There are a variety of League of Legends top laners that counter each other. Some vary in strength based on metas, others vary depending on matchups.
For top laners, there are three archetypes of champions that fluctuate as the meta changes: hyper-carries, support-style champions, and split pushers.
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Splitpushers have a weak laning presence and a weaker ability to trade damage until they get a few items. Once they get some items and can duel with their opponents, they just steamroll through the lane, taking turrets until the enemy team sends forces to stop them.
Fiora
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Pros
- True damage
- Mobile
- Crowd control (CC) denial as a basic ability
Cons
- Mediocre teamfighter
- Requires good awareness to make good use of W
Fiora is one of the best split pushers in the game, which can easily net you wins if you have a good laning phase. She’s one of the highest skill-cap top laners in the game with which you can show off your mechanical prowess.
Darius
Pros
- Strong one-vs-one duelist
- Exceptional sustain
- Good at punishing immobile champions
Cons
- No dash
- Falls of in later stages of the game
The Duke of Dunk is a very strong pick in the meta simply because of how much raw damage he deals—if you’re a melee champion. If you’re ranged, or a Pantheon, he’s going to have a tough time getting close enough to deal damage, but there aren’t many melee champions that can match his power early in the game. He has one of the best level-one damage outputs in the game, and he’s excellent at getting an early snowball rolling to run away with the match.
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Maokai
Pros
- Strong sustain
- Lots of crowd control
- Exceptional teamfighter
Cons
- High mana costs
After being away from the Rift for multiple patches, Maokai is back in action. His counters were nerfed into the ground and his item build was buffed up. The most significant buff was to Bami’s Cinder. The item deals a lot of AoE damage if you use crowd control on a champion and Maokai has plenty of it.
He’s quite simple to pick up and can also be fun to play due to how his abilities work. He has a great laning phase due to being able to set up ganks for his jungler with his high CC capabilities, though he can be mana hungry. Aim to get some mana items early on to solve this or stack up your Manaflow Band.