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gp10 and its effect on the game

Zyorhist·2/7/2014, 9:38:40 PM·2 votes·429 views

Before I start getting down votes and people saying that I don't know what I am talking about I would like to state that I am a casual player and have been playing since right at the end of season 1. I am not pro nor do I spend every moment on the game but this input is something I have been looking at since Season 3 ended.

I used to main support and when I saw that RIOT was making changes to the gold for supports I really thought I would go back to maining support, but I found that the changes made were more toxic than anything. I agree that the way that support gold used to work was toxic but I believe they didn't get rid of the parts that they needed to in order to remove this toxic feeling.

I want to first start this discussion by evaluating gold income for supports.

Runes; With runes a support can earn 5.25 gold per 10 seconds.

Masteries; With masteries a support can earn 1.5 gold per 10 seconds they can also earn 1 gold per minion they can also earn 3 gold for hitting an enemy champion (ranged) or they can earn bonus 15 gold for assisting in a kill they can get 40 starting gold

Items; Ancient Coin provides 2 gold for being near a minion death Nomad's Medallion provides 2 gold per 10 and 4 gold for being near a minion death Spellthief's Edge provides 2 gold per 10 and 4 gold for using a basic attack on an enemy Frostfang provides 4 gold per 10 and 8 gold for using a basic attack on an enemy Relic Shield provides money for killing a minion every 30 seconds Targon's Brace provides money for killing a minion every 30 seconds

The main problem that I find with these support bonuses is that many of them provide free gold. The runes, you can earn 1417.5 gold for free during a standard 45 minute match. The masteries, you can earn 405 free gold during a standard 45 minute match, plus 630 for standing near minion deaths during a standard 45 minute match. The items, you can earn 1260+540 free gold for being near minion deaths with ancient coin (assuming not upgrading at near 5 min) or 2240+540 free gold if you upgrade at 5 min. This gold doesn't seem much on its own but when you combine it you are looking at 5232 free gold for being near minions and not doing anything. This is all free gold that requires no skill or effort go gain. This is between 1/4 and 1/2 the gold that a champion would earn depending on level of play.

Free gold is toxic gold, the other roles and lanes all have to actually work for the money they get but supports get it for standing near minions, doing nothing. This is toxic for the game and doesn't provide incentive to learn or try. This is what I mean by the new items being toxic.

I also want to comment on the items that supports have now, starting with the one that I think provides the most play, Relic Shield. With this item a person can actually provide for the ADC by bringing them a slight amount more gold every so often, but mainly because it is a heal for our non healing supports. This actually provides utility AND play/counterplay. Second is the Spellthief's Edge. This item does have some play/counterplay attached to it but not enough to make it not toxic. This item with the gp10 and 10 second cooldown actually encourages the hit and go hide tactics, which isn't conducive to most play. Why would I stay and do anything if I can earn more gold by sitting under my turret and every 10 seconds when you poke your head out I hit you. The single most toxic of the items though is the Ancient Coin. You don't have to do anything at all when you have this coin. You can sit in the brush and hide the entire laning phase and do nothing yet still pick up the amount of gold an ADC would who is constantly checking and using their abilities to farm and counter poke.

My proposal, Remove any and ALL gp10 effects. They are not required and are completely TOXIC. Instead implement gold income that is conducive to the style of play that you need to have as a support.

Reward players for healing allies, buffing allies, or ccing enemies. They are not damage based and their rewards shouldn't be based on whether they AA an enemy, they should be based on whether they give their ally that heal they were needing, or ccing the enemy who extended a little too far.

Items that promote exchanges shouldn't be based on AA's and shouldn't be on a timer. When exchanging with an opponent a support wants to try to drop 2-3 abilities on their opponent so give them 1-3 gold for each ability.

Trinket use is something a support should be a master of, so reward them for each time they send their trinket on CD (or it coming off cd). This may cause them to spam it everytime its up but atleast they are being used instead of having it and at the 30 minute mark thinking "well crap, I could have warded that brush some time ago".

