Protip: If you're an ADC your positioning is never in front of everyone on your team

Kr1sys·Feb 9, 2017·75 votes·5,560 views

stop blaming it being 2017 adc. Your position has never been frontline stupid.

70 Comments

EedatFeb 9, 201725 votes

Correct positioning is in a side lane by yourself. Duh

skyskee008Feb 9, 201712 votes

I mean saying "you never front line" is pretty stupid. Yes you shouldn't be in front of your tanks BEFORE a team fight but you should be NEAR them. Because if you're not near them then a champ like vi or hecarim WILL kill you unless your team peels for you.

But champions like jinx and trist and twitch often have to front line after you start winning a team fight because of their resets/speed boosts.

Anyways, the key is to use your brain. You're fine to front line for auto poke if you know it's a 2v1 situation etc.

macromiteFeb 9, 20172 votes

the tanks you want to be near are not the same as the tanks you want in your frontline.

skyskee008Feb 10, 20171 votes

{quoted}

the tanks you want to be near are not the same as the tanks you want in your frontline.

Before a team fight you definitely want to be near everyone in your team (in case an assassin or something gets a little to horny for you they can instantly stop them).

Once it starts you kite who's in front if you (unless it's like an alistar who already blew his load, literally just ignore his ass while he waits for 8 sec cds)

IcyPepperFeb 9, 20171 votes

often have to front line

It's not really frontlining if you're diving/kiting/flanking the enemy team. A frontline holds the formation of the team together, although I guess that's really just semantics of the wording.

GarthBrooksXDFeb 9, 20175 votes

Actually, sometimes it should be. Some adc like caitlyn and ezreal can go up front and poke because they have tools to wipe single targets quickly or to disengage.

ZT XperimentorFeb 9, 20171 votes

Yet all I can think of is . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCTlDiXWIW4

GarthBrooksXDFeb 9, 20173 votes

its situational xd

ZT XperimentorFeb 9, 20171 votes

Well yeah, and hopefully some common sense is applied too XD

GarthBrooksXDFeb 9, 20173 votes

clearly not like the ezreal in ur video :)

BluePolarizerFeb 9, 20171 votes

no, as Cait you don't care about poking. You should be sieging and zoning people out.

RivuoFeb 9, 20172 votes

{quoted}

no, as Cait you don't care about poking. You should be sieging and zoning people out.

As a 1mil cait main I sometimes front line before the fight starts to poke and it works out well if you're careful.

GarthBrooksXDFeb 9, 20172 votes

nope, she can frontline, that doesnt mean face tank sion ult. means carefully zone and poke down the enemy team. she can and should do it sometimes. watch pros play caitlyn and you'll see.

Janna F KennedyFeb 9, 20175 votes

only trash adcs are afraid to front line

MelledoneusFeb 10, 20171 votes

Graves COME AT ME, BITCHES!

KaiokoFeb 9, 20173 votes

You're right you position yourself perfectly at the back of the team and cry as the Hecarim or Vi rush you without anyone being able to stop them.

Duke of SlothsFeb 9, 20171 votes

{quoted}

You're right you position yourself perfectly at the back of the team and cry as the Hecarim or Vi rush you without anyone being able to stop them.

Being upfront vs them is way worse because their teams can follow up on the pick. Hecarim specifically will win an entire teamfight with just his ult if you're positioned in front.

Kirius DarkFeb 9, 20173 votes

Top Quinn Jungle Graves Mid Ezreal Support MissFortune ADC Ashe

What now?

CastaneanFeb 9, 20176 votes

Stand behind eachother in a circle of standing behind eachother, thus everyone is the backline to the person in front of them who is the backline to the person in front of them who is the backline to the person in front of them who is etc.

ImTheSideKickFeb 10, 20172 votes

cant argue with that logic

DaNinadFeb 9, 20173 votes

That's why i go full tank when i play adc. 27% win rate and decreasing

Champion SkinFeb 9, 20171 votes

That might actually work sometimes because of some people being like "have to focus the ADC" (even if the ADC is full tank and deals no damage) and if you have some other high damage champion like Master Yi or Fiora tearing the enemy team to shreds while they are busy focusing the ADC

(is it a good idea? of course not)

Redhood MonFeb 10, 20171 votes

it reminds me of some item that make you can mimic your teammate.

zero356Feb 10, 20173 votes

The better question is why is my team positioned behind me? It's all about perspective. If my teams a bunch of pansy-asses, excuse me if it takes some time to adjust.

On a saltier note, goddamn supports in bot lane doing this all the fucking time. Your job is not to stay behind me or in a bush. Don't ask why I'm ahead of you, ask why you are behind. Bot lane is lost more to a lack of synergy than anything else.

