Hello my name is Alex Donahue(Spirit Rogue). I am a Diamond level ADC main and this is my first article in a series of articles that will teach you the basics to being successful in the bot lane. I believe it is fitting to start with the first thing that you will encounter when you queue up, champ select. When you join that game lobby, it is possible that you can lose the game just by picking a horrible carry for the team that your allies have drafted. Drafting something like Lucian into an enemy team that has a lot of point and click CC like Alistar and Maokai can make you next to useless when it comes to teamfights. Many believe that it is best to main and just pick one champion, but I find that style to be a too constricting. Mastering a champion in LoL doesn’t take as long as something like a fighting game so I think it is more efficient to get used to a few different champs.

I recommend getting a few ADC’s that you are comfortable with. Picking carries that are similar still limits your team’s options so here are all the ADC’s placed into 4 categories and I suggest you pick one from each and then master them to make you a flexible player in this role. Below are the general strengths, weaknesses, and when to pick each of the certain kinds of carries when you go into a game of League

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Styles

Poke: Ashe, Caitlyn, Corki, Ezreal, Jinx, Kog’Maw, Varus

Strengths: Champions that excel at hitting things without getting hit back. Hard to get to because of incredible range on either abilities or auto attacks, very frustrating for assassins to dive if positioned well. Great siegers, especially the ones with large auto attack ranges.

Weaknesses: Usually have one of two big tradeoffs. Some like Jinx and Kog’Maw are loaded with damage but have no way of dealing with targets diving them, and others like Corki and Ezreal have escapes, but really lack damage in the later portions of the game. Poke ADC's never get to have great damage and mobility.

When to pick: Your team lacks a mage mid to clear efficiently or you feel like the enemy team has too much dive for you to safely lock in a lower range carry. Also goes well with seige based teams the focus on kiting the enemy rather than engaging them. Most are good safe laners against heavy pressure junglers like Lee and Rek'Sai.

Caster: Corki, Ezreal, Graves, Lucian, Miss Fortune

Strengths: Good early to mid game carries. Have a larger focus on using abilities to do damage than other carries and very useful at all points in the game. Almost always capable of going at least even in lane and can have burst to rival a lot of mages in the mid lane. Scale decently unless the enemy has multiple tanks to soak your damage.

Weaknesses: Tend to run out of steam around the 35 minute mark, the reason for this is by this point crit and auto attacks rule the game, and because of this their abilities just naturally fall off. If you let a hyper carry get to this point you will struggle to match their impact. Lower range carries prone to getting blown up by assassins.

When to pick: If you have a good bot lane matchup and a solid aggressive support like Leona or Naut. If your team is focused around mid game with a top laner like rumble, a mid like Kat and a jungler like Sej that just want to go at it mid game, supplementing their damage with a caster ADC can be a good idea. Most of these picks are good first picks do to being lane dominant.

Hyper Carry: Draven, Jinx, Kog’Maw, Tristana, Twitch, Vayne

Strengths: Damage, damage, and more damage. Most of these picks excel at putting down the pain the longer the game goes on. If you manage to get these champs to 5 or 6 items they are unparalleled in the amount of dps they can put out by any champion in the game. The reason for this is they all have ways to buff their auto attacks by some way or another. Always capable of making a comeback if the game goes on long enough

Weaknesses: Each one of these picks either has an overwhelmingly bad early to mid game, or they have a very risky laning phase. Prone to getting camped and made useless until they hit their late game. They all have the potential to get out of control with some kills but if you can’t find them and get behind it can be a struggle to stay relevant.

When to pick: You have a team drafted that has sufficient ways of defending you later on, like Janna and Lulu. The opposing team has locked in multiple tanks and your team needs damage to get through them, or you believe you can get the game to go late based on team comps, like two wave clear mages mid. Never pick into a heavy burst lane like Graves and Annie.

Utility: Ashe, Kalista, Sivir, Varus

Strengths: Have a means to assist the team even when they get behind. Team oriented, very good when they are teamfighting and when they are near allies they can use buff or combo cc with. Great at setting up ganks with allies, can create some deadly level 6 combos bot lane.

Weaknesses: Nothing really outside of often times putting out lower damage numbers do to sacrificing it for their utility. Have less snowball potential compared to higher damage carries.

When to pick: Almost always solid picks and are the most reliable if you fill the ADC role because it allows you to be useful even if you aren’t able to put out a ton of damage for your team. Especially good when combined with teams that complement their utility like hard engage teams with Sivir and tanky supports with Kalista.

Odd Picks

Urgot: Functions more as a tank killing ranged bruiser. Can be good if your team is really damage heavy and you think you won’t be able to survive teamfights, or you want a tanky champ for a poke comp. Does virtually nothing in terms of damage late game and turns into a bruiser rather than an ADC. I tried Urgot but eventually gave up on him after some unseccessful games on him.

Quinn: More of an assassin ADC hybrid than anything. At 6 has tons of burst and can actually kill lanes really easily by catching them off guard. Really scary against most ADC’s in the 1v1 due to the blind but has a very poor teamfight do to having an ultimate that is counterintuitive to the ADC role. Relies on RNG for damage in lane, making her kind of unreliable early on. I don't think she's awful but she definately doesn't fill the traditional ADC role, probably better top lane.

Conclusion

Having more options when going into champ select is only going to help you become a more well rounded player. Picking a champion that complements your team and that you are comfortable with is a very good way to improve your winrate when you play ADC or any role for that matter. Practice one of the ADC’s from each of these styles and it will make you a more flexible player that can pick into any situation that you find yourself in.