World Championships: Top Lane Statistics

World Championships: Top Lane

Introduction to the Top Lane

The top lane in League of Legends consists mainly of champions that can build very tanky and have the ability to do very well alone. This has been proven in the World Championships through the large amounts of health stacked. It is common for the champion that goes into this lane to have good split pushing potential and a heavy threat skill or ultimate that provides a large amount of impact in team fights allowing the team to turn the tables in their favour.

The most popular examples of Top Lane champions are Shen, Renekton, and Zac. Shen’s ultimate can be cast from afar allowing the the champion that Shen’s ultimate is cast on to absorb the damage being taken. Renekton’s ultimate allows him to become bigger and bulkier allowing him to gain health and to deal magic damage to the enemy, along with his other skills he can become a big menace in team fights. Whereas, Zac has two skills that enable him to knock up an enemy, even though his Ultimate has the chance to push the enemy out of position multiple times to give the team the advantage.

The Champions

Throughout the whole of the World Championships there were 63 games and 126 champions walked to the top lane. Lets look at who appeared on the Rift!

Noticeably, the top 5 Champions used in the World Championships were Shen, Renekton, Zac, Jax, and Rumble. These 5 champions made 80 appearances in the top lane out of the 126 total appearances throughout the games.

Secondly, lets look at another important factor of any game while we’re here. The items! What items were regularly completed throughout the World Championships in the Top Lane? Lets have a sneaky look at the top 10.

Here we can see that Sunfire Cape and Spirit Visage are by far the most popular items that are not footwear that have been bought during the World Championships. In relation to footwear, Mercury Treads and Ninja Tabi are the most popular that have been bought in the Top Lane. This graph only displays the Top10 for the complete graph consisting of all items click here.

So why are these champions and items so popular? Lets take a look!

Overall, Shen’s skills allow him to be mobile across the map while having a lot of sustain and solo ability. This gives him the freedom to do as he likes throughout the game; whether it’s 1v1’ing the enemy solo laner or split pushing to gain global objectives.

Shen’s passive, Ki Strike, allows him to chunk down turrets quickly, apply pressure in a certain lane, and grant the team global objectives and sight.

Shen has impeccable solo abilities through his sustain that his kit provides him. His Vorpal Blade is of key importance throughout the game, combining it with his Shadow Dash makes him a great threat to pick off the ap or ad carry early on in team fights or mis-positioned around the map. It also gives him the sustain he needs early on in the laning phase due to it being available to cast on minions and monsters, allowing him to heal up and stay present in the lane for longer. Shen is probably the best champion to go up in a 2 v 1 lane due to the fact he can carry on pressuring the enemy, protecting his turret, and avoiding getting forced out the lane easily thanks to this handy skill.

Shen’s W, Feint, allows him to have more confidence throughout the laning phase, making him much harder to force down early on and boosts him to be a slippier champion.

Shadow Dash and Stand United are engage and disengage skills. Shadow Dash is a great initiation skill being a gapcloser. It also holds a debuff and is a very hard AoE CC skill. It can be used on an enemy that has been caught out of place or are slightly over extended at the start of a team fight which can allow Shen to go in followed up by everyone else. Shadow Dash will also reduce the damage from taunted targets by 50%. Stand United is the skill that attracts players to play Shen. This skill can determine the difference between winning a fight and losing a fight. With a shield of up to 850 health that can be cast on any ally, Stand United teleports Shen after a short cast time, enabling him to get into a team fight with ease.

The Items

The top three items built on Shen throughout the whole World Championships are the Sunfire Cape, Spirit Visage, and Mercury Treads with the Ninja Tabi’s missing it by one.

