What’s up guys, Syiler here! Welcome to the first of many Tier Lists for Solo Queue in League of Legends Summoners Rift! This is a 4.11 Solo Queue Tier List for ADC, this Tier List will focus on ADC’s in particular and also discuss the current state of the champions.
The list will be split up into 5 sections God Tier, Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 and Tier 4 with the first being the better ADC’s while the lower being the worse ADC’s. While this list might not necessarily be in order for your own playstyle and division it will help you to understand the meta’s current champions and their current strength in general.
TLDR –
God Tier – Caitlyn, Lucian, Tristana
Tier 1 – Draven, Kog’maw, Jinx, Twitch, Vayne
Tier 2 – Corki, Ezreal, Sivir
Tier 3 – Ashe, Graves, Miss Fortune, Quinn, Varus
Tier 4 – Urgot
Tier Information –
God Tier –
Caitlyn – Caitlyn is currently a very strong pick for multiple reasons, the first is being a safe pick, by this I mean she has a relatively easy lane vs any champion due to her long range, solid poke and decent escape. On top of this she is relatively easy to pick up and learn. She also works great with the current item builds in 4.11. Caitlyn can play with multiple supports but works better in a Poke or Sustain lane over a All in lane, by this I mean Caitlyns strengths are in her strong lane presence and harass. You want to poke enemies down with Q, Headshot procs and autos while farming safely, you can push the enemy to tower if you feel confident in surviving any potential ganks, if not just freeze the lane in the middle or towards your tower for safe farming while being able to harass your enemy of the farm and eventually for you to force them back or get a kill. Caitlyn falls off compared to a lot of the current meta ADC’s in the late game but is still a great pick because her long range allows her to safely do damage within the fight and she has great presence early to mid game.
You want to build Caitlyn with an Infitiny Edge first picking up a B.F. Sword on your first back if possible, if not grab a Pick Axe and/or a Dorans Blade until you can afford the B.F Sword, once the IE is complete move onto Phantom Dancer or Static Shik to hit your power spikes, after that either a Last Whisper, Blade of the Ruined King, Bloodthirster, Mercurial Scimitar depending on your needs in the game. Remember to fit Beserker Greaves somewhere into your build early on and grabbing a second Dorans Blade really helps you due to not grabbing a Life Steal item until later in the game. Unlike a few of the other current meta ADC’s rushing the Blade of the Ruined King generally isn’t a good idea as a first item on Caitlyn and 9 times out of 10 you will go Infinity Edge first.
Lucian – People assumed the changes to The Bloodthirster would push Lucian out of play but he is still a very strong ADC although not quite in a tier of his anymore he is still a top contender for the best ADC currently. Although he has a shorter range then Caitlyn he is great in short trades and all in’s which allows him to work well in any type of lane. With his passive he can generally out trade anyone in a short trade due to the double auto attacks after using a spell, he can farm semi safely by using Piercing Light and Ardent Blaze for last hitting at range and if played right can last hit while dealing some poke damage to the enemy laners, if you do end up overextending Relentless Pursuit allows you to get out of a difficult situation so you aren’t completely dependent on summoner spells for safety. Lucian doesn’t really have a weak point in the game, his early, mid and late are all decently strong, he can provide good wave clear but is required to overextend slightly if he clears with QW or he can use The Culling to clear a wave but is sacrificing his ultimate to do that and won’t be able to do it again for the next wave. Lucian can be build various ways which is what has kept him strong in the current meta.
In terms of what you should build first on Lucian will depend on the lane and how much gold you have on your first back, if your first back is around 1600 gold then generally players go for the Infinity Edge into PD/Shiv or if you are able/forced to go back and can’t afford a B.F. Sword then players generally choose the Blade of the Ruined King into a Youmuu’s Ghostblade, this second option gives you a huge midgame power spike while the first option will give you a smaller mid game power spikes and a huge late game spike before the other build. Either builds are fine it will just be down to your judgement on what you need and what you can afford.
