Today we’re getting to sit down with DIG’s newest LCS Top Laner, Eric “Licorice” Ritchie, and cover some gameplay tips for Top Lane. We’ll be discussing Top Lane’s most popular Champion archetypes of Bruiser, Tank, and Duelist. So, tune in to find out how to up your game with Licorice’s pro-tips!

Bruiser Tips - Fearless Laning & Disruptive Diving

First we’re going to talk about Bruisers. Bruisers are, perhaps, the most popular design space that is present in Top Lane. Popular Champions like Darius, Garen, Sett, Kled, and more occupying the playstyle, it’s a go-to for many Top players as these Champions have the ability to both snowball the game and solo carry themselves, or be useful when even or behind. But, regardless of the Bruiser and how aggressive, defensive, or disruptive they might be, the laning phase is where everything starts.

Licorice: I think my biggest piece of laning advice on Bruisers is to understand your first three levels, and perhaps most importantly, your level one. You’re going to feed and look like an idiot as you try to learn this, but going aggressive at level one by either bush cheesing or simply just walking at the enemy and running into them is going to help you come to understand exactly how much damage you can do at that stage.

With that repetition comes recognition, so you’ll be able to learn how to hard run someone down and set up your next two levels to be lethal. Additionally, you can start to glean the habits of a player and how willing they are to trade back into you with early aggression. That can key you in on if they actually know how to trade or not. After, it’s all about knowing when you hit those level spikes for your early abilities based on the wave, and of course how much damage those abilities add to your all-in potential.

When it comes to the Mid and Late Game, a Bruiser's weaknesses can become more exposed. By design, most Bruisers lack mobility to compensate for their combination of resistances and damage. During lane phase, this can be exposed on a matchup-to-matchup basis as some popular counter-picks in Top try to take advantage of range over Bruisers. Champions like Vayne, Quinn, and Teemo come to mind in this mold. Additionally, as the game extends beyond lane phase, anticipating the movements of your opponents becomes a big factor in maintaining advantage and transitioning your lead through these phases of the game.

Licorice: Depending on how ahead you can get from your lane phase, Bruisers can fill in multiple ways as the game goes on. Sometimes you’re just going to have to play the role of being a ‘Tank’ where you just eat the damage and abilities of the enemy as you run at them from the front to start a fight. Other times you might be on more mid-line duty, playing peel for a carry or as a form of counter-engage. Lastly, you can look to flank on a lot of Bruisers since they come with a lot of kill potential and displacement that can be deadly for backline Champions like ADCs and Supports, and it's this disruption that can enable your team to get in.

Overall, Bruisers can be a Swiss army knife of sorts. Which is often why they are catered to in Top Lane in terms of itemization and balance updates. They’re the quintessential class for Top Lane and smart players can direct and optimize this playstyle to suit their needs. Be that acting as the frontline, divers for the backline, or acting as counter-engage.

But you’d be foolish to think that the class is entirely homogenized towards the same space. While typically the direction of Bruisers is to a ‘stat-check’ archetype that snowballs from lane into the later stages, some Bruisers come with wrinkles to this design that make them terrifying within certain spaces of Mid and Late game.

For example, we mentioned Sett earlier. He’s a Champion that has the tools to run down a lane thanks to overall damage output, but comes packaged with unique tools, his W and Ultimate, that make him a bit more effective in teamfight settings than other Bruisers. And some Bruisers can get even more unique in their playstyles to the point where they almost defy the traditional mold of the archetype while still being considered one, like Kled.

If you’re unsure of where your Champion fits in, or where their strengths are, or maybe even the game state is just forcing you to ‘make a play’, you can force some playstyles out of Bruisers if you’re mindful and anticipating the enemy. Tying back to limit-testing yourself at the early levels to know your exact damage output, you can put into play a ‘dive and disrupt’ mindset on any Bruiser to truly learn what your Champion can do.

Licorice: I definitely think looking for flanks and dives is probably your best bet if you’re unsure of where to take your Champion. Again, most Bruisers can solo backlines if key abilities are down. So, as Kled or Darius or another Bruiser, getting your body on the Mid or ADC can disrupt them from walking forward and dealing with your team. And most Bruisers come with some form of defensive that helps them extend in those backline dives. Otherwise, playing around a carry or with someone that you know can enable you to get in and overcome your typical mobility weakness as a Bruiser is going to be your best bet as Bruisers can pretty easily pick and delete most enemies if they’re ahead.

