The Current State of Melee Carries (Through the eyes of a Platinum player)
Hello! I'm Cardi, a platinum player who's been playing League of Legends since Season Two. And if there's one thing that I've never seen changed since then, it's the dominance of ranged carries (ADCs, or marksmen) in the bottom lane. And since Season Two, I've come a long way in my understanding of the game. I've played quite a few games as Tryndamere or Master Yi down in the bot lane to effectively diagnose what exactly it is that goes on during laning phase that makes ranged carries so much more dominant. In fact, I think I've played quite too many games where I would discover what exactly makes Fiora or Aatrox work less than optimally in mid and late-game teamfights as compared to marksmen. And as such, before I go into my melee-carry design, I want to share with you what I've learned firsthand in my experiences as a melee carry bot main so that you understand the thought processes that were put into designing this champion concept.
1. Ranged ADCs are dominant during the laning phase because of their ranged advantage. That's pretty simple and straightforward, isn't it? If a champion has more range than you, that champion can harass and deal damage to you from a distance in which you cannot respond. Most melee carries have a gap closer of some sort, but most ranged carries also have an anti-gap closer or escape mechanic of their own in response. This means that in the end, ranged carries come out on top because they have a ranged advantage that can't be solved with a single gap closer. During the laning phase, this also means that an "all-in" or harass attempt by a melee carry is much harder for the melee carry to disengage from than it is for the ranged carry to. When a melee carry disengages from a fight against a ranged opponent, he's effectively out-damaged and out-harassed in the period of time in which he has to make an escape. However, a ranged carry simply has to walk about a couple of teemos distance away from a melee carry to deal uncounterable damage. Not good for the melee.
Counter argument: But melee carries have higher base stats overall!
That is true; most melee carries have a damage steroid of some sort, but this only helps or confers an advantage to the melee carry in a dueling situation where the melee carry and ranged carry are within range of each other. However, in bot lane, extra attacks from both the support and the marksman from a distance effectively negate any damage advantage you have over them. This is not even including the extra damage you'll take because some forms of crowd control are almost unavoidable or sometimes even actually unavoidable (morgana snare v.s. annie stun, respectively). In the end, this means that the winner can be the melee carry in a dueling situation; but League of Legends is a team-based strategy game, not a 1v1 fighting/action game.
2. Disabilng effects are more easily avoidable from a distance, and some can only be avoided by staying a distance away. Morgana's snare becomes significantly more difficult to avoid when you're forced to basic attack and face her while doing so less than a teemo's distance away. And some forms of crowd control, such as annie's stun, morgana's ultimate, etc. can't even be avoided at all from melee distance. Kiting is what makes a ranged carry so much more effective than a melee carry, and this simple factor becomes most apparent when you try to defeat vayne, for example, as tryndamere without multiple slows and/or a numbers advantage. Coupled with the fact that most melee carries' dueling abilities and gap closers have extremely long cooldowns and you have yourself a significant disadvantage in fights that's only offset slightly by the carry's dueling ability that lacks in counterplay.
3. Lower risk equates to higher reward. The risk that a marksman has to take by being the squishiest champion in the game is amplified exponentially when you're a melee carry simply because of the distance that you put yourself to your opponents when you commit to a skirmish and/or fight. A marksman simply doesn't have to take as many risks by being a good distance away. And in some cases, such as Tristana, a marksman can even have built-in gap closer/escape hybrid abilities, the highest potential attack distance in the game, AND powerful crowd control and anti-healing capabilities - something that's simply rare or non-existent on League of Legends' melee carries. The result is a game where marksmen dominate because their kits are simply more powerful even with the range factor ignored.
Counter argument: Melee carries have an ability that helps them survive at close range.
Well, yes and no. Most melee carries have an ultimately powerful ability of some sort (and rightly so, because it is their ultimate, after all) that lets them deal damage whilst in the fray, but they're not very healthy abilities at all. For example, Tryndamere becomes completely immune to death for a duration. During that time, there is simply no way you can kill Tryndamere, period. No counterplay to it at all, beyond disabling Tryndamere so he doesn't destroy your entire team in that duration. And Riot knows that very well, and keeps it weak (5 second duration with a 0.5 second CAST TIME) as a result. The same goes for the powerful abilities of most other melee carries. They introduce a strength factor to the champion by removing counterplay and regular interaction from that champion (Fiora's Blade Waltz, Olaf's Ragnorok, Gangplank's Remove Scurvy). This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because the champions really need it, but a single, super powerful instance (with a lengthy cooldown) of these mechanics is definitely not what a melee carry needs to succeed in the current metagame dominated by ranged carries who do not need such an ability to pull off the same results. They're not even mechanics that specifically address a melee carry's weaknesses in teamfights and in lane (most of them aren't available until level 6).
Summary -What all of this means it that melee carries are strong in their own right, but definitely not in bot lane, where 1v1 duels are rare. And in competitive play, where organized disables and maximum potential kiting are employed, a single gap-closer or two coupled with a counterplay-removing mechanic simply doesn't contribute enough for a melee carry to be considered powerful picks over other champions that can deal similar damage in an AoE (Shyvana) while simultaneously being tanky and indestructible. After all, a ranged carry can accomplish with more safety and efficiency what a melee carry can accomplish most of the time. The best example of a melee carry being picked in competitively play successfully would be the newer champion, Yasuo. The reason being that Yasuo has tools no other champion, let alone melee carry, in the game can offer, and he does so for the team, rather than himself (Tryndamere's Undying rage benefits himself; Fiora's Blade Waltz benefits primarily herself). On top of his ability to block projectiles and key ranged ultimates, he has a built in (albeit close-ranged) kiting mechanic with his Q and powerful team-synergy and crowd control with his ultimate. Thus, he's taken as a replacement for traditional mages or assassins in the mid lane, where (similar to most other melee carries) he isn't hindered by the support champion's powerful crowd control or ranged marksman's highly damaging physical poke (instead, most mid-lane champions have abilities that can be avoided with proper movement). My take on a melee carry design is that it can effectively replace the role of the marksman in a team composition instead of replacing the mid laner (the melee carry would have the early game weaknesses of a ranged carry, with no stat advantages, but instead a kit that allows it to function just as well and almost identical to a marksman when played properly). If you want to check out my take on a true melee carry, just follow the link provided.
TL;DR -Melee ADCs in the current metagame are simply outclassed by their ranged counterparts, some in ways not even related to attack range at all. -Check out my champion concept of a true melee carry.
