If there's one word that people normally don't associate with ADCs, it's agency.
We're not here to argue that ADCs are actually the role with the most agency.
They're not.
They're the role with the least agency in the game, but not by as big of a margin as
a lot of players think.
Sure, they can't make all the crazy plays that other roles can, but that doesn't mean
you can't have a ton of influence on how a game transpires.
In this guide, we won't be going over crazy game losing mistakes like we often do, but
rather more subtle reasons why ADCs are just left in the back-seat when it comes to deciding
the game's outcome.
Let's show you what we mean.
For our replays today, we'll be looking at games some high gold/low platinum games where
both the ADC player and most of their team were ahead of their opponents, and in a commanding
position to win.
That's a dream scenario for any player, but we'll show you how even with all the tools
at their disposal, ADCs are unable to close things out like they should.
In our first replay, the Jhin player was having the time of his life.
The laning phase went really well for him, and he was picking up kills left and right
solidifying a massive lead over his opponents.
Not just him, but like we said, his whole team was doing well.
They had a substantial advantage in the game.
The way things are going this should honestly be a completely free game, where it's impossible
for the enemy team to come back.
I bet you can guess what happens though, since we're choosing to reviewing this game.
The moment we want to critique from the Jhin happens around this cloud dragon.
The red team begins setting it up with their overwhelming advantage, and....a Nidalee spear
steals it.
Before getting into the review, there's some things we want to touch on.
One, this was not Jhin's fault.
We don't even think it was Lee's fault.
Mistakes like missing smite happen, and are completely understandable.
Two, this will not be the reason that the red team loses the game.
That being said, it is a subtle clue to a larger problem that the entire red team had.
And that problem is that all four of these players weren't at fault, but they could have
all prevented this steal from even being possible in the first place.
Fiora is not included in this, since she was where she was supposed to be.
As this is an ADC guide, let's focus on Jhin.
Where did things go wrong, and how could he have influenced things to prevent this?
This is a 2 part issue.
Before this dragon capture even began, Jhin was bottom pushing an extra wave he did not
need to.
He had enough gold to buy a pickaxe, and did not need this extra wave.
As you could see, Jhin barely arrived in time for the dragon, when in reality you always
want to arrive early to set up objectives.
Now the way each role sets up objectives beforehand is a bit different.
As an ADC, can you think of what Jhin should have done, had he been here earlier?
We didn't want this answer to be obvious, so don't feel bad if you didn't get this.
The answer is to get pressure with mid priority, which may seem odd, considering the wave is
already crashed into the enemy tower, no?
Mid priority became a bit of a meme a while ago in the professional scene, since it doesn't
actually do anything on its own and teams were overvaluing it.
It doesn't matter if a single minion wave is at your tower.
It doesn't really do anything.
The point of mid prio is generally to actually use that wave to pressure your opponents.
This is one of the biggest strengths an ADC can utilize to actually have agency in their
games.
You generally push waves faster than every other class, and you pressure towers the hardest.
You need to *force* your opponents to react to your mid pressure, then you double back
with your team, and zone them from even getting the near dragon.
As an ADC, when you're fed you can't force a fight like a Riven for example could.
Bruisers and assassins can just go in 1v4 and win the game solo.
That being said, you can definitely force rotations from your opponents with your pushing
capabilities.
It's a shame that it's one of the best strengths of the role in general, but it's so underutilized
in low elo.
Players just over-group and wait for a fight to happen, because they think that's the only
thing they can do to influence the game.
Yes, dealing a ton of damage in team fights is one of the core roles an ADC brings to
a team comp, but you can do so much more by learning how to push waves at the right time.
Unfortunately for Jhin and his team, they didn't manage to end the game before Kassadin
became a monster.
There were a ton of other mistakes that game, and we're not saying that the Cloud Soul they
would have had would have changed the outcome of the game, but it definitely would have
made things easier that's for sure.
Alright, let's move on the second ADC we'll be reviewing which is this Draven.
Much like the Jhin, Draven and his team were popping off very hard this game.
In fact, a lot of it was actually due to the enemy Zyra literally trolling.
She was handing kills over and over, for whatever reason that trolls justify their trolling.
By all accounts, this should be such a free game, and yet...we know exactly what's going
to happen at the end don't we.
Alright, be warned, you're about to hear some of the most picky and unfair criticism we
will ever have about a low elo player.
Just realize that we'll only be doing so to highlight one of the most important concepts
when it comes to ADC agency - efficiency.
Okay, we start off with Draven's support Jarvan having a bit of a woops moment and running
it right down into the enemy Corki.
Draven does his best to get a return kill, but doesn't manage to.
Here comes mistake number one, which you should all know by now.
After the failed kill attempt, Draven keeps pushing.
This tower is way too healthy to take right now, and Draven has other things he could
be doing.
Recalling or doing wolves would be correct here, as they're the more consistent choice.
Yes, he got a decent amount of damage on it, but as we've said so many times, what does
that even do for you.
In fact, he's lucky he wasn't getting ganked while he overextended so hard to hit the tower.