IE > PD/Shiv > LW > BotRK > Def item/BT
BotRK > Youmuu > IE > LW > Def item/BT
This just gives you an idea about build paths for Lucian but the path isn’t set in stone. Trinity has fallen out of build paths due to the BT nerfs but is still a decently strong item on Lucian.
Tristana – Tristana has rocketed her way back into play and has seen strength where others seen nerfs. Tristana has an “ok” early game a weaker mid game and a hugely strong late game, because of this BT was a huge thorn in the side for Tristana allowing other ADC’s to easily out duel her and due to her shorter auto attack ranges early there wasn’t much that could be done about it. Now that BT has been nerfed it means ADC is less snowbally and she has the time she needs to hit her power spikes generally. Both of the more popular item build paths work great on Tristana, her early game isn’t as bad as people think even though she has a short range she can still harass in a lane with Explosive Shot, is relatively safe with Rocket Jump and has an attack speed steroid which helps in trades. She works well with an all in type lane especially when hitting 6 having decent burst potential with Buster Shot. Tristana naturally pushes a lane due to her Explosive Shot which means you need to save Rocket Jump for those potential ganks. Late game she becomes a monster, with her longer range, attack speed steroid, Rocket Jump allowing her to position a little more aggressively with the risk/reward of getting a kill and gaining the CD reset on Rocket Jump and the knock back from Buster Shot keep her safe from the front line.
For item builds she can follow a few different paths similar to Lucian but doesn’t opt for the Youmuu’s.
IE > PD/Shiv > Lw/BotRK > Def Item/BT
BotRK > IE > PD/Shiv/LW > Def item/BT
BotRK > Shiv/PD > IE/LW > LW/IE > Def Item/BT
With the gods among ADC’s out of the way we will take a short look at the other viable and not so viable ADC’s!
Tier 1
Draven – The nerfs to BT hurt Draven in the sense that he can’t snowball as hard as he could previously but that won’t stop DRAAAAVEN from being a huge pain the in neck, literally. He still has huge early game damage and aggression which is amplified with a support that compliments the playstyle. Draven is one of the more mechanically difficult ADC’s to play but the extra effort needed for the champion really pays off, due to his passive he can still snowball pretty hard from lane and doesn’t really fall off until much later, the downside is that Draven is a little immobile but with Blood Rush and Stand Aside he can position and stay safe in mid to late game fights.
Kog’maw – Kog’maw is one of the strongest ADC’s right now, I can hear you from here “But Syiler why isn’t he in God Tier?!?!??!”. Well he may be one of the stronger ADC’s but is also one of the more vulnerable, with a weaker early game compared to most and no form of mobility outside of a slow it is difficult to play and stay alive as Kog’maw without the proper support from a team in fights. Now that isn’t saying that a more experienced player can’t position correctly and stay alive it’s just a lot more difficult to get ahead and not be punished for it in team fights, unlike competitive play where your team will be focusing on looking out for you. So basically if you can learn to safely position and play or duo with someone who is going to cover your butt you might have a hard time winning on Kog’maw, although keep in mind what I said, mid to late game he is without a doubt one of the strongest ADC’s in terms of power.
Jinx – This champion has a lot of strengths and doesn’t really have a weak period in the game, she does suffer like Kog’maw with no real mobility but with Zap and Chompers it does help her kite and survive against the enemy team and ganks, along with Switcharoo giving her the increased range on attacks while using the rocket launcher making her relatively safe although she doesn’t scale as hard as Kog’maw does so its slightly less risk for slightly less reward if compared to the Kog’maw. Jinx does have her own strengths in the fact she can quickly destroy objectives such as Baron, Towers and Inhibs if given the chance due to the stacking attack speed on Switcharoo’s Machine Gun. She works well with the current item build paths also although the IE path is more beneficial on Jinx. She can position a little more dangerously in a fight due to her passive Get Excited which gives her a HUGE movement speed boost upon killing an enemy and with her Super Mega Death Rocket she can provide a big chunk of damage later in a fight which can really be a game changer.
