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How it feels to play an enchanter support.

Katsumi41·12/15/2018, 10:56:22 PM·26 votes·11,988 views

Hi everyone! I have been playing League for about 5 years now and i've been a main support for about 3 years. I went from B3 to D3 in those 3 years by playing mostly enchanters (Lulu, Janna, Sona, Soraka, Nami, etc. ) and some tanky supps (Taric, Blitz, Thresh, etc). I have always prefered to play enchanters because they are harder to play (Okay, I see the comments comming! Actually, it is all the little things that are harder with this type of supp. Your positionning is the key to succes while a tank can just yell DEMACIA and tank 4k damage ^^'').

This season, I climbed playing a lot of Nami, Thresh and Lulu. The game just feels bad right now for me. None of my champions are what they used to be. If I take an example of Lulu, she is one champ that got nerfed soooo HARD. At the beggining of the season, she was at about 51% wr. Right now, during the preseason, she is at 48 % and i even saw her hit 46%. What happenned is that people kept complaining about the shield mechanics being so easy and also the items being so op. Riot then nerfed the shields and the items. They destroyed the early game for the enchanters -> About half the duration of the shields (4s to 2.5s) and... they added hard nerfs on multiple items which lowers cd early and lowers the buff they used to give to the shields (for a 10% bonus on shields to 8% and from 10% cd on forbidden idolitem 3114 to 5% early). I understand that the mechanic of shielding might seem easy; point-and-click is indeed easy. But if you try to destroy the core of a champion because it is so easy, you also destroy the entire champion.

Also, when you look at bot and the support picks Lulu, how do you feel? Don't you want to dodge because the champion can't even help the adc not getting one shoted? I feel useless when i play my favorite champion because damage is way to high. The essence of enchanters is to keep someone in the team (most of the time the adc) from getting one shot and to provide cc. What if I can't even do what the champion was created for? I am supposed to counter assassins! Now, because damage is too high, i cant even counter anyone. I get one shoted before i can even cast a spell. I am supposed to counter most of the tank support because i can poke (if i dont get cc'd we're supposed to win), but i cant even get close to anyone because they deal more damage with a SINGLE AUTO ATTACK than me with my whole Lulu combo. What's even the point of picking an enchanter anymore if you know you're going to get countered by the champ you counter? There is no use. Guess i'll just pick brand and one shot everyone !

But hey, enchanters are so easy to play, nerf them more. Riot :Oh no, no one wants to play the game and people keep quiting! We know what to do! If adc keep getting one shoted, we'll do just everything to nerf the people peeling for them and dying for them. [sg-soraka]

-Someone who's sad. I just want to play enchanters and not want to delete the game after everysingle ranked, sorry for my english btw

61 Comments

Rathar Dashing12/16/2018, 6:07:36 AM8 votes

I agree with you entirely. Being an enchanter in this meta feels so terrible, especially since the ADC we're trying to support doesn't really do anything early, and we're better off enchanting ourselves than our glorified cannon minion.

Luckily we've got some forbidden idol item buffs coming our way very soon. Some more early CDR on forbidden Idol itself, and the same healing % shielding power we lost in the last nerf for its completed items.

We're not getting back our shield durations, and honestly that still feels super bad as Janna & Karma, but at least it's a start.

They did say that after this small change that they'd look into certain enchanters specifically. This probably won't include my Sona, Janna & Nami, but you'll probably see some more love for Lulu, Soraka, and maybe even Taric.

Ionian Vulpix12/16/2018, 2:53:27 PM8 votes

Formerly a Sona main and have multiple M7 enchanters. Yeah, they feel like crap. I've always thought Luluu was a lot harder than people gave her credit for because she has so much she can do with her kit and so little time to do it. Do I shield an ally or damage an enemy to better reposition Pix, do I speed boost our engage or peel theirs, do I ult our tank for the extra knockup or save it for defense?

People always thought all they could do was press E to shield, and they can succeed at the most basic level there. But there's so much more they can do. But now they're too weak to do anything.