One last wrinkle that Bruisers can apply from their typical pattern is pressure via split pushing. Some Bruisers are simply better at it than others (Illaoi comes to mind) because their kits are simply designed to excel in the one-on-one or one-vs-more scenarios. And even if they aren’t leaned into this angle thanks to their kit, most Bruisers have some form of auto-reset that lets them chip away at turrets quickly. But, overall, unless they are specifically catered to this space it’s hard to say this should be a go-to strategy.

Tank Tips - Cooldowns and Playmaking

Tanks are our next archetype to discuss. Tank Top Laners, like Bruisers, can come with their own wrinkles that define them unique amidst their archetype, but overall, Tanks are defined by two major aspects. The first being Crowd-Control, or CC. Every Tank comes packaged with one or multiple layers of CC that allow them to set-up ganks, teamfights, picks, or counter-engages. The second aspect is synergy with itemization. Tanks are designed to scale with Armor, Magic Resistance, and Health, so as the game extends, they enter into a power fantasy of being unkillable.

But, despite this focus on the later stages, Tanks should still be respected for their laning ability.

Licorice: Generally, I think Tanks are undervalued in terms of the damage they bring to the lane. Malphite and Ornn for example, while their abilities cost a lot, they do a significant amount of early game damage and can be quite lethal during the early lane if they’re just getting to use their abilities without much punishment. So, with that said, I think one of my biggest tips for laning on these Champions is to understand cooldowns. Not just your own, but also your enemies. For example, on a pick like Malphite, you might be more inclined to hold your Q, which gives you movement speed, for when an enemy looks to all-in you. It’s a good tool to deal damage and quickly kite out of a trade they might want to take. And of course, if the enemy laner is just using their abilities on the wave, you can harass them easily with that Q or with say Ornn’s breath with a decent amount of safety.

One of the biggest aspects of being a great Tank player is understanding how to apply your CC, and what role you play within a team composition. What do we mean by this? Well, a common trap that Tank players fall into is defining themselves strictly into one space. Often it comes in the form of, “I am the Tank. I am Engage!” While this can be largely true, it’s important as a Tank to understand your win conditions for every game. Why? Well, as a Tank you should be constantly thinking about how you play around and enable your team’s win-con player or strategy.

Licorice: Understanding who is your win-con and what resources you have on your team as a Tank is huge. So, say you have multiple forms of engage or pick, you can look to play a more responsive style to fights by holding your ultimate for disruption as the fight breaks out within range of one of your fed carries. Or, if you are your only source of engage, then pinging all-ins and starting fights around that primary carry is going to be the call as that’s going to speed up the pace of the game and allow you to play around the player’s power. Tanks have a unique perspective on the game, since they can literally facilitate all the plays to be made, so recognizing who and what to play around is extremely important in every game.

On the opposite side of the Tank coin, one of the worst feelings in League of Legends is locking in a scaling pick, aiming to get into the Mid and Late Game only for your teammates to lose every other matchup and limit your effectiveness. And this can be an unfortunate outcome for Tank Mains or for the smart drafting player that’s looking to round-out a team composition. But, despite your lack of damage on a Tank as the game evolves, you come packaged with defining crowd-control that lets you create something from nothing in every game if you’re smart with setup and timing.

As a Tank, you should always be looking to make a play. We talked about identifying the win-con just a moment ago, and you should be doing this even in losing game states as well. Waiting around for the enemy to misstep or mess-up can be an idea, but as you climb the ladder mistakes come fewer and farther between. So, formulating plays becomes important to help establish ways back into losing games. So, what are some plays you can look for as a Tank?

The phrase “apes together strong” comes to mind immediately. As a Tank, you can set the stage on any engage and can enable anyone to be picked off. So, coordinating with your team around objective timers or within pockets of denied vision to create picks is a great way to scratch your way back into games.

