A short and compact Prediction of the Meta for Worlds – Part IV: Marksmen

With Patch 5.18, the patch on which the Season 5 World Championship will be played, released last week all the numbers are known for the upcoming Tournament. However it is quite hard to know exactly which champions will be played competitively by the best teams in the world. I’m going to look at the strong picks for each role and give a few of my opinions which Champions are going to be played and which Champions might fall out of favor. Today we will have part four of our predictions where I will try to predict which champions will be strong in the AD Carry role and which will probably be not. 

• For a look at my first part about top lane please follow this Link. 
• For my second part which was all about junglers please take a look here
• For part three where the mid lane was the focus please look here

This Article is basically a very short and compact post to give you some Ideas if you do not have much time or look for a specific champion. For a more detailed Article with a lot of thoughts and more Champions I suggest you are reading Kilgannon’s next article which you can find here.

AD Carry

• Kalista 
  Kalista has been picked or banned in almost every game for the last months. Her strong early game as well as her great objective control due to her E make her a very strong pick in competitive play. Additionally she offers her support a free gap closer that can either safe him or help him to initiate a fight. Her early pressure has now been nerfed in Patch 5.17 but she still appears to be a strong pick in my opinion.
  Although many experts expect to see less Kalista at Worlds I still value her as a top tier pick for the Marksman role. She can kite assassins and bruisers better than any other AD carry and will be less vulnerable to die in a fight. Her biggest problem is that traditionally she has a hard time against tanky enemies and therefore the likes of Darius or other juggernauts can be a problem for her. That said I would be surprised if she was to fall out of meta for worlds.

• Sivir 
  Sivir has suffered from nerfs before patch 5.16 and has begun to lose her status as a top tier pick during the last weeks of the summer splits across all regions. Her utility has been greatly reduced and her damage has never been the highest. Nowadays Champions like Ashe offer more utility and team fight presence as well as more raw damage. Sivir on the other hand is neither more mobile nor a better duelist and that makes her no longer a strong pick.
  I can imagine that Sivir will be neither picked nor banned in the whole tournament. I do not think that she should be played at all since there are better options available.

• Ashe 
  As we already mentioned Ashe has taken over the utility carry role from Sivir recently. Global pressure is very strong currently and Ashe can contribute to a fight even if she is not very close to the action by using her ultimate or her E from afar. While she can probably not hit her Ultimate reliably from long distance it is a very strong initiation tool in team fights when Ashe is closer to the enemy team. Her built in slow helps her to chase or kite in fights and can often force summoner spells or grant kills to her or her team.
  With her enormous catch potential Ashe is clearly strong in pick comps as well as team fight comps. However she is very vulnerable to assassins and with the rise of those she is going to have a hard time surviving fights. She will surely be picked multiple times at worlds but time will tell if she can be more than a nice pick against teams that do not play assassins.

• Vayne 
  Vayne has risen from a quite long absence in competitive play recently and has been played a lot towards the end of the summer split. She is the strongest duelist among all marksmen and she has always been very deadly for tanks and bruisers. What harmed her in the past was her poor range and her weak laning phase. However strong Lane bullies like Graves and Lucian are currently not played in the meta and Vayne’s chances of surviving the laning phase have increased significantly.
  With a built in knock back Vayne can protect herself to some degree in fights against assassins and Champions like Darius or Mordekaiser. If her team mates peel for her she can kill those champions really fast with her fast attack speed and her W. That should be enough to make Vayne a strong pick once again in this year’s world championship.

• Twitch 
  Another hyper carry is Twitch who is sort of a hybrid between a defensive marksman who will stand at the edge of a fight and shred the whole enemy team with his ultimate or walk behind enemy lines invisibly and assassinate targets there. Twitch needs a safe lane to farm early and become a strong threat later. Teams will lane swap when playing with a Twitch to guarantee that safe spot. Twitch will need protection since he has no mobility or real way of getting away if he gets attacked in fights and he is often an easy target for assassins if he is not careful enough. Furthermore he gets hard countered by Braum and Yasuo who can negate his whole ultimate in a fight.
  Nonetheless I think that Twitch could be played in a few games as a replacement for Kog’Maw in a Juggermaw composition if the latter got banned or stolen by the enemy team. Other than that I do not expect to see him at worlds since he is very dependent on his team and champions like Lulu or Janna making it through the ban phase.