LightIsMyPath12/16/2018, 1:23:12 PM6 votes

So true. The other day I had a Vayne ADC and an Yi jungle. Enemy team had pyke, fizz and rengar. I was like "hey lulu is going to be a great pick here" boy I was wrong.. Vayne kept getting one-shotted through both my shield, ulti and exhaust.. I was mid and after he got a sheen and sorcerer boots fizz would just jump me and delete me under turret every single time my exhaust was not up, through the knock-up, the poly and my extra hp. I was like "wtf" half my hp from his r, almost 1/3 from ignite, the other part from his q, one auto and electrocute. I mean.. Ok I failed to dodge the shark but my champion is literally designed to survive that kind of thing (or make someone else survive). She can't do anything else beside being a small annoyance in the early laning. If I can't prevent enough damage to avoid a kill why should I play her? The next time I was put support I just went dh zyra.. 4/0 in the first 10 minutes and able to 1vs 1 everyone in the enemy team except the fed eve

Dorans Pants12/16/2018, 2:19:57 AM5 votes

The problem I see is that riot themselves always played it safe with enchanters. This stems from the fact that Riot neither had an idea where to push the role nor any interest in working on them. For that reason they are all very samey and innovation and experimentation have been usually reserved for reworks, new champs or different classes.

So I my opinion this class can only be fixed when the underlying problems are fixed first. That means defining their core identities more which goes further than the stats their shields give to the adc. Furthermore most (not all) key abilities should have a mechanical dimension to it, or example, Lulu´s pix mechanic is quite interesting but extends only to her Q, the least important skill in her repertoire, while her most important and frequently used abilities are all point and click.

there should be something to master that is unique to the champion like how playing around your shadows as Zed is different than planning your Ws and Rs as Ekko. Right now most enchanters rely on the most basic mechanics, positioning and makro which can be applied to most champs and the few mechanics that could be seen as unique like soraka´s health sacrifice, sonas´ auras or nami´s W-multihit don´t offer enough input on the player´s end or are not reliable enough as that the player can feel like he is making a meaningful decision. In turn, these abilities can´t be balanced around that

In the end, we do not only need unique mechanics but also mechanics that are somewhat dependent on the player´s input. Enchanters often suddenly appear or become completely irrelevant depending on outside forces because the class itself isn´t very flexible. It´s often just a distribution of stats and if those stats are sufficient then they become viable but fall out off viability as soon as those stats can´t carry them anymore. I guess the thing it can the easiest compared to is outplay-potential, where a good player can still be effective even with a crappy champ, which doesn´t really work with enchanters right now, since there aren´t any mindgames, or incredible mechanical maneuvers that can be pulled, because their most important aspect is point and click with cc being the only defining factor to differentiate a mediocre support player from an extraordinary one.

So, in summary, I would rework most enchanters while leaving one as the vanilla option and center their playstyles around different shielding/healing mechanics which would demand proper input from the player. If this groundwork was done other abilities could be adjusted to correct skill floor or power lvls or to make them even more destinct from each other.

Edit: forgot to mention: fix the champs first, then balance the items with them in mind. It doesn´t make any sense to do it the other way around. They tried to balance a whole class with items alone, which was just stupid.

tdlr: they all need a rework

Baby Ghoul12/16/2018, 6:36:47 AM4 votes

I'm an enchanter main as well (Soraka, Lulu, and Nami), and I feel the same as you do, but I don't necessarily think that enchanters are in the worst spot out of all classes. Only a few enchanters are very difficult to play right now like Karma and Lulu. Others like Janna, Soraka, Sona, and Nami are holding up pretty well.

That doesn't mean games aren't frustrating though. The insane amount of damage floating around out there is hard to deal with. Assassins had to always go through you first, which I would always be prepared for. Now they can completely bypass enchanters and one-shot whoever you are protecting and get away without any consequences due to their overloaded kits. The only thing that can punish them effectively every time is a mage support due to their damage, and it isn't about if they're fed or not either.

