If you have ever played top lane, you would have experienced the pains of going through the one-versus-one environment inherent in the top lane. What makes it worse, is that for most games the game will be decided on who the better laner is.
If a player is lucky (or unlucky), the ally jungler may come save a lost lane or break the monotonous breakeven state of the lane.
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1. Teemo
First on the list is the beloved mascot of the League, but the unbeloved terror and demon of the top lane; Teemo.
Teemo’s playstyle revolves around being an overall annoyance, planting mushrooms all over the map to catch unsuspecting victims. When he goes full ability power (AP), the victim may catch themselves panicking as they lose over 700 health points (HP) or more with just one mushroom.
Squishy champions like most attack damage carries like Vayne, mage support champions like Lux, and assassin junglers like Zed may find themselves losing almost half their HP while roaming or going for a gank.
This is more apparent in the top lane as ganking him becomes limited due to the mushrooms, and his constant invisibility gives the champion an inherent safe space.
Trading opportunities are not there when using melee champs against Teemo as he will keep kiting you with his superior speed.
Worse is that while you get close to Teemo, you will have been whittled down by the constant auto attacks and damage from Toxic Shot passive – Teemo attacks apply poison to the enemy for 4 seconds.
Once you have closed the gap, his Blinding Dart will simply make your auto attacks miss. Even if you play a ranged champion, relying on your auto attacks could spell your downfall.
2. Irelia
A main staple champion in the top lane is Irelia. While Teemo relies on cheesing his whittling down the mental and HP of his opponents with poison, invisibility, and movement speed, Irelia will constantly whittle you down from short trades in the lasing phase to lower your HP until she can have an opportunity to kill you through an extended trade.
Most top players may not consider Irelia a strong champion in the top lane, but for most gamers and casual players, the story is different.
Her strong lane presence, lifesteal, and wave clear are a menace for the average League of Legends player. Trading against her is a problem as she can always heal it back up and her auto attacks can be weaved with her Q – Bladesurge.
Even if you stack a large wave against her, this may turn to your disadvantage when they are low or if she has enough damage to one shot each creep with her Bladesurge and reset for more dashes with E – Flawless Duet.
Her E – Flawless Duet and R – Vanguard’s Edge poses more problems when dueling her as they apply crowd control and auto-attack reset opportunities on you.
Her W will snare you so she can dash towards you or simply hold you down for regular auto attacks, then her R has slow and same reset opportunities for Irelia.
There are opportunities to punish Irelia early game with her squishiness, or her reliance on extra damage from Q stacks kept in mind.
However, insufficient knowledge or even a mistake in the laning phase may put you in a world of trouble.
3. Aatrox
Players who main Aatrox may disagree with this but casual players and non-top mains will. Aatrox is a champion who excels in lane bullying and sustainability.
While there have been more champions that are updated, reworked, or buffed by the latest patches that counter Aatrox now. There will still be a significant number that will be troubled leaning against this champion.
Aatrox deals significant damage from a distance with his Q – The Darkin Blade when hit from the so-called sweet spot.
This allows him to effectively kite you, and with his E – Umbral Dash, he can readjust the position to either bait you out or catch you when trying to dodge out of his Q.
His W – Infernal Chains allow him to chain you down if you are not fast enough from escaping which secures a Q hit or just keeps you at a closer distance to be smacked by his large blade.
The sustainability his kit brings may pose a great threat as his passive from E allows him to heal from his attacks, this is further buffed by his ultimate World Ender which increases healing by 55% percent at max points.
While the durability buff in this latest patch lower the overall lifesteal capabilities of champions and items, the buff in armor and HP from the patch is more valuable than the lost lifesteal – or omnivamp – of Aatrox.
This is because the value added from mitigating damage is much more significant than the healing Aatrox would have gained from the lifesteal, more importantly, noted by the fact that Aatrox rarely builds full damage, and would most often have an item build of mixed HP and AD.
While kiting and lane bullying are key to his playstyle, there are still ways to hamper his lifesteal down and kiting. More top lane champions who can close/increase the distance gap and avoid Aatrox Qs can counter him.
Items and champions that deal true damage or percent HP damage are also a bane of his existence.
While we stated that the lost lifesteal is not that significant, it is still a core in his kit so lifesteal mitigating items, skills, or spells – specifically Ignite – also affect him if properly taken advantage of.
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4. Yone
The brother of Yasuo, Yone. This champion is not only annoying for the sake of being annoying but is also a menace at carrying games much like Irelia.
