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Why ADC's act so differently from any other role

Electro522··1 votes·337 views

Im an Ashe main, and about every other game (when I play ADC), I get someone saying I should be more useful, be more aggressive, or just simply keep attacking. This has lead to me to believe that most people (at least in the lower elos) don't understand how important positioning is for ADCs.

I'll use my previous game as an example. Me and my support (a Leona) happened to come across the enemy bot lane in the jungle. Their Lucian was pretty good with his dashes, and the only way we could really kill him was to make sure he couldnt move at all (we also had an Annie on our team), and if we couldn't do that, their Nami would do a fantastic job at controling the battlefield, and keeping Lucian alive. Leona went in on Lucian, only to find that their Kat was coming in for backup. Considering I'm playing Ashe, and no matter how far behind a Kat is (Annie kind of destroyed her in lane), I know that that situation is death for both of us (not to mention that I had no summs at the time). Unfortunately, Leona couldn't get out, so I had no choice but to leave her behind, or risk dying myself.

About a minute later, our Zac jungle says: Zac "Ashe, could you please be more useful?" Ashe "What do you mean?" Zac "Every engage, I see you with full mana and health, and you barely attack them." Zac "Also leaving Leona behind to die." Ashe "Against 3 of them? Ashe "And a Kat? Ashe "If I stayed, I would have died myself."

He was polite about it, and didn't go off at all, but this is what I'm talking about. With a Kat, and only 2 of us for her to focus on, there is nowhere an ADC can stand that is safe in that kind of situation.

Positioning is EVERYTHING for ADCs. If I do not have a good position in a fight, I'm not going to fight until I have a decent enough position where I can rain hell upon the enemy team. If I try to fight in a bad position, the chances of me dying are FAR greater than any other role. ADCs always have a massive target on their heads, so if they are out of position....they're dead.

So please, if you happen to wonder why your ADC isn't doing anything during an engage, please don't automatically assume that they're just bad, and don't know how to do their job. 8 times out 10, they see something they don't like, and since they know that they are the biggest target on the team, they'll either try to find a better position, or just back off entirely.

One more example:

I was playing Jayce mid, and we had a Trist ADC, and Jax jungle. Me and Jax happen to get caught out in the jungle by the red side Gromp, quite close to inner bot lane tower. Trist happened to be right there, and was actually walking towards us to help, but immediately turned around when she noticed that the fight was clearly one sided. Afterwards, our Jax called her out for not doing anything. I stepped in and defended her, because I knew she had no good position for that fight, and would have ultimately died herself if she went in.

Its decisions like these that help ADCs win games.

4 Comments

colesy1 votes

katarina does no damage if she's not stupidly ahead, and nami is immobile so you should have been able to pick her off pretty easily with zac E or your ult. i'm not seeing the excuse you have for not joining in fights.

Electro5221 votes

Lucian was ahead of me, and went straight for IE. Needless to say, he hurt.

Kat was behind, but she still had a few kills on her where I needed to respect her.

Zac was up by top lane, we were near bot. If he was around it probably would have been a fair fight.

If I use my ult on Nami, and go on her, that just opens up several windows for Kat AND Lucian to blow me up. Nami was and had to be the last target on our list.

Swiftstrike41 votes

I am a support secondary and I also play Leona.

I just looked up your stats for that game and it looks like you ended up winning. Playing in the bot lane in lower Elo is hard. You have to trust in your teammate but if one of you teammates is not that good (the support or the ADC) then it can lead to a lane that gets out of control and it can be quickly lost.

Supports like Leona that cannot escape after going in, and have it rough because if there is no follow up they simply die. It also means they typically have to earn the trust of the ADC by making a good play early in the game and not simply going in whenever they feel like it.

As the ADC you should put more trust in the support if its a ranked game (normals don't trust the support they might be trying something new or never supported before). They probably play support regularly and they are typically the role that picks the initiate. When I play Leona I play pretty cautious early and look for the right engage. Once I earn the ADCs trust (if I do) I will play more aggressively, but largely I am making significant decisions for the two of us in the bottom lane early on. I think it is harder to build trust in lower elo because players vary so much in skill.

I am in Gold I, but I am a top main with support being my OK role. Recently, I have been winning more games that I am playing as support and that is how I have climbed a bit. Now I don't think I am a great support and I don't think I have significantly improved recently at the position. However, I am playing with better ADCs than I was when I was in Gold V or Gold IV. **These ADCs follow-up with ALL my early engages regardless if they think they are bad or not. They are frequently high gold/low plat adc mains, but they don't hesitate when I go in because they understand that hesitating or retreating could be the death of me and them in the worst case. **My win rate has gone up because I am playing with ADC that are more trusting, not because I got ostensibly better. Unless the ADC specifies that they only want to farm in laning, I usually make a lot of the earls calls as the initiator.

That being said, when I play normals and I get a Silver or Bronze ADC, they follow-up way less or they don't at all. Then I die on what could have been a good play. I am not saying all my decisions are good and lower elo players are prone to making bad calls,_ but from the scenario you described you should have just followed up with your support if you think they were making good decisions throughout the game._ If I don't think my ADC is too good, I usually tone back the aggression and only play disengage. As the ADC I think you should follow up with the supports early engages no matter what and the less hesitation the better.

Now if the support makes some bad early calls then you can alter how you play and interact with them, but it appears your Leona was doing a pretty decent job that game, only looking at the stats.

On a final note, if you are very concerned about your positioning then play an ADC with an escape. Ashe is very strong. but very much like Leona, once you are in a fight you are IN and cannot leave like other ADCs.

Electro5221 votes

I agree with pretty much everything you say, however, allow me to make some pointers:

Leona going on Lucian was a good call, and I definitely would have went in with her had Kat not showed up. Neither of us knew Kat was coming, and when she did, she made a (somewhat) even 2v2 into a 3v2 that we really wouldn't win. Leona would have continued to keep Lucian an Nami busy while Kat made work of me.

I am an ADC that only farms until my support can make a good opportunity (unless one of the other laners makes a blantant mistake). Surprisingly enough, I actually perform better on the ADCs that have no escapes (don't ask me why), but because of that, I try to keep from making any calls whatsoever, and I let my support do their thing. If they're aggressive, I'll be aggressive with them. If they're quite passive, then I'm happy with just farming until a gank (if we ever get one). This Leona was kind of in the middle, and in reality, I don't think she ever made a horrible call.

Yes, I did win. I made this post simply because of an observation I've made that there are some people out there that don't completely understand why ADCs do what they do. Or, hell, maybe I'm just special.

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