I feel like there is a growing problem with ADC itemization right now.

Mizaya·5/28/2016, 2:53:47 AM·54 votes·4,624 views

The #1 ADC right now, Lucian, rushes Ghostblade and Black Cleaver, plus he is the first ADC to have a respectable banrate in ages. And now we hear of a Duskblade/Ghostblade MF build that is supposedly "destroying" Korean Solo Queue. If someone were to ask me, I'd tell them that this is the result of how hard early game leads are being snowballed globally, thus resulting in many games ending early before the ADC even has 4 or 5 items.

Infinity Edge, right now, is probably the most inefficient item to rush. Ever. Without it's passive it has 85% efficiency. Ghostblade, meanwhile, is 161% efficient when you use the active. Twitch is rushing it. Draven is rushing it. Lucian is rushing it, and now MF is. This build is becoming increasingly popular, and winrates are rising accordingly. MF, especially, has seen a big increase this patch, and this is with the Korean build becoming more popular. In fact, the Ghostblade > Duskblade > Black Cleaver build is the most popular path and has a nearly 7% higher win rate than the old ER + IE + RFC. Lucian's winrate was #13 on patch 6.6, and now he is #3. MF was at #10, now she is #2. (Using stats from op.gg)

And there have been many stat comparisons done. These builds are far more efficient and strong than the normal 2 item IE/ER + Zeal item. I've been saying for a while that ADCs that excel early game compared to others will probably be better this season, but now that these builds are popping up and seriously increasing the winrates of champions that can use them, I think more attention needs to be given to this.

132 Comments

lofi n chillhop5/28/2016, 5:14:08 AM19 votes

wait I don't get it. we're upset that there's an alternate way to build some adc's that doesn't rely on crits? sounds like the dream to me, I hope it never changes.

Rossendale5/28/2016, 2:44:58 PM16 votes

Marksmen are to toplaners what midlaners are to supports. The second can never have any nice things because the first will abuse the shit out of them until they're dumpstered.

Lady Hammerlock5/28/2016, 4:59:55 AM15 votes

Nerf it for ranged item 3147 needs to be melee only item 3071 Has half max stacks on range champs item 3142 is actually pretty fine,twitch still bought it even before the marksmen update

Blue Moon Wolf5/28/2016, 3:47:15 AM14 votes

Well technically item 3147, item 3071 and possibly item 3142 are not really SUPPOSED to be ADC/marksman items. item 3147 and item 3142 were more for what Riot calls Slayers (Assassins and light fighters/Skirmishers) and item 3071 was made more for Fighters (Juggernauts and Divers to be exact), but there is no restriction on these items to say Marksman can't build them. It's the same reason item 3085 and item 3074 have restrictions on them, but Riot doesn't want to have any more items with restrictions on them since it "creates restricting gameplay". As much as it sucks, we are pretty much stuck with marksmen abusing these things till they get nerfed and no one wants to build them anymore.

Over Innsmouth5/28/2016, 11:19:57 AM10 votes

IMO, AD items (some of them, at least) have been overtuned since the Marksman Update.

item 3139 : Before the QSS nerf, there was literally no reason not to buy it. It had a decent build path, a large chunk of AD, and provided Lifesteal. Then you add the active on top of that. item 3036 /item 3033 : Go from being ignored by tanks to being able to ignore tanks. 45% bonus ArPen is huge. Mortal Reminder also shuts down healers way too hard given how easy it is to apply the GW debuff, and how cheap item 3123 is. item 3142 : 65 AD and 20 ArPen is already pretty strong with the active. I feel like the 10% CDR is overkill. The item also grants a bit of AS on the active, though not enough to substitute an actual AS item. item 3156 : It's like the Zhonyas for AD, if it took all the steroids and then still cheated at the Olympics. Zhonyas gets to invalidate certain AD champs kits once every 120 (used to be 90) seconds, Maw gets to invalidate all Mages and a some tanks/fighters who rely on magic/mixed damage for most of their damage output, while still providing good offensive stats like ArPen. What's that, you got me low? Let's just passively pop a shield without me having to do anything, and get a steroid of AD and Lifesteal that doesnt wear off until one of us dies or runs away.

...Yeah, I am a salty Mage main. I do not like Maw.

Meanwhile crit has been relegated to being only great on Champs with innate crit scalings (Yasuo Jhin Caitlyn, EDIT: Tryndamere Ashe Gangplank ) (tell me if I've forgotten any), Champs who synergize with one item so well that they have to buy it (Corki item 3078 ), or Champs who scale with AS so well that they happen to buy crit as a secondary stat (Vayne ).

Why risk not critting for damage in a fight when you can just rush straight damage and consistently hurt with every attack? Draven can get away with it because of his ludicrous AD scaling on Q. Lucian can do it because Lightslinger gives him pseudo-attack speed. Twitch can stealth for surprise attacks and has an AS steroid to boot. MF I'm not too sure, perhaps it's a mix of her ult not being AS reliant so she can get away with skipping the stat, and a good Q does some nasty damage if she's built full AD.

The Whamboozler5/28/2016, 9:32:50 AM7 votes

This just in... adc's abuse AD items not meant for them to become obnoxious monsters.

Brought to you by... item 3124 , item 3156 , item 3071 , item 3142 , item 3053 and item 3147

The Bearded Bard5/28/2016, 3:16:12 PM6 votes

Ranged carries abusing items not meant for them? That's unheard of.