Whats the logic behind the support item changes?

2Behold·1/24/2018, 1:16:12 PM·5 votes·1,461 views

Vision is now locked behind the support gold quest. We lose the neat reward from completing the old support quest. Ruby Sightstone is gone which I would put intentionally in builds for the active cdr, and worse the gold item final upgrades are gone which had great actives for supports. Like I get it "frees up your build" but like I still don't make any money as a support. Maybe I'll complete one more item in a game which may help my power but it doesnt sound like it will feel good to trade vision and gold items for...

16 Comments

Wráthful1/24/2018, 1:22:34 PM3 votes

this was made because in certain elo's supports just don't buy sighstone and your team is instantly in a massive disadvantage due to lack of vision. also to spare an item slot for high elo players that buy ruby sighstone + a support item.

SoundChaosDebug1/24/2018, 2:20:36 PM3 votes

They've been nerfing vision in this game for years now.

Started by removing vision wards completely from twisted treeline.

Then removing pink and green wards from the summoners rift.

Then it was limiting the amount of wards out per player, forcing you to hope to god any other role besides support uses their vision trinkets. I remember playing support with green wards and I had to keep 2 item slots open for a total of 15 green wards in each slot. I was a warding machine and riot felt having that much vision out was a determent to team fights, if every one could see every one constantly it made people play passive.

Now it's removing sight stone as a purchase and forcing it into the gold income item, and how often do you see people try to take mages bot lane who start with dorans ring. Basically if your support doesn't get gold income item then you have zero hope for vision.

Sonasaurous1/24/2018, 2:27:33 PM2 votes

TBH it's because us darn low-elo players don't know how to play the game, and so to prevent frustrated low-elo players from leaving to go to simpler MOBAs that do all the itemization for you and let support players also carry, Riot is making the game simpler by doing the itemization for you and letting supports carry. But only for supports though. And by that I mean mostly angry autofilled players who never play support, so they take a non-support champion bot lane and don't buy a sightstone. Now they aren't really losing anything because their gold income item will turn into a sightstone for them. GGEZ.

But in all seriousness, I'm waiting for the actual supports to get nerfed once they start building their additional damage item and wrecking shit. Can't tell if Riot wants supports to stay weak and inferior and do no damage, or wants to encourage them to be able to deal damage like a carry. If it's the latter, then I'm okay with everything.

Kusinator1/24/2018, 5:08:03 PM2 votes

So I mainly play support, I am just a casual Silver player. These changes don't really make that much sense to me. I mean I understand that freeing up a bag slot is nice, but at the same time it is limiting early game vision in the bot lane severely. If you are unfortunate enough to get a lot of jungle pressure early and fall behind, there will be no way to play safe without just being fully pushed out of lane. It will take a very long time to get that 500 earned gold needed before you can start warding effectively. So before that happens you will be stuck with the yellow trinket, which means the enemy team will have uncontested vision until you complete the quest. Some people will assume that this should then fall on your team jungle to help secure your lane, but from what I know about jungle, you don't want to walk blindly into a losing lane without vision control, because the could lead to even more deaths due to counter ganks.

Then with the Spooky Ghosts gone, walking into the jungle to ward will probably lead to more deaths, unless it is the intent to make supports get blue trinkets, and leave the sweeping of wards up to the Jungler. item 3312

Last season I was placed in Bronze 4 in Solo/Duo and Flex. I got myself to Silver 5 in both by mainly playing Support/Fill. I put a lot of emphasis on warding in every game, because I feel like information of location wins more games than general mechanics. This change now will leave a lot more unknowns on the map, thus making the support role even less important overall. I know before the support role was not chosen very often and was auto-filled, but now since support is worth even less, auto-fill support will happen even more often.

ChaddyFantome1/24/2018, 4:12:34 PM2 votes

whats worse is, the Eye items already existed, so if you wanted/ needed the slot that bad, you already had an option. These changes were terrible, plain and simple.

Apparently Noob1/24/2018, 1:26:11 PM2 votes

Watch phreak's patch 8.2 rundown on youtube. He explains everything in detail.

Zezilian1/24/2018, 1:49:17 PM1 votes

AP mages supports often don't buy sight stone after getting money income items. Now all supports will get it.

eaglei31/24/2018, 2:28:41 PM1 votes

We all know the logic is the usual. Support items become too good, adcs/others begin abusing them. Support items have to be adjusted.

GeminiRune1/24/2018, 1:38:45 PM1 votes

While it does nerf Tank Zzrot Banner Heimer (damnit that's my grievance to the change), I can understand the change under the full scale. There was a reason they're called support items but when up to 6 players in a game have to potentially build around them, that's where the ridiculousness ensues. Short term, it does suck because those actives are gone as well.

Personally I never consciously used any aside the Twin Shadows active in FQ (totally possible to bring back). Face felt too weak of a shield half the time, and Talisman relied on team synergy. At least now I'll have some freedom of early game options as long as I play properly to my role and item chosen.