Is the ADC dead?

This question would be unthinkable to someone from Season 3. Back then, ADCs were the kings of The Rift and every Vayne game from someone like Doublelift could be made into a highlight reel. Yet lately the once dominant role has seen a fall from grace. It’s hard to argue against the fact that ADCs have lost a large portion of their power. And the worst thing is that the role doesn’t feel enjoyable to play anymore.

So what happened?

The Team Play Shackles

You’d have to be blind not to notice that League of Legends has been shifting towards a more team-oriented gameplay for a while now. There are few hard carries left in the game, and those that remain have glaring weaknesses or very late wake up times. The game is largely built around synergy and working together as a team. And this is both a blessing and a curse for the ADCs.

In an organized team, AD carries have the ability to turn the tide of the battle. They are akin to water dancers from Game of Thrones, seamlessly flowing through the battlefield and inflicting terrifying wounds on their opponents. Yet the reason why the enemy blades do not reach them isn’t the ADC’s skill—it’s the teammates that act as their shield. But when the ADC is left to his own devices, something like this happens:

This is largely what makes the ADC role so frustrating to play in Solo Queue. But hasn’t it always been like this? Why did the things change so suddenly? Well… it wasn’t exactly that sudden.

The Power Creep

Nowadays every position has its purpose in a game of League of Legends. And the ADC's role is to siege turrets and dish out damage.

And while the first part is easy—after all, a turret can’t respond to your attack unless you have no minions nearby—it’s the damage that has been getting worse and worse. If you’ve played ADC for a long time, you might’ve noticed how it’s become that much harder to impact your games. Tank items grew in effectiveness and outdated champions were reworked. For example, the old Poppy wasn’t nearly the monstrosity we see today. When a single Sunfire Cape on a champion like that can negate the damage of a 2-3 item ADC, you know you’ve got a problem on your hands.

And then the Keystones came. Then looked great on paper by adding some much needed customization and variety to the mastery trees. But in practice, people have quickly figured out the best Keystones for each champion and the feature devolved into good old min-maxing. And during all that, somehow the power has shifted from the ADC Keystones. Currently, Fervor is barely used, Deathfire’s Grasp only sees play on Jhin, and the only viable option for ADCs is Warlord’s Bloodlust. Plain old life steal that in no way, shape, or form helps ADCs with their main purpose—doing damage. Of course, the Keystones wouldn’t matter as much if it wasn’t for another part of the ADC toolkit gradually getting weaker—their items.

Understanding the Wake Up

The wake up in League of Legends is a term coined by the coach, analyst, and SPOTV caster, Nick “LS” de Cesare. It’s meant to define the time and conditions for a champion’s major power spikes. For example, many AP carries wake up with the purchase of Morellonomicon, and bruisers like Irelia or Jax spike with Trinity Force. But it takes a lot more to wake up an ADC…

This inherent weakness of the ADC role was masked for the portion of Season 6 with the rise of the Armor Penetration builds. Building Youmuu’s Ghostblade allowed ADCs like Jhin or Lucian to wake up much earlier than intended. These champions spiked in power with one or two items and could become relevant sooner than if they’d opted for the regular crit build. It’s hard to argue that the build wasn’t overtuned, though, and it was rightfully nerfed.

But nothing was given to ADCs in return.

So the ADCs came back to the old crit build and discovered that it’s not very good. In the current meta you’d need at least three to four items to have a chance of getting through tanks and bruisers. And then consider the fact that the standard crit build of Infinity Edge + Runaan’s Hurricane + Rapidfire Cannon + Lord Dominik’s Regards costs 11 500 gold. That’s 465 creeps worth of gold. Or 38 minutes of perfect CSing if we’re not counting towers and kills. Most of your Solo Queue games will be decided by this point.

World of Tanks

Contrary to many people’s beliefs, the natural enemies of ADCs aren’t assassins or mages—it’s the tanks. ADCs are usually the ones that have the best odds of killing a tank, while tanks are most resilient to ADCs’ attacks. It’s the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. But as of late this force has declined while tanks have only gained in power.

