While there are tools we can use in terms of laning — and if those potential tools, and resultant drafts, kill the Ardent supports’ viability, then all the better — we need more here. After all, the item itself is not primarily a laning tool (I will put this in capitals and repeat it twice: IN COMPETITIVE, IN COMPETITIVE); it’s a concern for its late-game potential more than anything else.

So, let’s work back from there, and let’s start with dissecting the first call and response you’ll hear with regards to that. It’s a true classic of the never-ending struggle between players and staff, and it goes something like this:

Player: The enemy team is able to teamfight better, therefore there is absolutely nothing we could possibly have done. Staff: You don’t need to teamfight against them, look to out-manouevre them on the map.

A true classic. That conversation can be heard at all competitive levels, applying to one topic or another, to greater or lesser degrees of elucidation. Of course, when this conversation is being had, there is always some degree to which each side is talking past the other, there is always some degree to which each side isn’t understanding where the other is coming from, and there is always some degree to which each side is wrong.

In this case, our strawman staff member is arguably more in the wrong, because one of the things that Ardent does is to warp side-lane interactions for ADCs against splitpushers, to the point where an ADC that has no business doing so can survive and even duel a dedicated splitpusher— because of the on-hit healing, because of the heightened DPS in general, and because of the way that the Ardent supports in general can be positioned in defensive pushing situations.

To elaborate on that last point: they’re on the backline of any fight anyway, which creates a far greater range for where they could be and still be at full or near-full efficiency when a fight begins, to the point of being able to play on two lanes, whereas most supports can only make that cross-lane threat offensively), ADCs are far more safe than they naturally should be pushing out and even defending 1v1 in a side-lane. Look at the illustration below:

With that illustration in mind, visualise the following, visualise LeBlanc jumping on Tristana, and consider:

How long is it going to take Janna to get from that position to either lane? Bear in mind that the quest passive of Ancient Coin at this point in the game also gives Tristana an 8% movement speed buff moving towards Janna (or any other support) when she gets into range. At what range, and how late in the fight, can Janna be at compared to the ADC or the group at the other tower, and still be useful? Do the same exercise, but with something like a Blitzcrank or a Rakan.

If Janna makes a mistake, there’s a window wherein Tristana can still be burst down, but it is not that difficult in this setup for her to be holding the threat on shielding both lanes. The trade-off normally would be that, unlike a Blitzcrank, a Rakan, someone with hard CC, she would have less impact once she got to fights, but the Ardent boost is so significant for the ADC’s dueling that it’s negated somewhat.

Yes, there are always going to be holes that can be exploited by a sufficiently strong and skilled split-pusher. But you have to wait for or force explicit mistakes — missed rotations, low-percentage dives, that sort of thing — and while that’s something players should do, that’s not something that strategic coaches should necessary be expecting themselves.

There are approaches compositionally you can take towards that knowledge. Not all Ardent ADCs are created equally in terms of how they’ll play those fights out; a heavy crit ADC like Tristana will be able to massacre assassin-style splitpushers, but there’s a stronger route to victory for a tankier champion like Trundle or Shen. Those champions, in turn, will get destroyed by a Kog’Maw or Twitch, but our assassin picks have more potential there (in the context of the split-push specifically, of course).