The current state of ADC's: Fallen from grace or on the edge of resurgence?

There has been a lot of controversy lately concerning the current state of AD carries and what the future will hold for them. They have been caught between a rock and a hard place during season 5, something the more seasoned veterans have not witnessed before. With the meta shift being well under way and the introduction of Patch 5.16 it might be a good time to take a closer look at the AD carries and their impact on the game.

Numerous efforts have been made trying to explain why AD carries felt like they didn't have the power they once had, however the question why AD carries don't feel as rewarding to play as they once did remains the million-dollar question to this day. Ever since the tank meta surfaced it felt like there was something off with AD carries and in some scenarios they were simply not able to provide the consistent late game damage people were used to see . Initially, this was described as a result of the current meta and there was stated that AD carries would rise to the top of the food chain once the tank meta faded away. With the season advancing and tanks losing their grip on the game, it becomes clear that the meta was not the core of the problem. The rise of terrain control mages and the rework of the AP items made it more obvious than ever that the essence of the problem was a lot bigger than just the meta.

Auto attack based AD carries

Usually, during the laning phase, AD carries tended not to back until they banked enough gold to purchase a B.F. Sword, this being roughly around the 55 CS mark(assuming there have been no kills yet or any kind of global gold). Not only is this the highest cost for any first item mark in the game, but with Patch 4.10 reworking The Bloodthirster, AD carries have been forced to go Infinity Edge after picking up their B.F. Sword. The issue here is that Infinity Edge on its own is just not a good item, only with the addition of an attack speed or critical strike chance item it can be rendered powerful.

On the other side, when you're on the losing end of the lane and are forced to go back before hitting your gold mark, there is no doubt a hard road will lay ahead of you. Being forced to pick up a Pickaxe into an enemy with a B.F. Sword under his belt will make the skirmishes in your lane disadvantageous and nearly unwinnable when played properly by the opposing duo. Even when able to get out of the laning phase in a pretty good shape, the opposing AD carry will still be ahead and thus provide a higher amount of damage.

Image courtesy of yueyen

Just another Sivir comp

All the above taken into account, it seems obvious that most of the auto attack based AD carries had fallen from grace, with the exception of one, Sivir. The reduction of Sivir's On The Hunt movement speed boost in Patch 5.11 has hurt her a little, but it doesn't touch the essence of Sivir, providing utility and the damage that comes along with AD carries. The reason she has been around for a long time and makes a lot of team compositions possible is due to versatility she brings to the table. Having a multifunctional ultimate and an amazing team fight boost made her a force to be reckoned with and resulted in one of the highest pick/ban rate in pro play. Whether it was engaging or disengaging, Sivir could handle both.

Nevertheless it is undisputed that the AD carries not relying on rushing Infinity Edge have been favoured recently, with the likes of Kog'Maw, Vayne, Corki and Kalista coming to mind. Trinity Force and Blade of the Ruined King not only give more freedom in terms of item order, but they are both more gold efficient as a first buy. Not relying on any kind of additional stats makes them more effective in the early to mid game in comparison to Infinity Edge and gives a decent power spike when the grouping for global objectives start.

Optimization

It is no secret that the build path of AD carries is very stale, as described above, with the exception of their first item. It is considered mandatory for AD carries to be a glass canon and thus go for the strongest possible damage maximization.  As for now, the possibilities for obtaining these maximum stats are very limited and do not allow to be deviated from as any other itemization path will not have the optimal result. The issue can be clarified with a simple analogy:

When given a limited border-length (10 meters) for a rectangle and trying to create a maximum surface (surface = side length a * side length b) there is only one option that is optimal:

1*9 = 9
2*8 = 16
3*7 = 21
4*6 = 24
5*5 = 25
6*4 = 24, etc.

Translated into League of Legends this implies that the highest DPS build should be a little bit of everything: Attack Damage(Bloodthirster/Infinity Edge)+Attack Speed(Phantom Dancer/Statikk Shiv/Blade of the Ruined King)+ Crit stats(Infinity Edge)+ Armor Penetration(Last Whisper) as opposed to a high amount of one stat. In order to avoid this very one sided itemization path there should be a rework of the items used by AD carries on the same scale as the rework of the AP items or creating the possibility to rely on more than auto attacks to put out damage(Which is being done in some way, with nerfing Kalista's Attack Damage and thus making her rely more on her Rend or the steroid in Ashe's kit: Ranger's Focus).

Another aspect of AD carries that could be considered an issue is the whole concept of crit chance. It is highly unpredictable and mostly AD carries have to make their decisions based on the luck of critting an opponent. Having a fairly high crit chance of 40% still only makes you ,pure mathematically , only able to crit once every 3 auto attacks. When going in for a risky kill, dealing critical damage on the first attack instead of the third can make a lot of difference and drastically increase the chances of coming out alive. It is more or less the same concept as dodge, which was removed some time ago due to it being too random. Removing critical damage might be one of the solution in order to get AD carries in to a more stable position.

Image courtesy of lolwallpapers

What does the future hold?

Riot has sent mixed signals concerning the future of AD carries and still leaves the community guessing. Introducing Zeke's Harbinger in Patch 5.14 was a serious boost to a few AD carries that were near the top tier, but weren't quite there yet(e.g. Tristana and Jinx).  With Zeke's being loaded with stats useful for supports (Cooldown Reducation, Mana, Ability Power and Armor) it has proven to have a great synergy with AD carries that mostly rely on their auto attacks and hence adding a handful of AD carries able to compete with the League's finest.

Another glimmer of hope for AD carries were the nerfs on notorious legendary items Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen and Thornmail that came along with Patch 5.16. Considered the long-time counter to all AD based champions, reducing their armor stats is without a doubt a breather for AD carries, but the new passive of Randuin's Omen(reducing incoming critical strike damage by 10%) could possible wreak havoc once again. Additionally, those same nerfs could be putting AD carries at risk ,once again, to become the prey of AD based assassins such as Zed,Talon and Yasuo, probably making a re-entry as highly contested picks.

More news concerning the future of AD carries surfaced when Riot Ghostcrawler was asked if Riot Games considered buffing AD carries at all via ask.fm, stating he loved to see games where AD carries didn't feel mandatory. The statement caused flashbacks to times where combos like Pantheon and Janna or Soraka and Poppy were the menace of most bot lanes. The rework of Mordekaiser made it clear that Ghostcrawler was putting his money where his mouth is, with a win rate of 56.1% in the first few days after his release, when played as the AD carry. And so leaving most players wondering if bruiser bot lanes would eventually push the current conventional bot lane combos out of existence.

 

Bottom line, however, is that the future of AD carries remains uncertain for now, with nothing but pure guesswork to go on. Thank you for reading and best of luck on Summoner's Rift!

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