Sorry Miss Fortune: These Are The Reasons Why Mages Are The Best ADCs In LoL

Champions 17-02-2024 16:00

Mages have been really good in the botlane and even better than some ADCs for quite a while now. Let's figure out why that is!

Karthus lol — Karthus is a fan favourite bot lane mage. | © Riot Games

Mages have been played bot lane sparingly since 2017. Riot Games has nerfed crit items in that year and as such some mages rose up and were actually stronger than normal ADC's. Even now people still play mages bot lane for their advantages. Sure, you will never beat a late game ADC in terms of damage, but mages do have their own strengths and some things they can provide make up for the lack of damage.

LoL: Why Mages Are So Good In Botlane

Ziggs 5 — I remember when this skin came out and his Q was a scroll! | © Riot Games

Everyone knows the five mages that can be played bot lane. Karthus, Swain, Veigar, Ziggs and Seraphine. But what strengths do these champions have in common, that they are the primary mage bot laners?

Range

All the champions above have abilities with a longer range than most ADCs can auto attack. This is especially important since they have such a weak early game that they could not contest the waves otherwise. This also allows them to play team fights more freely.

Waveclear

Low cooldown and high base damage is the name of the game when it comes to wave clear and all of these 5 champions fulfil that really well. Pushing against a Ziggs is almost impossible and a Veigar is always happy when he finds easy targets to stack his AP.

Midgame

Mages have a great mid-game. Once they have completed an item or two they are spiking. These items are really efficient and good and allow them to deal loads of damage and in some cases even more than an ADC could do at that time.

Crowd Control

KDA Sera skin — Who doesnt like a 5 man Seraphine ult? | © Riot Games

ADC's usually do not have any CC abilities on their basic abilities. Ashe and Varus have it on their ultimate. Compare this to a Seraphine or a Veigar that can set down an Event Horizon and stun the entire enemy team.

Coverage

Combine the long range with great CC abilities and you get coverage. Some Mages can zone the entire enemy team with just a single ability. If you dont want them to follow you through the jungle put down some Ziggs bombs, and you are good to go.

Obviously ADC's and Mages have their own charm and I love to play with Samira just pressing 2 buttons to Pentakill an entire enemy team. But Karthus only needs one.