Know Your Role - Bot Lane ADC
Laning Phase
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| Quick tip: Turn on "Show Auto Attack Range" in settings. That is your zone! |
First Buy
The laning phase starts with your first buy, and I feel like it's good to know why you're buying something, rather than just following a guide. This way, you can adjust your strength and weakness in lane according to what you purchase. If you haven't already, check out the guide on basic ADC builds, it's full of information on build standards in the current meta for League of Legends.Your first buy will usually be a Doran's Blade or Long Sword, both with as much health potions as you can get. Doran's Blade gives you 80 health, 8 attack damage, and restores 3 health (assuming you're ranged, 'cause I can) per hit. This includes any and all auto attacks, including on towers and wards.
Doran's Blade is strong for dueling, simply because it gives you health and some sustain. Used in conjunction with the Lifesteal Quints you should probably be running, you'll be able to stay in lane longer. People get this for it's great dueling and laning potential: Health makes your mistakes less of a burden, 3 health on hit helps you regain life as long as you don't make any more mistakes. Remember that 80 health is around one more auto attack you'll be able to survive if you and the enemy ADC decide to just stand and auto attack each other without creeps around. With the nerf to it's stats and Riot dropping it's price, Doran's Blade can now be bought with a health pot. This just further increases your sustain in lane.
Long Sword is also a good buy, though it doesn't allow for as much sustain, and your opponent may survive your last auto attack because he has extra health. A reason you would get this is because you have a sustain support and you really want to rush that vamp scepter (i.e. on Vayne). Though Doran's Blade is not a bad buy, Long Sword allows you to go straight into your build.
Boots and potions are also an option, though rare. Even against skillshot champions such as Ezreal or Jinx (her W hurts oh so very much), you lose out on attack damage. Probably better to get a Long Sword if you want more potions, or a Doran's Blade if you want to stay in lane longer. Your choice though, I can see why it's viable; I just don't think it's optimal.
Setting The Tone
Now that we've bought our items and maybe leashed for the jungler, you'll first set foot in your lane. For the first two waves, you're going to want to clear as fast as possible. The faster you get to level 2, the better. Most, if not all the time, if you can hit level 2 and they're still level 1, you can secure an early kill. Especially in lower ELO brackets, where they don't pay attention to level advantages, you should be able to take advantage of a quick level 2 and all in. Think about it: you have two skills, they have one. For Caitlyn, it's a gap closer to a perfect Piltover Peacemaker shot. For Ashe, it's making sure that you stay slowed after she hits you with her volley. For Jinx, it's a slow that allows her to wail on you at max range. All while you still only have Mystic Shot or Phosphorous Bomb. This sets an aggressive tone that says "I'm willing to fight for farm" throughout the whole laning phase.Setting a tone is important. It allows you to assert lane dominance. It makes them need to think twice before getting farm. It makes lower skilled players go into panic mode before the roams even start. Now, knowing lane matchups and damage/tanking potential for certain bot lane pairs will help you to understand just how much you can push it, but that all comes through playing it over and over again. Reading guides such as these or LoLCounter/LoL King can help with understanding why a matchup is strong for any one champion, but not everything is set in stone. Note: Just because some high elo player said that it's a bad matchup, doesn't mean you'll always lose lane. Always try to win.
Farming Under Tower
Say you did everything in the first section perfectly. Say you got level 2, all in'd, and didn't get the kill. Let's even go so far as to say you've had to pop all your potions because you're now low on health, or even died. The reaction to this isn't keep going. Your opponents also know how to play, and they're thinking the same thing: they can kill you.No matter what the matchup, you're now going to be behind. You're better off freezing the lane somewhere right outside of your tower's range and farming as much as possible. League of Legends is a game of constant throws, and you have to wait for them to start a throw before you can initiate another fight. Harass when you know you won't be taking damage (I'll get into this in a bit), farm up as much as you can, and wait for mid - late game, when your team can protect you.
In the scenario where you will have to farm under tower - and this happens a lot more than you'd like it to - the general rule of thumb is to let the tower auto the melee minions twice, then you last hit; attack the caster minions once, let the tower attack once, then you last hit. This is something that can't be taught; you'll need lots of practice farming under tower to be able to get every single one of them, and even then it's hard.
Making Mistakes
In any given game, you're going to make a lot of mistakes. This happens whether you think so or not. If you didn't make any mistakes, you'd win 100% of your games. In League of Legends, it's probably more about capitalizing on your enemies mistakes rather than champion matchups.The only way to minimize the amount of mistakes you make in any given game is to have played that matchup over and over. Knowing the boundaries of your champions, as well as how far your enemy can push you, will greatly help you overcome walls you'll need to get over in order to keep improving.
