Riot Discusses Plans to Empower Top Laners in League of Legends
Riot Games is addressing the concerns of top laners in their popular game, League of Legends. Lead gameplay designer Mark “Scruffy” Yetter recently shared potential solutions to give top laners more impact in high elo matches. The developers aim to boost the performance of this role which has been underperforming compared to other positions.
Possible Solutions for Empowering Top Laners
One approach is to enhance core top lane items such as Black Cleaver, Sunfire, and Hydra items. This would provide more carry potential for fighters and tanks in the later stages of the game. Additionally, Scruffy mentioned the importance of giving top laners early strategic impact to ensure their integration into battles for objectives. The recent changes to dragons have made the bot lane more crucial, so Riot is considering introducing a more influential teleport summoner spell or adding value to the Rift Herald to balance the situation.
Riot also aims to help top laners convert their early advantages into victories by offering increased rewards for pressuring and dominating opponents. For example, they may amplify melee damage to plates.
Past Issues in Top Lane Performance
In previous analysis, Riot discovered that top lane had minimal influence on the outcome of matches in high MMR and professional play. Data also revealed that the top lane was less popular than mid or bot lane, particularly in higher elo brackets.
It is important to note that these ideas are still in the experimental stage and are subject to changes before they are implemented in the live servers of League of Legends.