Talk:Maokai/@comment-88.159.186.176-20111214213036/@comment-3486816-20111215202624

Solo top is further from the spawn, so you want to put someone more sustained there; as if they leave while losing the lane they're likely to lose that tower. It also has a much larger gap between towers, making it so that if you're ganked in the middle of the lane you have a lot further to run, so it's important that whoever lanes there be able to handle a gank or two. Mid is easier to gank from, as from mid you can go to either top or bot lane. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, top isn't that involved early game. They're too far away to help deal with things like Dragon, and they're too far away to get one of the buffs, so depending on what team you're on (blue or purple) top lane will typically be missing out on either blue or red, so they need to be able to manage without it, unlike mid, who can quickly go and take either. They also are different in who you'll be facing. The enemy team will typically try to play to their strengths and put someone more sustained (like a tanky dps) top and someone squishier and level-dependant (like a mage) mid. It gets a little more hairy when they're countering your lanes though. Hope that helped.