@riot Ideas to help the support role and position. please read as it's short, but in-depth
Remove sightstone from the item shop and all of it's variations. Why? because it's being used as an excuse to flame players who play support champions or in the support lane. it promotes negative behaviors in the community as well as having an effect that is not considered beneficial by the game as far as gold and xp gain is concerned. i realize vision is beneficial to the team, but doing so effectively is not rewarding to the support and often goes unnoticed.
remove income items and their variations. why? because the advantage of passive gold is and has always been one that is unnoticed and often abused. the idea that using these income items to make up the difference between 1 build versus another is not improving the play style of the support role or class and is instead hindering balance by allowing champions who would normally need a hefty supply of gold to succeed the tools needed to oppress the original audience for the items.
my solution is to instead have a 4th mastery skill tree that is called "supportive" and fills the needs of the support role regardless of champion. then the support items could have their stats all reworked to give enchanter and defender type specific passives and actives. many of which already have.
the bonuses granted in the supportive tree will be things like
turning the warding trinket into a sightstone.
sixth sense makes enemy wards shimmer periodically while stealthed
earning an assist rewards double xp and gold
healing an ally heals you for a percentage of the amount
remaining out of combat for a period of time grants bonus cooldown reduction
wind speakers blessing
standing in river grants health and mana regen based on missing health and mana when below 50% health or mana.
eating a honey fruit heals your allies around you instead
gain movement speed when moving towards an allied champion
revive faster
reduce summoner spell cooldown
gold for being near allies killing minions
passive gold
and then the keystones would be the new quests for the income items along with the gold allotment.
by making these or similar changes to the mastery tree and item shop the support role will have its key focus points maintained without the fear of champions abusing items and then selling them for a trade off. i also think that cull should be included as a mastery skill perk.
masteries cannot be exchanged mid match and as such are the perfect place to put foundation mechanics and gameplay tactics that are encouraged or enforced by either riot or the community.
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