As a Support/ADC/Jungle player who just played as Top, I have never felt so useless.

Tis a nice day·4/26/2015, 4:29:17 AM·3 votes·574 views

Basically I just don't know what to do.

As a support, if I win lane, I go take dragon or the enemy tower. If I lose lane, I'll closely guard the carry and help out mid now and then when I have bot properly warded.

But what do I do when I'm top? There's no dragon at top to guard (and baron is out of the question early game). I can't help mid since without an ADC to keep the wave in check my tower's going to fall. I'm also constantly torn between trying to zone out my opponent (what I'd do as support) and trying to CS as well as I can (what I'd do as ADC), and I think I'm failing at doing either properly.

So I just want to ask what should my mindset be when I'm playing top? What should I be doing to best help my team?

6 Comments

Qarekeo4/26/2015, 6:04:20 AM4 votes

I'm also an everything-but-top-or-mid player, and I had the same problem with top lane before.

I think you're having trouble because it requires a different mindset than the roles you're playing. Compared to bottom lane or ganking from the jungle, top lane is very lonely. That, and you have multiple goals within your lane, while a support only protects their teammate and sets up kills while the marksman only needs to farm and watch the support.

What this requires for you is knowing your chosen top-laner inside and out. Without someone to fall back on, you need to know every angle of what you and your opponent can do for you to decide at any moment what to do.

On the upside, top laners have a bit more leeway with what they can build, unlike supports who almost always have to build certain items (sightstone especially) and marksman who almost universally have only one build. Make sure to start off with a good counter item for whatever laner, since you'll be spending quite some time with them at first.

The best thing you can do for yourself is read up on your chosen top-laner, see what the purpose of their character is and how you can build with them, and read up on some of the scarier popular matchups for them.

This is a very general guide on only laning, but I hope it helps.

TehNACHO4/26/2015, 4:47:21 AM2 votes

Well, depending on the champion you're playing, if you win you can start proxy farming. This gets the enemy Jungler's attention and drags attention away from the Dragon, which opens up opportunities for your team in the botside of the map. This also secures you a crapton of CS while also annoying the shit out of your lane opponent.

Especially if you play a CC tank like Sion, proxy farming makes you scale extremely well into the mid to late game, when a top laner's role on the team requires the absolute most out of them.

Jungle Lux God4/26/2015, 6:37:08 AM1 votes

I would say look to make plays around the map.

You can still gank mid from the top lane, just make sure you push the lane before you roam and go right back to your turret right after. Also, if you gank well with your teleport you can still afford to lose a turret if your team makes a good play. 1 turret for three kills and a turret or dragon is usually worth.

If you can't make plays elsewhere, just do your best to force objectives from the top lane. Be as annoying as possible so the enemy team with either deal with you so your team can take objectives elsewhere or ignore you so you can take turrets in the top lane.

LukewarmWeiner4/26/2015, 7:26:03 AM1 votes

TELEPORT Most important summoner for top laners, and I don't understand those that dont use it unless youre playing as shen or MAYBE someone with high movespeed. As top laner your goal isnt to kill the enemy; it is to not get killed (decent ward coverage for ganks), cs as much as possible, push as hard as possible, watch map for need of your tele/assistance. If a chance to kill is available, obviously take it, but focus on objectives and make sure your teleport is up when a big objective/fight might go down.