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Support Shrines (Role Rework Concept):

Painted Celt·4/16/2017, 12:35:15 AM·21 votes·1,519 views

#Hello. Thank you for taking the time to join this discussion. The main purpose of this thread is to suggest a fairly radical overhaul of the support role. You are welcome to post your own suggestions for support changes here as well.

For the vast majority of League of Legends' existence, the support role has been the least popular role. There is no question that many players simply feel unable to enjoy the role in its current state. In draft pick, Riot has resorted to the autofill system in order to "force" players to support. in In blind pick, it is often reserved for whoever is slowest in calling a role.

The zero-CS support role evolved primarily from the lack of a proper place for a fifth role on a team, as there are only 4 decent sources of gold and experience (lane CS + jungle). Because of its origins, there has always been a sense that the support role's main goal is to minimize what it "takes" from the other players rather than focusing on what the support can provide. I think there are many reasons that the role is unpopular stemming from this: lack of gold to buy items, lack of experience/levels (making the support feel especially vulnerable), a sense of being less valuable/influential than other teammates, a lack of recognition for team contributions, the expectation of being scape-goated when things go badly... But I think the biggest turn-off of the role is being "tethered" to the ADC with limited self-determination for the support.

My suggestion below is aimed at creating a more substantial fifth role on each team, while providing new support objectives around the map, thereby liberating the support from bot-lane babysitting.

#Support Shrines: http://imgur.com/woc7fcf Shrine I: Water Shrine Shrine II: Fire Shrine Shrine III: Earth Shrine

#What are they? Indicated by the ruins icons in the map image above, they are small structures built into sides of existing walls on the edges of the jungle. They resemble small ruins containing different relics. When inactive, they are overgrown with jungle foliage. Activating them clears away the overgrown foliage, revealing the relic until the foliage grows back.

#What do they do? Activating a shrine provides the support with a chunk of gold and xp, similar to clearing a camp as a jungler, except that the support would receive the gold and xp over time while the shrine is active rather than instantly. Overall, the shrines would provide much less gp + xp than jungle farming or CS'ing, but they should provide just enough to compensate the support for the time spent roaming between lanes to keep them active. While active, the shrines provide vision directly around them, and they provide modest supportive effects within the lanes nearest to each shrine along with global buffs.

Possible lane buffs could be: increased allied structure defensive stats, decreased allied inhibitor respawn times, stronger allied super minions, and buffed champion defense stats when near allied turrets.

The global buffs could be equivalent to 1/2 of an elemental dragon buff, could be shown on the dragon buff mouse-over, and could be amplified by elder dragon's effect. Shrine I (Water Shrine): Equivalent to half of an ocean dragon buff. [Visually, the rivers could flow out of springs pooling from the Water Shrine.] Shrine II (Fire Shrine): Equivalent to half of an infernal dragon buff. Shrine III: (Earth Shrine): Equivalent to half of a mountain dragon buff. All 3 Shrines Active: Shrine effects are doubled (equal to a whole dragon buff). [No cloud dragon buff equivalent because there are only 3 lanes/shrines and there is enough mobility creep. The global damage increases from the shrine buffs are mostly negated by the shrine lane bonuses, specifically increased allied structure defensive stats & buffed champion defense stats when near allied turrets.]

#How do they work? At 1:35 or so, the shrines become available to activate. Activating the shrines requires the summoner spell, Clairvoyance http://imgur.com/ibmQHMg, which becomes the support equivalent of summoner 11 in this concept. The support can activate the shrine by standing in front of it and channeling on it for a short while, like capturing a control point in dominion. Or a shrine can be instantly activated from a global distance by casting Clairvoyance on it. Activated shrines would remain active for ~5 minutes, so it would be fairly easy for the support to keep them all active while spending most of their time supporting in lanes like supports currently do.

[Note: the starting cooldown of Clairvoyance and the shrine activation timer would of course be subject to balance according to the results of in-depth playtesting, etc.]

