Why is there never a diversity among the ADC's?

4NoxiousHours·Apr 30, 2017·11 votes·1,230 views

When I first started playing league back in Season 4, was such a huge trend that year. In season 5,

and now it's mostly just

This is based off from what I remember and seen from streams.

These guys are only ever played when they receive a buff or someone has discovered an OP strategy that leads them into getting nerf'd.

this guy for some reason is super strong yet I hardly see him. this guy left the ADC role and became a jungler because no one played him as an ADC anymore.

she just started, so we have yet to see what will happen with her.

33 Comments

ApocylipticApr 30, 20174 votes

Because all of the ADC's are so similar and do almost the same amount of damage regardless of the enemy team. They just do them in SLIGHTLY different ways.

That means, whenever an ADC is strong, all the ADC mains drool on themselves and flock to it immediately. They aren't playing ADC for a champion typically. They're playing it so they can play a ranged ADC. They like to focus on their late game DPS and positioning. Who they play specifically in that role doesn't really matter all too much when they all feel almost the exact same.

It's the reason you never really find ADC one tricks, unless it's an ADC with a very particular playstyle like Draven or Varus. That's also why I consider the ADC rework a failure. It was supposed to fix this exact problem.

JaxMoonStealerMay 1, 20171 votes

This. The ADC update focused on making marksmen "feel" different (which they somewhat succeded at; Graves is less generic now) but it failed at looking at the class as a whole and its purpose in the game.

Think about it. What is an ADC's main purpose?

Miss Fortune: Deal damage. Lucian: Deal damage. Jinx: Deal damage. Twitch: Deal damage. Caitlyn: Deal damage. Corki: Deal damage.

Now, we have some exceptions : Ashe: Deal damage, stun people, slow them. Jhin: Deal damage, snare people, zone them. Sivir: Deal damage, press R.

Now compare this to another class. For example, supports: Nami: Stun people, speedboost allies, heal them. Janna: Protect her allies, peel for them. Lulu: Protect, help an initiator engage, disengage from assassins by turning them into furries, poke. Bard: Roam/gank, provide his team with mobility, do whatever he wants with his ult.

Perhaps you could say I oversimplified every ADC's function. But we still can't deny they all offer mostly the same, which is the reason why there's almost no variety in said class.

Riot could maybe fix this by giving ADCs more to do than just deal damage. Give them more utility, perhaps, like Ashe and Jhin have. I don't know. Maybe I'm talking out of my ass since I suck at that role. But I love talking about game design and I'm sure this is the main issue.

oSEXYPLATYPUSoApr 30, 20172 votes

there is only 22 marksmen in the game how many do you need to see?

hell in my game i jsut finished i saw 6 of them

RequiemsfireApr 30, 20172 votes

I always see Ashe, twitch and Miss fortune o3o.

AFilthyCaitMainApr 30, 20171 votes

I play Ashe and Twitch all the time

4NoxiousHoursApr 30, 20172 votes

{quoted}

I play Ashe and Twitch all the time

You're one of those rare people who do but currently all I see MOSTLYYYYYYY is Lucian Caitlyn

and I feel like Caitlyn has so much attention because of the amount of traps she can spam.

AFilthyCaitMainApr 30, 20171 votes

I mained Caitlyn right before she became meta again (heck i even played her in the lethality meta) But ive kind of moved away from her ever since shes became uber meta.

RewtApr 30, 20174 votes

ashe is actually really popular

oSEXYPLATYPUSoApr 30, 20171 votes

ashe is popular due to utility as an adc. same as sivir was in pro play.

she can be behind and with her aoe slow and her ult if she lands them can still help a team. and if she gets fed and ahead she turns into hyper carry. and in the meta we are in with high damage out put from all roles... more carries, having an adc who can be used to engage or disengage ,scout, slow etc is very valuable in the current meta

WingsofGulgazorMay 1, 20171 votes

ashe is really strong right now, she along with caitlyn and lucian are probably the strongest and most reliable picks she excels at teamfight dps and has her arrow and he laning phase can deal with even caitlyn.

yoshi2790Apr 30, 20171 votes

I'm pretty sure bot has the least possible champion picks out of all. Second is that every role has META, and high picks ( Ahri Fiora Ivern atm.)

AnastaeciaApr 30, 20171 votes

The top meta champs are always going to get the most game play. Though Vayne is not one of those. But yea, I've been seeing her quite a bit lately,

Then, I have seen a lot of twitch and draven too. Xayah is strong, but she gets banned almost every game. I still see quite a bit of Ashe and actually more MF lately then earlier in the year.

Graves has trouble with ADC because of his reload.

It might just be your perception too. Remember, the games you play are like the Earth in the middle of the Universe...small sample. Always going to be quirks in a small sample size. Last week for example, I think all of my games on one day but one were against a Thresh. Since then, I have played against him once.

WingsofGulgazorMay 1, 20171 votes

ya be honest most adc's are pretty strong right now and can be played at times. There are still the strongest adc's but you can probably still play about any adc and win rather reliably if you play at your skill level well.

l Helios lApr 30, 20171 votes

Draven is only as strong as the player playing him. His sustained damage is reliant on catching Q's, which makes him inherently unreliable if the enemy is competent. Why play him when Caitlyn 's is more consistent and therefore more reliable?

Plus there's a lot of power in League of Draven , and if he fucks up early, you usually lose. Whereas on Caitlyn , you have the safety of farming from far away and more reliable scaling, plus some bonus peel and utility in traps and the net.

