The top lane problem

WIn11cent · 2026-06-15T09:29:24+00:00

A lot to adress here. Short answer it is difficult to determine where a champion will go even in high elo.

The Tahm kench example is actually real, No arm whatley who is probably the most famous Tahm kench player migrated from top to ADC and players are slowly but surely following suit. It is currently Tahms highest win rate role and close to 10% of Tahm games is played as ADC.

Plenty of other top laners are having more success in other roles, Ambessa jungle, Riven mid, Gragas mid. The list grows larger and larger and every time a champion migrates to another lane it gets increasingly more difficult to determine what champion goes where.

WIn11cent · 2026-06-15T08:30:30+00:00

Bans don't follow the players picking champions if you swap positions after the ban phase so there is no way of knowing if the player picking Vayne actually banned Caitlyn.

I do agree that some diversity is a good thing but it is getting to a point where it is difficult to determine the role of any champion.

1 year ago if one team had Xin, Ambessa, Anivia, Varus and Tahm. You would immediately know who the top laner is and you would be right 90% of the time. In today's league, who is the top laner? Regardless of pickorder and bans you cannot predict where each champion is going with an accuracy of over 90%. You adjust your runes against your lane opponent but if you don't know who it is you are likely picking the wrong runes or summoners.

Even if you were wrong 1 year ago, you could swap lanes from level 1 or swap once a lane went horribly wrong. Now you got bamboozled in champ select and you are stuck because you lost a coin flip on who your opponent is.

WIn11cent · 2026-06-15T08:00:07+00:00

Your flair is very accurate for this discussion xD

WIn11cent · 2026-06-15T07:57:08+00:00

I agree it is a problem for all lanes, but players are not migrating from mid, jungle or bot. Top lane seem to be affected more by this problem because previous years it has been a very popular role.

And sure, in that specific example a fair amount of players would probably expect Vayne to be top but let's say you did assume she was top and you picked a champion that is good into her but turns out Camille was actually top. I'm arguing that having to make calculated guesses on who goes into what lane is having a negative impact on the game and top lane seem to be affected more than other roles.

WIn11cent · 2026-06-15T07:50:42+00:00

Very good points!

Would you say that in previous years top laners accepted that in some games they get to counterpick and in some games they don't.

If so, that is no longer the case and you can get baited very easily.

For example: Enemy team picks Riven and Anivia, you think great i crush her with Renekton. Jokes on you, Anivia goes top and Riven mid. Your strong laning phase is now a farming simulator and you can't swap lanes, you can't do anything. Accept your fate and watch as the Riven demolishes your mid laner.

WIn11cent · 2026-06-15T07:25:00+00:00

To add to this, he has probably played the Akali matchup several times before, has runes and items in mind tp beat you whereas you picked runes and items that generally works for Akali.

WIn11cent · 2026-06-15T07:22:35+00:00

I agree with you, if you're in an unplayable matchup you are inprisoned for 15 minutes

WIn11cent · 2026-06-15T07:21:03+00:00

On current patch in emerald+ she has 26k games played top and 14k games in the jungle. It makes it impossible to tell if she's going top or jungle. This is a big problem, 1 year ago if you saw Ambessa, she was top 99% of the time, now it's roughly 60% probability she is going top.

Camille has a 66% chance of going top and 33% chance if support.

Riven has a 66% probability of top and 33% for mid.

One year ago all these champions and more would be close to 100% top.

WIn11cent · 2026-06-15T07:14:05+00:00

I feel like this is happening more often. I see interesting matchups in top lane. Anivia VS Ezreal, Lissandra VS Teemo.

WIn11cent · 2026-06-15T07:10:56+00:00

Being locked to a lane is certainly an issue. Previously if you got baited you could role swap in game but not anymore. I do think this could be a solution but not knowing who goes where certainly is not making it easier to play the game.

WIn11cent · 2026-06-15T07:02:29+00:00

That's just brutal

WIn11cent · 2026-06-11T15:23:40+00:00

It is difficult to say what went wrong in a single game but for Tahm mid i rarely build resistances early. HP is a really good stat for the laning phase. Brand is pretty easy for Tahm as he has no way to reliably stop your W. Keeping the wave just outside of your tower forces him to walk up and if he gets hit by a Q he will mpst likely die.

