When ADCs become good they also become the center of the meta.

RlP K0BE·8/18/2017, 12:51:23 AM·57 votes·2,962 views

When other classes become strong they never become the center of attention like ADC's do. I'm fine with ADC's being the main source of damage during the late game but there is no reason why they should become powerful after their first 2 items if they are focused on being a late game class.

Now I understand that ADCs should be shining with all the tanks running around but I still think they should be brought back in line. What other class have as much item variety as ADCs? They can build their own crit/attack speed items, Assassin items, and even some Bruiser items without the drawbacks of the actual classes these items belong to because of their range.

It feels like you can get away with games if you're top, mid or jungle fall behind but if your ADC falls behind you might as well say goodbye to your lp.

85 Comments

Weiss Guertena8/18/2017, 1:07:59 AM37 votes

When ADCs are "good" then ADC mains whine how useless they are despite still being the only mandatory class in the game until Riot buffs them to godly status. And then when they finally get brought down the cycle repeats.

See "ADC 2K17", when ADCs actually were lategame, team-reliant champions and the boards were full of ADC players crying about their class, which was still a must pick in every game (except an occasional Ziggs or Morde bot, in which case you still needed an ADC in another lane) being crap.

And they are the only class which gets that treatment. When mages are crap they get replaced by assassins in mid and vice versa. Same goes for tanks and fighters in top. But when ADCs are shit according to their mains they are only a must pick in bot instead of having at least one S-tier representative in every lane.

Sohleks8/18/2017, 1:36:56 AM9 votes

And yet at the same time they have those build options they hardly even want them right now as their core adc itemization is so strong.

I find the 80% crit with 3 slot build so so boring choice wise even though its effect is really nice but choice wise at that point there is no more room if you need a lifesteal item and the penetration item and shoes. I remember a few years ago they stopped at like 50 or 55% crit and were somehow content at that and building toward 100% crit was more of a fringe thing.

I feel like itemization changes since the class reworks somehow totally killed variety. Especially for AP. Build path for tanks are overly obvious too (lean on ninja tabis as much as possible and weep once it gets to the point you need real armor items that'll quickly get % pen'd)

Fk. Move ninja tabis power to real armor items already for a net gain late game.

AFilthyCaitMain8/18/2017, 1:05:27 AM8 votes

Whenever anything becomes good it becomes the center of the meta*

item 3504 Fiora Caitlyn Lulu item 3153 item 3193 item 3190

OyddAWqJ5r8/18/2017, 5:12:47 AM4 votes

Correction: ADC's are always the center of the meta. Assassin, Tank, Support, every meta is defined by how they shut an ADC down.

The current meta is an ADC/Support meta. Ardent Censor and ADC's hitting late game at mid game means an early lead is turned into an unstoppable snowball.

That's what happens when the counters to ADC's aren't as effective, especially when the Support meta is happening simultaneously.

bwop8/18/2017, 12:57:54 AM4 votes

Rip Mages and Assassins :((((( we get no love.

Gunpoint8/18/2017, 1:16:34 AM4 votes

Adc's aren't really crazy powerful with just two items, except maybe Twitch . Which is even more so a problem considering he scales so well in to late game.

Dengeden8/18/2017, 12:04:50 PM3 votes

What you don't understand is that "focus the ADC" is a valid strategy most of the time, regardless of how strong they are.

Buzzkillington08/18/2017, 2:17:19 AM3 votes

ADC's are only spiking at 2 items because they are either flat out broken like Twitch Draven or because they are getting a free statikk shiv worth of attack speed from ardent censer. I have said this on another thread, but I'll repeat again: item 3087 + item 3094 synergy has to go, ardent needs a significant nerf on the attack speed and the health on hit removed and either they nerf janna/lulu or coin line Tanks need good core armor items so item 3109 isn't seen being rushed on divers/skirmishers in the jungle or in toplane. Locket needs a cd nerf. This is all we need to bring back the importance of positioning, patience and kiting skills back to the ADC role. It's incredibly frustrating to practice on that and then see the enemy KogMaw or Twitch simply stand in one place and destroy your whole team. I want botlane to be interesting and have skill involved again.

Rozzeta8/18/2017, 12:21:55 PM3 votes

You should go read some of the old posts from Morello, in which he tries to explain why he thinks it's better for the game if the main damage dealer is always the priority target, and said main damage dealer was picked as the ADC, since as long as the ADC remains more powerful at most times in the game, then the game proceeds faster (Season 1 had weaker ADC, and huge farm lane times in which first blod would come as late as 20 minutes in). What you're denouncing right now has ben Riot's balance focus since early season 2.

Jaghatai8/18/2017, 8:55:02 AM2 votes

ADC's have always been the over-arcing center of the meta. Sometimes things get tanky, but ADCs have always defined the meta (at least since season 2)

The Deckowner8/18/2017, 2:28:31 PM2 votes

Even when they are bad they are the center of the meta, remember ADC IN 2017 LUL?

The0nlyLordREM8/18/2017, 2:43:06 PM2 votes

Both ADC itemisation cost/efficiency as well as protective support items are a joke at the moment. The biggest problem is that these two things combined basically means the team with more abusive Ardent combo wins past 25 mins. You almost never win when your team ADC is being considerably outshined by enemy ADC but you can easily find a 0-3-0 toplaner winning the game if their ADC is better.

deadlychuck8/18/2017, 3:02:09 PM1 votes

Well the same is true for assassins and tanks in the current design of the game.

If one of these 3 classes become good, they become the center of everything. But even if none of them are relatively better than the others, it becomes a snowball contest between these 3.

SkZ DoPe8/18/2017, 5:03:35 PM1 votes

actually, it's the supports that make this meta, Lulu Janna Soraka with item 3504 are the reason ADC's become such hyper carries at the moment.