While every role does serve its purpose and offer a varying degree of importance, it is tough to contest the fact that, to some extent, a lot of what happens in the late game hinges on what the ADC does.
During big clashes, a lot of what they do has to do with positioning well to avoid being burst down, hitting enemies from the backlines, and basically just pumping out as much damage as they can without dying. Easier said than done, right?
With changes coming left and right after every update, we’ve taken the liberty of compiling a list of the 7 best ADCs right now. In no particular order, let’s have a look at them!
Also read: Best Top Lane Champions
Who Are The Best ADCs in League of Legends Right Now?
1. Vayne
Vayne has consistently been a monster regardless of the meta. Sure, she may get knocked down a few pegs when things don’t exactly go her way patch-wise, but her ability to scale into the late game is still very impressive.
Her early game is decent at best, and you’ll need to make sure you even make it to the late game, but the pay-off is worth it. In a way, you’re going to have to snowball a bit to be effective, as falling off early could cost you the game as Vayne compared to safer picks. She has multiple repositioning tools that make her great for short skirmishes.
Night Hunter makes her great for chasing down opponents or simply dodging skills, Tumble allows her more dodging potential with some bonus damage to boot, and Final Hour basically pumps all of her skills full of steroids, giving her invisibility during tumble with a decreased cooldown, even more attack damage, and movement speed.
It’s important to play around the duration of her ultimate in clashes though, as it is what makes you very difficult to kill. Without it, she will be very dependent on kiting and repositioning, which isn’t too easy when enemies can CC her without the invisibility during Tumble (R+Q). In my opinion, the unsung hero of her skill set is Silver Bolts.
While not as flashy as her other skills, it also allows her to shred her enemies regardless of what they build. This skill is the reason why people dub her as the Tank Melter. Overall her kit just makes her a monster to deal with in the late game, especially with lifesteal. They don’t call her the Night Hunter for nothing.
2. Jinx
She isn’t the poster child of Riot for no reason. A lot of the champions on this list benefit a lot as much from item changes as they do from changes to their skills and stats. Pre-nerf Immortal Shieldbow and Kraken Slayer are amazing on quick-hitting AD carries like Jinx.
Her kit makes it so that she benefits a lot from killing opponents often, particularly because of Get Excited! and the benefits it brings, particularly during a tower or objective siege. Her laning is also great because of her adaptability through Switcheroo! and the zoning she gives through Flame Chompers!.
Her ultimate also lets her soften bunched-up opponents during a clash or even snipe a fleeing opponent. Jinx is a hyper-carry, and what that basically means is that you just have to focus on the laning stage of the game and getting fat.
Anything else you could achieve like getting extra kills is just icing on top of the cake. Her job is to scale and overpower opponents. She’s not too difficult from a technical standpoint, and that’s good because it means you have more time to focus on things like positioning, where you are at the current stage of the game, and choosing between farming or helping out teammates in certain objectives.
Overall, her itemizations and kit give her a great laning phase and great damage output consistently throughout the game.
3. Zeri
In many ways, Zeri wasn’t designed as a traditional ADC for the bot lane. The Spark of Zaun is certainly one of the newer champions on this list, and because of that, her abilities are pretty great on a technical level as well.
Much like the newer champions, she is less about pure auto attacks and mixes a lot of spells in between. This makes her learning curve a bit higher compared to more traditional bot laners, but the end result is very satisfying when pulled off correctly.
Living Battery basically lets her steal shields, an occurrence that we know happens quite often in bot lane. Spark Surge makes her slippery and allows her to reposition herself quickly, which is a trend you’re going to see often with her skills.
Her ultimate Lightning Crash basically buffs her in every way that matters and allows her to zip around and start causing chaos during a clash. Hitting enemies as much as you can during this duration helps keep it on you during the length of the fight, as it keeps Overcharge stacks on you. Because of some changes in the recent patches, Riot has been trying to push players into a more glass cannon-critical hit type of build.
And while it does seem annoying for Zeri mains, it certainly is annoying to play against. It does have its advantages too! Because of how mobile Zeri is, she can focus more on dealing damage rather than semi-survivability. Truly a bane to whoever she considers a bad guy.
Also read: Best Teamfight ADCs
4. Xayah
One word: lethality. Much like assassins, Xayah has the ability to just burst down groups of opponents with her feathers. When you do the math, counting all the feathers she can drop with her skills and recalling them with Bladecaller deals exponentially more damage when you stack lethality.
Much like Rakan, she is very mobile and can zip around the area during skirmishes. Featherstorm is just an amazing ultimate overall, as it makes her untargetable for a brief moment. It’s also great for leaving feathers and putting them in place for a future pull.
