Why ADCs are always going to be meta, and why that isn't a bad thing

The Ginger Ninga·6/26/2017, 2:36:52 AM·4 votes·508 views

DISCLAIMER: Before anybody gets in here and complains about me being an adc main who wants to play broken champs, understand I agree that ADCs are too strong right now, and that I don't play ADC often.

Onto the actual discussion. Every single time there is a discussion about the strength of ADCs, whether they are too strong, too weak, it feels bad to play them, it feels bad to play against them, etc, someone always brings up the fact that ADCs have always been in the meta since late season 1. They use this argument as a reason for my ADCs need to be nerfed. But the very reason why ADCs are always meta is simply because how the game is set up. They are a class that revolves around using their auto attacks for damage. Their kit usually gives attack steroids so they can auto attack stronger or quicker. Which means, when it comes time to push turrets, they are the best at it. Champs like Yi and Udyr and Trynd are also quite good at pushing turrets, but their range limits their sieging potential. If five people are underneath their turret, an ADC with good range can get a few autos onto the turret without much risk, while a melee ADC is almost guaranteed to be attacked and engaged on should they get close to the turret. When team fights end, even if one team wins, if their ADC died during the engagement, they won't push turrets as quickly as if they lived. And because most ADC's kit does not give them survivability, the team is supposed to help them live through fights.

Because League of Legends is an objective based game, turret killing is always going to be highly valued. As long as ADCs are the best at turret killing, ADCs are going to be meta. Until Riot either changes how the entire game is played, or until Riot changes some of the way turrets are damaged and makes it so ADCs aren't the best turret killers, ADCs are going to be there. Shooting you from half a screen away.

Now, would I like to seem some changes, some that push ADCs out of the game for bit? Yeah, it would be a fun change to how the game is played. But until then, complaining about how ADCs are always meta isn't proving anything about their strength. They could do literally no damage to enemy teams, but as long as they take turrets quickly they will still be around.

5 Comments

C9 Scott Free 6/26/2017, 2:38:45 AM2 votes

Honestly, I don't feel like ADC's need to be phased out for a bit. I just think most complaints about them being weak have been more reflective of classes being equal in power to them. When adc's are considered weak most of us feel the game is balanced.

PrinceOfStorms6/26/2017, 3:35:33 AM2 votes

ADC's don't have to be the best at turret killing though, and for that purpose you don't even need an ADC to begin with, which was the whole point of Ziggs bot back in the days of the "ADC 2k17 LUL" meme.

Ziggs can push down turrets faster than any ADC.

ProfDrDeath6/26/2017, 6:52:50 AM1 votes

No, this is not the reason why there is always an ADC in the duo lane, specifically. This is more like, the explanation why it is advantageous for teams to always bring an ADC.

The reason why teams usually put an ADC in the duo lane position is because the class consists of champions that are either completely auto-attack based or that are focused around using abilities and auto-attacks in tandem. This means that they are the least negatively affected by sharing XP.