Here are our top five ADC recommendations to help you during your ranked climb, along with a current tier list for the champions in the role.
Bot lane has been one of the quintessential carry roles ever since League started its existence, even though sometimes it didn’t feel as rewarding in the past. Well, Season 13’s multiple changes to the ADCs definitely shifted the perception of the role, as well as its strength. Nowadays, bot lane is the focal point at all different levels of play, from low elos to pro play.
The meta is also a lot less important when it comes to bot lane. Most champions can be viable in the role, especially in lower elos like Silver in Gold, which is the brackets this guide aims to help. Still, it doesn’t mean picking a strong champion doesn’t help or make climbing easier, it definitely does. So let’s take a look at which champions are best in the bot lane meta and can give you the best chance at winning at the moment.
You can also check out our best picks for other roles for patch 13.13, like jungle and top lane.
Best ADCs to climb with on LoL patch 13.13
Kai’Sa
Pros
- Better at laning thanks to synergy with the new Statikk Shiv
- Versitale build and playstyle
- Great with engage supports who are meta
- Can dive with the rest of the team and blow up enemy carries
Cons
- Short ranged
- Not the best ADC in front-to-back fights
- Gets outscaled by hyper carries
Kai’Sa runes and items
With the recent nerfs to champions like Zeri and Aphelios, Kai’Sa emerged as the new top pick in the bot lane for pro play and solo queue. She’s been one of the original abusers of the 13.11-13.12 Statikk and still one of the best champions at using the nerfed version of the item. Most players nowadays play her more AP than on-hit, while returning to the familiar Hail of Blades rune page. While the Domination tree secondary choices aren’t the best for her, AP Kai’Sa plays more for poke/burst so she cannot make use of Lethal Tempo in extended fights. The AP build’s core is Shiv and Nashor’s, followed by Rageblade for more auto-attack damage or Luden’s for poke.
If you still want to play more as a traditional marksman and take Lethal Tempo, AD or on-hit Kai’Sa is still viable. Kraken still gives Kai’Sa most stats she wants, and Navori plus Berserker’s Greaves gets you to Q and E upgrades at reasonable breakpoints.
Ezreal
Pros
- Very safe in lane
- Can be played with almost every support in the game
- One of the best poke champions
- Very strong level 2-3 all-ins with passive stacked
Cons
- No waveclear
- Doesn’t have the consistent damage of a traditional marksman
- Not the best champion into tanks
Ezreal runes and items
Newly buffed Trinity Force made Ezreal one of the best bot laners in the game again. His two-item power spike of Triforce and Muramana is very hard to match by any other ADC, and he has a lot more agency during mid game. You can also still go the Essence Reaver and Navori build if you want to play for more poke rather than longer fights.
Karthus
Pros
- Unexpectedly good all-ins with engage supports
- Easy laning phase with Q spam to farm
- Global map presence with Ultimate
- Can snowball out of control with early kills
Cons
- Very easy to kill
- Reliant on landing an easily dodgeable skill shot during teamfights (if not fed)
- Can’t blind pick if there is a lot of AP on the team
Karthus runes and items
Karthus has been the off-meta pick in the bot lane for a while now. If you pair him with an engage support, you can keep killing your opponents over and over or at least poke them out of lane with the threat of your Ulti. That’s where the Dark Harvest comes into play. It gives you a lot of extra damage if you can stack it, plus the Domination tree gives you access to Ultimate Hunter. Taking Precision secondary is a must since you need Presence of Mind for mana sustain.
On itemization, you can go Luden’s or Liandry, but the latter is the standard since the Ability Haste and applying the item’s passive to all enemy team is very beneficial. After that rushing a Rabadon’s can be great, but you can always go Shadowflame or Void Staff if you aren’t getting as much gold. Mejai’s is also an option, but considering Karthus really likes to run at the enemies, it might be a dangerous investment.
Ashe
Pros
- Good laning phase
- Great for finding picks across map or in lane after level six
- Objective and vision control with Hawkshot
Cons
- Lacks damage if falls behind
- Has some bad matchups into other meta ADCs
- Gets outscaled by nearly every hyper carry
Ashe runes and items
The runes for Ashe haven’t changed for a long while now. She is one of the best Lethal Tempo users there is, as she greatly benefits from the range increase to chase down her enemies. To help with that Approach Velocity is a must-take rune as well, so you won’t have too much variety in your keystone choices.
Itemwise there is more room to improvise. Kraken is the best first item for her at the moment, but you can choose to rush a Mythic if you want to go for Trinity Force. Kraken/Trinity is the best two-item combo for her, with Infinity Edge following closely as the next best Mythic choice. Some players still build Guinsoo’s and go on-hit Ashe but that build, while still viable, doesn’t necessarily compete with Triforce and IE in terms of win rate.
Jhin
Pros
- Strong laning phase
- Can safely clear waves if your support roams
- Longe range target access with W and Ulti
- Good late game scaling against other squishies
Cons
- Has a hard time dealing with tanks unless massively ahead
- No defensive tools or itemization options
- Not the fastest when doing objectives
Jhin runes and items
When it comes to runes, Jhin isn’t the most versatile champion. Thanks to his synergy with the movement speed from Fleet Footwork and the fact that he cannot utilize Lethal Tempo means the most optimal option is Fleet. You can try out Dark Harvest if you want to, but the Precision tree is more valuable than Domination.
Itemization is also very set in stone. Galeforce has been pretty much the only Mythic for Jhin ever since the first item update, and it stayed that way even with the Infinity Edge as the alternative. You can try out IE if you want to, but Jhin doesn’t mind trading off some damage in favor of some mobility and the potential playmaking of Galeforce plus fourth shot.
Patch 13.13 ADC tier list
These five champions aren’t your only options, of course. There are a lot more strong champions in the meta, and most picks can work regardless of the meta if you get proficient enough. Our overall tier list for the bot lane in patch 13.13 is below.
- S: Best bot laners in the meta right now
- A: Champions you can still blind and not get punished by counter matchups as much
- B: Strong champions under the right conditions
- C: Viable champions but need some degree of mastery
- D: Not recommended in the current patch
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