Morgan le FeyFeb 10, 20172 votes

Support thing goes both ways. First, where the support should position depends on the support, the adc, and how they function as a unit, not to mention other factors like junglers and roaming mids and whatnot. If I'm Morgana, you're Varus, and we're into a Vayne/Nami lane, you do not want me in front of you. You want me off to the side where I can consistently slip a Q around the minion wave onto Vayne when she goes to engage on you, and where I can easily screen you from either ganks or Vayne Es depending on the side and situation even when my E is down. On the other hand, into a Blitz, you definitely want me in front of you ofc.

That sorta works into the second point, which is this: I can't stand in front of my ADC if my ADC is standing too close to wave. Sorta plays into the "why is my adc ahead of me" question you don't want me to ask. If I'm a tank, sure, I can stand a little dangerously close to wave and take some poke, but it's too easy to get caught and killed senselessly if I try to screen and bodyblock for an ADC who refuses to give me room to do so. It's less horrible with something like an Ezreal, but if a Jinx or Kog or someone stands inside our own minion wave, my job becomes nearly impossible.

I agree that bot lane is lost more to a lack of synergy than anything else, but part of that is because there's not a hard and fast rule for all situations. It's not the support's job to unthinkingly stand in front of the adc, and it's not the adc's job to position any way they prefer and expect their support to just deal with it. Of course, doesn't help that your chances of running into an actual support main - never mind one who thinks in those terms - are fairly low. >.>

HigeFeb 10, 20173 votes

There's two things to consider here:

1.- there's no better bait than an adc who is in the front line, it's a guaranteed initiation and if your team is paying attention, they'll go in hard and luckily the adc can make it out alive through Lifesteal and flash, I've had SEVERAL quadrakills and pentakills with MF like this, get caught, flash out, ult everyone while they are cc'd, ??? profit

2.- is the adc in the frontline? or is everyone in the backline? when sieging, the one doing important damage to estructures is the adc, if the wave starts hitting the turret and the enemy is ready to blow up everything on ONE person, then the tank SHOULD be at the frontline, but I'm tired of seeing tanks with both summoner's and full mana, full hp and out of cooldowns simply stay in the back for several, SEVERAL waves, the ADC is doing his job of hitting the turret but everyone else is on the back running around like headless chickens, now tell me, who is out of position?

JavelinJoeFeb 9, 20172 votes

Normally yes, but it depends on how fed you are

Spaceman5pffFeb 9, 201711 votes

Yep because your full damage build is really gonna help you when a tank CC's you and 2 carries open up on you.

You are the reason people lose games with 15 kills / 4 tower leads.

Pang YFeb 9, 20172 votes

not unless you have vayne syndrome :^)

Xela SyabFeb 9, 20172 votes

Urgot but but...

Attticus FinchFeb 9, 20172 votes

Correction: If you're an ADC your positioning is never in a game period.

Being an ADC is suffering- don't do it.

Sraeg2013Feb 9, 20172 votes

Meanwhile somewhere else durning a teamfight an ADC is like...

https://i.makeagif.com/media/9-16-2015/BIRNpA.gif

Mike17032Feb 10, 20172 votes

What's a front line? My teams are all 4 damage dealers and a damage dealing support.

I am pretty much on my own for self peel as my teams "full AD Lee Sin" goes diving away to chase kills anyway, so it doesn't matter where I stand.

Morgan le FeyFeb 10, 20171 votes

Yeah, this is a bit of a problem in general, but especially right now with perceptions of ADCs being as they are. "Protect the carry" isn't something you hear often atm. I recommend you work on making sure you have at least one ADC with strong self-peel to pick when you inevitably see an upcoming case of Yasuo top, Yi jungle, Fizz mid, and full AP Veigar support. >.>

Darksun DragoonFeb 10, 20172 votes

You're right, I should be in the backline... Quinn THEIR Backline!

AgeOfTheMageFeb 10, 20172 votes

Braum I can't protect you if you're in front of my shield ._.

HeeroTXFeb 10, 20171 votes

{quoted}

I can't protect you if you're in front of my shield ._.

Uh.... W? :P

AgeOfTheMageFeb 10, 20171 votes

half the time my adc is too far away -_-

Sp33d Zer0Feb 9, 20171 votes

Ok, what do ADCs do when the enemy walks past their frontline?

#TanksIn2017lul

Morgan le FeyFeb 9, 20171 votes

Janna Hi.

