What are the deciding factors for a solo top champion?

Question

I know that there are some champions who are better solo-top than others, such as Shen because he can heal himself and he has good survivability, but what else decides if a champion is primed for solo top? I have seen other champs such as Teemo or Talon do really well in this lane, but I still don't understand the decision.

Asked by Aceofgods

Answer

You need Lifesteal. A "getaway" technique, for example Talon, can easily use his E or even his ult to dash away. Teemo can also use his speed.

Answered by Aserus

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Experience; Stay in lane or gank?

Question

Which method grants the best xp for a duo-lane; staying in lane for last-hits while poking an enemy champion down, or running to another lane (Such as mid) to gank and try to get the champion kill for xp? Should I focus more on sustainability early game to get the extra minion experience or should I focus some glass-cannoning to try to pick up an early kill for the experience advantage? (Assume you have to return to base immediately after the kill, so you don't get minion xp afterwards)

Asked by Aceofgods

Answer

The champs that are in lane should just focus on that first. If however, you pushed your lane to their turret and are waiting for the next wave to show up, you can look to other lanes to gank, not so much for the experience it grants but more for the gold your team gets and the gold you deny their champ during the laning phase.

For the second question, assuming you have warded for jungler ganks, you should quickly push minion wave to their tower to best give yourself the xp/gold advantage against your lane opponent. By the time both of you return to lane, the lane would have reset itself to the middle of the lane again.

The question of sustainability or kill lane depends highly on the lane matchup and who has the "stronger pick" for that lane. If you have the weaker lane, you should focus on sustain in the early game. If you have the stronger lane, then you can consider going for the kills, again not for the experience a champion gives but for the denial of experience/gold for the opponent champ after you can push the lane out.

Answered by user22193

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Who is the best Partner for AD Kog'Maw?

Question

I like laning with Alistar because of his heal and knock-ups/knock-backs, but I have also heard that Janna or Sona are great partners to lane with. Who do you think is the best laning partner?

Asked by Levitacus

Answer

Nunu and Kog'maw were a popular combination from the IEM tournaments (Kiev/Hanover) for American teams. The combination works well because Kog'maw and Nunu can maximize the slow effects of their abilities as well as the movement speed, attack speed buffs and increased range.

Nunu can sit by and land an ice ball so Kog'maw can attack the enemy from afar without being threatened. The combo also allows for strong ganks/escapes from allied or enemy junglers, respectively.

In this above link, we can see American Team Curse vs American Team TeamSolomid in IEM Hanover. Curse is sporting the Kog'maw/Nunu combination and this is one example of the pair working successfully.

Answered by Brisktea

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Supporting a TerribAD Carry Bot

Question

Solo queue and our team needs support; lock in Sona. Go to lane, AD carry turret dives 60% health Sion and Taric. Complains to Sona for not supporting well enough. Game goes on and AD carry continues to make terrible decisions and complains about support. What should a support character do in this sort of situation?

Asked by Aceofgods

Answer

This is a tough question to answer because you aren't in control of the other person's actions. Generally speaking, it's far easier to support more passive gameplay, and the difficulty of supporting increases as the carry becomes more aggressive. Ultimately, like in the situation you present, supporting becomes impossible in any meaningful manner. The way I see it, you have three options:

• You can voice your concerns to them and see if you can get them to be less aggressive, which makes supporting them easier (or possible)

• You can accept that they're going to be very aggressive and tune your play to match as best you can.

• If things are truly hopeless, you can switch to a more roaming role and try to help other lanes win their matchups. Careful about stealing experience, but with Sona's ultimate and some well-placed heals (for instance), you can be a force for good for the rest of the team.

The first option is the one you should pursue first. The relationship between AD Carry and Support needs to be tight-knit for success. Often, even aggressive AD carries realize this. The second option is what you'll be doing a lot. You have a duty to your carry to support them (hence the name of the role). Try not to die, obviously, but do everything else in your power to help them accomplish whatever they're trying to do. The third option should be an absolute last resort. Just giving up on your lane isn't something to be done lightly.

Answered by Deotronic

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What should I do if I can't fight my opponent?

Question

Scenario: You're paired up against an enemy who outclasses you and you're unable to do anything meaningful in lane. You can't harass, you can't farm, you can't get a kill and if you leave the turret alone it'll die. You can't sit under turret; you're being killed from full health under turret. What exactly should you do in this kind of situation? Especially if you don't have a jungler or anyone else who can help you?

Asked by Aceofgods

Answer

Sometimes you just have to let the turret go. In cases like these, the problem needs to be fixed before it gets to this point. If you got massively counter-picked, either you should have switched lanes with someone on your team, your jungler should have made a bigger effort to gank or harass more in your lane, or you should just do the best with what you've got.

In these cases, you end up relying more on your other lanes and hope they didn't also get counter picked. Do your best to help those lanes if they refuse to help you!

