So, most of you guys must know, I live in Ireland and have an awful amount of free time in my hands (that is, when I am not out drinking, of course). I also have been playing League for quite some time. So, out of boredom I decided to start writing a few posts that may help new members a bit.

The first thing I really wanted to talk about is ADC itemization. Even though most ADC's are built pretty much the same (glass cannon, only one defensive item, pretty similar builds) the build paths and build order can vary wildely. This is due the fact of the nature of their steroids, AD ratios of their abilities, how vulnerable they are in lane (how good is their escapes, if any).

Before I go any further in my post, I would like to just lay one golden rule:
Never build crit chance first on an ADC. Ever.
Why is that? Well, basically, crit scales with two things:
-Your AD
-Attack speed
If you have more AD you have more damage to multiply when you crit and when you have more attack speed you have more chances to actually land crits when you are attacking. However, crit is one of the two random aspects of the game (the other is the trinity force/phage proc) and you can't rely on luck to win trades. Also, there is no item that provides crit AND some other form of sustain, so you could be pushed out of lane easily.

Just another quick note: I am not going to talk about doran's sword, but you can get 1-2 depending of how hard you need the sustain and HP (and not even adding the snowball factor). Also, berserker greaves are the boots I have in mind (and no, not going to talk about the Blue Ezreal build).

Without further ado, let's take a look at the AD carries, one by one

-Graves
Graves has one steroid (that his also his escape) that provides him 70% attack speed once maxed up. The cooldown on it is decreased everytime he attacks, so he is the kind of champion that would rather have a phantom dancer then a statikk shiv. Graves also has wonderful AD scalling and a lot of burst so building AD first on him is probably the smartest choice. He also has very short range compared to other carries, so building life steal is crucial or you will be bullied out of lane really quick. Since his steroid gives him enough attack speed, you can focus on getting AD and crit early (BT, last whisper, IE). If you are needing the movespeed A LOT you can get an early zeal after you finish the BT. His build order would look somewhat like: BT - Last whisper - IE - Phantom dancer


-Kog'Maw
Kog gets 30% AS off is Q when it is maxed out. His W gives him range and 6% of the enemies maximum health on hit when maxed. That means that he REALLY scales with attack speed: you would like to land as many attacks as you can while your W is up. He has only one AD scaling move (on his ult) and it is not that high. One thing kog lacks is escapes: he has none and is extremely vulnerable when people can actually get on his face. However, he can absolutely destroy a team if he can get enough peeling to do so. The blade of the ruined king is a thing that this guy would want: gives him lifesteal, attack speed and some sort of self-peeling with it's active. He does fine with either the shiv or the phantom dancer, so it is actually your call. I would build him like: BOTRK-Shiv/PD-IE-Last whisper

-Sivir
She has huge AD scalling on her Q (remember, it can hit twice), her W is an auto-attack reset and she has a move speed and attack speed steroid on her ult. Her passive also gives her 50 flat movespeed whenever she hits an opponent with an ability or auto-attack and she has a spell shield, meaning she is very good at kiting/chasing. She is really one of the fastest ad carries (if not the fastest) when it comes to wave clearing. Having such phenomenal AD scaling, I would rush BT followed by IE on her (since her ult gives her AS and attack speed helps both crit AND damage). Last whisper would be third followed, with maybe a zeal to gain that extra movement speed. Her build would look somehow like BT - IE - Last whisper - Phantom dancer


-Tristana
Tristana has no AD scaling whatsoever in her abilities, so basically most of her damage comes from her autos. Her Q gives her a 90% AS boost which means that on-hit itens are huge on her. She is kinda of an weird carry: AD carries normally scale more from itens then from level, but she actually needs both thanks to the range she gains through her passive. This leads her to be strong in lane (due to the burst she gains from her abilities), weak mid game and very strong late game (biggest range without using a steroid, a knockback and a jump that refreshes on kill or assist. I would go for IE(while having a vamp scepter to help your sustain) - Blade of the ruined king - last whisper - shiv. Why is that? Because she has the strongest attack speed steroid on all the carries and deals a lot of her damage through her auto attacks (no ad scaling) so she really likes crit (AS gives her more chances to land a crit) and on hit effects (thus BOTRK and shiv over phantom dancer). The fact that she also has good escapes means she can delay a move speed item.


-Corki
Corki was huge last season, but the nerf to his passive and to some of his core itens (trinity force) really hurt him. W, phage procs (that is hell expensive now) and missile poke made him really safe. He does not have any steroids but his passive deals 10% of his AD in true damage (this used to count crits in, but now it does not). All of his ability deal magical damage save for the gatling gun. This means that corki likes AD (to scale with his passive) and likes some splash of ap (hence trinity force), but he scales horribly with penetration (deals true damage/has an armor shred/most of his abilities do magic damage).
I would personaly go for: BT-Trinity force-IE-shiv/PD


-Draaaaaaaaaaven
The guy has an 85% of his AD as extra damage when he has a spinning axe and has a very nice AD scaling on his ult and a decent one on his E (considering it is an AOE ability). He has a spammable MS and AS steroid (provide you catch the axes) and his passive procs whenever he lands a spinning axe or crits. The fact that he has such a phenomenal AD scaling and also likes crit (passive and the nature of his steroid) makes the following build path very nice on him:
BT-IE/Last whisper - Last whisper/IE - Phantom dancer

Alright folks, I plan to come here later and finish all the remaining ADC's (Twitch, Quinn, Ashe, Varus, Vayne, Ezreal, Cait and MF). Just let me know what you think and leave any suggestions if you like!

My sorry arse cannot play any other AD carries competently besides Corki, any suggestions on how to raise my adc pool a bit?

I am VERY interested in varus but the playstyle is vastly different and he lacks a solid escape tool.

Anybody got suggestions for other Ad carries (not ashe....ohgawdno)

I'd just like to add the importance of getting the last whisper on draven. being that his q comes with ad steroid, and a bleed, armor pen is a big deal for him. also he is an early game bully, so armor pen runes are a good choice on him.

Play Quinn, build anything, win games.

Well, Corki behaves somewhat as an AD caster. You could try Graves or Ezreal since they have decent escapes.

Ezreal (not talking about blue build) would have a build path somewhat similar to Corki.
Graves, as I said, is pure AD scaling and has a lot of burst.

Corki do have a very unique feel so you won't find anyone equal to him, but I would advise trying those out. Graves is pretty easy to get the hang off, give him a try

graves shall be my next conquest then on my search for more champions, thanks yargo.