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Support item discussion

Tenryushin·3/19/2015, 9:33:57 PM·1 votes·849 views

Hi everyone I wanted to have a conversation about the item options for supports.

I put them into 4 main categories:

  1. Gold
  2. Aura
  3. Ward
  4. Activated Ability

All usually focused on Sustain, CDR or Defense.

My question is why don't we have EXP bonus items? A support rarely builds for burst and even if it did (not to say they are not effective at it if properly built) the AP scaling on them is not as effective as on mages.

A supports utility usually scales with the lvl of the skill, which is why the faster they level the more utility they bring to the table. EXP and Gold are the 2 primary Support stats, yet outside of the runes and masteries, only Zilean has a way to help enhance the EXP gains for himself and team (Slightly cause honestly the small increase on this current build of League makes the advantage almost negligible)

We should have EXP bonus items that work in the same line as Gold items (one per champ) build for increased utility. I was thinking about having maybe an item that has some low to moderate amount of AP a bit of CDR and maybe some mana with maybe a 5% EXP bonus. It could have a passive ability in the same line as Rod of Ages but instead of giving health and mana over a short time, it triggers an AP boost for 30 seconds upon gaining a level. The boost could be 4 or 5 times the new level (so if leveling to 10 the AP gained for 30 secs would be 40 or 50)

This would give the leveling up timing some strategic depth. Will you take your short AP boost to split push or force an engagement or maybe decide that it is too risky or poorly timed? maybe it creates the burst needed to take objectives in coordination with the rest of the team.

I am sure that there could be several other items with EXP bonuses and level up triggers that could be really interesting, some focused on sustain and others on defense. Maybe go crazy and create a EXP bonus/Gold item hybrid.

3 Comments

67chrome3/19/2015, 10:04:49 PM2 votes

My question is why don't we have EXP bonus items?

The answer to "why don't we have X in support items" is this:

Supports are the least item-dependant class in the game. There are 2 key factors that make a champion a good support:

  1. Really solid lanning phase, one strong enough to not only offset the weak lanning phase of a late-game champion, but make a support + late game duo one of the toughest lanes to deal with.
  2. Really solid late-game without any items. A solid support will carry their weight end-game, often in team-fights, while being a major item (or more) behind all their allies and enemies.

In short - supports are supports without items. Items also have a very minimal impact on support power. And any bonus on an item supports can use will be stronger on all other champions by default, as all other champions are more reliant on items and item scaling to move into a solid position mid/late game (they CS), and many are even reliant on items early to make an impact.

All support items need to be held together with so many draw-backs and disincentives to other archetypes they're probably a nightmare to design and balance, needing to fit a razor-thin zone where they feel useful enough to actually purchase on a support without feeling like an amazing purchase on everyone else. And throughout LoL's history - "support" items have often fallen into being questionable in every scinario (Soul Shroud, item 3050 )or dominated the meta and caused game-changing ripples (Heart of Gold, Philosopher Stone, Kage's Lucky Pick, item 3110 item 3302 )