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New Season, Same dominant aftershock support meta

DivineMantra·1/13/2020, 8:24:33 PM·2 votes·1,525 views

As a support player, I was hoping that Riot would shake up the support meta as we embarked on season 10, but instead, they decided not to touch aftershock supports once again, and further nerf supports with AP that weren't even meta to begin with (from the support item changes). For all of season 8 and season 9, aftershock supports have dominated the bot lane, causing many other support picks like mages and some enchanters to just fall short. With all the damage, tank stats, cc, and mobility that all these aftershock supports get, it becomes insanely difficult to counterpick them, because they all just ban Morgana anyway. Moreover, excluding the fact that they are physically stronger and more impactful than enchanters and mages, in the pick and ban phase they act as an amazing first pick and counterpick. For me, I main Karma, and when I am picking first in the pick and ban phase, I am asking to get destroyed if I pick Karma first. However, if someone picks blitz, leona, or nautilus first, there are very few matchups that these champions lose, and if they are losing, it is either very slightly (say a 49% wr matchup; ie Janna in to blitz is favored for Janna with a win rate of 50.23% according to op.gg) or they lose to a different support that can abuse aftershock. I just think that two whole seasons of busted aftershock supports warrants a change, because the support meta has just been so stale for over two years. When ardent supports were busted in season 7, shield supports and ardent were nerfed immediately. I think this was a great change even as someone who plays enchanters, because ardent supports were just too strong at the time. However, as tank supports kept getting buffs that they don't need (ex: blitz hook rangee increase, as well as leona Q cooldown a while back), I think its time riot looks at these aftershock supports, and targets them for nerfs. These supports also have so much damage alone, which makes them even more deadly. Are they tanks or damage dealers? I honestly don't know.

I'm not saying other supports shouldn't be looked at for nerfs either; quite frankly I think Soraka does way too much healing right now, and should be looked at by riot as well, however these aftershock supports have been meta for such a long time, that riot should really target these champs with nerfs if they care about the support role. Just look at the bans rates for these champs. Its not just support players who are banning these champs; players from all roles know how lethal these champs are, even if they dont have to lane against them.

Here are some changes that I think would be good: *Not all of these at once are necessary, but I think that these are just some of the options that they could take for approaching the aftershock support problem.

LeonaLeona : Up the Q cooldown and ult cooldown. When I play leona, its honestly disgusting how much cc I have. You only have to put one point in her Q to get a point click stun every 5 seconds. That's ridiculous. Additionally, her ult cd is way too low. As soon as I use it to kill someone, it's already back in 10 seconds by the time I come back to lane. Its honestly crazy how little cds she has, seeing as how extremely deadly (borderline assassin lol) she is.

BlitzBlitzcrank : No one asked for the Q range increase and he didn't need it. He was already strong prior to this change and it should be reverted. I can't believe this change has been live for so long and they just let it slide.

NautilusNautilus : For nautilus, I would say a small damage nerf on maybe his E would be nice, but I think what players want the most is some bug fixes to his Q. I feel like the hit box is not indicative of the animation, and I've seen some instances of nautilus hooking someone behind a wall because his Q isn't coded properly. That should never happen, and it should be addressed immediately.

These are just some of my thoughts coming from a D2 support player. What do you guys think? Do you agree or disagree? I'm not trying to gut all tank and aftershock supports, but these 3 have just been way too strong for way too long.

5 Comments

Metal Janna1/13/2020, 8:41:24 PM1 votes

It would take more CC to get a kill if damage wasn't so high.

evilsforreals1/14/2020, 6:08:48 PM1 votes

Maybe im just bitter but I feel like huge displacement abilities shouldn't deal so much damage. A successful grab is already putting you way out of position for lots of follow up damage and abilities, the actual ability doesn't need to also hit like a truck.

ForLeona I can kind of forgive it more, because she's displacing herself, and needs a teammate to follow up for the max damage output. But Naut/Blitz just kinda "yoink" and then you're basically dead

NY641/14/2020, 6:28:31 PM1 votes

I agree they are strong supports but looking at the big picture it’s really not their fault. Damage is so high that enchanters feel useless. Damage is so high it feels like they is no point of peeling, so you might as well pick a tank cc heavy support to make it easier for your teammates to do their extreme damage and snowball out of control. Plus the meta is all about early game because of how easy it is to snowball and tank supports are the best at helping a snowball start.

Pika Fox1/14/2020, 6:57:55 PM1 votes

The only support that isnt viable is yuumi, and thats largely due to ongoing work and her being very weird as a support in general (terrible early game, amazing late game, the opposite of what a support typically is), making her pair terribly with ADCs.

Aftershock supports havnt pushed out other keystone users.

IShowerWithUrDad1/16/2020, 3:49:21 PM1 votes

I believe those champions are more the counter-meta than the meta itself. They are the ones you ban so you can play senna, brand, pyke or vel'coz and have control over the entire laning phase. Their pick numbers are high because why would you ever pick an enchanter to help your adc do more dmg when you could do it yourself. They are only an answer to the obnoxious damage meta. I strongly believe that when damage will lower, followed by the need to carry instead of playing as a team, both naut and Leo will fade away.

edit: naut, leo and blitz have issues, but they are not specifically strong on their own