adc is fun - raphy
Before Game Starts
The number one thing that screws you over is randomly trading, randomly going in, whatever
do not do stuff based off of vibes
If you can hit them without getting hit back 9 times out of 10, then it’s good
but the problem is, you don’t know when exactly it’s a good time to trade which causes you to lose half your health for no reason and then you end up losing lane
you need a game plan of when you should trade which is dictated by your matchup aka
(your adc archetype + supp archetype vs. theirs)
ADC archetypes
This dictates how good your champ is at that specific trade type
Long Trade (All in) > Short Trade (Burst) > Poke > Long Trade (All in)
There are three types of trades, long trades, short trades (burst), and poke
All champs can do any of these, but usually they’re better at one
Conqueror/Lethal Tempo > PTA/HOB/Electrocute > Fleet / Comet / DH
You can typically tell what trade the adc is good at by looking at their rune
None of this > actually means too much, don’t let it get into your head
Samira (conq) wants to go all in
Jhin (fleet) wants to poke
however, you’ll find that supports dictate the lane regardless of what the adc is good at —> below
Support archetypes
There are 4 main archetypes: All in ~= Catch > Sustain > Poke > All In (Catch)
This does not strictly mean better, it’s just an easier match up
Poke
think damage spells that have no immediate counterplay (xerath, lux e, karma q)
win con: take extremely short trades and avoid getting all in’d
goal: PUSH THE MINIONS, take safe trades, poke under tower, DO NOT HIT TOWER FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, wait for bounce, ward + say hi to enemy jg, x2
poke vs. poke, wait until they use their spells/poke on cd [skill check]
poke vs. sustain, this is slightly losing btw, be careful of shields/heals afterwards even if you get the poke off if you lose health you lose the trade —> wait until pushing under tower
you want to either get a mana advantage or a health advantage and convert that into an all in
poke vs. all in, this is your winning lane, all you have to do is not get caught by their cc
Sustain
healing + shields, this is a support skill check, and the adcs goal is to avoid skill shots + eat minions —> you literally win the lane by just not dying
if you are playing against sustain, you do not want them to scale; going even is losing
the reason why people hate playing w/ enchanters is because the lane becomes a support skill check and you need to know how to play around them, this also means you need to pull more weight in other areas
your support is a hypercarry but for utility so do not lose your mind if you are losing lane (sona/yuumi/senna)
this is the only one w/o an adc counterpart besides senna adc/vamp scepter rush
sustain vs. poke, this is your winning lane. if you can minimize as much poke as possible/make sure you are healthy, they will run out of mana and be forced under tower/recall
sustain vs. sustain, [skillcheck] you can play it as a poke lane or an all in based off of what your adc likes to do or if you are a giga weak sustain lane, you can just scale which is also hard winning
sustain vs. all in, slightly losing. you want to avoid getting caught at all cost or if it happens, force it to be a short trade. play for scaling
Catch / All in
Catch is basically any cc ability that you have to land: think morgana q, brand stun, nami q
only difference between catch and all in, is that catch has the ability for you to NOT commit
If leona lands her E, she is going in and it doesn’t matter if you wanted to or not
Naut, pyke, blitz hook are all in but thresh hook is a catch that can be converted into an all in
all in vs. poke, you want to play AS HEALTHY AS POSSIBLE, do not randomly get poked, don’t randomly take bad short trades, you are playing for the one moment that your supp lands their stuff and you win
all in vs. sustain, you want to burst as fast as possible and as long as possible, they can just heal all their health back if your all in does not end up killing anyone, so you need to play very respectfully and when you all in, keep track of cds and health
I will say catch into sustain is more difficult than all in into sustain because catch is naturally a bit slower to ramp up which allows the sustain lane to heal / shield for a longer period after initial burst.
