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As an ADC main, I'm okay if you want us to stop going tanky

freepointzs·3/24/2016, 1:14:04 AM·13 votes·1,382 views

I understand why you would find it unfair that a dps role who carries through damage, also gets to go a tanky route to prevent himself from dying.

but realize why exactly ADC's are going tanky. It's not because it's the optimal DPS route....trust me, if I could get away with going full glass cannon for maximum dps, I would. No...ADC's are going tanky because this season finally gave us options to counteract assassins. Previous seasons are options were to go Guardian angel (Which just gave you a second life for them to kill), pray you have a janna, or go fuck yourself and die to the assassins. Now we have the options of going steraks or maw to help give us enough defensive stats to hopefully survive through the burst of an assassin.

And before you claim I'm some salty ADC main who believes he should never have to be killed, no that's not it. I have absolutely no qualms when another class kills me. If A bruiser kills me, I know he put himself at risk to do so and is now committed to the fight (if he miscalculates his burst and doesn't kill me, he dies). if a tank kills me atleast I had a couple of seconds to react and try to make a stand, whether it be through kiting, self/team peel, or just outputting as much dps as possible. Same thing holds true for a burst caster. Barring some massive mispositioning on my part, the burst caster had to put himself at risk to kill me.

But I never feel that way when an assassin kills me. When a fizz, or rengar, or talon just point and clicked me to death I never felt outplayed, or that I myself had options to really try and survive. I just feel out kitted

And if your going to complain about adc's being tanky and doing dps, can we atleast not be hypocritical and realize assassins are doing the exact same thing. Zed and talon are abusing Maw even more to screw over other classes. Leblanc goes Abbyssal scepter first item so she can burst anyone down plus survive the burst of Ap champs. Tank akali is a thing, yasuo and zed are going bruiser now. Zhonya's gets abused more by assassins to remove their period of weaknesses (small window of time when their escape/engage spells are down) than the intended class of mages.

TL;DR nerf tank items for adc's if you like but realize that their being built because there's not a lot of meaningful counter play to most assassins assassination patters. And those same items are being abused by assassins just as much.

11 Comments

Astôlfo3/24/2016, 11:28:46 AM5 votes

First of all, squishy damage dealers should not ever be bruisers no matter what class (mage, ADC, assassin) they are. Second, Maw is almost as bad as Sterak's if not worse, because while it's a flat shield with a longer cooldown, it essentially destroys AP, as well as having good stats by itself. Third, assassins are meant to counter other squishy types in the first place because of their mobility and high single target burst damage. The thing to note is that normally though, they're also all squishy. Another thing is that said burst is single target. If they have a gapcloser and a gap 'widener' both, it's usually one ability that serves as both within the cooldown and they have to pick only one. Or they only have a gapcloser and no escape. They're not meant to survive any sort of extended fight which is why they usually go full damage. What does this mean? If you're either a tank (mayhe a bruiser too, depending on how ahead the assassin is compared to others/their armor pen), or stay with your team and don't wander off, they probably won't try to kill you. Why? They go in, they might get the kill, but then the rest of your team will instantly kill them in return, meaning the enemy team will gain more off the assists from it. Long story short, the "counter" to assassins as a squishy is less of tanking their burst which almost no one except tanks and maybe bruisers can do, but rather not letting yourself get caught in a situation where they can safely assassinate you without risk.

Meserion3/24/2016, 1:23:35 AM2 votes

In a sense lifesteal already makes you tanky, in that you can regenerate health much faster than other champions. It is so commonplace, even in item 1055. Mages used to have potent spell vamp but certain ahem Akali champions where broken with it, so it got nerfed real quick. one could say Riot is wrong in hating healing spells when lifesteal does same thing, with no cooldown and no cost.

Rockm Sockm3/24/2016, 1:25:48 PM2 votes

You can build whatever you want on adcs, nautilus and malphite can still dumpster you.

The thing about playing adc is knowing every single role, including half of the supports can easily 100-0 you.

It is part of why I enjoy the challenge. The only marksmen really abusing these items is Graves and Quinn in non bot Lane roles.

People also refuse to acknowledge Ap itemization was twice as good as Ad and three times better than tanks for years. Not to mention the huge gap between armor and Mr that still exists.

Mages got there item pass first and now they are furious other roles caught up.

Michael Sykes3/24/2016, 7:53:11 AM1 votes

Do you now how hard it is to kill an ADC when he kills you almost with one crit AND is tanky? The most assassins build not tanky enough, although I speak mostly for LeBlanc. That AD assassins can abuse steraks (and more ad tank items) and a fizz zhonyas to be invulnerable for a long time is another thing

Niaphim3/24/2016, 9:58:34 AM1 votes

Just a quick fun fact: I find it amazing when ADCs talk about unfair "outplays" through right clicking.

Now back on the subject.

Nice post overall but assassins should be a counter to ADCs whether ADCs like it or not. Like tanks countering mages. Like bruisers countering assassins. Like adcs countering tanks. ADC is the only class that gets a dedicated support so they should be vulnerable.

SouL1ess3/25/2016, 6:02:37 AM1 votes

Now we have the options of going steraks or maw (as our first, second or third item) to help give us enough defensive stats (early enough in the game to shut down assassins) to hopefully survive through the burst of an assassin (for the rest of the entire game), while still dealing enough damage to be considered an ADC

FTFY

Now downvote me because I contributed nothing to conversation

WoonStruck3/25/2016, 6:07:46 AM1 votes

Honestly, all assassins need to be reworked...to not be assassins. By concept they aren't healthy, no matter how much 'counterplay' you give them.

Nobody likes assassins except the people playing them. Make them all diving fighters and the game would be in a much better place because ADCs, midlane, and bruisers would all be balanced around each other, rather than having to account for assassins and mess up all of those interactions.

Tanks weren't included because they don't really interact with the other three, since their focus isn't on damage at all.

Also, pretty sure every support would be happier if assassins didn't exist either.

I don't care how broken he was; I enjoyed playing against tanky Rengar, when that was a thing, than any iteration of assassin Rengar, no matter how weak he was.