Increasing mastery and strategy for the support role [More options for items and sightstone]

PREMISE: it's the third time I open this discussion about supports. Despite the good feedback, it's look hard to get the discussion rolling. Most people agree with the changes as well as with the motivations behind them, but due to support low popularity , it's hard to gather a crowd :P This said, sorry if you are reading this for the third time, but it's something I think has great potential so I'll try to gather some more feedback posting it around every 2-3 weeks. After all, we are still in preseason, the PBE is probably on hiatus, and jungle changes are continously flowing, so there isn't much to discuss there that isn't already being tested. Now, a small too long; didn't read.

TL;DR=Supports need more options, rather than more raw power. Sightstone upgrades and enchantment increase slot efficiency and strategy . Upgrades define strategy, Enchantments define role.

Items from the support line now have a passive alternative as their third tier upgrade. The passive is focused around the same goal, but with a different approach.

Season 4 gave us a peculiar but fun and interesting option to itemize as support players, and while I agree with Riot priorities in tending to junglers in the preseason, it's evident enough the shared feeling about the need of more choices as support players. In this excellent post by Pyro(EUNE) , the author explains the problem with support itemization, and his take at a possible solution.

I basically agree on everything he says about strategy and lack of choice, but I wanted to make another post about a possible itemization update for supports as we digress on just two thing,Aura items being impossible to implement without promoting "power without gameplay" and the need for sightstones to be gold efficient. Here's my thought on both those points.

#Sightstone: enchantment and upgrades My idea about sightstone enchantment is quite the opposite to the same concept applied to Machete items. For machete items, the item defines your strategy, and the enchant the stats you need for that strategy on your champion. Sightstone, however, is centered about holding wards, and providing vision, and it's essentially a support only item, as the only champion building it in competitive are jungler with poor scalings or overloaded kits. Plus, when warding the sightstone is cost efficient by itself. This means that adding stats to sightstone as an enchantment will make it a valuable pick for any jungler that can scale with that stat (and eventually sell it only lategame for a sixth item). In my opinion it's fine for a non-support to get a sightstone, but my idea revolves around the concept that the sightstone price efficiency is calibrated around the gameplay and disadvantages of sharing a lane. Here's how to prevent solo laners and junglers to abuse sightstone, will still making them able to pick it for vision needs.

1. Sightstone will become a starter item, as other support items, but with zero stats, and the ability to store only 3 wards and place 2, at the cost of 400 gold
2. Sightstone upgrades are purchased by gold, but only available when enough gold has been farmed with any of the three support items . 3.Sightstone upgrades are tied to vision. They offer different options for your vision needs. Plus, purchasing an upgrade increases your max charges of Ghost Wards of 1 (4 total).
3. Sightstone enchantments are tied to role. They offer combat bonuses, and can be used to decrease the gap in the lategame against champions with more items (you will still be behind, but a little less). Plus, purchasing an enchantment increases your max charges of Ghost Wards of 1(5 total).

New Sightstone is green instead of blue, as it only offers normal stealth wards . OFC the icons would be tweaked to make it different from wards. It costs less than 500 gold(precise cost is useless in a discussion), and whoever laner , or jungler, wants to help his team with vision, can purchase it and place wards with it, with no hindrance, but, due to point 1, he will be unable to upgrade it. Now that is clear that laners won't pick the sightstone upgrades, here is how we can tune the item around support's playstyle. First of all, Sightstone means vision, and the first upgrades for sightstone will be available relatively early . Different support items grant a different amount of gold, and so your lane performance affects when you will be able to purchase your upgrades . This said, the item could have different gold required based on the efficiency of the support items in generating a gold income.

Once enough gold has been gained, the upgrades become available at the shop. As said, they are tied to vision, and they follow the same pattern as trinkets. Topaz Sightstone-VISION COVERAGE: Wards placed by this sightstone lasts 60 second more . Can place 1 ward more. Ruby Sightstone- REVEALING: Wards placed by this sightstone have true sight for the first 3 seconds, and enemy spotted by this wards will be revealed for the duration. **Sapphire Sightstone -SCOUTING **Wards placed by this sightstone have increased sight radius, and , for the first X seconds(long duration), they can see through walls.

As you can see, the upgrades reflect your strategy about warding and vision. Enchantments, however, are much more personal, and reflect how you do intend to play as a support. Enchantments are more expensive than upgrades, and don't grant any flat stat. However, their combat advantage grant a baseline presence into teamfights regardless.

