Can ADC Carry in Solo Queue?

Climbing up the ranked ladder can be notoriously hard. The higher you climb, the tougher your opponents become. Because of this, it’s very important to improve your skills as you rank up to stay competitive. However, there are many ways up, and not all of them are equal in difficulty. You’d be forgiven for relying on your teammates for carrying you once in a while, especially when you think you’re stuck in Low Elo Hell.

Solo Queue is another beast entirely. Having no control over who your teammates are can be intimidating, especially when you factor in that randomness. They could be good, they could be bad. It really could go either way. Because of this, you may need to take matters into your own hands when you’re faced with the latter situation. If your main role happens to be an ADC, we’re going to find out the answer to the burning question: can an ADC carry in solo queue?

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What We Know

The ADC is in a tough spot. Yes, we know the C stands for carry, but the reality is more complicated than that. As with the other roles, the roster for champions in the ADC category is very varied, and a lot have different strengths and weaknesses. In general, however, they tend to rely on the laning phase a bit more, and this is the only lane that directly relies on another player: the support.

Remember that bit about randomness we talked about earlier? Here’s where it comes into play. Having a great support champion by your side can make or break the game for you in a lot of cases. When the support is just average, well, then a lot of it is going to boil down to you and how you outmaneuver the enemy ADC. But this article is about being able to carry, right? The simple answer is yes, but with difficulty.

Who is Best at It?

Assuming you intend to not rely on your teammates as much, it is possible, but it’s easier on some champs than most. Let’s take Vayne for example. Vayne is one of the strongest hyper carries if she’s fed enough in the late game. It could be a bit of a struggle in the early game due to her range, but it’s not something some footwork and a bit of planning can’t fix. Other carries excel in the early or mid stages of the game and tend to fall off later, such as Miss Fortune and Ezreal. It’s not that they’re bad, it’s just that other carries scale better. Champions like this depend more on snowballing and team coordination. Utility ADCs like Ashe or Varus may also not be the safest picks when you’re unsure of your team.

Besides Vayne, other champs who can scale amazing include Twitch and Draven. Draven in particular is a powerhouse at all stages of the game and can snowball easier than others. These champions however, rely on how well you know your champion, and that technical intimacy is the key to carrying. Basically, the higher your mathematical damage output, the more likely you are to be able to carry in solo queue, assuming the conditions are right and you position yourself effectively.

What About the Others?

An argument could be made that the aforementioned champions — Ashe and Varus — could help out the team more with utility and therefore do better in clashes and such with their CC and pick-off potential. While that’s true, you can’t always depend on your teammates to respond quickly and be cooperative, especially in the lower elos. Because of these, ADC champions who trade raw damage for utility are often better suited for pre-made teams.

There are times, however, where choosing to go with this route could be a bit better than the traditional damage types. You can make your decision during champion selection. If you aren’t hurting for attack damage, such as when you see a Lucian mid, then maybe you could offer more utility. While technically it still ultimately ends up in you depending on your team, you’ll be in bigger trouble if none of you adjust and the enemy just starts stacking armor.

Also check out: How to carry as an ADC

Conclusion

So with all that out there, what have we learned today? Yes, it is completely possible to carry in solo queue as an AD carry. By completely possible, we mean it’s not impossible. It has its difficulties, but most of them only surface when you get paired with incompetent teammates. While it’s never good to blame and flame, we can’t deny it does happen from time to time. Still, assuming you get paired with average and above players, you shouldn’t have too many problems with carrying. Just mind your surroundings, as ADCs are naturally squishy and the target of many burst assassins.

Check out our complete AD Thresh guide.