Now the marksman update is about to be released, can we now turn to the supports?

Well, most of you knew that it was coming. And someone had to bring it up.

Tank supports generally are in a bad way. And this has been by design - due to so many other roles abusing support items. Targon's is but a shell of what it used to be - and the general tank nerfs did not help either. The remaining supports have become generally less impactful - as witnessed by the narrowing of the range of winrates across those champs who find their way into the support role. (Yes, some of the enchanters are somewhat okay - but let's look at the grand picture.)

So let's get to the point - could we start looking at supports, support items or an actual support ability tree? (Many of those support abilities are currently scattered somewhat randomly right now through the ability trees. ) Can we get some sense of the vision that Riot has for supports in the near future?

Some ideas.

1. Vision - Speaking of vision, now I know that sightstone is unlikely to return this patch, but why is it that supports are not being given items that enhance their actual vision? (I thought that supports were supposed to be the ones who actually were in control of most of the vision in the game.) Heck, a jungler (or assassin) with Duskblade and Oracle can disable more traps and wards than a support can. Quinn and Ashe can get vision from their abilities. By contrast, the support currently is forced to sit in the dark like a mushroom for the first quarter of the game waiting for him/her and their adc to be ganked. The current mission system is an exercise in masochism for supports - especially at lower tiers when you have adcs who cannot last hit for toffee. Even when the mission is done, the supports need to feel useful. So let's consider some items or abiltiies that could be attached to uniquely support items. How about a passive dust bomb that allows wards to be spotted? Or a special item that gives temporarily gives vision of stealthed and invisible champs that only the support can see? Give the supports an item or passive of similar calibre to a Duskblade so that they aren't sitting forever waiting for their Oracle to come up.

2. Survival and Rewards for being a Good BabySitter - Supports currently are the 300 gold minion sitting on botlane. If we are forced to hang around our adcs as they roam from lane to lane, sometimes taking farm from the jungle, at least give us something for babysitting. (Ever tried not paying your babysitter? Did you get them to come back and sit for your demon child again?)
   Here's one idea I really like - how about a cheaper version of Spellbinder that charges up when other champs nearby use their abilities? (Heck, that item might give some AD/AP or even a miniscule amount of health. The idea and algorithm is already present in the game with the Spellbinder item. This cheap support item could even be a recipe item that turns into something later. Heck, at least it solves the problem of having 3k less in gold than all the other champions on your roster heading into the 20 minute mark. ) And, how about actually giving the supports passive XP when they are near someone taking farm in the jungle? Nothing is more frustrating to supports when they have to play "Driving Miss Daisy" for their adc as they decide to run randomly through the jungle as they get XP and coin, but the support gets nada - except falls further behind in xp and gold - behind not just their team but the other team as well. (This kind of thing usually happens when your team is behind and losing objectives.)

3. Team Items - Items that improve their teammates nearby. They used to exist for supports - Abyssal Staff for example. Where have they gone? Bring them back. Just make sure that they don't stack so multiple team members can't use them. Something as simple as giving a very low item passive which improves the health regen/armor / MR increase to nearby teammates might encourage the supports to remain close to their teammates in team fights.

4. Attaching Future Support Items to the Starting Support Items - If it is possible to connect jungle items to the starting smite items/ability, why is it not possible to do the same for supports?

5. A True Disabling Item - if the Support is going to have less damage due to the fact that a Warding Item is going to fill a spot, then why not acknowledge this and consider giving the support something in exchange for less damage? How about an item which has a passive that reduces the damage but significantly increases their cc potential? It could either increase cc or stun duration OR it could change their abilities so that a CC could be a consequence of the ability use. It would open up the room for other champions to find their way into support role. And let's be honest, real crowd control supports have been few and far between in recent years.

6. Pings - Glad that we finally have a "vision here" ping. And that was a long time coming. How about one that suggests that the jungler is here/coming - not just a "be careful"? (A silhouetted figure/tree in a red circle would be fine.) And let's replace that MIA ping with the question mark with something a bit more meaningful. Too often it is getting abused by jerks in game who are using it to shame their teammates - using it like a "WTF?" comment on their teammates actions.

7. Targon's - Do I have to say it? When you see the Thresh and Taric players migrating to coin, it should tell you that Targon's is just not that great right now. (And it really can take an insanely long time to complete that support mission on the Targon line of items.) Can it be really that hard to fix it?

Just tossing out some ideas. And hopefully some of them might prove viable.

But I would really like to emphasize that it is time that some proper thought was given to the other part of the botlane formula.