Playing AD Carry in League of Legends can feel like trying to survive a wild jungle full of monsters who have only one goal: killing you. AD mains probably know what I am talking about. Rengar, Fizz, LeBlanc. There are ruthless killers out there, lingering second for second, waiting for that one positional mistake and never hesitating to pull the trigger. Kiting flawlessly, having godlike positioning and insane reaction time (basically being Uzi) cannot be the answer. Not everyone can be the next Doublelift. But how can we deal with those blood-hungry Assassins and Fighters then? Decent mechanical abilities certainly help, but, in the end, it comes down to teamwork. In a straight up 1v1, those champions will almost always come out on top, but with the help of Lulu, Janna or any other CC champion you can turn the fight around. So say the theories at least. In practice, Assassins often kill their prey so unheavenly fast that it is almost impossible for their friends to even react. For example, the last few weeks have featured Rengar as a foe with very little counterplay and a killing speed of close to .2 seconds or even less. Is there a way to deal with this insanity? I say yes!

Sometimes even Ashe wears heavy armor. She knows how much Talon's blades can hurt,. She's smart, be like Ashe!

Semi-defensive itemization is the key to victory over a fed Assassin. It is very problematic that any non-offensive item in the game is regarded as heresy amongst us Marksmen. We all follow the holy trinity of Attack Damage, Attack Speed and Armor Penetration as well as the divine mantra of always going 1v9. This attitude is not only unhealthy - as in Rengar or Zed slaughtering you - but also causing severe losses. Of course there are those games when you are facing a Mundo top lane and a full tank Rek’Sai jungle and somebody needs to be able to deal with them. In these games, you definitely should go full damage, maybe throwing in a Mercurial Scimitar to survive the enemy LeBlanc while having some Magic Resist to diminish the damage from the enemy Thornmails. But when you are facing a fed Rengar in the jungle and some kind of bruiser top, you certainly need to build at least one additional defensive item. You do not need to go full damage against non-tank enemies to be able to kill them. Your job as a marksman is dealing as much damage as you can and, if possible, surviving to take objectives afterwards. Being burst down in less than .3 seconds is not a good approach to fulfilling this goal.

What does semi-defensive itemization look like on a Marksman? Most damage items with defensive stats have been pretty bad on AD Carries in the past. Black Cleaver gives too little instant Armor Penetration and too little Health to be viable, Frozen Mallet is too expensive, and Iceborn Gauntlet offers too little defensive stats and its other stats are only viable on certain Carries (basically only Ezreal). However, in my opinion, the last patches have brought new potential for Marksmen itemization and some very viable choices. In the following part, I will list those items and the maths behind my thoughts. All the numbers are based on a level 14 Caitlyn.

Caitlyn ruthlessly aims for bad boys, but sometimes the bad boys get her first. Her aim has no equals, but her armor could use some improvement.

Sterak’s Gage: +25% Base AD and +500 Health. Passive: Upon taking 400-1800 damage you gain a shield equal to 30% of your max Health and an additional +25% base AD. This item was created for Bruisers or Juggernauts and we certainly see that in the stats. Its effectiveness scales with your maximum Health and the amount of base AD your champion has, therefore with levels and your “type” – melee characters have bigger Base AD than ranged ones. It also does not offer any Resistances but a big amount of flat Health, increasing its synergy with Armor and Magic Resist items.

Despite all this, it is still pretty effective for its relatively low cost (2700 gold) on AD Carries. Our level 14 Caitlyn with 1492 Base Health and 80 Base AD gets 500 Health, 597.6 Shield Value and 20/40 Attack Damage (before and after the passive) from the item. For 2700 Gold we get a good 1100 Health and 40 Attack Damage. Sterak’s Gage is a decent third item against any Assassin type champion because adding 1100 Health to your pool might not be enough to survive a full combo but it certainly gives you and your team some time to react.

Maw of Malmortious: +55 Attack Damage, +50 Magic Resist and +10 Armor Penetration. Passive: When you take magic damage that would put you under 30% health you get a 300 (+1 per bonus Magic Resist) Magic Shield, +25% Attack Speed and +10% Lifesteal until out of combat. Maw of Malmortious offers various stats but costs quite some gold as well (3250). A viable option is to only buy Hexdrinker (1300 gold) in the mid game, which offers 20 Attack Damage, 35 Magic Resist and the passive of a 100+10/level Magic Shield. You can finish the Maw in the late game or sell the Hexdrinker if you need to go even more defensive (Banshee’s Veil for instance).

Our Level 14 Caitlyn gets the following stats out of Maw/Hexdrinker: 921 Health against Magic Damage, 1492+350(Shield Value)/2 (50 MR means 50% of max Health as effective Health), and the flat values of the item. Hexdrinker offers at least 606 Health. In combination with Sterak’s Gage, these values go up to: 1100+ (1492+1100+350)*0.5 = 2571 Health or 1100+ (1492+1100+240) = 2091 Health against Magic Damage - and you also get all the offensive stats of the items of course.

Mercurial Scimitar should be a no-brainer for AD Carries; its strengths are pretty obvious.

Sivir definitely inherited some of her ancestor's wisdom. Not only is her armor flawless, she also thought of bringing some stunning backup.

As you can see there are options to build semi-defensively as a Marksman that actually help you to survive the initial burst of Assassins and allow your team to react while still increasing your damage output. It has to be said though that sometimes Sterak’s Gage or Hexdrinker alone will not be enough to help you. Remember, never be a fool, know your tool; you can combine Sterak’s Gage with Hexdrinker or even a Randuin’s Omen (for very fed Rengars). This may reduce your damage but if it successfully keeps you alive, it is definitely worth the trade-off. It might even bait Rengar into thinking that he is going to snack on a juicy little carry when actually... well, have you ever bitten too fast into a jawbreaker? Doesn’t feel too good, does it?

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