I imagine the shrines could be made contestable by adding the potential for them to be deactivated by the enemy support via channeling it (Clairvoyance only working for activating). Deactivating a shrine would normally be a risky action, because it would require the support to enter the enemy jungle and channel in an area where the enemy team is guaranteed to have vision since activated shrines provide allied vision. A shrine could also be reactivated immediately after being deactivated, so deactivating a shrine would only be useful in certain situations where the enemy cannot easily reach their own shrines (like if they are pushed into their base). Deactivating an enemy shrine would be especially important in the strategy of sieging inner turrets due to their locations and the suggested structure defense bonuses. Fights over controlling shrines could become very interesting, especially in the mid-game. In the early-game, deactivating shrines would most likely not be worth the risk unless setting up a bait (which could easily back-fire) to kill the enemy support when they try to reactivate it.

#Related Suggestions

http://imgur.com/ibmQHMg Clairvoyance Enhancement Customization: Equivalent to item 3706 item 3715 Smite enhancements, special Clairvoyance enhancements could be added to support line items. item 3092 item 3069 item 3401 Non-sightstone versions could provide an extra Clairvoyance cast charge or reduce its cooldown [item 3092 lowest cooldown]. item 2301 item 3092 Clairvoyance cooldown decreased, and summons two icy ghosts at the cast location, which seek out and slow enemy champions. item 2302 item 3069 Clairvoyance radius increased, and allies gain movement speed while inside or moving towards the revealed area. item 2303 item 3401 Clairvoyance reveal duration increased, and provides an aura that buffs allied champions and minion resistances. item 3107 Redemption could possibly be made into a healer-specific support starter-line, in which case its active would become an enhancement applied on Clairvoyance cast. Or Redemption could remain separate and just synergize decently with the new Clairvoyance effects.

With the above changes, item 3303 line would work best for frequently catching enemies for your team and making them easy to pick off. item 3301 line would work best for quickly grouping up at an objective at the revealed location. item 3302 would work best if you plan to teamfight at the location you are revealing, ie., revealing a dragon/baron that the enemy is fighting.

I also think that item 2049 item ward recharges could spawn at the shrines. Every 5 minutes or so, a shrine could generate one sightstone charge, which would be indicated as an amber gem resembling the top of a item 3340 on the ground next to the shrine. Only one charge per shrine would be accumulated at any given time. In order to collect the recharge, the sightstone owner would simply need to step on the amber gem while having an available empty sightstone charge slot. If necessary to compensate for this buff, sightstone items could have their charge slots reduced by one.

Thanks for reading! Please comment with your feedback and ideas. It would be great to get some Riot feedback. -Sam

Ps. Responses to many things like concerns about snowballing, Clairvoyance timers, etc. are addressed in further detail in the thread's discussion.

18 Comments

byakugan1234/16/2017, 1:07:19 AM5 votes

i actually really like this idea as a support main

Painted Celt4/16/2017, 1:45:32 AM4 votes

As an after-thought about a Wind/Cloud Shrine, it just occurred to me that it could be added as a purely aesthetic addition to each spawn fountain. The Wind Shrine could simply exist at the spawn location and "activate" with a visually glowing effect whenever the homeguard bonus is applied to a champion at the fountain. This would be a purely visual effect without any new gameplay implications. It would just allow for there to be all 4 elemental shrines present on the map.

Nymzo4/16/2017, 2:34:16 AM4 votes

I have a few questions/concerns:

  1. Are the shines not a little bit too close to the lanes? According to your map, there are mostly inside tribushs or bushs close to the lane that are not the one that are close to the river. Maybe put them much deeper in the jungle or something.

  2. I really don't like the idea of mini dragons buffs, it's not very... unique. Maybe give tiny buffs like movement speed or mana regen.

  3. By far my biggest concern: Clairvoyance. First of all, losing either summoner 3 or summoner 14 for Clairvoyance is really bad on paper. Exaust is pretty much the only saving grace against a fed assasin and Ignite can be use to snowball. Clairvoyance is euh... useless most of the time. Also, this is very crippling if one team is behind. As you mentionned, if one team is pushed to their base, the other one will have all the shines. But with that in mind, it would fucking suck to be behind as a support, even more than it is now because with these changes, you wouldn't have a powerful summoner spell that keep a fed assasin at bay.

