Early Game Builds: What Is Best for AD Carries?
In last week's edition of #VVinning, we investigated the damage output of mid-game and late-game builds with a damage analysis of the buffed Blade of the Ruined King. Today, I thought that we could take a small step back and look at the damage output of the early game before we have enough gold to get a major item. If you remember what we found last week, the damage output from rushing an Infinity Edge over a Bloodthirster or Blade of the Ruined King did not change much by the items that you built first.
But before you get to your first big damage, there are a lot of item choices to be made. Your damage output will vary depending on what you build, and among the good item choices there are also many bad ones. Should you rush a vamp scepter into a Zeal? Is a Doran's Blade enough? Will these items give enough of an early game advantage to delay that Bloodthirster? Or should you go for that big item right away? Keep reading to find out!
To keep things constant between posts, we're going to be using the same premises as last week. Our sample AD Carry will use Caitlyn's base stats (typical base stats and scaling) and a Cho'Gath with no ultimate stacks on the receiving end of the damage. AD marks and quints will be used as well as full offensive/defensive masteries.
All calculations were made with the AD Carry Damage Spreadsheet by a cool guy named VVinrar. If I forget to include a certain item build in this post, you can find out the answers to your questions by downloading the spreadsheet and inputting the parameters that you want.
Before we jump into the main analysis, I want to make a few points about the way AD carries are designed. By default, an AD carry has weaker offensive scaling that is weaker than the defensive scaling of most champions. Using our base case champions with only masteries as examples, a champion becomes increasingly harder to kill over time because of health scaling. These scaling gains begin to decrease around level 9-11, which is exactly when you start to build your major damage items. Effectively, carries aren't efficient killers until both their offensive scaling (levels) and their items kick in. Before that point, they're depending on early game items and the rest of their team to make them effective killers. And that's exactly the point of this article. We're here to find out the fastest way to push these carries into mid-game superiority.
Simply put, using both AD marks and quints gives you a bigger level one advantage than any other combination of runes. While armor penetration is nice in the endgame, they do little in the game, which is the time that you need them the most. While attack speed provides a damage per second output close to that of AD, champions with or autoattack reset skills (basically most popular AD carries) will benefit more from total damage scaling like AD or armor pen. Because of the maximum damage output provided by AD runes as seen in the below chart, I will be using AD runes in all calculations made from here onwards.
Note that raw DPS calculated in the table below is calculated as a function of offensive stats only, and since the effect of armor penetration depends on the strength of the enemy target, it is not included in the raw output. The calculations below are made with a Caitlyn vs. Cho'Gath level 1 base case.
At the beginning of the game, everybody starts off with a whopping 475 gold. If you're a support, you might even get more than that, but that's not likely as an AD carry. Anyways, with 475 gold, you don't have a whole lot of offensive choices. You'll probably end up with with some variation of the following builds:
- Longsword, 2 potions
- Doran's Blade
- Dagger, 2 potions
- Brawler's Gloves, 2 potions
- Boots, 3 potions
- Oops, forgot to buy items
Again, with such a small amount of starting gold, your itemization choices don't make a huge deal of difference. The longsword (or Doran's Blade) is at this point your strongest pick. As noted previously, longsword bonus DPS will stack if your champion has autoattack-resetting skills with AD ratios. Even if you don't pick a longsword start, it's not the worst thing in the world. Since you don't have any real items yet, starting with boots isn't a terrible decision as number of autoattacks needed to kill somebody is only one or two extra hits in your laning phase. This can easily be made up if you are playing a champion with longer range, or if you can "outplay" your laning opponent in trades just once every few minutes.
In the below table, I've put in a number of item variations you can build with around 2000 gold. At this point, we're going to pretend you're a level 7 Caitlyn that's trying to kill a level 9 Cho'Gath without too many defensive items -- he will only have a bonus Ruby Crystal to keep him alive.