GP10 isn't needed or helpful, FREE gold is "toxic and has no counter play" as I commonly see RIOT stating when they need to work on something.

TL;DR GP10=bad, fix it.

Would like a red here because I spent a lot of time thinking about this and working on this information.

11 Comments

Atanchan2/9/2014, 6:42:47 AM1 votes

So instead of getting free gold over time instead of free gold upfront ( masteries and runes ) and buying future gold instead of stats ( items, though this is less binary since the gold income items come with stats ), you want ...

Actually, I'm not sure what you want. Do you want to attach gold income to champion skills, like with Gangplank and Ashe?

The thing with that is, how do you define a support? I'm a low level player, but I main Sona and Lulu not as bot-lane babysitters, but full-on mid mages. Certainly not mages as damage focused as others, but AP scalings for their utility still make sure you aren't wasting gold with them.

So, do you think I should be getting free gold from my normal Sona button mashing, in addition to all the gold I'm getting from my CS and kills? I wouldn't complain, but that sounds like that'd have to take power out of not only my mids but also people's supports so that ... they can get more power? Okay then.

The problem with this solution is that there's no way to define a support income without the player opting into it, which is what the current system does. They take gold income runes and masteries over ones that offer direct benefit. They use their starting gold to grab low-stat items over stronger ones so that they can get an income without constant last hits. Maybe Ancient Coin needs to modified with a smaller range or just redone, but that's not my point.

I guess for your idea, you could make variants of Spellthief's Edge, one for healing and buff and one for crowd control and debuffing, but that just seems cluttered. The free gold is a bit of a must, though, as not every support goes bot and not every champion that goes bot is a support. A support will benefit its team no matter where it goes, and will likely support even better if it gets gold from a real source. An unorthodox support could provide more benefits than a traditional one with certain strategies. A team may not even run a support role, or they may have more than one. That's the sort of flexibility this game is made for, so assured gold no matter what lets more concepts be done when a player takes a position that won't get a real income.

Also, you should run calculations for 20 or 30 minute games. Even in low-level normals, it's really rare for a game to go on for close to an hour.

Tsiddique2/9/2014, 2:51:02 PM1 votes

If a support has no gold income other than GP10, how is that support supposed to gain gold? The support isn't csing, because that would take away from the ADC's gold income. They have no money for wards and items. By the time an adc has a item 3072 , the support has probably enough money for a item 2044 , and maybe item 1001 . By the time his teammates have fullbuilds, the support will have probably 2-3 items. They need the income. If a support decides to go full GP10, then they are as squishy as Sona Bot. They will die in 5 hits and will not get the full use of those runes. I feel as though these changes make supports shine.

I main ADC and play support from time to time, so I can feel the difference instantly. I didn't know how to use the support mastery page at first, and was so far behind that all I could do is ward and hope to not feed. After I learned about all of these features, I've learned to use them and help my team to victory without ksing or stealing cs. Supports main income are assists and GP10.

jmaishere2/9/2014, 11:05:19 PM1 votes

If this happens, current supports will become useless, and annie will become the universal support, as she hits hard, has cc, and actually does stuff in lane

Zyorhist2/11/2014, 4:27:53 AM1 votes

I don't want to get rid of all gold except gp10, actually what I want is the opposite...get rid of gp10 and make the items more useful...make them skill based in some way. Some of the items out are good and require skill but Ancient Coin nullifies the use for the others.

Knight Devout2/15/2014, 7:06:45 PM1 votes

The main issue i see with your suggested changes, is that bot lane would become a feast or famine situations, and, being a duo lane, if botlane falls you would end 3v5 as your ad carry and support would both be unable to keep up the pace after a succesful enemy gank, as they would be really behind in gold and levels.

BTW, check PBE, Xypherous is changing GP10 to make spellthief more "interactive", ancient coin a little less powerful, and Relic less snowbally.