Sure, it may sound like a run-of-the-mill skill, but when you remember she’s an ADC and is often targeted, then it suddenly becomes a huge deal. For assassins, her mobility and potential escape tools make her tough to target.
She benefits the most when her team also carries crowd control abilities. This is mostly because the root she does is very dependent on preparation (planting feathers ahead of time for maximum efficiency) and needs the enemy team to run to her.
Because of this, she is a bit more dependent on her team compared to other ADCs. She also has difficulty landing her Bladecaller when the enemy champions are agile, in which case she’d have to depend on Deadly Plumage more often, which simply isn’t as good of a tactic. Still, she becomes a monster given the right circumstances, and overall is just a great ADC for team play.
5. Ashe
If you’ve read this far, then you might be noticing a trend here. A lot of the aforementioned champions are great because they pump out massive amounts of damage and are fairly mobile. Ashe, however, is played a little differently.
She isn’t as mobile as the rest, and while her damage is not anything to scoff at, it probably is not on the same level as the others in terms of basic attacks. Her true value comes from the utilities she brings to the table. She can provide vision with Hawkshot, which is amazing for checking Baron, the Dragonpit, the Rift Herald, or even just brush checking.
The range makes it so that you can help out the other lanes too. Speaking of which, Enchanted Crystal Arrow is a global skill that is a great initiation tool. While using it to snipe can be very risky, it does have its special case uses.
Contesting objectives with the opponents bunched up ensures someone at least gets hit, and with the long stun duration, enemies are often forced to decide between fight or flight. The season 12 cooldown reduction also makes this all the more useful in teamfights.
Ashe also has built in slowing capabilities with Frost Shot and Volley, the latter being a spammable skill that acts as a sort of perma-slow for opponents caught in the combo. If we do the math, Ashe’s damage output is really great when she uses Ranger’s Focus.
When she doesn’t she focuses more on slows and team plays to secure kills. When your team has more damage than utility, that’s really where she shines. She is also versatile in how you build her, either going a bit more defensive with Wit’s End and Shieldbow or the more offensive standard affair.
6. Twitch
The Plague Rat has seen his ups and downs. Back in the early days of League, he was a popular pick among pro players along with Caitlyn, simply because of how much damage output he can dish out at any given time.
Sure, he offers little utility, and in a way, he’s very dependent on the team for that. Fast forward to this season, and he is an amazing pick because of the current meta. Deadly Venom deals true damage passively, which makes him hurt regardless of what you build.
Ambush allows him to enter stealth, gaining movement speed and attack speed when he leaves it. This is great for initiating and choosing where you start a fight. With proper wards, it allows him to play like a semi-assassin and hunt down unsuspecting squishy targets.
Ambush is amazing because when an enemy afflicted with Deadly Venom dies, the cooldown is reset. Venom Cask is an area of effect skill that slows and applies even more stacks of Deadly Venom, and Spray and Pray increase your range and pierce all enemies caught in its wake, and – you guessed it – applies even more stacks.
Basically, it is very likely that people anywhere even remotely near Twitch have a stack, which allows him to camouflage and move around like the sneaky rat he is. He benefits a lot from Galeforce and Kraken Slayer because of his reliance on auto attacks and the sheer attack speed he has.
Also read: Best Wave Clear ADCs
7. Tristana
The Yordle Gunner is another AD carry that, unlike some of her competitors, is actually a threat in all stages of the game. She isn’t the hyper-carry that she once was and excels mostly in the early game, but she still scales very well. Her laning is one of the best in terms of bot lane, and Draw a Bead is great for minion last hits and the occasional softening before you go all in.
While all this does sound good, she does come with her own set of caveats. An example would be being somewhat reliant on Explosive Charge for that burst, she is still a very dynamic champion to play with. Her range also isn’t as good as you’d expect unless it reaches the very late game.
When it does work, then she can burst as well as most assassins while being able to jump in and out with Rocket Jump. It’s even more fun when you get refreshes for it, allowing you to use it in a semi-spammable manner when the right conditions are met.
There is another reason Rocket Jump is very useful though, and that is canceling crowd control effects. While it does have a cast animation, it isn’t really required for the jump to pull through. What this means is that, with the right timing, opponents can CC you but you’d still be able to jump away. Her ultimate, Buster Shot, is great for disengaging or even just for the raw damage output it dishes out. It’s a powerful CC that has multiple use scenarios.
Like most of the carries on this list save for a few exceptions, she benefits a lot from the standard Kraken Slayer, Galeforce, or Immortal Shieldbow build. It depends on if you need survivability or damage, and a lot of that has to do with the team compositions from both sides. Still, Tristana is a great pick with good scaling and overall just really fun.
Check out another list of ours, this time concerning the best League of Legends artillery mages!
