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ADC is not a style...it's a way of life






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Choose Champion Build:
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The Burst Way
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The Single-Target Way
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The HP% Way
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The Caster Way
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The Blue Build Way
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The Fail Way
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The Draven Way
Intro

Hello fellow summoners. I am a Platinum V player from EU-West and my main role is ADC, I created this guide to help other players and try to teach them how to master the most exciting role in League of Legends. I believe I have enough experience to at least advice the ones below my rank.
If you want to check on me in order to see if the source of this information is viable, you can check http://www.lolskill.net/summoner-EUW-pr0sd0ntt4lksh1t
First of all, there is some humor involved in this guide, cuss we all like to laugh sometimes and remember this is about a game, it's about having fun :D
Now getting serious, along the guide I will try to teach you how to play the ADC role, how to play different types of ADC's and how to build them. This guide was made to help players making the next step to success by learning the correct builds and mechanics involved in ADC gameplay.
These are the major subjects I will talk (write?) about:
The ADC role
Runes
Masteries
Summoner Spells
Items:
-Offence
-Defense
-Double-Edge Swords
-Last Whisper VS The Black Cleaver: Polemic Situation
-Never end your build strategy
The "Ways of Life"
Mechanics (To develop)
Your bodyguard, aka Supports (To develop)
Answer Area
Change Log
BIG THANKS
I will try to keep the guide simple and I will only go in-depth in situations that are just too specific to explain in 1 or 2 sentences (Like the


PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT AN IN-DEPTH CHARACTER GUIDE! The objective of this guide is to help people understand and develop their gameplay as an ADC, this is not about the champion in cause. All the ADC's used in this guide to show builds are just an example, they were not harmed in any way.
So let's get to business, shall we?

You may be wandering what a hell are you supposed to do. Well, as a Champion, your purpose is to obviously try to win your lane, getting kills and farm, then buy items and prepare yourself to kill yordles, but as an ADC, you do this trough your heavy physical damage, while keeping yourself alive and uncatchable. Yeah, that's basically everything.
The actual meaning of "ADC" is "Attack Damage Carry", wich means you are a physical damage dealer (the opposite of an Ability Powa Carry) that can carry your team to victory, that's what makes your role so important.
Now you are asking "But why should I win the game? Why not just troll?". Well, legends say that when you win a game, you get League Points that make you rank up and feel confident about that purposeless existance that you call "My Real Life"
So, how can you to carry your game? Let's learn that below

As a summoner, it's part of your job knowing what to do to help your champion feel good about his own existence (except if you'r playing Quinn, don't bother with that).
In order to do that, you must prepare your Masteries, Runes and Summoner spells properly.
Starting with runes, these are the options I consider to be more viable to use as an ADC:
Greater Mark of Attack Damage | Greater Mark of Attack Damage |
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These are the standart Marks for ADC, they will help you farming and harassing your enemy's by giving you some precious AD. It may look like a small bonus, but combined with the ![]() |
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Greater Seal of Armor | Greater Seal of Armor |
Greater Glyph of Scaling space Magic Resist |
Greater Glyph of Scaling space Magic Resist |
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True life savers, these little blue pals (smurfs if you like) will help you a lot in the late game, because they will give you 24,3 MR at level 18, that's more than a free ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Greater Quintessence spacof Life Steal |
Greater Quintessence spacof Life Steal |
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Ok, you may be thinking "I give up reading this guide, who the hell wants 6% Lifesteal?", but let's look at some facts: Imagine you are NOT using this, you are using Quints of AD instead, so you now have 6,75 more AD, but you have no lifesteal, wich means you can only heal by using the ![]() ![]() |
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NOTE: When using "Scaling Runes", you will get the stats of the "Flat Amount Runes" when you reach level 9.
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Here we have 21 offensive points to deal the most damage possible without giving away your defenses. Lets talk specifically about some of the choices:![]() ![]() ![]() All the other choices are there because they make you bring the pain...like rain... (what?) |
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These 9 points will help you defeating the most terrifying ADC enemy: SQUISHYNESS! Yes, ADC's are known for carrying the game, not by taking damage. Playing an ADC means you are the enemy's most wanted (most of the time) and you will be focused by the enemy team, they will hunt you down like a dog. But since you are a low HP target with few defences, how can we fight that? This masteries definitely help: ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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A very good spell for ADC's, because they can protect you from great amounts of damage that would otherwise insta-kill you, for example ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Another great option for ADC's, this spell gives you a way out of sticky situations envolving enemy CC like ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
I believe these are the only viable options for ADC's, all the other spells are just not good for the role you are taking and what you are supposed to do.

