How to make the support role more attractive

StoryDuck·Feb 8, 2016·80 votes·4,754 views

- New Passive - Inspiration: Grants 15 experience for every 10 seconds while near an allied champion with a higher level.

- New Passive - Inspiration: Grants 30 experience for every 10 seconds while near an allied champion with a higher level.

new Mastery Tier 2 or 4 in Resolve tree Inspiration: Grants 30 experience for every 10 seconds while near an allied champion with a higher level.

I don't know about other support mains, but I loved Inspiration as a mastery. I really helped me hit level 11 at the right time in game. I think all supports could really use it as levels are really important for support champions. I used to roam and deep ward all the time as a support main but lately I have been falling to far behind in levels to do that (way too much tied into getting CS exp now). I really miss Inspiration and a buffed up version of it (to keep up with the snowball theme season) would be great!

88 Comments

Mandang0Feb 8, 201633 votes

I think support is a much bigger problem than one of levels. When is support supposed to feel impactful? What's their power curve supposed to look like? What's the support "fantasy" supposed to be? How does that fantasy differ from that of the other roles?

If support's identity is simply that of an underfarmed laner, it should be no surprise that support feels unrewarding to play. To fix that, Riot needs to add identity to the support role:

Let supports have an option to be good at vision again
Let supports have meaningful itemization choices before 30 minutes into the game
Let ADC have a meaningful weakness early that can't be solved by sustain (this lets supports play sustain or poke and feel useful for a change)
Stop making getting picked so easy/punishing (dying as a support to an assassin feels terrible, even worse when it ends the game bc of S6 death timers)

It Hertz When IPFeb 8, 201664 votes

item 3301 item 3302 item 3303 New Passive: item 3340 gains increased recharge speed (scales with CDR).

item 3341 New Passive: Destroying a ward revealed by this item grants one charge on item 2049 .

StoryDuckFeb 8, 201612 votes

I kind of like those idea.

Aevo 55Feb 8, 20163 votes

What if sightstone and ruby sightstone raised your ward cap to 4 or 5?

AMYS GRAVEFeb 9, 20165 votes

We forget why the ward cap was introduced in the first place.

WhiperSnapersFeb 9, 20163 votes

adc's dont place wards, they arent going to buy item 2049 so that they can have an extra ward to not place

AMYS GRAVEFeb 9, 20163 votes

More like pre sightstone when supports would have to back for 5 wards, walk out and place them, back for another 5 wards, and repeat for the entirety of the game. All without being caught out by the enemy team or daring to spend any gold on items other than boots for 20 min.

Battlecast SonaFeb 9, 20162 votes

excuse me don't you just mean when supports hit oldschool 6 item? shurelia's, mobis, with 3 stacks of green wards and 1 of pink. That's how you play League, right? LOL

WhiperSnapersFeb 10, 20161 votes

you've got it all wrong, the guy said:

What if sightstone and ruby sightstone raised your _WARD CAP _to 4 or 5?

He isnt suggesting that sightstone should hold 4 or 5 wards and give an infinite number of ward placements. The current cap on wards is 3, so the 4th ward you place removes the 1st ward you placed. This guy is suggesting that it grant 1 (or 2) more wards to the cap so that the 5th (or 6th) ward replaces the 1st ward. This would not mean infinte wards. If everyone on a team took sightstone there would only be 5 more wards on the map (assuming everyone placed their maximum number of wards)

AMYS GRAVEFeb 10, 20161 votes

oh no i understand all that, but if they were allowed to ward more than their teammates then the burdon of warding will always be back on the support instead of encouraging everyone to ward. Warding is a team objective and saying that only that one person is allowed to ward more than everyone else will inevitably turn them into a ward bot, even if the cap is only extended by 1.

WhiperSnapersFeb 10, 20162 votes

No, taking away green wards from the shop has already turned supports into ward bots. No green wards means everyone who doesnt have item 2049 is forced to rely on item 3361 trinkets to ward. The problem with this is that the cooldown on the trinket is so long that people usually only have 1/3 wards up at a time while there is no cooldown on sightstone which means that whoever has it (mainly supports) is capable of reaching that 3/3 ward placement.

If the support is the only person on the team who picks up sightstone (this is almost always the case) and everyone places their available wards, there will be 7 wards on the map (exluding pink wards). The support will have placed 3 wards becuase there is no cooldown on sightstone and the other players will have placed 1 trinket each (since the trinket is on cooldown they cant place a second trinket yet). The support is responsible for 3/7 wards or 43% of the wards. Before green wards were removed, everyone could buy them and then place them without a cooldown which meant that every player could reach their cap of 3/3 wards on the map. This means that supports would have been responsible for 3/15 wards or 20% of the wards

AMYS GRAVEFeb 10, 20161 votes

You're not wrong, but increasing the ward cap based on sightstone ownership only serves to cement this.

