Big damage, great risk, high rewards. Taking the phrase “feast or famine” literally and aiming to rush down the enemies with a flurry of auto attacks. If this sounds like your type of playstyle, Attack Damage Carry (ADC), or also known as Marksman, is a wonderful place to start!

League of Legends’ diverse gameplay options appeal to gamers from various backgrounds. Some people enjoy assisting more than they enjoy taking the lead and putting their team on their back. For the people who would rather carry, there is another role in the bottom lane just for you.

Whether you call it Marksman, Bot Lane, or ADC, the role draws in many people aiming for long-range mechanics and high stakes plays. Surviving the early game, farming up, and rushing to itemize against the enemy are key to this role.

What Does the ADC Do?

ADCs are usually one of the key damage dealers of the team, relying either on their attack speed or lethality/armor penetration to deal heavy blows. Some of these Champions focus on eliminating tanks; others excel at nearly one-shotting squishy enemies. Their items are on the more expensive side, and their lane being the only consistent 2v2 in the game adds a layer of complexity that most other roles do not have to deal with.

During the early game, ADCs are normally very weak, at risk for ganks because of their lack of mobility, and output little damage. The early game can be very risky because a solid foundation of gold early is required to hit power spikes and scale. Through CSing (killing minions/farming), and winning the 2v2 botside, ADCs turn into glass cannons that tear through the other team if they play their cards right. To help balance their high damage, they usually struggle against people they are not able to kite (keep distance) from.

There is a much lower number of options listed under the Bottom Lane tab than what we saw in the Support tab. Even so, there is still a very wide range of playstyles listed among the twenty-five Champions listed above. Some ADC Champions focus on attack speed through on-hit or critical hit rate, while others focus on spellweaving (switching between autos and skills during combat) to fight. The image above shows a category not yet mentioned: the APC (Ability Power Carry), including Swain and Ziggs under the bottom lane tab.

Auto Attack-Focused ADCs

These ADCs put emphasis on hitting autos instead of relying primarily on spellweaving during combat. Their big damage comes from right-clicking. Some deliver a few high-damage attacks, while others use many quick, less painful attacks.

Crit-focused ADCs look at making each auto attack hit hard, with greater Attack Damage scaling through their items, while On Hit-focused ADCs look at long-term or consistent DPS (damage per second) outputs. Many Champions can fit into one of, or both two types of auto attackers, depending on how they build. Others have innate parts of their kit that give one side a large enough advantage that they lose that flexibility.

Crit builders work through massive amounts of attack damage and giving their attacks a heavy punch. They may not build as much attack speed, but the attacks that do hit usually pop any squishy targets. These Champions go through the early game hoping that luck is on their side and get satisfaction from seeing big damage numbers.

Classic examples of crit-focused ADCs are Jhin, Caitlyn, and Tristana. Much of their ability to scale requires high amounts of attack damage rather than attack speed. While Jhin’s attack rate is constant and unaffected by attack speed, his passive increases his damage based on attack speed. Caitlyn’s passive has a guaranteed critical hit that scales based on her level and critical strike chance. Tristana’s E (commonly called “bomb”) has damage that scales with crit chance as well. On-hit items are not core to these Champions’ builds, but they might use them occasionally.

On-Hit builders are people who want to stack as many autos (auto attacks) as possible to chip away at enemies through the effects of their items. Their attacks do not hit as hard, but they happen a lot more often. Some examples of on-hit items are Blade of the Ruined King, Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Kraken Slayer, and Wit’s End. The builds that the On-Hit ADCs use are often based on the enemy team composition and counterbuilding (picking items strategically to give your team an advantage).

When people think of on-hit Champions, characters like Vayne, Kalista, and Kog’Maw usually come up. Vayne has a built in on-hit passive through her W that passively deals True Damage every 3rd attack. Kalista has a spear mechanic passive, giving every auto a spear in the opponent’s back, which pairs well with Guinsoo’s passive. She also deals reduced base attack damage, making on-hit a more logical build for her, as on-hit effects are not affected. Kog’Maw has an on-hit damage buff on his W, encouraging attack speed to be prioritized.

Ability-Focused ADCs

All ADCs have abilities, but some of these Champions must rely on their abilities to deal damage consistently. Their basic autos might be slow, shorter range, or lower damage than their abilities. To compensate for that, they usually spellweave to maintain pressure in combat.

These Champions usually build items that augment damage done through abilities, rather than damage by auto attacks. They can benefit from crit, but mostly, they are hindered if they only focus on fighting through regular autos, even with crit chance included.

Classic examples of Ability-Focused ADCs include Ezreal, Lucian, and Varus. Their kits make them focus on swapping between autos and abilities to maximize damage. Sometimes, the spellweaving is necessary to be functional at all in combat. For example, Ezreal’s basic auto is significantly shorter in range and lower in damage than his Q.

Ezreal’s Auto vs. Ezreal’s Q

At first, these Champions and their auto-focused counterparts might appear similar. After all, they also use auto attacks. Most of the spell-focused ADCs still rely heavily on them. Looking deeper into their kits helps clear it up, though.

Ezreal’s Q deals much more damage than his basic auto does alone. He can combine his Q with his W to get an even larger burst of damage, but the Q does not follow the W through minions. Lucian gets two auto attacks after each ability he uses to make up for his lack of range. Varus gains blight stacks with every auto that, these deal a percentage of the enemy’s max health when he hits them with an ability. These Champions could not carry from autos alone, as a lot of their damage is locked behind spellweaving.

APCs

This article centers on physical damage dealers, but Mages are far from uncommon in the bottom lane. Whether you plan on playing them, or run into a matchup against them, being aware that Mage does not always equal a middle lane pick is important. It might even be your new favorite subclass to main!

As of December 2024, the Mages present in the bottom lane Champion select screen are Swain and Ziggs. You’ll probably find that a lot of mages actually make up the top part of the bottom lane tier lists on places like OP.GG, Mobalytics, and U.GG. Karthus, Lux, Seraphine, Brand and even Viktor appear high on many ADC tierlists, despite their lack of auto attacks.

Mages have such a wide range of playstyles that seeing them come to the bottom lane is not necessarily a surprise. They, like most ADCs, aim to survive the early game and overcome those low damage outputs to reach their peak in the mid-to-late game.

Usually, you would see these types of picks when your team has no real magic damage in other lanes. You might have an AD Bruiser or Tank in top lane, an AD Assassin in mid, and a Tank or Fighter for your Jungler. While balancing team comp between damage types is not a guaranteed way to win, it can make the lives of enemy tanks harder. Picking an AP Carry can be a huge help against beefy junglers like Rammus that thrive against AD-heavy comps.

Conclusion

This role has been known by many names, but its variety of playstyles continues to attract players looking for a new lane to call their own. From people looking to live out their archer fantasies, to people channeling their own inner main character, everyone can find a home in bottom lane. If you like trying new meta builds and going into every game with high carry potential, ADC might be the role for you!