Rework Suggestion For New Support Items Quest
Hey, Peeps! I know there have been countless threads of this exact topic but I thought I'd toss in my 2 cents to see what you all think about my suggestions. So let me start off by saying that support is my secondary main lane that I enjoy playing. I was highly excited about the new quest that were coming out but when I actually got my hands on them, I felt like they hit some areas in the right spot, but missed some important considerations. I'll be focusing on the passive effects you get from each item and how I personally think they can be improved Let's get into it!
Spell Thief's Edge
PROS: 1 Second of 50% movement speed can surely save you from tighten situations when you need to retreat and close the distance while giving chase CONS: A nice as this may be, I didn't even notice the effect happening until Yesterday.
REMARKS: Spell Thief's edge is an item that requires little attention in order to reach the 650 goal providing you are an aggressive support (I play bard). Since I've noticed the effect, I never felt like the reward was really impactful because the visual is hard to recognize and it's not a very long uptime on it. So I have proposed below some changes that not only effect yourself but also effect the enemy that gets hit with TRIBUTE.
SAME: UNIQUE – TRIBUTE: Damaging spells and attacks against champions and buildings deal 10 additional damage and grant Gold 8. This can occur up to 3 times every 30 seconds. Killing a minion pauses Tribute generation for 6 seconds per minion slain. Cannot trigger Tribute more than every 1.25 seconds.
CURRENT: UNIQUE–QUEEN'S TRIBUTE: Spells and basic attacks against champions or buildings deal 10 additional damage, grant Gold 15 and 50% bonus movement speed for 1 second (additional stacks extend duration). This can occur up to 3 times every 30 seconds. Cannot trigger Queen's Tribute more than every 1.25 seconds.
PROPOSED: **UNIQUE – QUEEN'S TRIBUTE: **Spells and basic attacks against champions or buildings deal 10 additional damage, slow the target's movement speed (20% for melee attack, 10% for ranged attack) for .75 seconds , grant 15 Gold and 50% decaying bonus movement speed for .75 second (additional stacks extend duration). This can occur up to 3 times every 30 seconds. Cannot trigger Queen's Tribute more than every 1.25 seconds.
LAST COMMENTS: The slowing effect would look similar to a hit with Frozen Mallet. This would clearly allow the player to see the effects of QUEEN'S TRIBUTE, being more rewarding and boasting a better sense of game feel.
Ancient Coin
PROS: The Coin System adds a new way of interactivity within your lane that it didn't offer before. CONS: The Coin System was a nice addition but I don't feel it benefits the champions that use this item to it's best extent. The major problem is picking up coins that are right in front of enemies. This contradicts the purpose of back-line supports such as Soraka & Janna. The reward is not worth enough for the amount of risk tied to picking up the coin.
But I'd devised a change to the way FAVOR works that encourages (Not forces) supports to be a little aggressive from time to time but still allow them to gain benefits from the back-line. While remaining relatively safe for most of their time in lane.
REMARKS: Below, Riot Hjarta stated that the coin was meant to provoke meaningful choice with this item but I'm not entirely okay with that way of thinking with the most passive support item. With his statement, a support might as well pick up a Spell Thief's Edge as this warrants getting closer to enemies in order to get gold.
Riot Hjarta Just to kind of recap on what our goals are with coin:
With the coin changes we were aiming to change that extremely passive and non-interactive playstyle of Coin. Basically, all you had to do was to be somewhere near the lane and you'd reap the benefits without having to do much than simply existing in that general area. Now, with this iteration it is interactive and there's decision making and tension between it; is it worth the risk to pick up these coins? Will I get punished? Can I grab a lot of coins early to reap the benefits and get a great first buy? Should I or should I not pick it up? Etc. With that in mind, you have the potential to make decisions which end up being right or wrong. If you make a lot of good decisions around coin pick up, you will reap the benefits from it. If you make poor decisions with this item, you will get punished. Being able to make good decisions with this item takes time and practice so you might feel like you're being punished too much initially. However, we also understand that in some matchups it can feel like there are not a lot of chances to make good decisions, which leads to frustration.
Considering these things mentioned above, it is understandable that it may be uncomfortable to be forced to interact with the coins and therefore the lane as you are used to being able to sit back and slowly accumulate gold by simply existing near a wave plus some matchups can be really rough to allow for coin collection. We are actively monitoring player feedback with the coin changes to find a good balance between risk and reward and if the risk clearly outweighs the reward most of the time we will address that :)
CURRENT: UNIQUE – FAVOR: Enemy minions killed by your allies sometimes drop coins that give either Gold 20 or restore 8% missing mana (minimum 15). Cannon minions always drops coins.
