Introduction Top
Hello! Although I am not the best player, I do believe that I can play an effective
Lance in 5v5, mainly in the top lane position.
Before we start, read up on Lance's abilities from the wiki!
This guide will have the following sections:
1. Why
Lance is an effective top laner
2. Item & Ability Choices
3. Synergies and threats
4. Tips and tricks
Why play Lance? Top
IMO, Lance is one of, if not the best top laner in the current 5v5 meta. Why?
1. Tanky
Typically in 5v5 as the top laner, you will end up playing a 1v2 for most of the early to mid game, against the enemy bot laner (typically WP) and jungler. As a result, being able to sustain and hold your own is CRUCIAL, because dying and feeding kills/turrets to the opposing bot laner is a surefire way to get your team snowballed. Lance fulfils this as he has naturally tanky base stats, and his
Gythian Wall provides a passive damage reduction while strafing that helps mitigate damage.
2. Ranged
Melee laning is hell against a good bot laner (who is usually ranged) unless you are insanely skilled. Luckily, Lance faces no such problem with his surprisingly long range, which allows him to CS quite safely while minimising poke.
3. Wave Clear
Lance's passive
Partisan's Technique gives his auto attacks AOE in a straight line. By positioning yourself correctly, you can easily hit all the minions in a wave, giving you massive clearspeed which is essential for relieving pressure on your turret.
4. Poke
Lance has deceptively massive damage range with his
Impale. Not even ranged carries are safe from getting poked, and early game his
Impale does MASSIVE damage thanks to its cracked base stats. You can win many trades in lane just by simply landing 1
Impale along with 1 or 2 basic attacks to follow up, which will usually drop the enemy laner to 2/3 or 1/2 health.
5. CC
Top laners typically focus on providing utility rather than damage; the damage comes from your CP mid laner and WP bot laner. Luckily, Lance comes packed with utility: he has a root, stun, damage resist and mobility to top it all off. This makes him incredible in teamfights - a well-timed
Gythian Wall has turned the tides of many a teamfight I participate in.
Item and Ability Choices Top
Early Game
I like to start off with a weapon blade and book of eulogies, then help my jungler take the barrier treant camp near top lane if he chooses to start there, if not I just take it myself. I then go straight to lane and start farming. The
Book of Eulogies is crucial to giving you sustain. The
Weapon Blade is there to pump up your massive early game damage, but it can be replaced by
Oakheart or
Light Armor for extra tankiness.
I unlock Impale first to clear the jungle camp faster. Gythian Wall comes next for its damage reduction.
First Shop
Typically, I like to port back after I accumulate 2000 gold, to buy myself boots (very important!), at least one defence item, and a
Heavy Steel. If you have been CSing extraordinarily well, you can get a
Barbed Needle here as well.
You should only port back after you have shoved a minion wave toward the enemy by clearing everything! Do not go back if your turret is under pressure; protecting your turret should be your highest priority (other than not dying).
In this stage, if your jungler rotates up, you can go for a gank with Impale. Landing a good gank on their bot laner essentially guarantees they will be useless later on, as you choke off their gold income. This is huge for your team.
Mid Game
Serpent's Mask is your first T3 item. This gives you massive sustain and some damage, enabling you to brawl with enemy heroes during midgame fights. Afterward, get yourself a reflex block to avoid getting hard ganked with CC, and a
Travel Boots to speed up rotations. Yes, you will need to rotate to help mid lane or jungle if a fight erupts. Do not assume that you can just stick to one lane the whole game and ignore your team!
I choose to overdrive Impale first to up its base damage and to increase the root duration. Unlock
Combat Roll as soon as it's ready. This ult, though simple, has huge impact, enabling you to rotate faster, dodge poke and deal burst damage.
Late Game
Tension Bow should be your 2nd or 3rd T3 item. This gives you good burst damage and some armorpierce to keep your damage relevant late game. Do not underestimate your own damage! You can easily chunk half a carry's HP by landing an Impale --> Auto --> Roll --> Auto combo. Apart from that, buy a
Crucible as your first T3 defence item. This is massive for teamfighting as it means you can help block more CC for your team, which is especially important if your captain isn't up to par. Afterward, work toward
War Treads and
Fountain of Renewal to better support your team. You are essentially a backup Captain once late game rolls around, so work with your team!