Enchantment are named after the four elements, and provide combat bonuses Mobility Enchantment- WIND http://wow.zamimg.com/images/wow/icons/large/spell_nature_cyclone.jpg : Grants increased movespeed when moving toward allies, or fleeing from enemies. Can benefit from both sources at the same time. Defense Enchantment- EARTH http://wow.zamimg.com/images/wow/icons/large/spell_nature_earthshock.jpg : Gains damage reduction for each enemy champion within a certain range. Reduces slightly the damage of enemy attacking you for a short duration . Sustain Enchantment-WATER http://wow.zamimg.com/images/wow/icons/large/spell_nature_riptide.jpg : Gains % of missing health and mana regen, increasing greatly out of combat. Damage Enchantment-FIREhttp://wow.zamimg.com/images/wow/icons/large/spell_fire_flamebolt.jpg :Ignores a small percentage of the enemy resistances. Each few seconds, damaging an enemy will apply a DoT for % of their current health

Those bonuses are mostly revolving around percentages, or require allies and enemies to work, or are time gated. While being average or less in term of raw efficiency, they improve the slot efficiency of the sightstone , while the percentage components means they will stay relevant throughout all the games. On top of that, I tried to enchantments as generic as they could be. Let's make an example with a popular support, Leona . The upgrade choice is completely irrilevant to her combat, and thus she can choose freely. When it comes to enchantments, she has actually different options. Earth scales well with her base resistances. Fire could be lethal in conjuction with her combo damage and lockdown. Water is great if she wants to start roaming between lanes and objectives against a team that splits often. Choosing the correct upgrades for the correct game, or the correct enchant at the correct time will increase the mastery required to play support, make the role more rewarding , fun, and interesting

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#Support and Gold items

Most, if not all supports take a support item, and since they build in only 1 item, the endgame builds are stale. (Check Pyro post here as he explains it really well). My idea to work around this is simple:** create a second item for each starter, with the same recipe, with a different PASSIVE effect.** As with the current items, , the passives will be something useful teamwide. However, to avoid the same issues of aura items such as Aegis, they will only be strong in certain conditions. Basically, I refrain from using auras like the old Will of the Ancients, and try a different approach that mimicks the item actives, and applies that same concept in a different scenario. This way, picking the correct endgame support item will once again be a test of your understanding of the teamfight ahead, and how you plan to tackle the game. Experience and role mastery will have a weight, where now you buy Face of the Mountain just because it's better than having a Targon bracer. The items will have the same stats as their Active counterpart, but with a different name and icon, (and passive effect in place of an active, of course).

MOBILITY Desert's Compass Way of the silk: This unit, and nearby allies, have increased movement speed out of combat. This bonus stacks until a cap.

The Talisman alternative is of course still tied to mobility, but , unlike Talisman, it provides a weaker, but consistent bonus: The difference in strategy is more pronunciated than what it looks like. Talisman allows for quick escapes and engages. On the other hand, the Compass makes team really fast when wandering between objectives, switching lanes, or moving in general. This item would be best picked by teams who plan to rotate between lanes or roam the jungle a lot securing buffs and objectives while picking separated enemies.

DEFENSE Aspis of the Rakkors Aura- Shield raised : This unit, and the nearest ally unit, takes reduced physical damage. Damage from criticals effect is reduced even more.

This passive sacrifices the ranged, flat value of Deadly Phalanx for a prolonged effect that is more efficient if 2 conditions are met: protected unit and support can stay close , and the enemy is a physical damage dealer. The idea behind this is quite simple: Face of the mountain is related to targon, Pantheon is inspired by spartans. This passive works like the phalanx unit of the spartans, a man protecting the man near him . Of course, the critical damage reduction is just a bonus toward the enemies like Zed, Yi, Fiora or Tryndamere, but the critical damages will still deal a lot of damage. While more efficient, it's still better for the adc to just run away from the enemy and gain distance, but doing so removes the damage mitigation from the item. However, supports like Alistar, Braum,Leona and Thresh, are commonly found either near their adc peeling for him, or on top of the enemy to apply cc. This means that, at least for them, the bonus is always worth, as they couldn't be able to defend both them and their adc with FotM active. However, FoTM is still highly effective against burst mages or in a case where your adc, or whoever needs the shield, cannot stay close to you.

CROWD CONTROL Rapier of the Ice Dervish Numbing Icicles: Spells cast by nearby allies refund a % of mana on hit. Plus, when expending a charge of Tribute , the enemy is also slowed by a small% for a average duration, and will take % additional magic damage, stacking. If 3 stacks are applied to the same unit, the third stack will grant 3 times the damage increase,and increase the duration.

This passive is probably the easier to read. It's made for sieging, and while being much weaker than its active counterpart, the aura of mana refund can make stalling under turrets quite difficult. On top of that, the passive bonus when expending tribute can creates some cool moments: the %damage increase of a charge is not enough for be rewarding, but enough to be meaningful in a siege. On the other hand, stacking 3 charges on a champion will make him extremely vulnerable to magic. This means that diving the wielder of the Rapier , or ignoring his focues harass, can put the engager in a very bad scenario when he will find himself in the enemy team with the support dead, but taking significant magic damage from all sources. I tried to make the slow meaningful as the current iteration of Arctic Embrace, with a 80% slow,is quite strong. However, I also diluted it over a longer time window and easier availability.

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TL;DR=Supports need more options, rather than more raw power. Sightstone upgrades and enchantment increase slot efficiency and strategy . Upgrades define strategy, Enchantments define role.

Items from the support line now have a passive alternative as their third tier upgrade. The passive is focused around the same goal, but with a different approach.