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Kicking the "anything but ADC" mentality - advice welcome!

Khurzan··2 votes·904 views

Hello reader!

I've played League for a long time, enough to have played a bunch of games in pretty much every role, and a rare few of you may even know me from YouTube! I'm certainly happiest in the jungle, but I'm perfectly comfortable with playing all shades of weird and wonderful champions anywhere else on the map too - apart from ADC. I'm by no means bad at the role, but when I play in a premade group with a bunch of friends the same issue always comes up: Who's got to be stuck as ADC this game?

Now I don't have a problem with ranged damage champions. I find them great fun in other lanes, but the entire metagame of bot lane is to 'protect the ADC so they can get fed for late game'. Some bot lanes are action-packed and heaped with kills, but fundamentally the mindset of being nannied in a single lane and being intentionally weak for the sake of being useful 'later' creates a very unhealthy gaming experience that leaves me feeling -bored-. When I'm late game as Sivir and dealing out quadrakills with insane richochets I don't feel like it's my achievement - my team got me here, and I'm continuing to play purely for myself under the thinly veiled guise of teamwork. It means there's little reward for the arduous thirty minute of unexciting grind that preceded it.

This wouldn't be a problem normally. Most people have a role that they'd rather not do, but among my friends we all share this approach to it - so we end up taking turns to suffer through. Games go badly, people get depressed, time feels wasted, and everyones' experiences suffer. I am a firm believer in cheery Skype calls, so this upsets me! We almost always play as a group of 4, so the simple solution would be to just befriend a friendly player who plays nothing but ADC, but there seems to be quite a strong correlation between ADC mains and being self-aggrandizing arseholes who think they're perpetually on try-outs to join SKT not the kind of person we want in our laid-back Skype calls.

The question I have for the reader then is this: What makes bot lane ADC fun? As a player who likes working in the heart of a team to save lives and win games, how can I approach the role differently and learn to enjoy it - and what champions would you recommend for such a player?

15 Comments

Handy Sandy 2 votes

It's fun because you get to show off your Vayne 1v5 skillz

JavelinJoe2 votes

ADC is mostly about being a major physical damage dealer and a tower taker. A common misconception is that ADCs are all greedy assholes who cant stand other people taking their gold. While this is true, their is a good reason. It is because most of our items are expensive and have awkward build paths where there is only a small amount of cheap items. item 3508 item 3031 item 3139 item 3072 item 3812 are all 3500+ gold. And sometimes we have to grab 3-4 of them on the same champion, in the same game. item 1038 being one of the most expensive component items which also has no build path is a big part of this.

Khurzan1 votes

I don't dispute the necessity of an ADC or the value it adds to a team - there's a reason why we have them at all! However the "me me me" mentality is something we're all too aware of, and sadly 'grim necessity' isn't a brilliantly positive motivating factor. :(

JavelinJoe1 votes

Another good point is that ADC is a very simplistic and consistent role. You will deal AD, you will be ranged, you will build crit, armor pen, and attack speed items. You will not be tanky, you will not be melee, you will need to focus a lot on farm and kills. You also have to defend the weakest tower. Other roles have a vast amount of variation as to how you play them. So some of the frustration is just because the players are very well accustom to what is needed from them in order to be successful.

For example, I know that until I have item 3031 and item 3085 on Jinx, that I will not win most trades with other ADC's and will not have the same kill threat as them too. Mostly because she is working with mostly basic attacks. Sure her adds damage and range, but it cuts some attack speed and costs mana. But that is her main damage pre 6 where other champions have many more options. Her passive is useless until she gets an assist, kill, or an objective. Where the other champions have some actually useful passives for getting that first kill, assist, and/or objective.

ADC's also have to deal with being behind and useless. If an assassin is very behind, they still can take out the ADC and escape. The ADC does not have this luxury. If they are behind, they NEED to catch up in order to be useful again.

