Ask a Diamond [Week 3: Top lane]

[quote=Out Of Pancakes]What do you think about Shen atm ? And rune setup for him : are As quints any good or are there better ?[/quote]

[quote=Khazem]Shen is decent at the moment imo. He can hold his own in lane against most of the current meta champs and has always been good outside of the laning phase because of his ult. The only problem I see for him atm is pretty much everyone running teleport these days and Shen is going to have trouble split pushing vs the likes of Jax/Ryze in the late game. Rune setup I'd probably run hybrid pen marks, armor seals, MR glyphs and HP regen quints.[/quote]

[quote=Omnislash GG]As Shyvana, I always seem to get out-traded, even when landing e, auto-q-auto and w up during the trade. I think I have trouble disengaging a trade. What's the best way to engage in a trade with this champion? When should I trade/not trade in general for the top lane?[/quote]

[quote=H4xDefender]Bork on [[Renekton]] is for when you don't need the lane dominance of hydra and instead want better sticking power in teamfights.[/quote]

[quote=xIchi][quote=Omnislash GG] As Shyvana, I always seem to get out-traded, even when landing e, auto-q-auto and w up during the trade. I think I have trouble disengaging a trade. What's the best way to engage in a trade with this champion? When should I trade/not trade in general for the top lane? [/quote] Shyvanna relys heavily on extended trades, her Q cooldown is rather low compared to other damage dealing skills in the early game. Also her W duration outlasts many skills on toplane aswell. In addition her E debuff has to be used to it's full extent. As you said, you lose the first burst initation from both sides, but then you have the upper hand. Get a feeling for your survability and extend the trade, this will most likely let you win it. And don't fight in minions :p![/quote]

[quote=Nera]Would Annie top be viable? If so, what would her favorable matchups be. i have been trying it out lately and find i have trouble with anything with a gapclosure such as wukong or xin or some of those. Would her build path differ alot from her traditional bursty midlane build? For singed, is it better to constantly push them into tower to create pressure and hope you ghost can get you away from a gank, or is it better to freeze lane at turret up until lvl 6 when you get your steroids? Is Roa or Tear a better item at the moment on singed? Would early roams be effective if all your other lanes are losing and you are the only one with a slight advantage in lane or is it better off to just farm your lane and tell your mates to play safer up until everyone catches up? Nera[/quote]

[quote=Khazem][quote=Nera] Would Annie top be viable? If so, what would her favorable matchups be. i have been trying it out lately and find i have trouble with anything with a gapclosure such as wukong or xin or some of those. Would her build path differ alot from her traditional bursty midlane build?[/quote] I don't think she'd be a very good top laner. I can't think of many good matchups. Most bruisers with a gap closer would probably just destroy her once they get a few levels and pretty much everything that's popular at the moment are bruisers with gap closers. Her build would probably not change. She's most effective as a bursty AoE mage which is exactly how you should build her. [quote=Nera] For singed, is it better to constantly push them into tower to create pressure and hope you ghost can get you away from a gank, or is it better to freeze lane at turret up until lvl 6 when you get your steroids? Is Roa or Tear a better item at the moment on singed?[/quote] You don't want to push too hard from the very start, Singed is very vulnerable to ganks pre-6. It's better to just take it easy and last hit with auto attacks as much as possible (though ideally you want to avoid getting pushed under the turret because Singed is pretty bad at last hitting under a turret). Alternatively you can abuse teleport by pushing a few waves early untill you have enough gold for like a tear and a ward, recall and teleport back to lane. This puts a lot of pressure on the lane while still being pretty safe from ganks. I'd say Tear is probably more effective at the moment. [quote=Nera]Would early roams be effective if all your other lanes are losing and you are the only one with a slight advantage in lane or is it better off to just farm your lane and tell your mates to play safer up until everyone catches up? [/quote] If you see good oppertunities to roam or make a teleport play then you could definitely go for it. Always make sure you push up your lane first and make sure you don't run through any lane wards your opponent may have placed. In a situation like you described, I often find myself trying to roam mid and see if I can get a kill there. Push up the lane, run up to mid lane, if it's warded just go back to your lane and you should still make it back before your opponent pushes it all the way to the turret (which in turn allows you to take more control of that lane again), if it's not warded you can gank and if nothing else you're creating pressure and giving your losing mid laner some breathing room to catch up.[/quote]

[quote=luizdeh]I see people saying all the time that [[olaf]] beats [[shyvana]] in lane. But I don't have a good time. Her AoE skill has deceptive damage and after a [[giant's belt]] it gets a lot harder. I usually win if she doesn't respect my E. Other than that, she can harass better due to mana-fucking-less, take some damage, dish it out and post-6 she can dive. Also, [[singed]]. Never against [[renekton]], [[ryze]] and [[teemo]]. But I have fun against [[jax]], especially since I can somewhat get him off my carries in teamfights with fling+slow. Given his limited kill potential and people above Gold just knowing how to deal with him, should I always take [[teleport]]+[[ghost]]? I feel sometimes that if I had [[ignite]] I would have won lane and shoved it hard creating other kinds of play, especially with Baron control. That can also happen with tele, just later and harder to accomplish.[/quote]

[quote=utopus]IIRC, olaf usually wins lane pretty decisively BEFORE she recalls. With [[vicious strikes]], and [[reckless swing]], (and [[undertow]] as a chasing mechanism) there's no good way she can really get in extended duels with you... Which means with good vision, you can force her away from her creeps and freeze lane. Singed actually does okay against teemu. It's just that nobody knows how to play him against teemo. If you let yourself get poked down, then the lane is already lost. The way to deal with teemo is to not shove the lane (either slightly on your side, or in the middle preferrably), and then [[fling]] lock and run at teemo. Teemo can't really orb walk you early game since he doesn't have any slowing effects yet, so he's forced to run away. As singed, if you run back, and turn on your poison, teemo can't attack you when you're running back. It's hard to explain, but a singed teemo lane is basically just a giant game of cat & mouse. Aaaand yea. Singed vs renekton, or singed vs ryze is misery lol. I actually get TP a lot on singed. I concede most of my kill potential, but i give my team so much dragon control and i also give my bot lane so much auxiliary assistance i believe it makes up for it. Telling your support to place a deep ward, and then TP ganking bot lane has won me the game on several occasions.[/quote]

[quote=Darealone]Just to double check...against [[shyvana]] you build an early [[spectre's cowl]] right?[/quote]