Top 7 Best Farming Top Laners in League of Legends

The Top Lane focuses a lot on the Laning Phase, and we’ve covered the best Laning Phase Top Laners in another article that you should check out. 

During the Laning Phase, one of the main emphases is the Farm. Accumulating Farm during the early game will prove crucial for winning the mid-game, as you will have a severe gold and possibly XP advantage over your enemies. 

As a solo Lane, you will accrue solo XP – giving you twice as much XP as, say, the Bot Lane. Fifteen minion waves are worth as much as a kill, so keeping a constant minion overhead will make you just as strong as if you killed your opposing Laner multiple times. 

We’ve covered zoning and other aspects in our other articles about this period of the game. However, we feel it is necessary to include such gameplay aspects in this list, so I apologize if there is overlapping information with some of our previous articles. 

Knowing these things is vital for the Top Lane, as it is unique in many regards. 

So, let us begin with the 7 Best Farming Top Laners in League of Legends without further delay. (This list is in no particular order.) 

1. Nasus

Nasus is a Champion whose sole purpose is to farm up as much as possible. His entire playstyle revolves around getting stacks on his Q, so let’s talk about that. 

From the very beginning of the game, Nasus will focus on last-hitting minions using his Q that empowers his next attack. For each minion killed with his Q, Nasus gains three stacks on it. These three stacks count as three bonus damage. You can already see where this is going. 

For cannon minions, turrets, and Champions, Nasus will gain six stacks instead of 3, making canon minions even more valuable than before. When facing Nasus during the Laning Phase, preventing and denying him Farm is the most important thing. 

If by chance, Nasus does get the chance to farm up hundreds of stacks (and he usually does), then you’ve got a problem on your hands. He’s going to act as a sidelaner/split pusher for most of the game, remaining away from all the fuss and pushing onward towards the base. Accumulating stacks, therefore, becomes an afterthought if he’s left unchecked. 

A stacked Nasus becomes borderline unkillable in team fights and the late game, acting as a tank carry. His Ultimate decreases his Q’s cooldown significantly while it’s active, and he will smash the enemies until they’re dead without breaking a sweat. 

Nasus is an old Champion and, despite his rework, remains simple, straightforward, and easy to play. He is fun and unique, so I recommend you try him if you’re a newcomer to the game and/or the Top Lane. 

2. Teemo

Following Nasus, we have one of his most significant counters that is Teemo, the poisonous rat bastard everyone hates. Riot even used to keep a counter of how many times people killed Teemo. That’s how hated he is among the community.

Regardless, he remains one of the best Top Laners in the game, with a persistent S+ tier on all tier lists out there. His farming is easy and safe, as he can zone and control the Lane with ease. Most Champions on the Top Lane will be slow, melee brutes – and Teemo is their worst nightmare. 

He does bonus magic damage on his auto attacks, decreasing the margin of error on last hits, as well as providing the ability to harass the opposing Laner away from the minions. This will make you extra safe and keep farming as easy as it can be. 

Shrooms can protect you from ganks and even 1v1 skirmishes against your opponent. From level 6, you’ll be wildly scaling up and likely outscale most enemies that you meet both on the Lane and off of it. 

At any rate, Teemo is great for many things, farming being one of them. Last hitting is the primary way you’ll be procuring that minion gold, though the mushrooms can be helpful to clear waves quickly. 

Also read: Best ADCs to Pair With Lux

3. Urgot

Urgot is a lot more focused on quick Farm and wave shoving than he is on farming safely. Due to his passive, Urgot will deal massive AOE damage using his basic attacks, and his rapid-fire W doesn’t help either. 

However, this isn’t a bad thing. Urgot may be a ranged Champion, but he is a melee bruiser at heart, with much of his core items proving that, among other things. He will turn the Lane into a battleground where he can challenge you to endless duels. 

He can also play a more proactive role as his Lane will mostly be shoved in. This allows him to roam around and complete objectives, namely, the Herald. Using the Herald, he can take down a lot of tower plates early on, procuring even more gold. 

This wave-shoving nature of his gameplay will allow Urgot not to miss a single minion most of the time. He will keep you at a constant minion and gold disadvantage if he can clear waves and zone you well enough. That disadvantage may even turn into an XP gap, giving Urgot even a more significant edge than he already had. 

He is, though, a niche Champion that, despite being powerful, doesn’t have a significantly large player base. Do not be deterred from trying him if you genuinely wish to do so, and form your own opinion on the Champion.

 I never play him and rarely meet him on the Top Lane, so the pick can be unexpected – giving you the chance to catch the opposing Laner off guard. 

Also read: Best Rengar Skins

4. Garen

Garen, like Urgot, is an aggressive farmer. He will focus on clearing an entire wave quickly rather than slow-pushing the Lane like most Top Laners. 