There's an interesting trend here. At your first shopping trip, stacking bonus attack damage is better than stacking attack speed. The optimal build for damage output you can get at this price point is rushing a B.F. Sword. Conversely, building a vamp scepter and two Doran's Blades is an even worse pick than the "noob trap" of rushing Berserker's Greaves and Zeal. In terms of kill time, rushing a Brutalizer and then continuing your build is the best way to assert early-game dominance, although this does slightly hurt your mid-game as the only thing you can build the item into is a Black Cleaver.
Despite difference damage output choices you can make here, there aren't a whole lot of ways an AD Carry can f*ck up their build at this point of the game. Base stats still do the majority of the damage here, and items only put a tiny bit of fluffing. Anything you buy will have to a strong transition build in the near future if you buy it now. For this reason, you should probably cross out both Sheen and Brutalizer builds from your early-game checklist. Go on and stack the damage!
The first time you went shopping, you probably decided what you wanted to build. What you build with 5,000 gold price point should have been decided by what you had with 2,000 gold. It doesn't make sense to buy Pickaxe and then suddenly buy a Bloodthirster. As you can see below, there are some build paths that are clear winners and some that are clear losers. For example, the Sheen/Brutalizer rush that was popular pre-Season One clearly loses out against sustained damage builds.
This base case is against a Cho'Gath with only a full Rod of Ages.
Interestingly enough, spending the exact same amount of gold with a BT-based build versus an IE rush will give you a similar DPS. While it may match up in damage now, it will end up being outpaced in damage, especially if you put additional critical strike chance on top of your Infinity Edge.
If you stick along a general build path of stacking attack damage in the early game, you shouldn't go wrong. If you go all fancy and build weird items (cough, rushing attack speed), you'll end up with a lot less damage than optimal builds, especially if you are a champion like Vayne or Miss Fortune that has an autoattack-resetting skill. Go for attack damage first and then attack speed, and you should be bursting down your enemies in no time. The only exception to this rule is if you feel rushing a Brutalizer will snowball you harder than any conventional build.
What build should you go for? Berserker's Greaves are a must, but not much is mandatory beyond that point. As long as you follow common early game builds (except for stacking Doran's on top of vamp scepters) you should be fine. As noted in last week's post, damage is very similar across popular builds after building your first big item. The damage difference comes mainly from what you choose to put in your second and third items. As long as you don't go overboard in stacking early game items, the average AD carry should be fine transitioning into the midgame.
In my personal opinion (this opinion not being backed up by math), Doran's Blade isn't really that good right now because of the increased versatility of vampiric scepter. Previously, vamp scepter was a whole separate item that didn't give any extra damage, but now you're forced to buy the longsword to get the lifesteal. While it's not quite as good as Doran's Blade, its too easy to transition to the midgame with a vamp scepter and get the items you want while getting the stats you need.
TL;DR: Vampiric Scepter + 2x Doran's Blade = noob trap. Build literally anything but that.
And once again, if you have any unanswered questions stemming from this article, explore the possibilities by downloading VVinrar's ADC Damage Spreadsheet. Cheers, and see you next week!
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Posted 2/21/2013 1:07:05 PMExactly. HIs calculations are right, but his conclusions are wrong. Utility is always an option to be considered. Extra lifesteal from the vamp sceptor/dblades, or movespeed from a zeal can be useful in certain situations. AD is much better in general, but its not always the case.
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Posted 2/21/2013 1:33:26 PMI would challenge both of you to put a gold value onto that utility. Yes, Doran's items are very efficient items on stats, but more so what is the opportunity cost of delaying a primary build by 950 gold in order to have a bit more lane presence.
I completely agree that the utility value of lifesteal from the Vamp Sceptre or Bloodthirster was not given adequate attention for even the mid-game exclusive case where protracted teamfights or sieges allow the ADC to take small bits of damage and heal it right back. I would, however, agree that the 10hp gained on hit from a pair of Doran's Blades is truly lackluster as the game progresses. The only reason to stack the Doran's blades is for added survivability (this can be offensive - 160hp is at least another turret hit if one is looking to snowball their lane even harder).
