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Introducing new options for supports : Enchant-Upgrades-New Items.

Knight Devout··7 votes·1,490 views

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. item 2049 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 itemsitem 3301item 3302 item 3303 . 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 wardsitem 2044 . 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. item 3340 Topaz Sightstone-VISION COVERAGE: Wards placed by this sightstone lasts 60 second more . item 3341 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. item 3342 **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 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

#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,item 3069 item 3401 item 3092 , 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 item 3069 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 item 3401 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 CONTROLitem 3092 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.

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

9 Comments

k wìx2 votes

I like most of these changes with one glaring exception. I feel like your 'Sapphire Sightstone' is a poor choice and the other two are far more impacting and valuable. Furthermore, it doesn't even align with the whole 'scouting' concept you want to establish - 'Seeing through walls' is pretty much useless in all but the most random of situations, It really isn't a scouting tool. I'd suggest something a bit more drastic, like doubling the range at which you can place wards - This significantly changes how you place wards; makes it a lot safer, and drastically increases the range at which you can gain vision of the enemy - resulting in something a bit closer to the 'scouting' concept.

I like the variations on the support items, but my favorite part of the whole concept is definitely the enchantments. I'd love to have that kind've choice when I play a non-traditional support as I so commonly do. well done!

Knight Devout1 votes

Excellent idea, and nice point. Tbh, placing wards from a safer range doesn't "excite" me a lot. I think i'd rather pump the "sky vision" until is in line with the other two enchantments.

One of the thing I'd like to keep is the interaction between colours, yellow wins over blue that wins over red that wins over yellow. Yellow places more wards. Red clears them . Blue gains vision across wide areas and red doesn't know where to ward . Yellow again has stronger wards once the initial effect of blues expires.

Still , you make a valid point. Would this identity still valid with your change? My guess is "quite so". If you spot a jammed ward and you have sapphire, you can replace it from a safer distance. I'd still prefere to make blue wards have sky vision for a duration though.

Doc Krieger2 votes

I agree 100% with this idea of sightstone upgrade variations and enchantments. I'm a support/jungle main, and when I'm playing support I still forgo picking up a sightstone until the cost is more manageable in mid or late game, and instead pick up regular wards to keep my lane safe with vision through laning phase, while rushing my corebuilds whenever possible. Backing with 800-900, for instance, allows me to get the first upgrade to my support item, wards, and potions, making my laning stronger with the upgrade's stats, while still letting me keep river warded, the other half of the full support item's recipe, making my laning the strongest it can be for that price range, with a couple potions or a ward if I'm lucky, or I can forgo rushing my support item and instead pick up sightstone and some potions, making it more cost effective for me to keep my lane warded, letting me get vision up around dragon when attempting to take it, and giving me the freedom to drop some vision in the enemy jungle when I have the opportunity, either adding the proverbial cherry on top of a successful skirmish or stealthy camp clear that finds me safely to a strategic ward spot in the early game with some bonus offensive vision, or lessening the blow of a forced roam to save my jungler when he gets caught invading, that puts me behind my enemy laners in gold and xp, by at least grabbing the opportunity to get some offensive wards up as we retreat.

This makes sightstone far more appealing in a game where there is a lot of early game team play happening, and there are many situations that can lead to bot lane having to split focus between laning and team play in the early game, such as 1.) A jungler who is spending a lot of time focusing on bot, and needing to grab some enemy camps to make it possible for him to stay in the area and gank repeatedly to ensure that we win our laning phase by getting us ahead, or to prevent us from getting bullied out of lane repeatedly or steamrolled from one early death in a bad fight against a stronger early game lane capitalizing on an xp lead that lets them hit level 2 first. Or 2.) An enemy assassin jungler trying to sneak a kill on your utility/tank jungler in his own jungle, forcing you to respond and provide support, or leave your jungler at a disadvantage, as he's forced to deal with his enemy's stronger dueling potential, and is left with the choice to either sacrifice camps and map presence in the early game, or risk dying to the stronger duelist while defending his own territory. Even if the situation isn't as intense as these highly aggressive possibilities, a more moderate focus on early game team play, with one or two attempts at grabbing early objective control, still necessitates the rushed purchase of sightstone, such as in situation 3.) Your midlaner pushes up to enemy tower, or forces his opponent out of lane, and your jungler calls for an early dragon take, which, if successful, will be a great capitalization on an opportunity, but can be dangerous, and thus requires precautionary measures in the form of multiple ward placements that ensure you see your enemy coming and aren't surprised by the enemy teams botlane following your roam, and/or enemy jungler using his level advantage to steal dragon with a more powerful smite, or even a full scale team fight erupting with enemy mid following your mids roam and/or enemy toplaner tping in to a ward, so that your team finds itself getting collapsed upon by opponents with higher health or greater numbers, and, weakened by it's fight with dragon, down life, with spells on cooldown. is unable to withstand the enemy's attack and is swiftly cleaned up, as a result of attempting to take objectives without proper measures being taken in advance to protect the effort from an enemy response by ensuring you're aware of the enemy movements ahead of time, and can back out before the enemy forces converge upon you.

