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Gold Generation Items and the Support Meta

TiberiusAudley·8/12/2015, 6:01:09 PM·4 votes·4,526 views

I think support items need to have a deeper look given toward them based off trends of the support role at the competitive level and Diamond level solo queue play.

For a while last season, after Coin item 3301 was nerfed, it was completely abandoned as a starting item by pros -- it offered no combat stats in lane and was drastically inferior to the other two in terms of gold generation, but offered the superior active ability in the late game. Instead, pros would take either Relic Shield item 3302 for "tanky" supports or Spellthief item 3303 for "lane harass" supports partially for the stats, but most importantly for the accelerated gold generation over Coin to reach the two important items every support wants: Sightstone item 2049 and Mobility Boots item 3117 .

Ever since the Coin item 3301 buffs in 5.10, Coin is now on par with / slightly ahead of Spellthief's item 3303 and Relic Shield item 3302 in terms of gold generation. Rarely does a support upgrade their gold generation item prior toward getting their two core items (SS/Mobis), meaning that, since Talisman's item 3069 active is still the go-to active among the third tier of support items, Relic Shield and Spellthief's no longer have as substantial a niche, able to sacrifice the active's power for an advantage in gold, unless they ALSO sacrifice the timing they get their two most important items in order to upgrade to the tier 2 trinket (Targon item 3097 /Frostfang item 3098 ), which generally isn't worth it since you still need to purchase wards during that timing window as well.

While Relic Shield and Spellthief's Edge still have the advantage in stats for laning, and still see use based off lane match-ups such as when additional sustain is needed for the ADC, I think some of that is underestimating / lack of calculation of Coin's gold generation which previously meant the Support core would be delayed. Frost Queen's Embrace item 3092 is almost never seen in professional play, and Face of the Mountain item 3401 is generally only seen finished in conjunction with Righteous Glory item 3800 (which has been hit with the nerf bat to make Talisman the more attractive option for supports.)

tl;dr - Since the gold generation buffs, the trade-off for taking Coin is miniscule compared to Spellthief/Relic, leading to Coin resurging as the dominant choice it was when the Support items were first released, because Talisman's active is superior to FotM (which is better on top laners) and FQC (which is an inferior Twin Shadows active.)

A few ideas for how to mitigate the problem without nerfing Coin's gold generation back to its previous state:

  • Remove Twin Shadows from Summoner's Rift, and replace Frost Queen's Claim with the Twin Shadows active. This improves FQC's potential as a pick-off oriented active, as well as gives it an inherent edge in vision control. Twin Shadows is great for being activated to ensure if you have a clear path to go ward, or for setting up an isolated target for further lockdown. The latter case is the niche FQC already filled, but additional uses will make it a more attractive option in the late game.
  • Change support item trees to upgrade based off level, rather than gold invested -- since top-tier Supports' first 1600g (plus change for additional pinks/potions/sight wards if they go mobis before SS) must be invested into SS+Mobi, this could allow supports to unlock their second tier of gold generation (where Frostfang and Targon pass Coin) sooner, without having to worry about the trade off 500g they'd otherwise have to spend.
  • Change support item trees to upgrade to their second tier once the support obtains Sightstone. (Third Tier would still require CDR item + gold) This serves the same effect as above, but creates an interesting choice for supports such as Blitzcrank or Alistar who really want to roam, and often delay their Sightstone in order to get Boots of Mobility first. This may also help reduce the amount of "troll" support players who do not purchase Sightstone in lieu of investing in damage items, as they would need Sightstone at some point to unlock additional tiers of support items.
  • Change support item trees to upgrade based off separate metrics -- for Relic it could upgrade after a certain number of executions, for Spellthief a certain amount of harass, while Coin upgrades after a certain number of nearby minions have died.
  • Change support Actives to be an "enchantment" allowing players to choose which Active they want after picking which form of gold generation they really wanted for laning -- with this, you could actually remove Ancient Coin, which offers nothing interesting in the way of laning (unlike Spellthief's encouragement of harassment, or Relic's mini-game of I REALLY NEED THIS CANNON MINION). This opens up more room for interesting tier 1 support items such as the shield item from the Black Market, while still allowing players to adapt their active in the later stages of the game. (Basically, give it the jungle treatment, but backwards. Stats first, active last)

10 Comments

Penguin Eclipse8/12/2015, 7:15:30 PM3 votes

I'd like to see item 3302 changed significantly.

