LoL ADC Role Tips

LoL ADC Role Tips by Boyenn

Reference point: http://euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=koning+boyen

I’m not going to give you a full rundown on how to play adc, but rather point out some common mistakes I noticed when I played in lower elo’s that are easy to fix and abuse.

1) Creep wave asynchronisation (when stronger).

I’m not sure if this is the correct term for it, but what it basicly means is that whenever your champion has higher range/damage in lane than the other champion, you don’t want the creeps to die at the same time.

Why is this useful?

Now you have the opportunity to trade with the enemy ADC whenever they go in for a cs, which puts alot of pressure on them and therefore extends your lead.

How to do this :

a) When you’re the stronger one in the lane : You want to make sure that you and the enemy adc aren’t doing exactly the same thing. If the wave is currently synchronized, and you know the enemy adc will only go for last hits, just hit one of the focused creeps once extra before last hitting. This forces that you have to cs at a different time than the enemy adc so you can harass him when he goes in for one.

b) when you’re the weaker one in the lane :

MIMIC THE ENEMY ADC he pushes? you push. he last hits? you last hit. he hits a creep 3 times before dying ? use a spell and last hit it. etc etc. Just try to keep it so that you and him have to cs at the same time so he can’t force a trade on you. You never want to be in a situation where you have to choose between losing a trade, or losing a trade and getting a cs!

2) Creep wave management.

I guess most of you guys know the basics (Push lane when you have to base). But I notice so many people that have no clue about other ways of wave management !

A basic situation :

The lane is even , you have 1650 gold so you want to base to buy that sweet BF and some potions (NEVER FORGET POTIONS).What will you do?

Most of you know that you should be looking to push the wave under the turret and then base. This is a basic thing that most people know. But is this really all there is to it? No.

What happens after you pushed and based? The enemy will be looking to do exactly the same thing. The problem for them however is that since you were the first one to do it, the wave probably won’t have hit your turret before you came back (assuming you pushed hard enough before basing).

Here is where 95% of players I play against make a huge mistake. do not push the lane again! By the time you would have cleared the wave to their tower again, they will be back to pick up that sweet cs and you’ll be even, this means you didn’t take advantage of you having the free base.

Now onto how you can take advantage of it : freeze the lane. Because the enemy has more creeps pushing onto you when you come back, your creeps will die quickly, therefore denying the opponent some cs. Another small advantage created by this is that the enemy has to walk a lot further to actually get back in lane compared to just having to walk to their turret. Another small tip : often you can stop the enemy’s recall and then just dominate the lane or they base later missing 2-3 waves.

What will you do when they come back?

There are two options here.

1.you try to keep the freeze there.

2.you start clearing again and balance out the wave.

No matter which of those you pick, you will have gained the advantage of the free base and you performed it as well as you could. But which one should you choose? This usually depends on whether or not you’re the stronger lane. Stronger ? freeze. weaker? clear.

But there is more to it than this.

• If your champion is weaker in trades but stronger in a full on fight (Vayne is a great example of this). You should also look to freeze it, so you can force an all in.
• If your champion is best when able to push , and good in small trades (Sivir is a great example of this). You want to start pushing again.
• If your champion is something like Caitlyn that can full on zone the enemy if played well, keeping the freeze is usually a good way to destroy lower elo players.

EDIT : This seemed unclear to many people , so I’ll summarize the sequence of recommended actions :

1. push under their turret
2. base
3. come back and freeze the lane
4. only last hit until the enemy adc comes back
5. either clear again or keep freezing depending on the situation (explained above)

Something else to think about: if you got a kill on bot lane and you were in a pushing state, and you have wards, proxying one wave can give you so much net gold without missing a single cs after basing.

3) Avoid taking damage without returning it!

This happens so much in lower elo’s. I can’t count how often I easily won a lane as Vayne vs Cait just because she wasn’t abusing her range, and was last hitting while I was hitting her. Unless you know your opponent is good and will return it, just harass them when they go in for a cs. Even when the enemy Cait is trying to harass you, if she doesn’t autospace properly, abuse it! hit her back, Caitlyn often loses trades if the enemy hits her back.

4) When you’re on a champion that likes pushing (Cait, Sivir, Lucian(situational), Ashe,…) make sure that you have wards up at all times. Don’t just expect your support to know when to ward. TELL THEM. Communication is one of the most important things in bot lane. This is also why I prefer duo-queue.

Now onto some more champion specific tips :

1) When playing sivir/vayne, make sure you know how to reset your AA timer with using tumble / sivir W!, this makes it so much easier to win an otherwise lost trade because you get 2 auto’s when they can only do one. You want to use your autoattack reset as soon as your attack starts flying.

2) When playing champions that rely on their spells alot (corki QR,graves QWR,lucian QWE,sivir Q,…), try to autoattack in between spells to maximize your damage output. For example , when playing corki you want to AA-eq-AA-R-AA-R-AA….., don’t just randomly use a spell without using an auto attack if it’s possible. I see so many lower elo graves players just trying to burst someone with EQR in lane, and then they’re surprised that they didn’t do so much damage. This is because they missed out on three auto’s ! E-AA-Q-AA-W-R-AA would have done so much more damage.

3) Everyone knows that vayne(my main) has a weak laning phase. Yet I win my lane almost every time, this is because the reason that everyone thinks vayne has a poor laning phase is because of how poorly she is in small trades when she cant get her 3 W’s off. This is true, but you’d be surprised how strong she is in early if you CAN get the 3 W’s off. Vayne has pretty low manacosts compared to her pool, so doing AA-Q-AA-E in lane a couple of times can force a great trade with little to no reply.

Another thing I love doing on vayne is baiting out the enemy’s spells. auto that graves in lane and immediately Q backwards, he will likely have Q’d you anyways, but he missed.

Even more champion specific tips :

1. When playing Vayne and you know you will get jumped on in a teamfight by someone with a gap closer. (lets say you’re fighting with their jungle shyvana, and you see an irelia coming in that you know will Q you). the best way to play this imo is rightclick shyvana, rightclick backwards, E irelia (EVEN THO SHE ISNT IN RANGE YET), rightclick shyv, rightclick backwards, E irelia rightclick shyv, infinitely. this makes it so that the moment irelia casts her Q to get in range she gets knocked back (doesn’t even do the Q damage, and can’t E you ! )
2. Tumble/graves E / lucian E / … are great spells for dodging skillshots, everyone knows this. But learn to focus on it! Maximising your damage output (for example AA-Q-AA) on vayne may sound like a good idea on paper, but if that thresh still has his hook up, don’t Q until he actually uses it! your dashes are useless if they’re on cd by the time they try to land skillshots on you.
3. QSS is just an awesome item on adc’s, especially the ones with low mobility. I don’t get it THAT much because my duo support always rushes mikaels (god I love her) , but if your support doesn’t you kinda want to have a qss every game. Do not assume you will never get hit by that morgana binding!
4. You always want to keep track of the enemy support’s exhaust cd timer. But on vayne it’s even more important! Whenever the enemy support doesn’t have his exhaust up, but you have your ult, you should be able to win a 2v2 !
5. Never forget that vayne wins about every 1v1, even when behind! Wait in brushes you know they have no vision in when you expect their adc to soloclear the lane and grab that free kill to pull you back into the game!
6. In teamfights its usually better to wait 2-3 seconds after the fight started to start dealing damage. The enemies will have used most of their important spells by this time and you can get free damage and solo carry the fight.

If you want to have a longer talk you can also add me in game if you’re from EUW (Koning Boyen).