Bot lane picking guide - League of Legends by Geiko-Vayne

Bot lane picking guide. In depth explanation of bot lane out comes and win conditions depending on champions selected - League of Legends

Hey!

I’m a Diamond ADC main and I was responding to a post about ADC counters in the bottom lane. I finished it up and thought many more people could be interested in this, so here it is. Let me know what you think!

Counter picking bot lane comes more from the support than your adc. Unfortunately, I saw no one explain why that is is depth, so I will.

There are 3 existent bot lane compositions currently:

1. Poke composition
2. All-in composition
3. Sustain composition

Your composition is determined by the capacity of your support to do either of those 3 things. For exemple, Leona has insane all-in potential, but she really doesn’t have any poke or sustain, which makes you an all-composition. The way riot designed their supports either make them really good at 1 thing, or ok at 2. Nami has poke and sustain, but her poke and sustain ability is the same, forcing her to make a choice out of poking or healing. This makes her very weak poke wise compared to another support like Brand, who’s only utility in lane is to poke and sometimes land a stun.

Before getting into which ADC you should be picking in what scenario, let’s discuss matchups. Bot lane matchups are almost only determined by the enemy composition and yours. You may think one composition out of the 3 is better, but it really is not.

-Poke compositions will counter All-in compositions. All-in compositions are only focused on getting one engage down and either killing or burning a summoner spell. In condition to doing that, they need to be healthy both Heath and mana wise. A Poke composition will deny any engage by lowering down enemy’s health to a point where they can’t engage on you without the risk of losing the 2v2.

-All-in compositions will counter Sustain compositions. Sustain compositions are heavily focused on taking short trades and healing back up. When getting all-in’d, they can only heal once, stopping their win condition of sustaining completely.

-Sustain compositions will counter Poke compositions. Poke compositions are focused on getting enemies low, then denying them cs and forcing them to back. With sustain, the Poke composition can never lower down your hp, since you will either shield or heal it back up every time, which makes a great counter for mage supports.

Now that we understand how each matchup plays out, we can move on to picking ADC effectively. Every ADC has its own strengths and weaknesses, so we’ll run down all things you should consider. ADC’s have 3 things that split them in different categories:

1. Short trade damage
2. Long trade damage
3. Poke damage

Similarly to supports, every ADC isn’t good at all 3 of these things. When picking your ADC, you should consider the composition your support makes you so you can buffer your synergy.

-A Poke support like Vel’Koz will want an ADC like Caitlyn, Ashe, Ezreal, Varus, etc... to buffer his utility by applying as much pressure as he does with long range poke. By picking Vayne in this situation, you will counter yourself, as the poke damage from only your support will hardly be enough to stop an All-in composition from engaging on you.

-An All-in support like Nautilus will want an ADC like Draven, Vayne, Tristana, Xayah, etc... to help with constant damage/burst in order to win the all-in. By picking a Jhin in this situation, you will counter yourself, as the short trade burst of Jhin isn’t enough to keep going on an all-in, and you will eventually die.

-A Sustain support like Janna will want you to pick a short trade strong ADC like Lucian, Jhin, Kai’Sa, Sivir, etc... to win a trade with the shield and get out immediately after since you don’t want to get all-in’d. By picking Ashe in this situation, you will counter yourself, as you will not be able to apply enough damage before the shield runs out to make an effective trade.

Note that you should always be evaluating the enemy carry as well as the support, because in some cases, compositions on either side will be the same. This is where the ADC pick will matter. Considering a Pyke vs Leona support matchup, 2 strong all-in champions, the outcome will be determined by the capability of the ADC to out damage the other ADC on a long period of time. In this exemple, if the ADC’s are Vayne and Ezreal, the Vayne composition will definitely win the all-in considering her w damage that makes her a great all in champion.

That was a long text, but I hope it helps you understand bot lane. Considering this and applying it in every game, you should never lose your lane again, only got even or win. Under is a list of Support and ADC strengths so it helps you make a faster choice in your Champ selects. Good luck!

Support:

All-in: Pyke, Morgana, Thresh, Nautilus, Rakan, Blitzcrank, Leona, Fiddlesticks, Taric, Alistar, Braum.

Poke: Morgana, Yuumi, Nami, Brand, Bard, Janna, Lux, Soraka, Zyra, Sona, Vel’Koz, Zilean, Karma, Lulu, Fiddlesticks.

Sustain: Yuumi, Nami, Bard, Janna, Soraka, Sona, Karma, Lulu, Taric.

ADC:

Long trade damage: Jinx, Draven, Xayah, Kai’Sa, Twitch, Tristana.

Short trade damage: Kai’Sa, Jhin, Lucian, Sivir, Miss Fortune.

Poke damage: Jinx, Caitlyn, Ezreal, Miss Fortune, Varus, Ashe.

Edit: A lot of people have been talking about this so I thought I’d edit and explain. There are supports capable of immobilizing an enemy whilst not fully engaging. Examples are Thresh, Zyra, Morgana, Brand, Lux, Nami... these are the ones I could think off the top of my head. These supports are called “catch supports”, but they’re hard to put under a defined category since they’re all so different from each other. Some are tanks, enchanters, mages. Just wanted to clarify that. Catch supports are very powerful, as they open the opportunity to damage the enemy while he’s controled without putting yourself at risk. Essentially, any ADC can work fine with a catch support as it is just a free trade, and any ADC is capable of trading. Some ADC’s will do it better than others, like Caitlyn or Kai’Sa, who have specific mechanics allowing them to deal more damage to controled targets.

Edit 2: I’ve seen people debating on ADC categories. The way to determine the ADC’s strength is by evaluating it by itself. For example, Caitlyn has insanely high range, making her a decent poke champion. Someone mentioned how Caitlyn can have very good short trade potential with traps and e, which is true, but she needs setup. Hitting a trap on a moving target is very hard at a higher elo, so she needs help from her support in order to get that good short trade burst.

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