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Patch 7.12 is going to fix a lot of issues with support items. However...

Pyro·6/5/2017, 8:01:26 PM·105 votes·8,946 views

http://i.imgur.com/L8guTnP.png

First, let's run down through the "patchnotes" for PBE we have so far.

EDIT: Updated the post to account for the latest PBE update.

#Core Support items

item 3107 Redemption

  • Health reduced to 200 from 300.
  • Base health regeneration reduced to 50% from 75%.
  • Base mana regeneration increased to 150% from 125%.
  • Heal reduced to 30 - 370 (based on target's level) from 65 - 490 (based on target's level).
  • New Effect: Heal is affected 3 times as much by Increased Healing and Shieling power amplifiers.
  • If your champion is at +30% (10% × 3) healing, heal reduced to 39 - 481 (based on level) from 65 - 490 (based on target's level).

Justified base stat nerf that might push this item into Enchanter realm and phase it away from tanks like Leona and mages like Morgana and Zyra. The active heal is going to actually be stronger in most cases if the Windspeaker's Blessing mastery is boosted as well. Hell, it only takes 2 Forbidden Idol items to make this heal significantly stronger. If my calculations are correct, with a full stack of Forbidden Idol items and Windspeaker's Blessing, which sum up to 50% increased healing, the new Redemption will have a maximum heal of 925, and that's before the addition of Runic Armor and Spirit Visage. Considering Redemption already grants +10% healing power, non-Enchanter champions may still build it regardless of the base stat nerf. Might want to nerf the base heal even further.

By the way the "+10% Healing and Shielding Power" is by far the longest statistic name we have. Why don't we call it "Spirit", "Grace", "Benediction", or "Divinity", with a mouse-hover explanation like Lethality.

item 3190 Locket of the Iron Solari

  • Shield strength reduced to 60 - 434 (based on level) from 70 - 665 (based on level).
  • Active shield strength now scales with 2% - 36% bonus health based on level.

Not sure if the change is strong enough to shift it towards tank supports and away from enchanters, but there's one thing I know for sure: This item is going to be funny on endgame Cho'Gath. I have some issues with it but we'll leave it for later.

All in all, Redemption and Locket are being suited towards Enchanters and Tanks respectively, which is a good direction. It's boring when every single support champion builds the same stuff every game.

#Enchanter Items

item 3174 Athene's Unholy Grail

  • Ability power reduced to 30 from 40.
  • Base mana regeneration increased to 100% from 75%.
  • Cooldown reduction reduced to 10% from 20%.
  • Premitigation damage stored as Blood Charges increased to 25% from 20%.
  • New Passive: Dissonance: Gain +5 ability power for every +25% base mana regeneration. Disables Harmony (Chalice passive).

Now THIS is crazy. Quite an impact on endgame support builds, as not only does it remove the awkward excess of CDR (20% is too much for a single enchanter item), but it also manages to reconcile the Shield Power vs AP itemization.

item 2301 item 3107 item 3504 item 3222 item 3174 item 3117

An example support build consisting of all heal-boosting enchanter items and Athene's will have 450% mana regeneration. Of course that's 10% excessive CDR going to waste (unless you exchange Eyestone for Ruby Sightstone), so we can assume Mikaels might be considered mutually exclusive with Athene's. Nevertheless 300-350% mana regen seems to be the standard here, and 60-70 AP is a pretty considerable amount - and with Mikael's mana regen converting to 20 AP, the "wasted" CDR is no longer a problem.

