As the ADC in the team, you have a lot riding on your shoulders. Yes, everyone has their part to play, but the team is going to depend on your damage output in the late game. On top of that, the enemy assassins will be looking to burst you down at any given time because of your potential threat and ability to whittle them down during prolonged clashes.
Because of this, positioning, general know-how of what you should be doing during clashes, and mechanical expertise of what your champion excels at are very important. Still, there’s always room for improvement, so let’s look at some of the ways you can be the most efficient ADC you can be.
Also check out: Good Mid Laner Guide
Increase Your Champion Pool
We all have our go-to champions – the ones we feel are, without a doubt, the champion that defines us as League of Legends. While feeling a connection does tend to increase your performance, it’s often better to diversify and leave your comfort zone. A lot of people don’t just play one champion, and for good reason! What are you going to do when an opponent in a ranked match picks it before you do? What if your favorite champion is banned? Because of these common hitches, it’s always good to expand your horizons.
Even when your favorite champion is available, it may not work best with the current lineup. Sure, League of Legends certainly prioritizes technical skill over point and click hard counters, but sometimes different situations call for different champions. If you see a lack of late game staying power, perhaps a hyper-carry would be a better fit. Do you see a lot of CC from your teammates that you could benefit from such as Orianna’s Command: Shockwave? Maybe some area of effect damage like Miss Fortune’s Bullet Time may be a good choice.
Knowing what your team needs is important. Champions like Twitch have amazing damage output. Champions like Ashe and Varus don’t dish out quite as much, but they do have tricks up their sleeve such as CC. Ashe is an excellent kiter, but it wouldn’t do much against champions who are immune to slows like Master Yi and Olaf. Varus has excellent teamfight potential, but if your team lacks the damage output to finish off their tankier heroes, then your locking them down may have been for nothing.
Theory crafting like this is good on paper, but it doesn’t always translate too well in practice. Still, getting to know a champion and having a diverse pool also has practical uses… Like keeping the gameplay fresh for you for extended gaming sessions. Spamming Draven every game may lead you to win more often, but it just wouldn’t be as fun just relying on 2 or 3 champions, now would it?
Also check: Good Jungler Guide
Adjust to the Enemy Composition
Cookie cutter builds are nice templates, but you shouldn’t alway follow them to a tee. Different items are there for a reason, and you should always see what you need based on the enemy team and how they tend to build items. Sure, you could go for your usual glass cannon build, but you won’t be dishing out too much damage when the enemy Zed just appears out of nowhere and deletes you before you even know what’s going on. It’s also important to know what kind of damage output your opponents dominantly make, whether it’s AD, AP, or anything else, as it can help you plan accordingly and adjust to optimize your chances of winning.
This ties in with expanding your champion pool. Immobile ADCs like Kog’Maw and Twitch may have range and damage output as an advantage, but they lack any form of true escape when enemy champions get in melee range, and you’ll have to rely on positioning or help from teammates to escape. This is even more dangerous when your support doesn’t have too much CC and the enemy Master Yi just comes out of the jungle charging at you. It’s the same story when you see the classic enemy Blitzcrank and Caitlyn combo. Champions with no dash often fall victim to early game deaths if they make even the smallest mistake.
Picking sustained damage champions like Corki or Ezreal may not be as effective late game without snowballing against stronger scaling champions who depend on lifesteal, such as Jinx. So that’s also something you may need to consider.
Also check: Is Jinx AP or AD?
Laning and Farm
Farming is one of the most important aspects in the game, especially for an ADC. Unfortunately, it’s more than just mindlessly last hitting. There are several factors that could contribute to how well the laning phase goes for you, and it includes controlling the wave, which is something a lot of people still overlook to this day, especially in lower ranks. This isn’t the first time we’ve emphasized the importance of lane control here, but we just need to reiterate how important it is. It’s going to determine how it’s going to go for you towards the mid game in terms of gold acquisition.
Is your champion better suited for farming safely under turret range? Are you and your support poke-heavy and have early game kill potential? These are all things you have to consider. When faced with an early game disadvantage, you may also want to let them push the wave out a bit further in order to give your jungler a chance to gank.
Use Your Trinkets
We get that it is primarily the support’s job to ward and provide vision, but using your trinket is also important. In the early game, you can choose to either help with vision with Stealth Ward or help deward with Oracle Lens. Here’s a quick tip for you, Farsight Alteration is only limited to one active ward per champion, so if you aren’t planning to use it often, just use it defensively in key jungle brushes and switch back to your trinket of choice. It doesn’t expire, so the utility it gives throughout its duration only increases with time. Just knowing for a fact that enemies aren’t there already gives you more information and peace of mind. It’s less likely enemies will stumble upon it and deward in the mid game when used defensively, and if they do, you’d have gotten your ward’s worth anyway.
Positioning
This is especially important in the late game during clashes in the jungle or river, especially when contesting objectives like The Rift Herald or Dragon. Enemy assassins will often look for key targets. Whether it’s a fed Veigar or a squishy ADC who’s snowballing too hard, they will try to look for ways to get to these targets. Because of this, you should know when to hang back and position yourself behind your team to get free hits in. It’s also good to ward behind you, or at the very least know what’s around you in order to avoid an ambush.
Also check: How To Position In League Of Legends?
For champions who have good range, hiding behind a wall can be effective too, such as when you’re contesting the objectives in Baron or Dragon Pit (whichever side is on your team’s). If your champion has some sort of dash or way to vault through obstacles, you could also put your back to the wall facing your opponents, since this will give you a chance to go through the wall and kite from it in case your opponents decide to dive in. This also gives you the flexibility of being able to simply walk up to fleeing opponents if your allies manage to stave them off.
Participate in Objectives
Speaking of Dragon and The Rift Herald, you really should help out, especially in the early game, and particularly with Dragon. We get that minion kills are important to rack up gold early on, but the dragon buff scales very well late game and grants you a host of buffs throughout the game, which may make or break a match when all of you have your items locked in. You could argue that this is more important than early game minion kills, so try to help out when you can. Teams who secure Dragon early on tend to snowball much better, and will more likely secure subsequent objectives based on the stats you gain alone. The impact is even more apparent if your team manages to secure the Elder Dragon, as it gives you bonuses based on how many you’ve killed in total.
Conclusion
Of course, all these tips wouldn’t be much good if you didn’t know your champion yourself. Practice is always important, especially for the champions who are more technically demanding, such as Aphelios. Still, a lot of the little details that improve your gameplay are often discovered by playing, and as you climb the ranks, so will the challenges. We hope this will help you improve your gameplay and help you enjoy the game even more!
Check out our complete AD Thresh guide.
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