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Please Riot improve the support roles

PandanDragon·8/17/2014, 5:10:08 PM·1 votes·1,107 views

The main problem in the support role is how similar they are with the utility mage role, utility mages have the utility that supports have but they also have the scalings that they scale late game through their utility. To fix this we need to give supports the utility that is strong enough early game-mid game but also scales late-game so that they still stay relevant apart from their pathetic scaling damage wise. For this to happen in my opinion we need certain traits in support mains that makes them relevant:

A strong 1 point wonder, this means that they have strong utility even when not leveling this skill - this is what makes them different from utility mages that rely on their damage, but make this 1 point wonder hard to use. This will be what differentiates supports and what makes them truly hard to use.

Make supports scale utility wise in more than one way when they invest in CDR (excess CDR over the 40% point) with this I mean to say give supports a way to scale even without building AP such as building a Frozen Heart or Locket of the Iron Solari. For example if Janna builds a ton of AP her shield should still stay relevant lategame so maybe something like for every 20 excess CDR her shield gets a guaranteed 1 second (by that I mean assuming Janna has 20 excess CDR her shield now lasts for 6 seconds, this extra one second still gives the AD buff even when the shield is broken.)

Make this 1 point wonder's utility scale with AP, this makes building AP items viable on supports, albeit don't make it scale much so that the support's utility will be useless and so that they don't overshadow utility mage's CC.

Make supports have a skill that is useful out of hard engages or fights, for example you have Lulu, her Whimsy is handy when making plays out of battle, make this the same for Janna, her passive is nice but it isn't very useful when all you do is just hang around your allies, I play Janna a lot and I know that it's extremely handy, but perhaps give her W the utility out of combat, for example when Janna casts her W on herself she gives a percentage of her speed buff to her nearest ally.

Give supports boots that increase their utility and utilises the excess CDR from building pure support items like Ardent Censer or Mikael's Crucible, maybe something like this:

Reworked Ionian Boots of Lucidity

Unique passive:15% CDR 1100 gold (This gold increase of 100 isn't that high considering that with the new support gold items supports have a bit more money) 35 movement speed (This movement speed is made up for in the passive) Unique passive: Excess CDR (CD over the 40% point) is converted into AP and movement speed in a 1:1 ratio, this movement speed is added when out of combat for 10 seconds. (The movement speed time has to be substantially long or it just becomes a Boots of Mobility but more slot efficient. This movement speed'll be useful for supports warding but not make supports able to escape all skillshots from enemies. I chose to add AP as AP is much more useful to pure supports because of utility scaling and heals and shields don't benefit from magic penetration.)

Give supports more of these support items. I think this is the right direction for supports to get items that differentiate them from AP mages.

Make the support utility and CC much more visible. For example when I play as Nami and I bubble someone my ADC notices the giant bubble and acts upon it, when I play as Taric and I dazzle someone this doesn't happen, the tiny sparkle is unnoticed and my ADC doesn't act upon it. Likewise when I play Nami and I use my E on an ally they get 3 floating balls that splash when they do auto attacks and disappear. When I shield someone as Janna they don't know that they get AD on their attacks so perhaps make their auto attacks and AD scaling spells have a special wind effect. And please make Janna's tornado show the general direction (not the distance, this is what separates good Jannas from bad Jannas) to nearby allies so that they can actually act on the tornado and I don't need to ping the direction of every tornado I create. This would help ADCs and supports pick up more kills and in turn make ADCs realize the impact of their supports and it would make supports more happy knowing that they helped their ADC pick up a kill and prevent frustration at knowing their ADC didn't act on an opportunity to pick up a kill.

Add a mana refund and level scaling or CDR scaling damage to the Spellthief line Tribute passive and reduce the mana regen, currently pokey supports don't scale lategame damagewise at all and become almost identical to other supports and it becomes a who has more CC battle late game, with this pokey supports should stay pokey even without building tons of AP for damage.

Change the Mikael's Crucible tooltip to show that it cures Polymorph (Lulu's Whimsy) I honestly didn't know that and the tooltip doesn't suggest it would considering that Polymorph is different from other CC.

11 Comments

OTH Radar8/17/2014, 5:49:41 PM2 votes

tl;dr of OP for everyone : OP wants to allow supports to convert excess CDR into AP and Movespeed

Really, really, strange idea. I'm not really sure what it solves. The vast majority of the time you aren't going to go over 40% until you hit your 4th item (including boots) and at that point, you'll probably want some AP or some tankiness.

What I would much prefer is a rework to Ionian boots as they seem to be a very support specific item and 15% is an awkward number for CDR. Perhaps change the CDR to 10% and add a nice passive, say something like this:

Unique Passive | Resolve :

Increases all allied healing effects (including lifesteal) in, I don't know, somewhere like a 500 to 700 unit range around this champion by 10%.

This would encourage true supports to go Ionian while Utility Mages would probably take Sorc shoes for the MR Shred, and would solve the arguably common problem of CDR going over 40%.

CharQueen8/17/2014, 5:52:29 PM2 votes

I'm finding a lot of 'OP this' and 'UP this' threads around that I've never had an issue with.

Is everyone playing the game differently than I am? Because I'm not sharing these views.

ploki1228/17/2014, 8:00:23 PM1 votes

First of all, giving some champions scaling based on excess CDR is lame. Items were designed with capped CDR in mind so that some items are harder to combo together. Otherwise, it would probably either make the items still bad to buy and thus a noob trap (because the scaling are not big enough to warrant for the lost item efficieny) or the only possible item choice (since the compensation makes the items even more cost efficient).

Otheriwse, I must also disagree with the premise of the post. Right now, most (not underpowered) supports actually are great early-mid game and have one point wonders. Also, since most supports are based on CC and/or utility, they scale insanely well into late game.

#Thresh 1 point wonder : Every single ability, but lantern more than others. Late game scaling : Hook, insane peel, get out of jail card.

#Morgana 1 point wonder : Black shield Late game scaling : Black shield, 3s snare.

#Leona 1 point wonder : Eclipse Late game scaling : Gigantic crapton of CC, exponential defense scaling.

#Nami 1 point wonder : Tide's Blessing Late game scaling : Half a map's Knockup + slow.

#Blitzcrank 1 point wonder : Hook Late game scaling : Hook State : Still underwhelming

#Lulu 1 point wonder : Glitterlance Late game scaling : Glitterlance, %MS speed boost scaling on APs

#Poppy 1 point wonder : Roughly everything Late game scaling : lol

#Gnar 1 point wonder : GNAR! Late game scaling : Mega Gnar, 2.5s AoE stun (+ displacement)

#Sona 1 point wonder : none Late game scaling : AoE utility State : Exception to the rule

#Soraka 1 point wonder : Starcall Late game scaling : Armor buff, mana refill, Wish State : fubar by nerfs

#Braum 1 point wonder : Unbreakable Wall Late game scaling : Exponential tankiness + takes damage for ally/ies

#Janna 1 point wonder : Tornado Late game scaling : Monsoon, +60AD on ally which is roughly 2.2k gold