Enchanters are not the problem, ADCs themselves are

TheShréktEffect·10/12/2017, 11:49:21 PM·6 votes·556 views

While I do agree that item 3504 is definitely far too strong an item right now, as it has been for months now, one thing I think many overlook is the fact that ADCs themselves are far too strong. I will explain why.

ADCs are supposed to be a fragile, yet devastating class, capable of dishing out immense amounts of damage if untouched. This makes sense from a design perspective, just as tanks are almost precisely the opposite: they bring heavy CC and durability, but they sacrifice their own damage for it. Of course tanks need to deal SOME damage, so as to remain somewhat threatening.

Looking at it this way, tanks are relatively balanced power-wise. Their role makes sense, they are healthy (most of the time). High CC and defense, but low damage. Like in a cart racing game, some characters have high acceleration, but low speed, while others have high speed, but poor acceleration or turning. This makes the game balanced, because there is no all around class, they each have their strengths and weaknesses, each is good for certain tracks, and performs poorly on others.

However, I would argue that this is not the case with ADCs. ADCs are meant to be a low durability and CC, but very high damage class. They should rely on their team to protect them, to allow them to do their main job; deal damage. Yet this is not what we see. Many ADCs have ways to protect themselves, either via mobility or CC, or sometimes even both (Vayne). Taking all ADCs into account, I would roughly rate their CC capability at around 4 out of 10. I think this is far too high. Sure, Ashe's ultimate is pretty much the core of her identity, and as a skillshot it's quite balanced (except it's ridiculous hitbox). Nonetheless, ADCs shouldn't have that many tools to defend themselves. Tristana is the biggest offender here, having both a knockback AND a jump, which can be reset quite easily.

On top of that, ADCs can tap into far greater survivability than they ought to be able to access. Lifesteal. While this isn't in my opinion a HUGE problem, it can lead to extremely frustrating moments, where an ADC is able to pretty much facetank any incoming damage. Of course, if they are not CC'ed and focused down quickly, this makes some sense that they should be able to do that. But when a lone ADC can out-lifesteal an assassin's burst, given that they are roughly equal item-wise, this becomes an issue. Most notably Draven with item 3812 comes to mind, but this is mostly due to the item itself, rather than the champion, I will admit.

One solution to this could be simply reducing lifesteal's effectiveness on critical strikes. Speaking of critical strikes, unhealthy as the concept itself is, I think crit is FAR too easily accessible a stat right now. It makes no sense to me that zeal items which give MORE crit chance than item 3031 are also cheaper. Zeal items should be easily accessible, yes, but they should not be the main source of crit. item 3031 should be as expensive as item 3089, and give more crit chance, say 40%, while zeal items should all give maybe 20% each.

Anyway, all these things combined allow ADCs, a champion class which is supposed to be extremely team reliant to perform well in positions they were not meant for. Lucian mid or top, Corki mid, Twitch and Ezreal jungle, etc.

ADCs should be far, far weaker without their team's protection. A lone ADC splitpushing without vision should almost NEVER be able to come out on top of an assassin's ambush, for example. They should not be able to simply facetank an entire team's focus, or "outplay" a 1v5. They should be far more fragile than they are right now, barely surviving a 1v1 lane or in the jungle, relying heavily on their team's protection.

This is the inherent problem with this class, item 3504 just adds insult to injury.

14 Comments

rhintheminstrel10/13/2017, 12:32:44 AM1 votes

I do agree on how strong crit items are and needs to be looked at especially the item 3087 item 3094 combo paired with Warlord's Bloodlust and cheaper itemization , I think the root cause of why hyper carries are strong is because of tanks. Hyper carries are the only one who could actually deal with them with their constant dps. And what's good with hyper carries? Protective comps. This is how the ardent abusers and tanks come more into play, their main role is to protect the ad carry. With how centralising tanks are, team comps are mostly formed on how to protect the adc.

Tanks also surprisingly deal a lot of damage whilst having a gamut of crowd control, utility, and defense. Galio is an example of this. He's the tank that is played mid because of his strong wave clear (also deals %health damage) while having a ton of utility and crowd control, aoe taunt, aoe damage reduction with an aoe knockup with damage and mobility. Chogath is another one but I think I don't need to explain why. And ofcourse, Maokai is the same as Galio but more tanky.

The introduction of the new item 1054 and the nerf to lane bullies Caitlyn (was gutted but is now decent again) Jhin (fell out of favor due to him having a bad time with tanks) Zyra (nerfed and new Dshield made her damage weaker) Karma(nerfed and outclassed as an enchanter because of her more aggressive approach) gave more ways to let hyper carries to easily farm their items.

I also agree on how strong life steal is. But right now, I think it's fine. A buff to grievous wounds would sound a better alternative. Grievous wound is a joke when the AD already has a life steal item. A recommendation would be let grievous wounds scale based on champion's level, make it weaker early then stronger late game. As of now it has a 40% healing reduction. I think this should scale. Maybe starting from 20% upto 60% healing reduction (not sure on the numbers but you get my point).

iLBGAMing10/13/2017, 1:58:29 AM1 votes

You say in the title that ADC's are broken, but it's only the minority of them Tristana Twitch Vayne KogMaw I don't see why everyone is complaing about ADC's when they are finally furfilling their purpose, meanwhile no one talks about the fact that Chogath can 1 shot them with stone plate or the fact that Zed can delete anyone at this point with full lethality unless you have a lot of health.


A lot of things are strong right now and everyone is turning all the blame to the Ardent Censer and the ADC's, when the real problems are right now JarvanIV Zed Chogath Fiora Fizz Khazix Shyvana Talon MonkeyKing


Looking at some of your suggestions you might as well just remove the ADC role since it can't be balanced to the communities liking.

undesirable team10/13/2017, 2:00:19 AM1 votes

Lategame carries scale way too fast. item 3504 +item 3031 item 3087 item 3094

Martyrofsand10/13/2017, 2:12:05 AM1 votes

It's not just the items. I went into lane as a Sona against a tristana and as soon as Trist hit 6 she jumped on me, I immediately hit her with my W power chord to reduce her damage by 26%. During the 3 seconds in which she had 26% damage reduction he AAed me twice followed by her ult with her E exploding on me and I died from 100% HP.

Yeah if you are a late game hyper carry and you are killing someone as soon as you hit six from 100 to zero with a 26% damage reduction effect applied you champs early game is completely bullshit and needs to be nerfed hard. Trist should have the same early game as a Twitch or Vayne, get bullied like crazy because she is a weak pile of trash but given the high damage late game both of them get if she is suppose to be balanced.

I once tried to justify Trist but after that I simply can't as there is no justification for her.

Rins Thigh Socks10/13/2017, 6:05:06 AM1 votes

"The problem with ADCs is that they're too durable." lists one item that's only abused by one champion and blames lifesteal when it's the lowest it's been in the game for ages

Try again.