Summary
Among all of the roles and classes inLeague, the Marksmen have the highest ceiling in terms of raw damage output and scaling capabilities. Starting slow in the early game,ADC champions can quickly scale upinto attack-speed monsters that can dish out insane damage numbers from a distance and become the central threat that needs to be dealt with during intense late-game teamfights. With so many items and runes to choose from, selecting the right set can be a challenge, as there are plenty of options that may seem strong at first but can quickly fall off when considering the wider context of the game.
The two biggest factors that decide whether a rune is suitable for an ADC are early game viability, to help them get through the tricky laning phase, and scaling capabilities, dictating the ceiling at which their DPS can get to. Some runes offer simplistic buffs that help build up the player’s strength early on, while others provide utility that stays from start to finish and gives the player a lot of agency over how much impact they can have in little laning skirmishes, as well as 5v5 fights well into the later stages of the game.
8Presence Of Mind
Keep Those Spells Coming
One of the most important parts in anyLeaguegame is the laning phase, as it can have a massive impact in deciding the outcome of the match, so it is crucial to have the right runes to help the playerthrough this tense part of the game. Whether for throwing spells to clear waves or poking the enemy players for some chip damage, mana is an important part of most champion’s kits and managing the resource is a mini-game in itself. Presence of Mind helps mitigate some of the mana problems many champions face early on, as most ADCs don’t get the opportunity to build mana in their items, so having a bonus like this with such a simple condition is not only handy but can be life-saving.
The usefulness does wear off fairly quickly, as later on, most players will either have a blue buff or won’t need 1000s of mana to win a teamfight. That being said, the fact that the rune gets stronger over time does help certain fights that go long and can give the player a few extra spells that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but the strength of the rune is more than enough to warrant taking it on champions with a spell-heavy kit like Sivir or Jhin.
7Magical Footwear
A Little Bit Of Extra Speed
Gold is one of the most important aspects of the game that both limits and unlocks a champion’s full potential. With no items, certain characters can look outright useless, but the second they hit full-build, it’s game over for the enemy. Magical footwear helps alleviate some of that early game frustration that comes from needing to spend an extra 300 gold just to move around. By not having to worry about that purchase, players can focus on their core build and get to their item spikes significantly quicker, thanks to the small boost provided by this rune.
There’s also the added bonus of a small bump in their move speed, which, while it may not be super noticeable, over time, that extra speed can make the difference in dodging spells and getting back into the fight a little bit quicker than without them. Certain characters like to rush their boots, and hence, this rune is not for them. For others, scaling runes that impact their actual damage and output might be more suitable choices. Still, the magic boots are a great choice for marksmen looking to amp up their mobility and feel great to have in most games.
6Legend: Alacrity
An ADC’s Best Friend
ADC champions love three core stats: damage, crit, and attack speed, the latter of which can be the big difference-maker that provides asignificant boost to the player’s overall impacton the game. Having a sizable boost to this is a no-brainer for any champion who wants to attack fast, and 18% once it is fully stacked is a pretty incredible bonus that keeps on giving with each extra item added on. Part of what makes the rune so great is the consistency. While the stacking process can be sped up with kills and dragons, players won’t have to worry about being locked out of the bonus, as they can happily farm for as long as it takes until the rune is ready to go.
Also, the fact that the bonus begins applying right from the start of the game means that early items like Berserker’s Greaves feel a lot more impactful and can lead to a few extra auto-attacks that can be crucial in winning a fight. It sits in the background and passively makes the player stronger, while not doing anything particularly flashy; the perfect rune for a marksman looking to buff up their power with little to no worries.
5Gathering Storm
Scaling Forever And Ever
Scaling is a marksman’s best friend, as after they have spent 30 minutes farming and charging up, a full item champion with 100% crit and a boatload of attack speed and damage is sure to tear through any team in seconds. Gathering Storm gives the role a pretty large boost to that power over time, which keeps on jumping up every 10 minutes and can deliver some unexpected boosts to damage that the enemy just simply won’t expect. In terms of raw gold value, the strength just keeps climbing and can result in the player having a whole extra item’s worth of damage from a single minor rune.