if you end up not killing, you’re screwed since they get healthy again
all in vs. all in, this is a skill check, know your damage and know theirs, be careful of your healthbar, and also keep in mind how fast your damage comes out
Support archetype dictates HOW you play the lane, ADC is an added synergy
The strength of the lane is dependent on your adc archetype
Same archetype: ex. Ezreal + Karma vs. Caitlyn + Xerath
Ezreal (B Tier Poke) + Karma (B Tier Poke) vs. Caitlyn (S) + Xerath (S)
obvi, you’re both poke lanes, the enemy is WAY better poke than you
but Ezreal Karma is a better sustain lane so play it like a Sustain vs. Poke lane and all of a sudden it feels better bc Xerath will eventually have no mana
If you don’t have a different archetype to rely on, it is a skill check
Different Archetypes: rock paper scissors
All in > Sustain > Poke > All In
Catch, I feel is a little more nuanced where you need to hit your skill shots, avoid dmg but you can kind of slot it under All In
Every single lane CAN win against each other if you know each other’s win condition, you just need to be better
Misynergy: if your support and your adc are NOT the same archetype, your botlane archetype defaults to the support’s
ex. Smolder Leona —> All in | Lucian Sona —> Sustain
Exception: Draven + Yuumi
not a sustain lane, ALL Draven lanes turn into All in Lanes
that’s just how it is, and by a smaller extension (samira, nilah, melee adcs)
Multiple Archetype Lane
Lucian Nami
You can play this as poke bc Nami is poke or you can play it as Catch as soon as Nami hits bubble bc Lucian is better at All In
All lanes have degrees of how good they are at each archetype, not just every single champ is one archetype for example
Nami is Poke (B), Sustain (A), Catch (B)
Leona is Poke (F), Sustain (D), All In (S)
Lux is Poke (B+), Sustain (C), Catch (B)
tiers are just my opinion, it doesn’t actually matter, all that matters is you need to gauge how good they are at what they do and if they’re better than what your bot lane does
I simplified this whole section, if you think about it the support archetype is based off of the support’s abilities so each ability either makes it good at one thing or another which allows you to be flexible in what your gameplan is
Level 6 Changes the Archetype
literally means what it says, be careful of certain champs hitting 6, such as Varus R, Leona R, Maokai R
You are going to have to play the lane differently as they are now better at certain things, don’t eat shit
The Mage Issue
If you aren’t playing mages rn, it’s literally free lp
If you are playing mages, you are part of the problem and should be banned
Mages win con is pretty straight forward: you slow push, poke under tower, ward
Your lose con is only dying from all ins, so do not get caught
Do not get greedy after burning all your spells, wait for next rotation
You can tell when someone is mage abusing and use that to your advantage
There’s a difference between an adc main who is picking up mage vs. a midlane who migrated to botlane
They typically don’t know the range of their spells or are horrendously bad at csing
if they actually are a midlaner, you can abuse the fact that their 2v2 knowledge may be a bit lower than yours so you space them out / skill check
If you happen to be playing a traditional marksman against a mage, it’s going to be tough
You inherently lose early, because their spells + waveclear is better, more dmg, and safer
If you have an all in support, you need to capitalize on that
If they also have an all in support, that sucks
If they have a poke support, ts also sucks
I think the true best lane set up that you can have fun is having all in vs. sustain
How do you trade
Typically they’ll use spells on the wave, and you can trade on them, but you need to be careful of poke/cc
You don’t want to be randomly trading unless you know it’s free
If you take more dmg than them, it’s cooked
If they take more dmg than you, they can tp for free —> oh that’s not good
typically if you know it’s mage bot, you want to also take tp, or exhaust if you have an all in support bc the faster you take fights the better it is
Most mages are geared towards burst and some are poke
Reminder, the reason why all in supports are good for you is because once they blow their load, all they have is auto attacks until their next spell rotation (which you win btw)
You need to be in a situation where your sustain dmg is better than their burst dmg
