[20 Tips] League of Legends How To Play ADC Like a Pro

Updated:

24 Oct 2021

If you want to learn more about how to climb as an AD carry, you are in the right place. ADC is probably one of the hardest roles to play. Small mistakes can cost you a lot, but here you will learn how to avoid them. Keep reading to learn how to carry your team to victory as an ADC.

1. Runes and Summoner spells

Runes may not be the easiest thing to understand in League of Legends, but once you do, your champion will gain more power, in the early and late game. Choosing the right runes will always depend on your champion. Runes will provide you with plenty of choices for customizing your champion. You will gain gold bonuses, more damage, and plenty of other benefits. Below you can find some examples:

Mobility/Attack Speed Runes

Life Steal/Attack Speed Runes

2. Champion Pool

You should never rely on just one champion. Building your champion pool and being comfortable with it will allow you to win more games. There is nothing wrong with having your main, but only knowing how to play one champion might put you in trouble when you get counter-picked or when your main gets banned. You should always adapt your champions according to the patches, because in League of Legends champions constantly are getting buffed and nerfed.

ADC Champion pool

3. Synergy with Supports

The really important thing is when you play ADC to understand what champions synergize with your support. To achieve that, you should communicate with your teammates in champion selection. Having champions with the same goals will help you win your lane easier and faster. To win an early game you should learn how to play with your support because they have more impact on the lane in the laning phase. Your gameplay will be different depending on what kind of champion your support plays. They are helping you to win trades, secure your farm and eventually feed you to carry the game.

4. Counter Pick

Counter picking is not important just for ADC-s, but all roles. This is one of the best strategies to gain an early advantage and outscale your opponent easily. This is possible because some champions are naturally stronger than other champions as they have such abilities. Picking second in champion selection is a huge advantage as it allows you to counter-pick your opponent. Knowing your enemy’s weaknesses will help you counter them and win against them easier. But what if you are the first pick? You should have a champion pool prepared for that situation. Mobile or fast-scaling champs will help you survive the enemy jungler and get counter-picked.

5. Level 2 All In

When clearing the first 2 minion waves you shouldn’t be afraid of using your ability. Killing the first wave and 3 melee minions from the second wave will give you experience for level 2. For that reason, you should always try to clear waves before your enemyHitting level 2 before your enemy will put you at a huge advantage as you and your support each have a spell more to use in a fight, and it is almost impossible to lose trade at that point. If you don’t kill your enemy, you will at least make them use their summoner spells which makes them much more vulnerable for ganks. Always pay attention to how much experience you have, vs how much experience your enemy has, so you know how to react on time. You have to be prepared to all in, or to back off in case your enemy hits level 2 before you.

How to Win Bot Lane with Level 2

6. Farming

A very important thing that players forget is that farm is your main income. Gold that you receive from the farm is more guaranteed than one that you receive from kills. You should keep in mind that around 15 minions equal 1 kill in gold. Experience is also a big part of why farm matters. If you are receiving more experience and gold than your opponent, it means you will level up faster than them. Bigger the level, the stronger the abilities and more chance to secure the lane.

How to Farm 10 Minions Per Minute

7. Wave Management

There are 3 types of wave management:

Freezing in front of your turret allows you to apply pressure without danger of being ganked by an enemy jungler and it’s harder for enemy ADC to kill minions. It also makes it possible for you to all-in easier because the enemy is too far away from their turret and won’t be able to escape if your jungler ganks.
Slow-pushing lets you dive into the enemy easier and will put more pressure on enemy turrets. If you are planning to take an objective or gank another lane, enemy ADC will lose a lot of farm and experience if they decide to follow you.
Hard-pushing you will apply when your jungler needs help with the dragon, or when your support needs to roam other lanes. Also, you will be able to take turret plates and put more pressure on the lane. If the enemy goes back to base before you, you will hard-push the wave into the enemy turret so you can recall without losing gold and experience.

Wave Management Guide

8. Build

Most of the time ADC starting item will be the same and that’s Doran’s blade. It will allow you to do more damage when poking an enemy and farm easier. It also gives you bonus health to prevent death at level 1. Building other items will depend on your champion and what kind of champions the enemy team has. For example, if the enemy team has a lot of tanks and bruisers with armor, you will build armor penetration. In other cases, you might build critical damage or lethality. You should always know what to build next, depending on who is fed in the enemy team. For beginners, it is recommended to visit some of the websites specially dedicated to builds until you learn how items work.

ADC Full Build Example

9. Trading

When trading you should always know your lane matchup. You have to understand who is stronger at what level, otherwise you could lose the trade. That means that the enemy team will harass you until you recall. And if you recall you will lose gold and experience and that puts the enemy team to advantage. The best thing when trading is to abuse the enemy’s abilities cooldown because you will have more abilities to use in the fight, which means more damage. Before going to trade you should always consider where the enemy jungler is. If you don’t have the vision and don’t know where the enemy jungler is, there is a high chance of getting ganked and eventually dying or being forced to recall.

How to Trade with ADC

10. Map awareness

You should always know where the enemy might be and prepare yourself for the danger. Not just the jungler, but other lanes as well. Early ganks are mostly focused on the bot, and dying early in the game will put you at a huge disadvantage. Vision is a very important thing, but positioning yourself is even more important and will prevent you from getting ganked. Your gameplay will always vary on where the enemy might be. But communication and knowing where your teammates are is as important as knowing where the enemy is. It will help you turn ganks into counter-ganks and secure the objectives.