Time to get to da itemzzzz (a.k.a ADC's best friends <3).
Items are one of the most (if not the most) important aspects in League of Legends, because your items help you doing what you are supposed to do. In other terms, a support needs aura's and utility items, a tank needs HP, Armor and MR items, an ADC needs damage items and so on.
But not every item is viable for and ADC, there are high priority items, optional items and items you should never take. In this topic i'll tell you what items you should take and when you should take it, starting by Offensive items, Defensive items, the "Choice" items and the "Compulsive Buyer Strategy"
So let's get to business:
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This is the best starting item for and ADC, it gives you everything you need for a good early game, Attack damage for last hitting, HP for being less squishy and a healing passive. I recommend taking this 99% of the time, the 1% exception is if you are afraid of getting killed very early and think you need more sustain. If that's the case, take a ![]() ![]() |
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Not much to say here, these are the only boots that give Attack Speed, wich is exactly what an ADC needs. Take them everytime unless you are playing a Blue Build ADC. |
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After building the early game damage, you will need more attack speed. That's where this item comes in. It gives you a huge attack speed boost and a lot of critical chance, as well as a nice passive and extra movement speed for great chase and escape potencial. Some players prefer ![]() |
Since the early and mid game phases consist in different orders of the items above, in the late game phase you get 2 more items: another important damage item for your build and 1 defensive item, so we can now jump to those items.
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Another great defensive item with awesome stats, but you should only take if the biggest problem in the enemy team is one of the following: their AP carry, some key CC or spell that you really need to avoid (like ![]() |
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It is overall a good item due to the very high HP boost an a passive that allows you to chase and lock down targets easier. The bonus AD is meh, but it's better than nothing i guess. You should pick this item if you are needing a great amount of HP due to strong enemy burst or you just need to catch that anoying ![]() |
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This item is just op. Seriously, it just is. It offers beasty stats for a really low price. Like really, 400HP, 24 HP Regen, 55 MR, 20 CDR and a 20% lifesteal improvement for just 2750 gold? If their AP Carry is going well but you don't need the spell shields from ![]() ![]() |
Let's put it this way: As an ADC you need



So, let's see wich items I'm talking about:
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These are both lifesteal items and they are very good indeed, but you only need one of them according to what you are searching for in the game. Burst ADC's need damage early game, so they buy


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Ok, first off all, I don't like



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There are only two reasons why you should take

First - Your enemys have nearly no armor. And lets see if I get this straight: if they have a bruiser with armor, wich represents 99% of the time because the enemy team will always build armor, buy LW. However, IF they have STRONG DAMAGE DEALERS with NO ARMOR and wich job is to FOCUS YOU CONSTANTLY, CONSIDER buying TBC if you need more HP while still getting a armor reduction passive.
Second - You are

In every other situation buy LW, the enemy bruisers will always have armor, because that is what makes them...well...bruisers. Unless they are complete idiots or you are SOOOOOO far behind in the game that they can just ignore your damage (Side Note: That often means surrender).
Just to make a point here, let's get to simple maths.
Imagine that a "I-like-to-be-a-pain-in-the-***"

We are in mid-late game.
He currently has 89 armor (Considering 76 base at lvl 18 + 12.69 from runes).
LW takes 35% armor from him (31).
Everytime you hit him, the damage will be blocked by 58 armor.
TBC takes 10 armor from him + 5% each time damage is dealt, till a 25% cap.
Wich means that after 5 times, you take a total of 32 armor from him.
The first time you hit him, the damage will be blocked by 79 armor, IMMEDIATLY taking 5% armor from him
The second time you hit him, he will have 75 armor, taking more armor from him.
After five times, he will have 57 armor.
Take into account that TBC gives +15 AD than LW.
Conclusion: In a mid game fight, IF you manage to hit the same non-armor-user target 5 times, you will actually be ignoring more armor than with a LW. And since you have +15 AD, even if you only have 10 armor pen at the start, that makes the %armor ignore difference even shorter.
But wait, what is a non-armor-user exactly? Someone that can't afford to build tankyness early-mid game because they need damage to be usefull.
These caracters often use great burst damage, wich brings the HP boost from TBC to the table, giving another point for that poor little underrated item.
I can use as example






