The Real Problem with AD Carries

If came here think this was your typical AD carry complaint thread, you're absolutely wrong. AD carry is a very problematic class. You shall go a journey through every misconception and opinion that has arisen, and after that, I'll show you what the problem is in my opinion. I will provide you with my opinions and opinions apart from my own. I will not serve things just the way you like them, nor will I dispense facts like a computer because facts are only good with context.

#"Tank Items were nerfed" Not exactly. Sunfire Cape was nerfed. Every tank item lost HP and gained armor, making them more resistant to Lethality. Percentage armor pen was nerfed so the reallocation of stats wouldn't make it overpowered. Sunfire Cape got the sweet gutting losing it's damage, which is the main reason tanks suck overall right now. What about Omen? I do not know how much +10 armor and +10% critical resistance is worth compared to the health lost, so I cannot give you answer on that.

On another topic, what about Ninja Tabi? They nerfed Tabi by 2% AA resistance. This was a good change, except the part where they forgot to equal nerf AD carry boots, that being Berserker's down to 30% attack speed from the massive 35%.

#"AD Carry items were buffed." This is true, but don't exaggerate it massively. Infinity Edge and Essence Reaver got cost reductions, meaning ADCs just come online faster. Any problems from this just means ADCs are too strong with the item, and cost gating isn't good solution. Rapidfire was adjusted and Stattik was buffed into viability. There's nothing much to note from this. Lifesteal items, BT and DD, were buffed. Personally, I think BT should give much less AD and cost much less. The DD buff was just Riot saying "BUILD THIS ITEM" for some reason and now they refuse to fix the problem.

#"ADCs steal items from other classes." This is true, but I'm not sure this makes them overpowered exactly nor is entirely their fault. Personally, I like the idea of the lethality marksmen, except it had a glaring issue that makes perfect sense, but I'll address that at the end. The problem is that marksmen are always looking for methods to survive or be strong earlier, so using items that don't say "Critical Strike" or give tanky stats makes perfect sense to want to use. Seriously, bruisers have lost more items to other classes than they have gained items. I completely agree saying Sterak's or Maw doesn't belong on AD carries and should be set to "Melee Only" and probably stack again, items like BoRK, Rageblade, and lethality items don't need to forced off ad carries and nor should ad carries get the item nerfed. If ADC itemization was balanced as it should be, we should have very diverse builds going on with clear powerspikes and falls offs. However, Riot likes to enforce Crit builds for some reason so items like BoRK and Rageblade get ruined for other classes.

As for Black Cleaver, no it should not be nerfed because that ruins bruisers and no it shouldn't be made melee only because some marksmen are genuinely fine with it. I believe abuse of them item (Lucian) should be done as a case-by-case, rather than harm the item.

#"Marksmen are the only class viable in the "Bot Lane" role, that makes them overpowered." This is actually of simple to understand, yet most people choose to not. First off, ask yourself: What is the role and purpose of each role.

• Top lane is brawling, tanking, and splitpush. Champions like Darius for brawling and tanking exist, while champions like Jax exist for splitpush and brawling. There's also anti-bruisers who exist like Rumble, Swain, Kennen, Teemo, and Lissandra.

• Jungle is for people who can flank, gank, and have objective control. Champions who excel in early game ganks, those who excel in flanking mid game skirmishes, and those who farm and solo objectives.

• Mid lane is used for burst, poke, and zoning. Burst from assassins and mages, but also poke from ranged abilities and zoning with burst potential.

• Bot lane is used for high ranged DPS and sieging. DPS comes from all marksmen, and the best in siege is Ziggs.

• Support is used for peeling, enhancing, and zoning. Zoning with crowd control or effects, enhancing with buffs, and peeling with shields or crowd control. Zyra can zone well, Sona is a prime enchanter, and Braum shows what peeling looks like.

As you can see, Bot lane is a DPS-Siege role. So now ask, if you want other champions viable bot lane, how else will provide large high ranged DPS and siege? You can't use melee carries because they're get blown up from not being ranged if they build full damage. Most mages don't work bot lane, but I am actually unsure at why no one plays Cassiopeia bot lane. ADCs don't push other champions out of bot lane, the requirement for each role does. It's why Kayle mid is doing terrible; she isn't a burst champion nor has zoning. It's why Morde "Marksmen" failed. They don't do what their role needs them to do.

#"Only a few ADCs are strong at a time, not the entire role." This would be the anti-opinion to everything else on this list, but it's not entirely correct either. While Twitch, Caitlyn, Draven, and arguably Lucian are all very powerful right now, the true problem is very deeply rooted. There is exceptions however. Draven is broken because of Death's Dance. Twitch is because of an absurd kit and also items. Caitlyn is broken purely off an absurd kit. Lucian is strong because of his over synergy with certain items. However, there is one item that keeps these 4 constantly not weak in the game, no matter how early game they build.

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So the problems with the marksmen class aren't tanks being bad, they aren't items being overbuffed, them being the only person in their role, nor just the problem a few. It's these two items.

Essence Reaver gives more stats worth in gold than a Zeal item by drastic amounts. It gives a total of 4050 gold in stats with it's cooldown maxed out. Zeal items don't give even 3000 worth in stats. This means late game marksmen like Tristana don't actually outscale marksmen like Lucian, because Lucian gets more stats in gold value due to his itemization, assuming he's going Crit.

However, the largest offender to making marksmen impossible to balance is Infinity Edge. Marksmen are always looking for a way to have a better early game. Infinity Edge as a rush doesn't get it, so they use items like BoRK, Rageblade, and Ghostblade. However, Infinity Edge gives everything AD carries want late game. No matter how early game centered they build, they will always have Infinity Edge to fall back on. There's no reason to pick Tristana. Any time ADs are weak early, they complain. Any time ADs are strong early, everyone else complains because they have no drawback.

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Another minor issue, though unnoticed, is a lack of "late game" champions in other roles too. There's no real late game tank for top lane. There's no late game bruiser, Jax used to be but not anymore. There's no late game assassin. Late game junglers don't really work, nor really supports. There's barely any late game champions outside mages and marksmen.