What is with the obsession with ADCs?

guguy123··2 votes·1,288 views

Despite the meta constantly changing and swinging around back and forth, the role of ADCs as vital factors and the center of attention has stayed consistent, firmly planted in the meta. Why? On a competitive level I see exactly why they would opt for focusing so much on one person. Having a person who can dish out insane DPS and melt their team is vital to winning, and since monster faceroll champs like Yi, Trynd, and Kat are easily countered and played around in LCS level play, and autoattacks are the most reliable source of damage in the game (You can't dodge em, can't spellshield em, can't cleanse em), it only makes sense for ADCs to become incredibly effective and vital to a team comp. Furthermore, Assassins are not very good right now in competitive play because of the sheer amount of crowd control available to players and the reflexes and coordination that these pros have allow them to instantly lockdown an assassin before he can do his job, and at that point the assassin has failed. But all of this dissolves once you get to lower ELOs.

  • Faceroll champs like Yi, Trynd, and Kat run rampant with nobody stopping to think "Hmm, maybe full damage isn't the best way to build Warwick"
  • Nobody runs summoner spells like cleanse or times things like spellshield correctly, and people are terrible at dodging skillshots (This is balanced out by the fact they are also terrible at HITTING skillshots)
  • Players at this rank are generally far worse at positioning, which is punished by far most severely on ADCs.
  • Lack of communication and more widely varied skill levels (Bronze-Silver skill levels vary widely, from players who are obviously climbing and have a general understanding of the game, to people who ask for blue buff on Yasuo.) leads to teammates being unreliable, which means that the constant care and peeling that ADCs in high levels get just isn't there. This is mostly an ADC problem because most facerolly champions have ways to survive and peel for themselves ( Yasuo windwall and shield, Fiora ult and parry, Tryndamere ult, Yi's entire fucking kit)
  • Assassins completely destroy Marksmen at this level because their teammates are, as said above, unreliable. I'm not saying as an ADC in low ELO you should blame your team, not at all. I'm saying the teamwork and communication just isn't there.

So this brings up the question of why even bother with ADCs if you can just send one of these facerolly champions bot lane, along with a support, and play things out exactly the same but with a champion with a more self-reliant playstyle, that can do well without his team having godlike peeling....

If you have any opinions on this I'd love to hear them, because obviously I don't know best, and this isn't meant to be a "STOP USING ADCS" thread, just spurring some discussion concerning the current meta of the game and how unchanging the ADC role is....

EDIT: I'd definetly give a free pass to Kalista and Jinx though, as they are very powerful champions regardless of being ADCs or not.

20 Comments

Win1Ocent5 votes

You guys are forgetting one thing. The adc is not primarily there for the damage, the reason an ADC is in every single game is because they excel at one thing, taking down turrets from a range. Every role has strengths, the ADCs biggest advantage over other roles are tower pushing, mages deal ranged damage but lack the attack speed. Winning a game is not about kills, it's about objectives and having one champion with godlike pushing abilities is great. This is why Jinx is so popular.

Try to play a game without an ADC and you'll notice how hard it is to siege turrets while the enemy is defending it, if you walk up as a melee to attack the turret the enemy team will take you down but an ADC can stay at a much safer distance. With an ADC you don't need to be far ahead to siege.

Don't get me wrong, ADCs deal great damage and that is certainly one strength, but the higher you climb the more their pushing ability shine through.

Krigjer1 votes

You guys are forgetting one thing. The adc is not primarily there for the damage, the reason an ADC is in every single game is because they excel at one thing, taking down turrets from a range.

This. They're ranged AD.

You'll notice that if you have a game with no adc at all, you might be getting a lot of kills but you're not accomplishing much in pushing.

guguy1231 votes

This is a great point, sieging is almost impossible without an ADC. I really didn't think about that, I was only really thinking from a teamfight perspective.

Only Play Darius1 votes

{quoted}

sieging is almost impossible without an ADC.

Nasus lolwut

Knight SoIaire 2 votes

adc's are always in the center because riot keeps them as a strongest role

mages are similar to them but most of the time they either lack the sustained or burstdamage adc's have while being gated by mana ... their utility and stuff is similar

on the other hand adc's get to have both the best sustained and the bet burst damage while not lacking much in cc or utility as a role adc's were meant to simply dish damage without a pause ... riot made them into the masters of all the damages without much of a cost and thats why they are a must pick in any game

thats why nobody ever though of not having one ... or switching it ower to any other champion ... becuase other champions have downsides (being squish when building full ad is not downside ... also lifesteal)

in lower elos faceroll champions as you called them arent a good idea ... because ranged enemies will exploit you on the other hand if you are better than enemies and just passing through lower ranks you dont need to feel forced to play an actual adc

yet in normal game where the skill level is quite equal ... adcs are better becuase they are just better

guguy1231 votes

I would argue against that, because Ranged carries on average just have lower base stats and scalings, as well as fewer CC abilities than your average melee carry. Additionally, while range is useful, the sheer mobility creep that has entered league of legends has made it easy as pie to get on top of a ranged target as a melee, so it sort of defeats the point of having range to begin with on these champions. Also, faceroll champions just do well in low ELO, it's why they call them that, because they have low skill caps and can snowball out of control quickly. It seems odd not to replace ADCs with their melee counterparts that lose out on range but gain Survivablity, mobility, CC, Damage, and often resets. Fucking resets.