And we are still forgeting and important factor.
When you have LW, YOU ignore 35% of your targets armor.
When you have TBC and you hit someone 5 times, EVERYONE ON YOUR TEAM will ignore 25% of that targets armor. (yes, I used green because that is good)
And the case were this will be more usefull is...that's right! If you are playing

When you use your ultimate

As you can see, a well placed MF ulti using TBC passive can have a huge impact in a teamfight. Here, you have your 1% case were TBC is indeed a good item for ADC's. Hope I made my point.
In the other 99%, if


LW takes 35% armor from him (49)
TBC takes 10 armor from him + 5% each time damage is dealt, till a 25% cap.
Wich means that after 5 times, you take a total of 45 armor from him.
In this case, even with TBC, you will never take as much armor from him as if you were using LW.
Conclusion:

So, what is this? It's very simple: an ADC using

You may be thinking "But i don't want to lose my Armor and MR...". Then, buy a

My personal favorite is selling my GA and get another

And that basically completes the item topic, hope it helps you with any doubts you had ;)

In order to be good at playing a champion you must understand what kind of champion you are playing. The ADC role has a big variety of styles , but there are different types of champions for every role in the game. Some examples are the roamer (




So, how many kinds of ADC exist? I divided them in 5 major types:
Burst ADC |
Single-Target ADC |
HP% ADC |
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AD Caster |
Blue Build ADC |
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As you can see some ADC's fit in more than one type, because they can be effective with different builds, when others can't. However, I'm not telling you that it's a crime to build



Now you must know wich are the major characteristics of each type and why they should be build in a certain way.
I consider that 4 of the 5 types are basically "2 sides of the same coin", due to the somehow similar playstyle, and I believe the last one has a bigger difference when compared to the others. I'm talking about "Burst and AD Caster" playstyle and "HP% and Single-Target" playstyle, being the "Blue Build" the poor little lonely boy in this topic.
Burst ADC and AD Caster
"Burst Champions" are characters that use all their abilities to give a huge amount of damage in the shortest time possible, and then go on Cooldown. In case of mages, after you use your "burst" you need to wait until your abilities are off-cooldown again, while in case of ADC's you just auto-attack meanwhile. However, since your damage is based on your abilities instead of your auto-attacks, you need to focus on that, that's why you build more damage early game than other ADC's, you need to scale your abilities damage sooner.
I believe the major differences beetween Burst ADC's and AD Casters is the cooldowns and the ability types. Let's look at





To retain: If you play a Burst or Caster ADC, you need the highest AD you can get and use your abilities to make the biggest destruction possible in the battlefield
Single-Target ADC and HP% ADC
Single Target ADC's, has the name suggests, focus on trying to kill a specific target, since they can't hit multiple targets with their abilities, or even if they can, it isn't viable to do it. For example, Caitlyn's

So, since you shouldn't be using abilities to often, you must rely on your auto-attacks. And how do we get more damage from auto-attacks? We build damage and critical chance, wich is another way to say


But, some ADC's alredy have the HP% damage in their kit, like





To retain: Single-Target ADC's need more auto-attack power, however, HP% ADC's have a steroid that greetly increases their damage. That's why they are the "hard carries" of this game, they have a beastly late game damage.
Side note: In my opinion, Vayne is the best AD "Hyper Carry" in the game, she kills a target like no other due to her TRUE DAMAGE.
Blue Build ADC
This build is pretty unique, you may believe that it's "weird" and way different from the usual build for an ADC, and you are indeed right my friend. It was once the main build in