As mentioned before, the cost efficiency of defensive items is immense. Of course, if ADCs have the time to accumulate gold and stack up their items, a full-build marksman will shred through a full-build tank. But more often than not they don’t have that time. And even when they do, there are champions like Poppy and Maokai that are exceptions to this rule.

But that’s only a part of the problem. Tanks in League of Legends scale well with levels. This is a necessary balance decision that means that a champion that only builds defensive items can still be a legitimate threat. Otherwise, people would just ignore the tanks and run past them. But this scaling also leads to the situation where tanks have an upper hand in a 1v1 fight against most ADCs, even when the latter have more items. It’s not only tanks, though.

Other Roles Are Just Stronger

The power creep has left ADCs far behind other roles. Mid laners, top laners, and junglers all have earlier wake up times and more options to affect the game. Mid laners can go for roams, top laners can look for TPs, and junglers can do whatever the hell they want because they’re at their strongest right now. But the ADC play style is extremely one-dimensional.

For a large chunk of the early game, you stay in your lane and farm. If you fall behind a kill or two, you’re likely never coming back without the help from your team. You have no way of interacting with the rest of the map, apart from sending out an occasional Ashe arrow or doing a surprise gank with Twitch. You’re completely isolated—and it’s not in a happy place.

It’s gotten so bad that even some supports like Zyra or Brand can outdamage their ADCs. And the ADCs can do little but run around with their team and take part in team fights while praying that they live long enough to do some actual damage. But can’t you do much more? Can’t you outplay your opponents on League’s most mechanically intensive role if you’re good enough?

The Elusive Outplay

The sad truth of the ADC role is that outplays just don’t happen anymore. Of course, you can see pros going off in their highlight reels, but the reality is that in most cases it’s better for ADCs to wait for team fights and then stay back and deal damage from a distance. And if an ADC ever goes for that duel, in 70% to 80% he’ll lose and the attempt will be met with a, “Well, what did you expect? You’re playing an ADC!”

It’s frustrating to be condemned to team play to such an extent that you feel almost helpless when left on their own. After all, ADCs spend most of their laning phase being babysat by their supports. So, wouldn’t it be fair if at some point the moment came when they can at least have a chance of fighting their opponents? Well, some ADCs actually do have that chance.

A challenger appears

Ziggs, the ability damage carry, is the newest addition to bot lane. And the fact that he’s seen play in competitive now, and by a team like SKT T1 no less, makes it official. Ziggs is now a valid bot lane pick, ladies and gentlemen. Now, in and of itself, the pick isn’t a problem. In fact, I welcome the much needed variety in in this position.

However, when a mage can outpressure most of the other ADCs and reliably take the first turret… well, that’s a whole other issue. The reason for this is simple—Ziggs only needs a Morellonomicon to for his wake up, and the items and its components are much cheaper than Infinity Edge for ADCs.

But Ziggs isn’t actually so strong that he needs nerfs. It’s the ADCs that are weak.

If the Role Is That Bad, Why Do Pros Still Play It?

Because for them it isn’t. In a more structured environment where people don’t give up random kills and you don’t risk facing a 4-0 Poppy at the 15-minute mark, ADCs are doing fine. Due to the games lasting longer in competitive, ADCs have way more time to reach their power spikes. And when they do—well, there’s no one out there that can match the damage of the 6-item ADC.

So, What’s the Verdict? Is the Role Dead or Not?

It’s not. But the problems are there. And while these problems may not be that serious in the pro play, they make the game significantly less enjoyable for a large part of the game’s player base. ADCs need some tuning and the best place to start is their itemization. The role needs more options and the existing items need to either be cheaper or offer more value for their cost.

I hope I’ve shown you some insight in the ADC role and its struggles. With that in mind, I’ll see you on the Rift!

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