Sneaky thinks latest marksmen and ADC buffs make no difference

Former Cloud9 AD carry Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi is not completely sold on the latest buffs for marksmen that came through with LoL patch 10.11.

Streamer and cosplay extraordinaire Sneaky had some thoughts about the buffs in patch 10.11 and whether or not these changes would make a big difference for marksmen. Solo queue players have been complaining about the state of marksmen since the offseason when Riot Games changed the XP distribution to less experience given to duo lane champions. To ease up the impact of XP and level disparity, Riot then gave marksmen additional health, health growth, and increased mobility through items. The goal is to give marksmen more tools so that they can survive in lane even if they don’t have a support by their side.

Sneaky wants to give these changes time to take hold, but thus far, he remains unsold.

“Nobody is qualified to say anything about the changes, just yet,” Sneaky said on stream. He then went on to clarify that so far, the game doesn’t feel any different for marksmen.

Sneaky struggles in solo queue

Sneaky took time to break down the situation and explain the struggle he’s been facing in solo queue. Sneaky used as an example a match he had just finished as Jhin. In the match, Sneaky had 15 kills, 10 assists, and only one death. Sneaky completed four items and had 40 more CS than the enemy mid laner, Kassadin. That Kassadin had only two kills and four assists. 

In an ensuing one versus one confrontation between the two champions, Sneaky came out victorious, but it was by the skin of his teeth and only because a teammate interfered on his behalf.

“When I got a billion kills and the other guy is feeding his brain out, I should be able to kill the other guy. The only way I can take them over is by not killing myself, that’s the best I can do,” Sneaky said. “Try my hardest not to run into the enemy, disengage all combats, hope the enemy engages on someone else on my team.”

This is the issue that most ADC players face in solo queue. Even if they’re far ahead of the competition, it’s impossible for them to take over the game. On top of that, the ADC role has the most expensive build path in the game. Where a solo laner might need 6,900 gold to complete three core items, a marksman needs at least 7,800. That’s a 900 gold difference.

Riot claims to be following the situation, so more buffs for marksmen might be on the way.