An Essay about the Support Crisis
Hio guys,
Ever since the start of Season 4 there where some Supports which have a very strong influence of the outcome of certain situations. Don't get me wrong this is the exact position where Supports should be. However some examples exceed in this position too well. This not only reflects itself into the winrates but also in the banrates. In this post I try to come up with some major and minor changes to the champions from the Support archetype.
All values are highly tentative and subject to change
All rates about banning/winning/picking are total stats without any region, league or pick mode filter
###Champions
Alistar
Alistar is currently and always was in a very strange position. His WQ combo allows him to engage the enemy team fairly nice and knocks them up for long enough so most of his teammates can follow up. His heal was always something that has almost too much invisible power, especially if pushing against towers, or with minion waves to be exact.
With Patch 4.10 the Ardent Censer
found its way to the Fields of Justice and gave Alistar a huge buff on terms of artificial gold. Each allied champion who is affected by the Attack Speed Buff receive a buff with worth of 750 gold per champion resulting in 3000 gold. Surely not everybody can make use from the Attack Speed Buff but even on AP Carries it can make differences, especially together with Arcane Blade. However Ardent Censer as a Support Item has a very weak slot efficiency regarding its own stats with absolutely no defense stats and miserably offensive stats. Not to mention that Cooldown Reduction is almost on every support item.
Currently Alistar has a very good role in engaging and a somewhat okay role in the supportive bracket. And I guess a mechanical change to his heal would do him really good.
Suggested Changes Reworked Triumphant Roar: Alistar heals himself and nearby allied champions for 70/100/130/160/190 (+25% AP) which is splitted on all affected targets but for each affected champion past the first the heal is increased by 50%. Triumphant Roar's cooldown is reduced by 1.5 seconds whenever a nearby enemy unit dies.
Range: 575 Costs: 40/50/60/70/80 mana Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8
new total Heal Values: 1 target: 70/100/130/160/190 (+25% AP) 2 targets: 105/150/195/240/285 (+37.5% AP) 3 targets: 140/200/260/320/380 (+50% AP) 4 targets: 175/250/325/400/475 (+62.5% AP) 5 targets: 210/300/390/480/570 (+75% AP)
Old total Heal Values: 1 target: 60/90/120/150/180 (+20% AP) 2 targets: 90/135/180/225/270 (+30% AP) 3 targets: 120/180/240/300/360 (+40% AP) 4 targets: 150/225/300/375/450 (+50% AP) 5 targets: 180/270/360/450/540 (+60% AP)
These changes don't seems like they would change much in terms of total heal, which is true, but the heal on allied champions increases regardless of the situation. The only drawback of this is that Alistar receives less heal when he is with other champions. But this makes him easier to bring down in the long run, contrary to his current sustainability. Additionally these changes doesn't really affect his ability to jungle. It is a small buff but nothing serious.
Edit: I made these suggestions before Patch 4.12 and without any notice that Alistar would be buffed in that certain patch. However Triumphant Roar wasn't touched and thus there are no needs for changes.
Numbers Talk Ban Rate: ~0% Pick rate: ~3.7% Win Rate: ~42.7%
Date of Stats: 13.07.2014
Blitzcrank
The Great Steam Golem always had only one role and surely he is hated for that: grabbing people out of position. I can't tell how many times I saw that teams got destroyed by this single ability. Currently Blitzcrank is mostly picked when the enemy supporter was chosen and is not a Morgana. But this is due the current meta which favors good tanky initiators, especially Thresh, Leona and Blitzcrank. The main reason why I hate Blitzcrank is his psychological "Blitzcrank-Aura". I guess everybody knows it: Blitzcrank has his grab ready and force you away from your minions simply due to the fact that he has his grab ready. To be honest I think that most people don't know how to play against Blitzcrank properly, especially in low elo league ranges. However this phsychological Aura counts for me as a pub-stomper. And this is reflected in his pick/win rates in bronze till gold solo queue leagues. However in team ranked games his popularity and win rate drops drastically, partly below 40% win rate. From this we can conclude that Blitzcrank could use some tweaks in his Rocket Grab; if not in his complete ability kit to make him more "noob friendly". But this would result in more problems. In fact Blitzcrank is currently an "all-or-nothing" supporter. If you hit with it you can deal a lot of damage: health wise, ecological and psycholocial. If you miss you have to wait for a while until you can give your next shot. But even without a single item the mechanic behind Rocket Grab is so strong that it always deals a lot of damage, if not a kill for your allies. Another important thing, but mostly underrated, is Blitzcranks ultimate Static Field. The active part is with 8.3 flat damage per second cooldown one of the strongest rank 1 ultimates, if not the strongest bursty one, in the game. In almost every fight it is ready and I didn't even count in the passive. Surely, to an ultimate there is more like range, damage type and other stuff. But honestly, good Blitzcranks always hit both, the AD Carry and the Supporter in a fight, if he hasn't used his ultimate during a knockup.