But after all, what is this Blue Build about?
The name was given because of the fact that you buy specific items, wich are all blue in their in-game ilustration. It consists on getting the biggest Cooldown Reduction values possible and skill spamming capability, while still dealing heavy physical damage. On top of all that, it is cheaper than a normal ADC build.
AD Caster |
Blue Build |
Cost: 16678 gold 210-240 AD +50% Critical Strike Damage A buff that makes your next basic hit twice as harder 12-18% Lifesteal 35% Critical Chance 50% Attack Speed 35% Armor Penetration 250 HP 200 Mana 30 AP 50 Armor 40 Magic Resist 45 + 8% Movement Speed On-hit movement boost Reborn Passive |
Cost: 13850 gold (2828 cheaper) 120 + 2% of your maximum mana in AD 6-40 True Damage (based on level) 15% Life steal 40% Attack Speed 35% Armor Penetration 2 damage dealing modifiers (BotRK and Muramana) 125% of your AD in a area of effect. 30% Area slow 35% Cooldown Reduction 14 HP regen 30 AP 1500 Mana 14 Mana Regen 70 Armor 45 Movement Speed |
As you can see, the blue build is cheaper and gives you A LOT of mobility and makes you spam skills all day, while still giving you decent AD stats. It is indeed unique.
And with that I end the "Ways of Life" section.
Good Placement
Good Farm
Focus and Risk-measure capability
Kitting skills
Being Smart (sense of opportunity)
The Placement, Good Farm and Risk-measure parts are way more noticed in the laning phase, while the Focus, Kitting skills and Outsmarting the opponnent takes place mostly in teamfights.
What do you have against Quinn? Isn't she more in the Burst class, rather than single target focused champion?
Answer: I just don't like her as an ADC, and I alredy saw with my own eyes that she works way better as a mid or top laner as a bruiser/assassin rather than an ADC. And yes, you are right about that, I changed her category.

Your build on







You should never take


False explanations e.g.


No mention of 21/6/3 mastery page
You don't take 3x


Most of the time




Answer:
I changed the ADC type on Jinx (just added Burst, didn't take her out of Single-Target) and Twitch as well as the Corki Build, after taking a look at some guides around Mobafire, however I must say that I don't play Blue Ezreal very often, but the build I show in this guide is indeed the Blue Build, it is informative and not a showoff of my builds, so you can't really say MY build on Ezreal sucks, since it is everyone's Blue Build.




Tell me, if your enemy doesn't have armor, why trade the overall great stats that


You explanation about


You have a point in the Quints part, but I always take 3 quints of lifesteal and it works fine for me. You had a really good point about the Glyph part and I totally agree with you about it, so I made a reference to it in the Runes section.
I didn't refer the 21/6/3 mastery case because I think the 21/9/0 is better, specially for the persons who are trying to make his way to the Platinum Tier, wich are my target public with this guide.
Thanks for the sugestions you made, but try to read a bit better the guides you comment before making your point.
Your guide is heavily flawed.
Number one... Vayne is a single target adc as well. I guess you forgot to mention her in that category also.
Number two... Do not put Twisted Fate and Teemo as adc's because that's like saying any ranged champion can be an adc. Just don't put them as that.
Number three... Twitch as a single target ADC is not completely true because of his ultimate in team fights...
Answer:
Number 1- If you read carefully, you can see I say this in my guide:
"But, some ADC's alredy have the HP% damage in their kit, like


As you can see, I said that HP% ADC's are still Single-Target ADC's.
Number 2- Twitch is alredy in the burst class
Number 3- Not every ranged champion can be played like an ADC, but



._.
@Why you wouldn't buy TBC when they have no armor
because once they see your TBC, they'll stack armor, and you've literally just put yourself so much behind the enemy.
Furthermore, EVERY bruiser buys armor. It's an undisputable fact.
Even when bruisers look for more offensive starts they go for Sunfire (armor).
Answer:
Yes, when you have a bruiser in the enemy team you will almost always need LW. But sometimes, team compositions lack bruisers.
Lets see it like this, imagine their top laner is a Glass Cannon


You may say that this is just an hypotetically case, but that's why I said you will get TBC 1% of the time, it is only in very rare cases.
Also, if you say that bruisers always buy armor you have never played in bronze, because down there...things are pretty bad.
This guide is not finished yet, I still have some development to do (specially since season 4 is starting), and I plan to make video examples when I manage to get my LoL Recorder fixed.
I try to answer everyone's comments as soon as I can and fix whatever is wrong with my guide.
I would REALLY apreciate constructive criticysm from anyone, send me messages or comments if you have any sugestions to make, it would help a lot.
Also, make any questions and I will try to answer them the best I can ;)
Farewell for now, my fellow Summoners
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