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"Just kite them." Are people genuinely that stupid, or do they seriously think kiting is valid?

Winston Wolf·2/18/2016, 4:32:53 PM·8 votes·4,100 views

It could just be me, but there seems to be a huge rise in people playing melee champs all of a sudden, which often leads to frustrating fights where its a matter of sitting and waiting for death as an ADC. Upon commenting on how stupid it is, I get the response "just kite them".

People do realize (I hope) that kiting slows you down.

I am aware that orb-walking increases the number of attacks you can release before your pursuer reaches you, but as for overall distance traveled, it is lessened. That is just common sense, as you stop to attack.

So if the person chasing you has 500 move speed, and you have 400 move speed, By simply running away, not kiting, they will reach you in 4 seconds. When you stop to attack they will reach you within 2. You'll get maybe 2-3 attacks off before coming face to face with your target. Let's say youre a super great kiter and get 4 attacks off. 4 attacks, 400AD (generous) with 50% crit will give you (2 x 1000 crits + 2 x 400) that's 2800 damage without armor. I can't think of a single game where the melee dominator has had less that 2800 raw health. 50% reduction (200 armor) drops that to 1.4k. Congratulations, your incredible kiting skills have taken off 1/3 of Volibear's health.

I just can't understand how kiting will help anyone get away, and I am only commenting on people without dashes so far. It will increase the amount of damage you inflict upon them before they catch you, but it means they will catch you even faster. From my experience if you get stunned as an ADC, You're dead. No if's, but's or why's. You are dead. On the off chance that Udyr doesn't take off 3/4 of your health before his stun wears off, you will never run away from him.

God forbid they are the likes of Irelia or Xin Zhao who can close the range of your auto attack instantly. But don't worry, you can kite them. Or so people say.

[Melee Champ X] has a higher base move speed than you. [Melee Champ X] has a built Ghostblade/Deadman's Plate/Black cleaver, for that free bonus move speed.

So when champ X and Y are on the same starting point (just after gap close has been used) and champ X moves faster, how can anyone possibly assume Y will gain distance?

TLDR: Kiting seems worthless when there is such a large difference in move speed as we see in current meta. Only advice ever receieved is "Just kite them" and only people who failed grade 3 maths can truly believe that kiting helps.

86 Comments

Jbels2/18/2016, 4:37:01 PM7 votes

Every major marksman in the game has some kind of self peel or mobility to help them get out of sticky situations, but if the other guy gets through that and manages to kill you, that's their counterplay towards you for being able to DPS from relative safety. Plus there's your team's peel to consider

Psi212/18/2016, 4:36:19 PM3 votes

I agree with you and with the introduction to more tenacity you better believe the problem with tanky dps champs is going to get more problematic.

Meep Man2/18/2016, 5:27:51 PM3 votes

Ashe Caitlyn Corki Draven Ezreal Graves Jinx Kalista Kindred KogMaw Lucian MissFortune Quinn Sivir Tristana Twitch Varus Vayne

Every. Single. ADC. They all have a GTFO spell or good enough CC to get them out. The only ones that don't have amazing ones are Jinx, Kog'Maw, and Twitch. Arguably Varus. Everyone else has a way to kite an enemy away and majority also deal damage at the same time. If you are alone, then you got caught out, simple as that. Your a Marksman, you need a buddy.

Ahri Anivia Annie Azir Brand Cassiopeia Fiddlesticks Galio Heimerdinger Karma Karthus Kennen Leblanc Lissandra Lux Malzahar Morgana Nidalee Orianna Ryze Swain Syndra Teemo TwistedFate Veigar Velkoz Viktor Vladimir Xerath Ziggs Zilean Zyra

Every. Single. Mage. They all have good enough CC or a GTFO spell as well. The only ones that don't have the best ones are Karthus, Orianna, Swain, Vladimir, and Zyra. If you get caught out, you got caught out.

Learn to kite. It's extremely important you do. Learn to position. Then you don't have to kite.

BluePolarizer2/18/2016, 4:41:40 PM2 votes

But then you have Red Buff mid/late game and can kite them indefinitely.

ValyrianBlade2/18/2016, 5:21:36 PM2 votes

Well, to be fair, kiting isn't just about attacking and running away.

Kiting should include peel. From yourself or allies.

The problem is that in solo queue players don't provide peel (either the champion with it is too busy engaging elsewhere, or your team just didn't pick any).

If you're an ADC and your team has no peel, you pretty much need to pick Vayne, Tristana, Kalista, or Ezreal. Any other ADC just gets outright stomped on if no one is stunning/slowing the guy chasing you.

Maybe Quinn, Twitch, Corki, or Lucian. Maaybe Ashe. Maaybe Caitlyn. These picks all depend on what exactly is threatening you.

Which isn't completely imbalanced. Those champions should destroy ADCs if there isn't any peel. The problem is Riot has made so many of these champions OP that other roles prefer to pick them over champions with peel, and it's severely limiting the viable ADC pool. If you want to pick a standard ADC you need peel, and many ADCs are balanced around that, but these days often have very little or none.

Paladin 0f Life2/18/2016, 4:36:33 PM1 votes

Iceborn, ryalis. Ashe just kite. Phage works too.

DeloricVI2/18/2016, 9:23:25 PM1 votes

I think you're not understanding what kiting is meant for. You seem to think that kiting should keep you miles out and able to attack them until the end of time. Realistically, if you're building right and laning correctly, they should die before they get there if they chase you like an idiot. If they get too close, use your escape. If you already blew it getting in close and personal, you're not using it right, unless you're finishing the fight. If you're on your own and the enemy team just pops out from all angles and annihilates you, that's you getting caught out while alone, which you should not be, or while going out alone, which you should not be doing.

As everyone else said, you also neglect that almost all, if not all champions that need to kite have the tools to do so in their kit in the form of a slow, stun, silence, or blind. If you can't handle it with your champion's normal kit, buy a frozen mallet or iceborn gauntlet. It's not as hard to kite as you say.