Adc's need improved laning phase (crit ones anyways) to be viable. But they also need weaker late game... because it's currently far too strong in comparison to other champs and roles. Instead of doing this, the last few adc patches doubled down on making them crazy stupid late game while completely removing their ability to SURVIVE early game. They don't need to be great in lane... like fiora - they SHOULD be punishable for how well they scale (nerf fiora laning phase pls) - but they need to be strong enough to survive if they play properly. This is the problem and nobody seems to recognize it.
I've made a few posts on the topic. And the best/simplest way I can explain is by asking everyone to imagine a champ rated on a 1-10 scale throughout the game for their power curve. Some champs are rated up to maybe 8 early game... most somewhere around 3-6... with 10 being the best and nobody at this for early game. Now a crit adc is somewhere between a 1-3 early game on average. Put them vs a champ rated 3-5 and they can survive. Put them vs a lane bully rating 6-8 and they will get punished hella hard and probably never reach late game if the other team focuses them down early to keep them behind the curve. Which means it isn't fair to crit adc's.
But let's look at the other end of the spectrum. Late game. Assuming the meta ever shifts and games last long enough for crit adc's to reach late game at a reasonable time and aren't hella punished in laning, crit adc's now have a rating of 10 on the power curve. Meanwhile hyperscaling jax or fiora type champs get a rating around 8. Stuff that's ok all around like orianna get a 6. Stuff like renekton or kalista who fall off are now rated around 3. How the crap is a 3 supposed to fight against a 10? I mean that's not even fair. It's no different than what crit adc's are experiencing in lane right now... making them completely unviable in many cases.
So what's to be done? Buff crit adc laning phase to be 3-4 rating early on so they are punishable, but it isn't impossible for them to survive laning phase. Do NOT over-buff or they take over and push out all non-crit adc's as well as start taking over mid, top, and jg again and crowd out diversity. Simultaneously reduce their late game power. Drop their power from a 10 to an 8. This rewards them for surviving and reaching the peak of their power curve w/o making them absurdly stronger than any other role or class late game.
Now the specific details of what that looks like... I don't know. I play toplane and support... not adc. But that is the balance framework that SHOULD be taken when balancing champs. Early game champs should bully early, but not enough that it's impossible to lane against them if you play RESPECTFULLY. This doesn't mean you should be able to play fiora or malphite and sit there dueling darius or renekton early game in the middle of lane. Do that, you should die 100% of the time if they play properly... regardless of how well you play 1v1. But if you sneak in a few advantageous trades and mostly hug tower to farm... maybe get in a good gank or two from jg, then sure, you should be able to farm up and outscale w/o falling drastically behind. But simultaneously, it should not be impossible for the early game champ to survive if they play properly vs you late game. Sure they might lose a 1v1 duel, but it shouldn't be so 1-sided that you can braindead miss half your stuff while tower diving them and still win the fight. Right now... this isn't how it plays out. So power curves and champ balance (adc's and other roles) is something that needs investigating and re-tuning.
