Boards›Live Gameplay Balance

Bringing the Caster Supports back

FFirebrandd·3/10/2014, 8:41:40 PM·6 votes·668 views

I'm sure most of you probably know that caster supports aren't seeing much play, or if they are it is not as a support. I've come up with 3 things Riot could do to help them.

1: In Client voice chat.

Here is a fact of League, utility is much more useful if you know when you're going to get it.

Here's an example, how much scarier would Caitlyn's headshot + peacemaker combo be if she had extra AD from a Janna shield every single time?
That extra damage would add up really really quick especially since level 1 Janna shield would add 39.2 damage to that combo.

Straight damage and CC don't really have that problem so while this change would be helpful for everyone, it would help caster supports the most.

EDIT: Lady Luck has brought up a very good point about the possibility of much more toxicity aimed at the females in our community if voice chat was added.

If this option is implemented it would require a VERY good plan for dealing with this issue.

2: New Doran's Item

Everyone but junglers are buying them because they give you a lot of early game power and if you win early game you're more likely to win the whole game.

Caster supports don't really have a Doran's item they like. Blade doesn't work because they aren't AAing enough. Ring doesn't work because they aren't getting last hits. Shield kinda works... but it hasn't got any mana regen and a caster without mana is useless.

I've come up with a possible option for it, keep in mind I'm not saying this has to be the way it is, just a suggestion.

Doran's Amulet

80 Health

3 HP/5

3 MP/5

Passive: Nearby allies take 5 less damage from all sources. This damage is transferred to the Amulet's wearer.

Passive: Damage taken reduced by 2, this applies to damage from the first passive.

3: Remake the utility tree

The utility tree has never been very strong. Even in S3 you only took enough to get the gold generation.

The only reason gold generation was taken because a ward in the right place at the right time could save your or a teammate's life, get your team a kill you otherwise wouldn't have, or even win you the game.

Now with S4 not letting you spam wards the utility tree is pretty much ignored.

Also the Offence and Defence trees are full of force multipliers for damage/tankyness, why shouldn't the Utility tree have force multipliers for shields, heals, slows, buffs, and such?

Here's some suggestions for things that could be put in the Utility tree that would make it useful.

Expose Weakness -This is utility not offense

Enemies who are slowed by you do % less damage.

Allies affected by one of your buffs gain bonus armor/mr

heals/sheilds become % stronger

More mana regen

I'm also going to add a poll so you can vote for which option you think would be best. Questions and suggestions are welcome.

EDIT: If you vote for the "None, they need something else" option please post what you think they need.

19 Comments

Lady Luck3/12/2014, 3:15:32 PM3 votes

I personally do not want voice chat.

I've been playing online games for well over 10 years. In that time I learned that the worst thing to be online is female. If there was a voice chat, I'd never talk because of this fact.

I have noticed that the atmosphere has changed since I was young, but all the harassment I've gotten for being female over the years has made me prefer not to risk it. (I know it's changed because I can have this name without harassment every game. That is an amazing feeling to have any name I want without getting instantly harassed. You've no idea how thrilled I was that I could have a name indicating I'm a female and not have some nasty comments for it. Despite this new found freedom, I'd still rather not let people know for a fact that I'm female with a voice chat.)

Voice chat aside... I'd love some changes to caster supports. I was a support main last season. I don't think any game has felt as great as good Janna games. I don't even touch support this season. I like Leona and Thresh, but as situational picks, not as the "safe" or default picks. The bottom lane dynamic just isn't the play style I like as a support player. Caster buffs or utility buffs I think would be the best option for this.

ratcharmer3/10/2014, 8:55:28 PM3 votes

I'd like to see the utility tree reworked since the Defense tree is pretty much universally better.

In game voice chat would be nice, but I'm pretty sure the extra bandwidth needed would be the death of Riot's servers.

Currently almost any item you add in will be more useful on other classes than it would on caster supports. Caster supports simply don't scale well enough with any stat in the game to be fixable through itemization.

