Ashe R, Jinx E, Tristana R, MF E&R, like the list just continues. WTF Riot, why do AD carries have AP in their kit, I don't understand. And plus, building a little ap is just plain stupid considering 1) aa neglect and 2) the scaling is shit. Get a blasting wand on mf and only get 11 bonus damage o,o
TehNACHO3 votesThe "Why do ADCs have AP Kits" part is mostly an old relic back from when Riot designed all abilities to scale on ability power. Tristana for example, pre rework, never got her AP Ratios touched. Her ability scalings now are a mix of AD and AP but not so long back then, she had nothing but AP scalings.
For "Why do ADCs have AP Kits today", that's largely due to either no necessary need to change it (Ashe), a preservation of an old play style (AP Tristana plays a lot differently than AD Tristana and Riot wanted to keep that play style alive post rework), or simply that the AP off build is kinda harmless and doesn't drastically break the balance of the champ (Miss Fortune).
windwolf7771 votesa preservation of an old play style (AP Tristana plays a lot differently than AD Tristana and Riot wanted to keep that play style alive post rework)
Slightly off topic, but I find it strange that they find some off builds like AP 
or 
alive and just nerf the ratios, and delete some like AP
. Like, why not just nerf Yi and leave it alive? Oh well. Just my opinion
TehNACHO3 votesBecause AP Yi was unsustainably broken. AP Yi's Alpha Strike bursted squishies, his auto attacks shredded tanks, and his AP inflated Meditate made him indomitably tanky. He had no normal weaknesses which is faaaaaaaaaar harder to balance properly than if his numbers were just too high.
windwolf7771 votesOh no no, I meant nerf his numbers. Not delete it. Because from what I remember Q had a 100% AP ratio, and W had a 400% AP ratio. I think his passive was a double hit every 7th auto but the timer didn't reset. I don't remember his E, and R gave full 100% resets.
Like, why not make it a scaling 100-300% AP meditate and alpha scale on 50% ap 50% ad, or a split scaling. I understand AP Yi was busted, but that was because he had 100% cd refresh even on his ult. So I think if we gradually brought it back with like, 50% per patch we could find a good balance. But that's just me
TehNACHO2 votesNo, you misunderstood. Even if AP Yi was not op, he was broken. He breaks the conventional rules of the game, in this case the main pillars of counterplay. It's not a matter of numbers, it's a matter of him having no legitimate weaknesses.
A comparison is old Poppy. Old Poppy was made artificially weak, so necessarily speaking, she was not OP. However, if you really analyzed her kit, you'd realize that she breaks conventional rules of the game due to her Ultimate.
windwolf7771 votesI'm not trying to be difficult, I'm just slightly confused. Terribly sorry about this. What do you mean by that? Because from what I heard AP Yi was extremely feast or famine. Either completely snowballed in lane or got ganked once and couldn't do anything.
What was the rule of the game he broke? If you bought MR and resisted the alpha that would deny him his kill and thus the reset. Then with that, couldn't you could catch him, cc him, then burst him while he was vulnerable.
Again, this is what I've heard as I've only seen biased penta videos where the entire video is just ap yi pentas. Though, again from what I've heard, "if you didn't get at least 3 pentas as AP you were bad and should uninstal"
J Eevo2 votesHis gameplay pattern was, go into battle, pop R if they're low, then Q > Did they die? if yes Q again, if not press W and become unkillable until your Q goes off cd, rinse and repeat.
Playing against ap yi was pure torture, as half of the teamfight he spent being untargetable while dealing RIDICULOUS aoe damage (and it was back when Q aoe wasn't limited to a small area like it is now so kills 1100 range away, wasn't unheard of because of RNG jumps) and the other half he spent meditating gaining so much resistance you couldn't burst him, and healing for 400% ap so there was no way for you to dps him down.
Some teamcomps couldn't actually deal with him at all, as they needed a champion who'd survive his burst that had reliable hard cc, and even then he could just play cleanup crew and rundown your team after a teamfight to score a penta.
Add to that his laning which was stupid for a champion scaling so hard, as he Q'd a wave ONCE to kill all of the minions in it, then backed away.
windwolf7771 votesThen if he was that unbearable, were there not modes to ban him so you didn't have to deal with him?
(However you explaining it that way does make sense. Thank you)
J Eevo2 votesSure there were, that doesn't mean that the ability to ban a champion allows for the champion to exist in a toxic state.
Aeolian Melodies3 votes
3221slyfoxhomie1 votesrarely its useful and thats when the enemy team is just getting screwed and you build a rageblade
Succubús GF1 votesYeah, I build rage blade only as a " I am stomping so hard so might as well" but tbh I wish they just scaled better at the very least
Live2LetDie1 votesYour not thinking of the skill correctly. Think about what the ability is, how it looks visually, and you will understand why it does 'magic' damage over 'attack' damage
Aeolian Melodies1 votesYour not thinking of the skill correctly. Think about what the ability is, how it looks visually, and you will understand why it does 'magic' damage over 'attack' damage
Akali throws her weapon at you. MAGIC! Akali slashes around with her weapons. PHYSICAL DMG!
OverpoweredSoap1 votesIt's also because if they were given ad ratios then it'd be really ridiculous for most ap skills on ad champions.
Mysticman891 votesThe answer is/was because of items like trinity force (which used to give some ap), so ad champions could feel like these items were at least options without wasting stats. The idea for the most part wouldn't be that these champs actively build AP, it's just so they can get some use out of incidental AP from other sources.
That said, AP trist used to be quite viable and was much more an assassin style build, and AP mf was at least a semi-viable pick for awhile. Reworks (both champ and item) and similar have made most of these less viable now, but theres probably still some niche builds. (Plus, these alternative builds can be fun if not actually viable in most circumstances. There's something very rewarding about firing off an ashe arrow that isn't actually a global range nuke. [Having the option to build AP is also sometimes even the 'right' choice in ARAM if you otherwise have an all AD team for example].)
afmghost1 votesA lot of ADCs with AP skills have those said skills that you don't really use for the sake of dealing damage. When I use jinx's E, I don't think "I'm gonna kill them with this," I think "I'm gonna snare them, and then attack them while they can't move."
Succubús GF1 votesWell obviously, but the point was in her kit it says it is magic damage which is odd
afmghost1 votesWell it does deal magic damage. If it dealt and/or scaled off AD, it would be too powerful.
SoundChaosDebug1 votesI feel like it's a lazier way to balance the champions
afmghost1 votesIt is a decent question, I admit.
The Voids Call1 votesIdk, but it's silly that ATTACK DAMAGE is now one of the core scaling stats for half the champion's ABILITIES.
While AP champions are still waiting for half decent utility auto attack damage.
Critmaster Garen1 voteswell yea. technically they could just remove damage scalings from these abilities entirely.