ADC Itemisation: An Analysis
I've been playing league for going on six years now, and while I may be a lowly silver/gold player, I've seen the ADC role go through a series of highs and lows, and their itemisation choices dip and swell in power. I was there for the brief time of Bloodthirster rush, I've seen IE be the go-to first item, and I grieved with other carries when Yasuo and Pantheon invaded our lane. While I've since moved from the ADC role to a support main, I still feel like I have the right to an opinion on what the new itemisation choices are doing wrong, why they're missing the mark, and how they can be improved. Please note that I'm not a game designer and have no experiences in the intricacies of balancing - I won't be suggesting item prices here and my stats may be wonky - what I'm introducing are concepts in order to facilitate a better understanding of how items can be made meaningful and satisfying for ADC's to build. Following Riot's own bulletpoint system, the purpose of the changes I'm going to suggest are as follows:
- To differentiate between the different kinds of ADC and give them the tools to perform successfully in different niches.
- To give ADC's meaningful choice in itemisation.
Types of ADC First of all, let's talk about the different kind of ADC's that exist in the game. In doing so, we can get a better idea of how each of them does their job, and what tools they require to do that effectively.
- Burst Carries:
Champions like Jhin and Cait focus on front-loading a large amount of damage on to one single, big auto attack. Caitlyn has been doing this most prominently since Stormrazor was revealed, and I honestly think this is a good concept, more on that later. These ADC's benefit from items that enhance that single auto and pile as many modifiers on to it as possible, such as Stormrazor's. - Caster Carries:
These are ADC's that heavily rely on abilities in order to do their job. While they are innately bursty, they differ from burst carries in that they weave abilities in between attacks very rapidly - if burst carries are the assassins, these are the combo mages, for example. A notable weakness of this archetype is mana issues, and these ADC's benefit a lot from cooldown reduction.
Attack Speed Carries 
Easily the most conventional of the archetypes, marksmen like put out their damage by rapid attacks, and usually have some kind of on-hit effect that acts as their steroid. These are marksmen with the conventional power spike: They have a weaker early game due to lower attack speed, but spike up hard and transition into hyper-carries in the lategame. Their item preferences usually lean towards early attack speed and on-hit effects, such as Blade of the Ruined King.
I feel that by segregating ADCs into these roles, we can gain a better understanding of their needs, and clearly identify why certain carries are strong in different metas.
My second point concerns meaningful choice. By this, I mean that when an ADC is faced with a problem, they have a variety of different tools that allow them to approach and overcome that issue. I think 
and 
are good examples of this - one is effective at countering armor tanks, and one is effective at countering regen tanks. ADC's should feel good about building the right item for the situation they're in, and when they build the wrong one, they should clearly understand why. I've split the following changes up into segments for clarity's sake:
Tank Itemisation Choices
Lord Dominik's Regards
Armor Penetration reduced to 25%
Passive: Giant Slayer. Grants 2% increased damage per 200 maximum health difference between you and the target.
Shiny New Item
+70 Attack Damage
+25% Critical Strike Chance
-
Critically striking a target converts 15% of your critical damage to true damage.
-
"But you just said Lord Dominik's was a great item against armor tanks, why change it?" I hear you ask. My reasoning here is to provide three different items depending on the kind of tank your team is facing. By reverting Lord Dominik's, we give ADCs an item that works well against health-stacking tanks such as
and 
. This of course makes Lord Dominik's a less successful item at dealing with armor tanks, which is where my second suggestion comes in to play. -
I think current Infinity Edge's passive is a good idea, just on the wrong item. Converting critical damage to true damage is a powerful ability against armor stacking tanks such as
and 
, and I believe works better than a poxy 10% armor penetration. Right now, Lord Dominik's is the only %armor pen item ADC's can fit on their build, while tanks will usually build 2-3 armor items per game. By building armor penetration, even percentage, you're fighting a losing battle. This item is a powerful anti-armor itemin its own right, but like the current Infinity Edge, is far less effective when dealing with squishy targets or tanks that function differently. Again, meaningful choice. -
The final kind of tanks ADCs will encounter is regen tanks -
and to a certain degree 
. I don't think any changes need to be made here - is a niche pick that is less effective against other tanks, but absolutely wrecks regen tanks' days. This is a good example of meaningful item choices and served as my baseline for the changes above.
Critical Damage Choices
A side-note that I'd like to briefly touch upon - conventional carries are almost always going to need a crit damage boosting item. I believe this is a problem in itself because it quashes itemisation options and forces reliance on a luck-based system, but fixing that is a whole different can of worms to be opened on another day. In the meantime, I'd like to propose two different critical damage items, each suiting a different style of marksman and different enemy team comps.
Infinity Edge
+70 Attack Damage
+25% Critical Strike Chance
Passive: Increases critical strike damage to 225%.
Stormrazor
+60 Attack Damage
+35% Attack Speed
Passive: If you haven't cast your basic attack for 3-1 (based on bonus attack speed) seconds, your next basic attack critically strikes for 250% damage.
Like I touched upon earlier, I think the idea of 'burst carries' is a really neat concept that has only come to light since the inception of Stormrazors, and I think it creates an opportunity for certain marksmen to carve out a unique identity for themselves and benefit from a different set of items from the other categories. While the numbers may be wonky here, the concept is simple - ADC's will have a choice between a smaller but more consistent boost to their critical hits, or delivering a single, more powerful shot. While champions like Caitlyn are almost always going to go for Stormrazor here, it does give even conventional carries the option of a different approach - a Jinx could forgo her Infinity Edge against a squishy team, grab a Stormrazor and a Shiv and go for burst damage, for example.