Map Awareness Guide

11. Focus

The biggest mistake low-Elo ADCs make is that they focus on higher priority targets. Don’t get me wrong, you should have some priorities, but you should never put yourself in danger while focusing. Your job is to make damage from a safe zone and survive as long as you can. You will always have to switch your focus to the nearest target while positioning yourself behind the tank/support. Focusing will also depend on what spells the enemy has. If enemy CC is on cooldown it is safer for you to change the focus. Low-elo players might flame you if you focus tank or support in team fights, but always remember that is your job as ADC. Never put yourself in a risky situation because you are the main damage to your team.

12. Positioning

Positioning means standing in the best possible place where you will avoid damage while dealing damage to the enemy team. For ADC this is a very important factor because you are very squishy. One wrong step and an enemy will be able to kill you. Good positioning requires game knowledge. Knowing your enemy’s abilities will allow you to put yourself in a good position. It is an important thing to know because as ADC you will be the enemy’s highest priority, and without you, your team will most likely lose the team fight.

Example how to position

13. Kiting

Kiting is the right key to improving your gameplay. Good kiting will allow you to deal damage while gaining distance from the enemy and potentially dodging their abilities. You can never stay in one place while dealing damage to the enemy because you will become an easy target and most likely die. To kite easier, it is recommended to use the range indicator which will display when pressing button A or X. It displays the radius of your auto-attacks and will make keeping distance and last hitting the minions much easier. When left-clicking inside of the displayed radius, your champion will attack the closest target to the mouse cursor. Kiting requires a lot of practice, but when you learn how to do it properly, it will bring your game to another level.

14. Vision

If you thought that wards are only for supports, you are wrong. As an ADC you will probably have the lowest vision score in the game, but it doesn’t mean you should completely ignore it. The best time to put wards is when you completely push the lane. If the lane is not pushed, you can use them for side bushes on the lane to save your support’s wards for using them in the river. Whenever going from the base, you should buy Control Ward (If you have enough gold of course). Vision is a very important part of the game because it allows you better map awareness and getting ganked or getting caught in the jungle.

How to place wards in the early game

15. Roaming

Roaming is a form of leaving your lane to influence other lanes in the game. The goal of roaming is to assist your team, whether it is to help in a fight or secure an objective.ADC is the only position that is not expected to roam and in most cases, you will roam only when your jungle needs assistance while securing a Dragon or when the fight is happening in bot-side river. Eventually, you will roam to help mid laner only in cases when your minions are hard-pushed into the enemy tower. You will not roam as much as other laners because your main goal is to farm up gold and experience for mid and late game.

16. Lane Swap

In case you destroy the enemy tower first, you should consider lane swapping with your top laner. Why exactly top laner? Because top laners are in most cases melee range and it will be easier for you to harass the enemy and clear the wave faster, especially because of the 2 vs 1 situation. Your goal when swapping lanes is to destroy the top lane turret before the enemy team destroys the bot turret. When you destroy the top turret, you should once again rotate to the bot lane to secure a Dragon. The successful swap will gain better control over the map and put you in a bigger power advantage for later in the game.

How to win lane swap

17. Losing a Lane

If you have lost a lane, your next move will depend on how your teammates are doing. For example, if your teammates are fed, you should freeze waves and try to get as much gold and experience as possible to try to get back in the game. Your teammates will probably be able to hold on as 4 until you gain some power.If your and enemy team are even, you should slow-push the wave and wait for your jungler to gank to help you kill the enemy and push the turret. If the gank is successful, you should rotate mid or Dragon to secure further objectives.If your whole team is losing, try to play as safe as possible together with your team. Farm under the turret and wait for your jungler and mid laner to help you. Grouping with your team and waiting for the enemy’s mistakes is the only way to turn around the game in your favor.

18. Reduce Deaths

If you keep dying as an ADC, maybe you should consider playing safer champions with more mobility and range.When playing this role, your goal is to stay alive as long as possible and deal damage only when it’s safe. Never engage in fights because that is not your job. In the laning phase try not to overextend. In case you don’t know where the enemy jungler is and you have pushed wave into the enemy tower, back off and ward the river.In team fights try not to be in there from the very beginning, but when the enemy has already used their spells. Always keep distance and keep track of enemy threats. Learning correct positioning will help you reduce deaths massively.

How to avoid deaths

19. Learn Support Role

To learn how to properly play bot lane you shouldn't just learn how to play ADC, but support role as well. It will help to completely understand how to play bot lane. You don't have to master this role completely but just learn enough how to play support. It will help you to improve your gameplay drastically in the laning phase. Too many ADCs don't understand how this role works and don't want to learn it at all, but that is a big mistake. Since your main role is bot lane you should learn how it works in general, not just the ADC role. Just pick one or two supports to play with and you will notice how your gameplay improves.

20. Patches

Keeping track of new Patches is very important since League of Legends is constantly updating to keep the balance of the game. You should check which champions and items have been buffed or nerfed so you can adjust your gameplay accordingly to the updates. Your champion and tutorials that you watch may be outdated, so you should always be careful of the current patch. Checking the official League of Legends site can help you keep track of these updates and stay informed all the time.