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Will we ever get an AD support? Can Riot make it work?

Reikken·6/10/2015, 6:18:07 PM·1 votes·961 views

And no, Ashe is not good enough. I'm talking hardcore support, like Lulu. (Lulu has 3! ally buffs. and all 5 of her skills can be used through an ally) It doesn't necessarily need to be quite as supporty as Lulu, but it does need to be primarily a support. Ashe is clearly a marksman first. Especially after the rework.

I can see that there might be challenges in making a ranged AD that's not just a marksman or a melee AD support that's not just a tank. I'm not a champion designer, so I can't presume to know for sure, but these challenges seem to me easily overcome.

Anyway, will it happen? Will it ever happen? As far as new champions go, it's what I most want to see. As a lover of all things support, in any multiplayer game, and with all the champions we already have, the only thing I want to see is more variety in supports.

EDIT: And to clarify, when I say "support" I mean something that's still considered a support when taken outside of the typical Summoner's Rift metagame. If you put it in a solo lane, it's still a support. If you take it to Dominion, it's still a support.

17 Comments

IcyPepper6/10/2015, 6:21:05 PM1 votes

I'll be honest here, I'm a bit worried it would be abused in top lane (Taric had this issue before, I believe?).

3TWarrior6/10/2015, 6:23:42 PM1 votes

there's already an ad support: Thresh , but most prefer him tanky because his early game can suck , pantheon can also support but he's pretty frail even with his shields

there's also gangplank, he's totally an AD support

Sarutobi6/10/2015, 6:26:50 PM1 votes

They could make it work, and im sure someone on Riot's Champion team could come up with something. But it would be really hard. because if they were attack based why not just be the adc?

it could be something like how every much AD you (the support) has, can give it to someone on the team, kinda like a sacrifice, but instead of your life its your attack!

MLDzXnRRR6/10/2015, 6:40:16 PM1 votes

Problem is that this "AD supp" can snowball the game from botlane and become a second unstoppable carry... Do you remember release Braum - this guy was able to 1v1 anyone earlygame and still could solo squishies lategame, while building support items!!! How broken was that.

S H A Y C 06/10/2015, 6:41:50 PM1 votes

all that support needs is some crowd control. I dont know if you are specifically looking for a ranged physical damage based support but if you just want AD scaling plus crowd control...Sion will do the job nicely. I have also had a lot of fun with lee sin support as well.

Lost R6/10/2015, 6:55:55 PM1 votes

I don't think so. Heavy damage dealers and brawlers like Darius, Garen, Trundle and Hecarim are gated by their general lack of utility. What utility they DO get is usually combined with an item (Black Cleaver with Garen's E), an item, period, or is extremely limited in what they can do (Darius can grab multiple targets, but he has an extremely short range with it).

That's the general design philosophy here. High damage champions (read: assassins) have little to no utility to ensure they can't be a self-sustaining murder machine, and what utility they DO have is usually gated by some unique handicap (Ekko's W has an impressive AOE stun, but both he and the target need to be in the bubble at the same time, and he needs to predict where the fight will be four seconds from now, and the enemy has to lack that foresight. Nocturne has to keep the enemy close for a few seconds before his fear goes into effect.). Supports, at the same time, have lots of innate utility while lacking any real, consistent damage. Some supports like Bard, Nami and Sona deal their damage in small bursts. Lulu deals her damage in small, but many volumes. Taric needs to get close to his targets to do damage when he has a crappy stun and no poke or gap closer. Braum's bonus damage is negligible after the stun takes effect (unless you build Liandry's). And then some supports barely deal damage at all (Soraka and Janna).

Supports also tend to lack any real durability if they aren't tanks. Again, this is intentional, otherwise the support would win against damage dealers in a straight up slugfest. Making an AD support would be difficult, as you're trying to stop them from being too much of a fighter while giving them some meaningful utility. Otherwise you just get another brawler.

This is usually how the different classes are organized:

Fighter: medium to high damage and durability, medium to low utility

ADC: High damage, high mobility, low to no utility

Support: High utility, low to high durability, low damage

Mage: Medium to high damage and utility, low durability

Tank: Low damage, low to medium utility, high durability

Assassin: Extremely high damage, medium to high mobility, low to no utility

If you put this all on a Venn Diagram (clockwise, it would go Fighter > Assassin > ADC > Mage > Support > Tank), no champion exists in the center. There is no champion that can literally do it all (high damage, high durability, high utility) because that is deadly. If there is a champion that does it all, then why pick anyone else?

DrCyanide6/10/2015, 7:34:29 PM1 votes

An AD Support is a meta AD Top laner.

The only way Riot could get around this is by making the first champion without an auto attack. As long as an AD scaling champion has an auto attack, they will not be used primarily as a Support.