Twitch – The Sewer Rat was unfortunately hurt with patch 4.11 with the nerfs to his passive and Ambush taking longer to active when taking damage makes him very vulnerable although the item changes don’t really affect him, he was always used as an Assassin like ADC so going BotRK and Youmuu’s just complements that playstyle. Getting a Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat off during Youmuu’s active in a teamfight will make you a huge threat within team fights. Twitch is still very strong just the risks of playing him are a lot higher now and he is a little weaker compared to other ADC’s pre 6 which is most likely why Twitch is currently seeing lower winrates in Solo Queue.
Vayne – Their is just something about facing a Vayne when the game goes late that just strikes fear into our hearts. Her early-mid game is weaker then most but she has great 1v1 outplay potential and can have a huge presence in team fights or just splitpush for the team as late game their aren’t many things that can 1v1 her and she still has the strong potential to outplay them even if they can. Similar to Twitch the item changes don’t really affect her in a negative way with her building BotRK into either Yoomuu’s or PD as a standard build. If you are a threat in a team fight with Final Hour and Tumble you can easily cause chaos in a team fight due to the stealth component and most players aren’t prepared with a Pink Ward or True Vision to keep tabs on you so they invest cooldowns getting to you for you to disappear leaving them to face the rest of your team while you reposition and melt the closest target with BotRK and Silver Bolts.
Tier 2
Corki – The Daring Bombardier has a special place in my heart as one of my favorite ADC’s so placing him in Tier 2 does hurt. While arguably he could easily be a Tier 1 ADC the BT nerfs got to him a little, he has great burst at level 6 with Phosphorus Bomb and Missile Barrage especially with a Sheen and is safe with Valkyrie. He can last hit relatively easily due to his passive and Phos Bombs/Missile Barrage. Pre 6 he does struggle vs things like Cait, Draven, Lucian so you do need to keep that in mind but Corki snowballs pretty hard with a couple of kills and people tend to underestimate the burst you are able to put out. With games generally going longer this is what really hurts Corki, he is great mid game but starts to fall off towards late game being out shinned by the other ADC’s. You get a decent power spike at 6 with a Sheen then another once Trinity is completed and another with IE so his mid game is scary especially if he gets ahead, Missile Barrage can chunk the enemy team down before a fight and you can easily do decent damage in a fight even if pushed away by the front line due to the range on Missile Barrage and Phosphorus Bomb. He is on the verge of being a Tier 1 ADC so keep that in mind.
Ezreal – Ezreal is the opposite of Corki in my eyes and is barely a Tier 2 more borderline Tier 3. While he is a very safe pick which can poke an enemy out of the lane with Mystic Shot or last hit with it, has multiple item builds he just feels underwhelming when not ahead in lane but does become an unkillable menace when ahead. The fact that his W in it’s current state is pretty much a useless ability means he can easily be out dueled by most ADC’s early and in my eyes struggles to get that lead that he needs to be strong.
Sivir – I would have normally considered Sivir to be Tier 3 easily but after playing her recently I have seen her in a new light. The BT nerfs would have affected her pretty hard prenerf due to a lot of her damage coming from Boomerang Blade and Richochet but now I feel she can fall into the category of an auto attacking ADC over a caster ADC. Once you hit 6 you get the attack speed steroid from On The Hunt/Ricochet which allows her to build the BotRK or IE item paths easily. She is relatively safe post 6 with On The Hunt providing huge movement speed and the Spell Shield allowing her to cancel things that would normally be an issue for the standard ADC. On The Hunt really complements Solo Queue for the fact it helps you in tricky situations to disengage, engage or kite back depending on the situation which teams struggle to do especially at lower ELO. This is a champion to keep your eyes on in 4.11 I feel she could make a come back.