The aforementioned build would end up in a total of 230 AP, half of it coming from Athene's. Paired with maxed out healing/shielding power, I'm punching all these numbers into a stats calculator and it's making a happy face.

item 3301 Ancient Coin * Now grants 50 mana * No longer grants CDR

item 3096 Nomad's Medallion * Now grants 100 mana * No longer grants CDR

item 3069 Talisman of Ascension

  • Total cost reduced to 2200g from 2400g (as Raptor Cloak gets cheaper) * New build: item 3096 + item 3024 + 425g (total cost 2200g, down from 2400g) * Grants +400 mana (new), +50% health regeneration (down from 175) and +40 armor (down from 45) and +10% CDR * No longer has the Point Runner passive from Raptor Cloak

item 2302 Eye of the Oasis * Now grants 100 mana * % health regeneration reduced to 100% from 125

I'm not quite sure if it should stay as it is (Rioters themselves have mentioned they're not 100% sure about the new Talisman build), but it's a good thing they're considering something else than Raptor Cloak. IMHO they should consider keeping the CDR on the Coin line and using Tear of the Goddess as the second component, adding some sort of mana scaling for the supports (since many support tank items build out of Glacial Shroud now).

The change to the Coin line has been reverted.

Coin line is and will continue to be the least popular one, even though the addition of Quests made it more interactive and interesting. All the Sona/Karma players will still prefer doing dem damagez in lane with Spellthief. Coin line would have to offer something more to gain a foothold with the Enchanters.

#Tank and Supportank items

item 3024 Glacial Shroud

  • Combine cost reduced to 250g from 350 (total cost reduced to 900g from 1000)
  • item 3110 and item 3025 combine costs increased by 100g (total cost of these items remains unchanged)
  • Armor reduced to 20 from 25.

It was fairly expensive for a supposed support component, so yeah.

item 3001 Abyssal Mask

  • New build: item 3010 + item 1057 +1080g (total cost 2900g, up from 2800)
  • MR reduced to 55 from 65.
  • % health regeneration removed.
  • Now has the Eternity (Catalyst) passive.

Since Righteous Glory is changing, this seems to be the designated tank Catalyst upgrade for the toplane. Maybe it will finally pose an alternative to Spirit Visage, which is kinda busted in terms of statline and build path. Midseason was supposed to nerf health and buff armor/MR, but SV has too much HP in its components to go below 450.

To anyone who thinks the item is getting nerfed: You have no idea how good Catalyst is on a toplane tank. People used to build RoA on tanks until its HP got nerfed because of how good it was. This item is going to be core on Galio.

item 3800 Righteous Glory

  • New build: item 3024 + item 3801 + 950g (total cost 2500g)
  • Health redcued to 400 from 500.
  • Now grants 30 armor and 10% CDR.
  • Removed Eternity (Catalyst passive)
  • Active slowing nova being triggered manually early.
  • Active slowing nova now automatically triggers if an enemy champion is within close proximity.

item 3109 Knight's Vow

  • New build: item 1031 + item 3067 + 700g (total 2300g)
  • Now grants 10% CDR.
  • No longer grans health regeneration.

Changes to these items were long overdue, RG should have granted CDR ages ago. KV was actually being tested with CDR in the preseason, but Riot had too many playtesters in jungle/top building the item in that version. Hopefully now things won't go that way, though with the nerfs to Sunfire I could see that coming on some champions.

item 3050 Zeke's Harbinger Zeke's Convergence

  • New build: item 3105 + item 3024 + 400g (toal cost increased to 2400g from 2250)
  • Armor increased to 60 from 30.
  • Now grants 30 MR.
  • No longer grants Ability Power.
  • New Passive: Casting your ultimate near your ally summons a local frost storm for 10 seconds. As the storm rages, nearby enemies are slowed by 20% and your ally's attacks burn their targets for 50% bonus magic damage over 2 seconds (45 second cooldown).
  • Frostfire Covenant - Basic attacking a burning enemy ignites your frost storm to deal 40 magic damage per second and slow by 40% instead for 3 seconds.
  • Active (picking the ally for the Conduit) no longer has a cooldown. One Conduit per target allowed.
  • Removed old passive.