When given the advantage, Yone can wipe out entire enemy teams even if the player is not to that good. His insane attack speed and weaving of Q – Mortal Steel allows him to deal significant damage and life steal from his opponents.
His E – Soul Unbound provides him both extra killing capabilities and distance from an enemy. This allows him to deal true damage to an enemy and safely go back to his original spot.
Outplay opportunities are also present as his E can be used to make him dodge abilities or cleanse crowd control when recast at the right moment.
Knockups from his Q2 and R – Fate Sealed allow him to effectively hit more and set up for his allies – such as the jungler. Furthermore, both these skills allow him to gap close which means that not only will he be right at your face but will also get free hits in.
While the latest patch reduces the overall healing and lifesteal in the game, Yone remains to have a strong presence with his damage output and the lifesteal he has from items as his significant damage output can compensate for the potential lifesteal lost from the durability update.
As a way to go against him, try to use a champion that can hold him down for your teammates or burst him like Renekton, Camille, or Irelia. In most cases, going against Yone is a test of the players’ skills.
If you really cannot hold the lane, you can help out your teammates instead by picking a support top champion such as Shen or focus late game with champions that just farms and scales well like Tryndamere or Kayle.
5. Singed
Most veteran League of Legends players would know what to expect in this paragraph already. Singed started as a regular top laner with irregular skills.
His main kit revolves around being able to “kite” enemies in a unique way – literally by running away without attacking them.
Singed leaves out a poison trail while being chased and enemies who stand on the poison trail take damage over the time they spend staying on that trail.
Creative players back in the day have devised a diabolical plan using this mechanic that is still played today, proxy farming.
Proxy farming is a playstyle where a player farms the minions or creeps behind the tower, does not the regular playstyle which makes players stay on top of their wave and meet in the middle.
Singed excels with this playstyle as his kiting abilities apply to minions as well. This allows Singed to clear waves completely while Singed’s minion wave will directly hit the tower.
If you try to clear the minions incoming without the help of the tower, you might find your HP get whittled down significantly more than Singed has.
This is because Singed manages to avoid damage by running away while most top laners would take the brunt of a whole minion wave if they try the same antics as Singed does.
Simply put, you either have to match the wave clear that Singed does to maintain a good lead, creep score, and level or chase down Singed to stop him from ruining your peaceful top lane life – which most often ends up with you losing a wave to farm from your tower while Singed still gets to revel from taking your waves completely.
6. Lillia
Most top laners will recognize the four-legged humanoid-animal amalgamation that is Hecarim, but not Lillia. Lillia is almost like Hecarim, being able to damage enemies in a circular area while maintaining mobility to kite enemies.
While Lillia is mainly a jungle champion that excels in wave clear, slows, and fast ganks, she can also be played in the top lane.
Players who have gone against a top lane Lillia will recognize what she does in the lane, her movement speed gained from her passive Dream-Laden Bough when hitting her skills allows her to effectively kite down enemies.
This MS bonus along with her slow from her E – Swirlseed makes a deadly combo in terms of kiting you down.
Her Q – Blooming Blows attacks you in a circular area around her much like Hecarim and Darius. The range may not be that significant but the MS bonus from her other abilities will make you feel the annoying nature of not being able to trade back unless you are using a ranged champion.
Outside the laning phase, she has such effective team fighting capabilities with her ultimate – Lilting Lullaby and application of bonus damage from W – Watch Out! Eep! which makes her annoying both in the lane and outside.
Being able to hold her down is the key to winning against her, otherwise, just play it safe and farm. If not, spam ping your jungler to come by and help you out – who knows, maybe this one time your jungler might listen.
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7. Any ADR Top
Most top lane mains will find themselves rolling their eyes when their enemy laner picks an Attack Damage Ranged (ADR) champion. Their whole playstyle is to make use of the range advantage they have as most top lane champions are melee champs.
While these ADR champions have slowly become fewer as time went on, there are still a significant number of ADR champions able to be played in the op lane such as Quinn, Lucian, Vayne, Akshan, and in some cases Kalista.
As annoying as they are, this is their only strength. If you can cut the range gap and punish their squishiness – even with the durability update –, then you are most likely good to go.
Yet if you let yourself fall significantly behind, then their level and cs advantage may prove detrimental not only to you, but also to your jungler, and greater disadvantages will affect your team even greater.
While there are still some annoying top laners left out in the list such as Darius, Yorick, Garen, and Volibear.
The ones above seem to be a cut above the rest in being annoying, their carrying capability from start to end and the playstyle some of them bring is a puzzle to be solved by most players.
The next time you queue up with Top role, make sure to take some advice here on how to deal with them.
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