Zeal Item Choices
One of the problems I believe Zeal items currently have is that there is always a single, 'best' option. For a while it was Shiv, then RFC, and now we've entered the age of Runaan's. I think the best approach to dealing with this issue is to tailor the Zeal items to different types of ADC, thus varying item choices across the role as a whole, and giving carries the option to surprise opponents by striking out with a different Zeal item than would be expected.
Statikk Shiv
40% Attack Speed
25% Critical Chance
5% Movement Speed
Passive: Shiv Lightning. Attacking and moving generates Energize stacks, up to 100. Upon reaching 100 stacks, your next basic attack deals 100-180 damage damage on-hit. Shiv Lightning can critically strike and benefits from Critical Damage modifiers.
(Now only hits one target, to clarify.)
Runaan's Hurricane
40% Attack Speed
25% Critical Strike Chance
5% Movement Speed
Passive: Wind's Fury. Basic attacks fire additional bolts at up to 2 enemies near the primary target, each dealing 50% AD physical damage. Bolts can critically strike and apply on-hit effects.
Rapid Firecannon
40% Attack Speed
25% Critical Strike Chance
5% Movement Speed
Passive: Rapid Fire. Upon landing a critical strike, increases your attack speed by 10% for 1.5 seconds.
Phantom Dancer
40% Attack Speed
25% Critical Strike Chance
5% Movement Speed
Passive: Lament. Landing a critical strike against an enemy champion reduces their damage dealt to you by 35% for 2 seconds.
The first thing I've done here is standardise the attack speed gains across the board. The goal of this is to make it less about stats, and more about the unique passive effects that each item provides. I'd like to go over each of these in turn. Shiv: Tailored to better meet the needs of burst carries. This will compliment Stormrazor's by giving them a devastating initial attack. However, like Stormrazor its subsequent attacks will be weaker than other Zeal items, since the marksman has to wait for the lightning effect to re-stack. Runaan's: Not too many changes here, simply a buff to the damage dealt through the passive. This makes Runaan's a more effective 'carry' item when the marksman is ahead by allowing them to do more area of effect damage. Rapid Firecannon: This one could be a bit more controversial. Current Rapidfirecannon allows ADC's to safely poke by building up Energised stacks, but has largely fallen out of favour due to the presence of Runaans. This change aims at making it a more effective item on Attack Speed carries by granting them a short duration steroid that refreshes on crit. Phantom Dancer: By standardising the attack speed on the Zeal items the PD receives a slight nerf, however by changing Lament I aim to make it a more specialised defensive item for ADC's to use. Shortening Lament's duration means that ADC's will have to continue attacking whoever it is that's targeting them, but in return they receive a larger damage reduction from that target. In such a burst-heavy meta I believe this is a good way to improve ADC survivability without heavily sacrificing their damage output. I know 35% damage reduction is a lot, but this is subject to change - one thing I've noticed as a support player is that Exhaust often does little to save an ADC that gets jumped by an assassin or caught out by a fed mage, because right now burst damage is so high that standard combos from mages and assassins actually overkill ADC's by a significant margin. A larger damage reduction gives ADC's a chance of surviving bigger bursts - but only if they don't facetank the full barrage.
Ability-Based Itemisation
Don't worry, nice short one before the end here. I'm largely satisfied with the way the Essence Reaver and Spear of Shojin are being handled, and I think splitting them into seperate items is a good way of allowing ADC's to make those meaningful choices.
Essence Reaver
60 Attack Damage
25% Critical Strike Chance
Unique Passive: 20% Cooldown Reduction
Unique Passive: Basic attacks refund 1.5% of missing mana.
Spear of Shojin
+70 Attack Damage
+20% Cooldown Reduction
Unique Passive: After casting your ultimate, gain Placeholder Name for 6 seconds (30 second cooldown.)
Placeholder Name: Gain 50% attack speed, and basic attacks refund 20% of your remaining non-ultimate cooldowns.
Not much to say here honestly. While Spear of Shojin might not be the most popular item for ADC's, I think it still has a place in the game as an alternative to Essence Reaver, and it can even work well on non-marksmen too. The choice of 'more abilities in a short period' vs 'more abilities over time' is one I find really interesting, and I'm excited to see how caster-style marksmen use these two items.
Conclusion
While these changes are far from perfect, I believe they take steps towards returning power to AD carries in a meaningful way. The fact of the matter is that right now ADC itemisation is a bit of a mess - there are lots of trivial variations in stats tacked on to items that could easily be streamlined down and given more specialised roles, that would give each item a clearer purpose and allow them to better compliment the strengths of the different ADC's in the game. My goal in creating this analysis is to put forward my ideas as a player to Riot on what I think would help move things in the right direction, and encourage you to do the same through discussion - at the end of the day I can suggest whatever dumb shit I want, but it's discussion and debate that's really going to provide the most meaningful feedback.
TL;DR:
- Give AD Carries more crit damage options than just Infinity Edge, and specialise these choices to work better in different scenarios.
- Standardise the stat boosts gained from Zeal items, and allow their passives to be what fuels a marksman's decision on which one to get.
- Give AD Carries more anti-tank options tailored to counter the different tanking styles present in the game.
- Understand how each AD carry outputs their damage, and provide options that compliment their different styles of attack.