Any game with even one of these situations drawing focus away from winning lane during early game pretty much requires a sightstone rush to be prepared to deal with unforeseen events as they arise. Thats 800 gold that could be spent on a more powerful trading tool, and can be rushed by an enemy that stayed in lane while you roamed. One thats going to be up levels and gold on you, so they're stronger even if they rushed sightstone. If they spent their gold on something else, they'll be far stronger with a much greater trading potential that leaves you little choice but to get bullied back to tower, or out of lane, because the alternative is to get killed and lose out on even more xp and gold than you would if you didn't contest the matter. For instance, a Jinx Janna lane should be able to hold its own with pretty much anything their enemy laners throw at them, even a strong early game lane like Morgana Graves. But if Jinx and Janna had to respond to early events that forced Janna to rush sightstone, and they find themselves facing an enemy lane that is up a level and bought damage, then they're at a disadvantage. For instance, if Morgana bought a fiendish codex with her gold, despite having only spent 20 more gold, she would be benefiting far more from the ap and cd of her purchase than Janna would from the hp of sightstone, and the Jinx Janna lane would be hard pressed to win any trade, or withstand the enemy's ability to siege their tower with greater push power, high damage poke, and their ability to control positioning through the threat of their kill potential, presented by the ability to go all in and kill any target caught by a Morgana snare, without much risk of dying as well, unless the target is under tower.

This means that if you aren't forced to roam in response to early game team play situations, and can focus entirely on winning your own lane during the laning phase, then your ward requirements are far lower, as you only need to protect your lane against ganks, which requires only river to be warded, and can be covered by a few ward purchases, or without any at all, if you make effective use of trinkets and scuttle crab. This way, you can cover your vision needs with regular wards, 1-2 on average, at most you'll spend 225 in lane, keeping lane guarded from ganks and leaving you free to postpone the purchase of the 800 gold sighstone that would otherwise comprise most or all of your build in lane.

If you're playing a tank support like Leo it means you can get a kindlegem instead, giving you 50 more health and 10% cdr for only 50 gold more, or a level 2 of targons and a ruby crystal, giving you 250 more health 50% base hp regen and more charges of targons passive for only 100 gold more. Either way you're stronger than with sighstone, in laning phase, and mid game team fights. It'll be easier to build the sightstone than it would be to build your support item if you had gone sightstone first as well, not only is the support item generating more income off of it's early purchase, but your greater contribution to team fights and objective taking will let you pick up more gold off of assists and global gold. If you're not playing a tank support, the benefit's are even greater. For instance, a Nami support building frost queen's claim can pick up the fiendish codex that it builds off of for only 20 gold more, and receive 30 AP and 10% cdr instead of 150 health, increasing her strength both in lane and in the team fights and objectives of mid game. Not only will her spells be stronger, but she'll be able to cast them more often, increasing her effectiveness as a support. The increase to her power combined with an increased volume of possible spell casts means she'll be earning more assists, AP carry supports, such as Brand support, benefit the most, considering the kill oriented focus of laning phase with an APC support. This is another reason why being able to purchase items that give you better stats often results in increased income rate, there's a greater potential for picking up kills in lane with an item that increases your trade power. Income for support's is limited to what they get from their support item, and what they get from assists. An upgrade to a support item grants increases the gold it yields and can lead to far greater income from assists by increasing kill potential.

This makes sightstone a better buy for tanks than other classes, while always being weaker than another item of comparable cost. Making variants of comparable strength for other support classes would remove the advantage tank supps have right now. Adding enchantments to increase the strength of the sightstone at reasonable prices would make the strength of support builds more even with that of other classes with equal gold, supports are currently receiving less for the same price, as sightstone is an 800 gold ruby sighstone that fills a slot, and even when upgraded only gives 400 health, while other items give multiple stats. For instance, the support item FotM costs 600 more, gives 500 health, 100% base hp regen, 10% cdr, and a passive and active, both of which are strong and unique. Sightstone should at least be as strong as other support items, right now it basically steals an item slot. Make it a trinket upgrade w no stats, or give it stronger upgrades, or make it an enchantment that builds off support items or something. We're already getting the least gold with no farm or kills, and being forced to waste gold and a slot on a weak item that only supports get feels unfair, our items should be more cost efficient not less. Variant ward types would also make it worth more by adding gameplay depth. Longer lasting version, 2 hit vision version, and greater cast range version would be my votes.

Doc Krieger2 votes

My apologies for the length of this post. I had too much to say, even if I wasn't saying much.

Knight Devout1 votes

No problem ,sorry that I didn't read sooner. Anyway, yes, It should introduce more options, increase sightstone slot efficiency(because no class wants to sacrifice a slot, ever), and increase strategy in all stages of the game as building sightstone is both more flexible (less base cost), but demanding (building sightstone earlier means gimping your gold gained from support items and thus postponing the sightstone upgrade purchase).

Knight Devout1 votes

bump

Missing Number1 votes

only if we can get some enchants on EVERYTHING

Knight Devout1 votes

Why? In most cases you already have choices from upgrades.

Only sightstone is something you are both forced to pick and cannot upgrade.

Tristana Hentai1 votes

i always felt that their should be atleast 3 sightstone variants, 1 granting AD and HP, one granting AP and HP, and that last probably granting either armor and/or MR and HP

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