how to adc

Zahkara·2/11/2015, 8:16:08 AM·3 votes·1,314 views

Hey guys, Just wanted to ask just what the title of this post says. Supporting and being the tank in the jungle and top lane have gone a little boring and I'd like to try something different and completely out of the way of what I usually do. I have played adc a few times before when I was forced to play because of being last pick. I'm decent enough to not die a lot and feed. It's one of the roles I'm not very good at and I would like to get better so that I would enjoy it more. Also I am tired of people harassing me over it even when I told them specifically I'm not a good adc and I was forced to this role. I already do have two go-to champs just for the occasion and they are Sivir and Tristana. Builds for adc is still a mystery also but I usually rush either Static Shiv or IE. I'm still fairly new to adc so any advice is greatly appreciated.

4 Comments

freeformline2/11/2015, 10:13:43 AM2 votes

I've posted in a number of threads with similar topics that have a fair amount of useful advice. You can find some of those threads here: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/tips-tricks/nikbT0tA-adc-help-plz http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/tips-tricks/P7MYF54M-how-do-i-carry-games-as-adc http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/tips-tricks/rjNKcEER-unbelievbly-bad-at-lol-going-to-quit-if-i-cant-become-decent http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/tips-tricks/AqBRZdE2-please-help http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/tips-tricks/dHyAcJoE-help-on-getting-better-at-positioning

I'm an unranked support main who plays ADC as the need arises, usually Varus. Historically I suck at this role, but I've seen a lot of success in recent games. Here's a quick version of my typical advice on playing an ADC marksman:

The ADC plays for the middle and late game, in which their role is to do high, sustained damage in teamfights and, especially, when taking objectives. Despite what the Vayne mains may tell you, your job is not to 1v5 the enemy team and get a pentakill. Rather, your single most important job is to stay alive. Rule one of playing ADC is DON'T DIE. Death in the early game sets back your late game power spike and accelerates that of the (usually) ADC who killed you, while deaths late game take away a lot of your team's capturing power. Since you are playing for the late game, be careful to keep your farm up all game, until you reach your full build. Also, practice auto attack canceling and orb walking (Youtube can tell you what this is).

In lane, your goal is to get as much gold and experience as you can and deny those from your enemy if it is safe to do so. Practice last-hitting and focus on avoiding taking damage. When the opportunity presents itself, go ahead and harass your enemies. If you are Draven , Varus , or another early game damage dealer, harass for a little while, then go for a kill and get your snowball rolling, but only if you are sure you can do so safely, without a gank from mid or the jungle. If you are being harassed away from your farm, keep yourself safe and farm under tower as well as you can. Most importantly, don't die. You can't farm experience or gold when you are dead, and you'll just give your opponents a point to snowball from. Unless you want to push hard, it is not usually worth the mana to use your abilities on minions. Save it for the champions and use your powerful auto attacks for farming.

Come mid game, you'll need to start roaming. From this point onward, you will be focused on objective control, and will need to be sure to be around any towers you intend to destroy. Don't be afraid to go out alone and split push or clear a wave that's pushing up against your tower, so long as you have enough vision control that you will have no trouble escaping if enemies try to stop you. I have a history of out-warding my support when I play ADC, as I try to maintain a pink ward at all times, and upgrade my yellow trinket if I expect to spend any time alone. Not only will this make your support happy, but it will keep your death count low. If an enemy does manage to get near you, don't stick around and fight them alone. Head for safe territory and kite them if you can afford to do so. Do not take undue risks.

Wave management is a huge part of playing ADCs, and it is one of the many things that separates decent ADCs from good ADCs. In the laning phase, learn how to efficiently push or freeze lanes while maintaining a good CS (again, Youtube). Let your enemies push near your tower if you need to play safe or want to set up your jungler for a gank. Avoid pushing your lane if you have reason for caution or expect an enemy gank. If you want to create pressure to keep your opponents from defending an objective or joining a fight elsewhere, push hard to their turret. You can also push if your enemies are dead or basing, or if you do not fear a gank. Pushing minions under the enemy turret allows the turret to kill them, denying your opponents last-hit gold. It also gives you an opportunity to harass your opponents without significant retribution, as they will have to choose to return fire on you or to clear the pushing wave. If your enemies are not present to defend the turret, pushing gives you an opportunity to put some damage on it, and gives you a chance to base, as pushing a wave under your enemy's turret will cause their wave to push to near you turret by the time you return to lane, giving you a safe opportunity to farm. If you want to push hard, don't be afraid to ask your support to damage back line minions to accelerate the process.

