Are Melee Carries Viable in Competitive League of Legends?
The recent League of Legends patches have introduced powerful juggernauts, including the controversial new and improved Mordekaiser. Instead of being played in traditional roles, Mordekaiser is now being played as an AD Carry. This raises two important questions: are melee carries viable and will they have a place in competitive League of Legends?
Mordekaiser as an AD Carry
Mordekaiser’s presence in the bot lane is due to his powerful abilities, specifically his W (Harvester of Sorrows) and his ultimate. His W gives him full experience even when sharing it with a support, making it an overpowered ability. His Q is a highly damaging ability that can quickly eliminate champions. His passive allows him to absorb auto attack poke, his W grants healing, movement speed, and high damage, and his E provides wave clear. These factors make Mordekaiser a strong champion with a 53% win rate. However, there are weaknesses to his ultimate and counters to his passive that have been discovered by pros and solo queue players.
The Weaknesses of Mordekaiser
One weakness of Mordekaiser is his ultimate, which relies on acquiring a dragon. If the dragon is not secured, Mordekaiser loses a significant power point and a way to dominate the game. Additionally, Mordekaiser’s range is a disadvantage when facing champions like Lucian, Vayne, and Tristana who dominate the AD Carry tier lists. These weaknesses limit Mordekaiser’s ability to win lane and hard carry games. This raises the question of whether any melee carry can exist if a champion with shields, experience buffs, heals, and high damage cannot succeed.
The Challenge for Melee Carries
The standard meta in competitive League of Legends is 1-J-1-2, which poses a challenge for melee carries. In the top lane, which is the farthest position from the dragon, tanks and bruisers thrive due to their ability to withstand damage and escape to the tower. A melee carry would struggle to reach a power point before being overwhelmed. In the jungle, a good jungler can easily gank a melee carry who has to overextend to cs. In the mid lane, mages benefit from the short lane that allows them to safely farm and reach power points. Melee carries would struggle with roaming and sieging due to their limited range. In the AD Carry and Support lane, the range of the duo can bully a melee carry, preventing them from farming and reaching power points. Additionally, the lack of range hinders proper disengagement and makes it difficult to avoid initiations.
Difficulties in Mid/Late Game
Even if a melee carry manages to overcome the challenges of laning, they would still face difficulties in teamfighting and sieging. In teamfights, AD Carries aim to deal maximum DPS by kiting tanks or diving in to clean up fights. Melee carries would be in the frontline, taking damage from the enemy AD Carry, mages, and assassins. The lack of damage from a champion forced to bring tank stats makes it nearly impossible to win teamfights, unless the enemies are significantly weaker. This highlights the limited potential of melee carries compared to traditional ranged carries.
League of Legends, AD Carry, melee carry, Mordekaiser, competitive, jungle, mid lane, top lane, teamfighting, sieging