League of Legends (LoL) Question: Top laning

1) Freezing: Many people believe that once an advantage is gained you should push the lane to their tower, and poke them under the tower. However, sometimes it is not easy to do so, or the enemy has a lot of sustain and poke won't do much to them. In such a situation, you should "freeze" the lane. This means to avoid doing anything to push the lane whatsoever, and last hitting at the last possible moment. If done properly the enemy must overextend in order to farm. Therefore, they will either have to constantly ward, or suffer the ganks of the jungler. This also gives you more space, and time before the enemy reaches their tower resulting in more kill potential.

2) Understanding Creeps: You need to understand particularly in the early levels when it is safe to harass and when it is not. It is not safe for you to throw out an auto attack in the middle of the wave at lvl 1. Not only will the enemy top laner retaliate and auto attack you back, but you just drew the creeps aggro to you which in the early levels is nearly two auto-attacks. Therefore, the best time to harass is when there are few, or a small amount of creeps. Also, do not sit in the middle of the enemy's creep wave when you harass. It is okay though if you are behind the ranged creeps when zoning though.

3) Understanding Advantages and Deficits: The top lane is very snow-bally and a small mistake can lose you the lane. You need to understand when you have the advantage over the enemy top laner, or when he has the advantage over you. Sometimes, the enemy top laner may have an innate advantage over you from the start of the game if they ran double offensive summoner spells (ex: Heal Ignite). You need to understand in situations like these that they have the advantage and I need to sit back, and let them be the one to make the mistake. Similarly, you should watch your items and theirs. If you have a Doran's Blade up on the enemy top laner you need to know that. You have higher stats then them and will win trades if performed properly.

4) Match-Ups: Understand the match-ups, and personal preferences. For example, I may be a really comfortable Teemo, but I never perform well when facing off against a Lee Sin. It doesn't matter that championselect.com says that Teemo is a counter to Lee Sin because you don't perform well as Teemo against Lee Sin. Also, make sure your champion pool doesn't have similar counter-picks. For example, the problem with a champion pool like this: Teemo, Vladimir, Kennen is that they are weak against bruisers with gap-closers.

5) Itemizing: Do not let a guide dictate your item build completely. If you are laning against a Kennen and you are 0/5/0 as Malphite and your guide says to build some armor after completing boots you should think about that decision. Do you want to give up on the laning phase, and make sure that you are tanky enough for team fights, or should you itemize towards the lane so you can farm safely. In other words, try to recognize when you should stop itemizing for the laning phase, and start worrying about mid-game.

6) Warding: DO NOT WARD WHEN YOUR LANE IS PUSHED IN TO YOUR TOWER. I've seen this many times and top laners are throwing their wards away. Only ward when you are prone to a gank. You are typically not going to be ganked under tower unless you are at low health. You should ward, but do it wisely. There is no reason to ward when you are not in danger of a gank.

7) Roaming: If your lane is pushed consider roaming. Just showing your face in the middle lane may cause the enemy mid laner to miss some creep score. Sometimes you'll pick up an assist or kill or even meet up with the enemy jungler.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

there are a lot of tips to follow. but learning them in theory is only half of top-laning. the other is putting in practise what you've learned.

So what I do is :

1)Farm at my best (my highest score: 160 creeps in 16 minutes with Jayce)
2)Poke (with AA or abilitie) when they go for cs and when minions are not low enough to get the last hit
3)Push when enemy jungler is in the area between mid and bot and their AP carry is on their position
4)When I reach their turret, I eat the whole wave. Minions attack the turret and after I go gank
5)I (ofc) ward
6)Think of what the enemy might do to give space to his jungler
7)I don't chase them

Of course you need great knowledge on the enemy champion so I suggest you start reading guides for top laners. (learn synergies and counters)

What I've written might seem a bit generic. So if you want I can put them in practise with you (only if you play on EUNE or EUW)

Hope I've helped