Suggested Changes Rocket Grab: Reduced Projectile Width from 70 to 60
Static Field: Reduced the passive damage from 100/200/300 (+20% AP) to 40/80/120 (+20% AP) Increased Cooldown from 30 seconds at all ranks to 80/55/30 seconds The passive part is no longer deactivated while on cooldown
Numbers Talk Ban Rate: ~0.4% Pick rate: ~17.3% Win Rate: ~51.5%
Date of Stats: 14.07.2014
Braum
Since his release he was always of high value for his team. And this value was reflected in his nerfs in Patch 4.9. However those nerfs didn't catch on Braums true strenght: the protection of his allies, namely Unbreakable. As a tank supporter this is the tool that makes everybody cry, mainly through its ability to intercept projectiles. But this property is the thing that makes him the awesome support he is right now. So... what can we do about it? The core problems about Unbreakable are the facts that a) blocks all projectiles, b) the uptime and c) the damage reduction. Because the blocking of projectiles is the core mechanic of Braum we shouldn't touch it in the first place. The uptime of Unbeakable is fairly insane in my eyes. But first I will show you what I mean.
Unbreakable Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10 seconds Duration: 3/3.25/3.5/3.75/4 seconds Uptime without Cooldown Reduction: 16.6%/20.3%/25%/31.3%/40%
Even without complicated math wizardry everybody can tell that the uptime of Unbreakable increases exponentially und thus the amount of protection for the team. But the true problem comes when I bring in Cooldown Reduction. With 40% CDR Unbreakables Cooldown at Rank 5 drops from 10 to 6 seconds, resulting in 75% uptime. Only this small timeframe of 2 seconds allows champions with a projectile heavy ability kit to do something. Especially protectile-based AP Carries like Veigar, Ryze and Syndra suffers extremely under his protection as they can not target the carries correctly. The damage reduction of Unbreakable is another aspect which seems a bit overpowered in my eyes. Braum lives from the fact that he becomes tanky enough to survive almost everything. Damage Reduction: 30/32.5/35/37.5/40% At first glance it seems a bit far-fetched but I like to compare Unbreakable with Urgot's Innate Zaun-Touched Bolt Augmenter. Urgot can place a debuff with 15% damage dealt reduction on one enemy (maximum two enemies) at the same time. If Braum plays good enough his Damage Reduction results in 40% damage dealt reduction on the entire enemy team (champions who uses projectiles). Under normal circumstances this is at least the AD Carry and the AP Carry. With the proposed changes I will make some people may think that it would be a hard nerf, especially in terms of Yasuos Wind Wall. However nobody should forget that instead of being stationary Unbreakable moves and can annihilate the damage of champions. But the core question is still: Skill Ceiling against Base Values.
Suggested Changes Unbreakable: Cooldown changed from 18/16/14/12/10 to 17/16/15/14/13 seconds Duration reduced from 3/3.25/3.5/3.75/4 to 3 seconds at all ranks Damage reduction reduced from 30/32.5/35/37.5/40 to 20/22.5/25/27.5/30%
Numbers Talk Ban Rate: ~80% Pick rate: ~14% Win Rate: ~53%
Date of Stats: 12.07.2014
Leona
Leona's supremacy in terms of peeling and engaging are undenyable. And there is a good reason to it: which is Solar Flare. With its incredible range is this skillshot really a strong initiator and can catch fleeing enemies alone if landed correctly. Not only that it increases the engage range of Leona from 875 to 1200, the stun duration is long enough that Leona can easily hit targets with Zenith Blade. In general I think Leona doesn't need any tweaks in her active ability kit. However her innate isn't really important and mostly ignored because her engage/stun combo is far superior than the damage from Sunlight. If I would change something then I would move some damage from Eclipse into Sunlight and maybe some of the resistances, too. Which would possibly become something like this:
Suggested Changes Reworked Sunlight: Leona's spells charge any enemy unit damaged with Sunlight for 3.5 seconds. When allied champions deal any damage (except with items) to those targets they consume the Sunlight debuff to deal 20+(9*level) 29-182 additional magic damage and grant Leona 5+(level/2) 5-14 armor and magic resistance. This additional damage is counted as the ally's damage and it will benefit from their magic penetration. Leona is unable to activate the additional damage herself.
