Adventures in Bot Lane - Part 1

AD Carries and Supports play an integral role in League of Legends. Almost a fallback contingency plan, as long as you got a few bodies to form a wall between your fed ADC and the enemies you're almost guaranteed to win!

Well, that's how it used to be anyway.

Season 2 was the season of ranged carries, which led to their favourite shiny toys being hit quite heavily in the build-up to Season 3. No longer was it possible for an ADC to solo an entire team as long as they had 6 items. The cheapening of defensive stat items and readily available armour made it a cold and inhospitable world for my preferred role. But while a shadow of their former selves, they still pack a hefty punch. Let's see the noble warriors, who they prefer to hang out with and their performance in the League of late shall we?

Ezreal

 

 

 

King of the AD Carries until the re-introduction of Corki, Ezreal is the most versatile ranged carry in the game. More of a ranged caster than an auto-attack reliant heavy hitter, Ezreal's consistency and constant adaption led many to pick him up this season - despite remaining relatively untouched by the nerf/buffbats. The popularisation of "Blue Build Ez" by Imp over in the OGN only increased his already high pick rate and created a ton of new strategies based around the kiting potential of an Ezreal with 40% CDR and a Frozen Gauntlet. The changes of Manamune and Spirit of the Elder Lizard have led many to adjust the build to include the buffed Triforce and more traditional damage items, but Ezreal's core gameplay of poke/kite/chase to the death hasn't changed at all this season.

Strengths

- Strong and safe laning, able to poke from 1400 range with his Mystic Shot (Q).

- Easy to reposition within teamfights thanks to Arcane Shift, on a relatively low cooldown.

- Extreme midgame damage with standard build path of Trinity Force/Bloodthirster.

- Can adapt to whatever team composition you happen to want to run, poke/catch/teamfight.

Weaknesses

- Weaker late-game than other ADC's due to his role as more of an AD Caster so not building Attack Speed or Crit.

- Extremely mana-reliant - no mana, no damage mid-game.

- Damage is almost entirely skillshot based.

- No reliable steroid, although this is less relevant on a standard Ezreal build.

Best Buds

Sona - Sona contributes heavily to a poke lane. As adaptable as Ezreal, she can skill for aggression and constant damage output to force a weaker opponent out of lane or can play more passive and be the healbot until she hits level 6. Sona and Ezreal's Level 6 all-in is insane, a properly timed Crescendo into Trueshot Barrage with do a solid 600 damage at a time where most support and ADC duos have 900 HP. The problem is if you run this lane into an aggressive combo like Leona/Draven or a heavy CC lane like Fiddle/Vayne, you will most likely be sacrificing kills if you try to run aggressive, or be letting them outscale you in a passive one.

Thresh - Thought Ezreal being able to constantly jump around was already annoying? Now he's got three flashes! The best thing about this lane is how easy Thresh makes it for Ezreal to land his skillshots - if Thresh can land his skillshots that is. That clanking sound as the hook connects is the imminent sign of an all-in, which is what this lane wants to do ALL the time. Thresh and Ezreal's Level 6 is similar to the Ezreal/Sona combo except slightly more dependent on good positioning, punishing supports to try to bodyblock for their carry but locking them down in Box/Trueshot Barrage combo. Ezreal can also focus on using his Arcane Shift more aggressively with the knowledge of a safe Dark Passage back home in times of trouble. The downside to this combo is how much co-ordination it requires and Thresh' vulnerability to getting poked as he tries to land hooks. If you are not organised enough as a duo lane, Thresh will engage and die before Ezreal can output his damage.

Janna - A Janna/Ezreal lane tends to sacrifice lane dominance against popular enemy duo lanes in exchange for making it incredibly frustrating to try and engage on the Ezreal. While in lane you'd have to be content at lobbing buffed Mystic Shots at your opponents while Janna has mana, the real fun begins when a skirmish in the jungle occurs and Ezreal is able to kite an entire team to death thanks to the disengage powers that Janna holds. Particularly good for the less popular Blue Build Ez with an early Frozen Gauntlet rush. Downsides are no sustain, possibility of getting outscaled due to low presence in lane and - again - high levels of co-ordination required to pull it off successfully.

(I really wanted to add Taric here somewhere but he just isn't good enough to be fabulous friends anymore)

 

Vayne

 

 

 

Vayne has been popular since her release and most likely will always be. The quintessential high-mechanic high-skillcap champion who excels at shredding tanks thanks to her handy %health true damage ability, Silver Bolts. Considered the premier lategame carry, alongside perhaps Tristana, very few champions can duel a Vayne thanks to her elusive skill set and repositioning abilities. Like Ezreal, Vayne's itemisation has seen some changes after experimentation from our Korean overlords in the OGN. The introduction of Blade of the Ruined King made her even more popular, as the introduction of Season 3 also brought the health-stacking meta and the combination of dual %health damage shredding meant that she was only too happy to wade through the pool of blood to victory. With players like Uzi showing us just how deadly deceptive she can be, she's gonna be hunting some demons for a long while yet.

Strengths

- Able to shred absolutely anyone, regardless of how tanky or squishy they are.

- Incredible chase potential minimises potential lost kills due to increased movespeed from passive and mobility from Tumble.

- Trades in lane extremely well, can perform an AA-Tumble-Condemn to proc Silver Bolts and chunk an enemy in the time it takes for them to autoattack twice.

- One of the only AD carries with a hard CC, albeit conditional on positioning.

Weaknesses

- Weak in lane pre-6, can be easily bullied out by heavy pokers like Caitlyn, Sona or Ezreal or all-in'ers like Tristana and Draven.

- Mechanically intensive, no easy get out of jail free abilities like Ezreal.