WhiperSnapersFeb 10, 20161 votes

yes, it would mean that the support would be responsible for ~50% of the wards, but the map is so dark this season that 1 additional ward could be a game changer (assassins just got an item that gives them a zed-like ult) which could in a sense elevate the importance of the support role.

yoniameFeb 9, 20161 votes

better: delete item 2049 from game, its unfun and takes space (i say this as a supp main)

It Hertz When IPFeb 9, 20161 votes

People like you are the reason I drink. If you honestly can't figure out why Sightstone is almost always vital for a support to possess, I recommend not playing support anymore.

yoniameFeb 11, 20161 votes

Being vital is the reason I hate it the most-.-. Now I only build it on ranked games (also you have some serious drinking problem there)

StoryDuckFeb 8, 20162 votes

I do agree that supports could use more love then just an EXP boost. However, their power curve is all in their CC, shields, healing, buffs, and debuffs. This is why levels are so important to a support because the move levels they have the stronger they become. I think that a boost to their EXP gain would significantly improve the quality of the role in it's current season 6 state. Would I like more? Yes. I would however be very happyl if we could at least get our EXP up so that we can stay relevant and not become a lower level target that enemies can burst with 1 Q due to level discrepancies.

Wildheaven182Feb 8, 20165 votes

As a long time support main, I believe you make an impact by bringing something to the position that has some kind of power that is not reliant on gold from cs. That's a basic concept, but to clarify, an impactful support will bring power to a position that traditionally lacks power without cs. Of course, this still probably isn't a very appealing notion.

I agree with making inspiration a passive on the three main support items. But the thing is that you can't remove the trade-off of losing exp to roam. People bring up how support is being played in the LCS, but I think if that play style of being willing to put your support so far behind for the sake of roaming is incentivized in casual play, then supports will end up with an even larger disposition in levels. Even with inspiration, that will be a net loss, and I think that would be a lot less fun if we supports had to play the way LCS supports play.

As for items, I don't feel like there are lacking itemization choices. In fact, there are usually so many things I know I want to build that I can't afford. This has to do with support being a gold-starved role. Honestly though, support will probably always be a gold-starved role, because why should a role that doesn't cs be given an alternate means of gold income that is equivalent to a laner who does cs? That's a question for riot to decide the answer to, and that's where support gp10 items come in. They help, but the struggle has always been keeping these items restricted to the support role. Just look at FQC on mid laners.

Mandang0Feb 8, 20161 votes

Well-written, and I'm inclined to agree with you.

For itemization, I think Riot can offer interesting itemization choices while still keeping supports relatively poor, if they'd do 2 things:

1) Remove all the required gold from the support build (gp10, upgrade, sightstone, etc) 2) Offer items that focus on utility instead of stats

Number 2 is sorta what Riot does with the gp10 actives, but even then you need to spend so much gold to finish the item because the value is locked up in other stats. What I'd like to see are items with lower costs, lower stats, and most of the value on the active itself. Mind you, I wouldn't want to see an abundance of actives drown out the unique kits of the supports, but you could make the actives weaker if you needed to prevent that from happening.

FQC is just an abomination for a number of reasons, the stats and gold generation of which I wouldn't want on the support itemization I'm thinking about.

StoryDuckFeb 8, 20162 votes

I don't like the idea of removing stats for more actives on items. I want to feel like my champion is having an impact not some item. If I am reduced to being useful just for using actives on specialized items I will stop being a support main.

Also, why would you remove the gp10 and sightstone? I like having gold and control of vision.

FQC is just an abomination for a number of reasons, the stats and gold generation of which I wouldn't want on the support itemization I'm thinking about.

FQC is way too powerful at this time. This isn't because it grants gold or gives 50ap. It is because the ghosts allows a player to setup combos, check for nearby enemies, and catch enemies out. With vision being weaker this season the ghosts are very useful in checking for enemies. Combine this with the fact it is cheap to build and has gold generation, mana regen and 50ap and then you have an item that does too much. Remember, this item used to have a short range targeted AoE slow and no one in mid lane wanted it then. AP supports loved it though....which was great!

PartholonianFeb 9, 20162 votes

I don't recall AP supports loving the old FQC; in fact I recall them starting Spellthief's and then midgame selling their Spellthief's or Frostfang to get either Talisman, or regular items and abandon the support lines altogether. The horrible active and the fact that it could miss completely was a frequently cited reason.

