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Rant on Botlane: Stop complaining about mage supports, ADAPT! (and support health in general)

Rabblerouser·2/5/2017, 9:46:00 PM·3 votes·1,026 views

Yes, I'm a bronze support main so I have some bias, but let me put a few things out there.

  • Mage supports make the botlane a LOT more interactive. Riot loves interaction. Riot explained in a recent blog post it's why they changed Janna Q since she used to be played midlane and just sat under tower with a Q that could just destroy entire minion waves. Interaction makes the game more healthy and forces you to react. If you react in the wrong manner, it's your own fault. Don't see it as support's fault, Riot's fault, etc. You just need to read the game better, react better, and strategize better

  • Supports... have needed some love for a long time. The struggle is real especially in lower ranks. Trust me, I'm a lower rank myself and it feels IMPOSSIBLE to climb rank in a TRUE solo queue (no duo) because you're so reliant on your ADC. I'm not saying I deserve masters... but maybe at least silver (not saying silver is anything special... silvers are just bronzies that got smart and realized you can't freaking 1v3 '-'). However I get stuck with ADCs who literally go into a 3-man gank, the reason being: "I won't die without a kill". I won't go on about my own idiotic bronze games, though. The fact is... support is a role that's been universally laughed at to the point that it's affected the matchmaking system!

  • Very important to note here on game balance is that you have just as much a chance to have that "OP" botlane as well and vice versa. I've seen this with changes to CotC. ADC: "It's hard to kill a tank with that shield" even when that shield could also be on your team. ADC: "Support, go tank. We have no tanks." I may be wrong.. I may need a math nerd here to do the math here, but this lethality build ADCs are enjoying and CotC nerfs that ADCs explicitly called for... am I correct in that these have hurt tank supports (granted CotC kinda needed the nerf, even I admit)? As a tank support, I have to get close to do my damage, where I can just get shredded... so don't whine at the Sion support (who can poke while still building tank) because "he's not exactly meta". If we made tank supports like Thresh and Braum viable again, it feels like the ones complaining about mage supports now would just be complaining about the Tank Meta.

Right now? I feel like the problem is more that botlane is just too juicy. We're in a very damage-focused meta. Tanks just feel useless and seem to STILL die before they can reliably peel. Tanks' early games are horrible and they can't mitigate damage for crap. You know it's bad when jungle and even top often refuses to build tank. Jungle is still going with the "I'm the position with the quickest EXP gain so I NEED a damage carry jungler that can abuse that" argument. So bot side of the map has: two potential kills (and right now, the meta typically means they're both squishy) and a dragon. Not to mention botlane tower just falls over if you sneeze on it. Combine all these together and botlane is just a huge target while peel is becoming increasingly more difficult. Botlane as a whole needs to be stronger. Not just the ADCs but the supports as well.

Speaking of: I'd love to know when the next dedicated botlane support champion coming out?

Anyways, I apologize for the rant. I wanted to put my thoughts out there, bronzie thoughts or not. Feel free to correct me as well, so long as it's done so respectfully, I may capitulate, given there's enough evidence to support the argument. :P

15 Comments

Trap or a Trick2/5/2017, 10:06:55 PM3 votes

as an ADC main, I definitely do NOT think we needs a buff, our damage is fine, its just too many assassins are too unfair and don't give any counter play, for example, lets say I'm playing varus, I activate my edge of night because I see leblanc creeping up on my because of my blue ward. she hits me with a Q to take down the shield then uses w to get right in my face, lands a free 40 mana cost ridiculously high base damage e and 1 shots me. all I CAN do is ult her and flash+youmuus away, but then I'm gonna die anyways since i'll have nothing for the next time she jumps me.

Supports on the other hand, they DO need a buff, we need another alistar/ thresh champion, one that has HUGE cc and peel for the adc, and can deal considerable amounts of damage in the early game and get very bulky by late game. sure the lethality build is strong, but do you not know what lethality is? its FLAT armour pen, NOT %. So Armour will demolish their damage, and also, since 90% of Smart AD's are building little to NO LSgetting Tmail, ninja tabi will essentially make them do 0 damage to you. So If you're doing any sort of tanky supports, try building something like that.

As For the ''Supports'' I definitely think they aren't healthy for the game, the LAST thing we need in this game is ANOTHER damage threat, earlier today I was playing varus with a veigar support, he started D ring instead of a support item, so logically he wont be getting much gold in the lane, and he cant last hit with q to get ap, so all he can do is land the occasional spell on their Kalista to get any use out of his passive. After getting 2 kills (not first blood) I went back and bought item 3070 item 3134 item 1036 and item 1001 with aitem 2003 . So I was thinking, ''man when I get back there I'm gonna do so much damage''. Veigar backed as well, he bought item 3303 item 1001 and 2x item 2003 . When he got back he pressed E, kalista hopped into the stun, I ulted her and veigar 1 shot her, with about 30-45 ap at the time. if you think that is healthy for the game you are DEAD WRONG.

Anyways sorry about going off on random tangents, I do that a lot :v

Anyways one short last thing, it isn't that hard to climb as support, I have a friend that made it to D3 on support only, you need to play high impact supports like Leona, (cant believe I'm recommending this) Zyra, Blitz and thresh.

Aquafuge2/5/2017, 10:01:22 PM2 votes

but that should also go the other way too, I still play traditional supports bot and get flamed in normal games for not taking a damage mage ( when i start damaging and taking kills get flamed but what does a damage mage do other then damage )

oSEXYPLATYPUSo2/5/2017, 9:55:58 PM1 votes

you are gonna be downvoted for saying your bronze and telling people to stop crying and to adapt the sheep dont like that

CancerBasedGod2/5/2017, 10:03:01 PM1 votes

Mage support means janna... Not lux.

DragonManSquid2/5/2017, 10:07:01 PM1 votes

How to farm downvotes 101.

Requiemsfire2/5/2017, 10:12:24 PM1 votes

Tank supports are more viable than they were last year. Mage supports being introduced into the botlane didn't make Tanks bad in anyway at all, they're still relatively beefy and have a lot of CC. Mages actually made picking the traditional enchanter into botlane worse especially since malzahar gets the luxury of picking a target at level 6 and that person dies. You want someone beefier in the botlane to be able to threaten with a hard engage especially since the top picks in support have no sustain. Taric is an exception.

Mage supports are problematic due to how they bring so much damage and CC into the lane from the early levels. Removing aegis of the legions passive didn't really help.