Support Appreciation and Post-game Statistics

Qubitz·Nov 23, 2016·2 votes·763 views

Overview There's been a lot of talk recently about why supports are played less frequently and how Riot can help encourage summoners to volunteer for the role ;). While I don't have all the answers, I do think that post-game statistics neglect the power of supports and can provide confusing conclusions.

Recommendations

Wards I thank Riot for displaying the ward count on the new beta client post-game, but a more in depth breakdown of vision is required. The count of champions spotted via wards, the amount of vision provided (area of vision multiplied by time?), and traps disabled will give supports statistics to improve upon in future games. In addition, these statistics allow all summoners to compare themselves against opponents and allies. Give supports something to brag about besides assists. I took heavy inspiration from Vantage League's vision statistics. A coaching session with Kubz and the Trinity Force Network is an excellent demonstration of the level of detail Vantage was able to achieve in their system. As a side note, it has been noted by others that control wards do not affect the ward count.
Crowd control It is rare in the support role that a supporting champion will not have crowd control. Alistar, Leona, Thresh, Blitzcrank, Janna, Nami, to name a few, have massive amounts of crowd control that can make or break laning phase and team fights (here's to you bad Alistar players). Yet, no graph, number, or any other indication demonstrates crowd control statistics. As a support main, this is just heartbreaking and something I've been yearning since my inception as a support. Now I understand that many forms of crowd control exist; however, crowd control statistics can be categorized into their corresponding effects similar to the 'Damage Done' section in the post-game statistics.
Healing and shields There already exists a 'Healing done' statistic in the post-game screen, but I feel based off my experience and other posts that this statistic is not well understood and often provides meaningless data. This statistic is too broad of a concept to be handled by one checkbox. Items such as Guardian Angel result in 'Healing done', but lifesteal doesn't and neither does Garen's passive (OP, plz nerf :P ). An in-depth breakdown of healing done is imperative in order for confusion to be minimized not only for supports but for other roles as well. While we're on this topic I would like to bring up shields. Another corner stone of support utilization, shields are not represented anywhere in post-game statistics. Now, I can't say I play too many ally-driven supports (Lulu, Soraka, Karma, etc.), but these champions deserve their fair share of statistics as well (shoutout to all the clutch shield plays!).

Conclusion This post describes a lot concepts and suggestions of which I have not researched to their fullest extent. I'm passionate about getting more statistics for players who are looking to improve their gameplay utilizing comprehensive data. Due to the differing nature of crowd control, categorization will be difficult to implement and an in-depth vision system will be a complex task (I think). Regardless, I want to provide Riot with the opportunity to understand and hopefully address these issues to give more reasons for supports to be proud of their role and to attract other roles to our beloved hobby of being blamed for losing lane :P.

I'm looking forward to hearing the opinions of others on possible additions to the post-game statistics and critiquing upon my ideas.

TL;DR

More ward details (champions spotted, disables, control wards, etc.)
CC graphs (taunt duration, stun duration, etc.)
More healing details/clarity; add shield graph

10 Comments

MatthewRT2Nov 23, 20162 votes

i'd like to see how much i've healed and sheilded allies instead of seeing how much i have been healed

JyoeruNov 23, 20162 votes

Honestly, it's probably because supports are way too codependent upon the rest of their team for the most part. My games started going better when I went pure aggressive support, and there are only two with that ability: Brand and Zyra. The rest of them are totally unable to do anything without someone else around, which is really bad if you're supporting a very poor adc and related.

ErockandrollNov 23, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Honestly, it's probably because supports are way too codependent upon the rest of their team for the most part. My games started going better when I went pure aggressive support, and there are only two with that ability: Brand and Zyra. The rest of them are totally unable to do anything without someone else around, which is really bad if you're supporting a very poor adc and related.

I don't often find this the case. Mainly because I take over lane when the ADC fcks up. If I do that on a Utility mage like Karma or Lulu, I end up with APC level gold on a champ with AP scaling.

However, I don't enjoy tank support for that reason. The only way I get enough wave clear is if I purchase Sunfire.

OglafNov 23, 20162 votes

{quoted}

However, I don't enjoy tank support for that reason. The only way I get enough wave clear is if I purchase Sunfire.

I was playing Braum one game where my ADC fed and then ragequit shortly into the game.

It literally meant we were 3 v 5 rather than 4 v 5 because Braum simply can't lane vs. another ADC and their Support, so I ended up even further behind in levels and gold.

You often hear people say ADCs are dependant on their Supports, but rarely the opposite is talked about.

ErockandrollNov 23, 20162 votes

{quoted}

I was playing Braum one game where my ADC fed and then ragequit shortly into the game.

It literally meant we were 3 v 5 rather than 4 v 5 because Braum simply can't lane vs. another ADC and their Support, so I ended up even further behind in levels and gold.

You often hear people say ADCs are dependant on their Supports, but rarely the opposite is talked about.

