5 Best Early Game Top Laners in League of Legends

It can get very lonely on the top lane against your opponent. So, it’s essential to winning the lane so you can help your team in the late-game phase. Today, we’re going to talk about the best early game top laners that can help you with the lane quicker and guarantee a match victory.

For everyone who wants to dominate the top lane on the early game phase – you’ll need to safely gather gold and XP, look for the perfect opportunities to trade damage, and engage in the right time to secure the kill. These early game top laners can help you do that in a matter of minutes. 

It makes sense that playing these champions can boost your win rate if you play your cards right. You should remember that if you choose these champions, you should better end the game as fast as you can. Usually, their efficiency drops once the game flows into the late game. Here is a list of the best early game top laners in League of Legends without further ado.

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The 5 Best Early Game Top Laners in League of Legends

5. Pantheon

Pantheon is one of the strongest early game top laners in League of Legends. He is entertaining to play, and he can be played as a Bruiser or an Assassin. Pantheon is very easy to learn and master. And, just by playing several normal matches, you can learn him in no time. You can even expect to boost your LP score if you play him correctly. 

He’s able to deal a massive amount of damage to his opponents and quickly kill them. Pantheon can sustain any incoming damage, thanks to his E ability or Aegis Assault – which blocks all incoming damage from one direction.

You have high mobility while using Yoummuu’s Ghost Blade to have an excellent roaming potential to other lanes. Some champions can out scale Pantheon later in the game, so you’ll need to end things fast. And, if the players get behind Pantheon, he can’t block their damage from using his E.

It’s essential to have a good Rune and Item build to play Pantheon effectively. So, below you can use the Runes and Items to win more matchups. Each Rune perk gives him the winning edge against any enemy in the early phase of the game. 

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4. Darius

Darius is an early game bully who punishes his enemies and thrives if he hits someone with his Q. It’s all about positioning, gaining advantages, and forcing your enemy laner to make mistakes. Darius always has control over the lane, mostly on level one, where you can damage and heal simultaneously. 

Darius players always look for a chance to kite the enemy and position themselves so they can trade damage with the enemy. Gamers force their opponents to make a mistake and take that opportunity to catch them off guard. 

All the while, Darius gamers are forcing their enemy into bad farms and trades. He’s powerful on level one and has several power spikes on levels two, three, and six. His Q deals a lot of damage followed by a slow from his W are, forcing the enemy to waste their flash. Once this happens, players use that to their advantage to slow push and pull the wave on their side of the map. This play allows them to control the game and kill the enemy on level three.o

At level six, he gains a huge power spike to use his ultimate move to execute the opponent. 

3. Renekton

Renekton is a top laner that likes to inflict short damage trades to pressure the enemy laner. Players rarely get into an auto-attack fight. Instead, they do short damage with his Q and immediately take a step back. Renekton is a champion that capitalizes on the mistakes of his enemies. Champions like Riven, Jax, Camile, and Fiora struggle against Renekton. They don’t have room for errors and are always in tough spots when playing against him.

Renekton is not an easy champion to master. He can dominate the lane if he has full Fury, but he can also lose if he doesn’t have full Fury. The only way Renekton succeeds is by combating early and managing his minion wave properly to ensure a strong lead and power to shut down the enemy. If you do this correctly, the enemy will be weak throughout the match.

Players always focus on the champion’s Fury before engaging in combat. Renekton can increase his Fury by using his auto-attacks and abilities on minions. He gains 2.5 furry for each minion hit with Q or 2 Fury per two minions hit. At 25 Fury, he has the potential to deal more damage than 50 against champs like Darius. The champion offers plenty of tricks and combos, and you can learn them on sites like MobaFire. Here are the recommended Runes and Items you need to build to trade more damage. 

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2. Garen

Garen is a simple champion and very fun to play. He is beginner-friendly with straightforward gameplay of charging people and swinging his sword around until their health reach zero. He’s also a grand tank champion that can sustain any incoming damage. Garen activates his W ability and gains armor and magic resistance points to save him from dying.

Aside from front lining and split pushing, he can’t do much for his team. Even though he hasn’t got any CC, he’s amusing and can kill most top lane champions alone. It’s effortless to farm waves and roam around the map. His flexibility allows him to help his Jungler with Rift Herald and invade the enemy Jungler when needed. 

The best thing about his abilities is the silence on his Q. Garen likes to spin a lot with his sword to deal a tremendous amount of damage. He can completely delete squishy and enemy ADC champions. And, if you ever need a path, Garen is there to push and make it for you.

The champion doesn’t use mana, energy, or health to cast his abilities which means he’s only gated from the cooldowns. His cooldowns are the only thing that you’ll need to worry about; hence he isn’t losing anything to cast them.

1. Illaoi

Illaoi spawns numerous tentacles near terrain that can damage the enemy – if she hits them with an ability. She’s the type of champion that can deal with two enemies simultaneously. Often, Illaoi gets ganked by the enemy Jungler, and both top laner and Jungler die from her. 

She uses her Q ability to smash a tentacle on the enemy, dealing damage to whoever is queued against you. Illaoi is played as a split pusher, but some players don’t mind joining team fights in the late phase. 

Her W ability slams the enemy target and deals bonus damage. When Illaoi uses this ability, a tentacle might hit the enemy – making them lose more health points. Also, the enemy cannot escape her even if they want to. Illaoi can use her E move to pull a clone out of the enemy and slowly damage them. If the enemy goes out of the range of the ability, they might get slapped from several tentacles. 

Lastly, she can leverage her ultimate move to kill not only one but multiple enemies simultaneously. She spawns several tentacles that slam the enemies, dealing maximum damage and fearing everyone around him.