10. Olaf
Olaf is a fighter champion that excels in the early stages of the game, especially versus champions with CC. He is known for being able to bully opponents and turning fights with his passives that do well when he gets lower health.
Olaf is a strong top laner due to the fact he can abuse his strong early game and midgame with his very high damage and CC immunity with his ultimate. Due to this, he’s also known to turn ganks around and easily be able to 1v2 opponents. Due to his early strengths, his scaling is lackluster and tends to fall off the later the game goes, especially in teamfights.
Olaf is a great champion to pick if the enemy top laner lacks mobility, as he can take full advantage of that for an easy lane win. This is especially good if the enemy lacks a high-damage jungler who can burst you, which means you can take on both easily if you are outnumbered. For later stages, Olaf is an amazing split pusher, so it’s best to take advantage of this rather than roaming or teamfighting.
Pros
- High Damage
- Strong Early Game
- Strong Mid Game
- CC Immunity
- Sustain
- Strong versus ganks/roaming
- Great Split pushing
Cons
- Low Mobility
- Weak versus Mobility
- Weak Late Game
- Lackluster Teamfighting
9. Malphite
Malphite is a powerful engage tank that can force a fight in most situations. He is known for his powerful engages using his ultimate and his ability to counter short-range AD laners.
Malphite is a great tank for dealing with AD top laners, especially short-range ones who depend on running to you to deal damage. He can abuse enemies with his good poke and run out of range with the extra speed if they do have short-range engage. Outside of lane, he works as an engage champion due to his ultimate, which is easily one of the best engage tools in the game.
Malphite is one of the best picks when you need an engage champion from the top lane. This means that while he is great at early dueling, his main purpose later on will be assisting and engaging fights for his team. It should be noted that Malphite loses a lot of power if laning against AP champions, so that should be avoided if possible.
Pros
- Great versus AD champions
- Good poke
- Amazing Roaming
- Amazing Engage
- Great Teamfighting
Cons
- Weaker versus AP champions
- Very reliant on ultimate to be effective
- Weak versus Mobility
8. Kayle
Kayle is a hyper-carry champion that excels at scaling to the late game and dealing tons of damage. She is known for her weak early game but great utility and damage as the game goes on.
Kayle is a strong top laner due to the fact that she’s easily one of the best scaling champions in the game and can abuse the fact that top lane is usually an island. The longer the game goes, the more powerful she becomes, and she also brings great utility to assist her team with as well. It’s important to note that she also has one of the weakest early games, meaning that you should avoid going against bully champions.
Kayle is the best pick when the enemy lacks ways to take advantage of your weak early game. This usually includes enemies that lack hard engage or high early damage. Kayle can be used as a split pusher or a teamfighter, making her quite useful in many areas.
Pros
- Strong Late Game
- High Damage
- Great Utility
- Invicibility
- Great Teamfighting
- Great Splitpushing
Cons
- Weak Roaming
- Very Weak Early Game
- Low Mobility
- Low CC
7. Garen
Garen is a juggernaut who excels at dueling and surviving in the laning phase. He’s known for his high damage while being relatively tanky, at the cost of being easily kited.
Garen is an exceptional top laner, especially when he can directly fight his enemy for extended periods of time. He’s very tanky for a fighter champion and brings one of the best executions in the game with his ultimate. He can also sustain in lane very well due to his passive, meaning that he does decently well in most matchups.
Garen is one of the best picks for going against champions who want to all in you. He’s weakest when the enemy can kite easily and distance themselves from his short range. Garen can be used as a splitpusher or teamfighter (usually by flanking the enemy), but it depends on enemy composition for what would be more ideal.
Pros
- High Damage
- High Burst
- Sustain
- Very Tanky
- Great Teamfighting
- Great Splitpushing
- Easy to play
Cons
- Low Mobility
- Weak against mobility
- Low CC
6. Nasus
Nasus is an infinitely scaling juggernaut who excels at running down enemies in the late game. He is known for his infinite ability to stack his Q’s damage, which can make him a monster in the late game.
Nasus is a great juggernaut for people looking to farm into the late game while playing safe early. While Nasus is weak early and very dependent on farming, he has quite a few tools to keep himself safe. He’s also a surprisingly good dueling, especially against auto-attack champions, due to his slow, decreasing auto-attack speed, similar to the exhaust summoner spell.
Nasus is one of the best picks when the enemy lacks ways to take advantage of your weak early game and lacks CC to stop you. He can usually deal with pokes with his good sustain and autoattackers with his slow, making him one of the safer late-game top laners. So it’s best to avoid matchups where the enemy can constantly dive you and take chunks of your health for free.
