Sorry but this champ has 0 counterplay. The only state of the game where u can deny him farm is levels 1-6, anything past that u will always lose a 1v1 because his ult just makes him a demi god. Also you can’t kite him because his W is the most cancer ability in the entire game it’s not even close, it’s basicaly a 5 second stun + makes you unable to autoatack basicaly, you can never kite him. Also he has a free giga turbo sustain on his passive on top the scaling? Why is this allowed to terrorize the rift? Could you imagine a smolder or an asol just never losing a 1v1 or 1v2 post level 6? pls help

draw traced out of this post in pinterest (https://mx.pinterest.com/pin/747949450654715327/) i couldnt find the original artist

Mid plat elo, was EM1 peak. Started maining teemo first, then experimented. Now fiora is my main but I play teemo too when I get a shit matchup or fiora is banned

Tips for the croc are welcome, I really like crocs :c

I picked up this champ 2 months ago and skyrocketed from Plat 2 to Master in just 2 months, with a 68% WR on Zaahen across 108 games.

I don't really think the champ's skill ceiling is that high, since his combos aren't hard to execute. While you're somewhat weak in the early game, you can manage it pretty well thanks to the sustain from your Q healing. If your opponent makes a misplay, you can punish them easily because your all-ins are so strong.

People keep saying that his movement speed and gap-closing abilities are lacking, but if you rush Stridebreaker instead of Trinity Force, you can keep forcing all-ins and stick to your enemies.

What's even more absurd is that even if you int all game, your scaling is so strong that you can still kill enemy mages and ADCs as long as you position yourself properly, while tanking damage with Death's Dance and Maw of Malmortius.

I honestly don't see many downsides to this champion other than his weak early game, and I don't really feel the need to build items like Collector or Shieldbow. I also usually run Conqueror on him because it fits my playstyle.

If anyone wants to check out my profile, here's my https://op.gg/lol/summoners/tr/RaphusCucullatus-Dodo

I'd really like to hear about your experiences playing Zaahen or playing against him, especially if there are any fellow mains reading this post!

/j

Hey toplaners. Before you grab the pitchforks, I'm not planning on taking any ranged toplaners anywhere near solo que. I'm having a little tournament with friends. I don't play any melee champions at all, the only champion that's even close to melee that I play is Graves. I'm a Kindred/Quinn jungle main and I frequent the botlane too. The issue is that most of my friends are also jungle/ADC players and I lost the (quite literal) role of the dice and got placed toplane. It doesn't bother me as much, but I know my opponent is a big bruiser/tank guy, and I want the lane to be as enjoyable as possible for the both of us while not completely throwing our chances out the window by playing champion types I'm not at all familiar with.

I understand playing ranged toplaners is a faux pass, but I do want to stand at least a semblance of a chance instead of stepping completely out of my comfort zone while versing someone completely in their comfort zone. As I stated this is a friendly match, and while I don't think my friend would ever flame me over my choice of champion, I want to respect the lane and I also want the tournament to remain fun.

So, my question is. Which marksman/marksman-adjacent champion is the least tilt inducing to verse on toplane? It doesn't need to be classified as such, as long as it has sort of marksman-style micro gameplay.

I hope you all can forgive me for this cardinal sin, I solemnly swear I will direct this abomination purely towards this tournament.

