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As a top laner, I feel like the jungle always comes up here first...TL;DR included.

Wyenot·11/15/2014, 8:45:20 PM·1 votes·2,318 views

I have the unfortunate place of having to play top lane because that is where my favorite champions are. I say unfortunate because I feel like sometimes from top lane, there is nothing I can really do to help "carry the game"...that's another conversation though...I wish my favorite champions could play mid lane...

Anyways, I still try play in a way that I can strongly effect the out come of the game. The way I try and do this is by asserting lane dominance and allowing for myself to keep pressure top lane and roam to help my teammates.

I have one little issue, though, it's called a jungler. Now this may be negativity bias or I am just bad, but I always try to play so that I can be successful in my lane. Part of this is keeping a constant watch for the jungler.

One thing that I have noticed is that that guy always comes. ALWAYS. No matter what. I mean, like always. It feels like there is some unwritten jungler code that says "go top plane first, always". What's worse is if they are unsuccessful, they stick around...I can tell because I look at the scoreboard and about a minute or two after they try and they light up on the scoreboard again, they have barely any more farm or kill participation -_-

They come no matter how I play. I mainly play riven so I often try for early pressure and level 2/3 fighting and trading. It's already hard enough that I am trying to get every minion while keeping the pressure off of me from my enemy laner who just wants to miss all the farm and attack me. I'm talking missing entire minion waves of last hits just to trade with me at like level 1....

Anyways the jungler always comes and I need help on how to deal with it. Its gotten so bad that if I don't see the jungler elsewhere and my lane is naturally pushing I pretty much just have to back because guaranteed I am about to get ganked. If I try and stick around for a few more seconds to make the enemy laner dying even more detrimental to him, the jungler is going to be there within 10 seconds. It's like the minute I start to trade with my laner the jungler drops everything and heads top....it makes it extremely difficult for me to "dominate" my lane so I can have a strong influence on the game.

So if I got for level 1-3 cheese/all-in/trading to assert dominance, the jungler will be there.

If I balance the lane and don't put a lot of pressure or dominance and elect to farm, the jungler will be there.

If I am being pushed to my tower for some reason or another, that motherfukcing piece of annoying shit will be there. And then proceed to tower dive me at like level 3....

The best part too, is my jungler never does this. My jungler never does this passive aggressive "camping" that isn't really camping but feels like it is. Like if I don't ask my jungler would never come, but their jungler thinks it's a fucking party up here...

I honestly just do not get it or understand. How do I combat this? It feels like several things happen. Champ select the enemy top laner is like "breh, camp my lane and I will carry". Or they all lolking/lolnexus us in the loading screen then when they load in they say "DUDES, CAMP TOP LANE HARDCORE MANG". Or we get to lane and I literally don't do anything but try for last hits and the enemy top laner starts to bitch and ping and say "HOLY SHET, GET UP HERE AND GANK THIS GUY NOW!" Or when I start to trade with my enemy laner the jungler drops everything, even a half cleared camp, and starts walking up here. Or all of these things happen in the same game....

I also feel like I can never buy enough wards. What's even funnier is I never get to place them. Not because I forget to or am bad. I don't get to because the minion wave is close to my tower, I haven't even pushed, and I go to ward (FIRST THING I DO, I GET BACK AND WARD, THE LAST THING I WAS DOING WAS WALKING TO THE LANE, SO I WASN'T EVEN IN THE LANE) and the enemy jungler is waiting in the bush...as if they were waiting for me to get back to the lane -_- Instead of being productive, they are waiting for me, even when there is no indication that I am a threat.

This even happens if I get behind or am shut down, that jungler will not leave...ever.

I think you guys get the gist of my issue. What do I do? Are there better ward spots, am I playing wrongly, am I not buying enough wards, how can I improve this situation so that I can better help my team win?

TL;DR : JUNGLER WON'T LEAVE TOP LANE, WHAT DO? HOW TO WIN?

10 Comments

EndlessSorcerer11/16/2014, 3:04:50 AM2 votes

Junglers typically gank top laner after finishing their buffs for several reasons: -the enemy is still to weak to reliably do dragon, so they don't risk losing it -top lane is pretty isolated, so giving their ally and early advantage could let them snowball and crush the enemy -junglers usually start at the bottom-side buff because bot lane can give a good leash, so they do their top-side buff last.

Typically, I ward around 3:00, since that's when most junglers try to come top lane. Also, I usually play champions who scale well but are weak early, so I let the lane push towards me early and am usually safe under my tower.

I have been camped hard before, sometimes very hard (an enemy Shaco jungle was duoed with my top lane opponent and ganked me 5 times before 5 minutes. Pretty much waited for his cooldowns to come back before he returned and managed to live each time. There was another time is a teleport/homeguard Rammus with mobility boots.). When that happens, I usually just back off, let my team know that jungle is top (just "jungler top", nothing else is really needed), and focus on surviving the lane. When you are getting heavily ganked, it's usually best to just sit back, absorb experience, and get what gold you can. It can help if you can bait your enemy into pushing the wave by making your creeps attack them or make them use AoE abilities so you can farm under your tower.

If you have trouble ward, it might help to find different angles to ward from where the enemy can't see you. If you are pushed to tower and scared of being dived, consider warding the bush behind you. If you are blue side, you can ward the lane bush by walking into the alcove above blue buff, positioning the cursor in the giant wall level with your tower, and moving the cursor towers the lane bush. Drop it in the trees there and it should move into the bush. For purple side, you can sneak along the wall with golems and place the ward in the tri-bush without being seen by anyone in the bush. Warding the lane bush as purple side is a bit harder, but if you can enter the tribush, you should be able to place a ward near the right wall by baron, which gives similar vision to the lane bush.

Even if a jungler ganks you repeatedly, as long as you manage to avoid dying, you can make it work with your team. The enemy jungler failing their ganks means they have wasted time, aren't ganking your team, and fall behind in farm and exp.

Sangheili11/15/2014, 8:54:11 PM1 votes

Here's what you do: You ward up and try to get aggressive wards in enemy jungle to keep some vision of him. (You may have to lose some minions for this) Now if you know he's top a lot tell your other lanes (bot) to get really aggressive with jungler help. Have your jungler take his 2nd and 3rd bottom side buff. If their jungler is constantly showing presence in top lane your team should be getting dragon. Make sure you communicate this to your team. As for ward spots if you are blue side river and tri bush are great spots. If you can getting a ward in the bush near golems is a huge advantage. If purple I like tri and blue buff jungle entrance.

Brenticus1211/16/2014, 5:38:45 AM1 votes

If the jungler is top, that means the jungler isn't going bot or mid anytime soon.

Play a little safer whilst he's around, take any experience you can by standing near the backline of your minions and get any CS you can reliably get without harass. Tell your teammates that the jungler is top and that they can go a bit aggressive in their lanes. Make the jungler waste his time and if you can, call your jungler to counter gank him. (If he enters your side of the jungle to gank you from behind your turret or if he's in the river bush for example). You'll most likely out-level them if they're just gonna harass you without taking any CS.

Of course, if you play an early game champ like Panth or Renekton, it MIGHT be a problem, but I don't normally have this sort of problem as Renekton, since I know how to 2v1 (And because Renekton has a pretty good escape vs ganks).