I am a fairly new player at League. I am aware of the current meta, and I have been curious as to why there aren't many players who play with an AD carry mid and an AP caster with a support on bottom lane..

I bring this up because soraka seems to have a kit that would be suited really well for supporting an AP caster. With her e, she could keep the caster from having to rush a catalyst or tear (unless they prefer to). Also, plenty of AD carries could play mid lane such as sivir. With her ult, spellshield, and boomerang, she can escape, push the lane, and block the initial cc attempt of the enemy mid.

What is the reason that you don't see this more? Especially at low elo and normals...

I am thinking it is because AP casters need the solo farm more than AD carries, but supports like soraka seem more geared toward assisting AP carries. ( A morgana + soraka lane would be interesting since soraka's silence could turn morgana's snare into a hard stun).

Thoughts?

AP Carries normally scale better with levels - that's why it's more efficient for them to solo mid. AD Carries scale better with items. They duo bottom with support so they don't have to b as often if at all during laning and can help the jungle with dragon. They get more gold this way. That being said - there's no reason you can't mid as an AD carry and in some situations you'll even be an absolute nuisance to their AP mid.

Top: The most convenient lane to gank (Mid is a fairly short lane and sometimes hard to gank, bot is warded most of the time by the support so he can farm safely) because it is fairly long, Top also (usually) has the tankiest people up there, so if they get ganked, they can withstand it slightly easier. Other then that, bruisers are level dependant and farm dependant so they can be tanky enough to go into the enemy team and soak enough damage.

Mid: Level dependant, is in the "middle" of the map, so no matter where stuff happens, the AP carry can react and help out accordingly (both rivers for example, dragon, both buffs and technically baron if people would be getting it that early which never happens) They also have alot of damage and since they are higher level than anybody else in the game outside of top, they have an advantage over anybody. Also note that in the laning phase, the most action happens at the bottom river and dragon, which means Top is never even present unless they have teleport, which means the AP carry will be higher than anybody else at the skirmish. Also the closest to blue buff on both sides.

Bot: I think the meta started to put AD bot when people started using AD carries started using wriggles, which makes you get Dragon really fast. AD Carries also are incredibly farm dependant, so if they get shoved out of the lane, they will get outfarmed and ultimately fall off mid and late game. This is why they get a support, they help the AD carry to live through out the lane, they ward key objectives and other stuff if needed so the AD carry can be safe. If the enemy iniates on your AD carry, your support may help you to keep them off of your carry with heals (Soraka) CC(Leona/Alistar) or damage. Sometimes they're even mixed and may have all 3 of the above mentioned things

Jungler: Self explanatory

Also, saying stuff like Sivir mid could be good wouldn't shift the meta. It is called a counter a pick, generally it still isn't done because an AD carry with level advantage isn't that much different, while an AP carry is ALOT different.

Putting bot with Soraka works, but it limits you to getting Soraka, which makes it prone to counter picking. Also another factor is that you need an ap carry, and usually mid is the only one with AP damage (If you aren't running double Wota stuff or have AP carries like Fiddles in the jungle) so if you have an AP carry mid and bot, you'd lack an AD carry. You can't put the AD carry top either because he will get owned by the bruiser, he can't go mid either because he'll get owned just as much.

Let's say "against strong tops" or "usual picked ones"


I could go top as Evelynn and win, if it's a bad bruiser character

Now I'm just going to piont out that OrchideeFalco basicly states all the reasons for the pairing of each lane. The only thing I'd add is that bot lane is the duo so the jungler can get help with the dragon. Duo would eventually switch top when baron comes into play but thats so late into the game when you can actually get it that laning is REALLY over.

On to a slightly different point. I remember when I started playing in the beginning of season 1 that AD carries went mid, unless someone corrects me on that? There was never a jungler back then, in most games you'd get *****ed at if you even put smite up for one second on the champ select. (Again someone correct me on this if it wasn't true)

The meta just goes with how the community as a whole is deciding to play, and in this case its to have the caster blast away at each other in mid. Personally I feel that AD carries would get a better and easier farm in mid since its a solo lane and it's a short lane so its hard to gank, but the then the AP carry wouldn't get his levels as fast. Its basicly a coin flip as to who needs the mid more and right now the community thinks its the AP, maybe next month they will think differently.