Click to open network menu
Join or Log In
Mobafire logo

Join the leading League of Legends community. Create and share Champion Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

MOBAFire's first Mini Guide Contest of Season 14 is here! Create or update guides for the 30 featured champions and compete for up to $200 in prizes! 🏆
's Forum Avatar

Top lane terror: Smite/Tp strategy with Balls...

Creator: LevasK April 23, 2015 7:46am
1 2
LevasK
<Member>
LevasK's Forum Avatar
Show more awards
Posts:
1196
Joined:
May 12th, 2013
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep April 23, 2015 7:46am | Report

By James "Obscurica" Chen




Foremost among the many surprising changes to the 5.6 meta is what's been happening in top lane. Urgot mid? We can roll with that. Lee Sin fallen out of favor in the jungle? Was going to happen eventually after so many nerfs. But for a player to drop Flash, the most basic and vital escape tool at a player's disposal, means something has radically changed.

For it to be replaced by Smite, of all spells, makes the changes fundamental.


BURNING BRIGHT

The top laner's job is at the heart of it all. At the current pro level, they're meant to provide map control, whether by independent action as a split-pusher or Teleport their way into a fight and bail out their team. Recent item changes have turbocharged their capabilities. According to Jack "Jak" Gifford, toplaner for Oceania Pro League's Team Absolute, jungle changes in Patch 5.6 spilled over to his role. Most significant was "access to Cinderhulk, which is by far the best item in the game at the moment, and the ability to easily clear jungle camps."

But, wait, aren't jungle camps supposed to go to junglers? "Having Smite on a top laner lets you counter-jungle or get extra farm from your [jungle] when your jungler is on the other side of the map," said Cloud 9's An "Balls" Le. "This lets you get more experience than normal, and Challenging Smite lets you beat almost anyone 1-vs-1." Gifford's assessment matches Le's, noting that the most important thing is the experience advantage, sometimes giving up to a two-level advantage over traditional Flash/Teleport top laners.


But gaining those advantages does require a specific champion pool. Said Gifford, "the two users of Smite/TP are champions that are either too mobile or too tanky to need Flash." Balls notes that there needs to be a balance between mobility and kill pressure: "if you don't have Flash on a non-mobile champ, you just get camped and die. Shyvana and Hecarim both have mobility, but they also have a lot of kill pressure after a certain point. I think champions with high mobility, fast waveclear and a lot of damage run this strategy best."


FIRE CONTROL

Currently, beating back the Smite/Teleport strategy relies a lot on personal mechanics. "I think if you are against a laner that can bully you in lane, or someone that knows how to punish you, then it will not be worth it to run the strat," said Balls.

Gifford notes that the window of opportunity to do so is limited. "Obviously it's easier to gank, but big fed tanks are very strong later in the game, so the weakness is mostly just gankability. Getting a champion like Shyvana fed is far more important than having a Flash." Come late game, the beefiness and mobility of Smite top laners like Shyvana and Hecarim don't just make them difficult to work around in fights—they also splitpush extremely efficiently, thanks to the waveclear from Cinderhulk.


To Balls, this is worrisome for the health of solo queue play. "I think Smite should just stay in the jungle, because they can't punish you in solo queue, and two Smites is better than one for objectives," he said. "People can abuse this strat to always stay even or ahead in lane experience." He calls for Cinderhulk to be directly nerfed in whatever way appropriate to stave off its influence in his role.

Gifford is more ambivalent, in face of the history of his role. "Any change for the stock standard laning phase is good," he asserts. For a long while, the top lane was considered an "island" because of its lack of interaction with the rest of the map or team, especially early on. But he agrees that the item has to be changed. "Smite/TP is only good because Cinderhulk is so amazingly broken, otherwise we would've seen it before. Cinderhulk is definitely in need of some nerfs, which will probably kill Smite/TP as a strategy, but that would be for the best. Strategic diversity is not good when it only exists from overpowered items."


