Top Lane, need help

Chris Hurricane·2/20/2015, 4:31:26 AM·1 votes·818 views

So I recently transferred over to SR after spending a year playing nothing but Dominion, and while I've been able to adjust to most roles, I can't seem to get the hang of top lane. Every game I either end up feeding the enemy top-laner or losing my turret first. I've had a little bit of luck with split pushing, but that's about it.

My pool of top laners contains .

I'm more familiar with Darius than any other champion, and I've had some luck with top Swain.

EDIT: I'm also strongly considering buying as my next champion.

10 Comments

ZergReap2/20/2015, 9:48:59 AM2 votes

I main top and it is a very touchy lane and is almost like an island where you only see a jungler or two in the early game (hopefully you don't see theirs more than a few times). First, I would say it is important to know match ups because if are countered and don't get ganks you will probably fall behind and lose lane. Second, as in most roles you should 'master' a few champions. With 3 or 4 you are really good at you can counter pick the enemy or pick a safe champ that isn't easily countered if you don't know their top yet. I would say from your list a few really strong champs right now are Riven, Jayce, Jarvan, Darius and Kassadin. For example Jayce is a safe pick if you don't know who you are against and Darius can counter a lot of tops. These are just my recommendations because I like to play 'carry' tops that can snowball and actually carry or build tankier if necessary. Sure lots of teams will say 'tanky top please', but just find your own play style and see what you like.

I played Tryndamere a lot and I love him. He has the strongest lvl 2 power spike imo and can snowball really hard to the point of even killing someone with 2 auto attacks LOL. Although, this comes with a price of being pretty bad in team fights and almost worthless if you lose lane (plus you give someone the opportunity to pick Teemo and laugh in your face). A lot of the time you will have to play the split pushing game and look for 1v1s 2v2s or 1v2s and avoid 5v5s. I would say go for it if you want to split!

I would HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend trying Irelia because she is one of the best tops right now imo. I consider her a safe pick; you can at the bare minimum go even with almost any champ, can snowball hard, great at team fighting and split pushing and you can build tanky while doing crazy damage to squishies.

I switch from teleport to ignite depending on my matchup/champion. One thing I do a lot with teleport is tell bot lane to ward the deep bush bottom lane (the bush closer to the enemy bot outer turret on the side wall). Then, when thy are pushed up towards your bot turret you can teleport in for an easy flank and hopefully double kill with dragon afterwards.

Good Luck!

hh the thinker2/20/2015, 5:00:33 AM1 votes

I suppose it depends on your play style, but I would recommend playing a tank if your aim is to just not feed. champs like shen, sion, and mundo aren't as easily killed and all you really need to do Is build tank and farm.

GummyBearWookiee2/20/2015, 7:35:34 PM1 votes

The current meta really punishes most melee top laners. Out of your pool...Sion, Rumble, Swain, and Riven are probably your best options. Sion you're mostly just pure tank...nothing else...but he's incredibly annoying for people to mess with considering his stuns, knockups, etc. If you're first picking without the knowledge of who you're playing against...don't choose Darius or one of your other non-tank melee top laners...you'll just be bullied out especially considering his lack of any mobility.

Currently you have to either go wet noodle tank...or range/mobility.