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I think supports are fine.

ArithianFlame·4/17/2015, 1:49:01 AM·21 votes·3,085 views

Here are 26 champions that can play support and be effective. It seems to me like support has the most viable options of any lane. While some like hiemer or fiddle are niche picks, they still see play. If you want to argue that most don't see competitive play that's a valid point, but high elos tend to play the numbers game anyway for every lane.

I worry that by increasing gold and experience gains on supports, utility mages will be rendered obsolete by typical burst mages. While it I don't think a change in the meta would be a negative thing, it would just be trading one set of viable champions for another and people would find something new to complain about. Imagine if annie had even more money to buy the damages. =(

As a support main, I am currently enjoying the role very much this season. Supports have enough early game presence to carry a lane, and I enjoy playing a more play-maker role late game. As it is, my only complaint is the return of the tank-meta which I find boring.

TLDR - changing gold and exp gains would only change what supports were viable rather than adding more to the pool. This is fine if you want a meta-shift but is not a magic bullet to make it more diverse.

EDIT - Added for you fabulous s***lords.

81 Comments

DomainSpecific4/17/2015, 6:35:23 AM13 votes

Man, you mentioned GP, Volibear, Nidalee, Heimer and Fiddle but you wouldn't add Taric ?

That's just sad.

KidSpectre4/17/2015, 4:04:28 AM9 votes

I don't count as a real support for much the same reason I don't count Annie as one (most of the time.) They don't have the utility for it. One stun doesn't make you a good support. You might be good as a kill lane, but if you are functionally a second APC with less gold, you can't call yourself a support.

Annie is possibly an exception because you can do some pretty awesome things with Tibbers beyond just vomiting damage on people.

OperationDEEZ14/17/2015, 3:09:33 AM6 votes

Play 20 games and count the Blitzcrank Thresh and Leona s

BottleCapster4/17/2015, 2:20:08 AM4 votes

I wholeheartedly agree, Supports by their very nature are inclined to have a fantastic array of viable options, moreso than any other lane. Giving us more gold is not necessary, and would only push actual supports out in favor of heavier damage dealers or god forbid....bruisers.

Tilting in Bots4/17/2015, 6:47:17 AM3 votes

I like the points made here. However, I would like to voice a gripe: Base mana regen. As supports, we're expected to dole out ~2315 gold (515 base with Wealth + 800 item 2049 + 800 item 3117 ) before purchasing an item for mana regen, and then it's usually a chalice that will build into item 3222 . And in the mean time, a huge amount of the support's usefulness comes from casting spells, which can get very expensive (missed a Blitzcrank hook? say goodbye to almost half your mana).

More base mana. Rito pls.

Renaille4/17/2015, 2:23:14 AM3 votes

{quoted}

Lol, not outside of 3's or bronze.

Ace Access 4/17/2015, 4:44:07 PM3 votes

Heimerdinger his turrets have stolen my cs more times than I can count

Spacesuit Spiff4/17/2015, 4:55:09 AM3 votes

I love how people base their support picks on competitive play when a lot of the time those supports will a) follow the jungler around leashing the first 5 camps b) go into the enemy jung and cosplay a ward for 10 minutes c) be in a 1v2 lane.

DarkFaun Fortes4/17/2015, 9:19:50 AM3 votes

I main Support and jungle, Lately i favor Fiddles Support. But i normally do Kayle or Braum. And i have to agree with you on this.

UPfreely4/17/2015, 4:31:13 AM3 votes

My only gripe as a support is having to build item 2049 when i don't always want health. equal exp to laners would be nice tho

AnomalousChimera4/17/2015, 2:02:07 AM2 votes

I agree, If you can't make do with your current exp gains and gold, don't play support.

BeerOfRoot48434/17/2015, 3:53:20 AM2 votes

How does Heimerdinger work as a support? I've never seen it before.

ZephyrDrake4/18/2015, 11:32:46 PM1 votes

over half of those "supports" aren't even supports and i have not seen most if them even go in the support role more than once, if even that many. A random champion being played in a role does not make it viable in that role.

Teridax684/17/2015, 4:18:46 AM1 votes

{quoted}

TLDR - changing gold and exp gains would only change what supports were viable rather than adding more to the pool. This is fine if you want a meta-shift but is not a magic bullet to make it more diverse.

I don't agree with this, especially since that exact same concern was voiced during the support overhaul in early Season 4, which massively increased the gold and experience gains of supports, and ended up being a huge boost to utility casters above everyone else. Traditional supports have the power to scale in their utility, and utility is massively powerful, so even on equal amounts of gold and experience utility casters would make a contribution to their team that more typical mages cannot match. A Sona , Nami or Janna with a full AP build can be absolutely terrifying, and I think supports deserve to showcase the raw power of their utility scalings more often.

I also think kill-focused duo lanes are fine, provided they have adequate tradeoffs. Even Soraka or Lulu have the tools to deal with an Annie on equal grounding, and whereas Annie would be able to increase her burst, Soraka and Lulu would have stronger healing, shielding and other forms of utility. An Annie might be good if she's laning with, say, Graves or Draven , but even with that much burst they wouldn't be able to scale nearly as well as, say, a more traditional Soraka- Vayne duo. On a much larger scope, the core role of the support should be to provide assistance for their team, so whether they do it via utility, tanking power or crowd control (or even just raw damage) is fine, as long as each contribution carries its own strengths and weaknesses, which they do.

If there's one obstacle to raising gold and experience gains on supports, though, it's the potential for supports to force 2v1 lanes (by migrating top lane, for example). Any lane matchup where one side is outnumbered tends to not be particularly fun for anyone involved, and that needs to change in order for supports to have more power and variety.

MrSlowDie4/17/2015, 4:48:33 AM1 votes

Finally someone with me. I main support in garena server, still can carry as support. Support's life is fine, well except the sightstone build path. But other than that, they are fine. You get support item, you have extra gold in assist spree, you have infinite ward, this game treat support better than the other games.

I don't think supports need another extra exp/gold. Why? Because I am support Leona Thresh Alistar Sona Urgot I am not assassin or carry that should be greedy for gold. I still can be useful for team even though I give up half of my exp and all my CS

RisenDarkKnight4/17/2015, 12:49:40 PM1 votes

I do think a little xp gain for support wouldn't push too many supports out of the meta. as it stands you are nearly always 14 when the top laners are 18 and the discrepancy is much worse if you lose lane. 90% or so of the supports you listed are very ult dependent, so I think getting a little more xp would free them up to roam or be more useful. As long as gold generation isn't increased I think the same champion pool would remain viable.

YOU BEEN WARNED4/17/2015, 9:31:32 PM1 votes

... I highly question the Kayle, teemo is more viable than kayle imo.

Ghiefelstein4/17/2015, 11:33:17 PM1 votes

The goal for changing gold and exp gains is to make playing support more enjoyable. The season 4 changes were a step in the right direction, but supports are still underleveled and gold-starved. Is that really necessary? Do supports always need to feel like martyrs?

You are right that changing gold and exp is not a good tool for creating diversity. But there are way better reasons for changing gold and exp. Supports could use a little love to bring them on par with everyone else.

FantasySniper4/18/2015, 11:22:38 PM1 votes

Gangplank Kayle Lux Nidalee Volibear Heimerdinger are horrid supports, but otherwise I 1000% agree.

FourVsFive4/17/2015, 1:54:19 AM1 votes

There is talk about increasing gold? how r they gonna do that buff gold items? I don't really use much gold items for support my self I rather rush a mana item like chalice and have more casting in lane.