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The Difference between ADC and Marksman: What are you thoughts?

WoWswitch·11/2/2015, 11:31:22 AM·1 votes·1,475 views

Hey guys, I just wanted to post this after having a very frustrating argument with a couple of guys after a game. I wanted to know what your guys thoughts were on the difference between an ADC and Marksman. So let me explain how this argument even started. After winning a game, I said "Good game" the usual thing a player says after a game. Then the other team says "We did not even have an ADC." Which is where all hell broke lose when I said "Yes you do, you had Master Yi". I started this kind of as a smart ass remark, but it quickly turned into me trolling the guys with the truth. They would not accept my logic, which is that_** if you build ad items your an ADC_. So I wanted to get the community's thoughts on what makes an ADC an ADC.** My firm belief is that it lies within the player, not the champion.** If you build AD on Annie for instance is she not an ADC(And perhaps in this instance a marksman)? _My point is at least in this instance is that it's a players choice what to build, and that the underlying factor in whether a champion is an adc(attack damage carry) is if a player builds ad on that champion. So in fact a player could play lets say Sivir fully tank, and she not be an adc, since she will not be supplying in that role, or build type. Anyway I just wanted to know your guy's thoughts after having a kind of funny conversation about this. They mostly argued the slang of the term ADC, which is almost explicitly referred to nowadays as bot lane marksman. I totally agree with what they were saying but they refused to acknowledge my argument. _So do you guys agree or disagree that an ADC, is a players choice on build, or do you disagree and think it is only a reference to champions who are marksman and play in the bot lane?**

36 Comments

IronwallJackson11/2/2015, 12:06:27 PM3 votes

Lolwut

No, but for real, the term Attack Damage Carry is a holdover from Defense of the Ancients, and referred to, well, more or less what it does now. The AD Carries were the units that built up a massive amount of power over the course of the game, to the point where they carried the game on their backs alone.

What riot did a while back was try to phase out the term in favor of "marksman" for reasons I can't be bothered to look up (clarity?). Ultimately, "marksman" and "adc" are largely interchangeable terms that mean the same thing.

Also Master Yi, Trin, Yas, and Fiora are all iterations on the idea of "melee damage carry," each one done with varying degrees of success (or lack thereof). Thus, each of them is arguably a sort of adc, but since the term "marksman" does imply range, they fit into the old, less focused term, and not the newer one.

Sona Ping11/2/2015, 12:06:50 PM2 votes

ADC

Attack Damage Carry

We can all see there is no "Ranged" in there.

Puddytat11/2/2015, 12:10:27 PM2 votes

The way I see it, an ADC builds AD items and then gets most of their damage from auto-attacking. I don't play Master Yi, but I guess he'd qualify? If most of what they do is using their skills, they're not an ADC, they're AD casters (usually assassins). ADC's bring sustained damage to their team (because auto-attacks aren't limited by mana or cooldowns). Obviously you'd prefer them to be ranged because that way they'll survive the fight longer, but I don't feel it's strictly necessary (my guess is that this is the part most people would argue with).

Marksmen, in contrast, are also auto-attack based, but always ranged and sometimes built AP (think Kayle or Teemo).

Zair Umbras11/2/2015, 12:21:48 PM2 votes

Attack Damage Carry, ADC, is anything. This used to refer to many champs like Tryn, the old Olaf, Yi, and every Marksmen ever, but the melees soon had the 'carry' part removed because they either ended up having to go tanky to survive just to do damage or they stopped being played all together. We all knew our ADC's at bot were Ranged Attack Damage Carries, but considering all the melee ones were considered Pub Stompers, people only actually considered the ranged ones to be real carries.

In reality, Tryn, Yi, and Yasuo are technically ADCs just like Ezreal would be considered an AD Caster rather than a Carry since he doesn't build for AA's, but for the Q. This is why Riot coined the term 'Marksmen'. Very few champs are AP Marksmen, so it works for now until we get, like, laser beam AA'ing caster type. Like... Shooting out the turret laser kind of laser from a staff constantly as a form of AA'ing with AS affecting how quickly the damage is dealt. That would be an interesting AP Marksmen... but yeah. I'd say he can be considered an ADC, but the term 'ADC' has been so widely used for only the AD Marksmen in bot lane.

Ionian11/2/2015, 11:56:53 AM1 votes

Disagree. ADCs are ranged champions. AD Ahri is an ADC. Master Yi is not.

Great Ozymandius11/2/2015, 4:59:56 PM1 votes

With new item changes, you will see some marksman that don't do as much ad. For example, it looks like Kog might be most effectively played as an ap marksman (guinsoos, gunblade, nashors, deathcap, runaans). In this case, he certainly isn't an ad carry b/c the bulk of his damage will be ap.