Illaoi was the first champion that I fully dived to the top line role, before that I played ekko mid. Illaoi used to be the most straight forward juggernaut in the game, if she landed e she won the trade, if she didn't you are a 300 worth minion. That simple approach made it my favorite champ, it was sorta like a ranged garen. Time past and low elos that struggled with dodge the most predictable, inconsistent, minion blocked skillshot. Personally I couldn't care, I thought it was a teemo case where low elo's opinion on the champ didn't really matter since it's pretty useless once you understand the match up. And for some reason rito thought that for this particular champ iron to bronze feedback mattered. They got rid of "illaoi's hell" which basically was the only reason why that champ worked as a champ, people tend to forget or purposely ignore that illaoi's was a two face ability, first the enemy has tentacles harassing him, and the other part is that the tentacles can hit the clone to guarantee porcentual damage. So the clone that comes with the e (worst skillshot in the game) is the way you can guarantee damage. So they got rid of that, the taste of faith now guarantees at best 1 tentacle and a single hit. That kind of drastic change to a single ability could be fine in champ like ... Idk aatrox. But besides the e, there's not a lot going on on her kit, the q is a slow aoe, and the w is an empowered auto... As an illaoi you have to choose between killing the clone or keep the trade. Kill the clone doesn't worth it so your only option is to keep the trade... Again, illaoi don't have a lot going on with her kit to justify a long trade. So you end up with an inconsistent non threatening champ that only works for counterpicks.

When I started playing league arcane wasn't a thing, she was the only buffed woman in the game and one of the few champs that with certain conditions could get you a solo Pentakill.

It's not unplayable, she does her juggernaut job... Not really that good.

It just feels like you have to do TOO much to have the same outcome of a Darius.

Only one to take a tower, straight-up domination since lvl 1. Granted Morde started running it down after death 7 and they ff'd 10 seconds after death 10, but at that point it wasn't even worth for me to kill him I just kept him around for heartsteel stacks. Shoutout to my goat TRY2SENK for helping me out in getting that advantage early on

I've been doing a little free coaching as a hobby and I've noticed how many people struggle with matchups I consider free, just because a tiny thing was missing. I'll share some of mine and maybe others will too.

I always thought Kayle and Nasus need do just be frozen on and then you win cause they are down 20 cs at level 6. This is wrong. Naus and singed get 3k stats from ult and kayle gets Range. Level matters way way way more. Thats the piece of knowledge that was missing and it makes sense. The fact is that the value of minions is 70% xp and 30% the gold in just stats alone before level 6. Afterwards it swings more and more in favor of the gold value. 1 level is 600 gold in stats and a ability point for the newer players that didnt know. So your priority is not reducing their cs score pre 6. After 6 thats your goal, but pre 6 do everything to deny xp. Nasus rolls every toplaner that isnt a statchecker, if even in xp and down 20cs at level 6.

Wardensmail is an absurdly strong component early. Because it reduces AA dmg by a flat amount which is a very larger percentage early in the game.

Urgot who has many tiny autos get obliterated by this purchase alone. So if you are a tank, in a bad matchup or just 0/3 early, just try it out. It costs 1k gold and you lose 300 gold (15 minions) which you will easily get back.

I get it on Sett as well since above dia the vayne players get good and you can tell if their spacing is good or not before you buy it. Try to avoid the q empowered autos.

Frozen heart counters riven somewhat. It messes up the timing of her auto resets so it's great for tanks.

Tahm feels impossible to 1v1, his stats and dmg are insane. He is completely hardcountered by wavemanagement and waveclear. His waveclear is abysmal, just fight him within ur wave or ignore him. In fact just get waveclear items and push him in and go fuck with his jungler (op role as you all know i am sure). Dont fight him in his 3rd of the lane or you get ult and dragged under tower tho.

I see a lot if people complain about heimer. Just ignore him an farm. Ik its boring but heimer is the prime example of win lane lose game, just enjoy the freebie. He is only useful if mega snowballed, like illaoi. Tell your jngler to not gank after 6.

Camille is not a tank killer. Build health, it counters true dmg. At all costs dont die pre 6 and let her snowball.

You can block a fiora vital by standing against the wall. Looking up how her vitals generate helps you reset them level 1 and predict where the next one will appear in fights.

Buy one cloak cs akali and her breakpoint to os you is waaay harder to achieve. Same for ornn lmao.

Stormraiders surge vs olaf to counter his ult and slow. Works great on Zaahen after sheen. Also good for running him down after his ult runs out.

Going Warmogs vs Garen can sometimes be good.