Sp33d Zer0Feb 10, 20171 votes

IDK if it's just a plat/gold thing, but I never, EVER see Janna. You only see mage supports/ kill lane supports

Morgan le FeyFeb 10, 20171 votes

For the record, while I think I know what you mean (you mean Brand & co., yes?), Janna does count as a mage support. :P

idk, Plat is supposedly where Janna starts getting popular. I'm a Bronze support main (yes, yes, too wood to have an opinion, automatically invalid, w/e, idc, move on if you're going to comment on the player and not the post), and I play her, but I don't see a lot of other Jannas, it's true. Mind, it's hard for me to judge general population of support players at my level, as I only ever see one other support player in any given game at most - often not even that, because autofill trolls. But yeah, certainly seems most want to play rawr damage or engage supports (ignoring Janna's amazing flash-ult engage for the time being...). That said, the situations where even I can actually play Janna are very limited, since I have to be able to trust at least one other member of my team to do their job. Doesn't even have to be an ADC, just... someone. Anyone. Janna is a force multiplier, but multiplying by zero still gets you nothing.

There are other peel supports, though. Morgana is generally on peel duty in teamfights when she's not forced into the engage role, and most other supports can peel to one degree or another (ex. Braum TahmKench Taric Bard Lulu Nami ). As long as you have someone who's not the support who's engaging, peel shouldn't be hard to come by. Of course, if the support is stuck engaging, there's less we can do to protect our ADC. :(

Issue is actually finding someone who is truly playing the support role rather than discount laner. That doesn't even necessarily mean "not AP" or "utility items only" or whatever. It has more to do with role. Zyra, for instance, does tons of damage as a support, but there's a clear difference in mindset between a Zyra who builds no SS, goes straight into full damage from Frostfang, and focuses on foes vs. a Zyra who runs Eye of the Watchers, takes some early CDR/rushes Rylai's, places plants to zone foes as well rather than simply kill them, and holds her E for divers and assassins. Both claim to be support, both do and even build damage, both contribute similarly to killing people, but their positioning and general role is totally different. That's your issue. Is your Thunderlord's/Lich Bane Sona a support, or a burst mage? Builds can be identical, lane position can be identical, but behavior, mindset, and goals give it away. The Sona who chases kills and always uses her Q-passive is totally different from the one who's moving around the team setting up wards for fights and carefully picking her passive targets for proper teamfight management. Kill Sona will generally try to position more safely but aggressively, whereas support Sona might take more defensive positions, be willing to bodyblock, make sure she tags the right people with her auras, etc. Even "dedicated" supports like Soraka, Janna, etc. play completely differently based on mindset.

That's part of why peel is so hard to come by. It's like a jungler who doesn't care about turrets. They're not in the jungle, no, but the goal is full objective control, not just jungle objective control. Even supports playing "supporty" supports can be fairly ineffective at their role if they don't understand that their job is more complex than just "heal/shield/buff/CC people". They can still succeed, just like the Zac jungle who does nothing but gank can succeed, but they're missing a big part of the role. Without the right mindset in their support, the ADC can feel weak, vulnerable, and left behind.

It goes both ways, of course. I usually have ADCs who are way too gung-ho, or expect me to hold their hand 100% of the time, or who can't stand to stay under tower long enough for me to ward/roam, or what have you. Those sorts of ADCs make playing support feel yucky at times, and it makes the position much less appealing. They make me not want to help them or focus on peeling for them, and often they'll put me in a position where I have to focus my support on someone else to do anything. Both lane partners will either actively inhibit or support the other. Not bearing that in mind makes for a messy duo bot, messy teamfights, terrible map control, and the "adcs in 2017" thing where the position feels stressful and non-impactful.

Hopefully this hasn't been too rambling. Sorta written at 1 AM, and so I opted for more info to make sure I made my point clear, but I recognize that's also made it a bit WoT-y. >.>

Sp33d Zer0Feb 10, 20173 votes

Your opinion is valid no matter your rank. Just because you may not be good mechanically doesn't mean you don't have game knowledge.

AlphexonFeb 9, 20171 votes

Vayne Excuse me?

Succubús GFFeb 9, 20171 votes

Tristana ?

Chaos Milk TeaFeb 9, 20171 votes

Yeah VAYNE!!!!!!!!!

HMS SiriusFeb 10, 20171 votes

But Wildturtle's protip is to flash forward. /s

TotalJerkFeb 10, 20171 votes

You have clearly never run a Juggermaw comp

MFTORANK1Feb 10, 20171 votes

I think the meme originated from the fact that you get 4-5 man dived a lot as an ADC and you become useless real quick. Once you reach mid game with 2-3 items you are actually fine tho. I've been playing a lot of ziggs/MF ADC cause they are the only reliable ones right now except maybe cait if she's fed.

IziMytTJd7Feb 10, 20171 votes

Sometimes, your entire team is a little bitch, and you naturally find yourself in front even though your position objectively was fine. Your team just outran you.