I think the worst part of this new meta is the laning phase though. Some ADCs are extremely weak and get bullied out of lane way too easily. When you're trying to make things happen in lane against a mage support, it sucks if you're stuck with a Tristana or Ezreal. The mage support can outdamage both ADCs with just a few spells and support items now.

Ontop of all this, there are just so many early game champions that do not fall off anymore, which makes your struggle early game feel even more pointless. Outside circumstances are making things feel worse.

I'd like to see a class update, but I don't like any of the recent releases by Riot lately. They're just creating champions that can do everything and it ends up creating more problems. I wouldn't want to see a class of enchanters made by the people who made Pyke, Zoe, or Neeko. The direction that league is going overall is just bad.

Daddy Ants12/16/2018, 6:07:08 PM3 votes

Sona Nami are strong.

Rest are mediocre at best.

JeaneGreene12/16/2018, 4:29:59 PM2 votes

You need a far different mindset to play enchanter supports now, compared to before. It is less about trying to shield your ally and more about preventing the damage from even being dealt to your ally.

Abuse me12/16/2018, 10:54:49 AM2 votes

[deleted]

MorgManBasher12/16/2018, 1:44:46 PM2 votes

As a support main, enchanters were/are pretty brain dead in my opinion (at least once you got 45% CDR and just spammed your shield on your adc perma with ardent....super brain dead)

That being said, I do love/miss Lulu. Her damage in laning phase against the right match up is pretty nuts tbh, but yeah she blows up and gets out ranged by most things, while also getting all-in'd by tank supports easily.

I still think Nami is pretty strong though, probably one of the few champions left that builds item 3504 worth playing.

Another champ I miss that I use to main but I feel he's just kinda bad into most bot lane matchups is Zilean ...this dude got me Diamond but he is just too weak to survive bot lane currently unless the enemy bot is playing more passive supports. I can still play him, but I use to be able to blind pick him, feelsbad. I only really play him into tank supports mostly Braum Alistar Leona Taric

Currently pretty much only play Fiddlesticks Zyra Xerath Leona Alistar Nami
Sometimes I'll play Brand if they are super heavy melee HP stackers, but overall I prefer Zyra .

ModJikker12/17/2018, 4:05:17 PM2 votes

Hey guys,

I've done a bit of clean-up on this thread. Please remember the Golden Rule and leave any Rank Shaming, Harassment, Insults, and Inflammatory Comments off the discussion.

Thanks

[poppy-wink]

Bisaknosp12/16/2018, 7:14:00 PM1 votes

{quoted}

i cant even get close to anyone because they deal more damage with a SINGLE AUTO ATTACK than me with my whole Lulu combo.

i agree with many things on your post but this is straight up bullshit lulus early damage is pretty high tbh ofc late game this aint the case anymore (but it shouldnt be haha at least on support lulu) the shield nerfs combined with the item and the base stats nerfs of last year were just overkill for a support like lulu who needs to get a little bit closer than janna/sona/nami

Minimac20002/18/2020, 5:33:00 PM1 votes

Just play any of your champions top and carry the game for free. But yeah, they are "weak" for sure, what a joke

King Lego12/16/2018, 3:28:11 PM1 votes

Yeah...I'm sorry but the shield nerfs was well deserved for your class. It was so broken that it was just free LP to diamond. What you said proves it enough. "I went from B3 to D3 in those 3 years by playing mostly enchanters"

Shield spamming and champions like Janna was what caused the bot lane problem, where no matter which lane does well, bot lane only makes an impact.

I remember playing a match where a Janna just spammed so much shields on her MF ADC and made our damage nothing as if we didn't even had items. I was Vel'Koz (a true damage champion) with a master yi (also true damage), Maokai and a bot (I forgot who). That match gave me a headache because of how stupid it was to an extent I flamed the enemy team to oblivion and even reported them.

I even play Sona support (plus Braum) when I get autofilled support. Before the nerf it was mostly auto-win.

The enchanter class has no problem. You just need to time your shields. However, with the too much damage problem on the loose and even worse, not even tanks can do their own roles anymore.