Top is often regarded as the least mechanical role in the game simply because it’s full of tanks and bruisers that don’t rely on mechanical skill to defeat their enemies. And as such, it often gets kind of boring for most of us.
If you are looking for a way to break the monotony of the top lane role and improve your champion pool, you have come to the right place.
I am a player with 10+ years of League of Legends experience, and here I’ll list the top 10 most fun top laners that still keep the game exciting for me.
But don’t worry, this list has you in mind. These are not 10 randomly selected characters. This is a list of champions who all have different playstyles, and I do not doubt you will find something that suits your playstyle.
Let’s go.
1. Irelia
Irelia is the first champion that comes to mind when the topic of fun champions is mentioned. She is not that hard to get into, and she has really satisfying mechanics if you’re willing to learn and practice them.
To have fun with Irelia, you will need to know the basics of playing her and have a roadmap for improvement. This all starts with playing calculated. Irelia is one of the most aggressive top laners, and it is easy to get carried away and play “too aggressively.”
This is the mistake I see far too often with beginner Irelia players – they simply overuse her Q. This leads to the wave getting pushed, and you playing on the enemy side of the map. Most enemy junglers will take notice of this, and you will get spam ganked. Needless to say, this is not very fun for anyone.
Generally, you will want to have minions on your side of the map. This way you will be safe from ganks and you will have much more space to fight enemies. To make the wave state which puts you in this position, you will simply have to kill fewer enemy minions.
Once you are done with this skill, you can start focusing on your macro knowledge. This relates to landing your spells and understanding small details.
You will need to know when you can last hit your minion with Q and when you can not, as this is really important for landing good combos and winning fights.
Read Also: The 10 Most Fun ADCs to Play in League of Legends
2. Sion
Sion, specifically lethality Sion, offers one of the most unique and fun playstyles in LoL. You can one-shot both champs and turrets, drive around the map with your R and catch opponents off guard with your passive. What more can you ask for?
To be successful as AD Sion, you’ll need the right runes and items.
Runes are kind of simple. Phase Rush, Manaflow, Celerity, Gathering Storm, Demolish, and Conditioning. These are perfect for the lethality playstyle, as they will help you with much-needed mobility, extra mana, damage, and resistance.
The most important items will be Prowler’s Claw, Yoummu’s, and boots of choice. All other items are situational. You mainly want to build lethality, but items like Hullbreaker can work really well too.
I love this build since it’s extremely deadly in low elos. The amount of damage you deal will be foreign to enemies, and you will often see them spamming question marks in the all chat after fights with you.
There is not much to be said about Sion combos, as they are really intuitive. You will learn how to charge your Qs through experience, and the only advice I can give you is to slow the enemies with E prior to using Q.
Regarding the gameplay, you will want to play the classical split-pushing role.
You will easily crush towers and there will always be able to escape unfavorable fights by using your R. You should also be looking at the minimap often since this will help you find opportunities to join skirmishes around the map with your ultimate.
3. Vladimir
What makes Vladimir one of the most fun top laners is his chill playstyle and late-game potential. When playing him, you do not need to worry about mana, and losing trades is not the end of the world.
And the most fun way of playing Vladimir is full AP, a build that focuses on as much AP and magic penetration as possible. I usually start my game with a Dark Seal, which I upgrade as soon as possible, and I go for Hextech Rocketbelt as my mythic item.
Rocketbelt is good for the gap-closing it provides, but most importantly for its magic penetration passive. I will also have Sorcerer’s Shoes before buying the third item which is usually Rabbadon’s. The last two items I buy are Void Stuff and Cosmic Drive.
My top priority as Vladimir is to survive. This is because I want to preserve my Mejai’s stacks, and achieve all the power spikes in the late game, where Vladimir becomes the most fun.
If my jungler is good, I will usually play on my side of the lane to allow them to gank. But sometimes I will push as this allows me to poke enemies better.
A key thing to having fun with Vladimir is knowing the enemy junglers position. If you play recklessly they will just keep shutting you down, and you will have a hard time recovering, and you certainly won’t have any fun.
