Question to dedicated support players! <-Supports be here!
#Attention,fellow supports player! I gather you for a rather serious question. With the preseason changes, and the new stat and itemization, I feel like supports , regardless of type, have being hit quite harsh. While the cc is still impactful, stat-wise I have the strong feeling I've never played a more starved, underfarmed role. **is this feeling shared? Am I the only one feeling left in the dust by the new season? ** I tried to analyze why I felt that way, and here is what I came up with as possible reasons.
**1) Dragon Slayer stacks promote laners over supports. ** I'm actually really fond of the Dragon Slayer new mechanics and what they bring to the game, but as a support, they are a hard hit. Previously, when you had a 3 dragons lead, it meant you had around 600 extra gold to invest in items. With the new dragon, you gain bonus AD , AP, movespeed and damage to minions/towers(depending if the pbe change goes live). For supports, who build a little AP, zero AD, and movespeed, this is quite a harsh hit. Also, damage toward turrets , or toward minions, scales with your ad and ap. And, as previously said, you have none. Plus, as a support you don't actually waveclear unless there is no one else in your team to clear that wave and get the gold. So, all in all, supports now benefits much less from dragon because they don't build the same amount of stats the bonus scale with. The only good thing of Dragon Slayer is the true damage at the 5th stack, but it's commonly "overlapped" by damage from your other teammates.
2) Jungler items and new elixirs increased both damage and cc availability.
Let's say you are falling back from a gank, you disengage perfectly from the enemy laners, but Master Yi/WW/Xin Zhao comes from behind.
In season 4, they would just have their spirit stone item , or spirit stone+components.
Now they have the extra TRUE damage from the improved Smite due to 
or 
. Sure, Skirmisher is getting nerfed, but they still have access to true damage they previously didn't have. And, they also have an extra slow if they pick Chilling Smite.
While elixirs , especially 
are equally effective on whoever buys them, laners are the one who can most easily end up buying them, both for their extra gold and because they reach level 9 earlier. Plus, most support don't have as good AP ratios as laners (in regards to Elixir of Sorcery).
3)Midgame itemization made support utilities available even outside of the support role
The main culprit here is 
, ofc, but the item is actually good.
Still, it overlaps with talisman of ascension, with the only difference that the talisman can also be used to flee, but grants less movement speed.
On the other hand, we have Aegis of the Legion and Banner of command 
, but it's use is situational at best due to the actual effectiveness (the augmented minion will be the first to be shot by the turret,usually, unless there is also a siege minion in that wave), and the long cooldown.
I mean 120 seconds on BoC against 90 of the BotrK/Zhonya and 45 seconds of a Youmuu are rather harsh.
Possible solutions? I have a couple ideas, but first I'd like to hear your opinions in general and about the three points I discussed.
Bonus: A discussion I started about possible enchantments to sightstone. http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/NG7XFHIs-sightstone-enchantments-proposal-for-season-5