OHHHH BOY. This one seems like a perfect fit for diving Vanguards like Leona. You get an enormous bonus for both the designated partner (and it can be instantly switched to the jungler, as long as you manage to do it before you ult) and yourself (which again shouldn't be a problem if you learn to work in a tandem focusing the same target). However, in the lategame it seems pretty taxing on the mechanics and coordination - you need to carefully pick your conduit target to utilize tis full potential. If you dive their backline far away from the designated partner, you won't deal any extra damage at all. At least it's something, we'll get into the Vanguard support problem later on.

item 2053 Raptor Cloak

  • New build: item 1029 + item 1006 + 450g (total cost reduced to 900g from 1200)
  • Armor reduced to 30 from 40.
  • item 3056 and item 3512 combine costs increased by 300g (total costs unchanged).

Good, but not good enough. This item is still garbage as long as its upgrades are.

item 3060 Banner of Command

  • New build: item 3105 + item 2053 + 200g (total cost 2200g)
  • Now has +125% Base health regeneration.
  • Mana removed.
  • Now grants the Raptor Cloak passive Point Runner.

It still grants 10% CDR out of nowhere, now with an even more awkward build. Unless people actually start building Raptor Cloak in lane I don't see this one becoming anything more than a gimmick.

#Other items

item 1054 Doran's Shield

  • Cost increased to 450g from 440.

Because you can't have a nice laning item without ADCs ruining it.

item 1056 Doran's Ring

  • Mana restore on unit kill is now a UNIQUE passive.

RIP three doran Galio. You will (Not) be missed.

Now here comes the long-ass rant section so skip it if you were just interested in the changelog.

#The CDR Starvation of Support Tanks

I've been pointing it out ever since the last Locket rework, but support tanks are currently seriously starved for CDR. At one point Eye of the Equinox didn't even have any, making tank support run on 0% CDR for the majority of their playtime. Items like Frozen Heart and Iceborn Gauntlet must be kept in check on well-fed toplane or jungle tanks, so the gold-starved supports will always find them expensive. Keep in mind that in many games supports will never get to complete more than one full item after their GP10, boots and Sightstone.

This is why the changes to Knight's Vow, Righteous Glory and Zeke's were long overdue. RG should have granted CDR ages ago. KV was actually being tested with CDR, but Riot had too many playtesters in jungle/top building the item in that version. Hopefully now things won't go that way, though with the nerfs to Sunfire I could see that coming on some champions.

item 3401 item 2045 item 3047 item 3190 item 3109 item 3800 (30%) item 2303 item 3047 item 3190 item 3109 item 3800 item 3050 (40%)

There's one outlier, though: Even in a complete supportank build, Locket of the Iron Solari takes the place of the only non-CDR item. It's pretty simple. Supportank items give 10% CDR now, so great, you can choose something else than Redemption, but it means you need four item slots to max out CDR. Aside from boots (supportanks can't really get away with picking Ionians) that leaves only one free slot. If you go for FotM and Ruby Sightstone, it means that you have to get the last 10% CDR from runes, or opt into Frozen Heart.

Sure, there is strategical depth in this choice. You have a seemingly interesting decision to make: do I max out CDR, or do I want Locket? Except, well, too bad for you, you NEED Locket. It's literally the one last item in the whole set that allows you to protect your entire team, not just the ADC. It works when diving, it works when getting dived, and with Redemption geared towards enchanters now, it's your only choice. Surely the team-wide auras and buffs are a pain to balance, but when you kill all the other options (Zeke's aura, Shurelya's/Righteous Glory team-wide speedup), the ones left will be picked up no matter how inconvenient they feel.

Basically, enchanters have a complete set of CDR in their core builds, coming from all of their core items. Tanks don't. Locket having no CDR currently allows enchanters to add it to their core build without any excessive CDR. Assuming the Locket scaling change will convince enchanters to give up the item, tanks will be left with an underwhelming core build. Keep in mind supports don't get to complete their build all too often and rushing Locket will contribute to the no-CDR problem.

