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How Do I ADC Against A Meta With Engage/Dive Comps?

Howldoom·7/26/2015, 12:58:49 AM·4 votes·3,172 views

Title points out the gist of my dilemma. I can't even get near the enemy team at times because they either CC me down and kill me, or they chase me off while focusing down everyone else. Sometimes I'm the last one alive and running to avoid a 75-sec death timer. AND this is me being Caitlyn in some of those times - long range, should be able to poke everyone down in team fights. Well not when the often tanky deathball CC enemy team comes barreling down at me and I have no peel, or extended hyper mobility to help me get away.

I stopped playing Jinx because little/no general mobility, also a number of games with the above scenario; Ezreal = out of my League; Kalista and Vayne are who I consider good as well, but also have the same drawbacks.

POINT IS: Looking at my records, what should I be doing?

  • Learn better kiting? It's not like I stand still for them to dive me; in fact I worry that I move around too much and thus have less damage to champs than anyone else save the support by the end of a match. Also I habitually ward a LOT, but the fights assume an enemy team who really doesn't care about being seen rolling down the lane.
  • Find other marksmen who can manage better against those teams, and (in the event I pick first/early in draft, thus opening up counterplay) teamfighting in general? Currently I like Caitlyn for long range and Vayne for tank-shredding, with experience using Kalista though I'm not so sure where to categorize her. Again, I'm not currently a fan of Jinx anymore, and Corki was underwhelming since much of his power can be evaded. I'm considering Sivir and possibly Tristana as alternatives to my conundrum.
  • Just don't ADC anymore-ish, if I'm being such a stickler about getting jumped upon and rendered impotent? I have problems with the weak points of the other roles, too (Top = you're not helping, or you go help with mixed results and lost farm; Supp = pray the allied team can act on your utility; Jungle = TOO MANY OF EVERYTHING GOING WRONG ON ALL THE OTHER SIDES OF THE MAP; Mid = not much confidence, but a LOT of incoming enemy ganks).
  • Manage tilt better? Always gets to me whenever I lose in anything I try, or if there isn't anything fun or potential in that match anymore. I guess I could stop caring about whether I win or lose, but I'm not looking to go back down to Bronze 5 with that mentality. Or anything that makes it so that losing in ranked even one time doesn't generally leave me feeling like maiming people who tick me off further, short of not taking time off unless I want that? Or something where I get the feeling that I'm making active progress in getting better, that simultaneously gets me back to or better than where I started? The way I'm going off about it, might as well tell me that climbing the LP ladder from my position is real fucking easy and that I'm being a big fucktard worrying about it.

12 Comments

Drunk Zetsubou7/26/2015, 1:08:11 AM3 votes

I'm a ADC main myself and let me tell you the cold hard truth. Unless you're a really good player and can win lane all the time as ADC, there's no way you'll be able to carry a game as ADC if you don't have a good team comp. There will be situation where your teammates picked a bad team comp, there's nothing you can do honestly. Try to learn another role if you wanna climb the ladder cause then you'll have more impact in another lane. ADCs nowadays get picked on hardcore by other lanes cause ADC and SUP are usually the lowest in level unless they won lane.

There's more to ADC than just being really pro or good at it, there's team relying. Your team has to be able to protect and peel. you can have all the damage in the world but if there's nothing to stop the Riven, Zed, Talon, Ahri. Etc. from tearing your face apart then there's nothing you can do :/ This is just my thoughts, there are probably better ADCs with better advice out there. I've been ADCing for 4 seasons and I've improved a lot since then, all of what I just explained is what I've learned.

TurquoiseYoshi7/26/2015, 12:51:57 PM1 votes

Personally I wouldn't pass up on Corki so easily, he's a good mixed threat that defends well against armor/mr stacking. He, additionally, has damage from really far away and has a good escape tool.