I think in the example of a level 7 Caitlyn working on a level 9 ChoGath, there is no way to make that a fair fight unless the Cait's team is helping. By Lvl9 that cho should be sitting on a pair of stacks with Feast, have ~40 AP or at least a catalyst and some armor, and have enough points into rupture that catching caitlyn with it would be a near death sentence.
If anything, that example demonstrates that even mid-game ADC builds are relatively weak, and that the focus should still be on acquiring items, if possible, to scale more quickly into late game where that is a fair fight (Cho with 6 Stacks, Warmogs, ROA, Rylai's, and a Bulwark can still get shredded by a Caitlyn with IE/PD/LW/Vamp in an even fight with comparable gold.
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Posted 2/21/2013 1:50:04 PMIt's hard to say - I don't always go double dorans, but it's especially useful if they have a burst comp. If they can't burst either the AD or the support instantly, then a burst team will lose the lane. Is buying doran's worth that?
Keep in mind that an ADC will always have around 1-2 slots that aren't filled with big items or components of big items. If you fill those slots with doran's blades, then you are essentially doing no harm to yourself.
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Posted 2/21/2013 9:43:08 PMI accept this challenge, but it will have to be relative worth and not gold value, because I feel the need to explain something important about bot lane and an ADC's early game.
DO NOT DIE. I will say this one more time for clarity. DO NOT DIE... EVER! If you die in the laning phase you will be behind significantly because, unlike solo lanes, you are facing off against 2 enemies that now have a large advantage (maybe 3 if the jungler was involved, particularly as he will probably hang around more after being successful). They probably pushed your lane hard as soon as you died too, so you've haemorrhaged gold (kill/assist and CS), exp, and crucially, the chance to farm safely (they will have more wards and threat, unless you have enough sustain to survive the poke you are just going to fall further behind). Avoiding getting to this point is crucial, so again, DO NOT DIE!
However, should you find yourself in this scenario you have two options. 1) You build more sustain / survivability for the smallest investment possible (this is where Double Doran's/Vamp is attractive) so that you can at least continue to CS safely. 2) You take what you can get, but you build to maximise your mid-late game impact so that despite being behind in gold, you will not be wasting gold on early game items and thus should not be as far behind on DPS in the mid-late game. Obviously the second option is riskier, but it can be a gamble that pays off.
So, what is the relative value of the utility provided by double Doran's/Vamp? It's the value you accord to either trying to ensure the safety of your transition to mid-late game vs. the gamble of speeding up that transition at the cost of safety. This is highly game dependant and you'll only know the right choice when you've played with your support and team mates for a bit so you know what you can expect from them.
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Posted 2/21/2013 1:28:24 PMAs a word of caution, %10 lifesteal only matters once you actually do some damage. something to keep in mind. Thats why I usually build damage before Vamp scepter. of course this depends on your support as well...
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Posted 2/21/2013 1:46:51 PM"Some damage" is actually quite early in the game. Double dorans/vamp will have you sitting at 100+ AD with the correct runes/masteries. 10% vamp would be 10 hp per hit on minions. That's quite a lot of sustain.
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Posted 2/21/2013 3:02:38 PMAlright gonna try some math here, whether it proves me right or wrong. assume offensive masteries.
Caitlyn, level 7. vamp scepter + 2x doran's blade
HP = 1110AD = 105.6
Attack speed = 0.835
Lifesteal = %10 +10 per hit ~~ 20
1110 hp / 20 life stolen per attack = 55.5 attacks
27.75 attacks for half your health back.
27.75/0.835 = ~33.234
so that means it would take just over 33 seconds to regain half your health.
