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"Fixing" Support & Champion Diversity in Bot Lane

EyesOfTheFox·4/14/2018, 10:47:44 PM·2 votes·826 views

Over the last few years Supports have slowly been gaining greater influence in the game due to power creep and gold influence. Bot Lane is currently the center of attention at most every Elo.

Yet most players do not prefer a support playstyle because it is currently tethered to this "need" to protect the idol of worship from seasons passed, the ever coveted ADC, which if we all remember RIOT officially killed when they updated the way the categorize and speak of champions.

RIOT has even been wracking their brains on how to add more champion diversity into bot lane. However, because of this predetermined playstyle from seasons beyond, it's hard for anything but a marksmen to be there without breaking the game.

So how do we approach fixing this?

Part, I feel is tied to player thinking. Most players hate the idea of feeling stuck or forced into a style of play. Support is the number one offense of that way of thinking. You are forced to play a certain style because eons ago, someone was like, hey this guy is squishy and does all the damage, lets protect him.

However, now, everyone does all the damage. Every champion to some extent is capable of carrying a game. Even support champions.

Ultimately, in order to introduce parity into bot lane and allow supports to feel more independent as a player, we should introduce a system that allows the umbilical cord to be separated.

Why do supports even go bot lane? Because the other support is going bot lane. But what if one day both those supports said, "Screw that. I'm gonna help everywhere.".

What if going bot lane was not longer the most efficient way for a support to level/generate gold/progress in game. What if there was a system that actually degraded the gain of these stats the longer you stay in one location/lane? But added bonuses for each additional location you "discover".

Finding a more efficient in game progression system that highly ecourages a roaming support playstyle, will undoubtedly make the game more fun for those players as their influence on the map will increase. This also opens up bot lane to where maybe a marksmen may not be the best choice for the current situation based on the fact that the support is no longer hardwired to the bot side of the map.

This may also make support stats easier to identify as now there will be a track of their progression tied directly to these "zones"

This could also only activate for players assigned that role in draft pick. Perhaps this feature is unavailable in blind. Which may create a fun little classic mode out of blind pick~

Thoughts?

4 Comments

CoolKnightST4/14/2018, 11:18:29 PM1 votes

I really like the idea of having roaming supports on the map. Technically it's already possible with spellbook and a cheese strategy but it's still very limited and often doesn't work add all in lower mmr.

As far botlane diversity goes. It's already a little bit possible but it's still very limited like Ziggs apc and Hybrids like Varus and Kog that on paper actually function differently than a real marksman.

It slowly changes direction but it takes baby steps and that's still better than nothing.

What should happen right now is that more support picks need to be introduced that can work better with different roles like a support that able to assist in artillery so a melee carry like tryn yasuo could work out in the botlane. Than new items need to be introduced that can help melee Champs with this. This is basically how you get Skirmishers involved in that lane.

Artillery mages already work out their with Ziggs as prime example.

Hybrids already work in the botlane like Varus, Kog. They still have that marksman border around them but with a little itemization help will make other picks solid as well.

Keep in mind that riot doesn't need to force shit. They just need to learn how to adapt and support events that naturally appear. A good example of a situation they clearly failed to support was MF support that opened the option of having an AOE armor shredding machine. The concept of debuff supports was really intressing but for some reason riot didn't grab the opportunity to make it a solid option. Rather than that they try to force stuff like the Morde rework that is basically still not recovered from that scandal.

ZephyrDrake4/14/2018, 11:18:44 PM1 votes

support go to bot lane due to dragon being there so they can help with taking dragon or defending dragon whenever the other team tries to take it. Not everyone likes playing roaming supports either and not all supports are made for roaming. You can very easily just take support and go top lane but why would you if that means giving up dragon control? yes you get rift herald control but that is a one time use buff that might get you a turret after 10 mins and the enemy not being a complete idiot to not at least ward around it.

You could send supports to mid lane but mid lane is a short lane so there is very little need to have two people in that lane right from the get go. So congrats you would rather destroy everything and make everything worst for what is essentially a horrible gimmick

KlydeFrog4/15/2018, 12:12:31 AM1 votes

Again no one likes to supp

k wìx4/15/2018, 12:45:06 AM1 votes

I dont think you'll really get to a 'roaming support' meta until you find a way for players to farm well in a 2v1 scenario. Or perhaps create items that allow a player who misses CS to make some of that up.

It's too easy to crush a 2v1 scenario, and gimp the solo player for the rest of the game. Even if towers were buffed, it'd still be an absolute slaughter. The laning phase is too critical and important to miss out on.

That being said, I love the concept behind a roaming support, just not really feasible.