How to Play ADC in SMITE (Season 3 Update)

Should you be an ADC?

If you want to play as an ADC, you need to be able to land your basic attacks consistently, know when to attack and when to run, and you need to be able to box with another person that can do as much damage as you.  

If you answered yes, keep reading.  If you don’t know what position you want to play or if you want to try ADC anyway keep reading. If not try another Role Guide or keep reading for fun, I would.

What is an ADC?

ADC stands for Attack Damage Carry, they are mostly hunter’s with some exceptions, and their main job is to farm, survive, get kills here and there, until late game when their ATTACK DAMAGE is so high they can CARRY the team. See what I did there? Moving on…..

What do ADC’s Build?

Basic Build:

   When your building as an ADC you need to always keep in mind that you are the damage dealer for your team and you need to hit hard and fast. That's why in this build I focus on attack speed, power, and penetration. Once you spawn in, get Tier 2 Transcendence 1 health pot and 1 mana pot, a relic depending on the situation and head to lane.

Credit to ELITE OWNAGE for the App Used in the Image 

   To start the build I buy Transcendence so that I don't have to worry about my mana as much, and it lets me start stacking early. Transcendence gives you mana as you stack it and its passive gives power for 3% of your maximum mana. AKA this gives 66 power just off the mana it gives you. This gives your early power and just gets better over time.

   Then I get Warrior's Tabi to get more power so that I can hit harder and increased movement speed to move around the map faster and to be more mobile during a fight.

   Then I build Asi to get lifesteal online, be able to sustain in fights longer, to increase my attack speed, and to have penetration online. The reason that I get this item over other lifesteal like Devourer's Gauntlet is because Asi's passive gives you an additional 25% lifesteal for 5s if you get under 35% health (can only happen once every 15s). This lets you recover and get back to team fights quicker because you can just clear a jungle camp and get back most of your health without wasting time to back and then running back with your team.

   I then build Qin Sai's to get more power, attack speed and penetration (kinda). Qin's doesn't give you direct penetrations instead Qin's passive lets you deal 4% of the gods maximum health with each basic attack you land. This lets you shred through tanks even if they have protections and if you fight a god that didn't build defensive or health...they die..really fast.


   This is the basis of my build with most ADC and I like where the build is at this point, but from here your last 2 items are mostly situational. The finished build below is a good general build that I have been using on ADC's and doing well with.

Credit to ELITE OWNAGE for the App Used in the Image 

   Hastened Fatalis is an item that I really like because it gives you attack speed, movement speed and its passive reduces the movement speed penalty for using basics when you're moving (Hastened allows you to move and basic at your full movement speed.)   

  To finish the build we get Titan's Bane, why? Because you hit harder and you hit so hard you break armor..kinda..ok not really but you get 33% penetration to all of your attacks. This lets you go through both gods, and objectives. AKA this will help you end lives and break things.

Alternative Items 

If You Need CDR:  Jotunn's Wrath can be useful if you are using a hunter that uses their abilities to deal most of their damage and you need shorter cooldowns. This also gives you power, pen and mana and can be a decent item to pick up.

If The Enemy Has Healer: Brawler's Beat Stick is a good item to get if the enemy team has a healer or a lot of self heals. Its passive reduces all enemies healing by 40% if you hit them with an ability and last for 8s.  This also gives you power and penetration to help hit harder and is a good pick up when the situation fits.

Relics:

  The relics I get honestly depends on the enemy team comp. Honestly it depends on how I think I can get killed, if I think their team's CC will have me standing still for 3 hours then I get beads, if I think that I will get killed so fast that I don't even noticed I died, I get Aegis, other wise I get sprint because it can help me run away from the enemy team like a chicken or run at them like a very angry chicken and get the kill. For your second active I recommend getting one of the actives above that can help you get out of a bad situation. Again which one depends on the enemies team composition.

What do I do as an ADC?

Early Game:

      Start off by going to damage camp to buff your mid lane, then move with you support to get the Attack Speed buff for yourself. Head to lane and basically just try and maintain lane presence, kill the enemy minion waves, poke your enemies if you can, and DON'T DIE!!! Farm, farm, farm and get to level five.

Mid Game:

Once you get to level five the game changes because now, as you push your lane you can have to watch out for the enemy jungler more often and rotations in general. As an ADC your job is to get a full build as quickly as possible so you need to be extra careful about getting ganked as you rotate. In team fights avoid getting focused and until you are comfortable in team fights and with the God you're using. DON’T USE YOUR ESCAPE AGGRESSIVELY this is their jump,dash, leap etc. Use it as an escape AKA use it as you “I did not just run away screaming like a little girl ”ability. You are your teams damage dealer to hit the enemy team in the face with you basics for crits or abilities for extra range and get kills.

Late Game:

This is when your team is finishing off their builds and team fights/objectives are your main focus. As an ADC depending on your God you might be able to solo a tower or Gold Fury if you have a good part of you build done and if you are comfortable with it. When it comes to late game team fights, just stay near your team, don’t get focused or swallowed, land your basics, have your actives ready, communicate with your team and know when to cut your loses and fall back because losing teammates late game can cause a comeback.

Tips for ADC:

• Be really good at hitting your basic attacks.
• If you solo a tower, go with minions and kill the tower fast.
• If you solo GF make sure you watch the map and ward in the area around you.
• When, you build is finished with actives buy power pots or wards and ward everywhere that you think enemies might be.
• Being ahead is being on track, being even is being behind, being behind is an opportunity for a comeback.
• Split pushing is a viable strategy for ADC's but make sure your team knows what you are doing and you either have wards, or are very aware of your surroundings.