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Need Help With Top Lane, Please

DimensionCrosser·7/4/2015, 6:51:46 AM·1 votes·858 views

Looking for help with top lane, in case you didn't read the title. Long story short, I main jungle and dabble in support, but I'm trying to be as flexible as possible in case of the odd event that the jungler and support are already picked. In that case, I would like to be a top lane. My champion pool is Amumu (Haven't played him in months), Annie (Same as Amumu), Garen (Surprise, haven't played him since I played Amumu), Janna (who is a support, in case you haven't played yet (Then why are you reading this guide)), Malphite (Just bought him, like, thirty seconds ago), Master Yi (Used to main him, now I don't), Nasus (Played him once or twice), Nunu (The Jungle King, in my book), Poppy (played her once), Ryze (played him once), Sion (Who is currently my main for Top), Sivir (haven't played her in a while), Soraka (Best Support, in my opinion), Teemo (Who I shall not play, as I am not Satan), Twisted Fate (Used to main him), Udyr (Not as good a jungler as I was lead to believe, or I am horrible at the game), and Zilean (Who I like, but not my favorite).

Anyway, I was looking for some help with choosing my champion, knowing who counters who, when to pick a tank with literally infinitely scaling health cough cough, or when to pick Garen, or something.

Now, I know that most of my champions can't top, and I was only going to put some of them here, but then I realized that I may be overlooking some of them. Please help? I'll be your friend

7 Comments

TehNACHO7/4/2015, 8:33:09 AM2 votes

Udyr (Not as good a jungler as I was lead to believe, or I am horrible at the game)

No, not horrible. Though there's usually this funny misconception around Udyr as though he has this one big play style, and that mastering him is all about tuning that play style. In actuality, Mastering Udyr is essentially the equivalent of mastering 4 different champions as you learn each of his stance interactions.

But enough thread derailing:

The key to top lane is knowing how to take care of yourself for extended amounts of time. This does not necessarily mean play tank champions with a lot of sustain, it simply means you need to be thinking about how trades will affect you in the long run and knowing when to back off.

Going through the champions you note: Amumu - I honestly wouldn't pick him top lane, though I suppose he may do well against Physical Damage opponents in terms of not dying. I would take advantage of his AOE capabilities. 6 minions attacking him at once resets his E spectacularly fast, and makes for some funny proxy farming situations if you learn how to set it up. (Amumu is not Signed. Do NOT attempt to proxy farm level 1)

Annie - Does well against low engage top lanes that she can immediately peel off with her stun. Long ranged harass does really well at making an enemy melee top laner's day absolute shit. I also suggest a more CDR heavy build with top Annie because a) Your burst damage should really be coming from the actual midlaner, so you don't need to over invest in AP and Magic Pen and b) her Stun is stupid at 40% CDR.

Garen - Natural lane bully. Does a good job at making other champions' day shit. Falls off like a brick if you don't build him right though, so your main priority should be making sure the enemy laner falls behind, not that you as Garen are getting ahead.

Janna - Don't play her top.

Malphite - Can handle low level harass and more bursty opponents really well thanks to his passive shield, and the bonus armor is wonders against enemy AD.

MasterYi - Surprisingly good anti-carry/anti-assassin in lane if you learn how to cancel abilities with his Alpha Strike and/or Meditate. Doesn't do well against DPS Bruisers and certain tanks, though if you get back to mastering Yi, you can pull some funny shenanigans shutting down abilities. (This also applies to midlane btw. Mid Yi, I know right?)

You have a long list so I don't really think I'll go through all of them, but this should give you a general idea. Each champion is good at deflecting damage in some way, so if you learn how to use your champions tricks to survive for long periods of time, you'll learn to top lane.

pripustas7/4/2015, 7:35:07 AM1 votes

Champions that you have, that do decent in top: Malphite, Nasus, Sion, Yi, Ryze, Udyr.

Banana Nations7/4/2015, 8:51:34 AM1 votes

If you are willing to look into it I would say to save up and purchase riven, I know it may seem to derail but imo champs like riven just stomp bronze-plat, and do relatively well in diamond. But ther is more than that, out of your champs I would say go with ryze, he is very strong currently if you use his passive correctly you can nail 4 or so prisons in its duration and he does very nice dmg for carry potential.

DimensionCrosser7/5/2015, 4:00:53 AM1 votes

Thanks to you all for helping with this. Another question that I have is is Sion viable? I know he hasn't been picked a lot, and people have been picking him less and less as the updates roll in, so I was wondering.

DimensionCrosser7/6/2015, 1:46:09 AM1 votes

Thanks.