It seems like an Arm's race to me, in the sense that the ADC only really needs the support, when the enemy ADC has theirs. However, that pretty much holds true in any 2v1 scenario. Most champs simply can't hold the lane 2v1.

The only champs who could hold 2v1 would be either a Tank who can take the harass but have plenty of AoE damage to clear, (think Sion) or a Siege mage who can hold the minion wave from out of range. But even those cases would be a stretch.

OglafNov 24, 20162 votes

{quoted}

It seems like an Arm's race to me, in the sense that the ADC only really needs the support, when the enemy ADC has theirs. However, that pretty much holds true in any 2v1 scenario. Most champs simply can't hold the lane 2v1.

The only champs who could hold 2v1 would be either a Tank who can take the harass but have plenty of AoE damage to clear, (think Sion) or a Siege mage who can hold the minion wave from out of range. But even those cases would be a stretch.

True that, but at least if I had raged so only the ADC was left, he/she could've done a better job at holding the lane under the tower I think. I mean, Braum has no AoE or nothin' to clear waves with. And ADC is still an ADC even without their Support.

[zombie-brand-clap]

JyoeruNov 23, 20162 votes

{quoted}

I don't often find this the case. Mainly because I take over lane when the ADC fcks up. If I do that on a Utility mage like Karma or Lulu, I end up with APC level gold on a champ with AP scaling.

However, I don't enjoy tank support for that reason. The only way I get enough wave clear is if I purchase Sunfire.

I'd love to know more about how you run your karma and lulu to where you can hold a lane against 2 decent (sometimes 3, but God forbid they towerdive, QQ) enemies. Karma I can kind of see, but the gold choke on supp really makes it hard to build those two up pre-6 to be able to carry a poor carry's lane.

{quoted}

You often hear people say ADCs are dependant on their Supports, but rarely the opposite is talked about.

Yep. And my favorite is now that I am a highly aggressive supp who has no problem getting all the kills is those times when I get yelled at for KS. It's rarer anymore. Seems like in lower ELO, lots of carries have respect for their supp when they know their lane is on autopilot for them. It's always the ones who complain about random stuff that seem to be so unable to handle their roles :(

As an aside, this is also the #1 reason why I stopped playing true support supports. I got so tired of being yelled at for not fixing or being able to fix an ADC's poor choices. Even worse is when you know it's a bad engage and you just peace out and let them die. At least with aggressive supports, I feel like I may not be able to fix my carry's mistakes, but I can sure capitalize on them afterwards. lol.

DemainaNyxNov 24, 20161 votes

I agree. It would be nice to have like a "Death's Prevented" stat or something like that. I've had games as Janna where you predict the incoming Rengar ult jump on your 100 health ADC or you get in range in time to ult and give them enough healing to survive. That or knocking Zac out of his slightshot as Thresh thus negates that incoming damage if it were to hit, so even a "Damage negated" stat would be something interesting that could apply to that or putting a shield on a champion.

Obviously I think the shield should only count when the shield absorbs damage. If I just place a shield on someone and they don't take damage, that shouldn't count to the stat.

The only issue I can see is maybe with Tahm devour or Thresh lantern. If you lantern someone away from enemies, you can't really calculate damage negated. You could maybe add a tick to death's prevented, but maybe not depending on who the person you're lanterning is.

QubitzNov 24, 20161 votes

I agree. It would be nice to have like a "Death's Prevented" stat or something like that. I've had games as Janna where you predict the incoming Rengar ult jump on your 100 health ADC or you get in range in time to ult and give them enough healing to survive. That or knocking Zac out of his slightshot as Thresh thus negates that incoming damage if it were to hit, so even a "Damage negated" stat would be something interesting that could apply to that or putting a shield on a champion.

A 'Deaths Prevented' statistic would be super nice and possibly doable. One algorithm for calculating 'saved' teammates consists of triggering when a teammate is at critical health, but survives while in the support's proximity. This algorithm has a few holes however.

Obviously I think the shield should only count when the shield absorbs damage. If I just place a shield on someone and they don't take damage, that shouldn't count to the stat.

Spamming shields for no rhyme or reason certainly does not benefit the receiver. Nonetheless, statistics like these can serve as a base line for comparisons. You might have shielded for 17,000 grey health total, but you may have only absorbed 5,000 damage. In other words, your shield timing is off and needs to be improved.

The only issue I can see is maybe with Tahm devour or Thresh lantern. If you lantern someone away from enemies, you can't really calculate damage negated. You could maybe add a tick to death's prevented, but maybe not depending on who the person you're lanterning is.

An alternative could be an 'Assisted travel' statistic for support abilities like Tahm's devour, Tahm's abyssal voyage, Thresh's lantern, and Bard's magical journey. It doesn't quite address your specific case, but is an added statistic that could be insightful for similar scenarios.

Thanks for the ideas! [slayer-jinx-wink]