As for your last item, it depends. Typically, I identify the biggest threat on the enemy team and counter appropriately. This means buying Metal Jacket/Atlas Pauldron if you feel their WP damage is high, or perhaps getting Rook's Decree against CP laners. If your team is ahead, I like to buy
Sorrowblade to make myself a bigger damage threat, or
Shatterglass to really up the CC. Your root and stun both have CP ratios! Also don't forget to infuse before teamfights!
Overdrive Gythian Wall over Combat Roll; this gives it a longer stun duration which is crucial. Combat Roll's upgrades aren't very significant as at Level 1 it already has a very low cooldown of 5 seconds.
Synergies and Threats Top
Synergies
Honestly, Lance is very self-sufficient. With good play, you can hold your own in lane and even start carrying your team in teamfights by CCing opponents correctly. Hence, his synergies are basically anyone who can follow up on your CC with huge damage or even more CC. Examples include
Celeste,
Skaarf,
Magnus,
Kestrel and
Caine.
Threats
There are counters to Lance in lane that can make laning phase hell for you. Here they are, in order of how annoying they are:
1. SAW
Yep, you read that right. The main reason why he's up here is because Lance's advantage in lane comes from landing good Impales to root enemies and win trades. But SAW is basically already permanently rooted from his perk, he doesn't care about your root! He can just stand there, tank your Impale then blow you up with his insane damage. Against SAW, you need to hug your turret and pray. Call for ganks from your jungler; shutting down the SAW should be your entire team's primary focus.
2. Gwen
Gwen is the king of poke. Her perk basically gives her free Tension Bow, and her A has some crazy range. Worst of all, she can
Skedaddle out of your Impale after you land it, which makes you basically useless. You either need to play incredibly well, or buy more defense to even have a chance against her.
And that's it! Lance doesn't really have much to fear; his innate range, tankiness and base damage means he actually can win a lot of matchups if you play well, dodge some poke and land some Impales.
Tips and Tricks Top
1. Your auto attack range actually extends slightly beyond your targeting range. You can target a minion, hit it at the furthest range possible and then damage another enemy behind that minion! Use this to clear waves from a distance, or to poke enemy laners standing a bit too close to their wave.
2. Impale not only has travel time, it also can't root anything that's too close to you. Make sure you're a good distance away when trying to Impale, and try to predict enemy movements. Go for Impales when they move in to last hit a minion; that basically guarantees you'll land it.
3. Gythian Wall is quite possibly the most versatile ability in the game. Here are some ways to use it effectively:
Smash enemies away from you as you run. Bonus if you can smash them at a 45 degree angle into a wall!
Smash enemies into your turret when defending. Most useful if their minion wave is close to dying; this forces them to stop attacking and start running, or risk dying to the turret later.
Smash minions away from your turret. Not only helps with ensuring you can CS without turret stealing it, but also can cause turret to switch aggro toward the enemy laner if they were trying to poke.
Smash enemies away from you once Impale's root duration ends. This prevents them from trying to come back at you with their own burst damage, and lets you force a disengage before they can react.
Block CC (when overdriven). This is basically a second reflex block, on a shorter cooldown.
Block burst damage. You get 60% damage resist during the swing animation, and you can extend this duration by not attacking/moving. This means you can greatly mitigate stuff like Ringo's
Hellfire Brew, Kestrel's
One Shot One Kill and Celeste's
Solar Storm, which they usually use to try and finish you off. You can also pull off hero plays like rolling in front of a teammate and saving them from certain death!
4. After using your roll, your next attack is basically instant. Use this to poke, or use it to add some extra damage while the enemy flees after a successful Impale. At level 8 when Impale is overdriven, you can roll first, attack, then impale and roll again to basically one cycle your opponent's health.
5. When autoattacking, you strafe and reduce damage from that direction. It's best to face the enemy laner while CSing, so that you can block some of their poke. While running away, you can also tap the enemy momentarily to trigger the strafe without actually attacking. Your movement speed isn't reduced, so take advantage of that!
6. Impale enemies under turrets when they try to turret dive. This will guarantee you a kill early game, because the turret basically 3 shots enemy heroes. If you know you will die to a turret gank, at least try to bring your killer down with you!
7. Don't be afraid to use your roll to move around the map faster. The cooldown is short enough that it should be ready by the time you reach the lane/fight!
8. When attacking objectives, use your abilities just after completing an autoattack. This helps reset your basic attack cooldown and will greatly increase your DPS!
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