Generic Bot Lane AD Carry Guide

Introduction
This guide is just a generic description of the basics of playing AD bottom lane. I tried to make it as generic as possible. Let me know what you think and your constructive criticism in the comments below this post!

CHANGELOG

  • 14 dec 2011: Guide released


The role of an AD
An AD is in charge of dealing lots of constant damage in teamfights, as opposite to mages, which usually burst a target, you are supposed to hit whatever you have close, while staying safe and with good positioning, damage whatever is close to you, and kill whenever you can.
To play AD you must be able to farm, an AD who can't farm is useless, you are highly dependant on items, and ADs usually end up with the most farm of the game, if you cannot hit 70~ cs by the first 10 minutes, you should consider practising your last-hitting, getting AD runes usually helps.
In lane, your role is to farm as much as possible, while harassing the enemy, whenever he tries to last hit, if you don't have any minion to last hit yourself, you should harass him, the priority is on farming, and beeing ready for when your support initiates, to burst the enemy, the support is in charge of the kills of the lanes, so be ready! Specially if it's an aggresive lane, like Alistar + Tristana, Taric + Vayne or something like that.
Positioning is very important for an AD, some ADs are easier to position than others, and some might fit your style better than others, for example, I love Ezreal because I can reposition whenever I want, I know when I'm safe, and I can engage and disengage as I want, with Ezreal is really hard to die in a teamfight.
Some other carries might be less forgiving, Miss Fortune, Ashe, and the ADs without much reposition need to be played more safely, but again, it depends on your personal positioning and style.

Counterpicking
This is pretty important, of course, you can't always counter pick, sometimes the enemy team counter picks you, in that case you have to build accordingly, but if you have the chance, you shold try to counterpick, for example, if they have Urgot, ask the support player to play Soraka, she pretty much nullifies the damage he does when he lands his acid, after his first Q she just heals you and gives you lots of armor, you barely take any more damage after that.
To be able to counterpick you should be able to play a few champions comfortably.
Your summoners are also important, if they have a lot of hard cc, like Taric + Vayne, and Maokai jungle, you can get Cleanse instead of Exhaust, and play a safe champion, like Ezreal or Tristana, something with escape, if you play Ashe against that lane, you will have a really hard time. Also ask the support player to play what you think is good against the matchup, Alistar is usually a very good choice against Vayne as as soon as you are in a bad position he can help you out by headbutting the enemy carry or support.


What to build
With your champion, you normally have a core you always build, then you deviate from that a bit, but you shouldn't always use the exact same build order, you need some versatiliy, depending on your lane, and how is your team doing.
Some options for starting items are:
Dorans Blade if you have a support with heal, like Sona, Soraka or Alistar, be careful, they can't heal much at lower levels, if you trade too much on level one, even if you win, if the enemy has potions he will heal faster than you, also, you will be vulnerable to level 2 ganks.
Boots + 3 pots if you don't have a healer, like Janna, Leona, or any other support without heal
Cloth armor + 5 pots If you are really scared of the enemy carry harass, for example, if you go against Caitlyn. You can add armor runes and masteries for this to have a very solid sustain early, normally you go Wriggles if you start with Cloth armor.

First trip back
Your first item depends highly on your lane, if you are playing defensive, you just want to farm and you are getting harassed a lot, you can get a wriggles, this is good if your support doesn't have a heal, so you don't spend too much money on potions, and also so you don't have to b too often.
Another option, if you don't want to get Wriggles because it will delay you too much on your main damage dealer item you can get a vampiric scepter, you can later use it for a BT
If you are not doing so well, sometimes you can get a third doran blade, it hels a lot, Chaox does it if he's a bit behind in his lane.

If you are building offensive, and you have enough for a BF, normally it's the best choice, it's just too much damage, an ideal buy in this case would be a a BF, boots and maybe some potions and a ward.