Secondarily, don’t be afraid to die for a cause. As a Tank, even if you’re in a neutral or behind state, you can soak and disrupt a bit of damage. So, threat assess and identify who is dealing the damage on the enemy team and make them your prime target. Getting your tanky-butt onto them and making their life hell can buy your teammates time to win smaller skirmishes against the enemy team, or even set-up the fed carry (who likely has a bounty) for your allies. So, when in doubt, make it your aim to be extremely obnoxious for the enemy’s most fed player.

Finally, engage around your turrets and objectives. Players like to be cute and juggle games around Baron, Dragon, and Turrets all the time. Come to recognize that, despite not being on your team, these objectives can still play for you, so lead your team headfirst into fights after the enemy team has started these big objectives. Baron debuffs players that have attacked it recently, so if it seems that this is the win-con for the enemy, look to make it your turn-around-con for your team. The same could be said for Elder Dragon as, even when behind, if you can sneak or steal this objective, it’s often a ‘game over’ for whoever doesn’t acquire its execute button. Lastly, when it comes to playing with your turrets, always recognize they can be a 6th man. If the enemy misjuggles aggro and pokes while under turret, be mindful and instantly engage the player that’s caught in the turret’s stacking damage. That could create the perfect scenario for your team to force out the enemy and build back up.

Duelists - Splitting, Numbers, & Dive Pressure

Duelists are our last category to cover. These Champions define themselves as one-on-one monsters who both wreak Champions and turrets when isolated and ahead. They often have packaged into their kits auto-resets, damage steroids, and mobility tools that allow them to get onto their opponents or out of the line of fire, and to add insult to injury, they often scale really well with items making them prime snowballers.

Where this archetype lacks is in the teamfighting phase. Often their play pattern is dictated around split pushing, diving, and attempting to manipulate the game via side-lane pressure. So, utilizing all their tools, they aim to execute clean lane phases where they lead in either kills or CS before it’s all said and done.

Licorice: I’ll iterate what I said about Bruisers again here and state that understanding your level one is so huge on these Champions. Fiora, Jax, Tryndamere, Gwen, all these picks can get off a great amount of damage if you can learn how to get on top of an opponent to free hit away. I also think understanding cooldowns is big for these Champions as well as they often come with some larger tool to just screw the enemy over in some way. Think Fiora’s Riposte or Jax’s Counter Strike. These abilities can be used both aggressively and in response to enemy aggression to quickly turn an all-in in your favor. So, understanding how these particular abilities apply in any given matchup will really help you make the most of your lane phase.

When it comes to split pushing, the primary goal of Duelist Champions outside of simply smashing lane, you have to come to understand timings and numbers. First think about the timings of major objectives on the map, Dragon and Baron, primarily. As a split pushing archetype, you often want to be on the opposite side of the map from the major objective, so as time counts down towards the spawn of these objectives, you’re in position to generate simultaneous pressure on the map in the farthest lane away to force a decision from the enemy team.

If the decision is to send only one person to respond to your split-pressure, then your Champion is in an ideal spot to maintain pressure and potentially even dive the enemy that has chosen to answer you. If their decision was to send multiple people to answer your presence in the side lane, then your team is at an advantage, as they can now look to take the objective with a numbers advantage or force a fight against the enemy team with that same priority.

But say the enemy is smart to your game and responds with someone that keeps your wave trimmed, preventing pressure and dives. Or maybe you’re not playing with the advantage that demands you be responded to in bulk, what do you do? Sticking to your playstyle is a thought, but like Tanks and Bruisers who have to be adaptive in their playstyle, so too should you as a Duelist.

Licorice: Looking for a flank is the go-to on this style of Champion if you’re being forced to group and teamfight. That defensive tool that most duelists have is great at shrugging off the peel of a Mid, Support, or AD, and often successfully getting on top of them means they’re dead already. So, trying to just get back on them and insta-pop an important carry is the play. Otherwise, you can look to play that split-push game before you transition towards your team and try to make a solo-pick between lanes. It’s not really a ‘teamfighting tip’ but it is a way that you can create advantage in the late-game if it looks like group fighting is going to be the resolution of the game over splitting. From here you can go back to your split, or group with your team to take advantage of your numbers.

Closing Out

There you have it folks! The tips you need to understand the Champion styles of Top Lane! Thanks to Licorice for sitting down with us to cover these great pointers and, above all, welcome to the team! You can catch more of Licorice at these following socials:

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