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Botlane support diversity

Scarthcaroth·10/29/2015, 3:57:39 PM·5 votes·2,322 views

I am support main(I realize that might make me biased in certain ways) and I'd like to have the opinions of some Rioters (Meddler maybe?) and the rest of the community on some ideas that I have. I don't claim to fully understand how the precarious balance of this game works. I simply don't have the insight into all the data for it. I don't claim that, what i propose in this post, is going to be a solution to a problem that might just exist in my biased mind.

That being said I want to talk about something that I feel is a problem in the current balancing of the support role. When we look at the current situation at worlds we can see a broad range of midlane mages and assassins being played to varying success. Other roles like toplane and jungle have, opposed to midlane, less diversity. But one of the roles that has the potential to have the most diversity - support - has actually the least. Why do I think that? Well allow me to explain that. I like to divide the support role into three archetypes:

  1. Utility-focused, defensive supports (Janna, Nami, Bard, Soraka etc.)
  2. Damage-focused, offensive supports (Karma, Sona, Lux (don't judge), Brand, Kennen etc.)
  3. Sustain-focused, defensive/offensive supports (Leona, Thresh, Tahm Kench, Alistar, Shen, Blitzcrank etc.)

Each class has their own right to exist and their own strengths and weaknesses.

  1. Utility supports protect their carries, they shield them, they heal them, they keep enemies away so that the carries can do their job.
  2. Mage supports assist their carries with damage and minor utility like CC spells or shields.
  3. Tank supports soak up damage for their carries, they engage into fights or help their carries to get out of fights.

But out of the three archetypes I described here only the tank supports shine in most of the games. Tank supports are some of the most proliferate of these archetypes not just in pro-play (where we can see Alistar, Kench, Thresh, Braum dominating the support picks) but these trends also, unsurprisingly, trickle down to all other types of queues. So why is it that utility and mage supports are favored so little over tank supports? Is it because the champions are weak? No. Otherwise mage supports and utility supports would lose most of the games. Is it because playing tank is the superior playstyle? Perhaps, perhaps not. But what I think is that many of the problems with the botlane balance come from the lack of items for mage supports and utility supports. What items can a Karma or Soraka buy? Ardent Censer, Zeke's Herald, Locket of the Iron Solari,Banner of Command, Twin Shadows. Locket does not quite favor these types of support. Banner is a situational item while certainly good in the stat it gives it's not always an option to buy and Twin Shadows well that item has been neglected at all points anyway.

What I think would help these two classes are items that provide decent amounts of AP without overrunning a support's budget. What is the problem with having cheap AP items that mage and utility support would like? The problem: They would have to be super cost efficient and midlane mages could abuse those items to get more power with less gold.

The goal of having items like I describe them below is that they are designed in a way that only supports can use them. However all of these proposed "solutions" have their own share of problems. As has providing mage and utlity supports with more AP in the support slot than they'd usually have.

Ideas:

> -Scaling AP item based on total AP value of the character- > > The item has X AP and scales with Y AP per champion level. But this scaling only > applies if the champion has not exceeded Z total AP value. (100-250 AP for mage supports)

> -AP item that is bound to having a tier 3 GP5 / a certain level- > > This item has X AP and can only be bought when the champion has either reached a certain > level (Lvl 9 for example) or when the champion owns a tier 3 GP5 item.

> -AP item that scales with special champions base AP- > > This item has X% base AP scaling. (Note: This would only fit if mage supports actually had > base AP values. In this case it would work like an AP Titanic Hyrda.)

> -AP item that imitates the spellblade passive- > > This item would not give supports AP but rather flat additional damage on abilities. > It could have additional conditions to make sure it does not get abused by midlane mages > with low AP scalings but high base damage values.

29 Comments

Pika31010/29/2015, 5:18:38 PM4 votes

You list Sona as a "damage" support, yet she has the 2nd-lowest damage output of the entire support class after Braum.

On the other hand, she has next to no utility, so she doesn't fit in that category either and she sure as hell can't be a tank with the 2nd-lowest HP and armor just above Zyra. I guess the point being she just doesn't exist anymore...

Athenes Lulu10/29/2015, 8:36:45 PM3 votes

The problem with tanks outclassing other supports is that they do everything better than other supports would. As in, why pick (insert a non tank support) when you can pick a tank support?

The tanks alone can already deal as much (if not, more) damage as poke supports do, without having to worry about mana. Why pick squishy little shits when big shits can dish out just as much damage alone?

With the relic shield, they got sustain on both themselves and their lane partners covered. Why pick Nami or Sona when Relic shield heals just as much damage, but without the penalty of using mana?

Back in season 3 where supports hardly ever get items, tanks actually have to worry about stepping into the front lines because if they do it incorrectly, they WILL get poked down to death, which is actually fair because that's their main weakness in lane. With the relic shield, they don't have to ever worry about getting poked down anymore, which removed their MAIN (if not, only) weakness. Therefore, this made their zoning potential just as strong as those of poke supports. Why pick squishy little shits to zone when big shits can do the job just as great, and lives longer?

I'm pretty sure there's more reasons why tank > non tank supports botlane, but these are already important enough to pick tanks over anything else.

Hm, you do have some interesting proposed ideas here. Sure, the spellthief buff and coin nerfs now gives people a choice depending on their playstyles and matchup, instead of picking coin because "it is simply better", but you gotta consider the removal of the mana potions as well which hit that certain class rather hard.

-Scaling AP item based on total AP value of the character- The item has X AP and scales with Y AP per champion level. But this scaling only applies if the champion has not exceeded Z total AP value. (100-250 AP for mage supports)

Now imagine this on FQC or something instead of flat +50 AP... That would actually make supports have SOME kind of scalings that solo laners can't abuse.

Blackquill10/29/2015, 4:13:55 PM2 votes

It could be a bit awkward to create items that only work for a very specific set of champions but i agree, we need more items that fall into the mage/utility category like Zeke's Herald and Ardent Censer!

LVL 5 PORO10/29/2015, 5:12:34 PM1 votes

Well, I don't know about items but the new utility masteries heavily favor AP Supports, and not tanks. I think once S6 starts non-tank supports will be at their strongest, easily able to compete with tanks.

Croanin10/29/2015, 7:44:51 PM1 votes

Tank supports are just nearly guaranteed to do their job. They're low on gold for items but they're still fairly tanky and take longer to kill then other supports. Then people like to pick selfish carry style mid, top, junglers that offer little to know CC and low durability which a tank support can make up for. Tank supports have a far easier time placing wards because of their bulk and CC to get away in case caught or even just bait a fight.

You play someone like Karma or Brand and you fall behind there just not as effective.

Then we have Thresh who pretty much invalidates every other utility support since he has like the most utility while being a pseudo tank.

LVL 5 PORO10/29/2015, 11:30:52 PM1 votes

Okay, so I just read this post and I think its absolute crap. If you want more AP build a Rabadons, you obviously have zero understand of the purpose of supports and why they their items aren't just miniature ludens echo.