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I am trying to find out which ranged champions would work the best at top lane. Any ideas Thanks :D

Update: I prefer using ranged champions and want to go top lane. I haven't started playing any ranked games yet so I am not really worried too much about countering any champions in this question. I am good at harassing and am usually pretty cautious about possible ganks. Champions I can play pretty well are Annie, Malzahar, Leblanc, Miss Fortune, Tristana, and Ziggs.

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    Could you tell us a little more about why you want feedback on ranged champs for top lane? There are many things to consider when picking a good top-lane champion. If you're doing draft games, counter-picking will factor into it. In all cases, it'll depend on your play style. You might be good at harassing and avoiding ganks with some champions and bad at others. You may only need summoner's spells to avoid ganks, or your playstyle may mean you need a skill that helps you avoid as well. You may find that there are also melee champions with a ranged component that's enough for harass as well.
    – Shaun
    Commented Apr 14, 2012 at 23:10
  • Though I have yet to try her top, Caitlyn has good harass, a long auto attack range, fairly good gank protection and a decent escape mechanism. If you haven't played her yet, I would say give her a try, Doran's Blade is a pretty solid starting item on her, I tend to run armor and magic resist yellows and blues for my runes with armor pen reds and move speed quints. Another thing to note is that most top champ players would not know how to deal with her as she is typically a bot champ.
    – Ravekner
    Commented Apr 15, 2012 at 7:49

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The big thing about top lane is that you've got to have enough sustaining power to handle staying up there for a long time. There are only about 5 AP champions that can handle this:

  • Swain (because his passive returns mana upon killing a creep)
  • Rumble (energy not mana, spell vamp)
  • Kennen (same as Rumble)
  • Vlad (High HP sustain, no Mana or Energy)
  • Gragas (mana returning ability [although low], built in tankiness, easy ranged creep clearing)

The reason you don't see standard AP mid characters in top lane is because it is a longer and much more dangerous lane and they'll end up having mana issues and not sustain well.

As for AD champions, your best bet with those are going to be:

  • Corki (heavy ranged harass, good escape. You'll have to build some mana regen stuff though)
  • Caitlyn (highly situational, but possible due to super high range)
  • Urgot (Very tanky high range)

Most common ADs will get pretty abused top, but you can make it work out.

The biggest and most important thing about top lane is the simple fact that from a meta (and mechanical) standpoint pretty much any champion can do it. Top lane isn't so much "Can X champion solo top" as much as "Can X Champion safely lane against Y Champion." So it is really mostly about knowing the match-ups. Just because someone like Malz isn't terribly great top lane doesn't mean you can't make it work, it could just be highly situational.

Hope this helps :)

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    Good answer. However, you have forgotten about teemo in my opinion. He is a strong counter to many melee champions on top. He has high harrasing abilities, escape speed and from level 6 decent map control thanks to his mushrooms.
    – Santhos
    Commented Apr 16, 2012 at 0:42
  • Good point. I completely forgot about Teemo!
    – Klokworkk
    Commented Apr 18, 2012 at 3:25
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    Rumble does not use Energy, actually Heat. It works differently in that Energy is consumed on ability use and is required for abilities (much like mana except with a much higher regeneration) whereas Heat is produced by abilities. Rumble's Heat bar also modifies his abilities. A Heat bar in the Danger Zone (yellow) increases the damage on his Flamespitter and Electro-Harpoon and shield amount on his Scrap Shield. A Heat bar that hits 100 (overheating) silences Rumble and increases his auto-attack damage by a base + % of AP.
    – Yuuki
    Commented Jun 22, 2012 at 1:27
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Ranged AD or AP champions are not very good for top lane because of their squishiness - they can do a great amount of damage, but they often die too quickly to get a full combo off on the enemy. I would not recommend you take any of the champions you've listed into top lane; your harass will not be as effective against the enemy bruiser and theirs will be enhanced.

Top-lane champions that have a good amount of range include Irelia, Akali, Lee Sin, and Olaf. These are also good top-lane champions because their health and armor grows very well level per level, making them able to withstand more damage. Teemo can also be used as a ranged top-lane champion, but he requires a very specific build to do well and he is guaranteed to lose the lane versus several other champions.

However, if you want to go top lane but you still want to do ranged magic damage, I would say Vladimir would be a good fit for you. His harass is good against most champions, he can steal health from champions or minions, and he is very difficult to kill.

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There are not a lot of good ranged top lane characters, there are a few though.

Bruiser AD Nidalee is very popular at the moment and can be very strong especially if she gets an early red buff. Kennen and Vlad are two other really strong top laners that are ranged and both have great escape tools to make up for their squishyness at low levels.

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For my part, Jayce is a good AD range/melee champion with great burst and combos. His poke allow me to lower 50% of entire ennemy team health before even starting teamfights (lategame). For his melee combo, he can make it hard for ennemies to escape and building him AD make him terribly strong (but squishy). As building him tanky, you can still do it (and its very good) because he have great health stats and can still be a bully in teamfight.

Otherwise, i've just discovered Kennen. He is incredibly strong when you know how to apply his stun and his AP scaling is really beast with his shuriken. Plus he have a nice escape mechanisme and late game he is awsome because you will stun the entire team with your ult, plus killing one with shuriken plus activating your E for more damage and even another stun... This is the ult where people will say ''Dat Ult -_-''.

Now for Elise, she has awsome harrass ability (getting a volibear to 10% health in 3 or 4 combos or killing him at the fourth) and i can win pretty any lane with her (% based damage plus great AP scaling and sustain with her spider). Plus she get tower down kind of fast with all your spiderlings. But if you dont build her a little bit tanky, you will only be usefull for poking in late game because you will die really fast.

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Anyone that does a grand amount of true damage (quinn and vayne) works very well, because you will most likely be going against a tank and to win a fight you want to just say "forget your armour". They are ranged, have nice harass, and good escape.

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Bruiser nidalee. She is so strong and so fun to play. Easy level six win. The end.

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    Care to expand on this a bit? What makes her strong/fun?
    – Trent Hawkins
    Commented Apr 5, 2014 at 23:56
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No one ever mentions Pantheon q is strong ranged harass w for the stun e for the damage and back to the q for the kill easy first blood easy domination of most top laners

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    Spoken like a true LoLer... And I don't understand any of it...
    – Ben
    Commented Nov 24, 2014 at 2:17

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