League of Legends: 5 best top laners for your end of the season climb
By Josh Tyler
With the end of the League of Legends ranked season approaching, here are the five best top laners that you can use to climb to that next tier!
We have reached the final month of League of Legends Season 9 and the time to climb to that next tier – be it Gold, Platinum, or even Diamond – is running out. With the ranked season ending on November 15, now is as good a time as any to give you some champions that can carry you quickly and help you on your climb.
Unlike our typical tier list, which varies from patch-to-patch and also heavily relies on data from Platinum and above, this list is just five champions who would be strong across almost all elos, are not mechanically difficult to play, and have been consistently strong throughout Season 9. I will try to provide some variety in classes and/or include champions with flexible build paths, so you can adapt to the needs of your team.
Finally, before we begin, I want to caution that this list should not be taken as absolute gospel. If you have champions that you are currently succeeding with (any champion where you have a fair amount of games and a 60-70% or better win rate would suffice) you should keep playing them. In addition, if you have played any of these champions for a significant amount of games and have poor success (under 50% win rate) you should disregard this list and defer to playing your best champions. But if you haven’t really found that champion with whom you’ve been succeeding to climb quickly, here are five that you should definitely consider.
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Jax
Jax has consistently been the best top laner in Season 9. Not only is he the only champion on our tier lists to have an average ranking of S, but he’s also been incredibly consistent. He’s never fallen below A tier this season and even right now, in our most recent tier lists, his A+ grade is among the weakest that he has ever been.
On top of that, Jax is a mechanically simple champion to grasp having zero skillshots in his kit, a very easy trading pattern (just walk up to your enemy with E – Counterstrike on, stun them, get a couple of autos in and jump away with your Q – Leap), and plenty of mobility. He can also be built very flexibly, either off-tank, pure tank, or glass cannon. Right now, I would recommend building him off-tank with core items being Triforce, a Tiamat item, and a Steraks or Hexdrinker depending on the enemy comp.
With a better than 50% win rate in Silver and below, Jax is a great pick if you’re someone who wants to split push, but he can also be an impactful team fighter in a pinch (the tankier build tends to be better if you’re looking to team fight). Also, he can flex into the jungle role which can somewhat hide the pick from being countered in the top lane.