Why does no one play X? (MF, Varus, Ashe, Ezreal)

Feathermane·Nov 1, 2014·6 votes·1,922 views

Because Lucian is more mobile, has FAR more damage, and scales way better.

His kit doesn't just favor a cooldown on that passive, it demands it.

13 Comments

disregardableNov 1, 20144 votes

You know what Lucian doesn't have? A strong Q Varus , crazy crits Ashe , and zoning MissFortune . I mained Sivir until level 30, then a week that Lucian and MF were both free I played my first game as Lucian. It was like my world completely opened up. It was like I had eaten nothing but the plain, unflavored yogurt for 6 months then tasted sugared yogurt. It was magic. I bought him immediately after. And you know what? I ended up refunding him by the end of the week and picking up MF instead. His kit is not very useful, and he's not very fun. MF may not have his damage or his W, but she is a jack of all trades. She can bully, she can zone, she can roam with her passive, she has an attack speed boost, she EASILY kses the jungler gank with that Q, she has NO skill shots, I can pick up whatever style I feel like playing, even AP mid (dat mid game ult when you're playing AP MF). Lucian's kit just can't compare to the strategic variety of MF's. I'm proud to main her.

And really, if you just want to play a traditional BT-style ADC, then Vayne beats Lucian hands down.

DirewolfiezNov 1, 20141 votes

Ashe's passive really isn't that useful. Instead of providing flat crit chance or doubling bonus crit chance, like Yasuo's passive does, it rewards her for not attacking, and she's a friggin' auto attack ADC. It's useful to 100-0 minions, or to punish non-tanky champs for getting out of position before teamfights, but other than that it's almost never up, since she's constantly using auto attacks. Compare her passive to Vayne's, Varus', Lucian's, Cait's, or pretty much any other ADC's, and it's almost useless. Before it was tweaked it was even more useless, which is pretty sad, considering just how mediocre it is currently.

TerchuyNov 1, 20144 votes

CHASE: Lucian is the second-best ADC at chasing down people by himself, the best being Valor with his targeted jump and vision. Ashe can catch people for her team but is a poor duelist. Vayne can't hop walls.

KITE: Near best. Ardent Blaze's passive triggers on spells as well as autoattacks, so even a tank with Randuin's needs multiple gapclosers to catch him. Ezreal can cancel snares and pulls. Sivir can stop an engage completely.

ESCAPE: Only Tristana is better with her giant gap-openers. A snared Lucian can rapidly open up a huge distance where a Jinx or Caitlyn would just die.

DUELING: Draven is better early. Vayne is about even late. Otherwise he's second only to Quinn.

AoE: "Lucian has more damage" is inaccurate. Lucian's single-target damage is very high especially against fragile targets, but he doesn't have the same AoE damage potential as Miss Fortune or Corki.

TANK BUSTING: Above average. Anti-dash tanks like Maokai screw him over. He is better than Varus at killing tanks because of how Blade of the Ruined King works. Varus is supposed to have massive %HP burst, but he doesn't have the Attack Speed steroids or mobility to apply it safely. Lucian can just buy it. He doesn't outclass Kog at this because Kog has ridiculous AA and spell range.

SKIRMISH: This is what matters. Lucian is hands-down the best ADC at 2v2 or 2v3 fights. He has the power spells of an assassin, the safe ranged ult of a mage, and his steroid lasts just long enough for him to end a fight before a "stronger" one like Blood Rush settles in. Lucian is extremely good in a "small fight every once in a while" meta.

HayaishiNov 1, 20142 votes

You won't see Varus played if Lucian outdamages him at every stage in the game.

Kowe The EwokNov 1, 20142 votes

Because Ashe and Lucien focus on mobility control but all of their control is easily "outplayed" by Riven, Yasuo, Akali, Zed, Fizz etc. etc. dashes. What is a stun or root worth if it can be dodged OR BLOCKED (windwall...) easily? What is a slow worth if your opponent has a dozen dashes he can use?

It's not about Lucien, it's about getting desroyed by any common midlaner. Ashe and Varus are supposed to kite, yet their abilities couldn't be less effective in the mobility meta.

