Best Early Game Top Laners in League of Legends
In League of Legends, every champion scales and spikes at different stages of the game. Some champions are powerful in the early game, while others need time to come online. Some champions are weak until the very late game. There is so much diversity when it comes to LoL.
When you’re trying to improve in League of Legends, you can use early game champions to help you understand power spikes and trading patterns. By playing early game champions, you can become a more aggressive laner, find weaknesses in the enemy and look for opportunities for aggression.
In this Mobalytics guide, we will discuss 5 of the best early game champions in League of Legends to play in the Top Lane. If you’re interested in learning how to play any of these champions in this guide, sign up for a free Mobalytics account for tips and tricks to enhance your climb!
Best Early Game Top Laners in League of Legends
- Darius
- Akshan
- Sett
- Wukong
- Kled
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1. Darius
Darius is one of the strongest early game champions around. He has high base damage, and as long as he keeps auto-attack you, he can easily blow you up in the very early game. But that isn’t the main reason why he is strong.
Every auto-attack he hits a target with will take damage over time. The more auto-attacks he does, the more damage they will receive. His Passive is very strong and can single-handed win him an early skirmish.
The Darius player’s mentality is to play super aggressive early. He needs to get early kills to be a nuisance as the game progresses. So, you need to play aggressive and get kills when playing Darius.
Tips and Tricks:
- Make the most of your champions kit by auto-attacking before you activate your W as your W is an auto-attack reset.
- Darius’ biggest weakness is that he can get kited easily. If you have to fight in a team fight, look to attack from the side to reduce the chances of being poked down or kited.
- Try to go for longer trades over short ones as Darius benefits more from extended trades thanks to his Hemorrhage Passive.
2. Akshan
Many champions in the top lane are melee. Akshan can abuse them with his superior range to get them low and force them to recall. If they overstay, he can quickly take them down too. He has high base damage and loves to bully the enemy.
After a few trades: using his superior range and abusing his Q, he can all-in the enemy with his E and chase them down the long lane. Many champs lack a dash, too, so he can take them down when they overextend.
Akshan will be building AD items which means he will be dealing a lot of damage to targets via auto-attacks. Even with the smallest of leads, he can quickly snowball into a colossal monster later on.
Tips and Tricks:
- Refrain from using your E unless you really have to. During the laning phase, you’re quite vulnerable to an all-in if you’re caught out of position without it.
- Auto-attack before using your Q as your Q applies stacks that allow you to get your Passive procs with ease.
- To avoid getting your Ultimate cancelled, try and use it when the enemy wastes CC tools, or whenever you’re not going to get it interrupted.
3. Sett
Sett is a lane bully. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the autos can become empowered and deal lots of damage in short trades with the enemy. Secondly, he can poke or deal burst damage with his W before and during a trade. Finally, His E is a great spell that can initiate skirmishes.
His E will be the primary way he looks for trades in the laning phase. He should wait for the enemy to walk up to last hit minions before pulling them towards him and initiating a trade. Do this several times over, and the enemy is dead.
Post 6, his all-in potential increases further. He can do nasty combos and possibly launch his enemies into his tower. If he can’t do anything like that, he can use his Ultimate to set up his Jungler or roam and help his allies.
Tips and Tricks:
- Make sure you auto-attack before activating Q. Your Q is an auto-attack reset, so auto-attacking first will help you dish out more damage.
- Your E will stun enemy champions and minions if you hit them together. This is handy when trying to set up your Jungler as you can E between the two of them to CC the enemy.
- Activate your W while trading: not right at the end or at the beginning as the shield it gives will protect you against follow up damage, and the damage it deals will also come in handy. Using it at the end of the trade is wasteful.
4. Wukong
The monkeyking Wukong is a very strong laner and skirmisher. He has great all-in potential and can easily chase the enemy down when they overextend. As long as you pick your fights during the laning phase, you’ll easily kill the enemy over and over again.
Wukong has strong trading in lane thanks to the amount of attack damage he has. He also builds items that give him more AD. Quickly he can become a real animal in the lane and dominate the enemy via short trades and burst.
Thanks to his E, he can quickly jump on the target, hit them with autos and his Q. He can then use his W to reposition and dodge damage or use it to disengage and escape from the enemy laner.
Tips and Tricks:
- Wukong wins most early game skirmishes. Fight the enemy as soon as you hit level 2 and force them to blow their Flash.
- As you need to get on to the backline to knock up the carries, in team fights try to flank the enemy and attack from the side rather than running directly towards them.
- Do not team fight unless you have your Ultimate as you will lack damage and CC which will make team fighting much more difficult.
5. Kled
The last champion on our list is Kled. Kled is a powerful lane bully who loves to go for aggressive trades. A good Kled player will constantly look to trade with the enemy: abusing their cooldowns and their health bars to get kills and a lead.
Kled basically has two health bars, which allows him to play ultra-aggressive and risky. He can either tower dive and get kills if he is fortunate enough. It can be quite hard for a champion to break through one of his health bars, let alone two, which ultimately favours the Kled in the end.
Let’s finish off with his abilities, shall we? His Q is a poking tool but can also allow him to start a fight. His W enhances his damage while trading and his E is a gap closer. Post 6, he can run any champion down who is overextended with his Ultimate. All-in-all, it’s hard to get Kled off you when he’s on you.
Tips and Tricks:
- Abuse Kled’s duelling potential early by trading with the enemy as frequently as you can. Play overly aggressive if you know the enemy cannot match your damage.
- Don’t be afraid to roam with your Ultimate to help other lanes out. If you’re ahead, you could recall and use your Ultimate to help bot lane.
- Extended trades will always work in your favour, so go for extended trades over short ones whenever you can. Preferably, trade around your W.
Summary
What do you think of our list? Do you think they’re the strongest early game champions, or are there some stronger ones out there? Let us know. As always, you can find more educational content by heading to Mobalytics!
