tl;dr: Riot Nerfed skill expression by, in one example, removing champs core to the ADC champion pool.
Everything I say here should be taken generally, as in I am not targeting one specific champion or change nor am I making blanket statements regarding all champs (e.g., there may be a few exceptions to what I say here, but I recognize that and don't want to get into corner-cases). Additionally, this is all my opinion albeit I do like to base my opinions on reason.
I'll start by saying: I believe that a squishy (e.g., mage or ADC) should have the potential to be one-shot. I say this as an ADC main.
There are many champions who have the potential to one-shot a squishy and rightfully so, having assassins in the game can be a healthy thing as they do have counter play (believe it or not). However, how you can counter an assassin isnt always entirely in the squishy's control. Although positioning plays a huge factor in not getting blown up (probably about 50%), having a suport or teammate with a locket, knights vow, and/or CC can completely shut down an assassin. At lower elo, this is primarily why assassins are significantly stronger. As an ADC, there are only a select few assassins I dread playing against, and usually its because of the ADC I chose (e.g., I picked first), I wont get into which ones but I will primarily mention target able and/or undodgable abilities that take less than 0.5 seconds (and that isn't necessary just an arbitrary number, half a second seems a reasonable time to react given how fast a team fight really happens, albeit give or take a few tenths of a second) can feel a little unfair at times (e.g., Zoe, Leblanc post re-re-work, and Rengar post re-re-work to name a few). These few, however, can not be fully encompassed within 10 bans (especially since there can be double bans) which leads to them always potentialy being in just about every game.
As for skill expression, I feel as though support is one of the most skill expressive lanes. A support has to be useful, while (in most cases) doing little damage which is not an easy thing to do. They have to babysit a useless champion through the early game, the ADC, all while warding key objectives for the rest of the team. This could just be bias as I am an ADC main and understand the importance of a good support. However, there are some absolutely brain-dead "support" champions in the game. In 8.13, with regards to the Janna and Lulu shield changes, I am very happy to see them step into this direction, allowing more skilled players who can react to spells and accordingly shield a player to be rewarded while the rest fall behind.
Similarly, mid lane is also one of the most skill expressive lanes in the game. A good mid laner has to play in a lane, with two gank avenues, the highest burst match ups in the game (during lane phase), and in some cases can be required to roam frequently (e.g., into the jungle, for deep wards, to gank side lanes, etc.). Then you have champs like Talon who can hop over walls, making roaming a joke; can go into stealth, negating a lot of abilities in some cases; and do at least some, if not a lot, of burst damage to a target who sees Talon coming. Leblanc, as another example, wherein her combo is now completely un-dogable (q + q + auto for electrocute OR w/e). I'm no expert on mid, so I'll stop my discussion here.
However, and I know I'll get flame for this, ADC is one of the, if not the hardest role to play in all of League of Legends. An ADC has to suffer through a weak early game wherein a player must show a great measure of patience to not trade/engage when playing a late game ADC such as kog, twitch, jinx, etc. Patience, believe it or not, is certainly a skill found in higher-level players and not found, to the same extent, in lower divisions. Additionally, for an ADC to do well they must land as many auto attacks in a 5v5 teamfight as possible while dodging anything and everything that is trying to kill them. As an ADC you are the primary target of the enemy team in late game fights, as the ADC should do the most consistent damage. What other role is required to play with base HP, be the most targeted player on their team in fights, and is required to output high damage (if not the most damage based on team composition). ADC players reach the highest APM of any role during team fights and those clicks arent' just spam; each click can determine if you live, die, and/or do damage. Imagine you are a kog'maw with 2.5 attack speed (not too high for someone taking lethal tempo), in order to do maximum damage you must perform an action (e.g., click or button press) a minimum of 7 times per second* (420 APM). Just for reference, top Starcraft players peak at 450-550 (these stats are readily available, couldnt fine them for LOL). Obviously this is best-case scenario, and pros are pros for a reason, but just this fact alone in cojunction with positioning, knowing mechanics of your ADC, and knowing what can and cant kill you as a squishy champion puts the highest demand of skill on an ADC compared to most lanes/champs.