Things to consider:

  • Scale the shield amount with the number of allies/enemies in vicinity, promoting teamfight use cases and hinting at Knight's Vow being far better for protecting a single target (% bonus health scaling on Locket is good, leave that)
  • Make the Locket shield magic damage mitigation only, removing the necessity to buy it in every single game
  • Give Locket back its CDR (perhaps after making sure the item is prepped for specific use cases, moar % health scaling wouldn't hurt either)
  • a null-magic mantle CDR item would be a neat component for Locket, Adaptive Helm and Abyssal Mask

As long as Locket is the all-purpose AoE team shield item, supports will feel inclined to buy it. We already had one try at making it more specialized by adding a decay to the shield, but that's not enough. Supports will buy even the most godawful item that gives them zero stats they want if it means they can significantly enhance the champions that matter. I think the fact that people build Redemption on Zyra speaks for itself. So I feel that both Redemption and Locket need even more drastic shifts in power towards specific situations/scaling instead of gutting their stats on and on again.

#The Forgotten Items

Alright, Riot has made a new banchmark of "useless item" with Poacher's Dirk and nothing will ever come close to it, but let's revisit the elephant in the room.

item 3056

Ohmwrecker is pretty much the epitome of procrastination, low-priority goals, and the "We'd do something here but we're afraid it'll break the game" syndrome: every time there's an item pass on tank items or support items, the design team decides they have more pressing matters to attend and they have no time to give this item justice.

It's pretty simple, though. You have two options:

  • Make the active help you outside of diving. I mean, diving was never really a problem for tanks, so a tank item that disables towers is a little bit redundant. There's many ways to do it:
  • Give the item a possibility of empowering your own tower
  • Make it longer-cooldown (single use?), but disabling enemy tower for a way longer time
  • Give it anti-shield properties people are asking for. Enemy shield duration reduction would be pretty fair - doesn't break the game, just prevents cases when some shields are permanently up, which shouldn't happen in a teamfight anyway. Alternatively just deplete enemy shields in vicinity over time (DoT that applies to shields only).
  • Just buff the damn stats. It's a shame that out of FIVE different armor+HP items (others being item 3143 item 3068 item 3742 item 3109) Ohmwrecker is the one with the shittiest statistics. Give it 20% CDR or something. Make it stand out based on stats despite situational active that doesn't give you zilch when you're behind. It has less health than a cheaper support item (KV), for crying out loud.

item 3512

And a friendly reminder that with the Raptor Cloak price "buff", Zz'Rot Portal's combine cost jumps up to 1080 gold, which is pretty damn much. I'm not sure who even buys this item at this point, but I believe some change is overdue. The Voidspawn are sure as hell hard to balance, as throughout the patches they alternate between "useless" (current state) and "OP shit" (before season 7).

Possible options:

  • Leave it to slowly die together with Ohmwrecker and Banner of Command (lolz)
  • Buff the statline or reduce the cost
  • In particular, I'd be a fan of a generalist statline with 40 armor, 40 MR, and, added, 200-300 health. We already have Gargoyle Stoneplate and Aegis upgrades for raw armor+MR.
  • Introduce a new type of interaction with the Void Gate to promote playing around it. Make the empowered Voidspawn activated through channeling, give the Void Gate a mana regeneration aura around it, or even allow for a faster recall to base by channeling. Thematically, allowing allies to channel and get something from the gate (small temporary AP boost?) would be neat.

Oh and perhaps recolor the empowered Voidspwan to make it clear and easy counterplay (just kill the dangerous ones and the tower won't get as damaged).

#Wardens and Vanguards

Braum Thresh Leona

This terminology will actually help us a lot in defining the problem. Wardens are definitely getting a nice set of items here. Even tank(y) champions who aren't designated as Wardens by Riot (that would be Braum and Tahm Kench), and are instead placed in the Vanguard (Alistar, Leona), Enchanter (Taric) or "Catcher" (Bard, Blitzcrank, Thresh) category can make great use of Kinght's Vow and Zeke's Harbinger, protecting and peeling for their ADC.

