Why are ADC's buying their Zeal items first?

NinjaFifer·11/6/2017, 5:40:09 PM·3 votes·2,121 views

I've been noticing a trend in the ADC's I have in my game where some of them will rush a Zeal item first item, buying nothing else in between. Like, full Shiv or whatever, not just Zeal. They almost unanimously fail, but I want to know where this idea came from. How do people not understand that multiplying your minor base damage with crit and attack speed still leads to a minor number, not to mention that the unpredictability of crit makes early farming problematic?

16 Comments

Mysticman8911/7/2017, 3:43:59 AM2 votes

If lane is a disaster and goal is simply to waveclear (not necessarily even last hit) to get them off tower, shiv rush is maybe perhaps viable ish. I don't like it, but thats maybe a reason some people might intentionally do it that is maybe correct play in certain circumstances.

Another circumstance might be people having a series of crappy back timings so they can't afford a pickaxe/BF, and just slowly build up components for the zeal item since they feel like it's better than nothing (and feel like they must get IE+zeal item ASAP so don't want to pick up longswords or something). I'm not convinced this is correct play though compared to biting the bullet and returning to lane with unspent gold as you continue to save for an AD item.

Another possibility is related to all the on-hit builds that featured heavily in worlds, making people thinking AS is great and wonderful, and combined with ardent they'll be gods. They might be overlooking the specific source of the pros rushed AS (actual on-hit items like rageblade/wits ends/etc rather than zeal items), and not realising that worlds meta ardent is not the same as live ardent. Pros are also a lot better at kiting/chasing between autos, so the extra move speed from those items might result in a few more autos which might make up for the lack of AD, or let them dodge stuff slightly easier.

That all said, most people are relatively low elo, and the answer to why they do something is simply they don't know any better and didn't put real thought into it, not because there is some actual good reason.

EndlessSorcerer11/6/2017, 5:42:04 PM1 votes

If they are building a BF Sword (and possibly pickaxe) before building their Zeal item, that is a fairly standard build-path.

I believe it is primarily used with Shiv and Runaans for added waveclear.

Metleon11/6/2017, 5:43:24 PM1 votes

Some champs really want that attack speed. Vayne should pretty much only build attack speed and champs like Ashe need it to stack an ability. I think for anyone other than Vayne, though, you should get bf sword before your zeal item.

In general, I think it's because absolutely no one is rushing ardent censer.

Edit: The worst is seeing MF rush a seal item.

NinjaFifer11/6/2017, 5:41:45 PM1 votes

I'll give mention to the likes of Vayne since she gets a boatload of free AD off her ult, and Jhin since he straight converts AS into AD. But anyone else seems like they're just spinning their early game wheels on that first buy.

PopcornBunni11/8/2017, 12:30:42 AM1 votes

item 3086 is too stupidly gold efficient even without a whole lot of AD backing it, and item 3087 's buff during the "tank" update made it a viable rush power spike

The AS component is going to be weaker now with item 3504 nerfed, but it will remain a rush priority for anyone that can charge its ES quickly.

Pika31011/8/2017, 5:30:19 AM1 votes

So here's the thing... If the ADC is losing lane or repeatedly forced to back with unusual amounts of gold, in other words under 1300 or 875, et cetera, there are very few options available to spend your gold on. As Sneaky says, "It's better to spend your gold on what you can, than try to save up and fall further behind."

Kircheis Shard is an acceptable alternative damage item because it still gives reliable damage, albeit only when your Charge is (ahem) full charged. The whole Stattik Shyv line is easy to buy into and upgrade, with each component/upgrade costing from 200-600 gold.

Buying Zeal over Kircheis is generally bad, but RNG willing, has a very low chance for acceptable payoffs if and only **IF **you can crit, but does give MS, which helps.

Of course, like you already pointed out, these items are multipliers and multiplying tiny base damage numbers and relying on RNG are overall weaker than buying AD for consistent damage. The lone exceptions are champions with on-hit effects who can effectively multiply their damage numbers without having to buy AD first. Vayne is the most obvious, but other acceptable ADCs include Varus and Twitch, more or less.

Having said this, the reason you've been seeing ADCs finish Zeal items first is herd mentality. LoL is a community of sheeple and at some point this season, the misnomer that doing this is somehow "correct" was born and League's herd mentality quickly bought into it. Even despite pro players consistently buying IE and ER first in every game.

In League of Legends, universal truths are more important to the community than logic, reason, individual thought and **ACTUAL **truths. Especially amongst Rito employees, who intentionally manipulate these & League's herd mentality for their own personal agendas.

#RevertPatch413

Khristophoros11/6/2017, 8:17:19 PM1 votes

warlords heal scales off crit lol