Tier 3
Ashe – In theory Ashe sounds like a good champion but her Hawkshot is essentially useless and just promotes you to farm all game to get the benefit from it, Volley uses 1/3 of your mana early game, Focus is nice early game but once you get a couple of crit based items IE/PD/Shiv the passive basically becomes redundant and your ultimate wants to be fired from long ranges to get the most out of the stun but its normally not the case along with it scaling from AP just makes her kit in general questionable.
Graves – He wasn’t really in a good place to start with, his kit makes him more of an in your face bruiser to get the most out of it but that will just get you killed mid/late game, with his short ranges and a mix between a Caster AD and an Auto Attacking AD it means the BT nerfs hit him hard and put him in a worse state then he was before. He is great with all in type champions like Leona but get out of lane and if the enemy is playing even remotely well in team fights you will feel completely useless.
Miss Fortune – This champion confuses the hell out of me for various reasons, the first is her win rate, she has a 53% win rate currently which is the highest of the ADC’s and is decently popular with an 8% pick rate. Does that make her a good champion? The answer is no, she could be but isn’t. She has great early game presence in lane with Double Up, it chunks people for huge amounts especially if you get the bounce onto a champion, she has decent mobility but its removed if she takes damage, her Impure Shots is a decent ability but the rest of her kit is “strange” with Make It Rain and Bullet Time both scaling from only AP makes half of her kit lackluster, Bullet Time does an OK amount of AoE damage but remember you aren’t Auto Attacking during that time so it isn’t that impressive. She is easily killed with only Make It Rain as her escape tool, you could argue Strut is apart of her escape as well but during team fights the chance of you keeping Strut up is low. So why does she have such a high win rate? Good question as it makes zero sense, there are defiantly stronger ADC’s then Miss Fortune that have higher and lower play rates but she holds the top spot on win rates for ADC’s so clearly we are missing something! Either way the BT nerfs affect her and should make her weaker in general.
Quinn – Even though the nerfs to BT actually help Quinn slightly in lane as she would generally go BotRK as first item her kit hasn’t changed and that’s what puts her in Tier 3. She wants to be good, she really really does but some parts of the kit just make me sad, her passive is great it gives you random procs of damage of extra damage on certain targets and increases your attack speed with Heightened Senses. The blind and damage on Blinding Assult are great for trading and 1v1’s, vault gives you a way to go aggressive and help survive ganks. Tag Team gives crazy movement speed and the Skystrike hurts especially later in a team fight. Now the issues, for her to go aggresive generally you want to make use of Vault for the extra Passive Proc on the target you are attacking but that instantly causes you to lose your escape, her ultimate is a melee form of herself, yeah good luck surviving in melee range in a team fight. With a few tweaks she could be good but her kit is confused on if she wants to be an ADC or bruiser.
Varus – Once again has the potential to be a solid ADC but high mana costs, lowish Auto Attack range, low mobility, an ultimate that scales off of AP, a passive which isn’t to great in team fights, a needle thin ultimate hit box, Blighted Quiver which scales of AP. Overall his kit is just all over the place, his escape is Hail of Arrows or Chain of Corruption but Chain is better used for CC in a fight and Hail of Arrows won’t really stop them from killing you. If he had lower mana costs and some form of mobility he might see more play. The BT nerfs kind of affect Varus but I could see him building BotRK or IE and being ok.
Tier 4
Urgot – I shouldn’t need to go into detail here but Urgot just doesn’t fit the current role of ADC. He is confused about what he wants to be, a bruiser? An anti ADC? An ADC? He just doesn’t fit into the current meta very well at all with abilities that make him want to get close but others that want him to sit at the back.
So hopefully you enjoyed my rather long but detailed look at the ADC’s in patch 4.11, future ADC tier lists wont be as long as you will have a general idea of my opinion on the champions currently, I will only go into detail if a champion is completely changed or affected by a future patch!