Sunfire Cape

The Sunfire Cape is extremely beneficial to Shen as it is to most champions. The 40 magic damage per second to enemies surrounding Shen gives him an AoE since the only multiple damaging skill Shen has is his Shadow Dash. This will then allow him to deal much more damage to the enemies when going into team fights and still having enough health and armor to survive the damage he’s taking. The Sunfire Cape’s passive also targets minions and jungle monsters increasing Shen’s farm speed and gold income. Shen gains 45 armor from the Sunfire Cape, this increases his overall tankiness and survivability in team fights and reduces the likelihood of dying when caught while split pushing alone. Lastly, the Sunfire Cape increases Shen’s overall health by 450. This will increase Shen’s heal on his Vorpal Blade by 7 and 10% of Shen’s bonus health from the Sunfire Cape (45) will increase the magic damage on his Ki Strike.

Spirit Visage

The Spirit Visage is incredibly useful to a lot of champions, including Shen. Firstly, the Spirit Visage gives 55 magic resist and 20 health regeneration. This increases Shen’s survivability throughout the game, allowing the health regeneration in addition to Vorpal Blade's effect, allowing Shen to regain health quicker. Furthermore, the magic resist will allow him to be alive for longer in fights against magic damage champions.

The 20% Cooldown reduction onto Shen allows him to use his Shadow Dash, Vorpal Blade, and Stand United more frequently which will allow him to initiate on team fights and pick people off more often. Similar to the 450 health from the Sunfire Cape, the Spirit Visage has 400 health. This will cause the heal on Vorpal Blade to increase by 6 and then 40 health would be added to Shen’s passive, Ki Strike.

With the Spirit Visage and Sunfire Cape added together it would increase the heal of Vorpal Blade by 13 and the damage of Ki Strike increased by 85. Lastly, the Spirit Visage’s passive boosts health regen, life steal, healing, and spell vamp by 20%; this will also affect on the heal on Shen’s Vorpal Blade. Vorpal Blade and Shadow Dash will proc spell vamp resulting in an even bigger health gain overall. 

Mercury Treads and Ninja Tabi

Firstly, Mercury Treads are a great item on Shen when going against heavy magic damage champions. They grant him further survivability when going up against them. The Mercury Treads also reduce the duration of any type of CC by 35%, making Shen harder to stop in his path, which allows him to have a greater impact in team fights. A few examples of when it would be good to build mercury treads are against champions such as Orianna, Kassadin and Lissandra.

Secondly, Ninja Tabi’s are the opposite, they are best built when going against a heavy physical damage team. This helps his overall tankiness and minimize the damage he takes from the ad carries. The passive blocks 10% of the damage from basic attacks meaning Shen will take more damage from the skills than the basic attacks and this will minimize the damage from the ad carries. Ninja Tabi’s are best suitable when going against champions such as Vayne, Varus and Ashe who have a lot of poke.

Renekton is largely different in comparison to Shen. Renekton is all about AoE abilities and causing devastation to everyone in the surrounding area, where Shen is more defensive and focuses more on the 1 v 1 fights. Renekton is strong in lane against short ranged champions, he falls behind against champions with a larger range and poke. A good example of this would be Ryze since he can snare and poke Renekton getting him low in health and unable to get away easily.

Renekton relies very heavily on his energy known as ‘fury’ and it’s important that his fury is constantly at least at half full so Renekton can reach the full potential of his skills and therefore allow him to be a bigger threat in lane and team fights. Secondly, he is a powerful bruiser tank that can be delivered perfectly through combining his Cull the Meek with his Slice and Dice and Ruthless Predator to dash through the enemy, apply the armor shred and then burn through the enemies health. Cull the Meek is an offensive AoE skill that serves large importance throughout the laning phase allowing Renekton the sustain he needs. It also grants him the ability to strike multiple enemies and minions for faster wave clear and harass.

Ruthless Predator is a practical skill to combine with Cull the Meek. It is a hard CC skill that lands a stun lasting either 0.75 seconds or 1.5 seconds depending on the amount of Fury current at that time. The skill will also deal 2 or 3 strikes to the enemy. Casting Slice and Dice once Ruthless Predator’s stun activates will allow Renekton to damage the enemy further especially in the early game when the jungler comes in to gank. Renekton is then able to lock the enemy down, add the armor shred preventing the enemy to return and win the lane.