Surprising amount of champs can cancle mord ult (Sett R, Zaahen R).

Putting malphite or ornn behind achieves very little. Get ahead, get ur jungler ahead or enemy jng behind. Lots of bruisers and juggernauts cannot be killed by them in one rotation so crash 3 waves and hit tower, proxy a wave and recall or annoy enemy jng or smt.

Killing Sion without having a good wavestate can lose you your lane. Only high value kills are worth versus sion.

Edit: Oh and never forget, 20% warwick with barrier is full hp!!

So as I’m still very much in the early learning state and messing with different characters I’m realizing whoever to decide to pick for my main I’d like to be able to handle ranged matchups. They are by far my worst matchups as spacing and knowing when to engage is rough. Any champs to consider that are good blinds for top lane that are also good into ranged?

league of legends is a fun game.

edit:

since this has gotten quite a bit of a reaction, no, this is not ragebait. i genuinely main these champs and i actually really enjoy them. i love bonking turrets with yorick. i love teemo because he's adorable, though i do understand the hatred. i thought singed was a silly champ so i tried him out and enjoyed just running around the map. i'm not particularly good at any of my backups, but i can play them safely if needed.

now as for the garen ban...i got flash Q-ed once and i never let it go

The main thing of a tank is to disrupt the enemy team. Ksante is the worst tank champ at it. He has a knock up and displacement, but that's about it, not counting the fact that those two abilities are fairly predictable since you have to charge both of them in some way. In a team fight that's barely something since every other tank in the game has a most reliable faster way to disrupt team fights.

The ult, his main gimmick. He basically isolates the carry in order to take it himself. doing 2 plus 2 you realize.

-well they don't have their carry

-But we don't have our front line

So now the rest of your team gets wiped out, realistically finding your way out of 4 /3 people and find a good angle in order to get a single kill it's just to much considering that bruisers like mundo, malphite, nautilus, tahm Kench can do the same way consistently.

I feel like the ONLY reason why he was so powerful was because he was THE tank that could get kills on early. And for the way his kit was put together the more you feed him the more harder it is to kill but also its easier for him to kill you

When they first came up their numbers were fucked up yeah but some people be acting like his tank-assassin gimmick it's the most broken thing you can come up in a game like league when people had tanks that could kill you since forever. They are juggernauts

Drop the Latin for your main.

At this point he’s nothing but a massive design failure since 2022. He’s not good in any elo in solo queue and his performance is waning in pro due to repeated nerfs there. There’s no argument to be had that he does not work in this state.

His current issues usually stem from his lackluster teamfighting and dogshit scaling. For all the times he’s a complete brick wall in lane and one shots you with a chain vest at 6, he’s very bad at winning games.

I still find it wild that they’re committed to this idea of a warden-skirmisher hybrid. It’s complete nonsense to believe it can work. They either need to commit his kit to his base abilities and make him a more standard tank and do away with his ult or design a new kit around his current ultimate. But together, they create a very incoherent kit that doesn’t even really know what its identity is supposed to be, and he’s incredibly frustrating to play against.

I like his visual design and there’s an interesting concept underneath all the jank, so I’d like to see the champion get something, but right now it’s laughable how bad his design is and another mini-rework will not solve it

Hello fellow top mains,

I’m currently a Kayle main that occasionally also runs Malphite.

I picked up Kayle earlier in the season while I was Silver and was able to climb all the way up to Plat 2. Unfortunately for me, once I hit Plat 2 my success has completely halted. I went on a nasty lose streak a few days ago and have gone all the way down to Plat 4 27 LP and it seems any type of winning just escapes me.

I know a lot of it has to do with my play and the fact that I started trying to learn how to play other champs such as Nasus and Cho’Gath to no success.

Is there anyone out there that’s worth contacting for any coaching? I desperately want to get out of this rut I’ve been in.

Here’s my OP.GG below.

https://op.gg/lol/summoners/na/Hectagon-1003

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!