First off, nearly every champion can solo top with the right masteries/runes and first item.
The first item has to bring you sustain, it really depends on your champion but usually recommended:
Ranged AD - Life steal! Either Doran's blade or (better - vampiric scepter)
Non ranged - Regrowth pendent > Philosophers stone
AP ranged - Regrowth pendent > Philosophers stone
I understand those items are really generic, but if you play defensively they can keep you in lane indefinitely.
As for champions, some are obviously better than others, and as already mentioned, sustain is THE main thing you need, along with an ability to help you last hit.
Do NOT pick a champ that can be ignored at a tower
So Leona, although tanky, isn't really an option because her damage is so ignorable. Same applies to champions like Soraka etc.
Recommended top lane champs for me are:
- Irelia - very tanky, hard to gank, in built sustain through life
steal, especially post level 6
- Trundle - passive gives sustain, great anti gank + gank aiding skill
- Nidalee - really excels top, heal, big poke nuke, hard to gank post 6, hard to harass
- Swain - Hard CC, great sustain post level 6, hard to harass
- Vlad - Great sustain, very hard to gank, hard to harass
- Warwick - Great sustain, harassing is futile, nice lane to gank post 6.
- Singed - Good farming and sustain with the right set up
- Gangplank - Amazing farming, free cleanse, nice harass, global ult
- Pantheon - Great farming, can help gank mid quickly, hard to tower dive
- Shen - Quite weak at the moment, but global ult makes him a great top
- Jarvan - Similar to irelia with a little less sutain. Very hard to gank, dangerous when getting ganked
- Anivia / Annie - amazing farmers, nasty CC, nice harass, hard to harass
- Gragas - sustain from heal, nice harass, hard to gank
- Maokai - great sustain from passive, needs mana regen to effectively harass, great farmer
- Blitz - dangerous grabs under tower, hard to tower dive, good lane to gank.
- Yorick - good harass, built in life steal, hard CC (slow) for over extended enemies (good lane to gank)
- Galio - good harass, good farm, hard to tower dive (post level 6), good lane to gank (post level 6)
- Orianna - Low mana costs if you just use Q, good harass and farm, hard to harass due to large zoning skill, good lane to gank (post level 6).
I think I covered most of the good solo tops, but to be honest it falls down to either tanky champs who can handle the harass and are hard to push out of lane, damage dealers with life steal that are hard to harass or casters with inbuilt sustain.
Riot technically doesn't offer any champion for free.
What they do offer is skins for certain champions -- and if you don't have the champion when you get a skin for it, you get the champion for free.
That said, there are only three:
Previous giveaways (No longer available):
- Nightmare cho'gat given by alienware on season 1
- King Rammus for participating in the beta.
- Nightmare Cho'gath champion and skin free giveaway from Alienware (Now ended)
- Caitlyn and Arctic skin in Septembers issue of PC Gamer (US only)
- Kayle and skin for playing 10+ games in season one
- Corki and ufo skin when Riot won Gamer's Choice awards for Multiplayer, Strategy, and PC Game of the Year
- Victorious Jarvan Skin for acchieving Gold / Platinum rank in season 1.
- Dragonflame Shyvana with a gaming mouse (promo on NewEgg)
- Riot Nasus Twitter giveaway in celebration of PAX from MachinimaRealm
- Victorious Janna for Gold/Diamond ranking in Season 2
- Victorious Elise for Gold/Platinum and diamond ranking in season 3
- Victorious Morgana for Gold and higher ranking in season 4
- Victorious Sivir for Gold or higher ranking in season 5
Best Answer
The recommended champions are the same for every one, regardless of level. They do not change to reflect any of your stats. The champions chosen as 'recommended' are those whose skills are more straight forward than others.
Annie for instance is a burst mage with no utility (besides her passive). Warrwick's auto attacks give him life, as well as one of his spells making him the safest jungler.
In general there is no easy to kill champions in the recommended tab that don't have some sort of escape, excluding maybe Sona or Soraka who are support characters.