What is the benefit of taking a non traditional support?

Too Ton·Jun 22, 2016·3 votes·1,237 views

People who choose poppy, shen, maokai, etc support? Except for a fun factor, what other benefit is there? Do they look for outscaling the other support? Aren't supports used for cc or ...

16 Comments

67chromeJun 22, 20162 votes

What is the benefit of taking a non traditional support?

Some of them might be stronger than a traditional support.

One of the cool things about LoL is that the game lets you run any champion in any lane with any rune settup with any mastery settup with any 2 summoner spells, where you can rank skills in any order and purchase pretty much any item in any order you want.

If you feel a champion is a good support due to their mechanics and play-style, then you're free to play them.

If nothing else: Riot has pushed the game into a place where a lot of tanks and mages are as competitive as traditional supports in the same roll, with the gold generation items and passive GP/10 allowing fairly item-reliant champions to function reliably. Riot has also made a lot of nonsensical and counter-intuitive changes to traditional supports, nerffing a lot of their strengths within the support position and making them even, if not worse, at the job then a wide range of mages and tanks.

ErockandrollJun 22, 20162 votes

As a support main, I usually look to non traditional picks usually to experiment with them. And before doing so, I usually ask these questions.

What would make this champ a good support? Does he have mechanics that don't make him as gold/xp reliant? Or does he have mechanics that work well in the duo lane?
Why would I pick this champ as a support, over another? Does he offer something no other Support offers?

Believe it or not, I picked up shen support, well before the LCS took notice to him. Prior to his mini rework, His blade offered a healing mechanic that worked with your allies attacks. (The post reworked Shen would also be decent, thanks to the invulnerability, but it's harder to pull off) Also, since he's an Energy champion, he could stay in lane a lot longer than his opponents. But the main attraction, was his ult, it gave Global pressure to a support.

This in mind, I do feel like it has fell off. With is ult being the center piece of his kit, you have to ask, how much is that actually worth? And it's worth a little less to a support since he will have fewer items. And it would some times mean abandoning your ADC for a bit. And on top of that, Tahm kench dug into that niche, Though his ult isn't global, he can bring the ADC with him. Giving him much stronger map pressure on a supports kit.

DediguiseJun 22, 20162 votes

Ironically the champs you listed are all tanky supports. They are not nontraditional, they are just out of the meta. They are all also effective top laners. Shen's rework made Support Shen even more viable than it was before, and it was being used in the LCS prerework. In fact I think shen is a stronger support than top laner atm.

I would also argue that having a champion that the opponents are unfamiliar with increases the chances of misplays. With bot lane as snowball reliant as it currently is, this strategy seems particularly effective in the current meta.

Finally these support all have strengths that make games more dynamic. Shen can gank other lanes or tp onto stealthed allies. Poppy can disengage the entire enemy team or split them apart. Maokai offers insane cc and dive potential. These picks are less designed to counter the enemy team and more to capitalize on the allied teams strengths.

AbyssphereJun 22, 20162 votes

"Aren't supports used for cc or ..."

Sometimes, yes. That's why all of the champions you listed have strong CC on their kit.

It's important to be open-minded with "non-traditional" supports, because it is often the case that champions not designed for support end up finding their way into the role. I bet nobody expected Trundle support to become meta, but it's an accepted role for him now. Morgana and Zyra were designed for mid, but support primarily now, etc.

Off-meta supports don't always work out, so they are a gamble, but as long as a champion has some stuff useful for the support role then it's a good idea to take an open mind with you into the game. I mean, Poppy and Shen have been used in the LCS as supports, so why not in norms?

Papa SlothyJun 22, 20162 votes

sometimes people just enjoy that champ more, but often it's because of the CC or utility that they provide i.e. shen can negate auto attacks AND taunt while also being a global support with his ulti (pretty fancy stuff)

Friendly RamJun 23, 20162 votes

Generally to screw with certain matchups or keep the enemy guessing.

Mysticman89Jun 23, 20162 votes

Off the top of my head, the only champions that offer no utility through their skills whatsoever are Katarina , Lucian , and MasterYi , and I've seen all 3 of those done before (citing death as the best cc), although I do feel like they were more or less trolling.

Everyone else does something that could be useful to support in some way or form, although often there's alternative (typically more meta) champs who can do similar things more reliably.

SaltyKrackaJun 23, 20162 votes

Cheese potential.

That's all.

ZielmannJun 22, 20161 votes

Generally I see these most when the support and ADC are queued together. These supports typically offer solid CC and other utility (all three you mentioned certainly do; shen and poppy have even both seen competitive play as support in the past). I think the main reason for it is to throw a curveball at the enemy team. It makes them play against a lane they've likely not had to deal with before, so they might make some mistakes simply because they don't know the matchup very well. The reason most do this when queued with an ADC is so that they know the ADC will be on the same page as them, and probably used to playing with that particular support. The curveball loses some of its punch when it also throws off your own ADC because they don't know how to play with that support champ.

ChroudJun 22, 20161 votes

For me it Depends on the others teams comp. Some times a non traditional support is better because it works better in team fights and not as well in lane phase.

MalfiniJun 22, 20161 votes

If you are referring to traditional supports as shields/heals/buffs compared to CC, then some like to choose non-traditional supports to act like a backup when your ADC or someone in the team feeds. In the case of Morgana or or Zyra , those champs can change from defense to offense.

OleandervineJun 25, 20161 votes

{quoted}

If you are referring to traditional supports as shields/heals/buffs compared to CC, then some like to choose non-traditional supports to act like a backup when your ADC or someone in the team feeds. In the case of or or , those champs can change from defense to offense.

Morgana and Zyra were both developed to be secondary supporters, and in recent years, Morgana and Zyra have been almost solely played as Support, to the point where they are traditional support. Brand, Annie, Veigar, and Vel'Koz, however, are new to the Support role and definitely considered non-traditional. Veigar, Annie, and Brand work amazingly well in the role because their kit has some built in very hard CC that can dramatically change the tide of the bottom lane because they not only can shut down ADCs, but they can punish them too.

baby reksaiJun 23, 20161 votes

Believe it or not before ashes rework i ran ashe support. And did dirty damage with automatic crits every 6-10 seconds.

BeldairJun 23, 20161 votes

You think those are off-meta...wait until You see Mordekaiser or Renekton support....

SolphinreeJun 25, 20161 votes

I've been seeing a lot of non traditional supports lately and i've had no problem at all with it. I find it very easy compared to a lane with a traditional support really. But, this could be because they may have not gotten their primary and have never played support role.

Best Valor NAJun 25, 20161 votes

a top lane main might have to play support because he picked fill or something, and what would you rather have, a skilled maoki or shen toplane filling as a support, or a garbage braum or thresh