That being said, there are mistakes you can fix right now. Mistakes such as not farming enough, engaging when you have less life, damage, and mana, not taking dragons, not backing when low on life. It's better to not die (the ultimate consequence of your mistakes) and miss out on a little bit of experience and gold, than give your lane opponents 300G early game.
Capitalizing On Mistakes
Just like you're going to make a bunch of mistakes in a game, your opponent will as well. This is how you win games. You capitalize on your enemies mistakes until you finally hit their nexus. There are different things you can do while trading or farming to allow you to punish enemies for mistakes.Things such as the opposing bot lane pair is too far apart, the enemy is coming into your zone while you don't have to last hit, or them being in range of a skillshot that you can hit. In all of these scenarios you'll be able to harass them - these are all mistakes on their part. Constant capitalization of these mistakes chip away at their health bars until you can all in for a kill or force them out of lane. Once that happens, you're dominant in lane.
Trading vs Farming
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| No creeps to kill, but Taric is running up for some reason. MF is too far back. Better shoot him. |
You'll be trading when your enemy gets into your zoning circle and you don't have any creeps to kill. For beginners we'll make it simple: Every time your lane opponent goes in to kill a creep, check to see if you have any creeps to kill. If not, then move towards him and take a shot at him as he shoots the creep. When none of your creeps are dying, move back behind them and continue to farm. If you have a choice of harassing your lane opponent and killing a creep, kill the creep.
Advanced users of this technique will know when it's better to go for a kill than get farm, but that all comes from practice and experience. In the picture above, we see Taric running up and no creeps to kill while I'm behind minions. This is normally what some call a "Farming Stance", but since Taric wants to come into my zone, and my support can follow up easily due to close proximity, I'm going to hit him one or two times then immediately switch to the creep at half life. By then the creep closest to me will almost be dead and I can kill it as well.
Also in the picture above, we see what the same people call a "Trading Stance". Had MF been closer to him , they would've been able to harass me much more as I go in to kill that creep. When you see one of your creeps dying but you don't have to kill anything yet, you can move towards your creep as Taric is doing. When the opponent goes in to last hit, you can attack him once. In the case above I ended up getting stunned. Since Alistar was close, he immediately used headbutt while I got one shot off on Taric (in addition to the Volley I used when he started running up) and got to kill the two creeps.
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| These are screenshots of one of the featured games on League of Legends. |
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| The line I've drawn represents your safe zone as an ADC. |
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| I took these at random times while watching the laning phase of this game. |
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| Notice how the ADC stays in line with his support, even when diving. |
Minion Control
One of the often overlooked mechanics of any lane is minion control. I'm sure you've heard the basic terms freezing and pushing a lane before, but many people don't actually understand it. Yes, to freeze a lane you want to keep the lane in a certain spot, and to push you deal as much damage as possible while still taking cs, but often people don't understand how to do it.When pushing, it's just like it's either hitting every minion and using an AOE ability to ensure you get all the CS, or taking them out one at a time with auto attacks. The best method for pushing a lane is to take out the highest damage dealers first (yeah, just like teamfights). Auto attacking the back line caster minions and the cannon minion, then moving on to the melee minions ensure that your minions have the most health possible to take out a turret. The correct time to push is when your lane opponent has backed or you have killed them, and you want to back as well. This way they miss out on as much experience and gold as possible.
In order to freeze a lane, you simply only take last hits. Sometimes you'll notice that your minions end up pushing farther away. Don't worry about that, it just means you have to last hit later than normal. You want your minions to do as much damage as possible to the creeps you're about to kill before taking a shot at them. As a general rule of thumb for freezing a lane, you want to do as much damage to their minions as your opponent is doing to yours. This means if the enemy Jinx is constantly auto attacking, you should be constantly auto attacking. Some ADCs have better wave clear, some are natural pushers (lookin' at you, Tristana), but optimally you'll want your minions right outside your tower's range. This protects you from most ganks by allowing you to be able to retreat to your tower quick enough, but doesn't let the tower take CS.
Addition from /r/summonerschool redditor Penguin-herder
Optimally, I love to shove their wave into their tower. That is my optimal placement. There are a few reasons:This strategy is great for keeping your opponents on their toes while also making them less sustained in lane because of mana they have to use to ensure they get the CS. You can poke them down under their turret (Caitlyn/Sona pair are especially good at this) to either force them out of lane or get a kill. The only caveat is you'll have to make sure you're well warded. Shouldn't be too hard, just one by dragon and one by tribush.
- It gives you full vision of lane. This prevents jungler bush ganks from their side.
