An analysis of top lane

Introduction

Hello everyone, I’m here again with another analysis. Today I’ll be looking at the factors behind top lane and examples of the different champions that excel at these factors. By writing this analysis, I hope that readers will be smarter in choosing their champions and improve their experience in top lane.

Zoning Capabilities

If you have ever watched or played any sort of fighting game, then you should know that a major part of the game is being able to control areas of the screen and force your opponent where you want them to be. This concept applies to League of Legends as well, since you want to force your opponent away from minions to deny them experience and gold. This causes them to fall behind, put themselves in danger to keep up with you, or forces their jungler to come top and try to even the lane (which relieves pressure on other lanes and often leads to an uncontested dragon). Champions with strong zoning capabilities abuse the weaknesses of their opponent and dominate them in lane. Almost any top champion can be considered strong at zoning, but the ones that shine are ones that continue to wreak havoc past the laning phase (aka snowballing).

Examples of strong champions at zoning – Darius, Teemo, Nidalee, Akali (post-6), Kayle, Elise

Sustain

Champions can only stay in lane as long as they have a sufficient amount of hp. To avoid going back to base to heal, sustain is a very important aspect of laning as well. With the start of season 3, it is very common to see opening builds which favored sustain over damage/mobility. Aside from health potions, many champions have abilities that give them an edge in sustain. This is very important as a champion that might have weak zoning capabilities can instead abuse their sustain and simply outlast their opponent, forcing them to go back to base while you push to their tower and deny them creeps while they are gone.

Examples of strong champions at sustaining – Yorick, Nidalee, Kayle, Cho'gath, Garen, Vladimir

Escape

Top lane is very susceptible to ganks as the distance between towers is much larger than that of the middle lane. Therefore, you must have the means to reach the safety of your tower before you die, either by being tanky enough or having a good escape. Champions with good escapes often feel no pressure from junglers and can put themselves in riskier situations without much fear. While not as important as sustain or zoning, it’s definitely a good trait to have and could lead to split pushing later in the game. Good escapes include bursts of movement speeds and abilities that mimic flash.

Examples of strong champions at escaping – Kennen, Nidalee, Singed, Garen, Tryndamere, Renekton, Zed

Consistent Harass

This factor ties in a bit with zoning, but I felt it warranted its own section. One of the huge advantages that manaless champions have is that they can (usually) spam their abilities constantly and force an opponent to duel them (and lose mana in the process) or escape. By depleting your opponent’s resources, you can harass them without retaliation and push them out of the lane. Likewise, you can also push your lane to their tower and make your opponent miss minion kills if they can’t fight back. Champions with low mana cost abilities or ranged attacks are also great at being able to consistently harass.

Examples of strong champions at consistent harass – Generally any manaless champion, Elise, Teemo

Last Hitting

Being able to last hit is the most important skill in League of Legends, hands down. Despite its reliance on player skill, there are champions that can last hit much more effectively than others. This trait really comes into effect when you are pushed to your tower or you are being zoned and can’t be close enough to auto attack minions. Anyone who plays top lane needs to have atleast one champion that can safely farm at a distance regardless of whom you are against or be able to force the minion wave to your tower to farm there.

Examples of strong champions at last hitting – Kennen, Irelia, Nidalee, Jayce, Nasus, Zed

Baiting

One of the best things a top laner can do is force the opposing jungler to top lane while your team takes objectives (bot tower, dragon). Baiting can really turn the game in your favor, especially if you can force the 2v1 in your favor and get a double kill. This includes champions with deceptive burst or champions that can kite while doing damage, only to turn around and complete the kill. Using the bushes is crucial to how you bait as it masks your position and forces your opponent to play a guessing game on where you may or may not be. An example would be using a gap closer on a nearby minion wave as an enemy is about to enter the bush or faking out your enemy by running the complete opposite direction than they are expecting (try running past their tower into their jungle and using fog of war to your advantage to avoid others, it's highly effective early on in the game).

Examples of strong champions at baiting – Rumble, Singed, Garen, Teemo

Picking your champion

Now that we have all these defined, we can take a look at how to pick a top lane without being hard countered. When you are forced to select a champion before your opponent does, it is usually beneficial to pick a champion with strong sustain, last hitting capabilities, or consistent harass. A champion which has a ranged attack (or a ranged skill, such as Rumble) makes for a strong first pick as it is much harder to zone out a champion which doesn’t have to be in melee range to get minion kills. Sustain allows you to outlast your opponent if you happen to be countered. Consistent harass is also a good trait as your opponent shouldn’t be able to push to your tower without taking any sort of damage. An example of a bad first pick would be Gangplank, as he has only one damaging ability and it would only take a champion with consistent damage output to shut him down in lane. Garen would also be a bad first pick as the entire enemy team will be thinking about ways to keep you at a distance and pick accordingly.

If you are fortunate enough to pick after their top lane has been determined, you can use the knowledge to your advantage to pick a champ with strong zoning capabilities and the ability to bait an enemy jungler (not as important). Since there are many champions that can fulfill that category, it’s imperative to pick one that will utterly dominate your opponent, such as picking Darius or Elise against melee champions with low early game damage (Irelia, Singed) or picking bursty gap closers against ranged (Jayce, Teemo). This requires some common knowledge and being able to visualize how a matchup will play out while still in champ select. The farther your opponent falls behind, the more likely that ganks will be focused on your lane, allowing your team to secure objectives without much resistance.

Occasionally, you will be last pick in champion select and by some miracle, you will be able to play top lane (which should be the case in every game, but you know, pick order > call order). In this position, you have the amazing chance to pick a champion that can abuse any weakness the other team might have. Don’t see a lot of cc? Grab Singed and just run through their whole team. An all AD team? Malphite is a great pick. They don’t have any hard initiates? Pick Jayce and poke their team without retaliation. There is almost always a champion that can both win top lane as well as tear apart the other team, so don’t pass up that opportunity!

Conclusions

I hope this analysis gives more insight as to what makes top lane and how to effectively pick a champion, regardless of your pick order. It’s important to note that picking a good champion is only part of the top lane experience, being able to play a champion to its most potential and picking a champion that compliments your team will ultimately decide whether you win or lose games.