Why are mages so good rn: They have better wave clear and come online earlier
This means they can poke you under tower
This means their support is free to roam
This then probably means your support will abandon you
I would advise refillable + boots + tp, and just leeching xp
Early Game
Your priority in the early game is basically summed up as
Get as much gold as possible (prioritize cs over kills/plates)
If you can’t cs, you need leech exp
Don’t die
Play the matchup correctly, you can find out the matchup by comparing your bot lane archetype vs. theirs —> this will dictate your trade pattern [look at supp archetype above]
Wave management + Base on good timers
Don’t randomly follow fights, don’t die to obvious ganks
Wave Management [probably the most important]
Fast Push: (your wave clear is better, early/late game)
How: quickly kill wave w/ autos + abilities
Why: don’t want to be in lane —> recall, ward, rotate
Positives:
stronger later in lane
favors scaling champs for fast pushing and getting fast pushed into
Negatives:
don’t do this when you’re weak early
can only do it if you can clear the wave w/o being punished for it
don’t fast push into scaling adcs —> fast push if you are a scaling adc
Slow Push: (need to be stronger and can maintain + finish the slowpush. early game)
How: last hit minions —> crash if the next wave can not get there in time
Why: lane dominance + priority
Positive:
builds up minion wave so you win trades
will have a level lead
once you crash it, enemy forced to cs for a long time —> recall, ward, rotate
Negative:
bad against champs w/ good wave clear
if you don’t complete crash, your minions will kill a lot of minions = exp loss
can get frozen on
YOU HAVE TO STAY IN LANE IF YOU ARE SLOW PUSHING
Freeze Wave: (need to be stronger to maintain freeze, early game)
How:
enemy minions out number your minions (reverse slow push)
thinning
holding
Why: deny minions + exp
Negative:
enemy can leave lane to roam
stop around level 6
Starting the freeze:
In middle, need one more enemy minion
In yellow zone, needs two more enemy minions
In red zone, needs three more enemy minions
Minion Mechanics
Bouncing:
neutral only happens if path is completely clear before minions reach lane
Leftover minions = bounce back (slow push from enemy side)
If you want to build a slow push, you just don’t full clear the minions after crash before your minions get there
If they have the leftover minions and did a slow push, you can build a freeze
Even Minion Rule:
when there’s a same amount of minions, whoever’s reinforcement is closer will slow push bc they get there faster
Minion Aggro:
if you hit enemy within their minion range
if you get aggro (you hit enemy), the lane will start pushing to them
NO aggro if it’s an aoe spell
In new season, slowpushing and freezing is a bit weaker (make sure to not fight in your freeze or it might break it) because waves move faster
Minion Mirror Rule:
all minion waves spawn at the same time so you can guess where the enemy minion wave will be by looking at your own
before you crash a wave, look at your incoming minion wave and gauge if you the enemy wave will meet it so you know if you have enough time
Level One: Enemy is late + deny one melee minion
If you want it pushing to you, auto a ranged minion + reset
I think they changed this? minion aggro is a bit wonky rn
If the average level of team is stronger, your minions push harder
if you have a tower destroyed in that lane, it buffs the minions
losing lane usually has minions push into them
remember that when stuff pushes into you, the other side LOSES minions
this is why it’s not good to take inhib early btw
***if you see a neutral wave, you can predict which way it’s pushing
Cheater Recall:
Slow push into crash 3rd wave
Recall
It will slow push into you, and you slow push back
Drag or Dive (timing is really good if you’re strong sided)
I forgot there were junglers
There are 4 Game States
[double strong] Both junglers pathing bot —> you can play aggro, just be careful
[weak side] Your jungle is pathing TOP and enemy is pathing BOT —> you need to play more carefully
[strong side] Only your jungle is pathing botlane —> play aggressive, even or slightly bad trades are OKAY, you can set up a dive or freeze
[ignored] Both junglers are pathing TOP side —> skill check + do whatever
How do I know where the enemy jungle is starting + pathing to?