BrightNooblarNov 1, 20142 votes

MF does better in an AoE comp, Ashe comes with her own hard CC, Varus has very strong synergy with certain champs (ori), and ezreal has longer range poke.

Lucien just has a generally more favorable mix of these thing, trading in benefits others have for more power (less AoE for more focused damage, less range for more damage, etc). But if you're running a specific comp, or need to plug a gap in the team, the others still have places.

Zenthon PrimeNov 1, 20142 votes

Skill difference helps too. Most people playing MF/Varus/Ashe/Ezreal main that champion, while most people playing Lucian just play him because he's OP. A really good Varus or Ezreal, provided and equal-skill support, will stomp your average mediocre Lucian player.

TruŁęgitoŃNov 1, 20142 votes

No one can really use ashe

Mf's double up isn't really reliable nor make it rain

Varus can be very risky to play

Ez more of a poke carry

Stars ShaperNov 1, 20142 votes

Honestly Varus Ultimate is a serious Team Fight killer if the ally team is awake.

NarasimhaNov 1, 20141 votes

I'm not sure why you think Lucian does more damage than Varus. Higher mobility, by far. But more damage? Definitely not.

SalidfingersNov 1, 20141 votes

Ashe is Bad MF sucks after her rework, She was one of my main ADC's - Hit to her early game Double up made it crap. Varus should be played more since he counters most of the meta bots like Lucian. Ezreal is a AD caster more then a ADC

DirewolfiezNov 1, 20141 votes

People stopped playing Ashe long before Lucian came out. Why? She has no mobility skills and has to blow her ult in order to escape from gap closing bruisers and assassins. She also requires a very specific team comp in order to do well. If she gets fed and protected she can be a nightmare, but she just can't trade very well compared to other popular ADCs like Lucian. She fell out of the meta when gap closing bruisers and mobile assassins became all the rage.

67chromeNov 1, 20141 votes

Why does no one play X?

First - LoL has a monthly player base of ~67 million people. Champion X is played.

What you seem to be asking is why some champions are more popular than others.

The answer to that is generally an issue of sociology and psychology, not champion balance. Also common sense - popularity is basically never evenly distributed.

But for general thought patterns, First place gets a gold medal. Second place gets silver, third gets bronze, nobody gives a crap about 4th place.

If the average person is going to bother looking into the meta to see who's best, they don't care about who's 4th. Doesn't matter if there's a valley of power between 3rd and 4th or a microscopic difference that's negligible in 99.99% of games. In the case of LoL, there's often a negligible difference in power between picks. Win rates only tend to range from 45% to 55%.

Aslo, top 3 is perpetuated in LoL for a few other reasons. For one, it's easy to count to three mentally. It's a solid number, you don't need fingers to keep track of it, it's an easily recognizable and archival number. Due to a general rock-paper-scissors dynamic in top picks 3 is also solid, and due to 3 bans per team 3 is a handy number. Also there aren't mirror-matches in Ranked, so can't just stick to first place.

Also - it's important to consider the meta picks aren't always the best picks. They're just agreed upon as the best, and largely by players that are to lazy to iterate or meditate upon what makes them 0.1% better than the next guy. The meta is often lagging a bit behind where champions truely lie, and there are plenty of hidden OP champions. Rumble had one of the top 3 highest win-rates for around a year before he saw competative play (and subsequently dominated very hard and was reactivatly nerffed very hard). Kayle also constantly cycles between most broken champion ever and ~eh 5th rate pick. Since the dawn of LoL, she's been a dominant pick, got nerffed, everyone mainning her got butthurt and went to something else, a new crop of players found a new way to break her, she's a dominant pick, get's nerffed...

anyways - problem with champion X is almost always they just didn't make it n one of the meta's top 3 spots.

There will always be a Lucian, a #1 pick. That's just how meta's work. If Lucian gets nerffed hard enough everyone that bothered putting time and effort into using him completely abandons him and puts time and effort into mastering another marksman instead, that marksman will start spawning threads like yours - even if they're only 1% better than the next guy.