Recently, Xenics Storm tried double AD carries, one of them going top.
- How can one effectively play an AD carry top versus a normal top lane champion?
- Is this strategy viable? How does it change your team dynamics for team fights, early ganking, and farming?
Best Answer
I have lots of thoughts and advice below, but to summarize:
Most of winning top is counter-picking appropriately. Counter picking with an AD carry is easy:
To elaborate on the second bullet: because of the meta, you picking an AD carry first will lead your opponent to counter your AD carry for the bottom lane. If they then pick their top, your team has a chance to counter their counter-pick with your actual bottom lane AD carry, which will give your team an advantage in the bottom lane. Assuming you can hold top with your pick, your team starts the game with a two-lane advantage. Of course there are ways for your opponents to keep this from happening, but you can imagine situations where it will work and it won't. Point is it has a high probability of working until people catch on. Ranged carries I recommend: Vayne, Jayce. Others you will have to figure out for yourself.
In terms of changing team dynamics:
My Messy and Poorly Organized Thoughts
Playing an AD carry top is viable, as is playing any champion top. The trick is knowing how to win top, assuming they are playing an AD bruiser as is typical of top. To win top, you basically have to do a few things:
Farming is guaranteed if you can trade damage, because your opponent will have a hard time preventing you from farming when you can deal lots of damage to them. Also, ranged carries have the extra advantage of having a little distance between them and the minions, whereas melee champions have no choice but to get in close to minions in order to farm.
So the rest of winning is in avoiding ganks and trading damage. The key to both really relies on two things:
The reason for this is that ranged carries usually can't take a lot of damage, so if 1. or 2. doesn't hold then the second you let a bruiser get in range of you, unless you have a lead, you will probably die. Also, if 1. doesn't hold you are very vulnerable to ganks, which are extremely easy to pull of against most squishy ranged carries if they aren't hanging back.
To explain those two things better I will give three situations for top lane champions:
Good situation: You - Vayne, Them - Singed.
So, Vayne will be able to pound on Singed as much as she pleases with Singed having no hope of retaliation. Sounds good to me.
Even situation: You - Vayne, Them - Irelia.
So, although you can get away, Irelia will trade damage with you. Winning from here on is pretty situational, and you will have to get ahead to guarantee any sort of laning presence top lane against Irelia.
Bad situation: You - Sivir, Them - Well, lots of people
Basically, any bruisers that can get close to Sivir will eat her alive, and most bruisers can close gaps. You will really have a hard time exchanging blows top, although with plenty of mana and care you may be able to at least passively farm. Not a great pick.
So, as you can see picking a ranged carry top is definitely workable. The trick then is really in counter-picking appropriately, so you know who you are up against before making your choice.
Counter-Picking
Basically, if you play Normal Draft Pick or Ranked games, you get an opportunity to pick your champion after your opponent does, meaning you can pick a champion that counters your opponents' picks. Because the meta game is well-established in League of Legends, it can be pretty easy to determine which of your opponents champions will go in top lane - i.e. for the current meta it's usually an AD melee bruiser, with a few exceptions (ala Vlad). For help in determining which champions will be going top lane check out Champion Select, which as a tool can help you learn which champions usually go top, and how to counter them.
Unfortunately, that site only really covers usual lane combinations - it won't tell you which AD range carries counter bruisers. However, if you go my examples above you should be able to figure out if you will be able to lane against any champion they pick.
Jayce
The newest champion has an amazing amount of versatility, making him a great top pick. He can go ranged like any other carry, or become a mean melee. He has some defensive moves and plenty of ways to farm well and trade damage. I haven't played him so I can't personally vouch for an instant-win, but I recommend trying him out. Will post more info when I have more time to think about him.