Let's talk support

I'm going to start with a Repost of a Reply that I made to a Riot Staffer, Riot Sweet. I was asked to make this it's own thread by another Player here on the boards, but rather than just make this one of your Average complain and whine threads, let's make this productive.

What can we do to improve the concept of Supporting and support champions without limiting them, or overpowering them in lanes other than a supporting one? Let's get some ideas going, Let's brainstorm this. Together, as a Playerbase, without negativity and Blame being shunted in Riot's direction.

Let's Support Riot the way we support the Carries guys. By helping them succeed with our ideas, and our feedback.

[{quoted}](name=Riot Sweet,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=2uBEAkY7,comment-id=003a,timestamp=2015-01-17T03:05:59.972+0000)

Supports can be under appreciated. It's true you don't necessarily have anything to show for efforts. But take heart. Your wards make a difference, your self-sacrifice makes a difference, and your dedication to protecting your carry and your team makes a difference. I don't know if there is anything in the works to show supports more love but I do know that as a great support player your contributions are known — not only by yourself.

Great ADCs know they'd die without you. Great Junglers know they'll rely on you. Great Mids look to you for protection. Great Toplaners lean on your synergy to survive.

I play support pretty often and my personal code is generally this:

“A great man is always willing to be little.” ―* Ralph Waldo Emerson*

Except that's not what Riot said that it wanted from a support. I play a lot of Support myself, Started in Season three. Now, I can only place a total of four wards on the map, one of them always visible. The rest of my team buys trinkets, and maybe one might place one during laning, but then the second it's over, it's up to me, with my four wards, to somehow cover the entire map's vision needs. Dragon, baron, their jungle, our jungle, escape routes, invade routes, backdoor routes, everything. I can't do that anymore. Do I have enough gold? Hell yeah I do! It's just a pity that I can't spend all that gold on what my team really needs, which is a babysitter to place their wards for them. Then riot gets mad when a Support does their job too well, E.G. Sona, and continually nerfs them into oblivion. Sona was the perfect support, then she was nerfed, then changed, then nerfed some more for good measure. She can't go mid because she lacks damage now, and she can't protect and sustain properly, because her W's AP scaling was trashed with no good reason or QoL improvements to make her any better.

Then we get into the other problem. Burst mages who get shunted into the support role because they can do it better. In season 3, it was Annie and Zyra, and they've only gotten worse with the new gold improvements for supports. Meanwhile, traditional supports like Janna, or Nami have to struggle to keep up because of increasing mana costs on a low budget, and no AP ratios to Justify the hits they've had to take. Should Nami's bubble do half of an ADC's HP in one shot? No, but it should sting, same thing with Janna's tornadoes or W, both of which feel early like they lack any power, and lategame like they should hit like a truck, but by this point in the game, everyone's got Resistances and Lifesteal for sustain, meaning that any impact that they have is completely negated.

I've taken to countering the Burst-Mage epidemic in botlane with champions like Shen and Galio, both amazing in their own roles, but in bot, they can actually take the huge amounts of burst that Champions like Annie, Zyra, and even (God save us) Ahri can provide.

I don't know where in Riot's structure you happen to call home.

But, and this is coming from the bottom of my heart.

Please, look at Supports, look at the role, and sit down, and ask yourselves. Where do you want this role to go into the future? Because at this rate, your Traditional Support Archetypes are going to get phased out for something new at every turn, and that's honestly just a shame, because it is, and can be, the most difficult and rewarding role to play. I love supporting, but when the game can't give me the tools that the role requires, I'm just going to move on.

Remove the ward cap on Green wards, or at least make it bigger if you take the support role. Do like you did with Machete and Smite, but with Exhaust for all I care.

Reduce the amount of Gold given for Assists and just sitting in lane with the Amulet. Make Amulet more than just a holding-pattern item and make it a little more involved, like the Spelltheif's edge or the relic shield.

Bring the skill back to supporting, bring the niche back home, make it less generic and more enjoyable for everyone involved, please riot.