Typically, you’ll get to know if he is spotted (or not) on raptors if it was warded
If he starts top side, that means he is pathing bot
If you lack information, play more carefully if your jg is not pathing bot, and ward before 2:50 ish bc that’s when crab spawns
after you get ganked or the enemy jg shows somewhere else on the map, you need to remember where he is pathing which you can tell by his cs
If he 3 jg camp ganked, he will have 12 cs, + 4 for scuttle crab if it was a long gank
If he full cleared, he will have 24 cs, (+4)
They come back again
If they are pathing bot, they have to reclear their jg and they are going to come back again sooner or later so you have to ward before their timing, so whatever you do to the wave now actually matters —> whatever you do, DO NOT get frozen on (if you do, ward and pray)
Gank Timing
3 Camp Gank: x
First Clear: 2:45 - 2:55 (scuttle)
Second Clear: 4:50 - 5:00 (drag)
Third Clear: 7:30 - 8:00 (void grubs)
this is for topside, not you but you have to be mindful your supp is going to roam
Level Spikes
Level 2: 3 Melees on the Second Wave
Level 3: First 3 Waves on Fourth (Cannon) Wave
Level 6: if you missed minions at any point or you failed to keep track of how fast your enemy laner got to lane, just pretend that they are getting 6 first
need to gauge if your 2v2 lvl 6 is better than theirs
Mid Game
Before doing anything, ask yourself will I die if I do this:
if the answer is not a hard NO, don’t do it
You have three priorities in this order
Do not die
Collect minions
Do damage
you can sac minions to join teamfights ONLY if it’s hard winning or you’re just better
Lane Assignments
At 14 minutes or whenever someone’s tower falls, put adc and support in the midlane
this is changed now to whenever adc gets their quest
this applies mostly to solo queue, in a real game, before lane swaps you can swap top to force an advantage but this is not going to happen in your games unless you’re d+
laners w/ tp or global ults go to the side lane farthest from objective
swap for best counters
or if you have an immobile mage, you can stick them in midlane and you can catch sidelane, just make sure to ward for yourself or count how many people show on the map before collecting wave
If your someone is in your lane, go somewhere else or ping them off, you are not sharing
Downtime: Farm waves
after you get your wave, this is your downtime to do whatever you want
You can base, hover, move to team fights
don’t follow stupid stuff and always pick up your wave
also don’t take bad trades, just collect your minions and leave unless you know for a fact you’re allowed to do it (you have map / number advantage)
Why do I randomly die trying to collect mid wave
sometimes your support isn’t going to be there to bail your ass out, and that’s just how it is
Swallow your ego and let the wave push into you to safely collect cs
You will lose minions, and that’s okay
How do I know if it’s safe?
If you do not have flash + barrier + over 70% health and you’re alone, no
If there is a nocturne, you are not allowed to eat mid wave without your support
If there is a fed assassin and you are not running tabis/flash, you are not allowed
If there are gap closers missing, no
If you see everyone on the map and it’s impossible for you to die, yes
Ask yourself, will I explode if someone is in the bush or if the enemy laner can get on me?
Before you ever get into a fight, always press tab and check items
If you are disgustingly fed and literally can not die, yes
Go to empty lanes
Always try to push empty lanes
if they send a weak defender —> take their tower and waves and jg
if they have a strong defender —> push + roam
Count to 5 (if you see a fight break out or want to go for a wave)
before making any plays, count how many people are on the map
If for whatever reason, your team has less people, ping that you’re not coming
Ignore them, this is not your issue
Unless someone on your team is so fed that they are worth the dmg of 2 people, don’t follow stupid calls unless it looks hard winning
When you follow a fight, don’t just path towards it, you need to be careful of your positioning of entering a fight
Tempo Lines
Where is your team on the map?
If your top lane is hitting tier 2, your midlane is hitting bot tier 2, and you are basing, you need to stop your recall and start hitting something
When should you start fights / force something
If you’re an adc, this doesn’t matter as much bc you shouldn’t be starting stuff in the first place
but if there’s a play across the map, or someone is on a far tempo line, you need to gain advantage on both sides of the map if you’re not with them
This is like cross mapping for junglers but you apply this to everyone
If your toplaner is split pushing, you start smth to divert pressure
Late Game
basically same as midgame except you need to be hovering towards the objective and following the jg around
you don’t start shit, you end it
the minute you die, the teamfight is lost btw
Priorities:
Don’t die
Do damage
You can flip 1 and 2, if whoever you’re dying for to kill is important AND your team can cleanup after you die
Teamfighting + Positioning
The most important thing is if you are dead, you are not doing damage
If you are playing too safe, you are also not doing damage
You need to limit test your greed without dying
At the start of a team fight
Tell yourself, what every single cc / spell that can just one shot you
If you did not physically see a ult / cc being cast, you have to play like it’s up
You can hit closest target if you doing so will not get you immediately killed
If you have no vision, don’t go in. idc what your team is pinging, you wait
You wait until all the major spells that can one shot you is on cd or can not kill you
The enemy has one goal and it’s to make your life a living hell
You need to know that and play accordingly, if you die it is YOUR fault
Your teammates should’ve played better, but that’s not what matters.
