League of Legends’ Lead Gameplay Designer, Matt Leung-Harrison, revealed in an early preview of the game’s 14.6 patch notes why ADC will not see buffs anytime soon.
League of Legends has been going through a rough balancing period as the developers are using the first few months of the season as an accelerated pre-season to adjust gameplay for the rest of the year.
One of the roles the community thinks needs to be looked at in terms of balance has been ADC down in the bot lane.
The sentiment seems to be that the ranged carry role feels obsolete and that ADC champions have no chance when up against bruisers, assassins, or mages. In a community update about the upcoming patch, a Riot Games developer said players shouldn’t expect changes to the position anytime soon.
League players shouldn’t expect ADC buffs
Leung-Harrison posted the early notes for League of Legends patch 14.6 and also gave some insight into what the developers are currently thinking in terms of game balance.
He revealed the balance team is busy working on the strength of supports, instead of focusing on ADC champions or systems at the moment.
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“We’ve been hearing a lot of discussion around the state of ADC. The strong state of supports prevents us from buffing them heavily and returning to a ‘bot meta.’ Crit items are getting some buffs to make them more competitive vs on-hit and lethality.
“We’re still on the continuous pursuit of trying to improve the satisfaction of the role for (especially) regular play without sending the power level through the roof in the hands of coordinated teams,” he said on social media.
14.6!ADC– We've been hearing a lot of discussion around the state of ADC– The strong state of supports prevents us from buffing them heavily and returning to a "bot meta"– Crit items are getting some buffs to make them more competitive vs on-hit and lethality. – We're still… pic.twitter.com/pDtDI0Qc6v
— Matt Leung-Harrison (@RiotPhroxzon) March 12, 2024
Support is also getting tweaked in the upcoming patch, with changes coming for gold income and Doran’s items. The balance team has spent many of the early updates dealing with the power of support items for gold generation and general damage stats.
The community doesn’t seem sympathetic towards this stance by the game designers. As one Reddit user put it: “I want my items to give me the possibility to outplay the situation if I am ahead or doing fine in a game, it is not too much to ask for some, mere survivability.”
What the future holds for ADC players in League remains to be seen as Riot could make massive changes, or continue fine-tuning other areas of the game as the season progresses.