Boots
Some champions don't really need level 2 boots, you can get them really late, compared to other ADs, for example, Ezreal does great with level 1 boots, Corki too.
For boots you normally want Berserker Greaves, if you are Ezreal or Urgot you might want to try the Ionian Boots, for the cooldown reduction, but I'm not a fan of those boots.
Mercury Threads are not normally used, as you probably will get a QSS later if they have much CC, you won't really survive much if they stun you, even if its only one second.
The dodge boots are also a choice, normally to stack armor, you get Wriggles and those boots, if you are really scared of the other carry damage, I don't really like that, but some people do.

What to build after
Infinity Edge is by far the best damage item, nevertheless, it does not give you much sustain, rushing an IE is good if you are doing good, and it snowballs a lot if you can get it quickly, an early IE hurts a lot. 
If you build IE you might want to get a wriggles or a vampiric, for some sustain.

Blood Thirster is another option, this is more sustainish, and it's really up to you what to build first, if you want damage IE is better, if you want burst with abilities and more sustain, a full BT is better, also, have in mind that an IE = BT + Zeal, in gold, so you get a few stacks on the BT by the time you would have finished your IE, it really depends on the game and the champion.
BT is good on Vayne, Cait, Ezreal, where IE is built almost always on Tristana and Ashe.

Another option, used sometimes, is a Black Cleaver, this is pretty unconventional, it's sometimes built on champions like Vayne, it's good if the enemy doesn't have much armor, if you know they won't stack armor, this item does a lot of damage, but it does not give you any sustain, nevertheless, the attack speed is really nice, CandyPanda builds Black Cleaver and Trinity Force on Vayne.

After your first big damage item
Normally after your first big damage item, like IE or BT, you want to get some attack speed, Phantom Dancer is usally the best choice, the crit, movement speed, and attack speed is just too good, also, you can start it by building a Zeal, which is a really good item too.
Ezreal and Corki are a bit of an exception to this, as they normally build more bursty, like Trinity Force + BT or IE.
To be honest, right now, PD is pretty much the only decent AS item, everybody gets it, unless they use an exotic build (Like CandyPanda's Vayne or AS Vayne).
If you feel you need sustain, you can get a Zeal and a Vamp Sceper, you can then build whatever you feel you need first, finish PD or BT/Wriggles.
It the enemy is stacking armor, you can consider rushing a Last Whisper, normally after you get your Zeal, is it will really help with your damage, LW is good if more than one enemy has 150+ armor.

Defensive items
Defensive items highly depend on the enemy team, if they have a good initiation, like Ashe arrows or Maokai root, you could get a Quick Silver Sash, so you don't get caught, getting caught will almost always mean you just lost the teamfight.
If you are not scared of getting caught, you can get Guadrian Angel, so they can't focus you down quickly on teamfights.
Banshees Veil is another option, but I really prefer QSS over BV, as you can use the active whenever you want and not get it popped by some random enemy poke.

Elixirs
As an AD carry, you should get red and green elixirs, double potting after Baron makes you extremely deadly, it makes the advantage even bigger, it's normally a very good timing for double potting.
Elixris are highly situational, getting one before a teamfight is really good, some extra HP and damage can really make a difference, if you get to choose between a red one and a green one, the red one is usually better.

How to play certain champions
All ADs are different, they share the same mechanics, but it's not the same to play Ezreal, than playing MF, if you are in doubt on how to build or play a champion, see a pro guide, and see his stream, you can't be wrong to imitate him if he's recognised to be good at that champion.
CLG  and SoloMid are two of the most common sites for guides, all featured guides are written by 2k+ Elo players, so it's a really solid base for you to start with.

Final tips
The best thing you can do to improve is play, play a lot of AD, pick two or three champions and play them over and over again, see how pros play them, see tournament replays, see streams, it helps a lot.
Just have fun and play what you enjoy! Don't worry if they say Ezreal is UP, or Ashe is UP, play what you find fun! All ADs are balanced and have their advantages and disadvantages.

POSTED BY gosukiwi
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