EDIT: Also, your last sentence doesn't really make much sense. "because they are just better" isn't a very valid reason for WHY they are better....

Knight SoIaire 1 votes

Also, faceroll champions just do well in low ELO, it's why they call them that, because they have low skill caps and can snowball out of control quickly. It seems odd not to replace ADCs with their melee counterparts that lose out on range but gain Survivablity, mobility, CC, Damage, and often resets. Fucking resets.

i agree with this

I would argue against that, because Ranged carries on average just have lower base stats and scalings, as well as fewer CC abilities than your average melee carry. Additionally, while range is useful, the sheer mobility creep that has entered league of legends has made it easy as pie to get on top of a ranged target as a melee, so it sort of defeats the point of having range to begin with on these champions.

in a already initiated teamfight adc's can be put down by meele guys

but at the same time meele carry is more suspectible to beign stopped by cc than a ranged one and meele carry cant just unload on your frontline

ranged carry has that freedom of being out of your range and its not a bad thing, its a part of its gameplay the thing is that adc doesnt realy pay for being able to unload 24/7 while staying relatively safe with anything

all of his downsides are simply out of being a damage dealer (he has smaller hp pool) but gameplay wise he doesnt lack in any way that he should

look at some mages for instance

vel koz good range, good burst, good sustained damage all of it drains his mana hard on top of him lacking any form of mmobility to justify all of his strenghts

ahri. mobile, good burs and medicore sustained damage (im speaking about her w here ... it isnt too potent) and some sustain to back it up pays with having rather short range ... mana ofc, relying or a dodgeable skillshot (charm ... miss it and say bye bye to a kill unless enemy suicides on you or you are hella fed)

and lets say graves top tier burst due to crit, top tier sustained damage due to crit. top tier sustain due to lifesteal. medicore mobility, medicore range (if we go gung ho on hitting a point blank q then he fights in meele. if we look at his ult its a hella long range) basicaly top tier late game in all of its possible ways, and a quite good early game is he mana gated ... in early a little does he need to hit precise skillshots ... nah ... you can just use ult from longer range to make is spread
does he lack mobility ... nah

Now to the real deal ... because i juust made some rather bad points here

the thing isnt that adc's are somehow owerpowered ... its that riot keeps them a centre so tanks are made to suurvive and chase adc's fighters are made to chase adc's assasins are made to chase adc's some mages are even made to chase adc's supports are made to synergize with adc's adc's are made to be the center of the game's ballance

and thats what i dont like here instead of diferent classes having diferent roles in the team ... its all about how they interact with adc's

disregardable1 votes

I have a question. What class of champion has ever been out of the meta, at any point?

Woken Spectre 1 votes

Tanks in the previous meta.

aaronautumn1 votes

tanks were weaker because of how strong penetration items were but they were still picked a lot, teams still need someone to soak damage.

guguy1231 votes

That's really not the reason they were weak, and it really wasn't Tanks that were out of meta, it was full on Amumu and Sejuani tanks, where they bring in practically no damage. They see a lot of play nowadays but they used to be rare picks, with Off Tank bruisers dominating the "damage soaking" field.

guguy1232 votes

No class of champions has ever been COMPLETELY out of the meta, but some classes have certainly had rough times. Full tanks saw little to no play near the end of season 4, with bruisers completely shoving them aside before Riot completely flipped the tables in season 5. Similar deal with assassins, they were ABSURD in season 4, completely rampaging in every lane but bot, yet they are MUCH more tame now (although by no means bad), with mages coming back into the spotlight after being benched by assassins earlier. Yet through all of this, and the fact that Assassins are literally MADE to counter ADCs and Assassins were everywhere in season 4, ADCs still continued to be played practically every single game through ALL of it. I hope this answered your question.

Knight SoIaire 1 votes

out of meta ? tanks in previous season assasin in this season (the ballanced ones)

that doesnt make them unplayable ... but it makes it so most of enemies you find counters you

Wezz1 votes

>Faceroll >Yi

rofl

guguy1231 votes

I'm fairly certain being completely immune to slows while having a massive speed boost, Q that allows him to dodge any projectile, and resets, qualify Yi as a Rift tested Riot approved faceroll champion.

Koldheartedjsp1 votes

damage output

guguy1232 votes

Thanks for completely disregarding the actual post and replying purely based on the title. Melee Carrys usually have better raw damage due to higher scalings and base stats.

Koldheartedjsp1 votes

I'm giving THE answer as to why adcs are picked every single season

fill in the holes yourself it should be rather easy to figure out

if you can't there's simply no helping you

Only Play Darius1 votes

Because they are the only ones who can safely take down turrets. Since you NEED to destroy turrets, ADC's will always be relevant.

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