Top Lane Impact and Popularity - League of Legends
League of Legends developers Meddler and Scruffy talked about the popularity of top lane, its impact, and their plans and goals for the future.
A significant portion of the player base is displeased by the present status of top lane, which is usually considered a position with a very limited impact on the game victory, especially if compared to mid lane and junglers.
The Riot developers studied accurately this issue and tried to solve it with the adjustments brought in Season 10 Preseason. Unfortunately, they have not been able to hit their goals, but they shared data on the current situation, and explained the potential changes they are exploring to give more power to top laners.
Most popular roles by MMR and region
Andrei “Meddler” van Roon, Game Director for League of Legends, published the following graphs showing the popularity of each role by MMR in Ranked Solo/Duo queue in these regional servers: North America, Europe West, Korea, and Vietnam.
As can you see from the data, top lane is picked the most at lower MMR values, while its popularity decreases at higher ranks.
Top lane impact
Considering both the position selection rates and the degree to which a lead in top lane affects a team’s likelihood of winning, the developers believe that this role doesn’t have a sufficient impact on the outcome of the game at high MMR and in pro play.
One of our goals with preseason as a result was to give top lane increased impact, with increases to solo lane XP, Rift Herald respawning and lower jungle/duo lane XP as levers for that. Those changes have now been out for a while and they haven’t had as much effect as we’d hoped.
We’re taking another look at top lane influence as a result right now, with a focus on influence in high skill games specifically. Details we’re considering to follow once we’ve got some potential changes to share.
Andrei also affirmed that mid is the most popular and influential role, which is appropriate considering the combination of solo lane XP, central location to roam from, and because (as opposed to junglers) midders are visible on the map while farming. Nevertheless, they are still discussing if mid laners are appropriately strong, or a bit too strong.
Long-term goals for top lane
On February 21st, Mark “Scruffy” Yetter, Lead Gameplay Designer for League of Legends, confirmed that their long-term goal is giving top laners a greater game impact (the ability to carry a match).
They are testing several possible approaches to achieve this result:
Carrying through items. We have a few potential changes to core top lane items like Black Cleaver, Sunfire, and the Hydra items to give fighters and tanks some more carry power later.
Early strategic impact. The dragon creates a highly valued objective that all positions other than top have a strong ability to contest. We’re hoping to get top more integrated into the early objective game through a more powerful teleport summoner or making Rift Herald more comparable in value to dragon.
Turning leads into victories. Finding some ways to slightly amp up the payout in the early game for winning top lane can make it more comparable to the other positions. We’re exploring things like increasing melee damage to plates.
The role of the top laner
Here are a few key points I would like to explain on the current role of the top laner and their impact on the match.
Limited influence in the early game. Generally, top lane is regarded as a distinct area from the rest of the map because it has the least influence on the other lanes, and it is also influenced the least by them.
The only exception to the rule happens when the jungler or the midder decide to roam there, but this is not guaranteed to take place, especially in pub games.
Learn when to help your teammates. If you have been able to stack a minion wave and crash it against the enemy tower, the opponent will be busy for a while, so you can exploit this time to teleport bot to dive, flank, or counter gank (this is the best way for a top laner to have an impact on the match).
Top lane often goes to strong individual champions (like Mordekaiser), so you will be able to deal 1vs1 and sometimes even 1vs2 against most characters.
Farm and get your items. If you are playing a scaling champion (such as Vladimir), your goal is surviving and farming in the early game as you want to acquire experience and items to make the difference in mid and late game team fights.
It is fundamental to reach the item power spike to win the game, so I recommend to not waste your time in pointless gank attempts, avoid dives, play defensively early on, and rely on your opponents’ mistakes.
In the video below, check out some of the best top lane characters during Season 10 Preseason.
