League of Legends: 5 best top laners for your end of the season climb

Teemo

Shifting away from the fighters, who have really dominated Season 9, we have probably the best AP threat among top laners. Yes, Kayle and Mordekaiser are both stronger picks in the current patch, but they are each a bit more difficult to play and may become weaker depending on how the changes in Patch 9.22 land. There’s also Vladimir, who is an overall better champion, but he has a fairly weak win rate in Silver and below, so he’s probably not the best champion for climbing unless you have a lot of experience.

Teemo, on the other hand, has been basically in the A/B+ tier for all of this season, surviving multiple meta shifts in the lane without much issue. He also dominates low elo, posting a 52.7% win rate in Silver elo and below.

The reason Teemo is so good is that he is incredibly frustrating to play against between his E – Toxic Shot‘s damage over time, the Q – Blinding Dart, and the agony of his R – Noxious Traps covering Summoner’s Rift. Teemo is a lane bully who can completely eliminate the enemy top laner from the game if played correctly.

He can also vary his build (on hit, pure AP mage, attack speed, bruiser) depending on what will be most effective against the enemy team. However, he is somewhat limited in how he can play, because he really can’t team fight at all, and is forced to push towers and clean up kills in small skirmishes by rope-a-doping enemies.

Garen

There really has not been any tank that has been strong enough, either in the current meta or throughout Season 9, that would justify advising players to use them to climb. While Garen is in the fighter category, he is the most like a tank of the juggernauts we have.

Yes, you still want to build some offensive items (Black Cleaver or Trinity Force, depending on how you want to play and what your opponents have) but you’re rarely going to build more than one or maybe two. With your passive health regeneration, you can basically never be pushed out of lane and you can stack resistances early with ease. Garen’s laning isn’t superb, but he definitely wins some lanes easily and has some okay gank escape/assist with his Q – Decisive Strike.

Garen is also able to fill two roles for your team – split pushing or team fighting. Garen can melt towers pretty decently (always take the Demolish rune on him) especially if you build Trinity Force. However, you can also stack resistance and health items on him, throw him into the middle of the enemy team, soak damage, then run out and regen before returning to clean up the fight.

And, the cherry on top, is that Garen is currently one of the most winning top laners in low elo (a 52.3%) and he has an S grade in our most recent tier list. With his strength up and down the ladder, Garen is definitely a champion worth picking.