League of Legends Patch 9.8 tier list: ADC edition

New Additions:

None

New Subtractions:

Yasuo

It’s been a while coming, as Yasuo has been dropping in our ADC tier list for several patches. Just in Patch 9.5, all but one tier list had Yasuo listed in their ADC rankings. Now, we couldn’t even find five sites that rated him in this position. The rise of crit marksman has effectively pushed all melee bruisers out of the lane.

Rising Champions:

None

No new champions have climbed into the ADC role, as it continues to get more and more narrow. As of right now, it’s basically all marksmen.

Falling Champions:

Jhin (A to B tier)

This was a bit of a surprise, as Jhin received some decent buffs in Patch 9.8. Yet, he continues to drop in the tier list. However, there are still three sites that have Jhin rated as an A tier pick, so this rating is fairly fluid and he could jump back to the A tier very soon.

Xayah (A to B tier)

Xayah, on the other hand, is only rated as B tier or higher by four of the nine sites we audited. She’s more consistently rated towards the C tier, so she could continue to drop in future tier lists.

Buffed Champions:

Jhin

Yes, as discussed above Jhin dropped despite getting buffs to his E – Captive Audience and R – Curtain Call. I’d have some confidence that Jhin jumps back at least to where he was rated in Patch 9.7, perhaps even higher.

Stormrazor users

Of the 10 most popular ADC build paths (per League of Graphs), Stormrazor is only built in two of them. By contrast, BotRK is still built in four of them.
It’s the 8th-most bought item for ADCs, purchased 9.1% of the time, but has a lower win rate (50.6%) than all the items bought more often.

This is meant to synergize with build sets that utilize energized crit items (Shiv, RFC, etc.). Therefore, you would expect to see if built on champs who really love scaling with crit items like Jinx or Caitlyn.

However, League of Graphs reveals that Stormrzor is not in the top ten core builds for Caitlyn and is the 6th-most picked item in her build path (behind items like Bloodthirster and GA). For Jinx, it’s built even less, around 2.5% of players get this item on her.

Patch notes specifically mention Kai’Sa, and according to League of Graphs she is the only ADC who consistently builds Stormrazor. Jhin does build it infrequently (16.8% of games), but basically, no other champion builds this item unless it’s a 4th or 5th item. Those two champions, Kai’Sa and Jhin, both dropped in the tier list for this patch, so clearly, the buffs didn’t make too much of an impact.

Nerfed Champions:

Blade of the Ruined King users

On the other hand, Blade of the Ruined King remains one of the most popular items among AD Carries in Patch 9.8 (behind only Infinity Edge). Yes, of the top five items built on ADCs it has the lowest win rate, so maybe these nerfs to the cost (of its component Bilgewater Cutlass) were effective.

In fact, on its biggest user in the position – Vayne – the item only has a 52% win rate as opposed to Rageblade, the second-most picked item, which has a 57% win rate. In fact, none of the other ADCs in our top five have this item in their core build in Patch 9.8.

Do you think Jhin will rise after these buffs? Will Vayne drop once the effect of the Blade of the Ruined King nerfs is felt? Let us know in the comments!