The cure may be worse than the disease though with too much cross-class appeal (if "cross-class" is even the right word to describe mid Lulu as compared to support Lulu). I think it's dangerous for FQC to have the least restriction on its ability to make gold in a solo lane of the three lines. You don't see Tahm take Relic top because it's specifically designed to be bad in solo laning.

Relic absolutely requires another champion to proc (and even then the relic wearer doesn't make any extra gold) and Coin specifically works only on minions you don't last hit. But Spellthief's has a lockout timer that can be avoided with the right rhythm of poking your opponent and then clearing the wave, it doesn't restrict charging up even if you are locked out from cashing in for a bit, and even that restriction is removed at the last stage (which a mid can of course reach much faster than a support). So in practice a mid mage can get the gold generation AND all the other useful properties. Spooky ghosts were around for ages and were never that popular because you had to spend serious gold on marginal stats to get them.

They may yet need to nerf the active again, but I think they should rework the gold generation in a way that is more directly dependent on support. Like gaining charges much slower (or not at all) over time, but every time a nearby ally kills a minion you get some fraction of a charge (which you still have to use up by hitting an enemy champion, so it doesn't allow complete passivity like Coin does). Because the one thing that most clearly defines support's early game compared to other roles, even more so than their helping-oriented kits, is watching someone else last hit (and, as much as you can, protecting them while they do it).

The trick is to make the reward useless to people who are trying to last hit as many minions as possible, while not feeling too punishing to people who occasionally kill a minion with AOE or something. Focusing on the minions you're not killing works well for Coin.

StoryDuckFeb 9, 20161 votes

Love is certainly a strong word. You are right it wasn't very popular but that just makes my point stronger. The active is the problem child on FQC not the stats on it. Even if they made it so that FQC didn't grant gold it would still be purchased by midlaners for the chase. Honestly, I never understood why midlaners never bought Twin Shadows when it was still around. Perhaps the lower slow duration had a lot to do with it though.

Ariel the CruelFeb 9, 20162 votes

Xerath I Velkoz loved Zyra Twin Azir Shadows!

All seriousness though. Twin Shadows' stats weren't that impressive. It was a niche item for champions with skill-shot combos or area restricted outputs. In Xerath's case, the ghosts have always been a death sentence; making him inclined to pick up the active regardless of stats.

Mandang0Feb 9, 20162 votes

Sorry if I was unclear, I was referring to the group of items I proposed that would be utility-focused rather than stats-focused. The group of those items wouldn't have the stats & gp10 like FQC has... I have no problem with leaving gp10 itemization in the game (except that I don't think Riot's going to be able to make support compelling while the build remains chained to gp10)

The problem I have with focusing support on stats is that it means support's never going to be anything more than an underfarmed solo laner, which is never going to be a popular role. Other lanes have CC and utility too, but they actually get to deal damage too. The strength of support has traditionally been that their "impact" is rather independent of stats, which is very important when they have to share a lane with another character who takes all of the gold. This is true of levels too.

StoryDuckFeb 9, 20162 votes

Ah, that makes more sense. They have a few of what you are talking about.

item 3050 item 3222 item 3504

They could certainly add some more clearly support items though.

Mandang0Feb 9, 20162 votes

Yea, I'd really love to see them introduce some items there :)

StoryDuckFeb 8, 20162 votes

I agree with making inspiration a passive on the three main support items. But the thing is that you can't remove the trade-off of losing exp to roam. People bring up how support is being played in the LCS, but I think if that play style of being willing to put your support so far behind for the sake of roaming is incentivized in casual play, then supports will end up with an even larger disposition in levels. Even with inspiration, that will be a net loss, and I think that would be a lot less fun if we supports had to play the way LCS supports play.

Gaining EXP after roaming with Inspiration is not meant to make people play like the LCS. It is to allow support players to have that option. As it stands, LCS supports are some of the few that can actually roam frequently because they are coordinated enough to make use of any CC even when 3-5 levels behind. I'm not saying that it is impossible for us normal folk but for the majority of players they don't want to feel stuck to one lane all the time. This is to allow flexibility not force people into a play style. It empowers the support role to be active in other ways and not just feel like a glorified ADC babysitter.

As for items, I don't feel like there are lacking itemization choices. In fact, there are usually so many things I know I want to build that I can't afford. This has to do with support being a gold-starved role. Honestly though, support will probably always be a gold-starved role, because why should a role that doesn't cs be given an alternate means of gold income that is equivalent to a laner who does cs? That's a question for riot to decide the answer to, and that's where support gp10 items come in. They help, but the struggle has always been keeping these items restricted to the support role. Just look at FQC on mid laners.

