Usually the top lane is the lane of the tankers. Now, there are stupid ass folks that forget that minor detail and pick marksmen or worse, fucking Teemo. There is nothing worse than a teeto player, being a low ranged-mushroom-thrower and game thrower as well.
Only if, in particular cases you find yourself in the position of late game when you find yourself an infested portion area of mushrooms and the team on the verge of peril when engaged after the incursion in the wonderland of mushies, that’s the only singular case when Teeto is good. In rest he is useless for most that I’m concerned.
The world of top laners is changing with every patch but some tend to remain whatever the patch brings. Now with the Rift Herald on the map brought on, the old Smite/Teleport strategy seems to remain the best version, bringing a huge advantage when it comes to lane dominance.
And it’s better when it comes to doing drakes and Baron, having double chance of last hitting, and if they are better coordinated, they could make the calculus and easily steal whatever the objective is.
As well this strategy is only reliant for those champs that lack mana sustain and can cover up the lack of flash in their inventory of spells, like Shyvannah, Hecarim, Gnar AND NOT Teeto. I usually hate him when he is in my team.
6. Shen – The blue ninja who you can see across the map.
One of the most reliant tanks in the game succeeding in disrupting the whole team-fight with Shadow Dash’s taunt and still being able to assist the bot lane in an instant if it’s necessary turning the tides in his favor. Particularly strong early game, going on a downwards spiral in mid and late on the lane(still very effective in team-fights), he can easily get a kill with the help of the jungler.
The only problem with him is the wave clearing that isn’t, it’s simply not there, very bad pusher and burster. Instead he covers up in the area of escape mechanisms, being very profitable used with the new Smite/Teleport strategy, or Ignite, moving all across the map in an instant if he has Teleport.
With a win rate of 51.4% and a ban rate of 3.0%, you can easily grab him in high elo and carry your team towards victory. Still I think he is better used as a support than a topper. Hard to kill early game and late, a really pain in the ass when it comes to ignoring him, he doesn’t ignore you. With only his passive and Q-Vorpal Blade to be reliant in damage he hardly deals damage but absorbs like hell.
Magic damage is kinda useless for him so better go for resists. The runes should be looking like the followings: 3 Quints of Attack Speed, 9 Marks of Hybrid Penetration, 9 Seals of Scaling Armor, 9 Glyphs of Scaling Magic Resist. Or you can just coop for the all armor and magic resist cause of his lack of damage.
In case you wanna repair that minus you can always use Trinity as a solution. The final build should be looking like: Trinity Force, Mercury Threads, Sunfire Cape, Spirit Visage, Warmog’s Armor, Randuin’s Omen. The Masteries should be like 6/6/18.
Great synergy with Orianna and particularly weak against Yorick and Vladimir, instead he is good against the annoying Pantheon and Malphite, canceling their harass with the shield.
5. Gangplank – The obnoxious citric eater
Personally I love the new change, especially for his ulti that can easily now steal a kill or make everyone run like a bag of flees from gas. Especially good when you are on the run or chasing someone, seeing carry lotsa times even if that barrel isn’t so reliant when it comes to aiming at opponents.
Powerful farming potential and upgrading his ultimate in no time if you know what you are doing. He doesn’t need to be there to be there for the team, that’s the best characteristic about him, he can really disrupt the course of a fight with that instant ultimate.
With a win rate of 52.3% and a ban rate of 33.3%- note that the numbers are taken from high elo partitions and represent live stats. Nobody likes playing against him, having strong harass and lane sustenance being even capable to be played with Smite due his high movement speed across the map, but still it’s better with Flash-Q to surprise the opponent.
His main characteristics must be AD and CD reduction to abuse that gun and ultimate so the main runes for him are : 3 Quints of Attack Damage, 9 Marks of Attack Damage, 9 Seals of Armor, 3 Glyphs of Scaling Cooldown Reduction and 6 Glyphs of Cooldown Reduction.
The balanced build should be build arount Trinity Force-it’s a MUST, Infinity Edge, Ionian Boots of Lucidity with Furor, Yomumuu’s Ghostblade, Statikk Shiv and Maw of Malmortius if you are against an AP or simply go for Mortal Reminder. Note that he is useless as a tanky pirate and late game you will be simply useless. The Masteries should be like 12/18/0.
Gangplank is weak against hard cc’ers like Jax, Riven, Pantheon, Fiora but excels at countering mages like Kassadin or Malzahar in which ultimate does the whole damage.
4. Fiora – the manly girl, a worzy opponent
I played Fiora a lot before the change and sincerely she was way better back then when you could go from 1 hp to almost full health with the ulti resembling more with Yi, now it’s more team-oriented. She scrambles any fight when she lands that crap on the ground, healing all the teammates.
Powerful burst till level 6, making her a good early game challenger and usually capable of stealing a kill or two before 6 making her one of the strongest tiers. With a win rate of 51,2% and a ban rate over 20% I can assume people don’t really like playing against her.
Only if you are Riven and you care about nothing in this whole world going Commando in every team-fight. She’s best against Malphite and Hecarim but lacks capacity when it comes to Ilaoi. Synergycally speaking, Orianna is the most reckoned upon, making them a powerful combo having a Hydra in the inventory.
Her mobility is kinda useless so I don’t really recommend using the Smite/Teleport strategy, but however it may work if you are constantly warded and don’t wanna go defensive- it’s not a champ which you should play defensively, it’s more like an all or fucking nothing, a real Rambo champ.