Pros
- Strong Late Game
- High Damage
- Great Utility
- Great Splitpushing
- Easy to play
- Sustain
Cons
- Lackluster Teamfighting
- Very Weak Early Game
- Reliant on farming
- Weak Roaming
5. Poppy
Poppy is an amazing tank for dueling enemies while providing amazing utility for her team. She’s primarily known for her ability to completely counter dashing champions and take advantage of terrain to CC her enemies.
Poppy is an incredible tank who excels at countering champions with dashes while providing a ton of CC in return. She can also secure objectives safely with her ultimate by pushing enemies far away from it. While she is usually played with her team, she lacks the ability to engage in most scenarios.
Poppy is a great champion to pick if the enemy champions have a lot of dashes, as she can easily counter them. She is also fine to pick if your team already has other methods of engage and needs follow-up or a peel for your carries. She is relatively weak at split pushing but is extremely strong in a teamfighting environment with all the tools she has in her kit.
Pros
- Amazing CC
- Counters dashing champions
- Decent damage
- Counters high mobility champions
- Useful at all stages of the game.
Cons
- Difficult to play efficiently
- Struggles against poke
- Not many Engage tools
- Struggles against Kiting
4. Quinn
Quinn is an interesting marksmen that excels at dueling and skirmishes. She’s known for amazing ability to duel enemies and havhereat map presence with her ultimate.
Quinn is quite amazing at bullying her lane opponents and usually beating them with relative ease. She’s especially good versus champions who can’t challenge her, usually due to a lack of range on their part. She’s great at roaming around the map and finding opportunities for fights and picks, which is a great benefit due to her extremely weak teamfighting.
I suggest picking Quinn in scenarios where you want to bully your enemy out of lane or consistently beat them in duels. She suffers more versus champions with multiple engage tools, so it’s important not to pick her into those types of matchups. She can really only be used in duels and skirmishes, as her teamfighting is completely lackluster.
Pros
- High Mobility
- Great Damage
- Amazing Duelist
- Great Roaming
- Strong Early Game
Cons
- Lackluster Teamfighting
- Weak against hard engage
- Weak if behind in gold
3. Ornn
Ornn is a great tank that is quite versatile and great at engaging from distances. He’s known for his long range engages and ability to upgrade his teams items.
Ornn is a very good champion due to his stability; he’ll generally be useful at all stages of the game and spikes late game when he can upgrade his team's items. He is also great at teamfighting, especially with his ultimate, which acts as an extremely far engage. While he isn’t the strongest dueling champion, he’s easily one of the best teamfighting champions in the game.
I’d suggest picking Ornn in situations where you aren’t certain about your matchups. He's a very stable champion who does well in many situations. He’s also a great champion to bring if you know your team is looking to take the game to late game, as he spikes quite hard with his upgrades.
Pros
- Very Tanky
- Useful at all points in the game
- Amazing CC
- Great Engage
- Amazing Teamfighting
- Can Upgrade allies items
Cons
- Cannot duel enemies
- Mana issues early on
- Low mobility
2. Singed
Singed is an interesting champion who specializes in peeling and kiting for his team. He’s known for running very fast and leaving a trail of poison that damages enemies.
Singed is a very unique champion that can be quite annoying for enemies to deal with, especially in the late game. He can easily run in and out of teams and help peel for his carries, which makes him quite versatile. While he can be quite the menace in the later stages of the game, early on he suffers a decent bit, but can proxy minion waves to help this a bit.
I suggest picking singed versus weaker laners who can’t do much to stop you early on. Even if they’re hard-scaling champions, you can make their lives quite difficult after getting your first item. He’s also a really good pick when your team needs peels for their carries, as this is another thing he excels at.
Pros
- High Mobility
- Very Tanky
- Good Damage
- Counters mobile champions
- Good Roaming
- Good Teamfighting
- Great CC
Cons
- Weak Early Game
- Weak Duelist
- Not many Engage tools
- Very item-dependent
1. Trundle
Trundle is an amazing juggernaut who can duel almost any champion and win. He’s known for stealing enemies while boosting his own, making him always have the advantage.
Trundle is one of the best duelists in the game, especially when it comes to fighting tanks. He’s especially a very useful champion when the enemy has tanks, as he can steal their stats with his ultimate. He can also sustain himself in the lane very well, and he is quite hard to kill as a juggernaut.
I’d suggest picking Trundle when your enemy laner is a tank that usually wants to duel you. He’s also just a generally good pick if the enemy has tanks, though he loses some value if the enemy has multiple tanks. Trundle is great at split pushing and teamfighting; just be careful of champions that can kite you due to your limited range.
Pros
- Amazing Duelist
- Decent CC
- Great Roaming
- Great Sustain
- Great Damage
- Strong at all stages of the game.
Cons
- It requires using Ultimte on tanks to be tanky.
- Low Mobility
- Easily Kited