Slice and Dice is Renekton’s escape skill, it’s also his initiation skill going into fights. Slice and Dice is an offensive AoE gap closer that deals damage to the surrounding enemies as he dashes through them. If Renekton’s fury is above 50 then he has the ability to cast Dice after Slicing into the fight to escape which makes him an extremely slippery champion to catch. Furthermore, if his fury is above 50 when he casts Slice and Dice he applies a armor shred to all champions. Thanks to this handy skill Renekton does not need attack damage items to deal damage and hurt the enemy. Due to Renekton’s tankiness it is hard to shred him down without losing players in return due to his mobility and shred. With Renekton's combination of Slice and Dice and Ruthless Predator he can only fit into certain team formations with allied champions that can misposition the enemy. Champions such as, Zac, Orianna and Sona are perfect with Renekton and allow him to deal the full amount of damage available.

Dominus literally makes Renekton into a monster. His ultimate is always best used when Renekton is going into team fights or needs to escape when in a bad position. The health increase his ultimate gives results in him being a big brick wall that, if the enemy couldn’t kill before they definitely can’t now. The magic damage that’s dealt while the Dominus is active helps the overall damage dealt to all enemies surrounded and the best item to go hand in hand with this ultimate is the Sunfire Cape. In a team fight scenario Renekton would activate his ultimate, go through to the backline of the enemy with Slice and Dice as everyone else follows. Secondly, cast Ruthless Predator to lock either the ap or ad carry down while Dominus and Cull the Meek deals damage to everyone surrounding him to hopefully bring the team out on top.

The Items

A replica of Shen, Renekton’s top three items are Sunfire Cape, Spirit Visage, and Mercury Treads. So let’s take a look at why these three items are just as good on Renekton as they are Shen. 

Sunfire Cape

It is important that Renekton builds tank, he does not need attack damage items due to his ability to shred the armor of his opponents. So Renekton’s prime job is to go full tank and become the brick wall to initiate team fights for his allied members. This makes Sunfire Cape incredibly practical for Renekton, even though the stats on the Sunfire Cape don’t serve as much to Shen, the 450 health and 45 armor the Sunfire Cape gives will increase his overall tankiness and survivability when getting ganked in the laning phase or in team fights.

The Sunfire Cape’s passive does, although, benefit Renekton. Renekton’s ultimate deals magic damage to surrounding champions; therefore the Sunfire Cape’s 40 magic damage per second will affect this and increase the damage per second Renekton deals when his ultimate is activated.

Spirit Visage

Similarly to Shen, the same is more or less true for Renekton when taking Spirit Visage into consideration. The 55 magic resist and 20 health regen will help Renekton will his tankiness against ability power champions, making it harder for them to take him down. The 20 health regen will help Renekton a lot with his survivability, pairing the health regen with Renekton’s own heal on Cull the Meek this will make him more difficult to take down in a fight. Furthermore, the 20% cooldown reduction this item gives will allow Renekton to get his combo off more frequently and will help him excel further throughout the game.

For the last stat, the 200 health this will push Renekton further towards being a bigger brick wall to separate his team from the enemy. While he attacks and distracts the enemies, they’ll be wasting their skills on trying to get him down, which gives his team an advantage. Lastly, the Spirit Visage passive increases all healing effects such as life steal, spell vamp and healing itself. The spell vamp on the spirit visage procs Renekton’s ultimate, Slice and Dice as well; his Cull the Meek coupled with the cooldown reduction assures he regenerates and sustains in lane, making him a difficult target to take down.

Mercury Treads

The Mercury Treads benefit Renekton largely. Due to Renekton being Melee, he doesn’t have large range. This makes it easier for ranged magic damage champions to chunk him down as they can land extra hits onto him while he’s travelling to them to attack back. This makes Mercury Treads practical for Renekton as the magic resist given minimizes incoming magic damage. Also, the Mercury Treads reduce crowd control effects by 35%, this makes Renekton a slippier target as the enemy won’t be able to stop him for long enough to deal anything to him making him harder to deal with.

Zac is a recent champion to League of Legends; he bases himself mostly off of the mobility he can carry around with him. Zac’s job is to cause chaos wherever he is, creating a mess and having the sustain to survive.

