Options for a new bot lane?

**Note: **I will say that this is entirely conjecture and me thinking too much on the subject that I had to write it all out to make sense of it, so don't expect any well thought out ideas from me on this.

With adc's falling into a decline in strength, more so this year than others, I began to wonder what the cause of all this might be. I do remember the time where you needed a good damaging adc in some respect and that influenced the game enough that made mid lane just another support role (in some situations). It could have been in part with Riot's focus on mid lane and jungle buffs more than maintaining adc's power (nothing wrong with that), but somewhere along the line, mid lane began to have a power creep of sorts where all sort so carries could pop up and thrive because they had jungling support. In that sense, I don't think adc's all of sudden lost their potential this year, but rather fell out of a power position. I think that flanking top laners, fast burst mages and quick to respond playmaking junglers are what actually made adc's this long range stay out of your strike-zone carry. There's just too much to respond to in fights and so little time to build up your strength that adc's really never can reach their potential.

So, if we are to make adc's have more of an impact on a game than just being a poking nuisance or a utility carry, what should we do? Well, I've thought of two solutions to that, one of which will have an obvious impact, the other has some hidden power behind it that even I don't know what might become of it. So of course, my solutions fall in bot lane, one with the adc, the other with the support.

First of all, adc's have potential to carry games. Nowadays it seems like that potential is in the minority of games. That number seems low and I think that should be changed. How, you ask? Well, if you look at most adc's there's almost always some sort of power spike in their builds somewhere down the line. For some it doesn't happen until you get all 6 items and others it happens once an item like tear is fully stacked. Bottom line is, all carries have to have some sort of spike whether artificially created with items or naturally created with levels. This is where I feel that this solution lies. If we make adcs have a clear power spike that even makes some tanks afraid, then it's only natural that the potential to carry games increases. Sure, there are many tanks that if ahead won't care so much what items a carry has, but that would mean they are still putting themselves at risk and that risk is enough for players to make outplays. This solution is more or less what most people would probably assume Riot would do. Buff X champion, buff X item, it's all the same. I would like to point out, however, that so long as we don't know where a spike comes from, we won't know if an adc will do well or not. It only makes sense that every adc should have a defined spike, one that could win them or lose them the game depending on how it is used. In the end, solution A is to make all carries have a clear defined power point in any one game and to make sure that the spike can influence the game one way or the other. (this would most likely require countless tweaking for a long time)

The other solution I thought of was making supports more than just a one man support. Just like before, supports also tend to have moments where they spike, though it usually always lies in itemization which is why not many supports get used. The most effective supports tend to swap around all the time and most of the time they are solely used to protect the adc. Sure some carries will require more protecting than others, but what about ones that don't? What about those carries that can always play safe regardless of how outnumbered they are? Let me use Leona for an example here. Right now she's awful against all the ranged supports, but she still is versatile at being a great initiator and disengage tank. When you want to go in, you expect your adc to follow up and when you back out, you expect them to do the same. Leona, in a sense, can determine a fight just by her immediate reaction. It stands to reason that if you will never win lane because they counter picked Leona, then there's no just but to give up. Right? In those circumstances, I'd want other lanes to win and I want to make them win, but I can't be asked to leave lane and lose out on exp and gold because I'm roaming (yes I am a support main because I only fill). This is where I've thought of a solution. It's a crude idea though, so don't get your hopes up that it's anything good. It may actually be too good on everyone if it's not adjusted properly. My idea is simple, add an out of lane bonus to supports who wander to other lanes. It would go something like this on spoils of war: After X[5] seconds of being away from any allied champion or minion, gain X%[5%] increased payout[both for xp and gold] per second for the next assist or executed minion, resetting after use. (caps at X% [let's say 75%]). Using the numbers in brackets as an example would tell you that for every 5 seconds past the starting point would give you 25% more gold an xp capping at 20 seconds out of lane (giving the full 75%). Sure this might be broken since the payout will only reset upon either getting an assist or executing a minion, but who honestly wants to get assists or executes for free stuff? It's trade-off is balanced enough that I think with enough number tweaking it could be useful in bringing roaming supports back into the meta. Of course, that'll help some adc's and not all. It is something to consider going forward, since this could bring about a double jungler scenario where the second jungler is just in it for ganks.

That is all I wish to say, thank you for reading my monologue of thoughts and please tell me yours. I would love to see other ideas on how to make bot lane different and yet have more of a impact on the game. I could probably go on for a few more pages of this stuff, but it's difficult to think about it now. I'll just let you guys handle the discussion of my mundane ideas (like how to put this on the other two support items).

TL;DR: Option 1: make adc's have bigger spikes. Option 2: Add: After X[5] seconds of being away from any allied champion or minion, gain X%[5%] increased payout[both for xp and gold] per second for the next assist or executed minion, resetting after use. (caps at X% [let's say 75%]). to spoils of war to increase the effectiveness of roaming supports.