The support role needs some love. I have a suggestion! @RiotMeddler

Voidbringers··3 votes·800 views

The Support Role needs some love. It's not only the least popular role, but it's also the reason behind longer queue times. I saw this post on the boards and I think it really deserves some extra attention:

I believe Sightstone has a direct impact on making support the least desirable class to play as for many players. The problem is that it doesn't feel rewarding to buy even though it is quite valuable. Buying it feels like a gold sink to the most gold-starved class. You may have just been effectively poking the other marksman in lane and hoping to come back to continue that pressure but... they went back and bought too... and now they are actually stronger and you have to be more scared of them than they are of you. People don't want to be, essentially, forced to buy an item that makes them feel as though they aren't becoming more powerful. -Bonipherus (NA)

The biggest issue with the support role, in my opinion, is vision and the sightstone. The support role are the de facto ward bots. I don't see this changing because supports have always been the mastermind in the vision game. However, I think vision could still use some big changes. As it is right now, it's very hard to balance support items without making them too powerful in other lanes.

My idea is a very simple one. Why not make certain support items gated behind a summoner spell?

  1. Bring back the Clairvoyance summoner spell (adjust it though to make it more or less powerful)
  2. Add Green Wards back into item shop
  3. Remove the warding trinket but make it into a "ward slot"
  4. Retain the 3 Green and 1 Vision warding limit
  5. Green Wards are free for anyone with the Clairvoyance spell
  6. To buy Gold Income Items, you need to have the Clairvoyance spell. BAM, support items can actually be balanced around the support role now, not how strong the items will be in other lanes.

7 Comments

oSEXYPLATYPUSo2 votes

yea i wouldnt ever take clairvoyance over exhaust as a support

this is a support main

Voidbringers1 votes

Some kind of gate NEEDS to exist akin to jungler items being gated behind smite. Redemption and the other new support items are already being used in other lanes.

oSEXYPLATYPUSo1 votes

be that as it may... i wouldnt take CLAIRVOYANCE OVER EXHAUST

Voidbringers1 votes

Clairvoyance was just the example I provided. Here's the point I was getting at: there needs to be a summoner spell supports are required to take that would be near useless in other roles.

Think big picture here. Yes, exhaust is infinitely better than clairvoyance as it is. However, what if you were to come up with a completely new ability or add a passive to clairvoyance, thereby making it better? I'm going to make up a new summoner spell; Let's call it symbiosis. Like Kalista, you bond with an Ally at the start of the game. While near your bonded ally, you receive more XP and gold. You can activate Symbiosis to temporarily share your magic resist and armor stats, possibly even your health pool (that might be too op though). This item would also allow you access to the support items.

oSEXYPLATYPUSo1 votes

yet i dont think their is an issue for supports

i find the issue with the community being a bunch of whiney ass crybabies

khorney1 votes

no one likes to supp period, hey just supp for a draven who has not played 1 adc game in the past 40 games and it showed so i trolled after he didnt follwo when i pinged as well as running away from teamfigths so i trolled by going ap and helped mid and top

Voidbringers1 votes

Not true, some people enjoy the support role, myself included. We might be the minority, but we do -in fact- exist. I just feel some of the design decisions for the support role are archaic.

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