Read Also: The 10 Most Fun Mid Lane Champions
4. Riven
Before there were Yasuo mains, there were Riven mains. I am not quite sure where I’ve heard this saying, but it is completely true. Riven was always regarded as one of the best champions in the entire game.
Much like Irelia, Riven is really hard to play. To execute her well, you will need a lot of practice. She even has a higher entry barrier than Irelia, and it takes decent skill to make Riven work.
Most of Riven’s power comes from her auto-attack resetting. Auto-attack resetting is when you cast a spell right after auto-attacking, which boosts your overall damage output. You will need to do this consistently on Riven as each of her spells is an auto-attack cancel.
When you truly master auto-attack canceling, you will only then be able to be useful as Riven.
The next step to doing well on this champion is learning combos, Riven combos are one of the hardest in the game, but learning and executing them is very rewarding, and it makes Riven one of the most fun top laners.
5. Fiora
Fiora is one of the strongest champions in the role, and much like many others on this list, she has a really high skill ceiling. But what makes her one of the most fun top laners is her enjoyable dueling and high self-healing.
Fiora’s passive is her bread and butter. It reveals weak spots on the enemy and it grants you bonus damage when hitting those spots. Mastering this passive and predicting its spawning pattern will make you a Godlike Fiora.
When using Q, Fiora lunges at the enemies and deals damage. This spell is great for repositioning, spacing, and of most importantly – procing vitals.
Her W is one of the hardest spells to use effectively. It can be cast to block and reflect any CC at enemies, and it is a great tool for winning fights. Unfortunately, this spell is really hard to take advantage of, especially when you have high ping, so keep that in mind.
Fiora’s E is nothing more than a damage buff, it mainly acts as an auto-attack reset. Other than that it gives slightly more range (+25).
But Fiora’s R is a key spell in her kit. Being able to proc 4 vitals quickly is essential, it will give you great damage, and healing, and it will allow for new vitals to spawn faster. Practice makes perfect, and learning to use this spell will have a great impact on your win rate.
All these abilities are great tools for combat, they are not hard to execute decently, but they are really hard to be executed perfectly. This is something that makes Fiora a really fun top laner.
6. Yone
Yone is a champion that is not really strong as a top laner, and this makes him a somewhat unpopular pick. He is, however, one of the most fun top laners, and he’ll forever hold a special place for those who enjoy his high-level outplay potential and mechanics.
Yone is a resourceless champion (he doesn’t use mana) and that gives him an edge over most champions he can lane against. He is most strong against squishy targets, but he can fight anyone due to his versatile kit and build paths.
To succeed as Yone, you will want to get good at landing skill shots and evading enemy ganks. The main thing to focus on here is Q and R. To hit these two abilities consistently, you will need to be able to predict your enemy’s movement.
Most enemies will start stepping on the side as soon as your Q3 animation loads. And to hit them, you will need to shoot in the direction they will move in next. This seems kind of obvious, but if you pay attention to it, you will see how quickly your skills shots improve.
When it comes to evading ganks, it is not rocket science either. You can simply not push too much, ward well, and play on the warded side. If you want to take it a step further you can ward in the enemy jungle when you have extra time.
7. Darius
Darius is a perfect champion for players who enjoy being dominant and forcing fights early on. His passive makes him incredibly strong, and when ahead, he can 1v5 the entire enemy team.
With Darius, you will always want to be the strongest player in the game. You can accomplish this by not falling behind and making careless mistakes. Winning most lanes will be easy unless you get greedy and start dying in uncalculated ways.
To perform well with Darius, you will need to learn how to cast Q properly. Targeting enemies with the edge of the Q animation will give you extra damage and healing.
Another important thing is landing E well. This will significantly increase your win rate, as you will be able to get so many more kills.
Other than being a killing machine, another fun thing about Darius is that he is very versatile. You can apply pressure to enemies by split pushing, or by being in fights.
When split pushing, enemies will always have to send 2 people to respond to you, which will make it easier for your team to win objectives and their fights.