Also, the idea of making the shines activable globally by the use of Clairvoyance literally ruins your idea of helping supports to roam. If your idea would be implemented, supports would just capture the nearest shine by themselves, then capture the other 2 with Clairvoyance every time it off cd. They would still stay at bot lane.

If you want supports to have a core item tied to a form gameplay, you should keep an eye on item 2049 then.

Painted Celt4/16/2017, 1:40:12 AM3 votes

Please leave feedback when you read this thread. If you have your own suggestions for support role improvements, please feel welcome to add them to the discussion!

Ivar Krogstaad4/16/2017, 12:58:30 AM2 votes

why not just switch to 4 v 4 instead of forcing people to play a role where you are either to blame for all that goes wrong or you quietly help carry with zero recognition?

BlackHairedGirl4/16/2017, 9:12:38 AM1 votes

It's an interesting idea, and quite honestly a good one, but it just doesn't feel like League Of Legends. Maybe somewhere else, but not in the Summmoner's Rift.

Not the five-lane, top 1v1, jungle 1v1, mid 1v1, bot 2v2 League Of Legends.

In everything, I really love just sticking close to my ADC like a leech. And I feel like support is like that- you're not a second jungler, you are the SUPPORT, who protects the ADC, the carries of the team and the squishies. You keep them safe and get satisfaction not out of damage dealing or controlling an entire area, not even giving map-wide buffs, but using what little powers you can to help your team. And I feel like that is what a support should be. Just look at Janna, Soraka. Even normal, non-full-AP Sona. They protect, heal, shield with the powers they have that don't do damage, that don't insta-gib anything. The healers, the caregivers that give you this feeling that you are keeping your team safe without massive damage, but helping along your team and letting them do all the damage while you keep them safe.

Not a roaming, globally effecting, second Jungler.

ModKnightsKemplar4/16/2017, 4:36:22 AM1 votes

I think it's really valuable to toss new ideas around. Having said that, I'm not fond of this one.

Primarily, I find it odd to suggest that we have another roaming position (the jungler being the first one). I don't like the idea of expecting another teammate to coordinate ganks with the jungler and further complicating the pressure game, especially at low elo. The meta that would inevitably evolve around this would be one that is heavy on three-man ganks with the jungler and roaming support.

Of secondary concern is that adc would probably shift back to playing mid, since the support would be roaming two directions to try to activate shrines, and then mages would have to navigate a new, long lane in bot... that would be a real mess to re-structure the game around, and I think there isn't a net benefit that warrants this big a shake-up.

Right now, it's cool that three lanes give gold, then there's the roaming guy (jungler) and the last guy's niche is to be a "team player," which leads me to my last and by far biggest concern. Supports are balanced around having a teammate with them. Taric isn't NEARLY as useful by himself as he is with a laner. If the support spends half the game roaming around, that hits traditional supports VERY hard in the viability department. They need a buddy to be effective.

What's to stop the jungler from taking CV and smite, also? Flash is good, but it isn't good enough to stop them from tapping ANOTHER revenue source since they're already roaming. We've seen both solo laners and jungler abuse support items before; that's gonna happen again with a system like this. Even the mid laner could just take CV and do the shrines.

Again, it's a neat concept, and I hope I don't come across as arrogant and close-minded. If you can address all those concerns, I'm still open to talking about it. As you've proposed it, though, there are a LOT of problems with this idea.

underscores2224/16/2017, 5:57:40 AM1 votes

I am concerned about late game, when one team is pushing down lanes. It won't be easy for the defending support to get out to the shrines to refresh them and would much much easier for the attacking team to deactivate them. Thus games become more snowbally. I like the idea of giving supports more agency throughout the game, but global buffs might not be the best way. On the flip side, I don't have a better idea.

Bladerunner77774/16/2017, 7:22:37 AM1 votes

The support doesn't go bot because there are "no open lanes"

The support goes bot to nuture the ADC so they can be an Attack Damage Carry

Vectros4/16/2017, 8:19:01 AM1 votes

This is a good idea.