Top lane itself isn’t too difficult of a role for most players to pick up, but some of the champions assigned to the role can be: new players should avoid these characters to prevent headaches for themselves and their teammates alike.
Kayle is a late game monster in top lane
Kayle is probably one of the most difficult champions in League of Legends to play in the top lane, but not for the reasons players may think of at first. Her gameplan is rather straightforward: her goal is to survive the laning phase and scale to levels 11 and 16 to become a powerhouse for her team. However, it isn’t always that easy.
Because Kayle is so squishy, she is very easy to pick off if she makes even the slightest mistake. Also, it is incredibly hard for her to get farm in the early stages of the game since she often gets bullied out of lane by her opponent. Kayle may be able to carry in the late game, but she will never get to that point if her controller doesn’t have the prowess to play the champion correctly.
Gangplank can be incredibly rewarding to play
Gangplank can be a bit tricky to pick up as a top lane champion since he has certain combos in his kit that players need to learn in order to play him effectively. His most important combo is lining up his barrels in time for them to set off a chain reaction. The catch to this is that Gankplank’s opponents can also destroy the barrels to prevent damage from going off. This type of interaction makes laning difficult for him if he isn’t played correctly and players picking him up will need some practice before trying him in ranked matches.
Gwen is the epitome of high-risk high reward champion
Gwen has seen many ups and downs in her power level since her release after a set of buffs and nerfs. However, while Gwen is currently in a spot of power, she is still rather hard to pick up in the top lane. One difficult aspect of the champion is the proper use of her Snip Snip! ability: she must get maximum stacks on it in order to use it to its highest potential. Gwen won’t be doing enough damage in fights to make an impact otherwise.
Singed is the ultimate split pusher in top lane
Unlike the other top lane champions on this list, Singed simply just isn’t a very strong champion, making him difficult for players to pick him up. The way players can play Singed also shows his weaknesses: some like to proxy enemy waves with him, which may be annoying for enemy laners, but won’t have as much of an impact on the game.
You could build him as a full tank to be a frontline for his team. However, he can easily be stopped dead in his tracks because he is so weak to crowd control, which makes it difficult for him to initiate fights on his own.
Catch enemies off-guard by picking Rengar
Rengar is typically a jungle champion, but some players like to try and take him into the top lane. While this still works to an extent, new players will find that it is a bit difficult to make good use of him there as he needs to camp bushes so that he can stay hidden from opposing champions and use his passive to the fullest.
However, this only works if he can establish control of his lane, which requires a good amount of attention from his jungler early on. Rengar cannot take priority or farm his lane effectively without this, meaning that he can’t make the most of his early-game scaling. Even if he does take control of the lane, it can easily be lost by one bad play since Rengar is so squishy.
