League of the Forgotten: AD Carry

In the twists and turns of the balacing system in League, the community seems to forget certain champions because they fall behind in the game. The reasons for this could be numbers, or the kit just falling behind in the times. So I thought I would start a fun article called League of the Forgotten to talk about champions that have lagged behind and their current place in the game. This weeks role is AD Carry.

What makes one AD better than the others?

Well to answer that question we have to go deeper into the meta. With the rise of unconventional supports that are incredibly aggressive and mid being focused around assassin champions, AD Carries with escapes are ahead of the game. There are currently three AD Carries that lead the front. Corki, Ezreal, and Graves are the three most common and "safe" picks for bottom lane at this time. Why? Because they have good escapes and high amounts of burst damage. With the rise of these ADs, quite a few have been forgotten. Now I'm not talking about the less common picks such as Ashe or Sivir, I am talking about the picks you never see. Time to dive in and see what these champions are and how they still fit in bottom lane.

 

Draven

Draven is quite possibly one of the most underrated AD Carries in this game. He has been seeing more play recently due to the pro player Aphromoo bringing his strength to light. Even though he doesn't have the escapes of Corki or Ezreal, he is very lane dominate. His Q pumps out a ridiculous amount of damage and you can recycle it by catching where it lands. This is huge because it isn't very hard to keep cycling and you can bully the opponent out of the lane with 2 or 3 Qs at level 1 alone.  With a sustained support such as Sona, his burst capability is enormous.  His W provides chase and an attack speed steriod and his E is a little bit of CC which can be extremely helpful. 

How to make him useful in the current meta. Bully your opponent. The best thing you could possibly do is pick an aggressive support such as Leona or Sona and bully the enemy and force them out of lane with your superior damage. Make sure everytime you counter-hit that you do it with your Q. And a handy little trick is if you keep your Q recycled for the entire duration of its cooldown you can cast another Q as soon as you throw the one you already have.

Therefore you are getting two Qs out in the time if would take you to throw and catch the first one. Abusing this feature will most definitely shove your enemy out of lane and deny them CS and experience. Abusing your aggressive support if very essential as well. If they stay in one of the upper bushes, just their presence will zone out the AD because they will know that the second they get hit with a stun they will be taking a massive amount of free damage. Taking advantage of these things makes Draven a very formidable opponent.

 

Miss Fortune

This pirate killer used to be one of the most picked AD Carries in the game and she has now been outshined.  However, her power still remains in many other aspects that make her VERY useful against more common picks. When paired up with Supports such as Nunu or Taric, Miss Fortune can pump out some damage. She is a good counter for most of the popular carries because her ranged spells keep the enemy at a distance and deny them fairly easily.

Miss Fortune can be easily used in this current meta. The key is playing smart. Know when you can be aggressive and when you can't. If the opponent has an aggressive Support and has control of the lane, you should not be going up to try and Double-up a minion.  However, if you have control of the lane and your Support is counter warding and ready to stun whomever comes close, begin your harrass and your counter-hits.

Miss Fortune truly shines with her ability Make It Rain. While this does a miniscule amount of damage, the slow is provides is very large and can help you and your support stick on the enemy AD Carry potentially forcing them to use their Summoners or even get the kill. Her ultimate is a very good wave clear as well and if in the right position, a very scary tool in team fights. Late Game ultimate can provide scary damage and very scary results.

 

Twitch

This smelly rat has definitely moved out of the way since his remake a few months ago. His new kit to some has pushed him from somewhat viable to not even worth putting in a game. Now that is where I disagree. He may not be as strong as all the others, but, he does have one aspect that if you utilize correctly can be devastating. With his recent buffs to his poison and more poison applying spells, Twitch can definitely be a force to be reckoned with.

Using  Twitch to his fullest potential is no easy feat. There is one key to him that can make the difference between a weak AD and a powerful feared champion, his stealth. Most people do not realize that the second you stealth yourself you have global presence. Think about that. Even if you stay in your lane for the entire duration of your stealth you still have global presence while no one can see you. That is incredibly powerful and that can make or break Twitch.

Abusing his stealth to gank lanes and snowball is your ticket to a good and useful Twitch. His slow and poison with your teammates damages as well can easily provide a kill from a well placed gank. So even if you fall behind in your lane, you are snowballing the other two and I may not be a math wiz but I believe 2 is greater than 1. Since this is the most effective use for Twitch I like to think of him as the Support AD Carry. He snowballs the game in a very different way but still does his Carry job and pushes it in the direction of that beautiful blue victory screen.

Varus

Last but not least is Varus. This champion is honestly the least common AD Carry I see.  Other than when I have played him I don't think I have seen him played in months. Now I understand the reasoning behind this. He has no escapes unless you get Flash. That may seem little but that's a huge disadvantage. That being the case, his kit makes up for that disadvantage. In my opinion this champion needs more light because he has the hidden power that everyone seems to forget about and that is what makes him strong.

Making him useful in a game is fairly simple. Play safe and farm from the back. That is your best chance of making Varus useful in lane. He can be strong late game but he has to get the farm first. Just picking a very sustainable Support and warding properly is the key to Varus' early game. You can however, get an aggressive Support if you wish and make use of his Q damage. It may not be a lot in the early levels but taking a few of those straight to the face will make any AD have to go back.

Abusing the long range of his Q can give him an edge in lane if you can land them properly. If not then you can easily end up wasting all your mana and be put at a sever disadvantage.  Mid to late game is where this champion can really shine. His hidden power that I was talking about, his ultimate. It is a non global Ashe ultimate with a nice little side surprise. The AoE CC can help a lot in team fights because if the enemy team clumps, your team has a free pick of who they want to target. With a good ultimate and proper positioning in a team fight, this champion is scary and can aid the team to a swift victory.

 

Thanks for reading this guys and I will be moving on to the next lane shortly. I really hope to see these champions more in the game because variety always keeps things interesting!

-Oshera