NooB Question; How to counter thornmail as an ADC?

Life steal and Magic resist counter it.

Thornmail counters lifesteal, so don't build any more lifesteal than you usually would.

Build armor pen. You kill them faster and get more lifesteal out of every hit - meaning that there'll not only be less total instances of recoil to deal with, but also every instance of recoil is better compensated by the lifesteal you already have. Build armor reduction. but I only recommend it on marksmen that truly benefit from the CDR, like Lucian or Ezreal. Build MR. Although be aware that you'll feel a hit to your damage output.

If you don't like the life steal answer, play ziggs adc lol

variety of options.

Lifesteal + Last Whisper are your only REAL options; Magic Resistance and damage reduction help too

• BT gives the most Lifesteal
• Scimmy gives both LS & MR
• BoRK can help, but I wouldn't unless they stack HP
• Maw gives MR and its Lifeline gives LS and stacks with other MR you might have, like Mercs
• Cleaver lowers their armor, thus increasing your damage(which increases your LS) and also lowering Thorn recoil, since it scales off their armor stat
• An upgraded LW ignores more armor, which means you'll do more damage, thus allowing you to LS more
• Phantom Dancer straight up blocks a large percent of the recoil
• Death's Dance gives LS & converts some of the recoil into a DoT, buying more time to LS off the damage
• Edge of Night gives MR and armor pen
• GA gives MR and auto-revive

Niche ideas:

• Sterak's gives you more survivability and stacks with other HP items
• Banshee's Veil gives MR
• Visage gives MR and improves LS

An assassin meta is literally an ADC player's worst nightmare. I can't tell you how many games I've essentially had 6 defensive items, WHILE AHEAD. Literally a damned nightmare...

BT and Scimitar/Bork

one lifesteal item = item countered

two lifesteal items = item made 100% useless

buy a last whisper, dont upgrade then a vamp scepter and rush a life steal item

With current game itemization you can achieve something like 60 lethality with runes. Combine that with a last whisper and that 100 armor melts away.

If you have trouble getting lifesteal because the items are too expensive just play AP Vayne

are your best bets

uhm almost everything counter thornmail

Warlords keystone & stoneborn pact keystone

on your support for example

pick one or 2 of these

for lifesteal as a direct counter

gives damage reduction

simply getting more health will help out too

shreds armor, less armor is less return damage

Amplify your lifesteal

if you are feeling a bit adventurous then just deal some magic damage and steal their mr bypassing thornmails armor and making you more tanky Combine with runaans to steal up to 75 mr !!

I covered a lot of the options but there are probably more

does countering your opponent sometimes mean altering your preferred build? Yes but in the end it is the stronger option to go for It is ok to build a defensive item because staying alive to deal your dps trumps dying with your maximum cirtbuild everyday

oh and dont forget about runes

if you really feel like dicking enemy ap's which includes thornmail/sunfire and 90% of the tank roster you can get 75 mr from your runepage No mere tank will stop you now