The history of riot and its interaction with the Support role's playerbase

I'm going to exclude beta and s1 because that was basically a different game and the support role that we know and understand today didn't really manifest until s1 worlds and season 2.

Season 2 supporting in a nutshell: terrible role to play. Extremely gold starved, global/universal gold at this point was shit. It was almost mandatory to run gold per 10 runes and spec heavily into the utility tree. So you sacrificed both any form of offense and defense heavily just to get any sort of income. Your build typically consisted of philostone/heart of gold (sometimes both)/mobi boots, wards galore, oracles and an aegis of you were lucky. You were like, rich as shit and ballin outta control of you could afford aegis as a support.

Every single gripe supports had at this point was legit. The game for a support was literally not fun. Many support players spoke up and voiced their displeasure with the role and rightfully so. Riot would go on to spend the next two seasons investing tons of time into gameplay changes for supports (aka we promised fighters a s3 rework but fuck em; still waiting).

Season 3 in a nutshell:

Global base gold generation was increased pretty decently but heart of gold and philostone would go on to be removed. Sitestone was added to the game, which helped supports with vision control. Oracles was changed to be timed only, meaning it expired after a certain amount of time and didn't last up until death, which made the burden of supports buying it less of a reality. Problem was, many supports had poor scaling because lack of itemization. Many of them had high bases/strong scaling in the past but got nerfed into the ground because of solo laning, which almost any solo lane support by nature of their kit is toxic as fuck. They were definitely better off than they were in s2. But because of the changes and the understanding of how important vision is to the game and the evolution of the game, supports basically became Ward bots. This isn't made up. Their builds were typically mobis, sitestones, then wards filling up the rest of their item slot. Problems are A) this is lame as fuck to play as, B) they were just feed for roaming assassins when trying to establish any vision control because they didn't have any defensive itemization to not die if getting sneezed on.

Basically, it still sucked to support in s3. But Riot was on the right track and they were heavily focused on fixing the dissatisfaction the support players felt from the game and rightfully so. But that s3 fighter rework that was promised? Nah guys, s4, we got you.

Season 4 support in a nutshell:

Holy shit. MASSIVE changes. Trinkets were introduced to the game, wards were limited to only allowing 3 at a time in a game all about vision, taking the burden off of supports being the only vision controlling roles and spreading it on the rest of the roles. Supports get new items, coin, frost queen and relic shield. Relic shield was so fucking broken on release that people literally stopped jungling and ran duo lanes both top and bot. Supports overall got changes to their scaling, giving them more utility scaling and making them more impactful with their kits overall. The support items also had strong scaling, ranging from a variety of sustain + Regen, AP/poke + regen and durability + sustain, all of which increase gold income and give you a starting option to get your income right away. Support class literally got mega buffed beyond belief in season 4, the change of going from shit to sugar felt like it took place overnight. Riot got it right, riot got it massively fucking right.

However, this is where you started to see the support players victim complexes from previous seasons come into play. I kid you not, supports literaly bitched about these changes and said they were terrible. They said these changes were terrible. Let that sink in, compare where they were from s2 to s4 at that point. Realize that this is a zero farming based class thats getting enough gold to get 2-3 items of their choice while having utility items that gave them durability + vision expansion and a gold increasing item that also gave utility and a strong variety of different powers depending on what you wanted. And the trinket changes were a free oracles once you changed out trinkets.

But this is the best part: supports, as a whole, were crying and wanted to go back to being "Ward bots" as they were in previous seasons.

Riots reaction: "fuck this job."

Overall, the support class had become an extremely impactful role because of these changes. They now have the power to pick from utility, durability or even respectable damage and apply it to the champion it fits best with accordingly. Theyd remain relevant throughout the entire game, they're no longer feed roaming champions, the burden of vision is finally forced on the rest of the roles and had the nerve to complain about this.

Now, as s4 went on, many of them realized how idiotic they were to think any of this was bad. In fact, in many ways, the support problem was fixed. Sure, it can always stand to be tweaked and updated to the evolution of the game accordingly but at a certain point, a zero farm based role should only be so powerful at different stages of the game. They shouldn't ever be a class that somehow has the capacity to do the most damage, be the most tanky and do it while having the utility they have tbeough core items.

And oh by the way, that s4 fighter rework that was promised? Riots swears they never promised this. And at this point, the fighter role is legit the worst role in the game and has been for quite some time.

Fighter players: "fuck this company"

Now here we are, season 5. Support role still ballin outta control. Still got it real good. Now, as I stated, does that mean supports and their itemization can't be tweaked and updated accordingly with the constant evolution of the game? Absolutely not. They should be. But Im seeing it become a common thing for supports to act like their class is complete garbage and it baffles my mind how this could ever be concluded. As I stated, it's a zero farm based role that gets amazing scaling when you consider how little gold they get through their itemization and gold increasing. Supports scaling and power in their kits directly have been updated to compete in the game currently and be a strong role that has a strong impact in each game.

Please be reasonable, the support role is in a good place. It could use some things here and there but you need to stop living in land of delusion if you think otherwise. Want to know why? Because fighters still suck. Oh sure, we got black cleaver but the lack of itemization that addresses their actual needs is still a problem. Direct changes to their kits to help them keep up with the game as anything other than full tank abusing base damages (looking at you S4 Renekton and Shyv) and getting tank items nerfed haven't happened yet despite it being promised THREE SEASONS AGO. Black cleaver helps but it's a fucking band aid on a wound that requires staples and stitches. And like supports, we have one champion who has ruined it for our class (like Sona/Janna had for supports in the past): Irelia. Seriously, she's why we can't have nice things but that's neither here nor there since the class is still shit and outclassed in every facet by tanks.

Lets be real here support players, you're good. Go ahead and ask for tweaks and general updates that you should be getting each season. But don't think for a second youre in a bad spot because you're not.

Sincerely,

-A Salty Fighter player