Rise of the Cleric Supports

So, with Soraka getting so much attention lately. I thought it'd be a good reason to discuss the subclass of supports here.

Observe the history of supports. Most of the time, supports that have lots of CC/Burst/Peel have been the ones picked, because they offer the best kill potential in lane. Champs like Leona, Thresh, Braum, and a few others have been the top tier supports since season 4. Janna being an exception to the tanky support champs because of her insane ability to peel for her team.

With the Pre-season changes, we have seen the Cleric supports, (Supports with Heals/shields) become top tier supports pretty much overnight.

I want to talk about WHY they've become the top tier supports.

There are 2 crucial changes. Grievous wounds overhaul, and the Windspeaker's Blessing Keystone.

First up, GW overhaul. The changes to this were designed to make GW a total counter to self-sustain. RIght now it's a tad weak, and most Cleric supports were balanced around GW affecting their healing. now that it doesn't. Most of their heals are outright bonkers. However, that's not really a big problem. For once, they have a reason to actually be picked over the Peeling and tanky supports like Thresh and Braum. Clerics like Nami/Sona also got buffed with the changes to the Spell-thief's line. Their large mana costs on their healing is not as severe as it used to be. Overall, This change alone would have made Clerics more viable.

Next up, the linchpin for why Clerics are so strong right now. Windspeakers blessing: This alone makes Clerics incredibly strong. Most of the other keystone masteries just aren't that good for supports. Deathfire touch would be alright for more mage/poke supports like Vel'Koz, Brand, Annie, Karma, Moorgana, But the only really good mastery, is the Windspeaker's blessing. It synergizes incredibly well with tanks, because of their tendancy to build massive amounts of resistances, and even helps squishies by giving them a boost to their smaller resistances. The 10% increase to healing is what's really putting some Cleric's on top.

If Riot feels that Clerics are NOT being kept in check by the counters of assassins/all-in supports/carries. Then The best way to nerf Clerics, would be to hit the bonus Resistances that WSB(Windspeaker's Blessing) grants. If it were to be nerfed, It should go from 15% to 7.5% or even 5%. The bonus to healing shouldn't be hit, as that's what Cleric's are supposed to do is HEAL. By hitting their identity, then you risk causing the Cleric support class to vanish once again from the League of Legends Scene.

As you all scream for nerfs to Soraka, please remember that Soraka's entire identity revolves around being the best damn healer in the game. if anything, nerf how tanky she can make her targets during skirmishes by hitting that part of WSB keytstone mastery.