ADC is a complex and mechanically demanding role which requires a lot of experience to excel at. The role has you focus on farming, trading and tracking the enemy jungle all at the same time.
All of this can get overwhelming, but our goal is to make it a tad bit easier by outlining all the steps teaching you how to be a good ADC, so here we go.
How to be a Good ADC in League of Legends
Laning as ADC in League of Legends
The most fundamental ADC skills fall under the laning portion of the game. In the lane the first skill you would need to learn is farming well. To accomplish this, you will need to focus on last hitting minions in various circumstances (under tower, between trades, matching tempo with support etc.)
A skill equally important to farming as ADC is trading. Trading is the fundamental thing that decides who gets the kills in the bot lane. To excel at trading, it’s best to focus on playing a limited number of champions, this will allow you to absorb the knowledge much more quickly, as you will have much more similar situations repeating.
Another notable skill is matching the tempo of your support. We all know not all supports are made equal, but at the end of the day, our support is the only one we get for the game. Therefore, we must learn to adjust ourselves to what we have been given in every game.
Finally, another thing we need to practice in laning is our mechanics. This would entail things such as kiting, which can be further broken down to spacing and movement. To do this well, we will need a lot of practice and attention, but learning this will be a key for making you a good ADC.
Positioning
The two additional high level skills that every ADC needs to study are positioning and shotcalling. The positioning is important in the laning phase and even more important in the teamfighting stages of the game.
In the lane, you will always want to position yourself in the way that maximizes your damage output, and minimizes damage taken. This is easier said than done, but given enough attention and experience this skill can be improved upon pretty quickly.
In the teamfighting stages of the game, you will mostly want to stay on the back lines of your team. In these situations, your main goal will be to dish out as much damage as possible, while focusing the enemy carries if the situation allows for it.
Now it’s important to clarify that the main thing that you should do is stay in the backline, as this will allow you to avoid all the burst enemies have to offer, and it will make it much harder for your enemies to reach you.
Shotcalling as ADC
This is not primarily an ADC task, but it’s always best when we take additional responsibility for our games. To shotcall, you will need a lot of knowledge and experience. With those two, you will be able to make correct calls and guide your team to the victory. This would entail controlling the wave states and recalls for you and your support, as well as making calls for major stuff like pushing, taking dragons and barons etc.
Final Thoughts
Playing ADC well is hard, however, there are a lot of ways we can make it easier. The first step is understanding all the fundamental skills a good ADC can possess. After that, we can improve at these at our own pace.