Patch 8.11 | The Breakdown of ADC Chaos

This is a serious post aimed at thorough discussion. It's long and if you do not have the time to read it, I suggest you discuss later. I also apologize for the post itself as I expect people to know some things already such as wave management etc. and want to keep it simple while having discussion in the comments as the focus.

#Introduction

As per usual in my serious posts, I introduce myself.

Elohaven - Gold V ADC main and Vayne OTP with 60%+ winrate until Patch 8.6 I believe or when assassins started getting buffed along with jungle changes. Right now, I'm at a low 50% winrate and my Vayne is beginning to stagnate. Reason I am telling you this is because this will be touched on later in the post.

Last time I made a post like this, it was about ADCs being an issue and sustain. It was about ADC itemization. Before that, I also made a popular mage itemization thread that got the honor of being seen by a Rioter.

That being said with my background, I want to talk about the following topic.

PATCH 8.11 AND ADC NERFS/ITEM CHANGES

#Patch 8.11 Summary

Patch 8.11 introduces more problems than solving. It was meant to address the burst ADCs had but it approached the problem incorrectly. Towers were nerfed and non-crit ADCs were ignored. In addition, several ADCs were nerfed creating a great meta shift where ADCs now have significant meta picks with high discrepancies in winrate.

As of the creation of this post Kai'Sa(55% WR) and Ezreal(52% WR) have the highest winrate with Draven following with increasing winrates. Vayne is sitting at a ridiculous low - 44% winrate. Kai'Sa has a 20% pickrate but also a high winrate while Ezreal has almost a 41% pickrate.

I want you all to know, as a Vayne and ADC main, there will be bias. However, I will try my best to look at all perspectives.

#Patch 8.11 Issue 1: Brand & Leona + Damage Creep

Patch 8.11 didn't solve the critical strike issue and tone damage. The Boards community has complained about top laners being weak and damage being over the top with ADCs carrying every game. For the past 11 patches and pre-season, Riot has been trying to tackle this issue but kept trying to introduce new things that also increased the problems they had to solve.

The issue with critical strike items was the burst they offered to ADCs which was absurd. However, Riot decided to tackle this in the wrong way. Let's start with champions first of all which we will later connect with items.

Let's talk supports like Brand and Leona which Riot openly stated in their patch notes with Fleet Footwork.

The nerf of Fleet means a majority of ADC sustain removed right? In my opinion, Riot did a good job nerfing it. It SHOULD be nerfed. However, they need to follow the ripple to every avenue it touches.

In Riot's words:

Weakening marksman sustain (health regen here, Fleet Footwork below) means damage will stick on marksmen, making 2v2 fighting a more successful prospect for the stronger bot lane. Shifting some durability from armor into health should also let aggressive marksmen like Draven and Lucian shine a bit harder in the early game.

Finally, we're nerfing marksman base attack damage by 4 and pushing that damage into their growth stat, with the breakeven point around level 9. Though that might seem counterintuitive with our goals above, it means aggressive non-marksmen (ex. Leona, Brand) won't be chipped down by marksman basic attacks as quickly—giving them more opportunities to secure presence in the lane

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Though that might seem counterintuitive with our goals above, it means aggressive non-marksmen (ex. Leona, Brand) won't be chipped down by marksman basic attacks as quickly

First, Brand support SHOULD NOT be a thing. The sole reason he exists in botlane is because he got so screwed over in midlane due to assassins and mana regen problems you introduced in past patches that he cannot be a great midlaner. He also got his passive buffed to - correct me if I'm wrong - 24% of enemy's health? Do you know how much that is for an ADC?

Most ADCs are immobile and can't dodge his large W - pillar of fire. His ultimate also works too well in bot-lane due to lane proximity. Not only was he oppressive early, he's a suicide bomber in lanes with engage. If he is about to die, he will just ult your ally and force you and your ADC or everyone in botlane to lose a significant portion of their health while the ADC can finish you off.

In addition, Riot buffed ignite's true damage to help assassins and marksmen. Ignite's cooldown is also lower meaning ADCs are basically done for at 30% of their health since it also grants grievous wounds and supports like Leona/Brand do a lot of damage. Early game - this is way too oppressive early.

• Ignite should have never been buffed - heal was a fine nerf through CD though.
• Brand needs to have his flat damage significantly nerfed throughout his kit
• Suggestion is to make him a late-game mage with higher mana sustain to farm in the mid-lane
• Increase his W radius and allow it to execute minions at a certain threshold
• Increase his AP ratios specifically by ability
• Makes him more item-reliant, which supports aren't - thus forcing him to farm and thus forcing him mid only if the flat damage is nerfed
• TL;DR - Brand needs to be nerfed bot lane especially due to this patch and buffed for mid lane
• Leona needs her damage decreased from her passive for allies with the CC she provides and her early game prowess
• She transitions too well throughout the game. She needs clearer periods of weaknesses with the strength of her kit
• Larger ultimate radius but longer cast time so it's more of a follow-up tool or nerf her early game and buff her mid to late
• I don't believe nerfs to her are necessary if we can address the other issues

If you want a weak early game, then buff late-game ADCs and lifesteal by a larger portion.

