Game analysis : Top Lane Champions

This post will talk about the top lane, the champions, why they are there and the current meta.

 Top lane

Top lane, in the standard meta game is the most isolated lane in the game, away from other teammate and is on their own to survive. Since bot lane has a dragon objective you cannot afford to put solo lane there, thus the AD Carry + Support. Mid lane is the safest lane considering its the shortest lane between turrets and harder to gank when using jungler, thus the weak and squishy AP Carry take that lane. That left the Top lane, most vulnerable to ganks due to the lane is long and out from ward coverage from your support,  and who is there? The Bruiser/Tank/AP/AD

Top lane Champion

 Lets break down the few categories of the type of champion we see in top lane

Bruiser

Basically they build tanky but also have significant amount of DPS (A.K.A Off-Tank), 90% of the top lane champion you see right now are bruisers. These includes Cho'gath, Garen, Darius, Jarvan IV, Jax, Irelia, Nasus, Renekton, riven and many others...

One aspect that they share is they dominate in lane. They are the strongest laner in the game and nothing else stand against them. Try putting Irelia against any AP Carry, or Garen/Jax against AD Carry, they are so tanky and dish out tons of damage early game and squishy champion won't stand a chance against them.

AP Top Lane

 Over the these few month AP Top lane starts to get popular, not many fall into this category because they must have the ability to stand against standard bruiser who are extremely strong in lane. As of now we mainly see either Vladimir, Kennen,Akali and sometime Swain top lane. They are typically weak in lane until mid lane when they get their core item but as you can see, any team running AP Top lane is playing Double AP Comp, the advantage of this is extremely strong teamfights. Win teamfight, win game.

Tank

 

Compared to Bruiser, typically tanks go full Hp/Armor/Magic Resist to soak up all the damages in teamfights, normally they have a great initiation tool also, for this case, i couldn't find a better example than Malphite. He is rock solid and a solid initiation tool with unstoppable force, making him a great champion at teamfight.

Winning lane VS Teamfight

 If you pay attention to the description above,  Bruisers win lane, AP/Tank wins teamfight. Why is that so? Lets look at bruiser, in the standard meta game, top lane bruiser are the easiest to counter in the game, because they have different mechanics that helps them to win lane but at the same time having weaknesses also. That's why if you ever seen a tournament game, top lane champion are the last to pick because they don't want to get counter-picked by opponent. Let's see a few example below.

Pantheon VS Gangplank

Pantheon is probably the worst nightmare for Gangplank, because he can out-sustain gangplank easily and zone him out from farming easily. This is because of Pantheon shield which blocks a single physical attack, Gangplank(Q) Parley is physical damage and thus harassing pantheon is hard because he will just block every shot on him. On top of that, Pantheon also have a spear throw which allow him to win trade very easily and shut down Gangplank in lane. Yes, Gangplank can farm with Q but he will go out of mana very soon.

Shen VS Yorick

Top lane is all about out-sustaining your opponent, Shen and Yorick are both strong sustain fighter but Yorick stands much stronger than Shen. If you ever played against a Yorick you know how annoying it is, strong sustain and harass while he sits behind and laugh at you as you run away from his minions. He pushs the lane like a boss and deny your farm as much as possible. Furthermore, once Yorick gets his core item ,there is no way Shen can kill Yorick even with a jungle gank.

So, counter-pick lane does help you to win the lane if you are playing properly, what about teamfight? As i said before, Bruiser sucks in Teamfight, 3/0 Irelia? Goes in teamfight to find herself getting kited and melted by their Carry, same goes for other bruiser. Yorick dominates most top lane but pretty much useless in teamfight as his minion does little damage and only his ultimate is useful for his team carry.

"But hey! I always heard of Win lane Win game!"

It is correct to only a certain extent, bruiser sucks so much in teamfight unless you are 15/0 or something, and this type of score doesn't come every game. Normally when you had the advantage you have to snowball your opponent, since as the game drags on, the more useless bruiser will be. Lets look at another example, everyone's awww soo cute or I HATE U! Teemo.

Teemo, by far is the most annoying champion ever created by Riot, his skill kit is made to win lanes. When you play Teemo top, you immediately counter 90% of Top bruiser and sometime stand even against AP Top lane. His constant ranged harass is annoying, his blind counters all AD bruiser such as tryn. Gank teemo? I run away before you catch me or after level 6 plants tons of shroom around and you see their team jungler give up on ganking him.

While it is easy to win lane as Teemo, he almost useless in teamfight, he doesn't tank, he doesn't deal enough damage to kill opponent, Shroom kiting sometimes depend on luck and can only be of slight use if you build on-hit teemo.

  

Teamfight is the main deciding factor of a game

The reason champions like Vlad,Kennen and malphite are getting much popular because they win teamfights, i lost count of how many game where Vladimir or Kennen got killed 0/3 or 0/5 then getting double-kill, triple-kill in teamfights, because their skillset affect the whole opponent team, you just have to play so differently in teamfight to avoid getting burst down by them, without mentioning the mid AP Carry and AD Carry. Malphite is built tank and dish out considerable amount of damage as he build more tanky, a single malphite counters 60% of the meta (Considering Top, Jungler are also AD-based), one smash from malphite (E) will significantly decrease your DPS. Oh wait, i haven't mention his ultimate, wreck faces in teamfights, nuff said.

Conclusion

Top lane bruiser are "Out-dated", note here, i didn't say they are useless, just that there are alternative out there and works better especially in a coordinated team. Winning your lane and winning teamfight is two entirely different thing. Thanks for reading!