The best part is that it already plays into how an ADC wants to approach the game. They want to get to a stage in the game where they are strong enough to fight properly, and that often involves a good amount of waiting and time to get there. Having a bonus for patience feels great, and the damage numbers the player can put out later on are hard to beat with any other rune. The downside is the fact that for the first 10 minutes, it’s a dead rune, and even after that, it takes a pretty long time to make a significant change. But given enough waiting, it can turn the tide in the team’s favor, thanks to a healthy injection of damage that grows and grows until the nexus explodes.
4Fleet Footwork
Speed And Sustain All In One
Sustain is a pretty important part of staying alive inLeague,as although good positioning can help the player avoid most of the incoming damage, at some point, they are guaranteed to get dived and will need something to help build that health back up to keep the fight going. Fleet Footwork is the perfect rune for this, and the effect is as simple to activate as just hitting an enemy. A single auto-attack can be enough to heal well over 100hp later on, and when combined with some lifesteal, it becomes pretty hard to put a sizeable dent in the marksman’s HP bar before it is quickly healed back to full.
The rune’s primary purpose is to heal with early game lanes that are particularly poke-heavy and situations where the player just needs a little bit of extra sustain to help them out. The move speed might be a secondary effect, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t useful, and it can be the difference between getting out alive and falling to the enemy gank. Because the healing scales, the rune keeps its utility till the end, and although players might lack the damage output provided by other keystones, it is a nice choice to consider for rough lanes that normally cause more than enough frustration.
3Conqueror
Now The Real Damage Begins
An ADC’s role in a teamfight is to play safe, let the team peel for you, and then, when the time is right, unload a barrage of damage on the team that has justburnt all their important cooldowns. Teamfights can go long, and in terms of runs that help push the player over the edge and carry them through to victory, Conqueror is one of the best. During a fight, it is pretty easy to get 12 instances of damage off in a short period, especially when considering that champions in the role have pretty high attack speed that allows them to keep pumping out damage without the restriction of cooldowns or mana.
Having a pretty sizable boost to the player’s damage that begins right from the first attack is invaluable, and the bonus of some pretty high healing output once the rune is fully stacked can turn certain champions into raid bosses if given enough time to get there. Champions like Ezreal who can start fights early with a bit of poke are huge lovers of this rune, as he can continue poking and stacking it up before the actual engage even happens. Great for hyper-scalers who know they are going to be able to output a lot of damage later on, and it’s a pretty nice tool to have in early skirmishes to edge out close fights with the bit of extra health it provides.
2Lethal Tempo
A Basic Attacker’s Dream
ADC might stand for attack damage carry, but Attack Speed would also be a perfectly good label for most of the characters in the role. Lethal Tempo is one of those runes that might bequite hard for newer players to make use of, but for skilled ones, it unlocks a whole new level of power that is pretty difficult to find anywhere else. By stacking up attack speed early in a fight, the player can have a pretty sizable DPS output that can overwhelm the enemy with its speed and for enemies that only have a bit of armor in their build, getting hit several extra times nullifies the resistance and makes it important to take them down as quickly as possible.
Marksmen like Jinx adore this rune, as because of the extra attack range she has built into her kit, she can snipe enemies from a pretty significant distance and on top of that, her passive once activated, plays off of all other percentage attack speed buffs, turning her from a squishy carry into an unstoppable machine gun of pain. The great part about the rune is that the player doesn’t even need to full stack it to benefit from the buff, as it kicks in right from the get go and if they are lucky enough to get it stacked, their output becomes crazy and it is hard to lose fights with a fed marksman that is amped up and ready to go.
1Press The Attack
Simple And Consistent
Simplicity is often what makes a rune so great, and Press The Attack has a very simple condition and effect that is incredibly powerful and far more consistent than any of the other keystones in the Marksman category. The champions in the class already want to attack a lot, and focusing down one target is the best way to win teamfights, so having a pretty sizable buff to the damage output against specific characters is a sure fire way to have consistent damage output as early on as the laning face, and in any fight after.
There are plenty of champions like Vayne and Akshan who already have a three-hit combo in their kit, so having a rune that makes that playstyle even stronger is a no-brainer. But even outside of those champs, there are plenty of characters who love having extra damage and having the condition be pretty easy to meet and pretty insane once it pops. It is more than enough incentive to take the rune over others in the category. Great scaling, great laning, and just great overall, PTA stands as a best-in-class and undeniable, one of the best and most consistent runes in the entire game.
