The top lane is a high-risk high-reward lane. One early kill in this role can shift the outcome of the next 15 minutes of the game. As a top laner, you will rarely see your jungler, and you will see your laners even less. All things considered, this is a role where you are pretty much left to your own devices.
To help you excel at playing top lane, today we are gonna go over all the tips to help you become a good top laner in League of Legends!
How to be a Good Top Laner
Top Lane Laning Skills
When it comes to being a good top laner, the first thing we are gonna have to master is our lane skills. The first important skill is farming. To farm well, we will have to get adjusted to last-hitting enemy minions. This will enable us to generate a lot of gold, and purchase our items earlier. Great farming will make us snowball, as faster items lead to more kills, more kills lead to more items and the cycle starts repeating.
After leveling up our farming, the second skill we need to take a look at it is trading. Trading refers to all the fighting interactions we have with the opposing top laner. Having good trades requires calculated gameplay, and a lot of experience. This is the part where we need to experiment a lot, and eventually, we will get naturally good at it.
To practice these two mentioned skills, it’s really good to play a limited pool of champions. By playing something like 1-3 champions, you will have a much easier time learning their limits, and adapting to the skills we discussed.
Tracking the Enemy Jungler
Although junglers visit top lane quite rarely it only takes one visit for them to ruin your experience. For that reason, it’s important to keep a keen eye on the enemy jungler location. The easiest way to do this is by installing a ward in their jungle. This way, you can dodge a huge number of ganks.
Now there are additional tracking strategies you can apply, especially in the early game. For example, if you see that the enemy bot lane has come to lane later, or ideally with some mana spent, you can be pretty sure they have helped their jungler leash. With this information, you know that the enemy has started bot lane, and they will be top lane in a certain amount of time.
Team fighting
Finally, one of the last skills you will need to master as a top laner is team fighting. With proper team fighting skills, you will be able to have a much greater impact on your games. How you fight will mostly depend on what champion you are playing, and that is something that you will have to research.
Additionally, you will also want to learn when to fight and when to avoid fights. Sometimes it’s better to dodge a fight in favor of pushing the lane, or extending the lead by doing some other macro things.
Final Thoughts
Playing top lane can be quite tough, however, things do get easier once you pick up a few skills. Some things I would recommend every top laner learn are farming, trading, tracking the enemy jungler, and team fighting. By leveling up these skills, you will see an astronomical improvement in your win rate, as well as your enjoyment of the game!