CURRENT: UNIQUE – EMPEROR'S FAVOR: Enemy minions killed by your allies sometimes drop coins that give either Gold 30 or restore 8% missing mana (minimum 15). Cannon minions always drops coins. Champion takedowns grant both the gold and mana.
PROPOSED: UNIQUE – FAVOR: Enemy minions killed by your allies grants a Stack of Favor. Once [X] Stacks of Favor have been gained, grant FAVOR for 5 seconds. The first spell or basic attack during FAVOR, grants 20 Gold. If no enemy is hit during FAVOR, restore 6% missing mana (minimum 15) and grant 5 gold. Stacks of Favor cannot be gained while FAVOR is active.
SAME: UNIQUE – QUEST: Earn Gold 650 using this item and upgrade to Nomad's Medallion. REWARD: Favor is upgraded to Emperor's Favor and you receive an Elixir of Skill that instantly grants a skill point when consumed (max 18 skills).
PROPOSED: UNIQUE – EMPEROR'S FAVOR: Enemy minions killed by your allies grants a Stack of Favor. Once [X] Stacks of Favor have been gained, grant FAVOR for 5 seconds. The first spell or basic attack during FAVOR, grants 30 Gold. If no enemy is hit during FAVOR, restore 8% missing mana (minimum 15) and grant 10 gold. Stacks of Favor cannot be gained while FAVOR is active. Champion takedowns grant 30 gold and 8% missing mana.
LAST COMMENTS: Of Course this would remove the coin system but it would add more meaningful decision that the support player can take advantage of. The current system feels gimmicky because the coins (from face value) as based on an RNG system meaning the support has no control over what they are given. They just accept it (Not fun). With this new proposal for FAVOR, the player will get to determine whether they would benefit from hitting the enemy and getting gold, or playing it safe, gaining back mana with a greatly smaller portion of the gold (they could have gotten by playing a bit more aggressive (But hey, maybe you needed the mana instead)).
The Risk Vs. Reward is more balanced with this proposal as your focus isn't solely tunnel visioned on getting the coin. This allows the player to commit to the risk of getting poked back while trying to hit an enemy BUT, they made that choice (based on gold or mana needs) and they are aware of the consequences that come with it.
Since there is no way to test this, the numbers are purely place holders on my personal speculation of what I would assume would still keep the item balanced.
_Relic Shield _
PROS: No Urgent Cons CONS: Nothings for me to really say
REMARKS: The Relic Shield has to be the most stable items out of the three. I can't comment too much on this item personally because I haven't used it nearly as much as Spell Thief's Edge and Ancient Coin. The Reward is noticeable (Grey bar of health) and you can feel the benefits that it brings to your survival. If there is one thing I think would be beneficial to this item is targeting supports (who run Relic Shield) inability to deal with buffed / super minions.
SAME: UNIQUE – SPOILS OF WAR: Melee auto attacks execute minions below 200 - 285 (based on level) health. Killing a minion by any means heals you and the nearest allied champion for 15 health and grants them kill gold. These effects require an allied champion within 1050 units of the user and consume a charge. Recharges every 40 seconds. Max 2 charges.
PROPOSED: UNIQUE – QUEST: Earn Gold 650 using this item and upgrade to Targon's Brace. REWARD: Shield Battery, a permanent shield that regenerates slowly outside of combat. REWARD: Perks of War, grants the ability to execute a buffed/super minion under [X%] HP.
SAME: UNIQUE – SHIELD BATTERY: Grants a permanent shield for 255 - 340 (based on level). The shield regenerates slowly when out-of-combat. Executing minions with Spoils of War regenerates 64 - 85 (based on level) shield value.
PROPOSED: UNIQUE – PERKS OF WAR: Melee auto attacks execute Buffed/Super minions under 45% - 60% [.85% per champion level]. Killing a minion by any means heals you and the nearest allied champion for 40 health and grants them kill gold. These effects require an allied champion within 1050 units of the user and consume 2 charges. Recharges every 40 seconds. Max 2 charges.
LAST COMMENTS: PERKS OF WAR is a stretch but I think it would be interesting nonetheless. Just a fun sort of idea that I had.
That pretty much wraps it up folks. I'm very passionate about the support role as I feel it is the most diverse role to play. I'd love to heard feedback about this and even possibly get this implemented into the game.
