rumble) or will I just end up losing more when the mid and bot lanes aren't winning/ aren't getting any help?

5 Comments

Sirin Gioro2/21/2015, 8:04:05 PM2 votes

Just play what you want Top lane is an island and that's why teleport is mandatory most of the time. Besides teleporting to your lane, you need to save your tp to make plays/help your bot lane when needed, thus map awareness is very important.

Help your bot lane when needed, then take dragon (save ur tp)

I think being behind is top lane is nothing because you can usually roam mid/bot and get an assist or a kill to catch up in gold.

Sometimes, though, there is literally nothing you can do because your bot lane is just plain retarded, thus explains my low win rate as top lane, partly because I warned my team that I only play ADC and support (no, I am not the scum of solo q. ty) and that there is a high chance I will feed "carry me or lose."

Rhax2/21/2015, 8:08:39 PM2 votes

Unless you're Plat+ in personal skill, top lane can't carry a game alone, not even close. To carry top, you must destroy your lane, destroy their jungler, then make each and every teleport translate to an objective control win. You must do all 3 of these things in each game to carry. You die to a gank, you lose your lane, you mess up a TP and lose your tower for free, game over.

Compare that to Mid or ADC, where you just need to win your lane, then roam to an objective (any objective). You increase your potential to carry a game by 35% or more. Jungler can potentially carry a game, but it's even less likely than top carrying a game, since you get much less gold/xp as a jungler and can be ganked at any time by their laners or jungler without map control, instantly losing a level or more.

If you check the Challenger/Master solo queue listings, you will notice 40%~ of them are ADCs, 30%~ of them are Mids, and the final 30% is a wash of Top/Jungler/Support. That should give you a general idea of which positions carry hardest. I'm not saying Top carry is impossible, but I'm just saying it's going to make it 3x harder on yourself to do so compared to ADC or Mid.

turtlecoon2/22/2015, 1:34:07 AM2 votes

depends how well you roam and use your teleports

it's definitely fine. i jungle/mid/top but mostly went top lane in diamond>master climb

i mean if you're on a smurf climb and want to hit challenger with a 90% win rate i wouldn't recommend top, but as a role there's nothing wrong with it. if you do consistently do more than the guy you're laning against then you're going to climb, no matter what role you're in.

turtlecoon2/28/2015, 3:40:42 AM2 votes

There's no definitive answer to whether or not you should roam. It's situational. What champion you're playing, what top laner you're versing, what champions the mid laners are playing, what summoners are up, what ultimates are up, whether dragon is up, where the junglers are, where the wards are, etcetera - these factors all play into it.

My answer would be to look for definitive reasons to roam, and then set up a proper situation to roam. Maybe drag is coming up in 45 seconds, so rotating down to kill the enemy mid laner would secure you a free dragon. That would be a great reason to look to roam.

Roaming doesn't mean you need to give up a ton of CS and EXP. If possible, look to fast-clear the wave before you go. There's thirty seconds between when waves spawn, so you don't need to be sitting in lane at all times.