One playstyle that's not getting much love, though, is the Vanguard support. Alistar is pretty much a hybrid between disrupting the enemy line and peeling for the carry, but Leona is almost as straightforward as the likes of Nautilus or Gragas, both of which have seen play as support. These champions want to get in the middle of the enemy backline, disrupt them as much as possible, and let their allies (mostly jungle, top, mid) kill them. With Leona, she's categorized as primarily support due to her passive being designed for duo lane. Gragas and Nautilus are mainly junglers, but they share her problem: The Warden items aren't really for them. Sure, they can do that job and peel a little bit, but they do much better using their AoE to dig deep into the enemy backline.

item 3025 item 3068 item 3110 item 3001 item 3143 item 3193

And to their playstyle, the best items are still the same as for the jungle/toplane Vanguards: some AoE, general disruption, tankiness. However, that comes at a price. And Vanguard supports don't have that amount of money. It's a pretty big-picture problem, as it's quite difficult to design a support tank item that won't simply get abused in jungle and toplane. Especially when that item is supposed to support a "leave the ADC behind and dive the enemy team" playstyle.

I believe one solution here would be a designated Vanguard support item that requires duo laning to charge up. Basically something that functions as a fully-fledged Sunfire Cape, costs less, but takes a fair amount of laning to complete. Example:

Unkindled Plate (item idea)

  • Recipe: Ruby Crystal + Cloth Armor + 200g (900g)
  • +200 health, +20 armor
  • Unique Passive - Kindling: Gain 1 stack whenever nearby allied champion kills a unit. Max 30 stacks.

Sunfire Plate (item idea)

  • Recipe: Unkindled Plate + Kindlegem + 400g (2300g)
  • +400 health, +40 armor, +10% CDR
  • Unique Passive: Deal magic damage per second to nearby enemy champions equal to your number of Kindling stacks.
  • Unique Passive - Kindling: Gain 1 stack whenever nearby allied champion kills a unit. Max 30 stacks.

This is just an example. The item can function on a completely different matter - be more similar to Iceborn Gauntlet, or Gargoyle Stoneplate, or something else entirely. Just something to make up for the gold discrepancy between tanks with their own goldstream and Vanguard supports. For now, Zeke's Harbinger seems like a noteworthy addition.

#Mage Supports

Zyra Brand Velkoz

Some will say this is a contradiction. Mage "supports", they say, tend to go full AP, refuse to ever buy Sightstone and overall create a rage-inducing experience bringing back the memories of "Death is the best CC" Nidalee supports.

Some will even treat them as traitors. Many midlane mage mains are filled with dread any time their champion surfaces in the support role. Not only do they fear nerfs, they fear Riot will designate their favourite as a support and forget ever balancing them for solo laning again. That happened to Zyra, who is pretty much never seen in the middle lane, while other champions like Annie, Vel'Koz, Brand and Zilean alternate between the two positions.

But we're faced with a problem. First, some people want to play mage supports. Because they want agency, because they want to have fun, because they're selfish little pricks who refuse to play boring tanks or wimpy healers who won't get them kills, because they're not familiar with enchanter champions... or simply because they know they need to pick an AP champion because mid, top and jungle went full AD and someone needs to prevent enemy team from armoring up to their teeth. And then there's also the issue of Zyra mains being pretty much forced into that position.

That brings us to the problem: mage supports lack proper itemization even more than Vanguard supports. They're pretty effective with the freshly discounted Rylai's Crystal Scepter, and Brand with a magic penetration rush is borderline broken, but even items like Liandry's are pretty damn expensive for a gold-deprived champion. Going for Luden's or Morellonomicon isn't easy, either. We need AP items that prevent this feast-or-famine pattern.

Things we'd need, in general:

  • Items that are used in a duo lane and not abused mid lane (like FQC used to be on some midlaners).
  • Conduit/Partner mechanics, like in Knight's Vow or Zeke's.
  • Cheap CDR and mana. Morello is too expensive for a support. The fact that Liandrylai build has neither CDR nor Mana is problematic as well.
  • AP or Mana upgrade to Sightstone, alternative to Ruby.
  • Some neat, cheap item to rush (2100-2300g) that will create a small power spike even when behind on gold.