Though he does have the option, Garen’s mobility profits from shoving and clearing the Lane, allowing him to roam around. Garen is fast and can quickly close a distance just by using his Q. Shoving and clearing waves with his E gives him apt time to go down to Mid or get a quick recall and come back stronger. 

Whichever he does choose, it is no secret that he will easily achieve an advantage over you, especially if he wants to fight. Recently, Garen has had a resurgence with a lethal Ignite and Flash combination that is bound to net him many kills on the Lane. I cannot begin to count how many times Garen combo’d me into submission. 

Garen is an excellent choice for farming and racking up a lot of gold and XP quickly, whether you want to be aggressive, proactive, or whatever else. Roaming, doing objectives, or fighting the opposing Laner are all options Garen has at his disposal, and I recommend you try him to grasp what I’m trying to tell fully. 

At any rate, he’s cheap, old, and simple – suitable for newcomers and intermediate players alike. 

5. Quinn

Quinn has always been among the most influential Top Laners in the game. This stems primarily from her marksman class, although other tools in her kit warrant such a title. 

Like Teemo, Quinn strives from bullying and facing melee Champions. She destroys them in most matchups and, due to how strong she is against them, farming is an afterthought in most games. You’ll be doing it safely, slowly, and effectively. 

If you happen to choose to shove the Lane, you can. Quinn’s passive and Q allows for some excellent and quick damage to minions. If anything, shoving with Quinn is a welcome thing, as her Ultimate gives her so much movement speed that it would be a waste to say on the Lane for long. 

She is a proactive Champion that, at one second, can be on Top, farming, and whatnot – and on the other, she’s at Bot ganking the enemy ADC. She is that fast, and if you throw a Teleport in there – it only gets better (or worse, depending on the perspective). 

She’ll play mostly like an ADC as a marksman, though her kit is unique and different enough to warrant slightly varying gameplay. I highly recommend you try her out while she’s still hot. However, that isn’t going to change any time soon. 

Also read: How to Play Against Alistar?

6. Jayce

I’ve named Jayce the best ranged Top Laner for a reason. He’s so good at doing what he does that it’s insane. And what does he do, I hear you ask. Well, everything. Let me explain. 

First off, the farming. His farming is so safe and efficient since he can, at will, switch into his ranged stance against brutal melee opponents. The ranged stance allows him to farm from a distance without worrying about getting into a bad trade or taking unnecessary damage. 

He can, if he wants, shove the Lane and crash the minion wave into the enemy’s tower. Using both his ranged and melee stance, Jayce has a lot of AOE options that allow him to clear a wave in mere seconds. As he is pretty mobile, with a movement speed-bosting ability on his kit, he can be as proactive as needs are. 

Now, secondly, everything else. Having two kits combined into one, Jayce can do everything a Marksman, an Assassin, and a Bruiser can do. He’s so versatile and takes a lot of the good from all of those classes without much of the bad. This makes him suit many different playstyles and builds, turning him into an unpredictable Champion that can dominate the Lane. 

Of course, this high level of versatility means that Jayce is a bit convoluted. It will take you more than a few games to properly learn his spells, their combos, and utilities. 

However, I believe it does pay off in the end, as Jayce can hurt in the low elo where players rarely know how to deal with him effectively. 

7. Irelia

Irelia is one of the better-known speed demons in the game, and her farming is no exception from the rule. Her Q is the primary tool for this, similar to Nasus, though for a different reason. 

With Nasus, he uses his Q primarily due to its benefits afterward, while Irelia uses it because of the cooldown. You see, Irelia’s Q resets her cooldown if she kills the target, and her mana is refunded. This gives Irelia the chance of slow pushing and guarantees a minion kill. 

Since the spell does substantial bonus damage, it dramatically reduces the margin of error when last hitting, making it nigh impossible to miss a minion kill when not under attack by the enemy Champion. This spell has a different use, namely of healing Irelia substantially during Lane fights and later in the game. It’s a simple spell that is packed with various utilities for various situations. 

I’ve had a lot of games with Irelia where my Farm would exceed that of multiple enemies combined. The satisfaction of killing minions using her Q motivates you to focus on farming much more than you usually would. Of course, later on, she can one-shot minions with her Q since it does apply on-hit effects like Sheen. This makes her a good pusher as well, among other things.

She’s one of the most overloaded Champions in the game, a bit on the difficult side, so keep that in mind if you wish to try her out. 

Conclusion

Farming is vital in League, as it is the primary source of gold and XP outside of kills. Kills don’t even provide much XP early on, and 15 minions are worth as much as a kill. Therefore, we can deduce that at least in the early to mid-game, farming is worth a lot more than petty kills that may or may not leave you dead as well. 

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