A prime example of Zac’s survivability comes from his passive, Cell Division. Cell Division gives him a free life, basically acting like a Guardian Angel so if Zac does die in a fight he resurrects automatically. Cell Division also allows Zac to keep regaining health, after anytime he casts a skill he will lose some health but then can reabsorb the blob to regenerate 4% of his health back instantly.

Zac’s Q is called Stretching Strike which is an offensive AoE skill that damages all enemies it hits in a straight line. Stretching Strike is a great skill for the laning phase when harassing the enemy from afar. If Zac is forced behind the turret the skill is handy for getting the remaining minions that are too far away. This skill is also helpful for getting damage and movement speed decrease to chase down low health champions.

Unstable Matter deals damage to anyone in the surrounding area. The skill is short ranged so it’s suitable in the laning phase to harass and farm. To use this skill to its full potential in a team fight, Zac would have to use Elastic Slingshot or Let’s Bounce to get into the middle of the enemy team or to its backline. Secondly, casting Unstable Matter followed by Stretching Strike allows Zac to chase the enemy down for the kill.

Elastic Slingshot and Let's Bounce are similar skills in comparison as they are both Hard CC AoE’s. Zac can launch himself from out of sight and go straight into the enemy AP or AD carry and knock them up. The difference between both skills is Let's Bounce will repeatedly bounce 4 times where Elastic Slingshot only launches Zac into the enemy. These skills are great for Zac and his allies since both of these skills will knock the enemy out of the way mis-positioning the enemy granting a great initiation for the allied members.

The Items

Sunfire Cape

My personal opinion of the Sunfire Cape on Zac is they were made for each other. Magic damage being thrown onto enemy units while having the health and armor to stay alive is just what Zac needs. The 450 health Zac gains adds to his total health which is then used to refund 4% of it when when he casts a skill. The armor he gets allows him to be tankier and have more survivability in the lane, combining the tankiness with his Elastic Slingshot making him an extremely tanky champion that cannot be chased down. The 40 damage per second you receive from the Sunfire Cape’s passive adds to his overall damage in team fights. He can then cast Let’s Bounce into the enemy and as he bounces around them he deals the damage to everyone, forcing them to take the damage as he knocks them up.

Spirit Visage

The Spirit Visage is another great item for Zac, ensuring him frequent returns of Let's Bounce for his team granting more team fights as Zac engages with his ultimate. Spirit Visage grants magic resistance and regeneration for Zac so he can go into the back line and deal more damage to the AP carry as he is minimizing their own damage. While he’s poking the backline down he’ll be regenerating his health back from the health regen and 200 health. Not only this but this item’s passive is highly beneficial to Zac as well, increasing the amount of health his blobs contain equaling too 4.8% and all of his skills proc spell vamp as well allowing him to gain a huge amount of health just by holding this one item.

Mercury Treads

It is important for Zac to purchase Mercury Treads, not only to minimize the damage he’s taking from the magic damage champions but to minimize the amount of crowd control he takes as well. Zac is a big utility based champion so it's important for him to be mobile all the time. Without Zac's mobility it would be harder for the team to lay enough crowd control and damage to win the fight. If Zac gets snared or stunned he will not be able to reach his full potential and that will then give the enemy team an advantage they need to win the fight.

 

Jax is a champion that focuses heavily on dueling. He is a hybrid champion that scales off both ability power and attack damage. The key item for Jax is the Trinity Force. Although playable with the Trinity Force beforehand, after changes to it Jax is now used and brought out to his full extent again thanks to the changes to the item.

Jax’s passive boosts his attack speed when he attacks an enemy, which allows him to chunk down the enemy's health faster. In laning phase, the bonus attack speed helps Jax by allowing him to clear through minions waves and chunk down turrets quicker to keep pressure on the enemy.

