The big thing that's bothering me about supports:

MrSc0tty·7/28/2014, 6:11:06 PM·2 votes·493 views

How easy it would be to shake up the meta and allow a support to be paired with any role.

Why does it make any sense that supports be essentially a slave class dedicated to just one other class of champs, ADCs? Used to be that supports like Lulu and Soraka made more sense supporting an AP laner, Taric or Alistar were more suited to rocking the Jungle, and Morgana was one heck of a bully paired with a top lane bruiser.

Now we've got carries who are more than capable of surviving a farm lane solo, mids who can waveclear with ease, and supports who'd love to see play guarding, say, a vulnerable tank or melee carrying a duo lane. Braum/Yasuo can face down and beat up the nastiest ranged toplane harasser you can throw at them, yet they aren't allowed to leave bot and they get nothing but nerfs when they do.

5 Comments

ProfDrDeath7/28/2014, 6:26:10 PM3 votes

Yes, we have carries who can survive solo. The weakness of carries is not the reason supports go with them for quite some time now.

The problem lies in the fact that, in a duolane, XP will be inevitably shared. And of all the role on the Rift, ranged AD champions are the ones the least impacted by having to share XP:

Mages want as much XP as possible, since it directly translates into damage for them. No AP in a reasonable price range outscales base values.
Melee want as much XP as possible, since it directly translates into survivability from base stats for them. It is really hard to beat out the stats you get from simply leveling up with items.
Ranged champions are not as dependant on XP, since their main survivabilty tool, their range, usually doesn't scale with levels as much. On top, the gold worth in base defensive stats usually outscales the gold worth in base offensive stats when leveling up.

Tsunday7/28/2014, 6:33:57 PM3 votes

It's because ADCs are not level dependent, but gold dependent and so they do better in a duo lane than an assassin or a bruiser or even a mage that depends on level to keep up in damage. Particularly midlaners who really want to be the first one to get their ult.

Not only that but in the original definition of an Attack Damage Carry, the Carry meant that they were someone for the team to carry through early game because they were item dependent and it was if they were sufficiently carried through early game then they could theoretically carry you through the late game in return. As the ADC was meant to be watched after by the team during the early game, it makes sense that in the meta almost everyone is positioned near him. The support is in lane with him, the midlaner is often someone who roams, top lane often takes teleport, jungler is near bot lane relatively often. The support's job is not in the early game, it's not particularly to babysit the carry, they just get put there early game in order to better support their team in keeping the carry alive. A support's purpose is in teamfighting and providing a battlefield in which the fight is fought on their terms. A support goes in and decides who gets to do damage and who doesn't (through ally buffs and enemy debuffs), who lives, who dies, and where people are 'allowed' to position themselves. You choose Soraka or Lulu because you have someone like Cass who does DoT and could make use of the MR shred/slows. You choose someone like Taric because you have a Talon up in midlane and in teamfights your armor shred is going to help him burst the fighter as well as the mage/adc. You choose someone like Leona because you have a Fiora top who has no tank and little cc, and you want to make sure somebody can provide that in a teamfight. You don't just choose Soraka because you're laning with an AP bot or Morg because you're laning with a brusier. You choose them because your job is to control teamfights, and you see that Soraka or Morgana has the kit to turn the tides of a teamfight in your favor.

As such they are not dedicated to the adc. Mid/Late game if the adc is 1/4/3 they're going to dedicate themselves to mid or top or jungle. They're just chilling out in botlane for 15-20 minutes to help the midlaner and the jungler who don't want to have to camp botlane just to do their job in protecting the carry.

MrSc0tty7/28/2014, 6:20:04 PM1 votes

Here, let me fix it for you.

shared EXP is more favorable for duo lanes, take away some of the catch-up XP bonuses. Reduces the power of 2v1 denial lanes, and make it even out or slightly worse for lanes with more than 2 people in it (fast push).

ZXDYKioaMx7/28/2014, 7:53:34 PM1 votes

ADC is a high risk high reward role. They are high risk because because they are squishy have little to moderate CC and 80% of the time have no skills with reliable damage. You send your support as the protection to get your ADC to a strong late game.

Honestly it would be better to have no ADC at all than to try a solo bot ADC and send your support somewhere else. Early on an ADC is not good and they don't last long alone. You would be better off removing the solo bot ADC and replacing them with a highly reliable and versatile champion like a Bruiser who can protect themselves better. Also the only reason support exist is to babysit and strengthen your ADC, if you send your support to another lane that can already survive on its own its another wasted role.

Current Meta: Top/Jungle/Mid/Support & ADC

Your suggested Meta: Top/Jungle/Roaming Support/Mid/SoloADC This isn't good, your ADC wont grow as a solo laner since they will have too much pressure and get wrecked early thus making that a wasted role. Your roaming support won't be helpful since the other lanes can survive on their own with mobility or sustain and they dont need a weak champion leeching their XP and having no damage built to back them up.

You'd be better of running double Bruiser bot or something like Jax, Ryze, Jayce, Xin, Riven, Wukong, Mundo. People who are more naturally strong then ADC and though they may lack range they have more mobility or CC allowing them to hold their own. And naturally these are champions who always have a presence for the team regardless of whether they've been babysat by a support or not.

Old Man Teeto7/29/2014, 1:39:11 AM1 votes

On top of the whole "ADC's scale best with items rather than Exp" (This isn't entirely true, as ADC steroids, base health to keep from being killed, and certain abilities scale well)

Very few non- ADC Duo lanes actually win lane and scale well enough to be worth playing.

The ones that do win lane, can be lane swapped against and be out scaled and have a harder time taking the turret without diving. (Jarvan + Leona / Brand + Annie / Teemo + Cassio)

The ones that out scale (Veigar/Karthus/Couple others) tend to lose lane to ADC's in the early levels, and need a lot more time to ramp up.