New Top Lane Analysis

Used to be Champions in top lane relied on boots and health pots, Cloth Armor and more health pots, or an early Doran's Blade. All were acceptable early builds but the newest ones are Crystalline Flask, any combination of health and mana pots, Long sword with a couple of health pots, and finally the Sapphire Crystal health pots or mana pots. You may have heard of the Long Sword and health pots deviation, but the other two you may not have tried out.

Crystalline Flask is an item not often seen even after it's implementation, mostly because early lane phases last a long while and the charges do not last as long as desired. Given it is an underpowered item, it may not suit you. Though there are champions like Elise, Jax, Wukong, Irelia, Jayce, Talon, and Fiora who would benefit from more lane sustain and some extra mana so that they can farm more effectively. Sapphire crystal in most instances isn't needed, unless your champion has high sustain naturally and you would need more mana or if your champion was in need of Catalyst the Protector and the three items it builds into. 

Laning Stage

1. Top Lane consists of 3 main areas: river, tri-bush, and the actual lane/minion path. It is important to ward both river and tri-bush by about 5 to 6 minutes in given the new jungle. Always try to freeze the lane closer to your tower, this way ganks, especially early ones, will end with either no result or a tower dive in which there will be a trade of 1 all or a possible double kill for your champion.

Early kills mean early advantage, but does not mean you've won your lane. If you over extend or get greedy, the chances of winning the lane will diminish just as fast as the double kill happened. This period will usually continue on until you or the opponent have a massive advantage over the other or if one of the towers are destroyed.

2. Fights on top lane can go 3 different ways, the first being one dominating the other. Counter picks happen all the time in ranked queues and because of that 1 top laner will be out-picked by the others 90% of the time. The second one is when the lane is completely even and the skill of the player will determine the winner. Player skill level is harshly different in low Elo levels so the chances of counter picks are a lot higher so that someone with lower experience is able to fight the better player. Meaning even picks will be more inclined to happen only when Elo is better in solo queue.

Team ranked games will see more counter picks for every lane simply for the advantages in team comps. The last way is when a jungler comes into lane, ganks will happen from time to time unless the jungler sees more value in farming. High CC top laning champions and high CC junglers mean better ganks, but maybe not as great damage. Remember to balance it out so that you have the damage for the kill while still having great CC for keeping the opponent in place.

3. Early item build or build order may change with whoever you are facing. Enemies that focus on damage will be countered with early armor or magic resist while tankier opponents will be attacked with more damage and armor/magic penetration. Champions who deal true damage can be countered by building giant's belts or something like Warmog's Armor.

No matter what, you don't want to sacrifice too much of your build to negate them because team fights that happen in the later stages of the game will cause you to realize that you either don't do enough damage or that you are nothing but a glass cannon and die way too soon to do anything whatsoever. Build smart while keeping your top lane opponent either even with you or by keeping them away from being able to farm or have kills.

 

Mid to Late Game

1. After a tower is killed, no matter where, is the usual transition to roaming champions and mid game. If one of your towers is killed it is best to either turtle (play defensively and catch enemies out of position to win fights) or to focus the enemy's turrets and cause an even gold generation through that, or by taking dragon. Mid game is a transitioning point into champion's power; champions like Le Blanc start to fall off while champions like Jax scale really well either from farm or kills and so he becomes a major threat.

Many team compositions can favor either kind of champion pick for an early victory or a game that is drawn out into late game to sort of make sure your champions scaling makes them much stronger. If you want examples, SK gaming seemed to focus in on early game wins, pushing hard, and being quite aggressive. CLG.EU on the other hand did the opposite, picking high poke late game champions so that they could play defensively while still being able to deal damage. These strategies work quite well when the teams compliment one another, though when one faces the other late game teams are favored because of the fall off of early game champions into late game.

2. Mid game tends to favor the preferences of the individual where some will stay to farm and others will roam to gank or kill towers. Split pushing usually happens by teleporting champions and those with high mobility like Nidalee or Shen. Most summoners prefer the more OP (Overpowered) champions for top lane; those champions currently are Irelia, Darius, and Teemo. These top laners will usually win their lane and can do an immense amount of damage over a short period of time. Shen and Malphite are popular picks because of their utility of split pushing and ultimates that basically change the tide of battle.

There are about 3 ways to win mid game, though they all come with their risks. First is making sure your ADC has red buff and is given most of the kills, enemies can counter this by doing the same thing or by killing off your ADC by focusing them. The second is by pushing hard onto towers and disengaging as soon as it falls, this causes the enemy to spread out and ultimately allows you to kill them off pretty easily. Second's risk is that no one can ward everywhere and some enemies will be closer to others to either stop you or kill you off with the aid of the tower.

The final way is to engage hard and try to come out on top, if you can do this than you can either take a tower, dragon, or the ever important Baron Nashor. 

3. Late game starts with the death of baron or of an inhibitor going down; usually the team with baron buff or the team with all their inhibitors intact will win. The only thing that can stop them from winning is the other team focusing down their carries or by having a more fed team (more kills, higher creep score, the other buffs on the map).

Late game champions will win out most of the time and if your team consists more of them than those who dominate early game, you will most assuredly win. The late game depends strictly on the skill of the players and of their KDA and creep scores. Ultimately, the better team will win.

TheBottleGnome's Personal Preference

As a Summoner I prefer champions like Singed, Shen, Jax, Wukong, Elise, and Jayce as my main top laners. Singed can trick enemies into taking much more damage than they thought, while Jax and all the other champions in that list can poke and hurt the enemies in bursts so that you can take the enemies low enough for them to recall back to base or for them to essentially give you a kill. I also love playing the top lane simply because I liked the champions and the Meta-game more. Not to mention I am probably the worst ADC NA and am way too greedy with those squishier champions.

I prefer bruisers and tankier DPS champs to be able to both take hits and deal them. I decided not to play Darius though because I found his play-style to be lacking and boring. I found that there was no skill whatsoever needed to play him. This last bit of information is my opinion and not the opinion of Team Dignitas. Hope to see better top laners in Season 3, and much less Darius and Teemo.