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unexplored types of supports

vasheenomed·1/13/2016, 4:08:36 PM·1 votes·281 views

tl;dr supports feel unvaried even though there is lots of them, and we need the next few supports to stray from the norm. do you agree and what would you want to see on supports?

so the last few seasons have been seeing the diversification or roles in league. champions like kindred give such unique spins on things we have already seen in the game. Also, every champion made is made to create new gameplay and fill a niche that isn't filled by other champions.

what I have seen is the roles have gotten so much better and you can generally find a champion you like in every role. but the big problem I see is supports.

there are lots of supports, but the only 3 recent supports I have seen are braum, kench, and thresh. and braum is probably the most unique, being a tanky disengage champion, pretty unique to him (most tanks being for engage). generally supports all fill the same niche, part of this problem is that they are mostly very old champions. but even the newer champions don't stray much from the "support" formula.

supports generally provide healing or cc. they assist allies in getting their job done. generally skillshot cc's are the main "skill" of being a support, which is ok. but I think there is SO MUCH untapped potential in supports.

look at the game's supports Alistar Annie Bard Blitzcrank Braum Fiddlesticks Janna Karma Leona Lulu Lux Morgana Nami Sona Soraka TahmKench Taric Thresh Zilean One thing I notice about supports is not a single one has any serious kind of mobility. all of them use mana. all of the kits are rather similar as well. most supports have a simple line skillshot for cc. even new supports like tahm and braum don't stray from this. I think Riot should try and be a bit more crazy with their next few supports.

I could imagine an energy using or even resourceless support. a support that is super mobile and who tries to "get in the middle of the action" to use their cc. just imagine someone with like a giant knockup for an ult that goes around them. trying to get into the right position and jumping around everywhere. it would be such a different experience as a support, moving all around the lane. supports that have extra vision in their kits would be amazing for those of us who like playing the vision game. or even a support that can transition to carry under certain circumstances (I thought once of taric's ult turning him into super high damage taric for 10 seconds and letting him be a carry while it's on, just one of many ways to do that)

overall I feel like supports are a very unvaried role and need a breath of fresh air. I'm not exactly sure how to do it, or what people would want.

do you guys agree? and what kind of unique things would you like to see in a support?

4 Comments

NoPaxt1/13/2016, 4:24:08 PM2 votes

Mobility Sona Her "e" Soraka Her "p" Lulu Her "w" Bard His "e" Braum His "w" Alistar His "w"

PlatypusSurprise1/13/2016, 4:33:04 PM2 votes

No mobility? Janna gets bonus move speed for the passive of her wind elemental, TahmKench has an ult that teleports you halfway across summoners rift and you can bring a friend, Bard has magical journey to give him short cuts, Thresh can use death sentence's active to go to target which allows him to damage boost over walls and use dark passage to help someone escape, Zilean has a massive speed boost for an ability (or slow if you use it on the other team)...

Anyways, if I look at supports I see 3 main types healers like Soraka Janna Sona Tanks like Braum Alistar TahmKench Kill lane/poke Annie Brand Zilean

I'm sure there are other groups and some champs fall into more than one type but for the most part that seems to cover them.

As for what I'd like to see for supports... a mastery that lowers the cooldown of trinkets and use items would be nice

Ralanr1/13/2016, 4:30:30 PM1 votes

Personally I like supports who can interact with their allies without consent (like Tahm devour). The problem however is the high amount of trolling that is possible with this.

But the benefits of saving someone due to your own reflexes seems great to me.

xSleepy1/13/2016, 4:43:49 PM1 votes

kennen support and shen support are both very strong in the right hands, as far as resourceless supports, and both of them do their best work when they're diving into a couple enemies to land cc. illaoi support is strong in a diving situation. kalista support is pretty rare but is easily doable, qw pokes are helpful for the adc getting damage down and her ult is like a ranged kench w. that said, i don't know that a mobile support would work because mobility tends to facilitate solo plays and supports tend to want to facilitate team plays. even if they carried cc along with the mobility, they'd need either tankiness or damage to survive the dive. tanky mobile cc bot sounds too op to work, and if the support had enough damage to survive the dive, they wouldn't be a support. you could run pantheon support, who's got a dive, some survivability, and single target cc, but he's not a traditional support and you have to choose either tank or damage on him on support