That being said, best thing you can do is communicate. They will be more competitive than other roles, but they will still communicate and will reliably try to win every game. Just let them know if you are playing more for fun or for the win.

doublelift fg2 votes

i can't get enough from playing adc because i just don't imagine myself playing something else

i see teamfights like big tanks and behind them the infantry destroying everything from far away while being protected. Now if you don't get protected you will hate ADC, but most of the time it doesn't happen to me but when it happens and i'm an immobile adc like Jhin i just want to leave the game

JavelinJoe1 votes

Yes, protect the ADC is very important!They are your main physical damage source that is not just 1 burst and done. So whichever side is keeping theirs alive longer is what usually wins the fight.

L Psy Kongroo1 votes

If I were you I`d stay as far away from the 4v2 lane as possible this season.

Azure Hamster1 votes

I'm a 4-year Cait main. The update made her even more fun. I love punishing people with long range. I still get ADCs stepping on traps intentionally, thinking, "oh she'll never be able to get the headshot. She's too far away..." BLAM!

It's fun being bot, see a mess mid, head over, and sneak a long-range R on someone who has no idea I'm even in the area.

I like placing pre-emptive traps in bushes long before combat starts. Someone's running away from a failed fight, BLAM headshot.

I like needling their support with 650-range aa the whole time so they have to back. I like taking a few shots from a bush so the ensuing passive headshot is unexpected.

I like having waveclear so I can push solo if I need to.

I like the occasional E toward them under tower, AA, Q, R for the kill.

I like that botlane is 2v2. Lots of intricate things happen in the positioning battle between the two sides. I feel lonely playing any other role (except support, of course).

Caitlyn

Khurzan2 votes

Thanks for the detailed reply! Caitlyn is a champion I enjoy, though I find myself banning her more often than playing her largely for the reasons you describe - there's very little more frustrating to play against in bot than a Caitlyn so I don't want to risk her being picked first. I like that she's far more proactive in her approach to the lane, and I've seen some very creative late-game Caitlyn builds using Hurricane/Autocannon/Frozen Mallet to really stall a team's approach.

Unfortunately though I think we just have different tastes when it comes to gameplay. The cheeky roam mid for a snipe sounds brilliant (I want to do that in a game now) but beyond that I'm not so fond of the whittling skirmishes or prior preparations - I'm much more of a JarvanIV than aTeemo ! Thank you for your suggestion though!

Silly Neeko1 votes

Dont think of it as "babysit the adc" ive had games where the adc does better than me, and some does worse, and im the support cause support main ftw. It is all about team work and working with the support which (when soloing) you do not even know. You need to learn if they play aggressive or passive, you need to know if their champion is an aggressive or non agressive champ, more poke or more of a farming until a hard engage is possible then just let loose the payload? All things you need to know when playing in bott lane, whether ADC or support. Every game can be a new experience.

Your mindset is the problem there, its no wheres near "babysit the adc". The adc gets targetted yes, but so does theirs. You are a team at bott lane. You stick up for eachother and you help eachother out, even if the support goes in and takes the killing blow so you do not have to.

Also, you do not need to play adc. Play bott lane like zilean and sion, do some kind of random matchups, malph and taric perhaps. Who cares about ADC? you do not NEED an adc. Most people view it as needed because its "meta". Guess what, meta used to be APC. Meta used to be duo top and bott. Meta could be duo jungler. Meta means nothing except a recommended form of playing. Stray from the meta and people flame, but why? Because your "trolling"? People are jerks about things like that. But those people will never carve out a new meta.

Khurzan1 votes

Thanks for the reply, and I certainly agree with going off-meta. I am a fond believer in Katarina jungles, Sivir tops, Swain supports, and Hurricane Urgot, and I find playing that way makes for much more entertaining games! When it comes to the bot lane though it usually goes the same way if you do something goofy and wild - you can kill your opponents over and over again, but unless you've got an ADC somewhere else in your team you're likely going to start regretting it once the laning phase breaks down and that enemy Tristana is suddenly protected by four people rather than one.