- It denies their vision of lane. Coordinated correctly, your jungler should slide right into the lane bush, setting up for a strong lane gank.
- It forces them to blow mana (usually) to get all cs under tower. It also opens them up for harass.
- It makes it rather difficult for their jungler to gank.
- If you do get ganked by their jungler, their AD has to make the choice of losing all the CS at the tower vs. trying to help the gank.
Often times with these spots warded you can 2v1 the jungler behind your creeps (and perhaps get a kill) or, like Penguin-herder said, make your escape towards your tower while the enemy ADC has to make the choice between CS and the chance at a kill. Thanks for the addition!
Dragon Control
Taking dragons is extremely strong early game. The extra gold not only helps you out, but helps out everyone on your team. As a side bonus, if you take it, your enemies can't. Having four champions in close proximity to dragon early game allows you to take them with ease, as long as you're uncontested.
The only surefire way to make sure your dragon attempt is uncontested: kill the enemy laners, then move to dragon immediately. You can also force them out of lane by poking them down so they need to back, pushing the lane as fast as possible to their tower, then going straight to dragon. It gives everyone an extra 125 to 260 gold, and you'll want that gold on your team to help snowball the game in your favor.
Receiving Ganks
It's not all about the jungler when it comes to ganking. The laners need to have a decent amount of mana and health, the enemies should have the same or less than you, you should have your river/tri and lane bushes warded, and you should be using a sweeper trinket to clear a path for your jungler to come. Getting the opponents to blow a flash or barrier, maybe even some ults, can increase the chances of your gank getting off. Bottom line is, you as a laner need to be able to follow up anything your jungler does in order to get that kill.
Remember to let your jungler know if a flash or big ult is down, where the wards are, if you've taken them out, and where you want him to come through. Don't just ask for a gank and not tell him that the tribush is warded, when there's a clear open path through the lane bushes. That's how ganks fail.
If the gank was successful and everyone (especially the jungler) has a lot of health left, you should push to tower and go straight to dragon. As explained above, dragons can help you win games.
Getting Ganked
If, for some reason, you weren't able to freeze the lane right outside of your turret, and their jungler slipped in through your plethora of wards, you're prone to getting ganked. Especially if the lane is frozen right outside their tower. Your best bet is to use any and all escapes and retreat towards your tower. If you're close enough to the lane brush, use it. Drop your snares, slows, and everything you can on their initiator and start gauging damage potential for both sides of the skirmish. Sometimes you can end up out-damaging or out-tanking all three of them. Sometimes there's no way you're going to get away so it's better to just stay and fight. These cues all come from experience. Don't blow a flash just because you saw a third person. If it's Rammus rollin' in, flash isn't going to save you from Ghost + Powerball unless you can snare him.
Learning when to turn and fight is something that can't really be taught. It's something you have to learn on your own, because every game is different. But you should be in the mindset of asking yourself one question whenever you're getting ganked: Can I get away?
If the answer is yes, you should try your damned hardest to get away and not give them the kill. If the answer is no, just turn and fight; you never know your damage output until you understand the matchup itself. Sometimes you can trade one for one.
One thing I can teach you about getting ganked (and even lane engages) is the rule of thumb for dealing damage or running away. Enemies usually only target one person. If you're not the one being targetted, you should attack move backwards with your support. Two people running away means no damage is being done to them while all the damage is being put on you. If they're aiming for your support, attack their ADC. Many times this will turn around a gank. Just remember to stay mobile by attack moving.
First Tower Down
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| Tower down? Time to do a mental checklist. |
A lot of lower elo players don't understand what to do after they take down a tower or their tower is taken down. There's actually actually a checklist, and I'll go more in depth in my roaming phase guide, but here are the basics.
- Is dragon up? Will it be up soon? Can anyone contest a dragon attempt? If you can take it for free, take it.
- Is mid tower down? If not, rotate mid and push down that tower. If your lane opponents keep pushing to your bot tower, you should go back and push the wave out, then go back to pushing in mid/top.
- Are there wards in their jungle? Can you take buffs? Once again, if you can take it for free, take it.
Note: My priority is tower > dragon > jungle buffs, but these can change for you personally. Every game is different, but most of the time these should be your priorities when you start the roaming phase.
And that's it for the laning phase guide. After this you start roaming around and eventually full blown teamfights start. Check back later for the guide being an ADC during the Roaming Phase; it'll be full of information on what you can and should do vs what you shouldn't do when mid game starts. One of the main reasons why people lose games is because they can't close out games when they need to, and often times mid game is where you can do it, especially in lower elos. Check back soon!
