How to Play Against Bruisers Toplane | Day 11/30
Playing against AD bruiser’s top lane has always been and will continue to be one of the hardest things for top lane mains to play against and I see a lot of people struggling to deal with them. In attempts to make things a little easier this guide should help you by finding ways to improve the laning phase for yourself and make that champion a less of a threat.
I would like to start by saying that this guide is very situational so take whatever is written with a grain of salt.
Play Around Ability Timers
Whenever your enemy uses one of their main abilities and it goes on cool down, the period it is down would be the optimal time for you to engage on them. For example, Maokai vs Renekton usually goes into the Renekton’s favor. However, with his main damage ability down (meaning his Q) for the next few seconds he will not be able to trade with your to his full potential. This means that he will not be able to do as much damage as usual making the trade a little less in his favour. Again, this very situational and there are other game factors that may make this fight turn out bad, for example minion wave, enemy jungler, time and builds.
Don’t fight
This one seems to get a lot of people confused! Just because you’re playing a 1v1 lane, doesn’t mean you have to fight. If you’re a tank, playing verses one of these bruisers, you should not be going for fights and you should not try to fight them especially when they have their abilities up. There are other ways to beat them such as gaining and XP or CS advantage, helping other lanes, or getting ganks off. Depending on who you’re playing and how good they are in the game, such as when they are at their peak performance such as Renekton early, Quinn Early — ect ect. You do not have to have a kill advantage to win lane. Just farm for the mid game team fights.
Sacrifice CS for XP
If you’re in a bad matchup and cannot physically kill the enemy or trade with them then it is best to sacrifice your CS for Experience. CS grants gold and will help your items quicker, but sacrificing your health for some gold is not worth it*. Going for CS and getting attacked when doing this will mean your health degrades and will force you to either back earlier, or play very passive. Experience is very important especially in the early game where missing a wave is horrible as it gives the enemy the advantage. So it is best to stay healthy and sacrifice CS for experience so you can stay up in levels and be hit level spikes at the same time.
*In situations where you can regenerate health quicker or have abilities that grant shields then going to get CS is fine as long as the mana cost isn’t big.
This is a very basic Graph on what you should be doing when going for creeps vs bruisers.
Control the Minion Wave
There are a lot of different examples out there on how to control the minion wave in your favor. I have chosen this video as a very good example as it lists the 3 different types of waves, including the wave that you would be facing.
Playing versus these lanes can some times be hell. Try your best and sacrifice some of your gold to buy defensive stats, play safe and overall try your best not to feed. As long as the bruiser you’re playing against doesn’t get fed, then the game should be easier for you and your team.
Hi there, I hope you enjoyed this guide. If you did, maybe you’d like to show your support by checking out my Twitch channel. I stream very frequently and if you have any questions about this guide or improving at League of Legends, please come by some time and ask me a question or two. Thank you for your support, and I hope to see you soon :) PS, I’m Diamond 1 if that helps.
