The ADC role has long been an indispensable position in League of Legends, hosting champions with incredibly high damage potential who can carry their team effectively. However, over time and through both direct and indirect adjustments by Riot Games, the ADC has gradually lost its place and is no longer as powerful as in many previous seasons. By Season 10, things have gotten extremely dire for this position; instead of being the main damage dealer, ADCs in Season 10 primarily serve as a supporting role.
This has forced passionate players in this role to adapt in order to survive, with most players opting to switch roles to rank up more effectively. It’s no coincidence that a “Draven God” like Tyler1 has completely switched to the jungle in this Season 10; when he returned to his main account and played ADC, he had to exclaim, “I play terribly, but my jungle is better, so we win, you understand?”
For some who are too attached to this position and cannot switch roles, they seek the reasons for this decline and look for ways to change the ADC role. A passionate ADC player has even traveled to “study abroad” in DOTA2 to find answers, and he was overwhelmed by what Valve’s game offers.
ADCs have become overly dependent on their teammates; issues related to updates on Ryze/Azir/Kalista now affect the entire ADC position, which is good for the professional scene but extremely detrimental in solo queue.
I believe that some of the issues ADCs face can be resolved in several other MOBA titles, especially in DOTA2, where I have played quite a bit. I’ve spent thousands of hours in these games and learned a lot over the years. Perhaps this should be a standalone article, but here are my thoughts at the moment.
First, in DOTA2 and HoN, farming is a mandatory aspect when playing Carry, equipped with items that enhance farming like Battle Fury, Maelstrom, Radiance, or Hand of Midas, which help the Carry earn more gold than the opponent’s Carry. You need to find a way to build an expensive item, sacrificing 1v1 potential to increase farming efficiency and reach your late-game item build as quickly as possible. It’s a risk, hoping that your teammates can hold the game long enough for you to 1v5 at the end.
This is not something that League of Legends has. There are only a few items that enhance farming like Tiamat, Statikk Shiv, and for ADCs, it’s foolish to build Statikk Shiv first. Building these items first offers no real value compared to attack damage items like Infinity Edge or Bloodthirster. The number of minions you can farm in lane is limited, while jungle camps are often taken by the jungler. Therefore, farming or increasing gold income only means winning by getting kills or taking towers.
The second point is that survivability is not something ADCs can build early in League of Legends. In DOTA2, survivability items can be the first or second major item a Carry owns, like BKB or Linken’s Sphere. The damage from a Carry comes from their skills, and just one or two damage items is often enough to threaten opponents. The extended team fights mean that survivability and DPS will be significantly stronger than pure burst damage.
In League of Legends, early defensive items only weaken your lane and make it harder. Most players will scold you if you build Quicksilver or Blade of the Ruined King too early. You will always be stuck because you can’t farm the side lane and are easily killed by the enemy team’s assassins. Why can’t we have defensive items when needed? Why do early defensive items reduce damage output so significantly? ADCs need more damage from skills rather than items, and we could build defensive items effectively.
The third point is that we need more activated items. Most items in DOTA2 have activations to counter certain builds or champions. Timing the usage of these items well can change the outcome of a team fight; Support can actively save Carry through that item. ADCs in League of Legends often lack any activated items, which limits player skill. If there were more activated items, there would be more ways to counter those trying to eliminate the ADC.
The introduction of the Stopwatch is significant and has impacted the meta quite clearly; most players can purchase it. It’s not a trivial item; skilled players will maximize its value. The skill of using items almost doesn’t exist for the ADC position, and we truly need it.
First of all, we must admire the patience of this gamer; DOTA2 is an extremely complex game, and many League of Legends players have failed to understand how it operates. Furthermore, the issues this player raises are incredibly accurate, as the damage of an ADC specifically and most champions in League of Legends (perhaps excluding Fighters/Tanks) is heavily dependent on items.
The root of the issue stems from the fact that champion skills deal damage that scales with AD and AP; if you’re lacking items, your skills weaken, which is a hallmark of League of Legends. This game lacks champions that can deal area damage while “chaos-ing” with tons of damage like DOTA2; you must have damage items, effect items, and then consider how to build defensively.
The final major issue is that League of Legends severely lacks activated items; indeed, the activated items are not strong and do not impact the game as they do in DOTA2. This simplifies the game but simultaneously limits player skill. Hopefully, Riot Games will read these heartfelt shares and make necessary changes in the future.