Your role is to do damage, so get better at positioning
Main things to watch out for:
CC (things that can stun, slow, whatever)
Assassins
Point and click ults (vi, jarvan, noc)
Skill shots that will blow you up
Also stop getting into melee range
Pay attention to item advantages / spikes, pay attention on flash
stop randomly recalling
From highest priority to lowest priority of if you can recall
You are going to die if you stay in lane (too low health, mana, going to get ganked)
Your wave is in a good state
You typically want it to be either crashed into tower or frozen towards you
this maximizes the cs the enemy loses + minimizes how much you lose
Meeting in the middle is okay
If the enemy laner is dead or has recalled, you want to push out fast / fix your wave
You need to get good at looking at the wave at a glance and deciding what it’s doing bc in this moment if you start hard and you can’t push fast enough, you might’ve screwed up your wave and this is a thing that a lot of adcs mess up
You have item spike
Objective is coming up / your support is recalling
Your jungle is recalling (mid/late)
Matching enemy recalls prevents item and tempo advantage
Syncing up recalls with your supp/jg allows you to get as much map control as possible
The main idea here is that you have to gauge the opportunity cost of leaving lane vs. staying
you can get one plate now, but does that matter if your tempo is late and you’re losing 2 waves? what if losing 2 waves is worth being a whole item up and you get to obliterate lane?
PLEASE DO NOT RECALL if you see everyone on the map doing a play and you’re healthy
Slow push is okay from (1-6), fast push 7+
it takes like 2 waves to complete a slow push
value of slow push is lower in lane for ADC after lvl 7 since everyone can blow up the wave
slow push is good when you need to leave the lane alone to go fight but typically that’s a solo laner thing, ADCs typically hard push and leave
Recall Timing
Keep in mind these of these, recall before them and get there at least 20-30 sec
On cannon waves (every 3 waves is a cannon wave)
2:55 scuttle crab spawn (3rd wave)
4:55 first drag (9th wave)
I keep losing early game and this role sucks
Ok so you lost early, so what. ask yourself, can an adc 1v9 at 13 minutes?
most likely tf not
Lock in, mute, and get your bag
It doesn’t matter if you went 1/5, down 3 plates and 30 cs
Collect your minions, buy your items, and win that coinflip teamfight
Leads only matter if you use them right
turns out everyone is terrible at ending the game
You don’t need to be better than them early, you need to be better when it matters
Your support will int you, your jungle will path top and die 2v1, your mid will jack off
Once you hit your 3 item spike or even 5 items bc people just can not resist taking shitty fights, you will feel what adcs are supposed to feel like, it’s the only role that matters
adc is an ego role and you have to play like it
you need to be self confident not reckless
you have an entire role dedicated to helping you
you have the entire enemy team that will throw their entire arsenal to make sure you explode
you can not lose your mental, idc what happened in laning phase, idc if your team sucks, you get as much money as possible and you do as much damage as possible
Micro
Trading Patterns
When you are going in for a trade, you need to make sure it’s worth it
If they have spells, you should wait it out
If they are focusing on your supp, it’s free
Focusing on who to hit is a pain point for a lot of people
do you hit the adc or the person closest to you?