I'll pitch my own ideas below of course, but I might be dead wrong about them - the point is to address the points above.

Court Wizard Robe (item idea)

  • Recipe: item 3108 + item 3113 + 450g (total cost 2200g)
  • +60 AP, +20% CDR, +5% movement speed
  • Active: Designate an allied champion as your Partner (45s cd).
  • Passive: If your Partner is nearby, gain 40 AP and heal them for 10% of the damage you deal with abilities (effect halved for AoE and DoT effects).

A bit of a rolebreaker - heal your ADC with a spellvamp-like effect. Can get balanced with a heal delay, heal over 3-5 seconds might be a good idea. 10% might actually be too low, but all in all it should create a neat "LOOK AT HOW MUCH DAMAGE I DEAL, NOW EAT THE HEALS AND CALL ME A SUPPORT" experience.

Orb of Fire (item idea)

  • Recipe: item 3067 + item 3802 + 700g (total cost 2400g)
  • +50 AP, +300 health, +300 mana, +10% CDR
  • Passive: Restore 20% of your maximum mana upon leveling.
  • Active: Design an ally as the Conduit target. 0s cooldown. Breaks other Conduits.
  • Passive: If the Conduit target is nearby, upon casting your ultimate summon a wall of fire around you that lasts 10 seconds and damages (% hp damage, +AP scaling) any enemy that walks through it. Allied basic attacks that hit through the wall deal bonus magic damage on hit. 45 second cooldown.

Think Redemption-size circle, but if you stay inside the circle, you'll be fine - only crossing the fire wall damages you. Soft peel/trap witht he option to stay inside and fight. Conduit mechanic as in Zeke's. Wall mechanic as in Windwall, can only affect projectiles, or can affect both ranged and melee, whatever works best. The idea of arrows that catch fire in flight seems cool enough to make this cocncept fun to implement.

Sapphire Sightstone (item idea)

  • Recipe: item 2049 + item 1027 + 450g (total cost 1600g)
  • +200 health, +200 mana
  • (wards, 4 charges, you know the drill)
  • +15 magic penetration (should probably be exclusive with Sorcerer's Shoes)

Like I've said, these are just ideas to make the lives of Zyra supports easier and bait "full AP" supports into actually building team-oriented items.

#TL;DR:

  • Good changes to support items, mostly
  • Really nice change to Athene's that makes an endgame Enchanter build feel complete
  • Redemption and Locket actives shifted towards Enchanters and Tanks respectively
  • Redemption active is going to be even stronger on Enchanters
  • Tank supports are finally getting good CDR items
  • Locket will continue to feel bad to tank supports because it has no CDR and sometimes that's the only item a support gets to complete
  • Vanguard supports (Leona) and mage supports (Zyra) still lacking support (cheaper) items geared for their specific needs
  • Ohmwrecker is still forgotten.

Thoughts?

211 Comments

Zerana6/5/2017, 11:51:00 PM19 votes

Ohmwrecker is even useless when ahead.

"Ok, I can build this to dive them better annnnnnnd the towers are gone so no point now."

I just build a portal instead most of the time when that happens just so I don't waste stats.

Deep Terror Nami6/6/2017, 2:54:54 AM9 votes

Great post! I don't get to see a lot of Support reviews and this was very well done :3

I'm really sad to see that they continue to neglect Ohmwrecker, and believe they intend to retire it instead of make it useful. All it would take, imo, is to let it also buff your own towers so that it can be used defensively (otherwise, if you're ahead it's useless).