But ya ok, ADC's take skill... so what? How is Riot diminishing that?
The new ADC changes have removed the ADC play style for a majority of ADCs, except for a few cases such as rage-blade users and Ezreal. Looking at the top played ADC's this patch: Morde, Yasuo, Vlad, and Lulu just to name a few (Not even considering the plurality of other not ADC champs played in pro play). This ADC change simply removed champs from the ADC pool. Yes I could still play Kog, Ezreal, and Kai'sa but what if I told you, as any other laner, you could only play X, Y and Z champ; the rest where just not worth playing because the items they build just throw gold away. You would be pissed and think skill expression is being removed by limiting the lane (see below regarding botlane champ diversity).
Many crit ADC's did require a great amount of skill, even Tristana. Tristana's W, when used by a skilled Trist player, can be used to completely negate an ability, whereas it can get you killed instantly if the player is a novice to Trist. This ability has the potential to save teammates or your life and can be completely screwed up based purely on the skill of the Trist player. However, due to the ADC items, Trist is not very good.
Similar examples as the above should be obvious (e.g., Sivir E, Lucian E (although Lucian is pretty decent with Essence Reaver), Vayne Q/E, etc.), wherein I used Trist purely for example. I am not purely saying skill expression died with 8.12 botlane changes, but the above are used purely for example of a recent change nerfing skill expression.
Anyways, I'm open to any and all criticism, discussion and/or flame. I genuinely love the game and have played it for years, however due to recent patches completely gutting champs I have dedicated hundreds of games towards I feel less inclined to play (or play anything but some kill-lane bot lane).
7 times per second comes from (a) + (click) + (move click) + (a) + (click) + (move click) = 6 commands (within 1 second), plus an additional 1/46 = 1 (rounding down) because its not 2.00 attackspeed, its 2.5 so it would average to be about 7-8 APS.
In response to a few counterpoints to ADC's in the current meta and them not requiring buffs I have read in other threads (excluding ones not effected or benefited indirectly from 8.12):
Q: But shields are a dumb mechanic.
A: How else does a squishy survive an assassin then? Shields an essential mechanic to the game and have been throughout its existence for many champs. Do I think they are a bit over-tuned? Yes, but only slightly. As previously mentioned, I support changes like Janna's E being a decaying shield and would point to that example as good game design for shields moving forward.
Q: But this is the most diverse botlane we have seen in years.
A: Diversity in a lane isn't always something to be strived for, especially if that includes ostracizing an entire group of champions who have played a core role in League of Legends for years; champions who do damage by auto attacking. Yes there are options such as guinsoos on-hit builds for kog'maw, but those builds where already viable prior to 8.12, and in some cases, better than crit champs. Now we have Vlad, Morde, Yas, and Lulu bot. Players who have played bot for a while, who have enjoyed the play style of an attack damage carry which is a play style not seen in any other lanes (bar a few exceptions like Gnar, etc.), now feel punished when playing champs who build crit due to the above reasons. Diversity is nice, and I think lanes such as top, for example, should have a combination of bruisers and tanks, as well as a few odd-ball picks, however it should not be done by dismantling a lane and role that has been a core part in both competitive and noncompetitive games for years.
Q: ADC's where too strong before. Take example from MSI where RNG just force fed Yzi and won. ADC's must be too strong if they can just solo carry.
A: As a counterpoint to the recent MSI 2018 tournament heavily favoring ADC's in RNG's case, I would recommend watching FNC vs GMB at worlds 2017 wherein Levi was just force fed and carried against a team they where heavily favored to lose against. As mentioned previously, ADC's are weak early. They can be punished early (pre 10 mins) by jungle and/or mid pressure as they do relatively low damage compared to many 1-item spike/mid-early game champions. Additionally, ADC's have the potential to die instantly in a teamfight. Playing an ADC in a 5v5 teamfight is one of the most micro intensive roles requiring some of the highest accuracy regarding mouse clicks wherein one misclick, can spell disaster for you and your team.
The above where just some common points I have seen circulating the forums these days. Obviously there are more reasons as to why ADC's are weak, and I'll try to respond to anyone making a good, thoughtful point either for or against my opinion.
