LoL players are convinced this role has no purpose outside of pro play

All League of Legends players know that there are five roles on Summoner’s Rift—top lane, mid lane, jungle, AD carry, and support. One of these roles has been in a such poor state recently that some players feel like it’s useless outside pro play.

AD carry mains are oftentimes deemed the crybabies of League, and their opinion is shrugged off as irrelevant. But, in all honesty, the role hasn’t been the best for a while now, and “the effort isn’t worth the reward” as one player put it in a post on ADC mains’ subreddit on Sept. 25.

“ADC has been designed throughout the history of LoL as the role to carry through damage when they come online. Nowadays ADC feels like it has less damage, less agency, less utility and less safety than any other role. The only thing going on for ADCs is consistent damage without worrying about cooldowns, but then again, with so much haste in the game, other roles don’t care about cooldowns either,” that same player explained.

Because of that, it feels like solo queue actually has no room for AD carries, and you’ll be far better off if you picked up an AP carry in the bottom lane because they are far more durable, have more damage, and can easily opt for defensive items like Banshee’s Veil and Zhonya’s Hourglass. 

In the past, AD carries were consistent DPS powerhouses that popped off once they got enough items and would become kiting machines that could take down any turret you point at. Now they never get enough protection and peeling in solo queue, and normally die even before a teamfight fully escalates.

In pro play, this is an entirely different story because pro AD carry players are constantly being watched over while they get all the farm they need. In teamfights, top laners will do their jobs and tank that critical skill shot for you, while in solo queue that Aatrox will dodge Ashe’s arrow to save their KDA.

In most scenarios, AD carries are under-leveled, don’t have enough items, and can’t really influence the game’s outcome in solo queue, but in pro play, that same role becomes incredibly broken because your team is taking care of you. AD carries got some love for a couple of patches during season 13, but that power was soon trimmed down with the faithful Patch 13.10 that nerfed AD carry items across the board. 

Riot promised changes for Critical Strike in season 14, but we should once again return to the state of the game after the Durability Patch if we want to see this role shine.