Boards›Gameplay

Some constructive criticism for the enchanter class of champions

chipndip1·1/17/2020, 2:32:10 AM·3 votes·1,525 views

So, last time, I made a huge thread that was basically a glorified whine thread about how enchanters are largely uninspired designs that are way too static in their contributions. However, that was a large thread designed to identify problems without offering an idea for solutions. This thread's purpose is to possibly explore solutions.

Explore more interesting ways to implement familiar functions: The goal here is to add a bit of skill expression and involvement to the play style. Let's look at a few examples.

Lux: Has a potential 5 man shield, but it's a skill shot boomerang rather than a button spamming fiasco.

Senna: Has a potential 5 man heal and shield, with the shield being global, but one's a champion targeted attack and one's a straight up skill shot, both needing to be lined up to hit more targets.

Taric: Has an aoe heal and a line stun that can come from two places.

Am I saying every enchanter champ needs to be overly complicated to do simple shit? No, but as it is now, enchanters are largely knowledge check champions in a game that also heavily incorporates skill expression as a factor. There's no depth to shielding someone with Lulu outside of timing when you press the button. It's very uninvolved game play that makes the class boring and hard to fight around. When it's good, you have few options because they can just shield on reaction and the only thing that feints the shield is sending someone else to make them cast it, only for it to show up again in a few seconds later. When it's bad, we see enchanters largely take a step back from the meta for months on end, especially in organized play situations (which isn't just LCS btw). There's gotta be a better way to do things.

Explore new functions for the class: Mages in the support role will always out-damage enchanters, catchers will dominate with early plays and roam pressure, and tank supports can start up whole team fights. The main thing enchanters do can be counter-built by 800 gold or counter-picked by picking anti-shield champs like Pyke and Blitz. People say "let enchanters do their enchanting", but all that means in League of Legends is "let them spam heal/shield". Like, I gotta be honest here and say that Riot's been SUPER limp dick when it comes to exploring what enchanter supports are allowed to do. We play in a game where Shen, the top lane tank, has an anti-AA aoe zone and Poppy, the top lane tank, has an anti-dash aoe zone and Ornn, the top lane tank, has CC extending debuffs, and I can go on about the types of team-oriented effects we can find on non-support champs, but if I go to the list of enchanters, all their "enchanting" amounts to is 90% "I heal and shield them". It's boring. Where are the debuff abilities? Where are the damage amping abilities...besides sitting comfy on...Press the Attack...for some reason? Where's the cleanses? Where's the stat buffs that aren't attack speed boosts and on-hit AA effects?

This isn't to say there's NONE of these things. Sona has a damage debuff on her passive, Yuumi gives adaptive stats, and Janna has an AD buff on her shield. However, these types of benefits aren't implemented in ways they can be appreciated all that well. Sona's W passive goes pretty unnoticed a lot of the time, but Tryndamere's damage debuff has a big, noticeable animation and a very clear indicator for when it's in effect. Doing something like this can make these types of effects more appreciable when they're in effect, and it wouldn't hurt to make them more influential...at least when appropriate.

In conclusion: Enchanters have an issue in two spots, which are how static they are and how samey they are. You can open up variability in their game play by providing skill checks to their more important functions, and you diversify what they do and give them a space to actually be valuable by exploring new types of benefits/new ways to deliver benefits they could give unto allies. It's really a matter of letting loose a bit with the class. Not by cranking their numbers up by 100 on the base values or something insane, but by using some creativity to push the boundaries on this antiquated sub-class. That's if you're asking me.

11 Comments

Silly Neeko1/17/2020, 3:03:15 AM1 votes

While im not exactly saying you are wrong.... there is variability and noticeable differences between all the enchanters.

There is the disrupting enchanters: Janna, Lulu, Nami

There is the heal enchanters: Soraka, Nami, Sona

There is the more poke enchanters: Sona, Nami, Janna

There is the shielding enchanters: Janna, Lulu, Sona

Etc. There are also others like Taric, Yuumi, etc etc but to avoid making this a majorly long post im keeping it simple.

There is variability, and there are some enchanters that seem to work better than others, and some that think enchanters are boring in general.

Would I like to see an overhaul on enchanters? Sure..... however, they are in a pretty decent spot and are some of the more consistant. Trust me when I say, skill shots is not the answer when it comes to heal and shield though. While it could be interesting, its hard enough to try to heal and shield a target that is hopping all over the place and could be underneath a few enemies at once type thing and then they try to blame you because you arnt good (even when all they are doing is right clicking pretty much).

Pika3101/17/2020, 5:30:59 AM1 votes

{quoted}

This isn't to say there's NONE of these things. Sona has a damage debuff on her passive, Yuumi gives adaptive stats, and Janna has an AD buff on her shield. However, these types of benefits aren't implemented in ways they can be appreciated all that well. Sona's W passive goes pretty unnoticed a lot of the time, but Tryndamere's damage debuff has a big, noticeable animation and a very clear indicator for when it's in effect. Doing something like this can make these types of effects more appreciable when they're in effect, and it wouldn't hurt to make them more influential...at least when appropriate.

Speaking on Sona specifically, I remember Diminuendo's visibility has been talked about since almost 6 years ago. Rito's answer to this I believe was shrinking the model size of her target, for the duration. That visual didn't get dropped with 4.13 (even though that patch's sole purpose was visual effects, just further shows how pushed it was when forced Live,) but it did eventually get added a few months later.

Since then, Rito has done a lot with model size & scaling. Model size is somehow considered an actual stat now with many items & such increasing it. It's no longer just a gimmick for Cho & Lulu.

Now, a shrinking model might not be as apparent as a clucking chicken. I know Arcade Sona also puts a "damage down" symbol over the target, or at least she used to. I have not played that dumpster fire of a champion since 4.13 was forced Live, I don't know if Arcade still has all the same visuals from before 4.13. Actually, they all got removed in 4.13 technically, but I don't know if all of them were returned, 6 months later, when the skins team finally got off their lazy asses & did some work for a change.

In the end, I'm really not sure how visible they can make Diminuendo's debuff. Make the target glow green? Put green visuals around them? A giant "damage down" icon above their head? In the end, how much is visibility truly going to matter? Sona is the least-played support in the game while Sona 4.0 Senna has nearly a 70% pick/ban rate.