So this has been something on my mind for awhile. This is just an opinion piece but it’s still something I’ve been meaning to share.

“Why are ADCs so under powered?”

As a midlane player I have always viewed ADC as a important role up until this year. ADCs have been less then good to put it nicely. I’ve had a handful of “good” ones and most of those games can be summed up to having an Aphelios or Kia’Sa as their ADC. But why is it that Kai’sa, Aphelios, and Ezreal are just about the only ADCs that are good right now? What happened to the Jinx players? The Miss Fortune players? Or even the Kog’Maw players? Well, here’s why.

In my opinion, ADCs seem to be under powered because of the all the nerfs to botlane over the past year and a half. The nerf to crit and EXP hit them very hard. With the introduction of Conqueror, and the changes to the item, Death’s Dance, ADCs found a way to fight back (well some of them). But right now, botlane is either feast or famine. We view champs like Aphelios as broken, but is he? In the meta where Syndra, Cassiopia, and other burst mages go botlane, sadly he’s the only good ADC. That’s why I think people view him as a “broken” champ versus “traditional” ADCs. But to be in botlane and still be “good” (Kai’sa, Ezreal, Aphelios) you need to be a bit broken, right now.

Now I don’t think that all the issues are from botlane, that is just one of many. Lets take a look at Mid. We have a lot of hyper carries who can end the game on their terms when they hit a moment of power (Kassadin, Kat, ETC.). In LoL’s current state there are far to many hyper carries and that’s why ADC’s are feeling underwhelming. However, I’m not saying that we should get rid of all the hyper carries, some are justifiable like Kayle and Nasus.

Along with hyper carries, there is the assassin issue. The early game damage assassins do that scale harder and harder into late game also make it hard for ADC’s do anything of use unless you are a Kai’sa, Ezreal, or Aphelios. I have always respected ADC players who try and keep playing ADCs in a meta that isn’t made for them right now. As much as I think meta changes are healthy for the state of the game, ADCs have been under powered for a bit too long and it’s time to give them power back so we can have a “AD Carry” again.

I think some changes that could be helpful to ADCs are giving back their 25% Crit they used to have on Cloak of Agility and give them back their EXP they lost. The marksman buff we got was not a buff at all. I think that it’s needed, but it does not allow ADCs to fight their mage foes in botlane. I’d call that more of a quality of life change.

Another change ADCs could have is the “Quinn” treatment where their magic resistance and armor can be buffed up until we stop seeing the burst mages in botlane. This could shift the power to be more balanced and ADCs don’t feel pressured into buying Death’s Dance, since Riot has stated that Death’s Dance is not meant for ADCs. Nerfing and buffing the burst mages will not fix the issue. We need to address the issue at hand and give the power back to our right-clicking friends.