I don't mind being gold starved (I don't like it but I accept it). As you mentioned before supports bring something else not entirely based on having gold. I do completely agree that supports have many options to build. I really like the itemization options at this time. As you mentioned though, I also wish I had more gold to buy them.

PartholonianFeb 9, 20162 votes

{quoted}

I think support is a much bigger problem than one of levels. When is support supposed to feel impactful? What's their power curve supposed to look like? What's the support "fantasy" supposed to be? How does that fantasy differ from that of the other roles?

The support fantasy is using your champion's skills to turn a fight in your team's favor, in a way other than doing damage. CC, heals and shields are common; things like Dark Passage, Magical Journey and allied Devour really define their champion's identity and the thing they can do to save their buddy and make plays that nobody else can make.

Support is supposed to feel impactful primarily in a teamfight. They're weak in 1v1s because a substantial part of their kit is devoted to helping their allies, so it's weaker if they don't have any.

If support's identity is simply that of an underfarmed laner, it should be no surprise that support feels unrewarding to play. To fix that, Riot needs to add identity to the support role:

Let supports have an option to be good at vision again

Oh please Riot no. Support should be about SUPPORTING. See what I wrote about the support fantasy? See how many times I mentioned vision? That's right, zero. Vision has nothing to do with what makes support fun. It's a chore and a burden. But it has a lot to do with what makes support anti-fun -- being under-itemed even worse than your income alone would dictate, and then feeling like you need to wander the map alone.

Ward botting is an abomination that needs to be smashed even more thoroughly than it has so far. If there is any vision specialist it should be the one already responsible for the whole map (i.e. the jungler), but I think past experience has shown that expecting some players to give up gold for vision produces very bad results for those players. It should be abolished.

Let EVERYONE have options to be good, but not too good, at vision. WITHOUT sacrificing a major amount of combat stats to get it. And let them lose if they don't USE those options and use them intelligently. That's the promise of trinkets. Follow through and finish the job by removing item 2049 item 2043 from the game and replacing them with something that does not consume gold or take up regular item slots, and you'll see both the itemization and the gameplay of supports liberated like never before.

Let supports have meaningful itemization choices before 30 minutes into the game

Supports have one meaningful choice at spawn, unless their kit really really doesn't work with 2 of the 3 options. But then they have to detour into a mandatory item that isn't even relevant to their actual role, but is pushed on them because someone has to do it and it supposedly hurts them less. It still hurts them plenty though, especially on a role that is also getting less income because that supposedly hurts them less too.

Then after that you pretty much have to do something to make you able to stay near a fight while hideously short on gold and probably 2+ levels down from almost everyone else except the other support. There are some supports that could benefit quite a bit from items like item 3504 -- if not for the fact that they would explode at a sneeze if they built them first real item.

Let ADC have a meaningful weakness early that can't be solved by sustain (this lets supports play sustain or poke and feel useful for a change)

Nerfing Doran's Blade and lifesteal masteries would probably help, but IMO the biggest problem is the hyperdominance of tanky all in supports over any other style. Which is, in turn, the result of everyone being made of paper this season. I don't know if it's damage masteries being crazy stronger than before or what, but you can't poke or sustain if you can be 100-0'd at any moment.

Stop making getting picked so easy/punishing (dying as a support to an assassin feels terrible, even worse when it ends the game bc of S6 death timers)

See above -- everyone is too squishy, even tanks, but the role with the least exp and gold is even squishier.

DannywolfFeb 8, 201611 votes

Yeah, I'm feeling pretty underleveled compared to my lane partner when I support. I'm always 2 levels behind, and since I rely on their cs to make gold and exp, I'm behind on money too. Supports don't need to be the team dead weight.

StoryDuckFeb 8, 20162 votes

I know just what you mean. I've had to radically alter my play style this season as a support main because it is just so easy to fall behind in levels and become irrelevant. Support mains like to make plays by romaing mid and pressuring the enemy jungler. Without inspiration though...we lose a lot of EXP when roaming. I reached plat 3 last season with all my map pressure...this season...I'm stuck in gold 2. I have good mechanics but I just can't apply map pressure as much as I used to. I always feel constrained to the bot lane just to soak up exp. Free EXP would be a great way to open up options for supports making the role more attractive as you can have a bigger impact on the game without sacrificing as much.