The armor and magic resistance buff stacks up to 5 times. New stacks will refresh the duration of previous stacks.
Eclipse: Reduced bonus resistances from 20/30/40/50/60 (+20% bonus) to 10/17/24/31/38 (+15% bonus) Changed damage from 60/110/160/210/260 (+40% AP) to 40/80/120/160/200 (+50% AP)
Numbers Talk Ban Rate: ~1% Pick rate: ~27% Win Rate: ~52%
Date of Stats: 12.07.2014
Morgana
Currently Morgana's role is to be a solution to an important problem this essay is all about. Crowd Control. However Morgana's importance rises and sinks with the meta game. I thought of many changes, especially for Black Shield. In the end I didn't do anything due to the fact that any nerf to Black Shield would result in an identity crisis for her. If anything happens to the support meta I will look again at her.
Numbers Talk Ban Rate: ~26% Pick rate: ~34% Win Rate: ~52%
Date of Stats: 12.07.2014
Thresh
Without any doubt Thresh is a strong engager. And mainly this power comes from Flay. Many people would think that Death Sentence is the offender. However if you're being hit by Death Sentence nothing is changed afterwards. Thus changing anything there wouldn't do much. Blitzcrank on the other hand is different, but not much. The displacement of Rocket Grab required a nerf, but only a small one. Thresh main ability is to lock down a single champion long enough to receive enough damage so he can't trade anymore or poorly. This lockdown mostly results in something around 3 seconds without the ultimate. And this is way too long. Especially if you count all the mini-displacements into the calculation in addition to the slows.
Suggested Changes Death Sentence: Reduced number of tugs from 2 to 1 Reduced duration of the stun from 1.5 seconds to 1 second
Flay: Reduced knockback range from ~200 to 25 (I don't know the exact value about the live version and I'm just estimated it.)
The problem of Thresh currently is that both his strenghts are too well developed. Communication around Dark Passage improves his win rate from 47% to above 50%. But this mechanic to lock down someone is extremly strong in the lane. Mostly he doesn't even use his ult to trade properly.
Numbers Talk Ban Rate: ~4% Pick rate: ~32% Win Rate: ~47%
Date of Stats: 12.07.2014
tl;dr: All values are highly tentative and subject to change
Suggested Changes
Alistar
Reworked Triumphant Roar: Alistar heals himself and nearby allied champions for 70/100/130/160/190 (+25% AP) which is splitted on all affected targets but for each affected champion past the first the heal is increased by 50%. Triumphant Roar's cooldown is reduced by 1.5 seconds whenever a nearby enemy unit dies.
Range: 575 Costs: 40/50/60/70/80 mana Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8 ######Note: I made these suggestions before Patch 4.12 and without any notice that Alistar would be buffed in that certain patch. However Triumphant Roar wasn't touched and thus there are no needs for changes.
Blitzcrank
Rocket Grab: Reduced Projectile Width from 70 to 60
Static Field: Reduced the passive damage from 100/200/300 (+20% AP) to 40/80/120 (+20% AP) Increased Cooldown from 30 seconds at all ranks to 80/55/30 seconds The passive part is no longer deactivated while on cooldown
Braum
Unbreakable: Cooldown changed from 18/16/14/12/10 to 17/16/15/14/13 seconds Duration reduced from 3/3.25/3.5/3.75/4 to 3 seconds at all ranks Damage reduction reduced from 30/32.5/35/37.5/40 to 20/22.5/25/27.5/30%
Leona
Reworked Sunlight: Leona's spells charge any enemy unit damaged with Sunlight for 3.5 seconds. When allied champions deal any damage (except with items) to those targets they consume the Sunlight debuff to deal 20+(9*level) 29-182 additional magic damage and grant Leona 5+(level/2) 5-14 armor and magic resistance. This additional damage is counted as the ally's damage and it will benefit from their magic penetration. Leona is unable to activate the additional damage herself.
The armor and magic resistance buff stacks up to 5 times. New stacks will refresh the duration of previous stacks.
Eclipse: Reduced bonus resistances from 20/30/40/50/60 (+20% bonus) to 10/17/24/31/38 (+15% bonus) Changed damage from 60/110/160/210/260 (+40% AP) to 40/80/120/160/200 (+50% AP)
Morgana
Nothing
Thresh
Suggested Changes Death Sentence: Reduced number of tugs from 2 to 1 Reduced duration of the stun from 1.5 seconds to 1 second
Flay: Reduced knockback range from ~200 to 25
There is a high chance that I will make a second post about Taric, Soraka, etc. if the post find an echo and enough discussion.
Zanryu
