Why are Supports like Zyra and Fiddlesticks building full AP as Support?

Fhari·5/4/2016, 10:54:26 PM·0 votes·1,134 views

It is irritating to see Supports not build any support items and instead build full AP items.

What do you guys think?

By "substantial damage" i mean that the support does one full rotation of spells and completely kills your AD carry or yourself.

13 Comments

IcyPepper5/4/2016, 10:55:56 PM3 votes

I don't understand how your poll relates to your post.

If a champion builds full AP, they're going to do substantial damage. That has nothing to do with whether or not they're a "support." If they were building full support builds and still dealt substantial damage, your poll would be appropriate, but it just seems out of place here.

Maximum Morde5/5/2016, 1:40:34 AM2 votes

Remember, there is more than one way to support someone. You can support them by making sure nobody can make it to them alive, so the AD carry can do their actual job and right click turrets/inhibitors and the Nexus for victory.

Quepha5/4/2016, 11:56:12 PM1 votes

It's ok for there to be different kinds of supports in the game who build different items.

MrLlamaWaffle5/4/2016, 10:55:28 PM1 votes

The damage bot laners like brand and zyra have clear trade offs. Sacrificing utility and safety for damage. Seems fair to me.

Uiraya5/5/2016, 12:00:41 AM1 votes

Do you know what happened when not-tanks started building tank items?

They got tanky.

(Curiously, this doesn't apply to Evelynn somehow, but I'm sure that's intentional.)

Besides, where do you expect AP mids to go now that AD assassins have pushed them out of their lane?

Oleandervine5/5/2016, 12:02:29 AM1 votes

Well, it is possible to function off the yellow trinket, albeit more precautionary since your vision isn't as good. But poke supports thrive to poke, not enchant or shield or heal. Their role is to severely damaged enemies to either kill them, run them out of the lane, or damage them enough for the ADC to kill them. Pokes aren't typically played like normal supports, though you can if you want to.

Alex Sloan5/4/2016, 11:58:56 PM1 votes

Any champion in the game will do substantial damage if they're built with substantial damage items.

FantasySniper5/4/2016, 11:09:48 PM1 votes

There need to be clear trade-offs for their damage for it to be considered okay. Support-APCs trade off some of their scaling for more base CC, so they can engage/disengage while still dealing meaningful damage. One of the best reasons why you would have them mid-lane is because they facilitate ganks and teamfights so well without having to roam. So the, why not just have them bot, where they're always in a multi-man situation? Champions like Zyra, Brand, and Annie don't/didn't have the playstyle to compete in mid-lane when anyone with better scaling and mobility could replace/dominate them, so they became supports where they could safely output and benefit another teammate with their CC.