Renascent6/6/2017, 12:03:03 AM6 votes

{quoted}

#The Forgotten Items

Alright, Riot has made a new banchmark of **"useless item" **

item 3512

I'm not sure who even buys this item at this point,

#**"useless" (current state) **

https://i.gyazo.com/eb9bef07bc0a1c8dfdebe64fed393b45.png

http://i.imgur.com/4J1kfJS.png

AirKingNeo6/5/2017, 9:48:00 PM4 votes

A sunfire item for supports wouldn't be a good idea. It provides no peeling effects for your team at all. I'd scrap that idea.

Redemption needs to have double interaction will heal/shield mods. Triple is insane.

Abyssal Mask is still gonna be garbage and they're giving it mana (ha) and giving it less MR. They have yo give it 100 more HP and maybe it will be a decent pickup.

Clementine6/5/2017, 9:48:14 PM4 votes

RIP Coin line

RIP Athenes for supports

but everything else looks promising.

LordGeovanni6/6/2017, 1:35:22 AM4 votes

So now item 3107 is worthless with out item 3504 . Gotta love strategic diversity and the ability to choose items to fit the situation. We still marketing the game like so aren't we?

agbudar6/5/2017, 8:48:33 PM4 votes

pretty well thought out post i have to say though if doran's shield is such an issue on adc make it a god damm melee item only as has been said so many god damm times already.

block them from buying it. just like how deadmans plate should be opted out of purchase for a whole slew of champs as well.

Kal Vas Flam6/5/2017, 8:53:46 PM4 votes

Nice write up.

OP Garen Support6/5/2017, 11:27:08 PM3 votes

Ah I see once again every item is nerfed other then AD items. No multiple doran ring for mages. How about removing the life steal on multiple doran blades as well.

chipndip16/5/2017, 10:55:00 PM3 votes

3 things:

  • I dislike the HP scaling on Locket. It promotes top lane/jg poaching since they now have stronger Locket actives than supports do.

  • For your "Sunfire Plate" idea, Zeke's is already the "aoe disruption" item that Vanguards would use. Also supports USUALLY don't full build items in lane...actually most people don't by the time laning ends...so all that does is discourage roaming while they sit around waiting for minions to drop. As an idea, maybe a Vanguard support item could temporarily debuff armor/mr when someone's caught by hard cc? Or a support item that gives a small instance of Grievous Wounds when someone's hard cc'd? Just spit balling some ideas.

  • I know I'ma catch some flak for this, but Zyra's PRETTY MUCH considered a support by Riot at this point...like through and through. And even though they're going hard in the next patch for support itemization...finally...there's still nothing that indicates that champs like Zyra in the support role have any support items catered to their play style. I'm pretty sure that at least you know that itemization is part of the fun in LoL...just kind of sucks to see that no one really cares about Zyra's long term well being in the role outside of "spend 30 minutes building Liandry's". I don't even play her, but I empathize for those that do and don't really understand why the Zyra experience in the support role is so "bleh". Even in a long, thought out post like this one...no one's really thinking about that. That's more of a side concern of mine, though.

yesnobanana6/6/2017, 5:15:30 AM3 votes

+1 for well written and well thought post

RookPusher6/5/2017, 8:40:53 PM3 votes

Have to disagree with you on the Banner of Command thing.

As what feels like the only person who builds it on all supports, I don't see why people don't take it (early) because it allows strong pushing, easy tower removal, and incredible gold increase. The Point Runner move is exactly what Banner needed. Supports need more MS in general, but the laning speed is helpful to set up decent split pushes with the Promotion feature.

the lack of CDR until completed hurts a bit, but over all I'm really excited about this change.

Sypher The Poro6/6/2017, 8:33:58 PM2 votes

item 1054 Cost 400 > 450

Welp, glad to know Quinn, Jayce, and Kennen get to rule top for another season.

Warhammer Titan6/5/2017, 8:03:08 PM2 votes

Well shit this is long

DaNinad6/5/2017, 9:35:19 PM1 votes

I didn't really see a reason for adc's to build it, unless it was caitlyn, and usually vayne was the only one building it wasn't she? She wasn't broken with it, it was just for caitlyn, which made the matchup a little more tolerable.