Melee Carries

A long time ago, I made a thread about how ranged ADCs weren't necessary. I said that there were a few melee champions that could easily fill the role of attack damage carry, and that the bot lane, ranged ADC meta was more player enforced than by actual gameplay.

Lately, I've come back to playing melee carries, and I thought I'd share some.

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Why would you ever want to play a melee carry?

Because they are usually harder to kill than ranged carries while also doing more damage. In a skirmish, you're very hard to assassinate (Lee sin, Udyr and Yasuo will want nothing to do with you), and in a teamfight your enemies will have to face the dilemma of "the hardest person to kill on their team is also doing all of their damage".

Okay, I want to play a melee carry, who should I play?

When you think melee carry, you probably think of I'm actually talking about In lane, you are going to be shot, a lot. It helps to have a champion that can sustain well. In skirmishes, your enemies aren't going to stand toe to toe with you for long: It helps to do damage with mostly abilities and auto attack resets. Lastly in teamfights, you are going to be at the very top of any smart team's hit list. While you are not the "tank," it helps to have a relatively hard to kill character.

What Runes and Masteries do I take?

For runes I'd recommend movement speed quints and scaling health yellows. Then I either take armor pen and scaling magic resist, or 10% crit chance runes. I take the crit chance runes because as a melee carry, you probably won't buy the 30% crit chance/ attack speed items, and so without them you'll have less crit than a normal adc.

As for masteries, I've been pretty torn. Lately I've been taking Strength of The ages as a keystone, and then Feast from Ferocity and Secret Stash from Cunning. The bonus 300 health is nice to have come end game, and in lane, every cannon minion kill giving 40 health back does feel good. Though I've had success with fervor of battle and warlords bloodlust as well.

What do I build?

Start with Rush a :

Then build and finally After you have those items, you more or less cannot go wrong. I suggest something like as a full build

How do I teamfight?/ won't I get blown up?

If you have the runes and Strength of the ages keystone, you will likely have 3000 health mid/late game. Just remember: you are the ADC, not your normal, top lane juggernaut self. Let your tanks initiate, and just kill whatever you can actually get to. Keep an eye on your health, and on any enemies trying to flank. As a melee carry, you are far, far harder to 1v1 than a normal carry, so if you see a lone champion flanking you it's a good idea to charge him.

Who should support me?

Okay, while you are melee, you are not necessarily a kill lane, so it's not like you need every single game. I find if your just starting is the champion you want. As you get more used to playing melee carries, you'll be more or less okay with any support. My favorite would have to be . Since you end up with a lot of health come end game, his shields on can get pretty big.

Last note: Towers suck. They do. If your enemies think they can hug their towers/lock you into a siege, just keep this in mind. For the most part it's a better idea to dive the enemy and kill them if you have even the slightest advantage/ half decent initiate.

All said and done, playing melee carries is a fun, satisfying experience. You feel kinda like the king of the battlefield.

If someone wants to try it for themselves I'd answer any questions. Or add me in game, and ask to play a melee bot lane with me.