Sivir and Trist have short AA ranges and not much escape. Trist has a jump, but it has a short channel period and it is better offensively. Sivir has a spell shield, which nullifies any spell and gives you 80 mana, as well as a speed boost for you and nearby allies (which is best used offensively as an engage tool). Both have the power to do a lot of damage, though.

Chatillon7/26/2015, 7:46:21 PM1 votes

Dude, Sivir. Sivir for days.

  1. She Gud
  2. Spell Shield is OP. It is free mana when you bait skills, can absorb CC that would kill you if you time it. Press it when a CC Champ gets close to buy yourself time. Then, my favorite, fear-spam it and accidentally block a Kalista 10-stack rend and kill her and say 'calculated.
  3. Passive is Furor. OP. Makes kiting easier
  4. W for auto-reset, on towers, winning trades
  5. Q+W incoming wave and get LCS level farm
  6. Engage, disengage, kiting on her ult
  7. Q is a nuke once you have 3 points in it.
  8. You're Xena
  9. ^

As a Sivir main, and by two recent patches NERFING her ( T.T ) , I say

"I'll take my toll, blood or gold 5) - Sivir

Only Play Darius7/26/2015, 7:58:44 PM1 votes

Stay as far back and wait for your fighters to deal with the assassins. But truth is it's going to be very difficult.

The Whamboozler7/26/2015, 9:35:07 PM1 votes

Adc at low elo is all about one thing. CS. The gold you lose from poor CS is brutal. But in terms of actual "how to fight as an adc in low ELO" thing. Positioning. Positioning is HUGE. You can't count on your team to peel for you. Sometimes they will. Sometimes they'll try and fail. Sometimes they won't try. Assume you're on your own and just avoid situations in which you can get caught and killed. If that mean taking a mobile adc with a dash or escape, do it. If that means picking Caitlyn and sitting as far as you can from the fight, do it. Focus more on avoiding death at first and every time you do die, ask what you could have done differently. Did Zed dive and ult you? Next time, play farther back against Zed and hope he blows his ult on someone else. Did you get ganked by Shaco? Pink wards aren't just for supports.

Once you've gotten good at minimizing your deaths, you'll have a real good start on playing adc. You need to always be wary, and always assume that being in the wrong place will kill you. If jungle isn't warded... don't go in. If the enemy is missing on the map, assume they're coming for you. If you simply manage to SURVIVE in some teamfights, your team will do so much better due to your strong pushing power once the fighting is over. In lower Elos everyone tends to assume they're the carry and play aggressive, beatdown champs anyways... so they won't miss your damage if you hang back and focus more on your safety than getting a quadra. Make sure to take potshots at champions you can, of course... but your targets should be the ones closest to you and you should be more worried about keeping yourself alive and running down kills. Some games your team WILL need more of your help with doing damage to the enemy, but in a lot of them you can and should let the others run riot and just focus on taking opportunistic shots at anyone who wanders into your range as you keep away from their team's main threats. Your goal isn't to max your KDA, it's to win the game.

Once you're getting better at keeping alive while still getting in auto attacks when you can... you'll learn when you can go aggressive and when you can't. But in low elo especially, it's gonna be a crapshoot whether or not your team back you up or even backs you up PROPERLY. Lee Sin might try to get that kill with his ult and OOPS. They survived. Kill gone, and now you're too far ahead alone. Since adc is the role easiest to obliterate and most essential to keep alive in most fights, you just CAN'T take those risks another role can... and since you can't count on your team to save you from bad positions you put yourself in (Nor should you, those are YOUR mistakes), all you can do is try to avoid putting yourself in bad positions AT ALL, while slowly learning how to affect fights as much as you can from maximum safety.

Pro adc players can make insane and amazing aggressive plays. But you're not a pro. Not many of us are. Work on the basics and the rest will come. You don't learn to drive by immediately jumping behind the wheel of a racecar. You won't learn to adc by immediately trying to hypercarry a team 1v5. Start small and look for areas you can improve and you'll get there someday.