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I'm new here (and quite new to lol), so not sure whether this kind of question is allowed here, but I have been wondering this for a few games.

I have been playing top (as Rumble) and has been getting better to the point I usually win my lane and get occasional kills. Now the problem I had for a few games was that I had destroyed my turret much earlier than the other lanes, while they were still battling over the first turret. At this point in the game, I didn't really know what to do next.

Should I:

  • Push for the second turret, getting myself completely exposed to potential Jungle ganks
  • Go try gank mid, but by doing so leaving my turret open?
  • Swap lanes with bot so they can push and I can keep bot lane?
  • Something else?

So my question is basically what to do when I finish my laning phase before the others as top?

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  • I don't know much (anything) about League, but wouldn't the added pressure of you pushing Top force the other team to react? Do they pull forces from other lanes to defend top? Do they go hyper aggressive trying to push you back? Do they fall back and defend the next point? Knowing what your enemy is doing will help you to make the decision of what needs to be done.
    – Robotnik ♦
    Commented Nov 8, 2015 at 23:17
  • @Robotnik I noticed most of the times the jungler helps out, making him unable to farm or harass the other lanes properly. Last time I could just lane against the two of them and get more kills, but with a decent jungler, I would probably end up death, because I would be too deep in with my team at back. But as I said, I'm too new to know whether keep on pushing is a good thing, or whether I should do something else.
    – Peter Raeves
    Commented Nov 8, 2015 at 23:42
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    @PeterRaeves top as who. Different champs even in the same lane have different roles
    – Aequitas
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 0:28
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    @Aequitas Read the question again, it is in there.
    – Peter Raeves
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 2:12

1 Answer 1

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Disclaimer

This advice may not last long since Season 6 will be coming, and news of a the Rift Herald, in which the top lane will play a crucial role.

What summoner spells are you taking? The meta right now (not sure how much it'll change in S6) is leaning to top lane getting Teleport and Flash. If you're getting Ignite/Exhaust and Flash, try switching to Teleport for now and see if you'll fare as well in lane as you are currently.

Assuming we are in the early-mid game, here are a few suggestions on how to spend your time when you're owning top lane.

Gank/push mid, but...

make sure to push out your lane first! Before you leave your lane, you should kill all the minions (should be easy with Rumble) to the enemy's turrets so :

  1. You won't be missing out on a lot of exp
  2. You'll be denying your opponent of exp and gold if they aren't there and you pushed minions to their tower
  3. No vision of you, assuming you killed their minions outside tower range and they have no river wards

This copies the same strategy of playing mid, wherein you have to push out your lane first before ganking other lanes.

The requirement here though, is big. This is best done when you're still healthy and you've killed off your lane opponent. Going to another lane takes too much time if your lane opponent is still there.

Alternatively, kill the Scuttle Crab

Same thing with the above, push out the lane before you leave for optimal gains. Scuttle crab is worth at least 125 gold due to the 50ish gold it gives, plus the invulnerable ward and speed buff you have on your river. It also doesn't fight back so you can return to your lane afterwards having regen'd some of your HP/Mana back.

If you think that your lane opponent has farmed quite a bit, recall

If you stay on your lane farming, and you suspect the enemy has amassed quite an amount of gold, it might be best to be on the safe side and recall as well. You may be owning now but it might not go as well as before if he goes back with a Spectre's Cowl and you have no new items.

As always, if it is safe (no risk of jungler gank when you have low HP), clear out the minions before recalling.

Feeling aggressive? Invade the top lane jungle with your jungler

This is something best done when you have the first turret pushed. You can try to come with your jungler to invade the enemy team's top side jungle.

Potential benefits are :

  1. Killing the enemy jungler or burning their flash
  2. Ward/dewarding of the top lane jungle
  3. Red/Blue buffs
  4. Wolf smite (if possible, this is a VERY VERY good benefit)
  5. Denying their jungler of camp gold and exp (Leave small minions alive)

Once you get sighted though, make sure to assess if you can take on their mid,top, and jungler at the same time.

If you have teleport, ask your bot lane to ward the farther side bush

And watch for any brewing fights. Once the enemy commits to a fight, you TP. Always be aware of the map.

Sources

League player since S2

Support main

Currently Plat IV in LoL Oceania but peaked as Diamond II (Back in S4) in LoL PH

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  • Thanks that helped a lot! Some terminology that wasn't quite clear yet though. invulnerable ward and river speed buff; How do I get the crab to give 125 instead of 50? And lastly, what is wolf smite? Is it just smiting the wolves? And why is it such a good benefit?
    – Peter Raeves
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 2:29
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    @PeterRaeves, when you kill the Scuttle Crab, you get 50ish gold. It then spawns a "sentry" in front of dragon/baron that acts like a ward (that normally costs 75 gold), and it also gives you a speed buff when you step on it, which is never bad. You can only get 50ish gold but the value you get from killing Scuttle Crab is at least 125 gold.
    – Zaenille
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 2:49
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    As for the wolf smite, yes, it is simply your jungler smiting the enemy wolves. It is a very good benefit because it gives you a mobile ward in the heart of the enemy jungle, which means that you'll know anytime when someone is going through half the side of the jungle, for the duration of the smite buff (95 seconds).
    – Zaenille
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 2:52
  • Your wolf example only works if you are on red side top lane. Otherwise that would be your jungle on blue side and not much benefit there.
    – VanBuzzKill
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 5:06
  • The most important fact in pushing your lane is that the opponent has to weigh between gettin EP/gold and getting possibly sustainably weaker by following you. If you would e.g. just teleport out of the base on bot lane the enemy might predict this and play defensively --> the other top laner is then probably able to push + counter gank when you overextended in your attemp to kill bot lane. I think This is one of the most common "hard mistakes". This longsightedness can probably only acheived through experience.
    – h0ch5tr4355
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 9:11

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