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Our idea of what a support is, is outdated.

Escheton·12/17/2018, 5:48:43 PM·7 votes·4,123 views

Most of us are clearly still operating under the idea that there are 4 lanes, so someone has to make due with less gold, and as such less power or agency. Because that is how the game meta started out.

It didn't take long before utility champions started aiding the squishy ADC because they were squishy and needed to take turrets. The adc scaled better with gold, and some champions didn't need much to be functional. And some loved being helpful, and thrifty and strategic from an under-farmed position. Most people however, don't enjoy playing this way.

Wards changed over time, support items came and went. But this basic premise remained.

And queue times suffered for it. As anyone around during Teambuilder would tell you. Queuing as support took about 5 seconds, while any other role took 5 minutes, if not significantly more. And even today, people claim they would rather wait half an hour than be auto-filled.

It makes sense however for Riot to avoid these 30 minute queue times, while also trying to give non-support mains options. The more games you play, the faster you grow tired of your new skin and get another. Basic business right?

So they seem to be currently moving towards making support champions, that function as well as a solo laner, on a gold/level budget. Be it assassin , mage, or otherwise.

It actually solves a problem the game has been having. And I am having trouble seeing why people are losing their shit over it.

TL:DR= Supports no longer have to be underfed runts, so everyone can enjoy the role, so we don't have to wait in queue because noone wants to play support.

25 Comments

doiminat0r360012/17/2018, 5:53:02 PM10 votes

I don't think the idea of a support is outdated as much as it's just not viable/meta anymore. I can't remember the last time I saw a Janna, Soraka, Lulu, or Zilean in standard games. Probably because they are forced out by the fact damage is so high right now, they can't defend against it and it's better to have 5 champions that can 1 shot the enemy rather than 4.

At this point, gold and levels and effeciency goes out the window. As soon as damage became really high and really cheap, real supports were shoved out and mages were put in the bot lane.

Dasdi9612/17/2018, 7:26:28 PM4 votes

Well, this philosophy is a cause for the insane damage creep. These "supports" have extreme base damages so they will always be a damage threat even when feeding. Meanwhile, a marksman who is behind is only 1/2 a champion until 3 items.

JackMcSnipeyz12/17/2018, 6:44:35 PM4 votes

Supports, besides enchanters, always had agency, the days of supports being just a warding bot are long gone. Just think how long ago thresh has been in the game, one of the highest play making CHAMPION in the game with tons of agency through out all the game.

The problem is with the recent trends is those "supports" dont support, they get the power of a midlaner assassin/mage without the risk of trying to cs, control wards (since it's a 2 player lane) and they are usually just standing behind only to trade easily because that's literally all they have to do in lane.

This would be fine, if their damage power reflected that, but they more often then not out damage dedicated mid laners and carries on a support's budget.

Thresh, Blitz, Braum, Sona - all are designed as supports so their kit power is all around balanced, their uniquness is their utility and play making, brand and pyke are assassins disguised as supports who forfeit the burden of knowing how to lane while keeping the power of a solo laner.

Just because they have the support tag doesnt mean they are immune to power creeping.

rtbf22165141212/17/2018, 7:47:55 PM3 votes

{quoted}

Most of us are clearly still operating under the idea that there are 4 lanes, so someone has to make due with less gold, and as such** less power or agency**.

Even in the MMORPG era. supports never had less agency. In fact, they were the reason nobody wiped.

Baby Ghoul12/17/2018, 8:26:05 PM3 votes

Enchanters do have agency and a great Thresh can get a lot done period.

When the ADC is not playing well, you work to get through laning phase so you can go and get things done around the map.

The mindset around here that ADCs are the Pharaohs of bot lane and supports must be sealed in a tomb with them is pretty funny. That has never been the case for supports. Its always better to roam and let them farm so they can at least be relevant in team fights.

This bot meta isn't a result of Riot's master plan for supports, it is a side effect of the damage increase across the board, but more importantly it is regressive.

If anything the new meta has caused supports to be even more closely tied to their ADC than before because they simply cannot function on their own with all the damage. Even a mage support needs to pay closer attention to how their ADC is doing so they don't feed something else that has high damage and a broken kit. Everyone is doing more damage, not just mage supports.

ADCs aren't becoming obsolete. They're buffing ADCs to compensate for the mage support problem that has developed as a consequence of damage increase across the board. It is a problem that early game champions don't fall off anymore, but they still don't hold a candle to an ADC main that hits full build, like it or not.

The mage support issue isn't a new development either. There have been periods of mage supports getting out of control and Riot coming to nerf them to more acceptable levels. Zyra defined a meta, and even created a group of infamous low elo MF support players that still persist to this day because they don't understand it was a PRO situational pick to deal with how oppressive her plants were and worked well with Ashe at the time. They just saw it and thought, "pros did this, I'll do this."

Pyke is also getting hit with nerfs.

Josh Sand12/18/2018, 6:50:21 PM2 votes

The support role suffers from a number of things. Yea people like to do damage, but that's just one aspect of Support's ability to contribute.

Damage aside, people really like having agency and improving towards mastery. And the support role is really lacking in those two metrics, when you look at every other role in this game.

Yes, the Support role has Thresh and Pyke. Two high skill ceiling champions that are basically initiators with average to poor peeling. (I would put Taric as a close second to these guys in terms of agency and mastery, but he's ultimately gated by his team's ability to capitalize on his ultimate.)

When you look at every other role in this game, there contain an embarrassing amount of high-agency, high-mastery champions, compared to Support.

Akali, Azir, Aatrox, Irelia, Riven, Yasuo, Fiora, Cassiopeia, Gangplank, Katarina, Zed, LeBlanc, Lee Sin, Nidalee, Graves, Kindred, Kayn, Kai'Sa, Vayne, Kalista, among others.

There are no support champions that can have the impact that most of these champions have on a game, because support champion updates and design has languished while the pace of the game has been sped up exponentially.

The support role has basically been boiled down to:

Hook man Shield lady High-Base-damage mage

The role is stale because the designs within it are stale. Soraka, Lulu, and Janna are annoying to play against because they are such binary champions. You lose to them purely because of the spells that they have, not how those spells are actually used.

I would love to see riot implement some actual mastery into enchanters and vanguards, but they spend all of their creative capital creating broken champions for the solo lanes, so Im not really holding my breath.

creatureplex2/29/2020, 12:58:38 AM1 votes

Match me against any adc with a leona name thresh I feel I have a shot no matter what you got a xerath it's like well this lane is loss hug my turret and wait till mid game 4 get trading when level 1 pillar of flame melts my minion wave and possibly half my fucking health bar.

Power Cosmic12/17/2018, 8:06:23 PM1 votes

It has become clear the champs that "make the game," or create the opportunity for kills and winning fights are the real carries bc everyone does awesome damage. Which is not exactly the best structure, sexy awesome carries should carry late, other champs add value however their kits dictate they do so.