Related Articles

Source: http://na.lolesports.com/articles/top-lane-terror-smitetp-strategy-balls-and-jack



If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
Jovy
<Admin>
Jovy's Forum Avatar
Show more awards
Posts:
9602
Joined:
Nov 18th, 2011
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep April 23, 2015 10:32am | Report
Make it stop..
Toshabi
<Veteran>
Toshabi's Forum Avatar
Show more awards
Posts:
5946
Joined:
Jan 18th, 2011
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep April 23, 2015 10:47am | Report
Please don't, because smite top is hilarious.
Kae UBW
<Member>
Kae UBW's Forum Avatar
Show more awards
Posts:
12
Joined:
Nov 11th, 2013
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep April 23, 2015 1:40pm | Report
I don't think Cinderhulk is OP. When you buy it you get less health than Juggernaut and late game you get something like 500 extra health from its passive. Of course 500 health is very good to have as bonus status, but that won't make you kill everyone.

Riot just need to restrict smite to 1 per team, so only the junglers will bring it to the game.
Toshabi
<Veteran>
Toshabi's Forum Avatar
Show more awards
Posts:
5946
Joined:
Jan 18th, 2011
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep April 23, 2015 1:44pm | Report
Kae UBW wrote:
I don't think Cinderhulk is OP. When you buy it you get less health than Juggernaut and late game you get something like 500 extra health from its passive. Of course 500 health is very good to have as bonus status, but that won't make you kill everyone.

Riot just need to restrict smite to 1 per team, so only the junglers will bring it to the game.


It's HP, a smite changer, and AOE damage. What's not to love? It's beast on beefy tanks. That's my funfire cape replacement in most scenarios. I LOVE it on funekton.
jhoijhoi wrote:

Also, I think the levels of immorality in this thread are astounding. You'd really throw a child off a boat for your own luggage? Wow.





IPodPulse
<Altruistic Artist>
IPodPulse's Forum Avatar
Show more awards
Posts:
1306
Joined:
Sep 30th, 2012
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep April 23, 2015 1:52pm | Report
Toshabi wrote:
Please don't, because smite top is hilarious.


my favourite thing is when people trying to convince me it works and I just destroy them in lane.
If you found me helpful give me some +Rep :)
Signature Shop!|Tryndamere Guide|Rengar Guide

Embrace the shadow... we got cookies and signatures, and all you have to do is stop by LaCorpse's Signature Café
Wayne3100
<Retired Admin>
Wayne3100's Forum Avatar
Show more awards
Posts:
7192
Joined:
Aug 3rd, 2011
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep April 23, 2015 2:08pm | Report
Quoted:
Make it stop..

Yes please.

Thanks to MissMaw for the signature!
Maintained
<Stalker>
Maintained's Forum Avatar
Show more awards
Posts:
1102
Joined:
Dec 8th, 2013
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep April 23, 2015 3:22pm | Report
IPodPulse wrote:

my favourite thing is when people trying to convince me it works and I just destroy them in lane.


My favorite thing is you only won one person who took smite top and suddenly you're making a big deal out of it being bad :P

Special thanks to iPulsefire for the signature!
Toshabi
<Veteran>
Toshabi's Forum Avatar
Show more awards
Posts:
5946
Joined:
Jan 18th, 2011
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep April 23, 2015 3:28pm | Report
Maintained wrote:


My favorite thing is you only won one person who took smite top and suddenly you're making a big deal out of it being bad :P


IT SOUNDS LIKE SOMEONE IS BEING #LEAGUEOFLEGENDSSALTY!

DID I STEP INTO THE DEAD SEA BECAUSE I THINK I AM HAVING A JEWISH EXPERIENCE!
Toshabi
<Veteran>
Toshabi's Forum Avatar
Show more awards
Posts:
5946
Joined:
Jan 18th, 2011
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep April 23, 2015 3:37pm | Report
Maintained wrote:
Calm down bruh. It wasn't even me who went smite top, it was someone in Inhouses. Go back to counting your money :p



I'm sorry, I rubbed my fries against my screen from all the salt pouring out of your message. You're toxic and that's why you're not good against steel types.


That's why I will never smite teleport again.
1 2

You need to log in before commenting.

League of Legends Champions:

Teamfight Tactics Guide