A Look at Past Non-ADC Bot Lanes

Considering Riot's goal, I think it's worth mentioning some examples of "successful" bot-lane comps that lack ADCs. Bear in mind, I'm measuring success based on when a large amount of players could run this comp and have it be considered a viable situation. Some of these might be based on feelings but bear in mind that there is precedence for these comps existing, as well as more information about them:

#The Kill Lane

Example Lane Duo: / / Main Apperance: Season 2/3, although you'll see them around time and again. Goal: Suppression of enemy ADC Playstyle: Kill lanes were all about smashing an ADC at their weakest. The thought process was that if the ADC couldn't come online, what was the danger of them? Kill lanes were hyper aggressive, often forsaking farm to a degree for a chance at that sweet 300g kill gold. Strengths: Unparalleled Kill Potential. Powerful early game. Snowball heavy. Weaknesses: Weak to poke. Could be mitigated by playing safe. No tower killing potential. Why did it disappear?: Too inconsistent to be a viable counter-lane to the ADC/Support.

#The Reign of Mordekaiser

Example Lane Duo: and anyone. Main Appearance: Season 5 Worlds. Goal: Get someone not an ADC in bot lane. Playstyle: Winning. No. Seriously. Mordekaiser had stupid advantages. Strengths: XP sharing, strong early game. Dragon control bonuses. Sustain. Damage. No, really, lots of damage. Weaknesses: Ban Phase. Why did it disappear?: Riot learned better.

#Double Targons.

Example Lane Duo: Two melee, it's open to anyone tbh. Main Appearance: Early Season 4. Goal: Double-farming and income sharing. Playstyle: The general premise was that both melees would take targons and share the wave, splitting gold. This would mean that two melees using targons could not only heal up in the face of poke comps but also get twice as much value from each lane. Unlike kill lanes, these were fine with farming. Strengths: Sustain, shared/double income, decent DPS, depends on your picked champions. Weaknesses: Low turret/objective damage, could be outfarmed if ADC got too far ahead, weaker late game. Why did it disappear?: Targon nerfs made the item less useful, as well as ADCs still being generally better.

#Ziggs Bot

Example Lane Duo: / Main Appearance: Early Season 7. Goal: Wave clear/hard push. Playstyle: Ziggs could take towers and, by virtue of existing, shaved around 25% HP off every tower. With storng wave clear, Ziggs could push the wave to the tower quite often while chunking it down with passive shots. Throw in some decent CSing and some strong ranged damage and Ziggs was a good fit. Strengths: Surpassing ADC tower damage. Decent DPS. Powerful waveclear/pushing. Weaknesses: Lower than an ADC in DPS. Objective damage outside of turrets was meh. Could be countered with engage lanes. Why did it disappear?: ADC resurgence and support items being better for ADCs than Ziggs. Also less reliable.

#Takeaways

With Riot focusing on ranged ADCs being less required, we can see some core things here. ADCs are almost always:

• Reliable.
• Good Objective/Tower damage.
• Can come back given the chance.
• Side-buffed by support items. (More than APCs or otherwise)
• Can only be countered by "breaking" the game.

So to make non-ADC comps work. Riot can...

• Increase reliability or make the reward for non-ADC comps even greater.
• Give non-ranged better objective/tower taking.
• Improve the disparity if a non-ADC falls behind.
• Tailor certain support items to different builds. (Imagine an AP Ardent)
• Give these lanes an advantage that traditional comps do not have without making Mordekaiser two.