If you however choose to join fights, you will again be a menace to deal with. You can go for enemy carries, you can protect your carries from enemy frontline, and most importantly you will always be able to run through the enemy team if you play correctly.
All this makes Darius one of the most fun top laners you can ever play!
Read Also: 10 Best Top Lane Champions for New Players
8. Olaf
Other than Nidalee, I do not know if there are many champions that have a more interesting Q than Olaf. This ability is really strong, it is the core identity of Olaf, and it makes him one of the most aggressive junglers and top laners in League of Legends.
Top lane Olaf has an advantage over most champions since Olaf’s kit is really overloaded. You can follow up every basic attack with a Q, and you can also use Q to consistently apply slow effect to your target.
When it comes to using W, you should activate it when you have around 30% HP. This is when the ability will give you the highest bonus stats. Also, the bonus shielding and healing you will get will surprise many enemies, making it easy for you to kill them.
Your other abilities serve as a supplement to your Q. For example Olaf’s ult gives you AD and it is always good to use it before casting Q since it will increase your damage output.
However, it’s also important to hold onto Olaf’s R as much as possible. Ragnarok extends its duration each time you hit an enemy, so you need to be in melee range to make the most out of it.
Most carries will either Flash away from you, use Hourglass or Ghost. To keep your ult up, you’ll also need Flash or Ghost so you can keep attacking your enemies.
Overall, Olaf is ideal for players that like to go berserk-mode on their opponents.
9. Nasus
Nasus is one of the biggest raid bosses in League of Legends. He spends his early game stacking up damage on his Q, just to demolish enemies in the mid and late game.
Nasus is really simple to play in terms of mechanics. You can begin short trades by slowing enemies with W, bonking them with a couple of Qs and basic attacks, and then retreating.
When the enemy is low enough, you will often be able to just ult and run them down. I often find myself diving enemies solo, but when enemies have a lot of CC or means to escape I call my jungler to help me.
Another great thing to know about Nasus is that you will be really strong for contesting objectives. Nasus is really tanky, and he has the ability to significantly slow enemies with his W. This makes him super strong for 2v2 fights around top lane.
The things I mentioned in the last two paragraphs often come together. For example, you will see many opportunities to do Herald with your jungler, then dive the enemy top laner. The more you play, the more opportunities like this you’ll see.
In general, Nasus is a really fun top laner to play, and to pull him off, you will need great game understanding. You also need to stack well, win skirmishes with your jungle, and dominate mid to late game fights.
10. Rengar
Rengar was traditionally played only as a jungler, but as the top lane layout got updated, he became a deadly top laner too. What makes him one of the most interesting picks there is his aggressive playstyle consisting of poking enemies from bushes.
To play Rengar efficiently on this lane, you will need to run Teleport. It is essential, since it provides you with the ability to miss less XP and gold from minions, and it also gives you a much bigger impact on the map.
To win the laning phase, you will want to keep your stacks up. You can do this by jumping in and out of bushes to last hit minions or attack enemies since this will prolong your stacks.
If your trades are good enough, on level 6 you will be able to all-in your enemies. This will either make them die or force them to back and lose CS.
In case you get stuck with a losing matchup, or you somehow mess up the laning phase, that is okay too. The main thing you will want to focus on is staying in the minions’ XP range. This way you will still be strong enough for mid and late-game.
In the mid and late game, you will have many options. Depending on the game’s state, you can split push or force fights with your team. I honestly find fights most fun, as they are less predictable and one-shotting carries feel much more satisfying.
For the ultimate Rengar lovers, I also have this fun off-meta AP Rengar build that you might want to check out.
Read Also: Top 10 Most Fun Junglers
Conclusion
The top lane might not be the most fun lane in League, but there are certainly many fun champions you can play in it.
There are champions like Irelia, Yone, and Riven for those who enjoy challenging mechanics and unlimited skill ceilings. There are AP hyper carries like Vladimir, that can one-shot the entire enemy team. Almost undefeatable duelists like Fiora and Darius.
And of course, niche picks like AD Sion and AP Rengar.
