At the moment, if you’re playing ADC in League of Legends and looking to survive more than five minutes before getting burst down by a Fizz or LeBlanc, you need to play something tanky. Tahm Kench, Swain, and myriad others come to mind – made especially powerful by the synergy between two World Atlases, the new support item. This new strat, however, is already getting nerfed, and I reckon it’s not what any ADC wants to hear right now.
I’m a support main and I can’t deny that, at the moment, bot lane isn’t much fun. You’re dodging burst mages left, right, and center, while having to contend with huge tanks whose armor is so high, that even the best League of Legends ADCs are struggling to make a dent in it. If you’re someone who loves playing one of the MOBA‘s many marksmen, I’d suggest you sit out the start of the season.
One of the ways to increase your survivability, though, is to run a tankier bot champion – my partner and I have tried everything from Aatrox to Tahm Kench and seen some pretty decent results. A lot of that, however, is because we’ve been running two of the new support items, World Atlas, and making bank doing so.
For those unaware, World Atlas grants three gold every ten seconds, and activates quest charges (those little blue support balls) every 18 seconds. That adds on an extra 20 gold per minion executed for you and your fellow laner. That’s a lot of money very quickly – and a lot of wards, given you can store up to three each.
Yes, I can confirm it is absolutely busted, and Riot has noticed. In his 14.2 patch preview, lead game designer Matt ‘Phroxzon’ Leung-Harrison confirms that Riot is going to nerf the combination, stating that the team will be “pretty heavy handed.” As someone who is sick and tired of being one-shot by under-leveled control mages and tanks, that makes my heart sink.
However, he does note that the team is looking at burst damage, which he states “is up” on previous patches. “We suspect because people are getting burst pretty quickly, it’s easy to build leads, but harder to end and easier to throw. We’re looking at moderate burst reductions as a result.”
At the moment, League of Legends is just a mess of assassins, burst mages, and tanks, meaning the botlane largely feels like a waste of time. This trick is really the only reason myself and my partner have seen the tides tick in our favor, so I’d be lying if I said I’m excited for 14.2. I have my fingers crossed, but I’m worried.
A lot of the other League of Legends Season 14 changes are remaining the same, though, so make sure you check out our rundown of the League of Legends 14.1 patch notes to stay up to date.
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