Team fights are a scary time for ADCs, since you will often be your opponent's primary target. As usual, your big duty is to stay alive. Keep to the back line, ward your flanks, and back off if you are dived on. Kite and let your allies peel for you. Keep auto-attacking any enemy you can reach, preferably the enemy damage dealers, but keep your distance and do not dive into the enemy team, even if that means that the only target you can hit is the tank. You are squishy and they will kill you if you step even if a little out of position. Whatever the outcome of the fight, you need to be alive to properly capitalize on it, taking or defending an objective as necessary.

Finally, be a pleasant person to play with. Praise your allies and opponents for quality play and maintain a good attitude even when things are going poorly. You've played support, so you know how much garbage can be thrown your way by an unfriendly ADC. Sometimes something as little as a well-placed ward is grounds for a compliment, and your support will appreciate that you are acknowledging what they are doing. When you play an ADC, it's easy to think the game is all about you, or that it's up to you to carry it. At the end of the day, all that matters is having fun, and a good attitude is more important than which nexus is destroyed. Stay positive, be friendly, and enjoy your leisure time. Happy farming!

BD Wilton2/11/2015, 10:34:56 AM1 votes

Runes and masteries are where the majority of bad ADC's go wrong. Zero armor & zero mr, get melted. Don't be that type of ADC. Give yourself a chance with armor seals and scaling mr glyphs.

AwesomeChad2/11/2015, 10:28:16 PM1 votes

These are mechanics every diamond ADC should have (i've listed these according to easiest to tough mechanics to learn):

Farming - every diamond adc can cs well. You should be able to get 10 cs per minute in games where you don't get pressured in laning phase
Harassing - Poke the enemy with an autoattack and/or spell when they walk up to cs. This forces them to decide between getting the cs or trading back with you and missing it. Sometimes, you have an ally nearby so you force trades onto the enemy to get their hp bars down so your ally can come in and finish them off.
Kiting - You need to utilize the max range of your autoattacks( and maybe spells) in cases where you have a range advantage over the enemy.
Positioning - being in the best position you can be so you can stay alive in teamfights and still deal alot of dmg. Generally, you want to focus the closest enemy to you. If theres multiple enemies, focus the highest priority threats like the carries.
Map awareness - One of the most important mechanics in the game. Be able to multitask looking over at your map with any other action you're doing. Your minimap tells you if you're in danger, if certain decisions are too risky, and if theres any opportunities you can take in the game. It essentially guides your decision making.
Zoning/Denying the enemy - This mechanic is important for giving yourself a bigger advantage over the enemy laner. You utilize tricks like freezing the minion wave or shoving it into the turret to deny the enemy cs gold and experience.
Utilizing level Advantages - when you gain a level advantage on the enemy, use it to pressure the enemy or force an all-in. You should win the fight if you played properly.

Keep track of summoner spells/enemy ultimate cooldowns/long cooldown spells - When an enemy burns a summoner spell like Flash, record the timer in chat. Thats information that you or your teammates can utilize to get easy kills on that enemy. When an enemy's ultimate is on cooldown, you can force an all-in on the enemy. When an enemy's ability is on cooldown, you can force favorable trades on the enemy.
Baiting/Bluffing/mind games - This mechanic is a more psychological topic that affects mainly diamond level (and above) players because they tend to be more aware of their surroundings and thus, have a mild case of paranoia for every little thing that happens. Baiting works in several ways like: you could bait the enemy on engaging on you when you have allies nearby, you can bait the enemy to tower dive you when you're low hp but you have heal or some kind of shield. Bluffing is like pretending like something is there but it really isn't; an example would be thresh throwing out a lantern behind him to "bluff" that he has another ally coming. The enemy may react by immediately backing off or potentially, burning summoner spells for their own safety. You can fake recall on a dying enemy ward; the enemy is under the false impression you recalled but u actually stayed and they might make certain decisions. You can go to your lane late to bluff that you leashed for your junger; this gives the enemy misinformation of where your jungler started. Theres other mind games that can be used but i won't mention them.

EDIT: Theres a reason why I'm a Diamond ADC. I provided this list of mechanics to inform you guys but it doesn't seem like you understand.