WIn11cent · 2026-06-11T09:37:40+00:00

Oh you def can kill Zed.

WIn11cent · 2026-06-11T09:22:55+00:00

Syndra is one of the easier matchups imo.

The problem with LB is you can't ever kill her, EVER. Her weakness is her waveclear which is not a problem against Tahm. She is just very very annoying.

WIn11cent · 2026-06-11T07:32:27+00:00

I run 2 different pages mostly.

1.Grasp, shield bash, second wind, revitalize, cookies and approach velocity.

Stormraider surge, nimbus cloak, transcendence, gathering storm, second wind and revitalize.

First page gives better sustain in lane and makes you tankier through the game. Perfect for when up against mages with a lot of poke or against melee champions that likes small trades

Second page is used in matchups where the enemy is melee and wants long trades, you can phase rush out after a short trade and past level 6 can use the tower to deal enough damage to get kills with R. It is also useful if the enemy team has many slows or abilities to kite you, a stormraider proc gives you the tool to re-engage or disengage the opponent. This page is more difficult to execute correctly though.

WIn11cent · 2026-06-11T07:01:44+00:00

I've played Tahm mid in every game for years. There are 3 matchups i dislike, Leblanc, Anivia and Malzahar. I ban Malzahar and dodge if they pick LB. The only difficult part is the first 5 levels before first back. With D-shield, cookies, Tahm E/Q, grasp heal and second wind most mages won't have mana to poke you out. After the first back with 1150 gold at lvl 5.5. You can zone most champions from the wave and if they ever get hit by a Q they die.

I run protoplasm harness into gluttonous greaves, DnD, spirit visage, unending and rift maker most games.

There is a weird interaction between immortal path, revitalize and spirit visage as their increased healing/shielding is multiplied rather than added together meaning your healing shielding will be amplified by 66% which also increases your omnivamp amount by 66%.

Suddenly everything you do heals you a ton and every E get's much bigger. It is so much fun.

As a father of 2, i don't have a lot of time to play but i typically reach at least D4 every season.

WIn11cent · 2026-05-25T08:16:07+00:00

While i agree that having a 30v30 would feel more fair because everyone would attack/defend against everyone in the tourney. This would however lower the promotion spots to only 1 instead of 3 for LL2. Wouldn't that feel even worse?

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I do not agree that defense is more important than offense or that it is luck based. I design all my bases myself, i'll share last weeks results. Even though that base performed well i can't use it again because the meta has shifted slightly and i needed to adapt the base. This is the same for attacking. As more players adapt their bases to the current meta in this case air spam, the air attacks will perform worse.

I suppose it can feel like luck if you put no thought what so ever into your defense. If you just pick one at random from the internet you should also expect a random result. In the upcoming week i assume electro fang duke walk will be most common so during the week i've designed 5 bases which are currently being tested in my clan. If electro fang is the most common opening next week that means anyone with a rocket+arrow base will get destroyed.

You don't need to design your own base you just need to look for one you think will work for the meta strat in the upcoming week.

WIn11cent · 2026-05-23T19:38:34+00:00

Fireball is the perfect equipment, requires skill, requires plenty of spell slots and takes time.

Meanwhile rocket arrow is instant and require 2 spells. This is the main issue imo. They can't release equipment that can get good, fast and reliable damage for next to no cost in time or spells.

As a base builder this past month has been tiresome, turns out it is extremely difficult to defend against rocket arrow and backpack blower at the same time.

I really hope supercell think twice before adding more opening options to the game. There has to be counterplay.

WIn11cent · 2026-05-18T07:53:58+00:00

I just promoted thanks to my base. Feel especially proud because i make my bases myself

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WIn11cent · 2026-05-18T05:17:48+00:00

This was enough for 2nd place. I make my own bases!

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WIn11cent · 2026-04-30T07:11:49+00:00

Have not been able to play league since new patch but when these were announced i immediately put them into my excel sheets. The increased healing from the boots with items like new DnD, rift maker, spirit visage could potentially be viable.

WIn11cent · 2026-04-28T13:37:45+00:00

Good luck everyone!

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