As the next wave comes in, check out these 2 seconds of game time.
Did you notice what he did wrong?
Well, the Draven clearly thinks he can play this far up without worry, no?
Why not stand over here and hit the wave as quickly as he possibly can, so that he can
clear it the fastest way possible?
He had a ward over the raptor camp at that moment, so there's no need to worry about
any shenanigans coming over the wall.
Instead he wastes 2 seconds of game time for no reason.
After clearing the wave, he once again walks up to the tower that he's very obviously been
sieging for a while.
It's a real surprise that the enemy team is now here in full force to defend.
Realizing he can't push, he rotates towards the left.
When he gets to the river, woah buddy, why are you walking this way?
The wave and low health tower are up top.
The most efficient path would have been this way.
Then running into Zyra has cost Draven another 1 and a half seconds.
Thankfully she steered him in the right direction though.
Oof, that's rough.
You were a bit too slow there Draven.
The Yasuo has taken it upon himself to waste his teleport to the wave he was walking towards.
Luckily, none of this should matter since the enemy Zyra is trolling though.
Draven turns around and just kills her, so all is well that ends well.
Now you may be wondering, what the hell was the point of all that.
It's not that everything he did was some terrible game-losing mistake, but more so a sign that
Draven wasn't really thinking about how to be as efficient as he possibly can, which
as we said is one of the most important traits of an ADC.
Think about all the smurf footage you've watched, or your favorite ADC streamer, or pro players
like Uzi, Deft, Teddy, Rekkles, etc when they play ADC.
When they're playing well, they seem like a machine on the rift.
They're farming mid, then scuttle, back to mid, wolves, gromp, their mid laner is mid
for some reason?, no prob, I'm going bot, then enemy Krugs, recall, back to mid, dragon,
mid, top wave, top tower.
Good ADCs will always tell you that you should be thinking about what you're going to do
next, and how to do it as quickly as you can.
What we want to get at with these clips is that low elo ADC players can seem...a bit
laggy in their decision making.
When they do something it usually takes them a few seconds to realize what should be happening
next.
On top of the fact that they're not perfectly efficient with everything they do.
This leads to situations that normally wouldn't happen, if the player was thinking ahead before
all their actions.
As an example, let's go back to where we left off.
After the Zyra kill, Draven paths towards mid, pushes out the wave, and he does manage
to get the tower.
Let's get this out of the way really fast since it's not part of the main point, if
this is a counter-argument for you that Draven's earlier pushing was actually justified, then
we will get slightly angry with you.
That's all.
Anyways, after taking the tower, he recalls, but as we said, Zyra is trolling, so he kills
her yet again.
At this point, he may as well push another wave since it's already here.
That's perfectly fine and not a mistake whatsoever.
But here's the decision lag we want to keep pointing out.
Clearly Draven is on auto-pilot, because he walks up after the wave and it takes him a
good 5 seconds to realize, uhh what am I even doing here.
By this point, it's too late though.
The Jarvan cataclysm has been activated, and a really stupid fight that Draven is forced
to help with occurs.
All of which occurred over absolutely nothing.
At the end of it all, Hecarim comes out with a couple of kills and a massive shut-down
which began his comeback domination over the game, in spite of his feeding Zyra.
Okay, let's take a step back and make it very clear what our main point here was, because
this overly critical analysis may have left you thinking about what you're even learning
anymore.
When you're doing self-review, you should be looking for minor delays and inefficiencies
like the ones we discussed Draven was making.
They're not disastrous mistakes, but wasting time like that is not ideal as an ADC player.
Consider that example we made of a good ADC and how the rotate all over the map seamlessly.
Let's say each wave and camp they farmed took them 1.5 seconds longer than it should have.
Then afterwards it took them another 1.5 seconds to make their next decision.
Within a period of 12 decisions or so at an average of 3 seconds wasted each time, that's
36 seconds of game time that is lost pressuring the map.
Don't get us wrong, high elo ADCs aren't perfect, even the best of them waste some time, but
it is something they try to minimize as much as possible.
Playing ADC is about farming and pressuring lanes as efficiently as you're able, and wasting
too much time loses you valuable agency in your games.
It's subtle, and not something people immediately think about, but it's definitely one of the
major reasons ADCs don't feel like they can carry.
Not only that, but when you're not lagging in your decision making and know what you're
doing next, then you tend to get stuck in dumb areas less often than usual.
If you're not in a dumb area, then it's less likely you and your team throw the game for
no reason.
At the end of the day, you don't have to agree with our assessments of what these ADCs did
wrong.
Maybe you value tower damage more than we do.
Sure, there's an argument to be had there.
That wasn't the main point though.
The core idea here is that ADCs may feel like they don't have agency in their games, but
they very easily can.
It's not flashy like a Tryndamere split pushing like a madman against 4 players But, you can
have a lot of influence knowing exactly where you should be using your wave clear, pushing
power, and objective damage and getting there as efficiently as possible.
Anyways, that's going to wrap this one up.
Catch ya next time, see ya.