Meta: Swapping AP and AD

The current lane setups have largely been set in stone for months, leading many players to declare the meta stale. While arguably the game hasn't been this multidimensional in its history, there are many alternatives to the current lanes which have yet to be fully explored. For the benefit of those players tired of the current lanes, here's an idea.

Swap your AP and AD carries.

Before we dive too far into this, let me emphasize that this idea has yet to be fully explored. This may not be the transformative idea players are looking for, or it may. It is, however, a different setup that has the potential to be competitive.

This idea is exactly as stated, place your ranged AD mid instead of bottom, and your AP carry bottom instead of mid. Pick an AD who scales well with levels (e.g. Ezreal, Corki) and an AP who scales well with farm (e.g. Cassiopeia, Veigar), and you're good to go. At face value it's a very simple idea, but there's a lot going on behind the scenes.

First and foremost, there are many AP champions who are weak against AD, such as Kassadin and Morgana. Though the threat of burst damage is always there, the AD carry can abuse their auto-attack range and their ability to push lanes without using mana to put the AP carry in an awkward position. In addition, Life Steal is cheaper, more readily available, and more effective than Spell Vamp. With the right matchup an AD can dominate an AP opponent.

These weaknesses get turned upside down bottom lane. Using auto-attacks to sustain is dangerous for the AD because the lane is much longer. Auto-attack harass is more dangerous and less effective due to the presence of an enemy support. Meanwhile, the high burst damage of the AP is a huge benefit for ganks and skirmishes. In the bottom lane it's the AD carry who is typically weak against the AP carry.

Blue buff is the most obviously hitch in this strategy. If you're on blue team you almost certainly need Soraka to support your AP. Thankfully on purple team Blue buff is readily accessible even from bottom lane. For this reason this team composition heavily favors purple team.

Again, this is not a tried and tested setup. It is, however, different and something to try if you're tired of playing with the same lane setup. Just be careful with your picks, give it a whirl, and see if this breaks your meta-boredom.