Lucian is a jack of all trades type of ADC. He’s got a relentless amount of damage, a movement speed buff, and a dash to help him with kiting. While he doesn’t have a very good win rate to be considered a top-tier ADC, a great Lucian player can make all the difference. He’s a very high skill-cap champion and if used well, can compete with the best ADCs.
What Makes Lucian a Great Marksman
Dash ability that is tremendously helpful for kiting and escaping
Underestimated damage, especially with Kraken Slayer and the other new item changes
Great at running down enemies with his ultimate and W ability, which gives him a movement speed buff
In the right hands, Lucian can still get the better of other ADCs of higher tiers
See Lucian in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TU7QFQSTjc
9. Ezreal
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Ezreal is a very skillshot-reliant champion, but the main reason he doesn’t see a higher win rate stems more from the fact that it takes too many resources and too long to get to a point where he’s dealing adequate damage. If you do manage to get Ezreal to that point, however, few ADCs can match his burst damage, so it comes down to your experience and knowledge of the champion. A casual Ezreal player versus an Ezreal one-trick will see vastly different results, so practicing the champion is definitely a requirement.
What Makes Ezreal a Great Marksman
Blink ability that acts as a gap-closer and an escape
Sufficient damage with his abilities...if you can land them
Global ultimate to help teammates from far away or to cheese a kill on a low-health enemy
See Ezreal in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygggtyZL8ps
8. Jinx
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Jinx is a scaling hyper-carry ADC which is another way of saying that she’s not very impactful in the early stages of the game, but once you get kills and enough gold on her, she will become a nearly unstoppable machine gun. Jinx is one of the best hyper carries in the game, but it takes patience and maybe a little too much time for her to reach that point. In a meta where junglers, top, and mid lakers are spiking hard in the early to mid-game, Jinx can often lag behind the pace. If she survives that, though, well she’s just about as good as any other late-game carry.
What Makes Jinx a Great Marksman
Rapid auto-attack speed with her Q ability
Global ultimate that does more damage to enemies with low health
Easily one of the strongest ADCs in the late game stage
Her passive grants her immense movement and attack speed upon destroying a turret or securing a kill, which she can use to great effect in team fights
See Jinx in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i5GTVVNP1A
7. Twitch
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Twitch is very similar to Jinx: both deal insane amounts of damage to enemies with their ultimate and other abilities, but take some time to get to a point of significant impact. The reason Twitch is rated higher than Jinx here, however, is his Q ability which brings him into stealth mode to gank unsuspecting enemies. He can use this ability to great effect in all stages of the game, so it just makes it easier for him to rack up kills. Twitch can also be considered a hyper carry, but a fair warning: any opponent aware of Twitch’s presence can easily shut him down with a crowd-control ability in team fights.
What Makes Twitch a Great Marksman:
Stealth ability that helps him get surprise ganks off in all stages of the game
Extremely high group/splash damage with his ultimate ability
Poison passive ability that helps him do that extra bit of damage to secure kills
See Twitch in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgDI62z7Tn4
6. Ashe
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Here is where the list really enters the current meta-picks for the ADC role. Ashe is on the lower end of this spectrum, but she still outshines the other ADCs in terms of utility and overall consistency in damage. Her greatest strength is probably her ability to slow enemies with her auto-attacks or her W ability, as they are suffering a permanent decrease in their movement speed whenever they trade with Ashe. Her damage is no laughing matter either: a fed Ashe with Runaan’s Hurricane can easily 1v2 and possibly 1v3.
What Makes Ashe a Great Marksman
One of those rare ADCs that can provide a sustainable amount of crowd-control and damage
Great engagement tool with her ultimate ability
Strong damage throughout all stages of the game
See Ashe in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzJbvQDgP8A
5. Tristana
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Another hyper carry, Tristana stands above others in terms of her engagement tools and high damage. She has all the tools to keep herself safe: a huge-distance jump that can be used to engage or escape and an ultimate that catapults enemies a further distance away and deals heavy damage. Tristana requires great knowledge and a handle on when to take a fight, but once you have that down, she becomes a powerful ADC.
What Makes Tristana a Great Marksman
Extremely high damage, especially with Kraken Slayer
Great engagement tools and escape abilities
Ultra-rapid auto-attack speed with her Q ability
Her passive also deals splash damage upon killing any unit, so this helps push waves in
See Tristana in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0ErfwCUv_c
4. Kai'sa
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One of my personal favorites, Kai’sa is one of the other ADCs that has seen a rise in play rate and win rate with the introduction of the new item changes. She is like a Lucian, except her ultimate ability is a game-changer: she can teleport to nearby enemies who have been recently afflicted by her or her teammates’ damage with a hefty shield. In a sense, she is a marksman who can also act as an assassin. The biggest thing about Kai’sa is her passive ability, which does heavy damage every four auto-attacks.
What Makes Kai’sa a Great Marksman
Great damage with her abilities, but especially with her passive, which triggers extra damage every four auto-attacks
Good escape and gap-closer with her E ability, which grants her movement speed and invisibility for a short period
Her ultimate ability can help her tremendously in team fights by picking which target she wants to jump on to try to assassinate
See Kai’sa in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvOffzIS6V4
3. Vayne
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Remember what I said about the other hyper carries? Yeah, Vayne is a class above them. She is relentless with her ultimate ability, true damage, and movement speed buffs granted to her by her ultimate and passive. She rises a class above Kai’sa with her continued invisibility when using her ultimate and is a tank-shredder with her true damage. If she can shred through a tank’s health, what do you imagine she can do to a squishy support or an underfed ADC?
What Makes Vayne a Great Marksman
Arguably the best hyper carry in the game right now
Extremely powerful with her true damage, which remains consistent throughout the entirety of the game
Great abilities to help her kite: A tumble ability to close distance or create distance, and her E ability, which slams enemies away a short distance
Her ultimate is the game-changer here: it temporarily grants her invisibility when she uses her tumble ability and she gains more movement speed in addition to her passive
See Vayne in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvX5C2Bizdg
2. Miss Fortune
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We’ve been talking a decent amount of hyper carries, so let’s switch over to a more standard style of ADC: Miss Fortune. Her greatest strengths lie in her burst damage potential with her Q ability and one auto-attack (yes, just one). Miss Fortune’s toolkit gives her bonus damage when attacking a new target, and this does a significant amount more damage than one would expect. In the late stages of the game, it’s terrifying to play against, as you can easily get one shot by a slew of her abilities and auto-attacks.
What Makes Miss Fortune a Great Marksman
Extremely high damage, probably in the top 2 for ADCs in the early and mid-stages of the game
Great zoning potential with her E ability
Her ultimate is the big game-changer (surprise, surprise): She unleashes a torrent of bullets in a cone-shaped area and it does heavy damage
See Miss Fortune in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVcKUE6GOFs
1. Jhin
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Remember what I said about all the other ADCs and how strong they are? Yeah, just ignore all that. Jhin is hands down the strongest ADC in the meta right now and for good reason. With the new item changes, his damage potential has gone up significantly. The reason for this is the way his auto-attacks work. Unlike other ADCs who rely on attack speed, Jhin has a lobby of four auto-attacks he can unleash before restocking his sniper. But it’s the damage on the fourth shot, which does an INSANE amount of damage that makes this champion unbearable to deal with.
What Makes Jhin a Great Marksman
Extremely high damage at all stages of the game
Can protect himself from ganks with good placements of his traps, which act as wards and long-distance damage
Ability to root opponents from far away and his ultimate does heavy damage from long distances as well
Did I mention he does an insane amount of damage?
See Jhin in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8IWkt3ExZM
