[League of Legends] Let's Discuss Ad Carry

[CorruptDictator]

Hopefully this will be one of a series of thread where we can discuss each of the roles in LoL as the game is currently played most of the time. I ask everyone to speak from experience to give advice and tips, and for anyone with questions to ask them.

For reference, the 5 core roles in common play are:
Solo Top
AP Carry Mid
Ad Carry Bottom
Support for AD Carry
Jungle

I picked AD Carry first because I was looking at the new Varus skin just before I decided to do this.

What is the AD carry? Well, for now the purpose of an AD carry is to farm and be the primary damage source as the game rolls on. While, in theory, any champ can be built as an AD carry to varying levels of effectiveness, it works best on champions with a longer range and a skill set that compliments your purpose. As always, with any roll, skill will usually trump logic when it comes to champs and builds.

The first thing you much be good at for AD Carry (or any lead lane role for that matter) is last hitting. Last hitting, for anyone who does not know you only get gold when you get the killing blow on a minion. Therefore, unless you are trying to intentionally push your lane, you should only focus on getting those killing blows on minions. This, more than anything, comes with practice, but it is made much easier is you rune AD centric runes (usually reds and/or quints). Keeping up with, or exceeding the farm of your lane opponent is ideal.

More things to discuss:
Basic runes and masteries
Positioning and who to focus
Working with your support
Trading blows with your lane opponent

I am getting tired, someone else follow up for more general adivce, or anyone please ask some questions. I'll prolly post more tomorrow.

 

[CorruptDictator]

A basic primer on summoner spells, some of this will be obsolete in S3, but for the moment the info is still good and applies to all roles.

http://www.solomid.net/guides.php?g=22671-corrupted1-generic-build-guide

 

[CorruptDictator]

Runes.

The easiest rune page to run with an AD carry is (all level 3/rank 20+ runes):
AD Reds
Flat Armor Yellows
Scaling MR Blues
AD Quints

The main reason to run the heavy AD is to make last hitting easier AND because most (but not all) Ad carries scale well off the extra AD. And defensive yellows and blues just give you more overall survivability. I am not saying this is the end all page for AD carries, but that it is a great base line and is never bad, although specific champs or play styles may suite different pages.

What are some alternative examples that people like to run?

One of my alt pages has ArPen Reds instead of AD so I can auto attack harass more effectively.

 

[VoltageSpike]

I have some tips for all this.

1. Last hit as much as possible. The more CS you have over your opponent, the better you'll be doing. One kill is worth somewhere around 15 CS or so. Obviously this means you can overcome a death via CS. I don't advise dying for CS but make sure you don't get lazy and think that missing a minion or two is okay. That's more gold out of your hand.
2. Be in control of your lane. If the opponent is pushing hard, you can afford to push back a bit. If your opponent is farming passively, you farm passively. I mean this as not hitting creeps as often as possible. Last hit only if that's what the opponent is doing. You want the lane in a position that gives your jungler a chance to visit while denying theirs the same opportunity.
3. Map awareness is key. I like to look at the map after every couple of CS, along with when I know there will be a small gap between one minion and the next. Doing this will give you a semi-reliable idea of where people are at any time. If you see the jungler is top, any fight you might engage in is almost guaranteed to stay a 2v2 affair.
4. Health pots are your friend. I buy two every time I go back. Drink one at the start of a fight. That's 150 hp more that you have over the enemy. Too many people undervalue health pots. Don't be one of those people.
5. Wards aren't just for supports. I try to bring one back with me whenever I can. Don't be the douchecanoe that blames the support when you could have helped out on the wards. Even if your team is being selfish, you can try to help out a bit.
6. Fight smart. You want to stay at the furthest range out of the fight. Be aware of your positioning and do your part to be alive. You want the other team to have to go through as many members of your team as possible to get to you.
7. Attack anything in the fight. Anyone that says "why weren't you hitting their carry?" is an idiot. Their carry will be trying to do the same thing. Hit whatever you can. DPS is DPS regardless of who you're hitting. Ideally you'd be nuking their ADC/Mid but that's not always something you can do. Hit the tank. Hit the support. Just don't stop hitting unless they're all dead or it's time to get out.
8. Finally, get objectives. Each objective is another route to do something against the opposing team. Taking one of their towers gives you an easier time to weave through their jungle. You can steal their jungle buffs and rob them of that experience. Take every advantage you can.

I'll add one more bit here because it deserves its own area and it's the most important thing you can do to win your lane. This is all about minions.

• At the start of the game, you need to know two things about being under tower. It's going to happen at some point and you need to be ready for it. Melee and caster minions have different amounts of health and you can use this knowledge to your advantage.
• Melee minions can survive two tower blasts. This will bring them low enough to last hit. Depending on your damage, caster minions are a bit different. Hit them once, let the tower hit them, and then hit them again for the last hit. This will get you all the melee/caster minion last hits under tower if yours are dead. Siege minions are a different beast. You can attack them while the tower is getting them and it'll still take a few attacks to kill it. Be smart about them and don't miss the last hit on them. They're worth a lot and you don't want to let that gold go to waste.
• If your enemy has been killed or left the lane, PUSH. The general rule is that you can push your wave to tower and base. By the time you get back to lane, the minions should just be approaching your tower but not quite under it. Exploit this to get a chance to base back without having to worry about missing out on CS. If you think you can afford it, take out the wave at their turret as well. This will have the minions be around mid-lane when you get back. Base your actions on what you think will best let you buy and get back to lane without missing too much experience/gold.
• Get dragon as much as you can. Dragon is worth just a bit more than getting a tower and, unlike a tower, the dragon respawns. Communicate to your team when you've either killed your lane opponent or forced them to base back. This is a prime dragon opportunity. Take it.

Learning to do these things will make you something that the opposing team will be afraid of. Even in the worst case scenario, you and your enemy will be doing the same things. It's more likely that you'll be doing better than their ADC because you are playing a smarter game.

TL;DR: You decided you didn't want to be a better carry, gg.