MunchCrunchLunchApr 30, 20171 votes

I see lucian/ezreal/caitlyn and twitch in more than 75% in my games

SpecterVonBarenApr 30, 20171 votes

Lucian Was big in Season 4 too. And in Season 5, and in Season 6, and.... Well seems he's always been a big pick at some point during a season ever since his release.

Laxfan52Apr 30, 20171 votes

He wasnt very good in s7 until the bork got changed

SpecterVonBarenMay 1, 20171 votes

"Well seems he's always been a big pick at some point during a season ever since his release. We can go for an entire season without seeing Varus or Tristana, or Sivir but Lucian always comes back.

Reaper5599Apr 30, 20171 votes

Wait.

Where's Kog?

Likes, He's not here, at all, and he is a decent Adc (atleast I think) at the moment.

Big LincolnApr 30, 20171 votes

because when the only competition for their spot on the team is other ADCs you're only going to pick the objectively best, because they mostly exceed at the same thing

Troll for TrumpApr 30, 20171 votes

Draven is one of the hardest champs in the game.

There are some ppl that will never be good with him, while others are just naturally good.

Urgot adc rip

fuffychanMay 1, 20171 votes

Corki KogMaw Tristana

til these are not ADCs

Akali is SO HOTMay 1, 20171 votes

There's always gonna be 3 or 4 that are stronger than the rest of the champions. That's just how it is.

chipndip1May 1, 20171 votes

Bot lane usually only has 3 to 4 relevant marksmen at once. Shit never changes no matter what Riot does.

OelykMay 1, 20171 votes

Corki Jhin KogMaw Tristana and Urgot Feel left out.

4NoxiousHoursMay 1, 20171 votes

Just to clarify with you all about this topic, I'm pretty much trying to say that within every season, it's always a TOP 3 BEST ADC champions to play. In MOST games, all you see is those specific 3 champions and it gets pretty tiring seeing them over and over and over.

There's over 10 ADC champions to play and out of all of them, only 3 is frequently being played than any other ADC.

PhDs NutsMay 1, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Just to clarify with you all about this topic, I'm pretty much trying to say that within every season, it's always a TOP 3 BEST ADC champions to play. In MOST games, all you see is those specific 3 champions and it gets pretty tiring seeing them over and over and over.

There's over 10 ADC champions to play and out of all of them, only 3 is frequently being played than any other ADC.

Why are you making this thread after this was addressed in the other thread you brought it up in?

This literally happens to every role every season. Support is just Lulu right now for whoever picks her first if she isn't banned. Rakan doesn't count yet since they always overtune the new champs. Jungle has Lee, Graves, Ivern. Top and Mid both have their own meta champs.

zaire90May 1, 20171 votes

I figured because all adcs did the same job which is take towers and apply dps theres not really any diversity between what they do just how they do it so the ones that are stronger/safer than the others would get picked more unlike in other lanes where theres different classes going to those lanes

WingsofGulgazorMay 1, 20171 votes

pretty much all adc's are viable or better then others from time to time the onyl concerns right now would be that kalista was nerfed to hard so it would be difficult for her to see play without buffs, then quin can't really be buffed because she is already strong enough in other roles like top so if she was good enough to be played bot she would crush jungle and top even harder. You also forgot Tristinia which has been in and out of the meta several times but currently her Q doesn't really scale well enough to be worth the bad early game in a meta where strong early game is really good and then Corki is also almost always meta around time Worlds Championship comes around. Draven can't really ever be to strong because he's to feast or famine. Jhin and varus were meta earliar in the season and sivir see's play at times generally when adc's are weak as a role but still. Then there's even been several times Kog'maws been in the meta.

As for why generally only several are played at a time it's because 1) there is a somewhat limited pool of adc's where most other roles have champions that can be played in all of them. 2) they are also limited by what supports are strong and which supports synergize best with the adc's and this is pretty big since supports dictate laning phase the most. 3) Almost all adc's build the same things so ad that fits the meta the best is the strongest and it cuts out other adc's and other ad's with differnt build paths from the meta generally can't compete as well with the meta ad's. 4) depends on what other champs are meta so if tanks are super op then utility adc's are probably going to be played and certain adc's thrive better in certain meta's, like the hyper carry adc's are good in some places ect and some champions like vayne are always weak and are only played because people like playing the champion and should never be strong enough to be first picked and not expect to be at a massive disadvantage. Also lot of adc's don't have mobility and are weak because of it and if adc's can get away with no mobility then things like kog'maw become the best choice. Whereas if you need mobility then there are differnt options

Though at the same time generally only several supports are played at once though that has opened up quite a bit recently since redemption and aegis are strong and mage supports are currently viable and generally in mid lane there are a top 3 super picks that can face smash everything.

JebronMay 1, 20171 votes

Because the role is dominated mostly by items and who currently does the best job of fulfilling the ADC role. In a game where winning is the end objective, why would you pick one champion when another does the same thing but better?

Would also like to let you know, Draven isn't super strong. You hardly see him because his kit design is so shit and allows him to be made completely useless. He gets punished so hard just for his passive existing.

SirLapseMay 1, 20171 votes

There is diversity, but it's really hard to act like there is when there are actually fewer than 20 ADCs in the bot lane currently compared to top lane with over 30 possible picks. They're the smallest group within the entire game, so naturally their diversity will be lower than normal. When you have an equally small pool of AD items to choose from due to Infinity Edge and Bloodthirster not being the items they were before (and being expensive at that), they will like to borrow from other role's items and it makes the role really volatile when talking about buffs.

I can only hope the ADC itemization fixes they're doing will make you have an impactful choice over when your ADC is strong and defines how you as a player want to play the role. Lethality went to hell and things like Varus needed such strong compensation buffs that it equated to a small rework.