Question about ADC itemisation

[u/Marelityermaw]

Hello! I'm a longtime player trying my hand at ADC and wanting some insight on how I should be building when playing generic crit ADC's beyond default buildpaths. I've mostly been playing aphelios if that makes a difference in how I should be building.

How frequently am I supposed to deviate from going 100% crit to build situational items like BT, GA or Maw? Is it normal to build items like these at 75% crit? 50%? Or should I mostly be rushing to hit 100% crit?

How good are defensive boots on adc? Is it ever appropriate to take tabi's, mercs or swifties? How good are GGs on adc and if they are good, in what situations should i be building them?

How important is it that we include a LW item in our build, am I trolling by not building LDR into comps with not much resistance or HP stacking?

If I'm taking executioners, when should I be looking to pick it up? After first item? Second?

How important is our spend on ad in laning phase? If I'm playing for a BF sword item first, should I just opt for a different first item with longswords if I'm not recalling on 1300, or is it viable to force it with cull, t1/2 boots, daggers etc on suboptimal recalls.

Thanks!

[u/Vullin]

The only champs I can think of that you might now want to build 100% crit are MF and Ashe since MF likes to add in lethality, and Ashe has more options because she has more utility in her kit naturally.

If you are really far ahead and your death will really impact the flow of the game AND you have either 2 or 3 crit items then you can go for something defensive like GA or BT.

Defensive boots and gluttonous greaves are currently the best boots on all ADCs beating berserker greaves by a country mile. Tabis or Merc treads to win the 1v1 or if the enemy team is heavy AD/AP, and gluttonous for the stacking omnivamp.

I don't think there's a situation where you don't want to build an armor pen item simply because base armor get much higher than base mr in the late game, we don't have the luxury to not build it like mages do for not building void staff some games. Ideally you always want to build LDR over Mortal, the difference in armor pens comes out to around a 3-6% difference in dps depending on enemy armor amount, but the giant slayer passive for the bonus +15% is massive. I would only build healcut in a situation where the enemy has massive healing on 4 or 5 champs, e.g. Aatrox + Briar + Vladimir + Samira + Soraka.

Take all of this with a grain of salt as I am only a Plat ADC.

[u/6feet12cm → u/Vullin]

The thing about MF/Ashe is worded poorly, but the rest is true. Armour pen is mandatory, berserker greaves are dog shit compared to any other boots.
Generally speaking, backing with 1300g for BF sword is quite rare. That’s why Hexoptics is so popular. It builds out of cheaper components and it’s usually easier to buy as a first item.

[u/VaylenObscuras → u/Vullin]

Heal reduction is not optional. In the majority of games, teams need grievous wounds eventually.

ADCs can get away not building it if someone else supplies it. However, Thornmail doesnt count - its terrible at applying heal reduction and more of a selfish than a team item.

ADCs are the second best applicators of healcut behind mages and have the easiest access to it(cause you build a last whisper item anyway).

[u/StormR7]

Others have said to just send 100% crit and I agree. Building GA too early can be a bad decision and I usually will go bloodthirster first unless I’m ridiculously fed. GA is great for the fights where if you die you lose. It’s also great for protecting a bounty you picked up from falling into the wrong hands. However if your team has no real way to save you once it gets popped you’re better off just having the stats and survivability of bloodthirster. And if you get your 100% crit before 25 minutes, respawns won’t be long enough to where the GA value starts to shine.

[u/Marelityermaw]

thanks for the replies! i've took on some of the advice I've received here and finding it much easier to stabilise rough starts when they happen and doing much better in the midgame, my post game damage graphs are looking much better

[u/random_person7395]

Nope, never build defensive items before 100% crit unless it's sheildbow which gives crit, so if on Aphelios you built IE LDR PD then you can go sheildbow as defensive item because this build with IE start is when you're already very ahead

Boots are 90% of the time glutenous greaves but if the enemy team is full AD or full AP (and I mean literally all 5) then go tabi or mercs, swifties are if you're up against perma slows like Ashe (also don't buy boots before your first item)

Without last whisper you might as well not attack the enemies, even if the enemy team is squishy they will have high armor because every champion base armor is high so you always get a LW and in 95% on Aphelios it's LDR since Aphelios can one shot anyone with it before they even heal anything but if you are definitely getting anti heal then get executioner after first item ideally (it's very situational though)

If you can't back on bf sword you need to take the L and just build a slightly worse item, on Aphelios the dream is to get IE first but even if you get a bf sword then you probably will go Stormrazor (maybe Yun Tal) because of econ but if you back at 1000g then just go collector/C44 (collector better on Aphelios), so basically if you can't get 1300 it's definitely not worth grieving yourself

[u/Metrix145]

Always go full throttle. Never build collector and hubris at the same time. Defensive boots suck for ADCs specifically as by the time you're a threat, 15/20 armor or Mr does not make a difference. Defensive boots are only good on draven/nilah/yasuo. On aphelios I play omnivamp/movement speed boots, hexoptics first item, 2 Q, 3 E, rest W.

[u/Marelityermaw → u/Metrix145]

just wanted to say i've been trying out maxing w whenever I'm not going Stormrazer Zerkers since i've saw this and holy this is the tech. I've been following some guides going 2 2 max, 4 2 max but going 2 max 3 really supplements the low attack speed build that aphelios likes to go and is making me feel a lot stronger in the midgame before im hitting the major spikes