Leap Strike is Jax’s signature skill, it is his most recognised skill and what makes him the biggest threat if he’s allowed to get snowballing. This skill is a great gap closer, holds a lot of poke and it’s a great follow up from Ahri’s Charm or Aatrox’s Dark Flight to initiate a fight. Leap Strike grants Jax the ability to leap towards a target and if the target is an enemy Jax will deal both magic damage and physical damage to them. This guarantees that Jax will hurt the enemy whether they build magic resist or armor. After casting Leap Strike this skill is combined with Counter Strike to complete the engage.

Empower is a great skill to follow up Counter Strike in a team fight due to its ability to deal magic damage on the next attack. This skill shines most in the laning phase when wanting to harass the enemy or lay extra damage down when the jungler approaches. The person in control of Jax needs to have great awareness when charging up Empower when laning in a bid to strike onto the enemy that the player does not strike a nearby minion by mistake.

Counter Strike makes Jax’s engages worthwhile. Counter Strike allows Jax to Leap Strike into the enemy and activate Counter Strike. This will allow Jax to dodge all basic attacks for 2 seconds and reduce all incoming AoE damage by 25%. Afterwards, Jax then stuns his target dealing bonus physical damage based on how many attacks he has dodged. Jungle monsters and Minions are counted in this as well as the enemy champions’ damage to create a larger burst for Jax.

Jax’s ultimate, Grandmaster’s Might is fairly straight forward. Every third attack Jax has increased damage of up to 220 magic damage with an extra 70% ability power on top. Jax will also gain magic resist and armor to the percentage of Ability power and Attack damage he has. Overall, this ultimate makes Jax very dangerous to go up against and his power cannot be underestimated by the opponent. Due to all of his skills combined he can become tankier, minimize the opponent's power and deal a lot of damage whether building magic resist or armor.

The Items

Trinity Force

Ever since the buffs made to the Trinity Force it has become a vastly popular item once again. Due to this item’s popularity Jax has come back too. Every aspect of the Trinity Force benefits Jax, the ability power and attack damage gives much more burst to his skills as all his skills benefit from either attack damage, ability power or both. With Jax being a heavy duelist he needs the attack speed and burst to win the duel this is where Trinity Force comes in nicely for Jax as it not only boosts his damage but his attack speed as well. The Trinity Force will also boost his critical trike allowing him to not only hurt more but have the ability to poke frequently while laying the occasional surprise crit as well. Last but not least, the health and mana this item provides Jax allows him to stay in lane much longer, being able to harass and poke the enemy further hopefully pushing the enemy out of lane when the jungler comes to gank.

Blade of the Ruined King (BoTRK)

The Blade of the Ruined King is an incredibly strong item and especially on Jax. The Blade of the Ruined King owns 25 attack damage, 40% attack speed and 15% life steal which synchronizes well with Jax’s playstyle and kit. Jax needs some sustain when using his Leap Strike since he has no survivability in lane and team fights he’ll go down quite easily and the team fight will turn automatically in the enemies favour. The Blade of the Ruined King’s passive gives Jax the ability to hurt everyone on the opposing team not only dealing his actual damage but also deals 5% of the enemies health as damage too which would create him into a large threat. This item's active is also great and is useful for any champion. If Jax’s skills are on cool down and all he has remaining is his own attack damage the active of the item is there just to lay that extra burst onto the enemy. Utilizing the active will also steal 30% of the target's movement speed for 3 seconds which allows Jax to run away or chase to finish the kill.

Mercury Treads

Jax is very weak in magic resist so Mercury Treads are helpful to him. More importantly, the crowd control reduction allows Jax to reach his full potential. If Jax owns the Mercury Treads and gets locked down, the crowd control will be reduced and that will allow Jax to Leap Strike into the enemy and stun them and then shred them down as quickly as possible.

Rumble is very much different in comparison to the previous champions listed. Rumble does not build tank, Rumble builds full damage making him squishier than any other top laner. Rumble is a team fight champion that shines most in team fights through his ultimate, The Equalizer.

To start, Junkyard Titan is a great passive and allows Rumble to get more last hits on minions to get more farm and therefore, more gold so he can excel quicker. Junkyard Titan will also help Rumble lay harass onto the enemy in lane or even force them out of it.