I don't know about you but that seems like alot of auto attacks. Maybe that is a bit of sustain, but sustain is only good if you can make use of it. If your trades are happening too often or if you can be 100 to 0'd then your sustain doesn't help. As long as your support has a heal or shield, I'd still take damage first. but I suppose you can take your pick since the numbers can't give you an opinion.
Feel free to point out any mistakes I made!
Edit: no rune pages are accounted for here... so that's a mistake :P
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Posted 2/21/2013 2:41:10 PMI agree, i think this article is a noob trap. you get dorans items mainly for the defensive stats. not the offensive stats. The dps calculations are also wrong, at early levels your using skills in between auto attacks making attack speed items much weaker than this chart shows.
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Posted 2/21/2013 11:56:22 AMI usually first back for vamp scep, dorans, and zerkers.
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Posted 2/21/2013 11:39:14 AMWhile I think this article is really helpful, I feel the need to point out what I think is a pretty big hole in your conclusion. The disadvantage to (vamp + 2x dorans) is dps, as you point out. However, the advantage is the lifesteal it provides. In your analysis Cho'Gath doesn't fight back -- not the case in most in-game scenarios. Even a boiled-down example of an in-lane skirmish comes down to DPS vs. eHP. As an example, look at the level 7 scenario you've presented with Cait dishing out 27 auto's at 93.6 dps (115.97 flat dmg). Some quick math shows her gaining back over +580 HP from lifestealing her opponent.
Granted, a skirmish with an opponent fighting back may not last 27 auto's. However, I'd be interested to see how an analysis of Caitlyn_1 vs. Caitlyn_2 would fare, with Caitlyn_1 weilding a BF sword and Caitlyn_2 weilding vamp + 2x dorans.
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Posted 2/21/2013 11:24:55 AMWhat I got from this article
"hey guys if you buy brutalizer, sheen, and greaves on caitlyn by you'll do fine!"
please don't encourage people to be stupider than they already are. This was an absolutely awful post, by a generally well respected blog
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Posted 2/21/2013 11:28:01 AM"For this reason, you should probably cross out both Sheen and Brutalizer builds from your early-game checklist."
I see how you could have come to that conclusion.
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Posted 2/21/2013 11:53:48 AMYeah, it is pretty hard to get good information without actually reading an article. Great comment, 10/10
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Posted 2/21/2013 11:23:31 AMYou don't get Doran's just for damage, you get Doran's for the cost-efficient mix of stats. In particular, buying Doran's gives you additional health, really nice if you're in a lane with lots of action and want a little extra survivabilitiy. You also get some additional sustain (how needed it is though, is questionable, depending on when you get Doran's and if you have a vamp already or not). Doran's sustain is pretty strong early on then falls off, so I suspect that they'd be better on champions rushing IE, cause then you could put off building vamp sceptre.
Anyway, saying that double Doran's is a noob trap (especially compared to zerker's + vamp) is really misleading if you don't talk about the additional benefits of building Dorans.
EDIT: Looks like the guy below beat me to it.
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Posted 2/21/2013 11:18:25 AMDunno if I agree with this article.
BF Sword rush is very strong, yes.
But I do not agree about runes. AD marks win at level 1, but it is only by a tiny amount. As soon as you buy a single AD item AFTER 1st trip back, ArP marks outscale AD marks HARD and late game they are crazy strong, adding up to 50 extra dmg per auto attack...
Also, the Doran's Blade maths seems WAY off.
2x Doran's Blades early game literally shits on EVERY other starting item setup. Nothing can match the cost efficiency of Doran's Blades. So I don't know if they missed out the 5 health per hit, or the bonus 80 health, but yeah, there is NOTHING for 900g you can buy that is better than 2x Doran's Blades.
Also, Zerker Greaves. Attack speed early game is TRASH. Don't bother upgrading boots until after either BF Sword or IE / BT.
Rushing boots / zerk shoes is the REAL n00b trap at bot lane at the moment...
If you wanna win every single trade, Doran's Blade x1-2 -> BF Sword absolutely slam dunks everything.
Just my 2c.