Patch 8.18 has been in full swing for a week, and we’ve had time to watch the League of Legendstop lane meta shift around a bit.
While there’s definitely still a little bit of room for high-damage top lane carries and split-pushers, the meta really favors tanks at the current moment. That’s thanks to a plethora of effective tank items and a few beefy champions who deal a solid amount of raw damage despite building no AP or AD.
Five strongest top laners to play in Patch 8.18
Sion
Sion is one of the tankiest tanks that ever tanked, and thanks to a recent buff on his W’s health-building passive, you have to throw a lot of bodies at him to bring him down. After he dies, he still has his passive, which deals absurd damage despite not building any AD. If you’re in the mood to troll a little bit, you can always go the full-lethality build, which is a lot of fun.
Garen
King of the spin, lord of the bush, screamer of “DEMACIA!”—it’s a great time to be Garen. All you need to build is a Black Cleaver for damage and follow it up with full health and resistance, and you get a cost-effective and very powerful build. He’s easy to play and easy to carry with, and although most tanks are also accessible and quite simple, none of them put out his damage. Darius does, but he has to build more expensive damage items to really do his job well.
Jax
Jax is in a great spot right now as well, and he’s unlike any of the champions on this list. He builds Tri-Force into full tank and puts out a ton of damage, but his build is quite expensive. He’s so strong, however, that he can play the jungle extremely well, too, making him a great champion for would-be one tricks. Don’t land the jungle role in solo queue? Run him top lane, and vice versa.
Malphite
Malphite is a beefstick like Sion, with plenty of crowd control and damage mitigation. The difference, however, is that Malphite is a lot easier to play and counters AD champions a little harder with all his armor scaling abilities.
Urgot
Urgot shares something in common with another champion on this list—Garen. They’re both juggernauts, and they don’t have to build much damage to kill squishies with ease. Also like Garen, he lacks the crowd control of other tanks so he’s pretty easily kitable. His item build is also more expensive than Garen’s, but he has the potential to carry a little more. He also offers a ranged option to the team comp, although a short one.
