Talk:Vi/@comment-20434720-20140225215456/@comment-24055932-20140228010234

I thought about Vi toplane, too. The only thing that stops you from going on top with Vi is the missing sustain - if you look to the top picks, you see that almost every popular top laner got either HP Sustain by an ability (Renekton, Rengar, Aatrox), a shield on relatively low CD (e.g. Shen, Riven) combined with a fine amount of mobility or a gameplay that relies on really good trades (Kennen, Teemo, Jayce) mixed up with constant heavy harass (e.g. Darius).

So, in order to shine on toplane, you need something to cover up your really long shield CD - unluckily picks like Renekton won't let you play out the full power of your e, as they got no interest in duelling you - by that, the w aswell renders useless (unless you give up the q damage for better positioning).

And, thought you do impressive damage with your whole combo, the affinity of top laners to take defensive values to go (and the shield/HP increasing abilities), make it quite hard to solo your enemy. On the contrary side, with just a little CC or damage from your jungler, the lane is easily won, and thanks to your set, ganks heavily favour you, making pretty much every gank while you got ult, a kill.

All in all, the gameplay you got is a lot more difficult to bring on, resulting in a lack of top lane picks (similar arguments you get if you ask why there are almost no Fiora picks).

To have it mentioned: I aswell think that Vi, in terms of teamfights, is on the edge to OP. You pick a (squishy) enemy and are able to oneblow him, with almost no possibility on counterplay, and can afterwards still pretty safe either fuck off, or go in for a second round, all that while providing solid CC for your team.