Currently it takes forever to get supports in team builder. Something that could encourage more supports and balance the system more is if supports got a small IP/EXP increase with the games you play them in. Currently it seems you get less of both from playing support and this might be one of the reasons they're underplayed. The increase could be like 1.25x or something like that, that would be just good enough to make a difference.
Sunfield3 votesCreating a role exclusive bonus is a bad idea.
The perfect solution from my point of view would be providing a bonus to a "high demand" role. What is the difference here? Well, giving boosts to one role would fill it with grinders and booters, soon the current problem with supports could vanish, but a new one would emerge to fill its place.
My solution would create a dynamic ever changing system that would keep adjusting to whichever role lacks players
Meeks0111 votesAh yes, that would be perfect. The least used champions could have the bonus, which would still encourage supports, but also other characters that are missing love as well.
Sunfield1 votesNow that we got that out of our way, lets think of rewards for least played roles that wouldnt encourage booters and grinders.
My creativity sadly ends here. I mean, Riot could just make a bunch of summoner icons solely for that cause, but thats just a short term solution
ploki1221 votesJust wanted to highlight the abuse case of a team captain checking what's the most "in demand" role+position, and creating a team of 5 of that for him and his 4 friends.
When things are too simple, there's always a jerk to make the problem even bigger...
Sunfield1 votesI didnt think of that... but well, its not really harmfull to other players, is it? It is a case of system abuse, but they wouldnt be hurting nobody
ploki1221 votesMost probably Intermediate Dominion vs AI would be pleased, the 5 members matched against a team of bot wouldn't. Otherwise, Riot has made a point that they dislike cheesing for a certain reward/bonus.
InsaneSamurai3 votesI said bacon, but what I really meant was they need to find a non-gameplay related way to boost the role. I think they wouldn't give any actual benefit to only support players that wasn't purely aesthetic like the ribbons. If they can do something more to the actual gameplay of the support to make it more interesting(but not more powerful), that might help. One of the major things with team builder is joining random people and hoping you can synergize with them well. As a support it's infinitely more important, so most people probably only do it with friends.
Edit: which makes me realize team builder really should accept duos, or possible merging of teams. If a guy searches with a friend planning to duo bot, and another guy searches with a friend planning to top and jungle, it'd be awesome if you could just combine the teams.
Kexus3 votesI would like to see duo queues allowed in teambuilder. Duos tend to get a bad reputation for being toxic, but I think that's only because the only time you notice (or care) about a duo queue is when they're trolling/feeding/being toxic. Besides, the captain would still be free to reject duo players.
Meeks0112 votesBacon was indeed the correct answer. CONGRATZ!!1 You earned a cookie! (bacon-flavored)
ploki1223 votesPersonally, I think the problem lies half with the balance and half with the community. A big part of the community wants to carry/be a nig guy, and support is the only role that doesn't really convey that feeling (in most cases).
Personally, I believe that out of the current standard roster of supports, all of them are either pretty bad (Taric/Zilean/Janna), really not enjoyable to play (Soraka/Nami) or eveyone is burnt out of seeing them (Thresh/Leona/Braum). People are so despaired about the current roster that I've had a roughly 15-20s queue time average on support shaco for like 10 games. I'm seeing more Gangplank/Shaco/Poppy/Brand/Veigar/Volibear than I'm seeing Lux/Galio/Zilean/Janna/Soraka/Sona. It seems that right now, the standard definition of support is "can kill the enemy ADC and/or proc spellthief/targon efficiently".
However, that's not 100% on Riot's fault. I think that the main gripe with support is "giving kills". Personally, as a Poppy/Veigar support main, every single kill that's within my reach, I will take. And I personally feel that on every single supports, taking a few kills is better than a 8/0/0 ADC. Since the kill-assist gold is usually about 150gold (225g if you're 3 guys taking the kill), I believe that letting it to the lowest income character will influence the lane much harder than leaving it to the cash-stacking one.
If people were less mindful about supports being ideally 0/0/77, I believe that there would be more support players. And for people finding it farfetched, it's a pretty common thing in DotA to try to get those early kills on your support, so there may be a reasoning behind it (although the reasoning is exacerbated in DotA's case because of the nature of the game).
Hyrum Graff2 votesI think that's a "solution" that would work to solve the EFFECTS of the problem, but not the CAUSES.
What really needs to happen, is for support to become a role that's desired as much as any other role. That is so say, playing support needs to be rewarding.
I think this will happen when supports can get even more gold. But before they can do this, they have to figure out what to do about traditional supports.
Meeks0111 votesMaybe you get honor bonuses automatically when you use support that add a point or two of honor per game because you're obviously going to have earned it. Maybe there could be like a support only cult or something like that, that gets a private forums, exclusive champions, a few more items, etc. Extra items and more champions wouldn't be overpowered, it would just give more options for support and bring more attention to them.
cshakes1 votesOr just something like an "assist bonus" that I've seen in calculating Fantasy LCS points: if you've got much more assists than kills, they just grant some extra points. Something similar for Teamwork honors etc would be nice.
Meeks0111 votesMore than double assists than kills, because you almost always have more assists than kills.