With the dawn of a new season; comes the birth of new changes, and the role of ADC yields no immunity to the sands of time. Lets take a look at Riot game's newest diversification of the botlane: are the marksman changes a sure winner, or was the adc overhaul done in Vayne?
With the dust settling on yet another dominating year, the twilight of season 5 and the dawn of 6 are now upon us. With it comes another year of competition, innovation and most importantly -- League of Legends. Ushered in with the preseason 5.22 patch and cumulating with the new 6.1 patch, the new season brings with it resounding changes, with everything from champions to items and even a brand new mastery tree. Indeed it seems that Riot Games’ penchant for innovation and diversity has now brought with it a complex new era, one that’s just waiting to be figured out. Without further ado, let’s dive in to a breakdown of another season of League of Legends.
The Marksmen
At the close of the season came a massive overhaul in marksman updates. Coined “ADCs” within the community, the Marksmen were a pivotal role in any in-meta team comp, providing the team with a versatile form of late game ranged damage. The marksmen generally displayed a general form of power curve, weak and dependent on their support in the early game, but nigh unstoppable in the late, with few outliers in the mix. Manned by a mechanically proficient player Marksmen had the potential to solo carry games.
Conversely Marksmen often had a linear, single dimensional play style and build paths. Hovering at the edge of team fights like an angry hornet, Marksmen had only the job of dealing damage from a safe distance in the late game, and unless you were an extremely proficient Vayne player or WildTurtle, plays were left to be made by your team. This often constrained play style however is heavily addressed with the advent of the preseason.
Masteries
Masteries for one, have received a massive fix this season. In place of the 21/0/9 tree that has dominated the past two years, Riot instituted a new Key stone system that gave bonus passive effects for players who choose to devote 18 points to a particular mastery tree. With viable options such as Fervor for Battle for early game damage, Warlords Bloodlust for sustain on critical strike chances and Thunderlords Decree for duels and burst damage, even the mastery tree has been built to add mixture to the game, indeed with a huge assortment of choices only preference stands in the way of new innovations.
Itemization & Play
With the release of over 20 items, and stat changes, the preseason has done away with the undeviating build paths and boring playstyles of old, replacing the trifecta of ADC items with a host of new ways to bring creativity and innovation to the rift. Items that rarely saw play for an entire season, working with only certain niche picks have now begun to show dominance in game.
Dominated by items such as the Infinity Edge, and statikk shiv just to name a few, the classic season five marksman would look to play safe and farm enough gold for their core items. Ideally a B.F. sword or PickAxe on the first back, this passive farm style created a stale environment that was farm centered and linear. Items such as Essence Reaver, and Runaan’s Hurricane were simply unviable in a meta that prioritized AD and Crit; there simply wasn’t room in builds to include items that had neither. Cost efficiency to damage maximization was key and any archetypal build would consist of IE, and attack speed crit item and Last Whisper. However with season six came a whole new composition of builds never seen before.
With the quintessential Last Whisper and armor pen in general nerfed, ADC’s are now met with a whole host of new viable build paths. Coined the “League of Crit” Marksman and indeed even AD assassins received a huge diversification of crit and flat armor pen items.
Rapid Fire Cannon, an item that increases range along with giving movement speed and critical strike chance, took the bot lane meta by storm. Percentage armor pen became a thing of the past and in place sprung cool down reduction and flat armor pen in Caulfield’s war hammer and Serrated Dirk. Life steal became less affordable while attack speed and critical chance became more. Finally kit overhauls and an overall marksman rework has now left the bot lane as a dynamic environment with a broad amount of playstyles and champions.
Conclusion:
So where does that leave us? The exemplar marksman role of marksman that has been so key to the game has received a refurbishment that turns a new page in the bot lane meta, a meta that no longer depends on singular build paths and haggard play styles, but one whose limits are only defined by the innovation and imagination of the summoner. Without a doubt Season six will be explosive, grand and exciting, so what are you waiting for? Fire up your computer, laptop, or toaster of choice, pick your favourite marksmen (yes even Quinn) and hop in to another year of gg’s, wp’s and most importantly, League of Legends.