- Long ramping up time to reach beastmode.

Best Buds

Nami - Nami feels almost as if she was made to support Vayne entirely. Her passive applies movement speed buffs on all her abilities and Vayne just loves extra movement speed to chase down and execute enemies, while Tidecallers Blessing applies an added slow just for insult. If Vayne chases in too deep, she can shallow out the pool a little by throwing a Tidal Wave to disengage. To top it all off, she has a surprisingly strong heal for sustaining Vayne through her rough period during the laning phase - not that you'll be having a rough laning phase as long as you keep landing those bubbles to stun the opponents in a handy spot, so Vayne can Tumble over and pin them against a wall. The only problem with this lane is the fact that Nami will run out of mana fairly quickly if you are facing off against a poke combo, leaving Vayne vulnerable as well as her long cooldowns which provides free openings if you miss your abilities.

Blitzcrank - Now Vayne doesn't even have to hunt, the meals are delivered straight to her. If played right then this can be an absolutely deadly lane. Blitz wants to lurk near walls that have a good grab vantage point to allow Vayne to instantly chainstun the poor target after the initial grab into Power Fist. Vayne/Blitzcrank also has a surprising amount of level 6 burst damage. The most important thing however is the mental effect Blitz has on the opponents. They will constantly be worrying about avoiding Blitz hooks and staying behind minions that it allows Vayne to get off a fair amount of free poke shots, tipping the lane slightly in her favour. The problems lie in combos that just don't care about Blitzcrank and look for any excuse to jump straight onto Vayne. Leona/Tristana is a prime example. There is also the other end of the spectrum with a poke combo, against which you have to consistently land hooks and stuns or you will be bullied out of lane.

Fiddlesticks - So the enemy Ahri or Zed has appeared behind you and is heading straight for Vayne, what do you do? Well you CC them for 5 seconds straight is what you do. While lacking reliable AoE CC like Nami or Sona, Fiddlesticks is the best at protecting AD carries from the oh-so-popular assassins these days. As for lane, the fear of having a Dark Wind or ...Fear lobbed at you is enough to discourage even the bronzest of AD carries from attempting to trade. It's another case of the presence or availability of the CC is enough to keep them on their toes. The weakness of this lane is that Fiddle is left entirely vulnerable if he uses his skillset to save Vayne, which leaves the opponents free to rotate around on him and match their fed carry against Vayne instead of trying to shut her down directly.

 

Varus

 

 

 

Varus is my favourite AD carry. What he lacks in mobility, he more than makes up for in damage and snipe potential. Varus belongs to the tank-killing family of AD carries, although he;s more limited than Kog'maw and Vayne are due to his shredding skill being linked to his abilities rather than his auto attacks. Varus seems to be more appreciated in the EU meta in comparison to other regions, possibly due to his role as a more supporting damage dealer rather than a flashy pinnacle of a team. Despite this, he's more than capable of carrying a team.

Strengths

- Long range high damage abilities allow for easy poke from a safe position.

- Transitions from AD Caster to AD Auto-attacker throughout different stages of the game.

- Consistent throughout the game, no real weak or difficult periods.

- Easy last hitting due to on-hit magic damage from Blighted Quiver and AS boost from his passive.

Weaknesses

- Damage is linked to abilities until late-game, which means damage is limited by cooldowns and mana.

- No escape or repositioning abilities leave him vulnerable to assassins and diving champions.

- Lack of real steroid hurts his late-game damage.

Best Buds

Leona - Leona and Varus have an insane amount of damage and initiation potential. Once they hit Level 2, they will be diving in on your soft frail body. Leona's high early magic damage in combination with Varus' high early physical damage mean that your life is in danger if you are anywhere in range of a Zenith Blade. Once they hit Level 6, they have two long-range intiation skills that will lead into a chain-stun combo if either of them hit. While Barrier might be tempting to run because of the amount of damage they can put out, Cleanse is more likely to save your life if you get caught. A duo that can safely poke and disengage is paramount against this combo, like Ezreal/Zyra.

Zyra - Better have an itchy Flash finger. This duo is similar to the popular Ashe/Zyra combo that Cloud9 popularised, with more damage and less AoE.  The aim of this combo is to make your opponents wish that they hadn't stepped into lane by constantly outputting damage as soon as they move into range of minions. To do this, you have to make sure that you quickly grasp the early bush control by ignoring Sight Wards and instead focusing on Vision Wards. This does leave you slightly vulnerable to jungle ganks, so make sure to go in for kills when you know the jungler is elsewhere. The best way to play against this lane is to either outrange them by playing a Caitlyn or Jinx lane with a sustain support like Nami or Sona, or to pick off Zyra as she tries to take bush control with a high early damaging duo such as Ashe/Annie.

Karma - Insane poke damage. Varus' Hail of Arrows slowing field and Karma's Soulflare slowing field are a 45% and 50% slow respectively. While they don't stack (I believe the higher strength slow field overrides the lesser), you can layer them so that an enemy is slowed for 5.5 seconds. Karma's speedup and snare also work well into Varus' kit, allowing him to reposition for a Chain of Corruption or quickly trade damage with an enemy. The lane control that both AoE field abilities provide is incredibly useful too. However, Karma's spells require a clear path to hit, so you can catch her out as she tries to position correctly. Thresh along with a quickly repositioning ADC like Corki or Ezreal is able to abuse her reliance on positioning to rack up a few quick kills and bully Varus out of lane without his support.

 

That's it for this article. I've explained a few of my opinions on ADC's and how you should attempt to play them but disclaimer - you might disagree. Next article I'll try explaining a few of the newer AD carries on the scene and what kind of mindset you should get into when playing them. Thanks for reading!