APC/Mage Botlanes and how ADCs have fallen out of favor
We all know that right now, ADCs are stupidly weak in the early game. As they are, the game is pretty much decided long before the late game or even the mid game sometimes. With the assassin rework already making ADCs difficult to play with the powerhouses of assassins running rampant, ADCs are pretty much almost a detriment to the game at this point.
Where before you could possibly send them topside, so they can harass the top-laner and gain relevancy through solo farm but now even that may not so much of a viable decision anymore. As a lot of toplaners have the much needed bulk and damage to simply bumrush the squishier target.
As things are right now, ADCs are sadly just incredibly weak. But there's currently an issue with this. Even with champions like Vayne who crits with her tumble and tears you apart in a single shot before she even procs her damn silver bolt passive, it takes her way too long to reach that point.
Having played Botlane Ziggs, me and my support were easily able to simply bully the heck out of Vayne so badly that she never was able to reach her power spike until after they lost their Tier 2 tower. By then it was too late. At that point, I was able to roam to mid and top and grab objective controls at a much much faster rate, helping my team gain the much needed gold advantage.
With ADCs, they all have a point where they reach a power spike. A certain item. A certain combination of items with their passive. Or maybe when they hit 6, whatever it is, their powerspike is when they can start fighting aggressively.
With APCs, this is not the case. Where ADCs mostly reach powerspikes by gaining finished items to increase their DPS, APCs pretty much reach that point when they buy their first AP item. Such as a simple amplifying tome.
Let's do a little comparison of value in item buys. We'll compare Caitlyn and the currently most popular botlane mage, Ziggs. (This is probably a bit off but we're going to be a little forgiving with estimates, feel free to correct me):
Let's just say, they both backed at the exact same time with the exact same gold, 1300 each at level 5.
Caitlyn now has Doran's Blade with B.F. Sword
Ziggs now has Doran's Ring, Lost Chapter (And waited a few seconds to get 35 gold) and Amplifying Tome.
Caitlyn has -not- reached her power spike yet. While B.F. Sword does give a very nice boost in damage, she still needs to get Infinity Edge and Runaan's Hurricane. And since most of the time you don't get Infinity Edge until after Runaan's is done, you still have a little while before you reach that power spike.
Ziggs on the other hand gained so much value on those two items. Much more value than Caitlyn has done with her B.F. Sword purchase. Gaining 45 Ability Power, 300 mana and a mana regen everytime he levels up.
If you compared what they both gained from their purchases, Ziggs gained almost infinitely more value in two cheaper items than in one big item. More mana so he can throw out more of his Q to shove the wave/harass and more AP to give every single one of his abilities a boost in power.
By then, Ziggs will have his Q at level 3, which means each bomb thrown will deal 165 + 65%AP, his W and E will also be increased.
By the time that Caitlyn reaches her powerspike, Ziggs would have already reached a dangerzone, becoming far more of a threat. On TOP of devouring the turret.
Another big reason why mages are a bit more viable is that mages aren't punished nearly as hard for dying and missing CS/EXP as the ADC would be. Where as the ADC needs every single second and every single moment to farm their much needed gold for the eventual game winning team fight, often time mages can be a viable relevancy even if they're behind. So if the ADC dies, they're behind the other ADC, who will not only be a level higher than them, they're also have more items, more base damage with their autos and less health.
A Vayne that's going 0/5 because of them being so horribly camped and bullied out of lane, will not be nearly as heavy of an impact as say an 0/5 Cassiopia. Why? Because Cass still can turn the teamfight with a strongly timed ultimate and can still prove themselves to be far more of a useful ally, even if they aren't having the best game. But if the ADC gets shut down completely to the point where they're so far behind that they're 1 level lower than the support, then you pretty much have won the game.
In fact that is one of the biggest win conditions of League of Legends. Break the ADC to the point of irrelevancy and the game is practically yours.
If you remove the ADC completely from the equation and replace it with a mage, you take away one more win condition from the enemy team
This is the biggest issue and the biggest reason why APCs are becoming more viable.
Now this doesn't mean that the APC will always win and that the ADC will always lose. There's far too many variables to make a black and white statement, but the advantage is there. And it's obvious. On top of that, a lot of mages can hold the target in place for more damage with a bunch of CC, say something like Leona/Annie, Morgana/Zyra, Brand/Annie, Lulu/Viktor, Ahri/Nautilus etc.
And that's my two cents on the whole Mage Botlane thing. You agree with me? You think I'm wrong? Tell me what you guys think.