Flamespitter is a skill that is largely recognised when seeing people on the Rift. It is a skill that zones enemies incredibly well and its an offensive AoE skill. Flamespitter is a great way to trade in the laning phase with Rumble’s passive and the skill also damages minions. Even with not the biggest range, the skill can harass players, trap them and get to the farthest minions to keep up with farm.

Due to Rumble’s squishiness and lack of mobility, Scrap Shield is a saviour. Scrap Shield blocks incoming damage for 2 seconds and increases his mobility for 1. This helps Rumble stay alive for those few seconds longer when being ganked or in a team fight to hopefully ensure his survivability for that bit longer.

Electro-Harpoon gives the team a large amount of poke, and paired with Flamespitter gives Rumble zoning potential in team fights. Another great thing about this skill is that it can be casted twice. This is always helpful for laying down the extra damage to the enemy in a team fight as well as it having the ability to lay a slow, granting chase potential for your team.

Rumble’s Ultimate, The Equalizer has the ability to turn a team fight around. When positioned correctly the Equalizer can deal a lot of damage to many members of the opposing team; shredding their health bars down. If Rumble holds both Rylai’s and Liandry’s it has the ability to be devastating. Not only can it deal a lot of damage but it can slow as well making the enemies spend more time in the Equalizer suffering more damage. The Equalizer can also be a great initiation tool so the enemy has to be weary that when the Equalizer is up the team can engage for a fight whenever. Whereas if Rumble uses his ultimate and the team doesn’t make anything of it that then puts them in a negative position because an important ultimate is down and the enemy can make something of that.

The Items

Sorcerer’s Shoes

Sorcerer’s Shoes are a must-have item on any ability power champion. The Sorcerer’s Shoes holds 15 magic penetration and that will allow Rumble to ignore 15 of the enemy's magic resist and will allow Rumble to hurt a little more allowing Rumble to lay down more harass to the enemy in the early stages of the game.

Rylai’s Crystal Sceptre

Rylai’s Crystal Sceptre is the key item to build on Rumble paired with Liandry’s Torment. Due to Rumble’s lack of tankiness like the other top laners it is important that Rumble builds full damage but has damage items that have health on top of that. Rylai’s has 80 ability power and 500 health which increases Rumble’s health and overall burst. Rylai’s passive slows the target’s movement speed by 35% for 1.5 seconds and for multi-targets and damage over time the speed is just 15%. Rylai’s slow activates on Rumble’s Flamespitter, Electro-Harpoon and Ultimate, granting Rumble the potential to chase on enemies and lay down extra poke onto the enemy once slowed.

Liandry’s Torment

Liandry’s Torment is the pair to Rylai’s, Rylai’s doesn’t go without Liandry’s and visa versa. Liandry’s gives Rumble 30 ability power and 200 health which, paired with Rylai’s he gains a total of 110 ability power and 500 health. This gives Rumble the tankiness as well as the burst he needs. The Liandry’s Torment’s Passive, Eyes of Main gives Rumble 15 magic penetration which goes nicely with the Sorcerer’s Shoes enabling Rumble to ignore the equivalent of a Null-Magic Mantle. Liandry’s second passive is a damage over time effect just like The Equalizer. The passive deals damage equal to 2% of the target's health per second for 3 seconds and if the target is movement impaired the damage will double. This passive makes Rumble a big thread since he now has poke that deals a lot of damage and every one of his skills apart from his shield deals damage over time.

The Pros

Now that we’ve looked into the Champions let's look at those who have played them. Below are a couple of stats about how our Top Lane Pros have done throughout the World Championships!

 

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Cloud 9 Balls

 

Gambit Gaming Darien

 

Team SoloMid Snapdragon Dyrus

 

NaJin Black Sword Expession

 

Royal Club Hz GoDlike

 

OMG Gogoing

 

SK Telecom T1 Impact

Samsung Galaxy Ozone Looper

 

Gaming Gear.Eu NBS

 

Mineski Snoy

 

Fnatic sOAZ

 

Gamania Bears Steak

 

Team Vulcun SychoSid

 

LemonDogs ZoroZero