ADC Math Question

Dolyna·5/16/2016, 12:09:06 AM·6 votes·1,366 views

Pardon the noobish question. I was comparing the damage per level of various champions, and I was wondering if I'm missing something important.

According to the official champion pages, Sivir has an attack damage of 57.46 + 2.41/level, and an attack speed of 0.625 + 1.6%/level. Meanwhile, Janna has an attack damage of 51.956 + 2.95/level, and an attack speed of 0.625 +2.61%/level. Then it would seem to me that at level 11, Janna's attack damage is 83.97, while Janna's is 84.406, and Janna is just going to keep getting stronger and faster than Sivir after that. Given the same equipment... would that mean that Janna could be a decent ADC in the long run? Or is the lower level difference just too much for her to keep up the pace? Or is my math horribly flawed?

I know full well that Janna is meant for support. I was just wondering if my math was right.

13 Comments

Teridax685/16/2016, 1:21:08 PM3 votes

Base stats are just one part of the equation. If Sivir and Janna had equal health and armor, and just fought purely with basic attacks until either one keeled over, then yes, Janna would win. However, there are many more factors playing into this, including autoattack range (Sivir's is 500, which is pretty short for a marksman, but Janna's is 475, which is one of the lowest around for a ranged champion), and kit-based scalings. Sivir, for example, gains bonus attack speed and has damage that scales with AD, whereas Janna scales purely with AP and gains 40 AD at most from her shield without building the stat. She has a lot more crowd control, but would just end up scaling terribly with a full AD build in the long run, while also having a lot of trouble in lane.

Icestar11865/16/2016, 12:15:38 AM1 votes

You know, this could work... A knockup, a slow, a shield, and an AOE knockback/self-heal. Some of it would be weaker due to no AP, but you would still have your own support to help you.

GaleWinUnleashed5/16/2016, 12:17:36 AM1 votes

Janna doesn't really have AD scaling, though, aside from autos. Sivir does additional damage with Q if she builds AD, and also has an attack speed steroid on W (due to ult passive).

Going by just base stats, Janna is better at physical damage than Sivir, but you must also consider kit design.

masterdragon4815/16/2016, 12:20:50 AM1 votes

Well, your math is slightly off as the attack damage per level is included in the base ad of the champions you listed here. If you got the info off wiki, their level 1 includes the first level of ad.

So Janna doesn't actually exceed Sivir in attack damage until level 14.

But that still won't make Janna a good adc. Most adc's don't simply rely on auto attack damage to fit their role.

Wait what??? Adc's don't auto attack? ^ that isn't what I said.

Sivir has ad ratios on her Q, vastly improving its damage. In addition, her W can crit, allowing her to crit entire teams in the late game. Vayne has her silver bolts and ad ratios on Q and E. Jhin speaks for himself. So does lucian. Draven is another good example, his kit has an 85% ad steroid in it.

Janna has nothing like this; the only use for ad is to amplify her auto attacks. That doesn't mean it won't work in a bronze game. It just won't work at high level due to there being much better options.

Oh and adc's generally have the lowest attack damage/attack damage growth because it is expected that they are going to build it. Similarly, tanks have the highest ad growth so they have a minimum damage threshold while they build very little to no damage items.

Nehmu5/16/2016, 12:15:07 AM1 votes

Well i dont think janna would be a good adc given that yes, she might have more ad in the long run but her kit is built for adc's and other people. She dosent have a carry kit like someone like vayne, lucian, or anyone else but sivir is different. I feel like she is one of the not carry adc's and is more of a support type adc with her ult speeding up the team and the spell shield to block something. But still overall i think that if janna was to be a better adc her early game will be too squishy even if u build dorans. You would have to substitue health runes and miss out on attack damage, armor, mr, or attack speed putting you behind early.

And yes, your math is correct with the given information.

TheOvermind5/16/2016, 6:15:34 AM1 votes

No one seems to realize that Janna has an insane ad steroid on her shield .

Nik Nikerson5/16/2016, 6:21:44 AM1 votes

I'm just going to say back when Nemesis draft was a thing, I played several games of ADC Janna. Surprisingly strong. I mean, not actually strong enough to be a real thing, but it's certainly not the worst.

Sasogwa5/16/2016, 6:22:58 AM1 votes

Janna doesn't have good steroids or AD ratios. Sivir for example has a noticeable attack speed boost with her ricochet/ult ; and a fair attack damage ratio on her boomerang, while Janna only has a slight bonus of AD on her E, which is purely based on how much AP she has. Usually an ADC has good synergy with AD items which allows them to be relevant with that itemization throughout early-midgame and also scale harder than other champions with it.

Lil Gr33n Ghouls5/16/2016, 3:38:42 AM1 votes

ADC rely on more than just AA's to do their job. For example, while Janna would have some self peeling with her Q and Ulti, she has no AD scallings, no AA steroids, and doesn't have Sivir's Spell Sheild. Sivir has all three of those along with poke from her Q and can help her entire team engage or disengage with her ult.