Answered by Bunny

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Creep Score vs. Kills/Assists

Question

If I was going for gold farming, would I be more likely to get more gold from 1 or 2 minion waves or a champion kill/assist? I understand that killing champions is important for disrupting the enemy team and that I should be present for as many teamfights as possible, but what should I really focus on early game? I don't want to b at a disadvantage because I got 1 or 2 waves of minions but my opponent ganked mid and got a kill, came back and showed me his new items; resulting in my death.

Asked by Aceofgods

Answer

from what i notice you get an average of 21 gold per minion, 8 minions per wave.

a average kill is 260 gold and 2 waves is 336 gold (at least this how it was a year ago)

however more assists/kills you have the more the enemy gains if he kills you so basically a person whos on a killing spree is worth more to kill than 2 waves of minions.

i'd say the new item came from being able to simply go back before you, not that he had more gold than you unless the person he killed was worth alot.

Meelee Minions

3 spawn in every wave 22 gold during the first wave on Summoner's Rift 29 on Twisted Treeline increases by 1 after the first wave +1 after every 5 minutes game-time passed

Caster Minions

3 spawn in every wave 16 gold on Summoner's Rift 22 on Twisted Treeline +1 after the first wave +1 after every 5 minutes

Siege Minions

1 spawn in every 3 waves (one every 2 waves after 20 minutes game-time) 27 gold during the first wave on Summoner's Rift 36 gold on Twisted Treeline +1 every 2-3 minutes

Answered by Daniel Redford

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Calling MIA / SS

Question

What is the best way to tell your team that your laning opponent(s) is missing? should blue-ping the map that leads towards them, yellow-ping (Fall back) on top of them? Should you stop for a moment to type [lane] mia/ss or care [lane]? Should you say which champ is missing? I want to make sure that my team knows that my lane is empty and that they could be in danger, but I don't want to become a pest pinging the map constantly when Twitch wants to stealth either. Assume that voice-chatting programs are unavailable. What is the general method that most players know and use?

Asked by Aceofgods

Answer

I generally assume people know which lane has which champion so I only say: mid mia

There are cases in which I do other things:

1. I know which way enemy champ is going - I use several pings to highlight champions path with an additional back ping if my teammates don't respond.

2. My opponent has been gone away - I say "mid still mia, prob [whichever lane is most exposed]"

3. Enemy jungler walks through my lane - "[jungler] going [direction]"

Answered by Blizzgrarg

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Dealing with a strong laning combo early game?

Question

In MOBAs (LoL, HoN, Dota, etc.) occasionally you'll get paired vs. a strong laning combo with heavy harassment potential in a dual lane (such that coming near the creeps to lasthit/fight/counterharass will only get your char's head bit off). In cases where you both can and cannot trust your laning partner (as in, you know he's good vs you know he's not good), what are your options to deal with this?

Answer

If you're against a strong laning combo and you cannot rely on your own laning partner, your best bet is to keep your minions between you and the other champions and to use your front-most tower as a "third man".

If you stand behind your minions and out of range of your opponents, you can take potshots at the enemy champions when they are open, get the killing blow on enemy minions when those potshots are not safe to get, and reap the experience and levels from the minion kills. You can coast through your first several levels this way, gain new abilities, and buy gear to counter the champions you're up against (armor against melee, magic resist vs. mages, etc). Your laning partner will also benefit from this, provided they aren't trying to tank the enemy champions past your minion wall.

Hanging out near your front-most tower will result in minions dying faster (and getting you more experience), opening up more "last hits" (since if a tower hits a minion with full health, it gets knocked down into its "one more hit" range, and makes it that much harder to get harassed or ganked.

This strategy will hold you over until after the initial laning phase, when the enemy team starts coordinating ganks and tower takedowns. At that point, you should be powerful enough to be more viable and will be able to use that advantage coupled with team coordination to push back any encroachment, snag a few kills, and take advantage of their temporarily-reduced champion count to push a tower in a weak lane.

If you can rely on your laning partner but you're still not confident that you have the right composition to go against your competition, the same strategy works as well. In this case, you'd have yourself and your lane partner buy items that can help mitigate the effectiveness of the competition, including defending against their damage type, buffing damage types they are weak against, and making sure your movement speed is faster.

One thing to keep in mind is you should keep checking on the items your competition is purchasing. In many cases, the competition won't be paying attention and will be using general item specs, which means you can more easily counter what they are buying. Monitoring the items the competition is using is important in any game, but is even more important if they start with a composition advantage.

In addition, if you managed to get a competent jungler on your team, exploit the advantage of additional experience, gold, and the ability to put pressure on random lanes to mitigate enemy effectiveness.

Above all else, don't die, and stress to your laning partner that they should do their best to stay back and away from possible gank distance. Deaths mean extra gold and experience for the other team, which will only worsen your situation.

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