you need to think: focusing on who is going to get you closer to your win con
if you can kill the low supp, kill him
if you can’t hit the enemy adc bc he’s too far, hit the supp
if you can hit the enemy adc, but you are going to eat a lot of dmg, don’t
you need to maximize the outcome, not the dmg
Spacing / Kiting
Knowing your auto + spell range allows you to dmg without losing health
Kiting and orbwalking are not skills a lot of people talk too much these days bc quite frankly bc you tend to just explode, but it’s still important:
it’s the act of moving out of range while maximizing dmg
knowing what the range is honestly is the issue bc it’s built off of intuition
you should go in practice tool and get a feel on the ending of your auto animation so you can cancel the end frames —> this changes as your atk speed inc btw
Punishing
If they are going to last hit, there is an opportunity to punish since they can’t hit you
your supp should notice this, the enemy supp should also notice this
Any time they do anything that locks them into an action is an opportunity
you need to be constantly looking for these windows
this gives you a health advantage and lane control
Dodging
Dodge perpendicular to the where the enemy champ is from you
Try to put your cursor near your champ
When you click back and forth, do it along the perpendicular line
Positioning In Lane w/ Supp
In line with your support (triangle allows you to hit the person closest to you at the same time)
On your support (uncommon, but cool if they have that one green rune or so they eat hook)
Far back from your support (letting them frontline so they tank and then you go in)
Playing Your Lane Correctly / Trading Patterns
If you know the matchup, you need to play your strengths and the enemy’s weakness
You also need to avoid your enemy’s strength
That’s literally it
Misc (ignore)
have a game plan of what you wanna do
warding and resets
pay attention to mid game
make some observations to incrementally understand
when you die/fight goes bad —> why did it happen? was it okay?
Ego Problems
There’s mistakes we don’t know about
Have to be able to say no
Have to be able to regulate your emotions
DO NOT worry about anyone else
what could’ve you done
Learn to play from behind
Critically think, how can you win, wincon
Why does a play work or not work
it’s okay to draw strong laners towards you to waste pressure = longer game = get back into the game bc gold matters less w/ more items
STOP RANDOMLY BUYING CONTROL WARDS
Trading Stuff
Health Values:
if you are a burst, you want both of you to be lower health + if you have higher initiative
if you are poke, you are fine w/ higher health and longer trades
If you are all in / catch, you need to be high health until you hit lvl 2-3 or whenever your supp wakes up
Misc 2
try to hit the wave w/ spells AND hit enemy
If you are ending the trade, land your autos and then end w/ spells
Heal BEFORE ignite, and IGNITE before not at the end
STOP GOING FOR BAD TRADES IF THE JUNGLER IS NOT PATHING TO YOU
Kill the casters first
if hard winning, push wave before the waves meet = easier to cs and enemy has to cs under turret
can safely cs if enemy is also csing
can only cs if the gold gained outweighs a health pot or if you don’t eat major shit for it
minion aggro
single target = aggro, aoe = no
Csing Under Turret: minions will be targeted closest t the bottom of the scepter thing
Smother:
don’t focus on getting the kill if you’re a lot strong and healthier
Let them dwindle and die —> they have to recall or die
Farming Macrowise:
stop dying = more farm
don’t make plays unless it’s during your deadtime (you don’t lose anything)
tempo: how close you are to deadtime = time you have to do plays
for fast push (one wave): half roam
Things to ask yourself:
where did jungler start
Do I have to care about 2:55 skuttle gank
How do I want to trade in lane
3:45 is first camp respawn (safe from gank)
5:00 is first drag (be careful, second clear)
8:00 is void grubs
14:00 is midgame faster waves
15:00 is rift herald
20:00 baron (very important)
30:00 fastest waves
Don’t siege w/ a lot of people
bad w/ supports and tanks
if you can do something else, do something else
easier to take first few plates
better to do some small chunks then all at once
try to recall together
match pressure
winning early = mid pressure bc gets to wave first = rotate faster
So you’re telling me the whole point of this role is to just farm minions?
yes
you are a glorified walking bag of gold the entire early game
late game you are a bag of gold that happens to do absurd dmg
you can only do absurd dmg if you farm well so get really good at the boring parts of the game,
gold sources come from minions, plates, and kills
the only stable gold source is minions
