Support Itemization and Champion Changes
(Companion thread to this [and by extension, this thread])
A stupidly high amount of damage is available in the game right now. To survive not being deleted instantly, ADCs need protection in the form of peel, healing and shielding, so that they don't die to unkillable tanks and such (e.x. Poppy). This causes supports such as Janna, Soraka and Sona to excel in this current meta of "protect the ADC so they aren't destroyed".
In general, supports aren't given appealing options that are better than "protect the ADC". Below are a few changes to both items and champions that would help with this:
Items
- Health should be reduced to 250, healing and shield power should be increased to 15%. This way, Redemption isn't just bought by every support out there (e.x. Thresh), as its power is more focused towards healing and such. If further nerfs are needed, it should be on the active's healing and/or the cost (e.x. raising the total cost to 2400 gold).
- As Riot has stated they have considered, make the shield only apply to yourself and one other target, not just your entire team. If necessary, the numbers can be altered so that it isn't completely dumpstered (with the possibility of scaling similar to the Soraka change down below), but it should at least provide some decision making in who to use the shield on, and not just shielding everyone.
- Reduce the armor down to 25, raise the AP to 55. Furthermore, change the 20% critical chance from its passive to 20 AD. Should make this item a bit more attractive to buy, especially combined with the changes to the above two items.
- Make it restore one charge every 2 minutes or so. This will give a slight incentive for supports to buy this in the case that they do not want to have to back after using all of their charges late game, and instead can wait it out and actually be with their team before they use it again.
Champions
- Her W should be changed from healing 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 200 (+ 60% AP) to 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 / 110 (+ 60% AP) + 5% of the target's maximum health. This keeps her heal on squishies more or less the same (it's slightly lower, actually) at all stages of the game, yet lets her heal be more effective for a tank or bruiser with high health. The point of this change is to give Soraka an incentive to heal champions other than a carry, such as a frontline tank in order to mitigate the poke they are tanking or a bruiser that is being kited by an ADC. It then follows that Soraka will have to position herself to be able to help more than one member of her team, as opposed to just following the ADC around the entire time. If nerfs are needed, a 1 second increase in her W cooldown at all ranks seems like it would be effective.
- If Tahm's MS was increased from 335 to, say, 340 or even 345, I think he would benefit greatly. Furthermore, Red and Blue Buffs should be affected by Tahm's passive, where he can stun them with Q or eat them as he does with enemy champions after getting three stacks off on them). Otherwise, the only change that he would want is for his E to be activatable even when CCed, similar to Tryndamere's ult.
On their own, these changes would further the divide between an ADC that is behind and useless, and an ADC that is ahead and destroys the entire enemy team. However, paired with a global decrease in available damage, I believe that the few changes listed here can fix a few things. Thoughts?