Really, I think the best solution is the simplest-- just buff the caster supports already. It's been four months since Riot's balance team finally admitted that caster supports were a bit weak and needed some love, but they've done nothing to fix it . . .

XxViralxX Sins3/11/2014, 12:37:08 AM3 votes

the utility tree would be an amazing fix for supports, people would be more viable to use a support champion unlike now, all everyone wants to use is leona or thresh and grab sunfire cape. a dorans amulent would be extremely helpful, and all around all these ideas are great, riot please hire this man, he know's what he's talking about!!!

Aeolian Melodies3/14/2014, 9:49:20 PM2 votes

Only Sona and Soraka need love, imo, but Soraka is in a "meh" status until Riot mans up and reworks her, and Sona, imo, seems worse than she actually is because the top three supports atm are her worse nightmares.

Lulu, though played mid atm, is still plenty strong, especially against the big 3.

Janna laughs so hard at the face of Leona. Not even funny. You just ignore her all game. A skilled Janna deals with Thresh fairly well. Struggles a bit against Annie because of her burst. Build Janna with AP. Think Mejai + Grail combo. The ratio on her shield (barrier part) is strong, the ratio on her channeled ult is absolutely absurd. Yes, Rito wants you to channel it. Position in a way that you can. That shit is ridiculous. I expect it nerfed when people finally catch up on her.

Nami does fairly well against the three. Annie probably being her toughest match up because of ranged stun + burst. When Annie is nerfed and people stop being too busy smashing their face on their keyboards as opposed to calculating and landing skillshots, Nami will rise. Garen-teed.

D-ring is actually a decent choice for ranged supports. I've had fun with it in the D-shield era. Now I'm back tos tarting either Coin or Spellthief - Spellthief has stupidly good synergy with Nami and Sona, btw. Easy gold + improved poke.

By the way, you don't need in-game voice chat to be able to use your shield to improve your ADC's poke as Janna, assuming you're good with Janna's shield. The damage is calculated ON HIT. It doesn't matter if your ADC has the shield when they throw the AA or skill, what does matter is that they have it when the AA or skill lands.

In your example, it's fairly easy to see that Cait's Q is going to hit a champion, or that her Headshot is flying towards a champion, and shield her to grant her bonus damage on her Q/passive. It's easy to see that Ez's Q is about to hit a champion and shield him, easy to see that Draven landed stand aside and is about to destroy someone, easy to see that Vayne just tumbled towards someone for quick harass, easy to see that Quinn wants to pop her mark on a Vulnerable target, easy to see that MF's Q is bouncing towards an enemy champion, etc. Shields, by definition, require more timing and more skill that, say, heals, but they're rewarding like that, especially Janna's.

I'm French Canadian and I'm a woman. If there was an in-game voice chat I would not use it because there's no way I'm going to allow fourteen years old kids to "trolloilolololo u a chick how big are your tits" or mock the fact that I have an accent when I speak. There's also no way I want to actually HEAR my ADC rage whenever I get a random kill. Reading them is annoying enough.

Kledy McKledFace3/11/2014, 12:43:38 AM2 votes

Utility tree is all fine. The new items for support helps them alot and give supports more impacts in the game than just buy most wards possible. The only thing Id give to supports are for melee ones (in a tanky way) with a better gold in-come item than Targon's Brace (seriously, it sucks who builds that except vs bots? you better get dorans shield...)

OldSchoolInsane3/11/2014, 12:53:15 AM1 votes

Definte re-work of the support tree as well as some new items ( they already re-worked some but new ones would be nice).I understand that major changes at this point are out ( what with the new season of pro already being kicked off). Next season changes to support should be a major concern.

ratcharmer3/11/2014, 2:56:48 PM1 votes

sigh

. . . and someone jumped on their six smurf accounts so they could multi-downvote the thread.

(went from +4 to 0 overnight)