Supporting During Sixth Season

Hello ! As you all know, a lot of changes came along with 6th season, and a great part of those was affecting bot lane, and I believe a lot of people already "discussed" (hrmf.. raged cough cough) a lot about it, talking about how some ADC were too strong and all. However, only a few though about support role, which also changed a lot, so I want to dedicate this topic to supporting during sixth season. There is a lot to say and it is very vague as a topic to just say "hey, let's talk about supporting role", so here are a few clue as for what you can come to say here, but the list isn't exhaustive and I won't break your two legs (if you got two, that is..) if you talk about more than I think to put here :

~You can..

1. • express your feeling about your supports, as an adc player.
2. • try to make guess as for what is to come next, what tendencies are to come. (For exemple, we seen lots of Magic Damage Carry supporting lately)
3. • express your feeling about how your favorite support got killed or buffed, or how the new items are going along very well with it !
4. • Discuss on pretty much anything someone else have said (reacting to previous posts).
5. • And more ! (Which is kinda dumb of me, since it is now impossible to do more than I say, so my second paragraph is now useles... anyway.)

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As for me, I am naut a really good player, so maybe what I do isn't the "most efficient way of doing things", but I belieave Rito's job is to make things more fun for every kind of player, so I'm still gonna give my impressions about how supporting appears to me right now.

As a tank support, I used to get Targon for laning, but to sell it once I reached build completion to get a better supp/tank item. I always felt like tank support were put at a disadvantage in teamfights, since the full tank top or jungle can always be a real unkillable thing, while the support, who loses tank items to support ones, was never much more than a bruiser with no damage.

Now, however, you can get both targon and sightstone in one unique good tank items, so your potential as a tank for your team is enhenced even once you are put against everyone's crazy damage. I think the changes in tanky supports items are a nice way to prevent these from feeling useless once late game is reached, thus enhencing their playing experience !

As a medikit, however, I find the changes way less appealing for one big global reason : movement speed.

I mostly play medikit support, to be honest, it would be right to say that 90% of my support games are made with the same supp : Janna. ('cause why f*cking naut. o/) And even though there is way better ways of playing her, I used to go full movement-speed support items, because to me, it felt like it was the perfect mix between efficiency and fun. The Talisman-TwinShadow-ArdentCensor (+OrangeSwiftness and sightstone, 'course) Janna was perfect to assist fighting allies with enough AP to have a proper shield, max cdr and great positionning capability for perfect Q and R. She could also roam from lane to lane or around ennemy jungle to ward without being too scared of getting catched, or bait an ennemy for years.

Let's talk about now. Sightstone is now a kind of joke where you puts wards that usually disapear before you even get back to lane (ok, I'm exagerating a bit, but it's pretty much that). As a support, you need to go to some warding trip more often than you had to, for tank, it's naut much of a problem : since they are really tanky, they don't have to be scared much. But for most of medikit, you just can't ward as deeply. Rito kept on adding movement speed to every lanes, and now, supports don't have any, so you would just end up getting caught, over and over again... so you just put a few wards near your lane, if you are pushed enough, you can even go to drag, if you are lucky, you won't get killed in the process of warding it !

Let's get real, the warding part of supporting was possible because wards would actually stay longer than the time it takes to go back to base, refill sightstone and come back to lane. Right now, you should almost always be warding to keep good vision, but if you try to do it ingame, it just puts you at risk and way too behind.. (and that is true for tank supports too, it's just that they usually survive longer while waiting for help.)

But it's naut just about warding, in team fights, medikit supports have to deal with allies who always, with no exception (unless a brand ulted them), run away from their own support. Usually, you could position and help people, it wasn't always easy to follow the fight and be where you needed to be when you needed to, but it was possible. Right now, everyone on both team is faster than the support, so the medikit has issues trying to be as useful, in fact, he just can't manage it, and it's game over : if his team win teamfights, he feels as if he isn't needed, since everyone just go so far so fast, and they win a fight with him barely getting two assists. If his team loses, well it's worst : he get catched up really easily and since he is a squishy medikit, he usually die really fast... unless he uses his abilities to extend his life lenght, but then, he just does a tank supp job, with less efficiency.

As for Janna, she is one of the squishiest, and also the only one who can't save herself in fights (well, she can, but most of the time, she would better naut do it) ; while supports like Nami and Sona can heal both them and their allies, while Raka can heal herself with Q while saving allies or while Lulu and Karma can just chose who to e depending on who need the bonus tankyness, Janna has to shield her Adc : her shield gives bonus AD that can ensure that he gets a kill, or two. She usually compensated with her cc and movement speed to stay alive while peeling her adc from behind (yeah, it's actually possible..), but right now, she is just as slow as anyone and way too often, getting her adc a double goes with her dying.

It's less fun, do Rito plan on boosting every medikit support movement speed ? Or putting some new items to give movement speed to supports willing to get some ? Anyway, that's how I feel, am I the only one feeling that way ? Am I just playing really dumb ?

Here is your chance to say what you think about it ! Please forgive my many mistakes, my navigator is in some strange language and every word is underlined. ><

Enjoy your meal, LaGingOut.