Skip to content

Good ADC against Tank Meta?

Griefer··2 votes·12,084 views

Hey there! I'm I Hunt Yordles and I'm a Silver 5 jungle/mid main. I recently came to the desicion to widen my playable roles and I wanted some advice on who to play against the tank meta.

I'm considering Lucian. If I build BotRK on him, his passive procs Blade's passive therefore giving tank shred and burst at the same time, but I'm not set on him as his laning is mediocre due to 500 range and most of your poke comes from using Q through minions which I find hard to set up.

Vayne obviously also come to mind when talking about tanks, but her early lane is so weak and by the time the does catches up the game is already over, but I'm open minded.

What do you guys think?

P.S. Silly question; is Lucian's ult considered as AA?

26 Comments

Drunk Rummate2 votes

Vayne is only good if you put a lot of hours into learning her. If you don't play ADC in 3/5 of your games then I recommend picking up Sivir or Ashe instead.

TheFameAnimal1 votes

I guess Vayne is great with botrk and her w ;)

Griefer1 votes

Are there ways of overcoming her terrible early game?

Ace Access 1 votes

as vayne, poking your opponent trying to get 3 aa's off on em, use Q to get the 3rd hit against champs
having a supp with good cc will do the trick,

against vaybe: winning trades and poking her, either way you have to kill her and her supp and get items fast otherwise it will be hard as the game progresses your also gonna need a supp that can heal you up and poke vayne from a far away

Griefer1 votes

If tank meta render burst ADC's useless against tanks, why are champs like Draven, Lucian and Ezreal still strong?

Teachan1 votes

Because they can kite well, as can Vayne . But these champions have a stronger early game (Ezreal is questionable as its more skill on how many q's you can hit). Focus on getting your bork then start to trade.

Griefer1 votes

How does Draven fit in??

Teachan1 votes

Since draven can kind of dictate where his axes go plus a spammable (if you're smart) speed boost plus an aoe knock aside he has the potential to do well. The reason why draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaven's are really strong is simply because he can just about win any 1v1 trade due to raw strength. And if you get a kill with enough passive stacks your damage in mid game is so strong (so too early for tanks to really get there) that you could group and win or just roam mid and push.

Griefer1 votes

Bork doesn't work wel on him, yet I've seen him perform real well. Why???

Teachan1 votes

He'll perform well if he can cash in on his passive. It let's him snowball much faster. Alternatively, if you die or lose stacks it cripples him. Odds are they are rushing a item 3035 and abusing their mid game power spike.

Drunk Rummate1 votes

You don't need botrk to deal ADC amounts of damage, even in tank meta. BotRK is a good item when you've got to peel for yourself against lots of stuff that runs at you (Ex - Udyr, Volibear, Evelynn) but generally it's better to have Bloodthirster on most ADCs just because it keeps you alive a lot easier, especially against thornmail or champions with targeted CC like maokai.

I seriously wouldn't recommend learning Draven unless you plan on putting over a hundred games into him. He's really difficult to pick up. The reason he does well is because in the hands of a good player he has a ton of snowball potential and he can hit 3+ items while many people are still sitting on 1-2 due to his passive. He has really good AD steroids so he doesn't fall off late game, but he is very easy to kill compared to most ADCs as well.

Barbwired Mind1 votes

Vayne is number one for tank meta. Her w just crushes.

CelestialOrigins1 votes

Honestly I prefer Kog'Maw over vayne for tank meta. By far my favorite adc.KogMaw

TouchpadExpert1 votes

Corki Nobody showing any Corki love? His E shreds armor... And he is mobile too. And he has hyrbid damages. And he's never banned right now. What's not to love?

KogMaw Has probably the best kit for shredding tanks. Only problem is that his lack of mobility means that in order to make it truly work you need a "protect the Kog'maw" composition. Basically anything with massive amounts of peels will make this ADC shred tanks to the best of his abilities.

Caitlyn She's worth mentioning after they tweaked her passive to shred 50% armor. I haven't really noticed a major difference though except against major armor stackers (Malphite and Rammus) where she does considerable damage. Does about the same damage against squishies as she usually does.

Griefer1 votes

Corki is a caster, so while he does perform good early and have a powerspike mid game, his late game against tanks are nowhere as good as someone like Vayne. I have considered him.

Caitlyn I'm not really sure where she fits in.

xSleepy1 votes

i think the issue with the "tank meta" for ADC players is it creates a huge target that's standing right in the way of the backline the best way to beat the tank meta in my opinion isn't to have a great pocket pick, tank-buster like Vayne , its having the knowledge and ability to kite around/past the tanks and get to the backline. if you have trouble doing this, i think some safe picks are Lucian or Corki because they have a strong early game and spike heavily in the mid game. If you can beat the opposing team before their tanks have time to scale up, you have a pretty solid chance at controlling your own destiny as far as the mid-late game goes.