• Kog’Maw 
  The third famous hyper carry has always been Kog’Maw. He exchanges Twitch’s assassination potential and Vayne’s dueling abilities for a lot of poke and excels at killing tanks and melee champions from afar with his long range and his high damage. He offers a decent mid game power spike since he builds Trinity Force nowadays. Just like Twitch he cannot ever be left unprotected by his team since he is not mobile at all and very fragile against assassins.
  The infamous “Juggermaw” composition has been around for a fairly long time and it will probably still work at worlds. Lulu is still strong, as are a lot of disengage focused supports. Kog’Maw will likely be played more often than Twitch since he has a stronger mid game and offers a lot of wave clear and siege potential with his abilities. I expect to see Juggermaw comps at worlds whenever Lulu and Janna can sneak through the ban phase.

• Jinx 
  Jinx is a strong hyper carry, too and complements the four strong hyper carries. She has been popular mostly in NA while being played a couple of times in Korea as well. She can deal an insane amount of damage in fights to either multiple enemies or even more damage to a single target depending on her Q skill. Once she gets a reset she can often steamroll through an entire fight while getting multiple kills.
  Unlike Twitch and to some degrees Vayne Jinx does fine in Laning Phase and can be played in two versus two match ups without necessarily losing the lane. Like many other hyper carries she is prone to being assassinated and needs protection to be effective. However she has a bit of crowd control herself and is therefore not as dependent on Lulu or Janna as Twitch and Kog’Maw. Jinx should be played quite often and she might actually rise to be among the most contested picks while Lulu and Janna are unavailable.

• Tristana 
  Although she is no longer a traditional hyper carry like Kog’Maw or Vayne, Tristana has come back ever so powerful in the Summer Split throughout all regions. Her damage output is comparable to Jinx with slightly modified strengths and weaknesseslike a lot more mobility while sacrificing AOE damage. With her resets if she gets a kill or assist she can easily reposition herself multiple times in a long fight and thereby survive longer than other squishy champions. She is decent against Assassins as well with her Ultimate. As follows she is not as reliant on protection by her team and therefore fits in most team comps.
  Tristana should be a strong pick at worlds and probably even be one of the most played Marksmen of the tournament just under the same conditions as Jinx.

• Corki 
  Corki is the last remaining early and mid game focussed AD carry that is still played at the highest level in League of Legends. He is very strong once he finishes his Trinity Force but cannot keep up damage wise later in the game since he has no attack speed steroid nor do his abilities have a strong scaling off AD:
  Corki might be picked at worlds by teams to counter Twitch or Vayne and try to snowball the game early before these Champions can become strong. He seems to be off a lot of experts’ list in terms of which marksmen they expect to see but I am sure that he will come out at a few occasions.

• Mordekaiser 
  Mordekaiser is obviously not really a marksman. For once he is a melee champion and additionally he will never be played as a full damage glass cannon. However he is a carry that fits into bot lane since his Juggernaut rework and is considered a very strong and annoying Champion to deal with. He will generate a massive experience advantage just by sitting in the lane and pushing it up to the enemy tower. Besides he is less of a target for enemy assassins due to his more tanky build path. He is very susceptible to being kited around since he has no gap closer and no crowd control until he builds Rylai’s.
  Mordekaiser has a great synergy with any kind of champion that can allow him to get into melee range of his enemies since his damage is crazy with his Q. In combination with Nautilus, Thresh, Leona or Blitzcrank Mordekaiser is absolutely terrifying in the lane as well as later in the game when a pick can easily result in an objective. I believe that we will see Mordekaiser being played or banned frequently.

Tomorrow the series will conclude with Part V, where we will take a closer look at Supports and their key strenghts and weaknesses at worlds.