Top Lane Tier List: Best Top Laners in Patch 26.19

Riot took ten damage off Siphoning Strike [Q] at every rank this patch, aimed squarely at his early game. He still heads top lane. The nerf gives the lane a slightly longer window to punish him, and most top laners at these ranks don't use it, so he reaches the stack count that ends games on much the same schedule he always has.

Garen moves up from Tier 1. He's the easiest top laner in the game to pick up and one of the hardest to punish. He walks out of a bad trade, heals up behind a bush and comes straight back for another. Most top lanes at these ranks go to whoever gets bored of trading first. It's never him. His ultimate finishes whoever the fight left low.

Teemo heads Tier 1 in top lane. Most of the lane's popular picks trade by auto-attacking. Blinding Dart [Q] turns that off. Teemo wins the lane from range and poisons every wave he touches, and by midgame the enemy team is walking into mushrooms it never saw placed. Get on top of him and it's over fast. One gap closer and one stun end his lane, so he respects the enemy jungler more than anyone else in this tier has to.

Most top laners hit with physical damage, and every item Malphite buys makes their best trade worse. Then the game moves to teamfights, where one engage from him lands on three or four people at once. Nothing about him asks for fast hands. He sits near the top of Tier 1, a step below where the early read had him. Magic damage is his problem. Armor does nothing about it, and a lane against an AP top laner is a long one.