Why do ADCs exist?

hi im Godric·Sep 3, 2015·4 votes·1,022 views

Hi everyone. I AM NOT an adc main, and I DONT like to play adc but this is a REAL question i am not here to be TOXIC or to CONDREDICT anything. I am just wondering why does the meta include adc? They r very squishy and even if u r far back hitting whatever close to you, people can still come and destroy, for example: Diana, wukong, Vi, Akali etc. Take diana for example, q+r takes about 60% of adc's health then passive + r and goodbye pookie. Why doesnt the meta include monsters like diana instead of adcs? One last thing: an adc usually needs a whole lot of items to be able to deal a lot of dmg with their basic attack while champions like ahri only need one ap item and they can start picking up kills and snowball AND most champs' dmg are instantaneous for example viktor, e+q and u deal a lot while for adc u need to aa like 5 times.

14 Comments

EzraTwitchSep 3, 20157 votes

ADC's stand for attack damage CARRY, Carry stands for weak early strong late. Late Game ADC's (Marksman) pretty much have the highest sustained damage of any role (Since the majority of their damage is delivered at long distance and with any resource cost) and are pretty much required to be able to close out games at high level play.

SEKAISep 3, 20151 votes

{quoted}

ADC's stand for attack damage CARRY, Carry stands for weak early strong late. Late Game ADC's (Marksman) pretty much have the highest sustained damage of any role (Since the majority of their damage is delivered at long distance and with any resource cost) and are pretty much required to be able to close out games at high level play.

Sadly some kiddies think carry is cool but they don't wanna be weak early so Riot did them a favour and removed their supposed vulnerable early game altogether, and now they have okay early and OP late which is just lovely.

The Sword SaintSep 3, 20152 votes

Two reasons:

you need someone to be able to quickly and safely take down towers from range in order to actually win the game against a team that knows how to play defensively while losing.
Lategame, adcs are the only one's who can deal with tanks or fighters who would get taken to 3/4 or half hp by a mage and then keep coming whole the mages cds are all down for a while.

BârdSep 3, 20152 votes

ADC champions are there to do two things:

Be your teams main source of physical damage, using distance as defense instead of building it in order to deal the most possible damage.
Push down towers quickly from long(ish) range.

Some ADCs do different things ( Varus poke Vayne kill tanks Caitlyn bully early and execute lategame Sivir engage Corki be impossible to build againt), but those are the two things they all share

UltraSceptileSep 3, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=The True Bard,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Nd6h72FU,comment-id=0006,timestamp=2015-09-03T00:45:29.299+0000)

ADC champions are there to do two things:

Be your teams main source of physical damage, using distance as defense instead of building it in order to deal the most possible damage.

Push down towers quickly from long(ish) range.

Some ADCs do different things ( poke kill tanks bully early and execute lategame engage be impossible to build againt), but those are the two things they all share

"Kill tanks".

More like two hit everything amirite.

BârdSep 3, 20152 votes

nonono.

3 hit.

Valderis VandalaSep 3, 20152 votes

It's simply due to the natural evolution of the game and the restrictions in champion diversity.

Champions are nothing more than bundles of walking stats and abilities. Because we don't want every champion to be perfectly identical the values of their stats and abilities have to be different, this creates strengths and weaknesses. These strengths and weaknesses have to be balanced and there is only a limited amount of differences you can create thus leading to recognizable patterns in champion diversity, because of this you can sort characters into archetypes (tank, ADC, support, etc). Over time people have learned that certain combinations of these archetypes have a better synergy with each other towards achieving victory.

Teams with a ADC tend to fair far better than teams without a ADC for reasons already pointed out by other people in this topic, that is why you see so many teams with an ADC instead of a character like a Diana in their place.

At least that is my take on it.

Prospector PeteSep 3, 20151 votes

[deleted]

MorganFreemanBotSep 3, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Prospector Pete,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Nd6h72FU,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2015-09-03T00:24:39.647+0000)

Why do you exist?

To make sure the game can end (easily) by a certain point.

MudintheWaterSep 3, 20151 votes

You don't need an ADC to win the game. ADCs are great when your team can provide them peel to wreck a teamfight, but if you pick a mid-game powerhouse comp you don't need adcs. A comp I played a while back in ranked was Morgana Support, Zyra AP carry botlane, Yasuo Midlane. I got Zyra insanely fed, and the team did tons of AD damage from the full team Yasuo ult made possible by Zyra's Ult.

Just end early before they outscale you or you run the risk of a high DPS champion that outranges your entire team.

ZACKandATTACKSep 3, 20151 votes

ADCs are there to do consistent DPS late in the game. They do the most DPS lategame, but are the squishiest characters.

5000000000000000Sep 3, 20151 votes

ADCs are good for sustained damage, and sustained damage means better for taking objectives that can't be burst down.

Dragons and baron, for example, can't be burst down in a single combo of any champion in existence. But the sustained damage of ADC makes it so that it's easier to take those objectives. But why not melee ADCs?

That is for siege potential. It's much safer to take towers if you're ranged, especially when there's your team to peel for you. It's also more difficult to peel for a melee carry in a team fight.

To add, the whole meta is formed around having an ADC. We have a burst damage mid laners to kill ADC (they go mid because they need to get as much gold as possible and as much experience as possible). We have a tank/off tank top to peel for/dive the ADC. Bot lane is ADC and a support to help the ADC farm safely.