IO solo top?

Hello dotafire, new guy here!

This has been bugging me all day, and I need a confirmation from a pro, since I'm starting to doubt if I'm even right!

Yesterday I had a game playing IO, this is the lineup and where everyone went:

Radiant (my team):

IO (me) - top
Medusa - bot
Enigma - bot
Chen - jungle
Lone druid - mid

Dire:

Lion - top
Faceless void - bot
Warlock - bot
Clockwerk - mid
Doom - jungle

Our lineup was determined by Medusa, who refused to hear otherwise. Now, my question is, can IO really solo top? I mean, surely IO needs an ally, since, well, that's what the entire character is about! IO has bad scaling AA, negative starting armour, and an escape which really needs an ally (I know creeps work, but they need to be in the right place at the right time), all of which surely adds up to mass feeding? Don't get me wrong, I love IO, but I just can't see why he would go solo anything or anywhere to be honest.

If it were up to me (bearing in mind I'm still new, so don't 100% know what I'm doing), I would have gone with:

IO (me) - bot
Medusa - bot
Enigma - mid
Chen - top
Lone druid - top (maybe jungle if lion stays solo top)

IO gets Medusa farm since she's (hard?) carry, Enigma is a decent mid hero, and Chen and lone are much more survivable top. IO could mitigate much of warlocks fatal bonds damage, while both Medusa and IO harass FV, possibly even gank with Enigma, probably forcing him to go safe lane, where he then gets harassed by chen and lone - so all in all, denying his farm, while securing it for Medusa. This all makes sense in my head, but I could be very wrong, so that's why I'm asking!

TL;DR: Team = IO, Medusa, Enigma, Chen, Lone - should IO solo top?

Thanks in advanced, Hali.

Io should never be alone in a lane,unless you are positive that you can handle mid.

Yeah that's pretty dumb - Enigma would get far more out of a solo lane, while you'd make a much better hard support.

You guys should run a Lone Druid solo, an Enigma mid and a defensive tri-lane with Chen jungling. That would be good.

Also, Io solo is **** :P

If he gets stunned, he's done. He can't survive solo, he's way too squishy and defenseless.

I don't know... at least IMO Medusa should go mid.

Tbh the team as a whole doesn't make much sense - 2 very farm dependent heroes, combined with 2 jungling pushers and a hard support who only really works well with strong gankers. P.S Chen has to jungle, even though two of the others are capable of doing so.

Many thanks for the replies, good to know I sort of know what I'm talking about :).

As for the poor comp, this was a scrubby pub, can't expect too much!

i did Io solo offlane before couple of times.

this is how i do it:
- learn tether at level 1, tether the first creep. Creep will run to enemy's tower, blocking enemy creeps, and pushed your lane towards enemy tower.
- wait in the tower, creeps will be pushed to your tower soon enough.


this is pretty much the same as enigma solo offlane, hoping for the creeps to come to the tower.

I hate to say but that lineup is the best lineup you could do in that kind of situation. Lone druid is a better mid than medusa, we see plenty of lone druid mid in the competitive.

Saryu, LD rarely goes mid in competitive. And that is NOT the best line up there. Medusa can go mid but can't offlane as well as LD. LD can mid fairly well but do great in an offlane.