High5Feb 8, 20169 votes

I've found more that tanks are becoming irrelevant I.e. Leona, Naut, etc. We're starting to see more Morg, Janna, Soraka again, which isn't my pref for support play style. Shorter games cause a higher reliance on early pressure vs mid game support/tankiness.

I liked the tank meta. The game felt more tactical. Now it's fallen into a target the right carry and execute your mechanics correctly type or meta. It's not bad per say, but it's not as interesting either.

StoryDuckFeb 8, 20162 votes

I used to have a lot of fun as Leona/Taric (was looking into Naut) but I am finding it near impossible to play them now. I don't think it is all about early pressure but rather higher utility and reliability. Morgana can land a bind to win a game at level 6 just as well as at level 11 so her utility isn't effected as much. Janna is a similar situation as her peeling ability isn't really effected by a lack of exp. It is also why Alistar is popular in the LCS as his ult makes up for any lack of exp/stats with a 70% damage reduction and tons of displacement. Honestly, if other supports could gain exp to stay relevant we would probably see a lot more variety.

magic poleFeb 8, 20164 votes

i prefer Lulu Janna so it's been great :D

making assassins irrelevant is quite satisfying

StoryDuckFeb 8, 20161 votes

I haven't been trying Lulu too much. I should give her a try again I used to play her in season 4 I think. Been having a lot of luck with Janna though :)

magic poleFeb 8, 20162 votes

she's the most recent champion I've bought and wow have i been missing out.

she's similar to janna id say but has more lane presence/poke, but a bit less peel/cc.

her ult however is totally different than anything janna has and is great for baiting :)

ChestylapooptraiFeb 8, 20162 votes

Morgana I heard you like poke

HighH1Feb 8, 20163 votes

Cinderhulk meta was the best meta. Most games went to 30-40 and there was thinking involved. Now there's assassin and burst meta with shit towers,and god minions. 30 minute game max.

LazyW0lfFeb 8, 20164 votes

Even in the LCS, we see supports ~3-5 levels below everybody else because they roam so much. I agree that they should bring back inspiration and put it on the support item, or maybe item 2049 (since that's the reason you're roaming).

StoryDuckFeb 8, 20162 votes

I noticed that too. They can play at a much higher level of coordination then me though so I need my 3-5 levels to stay relevant. If they bring Inspiration back (hopefully stronger then before) other supports would likely show up.

PHoToS999Feb 8, 20164 votes

This would actually be amazing. It'd incentivize roaming for supports.

StoryDuckFeb 8, 20162 votes

Roaming support was my style until this season. I feel really punished now if my roam doesn't net a kill. Let's hope they bring it back. I wish I knew why they removed it in the first place.

Taric the GayFeb 8, 20164 votes

They would make it a more attractive role by speeding up the release date on the Taric rework..

Dominick DestineFeb 8, 20163 votes

That name...

Anyway I agree, Taric rework cannot come soon enough.

LostFr0stFeb 8, 20163 votes

Yes please! I miss it too.[zombie-nunu-bummed]

I also miss the anti-crit mastery, but that's a different issue.

SoMNiaFeb 8, 20163 votes

I'd say bring back Inspiration in the Resolve tree, at the same tier as Assassin (Cunning tree) and Expose Weakness (already coming back, Ferocity tree). It would definitely be nice to be able to keep up in levels as support again. As it stands, the only one who can roam and not risk falling behind is probably Bard, because chimes give exp.

Also (I've been suggesting this for a while), give support gold items a passive that increases assist gold. Maybe make other support items a little better and more expensive at the same time.

HavenscytheFeb 9, 20163 votes

Ugh yes I hate being under leveled, that is one of the many reason why I like Bard.

AMYS GRAVEFeb 9, 20163 votes

This has been the biggest problem with supporting this season. The lower duration wards hurt but the lack of experience has been much more of a problem.

GhastlyGhoulManFeb 9, 20162 votes

How to Make Support Role More Attractive:

.....

Sona

ThePompfFeb 9, 20162 votes

I like you.

Lazypeon100Feb 9, 20162 votes

So when I have been going into ranked, I put top as my main and support as my secondary. The main problem with support is you will often feel under appreciated. You might be setting things up so your team wins the game, but is rare that anyone acknowledges it or says anything positive to you. This is especially true if you ever make a mistake.

It's why I've been playing a ton of support Zilean lately. I get to HAVE those impactful moments like everyone else. And people actually recognize it and say something to me when I play well.

Make the clutch ult to save someone and turn an entire fight around when I land the fabled triple stun? The team notices that and thanks the hell out of me.