Remove the ally healing. A 365 gold generation item should not be able to heal allies. If you want to heal allies pick a healing support. The item 3301 and item 3303 have no ally effects. Neither should the relic shield.

To compensate maybe offer it better defensive stats for the buyer or slightly faster gold generation or higher hp/easy executing. Then buff item 3401 active. It's a fairly weak shield.

Hadriel8/12/2015, 7:52:58 PM3 votes

The primary problem with support items beyond what you described is that their gold generation is tied to laning patterns, which means their value takes a dive 12 minutes in, which contributes to a design problem: there is (still) no plausible full build fantasy for supports. Even in games that last around an hour, it's rare to see a support achieve their sixth item.

I don't want to dive into balance considerations, but the fact that you don't get full build an hour in unless you get kills feels wrong. In my opinion, any change support items undergo should include scaling gold generation based on game time.

Necrolegion898/12/2015, 7:07:46 PM2 votes

I agree, partially. I don't play support much but when I do I see how painful and unrewarding it is to build support items first.

Would love that instead of improving Ancient Coin / Spell Thief / Relic Shied we get the jungle treatment and have items built off of Sightstone.

We could have different types of late game Sightstones that differ in passives and values.

Example:

Eye of Magus

Builds off:
Sightstone + Fiendish Codex + Some Gold

Gives: Enhanced Sightstone Passive + Active 200 HP 40 AP 15% CDR

Unique Passive/Active: Destroying an enemy ward yields X multiplier of gold. Or Damage to a spotted enemy within X range of your placed wards is increased by X amount.

The enhanced Sightstone effects could be like:

Placing a ward briefly reveals the surrounding area for 2 seconds (Think Scrying Orb). Or Placing a ward reveals and disables nearby enemy wards and traps for 6 seconds (Think Sweeping lens). Plus added range to throw wards.

You would have the option of which path to follow similar to how Hunter's Machete has 4 different builds with their own unique passives and purposes.

There could be multiple types of sightstone support items to benefit tank supports, ap supports, etc. Some could give mana, mana regen, HP, HP regen, armor, magic resist, AD, attack speed, movement speed, slows, increased damage to turrets, more gold from minions, etc.

Nekusen8/12/2015, 8:00:07 PM2 votes

** 1- SightStones** item 2049 Is rarely worth upgrading into item 2045 So i though of different upgrade choices like item 1039 's to make it more interesting and add variety.

**Violet **item 2049: 200 HP 5% CDR --- ---> Voiditem 2049: 300 HP 10% CDR

**Crimson **item 2049: 300 HP ------> Rubyitem 2049: 450 HP

**Cerulean **item 2049: 200 HP 25% mana regen ------> Skyitem 2049: 250 HP 200 mana 25% mana regen

**Jade **item 2049: 150 HP 10 AP ------> Forestitem 2049: 200 HP 50 AP

2- New Support Item:

  • Mysterious Trinket: 365 G

Generates 1 Gold every 10 seconds. Generates 1 Gold every time you cast a spell. (Killing a minion disables this for 10 secs) Generates 1 gold every time a nearby ally kills a minion. 25 HP 25% Mana regen

  • Orb of seasons: Mysterious Trinket + 500 G

Generates 1 Gold every 10 seconds. Generates 2 Gold every time you cast a spell. (Killing a minion disables this for 10 secs) Generates 2 gold every time a nearby ally kills a minion. 10 AP 50 HP 25% Mana regen

  • Mirror of Spirits: Orb of seasons + Ruby Crystal + Amplifying Tome + 500 G

Generates 1 Gold every 10 seconds. Generates 2 Gold every time you cast a spell. (Killing a minion disables this for 10 secs) Generates 2 gold every time a nearby ally kills a minion. 60 AP 300 HP 100'% Mana regen Unique – Mirror Portal: Teleports to target allied champion (4000 range) , 90 seconds cooldown.

Krigjer8/12/2015, 7:20:47 PM1 votes

As a support main, I do not want to see Frost Queen's Claim active replaced with Twin Shadows. Twin Shadows is a niche item for me vs certain team compositions, and as it is, I either buy Spellthief purely for laning phase and sell it later, or just buy Coin to begin with. I dislike FQC's active, but I also know that a lot of people utilize it well, and I'm thinking of them right now.