#Patch 8.11 Issue 2: Crit vs Non-crit

You OVERnerfed critical strike but not non-crit/lethality ADCs. If you want to balance ADCs, you should've addressed lethality and guinsoos at the same time with supports and ignite/heal. This speaks for itself because everyone reading this post knows about the lethality meta most likely. I don't want to expand on this since it's simple and has been spoken about many times directly and indirectly.

#Patch 8.11 Issue 3: ADC Early Game Nerfs

You nerfed ADCs early game without any compensation. ADCs are a gold reliant class and the pre-level 9 nerfs force them to basically give up a majority of their CS with early game ADCs snowballing out of control (specifically MF, Draven, Ezreal, Jhin) with Kai'Sa being the outlier because she's broken beyond imagination.

The Boards pleaded, beg, screamed - do not buff Kai'Sa's range or buff her at all. We saw it with Swain. We've seen it with Ornn. Why do you keep repeating the same mistakes? At most, Kai'Sa could have used damage buffs. It's cool though - you'll need to nerf her FOR SURE now.

Regarding other ADCs, with Fleet nerfed and their early-game armor/base stats nerfed you basically just made the early game too punishing. Fleet in itself without crit scaling would be a significant nerf combined with the creep from previous patches like the ignite buff. Ezreal is too much of a problem too. His Q does way too much damage and nobody can sustain against it while Kai'Sa just bursts you and trades with her passive.

It's no wonder so many ADCs dropped over 5% in winrates in an instant.

#Patch 8.11 Issue 4: Buffing Assassins by Proxy

Duskblade is already an unhealthy gameplay item. I'd prefer if it were proc'd if you were unseen in a brush for 1 second. Assassins with total armor penetration, ultimate hunter, and their ability to be tanky with - you have basically indirectly nerfed ADCs like this as well. Non-crit ADCs are too strong with stormrazor coupled with this since they also have a stronger chance to snowball.

With their weak early game not only crippled by your patch and non-crit ADCs, assassins can now snowball even harder while getting punished less. With sorcery also nerfed as a rune page, you also punished a large portion of the mage class and supports causing a lot of creep which weakens ADC themselves.

#Patch 8.11 Issue 5: Early Game Snowballs, Turret Nerfs and Scuttle Crab

Simple.

You failed to listen. It was repeatedly ask to buff turrets rather than nerf them and remove the RNG from the scuttle crab. The crappy "love-tap" given to turrets in earlier patches was still a nerf with minions in vicinity and we're still getting ignored with early-game snowballs which you promised to addressed but instead buffed.

How? By supporting Assassins and nerfing early game, you are just increasing the early game snowball you tried to stop and taking agency from toplaners AGAIN.

**I don't understand how you can take one step forward and 100 steps back. **

I will now talk about solutions and suggestions.

#Patch 8.11 Suggestion: Lord Dominik's

It's actually not as big of an issue as I last stated but tanks/bruisers can also abuse the new items and have some good healing/damage. I believe there needs to be a reduction of healing for bruiser's/tanks scaling with their HP so assassins don't abuse the item on ADCs. This is just a suggestion.

#Patch 8.11 ADC/Support Suggestions

Brand

• Please follow the recommended changes mentioned earlier

Ezreal

• Nerf Q and sheen interaction significantly and increase AP scaling.
• Nerf muramana
• Increase Q mana costs to 40 early game to a maximum of 55 at max-rank
• Allows Ezreal to stack Tear faster while also nerfing his Q's ridiculous damage
• Shouldn't be so safe and such an early game terror at the same time

Draven

• Q damage nerfed by 10% early game

Vayne

• Reduce the health nerf: 598.44 ⇒ 515
• How can you buff every other ADC's health but gut Vayne's when she was at a 48% winrate before
• She's actually the weakest ADC early and way too easy to punish now
• If you want to keep this, then increase her mid to late game power significantly

Kai'Sa

• Either nerf her range to 500 or nerf her passive damage significantly
• Remove passive ability to be applied with Runaans

Twitch

• E damage nerf reverted

Kalista

• Focus on reworking her and getting her back to play. You actually nerfed her again after she was still the most useless ADC. Balance is terrible.
• Has a better early than Vayne at least

Xayah

• Needs mana buffs/compensation for new Essence Reaver

Lucian

• Abusing new items too well.
• Perhaps don't allow him to deal on-hit effects with his passive in a time slot so further item abuses are gone
• Quick nerfs would be mana and damage nerfs

Revert base armor nerfs - lethality is too strong in itself for this to remain and the health regen nerfs are too punishing as well with the ignite buffs + the supports.