Supports, Supporting, and the Support Update Viability
First and foremost when we discuss supports we should in turn limit exactly what we mean by a Support.
Support in this case is a Champion who is serving a "Supportive Role" to the Second Lane Member. The "Support" in this instance does not accrue the Creep Score but instead "Supports" the Second Lane Member in acquiring the most CS they can while striving to help keep them safe from danger. A secondary goal is gaining kills, and in turn can also supplant the primary purpose if the Support and Second Lane Member are compatible for consistently killing their lane opponents.
As such no matter what we do not mean a champion who goes midlane and then halfway through the game filters into a backline/supportive position. However someone who goes jungle and then for some reason, by failure or by choice, merges with one of the single lanes to create a new "Duo Lane" can be considered one IF the jungler in turn did not do so at a late phase of the game.
Now then when it pertains to supporting the supports themselves tend to do one of three things: Damage, Crowd Control, and/or Utility(Healing, shields, buffs)
Damage Supports such as Brand and Annie focus more on "Bullying" the opponent either for kills or to create pressure that keeps the enemy from harassing their own partner.
Crowd Control Supports often use their CC to either counter an initiation and protect their partner or to start an initiation that their partner can capitalize on in order to gain more CS or kills.
Utility Supports tend to have one of the softest touches in the game, yet can also be one of the most infuriating. There are multiple ways to approach a healer support based on both who you're teamed with and who you're against. Even someone such as Karma who relies less on healing and more on her shield can find the utility aspect especially useful if they want to bully. A prime example would be Soraka, while she doesn't do large damage because she can heal away any damage dealt during trades it creates an ever consistent pressure on the enemy duo to either eliminate her or give up on trading.
In terms of balancing "Damage Supports" tend to be the easiest, with "Crowd Control" being second easiest. Utility Supports are by far the hardest due to their tricky nature. If you dial them back a little too much you can completely eliminate their usability, but if you dial them up just a smidge too far they go out of control and everyone wants to ban them every single game.
Now lets take a moment to break away from all of that and think about a different side of the equation. Who you are laning with when you go Support. Currently the Bottom Lane is the common place for a "Duo" to form, due to a few reasons that we don't need to go into, and this in turn has often been the combo of ADC/Support.
Yet whoever the partner of the support is has a huge impact on the support themself. Not only the champion but the player themself. If the Partner is an ADC then they'll be taking less damage overall, focusing primarily on CSing usually. However every player is different, some are aggressive where they'll constantly put themselves into a dangerous position, others will go "All in" at the most random of times, it is nearly impossible to guess what sort of Partner a Support will get if they randomly acquire one.
Then the champions have an impact mechanically. Some champion combinations simply work better together than others. Toss a Blitzcrank together with an Alistar and it can result in hilarious moments, but toss an Orianna together with a Fizz and you're probably in for a bit of a wash(Unless the players are good).
All in all this results in some of the most unpredictable moments in the entire League of Legends. IF you're in the jungle, alone, you choose how you act and when you act. When you're mid or top you only have one enemy to play off of, primarily, and don't need to think beyond that mechanically. When you go Support however you're consistently attempting to anticipate your Partner and their wants and needs while balancing those against your own. Toss in the fact that it is not one but two lane opponents and the Support has to try and balance quite a lot on their plate.
So you're probably wondering where exactly I'm leading with all of this. First and foremost I want to say one thing, and I personally feel that everyone in League of Legends needs to admit it:
Every Champion can go Support.
I am not saying every single one can go Support and perform WELL, but they can all go Support if it's required. I've both seen and personally done every champion as a Support and there were only a few instances where I wanted to run away crying because of how bad it was. Even someone like Fizz who seems entirely self-centered can prove beneficial as a support IF he's paired up well with someone who synergies well with him. In fact people such as Brand going Support was once considered heresy, but now it has become as commonly accepted as anything else in League of Legends because it can and does work.
What does this mean in regard to a Support Rework?
It is not going to happen. There are very few champions who are "purely support" and even then they can be taken elsewhere(Lulu for example has merged well into a midlane role, and people often take Soraka mid and shift her into a lategame support position). Due to the inherent nature of the Support role, who can go Support, how it's handled, everything in regard to it....there is no real "Support roster" that is static and in need of desperate retuning.
However we will see solo reworks. Taric is a prime example of this, and I expect Sona will eventually see some retweaking/adjustments in the next two years. Nami is mechanically beautiful(to me at least), and Alistar has already seen a lot of hard work to make him into the beefy beast he is today. Blitzcrank is probably the most "off" of all the support champions since he is strong as hell in the lower ELO and inefficient in the higher ELO because of his kit.
Now before you all rage I need you to calm down because while there won't be a Support Champion rework there is a strong chance for something else. A Support Item Rework. A complete overhaul of every single Support and Starter item.
The gold per time effects could be rebalanced entirely using a new mechanic that limits gold gain via kills(Thus making CS'ing with said item less beneficial), but increase gold per second(Thus increasing the ambient gold gain that supports get). Riot could also introduce something radical such as "Duo Lane Item Combos" that naturally fit together. For example the ADC picks up a Dorans Blade, and attached to said blade is an effect that triggers only when near an item that only a Support would pick. This in turn would mean the ADC or Support buff one another naturally when near each other.
The potentials of what could be done with items are only as infinite as Riot's allotment of time on them, and hardware, allow it and so we'll never know...but simply put....yeah. That's about it guys. I apologize if I upset people but I wanted to be straight up and honest.
tl;dr ~~ Riot won't ever do a full fledged Support Champion Rework like they did with Juggernauts and Mages. (If I end up being wrong I also don't mind)