The area of disagreement I have with you is that I feel the support/adc relationship is not as equal as you suggest. As true as it is that it isn't -always- the support making the plays, the decisions that you make as a team are almost always targeted towards making sure the ADC has enough gold to fill their basement with BF Swords. It is in precious few games that the ADCs decisions are ever aimed towards getting their support fed, or even taking objectives for their team - they have to collaborate with their support to survive and develop a symbiosis with them, but at the end of the day it's still all about them. Ever seen a Draven stop autoattacking to let theirJanna take the kill so they can finish their Redemption? I'm sure it's happened but it's certainly a rare sight.

Silly Neeko1 votes

{quoted}

The area of disagreement I have with you is that I feel the support/adc relationship is not as equal as you suggest. As true as it is that it isn't -always- the support making the plays, the decisions that you make as a team are almost always targeted towards making sure the ADC has enough gold to fill their basement with BF Swords. It is in precious few games that the ADCs decisions are ever aimed towards getting their support fed, or even taking objectives for their team - they have to collaborate with their support to survive and develop a symbiosis with them, but at the end of the day it's still all about them. Ever seen a Draven stop autoattacking to let theirJanna take the kill so they can finish their Redemption? I'm sure it's happened but it's certainly a rare sight.

The adc gets the kills, support gets assists, you both help eachother out. Also as support i get kinda fed because i can get the last hit where my adc can not. Whether being out of range, needing to back up because too low hp, or just because they were about to die if you didnt get the kill. By killing blow i mean tanking a caitlyn ultimate that would kill the adc, but also would kill the support. The support would go and tank that and die so you did not. Its support mentality normally, protect the team. Not just adc, but the team. The adc is just who is closest all game pretty nuch.

Swiftstrike41 votes

I don't like playing ADC often because if you play with a team or group of players that do no try (or attempt) to protect you, you will simply die. I also am not good with kiting (I mostly play melee champions or casters with low skillshots) so I know that is a weakness of mine.

I am, however, really good at farming! So typically farm is never an issue when I am an ADC and I like farming (I play a lot of farm oriented champions).

If I play with my silver friends, it is either put one of them at adc and they feed, OR I go there and get strong, but get deleted because I get inadequate or no protection. I do have one good friend that I will duo with that is mostly an ADC main, so I haven't had too much of an issue with that position.

I like farming so I actually don't mind early laning and the mid game with as the adc. I just hate being blown up in a fight by an assassin.

You don't like the position it is pretty simply. I don't like Mid-lane or ADC too much, it is just a preference. I dislike mid-lane because I think there is a lot of pressure in that lane to play well or at least being a "first responder" to a situation.

My preferences are Top, Support, and then Jungle. There are times when I really like and enjoy jungling, and other times where I hate it. I hate it when all the lanes do very poorly, I typically can only effectively help one lane so if 2 of the 3 lanes are losing it usually means a loss. But I am really good with controlling the objectives and knowing when I can take them.

Truly Prideful1 votes

I enjoy bot lane ADC because I like how active the 2v2 can be. There are a lot of possible matchups since there are 4 champions total down there so there is a good chance you see a different setup each game. Also, who doesn't love double kills in lane? Plus the lane is very fun once you find a support player you have really great synergy with.

Mainly though, I love the role because I love the pressure put on you later in the game. Pressure brings out the best in me and ADC puts you under the most the later the game goes. I also like the small mechanics required to be skilled at it. Kiting feels really satisfying when you keep that fed Darius just barely out of range of you.

There's nothing wrong with feeling like your team got you to the godmode endgame either. It's not a requirement to be a complete douche when you're playing ADC. Hell, I generally stay quiet most of the game and only call objectives or thank my team for stuff. Even when I get a penta my team gets more excited about it than I do, it's a team game and I treat it like one.

If you like to be a big team player, then you'd probably like similar ADCs as me. I main Jhin and Ashe is probably my next best pick. Both are great enablers for the team at all points of the game. Jinx is my greedy ADC pick and I mix in MF if I see we have a really sexy AoE wombo going. If you're less comfortable with immobile champions then Ezreal and Caitlyn are fine too.

Khurzan1 votes

Thank you for sharing! It's good to read a clear opinion of what someone likes about the ADC role - much of it I can certainly relate to in my current games.

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