TLDR: the best way to beat the tank meta is to play away from the tanks, not out duel them. either beat them before they get tanky, or get past them in teamfights.

hope this helps! (ps: DON'T UNDERVALUE item 3035 !!! armor pen is key to out-fighting tanks, even if you have item 3153 an armor stacking old-fashioned tank can still mess you up)

xSleepy1 votes

addendum: Urgot

GundayMonday1 votes

Lucian with item 3153 melts tanks because of his passive (you nailed the reasoning right on the head). On hit effects are not applied (check the wiki for details): http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Lucian

Caitlyn is another good adc to play into the tank meta. She has some new armor pen mechanics, likes attack speed and item 3153, and also has a dash that helps her kite a blood thirsty tankline.

My $0.02/

LordGeovanni1 votes

vayne is an anti tank. but adcs arnt supposed to be good vs tanks hence the point of then being tanks if you dieing to them its because you (non specific you) rushing fights rather than skirmishing if the enemy has 3 or more tanks. only other things i think might work are adcs with spamable skills like corki kogmaw or ezreal

Griefer1 votes

item 3153 while a good item vs tanks, only few adcs can utilize to it's max potential (aa's adcs and high dps adcs).

For the champs that doesn't utilize BotRK, their only option is item 3035. While this is a very good item to counter armor, this meta often consist more than 1 tank per game which you will need more APen. Black Cleaver while does shred armor, provides too much extras that an ADC can't afford to buy. Yomama's Blade while have a good active, doesn't provide enough APen for this meta.

So champs like Lucian, Vayne, Trist, Twitch, Jinx, Kalis, ect... really shines because of their dps, while the rest just not being viable because they're casters.

P.S. Where does Draven stand?

Schenix1 votes

KogMaw Actual hard carry ADC and melts tanks without huge skill cap while also dealing huge damage to everyone else.

Vayne Still very viable and strong but as everyone is saying, requires a lot of practice in both league mechanics and the champion herself.

Corki I've never personally liked Corki, but his passive and self-peel or backline/wall jumping escapades make him pretty good. Not to mention his mixed damage and poke.

Ashe Kite forever, tanks need the Glory or just good positioning. Your damage isn't too great until you hit your spike, but your utility in teamfights and just to the team make it desirable.

Jinx Super high damage and rocket range. Building Armor Pen on her will result in mid and late game massacre regardless. Her lack of true mobility is made up for just by this damage. However it's a little more risky than Kog, Ashe or Corki.

Griefer1 votes

With Corki being a caster, what would you rate his kiting/tank burst?

Schenix1 votes

Not too much better than normal. Considering you normally build Tri-Force, he can kite slightly better with the speed boost (and if you get Furor), but his poke is generally his kite when you take in the range. The self-peel or chase is nice as well.

Corki burst needs you to be close sadly (and takes a lot of mana at early levels), and while it isn't like Graves blowing up a squishy -- it is respectable (and able to be interrupted); But I don't think burst should ever be used on tanks anyway unless they're lowered. You do pick him just for being a caster type and execute a mini burst normally under safe conditions or if you know you can fly to your backline again.

IcyPepper1 votes

Honestly, I don't really find it to be a tank meta (mid and bot are still the same, and champions like Riven and Rumble and Ryze have always been top).

But generally you'll want an adc to fit your team comp or your goal rather than outright beat tanks. Vayne and Kog'Maw are excellent tank busters, but they're not always the best adc's against tanks in every match-up. Sometimes you'll want to take Ashe or Sivir for their utility, for instance. If you're up against tanks, just make sure your late-game build is appropriate (a botrk is sometimes a better choice than BT, depending on the game).

Griefer1 votes

So let's say their team has a Nasus building full tank and I'm Sivir. Sivir is a caster. Because of this, she can't utilize BotRK as well as those AAs ADCs. So the most she can really go is Yomama's and LW, which I don't think is enough to shred a Nasus with full build. She also is a caster so she can't keep up sustained damage like AA's can. How would you go about coubtering this situation?

IcyPepper1 votes

You mean Ghostblade? I'd definitely trade that for a Botrk.

It'll scale with his health (if he's just building flat armor, I would suggest a Black Cleaver instead). Sivir is a bit of a caster, yes, but her W still requires auto and her spellshield should help you against Nasus' Q if you get caught out. She's not as aa-reliant as some adc's, but she certain aa's a lot. If Nasus tries to wither you, spellshield to block his Q and then use Botrk's active (and maybe your ult) to get out of range during a teamfight.

A build I would suggest is IE, PD, LW, boots, Botrk, and a GA (if you miss your spellshield, you get a redo every five minutes or so). Not the most AD on the surface, but 8%hp per aa is pretty neat.

More from Tips & Tricks

More by Griefer