Season 4 Supports in a nutshell

mi ramfan·Nov 21, 2013·4 votes·640 views

So I thought that all the wild speculation about Season 4 bot lane that it might be a good idea to make a little image to somewhat organize all of the bot lane picks people claim will emerge in Season 3. That's what this graph is; an attempt to display the vast number of new and old support options reasonably clearly.

How to read this graph:

Taric is used as the baseline for all measurements; champions with more utility (obviously subjectively measured because there's no hard measurement for utility) then Taric appear on the right side of the graph while champions with less utility appear on the left.

Champions with more damage then Taric are higher on the Y axis, while champions with less are lower. Champions less tanky then Taric have small circles, champions more tanky have big circles.

You'll notice that all the circles are filled in with a color. This color denotes the primary build path of the champion, assuming that the available gold in bot lane is enough for them to build items. Green designates an AP or tanky AP build just like in game, Orange designates an AD or tanky AD build just like in game, and Red denotes champions who have ratios based on other stats (Armor, MR, HP, etc) or who will likely build full tank but do not have ratios based on other stats.

Comments and Criticism

Obviously not a lot of champions in this graph are actually going to be super viable supports. Please keep in mind that with this graph I was trying to show the largest possible VARIETY of champions I've heard thrown out for strong bot lane roles, so that the differences in utility, tankiness, and damage are more visible.

Some champions' bulk circles may be a little misleading; this is because it's easy to make bulky champions appear bulky compared to squishies, but it's not easy to make a champion that's fairly squishy like Janna appear tankier then the squishiest champion in the game, Sona. Please cut me some slack there.

Utility measures are entirely subjective, and represent my opinions on how much utility they have relative to my baseline which was Taric. If you disagree, feel free to register your disagreement, but I won't be making an updated version of this for at least a week because I have work and I'd like to let the metagame settle out a little.

Please comment and upvote!

9 Comments

RangerRig4Nov 21, 20131 votes

Season 4 Supports need Bigger Boobs, so more people would play them.

Dragonheart NANov 22, 20131 votes

Get the Pentakiller Sona skin lol

JorrailNov 21, 20131 votes

I just had a very successful game as Jinx with an Ashe support. One of the offensive masteries allowed me to deal extra damage to Slowed champions. I got to say, it was a very effective pairing. Have you had any success with unlikely supports since Season 4?

GLHF, Jorrail

ploki122Nov 21, 20131 votes

Honestly, GP or Caitlyn does Ashe's job better for the most part... If you go for a pokey lane, Caitlyn can literally bully out a Taric/Leona without even being careful.

If you're going for the farm lane, GP can garrrrrner dem carrrcasses.

Sir ArmaMalumNov 22, 20131 votes

Shen support, coordinate with Spoils of War last hits and combine that with vorpal blade, the more health you build the more you can heal your carry. Mid-game I've been able to get my support to full stupidly quick all while getting him more gold. Shen works well with graves, jinx, any close range ADC.

Solan StonewhipNov 21, 20131 votes

umm - what are you qualifying as utility? does that not qualify as utility? also. while this is an interesting graph. it doesn't really show what makes a good support. i mean aside from being an interesting graphic, it doesn't actually have any correlation to how those champions will perform.

GwingMasterNov 22, 20131 votes

Great graphic, but where is Nautilus? you have panth and leblanc, but not the CC-crazy Titan of the Depths. I know he's thought of as a jungler, but with these new changes he's completely viable as a support, and may even turn out to be very good at most lower levels of play (can't speak competitively). His kit is perfect for support, the only thing that hindered him before was that he relied on items to really ramp up. WELP, S4 has solved that issue and he should actually have a lot of the same appeal that Leona does (damaging shield, gap closer, MOUNTAINS OF AOE CC).

Where would he stand on this graph?

Nice work overall, I found this cheat sheet to be really helpful.

mi ramfanNov 22, 20131 votes

If I get enough upvotes/interest I'll make an updated version of this over the weekend with more champions and more accurate placements.

Lots of people on the traditional forums were unhappy with Leona's placement so I'll probably move her a little. In fact there are a few champions, mostly the AP mages, whose utility is completely out of whack on this graph who need to be fixed, and I'll be doing that. I can also add more champions like Nautilus etc to the graph.

If Naut was on here I think he'd have a pretty big circle because he's tanky as fuck, and he'd be placed about halfway between Taric and Thresh in terms of utility. I don't know where I'd put him in terms of damage, though; I mostly play jungle Naut so I don't know how he stacks up to non-junglers in terms of damage. Probably in the lower right quadrant tho.