Your rune page should be looking like : 9 Marks of Attack Damage, 9 Seals of Armor, 9 Glyphs of Magic Resist and 3 Quints of Attack Damage being a full ad kinda champ. Her balanced build should be looking like the following: Mercs, Ravenous Hydra, The Black Cleaver, Maw of Malmortius, Iceborn Gauntlet or Trinity Froce works as well and Dead Man’s Plate. The Masteries should be 0/18/12.
She is really weak against Jax– who isn’t ? and Pantheon, having better burst combo but you shouldn’t be afraid cause only in battle you will succeed in conquering the enemy but she annihilates Yasuo in an instant- love that about her, making him practically invisible. Gankplank as well has his weak spot for the lady with the sword.
3. Malphite – the rock-solid win
Honestly this champ is garbage regarding the originality of the skills but when it comes to owning the top lane, I’ve never seen something more annoying shielding up every 10 seconds making your poke useless and his continuously.
An armor based champion that succeeds, whatever the circumstances to turn the fights around only with his ultimate making you sing “I believe I can fly” alongside your teammates. Great synergy with Yasuo, and when I see those two in the same team I can easily affirm that they will win the game. He has a great synergy with Orianna as well. With a win rate over 9000, more specific 52.7%, it’s hard to believe this boring champion can carry along a whole game all by himself. But he does, and that upsets me.
Having two mobility spells Q-Seismic Shard and R-Unstoppable Force, he can easily manage without Flash, making Smite a decent alternative and the best choice I’d may say having The Rift Herald nearby making the pushing piece of cake, coming upfront when will be coming to roam for more kills.
Being based on Magic Damage mostly I’d recommend 3 Quints of Magic Penetration as well as 9 Marks of Magic Penetration, 9 Glyphs of Scaling AP, 5 Seals of Armor and 4 Seals of Scaling Health. The balanced endgame build should be looking like : Sorcerer’s Shoes –Distorsion or the Mercs if you have trouble landing that ultimate, Athene’s Unholy Grail, Liandry’s Torment, Luden’s Echo, Abyssal Scepter and Zhonia’s Hourglass. The Masteries should be 12/18/0.
The top counters for Malphite are Rumble- why not and Cho’gath. Rumble is strong for any melee champion not only Malph, he being strong as well against the melee, attack damage especially but his ulti counters a whole team.
2. Tahm Kench – the fat frog with a hat
This is one of the most powerful toppers and one of the most banned in high elo due his hunger for… everything, making it more like Singed Fling when it comes to engage. Not to mention his ultimate can really disrupt an even team fight when you expect least.
It has a ban rate of over 63% so it may be hard to get your hands up to this fellow, but the win rate is 51.4% so it’s worth. He’s very good as a support as well but we’re not talking about that right now, and let’s get straight to business.
Dues his lack of mobility I don’t recommend taking smite on this champion, so the best option will still remain Flash/ Teleport. Having to auto-attack for his abilities to crumble up on the opponents is recommend 9 Marks of Attack Damage, 9 Seals of Armor, 9 Glyphs of Magic Resist and 9 Quints of Movement Speed having to catch the fleeing meal. The balanced endgame should be looking like : Ninja Tabi, Sunfire Cape, Spirit Visage, Dead Man’s Plate, Warmog’s Armor and Banshees Veil. The Masteries should be 12/0/18.
His biggest counter remain the tank melter, Vayne, but I haven’t seen Vayne top for a while now. Thick skin is one of the best tools to counter the pokes, making them practically useless with a great lane dominance and trading.
1. Dr. Mundo goes wherever he pleases
Seen a lot of Dr. Mundos lately and it seems they have it on, with hell of a rating on winning, having lots of sustain, good damage and a freakishly retarded ultimate that makes him run like he’s on fire or something.
Not considering the fact that he can easily farm with his Q on last hits in case he is overwhelmed, overlapping his AoE in case of split pushing, he is the perfect solo topper you were looking for. With a win rate of 52.6% and a ban rate of 82.3% I can hardly believe someone would get his hands on him.
His ultimate can easily put you in a favorable position when it comes to 1vs1 with any other champion. His runes are recommended in the following order: 9 Marks of Hybrid Penetration, 9 Seals of Scaling Health, 6 Glyphs of Cooldown Reduction, 3 Glyphs of Magic Resist, and the Quintessences for movement speed. Start out with Teleport and Ghost for a better movement factor across the map and the recommended items. They are not put there only for display right?
The balanced build should look like :Sunfire Cape, Spirit Visage, Mercs, Warmog’s Armor, Thornmail or GA and Banshees Veil. You should consider building lots of HP on him having in view the fact that both Adrenaline Rush and Sadism scale with it. The masteries should be 12/0/18 or 6/6/18, depends on perspective, for the main reason that in late game he must be almost impossible to be killed.
He’s got a large cleaver and has a stupid LSD face, he’s really to be taken serious upon, not kidding, he refuses to die due his ultimate, Sadism. Really hate when I play against him.
Aaand we have a special guest here, introducing the new Top Laner, Midder, Jungler, Support and Marksman, Graaaves. Hi. How are you? G: Me? Quite well, coming here to mess the Summoners Rift quite bad. How’s that? Did they buff you or what? G: No, it’s just that everybody wins with me and they’re happy. We understood you have a win rate over 54.4%, how come? G:Well, since nobody is expecting a Graves in the jungle, everybody laughs at me and they don’t stop laughing till I make first blood. Then they are pissed and use all skills against me and automatically loose. Nice to hear that, hope we’ll see you soon.