The Mind of a Champion: AD Carries

My previous article dealt with one half of the duo lane: the Support. That should also give you an idea of how this article will go.

You read it? Awesome. Now let’s move on and discuss the significant other of the support in lane: the AD Carry.

Duo lanes have a unique dynamic compared to other lanes. Synergy between you and your support is a must if you want to succeed. Thus, solid and constant communication is important if you want to take on this role. Tell your partner how you want your laning phase to go, whether him being a friend or a stranger. This allows him to open up, and both of you could work on a plan the two of you could agree upon.

Now that’s said, let us look at the AD Carry at little more closely.

 

 

Overview – “I am our investment.”

Yes, you are one of the main damage dealers. Yes, you need to farm up. And yes, scoring kills will help you get the items you need. However, that doesn’t mean you can act all smug and important. Always remember that you are in a team, and the moment that you lose the trust of your allies, then you are just as useful as a minion. No matter how amazing your mechanics are, you cannot take on five champions by yourself. So stay humble and cooperate.

Speaking of mechanics, your positioning is one of the most important aspects your role needs to have. A mental pitfall AD Carries have is that as long as they attack from a certain distance, it’s good enough. The problem is that if you just think that way, you are only planning for the now. A good AD Carry needs to plan ahead where he goes during teamfights. Also, you need to have a backup strategy, a plan B if you will, just in case things don’t go in your favor.

A good compliment to your positioning is map presence. While it is true that you are focused on lasthitting and trading with the opposition, you should still help your support when it comes to checking for ganks. More importantly, it is a great tool when making quick judgments as to how to position yourself from your opponents. You need to be aware where your team is fighting, be it in the jungle, the lane, or around the dragon pit, as that changes the risk factors involved when placing yourself.

Speaking of those two factors, the two opposing ideals I’ve deducted when in teamfights is the result of one’s positioning and map presence. The difference is how one weighs the risks over the other.

 

Survivor – “I’m untouchable.”

This is the kind of person who takes care of his KDA (kill death ratio) like a crown jewel. He knows how much gold the team has invested in him, and he will do everything to prevent it being wasted. In teamfights, he will put himself in a spot wherein he is the farthest from anybody else in the enemy team, and just poke away with his autoattacks and spells. He will take the least amount of risks possible, and will always prepare an escape plan.

This is usually the mindset of champions with high mobility, a good example being Ezreal. In any teamfight, this kind of player will always position himself farthest from his enemies, poking away through his spells and autoattacking from the maximum range. He will hide behind all his teammates, letting them take the brunt of the damage. He will also utilize any mobility spell he has, be it Ezreal’s Arcane Shift, Caitlyn’s 90 Caliber Net, or even Flash, to jump over walls and dish out damage from there.

Though safety is important as an AD Carry, being too safe does have its problems. One, being too focused on keeping away will hinder you from targeting the opponent’s carries. This forces you to fight against the ones in front, and those are usually tanks who are built to take that kind of punishment, meaning you might not be able to deal as much damage as you should for your team. Another problem is that sometimes mobility doesn’t help much when you are up against champions with strong gap closers, such as Diana and Jax. Sure, you could run away, but that means you won’t be able to contribute anything for the team, since you got zoned out.

Of course not all AD Carries want to play it safe. Some are a little more…all in. This player mindset is what I like to call;-

 

Berserker – “You’re going down, no matter what.”

He will take down the carries. He will deal tons of damage. He will destroy the opposition, even if it means getting up close and personal with them. A player with this kind of focused mindset is going to throw caution to the wind to get the job done. He places himself in a position still from a distance, but closer to the squishier targets. This means risking his life by getting into the thick of things from time to time.

Champions with high amounts of burst are usually played like this, examples of which are Graves and Draven. Using a more “shock and awe” sort of play, you dive in tandem with bruisers or other initiators, and let loose everything you have at a huge threat, usually the opposing AD Carry. By firing off your high damage autoattacks and abilities, the plan is to instantly take out one of them, giving you an immediate numbers advantage. If their tank is good at getting in the way, you know that you could melt through his defenses and punch through, even at the cost of a few (or a lot of) hit points.

As you can already tell, this manner of play is a huge gamble. If you don’t manage to pick off any champion with your heavy burst, you leave yourself vulnerable to attacks from basically the whole enemy team. This could also make you a very stubborn player, since you might get too desperate to get to the squishy targets, thus taking too much damage before even reaching them. Team compositions with a strong focus on crowd control are also your bane, for you will be forced to attack whoever is possible when you are disabled, even if it is someone who is specially equipped to soak that much damage.

Final Thoughts

Choosing whether to attack from afar or within the front lines is completely up to you. Even if you decided into playing one way at the start of the game, you must learn to adapt as the situation demands. This means that you need to check your current item build, as well as the opponent’s, when making these judgement calls. As always, experience is the best teacher, and the more games you play, the more you can realize the right balance of aggression and passivity that suits you best. I hope this small guide helps, and I’ll see you at the Fields of Justice!