Best Top Lane Champions

League of Legends has many top lane choices and this guide is intended to help you choose what champions to play and what champions are the strongest champions with the best skill sets. When choosing a champion to play you want to be sure this champion is idol and can provide enough damage and utility to win team fights and win games. Who doesn't want to win games?

Malphite

Malphite is considerably broken at the moment. Not only does Malphite have a great ultimate that can disable an entire team, but he also has an attack speed de-buff the can be extremely useful disabling carries and attack speed heavy teams.

• Who to pick Malphite against? Pick Malphite vs attack damage bruisers in the top lane or champions revolve around attack speed. This champs include Jax, Irelia, Olaf, Jarvan, Master Yi, and Wukong.
• Who to not pick Malphite against? Champions like Kennen or Vlad can really shut down Malphite and make it extremely hard to survive in lane. Kennen combined with auto attacks and magic damage can shut you down and make it hard to farm.

Riven

Riven has always been a strong pick top because of her strong burst and high damage early. Riven can dive in and do damage and exit with a shield making it very easy to win trades. That what is all about winning trades. Riven is very hard to gank and very hard to counter making her a great top lane.

• Champions Riven counters: Yorick, Jarvan, Irelia, Gangplank. Riven beats this champs rather easily.
• Champions that counter Riven: Kennen, Tryndamere.

When playing Riven the key is to be really aggressive and try to deny the enemy as much as possible. Riven is one of the most powerful early game champs and taking advantage of that will be your key to success. She is also very strong when she gets her ultimate so engaging at 6 is usually a good idea.

Shen

Shen is a monster in the top lane due to his tankiness and his ability to sway fights and have a presence across the map. Not only does he have a great ultimate he also has an aoe taunt that can win team fights.

• Champions that Shen counters: Irelia, Malphite, Kennen.
• Champions that counter Shen: Olaf, Teemo, Yorick.

Shen is a great top laner and to use him effectively you have to time your ult right and watch the map. He is a monster once you learn the ropes. You want to make sure you can last hit with Shen and use his shield to block damage when you trade. He is really effective and staying in lane and farming. Overall he is a very safe laner with a strong late game.

Darius

Darius one of the best top lanes. He just brings so much damage to the table and is a real monster if he gets ahead. He is one of the most snowball champions in the top lane and can sway games in your teams favor if he gets fed. Also, he can farm from a distance with his q, but this does however push the lane and can leave you vulnerable.

• Darius can be very weak at early levels especially against champions with strong poke. It is important that you choose the trades you do and make sure that you do more damage than you take. Once you get your ultimate you can go in and take advantage of your extremely high damage.
• Darius is countered by champions like Yorick that can pole him from a distance and harass him out of lane.

Elise

Elise has proven to be quite a terror in the top lane. She is able to poke at champions really well and her ultimate allows her to be a little tanky. The key with her is to poke with her venom without allowing the enemy laner to trade with you. I found her rather easy to play. If you are good at mid champions and not a very good top lane she is definitely a good pick. I also see a lot of potential to pull of a lot of cool plays with her.

• Harass with your venom and make sure that you trade more damage than you take. You want to make sure that you are very aggressive early so you can take advantage of your poke.

• Counters: I did not see many champions that are able to counter her. I would say a mage like vlad can compete and trade with her pretty well. Overall strong pick at the moment.

Cho Gath

Ever since they gave Cho that slight buff he has been a strong pick all around. Not only is he really good in the top lane but also in the mid and the jungle. His sustain is great and his feast is really, really strong.

• One of the stronger champions in the top lane. He really isn't hard countered by anyone. He is an overall safe pick.
• Make sure you can last hit well with Cho so you can take advantage of his passive. The better you are at hitting those the more sustain you will have and the better you will be at laning.

Other Strong Top Laners.

• Irelia
• Rumble
• Hecrium
• Xin Zhao
• Yorick
• Vlad
• Lee Sin
• Warwick
• Jax
• Jayce
• Olaf
• Kayle
• Kennen
• SInged